Archive World of Darkness: The Academy - Chapter 11: Beasty Boys and Girls

[Jeremy]

Ray sighed, though he briefly found amusement by the sight of Lucia cursing in such a naval fashion, yet melancholy suffocated that quickly. "I suppose a person, but there's more to it, for me. I know, my parents still consider me their own, and love still - but it just doesn't work."

"Why not?" Lucia asked after she finally settled down.

"Well, I raised myself on fantasy novels and never really felt like I fit in. My parents tried to force me into making an effort by shipping me to Dalton... but ok - getting kidnapped by bat-men wasn't fun. But I got powers out of the deal, and life with the Chiderans wasn't high fantasy to the explicit core - but I liked it out there. More than anywhere here - and now the fact I'm an adopted boy just reinforces that feeling. At some point I have to go and politely trouble one of Ravi's relatives to see if they recognize anything from the pictures I got."

[SalmonMax]

(OOC - Joint post between me and AW, the difficulties of timing that collaboration are responsible for the delay in getting it out. )

Renata was silent during Lucia's...episode, or whatever it was. The laughter had had a hysterical edge, a creepy and not-at-all funny edge. And okay, maybe saying something as pithy as "you're people too" was kind of like going to a starving man and offering him a dab of peanut butter...but what did she expect? Ren had her own shit to deal with too. She leaned down a little to say quietly to Mari...

"I feel like a walk. You feel like a walk? It's pretty nice out here, right?" She nodded at the gardens, which looked spectacular. Crisply tended, with explosions of flowers and neat, trimmed walls of bushes and hedges broken by the occasional shrub cut to look like a statue or bird or other cool weird thing. Somewhere unseen water burbled...a fountain perhaps.

She tugged Mari forward. "Come on, lets let these two talk."

Mari nodded and turned away from Lucia and her laughter at the gentle urging of Renata's hand against her elbow. Her footsteps lacked purpose or direction, but they bore her steadily along beside her friend, deeper and deeper into the green growths of the garden. Mari's eyes wandered as she walked, taking in the fronds and flowers, the tidy rows of shrubbery. There was something about it all that made her think of Ravi. He too was neat and tidy and clean and beautiful, like this garden. And like the garden, something wild lay beneath the sweet surface. Goosebumps rose up on the skin of Mari's arms, and she rubbed at them. All around her was peace and perfection and tranquility, but she felt a slithering snake of fear wind its way into her guts, taking shape from a hazy half-formed thought. "Ren..." Mari started, then hesitated. Why give voice to it, 'I'm just being stupid,' she thought.

Renata found herself enjoying the walk more than she'd expected. She'd just wanted to get away, but the garden WAS very nice. Very pretty. And walking with Mari there, she could almost pretend... Well. It was nice. She glanced down at Mari on hearing her name and smiled. "Yeah?"

Mari looked up, meeting Renata's gaze briefly. If she could tell anyone, it was Ren. "Do you think..." Mari stopped and looked over her shoulder, making sure they were alone. Her voice slipped into a whisper, "how long do you think they've been manthers? Ravi's family, I mean, how far back does it go?"

"Hm." Renata looked up at the sapphire sky for a moment, thinking. "Going by what Amrit said, they've always been manthers. They came to Earth a long time ago through a door, when their world got conquered. They set up shop here and have been here ever since. Dunno how long. Sounded like a LONG time though." She gave Mari a curious, concerned look as she realized her distress. "Why? What's wrong?"

In the sun-bathed garden, Mari was sweating under the Indian heat, her collar wet with perspiration, little beads of moisture tracing their way from behind her ears and tickling down her neck...but she felt a cold chill. "Right, years and years and years," she said excitedly, her accent dipping deeper into familiar Newyorrican tones the faster she spoke, "and no one's ever known their secret, no one's come after them or anything. I mean, this place--they live here like kings, with this big fat secret, right?"

"Yeah, pretty much," Renata replied, still not seeing where Mari was going. "It's not exactly grand central station though. It's the boonies of the world. We're miles from anywhere. In India." Completely overlooking, of course, how densely populated India was.

"There's like ten billion people here, Ren." Mari exaggerated shamelessly. "And they just told us all." Mari's finger drew a little circle in the air. "All of us."

"What, you think they're going to kill us now?" Renata asks with a grin, sure she must be joking.

Mari blushed radiantly. "Well...what if they really REALLY wanna keep their secret, secret."

Renata reached out to loop her arm around Mari's shoulder again and pulled her in for a one-armed hug. "Okay, first...anyone tries to hurt you, and I'll go absolutely mental and beat them to death with their own arms...or paws...whatever. If they cat out, I'll use my..." she wiggled her fingers, and the flowers ahead of them swayed and stretched; pulled by an invisible force. "...on them. So there's that. Second...pretty sure they don't have anything to worry about. If we went back to the States, who would we tell, right? The President? The CIA? There's a bunch of manthers living in India? They're gonna believe that? And even if they do...that's India's problem. And they're like, all starving or something, so they're not going to make trouble."

"And third...Ravi and Professor Dorn wouldn't like it either. So they'd help. It'll be okay." She gave Mari another hug and released her...then gave her a playful swat on the ass.

Mari wore a studious look as she considered Renata's arguments, but then jumped and spun when Renata slapped her butt. She gave her friend a curiously forced grin. "Yeah...but, they sent him to Dalton, Ren. To a school, with a bunch of kids." The grin slipped away. "And they knew what he was. I just can't help feeling like we're...meat to them." She remembered how Ravi's grandfather had looked at her, how easily he had dismissed her. She thought back to the dream of Ravi stalking her through the woods, to his stubborn insistence that he was an animal, not human. She was standing in the middle of this beautiful garden, as unreal as something from a movie or a fairy tale, but it felt like she had wandered into the manther cage at the zoo.

"From what they were saying, they didn't think Ravi was one of them," Renata says with a shrug. But she sees how upset Mari is and pauses. After a second she goes over to one of the little wooden benches that are interspersed along the garden paths and sits down, patting the spot next to her. When Mary came over, Renata studied her face for a second and said, "You're not usually this worried about stuff. What's the matter?"

"I don't know," Mari admitted. Instead of sitting, she stood in front of Renata and chewed at her thumb-nail briefly before self-consciously stuffing her hands into her jeans pockets. "Doesn't it seem like Ravi's been different lately? I don't think he's even said two words to me since we got here." Mari pulled her hands free of her pockets and fanned her shirt collar. "It's stupid hot here." It felt like the sun was cooking her brain inside her skull like an egg inside a skillet. A covered skillet. "I haven't called home yet." Mari added, a moment later. "I don't even know what I'm going to say to my moms."

"Yeah," Renata replied, looking away. "Me neither. Hey, mom...dad...I'm in India. What up? Think I'll just hope Pritchard and the school guys don't tell anyone I've been missing. Not sure they'd be all that worried anyway." She looked back up at Mari, squinting an eye in the sunlight. What she'd said about Ravi was pulling a string in her, but she wasn't sure what to say. Instead she said, "They probably have a pool or something. We could go swimming."

"They probably have like ten pools." Mari agreed. "Maybe someone can lend us swimsuits. There's probably, like, a guest house. With a whole closet of clothes or whatever," Mari shrugged sulkily. "Might as well have fun before they eat us."

"Aw...swimsuits?" Renata sighed melodramatically. "I guess. Someone else might come in, and then what would they think?" She smiled and reached out to catch Mari's hand for a moment and looked her in the eye. "I'm serious though. I don't think they're gonna try anything...but if they do, I'll keep you safe, okay? Just stick with me."

"Yeah." There was something strangely thoughtful about the look Mari gave Renata then, like some mysterious link was being formed between the touching of their hands and the meeting of their eyes, but only Mari was in on it.

For a second Renata was tempted to kiss her hand, but decided not to push it. She stood up, still holding Mari's hand, then resumed leading her through the garden, winding back to the palatial estate looming behind them. She let go when Mari took her hand back, but smiled goofily to herself when that moment didn't come right away.

The two girls hiked back to the house and drifted through and around it until they found a young woman they didn't recognize. Renata asked her where the pool was, and she pointed out the enclosure back behind the house with a sort of amused aloofness. Mari was quick to ask about suits, and the woman's amusement heightened. "Most of us don't use them. The ones that do...wouldn't fit you." Renata pulled Mari along then, trying not to seem too eager. The eagerness died on their arrival. The ornate iron wrought gate opened to show the pool was designed to look like a natural one, with slabs of flat rock around it, and an irregular shape. Only the empty deck chairs spoiled the illusion. The several jet black panthers lounging around on several levels of rock did not spoil the illusion, however. If it was one. Renata stopped dead in her tracks and eyed the great felines, none of whom appeared to pay them any mind beyond bored-looking glances.

Mari's wide, bright, hazel eyes darted nervously from panther to panther. Their sleek inky bodies lay in insouciant repose, sunlight shining from their oily musculature. This was it. The Manther pool. Mari swallowed down the lump in her throat. How did that saying go, 'Out of the frying pan and into the fire'? "Um...Ren, maybe it's not such a hot idea," Mari murmured, trying not to provoke the manthers. She tried to quell her fears telling herself that they looked healthy and well-fed and not particularly hungry for a bite of Mari-nated steak.

"Yeah," Renata said after a second. "Still...water looks cool." She stepped into the pool area warily and raised her voice. "Hey. Mind if we use the pool? Since none of you guys are..." She trailed off, not sure how to put it delicately. Finally she just shook her head and called, "Look, we're friends of Ravi. Are any of you..." and Mari could -feel- her almost say 'manther,' then suddenly catch herself, "...were-panthers?" She paused for a second. The panthers seemed to lose interest. "Anyone?"

At that moment, Mari discovered the true meaning of pena ajena. She watched Renata address the manthers, panthers, whatever they were and blushed as deeply as if her friend's faux pas had been her own. Somehow, instinctively, she knew; asking a manther if it was a garden variety panther or a were-beast was bad form. She sent a silent little prayer of thanks up to God, grateful that Renata had, at least, not called them manthers to their faces.

"Ren, maybe we should just go..." Mari's delicate fingers alighted on Renata's shoulder. 'Back,' she thought, but did not add, 'all the way back.' Home to Queens. Where there were no manthers, or amazons, or caramels, or crazy witches that made soldiers out of wicker men.

"What if they're normal panthers though?" Renata wants to know. She reached up to pat Mari's hand, then cautiously walked out to the edge of the pool and bent over to dip her fingers in. "Pretty cool...I think it gets shade from the house." She turned to look at Mari. "Sure you don't want to go swimming?" She wasn't quite ready to give up on naked, wet Mari...even with possible manther spies.

"If they're normal panthers, then--" Mari broke off, realizing how high her voice was climbing. She paused, subdued herself. "Then that's even worse! They'll eat us for sure." Mari concluded in a tight whisper as she stole over to Renata's side.

"They don't look too hungry," Renata observed. She bumped her hip gently against Mari's. "Besides, if they get close, I'll just lift him up and toss him back over the wall. Check it out." She took a step back from Mari and concentrated for a moment. Mari felt the air around her suddenly drop in temperature, and a strange magnetic tension build up all around her. She realized after a moment that her feet had left the ground...she was hovering maybe an inch or two in the air!

"Ren!" Mari squeaked. "Put me down!" The toes of Mari's sneakers comically searched for the ground, as if somehow touching the earth would re-establish her connection to gravity. "They're gonna see!" she protested nonsensically.

"Hey." Renata came over and reached out to take just the fingertips of Mari's hands in her own. "It's okay. I've got you. Trust me. Let 'em see." She grinned. "So...you want to get naked and go swimming? Or let these big kittens chase us back out there?"

"Ren, are you crazy?" Mari asked, essaying, with great difficulty, to keep her tone conversational. "Get naked and go swimming with a bunch of m--" Mari bit her lip and glanced sharply at the closest panther. "--panthers? Why don't we just lay down on a plate and hand them a fork?"

Renata frowned and let Mari gently back to the ground. "So wait, you're not just afraid they'll see you naked? You're really afraid that they're going to attack you? Us? Ravi's one of them, and you're not freaking out about him. So why would you think his family's any different?" She reached out to fleetingly brush at Mari's hair, touch her shoulder...not sure what to do. "Is this about Ravi? Did you two have a fight?"

Mari opened her mouth to speak, and quickly came to the realization that she didn't know the answer. 'Did we have a fight?' She wondered. They had fooled around, and it hadn't felt tawdry to her at all. She had shared as much of herself as she dared with him, and had never felt closer to him than then, with the naked heat of him held in her hand. But now, a vast divide had somehow grown between them. It seemed to Mari like someone had sat in a steak-house with Ravi, sharing a meal in quiet intimacy, getting to know each other over giggles and glances and, later, stolen kisses. Her heart knotted in her chest with a fierce longing for those simpler times before magical doors had stolen the earnestness and innocence out of their love and led them here, to the hot furry truth of Ravi Fitzcoventry. "I dunno." Mari admitted. "Maybe." Things had not been the same since their little spat the morning after. Ravi felt so far away from her, so distant and removed. "Maybe he's bored of me." Mari guessed.

Renata felt a thrill of hope, and immediately hated herself for it. More that it didn't die just because she despised it. "I'm sorry," she said...and it was sincere, though half apology and half sympathy. "You want to talk about it?"

After her confession, Mari felt curiously numb. 'I should be crying right now' she thought, but instead her eyes were dry and glassy. She shook her head slowly, "Not right now. Not right here..."

Ren hesitated, then nodded.

[Dawn OOC]

Simran looked interested, but it was Lal who spoke. “The last time the Bagheera entered the war, we were decimated, lost our homeland and had to come to Earth. Don’t get me wrong. Earth isn’t a bad place. I’m personally rather fond of it. To quote a famous man, it’s where I keep my stuff.”

“There are some among us who would fight, who would pay them back for what they stole from us.” Ryan sensed that Simran was picking her words carefully, though he wasn’t sure why.

“The Elders say that would put us all at risk.” When Lal spoke, it sounded like an old argument he’d had with Simran before. “The Caramine would not stop the slaughter. We’d be forced to find another home and who knows how many would die?”

“Someday, perhaps we will have Elders who won’t quiver like kittens before tyrants.” Simran pursed her lips with annoyance.

Lal grinned. “Let Grandfather hear you talking that way, and he’ll show you quivering kittens.”

---

One of the panthers rose on the rock, stretching languorously. A quick leap dropped it into the water below, but it was an all-too human head that broke the surface. She had the brown skin of the Indian people and her hair and eyes appeared black. The woman swam to the edge and folded her arms on the concrete boundary. She wasn’t a model-beauty, but there was no hiding that the naked body under the water was physically near-perfect. “Come and swim. We will not bite.”

[Sylvia Dorn]

Watching and listening to Ravi and his extended family was certainly an education... which was, she realized, a nice change of pace. But that education was still steering around a few of the finer points she'd hoped to learn.

"If I can ask and not seem ungrateful - or shallow - for asking, there's one very practical need that I'd like to resolve as soon as possible. Would one of you be able to teach me how to shift forms without shredding my clothes or stripping down naked?"

[Tatiana di Jadzian]

Sean flopped back on the bed, the phone nestled in the crook of his neck, a somewhat nonplussed look on his face. He was kind of annoyed that it took some Caraminese swear words to get his dad to believe him. Then his eyes squeezed shut as he processed what his dad was offering.

"I... uh... we don't... have a real plan yet, dad," Sean reluctantly admitted. "Y'know, beyond stoppin' 'em and findin' allies to help." Sean grunted with a touch of self-consciousness. "Some of us read some of the Adventurers Club stories - ya know anyone we might be able to talk to? And how to find 'em? Oh, and how to fight the Caramines themselves - we heard 'bout you tryin' to take down the leaders."

The muscular young man rolled to a sitting position on the bed, elbows braced on his knees as he gave Swan a smile, brows furrowed in consideration. "There's ''nother thing. We know Mr. Dalton made a deal or somethin' to hold the Caramines off for thirty years. If we can find out what it was, that might give us another play to use against the Caramines. Fuck! This is frustrating - I feel like I show what it was, I just can't say it! Pritchard did somethin' to us-"

"Sean, Sean, Sean, slow down, I'll tell you what I know," Dean assured his son (daughter?), trying to calm him down. He winced a little, finding out about Sean knowing about things - with however few details - he rather he had never find out. "The thing you have to keep in mind is that-"

"-That bitch!" Sean exclaimed right over his father, sitting up straight, pounding on a bedpost with a hard fist. Thinking about Pritchard and what they had seen her do suddenly made something he was unconsciously aware of obvious."

"What?" Dean and Swan said in stereo.

"Pritchard! She can make clones or pod people or something - We saw one turn to dirt and stuff. And she's been doing it to us. Er of us. That's why no one's gotten a call despite being gone for more than a week. Ray said he's been gone for a year or something, but I saw 'im just a few days before we went through the Door." Sean growled in a not horrible imitation of their were-panther hosts. "I don't like the idea of their being fake us'es walking 'round school."

[SalmonMax]

One of the panthers rose on the rock, stretching languorously. A quick leap dropped it into the water below, but it was an all-too human head that broke the surface. She had the brown skin of the Indian people and her hair and eyes appeared black. The woman swam to the edge and folded her arms on the concrete boundary. She wasn’t a model-beauty, but there was no hiding that the naked body under the water was physically near-perfect. “Come and swim. We will not bite.”

Renata had one of those pauses where for a second she was just staring, her brain momentarily in 'idle.' After trying for awhile now to get Mari out of her clothes, now there was a naked girl in front of her, and a very...fit one, as well. And okay, that girl had been a giant cat that could eat people a moment beforehand, but she was fine right now.

"Uh," Ren stammered as her brain tried to resume its normal operations. It was complicated by the fact that the woman in the pool had given her a great line to flirt with, and she had to fight that urge. "Hey. I'm Renata. This is Mari. We're friends of Ravi."

so please don't eat us. Subtext was everything when dealing with panther-people. Right?

"So, thanks for the invite...but I think we were just about to head back inside after all. Folks are calling their parents and all...we should probably get to that too."

people know we're here, and will come looking for us if they don't hear from us

"Maybe later though, right Mari?" Ren nudged Mari gently. "Right?"

[Jeremy]

Ray finally let out a sigh and rose. "Alright. Time to play 'Quiz the Manther.' I'll see you later, Lucia." Clutching the picture tightly, he brushed off any dirt and began looking for Ravi's grandfather, or at least another relative he could recognize like Simran or Lal.

[Atomicweasel]

Mari stood staring blankly at the naked woman in the water. She was not a stranger to girls stripping down in the locker room for sports, but that was different. That comfortably familiar shared nudity lacked entirely the element of aggressive sexuality that radiated from Ravi’s relative. The liquid languid ease with which the woman moved, the air of confidence that surrounded her, it was as natural as it was predatory. But of course a manther was a predator. If her time with Ravi had taught her anything, it had certainly taught her that. Only this one was promising not to bite. Mari blinked and remembered her manners as Renata nudged her back out of her daze.

“Uhm, no, right—yes. I mean…that’s, we’re cool, thanks. Maybe later or…”

“Later, for sure.” Renata chimed in.

Mari glanced at her friend and back at the brown-skinned nymph drifting in the water, looking lazily unconcerned with their excuses. “We just have to…” Mari retrieved her cheap little cell-phone and jangled it.

“Call home.” Renata supplied.

“Yeah. Call home.” Mari agreed, wondering whether she could even find a charger in the Palace of the Manthers, or get international service from her prepaid.

A bemused half-smile from the woman was their only answer.

“Right, well, nice meeting you.” Renata waved, and Mari belatedly waved too, and then they were on their way back down the path towards the main house.

“I’m completely lost right now,” Mari confessed as she followed Renata.

“I thought New Yorkers never got lost.” Renata quipped.

“Yeah, in New York…”

[SalmonMax]

Renata laughed and reached over to grab hold of Mari's hand.

"Come on," she said, and led Mari away back towards the main grounds where they'd left the others.

Along the way she chatted amiably, and perhaps a little suspiciously casually. "So, she was pretty hot, don't you think?"

Mari shrugged and looked off to one side. "I guess. Shouldn't we turn left here?"

"Nah, this is quicker. But yeah, I'm not really a fan of the thick eyebrows, but her body was..." Ren let out a slow whistle.

With a roll of her eyes, Mari replied, "Yeah, sort of, but really..."

Abruptly Renata stopped and pulled Mari to a stop beside her. She was grinning teasingly. "Sort of? You were eyeballing her like that, and all you've got is sort of? Is that like the Pope is 'sort of' Catholic by any chance?"

Mari's cheeks heated, but she kept her eyes steady on Renata's. "I was not eyeballing her." Even to herself though, the words sounded hollow.

"Mari," Ren said, still grinning. She advanced a step, and Mari backed up reflexively. "I know it's hard to tell sometimes, but I am a girl. I know the difference between someone looking, and someone staring. If your eyes were hands, you'd be in court right now." She chuckled. "Or in bed."

"Well...you were staring too!" Mari retorted, flustered.

Renata closed in another step, and Mari found her back bumping into a tree when she tried to keep the distance open. "Yeah, I was," Ren said equably, "But that's not a secret anymore. Hasn't been for awhile now."

She wanted to say more, to ask more...but she couldn't think of how to put it. No clever line, no expertly dangled metaphor that invited Mari to come clean, or open up. Maybe it was enough just to remind her of how much...happier she was, now that the secret was out.

Finally Renata looked away and took a step back, releasing Mari from the tension and the slightly-too close proximity. "Actually, maybe you were right. Lets go that way. I think that's the house over there behind the trees."

(OOC - To clarify, Renata and Mari have concluded their side RP and are now coming back to the house to rejoin the game now in progress. I'll narrate them coming back in once I see what folks inside are doing. So just keep going and me or AW will bring us back into the fold. )

[Dawn OOC]

Amrit smiled at Sylvia. “That is a simple matter to teach. Gather close.” As the three panthers bent together, Amit began to show them how to absorb their clothing.

I will assume that Ravi and Sylvia asked other stuff too.

---

“I don’t like the idea either. I’m going to cut our trip short and come home. This sounds like something I need to deal with personally.” Dean sounded resolute, and Sean was sure there was no way to talk him out of it. “Shit, Sean. I have no idea how to react to this. I put all of this behind me when Dalton called the truce, and then again when Vena turned ugly on me. I need time to think about this, about how I can help. I have some old journals, too.”

“That’d be helpful, Dad.” Sean felt profound gratitude for his father.

---

It wasn’t hard for Ray to find another Indian woman. She smiled when he spoke English but shook her head. After following her into the building, he found Simran and Lal, still speaking with Ryan and a couple of the other kids at the table. “Ray. Were you able to call your parents?”

Before they could answer, Amrit led Ravi and Sylvia back into the room.

[Jeremy]

Ray opened his mouth to answer, then caught sight of Ravi, his grandfather and Ms. Dorn. "I hope you enjoyed panther time." He smiled bleakly. "And yes, I did call my parents, that's the thing..." Ray pulled up a chair and put the photos on the table, of the blanket and the border.

"Does anyone know who might have made these blankets?"

[Tatiana di Jadzian]

“That’d be helpful, Dad.” Sean felt profound gratitude for his father, and a bit of regret, pulling him back into something he had thought behind him. "And... uh, thanks for... y'know, getting back into this."

"Not your fault, Sean. I left it undone, sure the Truce Dalton made was the end of it. Now they're back. It's on right I do something to help fix rather than leaving it for the next generation. See you soon."

"Yeah, you too." Sean forced a chuckle. "Once I - we - figure out how to get back from India without a passport. Later, Dad. And thanks again."

Sean hung up and stood looking at the phone for a long moment. Then he rolled his muscular shoulders and gave Swan a rueful grin. "Well, looks like I found us another ally, eh?" Sean offered Swan a hand, how took it after a moment of consideration, easily pulling the slender, wiry Caramine to her feet. "Now, to tell the others and find a way back home."

Sean and Swan headed back to the dining room, finding Ryan, Ravi, Ms. Dorn, and several of the others there. Specifically, Ray was there was, sitting at the table looking at pics of something or other.

"You, dude," Sean said, pointing at Ray as he leaned on the table. "I just put somethin' together. You said you've been gone for a year, right?"

Ray glanced up with a somewhat cross look, but nodded. "I said it and was gone for over a year."

"Right. Thing is, I thought I misheard that. See, I saw you at Dalton just a few days 'fore we went through the Door." Sean looked around the table, stormy eyes gathering all of his friends in. "Remember Bitchard makin' those garbage-golem-men-things made of dirt and sticks and shit? I think she made copies of us too. I called my dad and he didn't even get a single call 'bout me not being 'round for a week."

Sean sprawled into a chair, bracing himself on the table with his forearms, tempestuous eyes intent. "Dad said he's cutting his trip short and coming to back to help us. Back to Dalton via Denver I mean, not here to India. After stoppin' home in Whistler to pick up some things, like old journals 'bout his time through the Doors and junk. So, there's at least one more person helpin' us. Now, what we need is someway to get back to Dalton that doesn't need passports."

Note to self: start bringin' yer passport with you and some emergency funds, just in case...

[Ryan Jackson]

"Ifn we knew how ta open 'er up ... tha Dalton Door Ah mean ... well, mebbe sumbuddy could get 'er open frum tha' otha end ya know?" Ryan piped up. He was pretty sure he could probably get to Dalton now. He sniggered at that thought; he was pretty sure he might probably be able to do something. Last time he heard somebody say something like that it was him, and it was a quintuple inverted spin off the ski aerial jumps. He shrugged to himself, appearing to do so in response to his comment. "Course we don' know how Bitchard locked tha door ... "

[SalmonMax]

"Hey guys," Renata said as she strolled back in, Mari at her side. Renata seemed in good spirits, with just a hint of sun-pink on her cheeks and forearms.

"What's going on? Everyone looks so down." She grins. "People've been calling home, right?"

[Sylvia Dorn]

"That and learning some new tricks," Sylvia said as she entered the room with Ravi, Amrit, and a few of the other manthers. "At least Mr. FitzCoventry and I shouldn't have as many wardrobe malfunctions from here on. Well," she added, frowning at the smirking student beside her, "as many accidental ones, anyway."

Screwing her face back up into the neutral mask she'd worn during years of classes, she continued. "But yes, we do need to get back to Dalton. Which means international travel sans passports, or going through the Door. I for one don't relish an undocumented transoceanic journey, so unless our hosts have another recommendation, the Door is our best option." She sighed and paused for a moment, uncomfortable with what was to come next.

"Whether we like it or not, there's someone at Dalton who is very well versed with Doors. Someone who can remove whatever has been done to block it. That someone is Pritchard. And I think she'd be very surprised indeed to get a phone call from us... possibly surprised enough to unbar the Door. That there is more than one Door on Earth changes everything, and even she can no longer pretend that barring the Door is going to make this world safe."

[Dawn OOC]

Amrit had lifted up the printed images, peering at them closely. When Lal reached out for them, Amrit surrendered them to his grandson. Looking at Ray, he stated, “I am unfamiliar with them. But I shall look for you, and send word, should I hear.”

“Yeah, I got nothing.” Lal shrugged apologetically.

"That and learning some new tricks," Sylvia said as she entered the room with Ravi, Amrit, and a few of the other manthers. "At least Mr. FitzCoventry and I shouldn't have as many wardrobe malfunctions from here on. Well," she added, frowning at the smirking student beside her, "as many accidental ones, anyway."

Screwing her face back up into the neutral mask she'd worn during years of classes, she continued. "But yes, we do need to get back to Dalton. Which means international travel sans passports, or going through the Door. I for one don't relish an undocumented transoceanic journey, so unless our hosts have another recommendation, the Door is our best option." She sighed and paused for a moment, uncomfortable with what was to come next.

"Whether we like it or not, there's someone at Dalton who is very well versed with Doors. Someone who can remove whatever has been done to block it. That someone is Pritchard. And I think she'd be very surprised indeed to get a phone call from us... possibly surprised enough to unbar the Door. That there is more than one Door on Earth changes everything, and even she can no longer pretend that barring the Door is going to make this world safe."

"Ifn we knew how ta open 'er up ... tha Dalton Door Ah mean ... well, mebbe sumbuddy could get 'er open frum tha' otha end ya know?" Ryan piped up. He was pretty sure he could probably get to Dalton now. He sniggered at that thought; he was pretty sure he might probably be able to do something. Last time he heard somebody say something like that it was him, and it was a quintuple inverted spin off the ski aerial jumps. He shrugged to himself, appearing to do so in response to his comment. "Course we don' know how Bitchard locked tha door ... "

“Through magic. That’s how she did it,” Simran said unhelpfully. “If someone’s got the Door open and in use, you can’t use it. But a Door will never stay open, no matter what you do to it. Eventually, it closes. Just like the magic can’t lock it. The Doors won’t be stopped.”

Lal smiled at his cousin, eager to one-up her. “But yes, if someone at Dalton opened the Door to here, then you could go through.”

“I’m not willing to give someone at that school our Key.” Amrit’s voice was firm and unyielding.

"Hey guys," Renata said as she strolled back in, Mari at her side. Renata seemed in good spirits, with just a hint of sun-pink on her cheeks and forearms.

"What's going on? Everyone looks so down." She grins. "People've been calling home, right?"

“Yes, we have,” Ray said, frowning at Sean’s news, “with mixed results.” Why had Sean’s father been able to give him so much and his parents so little? It was irritating.

Sean gave the two latecomers the rundown of what he was getting from his father. “So hopefully, that’ll give us something useful. Maybe an answer to Ray.”

While Sean had been speaking, Amrit had circled around to talk to Lucia quietly. “Are you well? You seem more distraught than normal.”

[Ryan Jackson]

"No worries, we don' hafta. I'll do it," Ryan said, pushing back from the table. "Umm ... wha' wuz tha key fer here? I wasn' payin' 'tention, when you all dialed out of Cimmeria." The young man located his backpack, tucked into a corner of the room, and retrieved it. "Fer cereal, sumbuddy jus' tell me wha' tha key thingy is again an' I'll open 'er up." He shrugged into the pack, setting the straps on his shoulders and waiting for somebody to speak up. "Anyone?"

[SalmonMax]

"Fer cereal?" Renata asked, nettled. "Would you just take the marbles out of your mouth and talk? No one can understand a word you're saying!"

[z022]

Lucia flushed at being singled out and gave a half-hearted shrug. "My mom...she's missing. Out somewhere, beyond the doors." She scrunched in on herself a bit and added in a miserable mutter, "Looking for me."

Rosa was somehow right at her side and Lucia realized she hadn't known where her closest friends had been when she'd run off to have her...whatever that was. Breakdown, she guessed. But they were here now, Ahvia hanging back, not looking certain about what she should do, and Rosa twining her arms around Lucia's arm and resting her head on the darker girl's shoulder. Rosa's support helped her clear her mind a little and stand straight again.

"That's why I went out. I know the war with the Caramine is important, but....I need to find my mother." She licked her lips and added nervously, "And find out who my biological parents were. Yasu - a friend of my mother's - he said she found me, somewhere out past the doors, when I was a baby. She brought me ho- to Earth. And...well, I need to learn to control the...the stuff that I can do." She shivered, remembering the suffocating darkness she'd thrown around Ravi and that man on the quad, and then the tendrils of shadow-darkness she'd grown on the Chideran world.

She could use a few less surprises in her world right now.

[Ryan Jackson]

Ryan scowled at Renata for a moment before a wicked grin grew in its place, and that mischievous twinkle sparkled in the corner of his eye. He replied in a perfect Royal British accent, or near enough for it not to matter, "Right-o ol' dame! So sorry about the puddle. I merely need one of you fine chaps or birds to inform me on the proper pass-key for the local inter-spatial doorway. Then I shall shoot right off to see about opening the door to Dalton. Come on now, what's the skinny? Sooner said than sooner I'm off and pip-pip to you all!" Smiling like a Chesire cat Ryan waited for the key, glad he had paid attention to the Brits and Aussies he'd played soccer with during the prior summer.

rolls

[jameson] 1:55 pm: Presence 2 -1 for skill default +3 for Willpower

[Jeremy] 1:56 pm: What are you rolling for? Dalton?

jameson *rolls* 4d10t8r10: 8,3,1,1. Successes = 1. The target number was changed to 8.

[jameson] 1:56 pm: under the wire

[SalmonMax]

"Great," Renata replied woodenly. "Now they can't understand you overseas either."

"Anyway, the key back to Dalton is...crap...someone had a list. I don't remember. But it doesn't matter, the door won't open. We tried it back in Amazonia."

She gave Lucia a look, but had no idea what to say to her, even more so than before. What do you say to someone in that position? Hey, sorry you're not sure you're human and your mom might have gotten herself killed because you wandered off into another dimension, but try not to worry?

"Do you know where your mom went?" Ren finally asks. "As long as we can't get home, maybe we can look for her." Wow, kind of lame. Like going home was more important? Maybe we can look for her? It sounded like Lucia had lost a cat or something. Renata turned red and looked around, trying to find someone or somethign else to look at. Anything.

"Is there a phone in here we can use? I'm pretty sure I'd get some serious roaming charges with mine right now."

[Ryan Jackson]

Ryan rolled his eyes, exasperated. "Ya know, peeps say I'm stupid, but I a' leas' know not ta make 'ssumptions 'bout stuff Ah don't know nuthin' 'bout." He looked to the other students, to Sean and Ravi, and to Ms. Dorn, "I'm tellin' ya, Ah can open tha door. If'n ya don' wanna believe me fine, but a'least'aways answer my question. Mebbe y'all'll be surprised, an' if no ya can laugh at me fer bein' tha fool." He frowned sourly, "I'm use ta tha' at leas'."

[SalmonMax]

"Well if you can open the door, why didn't you do it back in Narnia, or wherever the hell we were?" Renata shoots back. "Why did we wind up in India, where we have to beg our parents for airfare, if you could have gotten us all back home?"

[Ryan Jackson]

"Mebbe 'cause Ah didn' know how? Eva think 'bout that? Mebbe 'cause we wuz in Cimmeria an' not here on Earth? Mebbe 'cause Ah didn' wanna?" Ryan jabbed a finger at Renata, "An' mebbe Ah should jus' go on back an' not open tha door for ya. Mebbe Ah should make ya haff ta 'splain to yer 'rents an' beg fer help. Yer only stuck 'cross the world withou' ah passport, shouldn' be too difficult ta get back. Meantimes mebbe Ah'll just take ah few days off an' kick it Dalton style."

He took a breath, "Ah'm off'rin' ta help get ev'ryone home, but mebbe y'all don' want help from tha likes o' tha class goof. So, yea', ifn all y'all wan' ma help Ah'll be ou'side fer a few in case sumbuddy 'members how ta open tha door back 'ere." Ryan turned on the balls of his feet and ambled for the door, fed up and sick of dealing with people who didn't appreciate him. "Othawise, laterz," he tossed back over his shoulder as he left.

[SalmonMax]

"So you just suddenly learned how to do it?" Renata called after him angrily. "You just said, here I am in India now, and hey...I know how to open the door back to Dalton! It hasn't even been a day yet!"

But if it was between trying to make up with Mumblemouth, or call the Senator and try to explain what she was doing in India...

GodDAMNIT!

"Wait!" She rubbed the bridge of her nose and lowered her volume. "Just...wait a second. It was a feather. A...feather from a raven. I remember thinking that it made a twisted kind of sense that our world would have such an emo key."

[z022]

"Ryan," Lucia called out after him, her tone pleading. She didn't know him all that well, but she'd certainly not have labeled him stupid from what she'd seen of him since this insanity had started. A little odd, maybe, but then she hardly had any room to speak on that. A very few people she felt she could trust in her life at the moment. "Please, can we at least stick together until people...decide where they're going to go? If you can get the Door open, then the people that want to go back to Dalton can and do whatever they're going to do there."

"The key to the Caramine world is three drops of blood and a raven's feather," she reminded the others. "The key to the Dalton Door is a piece of paper with thoughts written on it and a white feather of any kind." Lucia's answer was soft and sharp at the same time. She was trying not to be irritated, but at the same time, they'd let themselves forget how to get home?

"I can try calling Yasu," she offered, though she didn't explain who that was, "to see where he came from. He got to Dalton too quickly not to have some...supernatural, I suppose...way of travelling. If there are two Doors on Earth, there might be three and the other one might at least be closer to the school, for those that want to go back."

[Tatiana di Jadzian]

After updating Renata, Mari, and others on the current state of affairs - as he knew them - Sean had hunkered down, dwelling on his own thoughts. It was finally setting in what he had admitted to his father. Further, if Dean was going to accompany them, then his Dad was going to see him, and what he was on the Other side of the Door. The thought was somehow more daunting then just admitting it to him over the phone.

It wasn't that he had anything against girls. Far from it! He liked girls just as much as the next teenaged guy. It was he just never considered being one, and the way he had been treated by his mother and sisters certainly hadn't inclined him to even wonder about it in the slightest.

Though his Quickening at HeartStone had gone a long way to accepting his bi-gendered circumstances, the fact was he had sixteen years learning to be a man, and barely a week slinging around a pair of tits of his own. He didn't have the foggiest clue what his father thought.

Ryan turning to leave with Renata and Lucia calling after him finally roused Sean from his introspective thoughts. Sean stood up quickly, his chair sliding back across the hardwood floor with a squeak, and followed after his friend.

"Buddy! Wait up! Sorry, I was... thinkin'," Sean said by way of apology, with a self-conscious shrug of his broad shoulders, his eyes a pale blue-grey at the moment. He nodded at Lucia in agreement. "Lucia has it right 'bout the Keys for the Doors. For the Key to Mantherla - *cough* er, I mean, India, you'll have to ask-" Sean jerked a thumb over at Ravi and Ms. Dorn, "- them. The pimp - Dammit! - the Primszt, only told them.: He gave their hosts a sheepish grin. "Well, I guess those who live here know it too."

What Ryan was proposing to do finally sunk in, making his dark brows furrow in puzzlement. But a second later, he shrugged it off. If he could suddenly be carrying around a pair of D-cups or DD-cups or whatever size they were part-time, it was no stranger than Ryan being able to parkour his ass halfway around the globe.

Ravi sauntered over to Ryan with feline laissez-faire, urging him aside a ways. "Hold up, ol' chap," Ravi said, with a slight exaggeration of his natural accent. "I'll tell you the Key." Ravi lowered his voice so only those with pantherish hearing could catch his voice and told Ryan the Key. The knowledge wasn't his to reveal at large without the assent of his Grandfather. Besides, the more who knew, the more who could reveal it to their enemies. "Use it well, Ryan."

"Dude, if you can just - y'know - pop back over to Dalton," Sean mused out loud, "can't ya just get rid of whatever is blockin' the Door and pop back?"

[SalmonMax]

"White feather, shit," Renata muttered. "Right." At Lucia's look she turned a little pink and looked away. "I've had a lot on my mind, okay? And I figured someone else has a list, and...I'm never the one who actually opens the damn thing anyway..."

[Ryan Jackson]

Ryan bristled, "No, I'm no' gonna sit 'round wit' mah thumb up mah ass while y'all decide wha' y'all wanna do. Ah can git tha door open, an' all y'all kin thank me afta'." He looked at Lucia, his expression daring her to try and stop him. Student body president or not, nobody in four years had managed to do more than coerce Ryan do something he was already willing to do, or didn't have an opinion about one way or the other. Still he removed a small notebook from his backpack and wrote the Key information into it, apparently at least willing to take the offered help.

He conversed quietly with Sean and Ravi for a moment and then said, "Aight, Ah'm outtie, back inna coupl'a hours or so, y'all prolly wanna make up yer minds a'fore then. Doubt Bitchard will leave tha door 'lone fer long." Without waiting for an answer he turned and left, followed by Ravi. Outside the other student took a few moments to help him acquire the needed Key components. Ryan tucked them into a pocket, "Thanks, I'll be back soonish." His usual goofy grin split his face before he turned and headed back into the forest, apparently wanting some degree of privacy.

"OK, I know yer ou' there. Anythin' you wanna suggest?" Ryan asked his invisible shadow, the alien appearing once he was out of sight of the house. "I'm gonna go to Dalton an' open tha door from that end. I figger I oughtta be able ta find my room easy enough, right?"

"Just concentrate, picture where you want to be, and you will be there." Becor's voice was quiet, and he seemed to be willing to see how Ryan's first real attempt would fare. "I will follow you."

"Kay ..." Ryan seemed doubtful, but he did as Becor suggested and concentrated. First he formed a sphere of nothing around himself. This took only a double handful of seconds, it was getting easier to push away the world, and doing so with himself in the center seemed almost easier. Almost. The bubble of Void wobbled and he tried to visualize his bedroom at Dalton. It hadn't changed much in four years, and thankfully he had a single, and thus no roommates to change things while he was away. He was already merging the balloon with the world again when he realized he had to pee.

"I shoulda gone before I left," he said jokingly before realizing he wasn't in his room. "Aw, crapsauce."

rolls ... terrible, terrible, rolls

[jameson] 10:17 am: 9 dice

jameson *rolls* 9d10t8: 5,7,3,6,1,7,4,3,4. Successes = 0. The target number was changed to 8.

[jameson] 10:17 am:

[Asarasa] 10:17 am:

[jameson] 10:18 am: mutherfucker

[Carver-working] 10:18 am: Oops! That's awkward...

Willpower: 4/5

Power Points: 9/10

[Ryan Jackson]

"Sortez d'ici! Vous pervers malade!"

"Ooohhhh crap!" Ryan was almost immediately inundated with shouts, all directed at him, from the half dozen women in the room with him. Ryan ducked as a shoe was thrown at him and frantically searched for an exit. Instead of his dorm room he had apparently arrived in a ladies room. Pale pastel tiles lined the floor and walls and a long mirrored counter with sinks ran along one wall opposite a row of divided stalls.

Thankfully the exit was easy to locate thank in part to the simple layout of the room and the spatial map in his head. Ducking physical objects and foreign language swears Ryan hit the door running, and found himself bursting out into a crowded concourse area. "Where tha heck?" Ryan realized people were staring at him, and he quickly picked a direction and ambled off quickly, trying to figure out where he had ended up. The signs were not in English but he was about to intuit that this was an airport, and probably a French one based on the sounds of the people talking around him.

"I assume that this is not where you meant to arrive?" Becor asked him quietly from behind. Ryan detected a hint of amusement in the alien's voice.

"No," Ryan replied glumly. "Guess I messed up. This is a airport, so ... there, men's room, follow me." Ryan was glad that the men's room had the expected man shaped symbol on the door and he moved into it and located the handicapped stall in the very back, and moved in after letting Becor precede him. "This, this is no' somethin' I eva' expected to do." Ryan whispered as he pulled the door closed and held it.

"You should not be ashamed to make a mistake so early. We have traveled nearly a third of the way around your world, this is impressive for a first try."

"Not what I meant ..." Ryan said. "Nevermind. Ok, here goes." Ryan crossed his fingers as he once again wrapped a sphere of the void around himself. He concentrated on his room, holding the image and making every effort to recall the very least detail, and to not think about anything else. Once again he used the image in his head as he merged the void with the world. Ryan breathed a relieved sigh, "Thank god."

His room was as he had left it. He was back. Now came the hard part, getting the door open.

better rolls

[jameson] 9:42 am: Teleport take 2 - 9 dice

jameson *rolls* 9d10t8: 3,5,9,7,3,1,5,10,6. Successes = 2. The target number was changed to 8.

[jameson] 9:42 am: YAY!

[jameson] 9:42 am: oh, pop the 10

jameson *rolls* 1d10t8: 1. Successes = 0. The target number was changed to 8.

[Carver-working] 9:43 am: Hah.

Willpower 4/5

Power Points 8/10

[Sylvia Dorn]

Sylvia looked around the room after Ryan walked off into the jungle. "So now we wait until Mr. Jackson succeeds...." A look developed on her face, an uncharacteristic combination of bemusement and pain, as though she'd just said that the sky was plaid or tried to divide by zero.

Her gaze met Ravi's, who managed to keep a similar distaste from his face but not his eyes. There was a moment of unspoken communication, then she nodded and turned back to the group as a whole. "Right. So what are we really going to do?"

[SalmonMax]

"Look, there's only two ways out of here...fly out, or use a door," Renata points out. "We can't use a door to get back unless Ryan's not completely full of shit, and flying out means making a call I don't want to make. So I don't know what we're going to do. If there's really other doors, maybe we could find another one closer to Dalton, then hitchhike back or something? I don't know...but it'd be a miracle to find them."

[Tatiana di Jadzian]

"Uh, Ren? There is another Door - Mr. FitzCoventry told us," Sean commented, nodding at Amrit. "He mentioned it led to the territory of another... er, clan, of were-men. Jaguars?" Amrit nodded and Sean gave Renata a crooked grin. "Technically, it is closer to Dalton... It's in South America. Practically walkin' distance." His stormy blue-grey eyes were determined. "Mr. FitzCoventry said they might be willin' to help us."

The young man squared his broad shoulders and faced the elder FitzCoventry. "Sir, would you be willin' to arrange a meetin' with your... umm, cousins? if it's not too much trouble, case Ryan doesn't pull through?"

Waiting politely for his response, Sean regarded the rest of the Daltonites. "In the mean time, how 'bout we give Ryan the couple of hours he asked for, eh?" He smiled wryly at Swan than down at himself. "It'll hardly be the strangest thing we've seen lately, right? And I think we should pack up our things and be ready to move, just in case."

[Dawn OOC]

Ryan slipped out of his room and down the hall, intent on making his way up to the Door again. But he didn’t get far before he was stopped by a fellow student. “Hey, Ryan.” The teleporter started to mumble a greeting but was stopped by the student asking, “Hey, are all of you back?”

“Back?” Ryan asked, pivoting to glance at the guy.

The junior nodded. “From your field trip?”

“Uh… no, jus’ me and I uh… forgot something so I had to come back fo’ it.” Ryan wasn’t sure he was lying very effectively but he needed to say something.

“You came back from Spain because you forgot something? Wow, uh… okay. I wish I had that kind of money to toss around.” The junior shrugged and wandered away.

I’m pausing a bit here to allow Micah to hop back in if the player wants.

---

Amrit pursed his lips. “Do you have any hints as to where your mother has gone?”

Lucia shook her head. “The person who knew didn’t say anything.”

“Then you should see the Devi.” Amrit put a hand on her shoulder. “They are wise beings; they see much and know much, sometimes that which they shouldn’t know. I do not assure that they will know, or that you are willing to pay the price they ask. But it is a chance.”

“I’ll pay their price,” Lucia assured him. “No matter what it is.”

Amrit tilted his head at her. “Those are dangerous words, child. Be careful that you really don’t mean them.”

[Micah]

While coming out of the shower, Micah spotted someone he hadn't seen in quite a while.

"Hey, Ryan, what are you doing back? I thought you guys were still out there. Where are the others? Is everything OK? and more importantly, is there anything I can do to help?"

Micah's expression went from flabbergasted, to curious, to intense, during his rapid barrage of questions. He then looked down at himself, and realized he was still soaking wet and in a towel, "Listen, can you tell me what's going on as we walk to my room so I can get dressed? "

[z022]

She nodded, though whatever her thoughts on that advice were didn't show in her expression. "Do you know the key for the Devi? And anything I should know about their world?"

She glanced at the others, a trace of nervousness showing now, but she wouldn't presume that everyone else was going to follow her around while she looked for her mother. There was the Caramine issue to deal with as well and some of them might rightly want to just go back to Dalton and forget about the entire mess. "If there are people out there that might know where my mother is, I'd like to get to them as soon as possible, please."

[Ryan Jackson]

"Shit, ma and dad's money makes itself useful. Who'da thunk it?" Ryan said to himself as he walked away shaking his head. He stopped short when somebody called his name and he spun around, and his jaw dropped.

"Blah blah blah ....can you tell me what's going on as we walk to my room so I can get dressed? "

"Ain't you dead?" Ryan asked, as he scanned the hall behind him and the nearby rooms for other students. He found nobody else, it was the middle of the afternoon, so hardly all that shocking. "I mean, didn' you kill yerself? Tha whole sword in da chest an' all?" Ryan scratched his head, continuing on without really giving Micha a chance to reply. "I mean, yeah, I didn' stick 'round fer the gory aftamath, but I ain't dumb, I know what yer gonna get when ya ram a couple feet of steel through yer ribcage."

Ryan's eyes narrowed. "Wait ... yer a freak too ain't ya? Shit." Ryan shooed the other boy toward his room, "Come on, move it, yer drippin' on the rug and way too starkers for my taste. You got some splainin' to do an' then we gotta rescue a bunch of self righteous prigs from India."

[Dawn OOC]

Amrit smiled at the caramel-skinned beauty, though his smile wasn’t at all lecherous. “I understand.” He paused for a moment, then went to Simran. Leaning close, he spoke to the woman, who nodded and left. She returned a moment later with a piece of paper.

The patriarch of the family turned and handed the paper to Lucia.

Quartz

Red String

Dead Mouse

“That is the key you need,” he told her softly, his green eyes so like Ravi’s. “Be careful what price you pay to them, that it’s not more than you can bear to pay.”

[Tatiana di Jadzian]

"Not a problem with me, Lucia," the brawny jock offered, walking over to Lucia and giving her a nod and a determined grin. "After all, you guys came with me to find the Chiderans and my mother and sisters, it's only fair. So you can count me and..." Sean looked a question down at Swan, who nodded and squeezed his hand in answer, "... Swan in, at least."

His dark brow furrowed, his grin growing tight as he considered further "Er, after we get back to Dalton and I can talk to my dad, anyway, if you can wait that long. Did you mom go to Dalton too? Maybe my Dad might know something about the... the Devi, was it? The Devi or something else that might help you find your mom."

[Micah]

Micah hurried back to his room, with Ryan following. He quickly closed the door behind Ryan, and began getting dressed. He looked over at Ryan with curiosity written all over his face, "Who needs rescuing from India? And Why? Once you answer those questions I may be able to help, and we can figure out what to do. " He smiled, then got a quizzical look on his face, "What did you mean Freak?"