Archive World of Darkness: The Academy - Chapter 3a: Holders of the Keys [Lancaster]

[Dawn OOC]

Quietly, without any fanfare, the large claw on the tip of the necklace popped itself into a ninty degree angle and pointed right at Sean.

[Frida Ricci]

Frida watched it quietly for a moment, then walked over and tapped Sean on the shoulder.

"It's supposed to point to the nearest Chideran, which they told me would be her or her daughters. But it appears to be pointing at you. Perhaps you are her son after all. Though the Chideran woman on the other side of the door told us that it was unlikely that a Chideran could mate with a male, and produce a male offspring. Perhaps it's pointing to you to direct us to your mother or sisters. But.. that's not how she said it would work. It's all quite odd.. don't you think? Either way.. it seems likely that we need to speak to your mother. Should we go?"

[Lorelei]

Lorelei had the presence of mind to look startled at Sean's question, but when she realized he was (at least mostly) kidding, she allowed herself a quiet laugh at her own expense.

"Perhaps that's not a terrible idea," she replied, smiling shyly up at him. "Since you've asked so politely."

[Tatiana di Jadzian]

Hearing Lorelei agree to accompany him, Sean's smile broadened, still shyly rakish, but there was relief mixed in as well.

"Thanks, Lorelei, I - thanks. This w-" Sean was interrupted by a tapping on his shoulder.

He turned around and looked down at Frida, then the claw on the necklace that was pointing directly at him, his tempestuous eyes wide. Sean snorted, biting back the laughter rising in his throat, quelling the mounting hysteria.

"So... It looks like I really am the son of a woman from another world who gives birth only to daughters without the need of a man... Perfect." Everyone was looking at him, Ms. Dorn's gaze sharp, but almost sympathetic, Mr. Hunter with the shock that was usually reserved for a nutshot. Unaccountably, Sean shivered.

"Screw it! Let's motor. Ms. Dorn, code?" Sean said with amused resignation. With a long look, then a sigh and a nod, realizing that the young man would not be denied, Sylvia Dorn gave Sean the code for the student parking lot.

Sean led the two girls into the night, and off to his mother's they went.

[SalmonMax]

Rather than reply to Lucia, Renata shuts the hell up and lurks in the back of the crowd, watching and listening. Words came to her like the lyrics of a song, accompanied by jarring, discordant music.

Too many people. Tempers fraying like knots. No one sees through their own psychosis. Blinded by ink blots. It's not enough just to disagree. Everyone wants to be supreme. And so you have to be idiot, stupid, ugly; you have to be arrogant, prurient, pestilent. How dare you ask questions? How dare you complain? If you're not behind me, you're just in the way. It cannot be denied...the oldest sin is pride.

She felt a little drunk, a little high as she made her way around the edge of the crowded room in a sort of daze. Her fingers nearly ached with the need to draw or write or somehow express the inspiration that this was sparking in her. It seemed somehow perverse that she would draw such primal vitality from such discord and mutual ill feelings, but perverse or not, it was happening.

Abruptly Renata realized she had been making her way around to Sylvia Dorn, without even really thinking about it.

"Hey," she said to the teacher, "Me and Lucia need to talk to you without the geek squad around. It's about the bones." She glanced at the door of the room and added, "I'm gonna wait in the hall. Why don't you meet us out there in a few minutes?"

With that, Renata backed away towards the door and tapped Lucia's shoulder.

"I talked to Dorn. Lets pull back into the hall and wait for her to come out. I don't want to talk to her with everyone else around."

[z022]

Lucia smiled at Renata, glad that the girl showed a good head on her shoulders and some initiative to go with it. The student council president had been speaking quietly but intently with Brihn and Brahn for the past few minutes. "Alright. Give me just a few more minutes here to finish up, and then I'll join you out in the hall."

She went back to listening to the Lheskians and asking an occasional question; after only a couple more minutes she thanked them and made her way out into the hall. She hoped she hadn't kept either Renata or the teacher waiting, but she also didn't want to leave without the little bit of knowledge she'd just acquired. She looked around for the other two.

[Logic1]

It looked as if their little meeting was adjourning. Everett was still wrestling with all that he'd taken in. He was even a little taken aback at his willingness to throw his hat in. What's done is done. Everyone seemed to be moving in their chosen direction, proceeding with their chosen courses of action. Everett realized he was going to need to understand what he was protecting. As much as he could at least. He was also going to need a way to defend himself and those he'd stepped forward to protect.

[Sylvia Dorn]

Sylvia was trying - desperately - to hold onto some level of sanity. Her world had pretty much been rocked to its core over the past two days, entire new worlds were opened up, she'd helped to recover a body that turned out not to be human, and her wards were rapidly scattering to the four winds on self-appointed missions of interworld importance. On top of it all, something was happening to her, something undefinable but still certain. She had literally growled at people today, and at one point stood her ground more like an animal than a teacher and house-mother.

And now, there was Renata, wanting to talk about the bones.

It wasn't much, but at least it was something to hold onto. With a nod, she took one last look around at the quiet chaos, the two off-worlders standing in their midst, at a father and son united in peril, and then stepped off down a hallway to try to focus on at least one small thing where her dwindling authority might be put to use.

[SalmonMax]

Renata led Sylvia out into the hallway and looked around.

"Lucia's coming too," she said to explain the pause.

When the other girl emerged as well and joined them, Renata said point-blank, through in a quiet voice, "I rescued the bones. Lucia and me hid them. You want to take another look at them?"

[Sylvia Dorn]

She couldn't have been more surprised if Renata had sprouted a second head.

"You have them someplace safe?" she half-whispered to the pair. "If Security or the Sheriff get wind of this, we're all in hot water. You do understand that, right? And yes, I want to take another look at them - preferably with some of my references with me."

[z022]

Lucia nodded to the teacher and glanced at Renata, "Do you remember where the keys are?"

To Sylvia she said, "We put them somewhere safe, but not really a good place to examine them in. I get the impression the Sheriff will be just as happy not to have to deal with them himself anyways, but you'll want to keep them somewhere not obvious. That is unless you plan to keep them yourself, Renata?"

She waited for an answer, but it wouldn't take much observation to see that the young woman's mind was elsewhere at the moment.

[SalmonMax]

"I'm not really keen on keeping a person's body in my dorm room," Renata replied wryly. "Bones or not. So yeah, you should make sure you have a safe place to keep them."

She glanced at Lucia. "You want to come with?" With a wave of her hand she added, "Hello? What's wrong, tales from the crypt boring you?"

[Sylvia Dorn]

"If you have them well-hidden, they'll keep wherever they are for a another day or two, until we can find a good place for them." She said the words to Renata, but her eye's slipped over to Lucia as they were spoken.

"That said, this is probably not the night for it. I believe I heard one of our guests talking about the keys; before certain individuals get in a bit over their heads, perhaps we should find out what they're learning?"

[z022]

She nodded, "Yeah, they should keep for a bit without anyone else stumbling on them." She shrugged as she glanced back in at the gathering, "Have fun. I think I'll be heading back to my room, myself. Renata, would you like some company going back to the dorms, or are you going to stay with the others for now?"

She put just enough emphasis on company to let the other girl know she'd prefer some company on the way back to her room.

[SalmonMax]

Renata looked between Lucia and Ms Dorn a few times, then tried to come up with a solution worthy of Solomon.

"I'm gonna walk Lucia back," she said to the professor. "But sometime when we have time, maybe you can tell us about these 'doors' or whatever, and how they work. Sound good?"