Archive World of Darkness: The Academy - Chapter 5: The Loose Thread

[Frida Ricci]

"As I mentioned to Renata, I have been seeing things lately. Nothing solid, just shapes and movement out of the corner of my eye. Unless you too wish to dismiss my experiences as an already-existing lack of sanity on my part."

Though her voice was as smooth and seemingly unaffected, those who had gotten to know her a bit or who had ever paid much attention to her, could recognize the hurt that Renata's words had inflicted - not necessarily through tone of voice, but from Frida's choice of words. Easy as it was for people to overlook her emotions, the young artist did feel the sting of rejection more than people gave her credit for, when she was paying enough attention to the situation to realize that's what it was.

She glanced in Sean's direction as he started speaking about being "Chosen", and for a brief moment, Frida saw the flash of that situation in her mind, though it seemed to merge with the sketchy lines of her drawings. For a moment she could feel the movement of pencil on paper, gliding across the smooth surface as she recalled those then-perfect memories and recorded them for.. posterity? Reference. For some sort of meeting.

"I think I remember that, Sean. I think I remember the counting. I think that's when I saw Swan here, or when I chose to draw her from. I remember looking at her, so that I could remember, and draw..."

[Sylvia Dorn]

Sylvia listened as first Sean and then Frida described their partial memories. As Frida did so, a dim recollection - a not much more than a flash of a man who looked very much like Swan - came to her own mind, and she frowned.

Quote:

"Since you're taking it seriously, you can be Two."

"I was number two."

[SalmonMax]

Renata frowned at Sean's words. That DID sound kind of familiar.

"It was at a party or something, wasn't it? Some big guys crashed it and started throwing their weight around."

[Rorx]

Jason straightend up from leaning on the wall, "The beginning of term party?", He said as he looked around the group.

"Someone said it had been gatecrashed and it was about the time we all got sick."

Turning to Sean he started lifting his t-shirt, "I think you're right about there being some big dogs involved. I think this was a bite, but I don't know how to it could be sso healed in the time since then. Unless it's another example of the magic that Renata saw?"

He stomach shows a large area of well healed scar tissue, looking more like it was done a year or more ago. However, no-one can remember it being there before the summer break and it is not unusual for Jason to work without his top in good weather.

[Ryan Jackson]

"Numbers? Man, last year they just let us hoard around the ice cream. Can't believe they made us take numbers and get in line." Ryan had flipped over the sofa and sprawled in the corner of the thing loosely listening to the conversation. "I do seem to recall some kids from the Lowell Whiteman School showing up. Yeah, that sounds right, fuckin' pricks broke up the party, and then ... I dunno." Ryan thought about it for a time and asked, "Did we have a suicide that first week? I recall somebody saying that some kid stabbed himself."

[Sylvia Dorn]

Sylvia listened as her students recounted half-remembered moments, and as the moments gradually started relating to each other, she found herself looking around the room for a moment for something.

Finally she asked, "Mr. Cassidy, is there a notebook and pen somewhere that we can use? There are quite a few memories coming to light, and if we put them down on paper, we may be able to start arranging them into the beginnings of a picture, however fragmented."

[Tatiana di Jadzian]

A furrow creased Sean's brow as he glanced at Jason's scar, unconsciously rubbing his thigh, then nodding at Ryan, as what he said, drudged up bits more of memory. "Riiight... the Douchebags Three crashed the Ice Cream social."

"Sure, just give me minute," Sean said in response to Ms. Dorn's request, "I'll be right back." Sean hustled off to the kitchen, looking through the inevitably cluttered kitchen drawers for a note and pen... except, the kitchen drawers were organized with anal-retentive exactness and he couldn't find anything.

With a disgusted grunt, he took the burgers out of the freezer, making sure he had enough, then rushed back the other way towards the stairs. Those in the living room could here his feet thumping on the stairs as he headed for his mother's study.

At the threshold, he paused. He had never been in there before, not without being told to come in. Sean snorted. Shouldn't have took off then. I'm the one looking after this place anyway. With a belligerent resoluteness, Sean entered Vanessa's domain and searched through her desk, finding a small leather-bound book filled with blank pages and a couple of pens, not noting their expensive, understated quality. He also grabbed some blank paper from the printer.

"Will this do?" he asked, handing the book, paper, and pens to Ms. Dorn.

[Sylvia Dorn]

With a surprisingly warm smile, Sylvia nodded, accepting the writing gear. "That will do fine, thank you."

She took a seat, opening the book to a blank page and - with just a hint of admiration - removing the cap from a pen. Then, she began writing things down that had been said, word for word and with uncanny accuracy.

[Dawn OOC]

When Sylvia was done, what they had still didn't make much sense. It was a jumble of seemingly unrelated ideas: shadowy dogs, giant bats, being numbered - the more they looked at it, the less sense it seemed to make. It sounded crazy. But all they needed to do was look at their strange guest to know that crazy seemed to be the new normal.

[Tatiana di Jadzian]

All the shit going down was completely crazy, and though as much as he didn't want to believe it, Sean just had to look at Swan, and know he couldn't deny it. So in the midst of his view of the world suffering a major shift, he clung to a tiny piece of normalcy.

While Ms. Dorn wrote down what they had recalled, Sean got the burger patties and fired up the grill. He was used to cooking for himself, his dad often being late and his mother letting him fend for himself whenever he visited, and if he wasn't a master chef, he was at least decent.

The night had grown dark, the silence broken only by the soft churning of the covered jacuzzi. The light breeze added a chill to the night, making the heat rising from the elaborate stone and steel barbecue as welcome as the smell of sizzling beef.

Barely seen in the gloom by the soft glow of the decklights, Sean was alone with his thoughts, trying to come to terms with what they were starting to learn. Unconsciously, he kept glancing over his shoulder at the barely discernible mass of the poolhouse at the far end of the yard, his hands convulsively closing into fists around the tongs and flipper. A tightness banded his chest, making breathing a trial.

After pounding a fist on the stone framing and releasing a long breath, Sean went back inside while the burgers finished cooking. In the living room, he gave Swan a smile, then looked over Ms. Dorn's shoulder at what she had written.

"My mother and sisters are somehow involved in this," Sean said softly, though he wasn't trying to keep it a secret. "Somehow, Frida drew perfect pictures of them, though they had no reason to even be at Dalton, and... and I just know, okay? I don't know how, don't know why, I just do."

Raising his voice and looking around the room, Sean asked, "Who wants a cheeseburger?"

[SalmonMax]

"I'll have two," Renata calls. She looked around for a place to sit, and finally settled for settling in front of the fireplace.

The situation was so fucked up, it was hard to even think about. Her brain kept recoiling from it all, like it might get burned. She was starting to regret her panic too, big time. At the time she'd figured Professor Dorn and the weird girl they had must know more...but it turned out that there was probably only one person on campus who knew ANYTHING...and that was the woman they'd all just run away from.

"Guys...I've been thinking...what if one of us goes back to school and tries to talk to this teacher? Whatshername...Pritchard? I mean, maybe there's a whole other side to this story we should be hearing, you know?"

[Sylvia Dorn]

"All considered," Sylvia said in response to Renata's recommendation, "I'd prefer not to go try to have a light discussion with someone who disassembles guards into twigs."

It wasn't the most helpful comment she'd ever made; however, she definitely didn't want that woman getting her hands on one or more of the students. Or Swan, she admitted to herself.

Only then did she really consider what Sean had said. Looking back and up at him, she paused for a moment. She'd seen Frida's drawings in the library, drawings of someone she'd never met... or didn't remember meeting. She also knew that the girl had one of the best memories in the school, and that - like her own - it was showing gaps now. There really wasn't much to do now but to take this on face value, insane though it seemed.

"What do you think," she asked quietly, "their involvement might be in all of this?"

[SalmonMax]

"They weren't guards," Renata grumped. "They were made of twigs in the first place."

She scowled and laid down on her stomach, feeling tired. Sean or someone had intimated as much too; that Pritchard had somehow changed living human beings into bundles of straw...but not half an hour ago the girl with funny eyes everyone was so protective of was explaining that they weren't real people at all. They were 'golems' or something.

In fact, the more Renata thought about it, the more she wasn't sure Pritchard might not be on the right side. She obviously had access to some freaky deaky powers, but what had she done? Blown people up like popcorn kernels? Summoned demons or called lightning? No. She whiffed up a couple of helpers...nothing a few high school kids couldn't take, and, Ren noted, without so much as a bruise in return.

Either Pritchard's powers were weirdly limited, or she was pulling her punches.

And in the back of her head, Renata couldn't help but think, I wonder if she could show me how to do that...

[Tatiana di Jadzian]

Sean nodded at Renata, "Two coming up," then told Ms. Dorn he'd be right back. Sean hurried back to the barbecue and added cheese to the majority of the burgers. He didn't have much else to garnish them with anyway. After the cheese had melted sufficiently, he brought the burgers inside, got a stack of paper plates, some napkins, hooked the rack holding the ketchup, mustard, and relish with a thumb, and took a step back to the living room before stopping and turning around. With his hands full, it took some finagling, but he caught the bag of buns with his teeth and headed back to the living room.

Once there, he settled everything on the coffee table and slapped together a pair of burgers for himself and one for Swan before settling on the ottoman next to Ms. Dorn and Swan. "Everyone help themselves, but make sure everyone who wants one gets a burger first, before going for seconds. Thanks."

Holding out the plate to Swan with an encouraging smile, Sean leaned closer to Ms. Dorn. "About Vanessa and my sisters being involved... It's just... more than a week ago, my Dad came down - with his girlfriend and they - nevermind. Anyway, he came down and said that Vanessa called him - this was just after the Ice Cream Social where this is starting to look like where all the weird shit began - leaving him the house and that she and the girls where leaving. Just like that! Didn't say where they were going or when they'd be back or even if they would be back."

Sean let out a long sigh then with the speed of a teenaged boy's appetite, half a burger was gone in a blink before he continued. "Even weirder, a couple days later, I bumped into Frida in the parking lot," Sean glanced at the eccentric girl, giving her a wave, burger in hand, "and she had the keys to Vanessa's Lexus. Somehow. With the keys and Frida's drawings of them, my mother and sisters must have been at Dalton, unless they didn't tell me," he muttered under his breath. "But I don't recall seeing or talking to them... Not... not really. Just like all these other fuzzy memories..."

[Sylvia Dorn]

"That does seem to be our key problem in this: memories," she said, accepting a cheeseburger and biting in gratefully.

Sylvia considered the situation as she worked on the juicy sandwich. The mish-mosh of half-remembered bits jotted on the page before her wasn't helping. She'd hoped it would give her clues on how to put things together; instead it was all the more baffling. Apparently, the text-to-visual idea wasn't so good.

Visual....

Her eyes shot over Frida. "Miss Ricci, I think this may be a good time to pull those drawings back out for us to see. Maybe that will help us to trigger these memories we're having into something more useful."

[Logic1]

"Renata's right" he agreed "they were never guards. Swan said so herself. They were Golems". The frustration on Renata's face was undeniable. Everett hoped that his small agreement would help in soothing her.

"Capital idea" Everett said between bites as he pointed to Ms. Dorn. Seeing Frida's drawings couldn't hurt things and he agreed, it was bound to trigger something in one if not all of them.

It seemed they were tumbling further and further down the rabbit hole. Now if only they could find a handhold to slow the descent and avoid that oh so unpleasant thud that came with the inevitable "landing".

"Food's good. Thanks Sean" he offered up with a small nod to their host.

[Frida Ricci]

Frida nodded at Ms. Dorn's request. The tube had been laid carefully across the young artist's lap, but she picked it up and stood, glancing around the room briefly as if trying to figure out the best method of display. That, for a moment, brought on a feeling of deja vu, and for a moment she stood there, looking a little lost, as if she had somehow forgotten where she was, or what she was doing.

It passed though, before anyone really had the chance to comment on it, and she shook her head slightly to clear away the vague memory. After another quick survey, she stepped into the adjoining dining room, and opened the elegant-looking artist's tube carefully. She spread the drawings out on the dining room table as best she could. Several of them overlapped, but most of the overlap was blank spaces around the sides of some of the drawings - the actual figures themselves were centered on the paper, and only one or two of them had additional details around the edges.

Click to reveal.. (One more time, just in case...)

Originally Posted By: Frida Ricci

They were done in what appeared to be a combination of pencil and oil pastels, in order to capture the intensity of color differences between skin and eye colors. First was Brihn, followed by her brother Brahn, with their pale skin and black eyes. Then there was the trio from the Ice Cream Social. There was one of the head of Vena's tribe of Amazons, along with eerily accurate drawings of the other ones who had been there. Finally, though with a moment of hesitation, she hung up drawings of Sean's mother and the two girls.

Finally, Frida stepped back, surveying her work. Underneath each drawing, in handwriting so refined it was almost Regency-era (though Sylvia knew that, irritatingly enough, that was what the girl's handwriting looked like all the time), was written an identifier for each person; names for the ones Frida knew, and titles for the ones she didn't. Each drawing was eerily perfect in detail, and looked identical to the actual person, no matter how short a time Frida had observed them for.

Now that everyone present had the chance to actually view the drawings, and based on the vague memories some of them had started to recall, some of the titles under each drawing made at least a little bit of puzzling sense. The pictures of the wild-looking women were titled "Amazons", the pictures of Sean's sisters were their names, nothing special or unusual. The picture of "Swan" and the other three men were labeled "Party Crashers" and "Sword-Wielding Woman". The one piece that struck Sean as odd was the one of his mother, labeled not just with the name he knew, but with what seemed to be two different names - "Vena/Vanessa".

[Tatiana di Jadzian]

Sean offered Swan a hand up off the loveseat, who set down her half eaten hamburger on an endtable, than supported her with an arm to the dinning room, so she could get a view of Frida's drawings too. Maybe they would jog something loose.

Looking over the drawings, Sean was once again impressed with Frida's skill. She captured more than just the physical representation of his mother and sisters - nineteen year-old Cassandra and fourteen year-old Savannah - but their presence as well.

Glancing at the other pictures, Sean was struck by an odd sense likeness between his sisters and mother and the picture of women entitled 'Amazons'. He wasn't sure why, there was little resemblance, other than perhaps in their vaguely Nordic features and an implication of height. Vanessa and Cassandra wore both tall, just over six feet, and Savannah showed every sign of joining them. But it wasn't really that, it was something else, something intangible that Frida had nonetheless managed to imbue in both the renditions of his family and these amazons.

Fingers lingering on the picture of his mother, he traced the intricately written title, dark brows lowered in quizzical furrows. "Frida, Vanessa is my mother's name, but what's this - Vena - written next to it?"

[Ryan Jackson]

Ryan shoved the remains of a third burger into his gullet and pointed at the picture, "MMppphhhgga!" The other's except Sean, found Ryan's appetite nothing short of astounding given his relatively slim and fix physique, but then when one considered that Ryan was likely to travel two miles on a one mile walk maybe it made sense after all. He chewed and swallowed. "I remember that guy," he added in proper English as he pointed at the man in the drawing, "he was a total douche. I think he's the one with the number fixation. Probably working on a Columbine style hit-list ... nutter."

[Dawn OOC]

Swan was moving better as Sean helped her to the table. He thankfully didn't have to keep carrying her everywhere. She even managed the last few steps on her own and stood looking down at the pictures, a furrow appearing in her brow. "I know all of these people," she said. "I have seen them. The women... I have only seen once, in Dalton."

"But him... I hate him," Swan said, looking at the picture of the man and his twins. "I do not remember why, but I hate him very much. He is not a good man. And the other two... they are loyal to him. Very loyal."

She glanced at Ryan, her black eyes unsettled and unsettling. "What is a 'Colum Bind style hitting list'?"

[Sylvia Dorn]

Pain and sadness settled across Sylvia's face at Swan's question. "A number of years ago, two students at a school not so far from here walked into their school armed and began killing fellow students and teachers, apparently in retribution for having been harassed. It was a horrible tragedy, and has become very much a part of our memory as a people as something to prevent ever happening again."

Flashes of memory caught her again. The feeling of being stabbed. A worried huddle of administrators. And the drawings before her... had Dalton seen another Columbine of sorts, one that had been magically torn from their memories? She would have scoffed at the very idea of magic a day ago. But now? Now, it was all but an established fact, disconcerting though it was. And for her memories to have been so violated - a growl welled up from somewhere inside of her, a sound she had no right to make. Only after a moment did she realize it and, in near shock, stop.

In the most non-teacher-like statement her students had ever heard from the stern and proper Miss Dorn, she exclaimed with more than a touch of fear in her voice and with eyes looking down at herself as though expecting something to burst forth from her chest, "What the hell was that?!?"

[Frida Ricci]

Ever pragmatic, Frida glanced up from where she had been mulling over the drawings, and gazed blankly at Sylvia for a moment before speaking.

"It sounded like a growl, Ms. Dorn. An expression made by many mammals in order to indicate aggression."

If nothing else, Frida was a master at stating the obvious.

[SalmonMax]

"I recognize those guys...they were at the party," Renata said carefully. She was watching Ms Dorn as she shifted from lying on her belly to sitting up...perhaps feeling that lying down was a touch more vulnerable than she was comfortable with.

"I don't know the others."

She didn't say anything about the growl, but her wariness spoke volumes.

[Sylvia Dorn]

Frida's response was pure, unadulterated Frida; it was one of the reasons that Sylvia loved having her in her classes... and was endlessly frustrated having her in Lancaster. It reminded her of the old joke regarding a helicopter, a fog and Microsoft: answers that were technically precise and practically useless.

But Renata's new and distinct wariness put plenty of meaning to the artist's words. The set of the girl's eyes - of all their eyes, now that she looked around a bit more, except for Swan - was ample evidence that they sensed something to be very much wrong with their teacher.

For weeks now, Sylvia had been trying to explain away or just plain ignore a sense of smell that had increased to an annoying degree. She'd considered a visit to an otolaryngologist, but hadn't made the appointment yet; now, she was no longer so sure that having a doctor poke around her nose and throat was such a good idea. That growl - there was really nothing else to call it - wasn't caused by an infection or tumor. She'd gotten angry, and it had simply been her response.

Golems and witches; with things like that - and whatever Swan may be - already on the table, how much farther down the Yellow Brick Road do you really have to go before other bits of mythology start cropping up? Like people with enhanced senses and native growls and sharp teeth defending villages....

She shook her head, stopping the internal question cold. This was the worst possible time to start worrying about her recent dreams - even if those dreams started showing a very disconcerting semblance to reality. Taking a deep breath to settle herself, she said, "Well, whatever it was, it's hardly our most immediate concern. I think that Mrs. Pritchard is pretty much at the top of the current list, at least if we want to return to Dalton. Which, by the way, is something I have to do before very much longer. After all, I'm a" - Den Warden, something whispered inside - "house mother, and there's plenty of students in Lancaster who didn't drive an hour out from the campus to discuss matters of the strange and unusual tonight."

[Tatiana di Jadzian]

Ms. Dorn's growl had made Sean look at her askance, not with wariness, just surprised by the sound coming from the teacher. The others student's said the Ms. Dorn had a fierce bark, and her bite was just as bad, but that was a little ridiculous. But what wasn't nowadays, with all that was going on?

Frida's definition of a growl made Sean slide his glance her way, giving her a blink. However odd things were getting, it seemed Frida was determined to be just as odd.

With the others commenting on the 'Party Crashers' drawing, Sean tore his eyes of the drawings of his mother and sisters and studied it too, nodding agreement. "Yeah, Number-boy... I think the two flanking him - his shadows, minions, whatever - I think we got into a fight with them while Number-boy took off." Sean put a comforting hand on Swan's shoulder. "I'm pretty we don't like him either."

Sean listened in to Ms. Dorn with a cocked head. "Pritchard seems not to have these fuzzy memories that we do, though I think whatever she's saying is biased." Sean looked around the dining room at everyone there. "Tomorrow is Saturday. I guess you have to go back, Ms. Dorn, and we will too, at some point, but whoever wants to spend the night here is free to do so." Sean's lips twisted with a grimace. "Though I'm nut sure if we'll cudgel loose anymore memories here. Most of it seems focus around Dalton itself."

[Sylvia Dorn]

"I think you have the right of it, Mr. Cassidy," the teacher said, pulling herself to a standing position and grabbing her car keys from the side table.

"I'm going back to Lancaster. I fully expect to have a rather unpleasant next few days; the Board of Directors is sure to have some commentary on my little act of disobedience tonight. Mr. Cassidy, I'm assuming you intend for Swan to stay here for the time being; if she does need to return to campus, I can provide lodging for her in one of the empty rooms in Lancaster."

With a last look at the little group - literally the last, if Pritchard can shut me down as fast as I suspect she may try - Sylvia left the room, and was back on the highway for Estes Park a few minutes later.

She got five miles before having to pull over beside the darkened road, a wave of shudders and shakes washing over her.

[Logic1]

Everett worked the wadded up napkin in his hand as he looked over Frida's drawings. They were incredible. He felt drawn to the drawing of Brahn and Brihn. I remember them being nice. I definitely remember them. It's fuzzy but I know them" he said as he pointed at the picture. "Mind if I crash here Sean?"

[SalmonMax]

Renata watched Sylvia go, torn between her own desire to go back, and her uneasiness over being stuck in a car with Professor Dorn for an hour. In the end, the uneasiness won, and she said nothing. Once Dorn was gone, she rolled onto her back and stared gloomily at the ceiling.

"Is there any way back to school from here?" she asked. "A bus or something? Or maybe if enough of us want to go back, Sean'll drive us. Who's in?"

[Dawn OOC]

"I would stay," Swan said softly and it took a moment to realize that she was making a choice rather than advising them on what to do. She glanced at Sean, her expression hopeful and a little afraid. Her fear that his offer wouldn't be good after the revelations from Ms. Dorn was clear in her face. She was afraid she'd be kicked out now.

[Tatiana di Jadzian]

"We'll remember your offer, Ms. Dorn," Sean said, looking at Swan with concern as Ms. Dorn prepared to leave. "Swan will probably have to take you up on that. I don't think we'll be able to hide out here long and I doubt she knows how to drive."

When Everett started began recounting what little he recalled of Brahn and Brihn, Sean looked around with a start, a searing throb of weariness radiating from his thigh. "They... I'm not sure how 'nice' they really were. There's something..." But the rest of the thought wouldn't come. He shook his head and gave Everett a clap on the back. "I don't mind if you crash here."

Sean raised his voice so everyone could hear him. "There's more than enough room for everyone. There's two guestrooms, my sisters rooms, and a futon in the den downstairs. I could probably round up an air mattress or two if needed as well."

Sean looked over a shoulder down at Renata with a self-conscious frown. "Not sure about the buses, Renata, I always drove, and I'm not driving back tonight." Sean glanced back over at Swan and gave her a reassuring smile, his arm around her waist holding her a bit more firmly. "Of course you can stay, Swan," he promised to her softly, before turning back to Renata.

"But tell you what, if more than one person wants to head back tonight, I'll lend you guys my jeep and I'll take my mother's car when the rest of us head back. So, who's staying and who's going?"

[Frida Ricci]

After a moment's consideration, Frida stood up, picking up her purse.

"I think I'll take you up on your offer, and follow Ms. Dorn back to campus if you don't mind, Sean. I am hesitant to send her back on her own, after the incident in the library. Someone should be there to see what happens if she is confronted, and to be able to support her credibility if it is called into question. Would anyone like to go with me?"

[SalmonMax]

Renata sprang lithely to her feet.

"I'll go back to the campus," she said. "You shouldn't have much trouble with Dorn though. She said she was just going back to Lancaster. And since that's where I sleep, I guess that's where I'm going too."

[Tatiana di Jadzian]

"Fair enough, Renata, Frida. Here," Sean said, digging into his pockets and pulling out his keys. He picked at the steel ring and worked off the key to his Wrangler, handing it to the dark-tressed artist - he knew she was able to drive - his lips twisted wryly. "Just be a little careful, the wheel is a bit stiff turning left. And don't worry, it always makes those noises."

[Ryan Jackson]

Ryan shook his head, "No, but I think I do need to clear my head for a bit. Sean, you got a key I could borrow? Or maybe you can just leave this place unlocked for a while? I want to get out and run myself tired."

[Tatiana di Jadzian]

"Sure, dude. Here, catch." With a flick of his wrist, Sean tossed the steel ring with the remaining keys at Ryan, who deftly caught it. "The house key is the triangular one. Just-"

Sean cut-off, slightly startled, when Ravi suddenly moved, stepping up next to Frida and Renata. He had been so still, silent this night, attention focused inward, trying to recapture the images of the predatory dreams that had plagued him, that his usual dramatic presence had nearly gone unnoticed.

"I believe I will accompany you ladies back to the Academy... if you have no objections of course." He spoke with his habitual laissez-faire tone, but behind his lazy gaze, something ferocious lurked in his golden-green eyes. "There is someone I wish to check on." His lips curved briefly and he glanced at Renata. "Besides, I reside in Lancaster's halls as well."

"Well, with Sylvia gone, I believe I'll stay here, Mr. Cassidy-" Jason began.

"Sean."

"Sean. Not so much to keep an eye on things, but it might help mitigate some of the faculties concerns about unsupervised students."

"Uh-huh. Sure, whatever." Sean grinned wryly, well aware of the subtext. "I'll set up the futon in the den for you in a bit, there's something I want to check on first." As people began to leave, Sean gave them a nod, promises to see them tomorrow, and gave Frida brief directions to get to the highway to Estes Park. He managed to catch Ryan before he dashed out the door. "Ryan, you'll take the guestroom, second on the right, up the stairs. Everett, you get the first one on the right, okay?"

When everyone was gone but Everett and Jason, Sean waved an arm, encompassing the rest of the house. "Feel free to look around. Cable is still working till the end of the month, and there's a computer in the study, first door on the left, upstairs."

Leaving them to their own devices, Sean bent over a bit, giving Swan some support and leading her down the hallway. "C'mon, Swan, what's yours is this way." Two more turns and he opened a door. His fingers quested inside the dark room next to the door frame, then found the light switch.

The white light from environment-friendly bulbs started off dim, but quickly brightened, revealing a three-car garage, occupied by two cars and a pair of motorcycles. Swan hardly noticed, tensed, her obsidian eyes riveted on the length of dark, dangerous steel, gleaming on a work bench.

Sean looked down on the woman in his arms, watching her expression, waiting to see how she reacted, and trying to conceal his concern. I hope holding that thing won't make her nuts or... or whatever.

[Dawn OOC]

Sylvia was still shaking when a tap came at the window. Startled, she glanced up to see a Colorado state trooper looking at her. She fumbled the window down and he immediately asked, "Are you alright, ma'am?"

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Frida, Renata and Ravi piled back in Sean's Wrangler. After a bit of adjustment, Frida got used to driving the inelegant beast of a vehicle. It also felt strangely familiar, as she had the odd feeling that she'd done this before. As they drove, the silence weighed heavily in the car.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Swan reached out and hefted the sword, her fingers bone-white against the black hilt. She immediately gasped and removed her hand, rubbing at it with the other. "It... did something," she murmured. "Something strange."

Sean looked at her, then took another look. The bruising on her face was gone, as if she hadn't been struck hours earlier.

[Sylvia Dorn]

Pulling herself together, Sylvia managed to stutter out an answer. "I... I'm fine," she said, riffling through her purse and eventually extracting her driver's license. "Had a bit of a personal shock earlier tonight, and it finally really hit me. I'll be fine."

The officer gave her the sort of long, hard look that police everywhere specialize in, the one that says, You're guilty of something, and I know what it is even if you don't. Only after what seemed like several minutes but was likely no more than a handful of seconds did he make a sort of soft grunt and reply, "Well, probably best next time to pull off at a rest area, ma'am. The shoulders are for emergency stops only."

Handing the license back, the trooper said, "Drive safe," and started back to his cruiser; as soon as he was gone, Sylvia threw the gearshift into Drive and made a beeline for Estes Park at the legal limit, trembling slightly the entire way. She was halfway there when she realized that only part of the tremor was from fear; the rest was a swirling and ill-defined rage.

[Ryan Jackson]

Ryan caught the keys easily and slipped them into his pocket. "OK. I'll be back," he paused, "I dunno, definitely be breakfast." He grinned, anybody who knew Ryan was aware that he seemed to need his own weight in food every day. With that he slipped out and into the night. He zipped the front of his sweatshirt up and checked his laces before setting off at an easy pace into the evening he'd have liked to just run straight away and not looked back but that wasn't an option; his freinds were involved with this nuttiness too and he wasn't going to run out on freinds.

[Frida Ricci]

As a result of Sylvia's brief stop for composure, it was only a few moments after she had pulled up to Dalton that she saw Sean's beat-up Jeep pull into the spot next to her. Only it wasn't Sean that was driving, it was Frida.

She, Ravi, and Renata all climbed out of the vehicle, and Frida bent down, knocking lightly at Sylvia's passenger window the way one would knock politely at a door to gain entrance. Sylvia sought out the button with her fingertips, and with a slight press the glass barrier between herself and her student disappeared down into the door of the vehicle.

"Ms. Dorn, I hope you don't mind that we followed you back. Some of us are more comfortable at Dalton, I think, and I was loathe to send you back to face a possibly complex and convoluted situation without any support or witness."

[SalmonMax]

"Yeah, loathe," Renata echoed flippantly. She waved. "So, I'm going to bed. See you all tomorrow. You know, unless the Wicked Witch comes and gets us all in our sleep."

She grinned, then turned and headed back towards Lancaster.