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World of Darkness: The Academy - Chapter 7: The Way They Were


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"I'm not sure that we actually did."

Considering the previous conversation, the words made no sense, but realization of a sort was working through Sylvia's mind, and it was coming out in a flow of consciousness.

"We know that Pritchard was making these 'golems' somehow, guards that seemed very much flesh and blood until she decided otherwise. I remember tangling with the ones in the library, and they had the same blank look that Ravi described for the one in the quad. And it didn't resist - didn't run, didn't really do anything that a real, live person would do when faced with a huge panther coming at him. It just went mechanically on until... it couldn't."

Sylvia was pacing at this point, not that she realized it. "What we don't know is what happens to one of those golems if it 'dies' without Pritchard undoing it. If it reverts to sticks and straw, then I'm wrong. If it stays looking like human remains, I might be right." She rubbed absently at her chin, thinking as she paced. "Swan might know. She's dealt with these things before."

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Originally Posted By: Sean Cassidy
"Wait-" Sean began, but Jason was already out of the car, heading towards the Admin Building and the Faculty Lounge. "Damn." His knuckles cracked as his hands tightened on the wheel. "Okay guys, I think we should head to Lancaster first. Frida, Ravi, and Ms. Dorn all have their rooms there. Agreed?"

"Okay, then. I'll go check on Frida, you guys see if you can find Ravi and Ms. Dorn, eh?"


Ryan slithered out of the car and looked over to Everett, "I'll check Ravi's room, you see if you can find Ms. Dorn." The other boy nodded and the two started out for Lancaster, going the long way around in order to avoid the Quad and the fuzzy Fuzz that were there. Ryan and Everett split up when they got to the dorm with the latter going to see where Ms. Dorn was. Ryan located the main stairs and bound up them with a crazy fearlessness that came born from natural ability, training, and his newfound senses.

In a minute he was off the stairs and wandering down the hall looking for Ravi's room. He stopped, there were voices coming from within, and the conversation was a little more heated than not. Inside the room was much as he'd seen it before, though his new sense made it out like a pre-rendered CGI tableau. There were four figures inside however. One was Ravi. Ryan regretted the fuller aspect of his senses as he did. I guess I better get used to knowing people more intimately than they expect, he thought. The other three were harder to discern. Three women, that part was easy, and a balm on his senses. From the sound of the voice he was fairly certain one was Ms. Dorn. Ryan shook his head at the other two, he just couldn't tell. Shrugging he reached out and rapped his knuckles on the door three times.
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"I don't wish to play Devil's Advocate for the sake of it, Ms Dorn, but I really think that it wouldn't have made a difference, to me at least, if the guard had been a 'real' person or not." Ravi paused from rifling through his shirts for a moment as he glanced round at the others, his expression sober and frank. "The beast-side of me wanted out, and the guard was an enemy. Even if he'd run, he'd be dead. It was a case of wrong time, wrong place, and something nobody suspected could happen. Despite all the warning signs that seem totally bloody clear in hindsight."

He sighed then and abandoned searching for clothes, slumping onto the bed and discarding the pose of matter-of-fact abstraction. He looked down at his bare feet for a moment, brow furrowed, before looking back up at Renata.

"I don't think I'll be losing control like that all the time. Or even some of the time. Last night..." he searched for the words. "Last night was a birth, and like any birth was loud, bloody and involved screaming. This whole situation: the panther, the whole thing has been part of me since I was born." He saw the questions, the scepticism, and raised a hand. "I just know it. Trust me that much, if you please. A lot of things are making sense, stuff from childhood. And last night-" he trailed off and looked over at the full length mirror on the wall.

"Last night I spoke to the Beast. The same Beast that I've been dreaming of, Mari." He looked at her, knowing she'd know what he meant. "That's what I turned into, only it's not something from outside myself. It's me as well. It's as much a part of me as my skin or my hands." He looked from Renata, to Sylvia, and finally to Mari. His emerald eyes were plaintive, as though he were trying to make himself understood. "I left it out because it seemed... personal." His voice took on a hushed tone. "I spoke to my own soul, or at least a part of it. It doesn't get more personal than that." He straightened up a little.

"It's not something that's easy to explain. I'm still working on understanding all of it myself. But the bottom line is easy enough." He looked at Mari directly while he was speaking. "I am the Beast. The Beast is me. Before it was like a terrible caged thing, but now it's free and as it should be. I'm not feeling it's breath on my neck anymore, Mari. I know I'm not going to wake up thrashing with the feeling of it's claws in me. Because it's not an It anymore, it's me. And I-"

Then someone knocked at the door, breaking the spell of Ravi's words and making everyone start. Ravi came off the bed and crossed to the door in a single silent bound, placing his hand on the handle and waiting for the air currents wafting under the door to tell him something...

"I think it's Ryan." he said to the others, then shrugged and opened the door, peering out into the hallway. "Yes, it's Ryan. Welcome to the zoo." Ravi gestured for the other boy to enter, a wry smirk on his face as he spoke. Ryan could see Renata and the new girl, Mari, over by the window and Ms Dorn standing by the desk, but more than that he was struck by the weird tension in the room. Everyone seemed a little on edge.

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"Uuuuhhhh ... hi." Ryan had been lost in the sense, almost no longer seeing with his eyes at all. Then the door opened and he blinked stupidly. "Thanks," he murmured walking. "Umm, so, did anybody else have weird evening's after the, umm, festivities from last night?" The others could all notice the way that Ryan's eyes seemed almost unfocused. A veteran might have mistaken it for the famed "thousand yard stare" but that wasn't entirely accurate.

The odd look was matched to the odd grace of his movements. Ryan was well known for his remarkable physical prowess but he stepped over a backpack and cast off shoes without even looking down at them, his eyes instead washing over the room's occupants in a smooth sweep.

"I ask cause, well, things weren't really much normaler ... err, more normal, after you left Sean's place. For us I mean." Ryan shrugged and then looked at Ms. Dorn, "Oh, and do you know why the fuzz is crawling all over the Quad?"

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Mari wished she could have spoken to Ravi in private. She liked him best in those rare moments when he dropped his pretensions and his act and became just Ravi, unguarded and unscripted and real...and hers. But now, in the rapidly crowding room, Mari felt farther from Ravi than she ever had since she’d first met him. Since they’d first talked. And touched. From behind Renata’s shoulder Mari watched him strut and pose in front of his mirror and unleash a torrent of self-adoring drivel. It was like turning into a bloodthirsty animal had made him fall in love with himself. Maybe that beast was a part of him and always had been. But there was another and better part of him too. Gentle and sweet and kind and protective. Mari stubbornly kept that Ravi in her mind and in her heart, refusing to let go. If she could just be alone with him, Mari was sure she could reach him. She was sure she could help him. Maybe that’s why God had seen fit to put her in his path...to give him the strength to battle his curse.

There was little chance of reaching out to him now however, with Ms. Dorn prattling like a school-marm, and Renata scowling at everyone like she wanted to punch them all in the face, and the newly arrived Ryan adding to the confusion of events with his vapid glazed over stares and empty words. Mari hardly even heard what was being said. Her ears were full of the buzzing of her own blood. Her eyes were fixed on Ravi.

Ryan was asking something of Ms. Dorn when Mari pushed away from the window and moved unhurriedly toward Ravi. She felt Renata’s eyes on her back and then Ravi turned to look at her as well and something flashed in his golden green eyes that Mari didn’t recognize. She brushed her hair away from her face as she reached him.

Ravi tensed and drew himself up tall and straight. The corner of his lip quirked into a hostile little smirk as he prepared to defend himself from whatever Mari might say, whatever trite morality she might whine about next. Predators killed. That was their nature. His nature. She couldn’t say anything that would change that.

But Mari said nothing at all. Instead, with everyone watching, she took a short step and put her arms around Ravi and pressed her cheek against the naked skin of his chest and held him.

__________________

Height: 5'1", Weight: 102 lbs, Hair: Dark brown, Eyes: Hazel, Striking looks 4, Dexterity 4, Presence 4

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Watching Mari approach he'd been prepared for tearful accusations, Bible-thumping moral preaching, a quiet, lip-trembling 'Goodbye' followed by flight or even a slap, though he would have considered that unlikely. Now, however, Ravi blinked in mild astonishment as Mari's cool cheek was pressed to his skin, his luminous green eyes staring at Renata questioningly but finding no answers there, before looking down at the top of the head of the girl holding him and blinking again.

Mari clung to him hard, feeling the taut muscles around his waist under the robe as she poured her heart into that hug. You're not alone. she thought as loudly as she could, directing her feelings down her slender arms and into the young man. For the others looking at Ravi her hug seemed to dissipate the hard-edged defensiveness that he'd armored himself with ever since finding her and Renata in his room. His arms came up and gently folded around Mari's shoulders, holding her without trapping her against him as he lowered his head to rest against hers. His voice was a soft murmur, all but inaudible to everyone save Sylvia and, of course, Mari.

"Are you sure?" he asked her, the three words at once a question, a warning, and a thankyou. Mari was aware of the heat of his body, somehow warmer than she remembered, and the smooth texture of his skin along with his scent: the clean yet unmistakably Male-ness of him both reassuring and exciting. In response to his question Mari said nothing, merely squeezed him harder for a moment.

A cough from Sylvia caused Ravi to glance her way, an amused glint flashing in his eyes for a moment before he put his hands on Mari's shoulders and gently pushed her away enough to break the hug. The girl blushed, aware of the others present as she looked up at him, her sweet hazel eyes full as they met his gaze. She smiled hopefully at what she saw there, the warmth in his eyes, and Ravi smiled back. It will be okay. his smile said to her before he half-turned to face Ryan, sliding one arm to drape over the shoulder of the slim girl beside him.

"I'll let Ms Dorn fill you in on that, Ryan. I think I've done enough talking for the moment." he said dryly. "But you might say we've had a night of it down here, too." His nostrils twitched slightly. "I don't suppose you have any of that apple juice on you, do you? I'm parched." he asked plaintively.

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Renata felt as if a bucket of ice had been dumped under her head, at the same time that a furnace lit in her belly. Warmth and forgiveness radiated off of Mari, absolving Ravi of murder and callousness and simply being what he was. And it wasn't fair. Those words were caught up in a rising torrent within Renata, and revolved at dizzying speed through the huge, black tornado that was taking shape inside her; fueled by the heat of her furiousness, and the absolute zero chill of hate.

...itisntfairitsnotfairisntfairnotFAIR...

When Ravi glanced at her, her gaze was so sharp it should have scratched his eyeballs.

Finally she couldn't bear it anymore, and got to her feet. "I'm getting the fifth wheel vibe," Renata heard herself say. "I've said what I wanted to say. What you guys do now is on you."

She looked at Dorn, her eyes dull from the effort to absolutely crush all expression of emotion. "But if you go on like this, sooner or later someone will die. Someone you care about."

With a wooden gait, she went to the door, ducking past Ryan.

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Noticing Swan's mounting anxiety with so many people moving through the halls of Lancaster House, Sean decided on checking the Art Room. "C'mon, Swan, I'll go look for Frida in the Art Room. There should be less people there too."

"Frida? She is the dark-eyed artist who made that uncanny rending of myself?" Swan asked, her brisk strides letting keep pace with Sean's longer strides as they turned around and left Lancaster.

"That's her. Made 'uncanny' drawings of my mother and sisters too." Coming back the way they had just came, Sean listened to his cellphone ring, about to curse when he thought it was going to voice-mail when his call was finally answered.

"Sean?! Oh my God! Are you okay?" Blaize's sexy voice asked, her tone concerned.

"Are you- Am I okay?" The raw concerned in her voice surprised him. For an instant, he was wondering how she could know about Brahn and all the other stuff happening to him and others when he realized she meant what had happened here to pull in the cops - and Animal Control - he wondered as he and Swan passed by Quad again.

"I was about to ask you that. I'm... fine, I wasn't even here, I was down in Denver, uh, looking over the house, and had a few... friends over." Sean held the phone in the crook of his neck as he got the door to the building where the Art Room was located and gestured Swan in, then led her through the quiet halls. "How about you, are you okay? I saw the cops and the police tape around the Quad when I got back. What happened."

He could hear her take a deliberate breath to steady herself. "I'm- I'm okay. When that roar woke everyone up, I stayed inside... unlike almost everyone else. Sean, there was a wild animal or an escapee from a zoo or something on school grounds last night." She was silent for a moment, then continued in a subdued tone, "It mauled one of the security personnel and people are saying it got Ms. Dorn and that British student, Ravi FitzCoventry, too."

Sean was just poking his head into one of the Art Rooms when Blaize shared the details of last night at Dalton, nearly making him drop the phone. Swan saw the look in his eyes and placed a concerned hand on his shoulder.

"WHAT?!"

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Sean

“I know, right?!” Blaize squealed, her voice torn between grief and excitement. “It just doesn’t seem real!”

“Uh,” Sean started to say, but he was stopped by the vista in the art room. Dalton’s art studio was generally one large room with a few supply closets and an office for the art teacher. At any given time, three of the walls would be covered with student art work of various abilities and talents. As the fourth wall was filled up, the oldest one would be emptied to make room for the new, allowing all of the art a chance to be showcased.

Someone had emptied the partially filled wall, pulling down the artwork and clearing the small shelves. The once-white wall and shelves had been painted with a flowing mural, but it wasn’t like most of the murals Sean had seen before. This one was dark and odd, filled with looming ghosts, huge barbarian women, threatening older women in business suits and a crouching, snarling panther.

In the middle of the floor, Frida lay sprawled, paint splattered over her clothing. There was no doubt that she was the artist; her paint palette was still looped around her thumb and a brush was resting under her curled fingers.

“Sean?” Blaize said again in his ear as Swan moved to kneel next to Frida. “She’s alive,” the white-skinned woman informed him.

Ravi, Ryan, Renata, Sylvia and Mari

Renata’s head-long dash past Ryan was blocked by a man standing just beyond the doorway. Ryan had been aware of him but hadn’t yet turned to see who it was, and so Renata saw first. He was of medium height, but gaunt, his pale brown hair wispy and thin. His eyes were sharp, filled with an evaluation and intelligence presence. Four security were behind him, examining the room next to Ravi’s.

“Ah. You are in the boy’s wing and that is strictly forbidden,” the man said, even as his eyes flicked past Ryan and saw Ravi, Mari and Sylvia. “Ms. Dorn, I wasn’t aware that you were escorting young ladies to young mens’ room to administer hug therapy. However, as you young ladies are supervised, I merely need to count your noses.” That phrase was odd and a little off-putting in the way it was said. The man crooked a blue-veined finger at a guard, and the man stepped up with a clipboard. “What are your names?”

Lucia

“I can leave,” Ahvia said in her own language, looking up at Lucia. “Do I need to leave?”

Lucia hesitated. “I’d rather take you back to our room and then take Rosa for a walk,” she said.

“You’re talking about me,” Rosa said, looking hurt. “English.”

“I notice you upset, I offer to go,” Ahvia said quickly, her voice soothing. “Lucia offer to return me to room, first, then go with you.”

Rosa looked a little mollified. “Alright. So. Ahvia, is that right?” At the other girl’s nod, Rosa asked, “Do you like America so far?”

“I thought this Dalton,” Ahvia replied, confused.

“Well, it is…” Rosa said, giving Lucia a concerned look. “Dalton is in America. Do you like Dalton?”

“Yes, so much food! My Miima… mother, not know what to make of it!” Ahvia said, her eyes wide. Lucia was suddenly reminded of what she hadn’t done since getting home – calling her mother.

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Veiny put out his hand. He didn't quite touch her, but the way the guards closed in behind him, their very serious eyes on Renata, made her stop. "All I need your name, young lady. For the head count. So that we can be sure that no goblins have made off with you." His smile bloosomed on his face like a rotten flower, thin lips pulling back to reveal grayed teeth. "They do come and steal children when we aren't looking, you know."

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Renata stopped in her tracks all right, her eyes flicking from guard to guard to Veiny. She visibly blanched at the sight of his discolored teeth, and pulled back a step.

"Hodges," she said. "Renata Hodges. Now...mind calling off Curly and Moe here so I can get back to my room?"

Though she struggled to maintain her tough attitude, there was a forced edge to it now. Her words too fast, too eager, and her eyes still quickly flashing between the three, unable to meet their deadpan stares.

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As Swan spoke, Frida stirred slightly, her head turning towards the sound and a soft noise slipping out of her lips, though her eyes remained closed. She appeared caught in a dream, and if the mural on the wall and the general disarray of the art room were any indication, it wasn't a pleasant one. The young artist's cheeks were smeared with soft lines of black where her mascara had left stains to indicate the path of her tears, and the papers and artwork scattered around her reminded Sean of the mysteriously wrecked status of his mother's abandoned home, for they'd been pulled down and tossed aside in haste and without concern during a moment of reckless panic.

The mural itself was horrifying, not only in the subject matter but in the jarring juxtaposition of realistic foreground and generally impressionistic background. It was as if Frida had decided what was in the background wasn't important at all.. it was only the horror of all the rest of it that she'd taken the effort to capture realistically.. the snarling viciousness of the crouching panther, the eerily protective yet threatening demeanor of the now-infamous Mrs. Pritchard.. and the sickeningly accurate detail of the ghosts. They were painted in a manner that captured their translucency, and yet highlighted enough detail to capture the obviously visible causes of death. Even though ones who hadn't died in some gruesome manner or another all seemed to possess a certain haunting tragicness, as if listening to the story of their death would leave you weeping in sorrow or trembling with fear.

She was still wearing the clothes from yesterday, though her hair had fallen completely down at some point in the night. Paint was smeared on her clothes and her skin, and flecks of paint covered the floor where she had abandoned carefulness to the stronger call of speed. Unlike Frida's other drawings, these were full of emotion, and it was obvious that the young artist had abandoned all practical attempts to keep a tidy painting area in her quest to purge herself of the terrifying images now splayed across the wall.

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An indignant flush bloomed prettily under Mari’s tan when she heard the wiry man with the guards describe her gesture of loyalty, love and forgiveness as ‘hug therapy’. He looks like a zombie, Mari thought. He looked wicked, with his milky colored skin and stringy hair and rotted grin. Mari half-feared he might suddenly lurch at Renata and try to bite into her brains. Just looking at him was unnerving, and Mari suddenly decided she wanted nothing more than to be outside under the open sky...and away from the strange man. She looked up at Ravi, a look that seemed charged with some unspoken message, a promise that passed from her eyes to his, and then slipped out from under his arm.

She gave Ravi's hand a parting squeeze and then moved to Renata’s side. “Maria Palacios,” she told the zombie. “We were just leaving, anyway.” Mari said quietly, but firmly. She slipped her arm through Renata’s and tried to edge past the guards, looking past them and murmuring “excuse us.”

__________________

Height: 5'1", Weight: 102 lbs, Hair: Dark brown, Eyes: Hazel, Striking looks 4, Dexterity 4, Presence 4

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When Mari's arm touched her own, Renata looked down at it in startlement. She realized that Mari was leaving with her and a flood of utterly absurd pride and contentment welled up. She wanted to look back at Ravi and stick her tongue out, but she settled for meeting Veiny's eyes...and there was no trace of her earlier uncertainty or blustering now.

"And since when did a head count take five guys?" Renata asked derisively. "What's next, guns?" She glanced at the meatslab blocking she and Mari's path. "Outta the way. You got what you want from us."

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Lucia blinked and then paled. She stood up, waving the other two to finish their breakfast, "I've gotta make a call. Finish breakfast; I'm just going to run back to the dorm and grab my cell to make the call. Meet me back there? I think I'm out of battery."

With nods from the two girls, Lucia turned and nearly fled the cafeteria. She raced back to Juno and up to her room in record speed, ignoring the stares and few attempts to get her attention. Oh, god. Mom....I hope she hasn't heard yet....oh, god. She took the stairs two or three at a time, bursting through her door and diving for the travelling pack she'd taken with her. She fished out the dead cellphone and plugged it into the wall. The phone chimed as it came back on, informing her that she had a solid five bars to make her call with.

She dialed her Mom's cell number, tapping impatiently as it rang. She let out a curse in Ahvia's languge (you always seemed to learn those along with 'which way to the lavatory?' and 'can you direct me to the nearest bank?') and hung up as it switched over to voice mail. Next was the house number, which forwarded to the voice mail after the proscribed number of rings to ensure that no one was actually there. She hung up again, the phone held limply in her hand as she tried to decide what to do next. Mom always has her phone on her. The house phone is just for when she's charging. She's not here at Dalton, she's not at home, and she's not answering her cell. I'd just wait, but....but this has all been too weird, and she'll flip if the school tells her I'm missing. Maybe they sent a letter.......I've got to get ahold of her.

She flipped through the numbers on her phone, most of them for various people and contacts around Dalton, until she came to the third number she'd entered into the phone. The one her mother had insisted on and that she'd never called. She'd never even met the person, and with a name like Yasu, Lucia wasn't even sure if the person was a man or a woman. But, Yasu was the emergency contact. Her mother had insisted. And I suppose that if this isn't an emergency, nothing is.

She pressed the call button and waited. It picked up only a few seconds after the first ring, but whoever was on the other end didn't say anything. Well, any friend of Mom's would have to be weird. "Um, hello. I'm calling for Yasu. I'm looking for my mother, Pandora Blake. This is her daughter, Lucia."

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Ravi didn't miss Renata's hate-chilled stare or the stiffness in the girl's posture after Mari hugged him, even as he relished the warm scent of the younger girl in his nostrils. His emerald gaze followed her as she made her excuses, together with a final sermon, and started to leave. Well now, it appeared that he was not alone in seeking Mari's affections. Ravi was used to being the object of jealousy, of course, but had paid it little mind before, considering it someone else's problem. But now he had Changed the cruel, catlike streak in the young man's psyche that was predisposed to schadenfreude had grown stronger.

Despite the potential for causing upset, or more likely because of it, he found this little development delicious.

Then the ghoul and his gorillas showed up to perform their census, and Mari slipped from his side to escort Renata away. Ravi's handsome features were neutral as he watched her go with glittering eyes, observing Renata's byplay with the officious man with a fair degree of amusement. Keen of sense and eye, he didn't miss the bolstering of Renata's spirit when Mari took her hand in a sign of solidarity, and was momentarily distracted by the change in her scent. So, that's the difference between fear/anger and relief. Interesting... When he spoke, his voice was smooth and even, with just a hint of cool disdain.

"Ravi FitzCoventry, sir. And as you can see, I have hardly been stolen by goblins." He held his hands out to the sides in mock-presentation. His next words were addressed to everyone in general with a faint smile. "I am however sorely in need of some privacy. Unless it is school policy for me to remain in my bathrobe until further notice...?"

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Swan's pronouncement loosened a tightness in Sean's chest that he didn't realize was there as he tore his eyes off the vivid intensity of the new mural. Whatever happened to Ravi and Ms. Dorn, there was nothing more he could do for them that the paramedics could, or if they were... But Frida was here, and here, he could do something, even if it was just sharing his presence.

And maybe she could shed some light on what happened last night. I'm starting to think we had the boring night last night...

Stepping into the art-room, Sean heard another, "Sean?" from his phone, Blaize's voice full of an inquisitive concern, startling him for a second. The sight of the mural, panther eyes and dead eyes, witch eyes and warrior-women eyes, seeming to follow him, made him momentarily forget he was on the phone with someone.

"Whuh? No, I'm okay, it's okay, Blaize. Just a little distract - Just helping a friend. I'll head back to Lancaster soon and talk to ya again, 'kay?" Not waiting to hear the reply, he dropped his phone on a passing table and crouched down next to Frida on the side opposite Swan. They shared a look, then Swan tilted her head slightly to study the mural, a hand moving to her hip in a reflexive gesture as Sean bent over Frida, gently propping her head and shoulders on a muscular arm.

"Frida? Frida. Wake up," he urged with low insistency, rocking her lightly in the crook of his arm. "You're having a dream, a nightmare, just a nightmare." He felt the eyes looking down at him and glanced up, glaring at them in return, jaw stubbornly tight as he focused on one of the towering barbarian women who reminded him of his mother. Maybe more than a nightmare.

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She awoke with a jerk and a whimper, and it was only the tightening of Sean's arm around her shoulder that kept her from sitting bolt upright. She blinked up at him with large brown eyes circled faintly with the darkness of smeared makeup and a sleepless night. For a moment he saw only fear in those liquid brown eyes, her mind still caught in the memory of the nightmares that he'd stirred her from. Her quick mind brought her back to the moment with little delay, however, and the expression became one of slight confusion as he helped her sit up.

"Sean? What are you doing here, and where..."

She trailed off as her gaze flicked upward, recognizing her own smooth brushstrokes in the mural before her. She suppressed a slight shudder as the memories flooded back, and her gaze flickered around, taking in the devastation she'd wrecked on the rest of the room. Slowly she leaned over, picking up two or three of the wrinkled pieces of art that had been pulled to the floor, and after a long moment of hesitation she spoke, her voice full of a soft, heavy sadness.

"Oh no.. I've ruined other people's work. This is.. horrible."

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The sudden interruption by this administrator - one that she'd never seen before - was more than annoying. It was downright frightening, given the squad of muscle he'd brought with him and the utter sense of control he projected. His brief verbal upbraiding of the house-mother went nearly unheard; his appearance and choice of phrases was odd enough, but the uniformed presence was a spine-chilling reminder of Pritchard and the threat that she posed.

And to make matters worse, it was happening here. In her house, to her students. The beginnings of a growl started to form from somewhere down deep, and it took a real effort to clamp down on it and face this odd man eye to eye.

"I was unaware that Administration was conducting random house inspections on Saturday mornings," she said, voice held carefully level. "In fact, I was unaware that Administration had anyone assigned to house life that wouldn't have been introduced to the faculty. Exactly who are you, and why are you in House Lancaster?"

If a certain possessiveness could be heard in those last few words, so be it.

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"I... er, I don't think that's what people are goin' to be lookin' at, Frida," Sean said, somewhat discomfited by Frida's focus. With a sure, steady strength, he helped Frida to her feet, keeping an arm around her waist in case exhaustion still had a hold on her - Frida looked like she had collapsed on the floor, and it couldn't have been comfortable laying there all night. Seeing that she was genuinely concerned with the art-work she had displaced, Sean scooped up several pieces as well.

"Why didn't you... you go back to your room after leavin' my Mother's place, Frida?" He squared the pages in his hand on a table, then set them down. Despite himself, he felt his eyes being drawn back to the dramatic mural, the panther in particular. "When we got back here this mornin', we found the Quad cordoned off and Blaize said... said a wild animal got Ravi and Ms. Dorn. What happened here, last night?"

Dark brows lowered over tempestuous eyes, his voice low with warning. "Did you guys see Brahn of the Lhesk? A man with grey skin, the colours of his eyes inversed. He came to us last night, tellin' us... things. He said he was coming back here to check on his sister. It seemed like he was tryin' to help us - warn us - but there's somethin' about him..."

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Ryan turned to new arrivals. "Cristos Emanuel Logakis," Ryan proclaimed matter-of-factly. Cristos had been a Greek-American student that Ryan had known when they were both Freshmen. Cristos had only lasted a year however before transferring out before Sophomore year. Ryan didn't look anything like Cristos, nor did he look even a little bit Greek what with his fair skin and hair and lanky frame. Still Ryan bullshitted with the best of them and anybody who didn't know for a fact would have found themselves buying what he was selling.

Click to reveal..
Ryan is clearly lying, but maybe they don't know that...

Man 2 + Persuasion (fast talking) 2 = 5 dice

(12:28:36) ChatBot: (Ryan) rolls 5d10 and gets 8,10,8,3,5.

(12:28:42) ChatBot: (Ryan) rolls 1d10 and gets 2.

3 sux!

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Lucia

There was a whisper of sound and then a voice. “Lucia. I’ve heard much about you. Have you returned home without your mother?”

“No… I was calling to see if she was with you,” Lucia replied, feeling her throat tighten.

Yasu laughed with a dry, bitter noise. “Not at all,” he or she said. It was hard to tell Yasu’s gender based only on a voice on the phone. “She went looking for you, darling. She thought you’d been taken, as you were before, and went to take you back, as you were before.”

Originally Posted By: Sylvia Dorn
"I was unaware that Administration was conducting random house inspections on Saturday mornings," she said, voice held carefully level. "In fact, I was unaware that Administration had anyone assigned to house life that wouldn't have been introduced to the faculty. Exactly who are you, and why are you in House Lancaster?"

If a certain possessiveness could be heard in those last few words, so be it.

Before he answered Sylvia, he waved Renata and Mari off and the guards moved to let them slip past.

“I am Dr. Giles Reaver. I am not with house life,” the cadaverous man told Sylvia coolly. She’d heard that name before – it was another member of the Board of Directors. “I am helping to ascertain if all the students are all right in the wake of last evening’s events.” Rheumy eyes bore into hers, their weight a silent accusation. “That should appease your cat-like curiosity.”

He turned to look at Ryan, his finger trailing down his clipboard. “How odd. I don’t seem to have a Mr. Logakis on my list,” he mused. “Guards, please remove this unauthorized individual.” Without missing a beat, he glanced at Ravi. "You are...?"

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"Taken? Taken by who? Was I kidnapped when I was little or something?" Lucia's frown was as much confusion as concern. "And where would she be taking me back from?"

She sighed. Dealing with her mother was always such a chore; she made everything complicated for some reason. "Look, life's been a little....weird....lately. I was away from the school for a few days and apparently nobody got the letters or emails that I left. Everything's a mess. Can you....can you tell me where my mom went? She didn't take her cellphone and I really don't want to find out that she's been camping in the woods around Dalton or something. It's...the woods aren't really safe, too. There've been some escaped animals from a zoo or something around."

God, this is such a mess. Why couldn't she have just called the cops and put out an Amber Alert like any sane parent? It'd be a pain to deal with, but at least I'd know, maybe even understand what she was doing and why.

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She accepted Sean's assistance without protest, but as he spoke she gently pulled away, looking troubled as she began to pick up the pieces of art. Whether she was doing it because she was truly that concerned about it, or because she needed something to do, Sean had no idea whatsoever. But when he mentioned Brahn, she scowled slightly, looking a bit confused, and shook her head.

"No.. I saw no one who matches that description, Sean. Last night..."

She hesitated, picking up another piece of art, this one from one of the younger students, and sat it down, smoothing it gently.

"When we returned to the school, we ran into Mrs. Dorn in the parking lot. Figuratively, of course - she hadn't left her car yet and we spoke with her for a few minutes. Then she excused herself to the dorms. Renata and I were about to follow her, but then Mrs. Pritchard came by with two security guards. We though it best not to be seen, so we ducked down behind the Jeep and hid, but Renata decided since they hadn't seen her earlier she'd try and get closer to see if she could hear them. When she tried, Mrs. Pritchard caught her. I didn't hear most of what she said, she was too far away.. I think something about rival students causing trouble. She let Renata go, but a minute later one of the guards caught me hiding behind the Jeep."

As she spoke she continued her motions with the pictures, picking them up and smoothing them out, and pulling out several of the larger textbooks to place on top of them.. after a moment Sean realized she was trying to use the weight to press out the wrinkles. He felt like rushing her, but as she spoke again her voice trembled softly, and he could tell that she was afraid. The fact that he could hear it in her voice meant it must have been serious, because normally no one could make heads or tails of what Frida seemed to be feeling.

"His eyes had that same vacant, haunted look. Maybe they were more of her straw men.. her golems, I believe you called them." The last part was directed at Swan as Frida glanced up and met her gaze briefly before focusing her attention back on Sean. "Anyway, he took me to her, and because I was afraid, I sent a text message to Ravi indicating that there might be trouble. He'd left at the same time as Mrs. Dorn and had made it away before Mrs. Pritchard came along, and I hoped he might be able to provide some support if the situation became tense. She was.. smug. Very pleased to have caught me out after curfew. So I decided to stall.. and to try and find out what I could."

Frida turned to Swan then, her brown-black eyes locking with the other woman's dark gaze. Neither her gaze nor her voice seemed incriminating as she spoke, or disbelieving. Frida spoke of murder as if she were recounting the events of a television show, or talking about what someone had missed during their history lecture.

"I asked her who you had killed, since that was the claim she'd made. She said that you'd killed security guards, but that your people had killed more. She said that your people are dangerous, and that the 'last time' this happened, whenever that was, the students left it to them to deal with, and none of the faculty stood against them either. She told me to 'leave it to them'.. whoever 'they' are.. and that she wanted to protect me from things I had no knowledge or ability to deal with. She said.. 'Allow me to fix this, and you can go back to your room...". She reached for me.. I don't know what she was going to do, but I was afraid for some reason, so I jerked back. And then.. Ravi attacked."

She turned her full attention back to Sean then, now that the various pieces of art were all arranged underneath weighted rectangular objects of some sort, and the intensity of her gaze now that she had nothing to distract herself with made him wish for a moment there were more pictures for her to "fix" so that she wasn't looking at him quite like that.

"I'm not sure precisely when he arrived, but as he knocked both of them over, he told me to go get Mrs. Dorn. So I did. I ran to Lancaster, and I found Mrs. Dorn. She was there with other girls.. Renata, Lucia, and a girl I didn't recognize. I told her what was happening, and she told us to go upstairs before she ran off towards the Quad, where I'd left Ravi with Mrs. Pritchard and the guard. Of course.. none of the others listened, and it seemed nonsensical to be the only to do so.. so I followed. Partway the hall I heard a beastly-sounding roar. We ran the rest of the way, and by the time I got there..."

She faltered then for a moment, the steady recant of the story stumbling over the threshold of the unbelievability and irrationality of the situation. Her eyes flickered to the mural, to the ferocious black panther stalking it's prey, and the body of the mutilated guard that she had painted in startlingly grotesque but partially obscured detail as the very shadows seeming to converge on it. She locked eyes with the larger of the panthers that she had painted for two or three painfully long seconds (at least in Sean's mind) before she focused on him again, her dark eyes slightly wide.

"I didn't see it happen to Ravi.. but I'm sure it was him. I saw it happen to Mrs. Dorn. She.. became the panther. It wasn't like most people would imagine. It didn't look graceful or intriguing. It looked painful, as if her body were ripping itself apart and being rearranged.. and she screamed, but it didn't sound like a human scream. It was like the sound a cat would make if you did something horrible to it.. ten times worse than stepping on it's tail."

Frida looked as if she had more to say, and for a moment he thought that her gaze had just flickered back to the mural to recall some detail or remember the horror of it. Certainly there was more going on in the picture she'd painted on the wall than just the panthers, though he could draw fairly accurate conclusions about the result of the struggle from the brutal image she'd provided them. But after a moment he realized that she seemed caught in that memory, her eyes locked with the painted panther's gaze as if she'd forgotten they were there, or that there was more to tell.

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Wonderful. Another director. And he knows. There could be no mistaking his well-targeted jibe; Dr. Reaver knew.

And what of the rest of the Board of Directors? Are they all in on what is happening here?

Then Ryan pulled his little stunt, one that was about to get him kicked off campus. For just a moment, Sylvia wondered if maybe that wasn't such a bad idea; Dalton was looking distinctly unhealthy. Nevertheless, she leveled a scowl at him and said, "Mr. Jackson, this is not the time for games." With a sigh, she managed to level her gaze back to meet the disturbing visage of Dr. Reaver and said, "He's Ryan Jackson, and he's a resident of House Mars. Like so many students that are in rooms other than their own this morning, he's here to be sure that his friends are alright; there are a lot of spurious rumors floating around from last night."

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Renata didn't wait to be told twice. When the silent bruisers slid aside, she was off, dragging Mari alongside her by the arm.

"You need to be brought up to speed," she said grimly as they marched through Lancaster, "And I'm going to do it. We need to have a talk."

They came to a stop in front of a suite door, and Renata fished in her pockets for her keys.

"This is my place. I used to have a roomie, but she got a transfer to a different place, so..."

The door opened, revealing the suite's small common area, with bedroom doors and another door for the bathroom. The common room itself had a small round table with two chairs...color coordinated with the walls...and a little bookshelf that had nothing on it but a phone book, a little ceramic dish full of paperclips and pennies, and a bedraggled beanbag stuffed frog with a missing eye.

Renata moved on in ahead of Mari to her bedroom door and unlocked it as well.

"You can sit in here or in my room or whatever," she said to her visitor with a quick, furtive grin that looked almost shy. "I just need a shower and some new clothes before these get welded to me." She grimaced and plucked at her shirt. "I hate sleeping in my clothes."

Then she added, "If you want a shower too, hop on in." Instantly Renata's cheeks turned red, and she quickly turned her head away and winced. Stupid idiot... Hurriedy she laughed and shook her head. "Just kidding, of course."

The damage had been done though, as far as Ren went. Now the mental image of Mari in the shower, naked and brown and slickly wet, was merrily burning itself into her brain. Her heart beat so loud in her ears she was half-afraid Meri could hear it.

Ren hurried into her room at that point and rummaged in her drawers for some clothes. Through the doorway Mari could see that Renata didn't run a particularly tight ship as far as her room went. Her bed wasn't made, with a single plaid red and yellow blanket nearly hanging off the side, and the navy blue sheet all wrinkled and twisted into a long, rope-like thing. There were two pillows, each in navy cases, pushed up against the little cubbies in the headboard. A big black bookshelf dominated the wall next to the bed, but it didn't have much on it. Textbooks, she reckoned, mostly. There was a stack of magazines on one of the shelves, and a basket full of what looked like greeting cards. On an end table beside the bed was a clock radio, with an iPod sticking out of the top. There were a few items of clothing on the carpet...an issue of Sports Illustrated on the floor by the bed. A glass next to the end table that could use some washing. And the fern in a hanging pot by the shuttered windows was turning brown and not looking too healthy.

Renata whisked past Mari then, carrying an armful of clothes.

"I'll be out in no time," she promised, and vanished into the bathroom. "We can still talk too!" she called from inside, her voice carrying pretty clearly through the thin stock of the interior door.

"If you want, there's a TV in there," Renata went on as she undressed, dimly aware that she was babbling. There was something elementally exciting about being naked so near her, with only that flimsy door keeping them apart. "Or you can fire up the Playstation or whatever."

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Originally Posted By: Dawn, OOC
Without missing a beat, he glanced at Ravi. "You are...?"


Ravi sighed, then shook his head ruefully. "Sometimes I don't even know why I bother playing nice." he stated with a roll of his green eyes and a half-turn towards his wardrobe. "I can understand it's overwhelming finding so many young people together, but please try to adjust. This is a school, after all." He picked out a shirt, pursing his lips as he held it up to the light. After a moment he seemed to remember Reaver was there and turned back around.

"Oh! Yes." he bowed with a smile, displaying a remarkable talent for making a gesture of perfect courtesy somehow insulting. "The Honourable Ravi Gregory Marlborough FitzCoventry. Delighted to meet you. Now kindly let me get dressed."
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"You have a Play-station in your room?" Mari asked.

Renata tested the water and shook her finger with a hiss. Little hot. She quickly reached under the waterfall from the nozzle and adjusted it, then shouted back over the patter of drops, "Yeah! Right across from the foot of the bed! You just sit on the edge, or lie back, and watch TV or play or whatever!"

Mari silently padded across the common room into Renata's bedroom. She sat self-consciously on the edge of Renata's messy bed. There, as Renata had said, was a Sony Playstation 3, connected to a 32 inch flat-screen TV. Mari looked at it. It was sleek and black and expensive looking. The bedroom of Renata's suite was probably twice the size of the entire room that Mari shared with Rachel. Renata had her own bath. The common room had floor to ceiling windows that overlooked the beautiful mountain vista behind Dalton. A tall frosted glass CD case mounted on the wall next to the TV was stuffed to bursting with bluray discs and DVDs and music CDs. Mari stared at that too. Turning to her right, Mari saw a shiny gray Macbook Pro sitting on Renata's desk. She turned back to the TV and for a long moment she sat quietly. "How do you make it work?" Mari asked shyly.

"What?" Renata yelled from the shower. "You have to speak up!"

Mari coughed into her fist and cleared her throat and called out a little louder. "How do I...play it?"

"Turn on the TV, then turn on the Playstation! There a remote for the TV, and the Playstation's got a switch around the side! It should already be set to it!"

"Which one's the one for the TV?" Mari asked. She slipped off the edge of the bed and stood in front of the TV shelf. "There's like three remotes." Mari muttered. She picked up the skinny chrome colored one and pointed it at the TV and clicked the power button. Nothing happened.

"It's the black one that says Sony on it," Renata called. She scrubbed at her hair and turned around so the water sluiced over her front. It was refreshing, but talking to Mari while naked and pawing herself was still really distracting. It was too hard not to wonder...what would she look like, standing in front of her. Mocha creme shoulders and back, black hair spilling down her spine. Smooth and supple, and just a little shorter than she...the perfect height for making out with. Ren's fist clenched as she forced the image away, and the soap squirted out from between her fingers to skid around the bottom of the shower. "Damnit..."

"Found it." Mari yelled as she picked up the black controller and turned on the TV. "Oh. Sweet." She pushed a long lock of hair out of her face as the Playstation logo splashed itself across the screen, then got up again to pick one of the controllers out of the little wicker basket on the lowest shelf. I should be calling mom, Mari thought as she sat back on the edge of the bed and held the controller on her lap. She felt a strange numbness. "Now what do I do?"

"Just push the start button when the thing comes up..." Renata yelled as she grabbed the soap again, fumbling around the sudsy floor a few times before she got it. "...and then play the game."

Mari looked down at the controller and dutifully pressed the start button. Street Fighter 4 the TV screamed at her. Mari grinned at the cartoony characters that kicked and punched and fireballed their way through the intro sequence. "I like the green guy." she called out conversationally.

"He's crazy!" Renata laughed. "He likes to bite people!" She washed under her arms and sighed, taking stock of herself. Standing next to an imaginary Mari, she felt a little too big...too pale. Her boobs, while just B cups, felt ungainly. Her legs too long, too muscled from running and kicking. With a sigh she shut off the water and stepped out onto the little bathmat. She grabbed a big green towel off the bar on the wall and started drying herself off. "Almost done..."

"He bites people?" Mari laughed back, but her giggles were cut short when she remembered the panthers on the quad. Panthers that had ripped and clawed and bitten a man to pieces. She remembered the wet red mess in the grass. She remembered the sting of Ravi's teeth on her lip. And suddenly the idea of a big hairy green manimal biting people didn't seem so funny. Mari set the controller down next to her thigh. "I should probably go get cleaned up, too." she turned to tell the bathroom door.

"What? Wait! I was going to tell you about all the stuff that's been going on!" Renata yanked her old blue bathrobe off the hook on the door and shrugged into it. She then poked her head out. "Don't go, I'm done. Seriously."

Mari had half risen from the bed. "Oh. Yeah." she sank back down. "What stuff?" A faint shaft of sunlight, sneaking through the curtain slats, caught the back of Mari's head. It made her chocolate colored hair shine like an explosion, like a halo, as she sat there with an air of expectation like some martyr in an old painting waiting for God at the moment of their death. The moment passed as quickly as it had come, leaving Renata looking at just a girl. Albeit a very pretty one with a terribly cute bed-head...who just happened to be sitting on her mattress in her room.

Renata stood transfixed for a second, then blinked as the spell wore off. "This whole thing is about a girl Sean, Frida, Dorn, and Ravi found a few nights ago. They call her Swan. They had this big fight with Ms. Pritchard in the library, but managed to get Swan out. I followed them, and they took her to Sean's house, off campus." She stood in the bathroom doorway, talking. The door drifted open, but she was in her bathrobe now, dark hair plastered around her head. "Pritchard kept saying Swan's dangerous. No one else believes her." Renata turned to grab her comb off the medicine cabinet, then went to sit down next to Mari and started combing out her hair. "It's all pretty fucked up."

"They were fighting in the library?" Mari pushed up her hoodie sleeves, only to have one of them immediately droop past her wrist again. "Did anyone else see? How come no one called the cops?"

"Just me, and them," Renata answered. "And no one called the cops, because no one wanted the cops there. Ms. Pritchard had these guys with her, they looked normal. But after they got knocked down, and Sean and everyone ran off, Pritchard sort of waved her hand...and they all changed into like...scarecrows. Men made of straw bundled around sticks. And it's not like they were real before, and she changed them into straw men. I think they were straw men all along, and she just took away their disguise." Renata shrugged. "Then she left. That's when I ran after the others."

"I guess nothing's too weird to believe anymore..." Mari rubbed her eyes. "So, why does this Pritchard lady think Swan is dangerous? Where did they find her?"

"I don't know," Ren confessed. "Everyone's scared stiff of Pritchard now, so they won't just talk to her. And I didn't stay at Sean's for long...me and Frida came back...and while I was there, they were busy interrogating Swan, so I didn't get an edge in wordwise. Looks like Swan's lost her memory, is the thing..."

"Who is this Frida girl anyway?" Mari blurted, standing up and pacing over to Renata's window. "What's her deal? She was all creepy and she knew Ravi--even when he was a panther. I mean, I didn't know that was Ravi." Yes you did. Mari realized, blushing. "How did she know that?"

"I dunno. I saw him change. If she was close enough behind me, maybe she did too." She frowned, recognizing Mari's consternation, but not its cause. "As for who she is...as far as I know she's just some weird art chick. She does these emo paintings. Which is good, I guess, because she acts like she hasn't got any emotions at all, otherwise."

Mari peered out the window then turned and hitched herself up onto the sill. "So, what are we supposed to do now? I mean...what if the cops want to talk to us? What am I supposed to say?" She felt her cheeks burn as she thought back to Ravi's mockery. ...Tell them I turned into a panther and ate the guard... "I'm not a real good liar."

"Just tell them about the panther," Renata suggested. She got up and leaned against the wall next to the window, then reassuringly patted Mari's knee. "That's all I'm gonna say."

"The panthers, you mean." Mari glanced side-long at Renata. "My mom is gonna freak out. She'll probably want me to come home..." She picked at the tear in her jeans, scratching at the knee Renata had just patted. "Do you think Ravi felt bad about what he did?" she asked in a voice so small Renata had to lean intimately close just to hear it.

Renata did lean closer, feeling a warm blush just from doing so. She was suddenly very aware of the terrycloth of her robe moving over her skin. "He didn't sound like he did," she answered, frowning at the memory. "He almost sounded...proud." She studied Mari's face and felt a pang, a stab in her heart. "You really like him...don't you?"

Mari looked up sharply at Renata, then lowered her eyes and nodded. Ravi had sounded proud...even worse...excited. "If I'd done something like that..." Mari's throat tightened until she could scarcely breathe, but she made herself force out the words. "I'd never forgive myself...I'd...I don't know what I'd do." Abruptly Mari turned towards Renata, seemingly unaware of how close together they were, or of how little there was separating her from Renata's nakedness. "God does things for a reason though, right?" she asked desperately. "So, maybe it's not supposed to be a curse. Maybe it's supposed to be a gift. Maybe he just...he has to learn how to use it. Not hurt people with it."

"Jesus, I don't know, Mari," Renata replied. "God...curses...I'm in high school. I worry about grades, you know?" She forced a chuckle, a nervous, stressed out chuckle. On seeing that Mari wasn't taking the invitation to laugh it off, she got serious and hunkered down a bit, so her eyes were level with Mari's. "Look, we'll never know what God wants with all this. All we can do is decide what WE want. And I'm worried about you, with Ravi. I think he was always going to hurt you, even BEFORE he could turn into a giant killing machine."

"Why? What do you mean?" Mari demanded.

Renata sighed and retreated from Mari to sit on the side of the bed. "Ravi's got a reputation. He's a player."

An uncomfortable silence stretched out while Mari stood against the window looking like she'd just been slapped. "That's what people say about him?"

"...some people," Renata answered quietly. She felt horribly guilty for some reason, even though she was protecting Mari. "Look, Mari, I'm just trying to look out for you. Besides, look at the guy. He's practically the lead singer from a boy band. Girls fall all over him, all the time."

"That doesn't mean he falls over them." Mari said defensively. She scowled and hugged herself tight.

Renata let herself fall onto her back across the bed. For a moment the robe gaps dangerously open, exposing her legs up to the thighs before she reaches down and pulls it shut again. "I don't think you're getting that he's a guy," she said dryly.

Mari mulled this over with the same hurt expression. "Not every guy only ever thinks about sex," Mari answered naively. "Ravi's not like that." she sounded less like she was trying to convince Renata and more like she was trying to convince herself.

Renata covered her eyes. "Mari, you're killing me." She sat up. "Okay look, the bottom line is that I don't know him. What I've heard about him is that he's got a string of brokenhearted exes long enough that you could walk from here to San Francisco on top of their heads. So maybe you're different. Maybe you're the one. I don't know, Mari. Just be careful around him, okay? And that goes like...ten times, now that he can turn into a huge lion."

"Panther." Mari corrected in a dazed tone. "Not lion."

Renata waved her hand dismissively. "Whatever."

"I have to go." Mari's bruised lower lip trembled and her eyes took on a wounded shine. She moved quickly away from the window, past Renata's legs where they dangled, long and bare, over the edge of the bed, and through the common room to the door.

Like a shot Renata bounced up off the bed and was after Mari. She managed to snag the other girl's arm in a quick grab. "Wait!" When Mari paused without looking back at her, she said, "I'm really..." What? Sorry? In love with you? What would make it better? "...I'll keep my nose out if that's what you want, Mari. Just...if you ever need someone just to talk to, I'll make time for you. Any time. Okay?"

"Okay," Mari agreed at length, and though Renata could see Mari was still hurt, could still feel the tension in the arm she held, she also saw something in Mari's hazel eyes that gave her a glimmer of hope. She saw trust...

__________________

Height: 5'1", Weight: 102 lbs, Hair: Dark brown, Eyes: Hazel, Striking looks 4, Dexterity 4, Presence 4

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Sean felt like he'd been blind-sided by a thousand pound gorilla on the football field. He closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose, and took a deep breath. Somehow, despite having a visit from a honest-to-God alien (or just as good as), he and those who had remained in Denver were the ones who had missed all the excitement. Glancing at the mural, at the mangled guard at the feet of the panthers and the horde of the dead, he wasn't sure if he was relieved or not.

"Frida? Frida!" Sean repeated, giving the intense artist gave a small start as she turned from her contemplation of the mural, her dark, steady regard somehow even more disconcerting than Swan's solid black gaze - Or maybe I'm just getting used to it... "So... Ravi and Ms. Dorn weren't actually torn to pieces by wild animals, they were the wild animals?"

"That is what the visible evidence suggests, yes."

Sean looked down, dark brows lowered, digesting everything Frida said, comparing it to the stuff Brahn had revealed. A pair of fingers plucked at a crusty stain of unnaturally dark blood on his shirt. When he looked up again, his strong jaw was tight, but he nodded firmly. "Okay... Okay, this sorta makes sense. Brahn said some of us, those chosen for the Harvest at least, and some others, would manifest... well 'special' powers or abilities. Like, Ryan has some sorta x-ray-vision-sonar sense thing - which is as annoying as it is cool - and Ms. Dorn and Ravi are werecats or whatever, it seems." Sean cocked his head to the side and barked out a short laugh. "I guess, if Pritchard can make golems and do magic, there could be an unknowing Harry Potter kickin' around Dalton too."

Frida listened with unwavering intensity - somewhat to Sean's regret - then gave him a small nod of agreement. "That seems a reasonable conjecture, Sean, considering our limited resources." She fell silent, continuing her dark-eyed appraisal of the heavily muscled jock, and it had nothing to do with his even features and undeniably good looks. After a moment too look for comfort that made Sean shift uncomfortably, Frida asked, "You mentioned a 'Harvest'. I assume you did not mean farmers tending to their fields."

"No. Right, the Harvest." Sean ran a hand through his glossy, raven-black hair, then began pacing, trying to burn off some of the tension. "The Caramine Empire demands the Harvest from others as a sorta... tribute I guess. Since they have a large and powerful army, they get away with it. They select twelve people, then take them away and they're never seen again. I think that's what happened at the Ice Cream Social, why some of us remember those numbers." Sean shook his hand and waved the foggy thought away. "Anyway, Brahn said some have managed to resist the Caramines, the Lhesk - his people - and the Chiderans, whoever they are... And Dalton."

Sean stopped his pacing and returned Frida's gaze, his stormy eyes bright. "Brahn said this had happened before, but that Dalton had managed to force a Truce somehow. But now, the Truce is over. The Caramines came back through the Door," The capitalization of the word was obvious, "ready to claim their Harvest once more." Sean broke eye contact as he turned to Swan, a protective sympathy is his blue-grey eyes. "Swan came with their... Shovit, Showfit-"

"I was attending to Shovat Mascai," Swan clarified. She was standing close to the mural, steadying it intently, but turned her back to it as she clarified Sean's statement, her gaze taking both students in. Her voice was cool and melancholy, but her stance was rigid, almost martial. "He is the heir to the Carmin Throne. I used to be First Wing Relana of House Iron Moon, a Battalion Commander in the Raven Division, and assigned to Shovat Mascai as his guardian." The milky-skinned woman with obsidians eyes gave a nearly imperceptible shrug. "Or so Brahn of the Lhesk informed us."

"Well, you're Swan now, if you want to be," Sean countered fiercely. Swan gave him a slight smile - which she seemed unfamiliar with - and a small nod in gratitude. Sean gave her a wider grin and nodded back before turning his attention to Frida once more. "Brahn claims he already spoke to all of us, but when he last tried to contact us, he found the Door 'barred', and it's been that way for a week. We told him Pritchard might have done it, since she's the only one we know who might have magic and could've done somethin' like that."

Sean took a deep breath. Swallowing all of this was still hard even if he couldn't in anyway deny it anymore, not to himself. He placed his hands on Frida's shoulders, strong and warm, eyes a roiling with a grim, yet anticipatory passion. "Frida, Brahn came here to look for allies because he believes those from Dalton, those with these... these powers could be the key to stopping the Caramines. Not just here, not just for us, but everywhere, for everyone."

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Meanwhile, in House Persephone...

The sheets twisted around Autumn's body were damp with sweat as she stirred, her eyelids fluttering as the last remnants of her dream faded. The smell of fresh-cut grass and something else, something altogether more visceral filled her nostrils, and her startled eyes opened wide, darting around the unfamiliar room in search of... What? The young redhead sat upright suddenly, shoving the mass of tangled red waves away from her face with a grumpy huff of air, and blinked sleepily as the mental fog stubbornly refused to dissipate.

She stared at the furnishings, uncomprehending. Bookshelves, desk, Heather's bed. Oh. Dalton, right. Collapsing backwards onto the pillow, she kicked the sheets and coverlet away, off the foot of the bed, and lay there with one hand on her stomach and the other tucked under her head, staring dazedly up at the ceiling. A bleary-eyed glance at the clock gave her a rough idea of the time (nine-something), and she yawned, stretching until her toes curled and she finally went limp again.

"You know," came a teasing, feminine voice from the other side of the room, followed by the faint scraping of a chair as her roommate sat down. "At some point, you're gonna have to get up and greet the day."

Autumn groaned, pulling the pillow over her face and mumbling irritably in response. This was stupid. Dalton was stupid. Her parents were colossally stupid. She could be at home right now, in her own bed. Later, she could be in her own backyard, sitting around the firepit with her own friends, listening to them bitch about their parents and laughing about whatever stupid shit was going on at school. She exhaled into the pillow, grunting unhappily as she did so and then flinging it off her face and abruptly sitting up again.

"Fine," she sighed, waving at no one in particular and grumbling, "Hello, day." Heather rolled her eyes at that, and pulled the trigger on a bottle of air freshener, flooding the room with the overwhelming scent of citrus. "Ugh!" Autumn exclaimed, grimacing. "It is way too early for that, damn."

"Well, you missed the OJ at breakfast already, so I thought that might help," her roommate added with what was, in Autumn's opinion, an inhuman level of cheerful passive-aggression.

As she rubbed her nose, muttering under her breath, the fog clouding her brain suddenly lifted. Maybe it was the essential oils in the homemade room spray, or maybe she'd just stopped thinking about it long enough for the memory to stop playing coy. She froze, mid-grumble and was suddenly on her feet and moving through the room, apparently searching for something. The pretty blonde rooming with her just stared, slowly rolling the chair away whenever Autumn got too close. For someone who was half-asleep a few seconds ago, the redhead looked pretty damned focused.

"Not out here.. hmm..." She dropped to her knees and sprawled on her side, flinging the coverlet back onto the bed before peering under it. "Nope. Damnit," she swore under her breath.

"What... are you, uh, looking for?"

"My familiar," Autumn replied distractedly, pulling shoes from beneath Heather's bed. "I was kind of hoping if it showed up, it would- damn, how many pairs of shoes do you need?- that it would be conveniently in here, so I didn't have to worry about sneaking it in." Sighing, she settled cross-legged on the floor and stared expectantly up at the blonde, plucking at the leg of her pale blue pajama pants. "I'm guessing you haven't seen anything? A frog? Big spider? A rat, maybe, or a mouse?" Heather's horrified expression when she mentioned rodents said it all.

"Um, you should probably, you know, just be patient. Maybe it needs time to find you?" she asked querulously, fidgeting with the spray bottle and quickly glancing out the window when Autumn's eyes caught hers.

"Yeah," Autumn replied cautiously, slowly nodding as she watched the other girl's face. "Yeah, maybe." She wondered briefly if the spell had even worked, but quickly dismissed the fleeting doubts that surfaced. Apparently she wasn't the only one with metaphysical interests. She wasn't about to be her roommate's BFF right off the bat, but... maybe she could at least talk to her. For a little while. Just to see what she knew.

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As Mari opened the door and started to vanish out of it, Renata yelped, "Hey!" Mari paused, a quizzical expression in the graceful arch of her brow.

Renata leaned over and grabbed her iPhone off of her dresser. She waggled it at Mari. "Lets get each other's numbers."

Her finger moved over the iPhone's touchscreen, flipping files away until she found her address book.

Mari brightened at the idea and pulled her own humble "came free with 2 year plan" Verizon phone out. A moment's worth of tapping between the two of them and they had passed the first hurdle of friendship in the wireless age.

With her trademark shy, sweet smile, Mari closed her phone and slipped it back into her back pocket. "Thanks," she said, then, "I should go."

Renata nodded, too pleased at having Mari's number to be sad she was leaving. "Seeya," Ren called after her. Mari just gave Renata an inscrutable smile over the smooth curve where her shoulder becme her neck. Then she was gone.

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Lucia

Yasu sighed. “If you were not taken, then she will never stop her search, and never return. Child, forget your mother. She is gone.”

Lucia was shocked by the finality in those words. “What… what do you mean?”

“I cannot say more over the phone, nor should I tell you move, for you are not of us,” Yasu stated empathically. “What I can say is as follows: your mother found you and saved you from the monsters in the fairy tales. She carried you out of the darkness and to there she thought you had returned. So she has gone for you – I know this, for this she told me. ‘Yasu, I’m going after Lucia.’ So I avow to you. Have the world declare her dead and take whatever monies she has left in governance for this day. That is all that is left to you.”

Sylvia, Ryan and Ravi

As Ryan pouted over Ms. Dorn ruining his fun, Dr. Reaver nodded, “Very well, if you are a student, Mr. Jackson, then I suppose we must let you stay.” His smile was an examination of the dangers of missing regular dental checkups as he added, “It is amusing that you wished to hide your identity – perhaps you are ashamed of what or who you are? Perhaps your parents instilled this in you. So many parents abandon their young here rather than countenance a child they have lost faith in.”

That unwholesome smile turned back to Ravi. “I was waiting to see if Ms. Dorn would leave before you changed. As an administrator, it is my duty to be sure that the teachers are not taking… unfortunate liberties with the student body. Or the student’s bodies.”

Those off-putting eyes swiveled over to Sylvia, waiting for her reaction.

Autumn

“So, uh…” Heather’s voice was hesitant. “What spell did you use? Maybe that’s why it’s not here. My mom… she does this kinda stuff too.” Heather looked at her, her expression worried as if Autumn would still condemn her even after Autumn’s revelation. “She’s had me do some with her, but not familiars. She thought that I shouldn’t have one until I was gonna be somewhere I could have a pet.”

Autumn nodded to encourage her to go on. Heather smiled shyly and murmured, “I did a spell before school, so I wouldn’t have a lame or hyper-Christian roomie. Guess it worked.”

Autumn grinned, partially because this was an affirmation of her own beliefs and partially because Heather didn’t think she was lame. Even if they didn’t become super-close, it’d be good if they got along. She opened her mouth to reply, but movement at the window caught her eye.

A black cat balanced on the ledge, peering at her with golden eyes through the glass. It wasn’t a normal-looking cat; it was too thin and its eyes too big. There was an intelligence in that tawny gaze that belied what a cat was capable of – and they could be capable of much. This was more than a cat, and Autumn’s heart beat faster at the thought that this special cat was her new magical partner. “Hello,” she whispered and stood, opening the window.

As she slid the glass up, the cat turned and leapt off the ledge; Autumn grabbed but she wasn’t fast enough to catch it. The girl gasped in shock, sure that the cat had hurt itself jumping from that high. It landed without a sound, unhurt.

“Autumn?” Heather asked. “What are you doing?”

The cat stood below, looking up at her. Its tail flicked expectantly as those golden eyes seemed to call to Autumn.

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“I was waiting to see if Ms. Dorn would leave before you changed. As an administrator, it is my duty to be sure that the teachers are not taking… unfortunate liberties with the student body. Or the student’s bodies.”

Those off-putting eyes swiveled over to Sylvia, waiting for her reaction.

Her own green eyes, seemingly ablaze, met his with a glare that could pierce concrete.

"Whereas I was waiting to ensure that you would leave the room of this resident of my house, Mr. Reaver. I see to the protection of my students, and I'd recommend that you never again insinuate that I do anything otherwise. Are we quite clear?"

Had there been any more emphasis to her words, they might have left physical cuts in their target.

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"How's this for an idea?" Ravi shut his wardrobe door with a trifle more force than was strictly necessary and turned to all three (or if you counted the goon squad, which in fact he didn't, all seven) intruders on his space. His normally sensual mouth was a taut line, and his gaze reflected profound irritation verging on serious rage. "Purely in the interests of cooperation and me not reaching for the nearest can of flykiller to use as Mace, why don't you ALL leave?"

He took a step towards them all, his eyes glinting dangerously as light slid eerily across their surface. "I have had enough of the intrusions, the queries, the underwhelming displays of authority and petty bickering. You might not have better ways of spending your time or better places to be, but I do, lady and gentlemen." Ravi's voice had the cold snap of real anger in it now, and the only word that could be used to describe his posture was bristling. Rationally, all present knew he was just a teenager, but in that moment he seemed to suck the space and air out of the room, extending his personal space so that all present felt threatened in some primal, hindbrain-affecting way.

"Leave." he said, his voice dropping to a low, threatening rumble. "Now."

Click to reveal..

Pre + Intim + Ferocity + Striking Looks + Predator's Bearing + a WP point = 12 dice

1d10=8, 1d10=4, 1d10=8, 1d10=2, 1d10=4, 1d10=6, 1d10=5, 1d10=4, 1d10=6, 1d10=10, 1d10=9, 1d10=10

poppin' 10s

1d10=6, 1d10=6

(Note: was 2 dice short. Here's those)

1d10=8, 1d10=10

poppin' 10

1d10=3

(Sexual Dimorphism = Two extra dice vs Sylvia)

1d10=7, 1d10=2

No extras for Sylvia laugh so...

7 succs all round.

Now, get out. arge

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Standing under the warm blast of the shower, Mari felt far removed from the strangeness of the night before. Thinking back on what had happened and what she’d learned, it felt like the lingering effect of some too real dream. A dark and improbable fantasy that had somehow clung to her, but was now being washed away under the spray of water. It would be nice to believe that. To shed it all and start fresh and clean. To go find Ravi and go into town for lunch and not wonder if he preferred a manburger to a hamburger. It would be nice to pretend everything was still okay.

But there were reminders everywhere Mari turned, like painful pinpricks of truth. There were the whispered words exchanged by the other students in the hall. There was the crime-scene tape drawn across the quad. The growing nausea in her belly. I have to go eat something, Mari thought. But the idea of food just made her feel more ill. What she really wanted to do was run. But the steamy shower stall was not a comfort she wanted to leave. Pressing her forehead against the cool tile while the water ran hot down her spine was wonderful. It made her feel safe. It made her feel protected and well. It was probably how an ostrich felt when it stuck its head in the sand, Mari mused.

She turned the shower off and dried herself, tying her faded green dolphin and turtle towel snugly over her breasts, and nearly stepped right into Vanessa Gardner.

“Hey,” the tall freckled blonde greeted Mari, making no effort to get out of her way.

“Hi.” Mari glanced up as she tried to slip around Vanessa, only to find herself blocked by Vanessa’s out-stretched arm. She backed up half a step and felt cold tile against her back.

“So, I hear you’re going out with Ravi FitzCoventry.” Vanessa leaned forward, smirking, trapping Mari to the wall between her arms.

Rachel! Mari shrugged meekly.

Vanessa snorted out a laugh as she looked Mari up and down. “You’re really not his type” she sneered, then added nastily, “what are you, twelve?”

“Ravi FitzCoventry has a type?” Another girl shouted from the showers, causing an outbreak of giggling.

“Hey, um, Lexa...or whatever the fuck your name is?” Vanessa raised her voice, taking her eyes off Mari only briefly to glance over her shoulder.

“Yeah?”

“Shut the fuck up.”

“Okay!” Lexa answered cheerfully.

“I hearth he goth eathen my mun of thoth thigerth!” Brenda Warren lisped, her mouth full of toothbrush and toothpaste as she hunched over the sink.

“Panthers, not tigers.” Cassie Hastings corrected, wiping her glasses on her tee shirt.

“Hey!” Vanessa exclaimed angrily, looking back in time to see Mari swiftly duck under her right arm, spin away from the wall, and pad out the door. “I wasn’t fucking done with you! HEY!” The only answer she got was the quick slap-clap-slap of Mari’s flip flops smacking heel and floor.

* * * * * * *

“Did you tell Vanessa Gardner I was going out with Ravi?” Mari asked, blushing indignantly as she hip-checked the door closed behind her.

“Who? I don’t know. Probably.” Rachel turned to grin at Mari without the barest trace of remorse. “I told a lot of people.”

“Raaaachel.” Mari groaned.

“Well you are, aren’t you?” Rachel teased, “Oh, by the way. There’s this cop who wanted to talk to you.” She slipped her earphones back into place and turned her back on her blushing roommate.

“What?” Mari followed Rachel’s pointed finger. A small business card lay face down on her desk. Mari pushed a hand through her dark wet hair and turned it over. Detective Calvin Kuhlman, the card read. Beneath that, there was a number and two words scrawled in sloppy handwriting. ‘Call me.’

__________________

Height: 5'1", Weight: 102 lbs, Hair: Dark brown, Eyes: Hazel, Striking looks 4, Dexterity 4, Presence 4

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The man staring at them didn't pale. His scent, already strange and musty didn't alter. But there was a sense of him drawing back, pulling himself out of the room without movement. The temperature of the room seemed to drop, and the lights dimmed a touch. "I shall depart. I have more work to be done. Ms. Dorn, if you would accompany me? I'm sure that we could use you help making sure your precious students are all here and accounted for."

He matched word to deed and took a step back. His guards shuffled and moved to make room for him and Sylvia in the hallway. There Reaver waited for Sylvia to follow him.

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Originally Posted By: Dawn, OOC
“Autumn?” Heather asked. “What are you doing?”

The cat stood below, looking up at her. Its tail flicked expectantly as those golden eyes seemed to call to Autumn.


Without warning, Autumn quickly shucked off her pajama pants, leaving Heather spluttering in shock as she averted her eyes from the sight of pale, tautly-muscled thighs. Autumn paid her no heed whatsoever, glancing surreptitiously out the window to see if the cat was still down there. As she turned to grab a faded pair of jeans tossed across the back of her chair, she just stared at her roommate, as if the answer to her question should have been patently obvious.

"I'm going to go see what it wants." The unspoken "duh" lingered in the air for a moment, with Autumn finally tugging the waistband up over her hips and quickly buttoning up the fly. Without bothering to untie the laces, she shoved her bare feet into a well-worn pair of sneakers. "Although, man..." she shook her head, nose crinkling as she wiggled her right foot, forcing her heel down into the shoe with a muffled thump. "If that's my familiar, I'm gonna have to be real creative with litter training." It was hard to tell at that moment if the redhead was grinning or grimacing, and Heather suspected it might have been a little of both.

"Okay. I'll be right back," Autumn promised, and after checking out the window again, leaning out until her tousled hair spilled over the edge like a blazing banner, she darted toward the door.

"But-" was all she heard before the door swung shut behind her. As she ran down the stairs to the first floor, taking them two at a time, it occurred to the rather disheveled looking junior that she'd forgotten something in her haste. She tried her best to ignore the uncomfortable bouncing and fled outside the House's front door. Even on a Saturday morning, students were moving about the campus, and the couple of wolf-whistles she got as she jogged across the lawn left her cheeks burning as scarlet bloomed beneath her skin.

As she glanced upward, she saw a blonde head hanging out a second-story window. "It headed that way," Heather hissed as quietly as she could, pointing in the direction the cat had taken. Nodding, Autumn gave her a brief wave, and peered about for a hint of black fur or golden eyes as she kept moving.
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Frida considered that for a moment too, then nodded slightly.

"That could explain much. If Mrs. Pritchard - and whomever she's working with - blocked the doors and made us forget as their way of dealing with the situation. Perhaps she has the ability to block these powers, or take them away?"

She glanced up at the mural again, standing this time and walking over to it. She spent a moment gazing at Ravi-as-Panther's eyes before she began to walk it, studying all the different elements.

"We should call someone.. Mrs. Dorn, or Ravi. To see if they're okay. They both ran off into the woods just before.. before I left."

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Ryan scowled. His gazed swiveled first to Ravi with a look that said, "Dude, we need to talk, like now." Ravi appeared rather set in his GTFO stance and so Ryan swung his gaze to Sylvia, his expression changing to a more neutral, "Can you please explain what the heck is going on?" Still looking at the teacher Ryan navigated his way around shoes and textbooks toward the door. "Ravi, Ms. Dorn, I think I really need to talk to one of you, or both of you. Regarding the, umm, the out of town friend that we picked up last night ..."

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