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

[Sylvia Dorn]

As she stepped out of Ravi's room, Sylvia listened to Ryan, nodded, then looked to the ghoulish administrator with a smile so sweet as to surely be laden with rat-poison.

"I'd normally insist on going with you, Mr. Reaver, but one of my students needs my assistance, and that takes priority. Don't worry; I'll be making my own check later." To make sure you haven't carted anyone off, was left unspoken but very, very clear.

After a moment spent with the veiny bastard skewered on dagger-filled eyes, she turned to Ryan. "My office, Mr. Jackson. It's time for a talk about using false identities with school officials." Without waiting, she stalked off down the hall.

[Ravi FitzCoventry]

He closed the door firmly behind them, hand gripping the handle hard enough that he wouldn't have been surprised to see dents left by his fingers. As soon as the door was shut, however, the snarl that had been fighting to break free in his throat died, blown out in a gusty sigh as Ravi turned and threw himself onto his bed. The violent surge of anger that had been building faded away as he relaxed.

Alone! At LAST!

Not that he minded company under normal circumstances, but when people were presuming upon him, the way Reaver and Dorn both were, it brought out the worst in him. At times like that even before his Change the young nobleman would seek to be alone. He took a deep breath, tasting the mingled yet distinct scents of Mari and Renata on his coverlet, then took another. And another, pressing his face into the fabric, curiously exploring the differences in their scents. Clean and warm and Female, lightly tinted with perspiration and deodorant and what they had eaten the night before. They had lain here for most of the night...

But they would have looked around too, wouldn't they? Ravi rolled over and sat upright, looking around suspiciously. Of course, they wouldn't have just come in here looking for him, then fallen asleep. The girls would have sat, and talked... And given what he'd seen in Renata's eyes, the older girl would have probably been yearning for Mari the whole time. Briefly, Ravi wondered if she'd confessed to Mari and they'd kissed, then grinned and shook his head. Unlikely. At least, he hoped it was.

That little piece of drama was going to be too much fun to stay out of or miss.

But, as to the business of people poking into his business... He rose from the bed with casual grace and padded around the room. Renata's scent on his clothing, his magazines (doubtless looking for his pornography: Ravi thanked the information age for secure computers and digital porn. Some things should be private, after all). Private... He looked at his nightstand, elegant nostrils flaring in alarm. In a flash he opened the drawer and took out his 'diary'...

Yes, Mari's scent was on it. He bit back the surge of outrage and thought for a moment. Mari's scent was on it, not Renata's. Renata certainly would have read it, Mari probably wouldn't. If Mari had read it, she probably would not have been so nice to him. Even allowing for her Christian sweetness, she wouldn't have hugged him so lovingly. So it was entirely likely that she'd found it, realised what it was without opening it, and put it back. Ravi smiled to himself a little sadly. She was too good for this world, sometimes.

So why don't you tell her what you are really like and drive her away? Well, it wasn't like he hadn't dropped hints like 1 tonne weights. Shrugging, he closed the nightstand and took his diary over to his desk, locking it into the top drawer for now. He considered getting a document safe, which might prove prudent with prying eyes around.

Glancing around, he nodded to himself in satisfaction before slipping off the robe and heading to the bathroom. He had a night's stubble on his chin, and considered taking another bath after shaving to get rid of the stresses of the last hour. On the other hand... Breakfast might also be in order. A fifteen-mile run was good for working up a small appetite. Ravi looked at himself in the bathroom mirror and nodded as he filled the sink, eyes running over the sleek muscles of his torso and arms. Had the Change altered him at all? He seemed tauter now, just a little. But that might be the exertions of the night and morning. He worked up a lather and began to apply it to his chin and jawline, glancing back at the mirror.

Humming to himself softly, Ravi picked up the straight razor, stropped it a few times, and began the very important business of grooming.

Expert grooming was, after all, a matter of pride, skill and care. It separated princes from common men and common beasts both...

[Ryan Jackson]

Ryan stood in the hall, his gaze shifting from the cadaver of a man to Ms. Dorn and back. "My office, Mr. Jackson. It's time for a talk about using false identities with school officials," Ms. Dorn requested. Without waiting, she stalked off down the hall. Ryan shrugged and hurried after her if only to be away from the strange man taking tally.

After a minute in her wake he said, "OK, he's out of earshot and nobody else is around or awake. What happened last night? Things failed to get less weird after you left and I get the impression that same holds true for those on campus."

[Sylvia Dorn]

"When we get to my office," she whispered. "Don't count on what's in earshot anymore."

Half a minute later, Sylvia led the young athlete into her office. Closing the door behind her, she leaned against it for a minute, and let out a long, worry-filled sigh.

"A lot happened here last night. And this morning. And whatever that thing" - she jerked her thumb at the door - "was, it wasn't human. It smelled like death."

Sighing again, she took a seat, and motioned to Ryan to do likewise. Watching him was like watching movement-as-art; every step was perfect as he made his way to the seat with utter economy of motion and an awareness of his surroundings that was simply preternatural. Once he was settled on the chair, she began to try to explain.

"I've heard the rumors going around, about Mr. FitzCoventry and I being attacked by panthers. Like many rumors, they're wrong. Like almost all rumors, there's a kernel of truth to them." She closed her eyes, and sighed again; when they reopened, the green orbs were so bright and alive and intense as to take one's breath away. "We were the panthers. We... changed. And before you ask, no, I don't know how or why. But as you indicated last night, we all seem to be changing in certain ways. Just some of us a bit more literally than others."

She looked toward the door, worry again etching its mark upon her face. "The administration knows about this, Ryan. About a great deal of what's been happening here, if not all of it. You heard that thing out there; it'd couldn't have been more pointed in those comments without neon. And if Reaver and Pritchard are any indication of the rest, it looks like they're doing everything possible to slam a lid over this entire paranormal mess as hard and fast as they can. Which could be very bad for us - especially Swan and another visitor from elsewhere that came in last night.

"I don't know all the details of this yet," she admitted, turning those bright green eyes back to Ryan. "But I'm going to. One way or the other. Because whether I like it or not, I'm as deep in this as one can be now."

[Ryan Jackson]

"A lot happened here last night. And this morning. And whatever that thing" - she jerked her thumb at the door - "was, it wasn't human. It smelled like death."

Ryan nodded but said nothing, he hadn't smelled anything odd but the man had certainly looked like a corpse, more so than usual for old people. As Ryan moved to sit down he became acutely aware that Ms. Dorn was watching him. He settled into a chair and looked around at the office. It was ... office-like, he decided, which didn't confirm anything but it did speak to him that Sylvia wasn't one of any number of authority figures who tried to hide that fact behind window dressing for the dubious benefit of their wards.

"...We were the panthers..."

Ryan's head snapped around and he stared at the woman before him. He didn't say anything but it was clear from the look on his face that he was processing the information, trying to fit it into the mess of events. Finally Ms. Dorn finished her story, declared her intentions in no uncertain terms and then waited.

Ryan couldn't help it, he was, if nothing else, a jovial sort, "So ... you're a cougar? Well, I won't lie, some of the guys on campus do look at you that way, but," he trailed off for a moment, a mirthful grin spreading across his face. "Ms. Dorn, I don't think that is what people mean."

"Very funny Ryan. I'm being serious. Myself and Mr. FitzCoventry changed into panthers, cougars if you must, last night." Sylvia actually sounded less irritated at Ryan than he had expected.

"Like some kind of werewolf, but cats instead of wolves?" Ryan asked, now slipping into a less humorous tone. The teacher nodded and Ryan shrugged, "Well, I guess that's only a little weirder than ... hmm, how to explain this?" Ryan held up a hand to forestall comment, "Your pen drawer." He pointed to the desk, "There are three pens, two pencils, and two legal pads yes?"

[Sylvia Dorn]

Her brow furrowing, Sylvia reached over and opened the desk drawer, only daring to actually look once it was open.

Three pens, two pencils, and two legal pads looked back at her.

She gazed at them for a long moment, as if waiting for one or all to vanish, before slowly sliding the drawer closed. It was another long moment before she turned back to her student, one eyebrow creeping upward.

"A sixth sense, Mr. Jackson?"

[Ryan Jackson]

"Umm, I don't see dead people or anything," Ryan replied, either confused or simply acting as such as he was known to do on occasion. He received a level look in return, one that Ms. Dorn was known to use. "I don't know what you'd call it. Radar maybe? Though I don't know that radar lets you see through stuff. It's difficult to explain."

"How do you explain to somebody who is blind what the sky looks like?" Sylvia mused.

Misunderstanding Ryan replied, "Umm, I don't know. Maybe you can't or you just compare it to something they can relate to, if they even can." Ryan shrugged, "I just know where everything around me is. What shape they are. What direction they are moving. How heavy they are. That kind of stuff. Nothing like color or patterns though. I can't read the files in your desk but I could count how many sheets there were."

[Sylvia Dorn]

"Color me impressed, Mr. Jackson. Color me also concerned." The corners of her mouth dropped in a hint of a frown.

To Ryan's questioning look, she replied, "We don't know if that's as far as it goes. I was picking up on scents and sounds far beyond human range well in advance of last night. And last night, I turned into something very dangerous and - at least for the night - uncontrolled. What happens if something like that happens to you, if this additional sense is a harbinger of more to come? As funny as it might sound at first, the idea of a very large and very deadly werebat doesn't exactly inspire great confidence in me."

[Atomicweasel]

The man who sat across from Mari in the break room of the administration building was a heavy-set man, pock-marked and red-faced and possessed of what Yani would have called a ‘creeperstache’, a thick brown mustache that curved around his lips and seemed to draw his whole face down with it. His too-tight white dress shirt was tucked into his too-tight brown khakis and strained around his belly, stretched taut with little oval spaces between each button where Mari could see his undershirt. His belt was entirely eclipsed, but somehow Mari knew he wore one.

Detective Calvin Kuhlman was not attractive and he knew it well. He tried to make up for it with a big winning smile. He turned that smile on Mari as he set his notepad on his lap and clicked the end of his pen. He made his eyes crinkle kindly. He projected himself as warm and fatherly. He fought hard not to imagine Mari’s little white shorts bunched low on her tanned thighs and tangled up in her panties, which he was certain were powder blue. He licked the end of his moustache and tapped his pad with the pen and tried his smile again and willed away the thought of Mari on her knees in front him with her dark gray hoodie pulled open and shoved down her arms and her pretty bruised lips parted and...Stop it. Stop this. She is Sharon’s age...what the fuck is wrong with me?

“Miss Palacios.” Calvin cleared his throat. Click click went the end of his pen.

“Yes?” Mari looked up from the detective’s moustache and met his eyes.

“You from Brooklyn?”

Mari grinned shyly. “Almost. Queens.”

“Okay, Juliana from Queens, you go by Julie? Can I call you Julie?” The way the kid blushed made Calvin cough and clear his throat again.

“No, well, I mean, you can if you want, but I go by Mari. Or you know. Maria’s okay, too.”

“So Julie. Juliana. Is just a middle name?” Mari nodded. “Mari it is.” Calvin drew a circle on his pad and wrote MP in the middle of it. “I want you to know you’re not in trouble or anything.” He watched her, waiting for a reaction. She definitely looked nervous, he thought. “This is just an informal.” He looked at her. God, you’re fucking pretty. It seemed like every girl he’d run into at this Dalton school was mouth-wateringly hot. Calvin drew a line from the circle to the center of his pad and put a big quadrangle there. “Meeting. Okay, Mari?”

“Okay.”

Scared as a mouse staring back at a cat. Calvin smiled again, trying to put her at ease. “So relax. It’s no big deal. We’re just. We’re talking...and what I want to talk about is last night. You probably figured that part out all by yourself, huh?” Mari nodded again and Calvin had to refrain from reaching out to pat her head. Just. Too. Fucking. Cute. “So. What can you tell me about that?” He waited for her, licked his moustache, then tapped his pad. “Before you say anything, you should probably know that I know. I know you were there. On the quad last night. That’s what some other students said. That’s true isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“And that must have been pretty scary. I bet it was scary.” Calvin said compassionately. He was answered by another demure little nod from Mari. He placed his notepad back over his lap and clicked his pen a couple of times. “I’d have been scared too. You know? Gun or no gun. That’s some scary stuff when a tiger comes at you.”

“Panthers.”

“Oh, they were panthers?” He waited for Mari’s timid nod. He got it. “Oh, okay then. So. Panthers. How could you tell?”

Mari shrugged delicately and Calvin wanted to rush at her and shove his tongue into her mouth. “I don’t know. They were black, I guess.”

“How many.” Calvin clicked his pen and sniffed and re-crossed his legs and then set his foot back down. “How many panthers was it, Mari?”

“Two.”

“You’re sure about that?”

“Yep.”

“And did you see the—“

“No.”

The suddenness and forcefulness of Mari’s answer caught Calvin off-guard. He looked up from his pad, where he’d been trying to sketch a couple of cat heads inside the quadrangle he’d drawn. He stared at her and made his eyes not so friendly. Not so fatherly. He watched her blush bright and let her squirm and then quietly asked “You didn’t see any part of the attack?”

“No.” Mari shook her head. “Not that part...one of the panthers...” it was Ravi.

“One of the panthers.” Calvin urged.

“Kind of, it kind of jumped at me and this other girl...um, I was trying to help...but then it like..” Mari raised her hand and spun her finger in a half-circle. “flopped. Like that. And ran away...”

“Uh huh.” Click. Click. Click. “So the panther. You know what? Let’s just scratch that. Let’s just put that one away for now. I want...” to fuck you till you cry “I want you to tell me the names. Of everyone else that was there. When you saw the panthers.”

“You mean like, outside?” Mari asked nervously.

“Outside. Right.”

“Um. Well, there was that girl Frida and she was kind of just spacing out and I tried to—“

“Frida who? What’s her last name.”

“Oh. I don’t know. I can’t...maybe someone told me but I can’t remember.” Mari answered truthfully.

“Okay. So. Frida.” Calvin drew a new circle with an F and a question mark next to it. He attached it to the quadrangle with the two cats. “And who else.”

“Renata. Renata Hodges.”

Something about the way the girl said it made Calvin look up and click his pen. “That’s your friend? Renata? She’s your friend?”

“Um, yeah.”

An idea had begun to form in Calvin Kuhlman’s mind. “So she’s your friend. So. You have her number right?” Mari’s eyes went to her lap, avoiding Calvin’s piercing gaze.

“Mari?” He waited for her to lift her head so he could skewer her with his stare. She tried to hide from it by looking at his moustache again.

“Yeah.”

“Call her. Go ahead and call her right now and tell her to come down here so I can talk to her. Can you do that for me?” Calvin drew a third circle with a line going to the quadrangle on his pad. He wrote RH in the circle.

__________________

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

[Ryan Jackson]

Ryan laughed. "You mean like Man-bat?!" he asked. Sylvia's confused, looked prompted Ryan to continue, "The Batman villain. He's this guy who turns into a giant half man half bat creature and flies around Gotham." An unimpressed look from Sylvia made Ryan scowl. "Grownups," he complained to himself.

[Tatiana di Jadzian]

"We should call someone... Ms. Dorn, or Ravi. To see if they're okay. They both ran off into the woods just before... before I left," Frida pondered as she scrutinized her late-night master(creepy)-piece.

"Well, I tried callin' Ravi and Ms. Dorn, and you first, this mornin', but none of your cells were workin'," Sean answered. His gaze went to the mural as well, though he stayed where he was, near the door, ass perched on the edge of a table. His focus drifted to the powerful looking barbarian women - Hey! He was a sixteen year-old boy and they weren't wearing all that much. "When we got here, Ryan went to look for Ravi, Everett went after Ms. Dorn, and checked in on you. When I didn't find you at Lancaster, I thought, maybe in the art-room. You made all those sketches of the weird people - no offense Swan - and... now, there's this. Guess I guessed right, eh?"

Sean's eyes widened as something he hadn't considered occurred to him - mostly because it hadn't been a possibility before. "Hell! If Ms. Dorn and Ravi did turn into leopards and tigers-"

"Panthers," Frida corrected without turning around, face close to the wall to study a minute detail.

"-Panthers, right, then they probably didn't take their clothes - and phones - with them. They couldn't have answered, even if they did have any juice left." Sean stood up and rolled his thick shoulders, satisfied with his logic in this illogical situation. Seeing the motion, Swan carefully set down the textbook on the piece of art she had been perusing curiously and moved to his side. "I guess we should head back to Lancaster anyway, to see if Ryan or Ev found them or heard anything."

Frida turned from her inspection and gave him a precise nod before she began picking up the few things she had had with her when she had made her way to the art-room. She joined Sean and Swan by the door, but paused, directing her penetrating, too-direct gaze at the thickly-muscled, striking football star. "Have you attempted calling Ms. Dorn's office number?"

Sean was opening the door for the ladies when Frida's question hit him like the touch of a can of icy cold pop to the small of his back, his mouth dropping open. "No." Dumbass! His broad shoulders slumped as he waved the girls through the door. "No, I didn't. I'll call while we start back."

As the two students and one former military officer from another world strode through the dimly lit halls, brightening sunlight painting stripes across the mottled sepia colour of the vinyl-composition tiles, Sean pulled out his old, basic Samsung cellphone - thing didn't even have a camera - and began scrolling down his contacts list. He held the outer door for Swan and Frida, directing them to skirt the Quad by going around the other Dorms.

"I can't believe you managed painting that entire wall last night, Frida. The amazons I recognize from your sketch and the panthers sort of make sense, now - as much as anything else, anyway - but what's up with the horde of the deading dead?" Sean asked as he pressed his phone to his ear, listening to the digital tone of it dialing.

[Sylvia Dorn]

Ryan was obviously about to say more when the desk phone rang - startling both student and teacher, each of whom jumped at the sudden and loud sound.

A couple of rings later, Sylvia grabbed the offending device, choked down an urge to throw it through the nearest window, and managed in a strained by polite tone to answer.

"Dalton Academy, House Lancaster, Sylvia Dorn speaking. Can I help you?"

[Tatiana di Jadzian]

The phone was answered after four long rings. "Dalton Academy, House Lancaster, Sylvia Dorn speaking. Can I help you?"

Sean let out a relieved breath. "Oh, good, you're there, you're okay, Ms. Dorn. It's me, Sean."

"I'm..." she hesitated for a moment. "I'm about as fine as I'm likely to be under the circumstances, Mr. Cassidy. As Mr. Jackson is sitting in front of me, I assume you are on campus somewhere?"

"Oh, yeah, we're just leaving the Art-Room. I found Frida and I have Swan with me." Sean paused. "Glad to hear you're, uh, yourself again, I was hearing all sorts of things about last night. We were heading back to Lancaster now to see if Ryan and Everett found you or Ravi. Is he okay too?"

"Ravi's fine as well. And I see that news has gotten around. Can I ask whom you heard about my... not being myself from?"

"Phew. When we first got here, I thought Brahn had found Pritchard already or something." There was obvious relief in Sean's voice. "But about you and Ravi, I heard a few people talking in the halls when I went to Frida's room, but when I called Blaize, she was saying you and Ravi were mauled by a wild animal like the guard. It was only when I found Frida that I got the true story. She- just a minute."

Ms. Dorn heard Sean place a hand over the receiver, but her acute hearing could still make out his words despite his lowered tone. "Frida, can I tell Ms. Dorn about the mural?" Sylvia couldn't make out the artist's murmured reply, but she heard Sean place the cellphone back to his ear. He continued, but in a lower, more cautious tone. "Frida painted a mural on the wall of the Art-Room. The whole wall. There's... well, a pair of panthers on it over a chewed-up man, some of the Barbarian women that it seems my mother was, and a whole bunch of ghosty-dead people."

The strong young man's voice dropped even lower. "I think you guys manifested this power or magic stuff or talents or whatever Brahn was talking about. Did Ryan mention Brahn to you yet?"

"Good grief. No, he hasn't mentioned a 'Brahn' to me yet." She let out another sigh, then said, "Can you - the lot of you - come to my office? And be careful; there's a rather unsavory administrator wandering the residence halls who is a bit too well informed for my taste."

"Will do. We're almost there anyway. And yeah, I don't really like talking about this out here either."

"Alright. I'll see you when you get here. Be careful," she reiterated.

"No worries, we will, Ms. Dorn. Seeya soon," Sean reassured her with a rising - if possibly unjustified - confidence. Sylvia heard his voice fading as his cellphone grew further away from his mouth. "Guys, Ms. Dorn said she and Ravi are as okay as they can be and she wants us-" There was a faint buzz, then a click as the phone disconnected.

"-to go see her at her office." Sean gave the girls a protective glance, but they could see the wariness in his turbulent, blue-grey eyes. "We have to keep a lookout - apparently, there is another administrator - not Pritchard I think, but just as bad, if not worst - prowling around."

[Frida Ricci]

"Very well.. I know a back route that doesn't take us through the Quad. Perhaps that will help us avoid any unwanted encounter with this additional administrator. My last encounter didn't go so very well."

They left the art room and made their way towards the back entrance, on the other side of the building that Sean and Swan had just entered through. They had made it a fair distance in silence, with Frida leading the way and Sean and Swan keeping their eyes open for any unpleasant-looking administration-types, when Sean finally remembered the question he'd asked before he'd cut himself off to call Mrs. Dorn.

"Hey, uh.. Frida? You never did explain the rest of the mural. With the dead people."

Frida stopped suddenly at his question, and it took Sean a concentrated effort not to plow straight into the willowy young woman. He scowled slightly and stepped around her instead, glancing down at her. For the first time that he could recall during his interactions with her, Frida didn't gaze directly up at him at first. Her gaze flickered down and away slightly, in the direction of the quad.

"They were there."

His brow furrowed slightly as he focused on her, trying to figure out if she was just being weird or abstract or something. That's what artists do, right? Be vague and confusing?

"What do you mean?"

She looked up at him, and her dark eyes were wide and frightened, the way they'd looked when he'd stirred her awake, when she'd still been in that moment where her dreams hadn't given way to the light of day. She pressed her lips tightly together, and then she spoke, her voice a hushed murmur that even Swan had to step closer to hear.

"I mean they were there. Everyone heard the roars.. everyone showed up to watch, Sean. Students and staff, adults and children. Living and dead. After Ravi and Ms. Dorn ran off someone came out to help me back inside. I turned around, and there they were.. standing there watching, just like everyone else. I must have been the only one to see them. Everyone else was still frightened of the panthers."

[Tatiana di Jadzian]

"You see dead people?"

Sean's whisper was just as soft as Frida's. A chill ran down his spine, his head beginning to turn in the direction of the Quad before he could stopped it with a fist-tightening effort. He wasn't afraid of facing an over-sized defensive line on the football field or a bigger man in the boxing. He'd stand up to a bully and stand by his friends come-what-may, but how did confront the dead who had stepped beyond the bounds of the living world?

It was only after considering that, that his realized he didn't have the slightest doubt that Frida had really seen what she saw. His fists tightened again, the tingling of someone walking on his grave coursing done his spine once more - and did that saying have a whole new meaning now - but he shook it off with a tight shrug of his thick shoulders. Fuck! There is a Door to other worlds, why not a Window into the Land of the Dead?

"I'm so sorry for what you had to see, Frida, I can't even imagine what it was like." Sean met her dark eyes and took a deep breath at what he found. He'd seen her inquisitive, curious, trying to divine the meaning in what she'd seen or heard with an intense regard, but he'd never this... pleading for an answer. "And I'm sorry, I don't have the answers, not enough anyway. Brahn, Brahn might know..."

The group reached the Dorm that stood before Lancaster and Sean waved the girls back so he could peek around the corner. Other than a few students standing in knots by the front entrance to Lancaster, he didn't see anyone suspicious or Administrative. Seems clear enough.

Forcing themselves to keep a nonchalant pace, the group walked across the broad alley separating the two Dorm Houses, heads bowed together as if they were talking - which they were.

"Brahn seems able to find us, so next time he shows up, I'll make sure you know, in case you want to ask him anything, Frida. But I won't say anything about what you, er, saw, if you don't want, I swear."

They reached the corner of Lancaster, then kept close to the walls as they walked around the perimeter to come to the rear entrance, which faced open fields that eventually reached the surrounding woods. Sean looked around, then got the door for Frida and Swan, following close on their heels.

Seeing Swan grow tense and keeping her head low to hid her eyes, despite the mirrorshades, Sean took her hand and gave it a supportive squeeze as he leaned over to put his mouth near her ear. "We didn't let Pritchard take you, and we won't let whoever this other guy is either," he assured, voice low but hard.

The trio reached Ms. Dorn's office without incident, though they did garner a few - more than a few - looks, not uncommon for the more than handsome jock and eccentric artist, and Swan did have an exotic appeal despite fiercely straining for an unassuming timidity. They all stared at the door for a moment until Frida knocked precisely and peremptorily on the wood paneling before poking head in.

"Ms. Dorn, we have arrived."

[Dawn OOC]

Autumn

The red-head tore across campus, her eyes on the black tail that remained just ahead of her. The cat paused only to make sure Autumn didn’t lose it; then it ran on again. It was leading her on a merry chase around the campus and the girl was starting to wonder if her familiar had decided that she wasn’t in shape. Or Autumn could have gotten a cruel magical partner.

Mischievous. Cats can be tricksters, Autumn reminded herself and stopped running. If it was a game, the cat would wait for her. At the first corner after she stopped running, she couldn’t see it. The small sitting area between the two buildings was empty save for a cluster of boys playing on handheld games. “Crap,” she whispered before turning to one of the younger students. “Hey, did you see where the cat went?” she asked, a bit breathless.

“Cat?” the kid asked. He blinked at her owlishly after tearing his gaze away from the game.

“The black one, it just came around the corner.” Autumn frowned in irritation; it didn’t seem like the kid would have noticed a black rhinoceros, much less a cat. She looked at the end of the walk, where the path turned the other corner of the building. The cat was staring back at her, yellow eyes narrowed as if to command her to hurry up. “There it is!”

Autumn took off again, forgetting her decision not to run. She was so eager to catch up that she missed the boys asking, “What cat?”

This time, she didn’t slow down and the cat didn’t try to lose her. She was excited – this was an adventure, and slowly she’d become less interested in the cat and more interested in what the cat was going to show her. Oddly, there was a rising sense of contentment within her, too; an almost alien feeling of having a burden removed or constriction eased.

The cat rounded another corner, and Autumn followed it down the slope behind the building. She found herself looking at woods just across an access road. She took a step toward the greenery, sure that the cat was in the woods, only to be stopped by a soft trill of a meow. Turning, Autumn looked up and saw the cat on a window ledge well above the ground. The building had been built on a slope, leaving the first floor window well off the ground.

“How…?” she started, her voice trailing off as the cat seemed to ignore her, turning to look at whatever was in the room. Frowning, Autumn looked for a way up – there was the tree; the branches had been cut back from the window, but she still might be able to climb high enough to peek in…

Or she could enter the building from the front and find the room.

[Autumn Keane]

Backing up, and nearly stumbling over a tree root in the process, Autumn peered upward, shielding her eyes with her hand. The cat's lambent eyes blazed in the morning sun as it turned to regard her impatiently, one black paw pressing lightly against the glass. Something inside caught its attention, and it turned away from her again. It was watching something intently on the other side of that window, and her heart pounded madly in her chest.

What could possibly be in there? What was it trying to show her?

There was only one way to find out. Well, in this case, there were two, but walking in through the front door meant a lot of explanations, which she really didn't have at the moment.

"Sure," she breathed, trying to catch a glimpse of what the cat was seeing. "I just chased a cat across campus, to this building, and now I just need to go find the room it's peering into, to find out what it was trying to tell me. You don't mind if I just start knocking on doors, do you? Oh, yeah. That would go over real well. Not strange... at all." Murmuring sarcastically under her breath, she caught hold of a branch and grimaced, hauling herself up until she could get traction with her feet and clamber up onto the sturdy lower limb.

The red-head balanced precariously there for a moment, resting one hand against the trunk for stability as she assessed her options. It wasn't the best tree for climbing; she suspected its proximity to the building had ensured the groundskeepers kept it cut back. It was a crude, but effective way of keeping any students from using it as a nocturnal escape route, or, in her case, a roost for voyeurism. Some of the warmth crept back into her cheeks at that thought, but she had to assume her feline guide would not have dragged her all the way out here to peep in on someone in their underwear... Right?

Stepping carefully forward with her left foot, she began slowly working her way around. One foot moved, then one hand, reaching toward the branches closest to the building. If she took her time, she should have no problem getting-

"Shit!" she swore in a shrill exhalation, an instant of panic flooding her brain as her right foot, in its hastily-donned sneaker, slid off the branch on which she was standing. Reflexively, Autumn grabbed at a limb overhead, scraping her palm on the bark as she struggled to regain her footing.

Click to reveal.. (Climbing check)

Str + Ath to climb up to the level of the window and look inside:

6d10.hitsopen(8,10)=1

Total Successes: 1, of 2 needed.

[Ravi FitzCoventry]

Ravi washed his razor off and dried it carefully before setting it back in the mother-of-pearl inlaid case, the whole process seeming ritualistic, as indeed it might well be. He looked at himself in the mirror, tilting his head one way, then the other, then smiled at himself.

Now then, that was better.

He reached for the cologne, then winced at the unaccustomed strong smell emanating from the exquisitely-blown glass bottle. Resolutely, he tipped some into his hands, then ran some water into his palms to dilute the effect before splashing it over himself. The subtle, smoky, alcohol-free cologne had been blended and made specially for him by Galardi, the finest perfume makers in Florence. Ravi adored it, and had ever since his mother had taken him to Galardi's workshop to get the customised scent mixed on his fifteenth birthday. He used it sparingly by habit, and would feel undressed without at least a small hint of it about him, but with his newly-sensitised nose he apparently needed to use even less than normal.

Whistling he padded back into the main room, drying his face and torso before tossing the towel into the basket in one corner, grabbing a pair of briefs and sliding them on in one sinuous motion. Straightening, he glanced around for the shirt he'd taken out to wear...

And saw a cat peering in the window at him with considerable interest.

It was a strange little thing, skinny, with big golden eyes that regarded him with something akin to fascination. Ravi regarded it in turn, a little prickle running up his spine. It just sat there, looking at him. Perhaps it wanted in? He wondered who it belonged to. Or, more correctly, who belonged to the cat.

Well, why not find out?

"Hello there." He said conversationally. Ravi wasn't the sort to baby-talk cats. Well, actually, he usually wasn't the sort to talk to cats at all. He'd in the past considered it a waste of his and their time both. But he'd always gotten along exceedingly well with cats regardless, often having one or both of his mother's Russian Blues gravitating to him whenever there was nothing better to do. Not so surprising, now that he thought about it in hindsight. He stepped towards the partially-open window, holding out a hand invitingly. "Are you staying out or coming in, my friend?"

Click to reveal..

Perception roll

1d10=6, 1d10=6, 1d10=3, 1d10=5, 1d10=10, 1d10=8

poppin' 10

1d10=8

3 succs

[Ryan Jackson]

"Good grief. No, he hasn't mentioned a 'Brahn' to me yet." Sylvia let out another sigh, then said, "Can you - the lot of you - come to my office? And be careful; there's a rather unsavory administrator wandering the residence halls who is a bit too well informed for my taste." A pause, and then, "Alright. I'll see you when you get here. Be careful," she reiterated.

After a moment she hung up the phone and looked at Ryan questioningly. Ryan, who had been looking around the room, gathering details his new sight could not, realized she was looking at him and turned his eyes toward her once more. "Brahn?" she intoned with the subtle air of a question and a command.

Ryan smiled and lifted his hands spreading them wide like a banner, "BRAN! The high fiber ally against ... umm, weird stuff." Sylvia's look remained level and patient, mostly. "Bran, Brawn, Brahn, Brahan, I don't know, he had a weird accent. He had weird eyes too, and he walked out of shadows like they were doorways." Ryan paused and while his eyes didn't move Ms. Dorn got the sense that he was checking to make sure nobody would overhear, she wondered just how far his new sense extended.

"He said that ... umm, actually I don't remember. Not exactly anyway, I know he said that he wasn't the one making us all weird. Oh, and he said that there were probably a bunch of us with weird powers or whatever, and that he thought that maybe we could help him stop those Caramels from ever hurting people again.

"Aaannnd, oh, he said something about a door being closed. Yeah, closed for like a week. I dunno what he meant. Also he seemed to know Swan, I think he thought she was dangerous or something, but we convinced him she was cool." Ryan rubbed at his face and tried to remember the conversation from the night before, "He said that the Caramels were harvesting people and, oh, he said he was from Lesk, not sure where that is."

He shrugged as he continued with his disjointed playback of the prior evening's events, "Also something about a shove-it? And I swear I had a nightmare about a farm, but I don't know if that matters or not." Ryan quickly broke off, some color rising in his cheeks as he recalled his running into Sean's yelling about rape. "That's about it I think. Well Sean blew up that sword we found with Swan. I'm actually not really sure about that you might want to wait and-" He broke off and then said, "They're almost here, maybe they can explain."

A short time later there was a knock and then Frida stuck her head in, "Ms. Dorn, we have arrived."

[z022]

"Look, Yasu, I've had a really strange two weeks...three days....whatever. And last night just capped the fact that my weird meter doesn't have a top rating anymore. So, what do you mean by 'us' and where has she gone? There's no way in any number of worlds that exist that I'm just going abandon her. She drives me crazy most of the time, and I don't get her, but she's my mom." The tirade poured out of her, the tension and fear and anger of the previous night finally finding an outlet. "You were the emergency contact she gave me. Help me. If you won't, I'll find someone that will."

The last was said with all the conviction and defiance of a teen, and then she waited. She meant every word. She would find out just what her mother was entangled with, where she'd gone, and she would bring her home. No matter what.

[Sylvia Dorn]

In the wake of the cavalcade of information from Ryan, Sylvia was nothing short of glad for Frida's interruption. "Please, come in. Find seats wherever you can."

To facilitate exactly that, the house mother went to drag a few extra chairs back from her personal quarters. "I've been getting quite the update from Mr. Jackson," she called back as she worked, "and understand that Swan's sword is gone? And that this individual named Brahn apparently has more information for us. And that Mr. Jackson has rather vivid nightmares."

With a chair under each arm, Sylvia made her way back into her office, placing them wherever space would allow before returning to her own behind the desk.

"And apparently you've painted a remarkable mural, Miss Ricci. I'll have to go look later. For now, however, I think we need to make sure we have a safe place for Swan to stay. A member of the Board of Directors, a Mr. Reaver, has been poking around in the building, doing room checks. To be absolutely blunt, he's not normal, and not in a good way, and I don't want him getting anywhere near our guest."

[SalmonMax]

Renata arrived at the Administration building a scant ten minutes after she got Mari's call. She was seething. Mari had sounded so forlorn, as if she'd betrayed her, and there'd been a fearful tremble in her voice.

What had that cop said to her?

She was wearing a black T-shirt with a logo on the front showing a bestial, feral interpretation of Pac-Man looming over a quailing blue ghost. Under the picture were the words POWER PILL. She hardly even remembered where she'd gotten it now. A threadbare pair of blue jeans sat snug and low on her hips, with her punky black studded belt. Finally her Birks with no socks...because it was easy to put on and take off...and because it was a hippie thing to wear, and cops congenitally hated hippies. Her short dark hair was still messy from the shower and she didn't bother to brush it. She had a silver hoop earring in her right lobe, and nothing in the left.

Stylin'.

Calvin Kuhlman, detective to the stars' kids, looked up as Renata came in. He put on his smile, but it felt plastic this time. Every signal she sent was screaming 'delinquent.' There was her overall appearance, the suspicious, but not fearful, squint she gave him as she crossed the room, and the way she simply sat down before he even asked her, then folded her arms expectantly as if to say 'Gimme your worst, I can take it.'

And of course, true to form, she was pretty. Not the same way Mari was pretty...but that just made her seem attainable. Mari was like a refugee from a fairy tale; a creature too beautiful for this world, and no more substantial than a soap bubble. Or a dream. Renata was pretty in the way that mortal girls are pretty, before time's rough edge peels the youth from them. Soft cheeks, full lips, dark lashes over angry eyes. She would fight if he grabbed her, kissed her. She would claw and bite and gouge. Taming her would be like taming a lion or something. And like a lion from the wild, she'd never -really- be tame.

That's it, Calvin decided. After this one, I'm getting some air to clear my head. These were high school girls, for Christ's sake.

"Miss Hodges," he began, studying his notepad. "Renata?"

Renata nodded and bit back her answering quip 'Fatass cop...can I call you Fatass?'. She didn't want to take it too far. "That's me."

At that moment, Calvin decided to get right to it. He didn't really want to small talk Hodges, and from her expression and voice, she wouldn't miss it either. "Okay, Miss Hodges.  I'm just meeting with people who saw last night's disturbance.  Getting statements. You're not in trouble or anything...”

"I know the drill," she assured him with a yawn.

She does, Calvin realized. His thumb clicked the button on his pen several times in quick succession. She's dealt with cops before...knows the difference between taking statements and interrogations.

His smile got thinner. "So.  Okay.  I've had witnesses confirm you were on the scene last night at the time of the attack. I'd like to hear from you.  What you saw happen.  Tell me about that."

"Sure." Renata took a deep breath. "I was out a bit later than usual and on my way back to my dorm...that's Lancaster."

Calvin looked up from his pad. She was leaning forward a little and when he looked at her, she pointed at the pad. "For your notes."

He felt an absurd impulse to cover the pad with his hand, as if she could see right through the flipped covers and pages. With a trace of defiance, he added 'Lncstr' under the RH. "Go on."

"And there was this loud...noise. I'd never heard anything like it. Like a scream, and a roar, all in one."

Calvin's pen worked, drawing squiggly lines coming out of the cat heads. "So.  Okay.  You heard a scream, then a roar?"

"No, it was all one sound. Like a combination of a scream and a roar."

He nodded. "Go on."

"So I turned around to look back at the quad, and there was this giant black...I dunno, cougar or something, jumping on a guy. You know, and then HE screamed."

"Cougar, eh?"

Renata shrugged. "Big black cat. I don't know the exact scientific word for it."

"Anything else you remember?"

"There was another one too...not as big, but still, you know..." she held her hands apart. "Big. It went after the big one, but I didn't see if they fought, because the lights went out or something. It got dark over where they were. Then they were both coming back into the lights. One went after Mari, or it looked like it was going to, then something spooked it or something because it twisted around and took off like a shot."

She took another breath, and concluded. "The other one, the smaller one, walked right past me. I had to step out of the way to let it by. Then it turned around and ran after the other one."

Calvin was quiet for a long moment, frowning at his pad, and clicking his pen. He drew a line from one of the cat heads to RH. "One walked right by you?"

"Yeah. Scared the Jesus out of me."

"Did it come into physical contact with you?"

Renata shook her head. "I moved over to let it by. I wasn't going to let it touch me though. Not if I could help it."

"Any idea why they retreated?"

She shook her head again. "I didn't hear anything, but maybe they got wind of something."

Or someone called them home, Calvin thought. "Okay, Renata.  Anything after that seem important, or noteworthy?"

The girl shrugged. "After that, UFOs landing would be pretty boring."

Calvin smiled his smile again. Renata's testimony seemed off to him. Too detailed. Not emotional enough. Too...clinical. He wrote under the RH on the pad, 'rehrsd?' On the other hand, he hadn't seen any signs of lying, and it gibed, more or less, with what others had said, with the usual wide range of details.

"Renata, you strike me as a smart girl," he commented, doling out a little ego-stroke to grease the wheels. "What do you think those panthers were doing on campus?"

"Dunno," Renata replied, then grinned. "Werepanthers?"

Calvin clicked his pen. His smile was long extinct by now. "Okay. That’s fine then. Here's my card, in case you think of anything else. Thanks for stopping by." He fished out a business card and handed it to her.

She accepted the card, "Oh, my pleasure."

Then she was leaving the room and started combing the place looking for Mari.

[Dawn OOC]

Ravi and Autumn

As Autumn hung from the tree and worried about how to avoid going down the easy way, Ravi was making friends. For once, that wasn’t a euphemism for something else; he really was interested in trying to bond with the animal. Of course, this was only possible because the cat could fulfill exactly zero of Ravi’s boundless sexual needs. That was why he could be friends with the other boys on campus-

His musings were cut off when the cat turned, looking at the tree that shaded a few of the rooms on this side of the building. Groundskeeping kept them carefully trimmed back so that the eager young men living here couldn’t use them to escape from under their House Father’s watchful eye. The cat had risen to its feet and was staring at the tree, tail lashing in feline annoyance. Ravi smiled as he realized that he knew that exact feeling, and why it manifested into that physical tell.

The cat crouched and jumped into the air. Ravi gasped, his hands reflexively trying to stop the cat from making an impossible jump and hurting itself. Though he thought he got his hands around a sleek leg, his fingers closed on nothing. The cat itself landed on a twig barely bending it. It looked back at Ravi, made a soft murr noise and disappeared into the canopy.

Autumn grunted as she found herself leaning way too far over, one hand around the branch over her while the other frantically tried to join it. She finally managed to get a two-handed grip, sighing with relief as she righted herself.

The cat appeared before her, giving her a look as if to say “Well, are you coming or not?”

Lucia

“I will tell you of your mother’s fate, if you can tell me what a Keeper is,” Yasu replied.

“What? Is that some kind of riddle?” Lucia barked, her patience nearly gone.

“No, that means she never told you of the true history of the world, and so neither can I. Your mother’s loss must remain a mystery to you. I am sorry,” Yasu said, and the eerie rasping voice clearly conveyed sympathy.

Renata and Mari (sorta)

Kuhlman was silent for a long moment after the girls left. Without them in the room, it was a lot easier to think. He sighed, wondering what was in the water out here – he never had this problem anywhere else. Of course, this was such a damned weird place.

“Shoulda shut ‘er down,” he muttered to himself, drawing a question mark by the cats and circling it. That’d been some bad business all those years ago, some real Lord of the Flies crap. And now, even weirder stuff was happening.

Kuhlman wondered if he had the authority to shut the school down and clear it out. He already knew the answer, sadly. He did, but only if he had solid evidence that the kids were in danger. And that’s what he didn’t have. His gut was telling him that’s exactly what he should do though. “Damned weird place,” he muttered again, as he stood up and went outside for a smoke.

A bunch of terrified kids all told the same story: two panthers mauled a man and killed him. That was possible – people kept exotic pets all the time and a pair of big cats could have gotten out. Something had torn into the horses. Kuhlman grimaced as he recalled that stink. Corpses never made pleasant scents, and he now knew first-hand that those scents were proportional to the size of the corpse.

Assuming all this was true: where were the panthers now? And perhaps just as important, where was the dead security guard that all the kids were mentioning?

[Autumn Keane]

Click to reveal.. (Tree climbing, Take 2)

6d10.hitsopen(8,10)=3

3 successes!

"Not all of us have it as easy as you do, y'know," she grumbled at the nimble little creature, who simply twitched its tail, turning back toward the window with the feline equivalent of a shrug. Her palm felt slightly sticky, the abraded flesh burning as she shifted her grip and took a moment to regroup. She inhaled, sucking the air past her teeth in a short hiss as the breeze stung the scrape on her hand, and resolved to keep moving.

The leaves rustled all around her, offering tantalizing glimpses of the window, and of an occasional glint of sunlight on the half-open glass. Fixing that spot in her mind, she closed her eyes and slowly exhaled through parted lips, envisioning the way it would look if she were at the same elevation. She felt, rather than saw, the way the wind would shift the canopy, the smaller branches swaying and giving her an unrestricted view of the room's interior. She very deliberately avoided inserting anything specific into that window frame in her mind, instead concentrating on the structure itself, the feel of the sturdy limb underfoot, and the sound of the whispering leaves.

"So mote it be," the girl murmured, opening her eyes. Okay, so it wasn't a spell, she acknowledged, but she was making her intentions clear to the universe. Now it just remained to see if it was listening.

Without thinking about it any further, Autumn wove her way adroitly through the branches; now ducking under, now swinging over. As far as she was concerned, there was no ground waiting below for another misstep. Her whole world narrowed to a sun-dappled, ever-shifting maze of green and gold, and as her feet and hands guided her with slow certainty to her destination, the path she'd stopped looking for seemed to open up before her.

The cat, impatient little beast that it was, paced circles around her as she ascended. It darted in and out of the leaves, vanishing only to reappear and urge her onward. After what seemed like an eternity of weaving in and out of leaf-shrouded limbs, she stopped. An ant crawled industriously across her fingers on its way back to the trunk, and her hand twitched involuntarily at the sensation. The flame-haired, would-be voyeur hadn't realized she'd even been exerting herself, and she shivered slightly as a bead of moisture rolled down her neck and through the valley between her breasts. Her arms and legs burned slightly, and the abrasion on her palm itched uncomfortably.

None of that mattered, though. The branch beneath her feet was solid enough to bear her weight, and looking straight ahead, she could just make out the dark rectangle of the window through the leaves...

[Ravi FitzCoventry]

Ravi leaned out of his window, the morning sunlight gleaming bronze on his bare torso and gold in the green pools of his eyes as he searched the thickly-foliaged tree for the cat. He was intrigued beyond measure right now: no cat should have been able to make that jump. Okay, maybe he could, but he had a lot more muscle and momentum. That his new friend could leap like that was amazing: suspiciously so. Ravi felt his curiousity prickle at the nape of his neck and smiled at the feeling. It had been awhile since he'd gone chasing a mystery just for the sake of knowing something. Not since he was a child, in fact.

Whirling away from the window Ravi abandoned his previous, more elaborate dressing intentions. A pair of comfortable old jeans, faded nearly white from sun and washing, and a green sleeveless t-shirt that proclaimed in bold white letters 'Your daughter is in good hands!' were quickly dug out of his bottom drawer and pulled on. He glanced at the mirror briefly and ran his hands through his hair. The furor in his room had prevented him from drying his hair properly after washing it. The thick, jet-black mane was somewhat tumbled and shaggy-looking now, a stark contrast from the sleek well-groomed look he preferred. Still, it was a Saturday, and truthfully the wild look loaned him a certain je ne sais quoi. Good enough, he decided. Any girls that came across him this morning would have to accept as they found.

Whilst pondering whether or not to wear trainers Ravi went back to the window. It wasn't strictly necessary anymore, but running around barefoot would cause comment. He decided that it was best to don them, so glanced out of the window just to check and see where that strange cat was...

And found himself looking straight at a redhead, who to all appearances was nimbly picking her way through the branches towards his dorm room window with commendable single-mindedness. Ravi paused, leaning his palms on the window's sill and studying the girl. She was about his age, with long tousled hair that flashed like red embers in in the shifting light filtering through the branches. Athletic, too, to choose this approach to his room. An eye practiced in sartorial elegance noted that she looked as though she had dressed hastily, especially since she had forgotten a certain article of clothing. Not that he was one to complain, of course. There were many benefits to bras, both aesthetic and practical, but the faded old shirt the girl was wearing and the way it clung to her as she twisted this way and that whilst clambering... well, it made Ravi happy to be male. He elected to say nothing right now, instead preferring to lean on his folded arms and watch the strange girl's progress.

So when Autumn reached her lookout point, took a moment to steady herself, and looked at the window she found herself being watched by a pair of brightly sparkling green eyes attached to an enigmatic smile. She froze.

"Good morning." The boy called out to her in a low, smooth voice that was positively purring with amusement. "Looking for something?"

[Autumn Keane]

"Good morning." The boy called out to her in a low, smooth voice that was positively purring with amusement. "Looking for something?"

Shit.

She glanced sharply at where the cat should have been, her gaze accusatory. Instead, there was only an empty branch wreathed in leaves. Thanks. I chase you all the way out here, expecting some great revelation or something, and instead I get to look like some... Peeping Tonya outside this guy's window. Ugh! With the target of her ire conveniently out of sight, she had no choice but to hazard a glance back at the gorgeous creature leaning on the windowsill.

Yep. Still there. Stiiilll amazing.

She could understand why they kept the tree cut back.

To call him good-looking would've been a criminal injustice. He could have been a model, but he'd probably render every other hot guy trotting around in designer clothes completely irrelevant. It would ruin the industry. Of course, she couldn't see the rest of him, but his face, at least, was very, very nice. It was a face for billboards, magazine covers, pillows and... mmm. She was suddenly acutely aware of the way her t-shirt slid over her bare skin as she shifted her grip on the branch, and wondered how the crazy bra-burners could stand it. She suppressed a shiver, focusing on the dull throbbing in her palm.

It was just her luck. New city, new school, new people… new opportunities to completely humiliate herself in front of smoking hot green-eyed guys. Nice.

"Good morning," she called back, finally, wishing she could just melt into the tree trunk and disappear. "My friend with the big yellow eyes is either really bad at giving directions, or really, really good.” There was an undercurrent of amused self-deprecation in her voice, and she followed her pronouncement with an apologetic shrug. “Sorry, I didn’t realize the room was occupied. I just kind of followed it out here…” She trailed off, and then added in typical teenage summation. “So.”

So, here we are. So, now what? So… so never going to live this down.

[z022]

Lucia snapped, her mind a swirl of angry darkness and blindingly enraged light. "Look, Yasu, I don't know what the hell a Keeper is, but I have spent the last three weeks...three days, whatever, running around on some alien world just trying to find my way home because I went to wrong damn alien world because someone stuffed the birds in the Science Annex with the wrong damn feathers! And when I finally get back here? No one remembers a bloody thing that happened! Then there's the panthers running around the campus eating guards and horses, and the only thing I can to do stop them is smother them in some unholy blackness, and then they turn back into faculty members! So, I'm going to ask you again, where the hell is my mother? Because if you won't tell me now, I will track your ass down and beat it out of you with that darkness!"

She was nearly screaming by the end, her head buzzing with frustration and fear too much to care that other students might hear her. She managed to gulp back her tears and wait for the person on the other end to decide what to do. She wasn't sure if she could find them if they hung up, but given everything else of the past couple of weeks, she was willing to take her chances. And buried deep in her mind and her soul, some small bit of the darkness hummed in happiness.

[Tatiana di Jadzian]

Sean let Swan and Frida have the chairs Ms. Dorn retrieved, instead opting to stand next to the door, too keyed up to stay still - and maybe intuitively ready to interpose himself between the girls and any uninvited guests. Listening to Ms. Dorn, Sean nodded energetically as he paced in front of the door with short, strong strides.

"Yeah, Pritchard was bad enough - I don't like that idea of someone named Reaver lookin' for Swan too." Sean paused behind Swan, giving her shoulder a squeeze as his eyes lingered on her protectively. "Micah hasn't been 'round much lately so I thought Swan would be able to hide out in my room for a few days, but if they're doin' room searches..."

He trailed off, head tilted up slightly as his tempestuous grey-blue eyes grew pensive. Suddenly, he snapped his fingers with a sharp crack, eyes brightening. "How 'bout the store-rooms in the attics? I know Mars House's is way cluttered, I should be able to hide up there with Swan without any trouble." Sean leaned over the chair-back, giving Swan a concerned grin. "I don't like the idea of her being alone either."

Sean shifted uncomfortably as he thought about what Ms. Dorn said about Ryan's nightmares, the hand rubbing his neck making his bicep bulge powerfully. "We're all havin' weird dreams, I think, but about Swan's sword, it's not really...gone per se..." He reached into the copious side pocket of his cargo-shorts, pulling out a thick-plastic Ziploc bag and tossing it on Ms. Dorn's desk. It landing with a flat slap. It was filled with glittering filings of something not-quite-silver.

"That's what's left of it any I cut it in half with a pair of bolt-cutters."

[Ravi FitzCoventry]

"Oh, the cat was yours?" Ravi's eyes widened at the redhead's words, and he looked around her in the tree's branches, then on the ground for the cat. Seeing nothing he glanced back at the girl, his expression still amused, but curiousity warring with the humour.

"Um, kind of. Maybe." Autumn told herself that the flush was due to exertion and the awkward angle she was having to hang onto the branch. Not due to a pair of green-gold eyes that laughed and smouldered at her from ten or so feet away. No sirree. "Actually, I think he's his. I just wanted to see where he was going."

"That's usually the way with cats." Ravi nodded, then glanced around again, searching in vain for the subject of conversation. "I saw him on my windowsill, chatted with him a little, then he jumped out into that tree. I was going to see if I could find him." The beautiful lips thinned and a faint distaste darkened those eyes. "There's an odious administrator marching around with a goon squad who seems like just the sort to call Animal Control over a housecat. Especially if he thought it was a student's pet. I'm sure he'd be hand-rubbingly delighted in that case." Ravi shrugged, then met Autumn's gaze for a long moment before a smile curved his lips again.

"Our friend seems to have disappeared on us, though. I doubt he has anything to fear from the ever-vigilant Mister Reaver." Indeed, now that Ravi thought about it there was a distinct strangeness about that cat. He filed that away for later examination and focused his attention on the girl. "I could help you look for him, if you wish. As long as our path meanders past a cafeteria, that is. I'm quite hungry, and haven't had a chance to eat yet since my run this morning." He grinned, showing even white teeth, and tilted his head to one side engagingly.

"How about it?"

[Atomicweasel]

Mari was curled against the frame of one of the large bay windows in the lobby. She was turned away from Renata, who had just begun to cross the Persian paisley expanse that divided them, looking out the glass and onto the campus, her cheap Verizon phone held to her ear. Mari's feet were turned in, her Adidas perched upon the sill, her knees bent up.

She's such a...pixie. Renata thought as she slowly approached.

"No Mamita, no me pasó nada." the pixie was saying, her voice pitched soft and earnest. "Te quise llamar antes, pero es que...ni siquiera sabía que decirte--" Mari took a deep breath and Renata watched her dimpled knees tap together. "No Señora. No...no Mami, no se trata de...sip. Sí ya. Pues...no sé del todo." There was a long pause before Mari spoke again, "Pero Mami acabamos de empezar el trimestre, apenas estoy empezando a--no Señora. No Señora. Okay. Okay Mami. Hey Eli. Yeah. Yeah, I'm okay. I know. No, I know. Okay, I will. Promise. Okay. Love you too--hey! Tell Yani I miss her. Okay. Okay, bye."

Mari snapped her flip-phone shut and slipped it into the front pocket of her little white shorts. She looked so forlorn, so lost and small in that big bay window, that Renata wanted to reach out and crush her into a hug. Just squeeze until Mari smiled that bright infectious smile that Renata knew was in her. But Renata half-feared that would make Mari vanish into mist or disappear into a spray of sea-foam.

"Hey," Renata slapped her hand down on Mari's shoulder.

"AAAnnhh!" Mari jumped, spinning away from Renata's hand and almost throwing herself through the bay window in her haste to scramble back.

"Woah, shit. Relax!" Renata took a step back and raised her hands defensively. "Jesus. It's just me."

Mari held one hand over her heart and the other over her forehead. She took several deep breaths. "You scared me."

"No shit, really?" The two girls stared at one another until, as if by mutual agreement, they erupted into laughter. They fed off each other's giggling, starting all over when they chanced to look up. Finally, when their sides hurt and the administrative assistant seated behind her white oak desk looked ready to strangle them, they stopped.

"Maybe next time I won't sneak up on you."

"Okay. Maybe that'd be good." Mari agreed. The smile Renata had sought was there, but only for an instant before it gave way to an apologetic blush. "I'm sorry about that...the thing with..." Mari wiggled her fingers.

"His Royal Fatness?"

"No. I mean the cop, he asked me to call you and I didn't --"

"I know, Mari." Renata rolled her eyes. "That's who I meant, too."

"Oh."

"Look. Seriously, don't worry about it." Renata said as they walked out under the big stone arch of the administration building. "It's not like it's the first time I've ever had to talk to a cop."

"Oh." Mari paused, then took two quick steps to fall back in stride with Renata. "It's not?"

Shit. "No, it's not."

The glance Renata had shot her was a hard one, and Mari wisely chose not to pursue the topic. "So...now what do we do?"

__________________

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

[SalmonMax]

Renata looked over at the desk, where the receptionist-slash-admin assistant was studiously pretending not to listen. "I have an idea about that...but first, lets get outta here. You want brunchfast? Like a bagelwich or something? Come on."

She led the way out of the admin building and out onto the quad. With the exception of a few spots that were protected by yellow police tape strung between little posts.

"So what I'm thinking is this," Renata explained. "There's only one person who seems like they know what all this is, and that's Ms Pritchard. Everyone about had a screaming mad cow when I suggested it though." She shook her head. "I get why they're so scared...but the whole thing with Ravi and Dorn make me think it's a lot mre dangerous to just sit around and wait than it is to risk talking to Pritchard. Who knows who'll turn into what next time?"

[Ryan Jackson]

Originally Posted By: Sean Cassidy

"That's what's left of it any I cut it in half with a pair of bolt-cutters."

"You failed math didn't you? Do you need me to explain the concept of 'half' to you again Sean?" Ryan asked caustically. He looked to Ms. Dorn, "What do you think is going on? Is this some kind of CIA Project MKUltra redeux? None of this stuff should be possible let alone plausible or accepted, but I can't pretend to not be able to do what I've been doing."

Ryan looked at Swan, "And I think none of us are going to claim that her eyes or skin color are makeup. Ditto for that guy Bran. And I don't know how much LSD it would take to make you think you turned into a cougar Ms. Dorn. So what's the deal, what are we going to do about all this?"

[Frida Ricci]

"Since I haven't ever partaken of hallucinogens, I think we can trust my own testament that Ms. Dorn did indeed turn into a panther, even if we can't trust Ryan's."

That he had been being sarcastic obviously hadn't registered with the young artist.. either that or she was a master of the 'droll response'. Either way, she continued on before Ryan had any opportunity to defend against the subtle accusation.

"But concealing Swan seems only one of our immediate concerns. While the mural I painted didn't point any specific fingers, I am concerned that if the wrong people see it, it will give them more insight into the situation. I am also concerned about it's effect upon those not 'in the know', so to speak. It might raise questions.. though I suppose we are at least fortunate that most everyone here already thinks I'm psychologically disturbed in some manner."

Her voice carried a hint of resigned sadness to it, and the comment was probably one of the most heartwrenching things Sylvia had ever heard the young woman say. Till now she hadn't known one way or another if Frida realized just what people thought about her.

[Dawn OOC]

Lucia

Yasu was silent as Lucia panted into the phone. "I shall be there shortly," he/she/it promised. "Be prepared to receive me." Yasu gave her no time to reply before he/she/it hung up.

[Tatiana di Jadzian]

"Hey! Frida, this is high school, and a private school to boot. Everyone is psychologically disturbed. We deal with it and move on, eh?" He gave her a grin that was both encouraging and slightly teasing.

"As for your mural, that's easy. We take a digital photo with our phones - or a camera if someone has one - then call Groundskeeper Jason to get the paint to paint over it. It's just a wall. Me and Ryan-" Sean pointedly ignored Ryan's instinctive scowl for anything resembling work, "- could finish it in twenty minutes probably, especially if Jason can round up some quick-dryin' primer." He noted the looks pointed his way and defensively added, "What? I've painted my room a couple of times, I know what I'm doin'"

Sean gave Ryan an uncertain shrug. "I think we need to find this 'Door' or whatever and to hear from Brahn again. We just don't know enough." Dark brows lowered over darkened, stormy eyes as his jaw grew tight. "And I think I need to find Vanessa - Vena. With the way my mother and sisters disappeared and Frida having the keys to her Lexus, the only thing that makes sense to me is that she went through this door. She has to know something about it too, right?"

[Sylvia Dorn]

"There was a box."

The words seemed to come from far away, and Sylvia's eyes looked as though they were focused on another world.

"There was a little box, and salt, and coins. And that opened the Door."

As with Sean, the capitalization could be clearly heard. Then, shaking her head and blinking several time, the teacher refocused on the here and now, almost visibly surprised.

"I remember that. Whatever caused us to forget didn't take the memories; it just buried them. We have the information, if we can just dig it back up. Somehow."

[Atomicweasel]

“Brunchfast huh?” Mari looked sidelong at Renata, with a wan little ghost of a smile. She hadn’t eaten since lunch yesterday, and that had been an apple and some macaroni and cheese. She longed for an empanada. Golden brown and flaky outside and steaming hot inside with cheese and meat and covered in pico de gallo. It made her mouth water just to think about it. “So, like...between brunch and...” Mari teased.

“Everyone knows about brunchfast.” Renata replied.

“Sure. I love brunchfast.”

“I know you do.” Renata quipped back haughtily.

“Okay.” Mari giggled, her cheerfulness somewhat restored. “Let’s get brunchfast.”

“We will get brunchfast.” Renata smirked, steering Mari towards the central cafeteria. They walked side-by-side across the grounds and Renata kept stealing surreptitious glances at Mari. She liked the way Mari moved, the way the little shorts fit her so snugly, the way her sleek tanned legs contrasted sharply against the white color of the shorts. Most of all, Renata liked Mari’s ass. It was perfectly pert and round and bubbly and beautiful. Renata wanted to reach out and give it a hard slap. She shoved her hands down into her jeans pockets. “Oh, hey, you know what?” Renata stopped and dug out her cell-phone.

“What?” Mari paused a few steps ahead, turning toward Renata. A strong gust pushed her chocolate colored hair across her face and Mari reached up to hold the wind-whipped locks out of her face.

“I’m going to call Sean. There’s someone you should mee—“

“AY!” Mari yelped. She spun around, her hands moving swiftly to cover her butt, looking alarmed and confused.

“What?” Renata asked with her thumb poised over the call button.

“Someone...” Mari moved in a slow circle, still holding her butt. There were some students walking around the police tape that circled the quad, a gaggle of girls seated around a tree eating sandwiches, and a couple of boys throwing a frisbee back and forth. The girls under the tree were the closest. One of them waved when she caught Mari staring. Mari waved lamely back.

“Someone...?” Renata urged.

Mari turned back to her friend, blushing brightly. “Um. Nothing.”

“Oh. Really?” Renata squinted at her cannily. “Just tell me.”

Mari shook her head. “I just thought for a minute that...it was just.” Renata’s squint deepened as she watched Mari rub her butt. “Don’t worry about it.” Mari blushed brighter still.

“Ok then. Whatever.” Renata shrugged and called Sean. She held her phone to her ear and waited while it rung.

__________________

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

[Tatiana di Jadzian]

"Feathers," Sean said with succinct uncertainty.

Everyone turned and looked at the young, brawny man by the door, who held up his hands in surrender. "Don't look at me like that, I just know feathers are as important as Ms. Dorn's salt and quarters. Dunno why." He shrugged his shoulders then ran a hand through his hair and scratched an itch on his neck. "Diggin' up memories... we can't talk to a shrink about stuff like this, they'll just throw us all in the insa-"

Sean was interrupted by the tinny rendition of The Offspring's 'Stuff is Messed Up' emanating from his pocket. He pulled out his phone and glancing at the display, gritted his teeth and smacked his forehead with the heel of his palm in self-recrimination. Crapfuck! I totally forgot that there was someone else with Frida and Ravi taking my Wrangler back to Dalton.

"Aw, shit, sorry Ren-Renata. With Swan's exploding sword and Brahn showing up at the house after you left, seeing the police tape here and lookin' for Frida, werecougars and man-bats and- I completely forgot-" Sean curtailed his embarrassed rush with a deep calming breath. Dipshit. That's right, tell a girl you completely forgot about her.

"Let me try that again. Hey, Renata, what's up? You okay?" There was a long pause, then, "...Uh, it's gonna take more than harem pants to make up for this, isn't it?"

[SalmonMax]

Sean's avalanche of apologies hit Renata just as she was wondering if a fly had bitten Mari, and in her moment of distraction she was momentarily flatfooted. Fortunately for Renata, they were not using video phones or he'd be treated to a second of her gaping at her phone as if crickets had just come pouring out of the speakers.

Then she shifted gears, throwing out everything she'd planned on saying and switching course completely.

"Oh, now you remember," she said acidly. "Well did Frida and man-bats tell you that Mari nearly got killed last night by the werecougar?" She emitted a long-suffering sigh. "Okay, so Swan's sword exploded, and someone else showed up. Look, why don't you guys come meet up with us. We were just about to get some food. I'm bringing Mari in on this, and it sounds like we both need a serious update from you."

[Ryan Jackson]

Ryan scowled, "I hate it when you volunteer me for work Sean." He waved his hand to bid the conversation to continue but hard to interrupt again, "What's all this about a door?" Sean's phone rang before anybody could immediately answer and the others did their best to not look like they were doing what they were in fact doing, which was listening in on the phone call.