"Well Amada and myself are 19 and are for lack of a better term imprinted on each other." Asch says.
"Well Amada and myself are 19 and are for lack of a better term imprinted on each other." Asch says.
She nods.
"Yeah, when it's the right person, age is not that important. Besides, I think physically speaking you guys are older than me. I'm physically the equivalent of seventeen."
"...certainly makes the playing field simpler in terms of legal flirtation targets."
Sinh catches the tail end of Sima's comment as he heads from the band practice room, hunting his elusive quarry. He shakes his head. ...sure glad I'm not that young no more.
Spin lets the conversation distract the group, slipping out of the room once Mr. S. is a decent distance down the hall. As he leaves the door, his form spins into that of a small black, slipping from shadow to shadow following the janitor's scent, hoping to see something of this "creature".
The others head back to their rooms. Ephebe is pleasantly surprised to discover that the sand is gone. She says goodnight to the others and heads to bed, happier than she can remember being in well....ever.
Bluff: 1 d20 + 3
Asch and Amada both head back to there own room.
Sinh whistles, checks his map, and crosses off another drain that clearly has been visited. Why did it head to the Band Room? Was there Doritos in the drain? He is blissfully unaware of his pursuer, as he heads to the next drain to check. Only 97 left to go...
Bluff: 1 d20 + 3
1d20+25
Sinh stops in mid-whistle and jumps. "Chicken corsets! I forget that!"
He turns and sprints off towards the dormitory wing, passing Krays and receiving the H'Tor's news... and arriving at Ephebe's door. Hope I'm not too late. He knocks very lightly.
Quickly losing interest in the endless search for… whatever it is Mr. S. is following, Spin reverts to himself when he sees Krays. "Hey, Roomie! And roomie's weird undead friend, what's up?" Spin is excited to hear Krays's re-telling of the events in their room, being us usual overly-animated self at every turn in the story. "Well, we'll catch it next time, right? oh well. Hey, I'm gonna turn in. Big day tomorrow… first day of classes."
At least the eyes won't be watching me all night.. yeesh! he thinks as he re-enters their room, ready to get his things unpacked.
Nasima also returns to her room. She is momentarily puzzled by the absence of her roommate Marra, but shrugs it off. Does she even sleep? Isn't she like a caryatid or something? Oh well. Not like I'm gonna be encroaching on her side of the room anyway.
After making sure her door is locked and changing back into her loose-n-comfies, the young sylph returns to her meditation exercises, relaxing her mind and tentatively exploring the strange stormy area in her thoughts from whence Khoda always originates.
If there is an unusual amount of thunder over the horizon that night, Nasima doesn't hear it.
Asch stands from his chair offering his arm to Amada. "Everyone ready?" He asks as he starts to leave.
She smiles and gently slithers her arm into his gently. With a quick nod she leaves with him.
Sinh stops in mid-whistle and jumps. "Chicken corsets! I forget that!"
He turns and sprints off towards the dormitory wing, passing Krays and receiving the H'Tor's news... and arriving at Ephebe's door. Hope I'm not too late. He knocks very lightly.
Ephebe answers in her pajamas.
"Oh, hi, Mr. Sinh. I was just getting ready for bed. But if it won't take you very long, I can throw my stuff in a bag and you can clean the room. Which would be nice. Jimmy didn't get rid of all the sand and there's still some in my sheets," she said with a grimace.
Mr. Sinh looks away. "Sorry, Miss." A blush creeps across his face, "I.. I only had time to do a very quick cleaning of your floor this afternoon and didn't want to handle your personal affects. I'd be more'n happy to move whatevers important out and give it a good once over. I expect you'll still want your bed and desk, eh?"
Sinh and Lil' Sinh efficiently move her bed and personal gear quickly from the room. He then sets Lil' Sinh to cleaning the sand from her sheets and treating them with a variety of cleansers. The janitor's one-sided conversation with his invisible helper reminds Ephebe of an Alchemy teacher's graduate dissertation - utterly incomprehensible but seemingly authoritative.
"Now Miss, everything left in this room will be gone soon. If you've a care for your brother's bedframe, posters, or anything else, now's the time to tell me."
Quickly losing interest in the endless search for… whatever it is Mr. S. is following, Spin reverts to himself when he sees Krays. "Hey, Roomie! And roomie's weird undead friend, what's up?" Spin is excited to hear Krays's re-telling of the events in their room, being us usual overly-animated self at every turn in the story. "Well, we'll catch it next time, right? oh well. Hey, I'm gonna turn in. Big day tomorrow… first day of classes."
"Yes, that's a good idea..."
Follows Spin back to the room"Did you find a group to play with?"
"Now Miss, everything left in this room will be gone soon. If you've a care for your brother's bedframe, posters, or anything else, now's the time to tell me."
Mr. Sinh looks away. "Sorry, Miss." A blush creeps across his face, "I.. I only had time to do a very quick cleaning of your floor this afternoon and didn't want to handle your personal affects. I'd be more'n happy to move whatevers important out and give it a good once over. I expect you'll still want your bed and desk, eh?"
Sinh and Lil' Sinh efficiently move her bed and personal gear quickly from the room. He then sets Lil' Sinh to cleaning the sand from her sheets and treating them with a variety of cleansers. The janitor's one-sided conversation with his invisible helper reminds Ephebe of an Alchemy teacher's graduate dissertation - utterly incomprehensible but seemingly authoritative.
"Now Miss, everything left in this room will be gone soon. If you've a care for your brother's bedframe, posters, or anything else, now's the time to tell me."
"Oh, it's fine. If there's anything he really wants, he'll just bend reality until he has it back. And it serves him right for importing half a desert into here....ummmm...but you should probably leave him his bed."
Sinh moves the bed into the hall then evaluates the door, frowning. He escorts Ephebe a few steps away from the door. "This'll just take a minute, Miss. Please stay here." He grabs his mop and a spritz bottle, then enters the room and closes the door...
Round 1: Sinh spritzes the door and window to protect them and takes a spot in the center of the room, surveying the tell-tale grime and tiny oil stains that have been ground in over the years. Appalling
Round 2: DAM
The entire room, including the ceiling is bathed in a thick molasses of acid. Sinh whistles, watching the acid do its work.
Round 3: DAM
The acid continues to eat through everything as Sinh wades through it finding a problem stain. He smells it and sneers. Magically ground in hair gel with a trace of Iocane powder. I've the thing for you, my lad! A jet of intensified acid shoots from his hand and scours the spot clean.
Round 4: Sinh dismisses the acid, wipes a rag across the window and door to remove the sealant, and spritzes a little of his own variant of Febreeze in the air. He sniffs. Hopefully the young Miss likes vanilla.
Round 5: Sinh opens the door. "All done Miss. Sorry to take so long."
Elapsed time: 30 seconds... not his personal best but Sinh is pleased.
"I'll move your things back in now, Miss. Thank you for yer patience." Sinh and Lil' Sinh replace every item to their original positions in double-time. The janitor takes an extra moment to ensure the bed linens were cleaned correctly. Nodding in the presumed direction of his invisible apprentice. "Good work." He spritzes the linens with a small bottle and heads out the door saying to Ephebe, "It's a light Lavender, I find it helps with sleep. Good evening, Miss." He heads down the hall.
It strikes Ephebe that Mr. Sinh never once looked at her in her pajamas.
[blink, blink]
"I didn't know that the room could get this clean..." she said, awed.
And happily climbed into bed and fell asleep.
And smiled in her sleep when Jiminy came back to the room and screamed in surprise to find it so thoroughly tidy.
Deep in the bowels of the school, beneath a long-retired steam boiler, is a forgotten and relatively disused midden. There the Eldritch Jello, by scent and instinct, tracked down a large source of consumables that don't bear polite description. Satisfied with this sizable vat of dinner, it retracts its tentacles from its forays and sets to gobbling down its unsavory repast.
The Eldritch Jello eats... and grows... and eats... and grows...
Scholars, centuries later, roundly debated what exactly happened next. Some said it was a natural evolution spurred on by the growth of the creature. Others, that it was something in the omnipresent magic of the academy that crossed the beast's palate and caused a change. Regardless of the cause, there is no disputing the fact that the Eldritch Jello, in that disgusting midden, became more than an mindless creature. It gained sentience.
And while it sat happily dining on the entire midden, it gave a great deal of thought to how it had gotten here, who was responsible, and what it should do next...
Aananda stretched and smiled. She always enjoyed this part of the day, walking outside in the morning sunshine before the students were awake. But it was time to head inside. She had a class to prepare for. The advanced class first, on the theory that they preferred if she was going to break students that she do so early in the day when everyone had a full complement of healing spells.
She walked into the gym and sat cross legged in the middle of the floor. She made a few adjustments to the floor and walls in preparation, but the surfaces looked smooth. She was still sitting like that as the first students began to trickle in.
Spin, while pulling his sparse gatherings from his over-sized green bag, looks over at Krays with a smile, "Yah, after I showed what I could do, a girl named Fieri came and asked if I'd help her put a band together. We havent' tried to play together yet, so I have no idea what I'm in for. Oh well. You'll have to come listen some time. You can tell us how bad we suck." He laughs, "So, first day of classes tomorrow…" his voice trails off as he looks at his class list on the small study desk.
His eyes light up, "Sweet! First class.. Advanced PhysEd.!"
How am I going to sleep tonight? he thinks to himself as he rolls into his bed, excitement warring with his desire to be ready for what's to come.
After rolling out of bed (and Krays could swear he rolled out of bed fully clothed… wait, did he even take his clothes off before bed?), Spin couldn't contain himself. Krays' morning was an exercise in enduring a non-stop onslaught of questions, observations, and high-strung comments.. from the moment they awoke through breakfast (a not insignificant amount of food taken in by the exuberant young shape-shifter) to the moment they departed to go to their respective first classes.
Spin doesn't have a negative thought until he walks into Mrs. Aanandareavekki's class for the first time. While the attractive teacher wasn't all that intimidating.. nor was the classroom itself. His first realization is that he's just about the youngest and smallest person in the room. Then his competitiveness kicks in, All the better to watch them fall…
Seeing no better options, Spin settles down on the floor cross-legged to see what would happen first. Eyes open. Fingers tapping lightly on the tips of his shoes.
She bounces into the classroom, clearly in a good mood. She smiles and waves at Spin before starting her stretches. She glanced over at Asch who was kind of grumbly this morning, though that might have had something to do with her accidentally eating his blood sausages at breakfast. (It wasn't like the cooks hadn't had more to give him, and he really should know better than to put his plate that close.)
In the pre-dawn hours, the staff at the Materials and Supplies building rise and start the work of filling replenishment orders from the faculty the previous evening. They are pleasantly surprised when their unannounced 'guest' from last night is already up and sorting the art supplies that came in.
Seeing the young man's knack for organization, they let him finish what he's doing and offer that he is more than welcome to bunk here in exchange for the occasional bit of extra help. An offer he humbly accepts.
About an hour before dawn, he excuses himself from the work, explaining that he must perform his daily physical regimen with the rising of the sun. As he has already separarted and catalogued the art supplies, the staff happily comply with his request.
He exits the building and finds a quiet spot with a clear view of the eastern 'sky'. Closing his eyes, he then begins a steady, rhythmic routine of exercises and katas. His motions are flowing, smooth, organic - indicative of a soft-style martial art.
His kata ends as he opens his eyes - at precisely the same moment that Agartha's 'sun' crests the horizon, the light of dawn bathing him in golden light...
He bows respectfully to the rising sun, his brown eyes seemingly unfazed by the bright light.
"Good Morning."
Asch wakes up to the scent of Amada's hair which is always his favorite way to wake up in the morning. He quietly moves off the bed to get ready for class and wakes Amada by kissing her and gently running his hand down her side. "It is time to wake my love." He says to he quietly. When she begins to stir he finishes getting ready. The two go to breakfast together (with Silver in tow of course). It is there where Ephebe proceeds to eat one of Asch's (well she says one but it was actually two plates I personally think when it comes to food she loses count) putting him in a foul mood. He then walks with Amada to her first class 'Enchantments and their effects'. He then heads towards Advanced P.E.
When he arrives there he slips his trench coat off and drops it beside him revealing the black tattoos that covers his right arm from the shoulder down to his wrist. That remind you of shadows flowing over his arm. "Alright I'm here we can start class now." He says as he finishes his stretches and rests on the balls of his feet his arms draped over his knees.
She raised an eyebrow and a corner of her mouth twitched upwards.
"Perhaps you would like to take a cue from some of your other and do some stretching first?" she asked drily.
"You too," she said, nodding at Spin.
"I am NOT a morning person..." Krays thinks to himself as he's greeted by the bubbly and high energy roomate. He politely and succinctly answers all of Spin's questions. As Spin leaves for class, Krays chuckles and is grateful for the peace and quiet.
He gets dressed in his robes and does a few morning rites, mostly to refresh himself and H'Tor, then heads to breakfast. He will eat with his new friends, then bid them all a good day as they all split up to their respective classes. H'Tor will wish Krays a good day, then head back to the room as Krays heads to his first class of the day...
EDIT:
"I already finished my stretches." Asch says slightly confused.
Maybe she is so worried about the hunters and her kids that she wasn't paying attention. He thinks to himself with a shrug.
Spin waves back at Ephebe. At the instructor's words, he turns and shrugs, "My body never really seems to need to stretch. I'm ready to go whenever."
"So this is the new batch of victims? The poor fools don't know what they're in for!" A large bat hanging from the rafters thinks. "I wonder which will be the first to cry this semester?"
Asch feels his instincts pulling at his awareness and the hunger increasing, but that only happens in the presence of undead and H'tor was no where nearby. He eventually shakes off the feeling and concentrates on class.
"Well, if you think you are sufficiently prepared..." she said, with a wicked grin.
"Alright, class! Time to get started. I'll start you off easy to give you time to warm up."
She held out a handful of colored pebbles.
"Each of you pick a color."
Once everyone had selected their color, she sent the pebbles dashing off through the air.
"Your first task is to catch your pebble."
She waited for them to start before she started moving the floor, sending columns up and opening cracks and chasms as the students raced around the clasroom.
The new student returns to the Materials and Supply building, gathers his paperwork, and (after asking for directions) makes his way to the administrative offices to process his registration.
"GREEN!" Spin yells out, wanting to show his enthusiasm, then the green pebble rockets off her palm, flying up into the rafters where it zips in and out of the metal beams… taunting him. His face registers surprise for a split second before it's replaced with a grin.
"WHOOO----!" the yell is cut off as his body spins into that of a kangaroo, and his powerful legs launch him into the air. As he reaches the apex of his jump, ten feet up, his body contorts once again, burnt red fur becoming majestic brown and white feathers with an 8 foot wingspan. BaldEagle-Spin picks up speed in mid-air, a screech of pursuit as it streaks through the air after the annoying green pebble.
His screech becomes victorious as he opens his claws to snag the pebble--
One of the beams swings out of its own accord, smashing BaldEagle-Spin into a floor-bound spiral, stars spinning around his bald head.
Nasima woke up to find her room still empty. Maybe Marra transferred? Hmm. After having some water and a bit of food, she dresses as appropriate, as indicated in her syllabus, and heads to her first class: Deep Meditation. The room is in a strange part of the school; 'Sima climbs so many stairs she's afraid she's going to end up in some attic or something, some place she's not supposed to be. She double-checks her school map, turning it this way and that, but eventually gives up and just keeps going. ...I'm no good at reading those things, anyway.
Eventually she comes to a door with a single number 6 on it. Huh! This is the place! Gosh I must be six or seven stories up, I didn't even think the school was this big. Quietly, she opens the door and steps in...
...and has her breath taken away by the most beautiful vista she has ever encountered. Six stories? I must be up six hundred stories! How did I even get here? She is standing in a room wider than it is long, perhaps not-quite-50' by 30', with a sunken area in the center. The floor at the edges is some kind of intertwined reed while the center area is all bamboo planks, as are the three walls. Where the fourth wall should be, right across from the door, is an opening onto a ledge. Six bonsai trees sit at various spots, along with some delicate wind chimes and a hummingbird feeder. Beyond the ledge and the trees is a spectacular mountain range, the kind 'Sima has only ever before encountered on the Earth Plane, or to a lesser extent the Material Plane. Wherever she is, she is at a not inconsiderable altitude -- maybe 6'000 feet -- and the mountains are massive, every peak crowned with a thick and extensive snow cover, and stretching as far as she can see from north to south, and in the crisp clear air she can see a very long ways indeed. The sun is a blazing red-orange disk of life and energy and power that is just peering over the edge of a mountain a bit south, so its light illuminates the room indirectly rather than rushing in full-force. The warm glow of this glorious mountain sunrise gives everything the timeless feel of a painting, of a perfect moment rendered in exquisite materials for the consideration of the ages.
She's so busy looking at the majestic sweep of the scenery before her that it takes her a minute to catch her breath and look around. She feels moisture on her cheeks and realizes she's been nearly crying from the beauty of the view, the room, everything around her. A bird calls softly somewhere. Returning, with some regret, to the present, she takes in the beings in the room with her. Seated on a tatami mat in the sunken area is a big magma elemental, his huge forearms resting on the ground and his blazing-hot breath coming out in chuffs of steam in the crisp air. A rather cross-looking behir is curled up on another mat, its lips curled in a cruel snarl and its eyes staring balefully at the wall. The other two students are a small troll and a bird-man of some sort, his golden feathers shining beautifully in the morning light. All of them glance at her, then return to staring at the ground. Only the magma elemental shows any curiosity, angling his head a bit.
"Nasima, yes? Please. Sit." A small woman, spear-bald and nearly as slight and petite as the young sylph herself, has risen from a mat out on the ledge. She is clad in plain brown robes under which neither her hands nor feet are visible.
"Oh! I'm...I'm sorry, I didn't see you there!" Nasima exclaims. The behir and troll chuckle cruelly.
The woman only smiles. "It is good." She then gazes mildly at 'Sima.
"Oh! Right! Sit. Yes. Sorry. I'm sorry!" Suddenly feeling strangely flustered, the youngster takes a rolled-up mat from a pile on the floor and steps down into the sunken meditation area, just a step of a few inches but one that feels hugely significant. She unrolls her mat and sits lotus-style near the magma elemental.
The bald woman speaks again, and her voice is soft like your lover's hair: "Hello class. I am Yasui. We will begin with a simple exercise, and grow together." She pulls her right hand out from her left sleeve. In it she holds a cluster of pebbles. "I will give each of you a pebble." As she is talking, Yasui is setting a pebble on the plank floor in front of each student. "Your first task is to contemplate your pebble." She stops and smiles. "Please begin."
From deep in the midden, a titanic, 180dB belch erupts from the Eldritch Jello shaking dust off the old boiler above it. Full
:: blib-blorp bahluuulap? Plorpnap Nala ghullab-mop-lurp! ::
The Jello 'frowns' if frowning is even physically possible.
One of the beams swings out of its own accord, smashing BaldEagle-Spin into a floor-bound spiral, stars spinning around his bald head.
"Casualty number one." The bat thinks solemnly as it drops from it's roost and snaps it's wings out. Diving fast, it literally knocks some sense into Spin with a midair collision that causes him to fly right-side up. It quickly goes back to it's roost.
Senses re-gathered, the boy's form shifts and spins, eight long black, hairy legs sprouting where wings had been a second before. A string of sticky webbing lashes out past the unaware retreating bat, lashing onto the offending beam.
A wide, wild, swinging arc brings Arachni-Spin back up into the rafters and after the green pebble. Releasing his web, the boy rips through the rafters at an incredible rate, spinning into a surprisingly large spider monkey as it dodges and swings through the attacking metal arms. The pebble stops in air - as if dumb-struck by the monkey-missile - and two clawed little Spider-monkey-Spin fingers lash out to grab the stone.
Despite the speed and wild arc of his path, Spin is barely able to grab ahold of his target as he plummets through the living rafters. As he falls, his spindly little arms hold up the pebble in victory, letting out a little monkey war-cry before bouncing and rolling to a stop on one of the padded floors.