"Oh! Well, alright. Being a were-person for so long, I take things for granted now and then..." He takes his Gi from Nala "Thanks. I dunno if it would make it any more awkward for you or not, but, if you wanted to have a look at me...turn about is fair play."
Nala blushed bright crimson. "I...uh....I think I'll pass," she said, trying not to think too much about it. The thought was both terrifying and intriguing at the same time.
"Ohhh, I see." Vai says, plucking another cookie from the ever-diminishing plate. "Well, that's not something that you can decide, is it? If people are special enough to you, it just comes naturally. I do look forward to getting to know you both more, though." Vai says with a polite smile. It wasn't that she didn't LIKE the brothers, it was just... if this cave-mate thing was so important to them, it wasn't something that could be rushed.
Gives her a mischevious grin, then puts his gi back on and shifts back to his human form.
"Well, did you want to try to shift again? Or do you want to practice that part in private?"
Gives her a mischevious grin, then puts his gi back on and shifts back to his human form.
"Well, did you want to try to shift again? Or do you want to practice that part in private?"
"Right now I feel like it takes serious effort just to stand. I don't think I have enough energy to shift again. I guess it's something I'll have to keep practicing until I can do it without feeling like it's the hardest workout ever, but right now I need to rest."
"Yeah, been a big day! Lets get you to your room so you can rest. I can stay a while, if you need a mole teddy bear..."
"Yeah, been a big day! Lets get you to your room so you can rest. I can stay a while, if you need a mole teddy bear..."
"Hmm. I like that idea. Although I probably should be careful not to fall asleep on you like last night. I can't imagine sleeping on my floor is all that comfortable for you."
"It's alright. Just being near you is enough. Remember, I'm used to sleeping on a straw mat on the floor..."
"That's hard to imagine. Aside from a few rough nights after I ran away, I've always slept in a bed. But as long as you don't mind," she smiled.
Sits in the library for ... well he lost count of the hours, pouring over the books an theorizing. He's got his PAD out, and he's jotting down notes and timelines trying to draw conclusions. He's opened a file for info about amythysts, in which he's recorded all of the info he could find. Everything he's seen here seems to confirm these notes, with the psionic and technological things he's witnessed. Since there's no one else to do so, he figures he might as well try to study and learn more about them. Expecially this 'imprinting' thing the book mentioned. He yawns loudly, stands and stretches, then begins to put all of the books back in the places he's found them. He grabs his PAD and heads to the cafeteria, to eat and read.
"That's hard to imagine. Aside from a few rough nights after I ran away, I've always slept in a bed. But as long as you don't mind," she smiled.
He laughs "Of course not! Now, this time, grab my hand first before you port." he says with a wink.
Sits at his desk in their room, working up proposed changes to thier domicile to accomodate young ones. He sketches up a few ideas, and puts them away to show Ephebe later, trying not to think about the upcomming battle with Khoda.
"That's hard to imagine. Aside from a few rough nights after I ran away, I've always slept in a bed. But as long as you don't mind," she smiled.He laughs "Of course not! Now, this time, grab my hand first before you port." he says with a wink.
She reached out and took his hand lightly before heading back to her room. Vasya was sitting on the edge of the bed looking concerned.
"It's okay, Vasya," she said, picking up her familiar and cuddling her. "I'm doing better now. You don't have to worry."
One of the nurses doing her rounds is the first to realize Phaezeriel is gone; she discovers the unseen servant cleaning up the last of the mess he left behind before winking out of existence.
After leaving Fei and Tyrrin, Phaezeriel heads to the baths to make himself clean, then his room for some much needed sleep.
The brothers smiled.
"Thank you. We look forward to that too."
"Zren, have we done enough polite conversation yet?" Rikken asked mournfully. "I'm hungry."
"Me too."
Each of them grabbed a huge platter of cookies and started eating.
Vai heartily agrees by joining the ogres, and mimics them, grabbing a plate for herself. She's eating almost as fast as the ogres. The legendary Sunwake appetite seems to be in full swing here.
Sadie hides a giggle behind her teacup. They were all obviously enjoying the cookies. It was good to see them all getting along. Too few people were willing to give Zren and Rikken a chance.
Oh Vai definitely was going to have a tummy ache. She had gone through at least a plate of cookies already. She briefly wishes that ther was something other than cookies to eat, but then she has more cookies in front of her, and that thought disappears.
Tyrrin wanders throughout the library, looking for any information she can find concerning the scaled creatures she had seen in her dreams. Exhausted though she is, eventually she finds a book on large winged magical lizards, though she had barely started to read when she dips her head to the book and falls asleep once again.
|
'Alright, I'll going to go discuss this with the headmaster. You want to come, Anthony?' Ehos, despite the slump, seems a little more hopeful than when this conversation started, that's for sure.
"Like I would suggest all this and not see what happens? It's been two years, yeah, but I've not changed that much." Anthony takes a moment to think and sip cocoa. "I think."
Meanwhile, in his office, Ryo gets a strange bit of mail. Actually, it seems to be a report from the Empire. He hadn't asked for one though, and even looking in the past to see who sent it reveals nothing.
Seeing this confusion, his children, who had been looking through a big picture book, hurry to crowd around him.
"What is it, Papa? What does it say?"
"There is a boy about Matthias' age who could be in trouble. It says he's on a planet called Jergareth, ruled by a black dragon called Ancalagon. Remember how I told you about the other kinds of dragons?"
"Yes. Some are named after gems, some colors, and some are named after metals. Some are good and some are bad."
"Very good. It says the boy could get taken to a bad place because he's got magic. It seems magic isn't liked on Jegareth because technology is easier to control and monitor."
"Oh. Can we go play heros then instead of looking at picture books, then?"
"Yes, just be sure it's okay with Lysander first. It's his turn to watch you now." Ryo says as he continues reading the report.
"Thanks, Papa!" The three exclaims as they run off to find their older cousin,
"That's hard to imagine. Aside from a few rough nights after I ran away, I've always slept in a bed. But as long as you don't mind," she smiled.He laughs "Of course not! Now, this time, grab my hand first before you port." he says with a wink.She reached out and took his hand lightly before heading back to her room. Vasya was sitting on the edge of the bed looking concerned.
"It's okay, Vasya," she said, picking up her familiar and cuddling her. "I'm doing better now. You don't have to worry."
"Is she ok with the whole bear thing?"
"Is she ok with the whole bear thing?""That's hard to imagine. Aside from a few rough nights after I ran away, I've always slept in a bed. But as long as you don't mind," she smiled.He laughs "Of course not! Now, this time, grab my hand first before you port." he says with a wink.She reached out and took his hand lightly before heading back to her room. Vasya was sitting on the edge of the bed looking concerned.
"It's okay, Vasya," she said, picking up her familiar and cuddling her. "I'm doing better now. You don't have to worry."
"Of course. Vasya knows I would never hurt her. She's like a part of me. When Nagani was killed it was the most horrible feeling. I would never let anything like that happen to Vasya if there were anything I could do to prevent it."
Within minutes the vast mountains of cookies were no more. Sadie suppressed a laugh as she watched the other three looking around as if hunting for just one more cookie.
"Well, that was fun, but I think Vai is supposed to be having a harp lesson from her sister? Did I remember that correctly?"
"Oh geez, I totally forgot. I hope I'm not late. What time is it?" Vai wipes the crums from her lips with a napkin. She felt heavy after all those cookies, but she would need the food if she wanted to go flying again tonight.
Nasima's condition, while clear for a while, has steadily been worsening. The "adjustments" made to the Khoda-stone in her forehead keep the demented lightning god at bay, but the constant breaking of everything around her has worn her down, and Khoda has never given up trying to reassert his hold. The young sylph spends far too many hours sleeping, and always has crushing headaches when she is awake, making her almost a completely different person from the friendly and effusive girl her friends knew. Even now, as everything else in the school -- all the drama and friendship and fury and sound of school life -- moves and crashes around her, she is in bed, gazing emptily at the ceiling with half-lidded eyes, missing class, missing life.
In her classroom, Sifu Chen Daiyu carefully waters a bonsai. She hears thunder across the mountains but pays it no mind. She is prepared. The girl will be free.
...
In a corner of a crevice of an unused locker room, Yu lies in pieces. Or, perhaps more correctly, Yu lies on the filthy floor missing several pieces. His left foot, his right arm, his nose, his right ear; all are gone. His eyes are glazed over with a quicksilver-looking metal and he is not breathing.
BREAK DAMN YOU BREAK
YOU CANNOT HOLD FOREVER TINY GATE
MY TIME IS NIGH
Sparks of lightning arc in the distance, and Sifu Daiyu now seems to take notice, nodding as if she expected them. Calmly, unhurriedly, she sets down her watering pot. Sparing only the briefest glance in the direction of the mountains on the opposite side of the strange dimensional pocket that is her "classroom", the wizened monk(?) turns and pads silently out of the room on bare feet. She makes her way through the halls until she comes to the door of the room belonging to one particular student. A very special student.
She knocks softly, three times, on the door of Fei of the Sun Soul.
Keme walks into Nasima's room without knocking, carrying a tray .
"So, in case you don't realize this, your highness, you missed breakfast and lunch. So I brought dinner to you. Don't expect this all the time. It's just that I'll get in trouble if you starve to death while I'm supposed to be watching you."
He set the tray down on her desk and walked over to the bed. "Hey, Princess, did you hear a word I said? Princess?" He shook her, trying to get her to wake up.
After a long moment, 'Sima rotates her head to look at Keme. "Oh, hey. Hi." she says faintly. "I...it's awright, just leave it. Gotta bad headache, hurts to get up. I just need to rest and I'll be okay. You...you didn't need to...to do this." The cloud patterns on her skin, normally actively shifting and reflective of her mood, dancing around on her skin, are now faint and subdued, barely moving at all.
Sparks seem to be bouncing off the inside of the stone in her head.
"Oh crap."
::Rivets! If you aren't done with that contraption you better be within the next hour. We are out of time. Send the signal to everyone else involved in this insanity. Time to scramble.::
Keme scooped Nasima up like she weighed nothing at all. His big show of being weak seems to have been a ruse.
"Hey, you," he said to the aschen sitting and munching on coffee beans by the bed. "Get on. Your job's not done yet."
Once the aschen jumped onto Nasima he took off towards the restricted lab at top speed.
"I...what're you...hey." is about all the resistance Nasima can muster. "Where're you taking me?"
"We're heading for Professor Sunwake's lab. To put Ryleh's plan in action. There isn't any more time to waste. That stone is about to break, princess," he said grimly. "You're just going to have to trust us."
"Oh. Oh, okay. Of course I trust you guys...you're my friends..." She smiles wanly. "Just tell me what you need me to do."
Percy, on his way to his Textiles class, spots Keme and immediately changes direction, the cracks in his rocky flash flaring orange as his magma core heats up at the sight of the frustrating fox spirit. "HEY! Tokala, where are you going with her? She doesn't feel good, put her down!" The gentle but short-tempered elemental hammers one fist on the ground, vibrating most of the hallway, to drive home his point.
Sparks of lightning arc in the distance, and Sifu Daiyu now seems to take notice, nodding as if she expected them. Calmly, unhurriedly, she sets down her watering pot. Sparing only the briefest glance in the direction of the mountains on the opposite side of the strange dimensional pocket that is her "classroom", the wizened monk(?) turns and pads silently out of the room on bare feet. She makes her way through the halls until she comes to the door of the room belonging to one particular student. A very special student.
She knocks softly, three times, on the door of Fei of the Sun Soul.
Sifu Daiyu knocks at the office door of the Materials and Supplies building where Fei is quartered. One of the shift managers answers the door.
"Afternoon, Professor" the man says to her (she knows that he calls any adult staffer at Avalon who doesn't work in his building 'Professor'). "We don't normally see you down on the grounds. What can we do for you today?"
Keme jumps, still holding Nasima, to avoid the worst of the vibrations.
"Seriously?" he snapped. "You wanna act like this now? I'm taking her to get help for her dumbass. She's gonna fracking die if I don't. You can help or get out of the way and I really don't care which, but I don't have time for dramatics right now."
Percy's eyes flash at Keme's stinging retort, but he quickly calms down as he looks at his near-helpless friend in the Champion's arms. "I...okay. What can I do? How do you know she's going to die, what's happened? I just want to help."
"Follow me. We'll need all the help we can get," he said tersely, not slowing down on his way to the lab.
Telepathically, he continued his conversation with Percy. ::We can't say any of this out loud. Her life depends on it. Question one, can you fly? Question two, how is your resistance to electricity?::
"Afternoon, Professor" the man says to her (she knows that he calls any adult staffer at Avalon who doesn't work in his building 'Professor'). "We don't normally see you down on the grounds. What can we do for you today?"
The sifu bows deeply, respectfully to the worker.
"I am here for the student housed in this building. He is most likely expecting me. May I enter?"