Peppermint and Cinnamon

[kaisan]

Chance!

Hitomi noticed the sudden introduction of several other characters, and promptly dematerialized in the midst of the confusion.

She floated back into the walls and reviewed the current situation.

Several new people arrived, including "Richard Flemingway" and "Vedeloitte".

A girl, Dekara Senri, shouted at everyone to stop blocking the stairway, and got into an argument with one of the boys. And did he just turn into a girl for a brief moment?

A hyperactive girl began hugging Lutecia Scarlet, only to be thrown down the corridor at another boy... Venser, was it?

A bird in flight changed into a dog to pin down the hyper one, before changing back into a bird again and flying up to Venser.

Kris standing in the middle of the dispersing crowd, looking as if she had stage fright.

Wow, so much happened in such little time... This year's going to be a fun one!

Hitomi quickly drifted away before anyone else would notice her unnatural nature.

[theburntone]

Portal

Portal landed on the floor without a scratch, but the impact was kind of hard.

PAINPAINPAIN

"mii~ That hurt. Where's the doggy?"

Portal looked around, wondering where the cute thing had gone. Then she saw the bird.

BIRD!!!!!

"CUTE BIRD!!! MII~"

Completely forgetting what rushing at others had done to her the first time, she charged at Venser, grinning and giggling, trying to grab the bird.

Dekara Senri

Dekara saw the little girl rushing the top of the staircase after the bird. If that girl continued this way, she'd crash. Right into her.

"OH NO YOU DON'T!"

Dekara split to Portal's side, then behind her, trying to grab the seemingly invincible little girl. Portal didn't seem to notice, and simply continued barrelling forward.

Portal's hair was everywhere, and Dekara couldn't see for the sheer amount of hair that had gotten into her eyes. She didn't want to let go for fear of being sent tumbling down the steps, but she couldn't split out either because she couldn't see. So she was stuck clinging on to Portal's back as she charged.

"This definitely can't be good..."

[Carillus]

To anyone looking at her, Lucetia was the image of calm.

On the inside, she was kicking herself.

Lucetia! Control your strength! Remember you aren't dealing with your fellow vampires - they're humans!

Well, she did annoy me ever so much with those ridiculous melons. Plus, she's unharmed.

Still! Abuse of power is abuse of power!

Fine, fine. I won't do it aga- wait, I'm talking to myself. Never mind.

Unwittingly, she noticed that Miss Bovine had set her sights on her latest target, the boy she had almost collided with - Venser, was it? It was a chance that any testosterone-charged male teenager would gladly fling themselves at. Well, it wasn't her business anyway. Not really. Though she did feel kind of miffed.

No good, no good, I'm losing myself. Come on, Lucetia! Behave in a way more befitting of your bloodline!

"T... This is getting rather out of hand, I must say. Perhaps you all do not know yet, but there is a lounge on the first floor just past the reception. After all, it is nearing dinnertime, and the lounge serves rather wonderful main courses. Shall we adjourn?"

Lucetia turned quickly and slid into the lift (the stairway was still rather packed). Her face betrayed the slightest hint of red, all the more visible on her pale skin.

[Phagetthree]

A loud thump.

More shouts.

An energy spike from one of the unliving ones.

What the heck is going on?

He had already polished all his items to mirrorlike perfection as he checked his reflection in the blade, then the shield.

Well it's a good thing I stayed out of that.

His stomach began growling, gnawing at him.

Sigh.

He slid the sword back into its sheath, knelt before the Order's symbol on it and said a quick prayer before going to put his shoes on.

I wonder if that Venser guy can read minds... Hey Venser, wanna go have dinner at the lounge? If you can hear me that is.

With that he opened his room door to see a... well developed female person charging at someone beyond his peripheral vision.

What the heck? A melee now?

Frederick briefly returned to his room to retrieve his long cloak, and Kukri knife. Not for fighting, of course, but the cloak to conceal it, should the school be against such personal items, and the knife itself for chopping extra thick beef that most schools were infamous for.

Almost forgot... Heh.

He stepped out again.

[schrodinger]

I believe the phrase rhymes with 'clucking bell'. Not this shit again.

Alright, you want it, you got it. To her, Guile!

Thoroughly exasperated with the insistence that the unknown, overgrown bird (not his familiar) displayed in the effort to attack his familiar, Venser transferred Guile from his shoulder to his hand, then swept it forward, giving Guile a jump-start in swooping towards the unwelcome assailant.

Much more was gotten than bargained for, however, as Guile assumed the form of a much more imposing bird as soon as it left Venser's hand, changing from a small, unassuming robin to a massive falcon, its wingspan taking up nearly half the hallway. It sank its talons into the girl's clothes and propelled itself forwards and downwards, pushing her (and her unwilling cargo) to the floor.

"Weight/Lock."

Using Guile as a conduit for his own magic, Venser ensured that the pair were by no means going to be able to rise from their prone positions by assigning Guile an arbitrarily large weight-value (enough to act as a person-weight, not enough to crush anyone), and creating a spatial anchor around them, pulling them back to the same location no matter where they moved.

Looks like Advanced Planar Theory actually did come in handy. I wouldn't have believed it, but taking every course available back then might not have been a bad idea.

Outwardly, he folded his arms and sternly addressed the supine offender.

"What was that in aid of, miss?"

[theburntone]

Dekara Senri

"Get off me, bitch!"

Dekara tried to shift Portal's weight around, and failed.

Hearing the voice of a guy above her, she shouted, "Brush this frickin' hair out of my face, and I'll gladly leave you alone. NO, SERIOUSLY, I NEED TO SEE!"

Portal

HEAVY!

Portal struggled under the weight for a while, almost managing to sit up, then collapsed. She calmed down somewhat.

Stupid. Stupidstupidstupid! Sugar rush. How'd that happen? Cake...

"Sorry, I had too much sugar. Eheheheh... all I've had since coming here was sweet stuff, since that's all I know how to make. Cake, anyone? I've got some handy, if you'd let me reach it."

Constantine Ward

Leaving his room, Constantine was about to go down the stairs to the lounge when he noticed Dekara lying on the floor beneath a girl and a really, really big bird.

"My, my, Dee. Certainly got yourself into trouble, haven't you?"

He patted Venser on the shoulder and whispered, "Nice job" before stepping back behind him, watching the situation unfold.

[RaineScarlet]

Kris was hiding behind her hands, not seeing anything--or rather, refusing to see. She was trying to think, without the visual distractions. The spot on her forearm where she had pinched herself was throbbing painfully. That was going to leave a mark--and probably cause pain for a few weeks if she went shooting. The recoil was nothing to scoff at.

If I'm not waking up, does this mean this is real? If so, then that would mean that my entire life up to this point has been a lie. Like something that the gods forgot to mention. "Oops, we forgot to tell you that sci-fi is real." What a bad joke. But maybe there's another explanation.

She could literally feel the wheels of her mind turning as she plowed on, trying to make sense of the last several minutes.

This could be a test of wits. I am, after all, getting a free ride. They could be trying to scare me out and save money. A lot of universities these days are like that. So they're testing to see if I'm worthy of this place. The changing bird would have been CG, and the long throw was ... a stunt. Of course. These things are easy to pull off nowadays.

But she still didn't open her eyes to look. As if closing her eyes a bit longer would explain that someone removed the stunt props while she wasn't paying attention. Excuses. But a tiny part of her mind protested. She was too intelligent to lie to herself.

But you touched the bird earlier. The creature was real. If the bird was CG, then how did you interact with it? It couldn't have flown out the window. You confirmed that for yourself when you were trying to find its owner. The rooms' doors were all closed. There was nowhere for the bird to go. And honestly, when that hyperactive girl came out of the elevator, there was no possible way that there had been any wires attached to help her fly that far. The elevator is a closed room.

She completed her analysis shrouded in a strange sense of calm. It has always been said that humans find a beauty in insight. Though Kris wasn't particularly fond of this one. It was still too early to believe it. She followed the saying "Seeing is believing," but this was all really too much. In any case, she couldn't just stand against the stairwell. Much of the crowd had already dispersed. And strangely enough, no one amongst the crowd had seemed surprised at the sequence of events.

Is it possible that they're all in on this? She reverted back to her first hypothesis.

Or not. She remembered her reasoning and thought about her second hypothesis. If that is true, then what are they all doing here? I just want a PhD and buy a house for Mom. Why are there freakish creatures in this academy? I'd be hard-pressed to believe that they're here just to learn, since they all seem to be at each others' throats.

She wasn't all-out panicking yet. No, these things usually came up slowly. I'll start hyperventilating in the shower or something, Kris predicted. But she didn't fancy skipping said shower.

First thing's first. I need to get into my room. But... She finally removed her hands from her eyes. There was still a small group in the corridor. And the bird. Oh gods, the bird. She didn't want to approach the group, even though she hadn't quite accepted the fact that they weren't normal. I don't accept that they might be normal either though.


But I think... maybe it might not be that bad if they weren't normal...

[schrodinger]

"That's not an answer, but I'm not going to try and get one out of you - that would be as futile as giving Viagra to an eunuch. You know them, you deal with them."

Venser left the task of managing the two to Constantine, and walked on down the hallway, stretching out his arm as he passed them. Snapping his fingers, he dismissed the spell over them, and Guile leapt up, changing into a mink as it landed on his arm, where it swiftly crept over his shoulders and draped itself across his neck.

No doubt long-time ADHD sufferers, the lot of them.

"Fred, I'll take you up on your offer to head down to the lounge. It's about time I had something to eat. Come on."

In order to cast spells, energy of some form was always required - in most cases it was spiritual, but Venser knew of a way to divert his caloric intake into his mana pool, directly burning it into the fuel needed for his magic. It was a fairly strange practice, but the gist of it was that he could transform nourishment into spellcraft simply by digesting it. He'd gotten so used to doing it that it was second nature to him, resulting in a somewhat gaunt countenance.

He figured that he'd just burnt up the nutritional equivalent of a chocolate bar in the casting - not an incredible amount, but he'd been a little on the peckish side before all the commotion had begun at any rate. Dinner sounded like a good idea.

En route to the lounge, he passed the girl who'd been speaking to Guile earlier. She seemed shell-shocked about something, possibly the oddness she'd just witnessed.

Hmm. Mundane. Well, all that's going to change pretty sharpish.

He discerned that she wasn't used to supernatural occurrences; that her world was one without magic, without enchantment, of absolute normality. It wasn't something he could identify easily with - after all, he'd grown up in a magical community. But alienation and fear were at the forefront of her psyche at the moment, and he didn't feel right just leaving her. From what he could tell, Guile's shapeshifting had caused her considerable distress, too, so he wasn't completely blameless in the matter.

Reaching out to lay a hand on her shoulder, he tried his best to channel an aura of positive reassurance about his person.

"Hey, chin up. Don't worry too much about what's been going on over here - it's not really that big a deal. You're right, nobody around here is really normal, but then again, who really is? It's a weird world, with weird people, but we're all in it together."

Glancing over his shoulder at the motley crew behind, he appended a slight afterthought to his comforting message.

"Though perhaps it might sometimes be preferable if we weren't."

Maintaining the aura of positive reassurance (it was more than just an attitude, it was a subtle mood-altering enchantment that he was projecting around him), he lifted his hand and set it in front of her, as Guile climbed down onto it and shifted back into the form of the bird she'd seen earlier.

"You see? Not all magic is to be feared. Why, just now you were much enamored with it. Guess what? It's the same now as it was then, and it's not its shape that defines its soul. I'm sure that it's perfectly capable of loving unconditionally, no matter what form it's in.

If you're still worried about these people...myself... set your mind at ease. Really, it's no different from transferring to any other school. Your world changes when you leave your family. Only in this case, change is much more flamboyant about expressing itself. You can handle it, can't you?"

[Carillus]

"Hey, honestly? I'm fine and dandy with all you people standing around trying to tie up loose conversation ends and whatnot, but Ms Cranky here is probably gonna blow the place up soon if you guys don't vacate the hallway and let us put our bags down."

Richard was getting slightly distressed.

"Vedeloitte, please put that book away, you're gonna get us all killed if you Replicate that thing here."

Scowling, Vedeloitte put her copy of "Modern High Explosives" back into her bag. The whole lot of them reeked of stupidity. Especially that overly sweetened girl. Somehow, she could kind of empathise with the stupendously strong girl from just now.

Well, the guy with the bird is fine. But that's about it.

She thrust her weight onto her left leg, and started tapping her right foot impatiently as she waited for the crowd to dissipate.

[RaineScarlet]

Kris forgot her tension for a moment as the gray haired boy approached. There was a noticeable wave of calm he exuded that drew her in. The rational part of her kicked and screamed, telling her not to give in, but she ignored it. She didn't want to deal with that right now. There would be ample time for sorting out her feelings later--right now was observation time.

But she knew she was reaching her limit. The boy was speaking to her. He's trying too hard. I'm not as shocked as I look. ... Perhaps.

Some part of her noticed that he must have a deeper insight into her thoughts, because this was the first time he had approached her, and yet he seemed to be aware of her mental processes. The remaining part her just accepted it through a veil. She nodded as the animal in the boy's hand shifted again. She held her hand out a bit, and could feel the tiny draft created by the creature's wings. But she couldn't touch it. Not yet.

There goes hypothesis number one. This boy is practically telling me that there is such a thing called "magic." Outrageous as that is, it much emulates the arguments for God. How can we prove that there is or is not such a thing until you see it...

A childish part of her felt small and insignificant. The world suddenly got much bigger.

Kris sighed, and closed her eyes. She could see lights blinking on and off. That was never a good thing.

An overly flamboyant change... His reasoning's not bad. It's not like I can do anything as of now. Time will tell.

"I'll handle it." Kris muttered. She didn't say that she could, but that she would. That was just how she did things.

She was about to head towards her room, because she STILL hadn't dropped off her bags, when she remembered.

"Good evening." She waved, but didn't bother crafting a smile. Too tired.

Kris detached herself from her perch on the staircase and made for her room, wobbling once in a while. Thankfully, it was relatively close by.

Fumbling with the key, she finally got the door open, barely remembered to lock it, and dove for the bed. Her head was spinning. She felt lightheaded. Perhaps some food would have done her good, but there were going to be people down there. She wasn't prepared to face them all. They would, of course, act as if nothing was wrong, but she wasn't ready.

I'll sleep on it. And hopefully wake up refreshed. Will the lounge still be open? Is there a curfew? What should I do if I--

She flung her duffel bag on to the floor and closed her eyes. The bag landed with a loud "thunk," which hopefully would go unnoticed by passersby.

A box of mint slipped out from the abused bag.

Whatever.

[Shirafune]

Rika remained an onlooker, sieving through the information she was given from conversations alone.

People here were confessing to be abnormalities of sorts. She herself had grown up abnormal among others, but here, the people she met with had abnormalities far outweighing that of hers.

They were people in her delusions, materalised.

For once, Rika thought she might just be delirious. However, everything seemed just too lucid; little people met with surprise. This were her fantasies through a mesh screen - she wanted to interact with these people, but was afraid to cross the borders and psychological barriers she had set for herself.

[schrodinger]

...I can only hope she does recover from it soon. It isn't everyday that one's world gets flipped-turned upside down - she probably has to take a minute to sit there and take it in.

There was only so much he could do to help. The rest was up to her...and to the others, if they could restrain themselves from behaving in a manner befitting inmates from a mental hospital.

Sighing, he continued on his way to the lounge.

"Oh, that's right. Frederick, are you going to hang around all day or come down to eat? Don't just stand in the middle of the hallway, it's obstructive."

He motioned for Frederick to get a move on as he made his way down the stairs.

[Phagetthree]

"Ah yes, of course. Right after you, Venser."

Frederick ran to catch up with the mind reader, bypassing a few other notably interesting characters.

"Ah hello, interested for dinner at the lounge?"

Saying that as he passed by, he also noted the tall female from the staircase having just entered her room.

She seems shocked for some reason...

Catching up with Venser, the pair headed down towards the lounge together.

"Interesting pet of yours, does it have a base shape?"

[theburntone]

Portal

"Guess he doesn't want cake, huh?"

Portal sat up, brushed her hair back into place, then walked up the steps, trying to figure out where exactly her room was.

"320... 320..."

Dekara Senri

Dekara felt a heavy weight lifting off her, and then another heavy weight as the girl who'd been crushing her just a moment before got up and left.

"Finally, I can breathe!"

She was too exhausted to do anything, even return Constantine's insult. So she just lay there and mentally cursed at the horrible day she'd been having.

Constantine Ward

"Dee, you're blocking the way. Move."

Little black particles gathered under Dekara, gently lifting her up to the top of the staircase and propping her up against the wall as she stared daggers at Constantine.

"Don't worry. Sooner or later someone'll carry you off."

He flashed an annoying smile at Dekara before chasing down the stairs after the gray-haired boy he'd congratulated earlier.

[ivankira]

Shichi made his way into the dorms and realised that it was pretty empty. He noticed that there's a girl dressed from head to toe - no, not head to toe. From her head to her tigh, in shocking hot pink. She was standing, leaning against the wall at the top of the stairs.

She seemed.... Exhausted?

Why...?

But Shichi decided to not be such a nosey fella, and instead, the smell of food coming from another flight stairs leading down tempted him greatly, tickling his appetite.

Perhaps food would be a way to help that poor tired soul... (OoC: not the literal soul/spirit thing)

Guided by his compassionate heart, he decided to go help out the teenage girl, instead of just easing his hunger. Gently climbing up the stairs, he went up to the teenage girl and took a better look at her.

She seems to be around his age and she is very well built, physically.

Lets find about abit more of why she's in this state...Snake...
As he walked, underneath his nose, a heat sensory organ usually found in snakes developed slowly, so as to prevent as much pain as possible.

Now granted with heat vision, beneath the attire of the girl, he could make out a... Slim body with lean muscles...

Wow... She would make a pretty good assassin... Muscles developed to sprint fast, jump high, attack with great swiftness...

Calmly and gently, he stepped up the last step of the stairs, and walked towards her.

"Hi, I'm new here. Are you alright? Do you need me to get you anything?"

At a closer distance, he could see the pale and exhausted face of the girl, breathing rather heavily. The heat sensory organ slowly disappeared within him.

[theburntone]

Dekara Senri

"Just... get me to room 319. I need to lie down for a while. I feel like I've been crushed by several tons of something. You haven't seen a blond girl in a white dress, have you? If you do, tell her she weighs a ton, and that's an insult. If she even knows what an insult is."

It wasn't just the weight of that bird, that was for sure. For something to continue moving without stopping at that speed when she'd grabbed it, it must have been really heavy to have that kind of momentum. Basic physics, something every good assassin knew.

That girl must have weighed several hundred kilograms, at the very least. What puzzled Dekara was how such a slim girl weighed so much. It certainly wasn't the density of a normal human, even a superhuman.

[ivankira]

"Just... get me to room 319. I need to lie down for a while. I feel like I've been crushed by several tons of something. You haven't seen a blond girl in a white dress, have you? If you do, tell her she weighs a ton, and that's an insult. If she even knows what an insult is."

Shichi listened carefully as the girl spoke with some difficulty, trying very hard to catch her breath.

"Alright. And... No, I haven't seen a girl in white yet."

Gently, he lifted up the girl by placing his arms behind her shoulders and knees, as he did so, he said "Excuse me then."

Shichi lifted her up without much difficulty, although the girl wasn't exactly made up of paper. As he looked around to find the room, he noticed a board, upon which there is a name list, which indicate who is allocated to which room.

He then zero-ed to his own name.
"...
Room 0315: Li Kwon-eun
Room 0316: Pamela Paladinne
Room 0317: Shichi
Room 0318: Constantine Ward
..."

So I'm in 0317... Okay... Hmm, this girl is in room 319... I suppose... I could find out her name...

"
Room 0318: Constantine Ward
Room 0319: Dekara Senri
Room 0320: Portal
Room 0401: Ellen Engrave
-"

Ahh... Dekara... Pretty uncommon name.

Shichi then slowly made his way to room 319 so as to not cause any discomfort to Dekara. Upon reaching the door, the gold numbers stared back at him.

Great... The doors here aren't automatic... I hope the door is not locked.

Lucikly, it was not properly closed at all, a slight tap with his foot opened the door smoothly. He then proceeded to lay Dekara down onto her bed.

"Have a good rest, I'll come back in a while to bring you some food."

With that, he turned around and closed the door shut properly.
He did not dare to observe too much in someone else's room, he know how it felt. Especially since he was a stranger to her. He did not want something like that to happen to him.

Don't do what you don't want others to do to you... That sentence rang in his head. Ayane was the one who told him that.

With a small sigh, he proceeded into his own room, which was accessible as the keys were somehow left hanging on the door handle and dumped his belongings onto the ground just beside his bed.

Time to get some food.

He smiled to himself, as he locked his room door, poketed his room keys and took a good look around.

No one..

He then flipped himself over the railings and landed silently and gently right in front of the next flight of stairs leading to the smell of food. He stood up striaght, as if nothing had happened, and proceeded downstairs.

[Kim Kwan-Jang]

When Sou came out of her room the hallway was already empty.

I guess everyone's hungry already, she thought.

Walking down the hallway towards the elevator, she heard fast footsteps down the staircases.

She took no notice and pressed the down button at the lift lobby.

Moments later, the door opened with a 'ding'. She entered.

[schrodinger]

Rushing back up the staircase to the rooms, Venser prepared himself for an incursion into Kris' mindscape. She was having a nightmare, that much was obvious, and it wasn't uncommon for children (and indeed she still was a child) to have nightmares when living in a new environment. But the content of her nightmares was far more significant - and disturbing - than the standard horror fare that most children faced.

It was her past, coming back to haunt her. No, maybe she was using it to torment herself. And there was another element, too. She was resisting the change in her life. That wasn't surprising, considering how she'd reacted earlier... but if this was how she was handling it, she definitely needed help.

A strange turn of events, since I'm hardly the poster child for mental stability myself. But I don't think there's anyone else around here who could do this for her.

He stopped just outside of her door and set a palm on it.

Locked. It's alright, that's a threshold that I will not cross. I have to reach her from here.

Closing his eyes, he searched for her unconscious mind, projecting himself into her dreamscape.

[theburntone]

Alexa Bai

"YAAARGH!"

Alex felt something twinge in his forehead.

"Alexa, is this one of your tricks?"

"No! I feel it too! IN THE FRICKING NETHERWORLD! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!"

"Frankly, Alexa, if I knew, I'd tell you. It's like something's pulling hard on my-- YAAH!"

The twinge was back, and it felt like he was being yanked harshly to the door and yet not moving. Following the pull, he dragged himself out of the room.

"AH-AH-OUCH!"

That was something strong.

"Okay, what the BLOODY HELL IS GOING ON?! IT HURTS!"

"I told you, I don't know!"

The twinge occurred as he walked around, and it seemed to change direction as he turned. If he walked away when it was at the back of his head, it hurt more than if he walked towards it. Looking around, it seemed to come from Room 303, 2 doors down. Stumbling against the door, he realised the pain had sort of subsided. It was still there, but it was noticeably less.

"Ouch..." he said as he struggled to figure out why exactly he'd felt that pain.

He noticed Venser closing his eyes and concentrating. No doubt using some sort of magic. Well, Alex had a few tricks of his own.

He tried the door, and to no surprise, it was locked.

"Time to see through this thing. Thifano peerta!"

Instantly, to his eyes, the door became transparent. Kris writhing as if she was sleeping. Casting his eyes on her caused a fresh twinge of pain, and disrupted his magic.

"Something's wrong with her, though it can't be seen, and it's giving off this amount of bad vibes... Kesselisthe mial, opse matya!"

Unlocking the mind, seeing through the eyes. A risky spell combination, but the most direct way to figure out what was wrong with her was to see it from her perspective, since he apparently couldn't see it otherwise. Alexa'd said magic often produced visual effects on its casters and victims, often hallucinations. To another person, nothing might have happened, but to caster and victim, a bolt of flame might have sprung forth and burned, resulting in a burn.

Alexa, what's going on in this girl's head?"

"Nightmare, is all! But it's giving off dangerous levels of dark energy, which as MY body, you're absorbing. You can't handle this amount of power. Stop it, now! Calm her down!"

[schrodinger]

I've done what I can. It's about time she came back to us.

Slowly opening his eyes, Venser removed his hand from the door, ending the spell that allowed him to enter Kris' dream. He knocked lightly, just loud enough that someone waking up would be able to hear it.

"Kris? If you're awake... good morning. And welcome back."

[RaineScarlet]

The final image in her mind as she left her dream scape was the train spiraling up into the clouds, past the heavy mist of uncertainty, above the world of confusion. She was laughing, even though she was scared of where the train was taking her. But the two people were in there with her.

"We're all in this together."

Kris's eyes opened. It was still dark. She took a moment to discern her surroundings, since she hadn't had a chance to take a good look around before passing out--how long ago now? The door was right in front of her as she looked down at her toes. There was a desk above her, some cabinets to her right, and the bed to her left.

Wait, the bed?

It seemed she had fallen off at some point. Her duffel bag was beneath her, and dozens of hard points dug into her waist, like fingers--She rolled off quickly.

"Kris? If you're awake... good morning. And welcome back."

Morning? Hardly. But then I just woke up. Welcome back? Thank you.

She pulled herself up to a sitting position on the ground and noticed shadows outside her door. There was ample light from without. The voice of the person had come from there. The voice matched the one she heard in her dream, and one she had heard before she slept.

Why is he standing out there? How does he know--no. Considering how much I know about the abilities of my dormitory mates, I should just observe for now. That would save me a lot of headaches. Seeing is believing, seeing is believing.

She gave herself a mental pep-talk, and wobbled over to the door, accidentally kicking a box of mints across the room. With much hesitation, she finally opened the door.

Hello, nice to see you again in real life. So what'd you think of the movie that my mind made. Great as a horror flick, eh. What the hell should I say in this situation?!

The bruise on her forearm from when she had pinched herself reminded her that she was no longer dreaming, so she gathered her wits about her and spoke as civilly as possible.

"Good evening. And thank you... I think." Whatever happened.

...

"I apologize for my conduct earlier. My mind wasn't.. clear. I've yet to introduce myself. My name is Kris Rosenfield. ...If it's okay with you I'd still like to visit your... pet."

I don't remember talking ever being this hard.

"And Ba--Alex Bai, thank you as well." She caught herself before she started with her habit of addressing people by their surnames. Less intimacy.

I wonder if I should eat now. The lounge should be mostly clear. Oh, but I should put my bullets away first. She shot a glance at the box of mint that had been kicked. Peppermint. That was the rubber one then. She'd have to be careful with the Cinnamon ones, because they didn't -sound- like mints when people shook them.

[schrodinger]

"Of course it's alright with me if you wish to see Guile again. However, it seems advisable that you indulge another of your desires at the moment - a more tangible one, perhaps?"

He gestured towards the stairwell as he spoke.

"The lounge is just this way. Coming?"

[theburntone]

"Thank the Dark Lord that's over."

"The Dark-- never mind."

"Whatever. Isn't it time you feed my body, anyway? I feel hungry. I don't want it fainting on you just because you don't seem to be able to feel my body's hunger."

"Fine, fine. Might as well go socialise."

"Don't order any carbs, I don't wanna get fat. Ask for chicken or fish, nothing deep fried."

"Okay! Stop bugging me!"

"Do you WANT me to eat those mushrooms again?"

"Alright, you win! I won't order anything oily, I swear!"

"If you do, I'm gonna make YOUR body puke for hours when it returns to you."

With that warning in mind, Alex made his way to the lounge.

[Shirafune]

Shuffling along, Rika tried to maintain her distance from the others.

Observe, observe, observe.

It seemed that everyone was adjourning in the general direction of a lounge; Rika allowed herself blend into the flow, sifting through the crowd listlessly