After School Special?

[ωΘĿƒ]

Cole tipped his head as he heard the collective grogginess of the group.

Well them. He didn't sleep. Never got the concept either. So what, they lie down, close their eyes, and lose consciousness for six hours? Didn't sound too fun to him, yet everyone seemed to love sleep. Did they like losing consciousness, because that didn't seem too great a thing to do around here. It was actually kind of bad. Didn't they get more free time from school if they didn't sleep?

Then again, when he first got here, he wondered a whole lot about crap like this. He wasn't from this place. He didn't know any of the customs. Like an immigrant off a boat, he could barely speak the language. Which... turned out to be fine, because no one here seemed to have a very intelligent language anyways. They all still used their mouths and stuff. He didn't know what the hell was spewing out of their face at first, but that didn't mean he couldn't talk to them directly through their consciousness. Lots easier, and it takes less strain away from concentrating on those weird facial expressions. Oh he'd had fun trying to figure that one out too! All the funny and subtle little things corporeal beings did - it near drove him mad.

That is, until he met a nice young chimera lad that was kind enough to explain to him how things worked around here. Really, it wasn't hard to get once you knew that the sounds made words, but before that you were "that creepy thing that floated all the time and spoke through your head."

Hehehe... What fun that was. Took him a while to realize that when things stopped moving it meant they were dead too. Actually, that was the biggest kicker. Things here died! What, was it so inefficient a way of life that they burned themselves out? Sounded that way to him, and that kind youngster of a chimera seemed to agree that was the problem.

It was his idea that Coyle try to act more like things from this dimension, after all. Crane was a smart little corporeal. He would have never thought of that!

Shaking his head slightly, he noticed what Moss had said. Riiight. Someone coming. He knew that.

"Invisibility anyone?" He asked, smiling to himself. Oh yeah, and he apparently had a lot of cool "powers" here too. It was great to shift between the lines of tangibility and intangibility. One of the perks of being both here and not.
[/size]

[Iƪƪia]

Sighing, Illia looked up at the lamps that hung from the ceiling, watching them sway ever-so-slightly. She allowed her mind to wander, which was probably a bad thing to do for one who was trying to stay awake. Then again, there's just something about the night that brings with it a desire to allow oneself to be sidetracked by whatever thoughts and memories were inhibiting one's mind at the time.

One thing that Coyle had said appeared to have gotten stuck in her head. How she had a disregard for traditions. That made her wonder just what it was like to follow traditions. Wouldn't it be limiting? After all, traditions sounded more like glorified rules, anyway. So why bother to follow them? Did it have to do with creatures' love of consistency? Perhaps, but it just sounded silly to her.

The same could be said about the rules of this world. A bit more important that traditions, since they brought consequences with them, but they were still more like guidelines. If someone had decided to do something, would these petty consequences deter them? Of course not. It was against the rules to steal, but who hadn't done that? It was against the rules to murder someone, yet Illia knew that she would have no problem doing that should she so decide.

See, it was all so pointless.

Or perhaps that was an opinion that most others didn't share. Perhaps her lack of consistency in life gave her ideas that were quite different than most other creature's. That made sense. After all, when being forced to raise oneself from an early age, not much thought was put into following these precious traditions. When you finally come to the realization that you can really get anything you want as long as you provide the right "incentive," who would really care about these stupid rules and laws?

Blinking, she looked back down, surprised to have let her thoughts slip so much. She was just in time to hear the short exchange of words. Oh, someone was coming? She slid off of the table, annoyed that she had let herself get so wrapped up in her thoughts that she hadn't noticed anything. Absentmindedly, she ran a hand through her hair, as if trying to push the memories out of her mind again.[/color]

[Anzeh]

Moss was not happy in fact, he was very irritable right now. He was sleepy and he was hungry and right now he really wanted to go to bed but for some reason he didn't, because that's just how utterly and completely stupid he was sometimes. He wasn't sure why he was so jumpy, or irritated... the memory was years old and the emotions should have been long since lost to time. He was an adult by Barghest years, and even if he did have a home, he would have been forced to leave it anyway.

He wasn't sure if his parents were still alive. He remembered them running with him out of the burning forest, as leaves and brittles branches snapped and exploded from the panic and the heat. He remembered them following in his peripherals, always nearby, telling him to keep moving. Back then he had been their baby boy, and what would they do if they lost their baby boy to the inferno? The blazing, heartless inferno?

One moment they were beside him, racing away from the smoke in the darkness of the night, since they lived near a very small village, and everyone way asleep. He'd lost them somehow, but he kept running, running... He'd run from the River-fed forests near the Mississippi straight to Washington, stopping almost never, only to sleep and eat and rest his sore, tired limbs for a day or two.

His head was pounding. WAS he really hearing footsteps or was it just a figment of a tired mind's imagination? He kept hearing them... were they getting louder? They were, and that meant that whatever was walking around was getting closer and closer to them, and that also meant that he and Illia ought to head off for the night.

After the walking person was convinced that they had merely been imagining things as well.

"Invisibility sounds good..." He murmured, looking towards the door intently, expecting it to burst off its hinges in flames, an agitated authority figure snarling and growling, alerting his sleeping master that there were kids out of bed, then proceed to tear them limb from limb.

There were a couple of things wrong with this scenario that Moss noticed immediately.

[ωΘĿƒ]

Coyle snapped his fingers, and the three of them vanished from sight.

Well... it wasn't like they weren't there. He couldn't make things just vanish. He was really good at moving them, though. For example, if you shift something just a teensy bit up, to another dimensional plane right above the original one, then it just looks invisible. Fun thing about dimensions: the farther away from the original plane you get, the more different the planes become. Switching one plane up was like moving from one room to another. It really didn't make much difference. Shifting five or ten planes though. That got a little.... tricky. The rules of reality got all wonky on you, and it was really hard to figure them out if you didn't have a knack for it. He was made with a knack. He was one of those higher plane individuals, and yes, that made him better than everyone else.

Come on, who'd ever heard of dying in his plane?

But that wasn't important right now. He'd just shifted one little plane up, and it did the trick of making everyone "invisible" if you'd like to call it that.

"Try not to touch anything." He sniffed, scratching his head as he stepped into the center of the room. "It would be pretty weird if whoever this was saw you guys eating and banging on the pans."

Ah, good memories. He'd had some fun with that gag. It got old after a while though. The sound of screaming was only funny for the first fifty years or so. Then the nauseating boredom set in.
[/size]

((ooc: ah okay we need to figure out who's coming through the door now >.> because I haven't a clue!))

[Anzeh]

((Aight. Bringin' in the person that's gonna be walking in. Got any problem wiff dat? Thought not... >.>))

Renard--he was currently Renard anyway--walked around the halls sleepily. It was odd that it was so late; he hadn't realized that a plane ride from Florida to Washington would take such a long time. Where was his dorm? Where was anything? Should he have just stayed at a hotel or something?

"And what would you pay with it for?" Draner cooed annoyingly inside his head, her adorable British accent only causing the gears in his head to grind together noisily. He hated having her as part of him, but what was a part of him could not be fixed...

"I dunno... With the money mon père et ma mère gave me?" He tried. A French accent, at odds with the one his other self used, but a charming and nice one at that. He heard Draner roll her eyes and tut at him.

"Oh, you silly-silly. They didn't give you any money for hotels." She giggled teasingly, and retreated to the back of his mind... for now. He sighed, hating when she made fun of him like that. It was hard to believe that they were the same person sometimes. Sometimes meaning all the freaking time.

Renard looked at the walls and at a heavy pair of double doors. He shoved them open and looked around. It was the... Lunchroom? Cafeteria? Great Hall? Dining Pavilion? Ah, whatever, it didn't matter. It was completely empty save for a couple messed up chairs near one side, and... did he smell fish? He walked to the center of the room and threw all the things he had onto a chair and collapsed on the other, falling asleep as soon as he was off his feet.

---

Moss was highly alert as he watched the door, he heard a voice. It was a male voice, talking, but he couldn't hear anyone talking back. Heck, he couldn't even make out what it was he was saying. They finally stopped and the doors opened slowly...

It was a boy, and he looked like a student. A student around his age even. Pale skin and white hair with blue eyes and blue highlights? Not a bad specimen, he'd admit, but definitely not a danger. It made him wonder was such a feminine little thing was wandering around alone and so late at night.

He saw the luggage and realized that this must be a fresh little maggot, just enrolled into the school. And, poor baby, he looked tired. He knew what he'd do, he's lay out a futon or something for the kid to lay on until he figured out where he was supposed to go and sleep at.

"Hate to be a cliché and obviously point out the obvious, but it's safe, don'tcha think?"

[Iƪƪia]

Yawning, Illia took several steps toward the door she had entered from. She was considering whether or not she should make her leave now. After all, she was growing bored with everything here... Or maybe she was just tired. Well, she supposed that didn't really matter much. Thinking about this, she paced in a small circle as her feline ears listened to the noise just outside the cafeteria doors.

Lethargy making her appear disinterested, she turned slightly as she watched the boy enter the room. He entered alone, yet Illia was all too sure that she had heard him talking just a minute ago. She rolled her eyes at Moss' claims of safety.

"Are you sure?" She asked, sarcastically.

Really, what was that kid, Schizo or something? He must have been talking to himself... Or someone only he saw, or something else equally weird. Well, she didn't care to share a room with a freak like that. Maybe she'd make her exit sooner than anticipated.[/color]

[ωΘĿƒ]

Hearing Moss' claims to safety, and Illia's skepticism of his claim, Coyle couldn't help but be.... bored.

Yes, it was that time of night again. The time when he felt so incredibly bored that he would have to do something about it. Usually he was just mildly bored, and he could handle the strain of the utter lack of attention-grabbing substance just enough to keep himself from rioting; but at times like these he could barely keep himself from slipping, shall we say?

Let's just imagine a point in time where the dying sounds of mortals was a funny thing. That's about how bored he was at this moment, and he really didn't want to kill anyone tonight. He had plans for Moss, and Illia would factor in there somewhere, if the couple's little night together had anything to do with anything.

Crap... No killing. On to plan "B."

Cole snapped his fingers again, and the group became visible.

"Well aren't you new and impressionable!" He smiled, greeting the newcomer with his most charming smile. It didn't occur to him until later that he was doing that "sleep" thing that all mortals apparently needed.

"Hey, wake up, sleeping beauty. Don't collapse in the kitchen! I might mistake you for food!"

He had skiddlled over to where the boy had collapsed, and was now prodding him with the toe of his boot. Gently at first, but he never could do anything gently for long. He was practically kicking him by the third swing, and then all he could think about was doing something fun.

He wanted to go on a little adventure before the kiddies went to sleep tonight...
[/size]

[Anzeh]

Something was hitting him. He ignored it as best he could and tried to remember the thick lush forests of France, especially around the tiny towns. He dreamt about la Rhône and the cool water, how good it felt to splash around in the blue water with the other little Kitsunes of France. Everything he thought was in French, and since Draner, for some odd reason, couldn't understand his thoughts when they were in french.

But there was no way he could ignore being kicked in the leg as though he was a soccer ball. Not even a soccer ball--more like a football. Renard jolted awake instantly and looked up at an odd looking boy whom he had never seen before. Of course, being tired and very brain dead at the moment, he didn't register the person as being a boy. He didn't even register as being there.

So Renard blinked stupidly up at Coyle, slowly... slowly... until his brain returned to working capacity.

"Oh, mon Dieu! Qui sont vous?"

[/b] Renard said, frightened. He couldn't help but switch into french when he was frightened. English not being his first language, it was always a bit of a struggle to keep from lapsing into french when he was talking. When he was frustrated or scared he just couldn't help it. His hand fluttered to his mouth and he tried to speak english again.

"Oh! Uh... Désolé... I mean, like, sorry. Uh, I'm a new student..."

He noticed that there were people standing behind this one. One was a boy with messy black hair and gray eyes that seemed to seep into his very soul. The other was a girl--a pretty girl, true, but she looked kind of like a horribly possessed barbie doll.

Odd company.[/blockquote][/blockquote][/size][/color]

[Iƪƪia]

Crossing her arms over her chest, Illia shifted her weight from one foot to the other as she watched the new arrival. It was a strange habit that she often displayed when either very bored or very tired, though she was unsure why she did it. Perhaps it was a subconscious attempt to keep herself awake. Well, it succeeded in that endeavor, however, it made no effort to keep her attention fixed.

If it had been able to keep her attention she might have noticed how bizarre the new kid really was. How he had made his way to the cafeteria only to fall asleep once he sat down. How he immediately began spouting out some nonsense in a foreign language. It sounded like French, most likely. Not that it mattered. Illia only vaguely took note of these things. However, as always, she quickly realized when someone's eyes fell upon her. Just as the boy looked her way, she flashed him a warm smile, but as soon as he looked away, it was gone.

That quick exchange was all Illia needed to verify her original thoughts. This kid was a freak. But, hey, what else was new? Everyone in this school was a freak. Even the humans were freaks for sharing a school with these freakish animals without noticing it. Of course, Illia wasn't included in this generalization. Oh, no, Illia was different. Better. She was above them all. If these freaks just weren't so dense, they might acknowledge that fact someday.

Apparently realizing the direction her thoughts had taken, Illia put a hand to her head. Strange these thoughts should be so prominent in her mind. They were always there, of course, but in the background. It must be simply because she was tired. She was always a bit more moody when she was exhausted. Ah, but it wouldn't do to think these thoughts. Not while in the company of others, at least. She still wasn't used to being around other creatures like herself. More importantly, ones that could read minds. Precisely why she had trained herself to watch what she thought when there were others around her. But even someone as perfect as her slipped once in awhile.

Shifting her thoughts instead to concentrate on how tired she was, she stepped back and leaned against a table, turning her head to gaze at the shadows that were cast upon the wall, paying no attention to the small group in front of her.[/color]

[ωΘĿƒ]

Picking at his teeth with all the earthly vigor of someone who simply doesn't care, and trying not to get too impatient with the sad gaggle of boring mortals that surrounded him on this fine evening, Coyle listened to the hurried explanation of the new guy with some effort on his part.

"Yeah, yeah. We all speak French here, Frenchie. Well, I do. The language here really isn't a rocket science."

Actually.... He did think rocket science was just as easy...

"Anywho, no sleeping in the cafeteria. Actually, no sleeping at all. We're going on a little adventure, and since you're here and obviously not expecting how fun this school can be, we'll be nice and give you a first-timer's test taste."


Coyle had jumped up on a dining table as he'd said this, gravity being nothing to him, and had struck a dramatic pose for all to see. now that his speech was over, however, this pose became something of an oddity around the sleepy and boring gaggle of mortals. Boring... He hated boring. He needed fun. He needed a good night. Either that, or a few baggies to take the leftovers of whatever he didn't eat of them with him. Personally, he'd like to be entertained over fed. Just a personal preference.

"Right...." He said, nearly crying in boredom over the painfully quiet group. "Here, let's try this."

He leaned over to the nearest wall, spreading his fingers over the flat, cold stonework and using that as balance as he lifted one of his feet up. He kicked the wall twice, then pushed off the wall, waiting until the rumbling began. The wall opened to reveal a dank and dark passageway, to which he pointed grinning.

"There we go! Fun, right? Now we have something to do! Come on! Pile in! Let's hope the walls aren't too corroded, else we'll have a cave in on our hands! Won't that just be entertaining? Let's go!"

Stepping off the table with all the grace of a ballet dancer without having to actually wear one of those frilly pink dresses, Coyle peeked inside, then darted in.

Vaguely, he wondered if Crane still kept the secret hallways filled with those stone goblins. Ah well, they'd jsut have to find out, right? Fun!
[/size]

[Anzeh]

{longish post! Yaaay!}

Moss yawned. He was so bored right now, and could only imagine the boredom everyone else was feeling. He also knew--and this made his stomach turn a little bit--the Coyle didn't like being bored. Boredom was bad, almost a taboo when one thought about it. But he wasn't too sleepy anymore. He was so sleepy that he wasn't even sleepy anymore. This allowed him to be amused at the interdimensional demon's pose.

The Barguest watched as the aforementioned demon kicked the wall and opened up a passageway that lead into the darkness. He smiled a huge smile and peaked into the opened wall behind Coyle.

"Alright!" he said, jumping and doing a mid-air yessing motion. He grabbed the boy who had just spoke french to them and tugged on his arm, leading him towards the passageway. Was he trying to pull away, trying to avoid going on a late-night adventure? The little fart was. "C'mon little guy." he knocked him in the stomach causing him to double over on he arm. Knoei lifted him and dropped him onto his shoulder. Perfect.

The boy wasn't frightened. He didn't even understand why he should be afraid; it was just a dark passage that might fall in on him, crushing and killing him. Renard, in his grasp, apparently found many reasons to be frightened--he was shaking like a leaf being blown in a mighty tornado. The question remained though, who was the tornado?

With his sudden bout of wakefulness, Moss also had an odd burst of energy. He wanted to run gung-ho into the tunnel and get completely lost. Then he wanted to turn into his bear form and clank his chains everywhere, sending the chills, the fearful shakes reverberating in the walls.

---

Renard hadn't expected this to happen. He thought that maybe he could just relax, say no, and then just find where his dorm room was and sleep. If they were still alive after their eventful night of rule-breaking, then he'd ask how it all went. If not, then that was just another smart decision on his part.

But damn, he hadn't expected the messy haired boy to grab him. He was a lot stronger than the--frankly, pretty weak--kitsune, and even as he tried to pull away, couldn't get away.

And rather than take that as a hint, he hit him--quite hard acturally--in his stomach and threw him over his shoulder like he was a sack of potatoes or something else to that effect.

The he couldn't see anything, so he put his hands together and made a ball of light. He lifted it above his head and let the light fall on the walls, glistening with moisture. The french boy wrinkled his nose and tried to get a better picture of the surrounding chamber.

"Oh, fun fun! You ought to let me take control, Renard!" Draner asked, her voice sounding bouncy and excited at his pain.

"No, I will not let you take control..." he murmured to her with gritted teeth that he was clenching together to keep them from chattering.

"You say something, Frenchie?" His grey eyes captor asked. His cheeks flushed.

"No. Nothing." He reponded. "So, uh, where does this go?"

"Who cares!"

[/b]

Odd company.[/color][/size][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Iƪƪia]

Her fatigue having caused her posture to slip horribly. Illia rested her head upon her hand while she, herself was nearly sitting upon the floor. But it didn't matter. She wasn't looking to impress any of these freaks at the moment. Truthfully, she was never looking to impress these freaks. Only to show them how much better she was.

She watched the demon freak kick the wall, not really caring what he was doing. That is, until she watched the wall open up, revealing a dark passageway leading deep into the recesses of the school. Immediately, she straightened up, stretching out her arms above her head as she gazed at the passage in wonder; her feelings of fatigue having been lessened slightly by her newfound curiosity.

She let the others enter before her as she casually made her way to the entrance. After all, when entering into a new and potentially dangerous area, you were always safer with three bodies worth of protection in front of you.

As she took the first few steps into the passage, she began to wonder if anything dangerous was down there. Not that it mattered much. After all, she had taken down a troll and a buggane before. Practically single-handedly too. Of course she'd be fine. She couldn't vouch for the weaker members of their group, but she'd be fine. Anyway, she'd never let concern for someone else's safety come between her and something potentially interesting before, and she wasn't about to start now.

[ωΘĿƒ]

Coyle threw all caution to the proverbial wind as he ambled down the passageway, kicking stones out of the way and generally having a blast and a half. Ah, he did love adventure! If only life were more full of it. Then there'd be something to live for. But now, what was he doing but making sure he didn't get owned by "the man" again. "The man" being anyone who decided to pick up that shiny piece of tigerseye that he so deemed his soul.

Dammit, he had got himself in bed with another "The man" hadn't he? And that man was a socially awkward, Russian spy protected girly girl. Damn... He had to worry about that now.

Oh well. He'd deal with that later. Right now was fun time, and he wouldn't let anything cut into his fun time. He'd make these mortals have a bit of fun if it killed him - which it wouldn't, by the way. No one knew how to kill him. He was Kosher.

"All forward!" He called back down the tunnel, quickly morphing into his true form and shoving his temporal claws down the tunnel ahead. Never did like dark, but with his claws, he could see anything, and that was enough to work with. He could smell that strange scent of magic ahead too, and you all know what that meant - fun times.


"I smell a goblin or two..." The curling appease of his voice grew stronger, and he lowered his body closer to the crumbling tunnel walls.

"Don't worry though. Only body heat sets them off."

Oh crap, they did have body heat, didn't they? Well, that wasn't his problem, was it? Those goblins were heat-seaking, and he had no heat to speak of. Ah, but he did have to fight now didn't he? Of course he did. He wouldn't let these poor creatures fight all on their lonesomes. What was the fun in that?
[/size]

[Anzeh]

A bead of sweat rolled down Moss's face when Coyle said that there were heat-seeking goblins ahead. Goblins? Really? He didn't even know the school had those. He put the little Kitsune down and got on all fours, his skin pretty much exploding off.

Where a lithe teen had been now stood a large mottled green bear, looking very closely related to a wolf. Feathers wrapped around his forpaws and back paws, as well as clanking chains on his forepaws. His eyes were bloodshot and seemed to make their own light. He shook himself and resisted the urge to roar happily now that he was free from that accursed human form.

There were muscles under his fluffy greeness, that much was obvious. His claws were long and sharp, since he'd never bothered with getting them trimmed. Moss was, of course, a lover, not a fighter, but what the hey. If your life was on the line to hell with loving, time for kill some ****.

Then again, he'd never really fought goblins before, so he didn't know whether or not he'd actually be useful. Looking out the side of his eye, he noticed that the little human that he'd dragged along had changed into a fox thing with three tails. He was the color of moonlight and had red eyes too. But he was tiny, probably not very useful for a fight. In fact, the Barghest was willing to submit that he was actually more useful as a human than he would be as a kitsune. But... illusions and whatnot. Useful stuff.

His body crouched low, Moss waited for any type of sound.

[Iƪƪia]

Following the others' example, Illia knelt close to the ground, releasing her skin. As soon as the chimera appeared, she proceeded to stretch out her entire body, letting loose a deep, rumbling yawn. After this, she stood up straight and shook her great head, allowing her mane to settle in a perfect, wild mess.

A strange scent was lingering on her tongue as she heard the demon-boy mention something about goblins. Namely, how they were only set off by body heat.

Pleased at this information, she bounded forward, crouching down close to the ground as she landed, looking much like a young kitten who had just been given a new toy. A soft purring noise emanated from her throat.

The goblins were heat-seeking and, as such, Illia had nothing to worry about. A lack of body heat was one of the perks to being an ice chimera. It seemed as though Mr. Demon didn't need to worry about the goblins either. Ah, but the other two... They had body heat, didn't they? Well, too bad for them.

Though she knew they wouldn't have any problems. If she had too, she'd fight with them. If only because she were overly-confident that she would win. Out of all the strong creatures she'd taken down in her life, a few goblins would rest at the very bottom of her list. Or at least close to it.[/color]