One Brunch Man
Class 8A
Hyeon nodded along with Nadine’s message, enjoying the benefits of having the Cult of Nadine offer up on his side for once, when his face suddenly froze as blank and stony as Christ the Redeemer. We’re not talking about Carlie Abelson, are w
Hyeon’s thumb was just a hair too late in finishing his message when Abby began pushing her paperwork toward him, causing him to accidentally hit SEND with an annoyed grunt. His phone subsequently fell underneath the stack of advertisements as he started collecting them one-by-one, only half-listening to her half-excuses and primarily trying to figure out how much every individual unused flyer had cost him. “What’s he gonna do, pick the dog shit up off of people’s lawns?” Hyeon complained distractedly, gathering up the papers and ruffling the edges until they all aligned. “The biggest crime in Oldport are the property taxes. And if you don’t know what anyone else who was here that night can do, isn’t this just an excuse to put frills on everyone you know?” Hyeon set the pile down before him, inadvertently presenting the main event on a pedestal of paper, then watching with untethered skepticism as the fashionista began altering her design on the fly. But slowly and surely, the Korean teen’s screwed-up expression rolled from one cheek to the next, as though he had accidentally swallowed an 8-ball and was busy consulting it with his tongue.
“Look,” he said finally, pulling out a pencil from one of the recesses of his backpack, “I see what you’re doing here with the fire thing, but you can’t just go ‘red’ and call it a day. Look here—” Hyeon took his pencil and began scribbling lightly, trying to keep the shapes thin enough for easy erasing for certain fussy artists, while also trying to keep his vision intact. “The first thing they should see? Horns. Big, sharp, looooong horns, the taller the better. Then, you see these little empty spaces on either side of his face here? Put these giant black spots there, like big gnarly eyes—I know his real eyes are over here, that’s not the point. And then, down there on the hands, finish it off with some big ol’ claws. Just use them for… climbing. Or something. You’ll figure it out. And then—”
Hyeon drew his pencil back before moving it up near the top of the paper, scrawling out the word El Diablo, and underlining it three times. “There.” he said, letting the pencil fall to the desk before stretching his arms out to behind him, a confident smile hanging off his face. “You could also call him something like The Boogeyman, or Hellmouth, or Flamin’ Jane. In Korean that would be Bulgeun Agma, The Red Devil, and he—” Hyeon swallowed a sudden lump in his throat. “—he’d have to share his name with this one soccer team, and it’s not like anyone would really get it, except for me, and now you, and—and—and you know what, this is stupid. Do whatever you want." Hyeon brusquely smacked the paper with his palm and cast both off to the side, leaving it fluttering in the direction of Abby’s desk. He then couched his elbow in his nest of fliers, supporting his cheek against his hand as he looked in the other direction while his whole body rippled with a slight quaver.
“I’m sorry.” He would say after a moment, seeping out the corner of his mouth to aim in her direction despite still mostly facing away. “How are you… doing?” He asked, his tone clearly inflecting what he was talking about, while also making it obvious that he was just trying to change the subject.
Edited by Uncandescent on Dec 30th 2018 at 2:09:05 PM
If I had that kind of power, I'd have dropped a meteor on your house ages ago~
Schrodinger's Human
Classroom 38A
"I just feel a bit... off. Nothing more, nothing less..." the girl answered meekly.
Josephine presumed that Sarah Travers would not buy this explanation. She felt like she was surrounded by mines. Josephine was not sure whether having others in the exact same predicament was reassuring or not, as she witnessed two other girls discussing in a panicked way. Leaving would only arouse suspicion from her potential hunter.
"I... never expected to meet you here, of all places..." she said, in an attempt to sound relaxed, while the cold of her body betrayed this attempt.
Everything that lives is designed to end.
huzzaaaaaaaah
Ciro's attempts at a secret word elicited nothing but confused stares out of the girls (except for Tammy, whose expression remained stuck in nondescript hell), until Patty suddenly snapped her fingers. "Weed. He's talking about weed." She clapped a hand around Ciro's shoulders, snorting. "Who'd have thought curly boy is a pothead?"
She raised her fingers as if to mimic the act of smoking weed, but Nadine slapped her hand away and stepped closer to Ciro, grabbing him by his shirt and pulling him forward. "Don't worry. Smart boy like you, I bet you can multitask." Nadine pointed at the door to the classroom. "People are saying Mr. Morrison ain't in and that there's a substitute covering for him. I want you to just go all wubby dubby with the substitute. Really get his attention, you got me? Be a friendly distraction."
Nadine let go of Ciro, but then suddenly raised her hand. "And stop ruining pot smoking for everyone else, okay? Hide it. Goddamnit, I know you have this whole 'innocent angel' thing, but learn how to smoke pot without the Principal finding out, dude."
It's a good thing Travers had moved on to Josephine, because Ivy pointing at Luna earned her a rather angry bapping from her friend, right in the finger. " What the FUCK don't point at me! " She hissed, before suddenly wincing and reaching over for Ivy's finger. " Fuck fuck sorry sorry didn't mean to do that. "
At that moment, she noticed something else... or rather, someone else- Simon- on the verge of freaking out. If the government lady was there to tag them and bring them to some secret facility, then she was doing a pretty shitty job, cause Simon looked like he was about to explode... unless that wasn't part of the plan.
Something went off behind Luna's eyes, and she scurried back to her seat faster than the Flash himself. " Sitdown cause we're not going to the bathroom anymore!" She whispered-said-out-loud to Ivy, nodding at the empty seat behind her (there were actually a lot of empty seats, did those dudes Kev and Jae not care about their grades?).
" She's not here to kill us cause if she was why would she do it in such a public place, right? " Luna leaned in, explaining. " Which means right now, the safest place for us to be is right here, taking this test. "
Travers retracted her hand and looked down, sighing. "Life is complicated. You don't usually get to do the things you want to do when you want to do them. What I'm trying to say is that I didn't exactly expect to be here today. In fact, it ruined one of my plans... one of my really important plans."
She clapped her hands and smiled. "But now that I'm here, you can be safe knowing that nothing bad will happen to you." With an earnest look of pride, she reached over to pat Josephine's shoulder, nodding. "It's my mission, after all. You can relax, Josephine. I'm not here to harm you."
Daigo's expression melted away the instant he realized just what was covering him. "Oh my GOD!" He shrieked, stepping back and glaring at the bits of saliva all over his shirt- whilst behind him, Devin struggled to hide an earnest chuckle. "For the love of God, that is just DISGUSTING!"
He tried to wipe it away, but when some of it got on his hands (and when he heard Devin's laughter), his eyes turned to Harriet, filled with anger. "How DARE you—" He snarled, teeth protruding out of his mouth with intense sharpness, eyes shining a faint red as he reached for Harriet's collar... and stopped himself, his teeth, eyes and expression returning to normal. "—disgusting. Just disgusting."
"You shouldn't walk around with that." Daigo growled, gripping the guitar case and digging his strangely sharp nails into it. "I'll take it for you." He hissed, trying to pull the case from Harriet's hands.
Once she took her hand, Melissa pulled Irene in closer, grinning widely. "Don't worry about the time limit. With what we can do, well, we could probably run this school and no one would even dare to say a peep to us." She chuckled and brushed one strand of hair back. "Oh, I should say... with what I can do, at least."
Irene would suddenly lose her grip completely, because Melissa's hand disappeared in an instant, leaving behind a grey smoke in the vague shape of a hand. Melissa raised her arm subtly, away from other people's views, and grinned even more as the smoke turned back into her hand (with her even making a point of showing her fingers and palm in a nothing in my sleeve motion).
"Your turn." She whispered excitedly.
"No, no, you don't get it." Abby tried to interject as Hyeon rattled off the non-crimes that plagued Oldport. "I can totally just... guess what people's abilities are and go from there, okay? It's what fashion is supposed to do: make the internal external, and extrapolate the psychological to turn into a metaphysical convention upon the plane of the—"
Her fashionista gobbledy-gook was interrupted again by Hyeon, except this time, his actions enraptured her. With every scribble and scrawl, Abby leaned in closer, eyes widening, head bobbing up and down in an eternal nod, smile threatening to burst through the edges of her lips. But when he stopped giving into the fashion, Abby suddenly grabbed his face, placing each of her palms on each of Hyeon's cheeks as if she was making a Hyeon sandwich. "You have the power of fashion!" She exclaimed, narrowing her eyes. "Don't let it die!"
Swiping the pencil from his hands, Abby got back to work, drawing a brand new design on the back of the piece of paper. "What? I'm fine." She brushed it off, not looking at him. "Why wouldn't I be fine? I apparently didn't get anything from the Event— except a treasure trove of ideas, that is."
Barbra flashed through several different expressions (almost all of them variations in guilt) before rolling her eyes and glaring at David. "Fine. You're up, emo dude. I want all those answers, aight? Cuz I sure as hell am not interested in taking Chemistry and Physics again."
"Biology." Lenore added.
Barbra gasped. "Shit, that one too?"
Edited by Stratofarius on Dec 31st 2018 at 7:46:58 AM
Transcender of Gender
Outside Class 38A, Call The Gardner If You Got A Weed Problem
Being that she'd dragged him closer until they were nearly nose-to-nose, Nadine had the best view of the flicker of annoyance that passed over Ciro as he muttered "I'm not-", losing his words as she then shoved him back to his original position. He nearly lost his footing as the sudden movement inspired a burst of dizziness, his body working furiously to keep up with so little sleep.
By the time he was steady, his irritation had been smoothed over by the usual kowtowed demeanour that Nadine's gang would've come to expect. "A distraction? What- I mean, why..." He answered his own question as he said it: either they were planning to skip the exams, or they were trying to cheat without getting caught. Or something else he couldn't imagine- since, despite the growing amount of evidence to the contrary, he was blind to the sort of activities that the... rougher students got up to.
In any case, they wanted him to play accomplice to whatever they were planning. It wasn't the worst they could've asked of him, but still... "I ca... I mean, it's the finals, and... what if it doesn't work and you get caught?" Ciro asked, trying to find a way out since a straight 'no' wouldn't work. His head thumped painfully as he tried and failed to keep eye contact with Nadine. "Mr. Morrison didn't always, um, pay the best attention, but if they got a substitute, and it's for the final exams... they'd get someone who's pretty, uh, sharp, right?"
they/them || "Forgive me, regent of queer amphibians" - Lt.BGob
Though there was absolutely no reason for her to in the first place, Ivy didn't seem to notice anything wrong with Simon. Her attention was focused on the scary person who was probably going to kill them.
It was so hard locked that, until Luna specifically said she wouldn't kill her, she couldn't really think about anything else besides how to stop her immediate death.
She finally pulled her eyes away from Travers to look at Luna, and carefully responded "...B-But, uhhh...she could just, you know...kill everyone here, and then there'd be no...you kn-know, it'd...be...a private place, technically?"
Knight Cheesebeam
Class 8A
That backfired horribly. Figures. And now Harriet's secret was just this close to being exposed. She desperately gripped harder on the guitar bag, trying to wrest the bag from Daigo.
During the struggle, she glimpsed at his snarling expression, and she might just be seeing things, but just a moment ago his face had this odd eye glow and maybe somewhat inhuman teeth. Also, do fingernails usually pierce through a canvas bag that easily? Her mind began to wander with the concern that Daigo might have been affected by the power-granting thing like her and those others. And if those sharp fingers and teeth were real, what has he dug into with them...?
Harriet was jolted back to reality as her grip on the bag failed, landing on the floor. Panic. No way to keep it wholly concealed anymore. She willed Severance to punch through the bag downward to strike Daigo on the leg or so, and slide back in as fast as possible.
Timers to measure time, thermometers to measure thermomets, mometers to measure mom, and measuring containers to measure measurements.
Irene - Classroom 8A
Irene's right eyebrow reached impressive heights as she listened to Melissa's boasting. Mere braggadocio, or was it actually something to take seriously?
She sighed as she ran both hypotheses through her head. Both annoyed her. An egomaniac with smoke powers, or an idiot with smoke powers. What delightful alternatives fate presented her with. The two weren't even mutually exclusive.
"Interesting."
Without another word, she reached into her bag, producing a compass. Separating the legs and holding it steady with her right hand, she brought the needle point down on her left pinkie finger.
For a moment blood gathered atop the small wound, then it receded back into her body, the wound itself closing as she flexed the finger.
"Not as dramatic as what you can do, I'm afraid," she said.
Conception is sin Birth is pain Life is toil Death is inevitable
One Brunch Man
Class 8A
Abby’s rocket science-esque ramblings on the quantum entanglement of fashion particles faded to a dull, roaring buzz in Hyeon’s ears, as his thoughts strayed along already-familiar paths; why was he even here? Was his middling grade point average really so important that he could afford to waste two more hours, like he hadn’t wasted enough time already? But before Hyeon could truly delve into his proto-sulk, Abby pulled him out of it—almost literally, by his cheeks, and told him in her best life-or-death voice that his Devil might very well have been the work of God.
Hyeon’s resultant chuckle was slight, spontaneous, and completely involuntary, like a piece of plaster inexplicably chipping off of a centuries-old column, before he gently batted her wrists away with his. “It's less 'fashion', and more Album Cover 101: Fire + Demon = record sales.” He gave a cursory nod in Mr. Brubaker’s direction in honor of that little piece of satanic arithmetic, before couching his liberated cheek in his hand again while he watched Abby make off with both his pencil and design to make a better go of it than he probably could. Her denial registered as distinctly un-Abby-like, however; were the tables turned, the fashionista would have responded to his “I’m fine” with a verbal search-and-seizure that would make the FBI blush. The slight tremor that persisted even then in Hyeon’s bracing arm steadied, slowed, and gradually stopped, as he came to terms with how some people lost things a little less obviously than others.
The Korean student beat out a left-right-left, right, left rhythm on his desk before clasping his hands behind his head. “A friend of mine made out the same way; all the pay, none of the play. But if you ask me, you’re the lucky ones.” His eyes drifted down even then to the slight rusting in his pack, where Kwang was even then probably making short work of a proffered flier. After a moment more of silent creation on her part, Hyeon would lean forward, and unceremoniously stick a finger between one stroke of her pencil and the next. “You want my advice? Walk away, burn that with actual fire, forget about your blog for a week, and just generally do what most people do when they get abducted by a UFO; pretend the whole thing never happened. You’ll sleep better, trust me.”
A burst of commotion over by the door suddenly caught his attention, and he spared the growing situation between Daigo and Harriet a glance before turning back to Abby with a knowing smile. “Besides, costumes are overrated.” He said as he drew back, his voice laden with a thick undercurrent of check this out. “Yo dipshit,” he would turn and yell, unmistakably in Daigo’s direction, and at a volume that was meant to draw Mr. Brubaker’s authoritative eye, “keep the petty theft to your off-hours. Some of us are here to take a test.” He said, underlining his last sentence cheekily by tucking his chin into his neck and off to the side while his voice lilted upward in contrast, his shades dropping down his face enough to reveal the twinkle in his eye.
Edited by Uncandescent on Jan 6th 2019 at 1:35:44 PM
If I had that kind of power, I'd have dropped a meteor on your house ages ago~
Anti-Gnosis Weapon
Flannagan House
Finn groaned loudly, tearing his arm out of the warm confines of his bedsheets and flailing it groggily toward his nightstand, only to pause just before his digits would have slapped the phone off the table. The hand snaked back toward the sheets, and after a few seconds of shuffling, the Flannagan's pajama'd legs flopped over the side of the bed, whereupon his undershirt-clad torso rose with a bleary-eyed yawn.
"G'Mornin! Hmm..." The redhead worked his jaw and considered the blinds on the far wall for a long moment. "It's a good for a first try, Amy. Let's work on it after breakfast."
Picking up the phone in one hand and the open notebook in another, he moseyed on over to his desk and placed then on the closed lid of his laptop, face-up, then began carrying all three to the kitchen. "By the way," he pondered, half-asleep as he trekked down the stairs, "what's today?"
GM of AGOG S4: Frontiers RP; Sub-GM of TABA, SOTR, & UUA RPs
Blood Mage Apologist
Class 8A
Sebastian nodded at Rose. "I can try, but I can't say it'll work that well. I've got power over shadows, but I've been training with moving things and stuff, not direct control of stuff I haven't produced myself."
Whatever else he was about to say was cut short by Daigo getting in a scuffle with Harriet, which instantly caught his attention. He'd been on high alert for Daigo trying shit, and this certainly qualified as that.
You're going to get involved, aren't you? Don't. It won't end well.
Sebastian stood up, walking over to the pair. "Leave her alone!" But by that point, Daigo was already trying to grab the thing out of her hands, and it wasn't like he could do much physically to help her- oh.
Sebastian, don't-
With a flick of his hand, the teenager sent a scurry shadowy whip from under one of the desks lashing at Daigo's legs, trying to tie them together- and if he succeeded, he would pull.
Wooze looks at Glass with a 'please take her away' look
Outside Class 8A - Intervention
Concentrate, like your parents taught you. Focus on the exams. Breathe out, breathe in.
The two exams today: Mathematics. Easy. Parents had tested him, helped him; he was ready. History. Much harder. Often focused on America. His family couldn't help him there. He was on his own. Breathe out, breathe in.
Ivan had resolved himself; he'd try to talk to someone, strike up a conversation, not panic. Failing this would be more than just embarrassing, it would be devestating. Don't think about last week. Breathe out, breathe in.
Don't think about last week. Ivan braced himself, opened the door to the classroom and took a step in. The first thing he saw was Daigo. Ivan left the classroom, closed the door behind him, took a few more quick breaths and walked back inside, intently avoiding eye contact with any part of that situation. Sitting down reasonably far away, he took out his notepad, then paused. It was only natural that he'd forget how normal school life went for a while after recent events; he was always the quiet one. Right. That would make things difficult. He looked to his left; okay, he sat next to Rose. ...Nothing else really came to mind. Ivan really needed to talk to his peers more, now especially. Oh, well, no time like the pres-and this wasn't working, was it?
No, not at all. Ivan's eyes drifted, finally, to the elephant in the room. By this point, he'd already scrawled a quick X in the corner of his pad, and it was already reforming into a description of the scene. He pretended to keep writing as it did so in case someone was watching over his shoulder - it wasn't working very well, anybody could just see that he was faking it - and being very careful to not make any accidental marks on the paper. He skimmed the contents. Really, he just decided to stroll up and find any excuse to steal a bag? The whole situation was off.
The text stuttered as Ivan's attention wavered to focus on that, but he quickly got it back under control, and gave it a long, hard look, mulling over his options, before writing one line.
Daigo figured a public confrontation would draw too much attention. Soon, he'd need privacy.
Hopefully the vague phrase worked, and more importantly, meshed with the boy's thought process. Most things he wrote had a way of 'fitting in', but if anyone dwelled on it... well, this was one person he didn't want to anger. Ivan looked away, the ink starting to flit, unnoticed, in tempo with his thoughts. Messing with people made him uncomfortable, even if it was to prevent a fight from breaking out.
Ivan had already forgotten about his plans to talk to someone as his stream of consciousness flowed along. Don't think about last week. Breathe out, breathe in.
huzzaaaaaaaah
Nadine looked at her friends (with Patty giving her a very exaggerated shrug) before turning to Ciro and shrugging as well. "Uhm, and?" She asked, bapping Ciro on the shoulder- an 'affectionate' move that was halfway between a push and a pat- and trying to send him on his way into the room. "Figure it out, I guess."
Just then, the sound of the alarm rang throughout the entire school, sending whatever kids were still on the corridor running towards their respective rooms. Nadine simply gave Patty a nod, letting her make her way down the corridor (and past Ciro, giving him one last 'smoking weed' motion with the biggest shit-eating grin she could muster) before letting Tammy lead the way into the room.
"Don't screw this up, curly!" She said, shoving her hands in her pockets before heading inside.
Luna leaned in towards Ivy to hear her response, before her face suddenly bugged out, getting stuck halfway through a look of understanding. " What? " She blurted out, before shaking her head and looking up at Ivy. " Look, we're gonna be fine. I can make lightning bolts. She tries to hurt us, I'll protect you. " She held out her hand for Ivy, smiling. " Trust me. "
If Ivy were to take her hand, Luna would shake it... but not before a tiny shock spread through Ivy's hand. In fact, that wasn't the only indication of Luna's powers: some of her hair strands were standing up by themselves, pointing towards the ceiling... before moving slightly to the side, as if following something in the ceiling.
"Well, there's a lot of things we could do with that." Melissa whispered, smiling to herself as her eyes remained focused on the spot Irene had pricked. "If we practice our powers, that is. I've been doing so for the past few days and—" She took a sharp breath, stopping herself. "—you're going to find that out. But instead of mingling around with those peons, when you hear a-"
Melissa stopped, as a loud thunk echoed through the room as something pierced Daigo's leg. The teen's face was suddenly drained not only of any emotion, but also some blood as well. He opened his mouth, stumbling back, and then a tiny, almost impossible to hear sound began crawling out of his throat, growing and growing into a full fledged scream that would make Tom (of Tom and Jerry fame) proud. "aaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" He roared, reaching for his leg, the sudden noise bringing the attention of Mr. Brubaker. "SON OF A BITCH!"
"Mr. Hiraga!" Brubaker yelped, standing up and placing his hands on his hips with a grumpy look. "Will you please refrain from using such language in an academic environment? I'll have you know that these kinds of things do count towards your final grade—"
A wave of silence washed over the room as Daigo rushed forward and grabbed Brubaker by the collar, easily lifting the older man into the air with just one hand (and accidentally dodging Sebastian's shadowy whip with success). He growled, his eyes glowing a piercing red, until something clicked behind his eyes. As if mulling something over in his mind, he lowered the shaken Brubaker, and turned towards both Devin and Melissa (the latter having already stood up when Daigo yelled) before nodding at the door.
Melissa mouthed something to Daigo, and he responded with a nod. She turned to Irene and curtsied, following her boyfriend and their lackadaisical friend outside, closing the door behind them. Brubaker, on the other hand, remained on his feet, shaking, until the sound of the bells sprung him out of his stupor. "T-the tests will begin in two minutes!" He announced to the room, slowly sitting down, still shocked to his very core.
In the back of the room, Hyeon would feel someone grabbing him by his shirt and pulling him closer: it was Carlin Adelson,
◊ a giant smile on her face. "Oh THERE you are!" She said, letting go of him and clasping the other teen in the shoulder. "How's it going?! Nadine told me to find you after I found—"
Someone else pushed Carlin aside so they could have a shot at grabbing Hyeon by his shirt, except this time it was the rather well-dressed Benedict, who was no longer sporting a beanie. "There's something going on here, Jung!" He said, shaking the other teen. "Someone is planning something and I need your diminutive companion!"
Meanwhile, Ivan's notebook updated itself. With privacy in mind, Daigo decided to enact the plan earlier. He prepared to give Kev the signal.
With a mere tap of his chalk on the board, Mr. Claremont managed to get the class' attention, forcing them to focus on him as he wrote out the rules regarding what they could do during finals (go to the bathroom once, no talking, no peeping, no cheating). No one dared raise their voices (save for Edward and Destiny, who were still engaging in an argument, albeit now in hushed tones).
It was, perhaps, thanks to this silence that one particular sound echoed through the room: a creak. But not just any creak. It was the creak of the room's ceiling, accompanied by a momentary person-sized bump forming itself on the middle of said ceiling, as if something was weighing down on it. That weight, immediately stopped after the creak, and waited in admirable silence until the bell rang.
With the sound of the bell ringing masking its noises, the weight in the ceiling began to move, crawling towards the corridor, eventually disappearing as it was never there. Mr. Claremont, none the wiser, made his way towards the door and shut it, leaving one unlucky late student on the other side. "Now, I shall begin handing out your finals. Please put in your names and the names of your teachers immediately." He intoned, moving towards his desk, as another sound made itself known...
... the sound of constant, uninterrupted hissing, similar to that of a whistling teapot. Coming directly from the spot the ceiling had just occupied. "What the fuck?" Lenore muttered, narrowing her eyes and staring directly at the hissing- or at least, its origin, hidden inside the ceiling.
"Today is Monday, May 29th, 2017! o(≧∇≦o)" Amy informed, her emoticons suddenly replaced by scrolling websites. "I've got the news for you. Seems like Japan wants to take on North Korea, famous athlete Tiger Woods was arrested on suspicion of a DUI, and—" The emoticon returned. "—today is also the first day of Finals at Rogers High. Sorry, Finn... ( ˃̣̣̥ω˂̣̣̥ )"
I don't know whether to be elated or petrified that I won't have to deal with finals. Kathryn wrote out, before letting out the visual equivalent of a sigh- an ellipsis. ... I can practically hear my Father yelling at me for missing it.
sword of promised halp
Jemimah Chen; Class 38A
Although many people doubted the efficiency of Jemimah Chen's brain, absolutely no-one questioned the power of her will. Her ability to reconcile the completely opposed was greater than most politicians. Her willingness to overlook the inconvenient was so prodigious that it looped right back around into her forehead, like the ingrown incisors of an unfortunate beaver.
And right now, that inconvenient truth was the existence of time. And also superpowers, but mostly time.
"Oh boy, I sure hope I'm not late for the test! I mean, that would suck! What could I possibly..."
Jem stopped at the door, satchel halfway around her ear. She blinked at the unfamiliar teacher, glanced over at Jae's seat, noticed the lack of Jae, stared at the blackboard, raised her finger, then dropped her arm.
"Y'know," she grinned bashfully, "these things always go better in my head. Sorry, Miss Travers."
Edited by troydenite on Jan 14th 2019 at 6:16:02 AM
'Being around you guys makes me go "wtf" instead of pondering the ever increasing dread of time' - EchoingSilence, 2023
Transcender of Gender
Class 38A, (Don't) Cheese It, The Fuzz!
"N- uh, wait..." Further protests went ignored as Nadine and Tamasin sauntered past Ciro and into the classroom. Really, he couldn't have expected much better. Shrugging his bag strap back up his shoulder- seeing also the motion Patty gave him and ducking his head in embarrassment- he sighed and followed the two girls into 38A.
His eye was set on the closest empty seat to the door, allowing a quick exit if needed, so at first he didn't even notice the name scrawled on the board. A loud, aching growl escaped his stomach as he folded himself into the chair, as if he hadn't scarfed down a full bowl of oatmeal just an hour or two earlier. He really hoped it wouldn't keep up during the exam. Bad enough he already had to deal with a headache and no sleep and Nadine hovering over his shoulder without making a fool of himself during the silent test period...
A louder ruckus drowned out his thoughts as the girl from last night appeared at the door. Which wasn't the thing that grabbed Ciro's attention so abruptly that he dropped his pencil onto the desk- no, that was because of the name she dropped. His eyes followed hers to the chalkboard, then to the 'teacher' talking to one of the other students, the gears in his head shaking off their sleep-induced rust and starting to turn. Miss Travers, Sarah Travers, "someone who doesn't belong"... if Ciro was a person prone to more indignation, then he would be very indignant at Shooter playing coy about the government agent posing as their teacher.
Ciro scooped up all his things and shot out the desk, making a beeline for whatever empty seat was adjacent to Nadine and tumbling into it. He was already leaning close to her before he had a clue what he was going to say, or how he was going to phrase it so she wouldn't- actually, never mind, there was no time to think about that last part. Meaning that, when Ciro addressed the gang leader, it was with a sombre intensity born of both worry and terror- emotions that Nadine would've elicited from him before, sure, but not because he was so scared of something that wasn't her that he was worried for her.
"Look, I don't know how much you know about everything, but that woman is not a teacher. She knows about-" A brief moment of hesitation as he realised that Tamasin could very well be listening in, "-what happened Wednesday night. She knows some of the people involved, I don't know if she knows us all, and she does not have our best intentions at heart. So the last thing that any of us need to be doing right now is drawing attention to ourselves, okay? We just need to sit down quietly for two hours, get these exams over with, and then-"
As if suddenly aware that it was Nadine he was speaking to and this was not how their conversations were supposed to go, Ciro's fervour tempered and his sight timidly shifted from Nadine to the well-worn wood of her desk. "And then you can do, uh, whatever it is you wanted to do."
they/them || "Forgive me, regent of queer amphibians" - Lt.BGob
If the small, contained yelp that Ivy gave when she felt the charge go between her and her friend's hand didn't count as an affirmative "yes", I don't know what would.
"...R-Right." Just in case the first one didn't come across. "You...I'll try, too. I d-don't know...what...but I can try...also, don't try to copy my answers."
She pulled her hand free, and got ready to try and steel herself once again for the most important test of her life...only to catch the blur of something in her peripheral vision. Luna's already frizzy hair was frizzier...and moving.
Her eyes went upward, naturally, but her mind went to the most immediate suspect. She got on her phone again.
Happy Box Hater
Class 12B
"Sorry," Jacob said apologetically to Barbra, actually sounding genuine. "Good luck." That was all there was to it before test time had arrived.
Of course the teen was already running through a mental checklist of calming techniques while the rules were being explained. Unfortunately, this didn't prevent him from noticing the fact that there was a person in the ceiling. His eyes were glued to that bump, silently willing for it to go away.
And go away it did! Jacob let out a rare sigh of relief. Not his problem at the moment, even if there was no doubt in his mind that this had something to do with the empowered students. As long as they weren't directly involved in the final he could relax a bit and stress about the exam instead.
But then the hissing started. Did... no one else notice that? Jacob's head turned to look around the room quickly, but the only reactions he was getting were from Lenore. So someone with powers. If they were monitoring the room now, it would be best for him to be completely natural. He shrugged slightly.
This wouldn't be enough to bring down Jacob Miller's grades.
Why is a yam attacking me?
Schrodinger's Human
Class 38A
"Thank... you."
Josephine's lips were starting to be covered with ice, so the girl licked it multiple times. Thankfully for her, it thawed. While her belief that Travers's intentions were anything but benevolent was positive, so was her judgement that there was some truth in her statement.
"Even if she is a government agent of sorts, which she definitely is, she can't hurt me at this situation unless I give her a good reason to. Then, the only thing I can do is to pretend to be a normal student with nothing to worry about..."
Josephine stabbed her palm with an index finger, causing her some minor pain. "As if that's easy, especially with the state of my body. I don't even know if I can pass the test properly."
Damn it. Damn it all.
Josephine hummed one of her favorite songs, "Paranoia" by Black Sabbath. Josephine knew, yet she continued humming, since it did negate the side effect, even if marginally. The girl saw an awfully cheery girl enter the class, at which she thought:
"Oh, thanks goodness. A potential distraction."
Everything that lives is designed to end.
Knight Cheesebeam
Class 8A
Harriet flinched quite a bit at Daigo's yell, a gasp caught midway down her throat. In those few moments after impact, everything felt dulled, conversely her thoughts were a bit clearer. Why did she harm Daigo that much? She just wanted him to leave, but since Severance follows her thoughts, she must have wanted something more grevious, right? Is it really this easy to hurt other people?
Even as Daigo stormed off, Harriet just staggered into her intended seat, absentmindedly placing the (now holed) bag next to the desk. Mulling over why she was given this "gift" that only served to harm could come later. Holding her breath in, she tried to force her attention back outward, one of the relief methods she was taught. Even among the various other loud voices going around, Harriet remained silently transfixed on the desk. Nothing was more important at this time than finishing the exam and getting out of here.
Timers to measure time, thermometers to measure thermomets, mometers to measure mom, and measuring containers to measure measurements.
One Brunch Man
Class 8A
Hyeon found himself pulled from the no-holds-barred shitshow of whatever was about to happen to Daigo by a sudden tug on his collar, and he spared the duo a glance before offering a regretful look across to Abby. “Alright, remember what we talked about.” He would say to the fashionista, snagging her pencil the same way that she’d taken his, then holding it up horizontally with his thumb hovering over the eraser while pushing his sunglasses flush to his face in mock Men In Black fashion, before bending his thumb in time with making a clicking noise with his tongue. “This conversation never happened. Blog about whatever the hell’s going on with jeggings, there’s a story there.”
Slinging his backpack over one shoulder as he got to his feet, he greeted Carlie with a customary chin-jut before meeting Benedict with a meaningful look between where the preppie boy’s hand was clasping his shirt and the boy’s freshly-unprotected scalp, like an alley cat signalling that someone was ‘bout to get swiped. “Hey Carlie, how’s it hang… what’s u… how are you, today.” He said, trying not to underestimate the depth of the girl’s denseness. “And Longhorn’s not that short,” he would then say to Benedict, “sorry if we can’t all have a freaky-deaky nutrient routine that grows you like an oak tree.”
Kwang, meanwhile, would take the opportunity to poke his head out of a small gap in the backpack’s zipper, as if knowing he was being summoned, peeking over Hyeon’s shoulder to sniff at the familiar scent of the boy across inquisitively.
If I had that kind of power, I'd have dropped a meteor on your house ages ago~
Blood Mage Apologist
Classroom 8A
Seb muttered a curse as he watched Daigo get the hell out of dodge, blackness still curled around his hands. "Can't miss next time. Might make things much worse."
And it wouldn't have been worse if you'd hit him? Fesxis growled in his head. [red: You would have provoked him further, and your 'friends' might have gotten injured in the resulting fight. Not to mention almost certainly exposing us.]]
He sighed. "Look, I'll... I'll be more careful." Then he decided that talking to himself was probably not the way to do that, and glanced at Carlin and Benedict, the latter of whom had grabbed Hyeon- which meant that something was obviously very wrong, because this was something very not Benedict-like.
The teenager got to his feet as well and quietly walked over, mouth twisted in a frown. "What the hell is going on?" He said quietly.
Are you... are you just going to ignore the female child standing there? Is this not the worst place to have this conversation? Fesxis asked incredulously.
Wooze looks at Glass with a 'please take her away' look
huzzaaaaaaaah
There was an uninterested tinge to Travers' look as she just nodded at Jemimah. "That's alright, Ms... uhm..." She pinched her forehead and closed her eyes, trying to remember something, but clearly coming up with a blank. "Just, just come on in, test is about to start."
She walked past Nadine, who followed her with her eyes, though her ears were pointed in Ciro's direction. It was the mention of Wednesday night that made her eyes widen and her lean in closer to Ciro. "You were almost interesting there, curly." She hissed back, running a thumb over her lips. "Okay. I think these finals just got scrapped."
Nadine looked back at Tamesin, raising one eyebrow and lowering the other whilst nodding at Travers. "Wednesday night." Nadine said, clicking her tongue. "She knows." The other girl just looked back at her friend, then at the substitute teacher, and then gave Nadine a solemn nod. "If she knows what's going on," Nadine whispered to Ciro. "Then we definitely should use this opportunity to find out more about it."
"DON'T!" Suddenly, a hand tried to reach for Jemimah's shoulder- Jae's hands, to be more specific. She looked completely out of her game, her hair displaying the messy strands of someone who had just woken up, although that conclusion might have been more easily garnered by looking at her wrinkled clothes and the belt barely holding onto the waistband. "DON'T GO IN THERE!"
Jae was about to follow it up with something else, but her mouth stuck open, and her eyes scanned at the classroom, with just about every other student looking back at her. "Oh shit." She hissed, trying to pull Jemimah away from the door. "You—" She lowered her voice to a whisper. " —we shouldn't be here, we really SHOULDN'T be here, okay?! "
"Ms. Hyung?" Travers snapped, placing her hands on her hips and glaring at the girls by the door. At the same time, Nadine started slowly standing up, sneaking towards Travers' back. "What is going on in here?" Travers asked, blissfully unaware. At the same time, Luna turned back towards Ivy, pointing her finger at Travers, a small bolt of lightning pooling around the tip. Her eyes focused on her friend's, silently asking for confirmation.
Though Ivy's phone also wanted her owner's attention:
Abby replied to Hyeon's mimicking by chuckling and playing along, blinking her eyes and looking around in an amnesiac fashion. The same couldn't be said to the other people talking to Hyeon, as Benedict's response to Hyeon's comment was to growl and roll his eyes for so long, it gave Carlin time to notice the squirrel and start squeaking at it playfully.
"I'm talking about your squirrel, you idiot!" Benedict said, letting go of Hyeon and pacing around. "And we don't have time for me to elucidate how my diet is a normal one and maybe you're the one making awful culinary choices, because..." He raised his finger and glanced at Carlin, who was now pretending her fingers were squirrel teeth. "... because... ah, to hell with it. Jung, there is an explosive in this building!"
He took a moment to breath in and look back at Mr. Brubaker, who was still sitting down, twiddling his thumbs and probably re-evaluating his life choices. "Listen, when I came in today, I noticed some strange markings on the floor. Small, minuscule materials that should not be in a school setting- at least not in one that lacks a pool, such as ours. Then I felt the scents- acetone, for example- then I heard the noises coming from the roof- of someone hiding in the air ducts- and that's when I realized— all of the materials I could point out were the necessary materials to construct a homemade bomb."
"I thought it weird and wanted to investigate it. Perhaps, I thought, this is why we were given our powers, to stop events like these. But when your friend found me, she insisted to bring me here. I complained about it, logically, but then I saw... then I saw Hiraga. And that's when I noticed I had also seen Hiraga and his friends in certain key locations. Near air ducts. Near the stairs. Jung, I have reason to believe they are going to blow this place up, and if my calculations are correct, they are going to do it soon. That's why I need the squirrel, so we can find them and stop them!"
Benedict ran out of breath and brushed his hair back, looking over at Carlin, expecting her to have heard the whole thing... only to see her trying to pet Kwang with a finger. "Aren't you the cutest wittle squiwel ever?!"
Jacob's apology fell on deaf ears, because another sound attracted Barbra's attention: an end to the hissing, which gave away to a very silent clicking noise, timed almost in sync to the clock currently ticking back and forth inside the class. "What the fuuuu..." Lenore mumbled, leaning in, only for Mr. Claremont to slam down pieces of paper on her desk.
"Pay attention, Ms. Martin." He hissed at her, handing out the tests to Jacob, Barbra, David, and the others pooled around them, also unaware of the clicking noise. "The instant I hand you your finals, consider yourselves warned. Any attempts at cheating will be met with instant action."
Transcender of Gender
Class 38A, She's Contracted Punk-itis
In hindsight, maybe Nadine hadn't been planning to actually attack the agent-turned-teacher in front of the classroom, but it certainly looked that way as she crept towards Travers' unassuming back. Ciro looked at Tamasin, searching for- he didn't even know, some sort of silent reassurance that Nadine wasn't about to pull something audacious. They both knew better, though. With no amount of fluster, he followed the girl up to the front of the classroom- unlike her, making no attempt to conceal his presence.
In fact, quite the opposite. "Ah, Miss Travers!" He drew up next to Nadine, though keeping a few feet between them from the not-unfounded belief that getting any closer would result in injury. Not that he was really expecting to get by unscathed with having ruined Nadine's plan. "Nadine's not, uh, not feeling very well. Could I, possibly, take her to the bathroom?"
Aware of how suspicious they seemed, especially with a commotion already happening in the doorway, Ciro procured his hall pass and held it out for Travers to look over. "I'm fine with starting the exam a few minutes late." He wasn't, actually, he'd have liked nothing better than to stay in his seat and get the test over with. But right now he couldn't trust Nadine to be in the same room with Travers without having words with her first.
they/them || "Forgive me, regent of queer amphibians" - Lt.BGob
Luna didn't get any kind of response, as Ivy was too busy staring at her phone (again) with a look of horror on her face (again). She really, really wished that there could be some good news coming out of this little bot...but, technically, isn't "here's some advanced warning about the possibility of you exploding to death" some good news? Ivy would mull that over at a later time.
She looked at Luna, giving her a quiet "...No," finally. Then, she went back to her phone screen, stared at it for a good few seconds, and typed. Not as fast as she did before, having to go back and correct typos because she made a very literal mind, but as fast as she could.
i know you can figure it out so figure out how to make a fake voice clip or something that sounds real and make it say "i have planted a bomb on the rooftop of rogers high school and it will blow in an hour if you people don't find it fast enough" or something
maybe throw in a "good luck" in there
then call the phone number 911
play back that audio clip
hang up when its done
tell me you did it
thats what i need you to do ok? please say youre doing it ok im really needing it
And, sent.
It was an absolutely horrible feeling, putting your life in the hands of a 4-day old robot. She never wanted to feel it again...but she most likely would. She turned to Luna.
"...We need to s-s-stay here...uhh, if she—" a glance at their substitute "—does something...then do that. Ssssssomething's...well okay, you, uhh...you'll know what I mean, but don't be scared when it happens..."
Edited by wikkit on Jan 29th 2019 at 12:22:30 PM
Blood Mage Apologist
Classroom 8A
Sebastian was nothing but practical. There was apparently a bomb in the building, and teenagers were trained to call 911 when you found out there was a fucking bomb in the building. He opened his flip-phone and dialed 911.
For once, this is a good decision. Do note that other actions- for example, pulling a fire alarm- might motivate whoever has set these bombs to set them off early.
"Hello? This is... this is a student here,' he rambled into the line. "I'm at Rogers High in Oldport and somebody set up a fucking bomb, there are bombs in the school and I don't know who did it, but I found things like acetone and other things you can find in the school Chemistry class to blow shit up, and we need help!"
His actual panicked voice hopefully made it clear that this wasn't some kind of joke, because there was actual fear in Sebastian's tone- that kind of thing couldn't be faked easily. He wisely decided not to mention his name, because there was a bomb in the school and he'd be the first suspect.
You'll have to ditch the phone afterwards, Fesxis instructs. They could trace the call to your cellular device. Moreover, you need to get out of the school in case the bombs explode.
Edited by Cwest5538 on Jan 29th 2019 at 5:51:10 AM
Wooze looks at Glass with a 'please take her away' look
Trying to come up with any answer to this situation, suddenly, Luna started making a lot of sense. Yes, it must be code for...something, and that means they should hit right back!
"...Y-Yeah, that's true, uhh," she only turned slightly to look over her shoulder at the agent, "but you know...fifteen minutes can...be a long time if you're..."
"LunaknowswhatI'mtryingtosaydoesn'tshe?" She pointed at her friend, damning her in the process.
Edited by wikkit on Dec 20th 2018 at 5:03:39 AM