What, me worry?
Layla
Inside a thrift store with all kinds of various things is a mysterious girl, browsing around. Someone who's tall and slender, with a green floral dress and carrying a purse. She really wouldn't look out of the ordinary except for one noticeable detail: the lacey-green veil that's covering up her head. Or rather would her head would be if she had one. Layla is a Dullahan who has been missing her head for five years. Getting it stolen alongside other valuables by burglars. She and her family has tried really hard to find their belongings, including her head, during all this time. But as such, no luck. But there were rumors that the burglars made their way nearby this town. She was hoping she can find her missing head here. Which is why she decided to make her way into this store. Why it's likely it wouldn't have it, she figures it wouldn't hurt to look. And unsurprisingly, it's not in the store at all. The clerk approached her and asked "Hi, young lady, is there anything you're looking for today?"Layla froze at that question. How would she tell this clerk? Hi, do you have a missing head by any chance? That would make her sound like a weirdo at best. She just stood there for a moment trying to figure out what to say before getting out "N... no... I was just about to leave, thank you." Feeling sheepish, she just leaves the store without another word.
She made her way over to the nearby fountain and had a seat. As she crossed her legs, she started to think. In addition to the rumors that the burglars might be in the area, her family settled down here after they had heard about this school. A place that's full of oddities and they had thought it would be perfect for their daughter. But still yet, she felt uneasy about this. She's been trying to hide who she is for the past five years, and already people have found her a bit off-putting. And that's not even going into the few times people have learned her secret. And naturally they had freaked out over it. All she does is feel like she was a victim that came out of a horror movie and she didn't like it. All she does is ponder on all this, not feeling optimistic about her new life in this town.
For the Horde!
Walking down the street nearby, a girl with brown hair cut in a bob and a modest-looking solid black T-shirt and jeans was eating a vanilla ice cream cone quietly. In her head though, a most peculiar conversation was taking place.
>>"Ugh, I don't get you, Jackie, you're always getting the most boring flavors."<<
>>"Heidi, please... you just wanted to taste every single weird flavor in the shop."<<
>>"Well maybe if you weren't so dull, you'd get shit like Anchovy Mocha Chip Ripple or Caramel Sushi Swirl. Those flavors sound like the fucking best, man."<<
>>"Be quiet, you're going to make me throw up."<<
>>"You shut up first. Hey, who's that and what's with the headdress?"<<
That last mental question made the girl, Jackie, who up until now had been quietly enjoying her ice cream in solitude and peace, look up from her snack and glance over to the right, where by a scenic-looking fountain, a girl in a green dress and, indeed, a weird-looking veil covering her head, sat in thought. Jackie cautiously approached, raising an eyebrow and clearing her throat quietly.
"Uh, excuse me," she asked aloud, but rather quiet. Not quite a whisper, but not really speaking at full volume either. "You look lost. Are you looking for something?"
The voice in the girl's head continued.
>>"Oh, REAL nice. You sound like a fucking dork when you start conversations like that,"<< Heidi mentally chided.
>>"I said be quiet, Heidi. Please? For once?"<< Jackie silently responded to her mental partner.
Edited by AllHailThrall on Jan 24th 2023 at 11:34:59 AM
I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.
Fwomph
School Rooftop, Situation Solved
Blake set off down the stairs, trying to be as calm about this as he could. There was still some questions on his mind.
"So, are you just stuck like that until the full moon's over? Actually hold on more important, you got a place to sleep tonight?"
It's clearly a case of backroom political albumizing.
THE SLORG!
Saturday, Little Haven, leaving Oddity High - Alex Palencia the werewolf who has a home.
After they got down the stairs, Alex looked at Blake for a moment, blinked, then looked over towards the door outside, which he had left slightly open when he got to the school. The werewolf made a small nod, then calmly walked over and pushed the door open enough for him to go through, without breaking it this time. He then started walking, not in a particular hurry, in the direction of his home.
Weeks before, Seattle, Washington - Lynn the quadruplets who are one.
Mister and missus Polyhymnia settled into a couple of chairs in the monitoring room of the escape room which their kids were about to do. "Thanks for letting us watch," mister Polyhymnia said, looking at the monitors which showed their quadruplet kids in a couple of adjacent rooms that were separated by mesh grate; the girls, Carolyn and Marilyn in one room, and the boys, Lindon and Linton in the other.
"No worries," one of the escape room employees said, currently standing behind the chairs. "You want some coffee? This could take a while," they then offered.
"Sure. Do you have any creamer?" missus Polyhymnia asked, as another employee sitting next to them did some final preparation on the console in front of them.
"Alright kids, whenever you're ready," the second employee said into a microphone while the first went to the back of the room to get some coffee. The second employee flipped a switch, and the puzzles in the escape room lit up. The teens looked around in the two respective rooms, and then approached some of the puzzles and started working on them.
A few moments went by, and the employee watching lowered their eyebrows in a confused expression. "Huh? That's not right," they muttered, and started checking something on the console.
"What? What's going on?" missus Polyhymnia wondered, in that tone of voice of a parent who is trying to figure out if they should be concerned or not.
"Nothing, it's just, we can't seem to hear them for some reason," the employee responded, still checking things on the console.
"You checked the microphones, right?" the first employee said, returning and putting two cups of coffee down before looking over the second employee's shoulder at the screen.
"I did; it says they're working, but we still can't hear them," the second employee responded.
"Or they're not saying anything," the first employee reasoned, and leaned forward to the microphone, pressing the button to speak. "Uh kids? Remember that you've got to work together with your siblings in the other room," they said, then released the button.
"We are," Linton responded, coming through the speaker on their end just fine.
Both employees looked a bit taken aback, then watched the screens carefully, their expressions steadily getting more and more weirded out. "What, they're... They're solving it, but that's impossible," the first employee noted.
"Huh? What do you mean?" mister Polyhymnia asked, looking at the screens in confusion.
"The puzzles in each room require clues that can only be found in the other room. The whole point is that they have to communicate and try not to get confused," the first employee explained to the parents.
"Oh, they must've already come here and done them," missus Polyhymnia guessed, with a mildly disappointed expression. "Why didn't they tell us they already knew the answers?" she wondered, looking at her husband.
"Or they found the answers online first. Either way I'm impressed they could remember them so well," mister Polyhymnia replied, looking somewhat proud despite the implication that his kids were cheating at the escape room.
The first employee shook their head quickly. "No, no, the puzzles are randomized every time the escape room fires up, so the solutions are always different. This, this is impossible," they said, motioning at the screens with their emphasis.
"What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck," the second employee was quietly whispering to themself, as mister and missus Polyhymnia slowly looked at each other with similarly weirded out expressions...
...
A bit later, the four teens had solved the last of the puzzles and were exiting the rooms into the same large room that served as the finish line of the experience. "We did it!" Lindon said, and the two boys high-fived. Ahead of them, a door opened and their parents walked in, followed by the two employees, all of whom still looked fairly perplexed and weirded out, to different degrees.
Their father quickly approached them, looked at them back and forth as he seemingly had to decide what to do with them, then asked, "what number am I thinking of?"
All four teens looked a little taken aback. "I don't- what? How would we know?" Carolyn asked in response.
"Well how else were you solving those puzzles without talking if not reading each other's minds, huh?" their father asked them, looking at Carolyn. "How about this then; how many fingers am I holding up?" he continued, putting one hand behind his back.
"Dad, what are you talking about? We just looked at the clues and figured it out, it wasn't that hard... Did we do something wrong?" Carolyn replied, and it was becoming clear that all four of the teens were starting to feel a little distressed.
"You looked at- but how..." their father started in a disbelieving tone, his voice ever so slightly raised, but then he trailed off, his brow lowering in thought. He then looked at his sons. "Boys, turn around please," he requested, his voice no longer raised. Lindon and Linton still looked confused and a little distressed, but nodded and turned around. "Okay, now Lindon, I want you to say, without turning around, how many fingers am I holding up?" their father then instructed them, looking intently at his daughters as he brought his hand forward from behind his back.
"Four," Lindon responded simply.
"And Linton?" their father then asked.
"Three now," Linton answered.
Mister Polyhymnia slowly lowered his hand, then looked over at his wife, both of them having an expression of their whole world being suddenly turned upside down...
Back to the Saturday that is the present, Little Haven, a newly purchased condo - Lynn the quadruplets who had to move across the country.
The boxes had been mostly unpacked already, and on their parents' suggestion, the quadruplets were getting ready to go out and have a look around the town. The parents watched as the four prepared in silence. Carolyn was getting Marilyn's hair fixed up in a ponytail, while Linton got Marilyn's jacket; Marilyn stuck her arm out without looking, and Linton slipped the jacket's sleeve right over it, then Marilyn finished putting on the jacket herself as Carolyn finished with the ponytail. Then both girls turned 180 degrees and the same process repeated, now with Carolyn having her hair fixed up and jacket put on.
"How did we never notice this before?" their mother wondered quietly.
"I guess we just weren't paying attention," their father answered her.
"Why do you want us heading out, again?" Marilyn asked, as Lindon passed around the cell phones with color-coordinated cases that the teens had previously left plugged in to charge.
"Well there's a whole school for kids like you here; some of them have gotta live in town too, so maybe you'll find some and make some friends. At the very least, it couldn't hurt to get a little more familiar with the place, right?" their father replied.
"Oh! I almost forgot, kids, here," their mother then spoke up, and moved over to the four of them. "Here's some money, go ahead and get yourselves some dinner while you're out. Your father and I still need to get some groceries and get some other things done, so I won't have time to make anything tonight," she told them, handing over a small bundle of cash to Linton.
"Alright, thanks mom. Bye, love you!" Linton said after pocketing the money, and the four siblings headed out...
Edited by FirockFinion on Jan 26th 2023 at 1:27:06 AM
You are reading this.
The Beach
The girl apparently heard Coralie's whisper (or more likely heard Mindy think about it), as she indignantly shouted, "I did not call Gill delusional, I said he might be. Because if someone is thinking to themselves about how they can finally show their friend that they're—" She looked around before lowering her voice significantly and continuing. "...a merman, then either they're a merman or they think they are because they're delusional. I didn't know, I wrote both. He's definitely not delusional and I know that now. Do NOT light me on fire."
As promised, Mindy's mind was filled with an earsplitting siren that made it pretty hard to focus.
Vaguely in Front of the School
"...do you...understand speech?...how sentient are you?..."
Alex would probably be surprised, because from his perspective Val had, as usual, just sort of appeared there. (As usual, they were there the whole time, just hard to notice.)
Edited by TheFullestCircle on Jan 26th 2023 at 3:20:07 AM
Suggested wine pairing: pinot noir.
What, me worry?
Mindy
Mindy was pissed off now. She had enough of the psychic girl and only had one thing on her mind: to pummel her face in. So focused she was on that, she ignored Gill trying to get her to leave as well as Coralie trying to get her to use her pyrokinetic abilities. But as she got closer and closer, she is interrupted by that earsplitting siren inside her mind. Something that stopped her dead in her tracks for a brief moment. She was screaming as the mental anguish was conflicting with her desire to punch out that girl. But it was only fueling her rage further. But somehow she managed to pull her way through. Like a tiger, she lunges at the psychic as she intended to. She starts throwing punches left and right at her face. The anguish she was going only made her hit harder as she screamed incoherently as if she were some kind of savage.Layla
As Layla still sits at the fountain pondering about how her new life in Little Haven could possibly go, she actually senses the girl with the ice cream cone approaching her, both by the strong feeling of another's presence and hearing the footsteps get closer and closer to her. She tilts toward the strange girl as she asks her about her situation.Edited by MatthewLMayfield on Jan 26th 2023 at 6:32:42 AM
For the Horde!
Gill looked hurt, looking at the girl with an upset expression.
"Delusional? I'm not delusional," he said quietly. However, his attention was soon turning towards Mindy, who was trying to pummel the girl into next week. Gill reached out to try and hold her back.
"Stop! Don't—" he exclaimed, trying to say that he didn't want anyone to fight, but he was forced back as Mindy continued to wail on her opponent. Gill furrowed his brow, fighting back tears. He didn't particularly like the girl who had called him delusional, but he didn't want to watch Mindy rip her to shreds.
Instead, he cleared his throat. Then he opened his mouth and began to sing. He didn't know exactly what effect it would have on the group, though he knew that it had ceased the activity around him before, and put the people listening to it into a calmer state of mind. His song, wordless and powerful, echoed around him. Because of the commotion being caused, he had to sing relatively loudly to be heard over the din; which had the unfortunate effect of reverberating over the beach louder than he'd normally choose to make it.
"O-oh," Jackie responded, looking embarrassed. "Well... well, I hope you like it here so far, I mean... I've only been here less than a week myself, so... so I'm new too."
>>"I can't take this, I'm dying listening to you!"<< Heidi groaned inside Jackie's head. Jackie winced, though it would be unclear to Layla what exactly she was wincing at.
>>"You wouldn't do any better, I'm trying my best!"<< Jackie mentally insisted.
>>"Well your best sucks!"<< Heidi replied to Jackie, in a blunt "tone of voice". Jackie sighed, then glanced back towards Layla, though again, what Jackie had been looking at before wasn't entirely clear.
"I'm... I'm Jackie. What's your name?" she asked quietly. "I mean... if you wanna tell me, anyway..."
I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.
Fwomph
Taking This To The Streets
Blake followed along, mostly because he wanted to make sure Alex got home safely.
"Hm. I should make a message to let non-wolf Alex know what happened with wolf Alex. Yaknow, so he can find out how harmless wolf Alex is immediately."
With that thought verbally expressed he got out his phone and started trying to compose the message.
It's clearly a case of backroom political albumizing.
THE SLORG!
Saturday, Little Haven, somewhere between Oddity High and Alex's house - Alex Palencia the werewolf who also has a mother.
Alex looked over after a little jump at Val's question, then blinked a couple of times. How exactly was one even supposed to answer, 'how sentient are you'? Especially when you couldn't exactly talk? "Rrr... Arf?"
The werewolf lifted a hand, palm facing upward, then curled all his fingers except that index finger. Then he kind of pointed that finger at Val. Then he uncurled the middle finger, and pointed them both at Val. Then uncurled the ring finger, and pointed all three at Val. Alex then put his hand back down, and tilted his head.
An old Volkswagen turned onto the road and started driving in their direction, on the opposite side of the road. When it got closer, the tires screeched against the pavement from an abrupt application of the brakes, making Alex's ears perk up before he turned his head that way. From the driver's seat, a woman was staring at them with a look of horrified recognition. Unfortunately for her, Alex also recognized her, though his response was about the opposite.
The werewolf let out a happy yap, then took off at full speed on all fours towards the car, his tail wagging energetically. Alex's mom frantically tried to put the car in reverse and gun it, but accidentally misdid the clutch and stalled the engine.
Saturday, Little Haven, the fountain area - Lynn the quadruplets having a look around.
On one of the roads approaching the fountain, the quadruplets were walking along the sidewalk. The girls were in front, with Marilyn looking down at the map app on her phone, while Carolyn watched where they were walking. Behind them, the boys were both constantly looking around, taking in the sights around them. When they came to the area with the fountain, one of the boys spotted the other teens, and the four all stopped for a moment.
Marilyn stayed still and kept her eyes on the phone, while Linton stuck next to her, idly looking around. Without looking at each other, Carolyn and Lindon walked over closer to the fountain. "Hello, excuse me? We're new in town, and we're trying to learn a bit of the layout," Carolyn asked, while Lindon stayed a couple steps behind her.
You are reading this.
The Beach
The girl took the brunt of Mindy's beatdown surprisingly well. She made some unskilled efforts to dodge the punches, which didn't work, but did usually lead to the punches landing in areas that would have hurt less. But for the most part, she just sat there and took it, smugly smirking through the pain...until Mindy took her diary. Then, her expression changed.
It was furious.
With enough unbridled rage to make the wrath of a thousand suns look pathetic in comparison, she yanked the diary out of Mindy's hands with such force that it would hurt if Mindy was holding onto it tightly and wound up a punch aimed directly at her solar plexus. The siren in Mindy's head grew somehow even louder, to the point where she could barely hear anything, save a message broadcast into her mind: "Do NOT—"
And that's when Gill started singing.
Its effect on the girl was interesting: she wasn't outright hypnotized, but she was still clearly affected. The sound of the siren in Mindy's head subsided.note The girl's fist fell to her side, the diary was dropped into her hoodie pocket, and with an expression somewhere between dazed confusion and embarassment she awkwardly shuffled off, disappearing into the crowd of onlookers that had formed. Oh yeah, a small crowd of onlookers had formed in response to Gill's song. They all looked similarly dazed and one person was recording the whole scene on his phone.
Vaguely Near the School
Val was nodding along with Alex's weird finger response, noting that it was in fact a response, when a thought occured to them and they began to, yet again, get nervous. "...wait...what if someone sees y—"
It was at about that moment that someone did, in fact, see him. Val, not knowing the woman was Alex's mom, went into panic mode and started shouting "...WAIT NO NO STOP WHAT ARE YOU DOING..." as they ran at their below-average running speed towards Alex in an attempt to get him to stop.
Suggested wine pairing: pinot noir.
Fwomph
A Mildly Awkward Encounter With Alex's Mom
"Oh hey, you can do hand signals! ... Maybe we need to learn sign language... And figure out how to make it work with your claw wolf hand things..."
Blake wasn't quite sure what to do as Alex ran ahead. Obviously whoever this was in the car A) was shocked by seeing a werewolf and B) was someone Alex recognized and liked. There was an obvious answer to be drawn from this.
"Um, heya miss! Are you Alex's mom?"
Edited by Pentigan on Jan 29th 2023 at 9:06:16 PM
It's clearly a case of backroom political albumizing.
THE SLORG!
Saturday, Little Haven, somewhere between Oddity High and Alex's house - Alex Palencia the werewolf accidentally scaring his own mother.
Alex didn't stop rushing for the car, not about to listen to the weird not-person when he was so excited to see his mom! She was trying to get the engine back on, but looked over again and realized she would not be getting it on before the werewolf reached the vehicle. She leaned away from the window and screamed desperately in Spanish; hearing her, Alex skidded to a stop and his ears and tail lowered.
After Blake called out, there was a momentary pause as Alex's mom had to wonder if she heard that right, then she sat up and glanced out the window. "Wh-what?" she asked, bewildered, only marginally calmed by the fact that the big wolf monster was no longer charging for the car. She stared at Alex for a few moments, her expression growing more shocked as she recognized his favorite vest and beanie. He was giving her sad, puppy dog eyes, and let out a whine. "A-Alex?" she muttered, her eyes widening in even more bewilderment and shock. Alex's ears went back up and his tail started slowly wagging after he heard her say his name.
Edited by FirockFinion on Feb 2nd 2023 at 2:47:30 AM
You are reading this.
Toa of Anarchy
The Beach
First off, the wrath of Mindy had been incurred. So far so good; a charging bull can be useful if you know where to direct it. Then she made the psychic angry. Even better. An angry enemy is a stupid one. Now, it was time to retaliate on the psychic's own terms. With the teachings of the special psionic agent she'd saved from a pterodactyl attack half a year ago fresh in her mind, Coralie put two fingers to her temple and focused as hard as she could.
Unfortunately, the focus was disrupted by Gill's siren song. Coralie staggered a drunken smile on her face, feeling tempted to just stand back and let the soothing pretty singing wash all her thoughts away. But then she saw the girl take back her diary, and begin to make her escape. It would be so easy just to let her go, let her slink away to lick her wounds and never darken their days again. But no, that wouldn't stand. Coralie's pride wouldn't allow it. This girl needed a parting shot and a taste of why it was so unwise to mess with the Goddess of Science.
Putting a hand to her ear to partly blot out Gill's singing, Coralie shook off the daze as much as she could, and got the fleeing psychic back in her sights. Pushing the two fingers against her temple, she focused what will she could muster on a single string of thoughts, and then flicked her fingers in the direction of the psychic.
A door to the mind, once opened, could let things through both ways, or so she'd been taught on World-Five. If all went to plan, she'd just sent a little something back to the psychic girl, who would suddenly find herself thinking of
THE PRODUCT OF THE IMAGINARY UNIT THE PLANCKS CONSTANT THE PARTIAL DERIVATIVE OVER THE PARTIAL DERIVATIVE OF TIME AND THE WAVEFUNCTION OF THE SYSTEM EQUALS THE SUM OF THE HAMILTONIAN OPERATOR AND THE WAVEFUNCTION OF THE SYSTEM IN A GENERAL TIME-DEPENDENT CASE
Not the most complex equation Coralie could have thrown, but a 105-decibel crash course in the Hrumdinger Equation inside her head would be enough to knock her flat on her face.
What, me worry?
Mindy
Things happened so quickly between Mindy and the psychic girl, she could barely process what was happening. But once thing was for sure: that diary was that girl's hot button. But either way, Mindy wasn't all that phased by that girl's expression nor was she when the girl snatched the diary out of her hand, to which she was holding onto it tightly. But she did start to feel the siren even more. But then Gill started singing.Mindy felt the rage and the siren go down as she let her guard down. Then as the onlookers gathered around and the girl ran away, she shouted "Yeah, you better run!", not caring at all what the onlookers think of her nor paying much mind to whatever Coralie was doing. But still Gill did something that could give away who he is. Does he want to hide who he is or not? she wonders to herself as she dries off with her towel and rubs off the sand on her body. She wanted answers from Gill and right now. She puts on her backpack and grabs her clothes while she pulls him away from everyone with a bit of force. "Come on, you and I need to have a talk," she says assertively. She pulls him back to the rock structure they were both previously at, away from prying eyes.
She tosses her backpack aside. "All right, Gill, which is it? Do you wanna hide who you are, or you gonna be open to your secret? I'll go along with one or the other, but no more of these games!", she says while putting her clothes back on. "Because you're not really makin' a whole lotta sense here! You say you wanna hide who you are, but then you hide in the water for a real long time! People mighta thought you drowned! Then you sing like that and got everyone's attention! So what do you wanna do, Gill? Gimme somethin' to work with! Because I don't wanna keep two charades goin' on here! It's either one or the other!", she says in a way that makes her unleash the leftover anger she had towards the psychic. She slips on her flip-flops and puts on her backpack. "So which is it?!", she barks while giving him a cutting look before crossing her arms. After a few moments, she realizes she's taking a bit of her anger out on him before sighing.
"Look, Gill, do what you want. If you wanna hide who you are, I'll go along with ya. And I'll make sure you don't do anything to get you into trouble. But if you wanna be open about all this, I'll look after you too if someone gives you trouble. But I don't know what you want. Just tell me what you wanna do, and I'll go along with it, all right? Just what do you want, Gill?", she says in a still slightly-irritated, but more calmer manner. She leans against the rock wall while waiting for his answer.
Layla
Layla had sensed something about Jackie that was incredibly off. She really wasn't sure what it was about her. But she really didn't want to pry her about it. And she hoped Jackie would give her the same courtesy when it comes to what's under her veil."So you're new here, too, you say? Guess it's like they say: it's a small world," she adds before finishing off with "I'm Layla."
Then as the quadruplets came around, Layla had sensed more people coming, but even she was taken aback over how much alike the four twins were. She didn't know what to expect in this town. But she definitely didn't expect that. Still, despite how uncanny she found them, she won't let that stop her from being cordial.
"Guess this world is smaller than I thought," Layla said while giving a bit of a nervous chuckle. "We're both new here, too. But Jackie seems to have a better idea of the layout here, I think. Maybe she can show us all what this town has to offer." Layla stands up, half-expecting Jackie to lead the way. Maybe the newbies here can stick together and figure things out, or so she thinks.
For the Horde!
Gill quickly noticed that things were going to hell in a handbasket. The girl had begun to punch Mindy before Gill's song caused her to calm down. Gill just as quickly noticed, however, that his decision to try and sing to make the girls calm down caused a group of people to stare at him dazed.
One of them was holding a thing up, but he didn't really pay that person any mind, since even if he had seen it, he wouldn't have known what it was.
Gill covered his mouth in panic, before he was dragged off behind the rocks.
"Wha—" he started to say, before Mindy confronted him. He sighed. "No, I'm not making sense," he admitted. "I hid instead of surfacing with you because... I don't know why, okay? I wasn't even thinking. It just happened. No thought at all. I've been doing that all my life, it just came to me. Mama and Papa always drilled into me, if a human sees you, hide..." He thought for a moment.
"Everyone on the beach heard me sing like that... I should probably start being more open with myself. You said it yourself, people aren't going to hurt me just because I'm a merman. And if you're going to help me, then I'm okay with people knowing..." he admitted. "It's just... what I want is to be human. And if people know I'm a merman, then that's not human... they'll think I'm just some oddity."
He wrung his hands together. Then he balled his hands into fists, looking determined.
"I promise to be more open about being a merman if you promise to help me be more human," he said. "Does that sound good?"
Jackie smiled sheepishly.
"N-nice to meet you, Layla," she greeted, before, at once, four people came out of nowhere and greeted the group. Jackie fought back her urge to hide from such a large group of people and she just grinned at them, waving quietly.
And of course, Layla immediately put her on the spot.
"N-no, I— I could... that is... what..." Jackie stammered, her face turning red. At once, she felt a squirming sensation in her body. "Not now, please not now!"
>>"Yes, now, this is fucking pathetic! Lemme show you how this is done!"<< Heidi insisted in Jackie's head. Jackie moved almost inhumanly fast and tried to duck behind a nearby tree, breathing becoming heavy and panicked.
There was a shifting of body mass and at once, Jackie blinked, her brown eyes turning hazel before her hair immediately lengthened out and turned blonde. Jackie, now Heidi, stepped out with a confident swagger and grinned at the five near the fountain.
"'Sup, all? Name's Heidi. Don't mind Jackie, she just doesn't know how to talk to people. She's always getting cold feet. I can totally show you dudes around. Only been around here like a week, but that's more than you guys, huh?" Heidi insisted. "There's a lot of kickass places to hang. I gotta show you! C'mon!"
With that, Heidi started to walk away from the group, beckoning them to follow down the path, away from the fountain.
I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.
THE SLORG!
Saturday, Little Haven, the fountain area - Lynn the quadruplets wondering who welcomes the welcoming committee.
All four of the quadruplets, including the two standing off to the side not really in the conversation yet, looked mildly surprised after what Layla said. "You're also new? Did your- huh?" Carolyn's question was a bit interrupted by the brown haired girl seeming to panic and flee. Lindon went jogging after, not trying to really catch her, but at least see where she was going. After some other girl then showed up and excused 'Jackie' having suddenly gone, the quadruplets looked a bit confused.
"I- what? Is she not coming?" Carolyn asked, then had her eyebrows lower in even greater confusion after Lindon looked around the tree where Jackie had gone. "Where did she go?" Carolyn wondered, perplexed almost to the point of bewilderment.
You are reading this.
What, me worry?
Mindy
"I told ya I was gonna help you out, didn't I?" Mindy asked Gill as he begins showing a more different side of him. A more confident, a more determined side of him. She couldn't help but smile at the guy. "I like this, take charge of who you are. Place like this, I'm sure you'll do fine. And if they don't like it, just tell 'em to kiss your scales! And if people give ya problems, you come find me! I'll knock it into their heads if I have to!" she says while slamming her fist into her hand before cupping it over."So, what do you wanna do now?" she asks, looking forward to seeing what he could possibly do.
Layla
Layla was confused over Jackie. This pretty much confirmed there was something off about her. While she really shouldn't be surprised considering what kind of school she was going to, somehow she was. Being the Dullahan still missing her head, Layla always felt like an outcast. She wanted a chance to experience what "normal" was as she hadn't done so in five years. And she felt alone in that regard. But now seeing all these people with their own unique quirks, she wondered what has she gotten herself into.With Jackie seemingly disappearing and Heidi coming in her place, Layla still wasn't really sure what to do. Heidi certainly seemed more brash, more bold than what Jackie was. "Uh... sure, lead the way," she says in a somewhat meek manner. "Do you all want to join us?" she asks the quadruplets, sensing that they were all just as perplexed as she was.
Fwomph
Alex's Mom Is Learning New Things Today
"I uh... I guess you didn't know? Yeah Alex is uh... Yaknow how he probably went missing every full moon? Werewolf. But! Big puppy good boy werewolf!"
Blake was clearly trying to present the best side of this whole possibly horrifying revelation.
"His human side was pretty concerned about what his dog side got up to but I think there's little to worry about?"
It's clearly a case of backroom political albumizing.
THE SLORG!
Saturday, Little Haven, somewhere between Oddity High and Alex's house - Alex Palencia the werewolf with a confused mother.
"H-hold on, this is a bit much to take in- a werewolf? But..." Alex's mom trailed off, looking at Alex again for a few moments. If Blake or Val were really good at reading emotions, they might have noticed that for as bewildered and shocked as she was, there was still a hint of familiarity there as well; that she had seen something like this before.
Slowly, with her hands shaking, Alex's mom unbuckled her seat belt and unlocked the car door. Alex's tail wagged a little more and he let out another whine, but didn't move otherwise. His mom opened the door slightly and put one foot out after a couple seconds, the other foot following a few more seconds later. Finally she actually stood and got out of the car, still staring at the werewolf with some trepidation. She spoke softly then in Spanish, asking Alex if that really was him. Alex nodded his head slowly, making her blink in mild surprise. She reached a hand out hesitantly towards his head; when it got close he lifted his head and gave her palm a quick lick with his tongue, making her pull back in mild surprise.
Then Alex's mom smiled though, and stepped forward, patting her hand on the top of his head. "Alex, my ba-by!" Partway through her statement, Alex suddenly moved forward and lifted her up off the ground in a big hug, his tail wagging excitedly. "Okay, okay Alex! Put me down please!" she requested, her tone both frantic and relieved at the same time. Thankfully he did as she asked, though followed it up by licking her face a couple times until she pushed him back with a muttering of Spanish about his manners. Then she looked at him with that caring and concerned look that only a mother could give, running a hand over his cheek. "It is you, my little boy... But a werewolf? That's..." she trailed off, and looked at Blake.
"And you are...?" Alex's mom asked, in a mildly confused tone.
You are reading this.
For the Horde!
Gill chuckled at her. He didn't particularly like the idea of her bashing peoples' heads, but her heart was certainly in the right place. He moved towards the rock and pulled his shirt back over his head, going to put back on his socks and shoes.
"Actually, I think I'm ready to move on from the beach today. The swimming was fun and all... but I'd like to go back out onto the town. Maybe see if we can't find Blake," he explained. "Besides, we kinda caused a scene here..." he added, looking sheepish.
Heidi shook her head, glancing back towards the tree that Lindon glanced around.
"She might come, she might not," Heidi responded. "You never know with her. She kinda pops in and out. Don't you worry where she went. She'll come up when she feels like it," she explained.
>>"I feel like it now!"<< Jackie's voice groaned in Heidi's head.
>>"Well that sounds like your problem, doesn't it?"<< Heidi mentally responded. Then she looked back towards Layla and the other quadruplets.
"There's this place that makes the best pizza I've ever tasted, there's a totally awesome roller skating rink, an arcade with a karaoke parlor... the world's our fuckin' oyster here," said Heidi, a grin from ear to ear.
I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.
THE SLORG!
Saturday, Little Haven, the fountain area - Lynn the quadruplets getting around to a question they wanted to ask before.
At that point, Linton and Marilyn also looked around from where they were standing, trying to catch any sight of Jackie. "But there's nowhere she could have gone!" Carolyn said, while Lindon put his hand to his chin in thought. "Unless, you say you're new here too, so did your parents also move you here for that 'Oddity High' place? When you say 'pops in and out' do you mean she... Teleports?" the red quadruplet asked.
You are reading this.
What, me worry?
Mindy
Mindy darts her eyes from Gill to the people who have gathered around. She nodded her head approvingly towards Gill's suggestion. "Uh, yeah... I don't wanna hang out here anymore either. But you're right. I wonder what Queens is up to," she asks as her and Gill went to retrieve her bike. They both set off, away from the beach."Wish that psychic never came around here. Kinda ruined everything," she says.
Layla
Layla was still a bit unsure about Heidi. But her suggestions on where they could go really made her think. She didn't really want to go to the pizza place as she felt uncomfortable eating with other people. At least other people who don't really know how she really is. She'd have to move the pizza under her cloth and drink with a straw. Both of which make it hard to conceal herself. She really couldn't play video games. While her senses were better than a normal humans, it still wouldn't aid her well on seeing anything on a screen. Besides that, she wasn't into video games. And she was much too shy for karaoke. She figured the skating rink would be the better option for her. She thinks she can do that pretty well."I think the skating rink would be pretty fun," she says. And then one of the quadruplets asked about Oddity High. While she really didn't want to admit to going to that place. But with the quadruplets likely attending that place, and Layla suspecting Jackie and/or Heidi would go there too, one or the other (unaware the two are one in the same), she felt she had no choice but to admit it. There was pretty much no way around it.
"O... Oddity High? Wait... are we all going there?" she asked, inquisitively. She looks around at everyone and wonders how many more people she'll run into here.
For the Horde!
When both the weird quadruplets and the girl with the veil on her head mentioned Oddity High, the color almost seemed to drain out of Heidi's face.
"Oh fuck, you guys are going to Oddity High?" she asked. Letting out a short string of profanity, she composed herself. For your information, I didn't want to go to that fucking school. My mom and dad made me enroll. It's the whole reason we moved to this fucking garbage dump of a town," Heidi spat venomously, her entire tune about Little Haven changing on the spot. "And no, I— she doesn't teleport, you—" she said, cutting herself off before she blatantly insulted the quadruplet. She groaned, then composed herself.
"Skating rink. We're going. No more talking about school, or oddities, or whatever the shit else you're thinking of. We're gonna have fun and nothing and no one's fucking stopping us," Heidi firmly said, starting to walk in a direction. At this point she didn't 100% care which direction, she just wanted to change the subject now.
I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.
The Beach
After Gill stopped singing, the crowd snapped out of their hypnosis, and the guy who had his phone out put it back up. For a few seconds, they seemed confused (how much of that was "Why did I like that so much?" and how much was "Why'd he stop? I want more..." varied from person to person), but then they did the thing that people not used to supernatural occurences often do: rationalized. In this case, they seemed to rationalize the hypnotic singing as "This random beach kid is the BEST SINGER EVER!" One of them, a young woman in a one-piece bathing suit, even walked up to Gill and asked him about it. "That was amazing! Where did you learn to do that?"
Weirdly, none of them seemed to notice Gill talking about not being human. They appeared to have still been entranced/confused at that point.
Meanwhile, Coralie's attack had no obvious outward effect...to anyone except Coralie, who would recieve the message Ugh! I'm leaving already! Shut up!
Road
"...wait..." Val said, alerting Alex's mom to their existence. "...if you didn't know...why were you sending him...to...you know..."
Suggested wine pairing: pinot noir.
Saturday, Little Haven, the school roof - Alex Palencia the werewolf who does understand stairs well enough.
Alex looked at Blake, then back at Val, then cautiously followed after Blake, figuring that if Blake wasn't bothered by Val then it was probably okay. Besides, letting Blake go first technically put Alex between the two of them.
Edited by FirockFinion on Jan 24th 2023 at 1:55:49 AM
You are reading this.