Welcome to Gaia! ::

Athena stared at Ialo. "...'It'? What is it? What're you gonna destroy? What does a Fountain have to do with anything? Is that what our school was named after?" Okay, so maybe the last sentence was a bit random, but that's Athena. She just spouted off her entire thought stream there.

Meanwhile, at the front doors of Mystic Fountain, Georgia Saffron tapped her foot, shifting on her skyscraper heels and wondering why the hell no one was answering the door.

With a soft sigh, she smoothed her hands over her skirt, then decided she was better off inside, where someone might actually notice her.

Honestly, if you were going to hire a new teacher, the least you could do was have someone to greet her at the door.

With a frustrated roll of her eyes, she pushed open the heavy doors, and was more than a little miffed to find the halls bare of even a single slack-off student who could've directed her to the Headmaster's office.

Accepting the fact that she would have to find it for herself, she began walking down a random hall, reading the labels on all the doors. From her open purse, a strange neon purple creature crawled up the strap and onto her arm, perching itself on her shoulder. It had butterfly wings and the body of a small calf, spotted with neon pink polka-dots. It was only about six inches in height, and let out little high-pitched mooing/chirping sounds while a pink-tufted tail swung back and forth.

"I know, Milo, I'm lost too." Yes, the purple and pink butterfly-cow was a male. Poor thing. When she came to an unmarked door and heard voices behind it, she sighed in relief and pushed this one open as well, knocking once on the door jam.

"Excuse me, can anyone-" She cut off abruptly when she discovered that she'd come in through the side door of the kitchens. And there, sitting at a table laden with empty liquor bottles and picture albums, were Cook and Sly, sobbing as they looked at Danni's baby pictures and rocking back and forth with their arms around each other's shoulders.

Their voices were raised in a cliched version of Danny Boy, and in front of each of them was a glass of whiskey, with the bottle sitting between them.

Without another word, Georgia backed up the way she'd come, shutting the door quietly. The two men didn't seem to notice.

"...What were we thinking, Milo?" She asked, and hurried on down the hall, shaking her head.

Athena hadn't known what to say after Ialo's spiel, and she was very glad that Danni did. She stood--figuratively--behind Danni, almost word-for-word. "She's right," Athena said. Her voice, for once in her life, was rather quiet. She was serious about this. "Whatever you think, Ialo... whatever has happened in your mind to make this seem like it would just... just disappear... I'm sorry. I'm here, though. I want to help. I want to help you, to help Danni, to help this school in any way I can. And..." She glanced off to the side. "I can help get more help, too. If this is a war," and her voice rose back to its normal decible, "I can provide your reinforcements. After all, my godfather is Adolf, and he is over two thousand years old. He knows many people who owe him favors."

((I love you too biggrin ))

Athena smirked, but then turned her head to stare at Danni. "Wait, dropping out? You--never mind, but you'll have to tell me this later. You--HOLY HELL, YOU JUST APPEARED OUT OF NOWHERE. YOU WERE DEAD, BUT NOW YOU'RE NO--I'll celebrate later..." This was probably NOT the right place to be freaking out about random little things. Shaking her head slightly, she looked back at Ialo, her own arm now slung across Danni's shoulders as well. "I'll even make Dust. All you need to do is ensure that no battle happens close to or on the New Moon. That is a yokai's weakest time."

Ialo groaned, slid down the wall, and buried his face in his hands. He was moved, honestly, by how fervently Danni and Athena wanted to help him. But he couldn't let them. They would get hurt, and his students getting hurt.... that was the last thing he wanted. It really was. They had their whole lives ahead of them, and they were insisting on fighting for him, against Setsuka.

"... There's so much you should know," he finally said.

Athena followed suit, sitting next to him, the opposite side as Danni. "Please tell us," she said. Her voice quieted down again, and she tilted her head to look at him, curling up her knees and resting her head on them. "All we can do is help. I doubt we'll hinder. I... I want to fight with you."

"... You're not going to change your minds," Ialo mumbled. "You're just like us."

There really was so much that they needed to know, but he couldn't say. He looked up.

"Now THAT is where I draw the line. The safest place for you is here, ironically. For that, I can't let you withdraw. Besides."

Oh, he was just cruel.

"I'd need the signature of your legal guardian. That's not me, by the way. And you're not eighteen."

By the time Ialo's initial paralyzing realization passed, he was too late. He had leapt up and reached to grab Danni, to stop her from going, but she had slipped into a portal. He almost followed her. He had barely brushed the back of her shirt before he was forced to watch her disappear.

It infuriated him. It just flat out infuriated him, to see her go. She finally back, and... ugh. His eyes flashed red as he leaned back against the wall.

So now he was in the basement of the school with a teenage hanyou, a Fallen God with a claim on his life, an Ancient, and a Silverwing who had spent a hundred years in another dimension while dead for a few months here. And he was a clinically depressed dragon.

No, this wasn't strange at all.

Out of habit, he looked at Kai, hoping he'd have an answer - and avoided Riser's gaze, because any interaction with Riser was sure to lead to something unpleasant.

"So, Satan knows," Ialo stated hoarsely. "I suppose that means Setsuka was quick to rat us out." Score five for stating the obvious. His thoughts were too wild and turbulent to care, or to realize his position was perfectly reversed from minutes earlier. He had a very long list of things to do now. Number one, secure the school for attack. Number two, at least inform Athena of what was happening.

Three, live.