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Some strange things had happened since Janice entered Barren Pines - well, that was a dishonest thing to say, actually. It had been a singular strange thing. One event. It had definitely been the most bizarre thing she had ever seen since her encounter with the senshi at Fifth and Picton, but human beings had ways of dealing with strangeness. After a while she'd pushed it to the back of her mind, shrugged it off as something she wouldn't be able to explain. If something happened again, it was just more potential information.

Janice was in the library, busying herself in her spare time by getting some practice in on the very reason why she'd been admitted into Barren Pines in the first place. A chessboard was set up on the table before her, and she had been fortunate enough to find a book full of chess queen puzzles on a nearby shelf. She was working through these now. She was working through these very quickly. One could almost set a metronome to the clacking of pieces on the board, the brushing of paper as she turned the page, more clacking as she set up another puzzle and solved it just as quickly.

Set, solve, turn; set, solve, turn. In an even, clean, loop. For two hours.

Even she could admit it had started to get monotonous. Humming contemplatively, she put the extra queens to the side and slowly set to work arranging the pieces for a game. She half hoped someone might come along and challenge her, but wouldn't be complaining if she ended up playing against herself again.

It was indeed a nice library, and also a blissfully quiet one, devoid as it was of the flourescent light-buzzing and dozens of gum-smacking students clacking and clicking away at the computer keyboards she'd become accustomed to at the Meadowview library. No rampant Facebook-checking here. Janice had found this to be positively glorious, and had immediately decided the place would be her home away from dorm.

In the few short days she'd become accustomed to the breath of the place; the type of activity she could expect and therefore tune out. The dusty smell of tobacco was not a normal part of the library atmosphere. Neither was hushed, angry, authoritative talking. Janice lifted her eyes from the chess pieces and turned them in the direction of the sound - and was met with the sight of a steel-reinforced-concrete-wall of a man, lurched over the librarian like some kind of dreadlocked, angry bear.

She knew of someone by that description. That was Gunn Killingworth.

Janice wondered what reason Gunn Killingworth would have to be angry at a librarian. She also wondered what reason Gunn Killingworth would have to be angry at a librarian in Barren Pines.

He was coming her way, sitting at her table - still wearing sunglasses even though he was indoors, and in the late evening no less. Janice could imagine a few reasons why someone would choose to have such things on at all times. To look more intimidating, for one; hide a crucial part of one's facial expression, or perhaps to hide that aspect of the face altogether for whatever reason.

Then the shades were taken off. He had surprisingly weary, human eyes.

How interesting.

Killingworth had been quick and direct about challenging her to a game. Janice was more than happy to oblige; she could never turn down a chess match, or a match in anything else for that matter, against anyone, ever. There had been a recent exception made to this rule, of course, but she chose to forcefully shove that down into the boiler room of her brain--

"My pleasure," she responded, and moved her first pawn without hesitation.

Not too terribly far away from the small child, a small white puffball of what at least appeared to be an animal was hopping around on the top of the bookshelf, its small claws making even smaller click click click sounds against the wood as it bounced.

It couldn't be bothered with the other creature's antics, not when it could have its own fun. Down one shelf it went, taking a book with it as it latched onto the next tier. The book landed on the ground with a thud, and the small puffball stared down at the fallen book with interest.

It liked that noise!

Wagging its fluffy tail, the creature headbutted yet another book, sending it sailing off to the ground. And another. And then another. Soon, a pile of books had amassed themselves on the ground, and the small creature found itself bored again.

White flurries caught the attention of its glowing red eyes, and the creature turned its head and stared at them for a moment. Watching the pieces led to watching the two individuals at the table being attacked by the paper storm, and a small pink tongue slid out and licked around its lips.

Hopping down, down, down, it finally landed at the bottom of the shelf and made a quiet dash to the other side of the bookcase, its attention now focused on the two chess players as it slowly began to creep its way closer and closer to their chairs.

Janice was not bothered, either. Or, at least, if she were wasn't showing it and was taking no action upon it. She knew how small children worked: they acted out like this for attention, and if she didn't provide the reaction this child craved she would eventually get bored of them and go try to bother someone else. Ignore it and it will go away.

She wasn't even so much as blinking at the rapid thumping of the child's shoes two feet away from the back of her head. Any torn page that dared get close to the chessboard was calmly snatched from the air and set aside, a neat, small stack soon being made while Killingworth dealt with the... fluffy... thing.

It was probably the kid's pet, or some sort of toy. Janice really didn't care so long as it wasn't knocking over any pieces.

Moving a second pawn forward, she dared ask, "This sort of thing happen here often?"


((If I'm stepping outside bounds with that bit of dialog, please edit this post and fix. <3))

The small fluff let out a shrill shriek as it was plucked up from its sneaking, and it snarled, kicked, and squirmed about, clearly disappointed with being caught before it could join in on playing with the two seated individuals.

It continued to whine and pout, the cries going unnoticed by the large dark-skinned man who seemed intent on finishing his silly little game. The whining stopped, however, as the other creature's shrill one began. Giving up on the vocalizations, the puffball resolved itself to rocking back and forth, gaining enough momentum to lean forward and lick the very tip of the nose of its captor.

Satisfied with its accomplishment, it swung and twisted itself around, now taking the opportunity to stare at the shorter, more vulnerable of the two people seated at the table. Tilting its head to the side, the ball of fur simply stared at the girl for a moment... and then began to smile.

As the grin grew wider on its face, abnormally wide, a line of sharp, needle-like teeth exposed themselves from within the creature's mouth. It began to swing again, but this time in attempts to reach Janice, the tuft of its neck becoming dangerously loose from the man's grasp with every tug it made.

The persistent, inhuman screech from the child was just on level with Janice's own ears, and for those eight seconds the noise clawed deeply into her composure. She gritted her teeth and lurched forward, looking thoroughly determined to keep ignoring the brat-- but her resolve was crumbling; the caterwauling was making the seconds feel like minutes. She completely sympathized with Killingworth's emphatic curse.

A heavy sigh of half-relief, half-irritation issued from the girl as she tried to reroute her focus back onto the chess game, but it looked as if their eerie distractions had other plans in mind. Eyebrow arched, she watched as the fluff-thing twisted around to look at her, only for the other to jump in meet its twin in alarm when it revealed to her that it possessed a mouth meant for an anglerfish.

After a second in which Janice played a bishop she'd made room for with one of her pawns, she vacated her own chair in order to pluck a particularly large and heavy volume from the discarded pile of books. She did not trust that thing.

The small puffball landed with a flop on the chessboard, and it immediately stood up, shook itself off, and began trotting its way closer to the student. It paused, glowing red eyes watching the student rise from her chair.

A scowl grew on the little fluffy creature's face as the book was picked up, knowing all too well what the intentions must be with that large, oversized book. Not fair not fair, it wanted to play too!

Growling, the puffball began to paw and smack at the chess pieces in frustration, the white and black objects becoming flying projectiles. Its glanced up, noticing the other pieces lined up that had still remained untouched. Looked up at Janice, then back down to the pieces.

Darting forward, the small creature snatched up the two largest ones it saw, Janice's King and Queen, and took a flying leap off of the table and onto the ground, scrambling to return itself back up on the bookshelf. Once on top, it sauntered over to the very edge and looked down at the homely girl.

Plopping its small tush down, it began gnawing at the two pieces in its mouth, the sharp fangs grinding down and breaking apart the chess pieces with ease, red eyes continuing to glare as the puffball remained clearly disappointed in losing out on a new playmate.