Welcome to Gaia! ::

Note to self; don’t get involved in unlife or redead situations until I have a bedroom and soft bed to immediately drop into.

While everyone had their own ways to recover after the hazardous expedition, majority of which was hiding in their rooms to weep and/or sleep it off. Damien didn't get that kind of luxury. His room was still as barren as the town he died in. Stark and empty, it didn't feel like it was his yet, a new hideaway, his new home. It was just an ordinary room. However that's nothing a little bit of elbow grease and sweat can't fix. It would be a nice project to get done while he forgot about the troubles and the disturbing events on the island of misery as he now affectionately called it. There were no pitfalls here, just solid floors, and walls and people with eye colors that weren't yellow for the most of them.

He wouldn't say that it was the highlight of his day, dragging in furniture in, piece by piece by himself. Some were large and heavy, taking up quite a hefty amount of time to move it halfway into the dorm. The act of the labor was so tedious and mundane, it was getting boring. Grab, lift, walk, place, shift, walk and repeat. It’s too bad that the gnomes couldn't really help with such labor, not to say that they would even if they could manage to. What a joy, another hour, over half a foot. If he was lucky, he'd be fully moved in by two weeks time.

The couches in the common hall looked like an awful nice place to crash while doing this much labor. Its deep rich color seemed to hint about how plush its padding may be. He could afford to take a break right? What was one more half a day of furniture to having a decent nap? Damien didn't waste a moment shuffling over to the break spot in the corner, twisting out of the way of various students that he passed with a mumbled "Excuse me" or "pardon". All he was interested in was resting his weary legs and back, human like forms could be such a pain in the tail to deal with.

The area was lavished in burgundy fabrics and stone surfaces. It seemed just a bit extravagant for your everyday Monster student; just too many fancy things to break that didn't seem easily replaceable. For all he knew they just might have dozens of the tables and chairs in a room somewhere, collecting dust, waiting to be used and broken. But that was a different matter, rest was more important as he laid his weary head on crossed arms on top of the table to get a moment to himself. Just to relax weary limbs and an overtaxed mind just for a few hours.

Jack, even a few minutes would be nice. The armoire was clearly not going anywhere for awhile.

Damien had a lovely rest from the labor that awaited him; sleep was becoming something very rare after his first few days here, well technically not here per se. It wasn't as if he didn't love to sleep he did, naps are a beautiful thing for him, any time or anywhere. After the trip though, it was hard to stay asleep for very long, and it wasn't normally very peaceful. He could still hear the screams of his fellow students if he put his mind to it, which was rather unsettling.

But that sensation of falling, that was something that became unforgettable. That sense of weightlessness that was felt, it was so similar to the sensations of falling asleep that it made him panic. Nothing quite like the feeling of your heart pumping wildly in your chest as your senses came back to you from jerking awake and then really falling off whatever surface you were on, cementing your panic into a real occurrence.

Safe to say that when Damien fell out of his dreamland of sizzling meat products cooking in a lush meadow, he had a moment of shock. A ripple of electricity ran though him as he came back into reality but was quickly pacified by the gentle lull of a calm voice. It was ok, there were no more pits, and he was safe. That voice, was familiar, like he heard it before was what he thought of as his bleary eyes opened slowly, getting used to the degree of brightness in the room. His arms didn't feel as heavy as before when he was struggling with the wooden object from before. Stretching sore limbs with an audible groan, Damien took a look around for the voice that roused him awake.

He didn't have to look far as the person who was next to him, it was the gryphon from the campfire, and he was with the others from the group that he met. His name however seemed to elude him, so much had happened since then, names were the least of priorities at the time. Was it Rob, Rin...? Rem? Damien blinked away the sleep from his eyes as he shifted to give the boil more room to sit down, didn't seem fair to hog so much space.

"Ah, not yet mate, but its getting there, hopefully when I settle in it will get better." he told the boil as he studied his face. "How have you been since the campfire get together? I haven't seen you since." he asked him kindly as he stretched out the kinks in his legs, his joints gave a nice pop as it stretched to a point, and it felt so good. "Man, I'm bushed, my sleep cycle has gone to the dogs since I got here" he muttered out softly.

That’s what it was, Ren! He was screaming in his head, glad the he didn’t try to guess it and choose to say Rin Tin Tin. He turned to his side to give all his attention to the friendly company with the barest of grins. “Yep, but you can just call me Demi, its easier to say and less formal. It’s a lot better to see you again on less traumatic experiences.” He told the boil with a friendly grin and turned to the side to offer his full attention to the gryphon.

It was the briefest of moments he spent observing the sleep deprived Gryphon’s face. It spoke volumes of his lack of decent, blissful sleep. It make Demi’s mind wonder about how tired his own faced looked. His eyes softened as his heart felt the same pain. “You too huh?” he asked the boil with a somber dull voice while staring down at the grooves in the floor, zig zagging their way all over with not a care in the world. “Even though its now in our past, it never fails to come back to us, like a scar that will never go away.” He muttered softly as his shoulders sank with the painful reminders he carried with him.

Everyone had their own way for getting over the island, hiding in the sanctuary that is their dorms or getting distracted with various tasks or crying it out. He tried staying in his stark empty room for awhile and the isolation only made him feel worse. He would never admit to the tears he shed over the lack of having his clan by his side in such a trying time, he tasted death for the first time and had no family to comfort the pain. No, not even after that night of mournful wailing out a window eased the ache in his heart. Now we have come to the next stage, of doing menial chores as a distraction and bore no fruit in moving on either.

"I remember hearing from someone that there was a train ride adventure similar to this." He told the boil, trying to fill the silence that stretched between them. "I wonder how different that was compared to this."

He almost missed the question from the quiet musings he found his mind engulfed in as he shook his head out of its deep thought. "Oh the school? It's not bad, I've never seen a big establishment like this before." He said with wide eyes "I haven't been to any classes yet but I'm keeping an open mind to whatever else that happens here."

"Was it like this for you too when you got here?" He had placed his arm on the chairrest, cheek cradled in his palm as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. He wanted to learn about the quiet boil and needed to be awake and attentive for this.

The handshake that Demi shared with Ren, the simple contact spoke volumes to the hound that it won’t be so bad here, in time it will get better. He felt his grin twitching at the sides of his mouth as he fought back the bubbling feeling in his mind that wanted to come out and personally meet the new acquaintance itself. It was always a pain to keep a constant check over his emotions at all times, the restraint on feeling happy always felt like a curse, a bittersweet tang to the sugary high that life could be. All thoughts of his own personal misery were pushed to the side as the gryphon began his tale of what happened before he came here.

The idea of traveling somewhere where there was this snow…. Thing that Ren talked about, it sounded like a complete fantasy. Soft frozen water that stuck to the ground not in puddles, but like a blanket, it merely sounded impossible, but Demi couldn’t help but watched the boil tell his tale of what he saw there with unblinking eyes, his tail batting back and forth at the pace of his own heartbeat fluttering in his chest. “Drunken trees?” he said out loud with a barking laugh that sent him falling off the couch on his rear. He managed to get back onto the couch after his laughing fit passed.

“I’m sorry, I pictured it and it was just too much, A tree with a libido!” He said with another chuckle and a few gasps for air. “It’s a shame I missed out on that, sounds like less death occurred than with our “beach day”.” He said with his fingers quoting the air and an eye roll at the mention of the island. “I can at least take solace in that, knowing that someone had gone through the same thing and came out ok.”

Frankly, he lost track of how much time he spent chatting with his fellow insomniac that it wasn’t a shock to feel the tingles in one of his legs that lets the mind know it hasn’t moved in awhile. “That’s right! I was supposed to finish moving in my furniture.” He bellowed out with a hop out of the couch on wobbly feet. Personally, if you asked him, he’d rather chat with the Gryphon over moving heavy items any day of the week. With a careful shuffling of his half asleep leg, he made his way back to the item that was still jutting out of his door with a groan escaping his lips. “Sadly, I’m still not done yet, but I think I can manage.” He said out loud, he head arching back to the boil back on the couch as he strained to move the jacking table another few meters into the room. “At least, I hope I can.”

Next time, his furniture will be bean bags chairs and wheel-abouts. That was a promise.

“ You have quite a flair with the obvious Ren.” Demi gritted out behind snarling teeth, glaring at the unyielding table to move a few more inches or else he’d be more interested in turning it into itty bitty little toothpicks. “Just like how I love furniture that likes to fight back.” He felt no bigger than a toddler trying to fit a square block in a round hole, and he would be lying if he didn’t give a cursory glance to the door’s opening to make sure it didn’t suddenly have a circumference. Why did he ever think of bringing this hulking piece of furniture with him? It was as if the table was having fun at the predicament, mocking the hound in silence as it sat there unyielding to his tugging.

He watched as the gryphon put his shoulder into the force against the table and tried to pull with equal fervor, his boots already scuffling on the floor making no headway with its attempt. Table 1, Demi and Ren 0. “Don’t worry your helping mate, and if we can’t get this thing in, we can help ourselves to lumber for a nice campfire under the stars for another day, how’s that sound?” He asked the gryphon after a moment to catch his breath on the edge of the flat plank of wood that was the tabletop. “You think this table is made from one of your drunk tree buddies? Getting his revenge even after going to the great forest in the sky?” He asked with a half grin as the sound echoed around the stark white room.

He could have sworn the table let out a drunken hiccup. "Don't hurt yourself buddy, maybe we should just..... angle it in, or in the worse case scenario break it in half." When it doubt, rampage.

What? It was the monster dorms after all, perfectly normal.

Demi couldn't suppress the chuckle that bubbled out of his lips when the gryphon bumped his foot against the table, even if it was indeed wrong to laugh, he did give the boil an apologetic look for his actions, and his table's stubbornness.

"yes, a little bonfire in my room sounds like great fun, it would be like a indoors camp out." he quipped up after giving the table his own little kick too. The hound indeed swished his tail at the gryphon's seriousness towards the task and couldn't help but follow along. "Got it!" he cried out before settling his hands and feet in for the haul.

"Three!" he cried out and pulled with as much force as his frame could muster, his feet skidding along the floor for traction and refused to let the table win.

"Is it budging on your side Ren?" he groaned out after a few seconds behind clenched teeth., praying there was a little bit of progress, to compensate for the pain in his arms.