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A large, bird-shaped shadow fell over Amityville High. Anyone happening to look up at it might have had the rare opportunity to see the intricate designs covering the underside of a thunderbird's wings, visible only when they were extended to their fullest. Luckily, it passed over the school several times, drifting closer in ever-tightening spirals. Finally, it tucked its wings in and dropped, hurtling towards the ground, pulling up at the last second and landing gracefully at the school's entrance with a dull thud.

Taima took a moment after she landed to shake herself off, sending a pair of demi-goats and a rope-wrapped bundle of duffel bags tumbling off her back. The demi-goats bleated balefully at her until she snipped the rope holding her luggage together with her beak, then ignored her in favor of eating it. Taima snorted fondly at them before reluctantly beginning the shift into her humanoid form. She opened her beak wide, revealing rows of sharp teeth, and then wider still, until her whole head seemed to split in half. Her birdlike features seemed to melt away as her body diminished with the creak of shrinking wings and wet snap of reforming bones. The demi-goats had finished the rope and were working on the straps of her bags when she finally stood on more human feet, momentarily unbalanced, as always, in those few moments between changing forms.

When Taima finally regained her equilibrium, she shooed the goats away, bending to take her bags. She managed to sling one crosswise across each shoulder before deciding that packing so much had probably been a bad idea, amending it to a definite bad idea as she bent to take the other two and nearly fell, overburdened and off-balance.

"Awesome," she muttered, teetering her way unsteadily towards the dorm registration office.

Taima was busy adjusting the strap on one of the duffels slung across her chest, and she didn't see other ghoul walk up. She startled at the rapid-fire assault of questions, her wings flaring for balance. Her eyes widened in surprise as the questions kept coming, and she paused after they stopped to make sure that there were, in fact, no more immediately forthcoming.

"Uh," Taima started, "yes, I am, no, I don't, thanks," but she could use a few more arms, "don't get too close, they nibble, and they're not tattoos, they're markings. This form has them naturally."

"I don't know, they're pretty heavy," Taima hedged, gripping her bags tighter--more than anything, they provided a physical buffer between her and this new ghoul. It wasn't that she minded the proximity, she just wasn't used to people coming out of nowhere and start interrogating her.

But she supposed that was part of what she was here for.

"Thanks, I think they're neat too," Taima said, not bothering to correct the ghoul again. "You've got an interesting, uh...tail thing going on there." Better than nothing, but she was tired from the trip and still had figurative miles to go before she could sleep. She shouldered her way into the dorm office, bags and goats and ghoul and all, and dropped her bags when she got to the desk. As she started filling out paperwork, she nodded. "That would be acceptable. I got a pretty good view from the air, but everything looks so different on the ground."

Taima looked up from the paperwork as she saw the other ghoul lift her bag up, opening her mouth to protest before shaking her head and turning back to the forms. "Thanks," she muttered, crossing a last T and dotting a final I before pushing the paperwork back across the desk before snatching up her key and remaining bag and following the ghoul out the door.

Taima looked around as she trailed after her luggage, trying to take in as much as possible while also an eye on the goats and an ear on the other ghoul. "I'm sure I'll run into him at some point," she replied absently. "I never got your name, by the way."

Being called birdy like she was some sort of minipet was somewhere between adorable and insulting; she ate things bigger than Danny in her natural state. "Nice to meet you, Danny, flame demon. I'm Taima, and I'm a thunderbird."

Taima looked up at the monster dorms, then turned to follow Danny's pointing finger to the other dorms, committing the buildings and their location to memory. "Cool," she said, nodding, impressed so far with what she'd seen from the ground. "What else is around here?"

'Big school part' and auditorium and stuff and a creepateria and--well, she'd find it all eventually. She'd get settled in, first, maybe do another flyover later, maybe pencil in sleep at some point.

"Fright Music Club?" Taima repeated. She'd never played an instrument and she could carry a tune, but not very far, but since she was here to do all of the things and clubs were required anyway..."Okay," she said, grinning at the other ghoul. "I'll join your club. How do I sign up?" Barely ten minutes and she'd already agreed to join a club; Taima was pleased with her progress so far.

Oh, crap, she'd have to audition? Maybe she should rethink this--or, more likely, she'd just have to learn how to play an instrument. "Sure, no problem. Sounds like fun." Maybe she'd work the technical side of things, or something; she was too proud to be someone's gopher, even for a club's sake.

Taima nodded as they got to her room, her wings fluttering a bit, Danny's apparent excitement infectious. She quickly unlocked and opened the door, pushing it open. Her jaw dropped as the goats pushed rudely past her and Danny. The room was pretty close to perfect for her: hardwood floors, so she wouldn't have to worry about ripping up carpet with her talons; a ceiling high enough that she wouldn't bump her head on it; and the entire far wall was made up of windows, put together so that she'd be able to make a space big enough for herself in either of her forms.

"Wow," she said quietly, taking a few steps inside. "Uh, you can come in if you want."

Taima made a beeline for the windows, completely bypassing the other features of the room. Whatever, she could find the bathroom later. The windows held the bulk of her attention, and in no time flat she had one open--and immediately ducked as a noisy red blur shot into the room like an angry bullet. It circled the room a few times, cawing abuse at Taima, at Danny, at the goats and life in general before landing on the bag Danny had dropped with a rustle of feathers and a final screech for good measure.

Taima was busy sliding more of the glass panels open, but she caught a few words of what Danny was saying. "A party? Sounds like fun," she agreed absently.