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“What?” Blinked Zac, who… for all that he was doing well in the class, looked like he was doing some serious full night study sessions. Maybe he was helping more of the class than people were letting on? Or maybe his job at the Bookstore Bibliophile had him pulling late nights.

“Sorry…ah…No, no thanks though.” Zac blinked at the chips like they –might- bite him, but did offer an appreciative smile.

“Sorry, I’m normally a much better study partner than this.” He rubbed at his eyes.

“Am I making sense though?”

“You’re not –lesser- it’s just a harder thing to… oh… God, sorry, I was supposed to laugh right?” He looked honestly distressed to have missed the social cue.

“Sorry I um, yeah, call it a long, week.” He grimaced. “Ah.. Insomnia” He passed the nightmares off as that, it was as good a reason as any without having to explain that he was having sleeping and waking nightmares about angler-spiders consuming his extremities, and rot-deer … and yeah.

“Blame it on too much weird in this town.”

Zac laughed, there was an odd edge to the sound, brittle almost.
"You have NO idea." He said shaking his head. No idea just how far down the damned rabbit hole went. "Well... maybe you'll be lucky and get the hell out of dodge before the weird really hits the fan." He rubbed his eyes and blinked at the calendar.

"Test?" He asked blearily pointing at the WTF and its accompanying enthusiastic barrage of question marks. "Or is that... orb hunt number two."

The look on Zac’s face though, it didn’t say “oh lord, public squabbles getting Mr. Mercer involved.

It registered honestly more like… shock and a little horror. “Sorry… Say again? D… Did you say, Warg, or Were.”

And more than that, he sounded dead Serious.

He closed the history book, staring.

Zac’s eyes narrowed… “No, it’s really NOT.” He said pointedly. “I need to know how serious you are, how serious SHE sounded.”

He’d only pulled it off once before but it seemed like a really good time to try again, even if it was kind of a jerk thing to do.

Falco would feel a pinch on his arm, a firm pinch like fingers had just grabbed him and tweaked. But Zac hadn’t moved, he was just -looking- at him.

“Had you… experienced something weird before she came up to you about it? This is important, I’m serious! I’ll pinch you again to prove the weirdness is real!”

Zac didn’t honestly look too put off by the prospect of a beat down, if anything he looked more challenging. He raised his hands, narrowed his eyes and pinched the other arm.

Hands in plain sight.


“It’s probably not what you -think - it means,” He said hands still in the air. “And I promise its not a damned joke.”

Then he just looked -tired- again, like he’d been hollowed out and left behind.
“God damnit… ********.” He whispered. “One more thing for this s**t pile. Here… gimme your number alright? I need to contact a friend, and Maybe the Professor can help but, basically I’ll look into Warg and if I find anything that actually seems to apply I’ll tell you, if you learn anything, maybe tell me? Some of us just to ******** up parlor tricks and get sucked into rainy creature filled other worlds.”

He started packing up.

he should explain, GOD he should explain but he was so… so tired.
He made himself stop, head hanging, shoulders drooping. “Look… I don’t want to drag you further into this than you need to be…but… I can answer =some= questions. I just warn you that the answers keep bloody changing. I can’t help that…but I’m trying to keep up. It’s the only thing I’m even remotely good at. And I’ve got friends I really want to keep safe, I’m sure you do too so if we can just… if we can share information. I think we really need that. I’m just really tired right now.”

“I’m sorry… “ He sat down again and slumped in the chair.

Zac made a frustrated sound and rubbed his eyes. “Ok…does that -actually- hurt? Because you are literally the only one who’s done more than look around for who pinched them.” He demanded.
“Ok… try this on for size… You might, actually be, a WARG, there -are- werewolves, or something like them, Slender-man is a DEER and yes I mean that, there are cats in town that grow -flowers- on their heads and sometimes your furniture and there is a witch on the beach who will trade you things for …other things like trips to HORRIBLE other worlds that try and kill your friends and you. I would say RUN but maybe it’s too damned late.”

He rested his chin on his arms and stared, ice-chip eyes all dark circles and serious.

“You can believe me now, or later when you need stuff looked up. I mean I’m just… pinching you without touching you, no big deal or anything.”