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Shehk's touch made him jump, fins flattening against his body. It was a standard reaction for him now. Where before he would open and stretch his fins as wide as possible to look bigger, now he did his best to look small. Insignificant. Worthless and not worth anyone's time. He flinched as she kissed him on the cheek, looking at her surprised. That was something he was not expecting.

"I," he began, taking a deep unnecessary breath and letting it out again slowly before trying again. "I guess. But... It's... It's hard, isn't it? It sounds easy, but it isn't." He was about to say more when the ickycom screeched, the undead boil flinching yet again until the sound ended.

After the announcement, Merope sighed. "It's too late to ask you to blow this for me now, huh?" Merope asked Shehk, reaching under his jacket and passing her something. He didn't seem inclined to move anywhere anytime soon, not with the Student Council member's arm still around him.

Zar watched Invictus' interaction with Riley and mentally recoiled from it, he tended to see any genuine tender action as a farce, taking the whole interaction as a direct dig at him. Parade the connection around for all the sheep to see, none of them are bright enough to tell what is really going on. Well he certainly could, he could see it all laid bare and plain, he wouldn't be fooled the same way the others appeared to be. He had no idea he was merely building his own walls ever higher.

"My accusations will be made public in my own time, via my own means. I don't go through biased channels. And I don't think channels /get/ more biased" he had to force himself not to coward out of his own assertions, still distinctly intimidated by the heir in front of him, even without the knowledge of his kind, but outwardly at least he managed to maintain his cold demeanour.

And there was Christof. One student Zar really wasn't sure what to make of, it was hard to judge anything about someone when you couldn't actually speak with them, he seemed pleasant enough certainly..but... oh wait. He was looking at Riley TOO.

Well. Jack. How many people were in on this?

He could only stare though as the assembly started and turned out to be...hugely baffling. He had no idea who the four clans were, oblivious to the similarity of the visitor's outfit to that of Invictus. What he could say was rather icily to himself, rubbing his temples.

"Yes, lets impress the oddities so we can protect the school from its own students." He could only assume Arel and the administration were in on this too.

Nio Love

demon_pachabel

Anyone else k

Nuru tried to glare in reply. Trrriiiieeed. But he was too much of a sucker. Grunting as he turned in his seat finally giving Shehk a break. His interest drawn back at the proffered hand and he took it.

"Don't expect me to ever remember that surname, let alone pronounce it." Well, at least he was honest.
"and.. uh.. yeah, Nuru, thanks?" Damn she moved fast and like that she was off comforting her friend.

He shrugged. At least he wasn't called a puppy again as he distractedly tried to groom the fuzz on his ear straight again after having been touched by a stranger.

Still he smiled more properly at Jericho this time. Fingers still running down the back of his own ear.

"Pleasure meeting you too and hmm... how will Ah know them when Ah see them?" He honestly wanted to know, he didn't quite fancy a lot of the terrible things people were saying happened to them to happen to himself.

It was about then his train of thought was completely derailed by the loud painful screeching of the ickycom and what was said that followed. A good majority of it going completely over his head. He wasn't very knowledgeable about the horsemen or anything to do with them - he still didn't even notice the one sitting in their midst. He simply shrugged and turned to Zar.

"Are you going to ask anything?" He asked curiously.

"Amrita," Ash said, as warm as his voice got (with a secret smile underneath his helm. "You've changed. I can no longer see your head from underneath my helm-- a new body, I presume? Does it fit any better, my friend?"

In the short moments that he was distracted by his undead companion, a...girl had her arms and hands and tiny little fingers all over Thackery.

He bristled, visibly, helm turning sharply to face the kitsune head on. A low growl emanated from beneath the helm, fanged teeth bared underneath the metal-- fortunately hidden.

A white gloved hand slipped into Thackery's smaller one, interlacing their fingers with a careful deliberation he always had when around the cerberus boy.

But...This was the girl Thackery sometimes muttered about when he thought Ash couldn't hear. Interesting.

Putting on a polite face, since she DID seem to legitimately feel distressed about upsetting Ash's boilfriend, he offered her his free hand.

"Henry Ashford Charles the third," he said gravely, nodding once. "A pleasure to meet you, Miss."

But then, the ickycom came alive with the voice of the ...apparently horseman. Ash had no questions; but he was interested in the ones any other student had. He had not paid nearly enough attention in the last few months.

"OH YES, I ran for office! I was running for Public Retaliations you know, only I found out afterward that that is not a thing? Thanks, I like my coat too. My name is Cady-"

Snow.

Cady froze as the image of the HORRIBLE, TRICKY wet-but-not-wet stuff flashed through her mind. She shuddered. At first, it had seemed so fun, so innocent - so in typical fashion she dived into a giant DRIFT of it. She waded out the other side a few seconds later, wet and freezing. She'd been wearing the rain coat ever since, and spent the rest of the holiday locked up somewhere far away from the outside, and thus had missed all the, erm, 'festivities'.

"NO. NO SNOW IS BAD," she replied loudly and insistently.

She listened then as Arel began his speech, and couldn't help but quip at the end,

"BUT WHY ARE THERE ONLY FOUR ANYWAY? WE HAVE OTHER STUDENTS HERE WHO ARE HORSES RIGHT? RIGHT?" She asked, turning to Isra.

Invictus seemed to give Zar no further interest, even as the exchange with the stranger suddenly began, his attention suddenly caught as he looked up at the demon, his eyes narrowing. His attention turned to Riley for a moment, Invictus actually seeming like he hadn't been expecting this to be happening, and not very happy about this by any means.

The corners of his lips pulled taught, a visible frown on Conquest's face as he folded his arms behind him.

"He's from my clan." he answered, "I was able to suspect that much, but this..." His attention was sharp on the envoy who was from his own home - closer to his home than he would have ever pegged anything to be. It was his place of origin, and Invictus seemed very displeased to have been left out of the loop. Were any of the girls there?

He passed a look around, before his attention turned sharply up towards the stage;

"And when were you planning on telling us about this? I assume by exchange, you will be sending some of our own to them, so students now should be thinking about if they want to spend some..time away from the school, yes?" It was clear the 'us' was him and the other three, his tone not exactly angry, but there was a certain stress in it.




----

"It is. I find myself struggling with it the more I lose." she agreed.

Shehk's ears flicked back as the ickycom screeched as well, her ears sensitive to the horrible noise, but listening as the announcement was made, frowning lightly. That..sounded like some potential iffiness, and it sounded like one of the heirs had already piped up about it.

She wondered if it was safe for him to actually pipe up..then again, he was an heir..that made him important, right...?

As Merope handed her the strange item, she looked over it. "It's...kinda limp and looks like my teeth might not be too nice too it, but if I'm really gentle I can manage blowing this for you." she agreed, settling back in her seat as the questions began to float about, popping the tip of what Merope had asked her to blow into her mouth and setting to work with it carefully.

Another screeching sound sent the green eared Hellhound into howls of pain, like nails on a pink chalkboard or worse, humans using markers on a dry erase board. it was a horrible sound that made Demi just want to crawl under Thackery and hide.

Oh crap, that was right, he basically just practically howled in the boil's ear! The mutt widens his eyes at the horror and went about petting at the less pink dog's ears in apology for his cries. "Ack, Jack's bells, sorry about that, ears are still in pain." he apologized lamely, his own ears folded up in embarrassment.

however his attention was stolen once the feedback squeals died down to a more reasonable level and they began the assembly. and Demi couldn't help but wonder, why wasn't bul in the crowd? Even with his green, bright eyes; the ren tint of the half beast was normally easy to pick out.

But there was no red in the crowd. :< Words began to drone together one he began to type furiously into the eyephone, he had to look out for his best non canine bud.



There was still more on his mind, but Demi had to take careful precautions to curl up closer to his device as he sent the next message.