Welcome to Gaia! ::

Arcana breathed a sigh in relief as he saw his sister and Westhor alright. Macthor as well was with them as well. Coming in, they caught the tail end of the conversation causing the Reaper to QQ.

Akithor was a friend, and one of the bro;'s. While Arcana didn't appreciate Westhor's intimacy with his sister, he would never wish any of them to be caught.

He continued to hold Selene as he looked up at his sister. "Students...they were taken." He breathed in, "By that reaper. Quibble didn't come." He choked out as he looked at his Sister. "What's going on in here Tarot....What's going on?" He clutched Selene tight like a life line. "What should we do/' So much for Twins being dominate on their own. Arcana relied on his sister, he needed his sister.

Selene and Arcana were there. They were safe. Tarot reached out an arm toward Selene, wrapping her into an awkward one-arm hug. “What’s wrong, dear? What happened? What’s so terrible?”

She squeezed Westhor’s hand even tighter. “We’ll definitely come back, don’t you worry about it. I’ll make sure of it.” Tarot hesitated and leaned forward to murmur to him, “You shouldn’t tear up like that. You’re going to make me—and others worry.”

Then Arcana’s words hit her. The reaper had taken the students. Quibble hadn’t shown up. “The professor didn’t show up?” No, that couldn’t be true. He had told them he would go to the forest and…and…She pressed her lips together. “No matter. We’ll keep going ahead and figure things out for ourselves. The professor will show up eventually. He has to.”

Westhor and Tarot were right--of course they were. It was selfish for him to have even considered abandoning everyone else for just one person, but that was simply how Macthor's mind worked--he put certain people before others. In this case, he had been willing to put Akithor above everyone else.

...No, that wasn't entirely true. Westhor was right up there on the list, and even Tarot was admittedly pretty high up (again, partly because of the brouncle thing). Just as he was hesitating to leave one of their bros behind, he was also hesitating about letting the others go on without him. What if something happened to them? Even as Arcana and Selene arrived, Macthor seemed distracted, murmuring a quiet, "Yeah...yeah, I guess I'm going with you guys."

He looked slightly less composed than usual when he offered the new arrivals a nod in greeting. The creases between his brows became more distinct as Arcana went on to tell them about the captured students and Quibble. Hearing the waver in Westhor's voice, he quietly gave his bro's hand a firm squeeze.

"I don't know if the prof would let himself get caught so easily," He shook his head before turning his gaze to the netted students around them, "But now that you mention captured students...could it have been the reaper that set these nets up here as well? What is he trying to do?"

There indeed was someone in here. It was the cloaked Reaper from before. He seemed to just be waiting or something. Vel didn't attack just yet, as it seemed he wished to speak first, talking something of an age old war. What was he trying to get at with this?

At the mention of a truce, she looked to her comrades. She didn't trust this. Not when the ones who had gone to the Reaper for power were taken away for who knows what? Given that, she had a strong feeling that they wouldn't just be allowed to walk away. Not to mention that the one before them used the term 'we'. There were more here. They just couldn't be seen right now. And there was no telling how many others were around.

"I smell a lie," she snarled to the Reaper, flexing her claws.

Tex stumbled forward, leaning on May for a moment as he tried to get his bearings back. "I think you should leave," he told her before standing upright. "Go back to the dorms. This will be taken care of, darklin," he told her before starting into the room with the reaper.

No, he thought. Whether the reaper was right or the students were right, he wouldn't stand by blindly, letting them be hurt. If he could protect them, he would.

It was blindingly painful to the point where he had no words to offer. The ghost boil hadn't done nearly as well in gym as the professor might have liked and hadn't had a chance of hope in being able to fight against his confinement. Had he seen his loving bro there? He couldn't even be sure if it was real or....

...or if he was on his way to dissipation and that was the last thing he'd wanted to see. Sorry, bros. Akithor was against the ground, laying out as flat and lifeless as the net would permit.

Then he was fine. Well, relatively so; the net was gone and he was free again. "Wh--wha? huh?" Drowzy and still shivering to the jolts running through his wispy form, Akithor stood up with shaky knees. The path was clear for him now and moving through towards the reaper's voice, Akithor saw his bros and classmates standing together. Sluggishly trotting over as hastily as his weak limbs could muster, the ghost boil curled his arms around the thunderbird and electroghost in a brohug.

"Bros. Hey..." His voice was low and strained, but he had the means for speech again as his eyes shut during their broembrace. His eyes opened again only when he released them, scanning around to the others with an expression that said I've-been-places-man-and-I've-seen-things. "Hey," he offered the students. He didn't trust the suspicious reaper.

"In ... in games, the bosses never give you the full story..."

"May," Tex said, "if he really meant that, do you think we would have been pinned to the wall with electric nets?" he said bluntly. "He's a liar. Don't believe a single word he says. Or more likely he's basing it on the truth. So maybe one in three words are the truth, but jacked if you can figure out which ones."

Macthor suddenly flinched at the feeling of someone's arm moving around him, but when the action was followed by a familiar voice, he whirled around with wide eyes. Wait a sec, was that--

"Akithor! How...?!" No, it didn't matter. In his relief, he pulled his hand free from Westhor's, but only so that he could squeeze both of his bros in a suffocating hug. He held it for a few seconds, drawing back only when he felt Akithor move away. Thank Jack.

The heaviness in his heart had lifted with the new knowledge that the few he cared about were safe, but it had not dispelled entirely. The reaper's arrival was met by narrowed eyes and suspicion, a scowl spreading over Macthor's face. He didn't know who this person was really, but just like the other students, he wasn't so quick as to trust them.

"You've got that right," He murmured, nodding his head in agreement to Akithor's words, "Not until they're beaten down by the heroes or dying, at least." If it turned out that this reaper was against them, would they have to fight him?

...Macthor decided not to mention the fact that the final boss of a lot of games also tended to have a couple of forms, with each form progressively gaining more wings and losing more clothing.