Welcome to Gaia! ::

Do what where else? Why not now? Alexander looked distinctly uncomfortable but Yin did not know why. He looked at him, eyes filled with concern, wondering what was wrong. Had he seen through his attempt of trying to avoid learning about the eyephone? That was probably it, and he was upset by Yin trying to avoid it yet again. With an inward sigh he braced himself for the denial, and the confirmation that it was time to learn something. Still, he could try. ”Yes, now if you have a moment.”

Alexander’s voice had dropped to a whisper, but as the hammock seemed to be trying to force them together it was still easy to hear him. Well, of course his heart was in the right place, thought Alexander had never seemed to care much about mantodae biology before. But whatever it was the zomboil was trying to spit out was obviously important to him. It was just odd to see him struggling so much to give voice to his thoughts.

Class? He was worried about class? Sex ed was not about genders? He stared up at Alexander, not quite comprehending what he was going off about. Oh Great Mantis. Mating? The class had been about mating? He had not…how did it…why on Halloween…

The look on his face was completely blank as his brain tried to comprehend. Of course he understood what mating was…kindof. It was something physical, and it only happened between those that were bonded or chosen. Something he would learn about when he was an adult. But it was an important part of Mantodae history, as Jing herself had come from the nightmares that a human boil had had, brought on by thoughts of mantis mating.

Stop Alexander.

Stop.

Alexander kept talking, making it very clear that protection charms were for protection…and had something to do with mating. They were part of a mating ritual. And he had just asked Alexander to perform it here. In public. And judging by how flushed his face looked it meant that it was probably much, much worse than when Alexander hugged him. His hand closed around the two squares and hastily tucked them away as he muttered a very red-faced ”I am sorry I did not know,” as Alexander stammered away.

Wait a minute. If protection charms were part of a mating ritual…

Why had Nurse Cricket had them perform mating rituals with minipets?

And…no one had seemed too bothered by it. Did that mean…was mating with minipets common? But one did not mate with one not their bonded which meant…was it okay to become bonded to a minipet?

If that was the case than well…he needed to find out what was required to make it clear that Princess Eva chose him. It was the most logical answer of course. She would choose him, they would be bonded, and he would never, ever, have to worry about a female choosing him again. And obviously mating was not required when one was bonded (sorry Alexander), and Princess Eva probably would not mind in the least. And he had not seen that she had her eye on another boil. It was a perfect plan.

Alexander was still talking, still rambling. About his mother? And calling her about this? Oh, perhaps he could ask her about bonding to a minipet. Yin’s eyes widened when he saw what the zomboil did next. He was getting out his eyephone. He was not ready to speak to Lady Van Rotte. Not now. Not here. Slightly panicked and with the reflexive grab of a praying mantis snatching its prey he took the phone from Alexander, fingers trying to mimic the movements he had seen others make. Somehow he got to something called “Sally” that popped up a question of “What can I help you with?” ”Is…is it not time to learn how to use the eyephone?”

Yes, he was asking for it.

"Sabotage? What is she sabotaging?" He looked around trying to spot Riley, but soon returned to look at the undead.

---

After that whole fiasco inside of the observation point tree, Shun managed to stumble his way back into the dorms, where he practically collapsed onto his hammock. He closed his eye, trying to relax. During the craziness, he couldn't really see who else had been there. He was aware there were others, but he was too focused on getting out to really tell who was who.

Oh, and his leg was still bleeding too. Great.

With a grimace, he checked the cut, then flopped back down. He'd take care of it after he's regained some energy. Right now, he was too exhausted.

Roch came in a few moments later. He looked like hell--and there was redness to his eyes that showed how stressed out he was. He stumbled slightly as he entered the dorm, heading blindly to the hammock he'd chosen as his own and dropping down in it, face down and buried in the pillow.

For a moment he was still. It was a startling stillness when in public the boil was usually all movement and noise. But not an inch of his body moved--

Then he shuddered, pulling away from the pillow and taking a deep breath.

"That... jackin... SUCKED."

Considering how beat up they all looked in the past few days, stumbling in black and blue (and in Shun's case - bleeding) was becoming rather everyday here. No one said training for combat was going to be easy.

When Roch came stumbling to collapse into his hammock, Calder glanced to Shun and then the other boil, and guessed they had been on some exercise. At the statement shouted out, he was sure of it.

"So.....what were you up to?" Maybe make a note to avoid it.

Amrita was exhausted, but she was trying to do her best to not let it show. They were guests in the War Clan, and being outright tired and obviously so was probably rude on some level and besides; she didn't want to be unworthy of the clan. Of any of them, really. Despite her best efforts she was starting to drag; her movements were becoming choppy and slow as the training and classes went on, her body being weighed down by the stress and general wear.

She made her way to the dorms for some rest, but the sight of the rickety makeshift building only made her yearn for the ground, for concrete and dirt and tree roots. As she approached her bag she started to slow, moving to sit down a little heavier than she intended. "Hullo." Was the general yet tired greeting she gave to those in the room with her, still not wanting to be rude. Yes, she was tired of being in the air; she wanted to go home and have solid ground under her feet; that would be nice. Very nice.

Soon, she reminded herself. Soon! With that in mind she dug through her bag, fishing out her skelephone and turning it on to read the only text she had received back.



The noise brought her back to her surroundings, and she stared at the two boils who limped and stomped their way into the Dorms. Whoa! Shun and Roch looked like hell! And Shun was bleeding...!

"Holy jack!" She stammered out, shakily getting to her backwards feet. "Err...Shun...I think you should uh...you know, take care of that." A backwards hand - with one finger turning an unnatural brown due to the bone splinter that was still embedded in it - gestured towards the bloody leg.

Bleeding was bad; at least she knew that much about the living.

"...Man, this place makes Amity look like a vacation." Amrita grumbled upon hearing Danny's explanation.

Shun's eye reopened as he heard Roch gripe about one thing or another. It was hard to say what he was talking about, but soon, Danny had chimed in as well. They must have been there as well.

"You guys were there too then..?" he asked them, "The place. .with those glyphs."

His attention shifted to Amrita, then to his leg.

"Yeah.. I will. In a moment..." he murmured. He still didn't feel like wrapping it up just yet. He'll get to it soon enough.

---