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Riley's eyes flickered just slightly from the ghoul, to the claws, and back, before her own hands rose up. There was no retraction of the claws of her own hand - they simply were claws themselves. Some of our members are rather monstrous. We've got the sturdiest equipment available. And if there's a tear here and there.. we just replace. I don't think you'll have a problem.

She leaned in and pushed the photo album towards Tari, for her to peruse at her leisure. We will be doing several sports related activities in the future, but our sports are mainly for fun and keeping active, rather than for competition. You can see some of our first pictures of our paintball game in this book, if you'd like to take a look.

The word mindflayer caught her attention - she was surprised to hear it, but when she looked quickly at the source, it made a bit more sense. The robes she'd seen before belonged to a short male, which her mind instantly connected to the interesting asian boil she'd been chatting with on groanspring. He'd called her the same - and she'd been interested in his opinions.

Of course, whenever she visited his page, groanspring's layout had covered his face.

There were certain memories that Riley's brain had locked away, deep where she would not let them resurface. Despite the familiarity of the boil in front of her, and the rattling of those memories desperate to return, her mind was stubborn. It was trying to keep her safe.

You are, ah, Invictus, correct? Who I have been -

Stubborn, but not foolproof. Bul's exclamation set her memories free, and her words died in her throat.

He had been the one to shove us through that portal, where Riley met nothing but the cold slice of metal and death head on.

He had been the one to watch frigidly as they floated weightlessly, trapped in the lighthouse.

But worst of all, it was he who had challenged her in battle, hurt her friends to the point of demise, and left her a shell of the person she had been just moments before she had met him.

He was the reaper who'd changed her life.

A single finger rose, pointing at Invictus silently, before the inevitable happened. Her mind shut down, out of sheer self-preservation. Riley crumpled down under the booth, out of sight.

He hadn't quite been imagining the response that he had just received from the mindflayer. Invictus looked to Bul at his outburst, his lips tightening ever so slightly, eyes narrowing.

"That is one way to recall someone." he said, his voice stiffening while his posture remained the same. Invictus didn't even stand taller under the scrutiny he was suddenly having thrown upon him. He watched as the dragon moved to assist the mindflayer, keeping his hands to himself. It wasn't out of a lack of caring, but he knew his assistance would be misplaced at that time... or even treated poorly.

His eyes narrowed slightly as he stepped back away from the booth. Invictus's lips tightened a bit, but he said nothing, watching the scene for a moment.

<> he didn't sound malicious, or even like he was trying to be threatening, <>

Invictus's eyes narrowed for a moment, before he turned and left the scene, perhaps slightly quicker than he would have normal walked; but nobody would have been able to accuse him of rushing or even running away. He knew it was better for him to be gone if Riley was to not remain brainshocked on the floor.

And so it was that Cady finally found her way to the Fitness Club's booth. She'd wandered around the halls, lost again, and was unsurprised to see the sphinx from the cafeteria had arrived before her. She wondered how many clubs there were - and if there would be more booths down the hall.

It looked like one of the club members had decided to take a nap. She remembered reading something about a similar club in the brochure somewhere...and the paintball photo album on the booth's counter confirmed it.

"Hey," she said cheerfully, oblivious to the true drama unfolding. "This is the fitness club right? Only she looks like she's taking a nap," Cady commented, leaning slightly over the table to catch a glimpse of the ghoul in repose. "Is she from the nap club? It's nice to see that your members are so friendly. I like exercise AND naps, although sometimes I have bad naps where I think I'm falling or that I'm being chased by really horribly cute things and I have to go run to make me forget."

She paused, thinking. "Although sometimes I eat to feel better too. Say, is there an eating club?"

When Riley suddenly crumpled, the hunchback huddling near the boxes looked up from peaking under the curtain to check on whatever-it-was, giving a sudden whine before rushing towards her.

But that loud, stupid dragon he had sworn to tolerate had gotten there first. He couldn't quite piece together what had happened, exactly, even as the robed boil whisked away. Something about that voice was familiar, although he had been too.... torn to pieces at the time... to remember it clearly. No matter, there were more pressing matters to attend to and people were gathering and...

letting Jericho help her, the hunchback rushed to shove a Pamphlet into the nearest visitor's hands, eyeing Cady and Danny as though daring them to comment on his Mistress's behavior. Or mention NAP club again. His brows narrowed.

Huh, so it WAS fitness club. The ghoul's voice was uncomfortable though. She had no mouth, but Cady SWORE she'd heard her speak - in a fashion that tickled her brain. She scratched at her head absently, and accepted the pamphlet from the pieced-together looking boil. She opened it- and there was a serious lack of pictures. She offered it to the other girl offhandedly.

She suddenly forgot about the brain itches as she had time to take in the patchwork's appearance. She blinked. "Are you like one person, or a bunch of persons?" She reached out to try and touch some of his stitches tentatively.

"Hey, I bet that's cool. But you only have two arms. If I could I would add two more arms, because four are better than two. Yes, and then I could carry LOTS of things. Like food. And bruteball equipment. Or I could do REALLY WEIRD cartwheels. Extra legs might be cool too, or another tail," to which she added confidingly, "I think the tails some of the other ghouls have are much prettier than mine, so I could use another."

Her open musing was interrupted by the announcement that there was no eating club. She wilted visibly, a little. "Why would she chop off her tentacles? I guess it WOULD be easier to lie down without them," she pondered, genuinely curious.

Bul practically snorted when the horseman responded to him. "Heh you and that crazy b***h..." he muttered under his breath but then noticed that a particular club leader was now totally gone. "...Riley?" he asked, then watched as she reemerged with Jericho's help.

The half beast's tail fidgeted agitatedly at her sign of hesitation. Riley didn't just cower like that... and he could tell it had something to do with the horseman that had just left. He didn't realize that while a batshit insane Famine was tormenting he and his troop at the Abandoned School, Pesty was busy causing chaos in the lighthouse.

Rolling his eyes, the boil decided it best not to bother or linger on the thought as Riley had already stomped him in the nuts metaphorically during the paintball game.

Looking up he spotted new prospects approaching the booth and grinned toothily, tall frame pacing around to offer himself as a question answerer... should anyone ask.

Amphitrite literally stared at the fitness booth, the first booth she had looked in the open house event of the Amityville. Being a newer student, she hadn't seen many of the clubs around. This one though stood out for obvious reasons. One could be the large dragon boy yelling at students to come over to the booth, another could be the intimidating ithilid. She obviously spoke of leadership skills and though she had a moment, which Amphi didn't know how she could help, of a passing weakness caused by a horseman, Amphi was severely intimidated.

She bit her knuckles still, debating with herself if she should really go over. What did she have to offer a club meant for Halloween inhabitants that specialized on two legs? Where she failed in land, she could succeed in water. But wasn't that the whole part of why she was clearly internally debating if she should join or not? She had to master her legs if she was going to start mastering her FEAR. She needed to be stronger, what better place then the one currently advertised?

Taking a deep breath, she strode over even if a bit awkwardly to stand in front of the booth.

Amphitrite is signing up for the Fitness raffle!

She breathed in as she set the paper in the jar. "Okay, well that was easier than I thought." She mumbled as she stood there awkwardly again, staring at the group of people talking.

xxxxxDanny peered at the purple ithilid and back to the dragon boy. Since the boy was doing most of the talking, he was probably in charge. No, Danny knew he must be in charge. She felt rather accomplished that she had figured it out without anyone telling her.

xxxxxNoticing that the ithilid was still a bit woozy from whatever had just happened, Danny said, "Oh my, do you need any help? You don't look so good." She offered an arm without touching the girl at all. Danny knew some people were rather touchy about being helped. She had a world of experience from her brother Oersted.

xxxxxWithout even pausing for a moment, she picked up where their conversation had ended. "Rock climbing sounds fun, we did that a lot in my home town. E-equipment?" Danny wasn't exactly sure how happy she felt about this. She had no clue how to use any gym equipment. "Are there um ... beginner courses on how to use the gym?" She paused for a moment to collect her thoughts, and then she noticed the other boy standing at the booth. My there were a lot of people here now! With the talkative girl named Cady, four staff members and a new girl who had just entered the raffle, the booth was becoming quite crowded. Of course, Danny never minded crowds, so it wasn't a big deal.

xxxxxShe turned once again to the "staff" at the booth and gasped. As the ithilid introduced herself, she felt incredible rude now to do the same. "Oh! I almost forgot! My name's Danny. Pleased ta meetcha," she said with a smile. Again she looked at the ithilid girl, no, Riley to make sure she was doing okay. Hopefully she wouldn't collapse again.