{ The School Office } [Re-Open] PAGE 36: THE CALLING

[Nio Love]

Riley was focused. She was going to fight this field trip dilemma tooth and nail, and she just knew she had the power to bring down th-

Her eyes went white, before her back stiffened straight as a nail. She sat, now silent and wide eyed, and turning every shade of purple known to man, until Calder asked her what she thought was the most ridiculous question in the world.

Of course I have ears, have you ever bothered to check? She hissed, but quickly amended herself. Wait, don't answer that, just stop whatever it is you think you're doing back there, before I snap your hands off.  

[MoonKitsune]

Calder looked at the ears, frowning. They were weird lookin ears too. Really long and they didn't even move. He wanted to touch one.

"But.......I haven't finished braiding." It would be all weird with just one braid. Too bad his frowny face was in vain as Riley couldn't see him. Why did she get to use him as a chair and he couldn't braid? So unfair!

 

[alpha lyrae]

Tsetsiliya was beginning to notice that her usual punctual nature was slipping as of late. When the call over the Ickycom had come, telling all new Year Two students to report to the office, she was arms deep in plant repotting. Well, so much for that then. A speedy washing-up had left her late, and as another student slipped in and mixed with the crowd in the back quietly, she grabbed her skirts and did her best to do the same.

It seemed the schedules had come around, but as she glanced over a few shoulders, she noticed the list was.. not quite what she was expecting. Their headmistress was surely fond of some luxury lingerie, wasn't she? There was also something about grades being sent home to her parents. That much she didn't particularly mind, since she had passed her exam with (surprisingly) flying colors. That should please them, at least.

Then she heard the trigger phrase: field trip. Immediately she shrunk back. More papers were coming around.. were these really.. consent waivers? Tsetsiliya plucked one herself and frowned at the printed text. The last field trip.. well, she'd rather forget the last field trip for all the grief it had caused. But still.. there wasn't any way she could really avoid all the future field trips, could she? Looking back on it, Christmas Town wasn't as bad as she thought it had been, at least.. not after the Island.

To sign or not to sign, that was the question.  

[demon_pachabel]

Shehk smiled more at Israfel's awe - she knew she hadn't been wrong in trusting Junko to help her out with new clothing. She had known it all. Taking a moment to relay the lace back where it had been layered against her shoulder, she then scratched at the staples at the base of her ear. They really didn't itch, she just would never be rid of the habit from the stitches that had.

"I paid for materials, but Junko made them for me. She made quite a bit of clothing for me, I really am quite fortunate to have such good friends." she sighed, seeming content about the thought, though when Jericho's nakedness was pointed out, Shehk made a face and turned to look as we-

Oh her jacking hell, he was very naked, wasn't he? Well, half naked. Not a bad view, however. But she wasn't interested. She'd just admit it was nice to look at if the dragon called her out on it.

When Arel seemed to ignore the fact that they'd been given..laundry lists.... and went on to talk about their Year 2 responsibilities, Shehk frowned. She'd been expecting a bigger challenge from stuff, certainly, but... wait.

Field Trip.

A grin came over Shehk's face. A wicked grin. She almost looked excited by the idea of it and without a thought she signed her name on the bottom of the form. She probably would regret it later, but..

"No pain, no gain. Bring it on." she challenged, probably stupidly, but hey. She'd be the confident idiot of the group if anybody needed a Shepard to follow into the lion's den, getting up to put the signed form back on the ice demon's desk.  

[Huni Pi]

Tess had been quietly keeping to herself throughout the gathering, having decided that she would stop pretending to be someone she wasn't. Which meant blending into the background like the wallflower she'd always been. Unfortunately, not even wallflowers were exempted from signing Field Trip permission slips. The winged ghoul immediately tensed as she read the form to confirm that it wasn't another laundry list.

The scenarios did not appeal to her and the very idea that she would willingly participate brought the memories of the Island back to the surface. A shudder rippled through her body right down to the membrane of her leather wings. Forcing herself to raise her hand, she asked "Does not signing this mean we don't need to attend mandatory field trips?"

Hope springs eternal.  

[Bilious]

Christof settled down a bit as they went back to business, but his expression soon turned to one of turmoil at the mentioning of... of field trips.

He gave a long, pained whine in his throat, clutching the paper tightly. Mistress, we aren't going on another field trip are we? I don't want to go, I don't want to die again. His large, unevenly stitched face had contorted into on of absolute misery.  

[Sosiqui]

If Malodore could have scowled at the field trip form, it would have; as it was, it merely glared at the paper as hard as it possibly could. It was really, really not interested in signing that thing...

... and yet. If it truly wanted to become a doctor, to... well, to take initiative as Arel had said, it might well need to enter dangerous situations. People didn't tend to sustain injuries in perfectly safe places, after all. And if its friends went somewhere and were hurt, it would much rather be by their sides, doing what it could to assist them, then back in its dorm room fretting about their safety.

Besides, they might go somewhere interesting. Christmas Town hadn't been too terrible, really. And it had obtained those very interesting samples.

Ugh.

"For science," Malodore sighed, and signed its paper.  

[Zoobey]

The secretary visibly shrugged amongst the outburst and anger. He watched blankly as students squabbled and shot him insidious accusations, and simply waited, shuffling yet another stack of papers back and forth, until most of the commentary had died down.

"What made you think that it was safe outside the Academy in the first place?" Though Arel was clearly asking this as a general question, though his hands visibly shook, he turned for a second, just a second to look at the most outspoken of them all: the mindflayer.

At first, Riley might have still heard the babble and chatter in the background, followed by the oddest sensation: as if something cold, an invisible arm, had grabbed her body and pulled, dragging her into a stifling, half-frozen water-

- And then she was no longer sitting in the overly crowded school office, but what seemed like a dark crevice of a room, surrounded by barren pickings of furniture.

"The problem with those little snots," though the headmistress was turned away, the sneer in her voice was unmistakable "Is that they learn nothing. They take for granted that Halloween is safe, and that they will always stay in Amity-"

The rest of the words washed out, the scene changed entirely, as if staring through a muddled reflection.

-"THE HUMAN WORLD," Boomed an entirely unfamiliar voice, "IS DANGEROUS." Something slammed angrily against what seemed like a wooden desk, the setting itself tightened and focused, it was a large open room with three rows of round desks, with only a single long desk straight in front. Riley felt herself take a step back, she looked down - when had she resorted to wearing a scarf that looked like the secretary-

"Sir, if I may speak," she- it- Arel was talking. "That is exactly why the Headmistress had refused your offer, the students already risked their lives in what you confirmed was a harmless ven-"

"-And what times do you think we live in?" A long nose peered out from above the podium. "You tell your Headmistress this. You might as well get ready for your students to graduate and get slaughtered. We have no clue what we are facing, our own kind is turning against us, this is an unprecedented disaster. So this, this is not a suggestion, this is a request. As the mayor of Halloween, I request that Amityville Academy, under the escort of our head of the Bogeymen Department, Red, will continue its proposed schedule of learning the dangers out there in the Human World so that they do not make the mistake that the graduates had made over and over. We have already arranged for negotiations to be made with-"

- everything was blurring out again, before Riley was staring at a familiar scene. The Floresctival tree, under a large crescent moon. This couldn't have happened any longer than a couple of days ago.

Red's eyes narrowed as she crossed her arms. "Do you not trust me Arel, after all that we have gone through? I told you a thousand times, we have already secured the proposed 'Field Trip' area. There are no dangers imminent that I myself could not deal with. Besides-" her smile grew into a feral grin, serrated teeth particularly menacing in the dark - "there is nothing to Fear but Fear itself."

The individual lanterns on the Floresctival tree seemed to grow overly saturated and bright, Red's form wavered and flickered, all the words blended and echoed together-

- And all that Riley heard and saw was the babble of her friends, some, most, who had already signed the field trip waver. Something buzzed obnoxiously overhead, the lunch bell.

"If any of you change your mind, you are free to hand in your Field Trip Waivers later." The secretary fidgeted just slightly before shuffling over back to the other side of his desk. "Otherwise, congratulations, I guess. You are free to go."

There was not even the slightest inflection of sincerity in his voice.  

[Blade Kuroda]

Letting out a huff, Jericho grumbled under his breath about all the field trip nonsense. Arel wasn't saying anything about any of it which displeased him. But in any case, he begrudgingly got up to sign the waiver, passing up Riley along the way. He was a little too annoyed at the moment to notice if anything was on with her.

In any case, he could probably gripe with her later on about all these nonsensical field trips that threw their lives into danger. Maybe burn a few things in the process to vent too.  

[Nio Love]

Riley had an answer for the secretary. Her mind was ready, and the quip was coming, but his look froze her words in place, keeping them in her own mind for once.

No, it wasn't his look that was doing it, was it?

All at once, she felt the pricks of cold slice through her veins, slowing even their flow much like the world seemed to slow around her. Cold, and dark. That's all there was, for the moment. Cold. Dark. Silent.

The voice of the headmistress cut through the cold like a splash of hot water - distantly, Riley thought the idea of Professor Shox's voice being warm was amusing, but she couldn't focus on how funny that was, just yet. She could feel herself reaching out to it, like a lifeline, but it slipped away as quickly as it had come. Instead, a different voice slapped her outreaching tendrils of thought away, making her cringe in dismay.

There was power, in that voice. Power, and fear, combined. It was the perfect mix for her, because it meant that person was an especially juicy target for takeover. This, too, was shuffled into the back of her mind, as if her own thoughts were worthless and bore no importance to the situation at hand.

They didn't.

Whoever Arel - it hadn't taken her long to figure out that this was his memory she was sharing - was speaking to was directly responsible for their field trip to the island. Hellma, the very same woman who Riley assumed was responsible for all of this, was trying to protect them. The warmth her voice brought made a little more sense, now.

The mayor's speech was chock full of important information, but one particular sentence stood out in Riley's mind, like a blaring neon light.

-Our own kind is turning against us-

She couldn't shake it. Even after the vision of Red, and the sudden blinding saturation that had Riley force-fed back into her own mind, and her own time, she couldn't stop hearing it in her head.

Our own kind is turning against us.

The buzz of students around her was still muted. She was frozen in place, but she watched as they all signed their lives away, one by one. Bedgrudgingly, Malodore scribbled its name down, and she whispered- wait. The thought never left her mind.

Jericho walked by her and did the same, and her hand wanted to come up and grab him, but it stayed where it was. Stop, her mind whispered, but still, nothing came out. Somewhere, deep down, even she knew there was no choice left.

Her movements were finally her own as she walked to the sign-up, signed the sheet, and pressed the pen against the last stroke, leaving a dark blot of a mark. Her eyes lifted up to meet Arel's, and there was one, single question in her eyes. It asked him, without words, if he had any hope for them.  

[demon_pachabel]

Shehk looked to Riley with a puzzled look. The mindflayer's posture had done enough of a change that Shehk could just... tell something she couldn't see had happened. It seemed...well, something had happened. Shehk bit her lower lip, concerned, but was well enough to not ask such a question out loud.

She just pushed the thought towards Riley instead, not really certain if it would reach her or not;

I have a feeling that the fitness club should do survival training of some sort if we're going to be sent out on one of those hellish field trips again.

Certainly she'd signed her name away without hesitation, but....well, she wasn't going to go in looking like an idiot if she could help it.