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"Going for the punk rocker look? Jude, it looks like his hair rebelling against him." Leon joined into the hair chat as well, it really was hard to notice.

What wasn't hard to notice was sudden collapse of trainees that ingested the pill, and the snore from the Boomstick wielder Jerry. "Aw man, your going to drool on the floor." he moaned out and gave the guy a subtle shake to the shoulder.

It wasn't supposed to be a very strong shake, SUPPOSED TO BE. But it was a lot more interesting than the droning of paperwork that was going on from their weedwhacker attacked leader.

Ugh. Paperwork. Sounded too much like homework. Madison sighed and propped her head against one hand, lightly tapping the desk with the other, the impacts of her fingers against the wood so soft as to be inaudible.

Then the tapping stopped. Dude, Kouki, shut up, I'm trying to listen, she thought at her weapon, aggrieved. The hissing was really getting on her nerves.

We aren't... that isn't... her weapon said, a rising panic audible in his four-toned voice. Madison tensed as the hissing escalated into something angry, as if someone was having a furious one-sided argument in another room, words muffled beyond understanding but not beyond recognition.

Kouki? Kouki, what is that, I'm scared- She took a single sharp, indrawn breath before everything went dark, and there were claws in that darkness, claws and such anger, no reassuring heartbeat or breath-rhythm to hang onto as a sign that she was still in the classroom or even alive-

-and then it was gone, and she was on the floor next to her desk, one foot twitching one last time against her chair before the shaking faded and died. Slowly, Madison pulled herself back up into her chair, arms hugging herself automatically, eyes wide. She could see other trainees in similar states of shock - all the ones who had taken the pills.

But, as promised, the Chill was gone.

You could have warned us, you jerk, Madison thought, but did not say. Ugh, she felt like she could sleep for a week. Again.

"Something wrong with your weapon aside from your general lack of experience wielding it?" Caelius corrected, "It is possible that yes, your weapon is Fear drained. Tired, it can't communicate because it does not have enough power to do so. There are two simple solutions to this, the first is to charge your weapon by having it drain Fear when it successfully hits, which is unfortunately not viable as you cannot leave the facility right now, the second is to simply wait. Over time, your weapon will replenish itself."

He spoke clearly and slowly, as if talking to a small child.

"Candace, I appreciate your concern for your"- a sneer -"friends, but what does not kill you simply makes you stronger. I hope." Caelius scooped the rest of the 'medication' up and pocketed the box. A pause as he made eye contact.

"Leon, Jude. Perhaps we can arrange an external schedule for everyone to do as they please regarding their behaviour. Seeing as I am also temporarily suspended, I am sure I can fit this into my schedule. I will see all you trainees in the practice yard at seven o'clock am tomorrow for a weapons training session, everyone can and will have an equal chance to spar and fight against me."

Actually, it sounded very much like Caelius just wanted to beat them to an inch of their life.

"Any other questions that demand immediate attention?"

Well damn s**t son. At first those who took the pill seemed fine Caelius wasn’t giving two shakes of s**t as the professor went on to explain how to fill out their mission forms and probably how to fill them out and not get their s**t kicked in for filling it in incorrectly. Marcus hoped that was the case at least. But like all things hope vanished fast. Especially as people started to ******** going into seizure like reactions. The ******** was that. That- Jesus ******** Christ, if that was an effect of the chill he sure as all hell didn’t want to get it. He was going to stay ******** alive thank you very much.

Caelius didn’t seem fazed by the reactions, so Marcus bit back the drive to go and make sure they weren’t… actually going into seizures. That would have been bad. It did say a bit about just what the guy said. Keeping secrets… not very smart, (didn’t mean Marcus wanted to trust a certain Doctor though). Looking at Jude, Marcus shrugged. “Better that then ending up dead I would guess.”

Their instructor had asked for questions. Did Marcus want to bite the bullet? Well… better in public he guessed. Less chance of execution? Maybe? Oh well. “Sir.” He wasn’t sure it was the best question to ask but… “Originally Miss Aria was here on the island, and I am going to guess that was the real Aria since…I would also guess we would have noticed if something was off, but what about when we took the golems out? Just how did that-“ He paused to find the words. “How was it that freak managed to get a hold of Aria’s weapon? And what exactly was it that happened to that monster?” It had been eating at him. There were a lot of pieces missing in this puzzle.
“I know my specialty isn’t intel, but the fact they did manage to get as far as they did… it’s concerning.”

Before's attention shifted from Caelius' hair to Bix to Gale and to Ariane in such speed it was a wonder he didn't get whiplash. Unheeding of Caelius' concern, the trainee skeedaddled over to the bodies of his bros (Bix first then Gale) while glancing over towards Ariane in between ;A;

"Oh s**t, oh s**t, don't die on me again!!!" he whimpered, shaking each former Beta a little too roughly. When it became apparent they were a-ok, Before's arms flung open to give them all hugs. Bear hugs. Or as bear-huggy as someone like Before was capable. He was a mite too busy trying to squeeze the air out of Bix and Gale's lungs to hear their upcoming... guaranteed wipe-out session with the Death Hunter OTL

Then it seemed that the floor was open for questions. (Why yes, severe emotional whiplash? Apparently he was immune to it.) And Before had some questions of his own. Oh wait, Marcus had asked one of them. Yay!

Before's hand shot up, "The not-Aria b***h said something about not being able to die. Um, Boss-Dude-Sir, does that mean the corpse we left in that canyon's gonna do a lazarus eventually?"

"Jesus Christ, Leon. Be careful." She muttered at the guy shaking Jerry, swatting at his hand like an animal doing something wrong. No. NO. Bad Leon! But...Jerry was snoring.

Goddamnit, Jerry. She rolled her eyes and reached over to sit him up in his chair, patting at his face a few times. "Wake up. You can sleep later." Candace's eyes narrowed as Caelius spoke to her as if she were a child. That a**. He may have earned her respect with what he had done but she still did not appreciate being talked down at. "While that may be true, with all due respect you can't expect us to not be surprised by the effects of taking the pill when not told what will happen." a*****e. Go get your hair fixed. Unlike others though Candace kept this to herself, and she was glad she did.

So Caelius had gotten suspended as well...that explained the mood. Would he be so angry about how the mission had turned out if he hadn't almost died and then gotten punished?

...Wait...fight Caelius? Candace's eyes widened, looking excited now. She could fight Caelius. She could fight that beautiful, beautiful scythe! And maybe if she tried hard enough she could knock it out of his ******** hands and hold it again. Please oh please! She just wanted to touch it one more time! "Sounds promising, sir." Candace did her best not to sound as excited as she was suddenly feeling. And Marcus was asking the question that was probably on everyone's mind anyway. How could what happened happen?

Candace could multitask. She picked up a pen to begin writing her report while the others asked their questions. "I wonder what came of Aria...or when that b***h even took her place." She pouted as she continued to write out what she could remember.

Jerry groaned as he was first shaken, and then set upright and finally yelped as he was slapped, "I'm up! I'm up! I'm-" he glanced around, blearily grasping at his bearings before realizing people were staring.

He slid lower in his chair in embarrassment.

"Er... s-sir...? W-what... what exactly... was that?" He wasn't sure if Caelius had explained it or not already, but while the numbness and cold had left, he was left with a shiver down his spine that had nothing to do with body temperature. "I swear there was... I mean it seemed like..." swallowing, his face pale, he glanced around to see if any of the others who had taken their pills had experienced the same thing.

"Ow," said Gale, attempting to pry Before off of him, his face slightly red. However, he was glad that the other hunter was back to his normal, goofy self; the angry, negative Before that had been around during the mission had been an unpleasant, unnerving one; one that Gale did not particularly want to see again.

"Geroff, Before," said Gale, though it was halfhearted, distracted by what Caelius was saying.

...a twin set?

He had not ever heard of that before. Frowning, his brows drawing together, Gale rubbed his hand on the back of his neck, absently tugging at the long, golden strands of his hair.

So what does that mean? Where's Aria? Is she really that creature from Halloween Town? What does this entail, exactly?

There were many questions he wished to ask, but none really escaped his throat, Gale instead staring mutely at their instructor. Caelius was as he ever was - cryptic and entirely too full of himself, but with a sigh Gale pushed back from the table, standing up.

"See you later," he muttered to the others, and left the room.


[ exiting ]