Welcome to Gaia! ::

The air shimmered and swirled in her eyes as Shadowpaw got closer to what looked like a front gate. Her natural curiosity got to her and she stalked up closer to inspect the stone gate.

What had perked her curiosity wasn't the gate itself; for that seemed like any other gate, but the blackish-purple swirling wall around it. It was unlike anything she had ever seen before, it was spiritual, magical, unnatural. Her hackles raised whatever this was she needed to know!

Not knowing made her fearful and angry, she could feel her werewolf form start to bubble up from within her. She let out a mournful howl that could be heard from miles away, as she let the transformation take hold of her.

The transformation ripped its way through her, pulling her into her human form then into a nine foot tall black wolf-woman. Her golden honey eyes viewed the swirling wall with hate. She could feel how different this was compared to the natural dark magicks she normally used.

She let out another howl just to be sure that the users of this weird wall would know she was here. The howl was so dark and haunting that it drew the mind back to a time when man feared the shadows.

"So tell me, Tulsa, what's your favorite part of this place so far?" Torin tried, once again, to get her to participate in conversation, but unfortunately had no Little Debbies to bribe her with.

She merely looked at him, adjusting her bag on her shoulder to accomodate the new bruises she'd aquired. She'd just been getting out of martial arts-the guy had thrown her across the room, for Christ's sake-and was none too pleased with the fact that she'd been forbidden from using her powers in the class. What was the point in practicing without her powers when she was never without them anyway? It was stupid. If she needed to fight someone without revelaing herself, street fighting worked just as well, and didn't look half as stupid. And now, now she had to deal with Wheeler. Why couldn't he just go hang with his friends? God knew he had enough of them.

At her silence, Tor shook his head, wondered again why he bothered hanging around her when his jaw was still throbbing from where she'd decked him. Sure, he'd finally found another Shadow Runner, one not registered in the...commmunity he belonged to.

Didn't she realize how rare she was? A Shadow Runner was only born once every four generations, and very rarely did it randomly appear in a new bloodline. Because of this, Tor had found himself the only Shadow Runner even close to his age. Until her. And she wanted nothing to do with him. Or anyone, really, but still. That wasn't the point.

"How's this? You give me three minutes of conversation, and I won't make any more...flirtatious moves towards you for twenty four hours." He said, and watched as she raised a brow, considered. Finally she sighed, and he knew he'd won.

"My favorite things? The bed, and the food." She said simply, and it was his turn to raise a brow.

"Seriously? What's so good about a mattress on a floor?" He asked, confused, and she smiled, just the slightest bit, and had him considering buying her a feather bed. If she was pleased by an old mattress, he wondered how she'd react to a feather bed and actual pillows. Hmmm.

"Hey, don't diss my mattress. Do you know how it feels to have one of those things when you spent the last eight years sleeping on any flat surface you could find in an alley or doorway?" She asked, defending her precious property, and glanced over at him, distracted, when he suddenly stopped walking beside her. Her eyes narrowed when his hand shot out and grabbed her arm, stopping her as well.

"Watch yourself, Wheeler. I won't hesitate to knock you on your a**." She said, though she paused a bit at the sudden naked fury in his eyes. "What the hell is with you all of a sudden?" She demanded, yanking her arm out of his grasp.

"Alleys. Doorways. Just what the hell did you come from, BJ?" He demanded, unable to explain, even to himself, why the thought of her sleeping in an alley had his blood boiling. She'd have been cold, he thought, hungry. Where were her parents? Where was an adult whose job was to keep her safe and warm and fed?

Annoyed, BJ rolled her eyes, and her lips curled in a scowl. What the hell. Maybe he'd leave her alone if he considered her beneath him. No matter how much that stung, it might do the trick.

"Come from? Wheeler, I'm a frigging Chicago slums orphan. When the whole 'foster system' didn't work, I took to the streets. Spent some time in juvie and some time as a sideshow attraction in the frigging circus. I'm no one's 'sugar'. You get that now?" She demanded, stuffing her hands in her pockets and wished, suddenly and desperately, for the dark. How could she think, how could she relax if there was no dark?

Torin merely stared at her for a long moment, saw the hard, set look in her angry eyes. An orphan, she'd said. Running from the system, spending time in juvenile hall, in the circus...And all it took to make her happy was a bed. She expected him to be disgusted. He saw that in her eyes as well, the expectations, the resignation, the annoyance.

Instead of hugging her, as he wanted to-an action that would no doubt end with him missing a vital appendage-he grinned, keeping his voice easy.

"So, you have a mattress fetish. Interesting. And don't underestimate yourself, sugar. I bet you can be sweet as those Little Debbies you're addicted to when you want to be. So, why the food?" He asked, and could practically see her mind flying about, trying to regroup as she blinked at him. It was all he could do not to laugh.

Finally she spoke, and her voice was as light as his had been-almost. There was no completely getting rid of the edge that was always in her voice. "The food? Because it's not toxic mush disguised as oatmeal, it's not almost-stale bread, and I don't get it from a garbage can, a soup kitchen, or wherever I happened to steal things from." She said with a shrug, and grinned, just a flash of teeth that was there and gone. "You ruined me for life with those damned Twinkies. I could shoot you for that alone. Speaking of that..." She sent a meaningful look at him, and this time he did laugh.

"Sorry, baby girl. I'm out of snack cakes. I'll smuggle some out of the kitchens tonight, promise. Wouldn't want to deprive you for too long." Though he grinned again, he had to bite back the words of pity that came naturally to him. Oh, she'd gone hungry. He was sure of that now. He couldn't imagine it, couldn't fathom what it was like to not have a bed, food, security...anything. But it wasn't pity she wanted-another thing she'd probably deck him for-so he swallowed it back and instead began walking with her again, keeping his hands in his pockets so he wouldn't be tempted to play with her hair.

"So..." He said as they walked. "How'd you land in the juvie?"

"Stabbed a man. I felt like having a roof over my head." She said it on a shrug, simply, as though it were simply a means to in end. In her mind, it would've been.

"Ooh, armed and dangerous. That's sexy, Tulsa."

"Shut the hell up and go steal me a Twinkie."

And just like that, he thought, they were back to normal.

((It's not dead, it's just that it's not very fast. A lot of people here are busier during the summer than they are in school.))

((I offered my Raven to ya, but you ran off before I could type up a response for her razz ))

((She's not the type to follow random stangers, especially not after falling/flying from her window.))

Guiseppi, who had wandered the halls aimlessly for a long enough time, had walked outside out of sheer boredom, though it was quite depressing for him to be out in the gloomy, sunless weather. He was surprised to hear some sort of howl, and he let curiosity get the better of him. Besides, if he helped whatever the hell it was that was calling (he knew it wasn't a call of triumph for a kill or a cry for help of a wounded animal, thanks to his powers), perhaps... Well, he figured he could work it to his advantage.

He walked up to the gates, pompously elegant demeanor fully in place, and opened them easily, staring at the creature on the other side. A single eyebrow raised itself; it was obvious that he was not feeling threatened at all by whatever it was. "And what business have you here?"

Shadowpaw felt her hackles raise at just how calmly this man addressed her. She knew in her werewolf form that she wouldn't be able to form the words he looked for, but her rage was still boiling through her vanes forcing her to stay in this form till it cooled. Shadowpaw felt her lips raise up in a snarl and thought to try speaking to this unknown man on the other side of the gate.

"What place this?! Not right!" Shadowpaw managed to growl out. In this form she was lucky to even get some human words out, around her own kind she would have been speaking in her own tongue, but this human wouldn't know it. She would have to resort to struggling speaking the human tongue without a human mouth.

She could feel the rage cool to the point of being able to change back to her human form so she took it. Shifting quickly enough that the most awkward of the change would be over quickly enough.

She stretched out her long limbs and smiled, "That's much better, to many hard syllables for that tongue to work with." She looked him over with careful eyes. "If this is a school as you say then I will gladly enter this place of learning, for I have many questions to be answered."

Shadowpaw had spent so many years with her own kind that while in human form she and the rest of the pack where naked. It was the most comfortable for those born as wolves and those born as humans didn't want to loose anymore clothing. So naturally she forgot that she was in the nude around this new male. It didn't matter to her and nor did she care. She walked past him through the gate to look up at a massive castle with many new wings built up onto in.

"To answer your question, I was told by Greater Spirit that I was needed here. But spirits speak in riddles so I really have no idea as of WHY I am here. Also I'm more magickly a tuned to the earth that is how I found your school." She spoke over her shoulder with a cold edge to her voice, she would have to trust this man to get to the bottom of this.