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No Riley or Barth in sight, the hunchback slouched. Everyone else seemed in a tizzy, all texting madly and talking amongst themselves either happy or disappointed by their boat assignments or not.

He probably should text Barth- there certainly was no sign of those horns. With a sigh, he set to work on the eyephone Mistress Riley had so kindly given him, although he was fairly confident she wouldn't approve of him using it for this... He was becoming a master texter all the same.

To Master Barth:
U R assigned Boat 3. Rules: No weapons or pets or alcohol. Only one small luggage. Will help pack later if needed. Be there at 7am. 7am, Master. 7am. Be there.

He hit send with a sence of accomplishment and a job well done. Slipping it back into his vest pocket, he glanced around once more for any sign of purple tentacles or a large red hat and beaked goggles but alas...

He did, though, spy a boil towards the back he had never seen before wearing an interestingly blood soaked lab coat and was currently conversing with an invisible person beside him, it would seem. Curious. Why had he never seen him about the school before? He usually paid very close attention to those with labcoats or world-dominating-armor and the like... how this had escaped his attention worried the Igor a bit. All that time with Barth and Calder, making his senses dull, he was sure of it. Distracting him with... with talks of ladies and their Parts and...

No matter, he shook the thoughts from his mind, still staring at the undead boil behind him with shy intent. What was the labcoat for? He must have been a doctor of some sort, judging by the shiny thing on his headband... Not a demon but... well, Master Malodore wasn't a demon either, and it was certainly interesting...

As Vaith was about to step away (Ren, you looked rather busy and popular, Vaith wasn't sure if he should rain on your parade,) before stepping back and bumping into Tybalt. The noise tail jerked back in surprise, Vaith shaking his head.

"Uh. Excuse me--" Vaith struggled not to frown too deeply (Ha! Futile effort there!) as he tried to address who he just knocked into. Should he be making an effort to be more social? Decidedly, yes. Did this person look .. somewhat up to it? Somewhat more than the usual occupants of the Academy, who often stared at Vaith with a disgusted glare. Which usually said "Ugh. Reapers."

"Hi. I suppose you're on this boat trip too?"

Nice conversation starter Vaith. Everyone in this room was on the boat trip.

"Oh! Were you on the train too? I'm sorry, I was too busy with Ren covering my upper view, I ended up looking at the ground for most of that ride." He referred dryly to Ren's continual habit of draping himself on the reaper, forcing the reaper to accommodate not standing at his fullest height. That gryphon was definitely not the lightest male on the block.

"Yeah, I did have that pendant thing." He laughed at the black male's referral of the item. Temperamental, that bracelet. It liked to shine in the dark, lighting up like a bright wake-up light in Vaith's face, all too often at night. Annoyingly, until Vaith drew a pillow at the glowing object. Off the topic of that pendant-thingy..

"I'm Vaith. A reaper." He held out a hand in introduction, either indicating a handshake or a bro-fist. Either would have worked.

Tybalt stared a moment before he realized that he was talking about the Christmas town raid. Though his expression darkened a little at the mention of Ren. That damn gryphon!

"Oh! I was there too! I think in a different car though. The Oblina car. But I was actually talking about the other time at the forest near the shed. The one where students are forbidden to enter---even though we broke that rule. It was really foggy out at the time too." He pointed out. Maybe be didn't remember him there. It was hard to see everything after all.

"I'm Tybalt and I'm what they call a black dog." He replied; mimicking the motion of a bro fist. "Err, a ghost that is." He added on, just to clear things up.

Ren caught Vaith moving through the crowds towards him, and he tried to wave the reaper over, but there were just too many people milling about, and he soon lost track of him. Dejectedly, Ren stood back on the balls of his heels, rocking absently back and forth as he glanced around for a moment. He was rather disappointed he hadn't been able to talk with Vaith; he hadn't seen his friend in quite some time (though the person he'd seen near Vaith with the black skin and pointed black ears looked way too familiar - Tybalt).

Dragging himself back to the moment at hand, Ren smiled at Alessa, linking his fingers through hers. "I didn't give him the star shaped ones," he said, then added sheepishly "I ate all of those the same night you gave them to me. I gave him the ones with the colored candy cooked in; you know, the chocolate ones."

Sliding a gaze in Jove's direction, Ren caught the scowl the puppy was aiming at him and shrugged innocently. "Hey, don't give me that; I did correct myself! I don't think you need looking after." Well, okay, yes I do, Ren thought, but kept this to himself, instead looking at his ghoulfriend. "Yes," he said, nodding first at her, then at Jove, a wide genuine smile crossing his face. "Yes, Jove, that's exactly it. You can watch over Alessa for me. You know, keep her safe, and whatnot."

He gave a playful wink to the puppy and squeezed Alessa's fingers affectionately. Knowing that both of them would be looking out for each other made him immensely relieved.

Now if only LW would be safe on her boat, all would be well.

...for the most part, at least.

Oblivious to the tension between Ren and Tybalt, Vaith only tipped his head in reply to Tybalt's description of the event. Dumbly, he reflected, it had been really foggy at that time. Foggy.. like shower steam. Multiplied by a hundred. If one questioned if Vaith and Ren were friends, Vaith would be hesitant to say so. Were he and the other friends?

.... He wouldn't know what to answer.

"A black.. ghost dog?" Vaith looked visibly surprised, eyes widening. His frown turned into a smile, although the end result would be an unintentional smirk, fisting the other in a gesture of affable enthusiasm. "That's so cool man! What happens when you're a ghost?" Vaith asked, having never encountered a ghost before. A ghoooooost. Obviously, halloween town had more ghosts than the typically transparent floating kinds that frequently wandered around the square .. But Tybalt wasn't .. transparent or floating around. He had feet.

Lizzy found Amrita before Amrita could really start to worry about her; which was a good thing considering that the little Vetala had taken to worrying over her friend. It was natural, right? To worry about one's friends? She couldn't resist leaning back against the Demoness, snuggling lightly; after today, who knew when she could do this again! Yet another yelp left her when her phone went off, but she was too preoccupied with clinging to Lizzy to answer it; besides, Lizzy seemed to get a text at the same time, it was likely the same one, right? That's totally how these things worked. Totally.

"Charlie's weird." Amrita said, her voice dropping into a flat, super serious tone. So weird. It wasn't until Jericho piped up did she even think to return the wishes of Safety to Lizzy; she wasn't a bad friend! Just...forgetful!

"Y-yeah! You be safe, too! Or else." Yet again with that super serious expression. Shortly after that, she had gotten distracted enough to not take part in the rest of the conversation; her mind was elsewhere, as it sometimes went, and before she knew it she was being pulled into yet another hug. Man, there were a lot of hugs lately. She went from none to thousands! Not that she was complaining.

Then, of course, she went back to her own little la-la land, mostly about what could possibly happen on a boat.


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Charlie's wad of paper did the trick; when the Reaper felt it ping off of the back of his head, he startled and looked around; who the jack threw paper now a days?! What were they, five?! It didn't take him long to spot the pink haired Demon that he'd been looking for this entire time; Charlie.

"CHARLIE." He called out, turning on a heel and walking away from the ghouls he was with to instead stomp over to his friend. "Where the JACK have you been?! I've been looking for you!"

For Sin the loss of election was still a tender spot, not the raw fury she had once felt, but still a mild ache. It was a stain of failure she couldn't wash away no matter how she tried. Still she had found so many other successes that the sting was gone. Still when brought up it felt like someone poking at a bruise or mending bone. She flipped her hair back trying to sound casual about it.

"Oh that...Chupi is performing fairly enough...better then I had thought her capable of I suppose. Everyone needs a chance to build up their confidence after all." The words were a bit bitter in her mouth but...they were true. It was true that Chupi was actually doing well, she had organized the Scarentines Auction after all. She couldn't have such hard feelings anymore, she had Fearleading and Lucky 13. She knew she could have handled Student Council as well but really why? Who was she trying to prove herself too?

Her mother, it always came back to trying to emulate her perfect mother, make her parents proud. Scare Queen, Scream Princess, Co-Captain of the all demon Fearleading Squad, Member of a prestigious club, she had dated father of course who was equally popular...just as perfect. It was hardly any wonder her family functioned in such a tight regulated way. It was as if they were trying to check things off a list, the list for success.