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"What does it look like?," he started off asking before following quickly with a, "do you seriously expect me to sign your papers when you ask me questions like that?" Fixing his thin-rimmed glasses (although the action was quite useless, his vision did not clear the least in such dark), the older man eyed the red-head with a frown, waiting for an explanation. As he waited, the researcher shut, clipped, and then double-locked the case in order to keep it secure before hoisting himself up, waving a hand in front of his assistant's face.

Jin blinked several times over, before looking down at the case, his gaze snapping between the frosted box and his supposed teacher's face. "I need to get out of here," he murmured in an almost breathless way, easing himself quickly out the very small room, curling a few fingers around the cuff of Traye's lab coat in order to drag him out with him.

Once they had passed through the chemical cabinet, as they called it, the younger of the two glared hard at the other. "Don't threaten me...don't- Not about..."

Jin was babbling, and although it wasn't an uncommon occurrence, with the way he kept clutching at his hair and looking all around the lab, Traye figured his assistant was experiencing a small sort of panic attack. Adjusting his glasses, the older man had Jin sit down on a nearby stool, pulling another one for himself before he placed both hands on the twenty-two year old's shoulders. "Jin, listen... I'm not threatening you, I was just kidding, okay? You need to calm down. Breath. Breath for me," he murmured, grey eyes following the obviously frightened researcher's frantic gaze. "How about I take you home? Would you like that? Would that be okay?"

The blue-eyed male finally seemed to calm down, twitching a bit here and there as previously de-gloved hands slid down his back. "You're okay. So how about we close up for the night, eh?" The older man asked, patting his assistant a few times on the back before easing away. To his surprise the younger researcher pitched forward at the loss of contact, fingers grabbing the front of his coat. "I'm...okay, it just..." Pulling the younger male into something close to a hug, Traye frowned as Jin continued, "It just scared the hell out of me- I've never...seen anything like that before," he said in a cautious voice, as if that thing was capable of hearing them from all the way out in the lab.


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Jay turned at the remark as he attempted to bite back a smile. "All joking aside, it's probably more true than we realize," he murmured, his resolve failing him as a clearly teasing smile lit up his usual somber expression. He didn't know either of these people, he'd seen the taller one around school but he'd never actually spoken to either of them before... Turning back the seemingly younger teen, Jay frowned, "Do they do that to you...often?" He asked, brows furrowed as his gaze fluttered from the teen to Nick's 'gang,' as they liked to call themselves. Jay almost rolled his eyes at the thought but kept his expression moderately blank before turning back to the two.

Lucian's lip quirked in agitation at Ilan's answer. He had heard of the young boy's accident countless times as it was whispered- and at other times spoken of freely- in the hallways and classrooms. He had, however, heard so many different versions of what happened, he didn't know what to believe. But he had the general idea of what went on that night and he knew it was nothing to poke fun at.

Sometimes, Lucian believed he had too much of a fatherly complex about himself... But even so, this predicament just wasn't right!

"I know this is kind of a cliche thing to say against bullying and all," he said, removing his glasses only to wipe them clean with the hem of his shirt, "but you shouldn't stand for their immature behavior. From what I've learned of that group, if they know they're getting to you, it'll only encourage them to do worse."

Talon made his way down a new street, in a somewhat new town, violin in hand, and a leather bag swung loosely over his shoulder. The wind today made his hair quite bothersome, but it didn't distract him from achieving what he needed to do.

"I wonder if there are nice people at this school." Being the soul he was, Talon spent his time pondering, thinking about all the endless scenarios that could happen in one day.

He often thought things like "If the school caught fire, then I wonder if," or "If there were a car accident and I was caught in the middle of it and," The thoughts of his details were so intense, that once or twice he nearly DID get caught on the wrong end of a moving vehicle.

As he came to the entrance, failed to see a slight step up to the main gate. Tripping forward, he dropped his violin, bag, and lost his glasses somewhere in the process. "s**t!" He called out, searching frantically for them. "Great, my violin's probably out of tune too."

[[Finally back~ Sorry about that, guys.]]

Jay shifted uncomfortably at the younger teen's remark. It was nearly common knowledge what happened to Ilan's brother. The story had been chewed up and pasted out to create several different strains by the start of the school year but when deaths were concerned the stories, no matter how true or false for that matter any of them were, spread like wild fire. He'd heard several accounts of the tale, and unfortunately that was the only reason why he knew Ilan's name at all...

Something about a party gone wrong and then finally a crash.

"Well, don't let it get to you," he said with something close to a smile as he glanced back at the retreating gang before continuing, "Maybe you already know, but my name's Jayden... Jayden Taylor- And, I don't think we all met under the best of circumstances, but it was nice nonetheless," he murmured as he switched his thick, biology book from his left hand to his right. Looking down for a moment, the brown haired teen continued, "Anyway, I guess I'll see you guys around?"


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"So we'll leave early for the night? You already cleaned up the experiment and-" Dark grey eyes shot out around the lab even before he asked his assistant if he had sterilized everything; it looked as if the lab was in complete order. "-We should be able to leave soon?"

Jin nodded several times over, sliding from his seat before pushing the stool under the nearest counter. Breathing in deeply, the younger researcher turned to his teacher with a clearly less troubled expression, "I already...I already put away everything, so we can leave whenever you're ready," he murmured as he watched Traye closely, careful not to be more than a few feet away from him.

Adjusting his glasses, the older man slipped off his lab coat as he went to turn off the main switch which turned off all of the overhead lighting. Shifting to hang up said white coat, the scientist flinched as he found Jin less than a foot away from him. "You're really spooked, aren't you?" The young man frowned a bit before patting his assistant on the shoulder. "Come on, let's go."

Talon gathered his things and soon came across his glasses. "I wonder if there's a locker I can keep this in." He thought, while holding up his violin. He sighed, knowing better than to stop thinking like a kid.

As he made his way inside, a wave of cold flushed through him. The students were whispering to each other, for some reason, Talon knew... He knew their words were whispered rumors of something or someone. "It's like someone was murdered or raped... Or both." Talon's attention wandered, trying to listen in on each conversation. He didn't want to seem to intrude, yet he wondered if he made the right choice of coming to this school.

He saw the usual things in a school. Cliques. Even in an all boy's school there was the classic profile of the "Clique b***h" He ignored those boys. "Tough gangs are so outdated." he muttered to himself.

It didn't look good... Not good at all... Talon always hated his old school. He found it just an encouragement of teen rivalry. He couldn't deal with that. "I wouldn't be surprised if there's a murder scene in the bathroom." he breathed. He spoke to himself, on and on, looking straight forward, not tilting his head back or down. He didn't pause either, his expression... Blank. He was so far in his thoughts, it seemed as if he had reached a state of Zen.

Walking.... Walking... Walk-...

Another trip. This time, tripping on his own feet. He landed, face first in the hall. Thankfully he kept his glasses this time. "s**t," he hissed "maybe it's today's bad omen!" He cursed under his breath, picking up what he dropped, and hastily moving down the hallway, trying to ignore the laughs of the other boys. Yet... Talon was never good at ignoring anyone.

Turning back, he shouted "As if you've never seen a person fall!? The proper thing to do is help them up, not laugh!" He thrashed violently in anger "Take some time to grow up! All of you!" Silence filled the hall. He didn't realize how loud he'd been. He blushed for a moment, then turned, walking at a faster pace.

[[I'm back from vacation, didn't have much time to myself though so I waited 'til I got home to post.]]

Jay blinked several times over, turning his gaze from an unfamiliar teen back to the duo of boys he had just formally met and back once more to previously fallen Talon. "...I, for one, would hate to be that kid right now," he murmured before wincing as a few freshmen snickered to themselves as the musician passed them. The school was nice, physically speaking and although many would not admit it, the education was okay as well, but the actual student body was not something to be proud of at all, save for a few gems here and there. "So where are you two headed, you have any classes soon?" He asked as he turned his eyes back to the others.

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Pale, wide eyes, some color close to brown or maybe even red under the bright florescent lights, peered out from behind an open locker door. Brushing back his bangs, the student, who appeared to be a freshmen, closed the empty locker quickly as several older boys passed. This was his first day here, or maybe his last, the teen couldn't quite remember, either way...it didn't really matter...or at least it didn't bother him at all, not knowing, that is.

Straightening his unpleasantly slate-colored shirt, the wide-eyed teen clung onto his bag as he followed after that noisy student, watching the ground, picking out the sound of his sneakers against the floor. They made a weird squishy noise with each step as if they had been left in the rain for a whole week, if not longer, but the teen found himself not caring about that either. "Nnn, uhm-- Uhm, do you--?" He stopped, figuring that his voice was probably too airy to be heard. For some reason he felt his chest tighten at the thought, the thought of not being able to communicate.

Knocking on the edge of the curly-haired teen's violin, the seemingly younger teen smiled a bit before continuing, "Do...you know where the...main office is?" He asked in his perpetually soft-toned voice.