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He'd lied.

He hadn't gone to play his violin. Instead, Gabrian had gone to town, though he'd not told the others for several reasons. Similarly to what had happened on his first field trip, the nix had managed to lose an instrument on his trip to the island; after the ship had crashed, he'd had no time to fetch his guitar and quite honestly, after arriving at school, revisiting those shits (or asking Professor Blue if his poor, dear instrument had survived) were so far near the bottom of his to do list that they might not be on it at all. It wasn't that he thought so little of his guitar that he didn't care what happened to it; it was more along the lines that... he didn't really think it had survived, and checking on it meant possibly revisiting the damned ship, which in turn might rekindle the memories he was trying to hard to bury deep inside the locked drawers of his mind.

Gabrian had decided that the whole island trip had been nothing but a nightmare. A real one, but a nightmare, at the end of the day, seeing as how they'd done nothing but suffer, and they had accomplished nothing through it. As such, it was best forgotten, or at least stored away into the dark crevices of his mind until he felt strong enough so as to confront it all. It was that same fear that had lead him to lie to the others, unwilling to tell them that he was going to go buy a new guitar out of fear of reminding them of the hellish trip they'd been on. The less reminders they had, the better; specially Ren, whom seemed, by far, the one that had been most deeply affected by the traumatic experience.

While it was true the demon had accomplished his goal, having bought a new, beautiful acoustic guitar that he swore up and down would never go on a damned field trip... he was distracted from returning to his dorm room by something he read on his way back. His eyes looked over the written words time and time again before entering the small, dusty shop, only to emerge from with with two books under his arm and a bag full of items clutched in his other hand.

Instead of making his way back to his dorm room like he'd intended, he veered off the path and turned left instead, making his way towards the monster dorms, still carrying the two tomes, the bag, and his new guitar, which remain strapped to his back. The journey to Ren's room was one that Gabrian could have done with his eyes closed, and thankfully, the FEAR that seemed to be the natural essence of Halloween had more or less returned him his strength (or rather, what little he'd had to begin with - at least he could walk elegantly again instead of stumbling every four or five steps).

Upon reaching the door, the demon found himself faced with a problem; it was closed and he had no free hands. He would have kicked the door open, but something in the back of his mind told him this was a bad idea, and thus, instead, he did the only other thing that came to mind. Slowly, he curled his tail around the knob, twisted it, and then pushed the door open, "I have the answer to all our problems," he declared rather confidently, having not even taken the time to check if Ren was there to hear him. After a beat though, his head lowered and he scanned the room, golden eyes falling on his friend, whom, predictively enough, was sprawled on his bed, "Well... the answer to one of our problems anyhow," that said, he lifted the arm he'd been using to carry the thick, heavy tomes, and allowed them to drop with a loud 'thud' on the floor by his feet, "If you don't want me to make a mess out of your room, you might want to get down from the bed and help me. I'm not used to summoning things, despite the fact I'm a demon," that was all the cryptic information the gryphon was getting from him for the time being.

Gabrian more or less tried to ignore the sorry state his friend was in; it was not something he could help the other boil with (at least not yet), and the only thing he could do for the time being was not remind him of the fact he looked like s**t. Ren would come to terms with whatever it was that was haunting him on his own terms or time, and when he did, the demon would be there to pat his friend's back then then drag him off for a night of scareoke. Given the circumstances, he might even suggest they dress up in silly outfits and run around campus with them. But for now... he waited and tried for all he was worth, to act like he could not see just how much the trip had affected the other boil. After all, he knew there was nothing he could do help until Ren confronted his own demons; he knew because it was, in a way, similar to what he was feeling.

Alas, the demon felt his case was slightly different in the sense that he'd known, even before the trip had started... he'd known. Deep down, subconsciously, he'd known this would happen and that sooner or later he'd have to deal with it. In his case, while the outcome of the situation would be painful, it wasn't something he couldn't handle, specially since hew had the wellbeing of others above his own in mind.

It was a strange state of mind. He'd never thought there'd come a day where he'd sincerely think that he'd be happy so long someone else was happy; that his own feelings, his own thoughts did not matter, so long as those he held dear were happy. It wasn't that he'd been a bad person before and he'd changed for the better; hardly. He was the same person he'd been upon arriving to the school. It was just that aside his family, he'd never really had the chance to grow close to anyone before, and even with his family, the ties were not the same. The fact anyone (let alone several people) had so much power over him was scary in a way, but at the same time, over the past few days he'd come to realize what he figured Ren still had not; that he drew strength from them. In a time of need, he'd drawn strength from them, and despite the fact he'd failed, well... the ceiling had fallen on him. He wasn't perfect. No one expected him to be perfect, did they? Wasn't that why he was in school?

Sometimes, Gabrian figured that they all forgot they were still just snots.

They'd been sent to a place that was far beyond their level of expertise, and if anyone cared to ask him, the demon thought it was more than enough that they had all emerged from that island with the sanity (mostly) intact.

Shaking his head, Gabrian focused his gaze down on the tomes, looking up only when Ren finally walked over to him, taking the bottle of water his friend gave him and setting it on the floor by his side. He offered his friend a fanged smirk and then lifted up one of the tomes, offering it to him, "Our answers, my friend, are all in this tome," a pause, as he considered that, "Well... sort of," he dug around the bag he'd brought, pulling out candles, chalk and large pieces of paper; amusingly enough, there seemed to be, in total, two sets of everything. He stopped sorting the items out to look up at the gryphon, lifting a hand for effect, "Guard dogs," he said suddenly, "Or more precisely.... hell hounds. That's what we need," he continued sorting things out, reaching out once with a hand to pat the other boil's knee several times, apparently either aware they both needed the physical contact every so often, or perhaps just his own belated greeting; it was hard to tell.

"I don't know you, but I would sleep better at night knowing I'm truly safe and that nothing... unwanted is going to slip into my room. I refuse to lock my door, so this seemed like the best alternative," having spread out the paper, he opened his tome and began eyed the pages, pausing at a certain one and then drawing out a circle diagram with chalk, "Ran into this store earlier today. Apparently, hell hounds are a rare breed of minipet and unlike most pets, these need to be summoned individually," he opened the tome and showed Ren a picture of the so called 'beasts', "They're intensely loyal, territorial and over protective. Sooooo.... let's get to summoning then," he looked up and arched a brow, waiting for a reaction.

"Not just any tome," for some odd reason, the demon's tone of voice sounded proud, almost smug. As if he were particularly pleased with the fact he's managed to find and buy not one, but two of said tomes, "They're summoning tomes. We're going to use them to bring forth our creations!" he even went so far so as to lift his hands in the air dramatically, and he might've managed some diabolical laughter had one of Ren's pets not dropped from one of the shelves to land upon the nix's head. If Gabrian had managed to look even remotely scary for a moment (which he hadn't), said images was instantly ruined as he sat on the ground with the small fuzz ball drapped over his head. With a small sigh of defeat, the demon reached up to pick the minipet up and place it on the floor beside his leg; so much for dramatic effect, "But no, really. You apparently use the tomes to summon the hellhound; it will be thus... sort of bound to you, and will only respond to you."

That said, he sat about trying to fix all the things he's brought and then began to use one of the markers he'd brought to draw a circle, nudging the gryphon with his elbow, "Yes. Yes we do. We need hellhounds," there was such conviction in his voice that it almost seemed like he'd thought this over long and through. In reality however, Gabrian was not all that convinced. In fact, he was simply going with this strange idea because he though it might be interesting, no matter if it happened to succeed or fail. That aside, Ren needed something to occupy his mind (in all honesty, so did he), and this seemed like a good task to set forth in front of him.

He lifted his head to look at his friend and offered him a faint smile, "It er... it seemed like a good idea at the time," turning his attention to the circle and digram he was drawing, the nix peeked at the tome, following instructions with ease despite the fact this was likely the first time he'd done such a thing. He was startled out of his work by the feeling of something snaking (ironically enough) over and around his tail, and it took him a couple of beats to realize just what it was. For a moment, he seemed to hesitate, and then continued drawing as if absolutely nothing had happened, "You should probably start by following my lead; draw the circle," he reached out with a hand, opened Ren's tome and signaled to a diagram in it, "There, that one. Draw it out on the paper, and set the candle in the center once you're done," as he spoke, his tail curled slowly around his friend's until they were intertwined and still the demon acted as if nothing at all had happened, whatsoever.

After all, despite the fact the other boil did not tell him... had not told him what it was was wrong, Gabrian understood he needed the comfort that physical contact brought forth. He understood because that's what he felt too, and given the fact he was long past caring what anyone though, he'd decided to do what made him and those close to him happy. If that meant allowing them to lean on him until they got back on their feet, then so be it. He'd lean back on them and take strength from their presence. As far as he was concerned, they'd eventually draw forth strength from their weakness.