Welcome to Gaia! ::

It had been a few days since the pup zoomed out of the library with a new sense of motivation and purpose. He was finally on the right track towards changing his shape, and learning to be scarier in preparation for his second year at the academy.

For the past several days he spent most of his time practicing. Shifting, focusing, banging his head against the wall wearing no clothing to speak of... He would change his shape and try to hold it and adjust it until he was so tired he could barely stand, and then he would wait out the exhaustion leafing through that book and reading about muscles, bones, and all the connective tissues that made it function properly. He even read up on the organs, and how they fit inside the abdomen and chest cavity. Not that really needed those, but it was good to understand them anyway. And when he was feeling more rested, he would take another stab at the shape changing. It was hard work but he was completely determined to push through.

When he arrived at the professor's office for their meeting and knocked on the door, he looked tired. Tired and very, very determined. There was none of the defeat that marked his previous meeting, only a stubborn sense of purpose that said he would work on it until he succeeded or evaporated from exhaustion.

How far he had managed to get with his practicing had yet to be seen...

Malcolm had expected Jove to work hard, judging from the boil's enthusiasm. However, he was not prepared to see him so utterly worn out from what he assumed to be days of practicing... It actually made him feel rather proud; the fact that Jove did not wound up in Nurse Cricket's office was definitely a good sign, despite his obvious fatigue.

"Welcome back," He greeted warmly, gesturing for Jove to approach his desk. After a brief pause, he decided to do just go straight to the point, "How was it?" There was no use beating about the bush anyway; either he achieved something, or he didn't. He should have faith in his student to had achieved at least something during the past few days, especially since he didn't return with that look of defeat that was so obvious during their previous meeting.

The pup's tail wagged in greeting as he moved towards the desk, but instead of sitting down in the chair he seemed to collapse into his little puppy form. Had Malcom peered over the desk, that tired, fluffy tail would have still been wagging, right up until Jove shifted back into a human form. Except instead of a small child, he reappeared taller, a bit more muscular, and definitely more masculine in a fifteen year old body. His hair was a bit longer, but the freckles and the large, dark bruises were the same as ever.

It was clear that was his success, judging by the way his tail curled up and over itself proudly. Jove liked this form, it was older, taller, and fit in with the other students at the academy much better, but it took a lot of energy to maintain it. He certainly couldn't hold it through an entire class yet, so it wasn't even worth going out to find clothes that would fit this taller body.

But speaking of clothes. He had only made slight progress on that front, the attempted shorts slightly resembled shorts, in a sad, wispy manner. At times it looked more like one of Calder's kilts, the ghostly essence swirling around the pup's thighs like a skirt.

Malcolm raised an eyebrow as the boil vanished, but soon realized that Jove had gone into his natural form. To take a better look at what he was trying to do, the professor stood up, walking around his desk just in time to see Jove - without the help of his skull pin - get into a humanoid form that looked much better than his previous form. For him to have achieve this much in the span of a few days, it was obvious that he had been working really hard.

And it was starting to pay off.

While he could tell that Jove still could not get the feel of materializing with clothing, at least it was better than the last try; he could practice it in his own time and maybe get the hang of it one day. For now though? Jove looked ready to move on... After some rest.

"Good job! I can see that you are improving! However, please take today off and come back tomorrow, same time, same place," His tone was stern, and it was obvious from his face that he was serious and would take no 'buts' from Jove, "I want to see you physically and mentally ready... While practicing and training are both important, so is resting, as it allows you to focus better and gives your body a chance to recuperate."

Jove frowned, the perfect image of a sulky young teenager. He didn't want congratulations and a nap, there were still so many things he had yet to learn before he could perfect this skill, and so little time over the summer to accomplish it! As horrible as it was, he wanted homework. An assignment other than rest and relaxation.

But at the same time, he could feel the efforts taking their toll and couldn't deny the professor's logic. Every time he changed during his nonstop practice, he seemed less able to maintain the transformation. Wasn't his first human form like that too, wearing him out until he grew into it a little more? Maybe he just didn't have enough FEAR yet. Expanding into the larger form made him feel weak, and slightly light headed, and if he didn't change back soon he might end up doing something embarrassing...

Without a sound he poofed back into his natural form, and weakly flopped over into a tired, fluffy heap. It was still embarrassing, but he didn't even want to imagine how awful it would have been to fall over naked. He thought about getting up to leave, but gave up after a second of paddling his paws uselessly in the air.

Malcolm sighed as Jove reverted back to his natural form, shaking his head; teenagers nowadays really need to find a balance between work and relaxation. Picking him up like he would do with Vlad, the professor set him down on the couch near the entrance of the office; he just needed some rest to be as good as new again. Even ghosts will feel tired after expanding their FEAR too much!

"Go back to your room once you can walk and come back tomorrow," He looked at Jove before whistling for Vlad to look after the room; he had to go pick up something from the post office anyway... Might as well do it now that he had some free time. Besides, it might help with Jove's training. Maybe.

Jove was fairly used to being picked up and moved around, but it was the first time it had ever been one of his professors. Thank goodness the office wasn't very busy, the last thing he needed were "Teacher's Pet" comments getting out amongst the other students. Without anyone around to watch and snicker, he could admit it was nice to not have to jump up onto that couch all on his own.

The little ghostling tried to regain a little bit of his dignity once he was set down by bracing himself on wobbly little stub-legs, but even that was too much work, and he sank down into a pile of fluff. Malcom was right... He huffed a resigned sigh of his own and put his head down. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if he relaxed for a minute or two there, since there was this nice comfy couch, and it was calm and quiet...

It didn't take long before his glowing eyes closed, and that minute or two stretched out into a good, solid nap.

Malcolm returned to his office early the next morning, a box in his arms, to two canines curled up on his couch... The first was of course Jove, while the second canine was an invisible dog who had decided that Jove clearly needed the extra warmth sometime during the night. For a moment, he didn't know what to do - to wake them up, or not to wake them up?

After a moment's hesitation, however, he nudged Jove with a hand to get him up; the boil had rested enough. He would get his wish for round 2 of training.

When Jove felt a nudge against his side, he stretched slowly, the perfect image of a young minipet rousing itself from a nice sleep. Except the closer he got to wakefulness, the more confused he began to look. This was not his bed... Or Ren's bed, and the invisible presence next to him was no minipet he was familiar with.

With sleepy eyes he sat up and blinked around the room. And then slowly began to glow with embarrassment as he remembered the events immediately prior to his nap, and how he was supposed to have gone back to his own room. By the looks of things, he had spent the entire night sleeping in the professor's office. He sheepishly glanced upwards, looking like the world's fluffiest frightlight.

At least he felt all rested up...

"Morning," At least Malcolm didn't look or sound upset as he nodded, walking over to his desk and lowering the box he was carrying on the top. A series of angry sounding meows came from within the box, waking Vlad up just as Malcolm turned, leaning against the edge of his desk before addressing Jove, "Now that you had more or less gotten the hang of the more difficult task of maintaining a humanoid form, try molding your current form into whatever is in your mind - you said bigger and more intimidating, right?"

Jove wagged his tail and let the professor pet the top of his fluffy head. That was the best news he could have received. He would be fine. He gave Malcom an eternally grateful expression, which was always more sincere coming from the soulful eyes of a canine, and then picked up the little bush still sitting cowed on the floor. He carefully set it on top of his clothes from the day before and scooped up the corners in his mouth. Finally he gave the professor one last thankful look, and trotted out with his bundle. He had some more practicing to do!

He waited till Jove was out of the door before shutting it, feeling rather pleased about the boil's progress; if he kept at it, Malcolm was pretty sure that Jove would become quite the scary ghost... Which was a pretty comforting thought.

Till then, his office would remain unlocked.