Most importantly were the interviewers. Dear Jack they were everywhere. Some with notepads, some with microphones, some with- there were seriously a million or more.
Danny, weary from the first trial, was walking slowly back to her room alone. Edel and Moure's eyes just kept drilling into her, even after the event had passed. The way they looked at her with such pity; like she wasn't even a contender in these trials. She was just a whiny little fire demon who couldn't even stand a little water. Danny would LOVE to see Edel be put in a desert setting (nevermind that she'd suffered quite a bit at the beach; Danny would never admit to that). We'd see who was looking at who pitifully!
Even if Roch had healed her wing, she was still tired. A full day at the beach was a work out in itself, adding a crab fight, an encounter with the tide coming in, and a kraken fight was bound to wear a ghoul out.
"Question, Miss!"
Danny looked around as the voice sounded near her. Sweet Sally, when did that interviewer get so close? She swore he was over near the bulletin board a second ago, yet here he was asking her a question with his pad outstretched.
"No, my name's Danny," she said blankly. If Danny's mind was normally slow, her tired mind was even slower.
"Very funny," he said, scribbling something down.
Danny looked at him, confused. "No! My name's really-"
"So I've heard rumors that the Heirs of the the Four Clans reside in Amityville? Is this true?" he asked, not even paying attention to her protests. That ticked her off a little.
"You mean the four horsemen? They're here yeah?" she said, mouth twitching downwards a little.
"What are they like?"
"Invictus is uh ... a boil. Cymbeline is ... a ghoul," she said as an intro. Normally the response would be more animated, but she was worn out.
Now a small crowd of reporters had gathered around. There were only a handful at this point, but it was still more attention than what Danny was useful. The good kind of attention anyways.
A shorter, more feminine woman asked, "Do you think you have learned anything important from the trials?"
Danny looked down at the ground, shyly shuffling on her feet. "I guess that building sandcastles is hard?" The reporters laughed at that one, but Danny didn't understand why. It was hard!
A few more reporters circled around, slowly encasing Danny in the doorway. A voice from the back chimed in, "Someone is saying that the winning groups unfairly cheated." Danny gave a look of confusion at this one. They hadn't cheated! Bea using her water abilities was just fair game, wasn't it?
"Listen I know it might-"
"So its true?"
"No! I mean, well Bea used her water thing but-"
"What do you think about this?" It was getting sort of crowded now. Apparently the prospect of cheating was very exciting to the reporters. They were looking for a story.
Unfortunately with Danny, they probably wouldn't find one. "I don't know what I think! Our team didn't cheat okay. I dunno who might've cheated, but its not us!" Hurried scribbles were written on their notepad. Did these people even care who she was? She could just be on janitorial staff for all they knew! "And if people are cheating ... well that's not very nice." A few chuckles sounded, but overall it was just scribbling, considering they were actually getting something out of her.
"What do you think about the trials so far?" a more shrill voice piped up from the back.
Danny scratched her chin nervously. "I guess they're fun? Well they were fun until the water came ..." She waved her tail a little so the reporters understood what angle she was coming from. "Then the kraken attacked ... I dunno I guess that was fun." She smiled a little and sheepishly admitted, "It was fun seeing my boilfriend without a shirt!" She was warming up to this crowd a little, but her weariness was still tugging at her like a lost child. She needed to crash soon, but she'd wait for the reporters to depart. She scratched some sand out of her short hair.
A few laughs subsided as the scribbling haulted. The crowd seemed to be dispersing, when a younger, male voice asked, "Are they dangerous? The trials I mean."
Suddenly the crowd grew very hushed, waiting on her response. Some had pulled out their pads again, some were adjusting their microphones. They all wanted to know what she thought of the danger level of the trials. After all, that was the big money maker. If the trials were dangerous, there could be a lot of fun "criticism" of Amityville High School.
"I guess so?"
A gasp from the crowd.
"But its all fake stuff right? Like the kraken was all robotic and stuff, right?" she said, head tilted.
A few reporters finally figured out they were interviewing an idiot and started packing up their stuff. Some still had a bit of faith in her, and waited for her to continue. "Even if its dangerous ... isn't it kind of worth it to beat the white-coats?"
The moment she mentioned the hunters, a new swarm of reporters filled in the blank spots. Danny groaned holding her head. She was WAY too tired to deal with this. "Okay it was very nice meeting you all but-"
"One more question miss!"
"Miss, over here!"
"Question miss!"
Danny moaned and shoved past one of the reporters (probably not the nicest thing to do, but Danny was never one for etiquette). She rounded the corner, a tiny group still following her, hoping to get her attention. That is, until they saw a greed demon walking down the hall, and found him a much more interesting target for their question bombing. Shrugging, Danny retreated back into her room, flopping down on the bed. She got a little taste of why Rikki loved his bed so much. With her extra fluffy pillows, Danny wrapped her arms around one, pretending he was there curled up with her.
Although all things considered, it probably was a good thing he wasn't. She was still covered in sand and sea-smell. Yuck.
After a brief bath, Danny flopped back on her bed, checked her groanspring, and then put her head down to sleep.
Mew~
Oh c'mon. She was so close to sleeping. What in the world was making such an obnoxious noise-
UBUBUBUBUBUBUBUBUBUBUBU.
Danny stared at the little kitten that had hopped on her bed with something equivalent to the way Yin stared at Princess Eva. Oh my Jack that thing was cute. It had deep grey eyes that reminded her of Roch's, and they were just staring at her. Danny didn't even bother questioning why it was in her room. It was just so damn cute. She stretched out her arms and pulled the thing closer to her. At first the kitten protested, but it was so little that it couldn't even do much against her arms. Danny snuggled a little closer to the kitten, and then promptly fell into a deep sleep.
