Welcome to Gaia! ::

When Shehk confirmed it, the look the siren gave was one of pure mystification. His own outfit had lace but nothing so fine and luxurious! As he reached out touch it, his ear wings flicked back and forth he blue eyes inspected the intricate patterns, soaking it all in. “Ohhhh…I bet all the boils are going to be chasing after you!” Smiling he resisted the temptation to start making comparison of her lace and his. Because as much as he wanted to nothing would compare to true southern scream made spider silk. Except for maybe rare man eating maggot skin. But that was usually for more ornamentation and not clothing. “Where did you get your outfit though? It’s just- Augh, I love it. It fits you so well and just-“ He grinned. “To die for. Honestly it’s a nice change from your older outfits, this shows just how pretty you are!”

Then as Jericho entered Israfel gaped. “Jericho.” He gawked. “You-“ He stared. “You’re-“ His eyes were wide. “You’re half naked.”

Was he even allowed to be half naked? Was that okay now? Did being year two mean you could be half naked? If so he didn’t want to wear pants. Pants always got mud on them from the bog and paths. Sometimes it just wasn’t worth wearing them. He looked at Riley, who was always a plethora of all knowing information. Why? She was Riley and she was amazing. “Jeicho is half naked, does this mean year two we get to be half naked? Does this mean I don’t have to wear pants? Is Calder comfy by the way? Did you get those candy brains I sent you or did Cam eat them? I think shirts could be optional too. Are you and Malodore still an item? Does a tree make noise in a forest if nobody is around when it falls? Why did groanspring say I can't post messages for you at 3 am? Can I sit on Calder nex-”

All of his random thoughts sent to the mindflayer stopped as the school secretary spoke again, and the siren’s head cocked to the side. Field trips? Looking at the paper it never even registered to read as quickly he just jolted his agreement with his signature.


ISRAFEL

As soon as he did so his eyes went right back to the mindflayer. He fully thought she would and could answer all his questions. All his question because he did think she had all the answers.

Tsetsiliya was beginning to notice that her usual punctual nature was slipping as of late. When the call over the Ickycom had come, telling all new Year Two students to report to the office, she was arms deep in plant repotting. Well, so much for that then. A speedy washing-up had left her late, and as another student slipped in and mixed with the crowd in the back quietly, she grabbed her skirts and did her best to do the same.

It seemed the schedules had come around, but as she glanced over a few shoulders, she noticed the list was.. not quite what she was expecting. Their headmistress was surely fond of some luxury lingerie, wasn't she? There was also something about grades being sent home to her parents. That much she didn't particularly mind, since she had passed her exam with (surprisingly) flying colors. That should please them, at least.

Then she heard the trigger phrase: field trip. Immediately she shrunk back. More papers were coming around.. were these really.. consent waivers? Tsetsiliya plucked one herself and frowned at the printed text. The last field trip.. well, she'd rather forget the last field trip for all the grief it had caused. But still.. there wasn't any way she could really avoid all the future field trips, could she? Looking back on it, Christmas Town wasn't as bad as she thought it had been, at least.. not after the Island.

To sign or not to sign, that was the question.

The nudge and point had Hadiyya looking obligingly down at the list at the aforementioned article of clothing. Dark brows slide slowly upward as she read it, then further upward as she thought about it. "Certainly they did, very creative plans," she added, her own smile threatening to break into a grin despite the uneasy feeling brewing in the pit of her stomach at the thought of Helma participating in said creative ideas. No, just no. "The headmistress has always seemed a wild one, but I do believe this is further proof to the fact, don't you?" The tiniest of giggles escaped before the djinn turned her head to press her lips against the werelemur's shoulder to stifle the sound.

A flash of bright pink caught her eye and she looked up to see Westus striding in late. he grabbed a list and marched off to the class and she watched him for some sign of reaction as he read it over. There was none, which was actually surprising to the djinn considering the other demon had always had a slightly prudish nature. Oh well. She gave him a wiggle of fingers in greeting before resuming her giggling with Natalia.

Scandalous giggling could only last so long though, Arel began talking again and Yaya was quick to quiet herself and return her gaze up to the secretary. Holding her hands on the list still laying upside down on her lap. As knobs it made sense they would have to take a little extra initiative to receive their year 2 course work, and she made a mental note to seek out a few professors in particular.

Then the ice demon went on to say the two words every Amity student dreaded above all others. Field Trip. Hadiyya paled as Arel began to hand out the wavers and pens. Chin bobbing mindlessly to Riley's sudden objective outburst. She took a paper as it was handed to her, reluctantly looking down at it. "Not again.." She hadn't quite gotten over the school's last attempts to kill her, did they really need to try again so soon? But wait, was this just for the second years? Did that mean Sharra would be remaining home, safe? She hoped so, considering what he'd told her about his encounters on that jack forsaken island.

They had all come out of it alive in the end, hadn't they? Hadiyya herself had never .. perished on one of these field trips. Not back in Christmas town, and not on the island. She didn't know what dying was like, and really she didn't fancy finding out, but everyone else that had seemed to have come back more or less in one piece, if perhaps a little mentally scarred...

She took a pen as they were passed around, pressing the capped end to her cheek as she thought. It was a chance to get stronger, that much was true. Feeling as though she were making a terrible mistake she pulled the cap off the ghost pen and signed her name. "Sharra is going to be very upset with me.."

Christof settled down a bit as they went back to business, but his expression soon turned to one of turmoil at the mentioning of... of field trips.

He gave a long, pained whine in his throat, clutching the paper tightly. Mistress, we aren't going on another field trip are we? I don't want to go, I don't want to die again. His large, unevenly stitched face had contorted into on of absolute misery.

If Malodore could have scowled at the field trip form, it would have; as it was, it merely glared at the paper as hard as it possibly could. It was really, really not interested in signing that thing...

... and yet. If it truly wanted to become a doctor, to... well, to take initiative as Arel had said, it might well need to enter dangerous situations. People didn't tend to sustain injuries in perfectly safe places, after all. And if its friends went somewhere and were hurt, it would much rather be by their sides, doing what it could to assist them, then back in its dorm room fretting about their safety.

Besides, they might go somewhere interesting. Christmas Town hadn't been too terrible, really. And it had obtained those very interesting samples.

Ugh.

"For science," Malodore sighed, and signed its paper.

The secretary visibly shrugged amongst the outburst and anger. He watched blankly as students squabbled and shot him insidious accusations, and simply waited, shuffling yet another stack of papers back and forth, until most of the commentary had died down.

"What made you think that it was safe outside the Academy in the first place?" Though Arel was clearly asking this as a general question, though his hands visibly shook, he turned for a second, just a second to look at the most outspoken of them all: the mindflayer.

At first, Riley might have still heard the babble and chatter in the background, followed by the oddest sensation: as if something cold, an invisible arm, had grabbed her body and pulled, dragging her into a stifling, half-frozen water-

- And then she was no longer sitting in the overly crowded school office, but what seemed like a dark crevice of a room, surrounded by barren pickings of furniture.

"The problem with those little snots," though the headmistress was turned away, the sneer in her voice was unmistakable "Is that they learn nothing. They take for granted that Halloween is safe, and that they will always stay in Amity-"

The rest of the words washed out, the scene changed entirely, as if staring through a muddled reflection.

-"THE HUMAN WORLD," Boomed an entirely unfamiliar voice, "IS DANGEROUS." Something slammed angrily against what seemed like a wooden desk, the setting itself tightened and focused, it was a large open room with three rows of round desks, with only a single long desk straight in front. Riley felt herself take a step back, she looked down - when had she resorted to wearing a scarf that looked like the secretary-

"Sir, if I may speak," she- it- Arel was talking. "That is exactly why the Headmistress had refused your offer, the students already risked their lives in what you confirmed was a harmless ven-"

"-And what times do you think we live in?" A long nose peered out from above the podium. "You tell your Headmistress this. You might as well get ready for your students to graduate and get slaughtered. We have no clue what we are facing, our own kind is turning against us, this is an unprecedented disaster. So this, this is not a suggestion, this is a request. As the mayor of Halloween, I request that Amityville Academy, under the escort of our head of the Bogeymen Department, Red, will continue its proposed schedule of learning the dangers out there in the Human World so that they do not make the mistake that the graduates had made over and over. We have already arranged for negotiations to be made with-"

- everything was blurring out again, before Riley was staring at a familiar scene. The Floresctival tree, under a large crescent moon. This couldn't have happened any longer than a couple of days ago.

Red's eyes narrowed as she crossed her arms. "Do you not trust me Arel, after all that we have gone through? I told you a thousand times, we have already secured the proposed 'Field Trip' area. There are no dangers imminent that I myself could not deal with. Besides-" her smile grew into a feral grin, serrated teeth particularly menacing in the dark - "there is nothing to Fear but Fear itself."

The individual lanterns on the Floresctival tree seemed to grow overly saturated and bright, Red's form wavered and flickered, all the words blended and echoed together-

- And all that Riley heard and saw was the babble of her friends, some, most, who had already signed the field trip waver. Something buzzed obnoxiously overhead, the lunch bell.

"If any of you change your mind, you are free to hand in your Field Trip Waivers later." The secretary fidgeted just slightly before shuffling over back to the other side of his desk. "Otherwise, congratulations, I guess. You are free to go."

There was not even the slightest inflection of sincerity in his voice.

Riley had an answer for the secretary. Her mind was ready, and the quip was coming, but his look froze her words in place, keeping them in her own mind for once.

No, it wasn't his look that was doing it, was it?

All at once, she felt the pricks of cold slice through her veins, slowing even their flow much like the world seemed to slow around her. Cold, and dark. That's all there was, for the moment. Cold. Dark. Silent.

The voice of the headmistress cut through the cold like a splash of hot water - distantly, Riley thought the idea of Professor Shox's voice being warm was amusing, but she couldn't focus on how funny that was, just yet. She could feel herself reaching out to it, like a lifeline, but it slipped away as quickly as it had come. Instead, a different voice slapped her outreaching tendrils of thought away, making her cringe in dismay.

There was power, in that voice. Power, and fear, combined. It was the perfect mix for her, because it meant that person was an especially juicy target for takeover. This, too, was shuffled into the back of her mind, as if her own thoughts were worthless and bore no importance to the situation at hand.

They didn't.

Whoever Arel - it hadn't taken her long to figure out that this was his memory she was sharing - was speaking to was directly responsible for their field trip to the island. Hellma, the very same woman who Riley assumed was responsible for all of this, was trying to protect them. The warmth her voice brought made a little more sense, now.

The mayor's speech was chock full of important information, but one particular sentence stood out in Riley's mind, like a blaring neon light.

-Our own kind is turning against us-

She couldn't shake it. Even after the vision of Red, and the sudden blinding saturation that had Riley force-fed back into her own mind, and her own time, she couldn't stop hearing it in her head.

Our own kind is turning against us.

The buzz of students around her was still muted. She was frozen in place, but she watched as they all signed their lives away, one by one. Bedgrudgingly, Malodore scribbled its name down, and she whispered- wait. The thought never left her mind.

Jericho walked by her and did the same, and her hand wanted to come up and grab him, but it stayed where it was. Stop, her mind whispered, but still, nothing came out. Somewhere, deep down, even she knew there was no choice left.

Her movements were finally her own as she walked to the sign-up, signed the sheet, and pressed the pen against the last stroke, leaving a dark blot of a mark. Her eyes lifted up to meet Arel's, and there was one, single question in her eyes. It asked him, without words, if he had any hope for them.