[Wingardia] No. 921

[Stephen Pact]

Graymalk was a little miffed at Rachel's curt reply. "Superhero" or not, there was no way she could completely understand some of the things... but that wasn't fair, was it? Temperance - not a catly virtue, but he'd need it here, it was clear.

"So be it." Graymalk declared. "I'll tell you what, then. As I see it, we have three choices for now. The first choice is a test of the physical aspect of the link. I'm not anywhere near 100% yet, but I think I could manage around 5 minutes if you wanted to try that out. If you're going to be taking risks regularly, we should probably make sure that one's working ASAP, I'd say. Alternately, while you've been taking classes which apparently deviate rather substantially from the old "three R's" approach, I've been trying to compile a list of some of the stuff we can use to try to get Jill back. Assuming you're still willing to help me with that, we could discuss strategy on how best to get some of those. I won't lie to you, my list is far from complete, but I'm willing to show it to you if you're ready. If you don't like either of those ideas, I intend to take a nap, and I reccommend you eat something high in protein and do the same within the next few hours. That healing used nutrients already resident in your body, and you'll have a bill nearly as high as mine for it sometime by week's end, tough or not. We'll have to do all of these things eventually, but none of them are pressing, so as far as I'm concerned this decision's up to you. What do you say?"  

[Misao]

"A nap sounds like a great idea, actually. And my body needs quite a bit of nutrients in the first place - using powers like mine doesn't come cheaply, energetically speaking..." Rachel said, yawning widely as her body finally became aware of how worn out it was from all the exertion.

"What do you say we catch a few hours' rest and then head over to the dining hall to see what kind of food they're serving today?" she suggested. "There'll be plenty of time for testing out the other functions of the card later, and I can look over the scavenger hunt list of magical components while I eat. One step at a time is best, right?" Looking down at the bracelets, she thought of the word from earlier. "Abeat," she muttered. The bracelets flashed, turning back into her card, which she stored away in the top drawer of her desk for the time being.

With that much done, she walked over to her closet, getting out some more comfortable clothing to change into for a nap. Disappearing into the bathroom for a few minutes, she came back out wearing a plain blue pajama top, with a pair of loose fitting sleep shorts to match. Yawning again, she placed the clothes she was wearing previously into the laundry basket in her closet. Switching off the light, she made her way back over to the bed, lifting up the covers and settling in underneath.

"See you in a few hours," she said to Graymalk, rolling onto her side and curling up underneath the covers. The warm bed certainly felt nice after a hard day of exertion. Within minutes, she was sleeping soundly.  

[Stephen Pact]

Graymalk turned a few circles and curled up to sleep. He hoped Rachel wasn't one of those humans who tossed and turned in bed, because he had no intention of getting off the bed's end for less comfortable sleeping quarters. Still, out of deference to Rachel's near-cat-like fastidiousness, he was careful not to let his claws damage the comforter.

So, this school was willing to risk death or serious injury to it's students in the name of "testing," was it? It reminded Graymalk of the vivisectionists in the lab a literal lifetime ago. Talk about a faceless, careless beaurocracy. No wonder the angels and demons felt so at home here. Graymalk knew there was a God, but His so-called agents... enough of this. Time for sleep, and for once no walking the dreamworld. Pure sleep, so long as nothing bothered Rachel's dreams; he needed it, far more than he'd let on thus far. Time enough for worries when he woke.

Graymalk yawned like a kitten. He really DID need this. Casting a thin dream-weave over Rachel, Graymalk dropped off to sleep.  

[Stephen Pact]

As he rested, Graymalk became aware that he was dreaming. It was unusual, since he had specifically intended to not do so, but hardly unheard of. Usually it was a memory from a previous life trying to prod him, but that didn't quite seem right this time. Graymalk cautiously let the dream proceed, if only to see what would happen.

Graymalk had had the memory-dreams before. Humans said cat's had nine lives, and the memory-dreams and occasional true-memories of particularly intense events seemed to at least partially bare this out. Graymalk was pretty sure he had pieced together remnant memories of at least two prior lives, not counting the Egyptian God dream that all cats had, but he was never completely sure that the fragments he had pieced together really fit that way. Cats could walk the world of dreams, but that didn't mean they necessarily always understood what the dreams meant.

This, though, didn't feel like one of those dreams. For one thing, he was sure he wouldn't have forgotten the Russian Blue sleeping on the steps of the mansion in front of him.

After the manner of dreams, Graymalk was instinctively aware of the scene around him without actually looking at it. The mansion somehow stood both upon rolling hills in open country with forests, mountains, and the ocean all somehow coexisting in the background and upon a rocky yet majestic precipice from which he felt he could have seen, but never touched, the entire world. The mansion itself was a sprawling Victorian place which somehow managed to convey both all the grandure of a palace and, despite it's impressive stained-glass windows, all the defensability of a fortress. It was just as well that Graymalk's mind captured this, however, as his attention was focused entirely and exclusively upon the Blue.

She was utterly exquisate, a creature which literally could only exist in dreams. Although she was far off, Graymalk could clearly see the softness of her undercoat and the shimmering blue-gray of her guard-hairs. Her contours were sleek and perfectly formed, and although she was small Graymalk could tell that she would be a formidable opponent if crossed. As is the way in dreams, Graymalk somehow knew that the Blue was the master of this house and these lands and that, in another way, the Blue WAS the house and lands. He longed to go to her, but found himself unable to move, a disimbodied awareness within the larger dreams. As Graymalk stared, the Blue stretched and began to open her eyes. He tried to call out to her, to make himself known to her in some way, when suddenly

He was falling. Graymalk twisted quickly, his catly reflexes allowing him to land upon his feet. Looking up, he saw that Rachel had apparently rolled over in her sleep, accidentally knocking him from his perch at the foot of the bed in the process.

Graymalk was strangely sad at having been awakened, but thought nothing of it. Glancing at the room's digital clock, he saw that it was nearly 6:30 in the evening already; he and Rachel would have to hurry if they intended to eat in the cafeteria tonight!

Graymalk lept to the bead, landing next to Rachel's face. He had to admit that she was quite pretty, for a human, and he hated to wake her when she was clearly sleeping so peacefully. That said, food was food, and they had gotten plenty of sleep already. "Rachel" Graymalk whispered in her ear, then somewhat louder "Rachel". He was seriously considering licking her or even giving her ear a little n** when she finally woke up.

"Rested well, I see." Said Graymalk. "I hate to disturb you, but if we plan on eating tonight we'd better get going, I'd think. Can you be ready in time? If so, I'll get my notes."  

[Misao]

"Huh...?" Rachel muttered sleepily as her eyes drifted open. Stretching and rubbing at her eyes, she looked over to see Graymalk standing next to her. Reaching out to pet him with a small smile, she yawned as she crawled out from under the covers and stood up.

"Okay... just give me a few minutes," she said, disappearing into the walk-in closet that housed all of her clothing. After several minutes had passed, she walked out again, wearing a plain green t-shirt, a fresh pair of brown cargo shorts, and sandals. She had also changed her hair color to red for this particular trip, feeling somewhat adventurous after the earlier magical experiments.

"All right, ready to go," she said. Stopping by her desk to pick up her backpack and sling it over her shoulder, Rachel began heading for the door, waiting for Graymalk to follow.  

[Stephen Pact]

Graymalk gathered his notes from their hiding place: a scroll-case he had hidden behind a portion of baseboard he had worked loose behind the bed . Setting the case down, he looked at Rachel quizzicaly. "Something's... different. You changed the shirt and the pants, but... wasn't your hair a different color a moment ago?"

Jill had dyed her hair once. She had wanted to be blonde, for some reason, and ended up a sort of green. the process had taken more than an hour and had smelled worse than most of the spells they had tried by that point. A subsequent attempt to change her hair color by magic had led to a rather dramatic fire - she'd been trying for red hair at the time - and after that she'd worn wigs whenever she was in public for most of the next month. No wig Graymalk had seen, before or since, looked this natural.

"I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that's a trick you haven't mentioned yet. Got any other surprises? If not, please take this; I'm starved!"  

[Misao]

Rachel blinked, not immediately recalling that she had never shown Graymalk this particular trick before. Laughing a little, she waved her hand as she took the scroll case out from in front of him, stuffing it into the front pocket of her backpack along with her assorted stationery supplies.

"I'd forgotten that you haven't seen me do this yet..." she said, scratching her head. The scratching gave way to a sort of smoothing motion with her hand, and as her hand moved over her hair, the color changed to raven black. Running the hand back over her hair again, she changed it again to the red shade she'd come out of the dressing room with. "Another power I inherited from my parents. I can make minor changes to my appearance. It's not as powerful as dad's shapeshifting - he can change to look like a completely different person - but it sure beats having to go through the trouble of getting colored contacts, or dying my hair."

Shrugging, she once again shouldered her backpack, heading to open the door and holding it open for Graymalk. That was really all the explanation that particular ability needed, Rachel figured.  

[Stephen Pact]

"Huh." Said Graymalk. "Interesting. We'll have to see whether the necklace and bracelets can expand that ability too later on. If they can, you could probably save a fortune in clothes; your closet's bigger than Jill's first apartment, and nearly full!

"You do have the necklace and bracelets with you, right? We're liable to need them later, especially since I don't want to speak out loud while we're in public. Besides, we still have a few experiments to do.

"Incidentally, if you have any other powers you haven't mentioned, it'd probably be best to get that out of the way now. Even minor skills can make a big difference. Otherwise, I'm for food; a cat's gotta eat, you know what I mean? Lead on!"  

[Misao]

Rachel shook her head. "No, that's it," she said. "You've seen everything I can do by this point." Glancing toward her closet, she frowned a little at Graymalk's insinuation. "That's true, but it sort of destroys the fun of going out shopping for clothes. Might be a handy trick in a pinch, though."

Heading back over to her desk for the moment, she opened up the drawer where she had stored her card earlier. Nodding at it, she called out "Adeat!" once more, causing the bracelets and necklace to materalize once again. She then looked back to Graymalk, assuming this would be acceptable - after all, they weren't terribly distinguishable from normal fancy jewelry in the first place.

"Okay, then," she said. "Let's go - for real this time." Without another word, she walked over to the door, opening it for the both of them and closing and locking it behind her once Graymalk had followed her out.  

[EvrythingTastesLikeGinger]

"I simply don't believe this..." Seiya muttered to herself as she paced the hall, having just come from lunch she'd seen a posting of clubs she'd noticed the one club she had wanted to join was run by Rochelle? ...No, it was Rachael, she had to learn to be nicer...

After a bit of fast-talking to the office personel she'd found out where Rachael's dorm was and come all the way up here just to talk to her, knowing the impression she'd made it might not be likely, but it was worth a shot, I mean, so far she'd be the first member right? It couldn't hurt to try...or apologize...

Next to ayise she looked lik the Wicked Witch of the West, and she was not having some random house or her...erm-having her younger sister show her up. She sucked up her pride and rapped lightly on the door.  

[Misao]

Rachel, who was sitting inside reading, looked toward the door as she heard the light tapping on her door. Not bothering to get up for the time being, she simply swiveled around in her desk chair, still rather absorbed in her book.

"Yes? Who is it?" she asked in a sort of bored tone of voice. She hadn't really expected visitors today, and with the recent rash of unwelcome visitors, she had made a policy of always leaving her door locked and making sure to ask who was knocking before opening it.  

[EvrythingTastesLikeGinger]

"..." Seiya folded her hands and leaned closer to the door so she could be heard, "Hi, I'm here to inquire about the flower Arrangement Club?" She said in her sweetest voice, "I was told that Ms. Rachael Roberston is the president?"

'Bleck. There's a limit to nice but I think I'm pushing it...'

It was true their first encounter hadn't been ideal, but she kind-of sorry. She'd been in a not-so-tolerant mood that day. "That's you, right?"  

[Misao]

Rachel blinked, raising an eyebrow as she listened to the voice coming from the other side of the door. She couldn't shake the feeling that she'd heard that voice before. It was a little different, but it almost sounded like...

The girl from the mall, back then...? she thought to herself. It does sound a little like her, but I don't remember her sounding so... polite. She shook her head, sticking a bookmark in her book and sighing as she stood up to walk over toward the door.

"Yes, that would be me..." Rachel said somewhat hesitantly. "Excuse me for asking, but you sound sort of familiar. Is it possible we've met before?" It never hurt to check on these things. If it was the same girl, it was possible she was just here to ridicule her again - and in her own dorm room, of all places. This girl had some nerve. Steeling herself, Rachel leaned up against the door as she waited for a response.  

[EvrythingTastesLikeGinger]

"Yeah, well..." She sweatdropped, "Actually we have, Unless it was Courtney you met... At the mall. I think I was with my friend Nobara. I was having a really bad day though. They didn't have my size when I went into the GAP and then i ran into an old ex-boyfriend. Yeah, I was just a bit...evil...that day."

'Ridicule? Moi...? Don't think so..I think I've gotten bored with that...'

"So let's try that again, Hi, my name is Seiya Mihara."

'Honestly, I'm not that bad. I'd make a half-way decent friend...if somewhat sarcastic.'  

[Misao]

"Oh..." Rachel said somewhat quietly as the girl confirmed her suspicions. Sighing deeply for a moment, she continued leaning up against the door as she weighed her options. It would probably be best to just tell the girl off at this point - the incident at the mall was plenty embarrassing enough, and she really didn't need to deal with something like that a second time.

On the other hand, though, she'd made the same assumption with Nobara, who actually turned out to be a pretty good friend. It was possible she was just being hasty in deciding to turn the girl away without hearing her out first. She wasn't entirely sure what would be the best approach at this point. Finally, she spoke up.

"...Yes, I remember you," Rachel said through her teeth. "That was a hell of a way to start off my first day at a new school, you know." Hesitating for just a moment, she continued on. "...So, you're interested in the club, then, yeah?"