NationStates Jolt Archive

Professor Kvapil raised an eyebrow, he would have to keep an eye on Mierin as well as Alice.

Ruari jumped. Shocked and surprised, he wriggled away to the furthest edge of his seat (as unobtrusively as he could, because he didn't want to insult her). Safely out of the way -- unless she totally ignored the teacher and came after him; she seemed a bit odd, she might do that -- he gave the girl a feeble smile, kept a watchful eye on her and tried to figure out what was going on.

She'd poked him! He'd only known her for about three seconds, and she was already poking at him! Okay, he knew Fidhornians were supposed to be a bit stand-offish. He'd found that out in Ardchoille, where people he hardly knew kept on cuddling him and ruffling his hair and stuff. But she'd poked him quite hard. Did she want to start a fight? Why would she want to fight him? And she'd seemed friendly enough, in a weird way.

Actually, in a very weird way. Because when she'd poked him, it had felt like the time Callum Mackerras dared him to touch the eye of the enormous fish old Monroe had put on display in his shop window. The whole window was a sort of freezer, and the fish had felt -- well, much like that girl's finger had felt. She was so cold! She must be really sick!

But if she was really sick, they wouldn't let her come to class. Maybe it was natural to her, like those -- errgh! -- teeth. She had a weird voice, too, really creepy, though she might have just been pretending that. And her eyes were funny ...

Ruari cut the thought off, hearing Miss Pryce's voice in his head -- "Not funny, children, just different!" She'd been talking about some visitors who'd come to the school once from some other country, and their eyes had been fu--different. Not different like the girl's eyes, and he hadn't actually touched those people at all; but Annie Graham had shaken hands, and she'd have said if they'd felt cold like that girl was.

This is really embarrassing. I'm acting like a real country cousin! First time I meet somebody from another country, and I get scared, like a baby!

Scolding himself, Ruari turned and deliberately gave the girl a much warmer, natural, smile, without the show-the-teeth extra.

All the same, he didn't move back.

Mierin gave the boy another razor-blade grin. She was a very pretty girl, but any smile with those smoldering black eyes and the long, barbed fangs looked fearsome. "Perhaps I'll see you later Ruari," she whispered, eerily, with a wink.

The Callisdrunian girl then turned her attention back to Professor Kvapil.

Arpad, who knew Mierin, and had watched the entire exchange, looked somewhat worried. Ruari was obviously completely ignorant of what Mierin was and what she wanted from him. Arpad knew that, despite some of Mierin's more alarming habits, she would not kill a donor, because no one would ever do that. He hoped Ruari could tolerate a lot of pain though. He knew for a fact that those barbed fangs could really hurt.

"You Ravnos are all the same," came a voice from the back of the classroom.

Robin looked around, sat at the back was a Tzimisce girl. They never trusted the Ravnos and thought very little of them. "Fuck you," he told her.

"One never knows where one stands with a Ravnos, even if said Ravnos is of the Sabbat," she then said. "But you aren't Sabbat, you have no loyalties."

Mierin turned around and addressed the girl who was arguing with Robin. "I suppose similar could be said about my family. Are you saying those who consider the conflict before jumping in are doing things incorrectly? My clan does not choose a permanent side in the age old Sorvik versus Harthy conflict." Mierin did not care what the girl thought about Robin's family, it was of no concern to her. However, the Batory family, and her own Darvul family, as a branch of the Batorys, had always been enigmatic when it came to feuds. Sometimes they were on the Sorvik side, sometimes on the Harthy side, largely depending on what the particular feud was about and how it would affect them. Sometimes they simply stayed out of it.

The girl glared at Mierin. "You stay out of this," she warned. "Outsider."

Professor Kvapil tapped a clawed finger on his desk. "There will be no fighting in class," he reminded them.

Mierin turned her attention back to Professor Kvapil, first making a gesture towards the girl that for Callisdrunians was obscene, but was relatively unknown to others.

Her friend Arpad's expression became more and more dismal. I don't want to become involved in this! he thought desperately.

"Fucking Tzimisce," Robin scowled folding his arms.

Professor Kvapil gave them a cruel smirk. "And there you have it, the bitterness between two Draconian clans."

His head swivelling tennis-match style, Ruari followed the by-play, his admiration growing with each response. Goddess, how these people had prepared! You'd have thought they were talking about the real world; they were so into their characters they wanted to fight each other.

It made his efforts last year look dismal by comparison, even though he'd got a Class Award for them at the time. Of course, Miss Pryce had put the brakes on them a bit. She'd got them to invent their own countries, sure, but she'd had this set of questions you had to answer at every stage. Like, if you had this geography, what's your weather like? If you have this weather, what do you produce? If you produce that, who do you trade with? If you trade, under what laws?

Ruari had done well because he'd (more or less accidentally) ended up with a country that produced enough for its citizens and had lots of stuff that everyone else wanted left over to trade. But Miss Pryce hadn't let them do anything exciting, like make up people for their countries. And even if she had, she wouldn't have let them have vampires, or aliens, or anything imaginary. These kids with vampire countries were really cool!

Ruari started thinking excitedly about what sort of country he might make. Of course he'd have vampires too ... no, hang on, it'd be more fun to have something different that would surprise the other kids. Like what, though? If there were vampires, he'd need something vampires couldn't hurt -- ghosts! No, but, ghosts were too flimsy ...

A sneaky thought crept up on him. He was here because everyone reckoned he'd 'raised' his grandmother. That was silly, she'd just started talking to him when he was out back under the apple-trees after that silly row with Mum. But what if you could 'raise' people? Then you could have anyone who was ever dead. His armies could be commanded by Alexander and Einstein could do his science ...

His old friends would have recognised the look on his face. Ruari was 'away'.

Professor Kvapil continued with the lesson, explaining all about the various clans of Draconian vampires. Every now and then Robin would look over his shoulder to see the girl glaring at him. He realised then that she was going to be trouble.

Alice was almost asleep in her chair as the lesson progressed, the teacher droning of pointless facts regarding local vampire clans. There were not clans in Assington, you were either part of an organised coven or you were a rogue. Rogues tended to die quite quickly thanks to the ever-brutal Vampire Police.

As far as the conflict between Robin and some other girl, Alice could care less. She'd decided that she didn't like Robin. He was obscenely outspoken and of a questionable moral standing in her opinion and that was enough for her. Hopefully the class would end soon...

Mierin did not notice Alice drifting into sleep as the lesson went on. She was a curious girl, though badly behaved, and so listened.

Arpad listened, but noticed that Alice was falling asleep. A little rude, he thought, but his attention drifted back to what was going on.

A small bug had been flying around and landed on Alice's desk before exploding.

As several students jumped, Professor Kvapil didn't look very pleased. "It would seem someone's been falling asleep in my class," he mentioned.

Alice jumped as the small explosion yanked her out of slumber and back into the real world. Sitting up straight with a frown across her pale face, Alice looked down at the few remains and scorch mark upon her desk before giving the teacher an unimpressed glance.

"It seems that way, but one can never know for sure."

Alice's comment left a lot open for interpretation and it seemed she wasn't willing to she any more light on her meaning.

Professor Kvapil chuckled, his eyes still on Alice. "Well I guess this means that you'll be pleased to learn that it's the end of the lesson," he remarked. "Whilst I have another lesson to teach this afternoon, you have no more lessons today."

Alice didn't drop her gaze from the teacher. The young vampire had learned to grow up very quickly and wasn't intimidated by anyone, which on occassion was a strength and on other occassions had caused a significant amount of trouble for her.

"Good."

Without another word Alice stood and began gathering her things in preparation to leave, she'd had enough of this class to last her the average vampiric lifetime and wanted to get out as soon as possible.

The other students began to leave the classroom.

"You're dead Ravnos," the girl told Robin before disappearing into the crowd.

Robin scowled but said nothing.

With no more classes scheduled for the day, Alice decided it was best to get back to her room. The young vampire was now reasonably irritated after that pointless class and the teacher, she didn't like him in the slightest.

Weaving through the crowd with relative ease, Alice finally reached her room and entered, dropping her books upon the floor as she collapsed upon her bed. She figured there was no point in getting angry as she preferred to remain in control.

After several minutes of calming herself, Alice sat upright and watched as she moved a bottle of blood through the air and into her hands with mere thought. She was still learning the extent of her telekinetic abilities but small tasks like that were easily doable.

After a long draught Alice couldn't help but scowl at the tase, she hated cold blood. Whilst still delivering the nourishment she needed to survive, there was no enjoyment in drinking cold blood. Perhaps she'd get a chance to find some warm life fluid, if she were lucky.

Ruari was still daydreaming it appeared. When class ended, Mierin got up and headed towards him. Arpad called to her. "Mierin... don't..."

She raised an eyebrow at her childhood playmate. "I'll do what I fucking want, Arpad. Don't worry, I won't hurt him... much."

She continued toward Ruari and touched a few cold fingers to his arm. Even if the boy had heard her and Arpad's conversation, he'd have no idea what they were saying, as they spoke Callisdrunian, a language incomprehensible to most foreigners.

"Ruari," she said, slightly seductively, though that could be her normal voice. It was full of the odd hissing sound of Callisdrunian vampires' voices. "Class is over... what are you planning on doing now?"

Ruari jumped -- he seemed to be doing that a lot lately -- but it was just that girl poking him again. The one with the teeth.

"Oh, ah ... I thought I might go have a cuppa," he said. "Is there anywhere round here they do elevenses? Ah, morning tea?" he translated. "Little lunch? Mid-morning break? Like, tea and bikkies?"

He wasn't sure which phrase had connected, but seemingly something had, as the girl and the boy who was trailing along after her both seemed to be heading off in a particular direction.

"After that, I thought I might have a look round," Ruari said, fishing hopefully in these new social waters. "Nobody showed me a thing, they just dumped me here late last night and I haven't a clue where anything is."

Then, realising it wouldn't do to seem too eager for company, he back-tracked a bit. "Hey, wasn't it cool when that bug exploded?" he gabbled. "How did he do that? I was watching the bug all the time, it was just flying round like any ordinary old bug, and then it landed on the desk and Boom! I hadn't even realised it was fake! And that Professor, he must have had some sort of remote control, but I swear I didn't see him move a finger!"

It had cost him quite a bit of ingenuity to come up with this explanation. If anyone had asked him what he actually saw, he'd have had to say that the Professor forced a real bug to go to the sleepy girl and then explode to wake her up. But that wasn't possible, of course.

So it must have been some sort of radio-controlled micro-miniature. Unless the Professor was very quick, and he'd tossed some sort of tiny firecracker just as the bug landed? But no, everyone would have smelled the gunpowder. So he had to be right about the RC bit, even if it did seem a bit extravagant, blowing up a masterpiece like that every time you wanted to keep a student in line.

Smiling encouragingly, Ruari waited for the pair to explain it all away.

Robin ran a hand through his white hair, he wasn't looking forward to bumping into the Tzimisce girl again. But she would be there each and every lesson. Looking back into the classroom, he saw Mierin talking with that quiet kid whose name he didn't know. Robin wasn't too good with names, he was always forgetting them. Deciding to return to his room to get some sleep, he disappeared into the crowd. Being a nocturnal vampire, he could never get used to being up during the daytime and was very glad that there were no more lessons for the day.

Arpad sighed and left Mierin to do what she would with Ruari, eventually catching up with Robin. "Hey," he said.


Mierin smiled, her lips parting just slightly to show just a hint of her barbed fangs. She decided to ignore his comments about the exploding insect. He would learn, in due time. "I'm sure there's something in the dining hall. I'm not from here, myself, either. Perhaps we could get a bite to eat and then look around together..." She put a hand on his shoulder. She kept her black eyes continually on Ruari's eyes.

Robin looked back as he heard Arpad's voice. "Hey," he replied.

Other students continued on the way, avoid Robin who had stopped walking.

Mierin has really soft hair.

The thought sneaked into Ruari's consciousness, making him feel really proud of having it. He'd never noticed girls' hair before.

Actually, he'd never noticed much about girls before at all. They'd always been there, of course. Findhorn was the sort of place that was full of cousins and second-cousins and aunts and just general people you knew. There was Jazz just round the corner and Meggie up the road a bit and ... yeah. Well. None of them were like Mierin.

He'd stopped thinking of her as "tooth girl" within about five minutes. It might have been when they were standing in line and he was telling her about the service last Solstice when he'd got into so much trouble for giggling, and when he pretended to be Brother Rhys she'd giggled exactly where he'd giggled. So she thought it was funny too.

Or it might have been when they were sitting down and she was eating a cake with cream on and she'd stuffed it into her mouth and got cream over her top lip and she'd licked it off sort of slowly, like a cat, and her eyes had sort of glittered, and then she'd laughed ... yeah, that was when he'd noticed that her teeth weren't really half as long as he'd thought. They were quite cute, really. Probably if she bit anything she'd leave little pinholes, not toothmarks, just the way kittens did. It was weird, but nice.

In fact, everything about her was weird-but-nice. She really listened to him. Not like he was Ruari-the-problem; like he was Ruari. He told her about Perry Pennecuick, who'd run away to find a spaceship, and she didn't say Perry must be nuts, the way people at home did. She asked Ruari if he thought he'd ever go into space, and whether he thought there might be people there, and what did he mean by 'people', anyway, and it all got really philosophical and serious and he'd never really talked to anyone like that before, either.

The thing was, she wasn't all girly. It was like they'd been friends for years. She even punched him on the arm, and when he didn't punch back she'd gone, "Whaddareya, weak?" just the way anyone would. And then somehow they got onto how old he was, and when he didn't tell her straight off -- he thought she might laugh -- she said she'd guess, and she'd guessed fifteen!

He looked at her hair again. It was soft. It was ... well, sort of ... hair plus. Like she was sort of "girl-plus". Not girl-y, but more ... like girly girls were trying to be, but couldn't. Like there was a whaddyacallit -- a glamour over her.

Ruari was so pleased at getting exactly the right word that he spoke without thinking: "Look, can we keep going?"

She looked puzzled. Ruari kicked himself. He knew you weren't supposed to rush girls. They weren't supposed to like it. Not that Mierin was just "girls", but ...

"I mean, like, it's like we're friends. I mean, I'd like to be friends. And friends go places. Together, sort of." He looked down, looked up, went red, and blurted,"Can we go somewhere out? Is there somewhere out we can go to here? Like movies or skating or something? Mierin? Would you? Like to? With me?"

His voice broke on the "me" so it came out a squeak. He'd been waiting for his voice to break. But it had happened now! It couldn't have happened now. If he shut his eyes tight it wouldn't have happened ... he wouldn't see her laugh at him ... his ears would stop getting so hot they had to be glowing ...

"Please?" he said, keeping his eyes squeezed shut.

"What's there to do around here when we have no more classes for the day?" Arpad asked Robin, casually. "I'd like to avoid coming into contact with Mierin and that poor kid who has no idea what he's getting into."



Having greatly enjoyed the innocent Ruari's company after their classes, Mierin listened quietly as he tried to explain what he was saying. He was an odd boy, in her opinion. Even insecure Arpad punched back when she hit him. Of course in different countries they had different attitudes about that sort of thing. Callisdrunian girls, and women, while very obviously feminine, were so in a different way. Mierin did not have to make an effort to be feminine, she just was.

Ruari obviously was nervous trying to say what was on his mind. Of course, he was only thirteen, not the fifteen Mierin had guessed. Mierin had already rationalized to herself that a three year age separation wasn't wrong. They were in the same class, after all, and Aunt Ilona regularly fed and took home men much younger than she was.

When Ruari closed his eyes in embarrassment, Mierin couldn't help chuckling a little. She finally realized what he was trying to say, and she found it rather cute. In her country, especially with Moroii, the female initiated the relationship most often. "Ruari," she said softly, tossing her black hair back as it had gotten in her face. "If you're asking me out, the answer is yes." Mierin could be cruel sometimes, but she was far from heartless. "The thing is though, I don't know if there are any places to go around here." This close, Ruari would be able to tell that her eyes were not completely black, but an extremely dark shade of grey, making the large pupils barely discernible.

Upwards of ten minutes of wandering around the school halls had certainly plunged Alice into the depths of boredom. She wasn't particularly interested in the school's history or the numerous headmasters that had reigned over the school.

Bored and alone, Alice decided that maybe some company wouldn't go awry and figured she would attempt to find Mierin since she was the only person so far that Alice didn't have a pronounced disliking for.

Upon entering the lunch hall, Alice's vampiric senses were bombarded with the haze of noise and smells flowing forth from hundreds of students, ranging from human to creatures that Alice didn't even think could exist. Eventually she spotted Mierin, sitting at a table alone with one of the boys from their vampire studies class. Not concerned about interruptions, Alice moved over to the table and sat down on Mierin's side.

"Food hasn't killed you yet?"

"What's there to do around here when we have no more classes for the day?" Arpad asked Robin, casually. "I'd like to avoid coming into contact with Mierin and that poor kid who has no idea what he's getting into."


"Why, is she planning to bite him?" Robin asked, placing his hands behind his head. "Professor Bräck will probably step in before she does so anyway, thats what the blood on the menu and local villages are for since yo're not supposed to bite fellow sudents."

Robin looked around briefly at the other students.

"Well aside from boring studying, theres a games room, a common room, a few clubs, some of which are secret elitist bastards who wander around in dark robes trying to act all mysterious. Theres always watching Aaron and Diego trying to kill each other, unless it's outside and I can't go out in sunlight."

"Well, at first I thought Mierin was only interested in the boy as a source of warm blood, but I think she may actually be thinking about having a relationship with him. Of course, if you get into a relationship with a moroii, you're gonna get bitten, and often at that." Arpad appeared to be considering something. "And I really doubt he knows that." It was true, there were many people who were the donor of Moroii without being lovers too, but it didn't work the other way around. A Moroii always drank from his or her significant other, it was a fact of life in Callisdrun.

"Ooh, Aaron and Diego trying to kill each other sounds pretty fun to watch," Arpad said with a dry grin. "I wonder if they'd schedule regular fights for our entertainment...." He paused. "Probably not I guess..." Sarcasm was valued highly in Callisdrunian humor. "What kind of games are there?" he asked more seriously.

"Wouldn't that be too soon? They've only just met," Robin replied with a smirk. He then began to walk down another hallway. Down this way was the dungeons again, the white haired boy had wondered about the dog since that lesson. "Well almost everytime they're near each other they erupt into a slagging match, handbags at dawn style."

"Ravnos," came a voice behind them. It was that girl once again.

"I'm still here, aren't I?" Mierin responded in light sarcasm. "The chocolate cake is actually pretty decent, not that it would matter to you of course, you can't eat it, can you?" She recalled that Alice's breed could not consume normal food. "The weird stew they had I kept away from. You can never tell what's in that sort of thing." There had been a somewhat creepy looking stew dish, which Mierin had declined.

"Ruari," she said, gesturing towards the boy, "and I were just talking. Having lunch or whatever meal this is together and all that. How are you?" Her tone was friendly, but if Alice could read the tiny subtle hints in Mierin's voice, she'd know that she had in fact interrupted something, but Mierin did not mind. And Mierin was somewhat confused about the meal times. They ate far earlier here than in her country.

"Well, Mierin can be somewhat forward, even for a Batory." Callisdrunians often began relationships in a much more direct way than was normal in many other nations, since romance and sex were not viewed negatively by their pagan religion. Arpad hd not quite figured out that things were done differently elsewhere.

"Perhaps we should intentionally get them together," Arpad said, chuckling. "So we could watch the Aaron and Diego battle." When the girl from class said Robin's clan name again, Arpad whispered to the Draconian vampire "Either she wants to kill you or wants to go out, maybe both."

"No she definately wants to kill me," Robin said. He then turned around to face the girl. "Got a problem."

"Backstabbing Ravnos, the lot of you," she scowled.

Robin leaned over to Arpad and said. "Thing about Tzimisce is that they're don't tend to think before they speak."

She pulled an ornate silver dagger from under her jacket, her eyes were filled with rage.

"Oh come on now..." Arpad said, suddenly alarmed. "That's a mighty fine weapon to be carrying around school..." he added, noticing the quality of the item the girl wielded. "Why does she want to kill you?" he whispered to Robin.

"Because I'm Ravnos, we don't bow down to the Sabbat, Tzimisce don't like that," Robin whispered back. "Us Ravnos are neutral."

"Stay out of this outsider," she growled.

A figure appeared behind her and grabbed her hand, trying to take the dagger from her. "I think I'll take this," came Zero's voice.

Arpad didn't like the situation at all, but was relieved that Zero was occupying the girl for now. "What the hell is the Sabbat?" Arpad whispered to Robin. "Sounds really important if she wants to kill you over it."

"As Professor Kvapil said, there are two fighting vampire sides and the Sabbat are one side," Robin explained.

Zero continued to fight the Tzimisce girl and soon got the dagger from her.

"You haven't heard the last of this Ravnos," she scowled and stormed off.

"What a bitch," he commented, looking down at the dagger he now had in his hand.

"As long as you're not on the not-Sabbat side, what does she care?" Arpad didn't understand why the girl could hate a neutral so much. It didn't make sense. It was taking the "if you're not with us, you're against us" idea to the extreme. "The Kereshtur clan is usually neutral, so is the Batory clan, and nobody resents us for being so."

Robin shrugged. "Problem is in vampire society you have to deal with both sides," he explained. "The Sabbat hate us dealing with the Camarilla."

"So much easier to not be a Draconian vampire," Zero smirked. "Next time I see her, I'm sending a Cyredathem after her."

Robin glared at him.

"Send a what after her?" Arpad said, not quite catching what Zero had said. "Yeah, in Callisdrun, we haven't had open warfare in quite a long while now, though duels still take place sometimes and the Sorvik clan and its allies and the Harthy clan still hate each other."

"Cyredathem," Robin spat. "A family of vampire hunters, friends of the King's."

"Well it got rid of her," Zero shrugged. "So where were you two off to?"

The white haired boy folded his arms and continued to glare.

"People hunt vampires here? That's horrible!" Arpad was shocked. Altar Rangians were known for wanting to hunt all moroii down and kill them, but he thought they were just loony fanatics. "I don't know where we're going. Wherever, I guess, just trying to find something to do."

"Yeaa well some vampires massacured most of the Cyredathem family centuries ago and they've been hunting vampires ever since," Zero explained.

"And we hit them right back, killed several vampire hunters myself," Robin replied.

Zero smirked at that remark. "Well I was just planning to hang around and do bugger all," he told them.

"Ah, I can see how they would hold a grudge. When the Batory clan ruled Istengrad and the area around it, a thousand or so years ago, they did some stuff like that." Arpad paused a second. "Except they were big enough so that it would have been suicide to try to kill them all. Anyway..."

Alice shook her head at Mierin's question, her face remaining blank as she looked at the food.

"I remember what it was like to eat, but it's been many years since I've been able and I don't believe a dead stomach can digest food."

Taking a brief glance at one of the menus, Alice noted blood was actually on offer and noted to herself that such would have to be investigated later on. Not being much of a social creature, Alice didn't really notice Mierin's subtle irritation and instead turned her attention to the silent boy.

"What about you? You're human right?"

Zero held up the dagger and inspected it closer. There were some runic inscriptions down the centre of the blade but he couldn' read runic, he would probably have to learn that sometime.

"It's a good blade, think I'll keep it," he smirked.

"What does it say?" Arpad asked. He could see a small inscription on it, that he couldn't quiet make out, because the writing was tiny and he wasn't close enough. Callisdrunians normally wrote in runic, which made their handwriting look very angular when they wrote in the standard foreign alphabet.

"I don't know, I don't read runic," Zero admitted.

"Here give it to me," Robin suggested.

Zero cautiously looked over at him before passing the dagger to the white haired boy. He quickly looked over it.

"Kanes Cyredathem, Slayer of all Sabbat," Robin then said. "Wonder how she got her hands on irt."

Leaning over to inspect the the inscription, which was written it very elegant runic, Arpad chuckled. "I'd say that the Tzimisce probably caused Kanes some misfortune, and that she probably got it from someone in her family. I only know what I learned today about Draconian vampire politics, and the prof didn't say anything about this Kanes guy, so it's only a guess."

"So the weapon was probably stolen in the first place, either from an unwitting man or from a corpse, as I doubt that the 'Sayer of all Sabbat' would give the blade away to one as a gift." Arpad raised an eyebrow.

"Has to be stolen somehow, Kanes Cyredathem is still the leading slayer of Sabbat," Robin replied. "He lives in a Sabbat controlled area so naturally kills mostly Sabbat."

"So he's still alive," Zero said, scratching the back of his neck.

Robin nodded, "Even in his seventies he kills vampires by the dozens."

"Sounds like a real bastard," Arpad said. People who killed vampires simply because they were vampires were viewed in an extremely negative way in Callisdrun. "Maybe he dropped it while perpetrating one of his crimes," Arpad said. "Or maybe a particularly skilled vampire nabbed it."

"Probably but at least they can't boast they killed him or any shit like that," Robin shrugged. "I'm going to keep this incase she decides to attack me again."

Alice didn't really notice Mierin's subtle irritation and instead turned her attention to the silent boy.

"What about you? You're human right?"

"Unless you ask me before breakfast," Ruari joked. For a minute there, he could have sworn she really meant the question. This girl was a weird one. I remember what it was like to eat, eh? Goddess, he'd heard of people who went diet-crazy, but this was beyond the beyonds. The poor thing should be getting treatment somewhere. Funny, though, she didn't actually look all that sick. She wasn't even skinny, really, just normal.

The only thing about her that is, he decided. He couldn't help it, she'd interrupted his talk with Mierin, so how could he like her? But it didn't matter, really, because Mierin had said yes! She'd said yes!

The trouble was, where could they go? Back home you could always get a picnic basket and head off for a walk; everybody had a special place they liked to show friends. But here ... maybe they could go for a walk in the grounds ...

He was brooding over the problem when his eye lit on a rack of newspapers near the food-counter. This school must put them out so kids could keep up with what was going on back home. As if! He couldn't remember the last time he'd seen a kid reading the Findhorn Clarion -- except to check program times, of course ...

Of course! They'd taken him through a town to get here, so there had to be someplace nearby that showed holovids! And that new SF one was coming out -- Warlord of the Ring Stars -- Mierin was bound to like that, she was as interested in space travel as he was. And if not a holovid, surely even the dullest town would have somewhere to go.

Suddenly as eager to get away as he had been to stay, Ruari clutched the paper and plotted. If he couldn't find anything, there was always Whatson.com. He'd look it up and come then find her.

"Hey, uh, I've gotta, uh, check something," he told the two girls. "Mierin -- um -- d'y'reckon you might be in the common-room in a while? It'd be nice to talk about, uh ... stuff."

Not the coolest of exits, but when he came back with everything sorted out, he bet she'd be impressed.

"Yes, I'll be in the common room in a little while," Mierin said, in a somewhat sultry way, though she wasn't trying.

She made a sort of perplexed facial expression as Ruari exited, and when he had, she turned to Alice, the Assingtonian. "He's cute, but he sure is weird."

Almost an hour later, Ruari peeked round the common-room's double doors and his stomach lurched. She wasn't there!

But, just as he began panicky plans to find her -- log on to the school intra-net? Find out her room number? -- she was there, just the way he'd hoped. She'd managed to ditch that other girl, too. Ruari's heart started beating faster and his mouth went dry. It'd been hard enough to ask her out, but now ... she might laugh at the idea of going to a holovid, she might say any fool could see it was too hot for a walk ...

"Mierin! Hey! Look what's on in town!" he said eagerly. "That new one in the Ring Stars series! Have you seen it? We could go together tonight if you like: there's a bus that goes past here at 5.30, and another comes back at 9.30, so it's still not too late even for a school night."

He'd been particularly careful to sort that out; Mum had always insisted on early bedtimes on school nights.

"I've got enough cash for us both, my Uncle Ron gave me money for my birthday," he added hurriedly, determined to beat off any can't-afford-it excuses. "You'd be doing me a favour, things like that are always more fun if you see them with someone else. And then maybe we could have coffee afterwards."

He really liked that line. It sounded so cool, even if he didn't actually like coffee. But you couldn't say, "maybe we could have a nice hot milk together later." He wanted her to go so much, he moved up really close and leaned right over her chair. She looked up at him with those strange eyes and her cute little teeth gleamed.

No, hang on, Ruari! Stop pushing her, you idiot! He stood up straight and folded his arms along the back of the chair. There, that looked more relaxed.

"Or we could go for a walk, now it's a bit cooler, if you like," he added. "I read that thing they gave us about the school grounds, and it says there's a waterfall somewhere down in that foresty bit. We could see if we could find it. There might be caves behind it and stuff.

"So," he added, moving around to one side and parking himself oh-so-casually on the arm of the chair next to hers. "What would you like to do, Mierin?"

Alice didn't laugh at Ruari's joke in the slightest. Her face remained completely bland as it she remembered that this boy was an idiot. He didn't understand he sat beside two vampires and went to a school full of many other vampires and creatues of other natures. Immediately she was unimpressed with him.

Before long the young boy disappeared, leaving Mierin and Alice alone once again. Alice wasn't sure what Mierin was doing and didn't consider it any of her business.

"He's a fool. He'll end up dead at this rate.... and he appears to be about fourteen."

Assington:
"I plan to give him a rapid education," Mierin said, this time with obvious 'up-to-no-good' overtones. She then continued in a more tone. "He's probably from one of those nations that tries to pretend we don't exist. He's simply uninformed. I'm doing him a big favor. Not that I mind." She grinned, exposing those long barbed fangs. Alice of course, would not be put off in the slightest by the sight of fangs, though, she might think their size and shape, as well as their non-retractability were weird.

Mierin really didn't care that Ruari was a bit younger than she. If he was old enough to go to this school, he was old enough for her. Some might think it immoral of her, but Mierin did not generally concern herself with morals. After talking about this and that with Alice for a bit, she left the dining hall and headed to the common room, first giving Alice her room number in case the Assingtonian wanted to hang out sometime.

Findhorn:
Ruari was already in the common room when Mierin arrived. She listened to the boy's list of ideas. He obviously really liked her. Quite flattering she thought.

She smiled and tossed her hair back. "Well, I like movies. But I'd really prefer a later showing. Is there one that gets back after midnight?" Mierin was still not used to the concept that anybody would want to go to bed before 11:30.

Tapping her fingers slightly on her lap, she cocked her head to one side slightly. "And then maybe we could go for a walk after... when it's nice and dark. I'd rather not go out before late afternoon, I get sunburned easily, and the sun is so bright here." She flashed a mischevious smile up at him, intentionally exposing her fangs. Can I make it any more obvious? she wondered. She didn't want him to be too surprised when she finally sank her fangs into his shoulder.

"Well I'm going back to my room," Robin stated. "I have a few things I need to do."

Without waiting for a reply from the other two, he set off down the hallways back to the boys dorm floor. Carefullly he made sure to stay out of the sunlight from the windows, the last thing he wanted to do was get burnt by the sun. He had seen on a few occasions what prolonged exposure did to Draconian vampires.

"Ok, he's strange," Zero muttered.

"Strange, yeah, but I think that could describe everyone in this school," Arpad said after Robin had left. "I feel kinda bad for vampires in other countries. My kind just get really bad sunburns very easily. Others die."

"Well I suppose you have to be strange to go to this school," Zero replied. "So whats this I keep hearing about a dog in the dungeons?"

"There was a bit of an incident in Necromancy class..." Arpad said. "Something about reanimating a dog with the wrong soul." It seemed very creepy to him.

Zero laughed. "Never had any trouble like that in my first year," he replied. "Well I'm hungry, you up for eating in the dining hall?"

"Yeah, that sounds good, I'm pretty hungry, too." Arpad set off in that direction, assuming that Zero would also.

Zero did so, in the dining hall he grabbed a pizza and a drink before going to sit down. Already there were plenty of other students there eating, showing off and even studying.

Arpad also grabbed some pizza, and spent a while looking at the beverage list. He finally managed to find the blood, and proceeded to mix it with coke. He was a strange boy. He then went and sat near Zero.

Zero gulped down his drink as Arpad sat down. "So got any plans this afternoon?" he asked. "I have Vampire Studies in a couple of hours."

He looked up to see Aaron Blackheart enter the dining hall with his usual group of necromancers in training.

"Nah, I'm not planning on doing anything," Arpad said as he ate his food. He washed his slice of pizza down with his peculiar blood/cola drink. "I already had vampire studies. I thought it was interesting, myself, though some people seemed pretty bored."

"Is that one of the guys who fight all the time?" Arpad asked Zero, spotting Aaron.

"It get's better when you go on vampire trips," Zero smirked. He looked back over to where Aaron was. "Yeah, but there won't be any fight unless..."

He stopped as he watched Diego Mejía and his group of friends entered the dining hall.

"Now this could be interesting."

Rather strangely a cold wind blew through the dining hall as the two sides met up. It was almost like a scene straight out of a western as Aaron and Diego stared at each other. Several students quickly made their way out, not wanting to get caught up in any crossfire. Diego held up his right hand and it burst into flames.

"You are going to pay for what you did Blackheart," he growled.

Aaron just smirked, his black eyes appeared to glow.

"Can't be good now," Zero whispered to Arpad. "This could get quite destructive."

Aaron then held his hands outstretched and seemingly burst into black flame.

"Ok it's worse, we should leave," Zero gulped. "When Aaaron uses black flame you know it's bad."

More students began to leave the dining hall.

"Darn, I was going to get popcorn..." Arpad said.

He definitely did not want to get in between Diego and Aaron though. "What are they fighting about this time?"

He had spoken in a whisper of course, he didn't want the aggression displayed by the two rivals to be turned to him.

"Who knows, but whatever it is is big," Zero replied.

He quickly made his way out, making sure that Arpad was right with him. Once outside he fell against the wall, several other students had come out bringing protesting first years with them.

"When Aaron uses black flame big shit is going to happen."

Meanwhile, Somewhere Else Entirely...


A small, personal Krowemohian Spacecraft lighted onto a landing pad for the Academy, and then taxied itself into a nearby hanger, parking and finally dislodging its sole occupent.

The single catgirl yawned, glancing around quickly as she left the ship, having already locked it. Looking at a print out in her hands, she made her way to the admissions office and signed herself in, recieving her list of classes.

Checking her watch, she noticed it was now time for lunch, and made way to the lunch room.

Idlly, she flicked her single Raver's Earring, and it played a song, just loud enough that she could hear it, as well as anyone within a few feet of her. It was her favorite song, "Emotion" by ATB. The Raver's Earring was light blue in color, and spherical in shape. It was touch activated, and usually wore by ravers. Working in two modes, it could receive the music being spun by the DJ at a rave and play it as well, which when combined with the hundreds of other such earrings, could increase the volume of any rave manyfold. It also had a memory mode, where any song it has heard could be saved and replayed at a later date. Celestial's was custom-made, and the sphere earring pulsed and changed colors in tune to the music being played.

As she neared the entrance to the lunch hall, she noticed that everybody seemed to be fleeing it. Noticing a boy with several others next to him leaning against a wall, she walks up to him, speaking up to be heard over her Raver's Earring. "Hey. What's going on? Why is everyone leaving?" Her silver furred and very fluffy tail swayed back and forth mindlessly.

Zero looked up. "Trouble," he replied, shaking his head. He looked over the girl, a catgirl in fact he had never seen one in person before, just heard about them. "Just a couple of necromancers in training about to blow up the dining hall."

... She smiled and tossed her hair back. "Well, I like movies. But I'd really prefer a later showing. Is there one that gets back after midnight?"...

"Uhhh ... welll ..." Ruari stuttered. It hadn't even occurred to him to check whether buses ran that late. Obviously a half-way sophisticated guy would have been ready for anything -- Ruari entertained a brief image of himself and Mierin in some sort of really cool sports car, with the top down and the stars out and the road unrolling silver before them ... if only he could drive. Luckily, that gave him an idea.

"Well, if there's not we can always get a taxi," he said. He liked the way that sounded. Competent. Rich. In charge. "And, yeah, I think there's a Marathon showing, actually. They show the whole series, one after another, over and over for 24 hours. So we could just time it so we see the new one."

He watched her face to see if she was pleased. He found it hard to tell. She had this habit of showing her teeth; well, more like flashing them, really. It was probably perfectly normal where she came from, but ... well, he'd get used to it. Ruari wished he knew a bit more about her country, though. The way she talked, it had to be way up near the icecaps. If you didn't see the sun for six months, you'd probably be a bit sensitive to sunlight.

"Well, uh, look, we'll meet here about 10, okay?" he asked, risking another glance at her. She hadn't said anything, but she wasn't actively objecting, so he figured it would be a good idea to make his exit before she changed her mind..

"I, uh, gotta go now," he muttered. "Gotta do ... things."

The tips of his ears glowing red again, he scuttled off.

Which left him outside the common-room door, his palms sweating, wondering how on earth he was going to get through the time until 10 tonight. Of course, if he were at home his Mum would make him have a nap, since he was planning to stay out so late, but a nice idiot he'd look if he did that.

Maybe he could run into some of those other people from that 'vampire' class and find out what that was all about.

Pleased with himself, he headed back towards the dining hall.

Alice had been keeping to herself within the dining room, tasting the blood provided by the academy and judging whether it would be worth purchasing again. In her opinion the blood was average, she wasn't sure where it had come from but it didn't have that certain richness of warm human blood. Despite this she deemed it acceptable to live on and that's all that really mattered.

Soon enough it became evident that some sort of conflict was going on amongst two groups of students. Alice simply remained seated and watched with mild interest. She didn't know the history between these two groups yet at least one of them appeared to have reasonable competence as a necromancer.

Still drinking the blood, Alice continued to watch and be ready to move if the conflict came to her.

Celestial's eyes widen a bit. "Oh." She says, looking around. Figuring that they might be getting annoyed with her music, she double taps it, and the earring stops playing music. "Well... My name's Celestial. I like to dance." A pained expression came to her face as she heard herself say that.

Great. Why don't you tell him you ride the short bus to school too? She mentally scolded herself. Quickly looking to change the topic, she glances around and spies another student (Ruari) nearing them, seemingly with the intention of entering the dining hall. "Umh. Oh. Umh, I wouldn't go in there. Bad trouble. Necromancers. Some sort of fight, I think..." She shrugged, motioning to Zero. "He's knows about it, right?"

Zero raised an eyebrow. "And I'm Zero, can't dance, can't sing either," he smirked. He looked over to the student she had mentioned, he hadn't seen Ruari before and warned him against going insaide the dining hall. "I wouldn't go in there if I were you, it's probably about to be blown up."

Inside the dining hall, Diego edged closer to Aaron. The flames on his hand jumped off and became two fire elementals to do his fighting for him. The flack flames around Aaron began to grow larger and swirled around around him, seemingly making an armour of flames. Surely it would only be a matter of time before a member of staff stepped in to break it up.

Diego's fire elementals attacked, but Aaron quickly repelled them. One of the fire elementals landed on a table near to where Alice was sat, though it didn't break the wooden table, it did set it alight. Diego was most displeased that Aaron had so easily defeated his fire elementals.

"You are going down Mejía," Aaron smirked.

The sound of a clap filled the dining hall, both boys froze in their place as did their lackies. It was almost like time had stopped for them as Professor Bräck appeared, seemingly out of nowhere. "Now what did I tell you two yesterday about these fights?" he said, his eyes had gone cold as he stared at the two boys.

Aecheron continued to sit at the table on his own, eating with almost obnoxious calm. Although the idea of magic and vampires, whatever they were- some sort of political party, he thought- were new to him, he knew a lot about fights from home. Although his village had been offensively peaceful, the town nearby had a couple of areas where it was a bad idea to go after dark. Of course he had- it was where a lot of the best shops were, and a lot of the best hangouts. Still, he knew from experience that this sort of conflict would consist of a lot of posturing and nothing else. The flames, although showy and potentially dangerous, would probably stay put.

He finished his mouthful just as the professor appeared out of nowhere. Good trick, that. Probably very advanced. The fight would be dealt with. Life went on.

He looked around for the source of the music that tickled the edge of his hearing. Although it cut off before he had turned fully, he still saw who had been playing it. The hall had emptied rapidly since he had last looked up. Perhaps the fight had been more serious than he imagined. He locked on to the girl with the music- it was probably the tail that caught his eye. Noticing that she was surrounded by guys probably far more eligible than he was, he mentally wrote her off. He got up to leave.

Celestial nodded. She wanted to venture inside, to pisk a peek, but the sound of the fires within kept her at bay, and just the thought of fire made her visibly uncomfortable. "I... I don't like being here. I'm going to go... Somewhere else. Anyone's welcome to follow me..."

She turned to leave, with one finger she tapped her earring again, and 'Emotion' played, picking up where it had left off, the earring pulsing and changing colors in tune to the beat of the music. Her tail swishing back and forth slowly from the back of her blue hot-pants, she made her way away from the fires in the dining hall, and the bad memories it'd undoubtedly would bring up...

My dorm... I think I'll go to my dorm room. I need to unpack anyways...Bobbing her head to the beat of the music, she crossed her arms over her chest and tried to forget about the dining hall incident...


((OOC: Just one quick... Did Drac or anyone else like post up the Academy rules? Are they any in particular? Curfew, dress code, etc etc?))

"Right," she said cheerfully. "Ten'o'clock. I'll probably catch up on some reading until then." As Ruari turned to go, Mierin said "Have fun with your... things... or good luck with them."

She then sat around reading for a few hours. Though usually an outgoing person, Mierin could get heavily involved in books. After a couple hours, she got a new book, as she had finished the one she was reading. Finishing that one in a few more hours, she headed back to her room to freshen up.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Arpad noted the appearence of the odd looking girl. "Hello, I'm Arpad," he said. She would notice his accent surely, but likely wouldn't say anything about it, as after all, he didn't have a tail and she did.

"Two guys for some reason are constantly out to get each other, and they decided to have their little duel in the dining hall." He paused, and then added "while we were eating."

She left though, and he resumed his silence.

"Rival necromancy families," Zero said. "If you think they're bad, wait until you see the rest of their families."

Inside, Professor Bräck continued to glare at the troublemakers as they stood down. Both Aaron and Diego continued to glare at each other before Diego and his lackies left the dining hall. While Aaron and his lackies went to get lunch, Professor Bräck seemed to vanish.

"Guess that means it's safe to go back inside," Zero remarked.

OOC: Gnufasur take alook at the OOC thread, tis in there somewhere.

Alice had been wary of the battle as she continued to drink the school blood and upon seeing a fire elemental rocketing towards her table, she did what any other Assingtonian vampire would. Unfortunately for these vampires, their blood was highly flammable and so fire held a very potent potential for death.

With that in mind, Alice sprung into the air until she reached the roof, landing upside down so she could look straight down and watch as her table burst into flames. Some students were momentarily distracted by Alice's rapid movements yet it seemed most had expected her to move at least somewhat.

Confident that her blood wouldn't be ignited, Alice allowed herself to fall, using her mental powers to guide her path as she descended to the floor. Whilst being far off from the ability to fly, Alice could at least influence her movements in the air as she had an intricate knowledge of her telekientic abilities.

Deciding it was best to leave, Alice headed to the exit and came across several familiar faces from her various classes.

Since he had heard about a fight developing in the dining hall, Robin had come to check it out. After wandering the halls in the shadows to avoid exposure to sunlight, he was disappointed to find he'd missed all the action.

"Shit, don't tell me I missed it," he grumbled.

"Ok we won't tell you then," Zero smirked, placing his hands behind his head.

"Hey, Alice," Robin said, seeing her leaving the dining hall.

Alice turned upon hearing her name, bringing her eyes upon the young form of Robin. Hiding her displeasure at seeing the other student, Alice kept a blank face as she approached him.

"What do you want?"

Whilst Alice knew it would be beneficial to make new friends, some people she just didn't like and that couldn't be helped. She wasn't going to change herself to fit in.

"Maybe Robin likes Alice," Arpad whispered to Zero. "I think any action on his part will be a futile effort, cause she's not very nice, from what I've seen." Arpad was honest, if shy. He thought that the Assingtonian girl was quite arrogant and full of herself. Not that Mierin wasn't, but then, Mierin's arrogance was familiar.

"I was just being polite," Robin replied. Evidently, he figured that it was possible that Alice didn't know what polite was. She did often seem somewhat cold and bitter towards others.

"And Arpad, I heard that, my vampire hearing is quite good."

Zero had to smile at that. "Careful Arpad, the walls have ears."

Iris leaned back against the cool brick wall, her long black hair falling over her shoulders as she studied the three boys while they stood talking, her green eyes taking in what ever they could.
One of her favorite things about this academy was watching how the students interacted with each other; yes the classes were nice but life’s skills were learned in the hallways. Iris knew that she did not really fit in with most of the students here; they knew what they were; vampires, necromancers, and a host of others. But she had no idea what she was. Iris felt as though she had a bit of each talent but not enough to firmly place her in a specific group; so she watched hoping to learn something and maybe make a friend or two.

Alice would have blushed if she could, but being undead meant her blood didn't actually flow and so her embarassment was hidden to a degree.

"I see..."

Narrowing her eyes upon Arpad, Alice nodded as she unleashed a brief glare towards the Callisdrunian vampire.

"He's not the only one with supernatural hearing..."

Curious about the discussion that the group of students was having Iris detached her self from the wall she had been leaning against and walked over to the edge of the group. She stood for a moment to decide if it was still a good idea, and then spoke.
" Hi, I am Iris, I don’t think that I have meet any of you yet so I thought that I should introduce my self"
She waited shyly holding her book to her chest.

"Hello Iris," Arpad said somewhat uneasily. He had tried to whisper as quietly as he could to Zero, but even though he had great hearing like most other vampires, this did not mean he could talk more quietly. Perhaps he should try to lighten up the mood. "I'm Arpad, from Callisdrun. Next to me is Zero, and there's Robin, and the girl with no sense of humor is Alice, from Assington."

"Hello Iris," Arpad said somewhat uneasily. He had tried to whisper as quietly as he could to Zero, but even though he had great hearing like most other vampires, this did not mean he could talk more quietly. Perhaps he should try to lighten up the mood. "I'm Arpad, from Callisdrun. Next to me is Zero, and there's Robin, and the girl with no sense of humor is Alice, from Assington."

Iris gave another shy smile and said,"it nice to meet you all;
this is my first year here, have you all been here befor or is this your first year as well?"
She appered to have relaxed her hold on her book and had shaken her long black hair out of her eyes.

Robin and Zero smiled at her as Arpad told her their names.

"Zero and I are locals," Robin added.

Iris smiled and mumbled a "nice to meet you both"
and stared at her feet in an awakward scilence. Iris hated awakward scilances and unfourtionatly she always felt like no matter how hard she tryed not to , she alway created them. So she waited hoping that it would pass and then said," I could not help but overhearing you guys talking about vampires, I have a question and I was hoping that maby one of you might be able to answer it "
she smiled guiltly. Iris knew she she should not have ease droped on the conversation but she couldn't help her self.

Meanwhile, Some ways away...

Heaving a sigh, Celestial leaned her shoulder against a wall, thinking to herself. Well, that was rude. Running off like that...Better go back and apologize... Well, not empty handed... Her frown turned upside down. Candy! That's it! Everyone loves candy! I've got bunches in my stuff! I'll go and give all of them candy, and then they won't be mad at me.

Smiling to herself at being so S-M-R-T(Not a typo :P), Celestial returns quickly to her dorm, and digs in oneof her as of yet unpacked suitcases, finding a plastic baggie full of various types of sugar high inducing eatables. Taking a mixture of everything and stuffing it a bright neon blue purse, Celestial checks herself in the mirrior and sets her earring to play "Ecstasy," another song by ATB which she enjoyed.

Leaving,she returns to the dining hall, happy to see they were still there, plus a few extra girls. Putting on her best smile, she walks right up to them. "Sorry I ditched you guys like that." She said, taking out the baggie and offering both Arpad and Zero some poprocks. She turns around to Iris and Alice. "Hi! I'm Celestial." She grins and offers both ring pops. Iris' is strawberry flavored while Alice's is grape.


((OOC:I love it. Celestial is so out of place. :D))

"Thank you, Celestial!" Arpad said, taking some candy. He liked candy, although, he much preferred the chocolate kind.

"What's the question, Iris?" Arpad was a curious youth.

Alice didn't know who this new girl was or why she was handing out candy but that wasn't about to put her into high spirits, nothing ever did these days. Sometimes she wondered why she was even bothernig with necromancy and the sort, why she had convinced that vampire to turn her or why she didn't like most people. So far there was no answer.

"I can't eat..."

It was strange that vampires could eat in Alice's opinion, traditionally they are undead or demonic creatures that gain their sustenance through blood. Alice hadn't eaten in years and she didn't really miss it.

Iris plucked the candy out of Celestians hand," thank you ".
She then turned to face Arpad," My question was about being bit by vampire, when I was 15 I had a vampire bite me,for all intensive purposes i should be one but I am not, is it posible to be immune to becoming a vampire?"
While Iris waited for an answer she notice that Alice had mentioned not being able to eat, this confused her so she gave Alice a confused look hoping that the other girl might explain.

Aliced sighed slightly as she recieved a confused look from one of the other girls. It appeared as if no one was aware of the supernatural around here save for the locals and a handful of others.

"I may as well explain it all. Firstly, you don't become a vampire simply by being bitten. You have to induce enough vampiric blood to change your system, that's why we always drink from humans first.

As for the food, well that's because my body is dead. The only organ within my body that still functions is my brain, otherwise I'm not alive. Hence, I don't eat as my stomach is dead. That explain everything?"

Whilst her tone was impatient, Alice prevented herself from being outright rude as she didn't wish to make enemies, at least not whilst she was still learning how to fully use her powers and there were many others around beyond her abilities.

"ah I see, but when i was bit, the bite was deliverd with the intention to turn me in to a vampire, blood exchange and all. When it did not work the first time I was bit again, still nothing and thats happend three or four times now; I was asking beacuse I have no fangs and the only blood that I can drink is my own- if that, it strikes me as being a bit odd thats all"
Iris shrugged unsure of why the other girl was iritated, "well i guess its my own fault that I dont know more about vampires" she thought to her self.

"There are a bunch of different kinds of vampire, too," Arpad said. "I'm part of the Callisdrunian subspecies of Moroii, and I'm not sure if you can even become one if you weren't born one. I'd venture to say that there are a lot of types of vampires that cannot make new vampires simply by biting." He made a faint laugh. "If that was the case for us, I don't know how we'd survive, since there are so many of us we'd run out of non-vampires and would only be able to feed from each other. Wait... why would you want to drink your own blood? Just for the taste or something?" Iris had mentioned drinking her own blood, but Arpad hadn't heard of such a practice.

" i dont know" she wispered sadly" some times I cant help my self, and I cant attack my friends or pets so i drink my own, i guess its becaues its all that i have"
Iris hung her head, her long hair covering her face
" i dont evan like the tast of blood, it tasts like salt and iron"

"Well, I like the taste of blood. It would be rather unlucky if I didn't, seeing as how I don't really have a choice. Why would you drink blood if you didn't have to and didn't like its taste?" Arpad considered Iris for a minute, and then assumed a more serious expression. "I... I'm sorry, I probably sound like a complete [Callisdrunian swear word]." He got up and went to go stand closer so as to enable quieter conversation.

Iris smiled "your fine, don't worry about it, its not a big deal"
She paused for a moment to collect her thoughts
" If I dont drink blood, my metabolism shuts down and I can have a seizure, the truth is that i have never tried anyone elces blood; for all I know it would be fabulos and taste yummy. At home i did not know any one that i could get blood from so i was stuck with what i had"

Celestial blinks at Alice. "Are your taste buds dead too?" She again offers the ringpop.

Celestial listened intently as the others spoke, turning down her music so as to not be rude. She nodded her head slowly, and chipped in, "In Krowemoh, vampires are killed without question and magic users become Repressed. That's what would have happened to me if I had stayed in the Krowemohian Empire."

She shurgs, looking at Iris. "You don't have fangs, but you drink blood?"

Robin took the candy and smirked. "To some, blood is an aquired taste, to others it comes naturally," he said before eating it.

Zero sighed. "No matter how many vampire studies lessons I'll take I'll never understand a vampire's mentality," he remarked.

Iris grined revealing a white smile with no hint of fangs
" no fangs, but thats probly a good thing because I whould have most likely biten my tongue off"
She looked at Robin and asked," did you have to get used to it or have you always liked blood?"

"You have a seizure if you don't drink your blood?" Arpad was somewhat surprised. "That sometimes happens to us Moroii if we go too long without blood... well... after the loss of control and before dying that is. Perhaps you should see if someone is willing to let you drink their blood. Drinking your own can't be that healthy." Moroii adolescents usually learned quite quickly that drinking one's own blood was extremely unhealthy and provided little nourishment. "I have some blood stored away if you want some." Arpad could share what he had, after all, he could always write his family to send more if he was about to run out.

Robin put his hands behind his head. "You should see what happens to a Draconian vampire when they go without blood," he said. "Not a pretty sight, they become a living skeleton with the skin still intact." A grin then crossed his face. "The Camarilla use it to punish Sabbat."

Iris shuddered," o gosh, I cant imagien wasting away like that"
"yah the seizers are not a pretty sight"
She smiled at that thought of her first one, it had happend durring school in the middle of class.
" well I never have tried anyone elces blood, I did not know any one that I could ask..... I think that I will take you up on your offer, it cant kill me, Ihope"

Celestial flashed them all a very uneasy grin. She was friendly, but not THAT freindly. "Well, I'm not up for it." She chuckled slightly, then released what just came out of her mouth. Way to go Celestial! Why don't you just whip out a wooden impaling object next? That'll make 'em like you tons more.

"I mean, that is... Well... Heh heh.. If you asked me when I was on Ex or Jet or something like that, I'd probably say yeah... But, I only use those at really good raves..." Another pained expression. Great! Way to make yourself sound like a dumb drug addict, as oppose to just a Racist Vampire Hater. I'm going to shut up now. She favors the vamps with a weak, sheepish grin, mentally willing herself to be very, very small.

Isis looked at Celestial aware that the other girl was uncomfortible
" dont feel bad, I am not sure I am up for it eather, and your the lucky one becauese you dont have find out if you dont want to"
She smiled

Isis looked at Celestial aware that the other girl was uncomfortible
" dont feel bad Iam not sure Iam up for it eather, and your the lucky one becauese you dont have find out if you dont want to"
She smiled

Celestial nodded slowly. "Well, don't we have a class or something to go about now?" She desperately wanted to change the topic...

"O good point Celestial, I think that is it time for classes but I am not sure"
Iris looked at the others to see if they knew

"Hmmm... that's odd" Arpad muttered. He then remembered that vampires were not as accepted in foreign nations, and hence, the thought of one drinking made many foreign non-vampires uncomfortable. In his country, many humans had no problem with a vampire feeding from them a bit. Often, they were friends or lovers of vampires. However, that's not what he had been talking about. "Geez guys... I was only talking about sharing the supply I've got in thermoses [OOC: thermi?] with Iris, not opening up people's veins... unless of course, you're into that." He said the last part with a grin.

Celestial gave Arpad a weary giggle, waving one hand dismissively. "Ah ha ha...No no. I'm not. Why would I be. I like to dance."

Robin laughed. "The neck is the best place for blood," he said, tapping the side of his neck.

"That's it I'm out of here," Zero told the others. "I'm going to look for Raven."

"Good luck with that" Arpad said to Zero as he left. He then returned his attention to the conversation. "Actually, we generally don't feed from the neck. We feed from the shoulder because it's way less likely that our donor will die of blood loss that way."

"Ah but the neck is the best place," Robin shrugged.

Iris looked at the two boys and shruged
"well I dont know eather way, but I guess what works for one person may not work for another"

"I'll admit that of course blood flows much more easily from the neck, but biting there can kill the person you're feeding from, and where I live, that's very bad, because they're usually one of your best friends or even your lover, and they're letting you drink a little blood out of kindness on their part." Arpad shrugged, and then looked at Iris. She was a very attractive girl, and seemed to be a nice person, unlike Mierin at times.

Robin bared his fangs. "They only die from too much bllood loss, never from the puncture from our fangs," he explained. "They'll be a little pale and groggy but they'll be fine until the next time they're fed on."

"We're not able to use our fangs that deftly," Arpad said. Callisdrunian vampires had enormous fangs, compared to many other breeds, so his were visible just from talking. "So chances of death are fairly high if we bite in the neck, unfortunately."

"Learning more then we did in vampire studies," Robin joked. "So what do you lot want to do now? I can't go out in sunlight remember."

"Its all the same to me, so I guess its up to you guys", Iris said a bit absentmindedly as she stared out at the forest that surrounded the school.
It could almost be like home she thought sadly.

"That's the dark forest, the largest forest in Draconis Nightcrawlis," Robin told Iris. He was careful to stand out of the way of the direct sunlight, looking at what Iris was looking at.

" hmmmmm, the dark forest, that could be interesting"
Iris said as she turned her attention back to the two boys

Robin shook his head. "You are too inexperianced to go in there," he warned. "You'd need to learn survival skills first."

Iris gave Robin an odd look" what do you mean?"
"it just a forest right?"

Robin placed his hands behind his head. "Sure just a forest," he smirked. "Just a forest with lots of nasty, nasty things crawling about inside waiting to kill anything that moves."

Iris grinned "sounds like, home"
She turned at looked at the forest again
" I think that I want to give it a shot"

Robin shook his head. "You are not ready to go in there."

She did not turn back around but continued to stare at the forest.
" whats in there....mice, wolfs, vampires?"

"Amongst worst things yes," Robin said. "Necromancers, Lichs, dragons you name it."

Iris turned her green eyes sparkeling " if its not human i can talk to it, its people that give me that most trouble" she grinned

Robin sighed, she just wasn't getting it. He would be surprised if she was still alive come the end of the year.

"You can't talk to anything in the forest," he told her.

Iris smirked and raised an eyebrow," it may not talk back but anything can hear"
she noticed that robin was looking a bit frustrated," alright i give up, but i think that you are wrong.....

"Well I think you're an idiot," Robin replied.

“Thank you" Iris smiled " you are in desperate need of adventure and an adrenaline rush.'
she looked at the forest again
" so if the woods are off limits so to speak what should we do?"

"Visit them anyway, obviously," Arpad said mischeviously, grinning at Iris. "Especially if it's dangerous. Honestly, if they want us to stay out of trouble, they should give us more opportunities to have a thrill without going into forbidden areas. Many adults seem to be unaware of this." Besides, forests were great places to get some privacy.

Iris thought for a moment about what Arpad had said
" good point"

"Your funeral," Robin replied.

" You should come"Iris said."This is your homeland after all."

Celestial shrugged. "I'll tag along too. Maybe even use my ship to scout out a clearing, or something." One thing her space hop was good for was simple scouting. "Or if you guys get in trouble, I can come rescue you all. But don't expect me to come in guns blazing. Ammo for that thing's P.D. guns is expensive."



((OOC: PD Gun = Point Defense Gun. A series of small computer controlled turrets used to destroy small asteriods and space junk. All Krowemohian Space Crafts come with PD Guns standard.))

Professor Bräck seemed to just know when exactly he should turn up as he appeared once again from within the dining hall. He looked at them with his piercing dark eyes and said. "The moment any of you should step into the forest without permission, you shall find yourselves in my office and serving detention for the rest of the school year."

Ruari woke up with a start and focussed blearily on his bedside clock. Ohgoddess 9 o'clock I'll miss breakfast ... He stumbled into the shower and, as his head cleared, panicked.

Mierin! I was supposed to meet her! I must have fallen asleep! Nooooo! His face hot, his stomach churning, he was dragging on whatever clothes he could find -- Gotta go right now and apologise! -- when he realised something.

It was dark outside.

He was so relieved his knees actually shook. He had to sit down on the bed, pushing aside the stupid school handbook he must have been reading when he dozed off.

Yeah, that was right. Seeing that cat-girl outside the dining-hall had been a bit of a shock. She wasn't scary or anything, but it was the first time he'd ever been that close to someone from another actual planet. Well, anyone his age, anyway. There'd been quite a few aliens around when he was being put through all those tests in Ardchoille -- like that PhD student from Biotopia, the blue guy who was always jabbing him with a needle and writing something down on a clipboard. But that was different, they were grown-ups.

Anyway, what with that and the fight she said was going on, he'd decided to clear out. It had looked like trouble brewing back there, and he hadn't wanted any of it. So he'd come back here and started reading that handbook because he didn't have anything else, not even textbooks yet, and he'd fallen asleep, and ... and it was 9.30 and if he didn't get a move on he'd miss her!

There was no-one in the common-room and the lights were out, but there was moonlight streaming in through the huge window. Ruari thought it was romantic. He pretended he was Lurking in the Shadows -- he could jump out at Mierin when she walked in -- nah, that was sooo childish. He'd just be standing against the window in silhouette, gazing broodingly out ...

The door opened and he whirled around, forsaking the 'brooding' pose.

"Mierin!" His voice cracked with excitement -- damn. "Wow! You look ... fan-tas-tic!"

She may have said something about his looks, too. He'd made quite an effort, putting stuff in his hair and wearing the $100 shirt from when Uncle Ron tried to smarten him up a bit. Whatever she said, though, Ruari was too far gone to notice.

Mierin was just standing still, not showing off or anything, but ... well, wow! He couldn't say exactly what it was she'd done to herself, but somehow she looked sort of lit-up from inside. And that ... thing she was wearing ... wow again!

It was white, and soft, and it sort of ... stuck to her body, but it wasn't tight ... Ruari almost groaned aloud. Girls shouldn't be allowed to look like that! Not that anyone, even his Mum, could have criticised Mierin's dress. It covered everything it was supposed to cover quite thoroughly. But every time she moved he could see -- well, he thought he could see -- no, surely he couldn't. But ...

By the time they got on the bus Ruari had worked out that the dress had sort of floaty panels on it and sort of slits in it and there was something under it besides Mierin, though not a lot. He couldn't understand how the bus-driver kept his eyes on the road.

The woman at the ticket office eyed it off, too. "Lovely dress, that," she said. "Bet you didn't buy that round here!" Mierin just smiled sweetly with her mouth closed (That's odd! Ruari thought, noticing). She looked down modestly, her eyelashes fluttering, and the woman sent them off with an approving grin.

The movie turned out to be as good as the first one in the series. Ruari got so wrapped up in the story that for whole minutes at a time he forgot about that bloody dress! His body didn't, though.

Almost without him even thinking about it, his arm crept round Mierin's shoulders. She didn't shake it off; maybe she was paying attention to the story. Ruari was too, of course. But his hand was sort of wandering ...

He didn't remember undoing anything, precisely, but now he was touching warm skin. His hand was inside her dress! And she hadn't slapped him, and she wasn't looking at the screen any more. His palm was full of a soft roundness ... so soft ... except when he stroked just there with his thumb ... with all his fingers ...

His mouth dry, Ruari turned and took Mierin in his arms, not even noticing as the wooden arm of his seat wedged itself under his ribs. She let her head rest on his shoulder; her hair tickled. Ruari bent his head to bring his mouth to hers, to feel those cute little teeth with his tongue, to ...

Mierin turned away and his questing mouth found her ear. Ah, she was shy! She was letting him lead the way! Ruari swelled with male pride; dear little thing she was! He teasingly nibbled her beautiful earlobe, kissed his way along the lovely line of her neck, moving gently to bring his lips to the vulnerable nape where her hair sprang in tiny curls.

Breathing raggedly, Ruari inhaled her scent, flowers overlain with a deeper, musky note, so compelling he gasped; and now she was responding, her hands were exploring inside his shirt and her cute little button nose was nuzzling away at his shoulder like a tiny puppy ... his heart swelling with overwhelming love and protectiveness, he shifted slightly to let her pull his sleeve and collar out of the way ...

Iris glared at Professor Bräck, she hated it when adults told her where she could and could not go. But the look on the professors face told her that he meant what he had just said, so Iris kept her mouth shut and waited to see how the other students would react.

Mierin had been impressed by Ruari's conduct so far. For a boy of only thirteen (she had long ago dismissed the age difference between them), he knew roughly how to handle himself, though he still had an awkwardness. Perhaps she could even develop feelings for him. Others had accused her of being stone-hearted before, but she didn't think this was true. In truth, she could be at times, but to say she was all the time was not really fair.

She recieved compliments on her dress graciously, though she took care not to expose her fangs. Mierin had been expecting either compliments or criticism. When going out, she tended to favor attire that flaunted her physical attributes. She had been rather disappointed in fact, that she hadn't been allowed to bring her topless dress. They were all the rage for summer wear back home. Callisdrunians had a very different perception of modesty than most other people. Mierin saw no shame in being blessed with an attractive body.

While enjoying the movie (she would never call herself a nerd, but this was, strangely enough, the type of movie she liked), she noticed that Ruari had grown bolder. Mierin snuggled closer, pleased that her younger companion was overcoming his shy nature. She let his hand rest inside her dress, despite that most in this country would think the location of his hand scandalous.

Eventually, after letting him kiss at her ear and her neck (Mierin was happy that Ruari seemed to be guessing well at what she liked), she decided that she would give him his first lesson in one of the main aspects of romance with a vampire: feeding. She unbuttoned his color and the top buttons of his shirt, moving it out of the way to expose his shoulder, which she ran her fingers (the nails of which were freshly painted black) over as she gave him a soft kiss. "Brace yourself," she whispered.

And then she sank her fangs into his shoulder. Slow, and hard, that was the Batory way, for if one could not take the pain initially, one was not fit to be a lover to a Batory, she pressed them in, sighing in anticipation, for his warm blood would soon beign to flow into her mouth. Mierin cuddled up against him as she bit him, to make it clear that this was still a romantic activity. Ruari would probably finally notice how much cooler her body was though, especially with how thin the dress was.

Satisfied that they would heed the warning, Professor Bräck turned and headed off down the hallway. With him out of sight, Robin turned to the others.

"Believe me, he will know if you step foot in the forest," he said. "You'll look around and see no one around, step foot inside and he'll be leaning against a tree grinning at you with those cold eyes."

"Damn," Arpad said, followed by a flurry of Callisdrunian curse words under his breath. He then looked rather pouty.

Robin leaned against the wall, placing his hands in pocket. "Well there is always something else to do," he shrugged. "Any of you heard of Gahlagæer?"

"No, what's that?" Arpad's face was no longer pouty, but obviously curious all of a sudden.

"He generally rules this county," Robin explained. "No King has ever been able to get rid of him. He's the best in Dark Valley for necromancy and I've heard he's looking for an apprentice."

Iris looked at Robin her eyes wide with astonishment ," Your joking right?"

Celestial tilted her head. "Are we... Allowed to go to him?" She wasn't really interested in Necromancy, but she was open to new experiances.

"No I'm not joking and no because going to him would include going out into the forest," Robin said, lazily leaning against the wall with his hands in his pockets. "Besides, he doesn't like people coming to him." His eyes moved to the ceiling. "He comes here sometimes."

Alice didn't really care for the current conversation or any of the people involved. Whilst she knew it was good to be friendly and the sort she was a reclusive person by nature and had been since the death of her mother, she simply couldn't help it.

Since little attention was being paid to her, Alice took the oppurtunity to leave the group and weave through the hallways, heading back to her room. On her way she noted particular classrooms and many strange faces that gave her odd looks, potential threats or simply other wary students, Alice didn't really know.

After at least ten minutes of careful navigation, Alice found herself back outside her room. Unfortunately there was a problem. It was blocked by the same group of girls that had caused her trouble earlier this morning. Sighing mentally, Alice put on her stern face as she approached her door.

"Are we going to have this problem every day?"

Already on her face day it seemed Alice had made enemies, very irritating ones at that.

The group of girls just looked at her. They obviously found her bothering them to be rather annoying.

"Are you going to exist everyday?" one of the girls shot back, amidst the laughter of the others.

On the other side of the hallway stood Amara Blackheart, she hated the crowd of girls and saw no reason why they had even come to the academy in the first place. They just did not belong here. Quietly she walked up to the girls, her eyes, completely black, stared at them.

"Vires filiolus feritovos qua vos sto, genitus ex mei visum," she said.

A dark wind blew through the hallway. Although Alice and Amara were untouched, the group of girls were blown down the hallway.

"Those girls are not right for this academy," she then said, once the wind had died down.

Alice merely glared at the girl that had dared to speak in such a fasion. Snarling slightly so as to reveal her razor sharp fangs, Alice advanced upon the girls, intending to use her superior vampiric strength to launch them down the hallway.

Unfortunately before she could do such, another girl appeared and uttered a few words in what appeared to be Latin, resulting in chilly wind manifesting in the hallway and launching the girls far down the other end. Alice watched them go, an almost sadistic grin upon her face.

Looking up at her would be comrade in arms, Alice flashed a brief smile of appreciation. This one was different from the others. Whilst she obviously had magical competence, she didn't appear to have an ego to match her abilities.

"Thanks, although I don't think they would have been too much trouble. I have my ways of... negotiating."

Another flash of the fangs revealed Alice's vampiric nature.

"So what do they call you?"

Amara's eyes turned to Alice. "They're second years and since they haven't learned from last year, you'll get another chance," she replied. "They call me Amara. I see you are a vampire but not a local one. Interesting."

Alice nodded as she allowed another glance back in the direction of the troublesom girls.

"I see."

One thing that irritated Alice about people above anything else was snotty attitudes. When people felt compelled to act above others or purposely anoy others just to make themselves better, well Alice had little tolerance for such as many had learned over the years of her existence.

"Yeh, I'm from Assington. Alice is my name and it seems I have the distinct ability to make enemies upon my first day."

The girls had since gone, scared off by the pair.

"It happens to the best of us," Amara mentioned. "If they see a sign of greatness from a student or if you come from a notable family like myself, people get jealous." She brushed her blonde hair back away from her eyes, the wind having messed it up. "Well, it is nice to meet you Alice."

Alice laughed a little, she hardly saw herself as a sign of greatness and she definitely had no family name behind her, unless there were relatives she didn't know about. That actually seemed quite possible, her father had never mentioned anyone but Alice was sure there were others.

"You too Amara. So are you a senior here or relatively new?"

It was too early to decide whether Alice liked this girl but it made sense to become at least partially friendly with a girl that had a good head upon her and obviously reasonable magical skill.

..."Brace yourself," she whispered.

And then she sank her fangs into his shoulder. Slow, and hard, that was the Batory way, for if one could not take the pain initially, one was not fit to be a lover to a Batory, she pressed them in, sighing in anticipation, for his warm blood would soon begin to flow into her mouth ...


"OWWWWW! WHAT'D you do that for?"

Ruari went from howl to whisper in the space of one explosive breath. Howl, because she'd bitten him! Then, too late, whisper, because people were turning to see where the noise came from.

He could have cried. Everything had been going so well. He'd remembered almost all the '10 ways to make her toes curl' thing in that mag Callum had got, and it had worked, and he'd been enjoying himself, and now ... his stomach knotted even further. What if this was one of those 'love bites' they talked about? What a kid he'd look, carrying on about it!

No, no way was this a love bite. It hurt! And it was going on forever! He thought he could even feel blood trickling down his chest.

"Mierin, please, it really hurts," he protested softly. He tried to wriggle a bit, but all that happened was the lady in the seat next to him turned and hissed, "Sit still and shut up, you silly little brat! Go with the flow!"

Lady in the seat beside ...? But the whole row had been empty when they came in, and a couple of rows in front, too. He was sure he'd have noticed if anyone sat down close ... oh, goddess, no! The usher!

A torch-beam was coming up the aisle towards them, and then an unfriendly voice was saying in low but menacing tones, "What's the trouble up here? Are these kids bothering you, ma'am?"

"Oh, dear, I'm so sorry, lovie," the woman beside him fluttered. "It's just my young grandson. We don't get to the movies often up our way and he got carried away with the excitement of it all. You know how it is, dear."

She was leaning forward so that all that could be seen of Ruari and Mierin was two pairs of feet resting firmly and quite respectably on the floor. There was a very slight rustling that could have been money changing hands. "Don't worry, I'll see that it doesn't happen again," said an oddly familiar voice.

But by then Ruari was beyond trying to sort out such mundane matters. Go with the flow, indeed, indeed. He was flowing, he was melting, with Mierin's icy tongue licking him and Mierin's cool, cool hands stroking all the heat of embarrassment out of his blood. Her fingernails were digging in and out, in and out, like a contented cat, but there was no pain now, just the two of them spiralling into the velvet chill of outer space...

"Will you for goddess's sake stop emoting, child?" hissed the next-seat woman. "I'm trying to respect your privacy, but you're hitting me with the worst mish-mash of bad metaphors I've seen in a long day. Now sit up and put yourself back together, the lights are coming on."

Ruari's dead grandmother made a big production out of finding her handbag and her umbrella while Ruari, blushing hotly, buttoned up his shirt. Ruari couldn't meet her eye, but it didn't matter, because she was paying no attention to him, instead smiling approvingly at Mierin.

"Well, I'm glad he's taken up with a lass with a glimmering of sense," she said. "You'll find it's gey hard to get an idea into their heads, these Dhurig men, but once they get a grip on things, they're very trustworthy."

Trustworthy! As if Mierin would ever trust him again! Ruari Dhurig, the boy who asks his grandmother along on a hot date (even if he hadn't)! Ruari Dhurig, who wouldn't know a vampire if it jumped up and bit him on the ... if it jumped up and bit him. Because that's what Mierin was, of course. Looking back, she'd tried to tell him often enough. Vampires were real. Dead grandmothers walking were real.

And the punctures in his shoulder were real, too ... Oh. My. Goddess. Real.

Was he now a vampire, too? Or -- Ruari wished he'd paid a bit more attention back in primary school Personal Development classes -- did vampires practise Safe Sex?

Barely hearing Ruari's scream, Mierin shut her eyes as the first trickle of the boy's blood touched her tongue. Some vampires did not like the taste of blood and only drank it as a necessity. She was not among them, Mierin loved the taste of blood. "Mmmmm..." One hand gripped her date's shoulder, while the black painted fingernails on the other dug slightly into his back, as she suggestively lapped up the small stream of blood.

Suddenly, an old woman appeared, and everything got confusing. Mierin stopped her feeding prematurely as the usher came and the old lady for some reason leaned over them so that the usher couldn't see them. She referred to herself as Ruari's grandmother. What? That's weird. Maybe it's just to cover the incident she thought.

She then looked back, and the woman was gone. Mierin looked up at Ruari in a somewhat surprised, yet also critical way. "Honestly Ruari," she said very quietly, yet not in a whisper. "You go on a date with me, a moroii, of all people, and you're surprised to get bitten? Maybe I am being a bit forward, more than you're used to, biting on the first date and all, but really, you had to expect it to come at some point." She rolled her eyes and sat back in her seat, sighing. "You can't be a Moroii's lover without also being her or his donor. I suppose I could have given a better warning, as a boy from my home would think of it as a romantic gesture." Mierin paused, her face assuming a curious expression. "Who the Hel was that woman anyway? I'm glad she hid us from the usher, whoever she was."

Alice laughed a little, she hardly saw herself as a sign of greatness and she definitely had no family name behind her, unless there were relatives she didn't know about. That actually seemed quite possible, her father had never mentioned anyone but Alice was sure there were others.

"You too Amara. So are you a senior here or relatively new?"

It was too early to decide whether Alice liked this girl but it made sense to become at least partially friendly with a girl that had a good head upon her and obviously reasonable magical skill.

"Second year actually," Amara admitted. Her eyes crossed down to where she had sent the annoying group of girls. Of course they were no longer there, but Amara knew that it would only be a matter of time before they returned. "How are you liking the academy?"

Iris had a few questions that she wanted to ask but was to shy to do so. She had always been more comfortable with getting answers to her questions from books rather than people. " I think that I am going to head over to the library, any of you want to come?"

"Besides a few minor things I've found it to be quite reasonable. Although dislike being stuck in class like vampire studies, it seems wholely unnecessary. I came to this place to learn how to fully take control of the powers that run in my bloodline, not gain knowledge on clan wars between local vampires."

Fingering the small spheres upon her necklace, Alice was reminded of her little incident earlier on. She definitely had a lot to learn when it came to controlling her powers. Opening her door, Alice began to step inside.

"Since classes are over I don't really have anything else to do..."

... "Who the Hel was that woman anyway? I'm glad she hid us from the usher, whoever she was."

Ruari stared at the floor. He didn't want to look at Mierin. He didn't want her to see the tears in his eyes. He wasn't crying, exactly, he was just angry, but all the same, he didn't want her to see.

"She's my grandmother," he said gruffly. "She's dead. And she's trying to ruin my life!"

Anger made his voice rise and people turned to look at them again. Ruari felt worse. He'd always been taught not to act up in public. 'Keep yourself to yourself' was just good manners on Findhorn. But how were you supposed to keep yourself to yourself when somebody kept on messing things up every time they were going right for you?

Then it hit him that Mierin had sounded a bit odd. Was she upset, too? The notion cut through his self-pity. Goddess, he was being so selfish! How must she feel? Maybe people picked on -- what was it? Moroii? That wouldn't be fair. It wasn't her fault she bit people, she was just ... Ruari shied away from following through on that thought. Doing what comes naturally? Being a vampire?

Shaddup, idiot, shaddup, shaddup. She'll think you don't like her! When she's the only thing about this place you do like! Ruari grabbed her hand a little desperately.

"Look, I don't think you were forward, Mierin," he said. "I think you were wonderful! It hurt a bit at first, but then when you ... when I ... we ..."

There weren't words for the way he'd felt. Giving and wanted and triumphant and powerful mixed together in his head, none of them quite right separately, none of them going together properly. He gave it up as a bad job.

"Um, I guess we need to, uh, talk," he said lamely (like he hadn't heard those words on TV shows a thousand times!). He felt like someone in a soap, but he said the obvious next line anyway, because his brain was on strike and he couldn't think of anything else:

"Is there somewhere we can get some coffee?"

Iris had a few questions that she wanted to ask but was to shy to do so. She had always been more comfortable with getting answers to her questions from books rather than people. " I think that I am going to head over to the library, any of you want to come?"

Celestial gave Iris a warm grin. "Sure. I'll come along with you." Figuring that the people in the library wouldn't appriciate her music, she flicks her earring, killing the music it played. She steps closer to Iris, laying a hand on her shoulder, her feline tail flicking back and forth happily, looking at and speaking to the others. "We'll see y'all later, yeah? Next class, or what have you."

"I don't drink coffee," she laughed. "But I'm sure most cafes also serve hot chocolate." Coffee was not as popular in Callisdrun as in most other places. Mierin then assumed a more somber tone. "But just so you know, Ruari, you basically can't have a relationship with a Moroii vampire unless you're willing to let her feed from you, and though it can be romantic, there will be pain. I know it sounds harsh, but that's the way it is, and if you're really serious, you just have to deal with it."

She paused. "I'm trying to make it straight forward. You're a sweet boy, Ruari, and I can be a demanding bitch." Her accent, with the background hissing sound inherent in Moroii voices, made even the last sentence sound sensual. Ruari would probably notice it more now that he had to face the fact that he was sitting next to an actual vampire. "Because you're a nice guy, I want to deal with this now instead of later if it's going to be an issue." Normally, Mierin would have simply taunted a boy for being weak if he took issue with being bitten, but for some reason, she was being kind.

"We can go to a cafe, and you can ask me anything you want, if you'd like," Mierin said in an optimistic way.

"Besides a few minor things I've found it to be quite reasonable. Although dislike being stuck in class like vampire studies, it seems wholely unnecessary. I came to this place to learn how to fully take control of the powers that run in my bloodline, not gain knowledge on clan wars between local vampires."

Fingering the small spheres upon her necklace, Alice was reminded of her little incident earlier on. She definitely had a lot to learn when it came to controlling her powers. Opening her door, Alice began to step inside.

"Since classes are over I don't really have anything else to do..."


Amara nodded. "Vampire studies gets better, especially when you get to vampire magic and rituals," she told Alice. "You'll find something of interest amongst it."

She watched as Alice decided to go into her room.

"You're lucky then, I have alchemy in an hour. We still haven't been allowed to turn lead into gold."

Celestial gave Iris a warm grin. "Sure. I'll come along with you." Figuring that the people in the library wouldn't appriciate her music, she flicks her earring, killing the music it played. She steps closer to Iris, laying a hand on her shoulder, her feline tail flicking back and forth happily, looking at and speaking to the others. "We'll see y'all later, yeah? Next class, or what have you."

"Well in that case we'll see you tomorrow then," Robin grinned.

Iris turned to Celestial and said, "Alright lets go".
As they walk Iris thought about the conversation that had just taken place. Robin's personality was starting to really get on her nerves, nothing could have made her happier than taking him down a few notches. But Iris knew that that sort of thing would not be tolerated at this school so she pushed the thoughts out of her mind and went back to thinking about the questions that she needed answers to, and hoping that the library had the books that she needed.

Amara nodded. "Vampire studies gets better, especially when you get to vampire magic and rituals," she told Alice. "You'll find something of interest amongst it."

She watched as Alice decided to go into her room.

"You're lucky then, I have alchemy in an hour. We still haven't been allowed to turn lead into gold."

Alice turned a skeptical eye upon Amara, she couldn't really imagine Vampire Studies being interesting... ever.

"I guess I'll have to take your word for it. Heh, that's the sort of thing I'd like to be doing, something useful. I don't think I've got alchemy until later this week. That and necromancy is all I'm really here for."

Thankfully Alice's room mate wasn't in, she didn't like that girl at all and would have preferred to have a room to herself.

"I don't drink coffee," she laughed. "But I'm sure most cafes also serve hot chocolate." <SNIP> "We can go to a cafe, and you can ask me anything you want, if you'd like," Mierin said in an optimistic way.

"I only said 'coffee' because I thought it sounded more sophisticated. I was trying to impress you," Ruari said disarmingly. "I like hot chocolate better, too."

Their walk to the cafe was less awkward than Ruari had expected, given all the questions he had -- and perhaps that Mierin had, too. Rather than try discussing anything serious, Ruari made a game of suggesting more and more ridiculous ways he might have tried impressing his Very First Date. He discovered in the process that Mierin's sense of humour was even quirkier than his.

By the time they had found a place that was open, settled in the privacy of the old-fashioned booth and received their promisingly large, marshmallow-loaded drinks, Ruari was relatively relaxed. He had already darted a few suspicious glances round the room and into the darker recesses of the booth, but the place seemed dead-grandmother-free, so he plunged straight in to his interrogation.

"Right. Will it always hurt that much, or does it get easier after a while? How much blood will you need to take, and how often? Will it make me sick? Will I become a vampire too? And why the hell didn't I listen when we went over all this in Vampire Studies?"

He added that last bit because the suddenly intent way that Mierin was stirring her drink suggested to him that he might have blundered. He reached out a hand to cover hers. Pleasure shivered through him as he felt again the remembered contrast between his warm, exploring fingers and her cool skin.

"Look, bear with me, please? I'm just a country boy, remember?" he pleaded. "I've only just learnt that people like you really exist. I've been sent here for no reason that I can see and things are happening that I don't understand. But there's one thing that I do understand, and that's this: I've never felt like this about anyone before."

He looked at the young woman opposite him. Looked at the person, not the teen-queen pin-up. He couldn't see why she was wasting her time with him, but he wanted it to go on.

"Look, forget about all that stupid stuff I just asked," he said, suddenly serious. "It doesn't matter. I don't really care if it hurts, or anything else, either. I want to keep on being with you. The only question I've really got is, why do you keep on putting yourself down? You've already told me you're a 'demanding bitch'." Ruari put a sarcastic emphasis on the words so she'd know he didn't believe her.

"When you tell me I'm a 'nice guy' and 'sweet' and all that, it sounds as if you thought you were just the opposite," he continued. "But you did all you could to warn me what you were, and you took that weird thing that happened without being frightened. You're obviously brave and honest and warm -- even if you're really cool, too," he joked, smiling and stroking the back of her hand.

"So please tell me, Mierin Sexy-voice, Mierin Deep-Eyes, Mierin mo chride, how come you don't know what a fantastic person you are?"

Alice turned a skeptical eye upon Amara, she couldn't really imagine Vampire Studies being interesting... ever.

"I guess I'll have to take your word for it. Heh, that's the sort of thing I'd like to be doing, something useful. I don't think I've got alchemy until later this week. That and necromancy is all I'm really here for."

Thankfully Alice's room mate wasn't in, she didn't like that girl at all and would have preferred to have a room to herself.


Amara nodded and when Alice was gone, she headed inside her own room.

"Hey Arpad, I've got an idea," Robin mentioned with a smirk. "Follow me, I think you'll enjoy it."

Surprisingly, Ruari hadn't been nearly as awkward on the walk to the cafe as Mierin had expected. The boy from Findhorn had joked with her, and she had told jokes in return. Whether her eclectic, and often dark and morbid sense of humor would creep him out didn't concern the young vampiress.

Things only got somewhat odd once in the cafe. Mierin listened to Ruari ask his questions, only to then hear him tell her nevermind about those and compliment her. It was obvious that he liked her a lot, because he seemed very nervous.

She then looked up at him and smiled. "Thank you for the compliments, Ruari," she said, in a voice that could be hardly called suggestive, because her tone was so blatant. Mierin then adopted a much more matter-of-fact voice. "I'm not a fantastic person, Ruari. If you think I am, that's very flattering, but I disagree. I'm not a good person. I've done horrible things. The thing is, I'm not ashamed of most of them. I've committed crimes that, if the nation I committed them in had a government, would give me a life in prison. And I'm not sorry." Mierin looked Ruari directly in the eyes. "I'm a religious bigot. I fucking hate Christianity and Islam, and knew of an escaped murderer being housed in one of my family's castle's until he left the country. I said and did nothing because I agreed that the person he killed deserved to die for what he preached." She continued looking at Ruari's eyes as she took a sip from her hot chocolate.

"At school in Callisdrun, I was known for being cruel to my enemies. Eventually, I stopped having enemies. Then I started being cruel to my friends' enemies. And if you don't think I could be a complete bitch sometimes, just ask Arpad." She then smiled, strangely. "That's not to say that I'm a completely evil creature devoid of any compassion, though. While I'm very demanding in a relationship, I'm very loyal as well. Despite accusations that liars have made about me, I've not once ever thought of cheating on a lover." Mierin suddenly gripped Ruari's hand very tightly, and somehow, her gaze intensified. "I'm not trying to scare you away, Ruari, but I don't want you to be under the impression that I am faultless. Nobody's perfect. If you want me, you have to accept the bad with the good. That's how relationships are. I tried to warn you, because I like you Ruari, and I've hurt a lot of people in many ways, and though you're sometimes naive, and always sheltered, you've been so nice and sweeet that I'd feel horrible about hurting you. Except for biting you of course." Mierin had been in a few romantic affairs already.

Ruari seemed to nod, in comprension. Mierins smiled and then said "I will answer your questions, Ruari." Her voice, which had grown incredibly serious, assumed a much more cheerful sound. The hiss though, seemed never to go away. "You might get used to it, eventually. Most donors do. I must admit, that it's a lot more painful to be my donor than say, a Sorvik moroii's, because my fangs are barbed. I don't need much blood compared to many foreign vampires, and I'll probably only drink during making out and other hot and heavy romantic activities, as I have my own supply in my room. You won't get sick, I'm not diseased, after all. You'll just be really tired after I feed. You won't become a moroii vampire, no. There is a way to do that, but it's very complicated and not generally done. The professor didn't explain all this because Callisdrunian Moroii are a rare subspecies of vampires and very atypical of vampires as a whole."

There was an awkward moment of silence as Ruari appeared to be thinking of how to respond. "Ruari?" Mierin asked. "What is mo chride?"

Arpad raised his eyebrow at Robin. "Follow you to where? And why would I enjoy it?" He was fond of making mischief, as long as he didn't get caught, and as long as the mischief wasn't too malicious.

"You'll just have to waiting and find out," Robin said with a grin and headed off down the hallway.

After not too long, Robin stopped and leaned against a door. A sign above it read Dueling Club.

"Well, here we are."

Iris through open the massive library doors and stepped in side pausing at the railing that sourounded the second floor, from there one could look down on the first floor where the majority of the books were kept. " If books could be a kingdom...", she thought. Iris turned to Celestial and said," I could get locked in here for a thousand years and never feel like a prisoner".
Having said that Iris took the stairs to the first floor a stated to wonder in between the bookcases until she stopped before a case that was labeled HISTORY and slid a thin black book with a pealing cover off the shelf. "Got it", she said, her green eyes dancing with excitement. "This book was forbidden at home, I have been waiting for 6 years to read it”, she walked over to the fireplace and sat down on the hearth, using the firelight to read.

OOC: Umm wrong account eh Dri vel?

OOC:yah.....oops, i just realized it to. do you want me to repost?

OOC: Doesn't matter, we all know who posted it.

OOC:sounds good

There was an awkward moment of silence as Ruari appeared to be thinking of how to respond. "Ruari?" Mierin asked. "What is mo chride?"

"Mo chridhe means 'my heart' in Gaelic," Ruari answered, a little hoarsely. "It's a pet name. When people are really close, sometimes one will call the other a chuisle mo chridhe. That means 'pulse of my heart' -- sort of, 'without you, my heart couldn't beat'." He was silent for a space, wondering if he would ever call this strange, alluring girl by that special name. Just right for a vampire's lover, he thought, as ever trying to make a joke of things that made him nervous.

"Well," he said, finally, his thoughts taking a less personal turn, "I can't say you haven't warned me, can I? I have to admit, I don't understand that religious stuff. Religion's sort of just a part of things on Findhorn, not something you fight over. The thing they tell us when we're little is, everybody who looks through a window sees the Light, but not everybody looks through the same window. And they say, you look when you're ready. I guess I'm not ready," he added, embarrassed by talking about such waffly things. "It doesn't seem to matter to me all that much."

He grinned at Mierin. "And if I'm talking to a criminal, I'm in good company," he said. "All of Findhorn's officially criminal. The clans who settled her took the wrong side in 1715, and again in 1745 -- that's when there was a sort of civil war in England and Scotland," he explained. "Our lot backed the losers. That's one of the reasons they fled to Findhorn. It seems to me that sometimes you can spell 'criminal' H-E-R-O. Or pronounce it 'rebel', and being a rebel's not always such a bad thing."

He was surprising himself. He didn't know he'd thought about political matters that much. Mierin seemed to bring out the deeper side of him without even trying, and he liked it.

"I'll promise not to think you're perfect," he joked. "If you were perfect, you couldn't change, and I like the way you change from one minute to the next. It's like when I was at home, I'd sit for ages watching sunlight on the bracken and on the water ...' He shook himself out of the reminiscent mood before he could become homesick. "Anyway, it's not as if I were perfect," he said. "Or even nice, really."

After all, how could you call someone 'nice' who had the baggage he had? As if this grandmother thing wasn't bad enough, there was the phophecy, too. He'd never believed in it all that much; it had always seemed just one of those Celtic-mist-y tales to tell the tourists. But if the world actually held real vampires, maybe it held real seers. So maybe that 'Red King, Black King' stuff about his name ... he shuddered. It was nonsense, of course. There was no way he'd be a Red King, steeped in blood, or a Black King, steeped in evil. There was no way he'd be a king, even. All he was was a kid at a weird school, and lucky to have found someone like Mierin to talk to.

He had to stop gazing at her in this droopy fashion. He forced his eyes around the room so he wouldn't look so idiotic ... ye gods!

"Mierin, look at the clock!" he gulped. "It's so late it's early! We'll have to scoot if we're going to get back before breakfast!"

Robin ducked in through the door and headed over to a counter and looked around. Seeing as no one was a round he took a sword from the wall and headed over to the training area to practice.

Blushing slightly (which made her cheeks appear slightly cream colored instead of ghostly white), Mierin listened to Ruari's explanation of pet names. She'd have to think of a pet name for him.

"All Batorys and Darvuls are very devout in the ancient religion. Most other moroii are fairly devout as well." Mierin said it as if it was a matter of course. She then listened to Ruari go off on a tangent about his nation's history. Not that it was a bad thing, she had often found the tangents teachers went on to be some of the most interesting things in classes over the years.

"You're very nice, Ruari. Or at least, you're very nice to me." Mierin put ruari's hand on her leg, suggestively. Just then, he mentioned the time.

"Oh bother," she said with a sigh. "I suppose we should head back to school then."

"The dueling club?" Arpad said, following Robin in. He looked around, kind of nervously. "Hmm.. well... um... I can't really use a sword... just an axe..."

A grin crossed Robins face. "Well I could always teach you," he suggested.

Celestial shrugged as Iris wondered into the library. Celestial herself had never been inside a library before. All books and other such things in the Corporate Empire where digitial copies and were read via a computer. Books had pretty much faded out of existance in Krowemoh.

"Where I come from, everything written is done electronically. From my PersoCom, I can download and read almost every book ever written, by Neko or man. Of course, some books are outright banned, but I know people who can tweak PersoComs to download even illegal books." She said, as Iris pulled out a book and moved to the fireplace, opening the book and reading.

Celestial moved to stand next to Iris, her bare forearm touching the other girl's forearm. She tilted her head to try and spy on what she was reading. "What cha reading?"

Through the academy hallways walked a dark figure in a hooded robe. A few students who saw the figure muttered between each other on who the robed figure might be. The person took no notice as it headed through the halls and entered Professor Bräck’s office.

“It interests me to see you here so soon in the year, Gahlagæer,” Professor Bräck said from his desk.

An odd occasion that he would actually be sat behind his desk in his office as the headmaster had a preference of wandering the halls. That or preparing and teach necromancy.

The robed figure pulled the hood down revealing a young blond teenager. “You know I quite enjoy coming to see the new students,” Gahlagæer replied. “And there is one who has certainly caught my attention, I hear she is very promising.”

The headmaster raised an eyebrow.

“I do believe that she goes by the name of Alice Darkmoor,” Gahlagæer told him, smirking slightly. “I have been watching her, she seems rather interesting and has a lot of potential. That is if she can get the right souls into the right beasts of course.”

Meanwhile, elsewhere entirely...

The personal starhopper Celestial had used to arrive on the planet sat quietly in the Dark Arts Academy's hangar, inactive. It had remained as such since she had arrived. The starhopper was aesthetically pleasing, a true hotrod of personal space crafts. There wasn't a right angle in sight, all sleek curves and gleaming with fine light blue sheen.

Without warning, the craft began to boot up, powering itself to life. Within the cockpit, a computer screen flicked to life, and displayed the following. Remote Access granted. PINGing Trans-Star Locator System... Critical Error Warning! Trans-Star Locator module or component missing/malfunctioning... Remote Access shut down by remote peer...

As suddenly as the ship had booted to life, it boot back down, shutting off. The remote search for its location had failed, keeping Celestial safe just a while longer from those who sought her...



((OOC: AKA... A very fancy bump. :P))

Alice had spent almost half another in her room, doing absolutely nothing. The last ten minutes had passesd as she played around with the small spheres she had created earlier, they resembled marbles and were cloudy with the spirits of the damned trapped inside. They could prove to be useful toys at some point in the future, if the need should arise.

Sick of doing nothing, Alice places the spheres within her pocket and exits her room. She notes one of the girls that bothered her before walking by and makes sure to give her the most hostile stare she could conjure. The girl attempted to look mean herself but Alice could tell she was more than a little scared without the support of her friends.

It was still odd walking around during the day for Alice, she'd only been doing it for a little over a week since she'd conjured a necklace to allow such. Her certain death was prevented yet Alice's eyes couldn't adapt to the light and so she placed heavily tinted sun glasses over her eyes, not to make a fashion statement as some might think but out of necessity.

Now if she could only find something to do...

Gahlagæer’s black eyes brightened somewhat. “She is on the move,” he said. “I can feel her very presence.”

Professor Bräck rubbed his chin, “Do I sense interest in her as your new apprentice?”

“It’s a distinct possibility,” the damned child remarked. “But personality wise, I seek to find out hers. There are many self-centered ego freaks here afterall.”

Professor Bräck nodded in agreement. “And you have permission to go where you want,” he said and raised a finger at Gahlagæer. “But not any dorms unless you are invited.” The headmaster snapped his fingers. “So don’t even try.”

Gahlagæer narrowed his eyes at the headmaster before putting his hood back on again and disappeared from Professor Bräck’s sight.

Two boys of sixteen or there about, walked past Alice muttering something along the lines of “Apprentice” and “Gahlagæer.” They carried on walking past the same robed figure. He walked up behind Alice.

“So you are the one they call Alice Darkmoor?” he asked.

Alice couldn't help but feel that others were muttering about her as she walked by. She didn't really care what they thought of her but it was irritating nonetheless. At that point a voice emerged from behind her, startling Alice slightly but not enough to get a physical reaction. She was simply surprised that anyone could sneak up on her considering her vampiric senses.

Turning around, Alice faced the hooded man with a wary attitude. She never trusted anyone easily and there was usually good reason to be cautious of others.

"Yes, I go by that name..."

Iris closed her book and turned it so that the plain black cover faced Celestial, after a moment Iris flicked her wrist so that the cover faced the fire light. Immediately two words became visible on the once plain cover, they read," My Life ". It was impossible to say what color the ink that the words were written in was, it was shimmering constantly changing color; the ink also appeared to still be wet as if it had only been written a moment be for.
" Supposedly known one knows who wrote it, but they do know that the title is meant to be a misnomer and should read, My Blood . The ink is dragons blood, that is why it only appears in fire light." She said before continuing," The book is a diary, who ever wrote it could manipulate blood. He or she could make it do whatever he or she wanted, it did not matter if it was still in the body or not. This persons only limitation was that they could only manipulate blood that was their own or that was mixed with their own".
Iris looked up at Celestial after a moment," According to family tradition I am supposed to have the same ability."

Dark eyes stared out from under hood. "Pleased to meet you," he said. "I have seen the potential in you. In all my years I have never seen so much potential in a new student so soon as I have seen in you."

Alice was not accustomed to praise and wasn't quite sure how to take it. Sure it was nice to have someone say such things about you but immediately she began to discern what possible motive this hooded man could have, why would he approach her just to say this?

"I see. Well don't get too excited, potential doesn't mean success. I realise the power I can wield but that's nothing without the control..."

Looking over the robed man once again, Alice couldn't help but feel curious. She hadn't seen him around before and he certainly didn't act like a student.

"And who might you be?"

The robed figure chuckled. "That is what you are at the academy for, right?" he said. "I'm sure you may have already heard my name being whispered amongst the hallways, you may call me Gahlagæer."

The hallway that they were stood in had since mysteriously emptied, it was as if the students whom had been in it before had suddenly realised they had to be elsewhere.

Celestial eyes went wide, nodding her head slowly. "Wow. That's impressive. Now, there's a book I probably can't download off the 'net." Then it hit her.

Celestial gave Iris a naughty look, grinning widely at the other girl. "Ah, reading other people's diaries. How... Scandalious!" She giggles with one hand over her mouth, giving Iris a wink.

Iris grinned and laughed," Well what can I say it's not my fault that this person chose to publish their diary, but I do think that the story and my families triditions are true."
She paused, turning the book to wach ith ink dance in the fire light," You are probably right about not being able to download this book, only a handfull of people know about it, the only reason that I knew of it was because of what my grand mother told me about it be for she died."

Alice nodded at Gahlagæer's comment, she was hear to learn control of her power. Whilst Alice had hear the whispers of students mention the name Gahlagæer, that didn't mean anything to her in the slightest.

The hall was now completely empty and Alice didn't like that, Gahlagæer's presence had driven them away obviously but she didn't know why. Was he one to be feared? Did he command a certain amount of power in this place?

"Well Gahlagæer, you certainly have everyone else scampering away. What did you do to earn such a reputation?"

"Ah, I'm sorry to hear about your grandmother." Celestiel placed a hand on Iris' shoulder, giving it a reassuring squeeze. "so, do you think this book can teach you how to unlock your powers?"

Gahlagæer chuckled. "Would seem you still have things to learn about this county in which the academy is in," he said, almost calmly. "I, Gahlagæer, rule over Dark Valley. A succession of kings have never been able to remove me and intergrate the county into the rest of the kingdom."

He looked around the empty hallways and smirked.

"But those whom were here left not by fear but by mind control," he then explained. "Better to talk to you alone then to have drooling fangirls bugging us."

Iris thought for a moment trying to rember everything that her grandmother had told her about blood magic. "I don't know if the book can help, it does not tell how they manipulated the blood, just that they could it also tells what they could do with it."
Her brow wrinkled with frustration,"Right befor she died my grandmother said,'to learn is to try'." Iris paused and her eyes grew wide as she figured it out,"
O, I get it now." Iris jumped up and started to pace in front of the fire as she hastily put her thoughts in to words,"There is no right way to work the magic....each persons blood behaves diferantly...just like people have differant personalities.... The only way to learn blood magic is to try...to learn is to try...." She trailed off and stared in to the fire.

Alice was not slightly intrigued. Why would the sovereign ruler of a nation have such a keen interested in herself? Obviously this Gahlagæer character was someone of reasonable fame if he had to worry about fan girls bothering him, of course that meant little to Alice, she cared not for such things.

"Well, why is it that a young vampire with some magical ability has drawn out the attention of Dark Valley's leader? I would imagine you have more significant things to do?"

The mention of mind control wasn't too concerning to Alice. She had the same ability, just not the power to do such on a large scale. Of course that would come with time, as do much of a vampire's powers.

Celestial pursed her lips together, concentrating. "Okay, that makes sense, I guess. So, to learn is to try... Meaning, that you need to use some of your blood, or someone elses?" She glanced around, then at herself, her eyes eventually turning to her spiked bracelet. This she removes, running a finger over the pointed end. It was sharp enough to pierce flesh.

Turning it over in her hand, she holds it out to Iris. "Lucky I have this then. nya?"

"Oh I do," Gahlagæer replied. "Checking on the students, particularly the new ones, is one of the things I always do. Especially when I am on the look out for a new apprentice."

His eyes dulled someone upon the realisation that his joke about fangirls had completely gone over her head. Still, at least she appeared to be serious.

Apprentice. Now Alice was interested. Sure this school schemed a worthwhile place to learn things about the dark arts but nothing could equal the direct experience and secrets one could learn as an apprentice to a master necromancer.

"I see. And what exactly do you want an apprentice for? I suppose a better question would be what are you so capable at doing that you could take an apprentice under your wing?"

Even if this strange man turned out to be a master necromancer, Alice would not leap at him for an oppurtunity to learn. He was probably used to that. She would either earn her way into the position or not get it, that was a simple fact that she could accept.

Gahlagæer chuckled. "I am afterall considered the most feared necromancer in Draconis Nightcrawlis," he replied.

Under the hood, his face turned to a cruel smirk. One by one, the lights went out leaving the hallway in darkness. Gahlagæer's eyes were visibally glowing. Behind him were perhaps a dozen or so white lights, spirits in fact.

"Before we go on, you are interested, correct?"

Celestial pursed her lips together, concentrating. "Okay, that makes sense, I guess. So, to learn is to try... Meaning, that you need to use some of your blood, or someone elses?" She glanced around, then at herself, her eyes eventually turning to her spiked bracelet. This she removes, running a finger over the pointed end. It was sharp enough to pierce flesh.

Turning it over in her hand, she holds it out to Iris. "Lucky I have this then. nya?"

"Yes I guess it is." Iris sighed and then picked up the bracelet, after pricking her index finger she let the blood fall on to the table that was sitting there. She waited untill there was a spot about the size of a dime,"What should I ask it to do?"

Celestial shrugged, accepting back her breacelet and reattaching it. "Hmmm... Well, how about just something basic and easy? Like, moving, or something yeah?"

Iris nodded in aggrement,"good idea." She stood for a moment looking at the small shining puddle,"Left". It shuddered and then was still,"Well its a start I guess",she looked certian and spoke again a bit pleading this time," Please go left." Iris wached in shock os the small puddle slowly started to slide left accross the table.

OOC: Hehe, you did it again :D
At least this time I recognised the name.

((OOC: Leave her/him/it/them alone. Everyone makes mistakes. It's how we prove we're humans and not evil iPod People... >_> *Notes her lack of mistakes.* I stand by my statement! *Chance of Krowemoh/Gnufasur being an Evil iPod Person has risen by 60%, from 1%. Krowemoh/Gnufasur = Evil iPod Person.... 61%* :P))


Celestial claps. "Good job. Hmmm... Now, what else can blood do?" She leans back in a conviently placed easy chair, staring at the little puddle of blood with a thoughtful expression. "Hmm... Can you make it change shape? Like, into a star or something?"

(OOC: yay i got the right account this time, go me :D)

"I dont know if it can make shapes, but lets find out"
She wached the drop for a moment and said," star please"
The puddle shifted and shuddered, the shape it took on could have been a star but it really looked like a misshaped blob. Iris thought for a moment and said," could you try and make the edges a bit clearer?" The blob shuddered once more and the edges did become clearer so that it did resemble a star mor or less.

It was confirmed, this man was a necromancer. At that point the hallway became completely black as he tampered with the lights, obviously trying to create some sort of impression as his eyes began to glow. Of course anyone could pull the glowing eyes trick, all it took was a little power.

Being a vampire, Alice could see perfectly within the darkness and kept her gaze trained upon Gahlagæer.

"Yes, you have my interest."

This was perhaps the oppurtunity Alice had been searching for all these years. Hopefully all went well.

Gahlagæer smiled. "Good," he said, keeping the hallway bathed in darkness. "And yes, I can see in darkness as well, all damned children can."

One by one, the spirits floated away down the hallway. Once the last one was gone, the light returned.

"Sorry about that, the spirits wanted to see you for themselves but cannot do so in light."

Celestial nodded, smiling. "I'm happy for you! Hey, umh... I was wondering... Remember when we first came in? You said that if you were locked in here for a thousand years, you wouldn't feel like a prisoner..." She began to blush slightly, "Do you think you'd like it more or less if I was here with you too, for that thousand years?"

She looks away, fiddling with her hands in her lap. "If you don't wanna answer, thats okay too."

Iris stiffend the question shocked her, she was a bit unsure of whay to say so it took her a moment to assemble her thoughts. When she finaly did speek her voice was very soft," Iam quite sure that it would be by my self.....I have no problum with the way that you are its just that its not they way that iam. I hope that you understand"

Celestial giggles, a bit red in the face as she leans back in her chair. "yeah, no problem. It was just a silly question. Heehee." She exhales sharply, looking away at the rows of books. She focuses on one, reading the title. "Well, I guess you'll want to get back to your book?" Oh Goddess, was that a study in silliness. Ah well...

She begins to bob her head in tune to a beat in her head...

Iris smiled, "Actualy Iam done with it for now". She slid the book in to her coat pocket, "do you know if the school has an fencing or duling room, i thought that i heard some one talking about one but iam not sure"

Celestial shurgged. "I wouldn't know. This is actually my first day here. I guess there might be one, but I'm not sure. Wanna go look for it?" Remembering her purse, she fishes out the little baggie of candy, picking out a Butterscotch flavored hard candy, unwrapping it and plopping it in her mouth. She offers the contents of the bag to Iris. "Want one?"

"Sure",Iris picks out a cinimon disk and sticks it in her mouth after taking off the wraper,"thank you." She strikes a pose that was a perfect impression of a piratet," well iam going to see if i can find it", she droped the pose and busted out laughing as she headed up the library stairs," some times i wonder about my own sanity..."

Celestial giggles at Iris' pose, then hops up from her spot, following the other girl. "I've got nothing to do right now anyways, so I'll tag along with too."

As she nears the other girl, she gives her a friendly wink. "Hey, we're all just alittle bit insane. Or else, why would we be here?" She sticks out her tongue, the butterscotch candy sitting neatly on her tongue.

A grin crossed Robins face. "Well I could always teach you," he suggested.

"Well," Arpad said, uncertainty in his voice. "I suppose that would be ok." He went and retrieved a sword. It was rather on the large side, and he handled it awkwardly, though not at all from the weight, oddly enough, but from unfamiliarity. It was apparent that, in reality, even a heavy sword felt somewhat fragile to Arpad, from the way he handled it.

Robin laughed. "You're holding it wrong," he said and held the sword he had in his hands up to demonstrate. "Hold it like this, see where my hands are?"

He looked at Arpad for a moment.

"Perhaps a smaller sword would be better for you."

Celestial giggles at Iris' pose, then hops up from her spot, following the other girl. "I've got nothing to do right now anyways, so I'll tag along with too."

As she nears the other girl, she gives her a friendly wink. "Hey, we're all just alittle bit insane. Or else, why would we be here?" She sticks out her tongue, the butterscotch candy sitting neatly on her tongue.

Iris laughs,"You have a good point, although some times I think that sanity is something that all people want but only a few can ever achieve, and the ones that do are the ones that get catagoised as 'insain'and locked up." She then turns and heads up the stairs and out of the library and in to the hall way.

"Oh bother," she said with a sigh. "I suppose we should head back to school then."

Mierin didn't seem anywhere near as concerned as Ruari suddenly was. He was imagining what the reaction would be if he turned up for breakfast at home after being out all night. He didn't think for one minute that anyone at the school would be able to tell him off half as harshly as his mother would have, but he guessed they wouldn't be exactly pleased, either.

Still, his date's apparent lack of panic calmed him down, and when they found that the buses had stopped running a couple of hours earlier, Ruari was able to suggest taking a taxi without the least quiver of doubt. Of course they'd find one!

As, indeed, they did, and Ruari discovered that being in the back seat of a taxi with a friendly vampire was a very interesting state of affairs. He almost missed noticing the turn-off for the school.

The driver did miss it. He looked puzzled, consulted his base, looked puzzled again. Ruari could plainly see the entrance; he recognised the rowan-tree he'd noticed when he arrived. He was about to point it out to the driver when a sudden realisation hit him.

Driving up to the main entrance in a thoroughly conspicuous taxi was not the best way to avoid having anyone notice their late return.

"Uh, we'll just walk on up," he told the driver, paying him off over-generously. He hadn't had time to explain to Mierin, but surely she'd understand what he was doing. She might even think it was romantic, walking hand-in-hand through the darkened grounds.

She might also know some ... less visible ... way to get in. Some way that wouldn't bring them to the notice of any of those distinctly odd, rather scary, teachers. Not that they'd done anything wrong, of course, they'd gone out in their own time, they didn't have any sort of duties, but all the same ...

Ruari was not entirely confident that adults would see their excursion the same way he did.

"Sorry about that, the spirits wanted to see you for themselves but cannot do so in light."

Alice flashed Gahlagæer a brief smile, indicating she wasn't really bothered by the spirits. Of course that was a fair assumption, if one was to be a necromancer then spirits and other such unsavoury creatures would be common and should therefore be easily tolerated.

"It's no trouble at all. I'm assuming there is more to becoming your apprentice than simply putting your hand up?"

As Alice became more comfortable with Gahlagæer she began to speak more vaguely, using sarcasm and other such subtle pieces of language.

Gahlagæer nodded. "Of course," he said. "Seeing via visions is one thing, but I would like to see what you can do with my own eyes." He smiled at Alice. "I'll leave what you wish to do up to you."

OOC: He's asking her if she wants to show off her abilities.

Robin laughed. "You're holding it wrong," he said and held the sword he had in his hands up to demonstrate. "Hold it like this, see where my hands are?"

He looked at Arpad for a moment.

"Perhaps a smaller sword would be better for you."

"A smaller sword?" Arpad said, confounded. "But even this one is kinda... flimsy feeling." He adjusted his hands, the way Robin showed him, but he still held it as if he was afraid it would break.

Robin watched Arpad for a moment, taking in the was he was feeling with it in his hands.

"Your holding it like you're afraid it'll jump out of your hands," he pointed out. "Loosen your grip abit, hold it like you'd hold... say a cricket bat."

It's not all that late, I don't know what' he's so worried about Mierin thought on the taxi ride. It was so late that it was very early, but that was of no concern to her. Naturally, she was fairly nocturnal. Well, one might as well enjoy oneself she thought, eyeing Ruari. And so she did. And she was quite sure that the younger boy enjoyed himself as well.

When they finally got out of the taxi, Mierin accepted Ruari's warm hand as they walked up through the deserted grounds. Silent for a while, she suddenly whispered a suggestion. "We should probably climb in through the windows, not walk in through the main door."

"A what?" asked a very confused Arpad. Did he say 'cricket bat'? what the Hel is that? And what does it have to do with swords? The young vampire was very confused. He did loosen his grip... a little bit. He didn't want to break it or damage it, after all.

"A cricket bat," Robin repeated. "You've never heard of cricket?"

He smirked to himself, watching Arpad with the sword.

"You won't break it."

Iris laughs,"You have a good point, although some times I think that sanity is something that all people want but only a few can ever achieve, and the ones that do are the ones that get catagoised as 'insain'and locked up." She then turns and heads up the stairs and out of the library and in to the hall way.


Celestial follows suit, going out into the hairway first, and looking both ways. "Hmmm... This way, or that way... Where's a Turncate* when you need one?"


((OOC: Fun fact! Because in Krowemoh there is no form of solid currency, everything being done electronically, there are no coins used to 'flip' and make a yes/no decision. Hence, an streetwise Neko invented an object called the 'Turncate. It's exactly like a coin, flat with two faces. One face is different then the other. It is used in a simiular manner, flipped into the air and one of the faces declared. If it lands the declared face up, then the anser is yes. If declared face down, the answer is no. It can be applied to any number of situation, such as which way to turn, as in here.))

"I've heard of crickets, but I don't know what that has to do with holding a sword." If Arpad had paid more attention to foreign news besides the goings on in politics of a couple neighboring countries, he'd know that Cricket was a sport that involved swinging a long piece of wood that was semi-flat on the striking part. However, he had not, so he had no idea what Robin was talking about. He didn't know what baseball was either. He did know what football/soccer was, though he didn't understand really why it had two names.

"It certainly feels like I will." Arpad was used to axes. As were most Callisdrunians. Swords were very rarely used in the Melee, and even when they were, they were fairly heavy and usually used in a specialized role.

Alice nodded as she looked around the hall, still empty and would most likely remain that way. It was kind of odd that he would ask for such a vague demonstration but she would comply nonetheless. Pondering a few moments, Alice smiled to herself as she an idea sprang to mind, something that would certainly be of reasonable difficulty.

Closing her eyes, Alice allowed her concious mind to float between worlds, between realms of existence until she ended up where she wished. The realm of demon kind. Perhaps one of the most difficult part of necromancy was demonics. Channeling dark energies was simple enough, even undead wasn't too difficult but demons were fully concious beings of power and danger.

Of course Alice wasn't going to try anything too out there, she didn't want to be responsible for a demon running around the academy. This would be something within her skill to control as Alice felt a true necromancer knew their own limits and when it was appropriate to cross them.

After a brief search, Alice located what she'd been searching for and concentrated. The hallway seemed to get even darker as the buzz of power could be felt within the air. The walls began to spark with electrical energy and a wind appeared from nowhere before several arcs of power launched forth from the wall and met in one place, filling the entire room with a bright flash.

Upon subsiding, it became evident there was another creature within the room. Covered in a black, leathery hide, the creature growled and attempted to move but stopped as the wall launched another arc of power right before it, preventing any movement in any direction.

Standing between the pair was a lower class demon, a soldier with no real intelligence and some magical resistance. Alice was obviously keeping it restrained as even a soldier demon could do significant damage.

"Will that suffice?"

Alice's eyes were opened now, her gaze fixed upon the creature she had just summoned.

@Callisdrun

"Cricket is a sport," Robin explained. "Quite popular too."

His eyes turned to Arpads hands.

"No it won't, trust me on that."

@Assington

Gahlagæer looked over at the creature. "Interesting," he said. "Quite good at summoning, very useful."

He took in the look of the creature and took note of how Alice was holding it in place.

"A lesser demon, still quite powerful in that it could tear the average human apart without thinking about it, but utterly stupid, no intelligence at all."

He turned and smiled at Alice.

"Yes, that will suffice," he then said. "Now to send it back before the headmaster notices."

Alice nodded, pleased she had left a reasonable impression upon Gahlagæer with her summoned demon. The creature didn't belong in this realm of existence and was only being held in place by Alice's magiks, all she had to do was unbind them and watch as the demon was sucked back into it's own realm.

Another flash filled the hallway as the demon broke apart into several arcs of power once again and dissipated into nothingness. The wind died down and light soon returned to the hallway, leaving no evidence that anything had occured at all. Pleased that everything had gone as planned with no trouble, Alice gave Gahlagæer a slight nod.

"There you go..."

"As much as I like Professor Bräck, he can be somewhat of a spoilsport sometimes," Gahlagæer replied with a smile.

He was pleased to see Alice able to summon a demon and hold it in her plane of existance without trouble. Afterall he had heard all about the incident with the soul and the dead dog.

"And you can place souls into the corpses of the dead, am I correct?"

Alice nodded in response to Gahlagæer's question, the recent events of her and the dog still fresh in her mind. She wasn't going to lie about such things though, Alice could do it but still had much more to learn.

"I can, but I still need to practice a bit more with that. I trust you heard about my attempt in class earlier today?"

Gahlagæer nodded, "Yes I have, an easy error to make, happens to even the best of us," he replied. "One of my errors once went on a rampage through Dark Haven killing hundreds."

The damned child managed a chuckle. His eyes turned to Alice.

"But over the course of my one hundred and fifty years, I have much improved, as have my apprentices."

Alice flashed a brief smile, at least she wasn't the only one that screwed things up around here. So far she'd never had anyone killed as a result of her mistakes and she intended to keep it that way. If anyone was to die by her hand it would be on purpose.

"Nothing teaches you a better lesson when you cause something like that. I guess it's really just a matter of time, which is something I have plenty of. So what now?"

"Well I do believe it is getting late," Gahlagæer told her. "And I do believe that you have alchemy in the morning, so I guess that means it is my time to leave and bid you goodnight."

"We should probably climb in through the windows, not walk in through the main door."

Ruari almost laughed aloud. How come he hadn't thought of that? People were always doing it in the books he read. He eyed the school's impressive facade. Nothing wrong with climbing up there, who'd be outside admiring it at this hour?

"You're on!" he said. "Last one home's ... " He couldn't think of anything, so he laughed. Then wished he hadn't. Had Mierin finished his sentence with 'on detention'? No, surely not. She looked as if the only thing on her mind was the fun she could have in beating him in a climbing race. He grinned back at her.

"Ready?"

There was just one little problem: which one was his window? No way was he going to back down now. Luckily, he felt his pass-key in his pocket, and remembered that it was numbered with both the floor and the room. Right. So he was on Second Floor, and his room was Number Six. Let's see, there was the ground floor, so that row of windows was the first, and that was the second ... now count six along ... great, he could swarm up there as easily as he scrabbled up and down the cliffs on Findhorn.

"Setty? Go!" he whisper-shouted, and set off at a run towards his target.

"Indeed it is, although I find it somewhat strange as I'm used to sleeping during the day. Goodnight Gahlagæer, I suppose we'll see eachother again at some point."

With that said Alice spun around and began navigating the hallways once again. She did have alchemy in the morning and it would certainly be interesting to see how that went. Alice didn't have any real experience in alchemy but figured it would be a useful subject to do.

Within minutes she was back in her room, attempting to adjust to sleeping at night.