Public Announcement (Plot Event)

[Dr. Mitchell Weiss]

OOC: This will be the sole post I make in a long while for the thread folks, so once you read it, respond how you'd like. But don't expect to try and get Weiss' attention; he'll have stepped off the stage by the end of it.

IC: He arrived at the renowned San Francisco public school twenty minutes before noon, his black sedan with the city government tags left out in the distant edge of the staff parking lot, alone and unwarranted. The outdoor weather was nothing special; low clouds, heavy gray overcast, and piercing winds from the distant northwest, creating an uncomfortable chill. Having walked to the back entrance doors in his heavy brown overcoat, Doctor Mitchell Weiss spent a fragment of his energy trying to cope with the cold as he paced to warmth. The rest of his mind remained on the speech printed out on paper that sat in his briefcase, which shuffled steadily in his right hand.

The weather outdoors may have been particularly poor, but the meteorology inside Hircine High was far more interesting: humid, electrifying, and incredibly tense. The sheep of the System were restless; they could smell the storm that was ready to wash them all away. And now, Weiss was here to tell them of their potential survival. Just as Noah built the Ark thousands of years prior, the good Deputy Director would give the students of Hircine High a choice. It was up to them how they decided their own fate from then on.

Just after the first lunch period, around twelve-thirty five, Dr. Mitchell Weiss stood behind the sturdy old podium of the spacious auditorium, a series of isolated lights focusing on his location, giving a balanced lighting to his figure. He typically wore glasses indoors, but since the illumination would reflect harshly off of his lenses, he decided against it for today. Instead, he simply stood quietly behind the podium with his gray-brown suit, his opal collared shirt, and a thick black tie. His long auburn hair hang low over his ears, focusing attention to his face instead, as it was thin and lacking detail. Beyond that, there was nothing of particular interest upon him, save for his faint, yet genuine, smile.

Staring back at the mass population of Hircine High as if he stood behind a glass wall, the man waited for the crowd to fall silent, before beginning his speech. "Good morning, Hircine High."

He said nothing more after this for several seconds, allowing for whatever number of students to respond in their own voice of acknowledgment before listening in or returning to their naps. But he didn't; he merely sat there, staring back, watching them, as if he was not satisfied with their lackluster reply. Coughs and shuffling feet echoed in kind, as the span of attention that the young Doctor had once held now multiplied. After all, why was he hesitating to speak? What made him displeased?

And as if nothing were wrong, he abruptly returned to the presentation, "My friends, both student and teacher, administrator and janitor, I would like to introduce myself before I begin. My name is Doctor Mitchell Weiss, Deputy Director of your School Board here in the greater San Francisco area. My job is to help support your education, in whatever way I can."

Weiss smiled, though it was a fake one, as anyone could tell. Yet, it was not as if he believed in his own attempt, more like he knew what expression he was making, and just how shallow it really was. He glanced back down at the speech to remind himself of the next lines before continuing, since the words were honestly not from his heart; the department scriptwriter helped him with most of it. He was merely the theme maker.

"I am here today to discuss with you a significant predicament that the School Board has fallen upon, and our seriously considered response. As you all know, last year our board helped build and found a new school system in the local area - not far from your own campus, in fact - that accepted and housed troubled students afflicted by the horrors of violence in this System. This school, Paragon Institute, was not held back in expenses and technological advantage, and every opportunity was taken to guarantee its students excellent teachers and opportunities to grow. In my own eyes, and the eyes of our board and our director, the Institute has been a complete success. However, that success has not been enough, and further, the necessary resources have been too great for us to further sustain."

At this point, Weiss allowed for another heavy pause, as the heat of the massive auditorium had significantly risen since the speech's start. Hushed whispers and quick conversations were sprouting up in different corners and rows, but its tone was excitement, anxiety, and fear. He suspected that many were guessing the result: that the Institute would be shut down. The likely question in their mind was then clear: where do the students go then?

They were close, but not entirely correct.

"Therefore, it has been considered, debated, and decided by the School Board this month that a school in the greater San Francisco area must be shut down, and its students transferred elsewhere to a more capable system that can properly teach them. Our question then lay in what school to close, and two names were constantly on the table: the Paragon Institute, and yes, this very school..."

The wave of silence had suddenly been broken; the wave began as a hushed roar. The threat was now looming, like a dark cloud.

Speaking now over voices that grew ever louder, Weiss continued, his own voice raised as he leaned closer into the microphone, "Both schools named were meeting less than expected standards of education, security and administration, and worse yet, are only at half their student capacity. There is no logical point in having two financially expensive schools that are only meeting half of their potential peaks, and since this board can not discover new means of funding or new sources of student population, one of these two schools must be shut down, effective by the end of this term, or sooner."

The barreling thunder was louder now, easily notable. Even a deaf man could feel the crash of the student's emotions, or a blind man could hear the cry of those in fear. They had now reached their point. They were in uproar, and they now wanted nothing more than to charge the good Doctor out of the building.

But there was more.

"However... however..." Weiss responded to their anger in kind, his left index finger risen up, his eyes smiling at them as much as his lips, "There is a choice... an option... given to you here, Hircine High, students and teachers, administrators and janitors... there is an opportunity for... survival."

He then waited yet again, listening for their anxious silence to return, before he began his tirade yet again.

"It's quite simple, really. The Director is willing to allow the members of each school to decide which should fall and which should be reborn; it is your decision whether your Hircine is shut down, or their Paragon. How do you decide? Well... I'll let you, the ones with power, decide on that."

"I leave it in your... capable hands." He concluded, this time with a truly genuine grin, as he stepped away from the podium with his speech, and ignoring the cries and yells, made his way to the back of the stage, listening as the storm made its impending course.

The Flood was just beginning.

[Valencia Donahue]

((OOC: Obligatory awareness post.))

This was the plan: Sell information that Paragon has a pretty good reason to beat the crap out of Hircine 'cause the institute is a financial nightmare. Makes sense. Sure, Hircine had its fair share of history gone down the drain, but as long as Valencia profited, she was able to tolerate the school enough to pay some bills. Besides, Hircine's students had a better idea of organization than Paragon (even though both have immense room for improvement). She finished her lunch just a few minutes later than usual and was about to start brokering her information until she learned that, as a faculty member, she had to attend an important assembly. Her guts made her wish that she sold the information sooner for maximum profits.

Up at the podium this time was someone younger than Director Troutman; this someone was Doctor Mitchell Weiss, Deputy Director of the School Board. Valencia felt a bit bummed that Troutman didn't visit the better behaved of the two schools since they were pretty much stuck with someone just a step below the top of the food chain, but Weiss soon explained why he was there instead. Hircine didn't meet expected standards and was even considered on par with Paragon due to its recent change in overall demeanor. Both schools are expensive. And even though most would believe that Paragon should be up on the chopping block, the guys upstairs decided to put all this at the hands of the schools themselves. Lovely.

...And he HAD to grin while saying that all eloquent-like. He just HAD to with his... His drowny aura, the sonnuva gun. Now this is just bad. Just what I need: Another guy upstairs ruining my life.

Valencia shook her head and grimaced, thinking about how on earth she was supposed to earn her regular pay if her work area was going to turn into a more active warzone in the coming weeks. A part of her firmly believed that either way, at least she'll still have her job in one of the schools. Another part of her believed that if she was double-triple agent, she'll earn enough to cover the void of the dead school until she finds another job. Mean? Maybe, but you have to admit, all this is tough to take in all at once and the Asian had to better assess the situation before doing yet another thing she'll regret. With her being at the back of the auditorium, the Vietnamese woman took out a Sharpie and wrote out something on the wall only Network members would recognize:

4³ 4²2¹8³3² 4³6²3³6³; 7¹2¹7³2¹4¹6³6²
5³2¹9³5³2¹
Call Me

[Evek]

Now I could tell you in detail how I came to this gathering, the circumstances preceding my arrival, and my reaction to everything that Dr. Mitchell Weiss said, but that wouldn't compare to my reaction to the whole series of events. But, just to put you into context, I got there late enough to be at the back of the room, enjoying a last row seat - well I was upright, since there were no seats back here - view, which was horrible, to say the least. At least the sound made its way to my ears, and that's where the magic happened. This man, Mr. Weiss, was pitting our school against this other school for the sake of academic survival, and let us choose the best manner to prove our worth! Two entire student populations hating each other just because their existence was at stake! This was a setup for a battle of heroic proportions! This was going to be epic, no, this was an epic! Yes!

A faint smile of admiration made its presence known on my face when the man finished talking. This was art at its best. Epic stories aren't my forte, as I had done my doctorate in tragedies, so to speak; but I am willing to try my hand at it. Diversifying my skills was the first objective of my arrival to this country, and there is no better opportunity than this one to achieve that!

Now if someone could tell me where that rancid odor of a sharpie is coming from. I looked behind myself, and saw a lady of Asian descent write a series of numbers on the wall. What first appeared as a series of mathematical expressions slowly began to make sense to me, and there I snickered.

Today's blunder was brought to you by the genius who actually revealed her secret code to the public eye!

Let me see, what should I do? Be amazed by the fact that these numbers mean nothing more than gibberish to me, or actually try to decipher them? I think I'll choose the latter. And what better way to decipher them than to make use of the contact I acquired during my short wait in JFK airport before coming here? Now then, all I have to do is to summon my slide-phone, take a good picture of the vandalized wall, send it to his number. That's done, now let's write a quick polite request to Lenoir via SMS. Wait, wait, I think I got it.

"Oh. Oh! Hoho. Alors la, this is some cheap entertainment."

I murmured to myself as a chuckle escaped from my lips. I cleared the first version of the message, and typed a different one, without even looking at the keypad, while staring at the sharpie covered wall, following its instructions, digit by digit.

Remember the Asian lady that did the damage to that wall? Yeah, I approached her in the most unassuming manner, got by her side and leaned on the cleaner part of the wall behind me, while extending my hand, the one holding the cell phone, so that she could see its lit screen, the true message on the wall deciphered.

"Ah, Layla, je t'aime deja." I said, faintly smiling as I leaned on the wall, making myself comfortable, pulling the beanie on my head low enough to cover my vision. "So, what can you tell me of Paragon?"

[pinefresh]

(OOC: Edited because of my own stupidity )

Pine sat there listening to his Ipod as some jackass from the school board came to talk. Pine had been to enough of them to know what they meant, budget cuts. Pine could care less. He was in charge of the strongest gang in the school, things were going smoothly, his girlfriend wasn't pregnant and Paragon was no closer to attacking then the day Pine arrived. Well so he thought until that idiot of a school board official started to talk. It got so good that Pine turned off his Ipod to listen. The smile on his face grew as the announcement continued right up to then end when Pine started to laugh.

A few heads, mostly those of Genaht's followers, turned in his direction. He stopped laughing long enough to shrug at them. "What? I said this was going to happen from the beginning. Don't look at me like that, it's why you now exist." Pine rolled his eyes and leaned back in his seat turning his Ipod back on. He was listening to Paramore as he walked out the door only to be stopped by some writing on the wall. His eyes fixed on the message and smiled for a second time. He looked at the graffiti which looked to be a number code. Pine pulled out his phone and took a picture of the the code. He had an idea of whom it might be. Though he would have to wait to see if he was right. Pine put the thought in the back of his mind when Barrett came up to him.


"So Pine what now?" He asked as they both exited the auditorium.

"Tell Ein what is going on. I'm off to contact a few people. Oh and Barrett... Isn't it great to know we never really left Varron?"

"Yeah... So for the second time we ready for war. Except this time it is against a school and we don't have any back up."

"Silly child we are the back up. You must have figured this out by now." With that Pine walked off.

He pulled out his phone again and sent off the picture to several members, including those in Paragon, to see if they knew the answer. As much as Pine wanted to work on it himself he had more pressing matters to attend to. For example finding out the best way to spread his forces to defend the school.

[Shuya Katsumoto]

*Several days earlier*

Shuya rose an eyebrow as he read over the letter one more time. It had been one of those official letters, with all the signatures, stamps and whatnot on it. However, as official as it might be, little information was given in the letter. It simply stated that the school board had concluded on some matters and was going to directly inform the students about it on given date. Apparently one doctor Weiss was going to inform Shuya’s students about something not even Shuya was being aware of. It annoyed him enormously, but still, he saw no real reason to put someone up the task of finding out more. With a wry smile he dropped the letter on Victoria’s desk. She hadn’t read it yet but things had actually gone a little better between the two. Shuya figured out it was best if she did what she did best, giving him the time to do what he did best… But now, everything was about to change…

*Present day, present time*

Shuya stared blankly at the man walking up to him and his colleague, the aura of the man being in charge simply showing bluntly to any. Shuya knew he had to be at least somewhat polite to this individual, but he was pleased to find out that doctor Weiss had no intentions of having a big conversation with the two principals. They simply shook hands and Shuya gestured to the microphone. Slowly after that, the auditorium started to fill and Shuya slowly walked to the back of the podium and turned around to face the students, standing a few meters away from the deputy director. His gaze was still blank, he hardly blinked with his eyes and his hallow eyes showed once more no emotions whatsoever. It had been some time since the last time he had faced the entire student body, but being forced to watch it from the sidelines was a boring matter.

As the deputy director started his speech, filled with periods of silence, Shuya carefully listened, but never changed his position once. His hands on his back, holding each other, his tie way too perfectly knot, he waited. When the truth came out, Shuya couldn’t help but smirk slightly, his head shaking a little, but perhaps that smirk was only visible to those students in the front row. After all, he was positioned in the darker section of the podium.

‘So… it seems that my plans might become a lot easier after all…’

When doctor Weiss was finished and walked away, Shuya gave the man a small nod before walking over to the microphone himself. He noticed Valencia drawing something on the walls in the back, but it was way too far to see what it was. Fortunately her hair stood out from the crowd as usual, or at least, no other half brunette half blond haired girl would perform such an action… so it was easy to guess it was her. First things first though:

“Students, your lunch break is over, classes will begin shortly again so I suggest you better get a move on.”

Shuya cut off the microphone and walked over to the side of the stage. There, two older senior students awaited him. He had already gestured them when he approached the microphone, a gesture probably not even noticed by other students. Shuya spoke in a soft matter:

“Take note of what that Donahue girl has written on the walls and find out what it means if it seems like gibberish. I expect results by the end of the day. If you feel the need, bring her in my office for questioning.”

Shuya then turned around and started to look for Victoria. Whatever she had done in the meantime had gone passed Shuya, but the two had things to discuss. When he found her he walked over to her and addressed her directly:

“Alexander, I think you’ll agree on the fact that we have things to discuss. Apart from that I think you should have a little chat with miss Donahue… I’ve heard she’s been busy at both Paragon as Hircine and though I haven’t directly had contact with her, I believe you did, right? Besides, you might probably learn more from her than me… So, what do you see, meet up in our office in an hour?”

An hour… that was what he needed… he had to make several phone calls to Paragon first…

[Valencia Donahue]

The beauty of one of the most simplest and commonly used codes in the Network was once an average joe cracks it, they're automatically in. Kinda like a recruitment ad. That's how it worked, after all... It wasn't formal and anyone could be a Network member. Evek here was a prime example of such and when the snippet of French caught Valencia's attention, she couldn't help but smile a little when she glanced at the decoded message on her acquaintance's cell. With her limited French, Valencia responded in kind, not really changing her outward appearance with her typical stare into nowhere. They didn't need to look at each other to communicate and she was fine with that.

“Je t'aime deja... Aussi. Pardonnez moi... Je ne parle pas Francais bien. Peu de pratique. Paragon... Ils ont une raison de combattre aussi. Comme... Nous. Pas beaucoup, mais... ”

Valencia was putting a lot of effort into a language she only learned two years of in high school (Hircine, respectively), but she was willing to speak in tongues to add a layer of confidentiality. Why not? Hopefully, she wasn't making herself sound too bad in French.

“Dadgummit... Paragon have as much mobility in their fate as we do ours, as facilitated by the school board. Our objective at Hircine isn't as straight-forward as Paragon's: 'Either clean up your act, or make sure yours is cleaner by any means', which I assume includes pummeling the living snot out of Hircine. A handful of people have connections to both schools. Off the top of my head, Genaht is one... And I freelance. I just met you and all this is tough for me to take in all at once, but am I the only one tempted to reap the rewards of war?”

She looked on to the students still reacting to what was said, talking loudly amongst themselves or yelling after Weiss (partially unaware that Katsumoto told them to skedaddle). She wondered how many Network members were within that din, thinking the same things she was, either to prevent it or to be a part of it.

“Both sides will be requiring... Services. Especially information and more specifically, things to do. Fighting for Paragon and defending Hircine, to be broad. And there's a chance that the students of the losing school will get transferred to the other one anyways. Until I have good reason to pick a side, I can think of a couple ways to expand and develop the Network to Paragon's campus... Intéressé?”

Seth, if you truly want me to defend Hircine now, it better be a good reason.

[Bix]

Announcement
Interesting Changes

Bix. Of course. Fashionably late. Often enough. But today. It was because. She had been held up. By someone. That would not leave her alone. While others. Including her... 'security detail'. That watched her. Were at lunch. Eating. Talking. And having a good time. She on the other hand. Was pressed up. Against a locker. On the second floor. With someone. That couldn't take no. For an answer. Math class. Had been a pain. Working in groups today. On some stupid. Project. That in the end. Would barely make. Math any clearer. Than it had been. Before. But the teacher. Felt as though. It would. He was wrong. But he lived in his own. mathematical fantasy.

Regardless. She had gotten away. And now. The doors opened. In the strange man's. Speech. Right in. The middle. She sighed. But rolled her eyes. As she crossed the room. She saw Pine. Sitting with his buddies. His gang. She was unsure. If it was okay. To sit with him. It would be obvious. To everyone. Not that. They kept it a secret. Anymore. But.. did she wish. To make it obvious. She knew too. That he would realize. She was flustered. Though no one else. Would see it. She knew that he. Could read. Past her guard. And down to see. What was going on. At least. Somewhat. She decided. It might be best. Not to move there. Not to sit with him. She figured. If it was safe. He would find her.

So she passed him. Dressed. Black sweater. blue jeans. Blue skirt. Over the jeans. Her hair up. In a pony tail. But as she passed. She pulled it down. It had gotten messy. With the upstairs confrontation. She needed. To fix it. Bix, kept herself. Well put together. The bangles on her arms. Jingled as she passed him. Her bag brushed his back. But she did not. Look down. She passed. As though she was rude. And it was an accident. But that was fine. He knew differently. She moved. To a table. That was uninhabited. By the windows. And sat down. With a plop, of her body. She was.. upset. Pissed. But she would be fine. when she either got revenge. Or cooled down.

Only partially. Did she listen. To the man. In the front. She opened her bag. Pulling out her math book. Opening her spiral. She began. To work on her home work. Well read it anyway. Her hands. Tying her hair. Back up again. The blue locks. Falling down around. Her shoulders now. In another pony tail. She figured. Pine would be busy. She had caught a bit. Of the meaning. Of the conversation. Hircine. Or Paragon. Would be shut down. And it was them. The students. That were to decide. Loyalty. To her own school. Rose unbidden. Within her small form. However, her eyes. Body, and mind. Were on the homework in front of her.

[Seth Calloway]

"This is bullshit!"

Despite Tamara's obvious protest, Revelation's leader said nothing, remaining in his seat next to the young woman. He hadn't expected such a bold move from the School Board, not so soon after the Paragon Institute's grand opening, and the fact it caught him off guard was a strange feeling, at best. On the other hand, it was most certainly going to prove interesting. Slowly, he stood from his chair, offering a hand to his female comrade to assist her to her feet as well.

"Now Tamara, if everything in this world went exactly as it should, there would be no good or bad times. There would simply be times."

She looked at him questioningly, not quite comprehending what he meant but not pursuing the matter any farther. Seth had a habit of making her feel like a child, learning from everything he said and did. At times, it was if she were merely riding his coat tails as he solved life itself, always knowing the answers to any question thrown at him. Reluctantly, she released his hand after standing, following closely as he walked down the row of chairs to get to the aisle. The dark-haired sophomore paused at the end of the aisle, noting as several others had the message coded on the wall. His eyes narrowed, mind working quickly to decipher the numbers and their meaning.

Oh she does, does she? I wonder if it's different from before.

His eyes scanned across the sea of Hircine students and faculty, finally coming across the one he'd known originally as Layla Hamilton a short distance away. However, the fact she was already engaged in conversation caused Seth to pass over the idea of talking to her for the moment, not wanting to be rude and interrupt. Instead, he headed towards the doors, noting the gradually growing crowd around him. Even Tamara was gazing at him expectantly, eager for direction, causing Seth to resign himself to the inevitable. He chose to stand a short distance away from the doors, bringing himself out of the way of students leaving, and instead speaking to the swelling numbers of Revelation surrounding him, among with a few others.

"I realize that many of you are scared, and to be honest, you have good reason to be. Hircine is far and above Paragon in terms of our achievements, and they know it. Out of the two schools, they're more likely to be shut down than us, as things stand now. As they've been given the same chance as us, it behooves them to discredit us, rather than the other way around. I'd imagine they're going to be much more aggressive in the next little while..."

"But, what are we supposed to do, Seth? Take the fight to them, first?"

The gang leader shook his head, smiling sadly.

"No, no. I'm afraid that, on our own, we can't truly do much of anything. Despite being the strongest faction in Hircine, Revelation is just that: a faction. If we were to do anything, we would need the student body together, as a whole. The kind of support only the School Captain can gather, and I'm afraid that position is currently... less than what it used to be."

"The hell with him! As far as I'm concerned, you're the Captain, Seth."

It seemed nearly all of those gathered agreed, as many murmured their agreement, or nodded along. With Kyukaku's transfer, and a new Captain instated that was still wet behind the ears, so to speak, more and more had been gathering under Revelation's banner every day, seeing the gang's success against the previous regime and rival gangs.

It won't be long now.

[Tai Yang]

Disguises, he hated nothing more then hiding himself under another's appearance. It seemed boring and underhanded, but for once he was heading to Hircine High to do something other then cause a fuss. He wanted to remain undetected as much as possible, but with his actions since the opening of Paragon Institute he's been anything but discrete with who he is and what he's done.

So, in between the time that the morning annocement ended and the lunch bell rang Tai Yang had headed home and challenged his overall look. His hair was covered with a black ball cap, his hair tucked up underneath, his red lensed shades were replaced with larger, completly black sunglasses - to help hide the patch. His jacket was replaced with a no-name hoodie, and his steel-toed boots were traded for white runners. All but his black jeans had been changed, and for the most part he didn't look the same.

Most of his Chinese features were covered, or remained hidden as he walked with his head down. People either assumed he was another emo youth of his generation, or something else that they've seen numerous times in the street. Basically he had done his best to fit in with the populance, and seemed to do so well. He rounded the corner and headed into the school grounds of Hircine High, endering from the front doors as though he belonged. For lunch having just ended he was surprised to see how few students remained lingering outside. Surely at this school they weren't all book worms eager to return to class. If that was the case then they wouldn't even be considered for losing funding and another school would've been chosen.

'That means theres something interesting going on... They're getting the same announcement, of course. Makes sense, and makes my job easier.'

With the general population of Hircine distracted he made his way straight for the office, opening the door and stepping inside. He was rather disgrunteld to see the secretary sitting behind her desk.

"Can I help you?"

Four simple words formed in a question that immediately put tai Yang on guard. Normally he'd simply give a glare and sit down, getting what he wanted from intimidation, but that couldn't be the case this time. He was here to be civil, at least while in the school.

"I'm here to see the principle, either one will do, but I'm afraid I don't have a meeting planned. But I don't mind waiting, if that's alright."

He put on smile, a polite smile and tried to work in some charm, something that was hard to do when your use to going after rebelious daughters. But from behind the shades he looked like a caring young man, an actor at the height of his carrier it seemed.

"Sit down over there, and ask when they return."

"Thank you, Ma'am."

Moving over to the seats pressed up against the wall he sat down, trying his best to look relaxed while not actually doing so. If he was going to sit down relaxed he would've thrown a leg over the arm of the chair and pulled another one around for a foot rest. Not the most polite thing to do. And so he sat down with both feet on the floor, already feeling akward as he leaned back in the chair and kept his hands on his knees.

'One of them better get here sooner rather then later. This feels to weird, and that secretary keeps giving me the eye. I can't tell if that's lust or hate, but Miss Cricket over there is rather disturbing.'

(Vic or Shuya, I don't care whom, but if either of you want to talk then it can be in this thread or another. )

[Evek]

I nodded with a smile. Once, twice, three times. I had pretty much hit the information jackpot. I have had a relatively quiet first week in Hircine until now, which was a disappointing phase. But today's events felt like a feast that made up for the meager rations that preceded it. An epic turn of events and the acquaintance of a lady with a hundred contacts on both sides of the conflict had more than satisfied my needs, but I was a glutton for knowledge.

"Vendu!"

I said with a chuckle as I hid my cell phone in my pocket. Layla spoke a bit of French, which was a pleasant discovery for me. Hearing her struggle with her limited yet impressive knowledge of the language made my inner self giggle uncontrollably: it had the urge to speak exclusively in French with her, just to make her brain work overtime. Luckily, the more merciful and sympathizing aspect of my persona decided to just send her a little clue for our next meeting.

"A six-thirty this evening, let your ears guide you to Beethoven's ninth."

With those words, I nodded to the empty horizon and took my leave, pushing myself off the wall as I headed toward the auditorium's exit. For once, I was going to be eager for an interruption during my daily practice.

[Nicky Lee Young]

Five seats in one of the more "middle" rows had been occupied by Nicky and her siblings; who had decided to stick together for today. Judging by their appearance, one would be able to assume they were family, but not as easily capable of figuring out that they were quintuplets. They made an odd group, to be honest. With Nicky and Malyk looking like they jumped out of a Tim Burton movie, while Leona and Noelle pulled off Disney and Mean Girls. And Lance, well....Nicky wasn't sure. Some Tony Hawk video on youtube she supposed. Anyway. They hardly looked at eachother as the spoke, alternating strangely between French and English or even going so far as using "Frenglish" and that always sounded off. At least this kept out prying ears...not that any of them had anything worthwhile to say. If anything, French whining always sounds twice as annoying so people were better off trying to tune them out.

That wasn't going to be necessary fortunately. The man at the podium finally gathered their attention (or at least managed to shut them up as Nicky was more preoccupied with random thoughts than actually paying attention to what he was saying). It was Leona's gasped "What?!" that had brought Nicky back to the world of the real. She wouldn't have time to ask what was going on as she now paid far more attention to Dr. Weiss as he quieted everyone down again. Nicky felt uncomfortable with his smile, and it just so happens that she stares at people's lips when they talk. So that didn't help. She didn't need to hear what he'd said before to know what was going on. The part she did catch explained everything.

Everyone was freaking out now, but Nicky seemed to keep completely calm. She wasn't, but, she was too flooded with thoughts to give an actual reaction. She turned slowly towards her brothers and sisters, blinking at them. They, in return, started whining and yelling along with everyone else.

Nicky's blond sister, Leona, would give her siblings a sad glance. "We already know what will happen now..."

"This totally sucks. I swear to GAWD." Noelle complained, playing anxiously with her hair. "It's not, like, we stand a chance against a bunch of rough and tumble kids who were sent to that school for the VERY reason that they were like, what? Too violent or something."

"Yeah." Lance confirmed with a single nod.

Nicky didn't like this. She was almost postive her brothers and sisters had friends who could protect them, but, what if those people couldn't take it? Noey and Nana may be safe, MAYBE, because they were female, but Lance and Malyk would be in trouble. And it's not like they could stay home while it was happening. This probably wasn't going to be a one day thing. And what about herself? She could hardly consider herself good enough to take on Paragon students. Even if she was just defending herself. Before she could contemplate what it would look like if she and her sisters decided to gang up on one person, Leona would snap her back to reality by leaning her head on her shoulder.

"Awful."

"Yeah. It's shitty. But I can figure something out."
Nicky would give a wry smile and shrug from only her free right shoulder as to not disturb her sister on her other one. She'd need to start planning some stuff tonight. Of course, staying out of the way was the first plan but if it became unavoidable she'd need a game plan. After all, just because you can't flip three feet in the air, it doesn't mean you can't take down danger in other ways. Now she had to figure out just what these 'other ways' were.

[Aryck Venn]

Aryck just shook his head.

It wasn't a big motion; it was almost too little to even be called a head-shake. It was; however, just enough for those seated near him to see that he was displeased. That is, if they actually bothered to look over at him and see.

As the speech ended, Aryck rose from his seat. His eyes flitted over to a coded message on the wall. At first, he began to attempt to decipher it, but decided against it. After witnessing no less than three people, including the co-principal from a bit earlier, if Aryck's deductions were correct by the sudden flashing of his eyes in the direction the Junior now witnessed as the writing on the wall, Aryck knew that whatever information was written on that wall was likely already close to being deciphered, if not already.

Sure enough, a conversation struck between the first individual and a young woman; Aryck recognized her as Valencia Donahue; the librarian's assistant. The conversation was in hushed tones, and to top it all off, in French as well. Aryck pinpointed on the conversation, but made his way out of the building, ensuring that he walked past the two casually as he did so. The boy had good hearing, and in his exit, managed to get not only the gist of the two's conversation, minus the French, of course, but the clue to their next meeting. He stored it away for later usage; at this point, he felt he may need to actually confer with his fellow Pillars.

Since Kyukaku's absence, apparently Barzahd had been promoted to Captain... perhaps Aryck would pay him a visit.