Post by Mila on Nov 28, 2012 19:11:56 GMT -5
00:50:04 Chase` was staring up at the dark ceiling of his dormitory. His eyes had, by now, adjusted to the darkness and the whole thing had turned grey due to the fact that everything was white. He was playing and replaying the events of today, chestnut eyes seeming, almost, to flinch every time he reached a certain part. His eyes slid slowly closed before he sat up in bed quietly. He twisted, letting his legs out from under the comforter. He need to distract himself. The question was, how to do it after lights out? Well, he could sneak out. And there were a few practice drills he needed to do to become more proficient at the more clever things that dealt with the earth. Things like drawing raw materials out of the ground intact. He pulled on the pair of jeans he had worn last night a dinner, a shirt and his socks and boots. Then he went to the wardrobe by the door and pulled out one of his jackets and a plain, navy blue beenie. He stuck the beenie between his teeth as he pulled on his coat. His footsteps were nearly silent as he crept through the common room and headed out past the room where Odette slept when she wasn't watching over a patient in the ward. Once he passed his coordinator's room he made for the quickest way outside. He needed to be in full contact with the bare earth when he went a-looking for minerals and metals and such. He had no idea that he had been seen and was being followed.
00:55:15 Leila had the recent pleasure of meeting a self proclaimed chairperson of the Brax fanclub and of course the Were had laughed at the fool of a girl’s introduction, which in turn led to a rather ridiculous conversation about how attacking him was a definite no while waltzing into the Hall wearing his shirt was an even bigger no. Apparently Werewolves waltzed these days... go figure. Needless to say Leila had turned more than a few heads with that stunt and had found herself being the focus of more than just a handful of stares, but all in all she had yet to lose her cool and after already losing it once she was not about to go ahead and do it a second time. The term ‘grin and bear it’ was quickly becoming a mantra in her head and along with the mortifying idea of having to walk through the school wearing next to nothing again made Leila more than happy to stay human despite all the crazy. Day whatever of only the second week back and she was already bored, it was long past curfew and the Magnus Were was nowhere near her designated dorm instead she was in the forest about to no doubt get herself into more trouble. Leila lifted her gaze toward the general direction of the school with a small smile as her thoughts drifted to the impending Durusball game between Magnus and Crux. House rivalry at its best, the first game was bound to be positively insane and Leila could not wait especially since she had been added as a midfielder after her tryouts last year, but now that she was a fifth year student she was more than a little eager to show off her abilities as a Were, which was why she was out in the forest on a school night. Crouching suddenly she pulled off the small backpack that had been slung across her shoulder before quickly pulling off her clothes, there was no way she was going to rip them to shreds as she practised for the game this coming weekend, kitted out in her super durable spandex underwear (courtesy of one Professor Blaze) Leila quickly shoved her clothes into the bag and hid it in the small clearing. With that done the lithe teen slipping into the shadows her bare feet making little to no sounds as she found another spot a bit further away from the clearing she had hidden her stuff before willing herself to change, the sounds of bones breaking would drift through the forest along with the eerie noise of limbs being rearranged into a completely different form altogether. [e]
01:00:56 Mila was conveniently pulled from the lull of sweet slumber when the sound of creaking movement carried through the girls dormitory hall, presumably coming from the common room in Crux. Hex was an old structure and to say some parts of it were a little on the decrepit side of the mark, would be fair. Figuring it to be a mouse or the creaking structure in the wind, she paid it little mind but being cumbersomely awake, she slipped silently from her bed and tiptoed stealthy from her room meaning to secure herself a DRANK from the girls bathroom. Water was on the menu. Given that her room was by chance the closest to the handful of steps that simply put the dormitories on a higher mark rather than the next level of the school, she was more than close enough to find that the sounds were definitely coming from the common room. As curious as the female lead in a Horror flick; one that was customarily going to horrify viewers on 'her team' when she died and a random, inconsequential character survived instead – Mila followed the noise. Impractically, she was wearing an oversized, long-sleeved Dball Highlander's jersey, one that met mid thigh and left her slim legs as bare as a baby's bottom. No socks, no shoes but she crept silently after the looming presence. A dangerous, careless act given that there was a murderer on the loose – but Luthor had kept this news hushed and failed to warn his students.
01:39:43 Chase` made his way outside into the brisk winter wind. Unbeknownst to him, a semi-nude girl was following him. He stuffed his hands into the pocket of his jacket after he buttoned it up. His boots crushed the slightly stiff grass and he moved away from the main building of Hex. He wanted a good distance from the rest of the school so that his activities wouldn't wake anyone. He headed to the woods and moved along to the very first clearing. When he reached it he moved into the center of the ring of trees and instantly folded himself to sit on the ground. He removed his hands from his pockets and planted his plams firmly in the dirt. His eyes slid closed and he tugged at his power to manipulate the earth almost lazily, and suddenly the ground began to quake softly, the ripples probably reaching Leila but dying before they reached the school. And suddenly the ground cracked in a jagged circle around Chase's sitting form. Next thing, the black-haired young man was rising into the night sky on a thick pillar of earth. When he was about ten feet up the pillar stopped moving and he reached out with his mind to the loose rocks all around the clearing. Suddenly all the loose stone debris was rising up around the pillar in a circle, which began to rotate slowly around the rock as it rose.
01:50:00 [Leila] It would take a good few moments before the creature moved and even then it still shuddered in between deep breaths as each limb was hesitantly stretched, this time Leila was fully in control of the change and though it sounded and looked extremely painful it wasn’t as bad as it truly felt thanks to an in grained healing ability that allowed the human body to withstand the muscle strain as well as all the bone breaking too. The wolf-like beast shook itself much like a dog would after getting itself wet, it was very much a human equivalent as Leila cleared her mind before allowing the wolf’s senses to take over, the forest was alive with a myriad of creatures that only woke after the sun disappeared and that knowledge alone made her all too wary of what resided behind the dark tree line. Standing at roughly four feet in height from paw to shoulder the Werewolf easily moved through the somewhat dense undergrowth her tail wagging slightly as she dug her claws into the ground, biting back the urge to howl out excitement she settled for a wolfish grin and continued on her way or at least she would have if the ground didn’t suddenly ripple beneath her. Yelping in surprise the Werewolf stopped suddenly skidding to a rather graceless halt and then rose to its full height, ears turned to pick up any noise that seemed out of place before dropping back onto all fours and running towards the source of it all, while remaining completely unaware that she was headed toward a student. Leila’s over active imagination had by then come up with several outlandish notions as to why the ground had moved and none of them would have pegged it as an earth mage searching for minerals. [e]
02:08:05 Mila never thought to return to her dormitory and better prepare herself for an outdoor trek through a December night, far too rapt with her following of this faceless presence who, for all her knowledge, could be up to no good. Given that there wasn't too much shade of sparse trees along the grounds until they broke the line of trees, with the cant of her head and soft release of breath she expelled a conjured shadow, sweet darkness that would make it hard to spy her presence in the night unless one were to look closely or create light. Child's play and a good mite useful for her subtle journey, executed with stealth that may have been useful in her observation of Emri. Unfortunately for her, her 'observation' turned into an interrogation, one that seemed centered upon the boy's fixation with Trix, another Sixth Crux. As the boy made his way through the forest, steps turned from tiptoed in cold, dewy grass to made painfully on the small rock, twigs, leaves, prickled bushes and a number of other things Mila didn't want to think about. Somehow, she managed to keep her grunts of pain and 'oofs' quieter than the sounds of the forest, and remained undetected, so she assumed, until he entered the clearing and sat down. Now curiosity got the better of common sense and the brunette who figured the person, man or woman for that matter, to be another student whom she knew well enough – given that their journey began in Crux. Rather than inhaling her trick of darkness, stepping from the trees of speaking, the Seer made further use of her Casting. A graceful flourish of one hand, her gaze fixed with an eye of concentration on the air far ahead of her, she conjured small orbs of light. They were no simple flicker nor torch, but formed from specks of Ether into small butterflies, vibrant, iridescent and pooling light around the area they flew rampantly. In this same moment the ground shook and she'd needed to steady herself with a hand on the nearest trunk of a tree. Meanwhile her tricks of light circled around the newly formed dais of earth until they rose to the height of the boy's face. Mila would know that face anywhere. Crying out with Mirth the brunette darted from her hiding place with a sharp intake of breath – all but removing the false darkness that surrounded her. “Chase! What are you doing here?” And why had she followed a random guy into the Forest in the middle of the night? Spontaneity my friend! When you have seen your death and know it is not this day, one will live with careless abandon, treating every precious moment as if it was their last. One bare foot stomped on the ground and she crossed her arms over her chest. “Come down here.” As Ascension training was yet to begin, she had no manner of casting, and obviously no element to assist her to rising to such a height. Didn't he know the kind of trouble he could get himself in? And her? For that matter? Eyes of smoke turned toward the tree line about the clearing where the sound of fast movement and crushed brush drew her attention. On the ground alone and with the area fairly gloomy for her butterflies cast only a small diameter of glow... Mila would be lying if she said she wasn't a little wary. “Chase bring me up!” Just as easily as a mountain could lift him, he could make one lift her.
02:14:58 Sophelia had taken a brief moment in time to spend with herself...and her never ending addiction to smoking. Dressed rather scantily for such a chilling winter night, she had on a pair of badass booty shorts, and what looked to be an older, too little for her frame, long john shirt that didn't really cover much up of her stomach. Hiding out in the shadows of the Institute's yard, she was constantly looking around herself, hoping and ensuring no one was there to find her. The last thing she needed was to get caught smoking again, as well of her room after lights out. Sucking in the intoxicating smoke, as it passed through the filter and filled her lungs, she shivered as she stood in place; if it wasn't for this damn addiction of her she'd not be standing out in the chilling wind having to feed it, instead she could be in her bed all warm and cozy. As she went to inhale another long drag from her crinkled cigarette, she felt the ground tremor some, causing her neatly trimmed brow to perk up in interest. Exhaling a little bit, she grinned and snickered some, someone else was out too, and now she wondered just who it was. Gracefully, and by gracefully she jogged and ran some in the direction she thought she felt the tremor come from. As she approached, she at first saw the boy sitting up top a stone pillar that rose from the ground, a few pieces of debris floating around him; nothing she'd never seen before and nothing too fancy at that. Though as her gaze moved about and she caught sight of the werewolve, her eyes widened a little and she grinned, so more than just her and this boy were outside of their rooms at this hour as well! Snickering some, she stood where she was at, still holding the remains of her cigarette, she lifted it up to her lips and took a long drag off it. Eyes mesmerized at the sight before her, both the earth mage and the werewolf, it wasn't often one managed to see either one out past curfew, let alone together like this.When the other woman suddenly seemed to come out of no where and address the boy who was sitting atop the pillar, she blinked some and nearly burned herself as the cigarette had reached just a centimeter or so from her delicate fingers, quickly dropping it and leaving it to snuff itself out, she kept to herself, just observing and watching for now, she hoped for her sake it wasn't a staff member or someone who might end up reporting her. The woman seemed rather okay with the boy being outside, but for her, well she didn't know how the woman might react and treat her for being outside, let alone if she was caught smoking, and both her clothes and breath carried with it the scent of a cigarette. Letting out a faint huff, she tried to make her presence as little known as possible, but she figured that just her coming closer like this would have at least alerted the werewolf she was around.
02:30:20 Chase` was focused on his practice, too focused to notice the fact that there were butterflies with lanterns for wings floating around the clearing. He was practicing reaching out with his mind to the different type of rock around the clearing. In order to correctly identify minerals one had to know their molecular structure, texture, everything. And while there were different kinds of rocks in the layers of the Earth's crust, they were all similar in structure. But if he studied, he could eventually identify metals, things like coal and gemstones. He had already honed his ability to manipulate metal to a razor's edge, and now he was looking to master probably the most usefule thing he could imagine, being an earth mage. He could pull gold and silver out of the bedrock. He could pull diamonds, rubies, emeralds from it. He could even create those things! The possibilities were, very probably, only limited by the imagination. But he was jarred from his parctice when a voice called out his name. His eyes snapped open and he looked around behind him, and then down over the edge of the pillar, "Mila? I'm practicing." He noticed what she was wearing and he frowned, "I will not come down. I need to practice if I'm ever going to be able to drag metals and gemstones up out of the ground to get rich. You should go back inside where it's warm. You don't even have shoes on!" When he noticed that her attention was diverted by sounds and suchlike, his voice cracked out sharply, "SIT DOWN!" If she didn't do it immediately, she would probably fall off the suddenly rising pillar of rock. The slim pillar would rise to the same height as his and it would be a simple matter for Mila to jump from the pillar she was standing on to the one he was sitting on.
02:39:16 Leila picked up the unfamiliar scents of not just one student, not two but three. The thought would have been chuckled at if Leila were not currently in a form that had little use for vocal cords, entering the clearing quietly didn’t matter much considering that each of the other students had noticed her noisy run through the forest and as such she easily stepped out of the shadows into the light created by Mila. Testing the air the Werewolf sneezed suddenly as the noxious smoke of Sophelia’s cigarette reached the wolf’s sensitive nose, again another laugh was deterred by the wolven form that now curiously sniffed in the direction where the smoke had come from, I guess I wasn’t the only one keen on a bit of fresh air. Leila was completely in control of her current form and as such posed no threat to any of the students, however she did realise that they were probably not all too excited about having to face a werewolf at all but that didn’t mean she was going to change back straight away... being caught in the forest was one thing, but being found out in nothing but your underwear was something she wasn’t about to go through any time soon. Turning to face Mila the Werewolf canted her head to the side before dropping into a low crouch when Chase shouted, flattening her ears at the loud noise she whined softly but made no move toward either of them, peering up at the male perched on the pillar he had created for himself she then sent another glance toward Mila who now sat on a pillar much like the one he did. Shaking her head at the pair of them she flashed them both a toothy grin before doing exactly what Chase had shouted at Mila to do, the large charcoal coloured wolf sat herself down in the clearing and remained quiet as she watched them her tail wagging as she found herself rather amused at the situation they found themselves in. [e]
02:46:24 Mila paid no mind to his explanation but dropped instantly to a balanced crouch with all the precision of a soldier, fingers poised so their tips just grazed the earth. Her eyes shuttered closed while she felt the unsettling feeling of a miniature earthquake directly beneath her, and only dared to open them once she felt the terrain's movement come to a stop. “Of course I don't have shoes on!” She snapped in a childish whisper, “I was following some idiot who thinks the middle of the night is a great time to study!” Hmph! But she couldn't be mad at him, not when she was sitting on a pillar with her bare legs dangling down one side. Sophelia's brought wary suspicion for she was too far from the glow to be more than a dark figure in the night. With a flick of her head, that created a cascade of sleek dark hair, she guided the glowing butterflies closer to the other person, and sighed in relief as she identified the girl as another Sixth year ruling out the chance of a bogeyman, or worse, one of the staff. When the werewolf that had been heard with it's rucus emerged too, the suspicion and ounce of fear that plagued her mind vacated instantly. Mila could not lie that in her first year, the thought of attending the same campus as Were's terrified her and made her particularly uncomfortable with sharing a dormitory one. But, when the Were emerged fairly calmly and reacted to Chase's power, the girl was certain he/she was in full control of their shift. Swinging one leg lazily, she offered a wave to their new companions. “Uh, hey guys?” Now she felt a little bit silly for requesting that Chase rise her to safety. Still it wasn't as though Mila minded being taller than everything for once, and there was simply no getting down without breaking a leg or piercing her foot with a twig. Eugh.
11:50:40 Chase` glanced around as Mila began directing her lantern butterflies around the dark clearing and he frown a little. How did so many people sneak out at once?! Well, there was an easy answer to day. They were all from different houses, save him and Mila. But still, professor Blaze usually kept a tight rein on his werewolves, so he was a little baffled as to how one had escaped. But instead of speaking to anyone else just yet his eyes turned to the girl he'd just lifted ten feet into the air on a pillar of natural rock that he had pulled up from pretty deep, "Well you should have at least put more clothes on before following! You're going to freeze out here!" He shook his head and began unbuttoning his jacket muttering about girls lacking in common sense, "Besides, I couldn't sleep. Practicing helps me calm down and clear my mind. If you hadn't followed me I would have just sat here for an hour or so before going back inside and passing out almost immediately." The accuracy with which he described what would have happened was a tell-tale hint that he had been doing this for a long, long time. Of course, he had been a little careless in his skulking about this night, hence Mila's presence, but still! He had never been caught before!
12:09:19 Mila huffed and threw her hands up in typical Mila comedy, “I didn't have time! I had to get my stealth on!” Even though there was presumably no staff members in sight she kept her voice to a stage whisper, and paused to wave off the two girls who assumingly decided that as there was no Earthquake nor issue, they would resume whatever it was they had snuck from their dormitories to do – in the middle of the night. Go figure. Quicker than lightning, the girl's swift reflexes caught up his jacket and saved it from falling to the dirt below, and instead shrugging it onto her arms. A little too large quite like the oversized Highlanders jersey that acted as a nightgown, the sleeves hung past her hands. Mila was riveted by their outright obedience. She was no goody-two-shoes but after years of learning the strict rulings and punishments at Hex, it was... alluring to know that Chase had been getting away with his daring midnight excursions on a number of occasions. “Can I come with you again?” Next time. Before he could answer, the girl who had risen from her crouch leapt with feline grace for his own thin pillar. Given the sizing and that an oncoming projectile, Mila, could very well knock him off balance – it was a true possibility they may just end up in a tangle of limbs on the floor. Oops. Act first, think later in typical Mila style.
12:26:34 Chase` tell anyone, not that he would ever tell this story, that it was a damn good thing he was still sitting down on his own little platform. And when the slim girl, wearing his jacket backward, came jumping at him he reacted instinctively. There was a short grinding noise as the pillar underneath him shifted, the portion behind him rising father than the rest to act as a backstop to keep them from tumbling over the edge of the ten foot drop and breaking stuff that was of vital importance. But as Mila dropped from her leap he reached out and caught her, the small amount of inertia passing to him and making him bump into the backrest he'd created for himself, which landed Mila in his lap, naturally. He sighed and released his hold on her, rolling his eyes, <I>"Why would you want to come back out here with me and watch me practice? It's kinda boring from an observer's point of view, you know. All I do is sit here and basically meditate."</I. He leaned back a little now to stretch out his arms and chest, "Besides, I never really know when I'm going to do it. If I had an actual schedule I would have gotten caught by now, probably." He placed his elbows on the rocky surface of his bacrest, looking at her, his breath misting slightly, wondering if she still wanted to join him the next time he slipped out to practice.
12:35:08 Mila knew he wouldn't allow them to fall though, she may have been expecting a little much. Expecting another to be on their game, and able to ward off gravity, force and oncoming projectiles in darkness? She was a girl who expected the moon. Unable to grasp at any further argument the girl shrugged her shoulders and allowed him leave from persuasion – for the time being. Provided that he brought them down and decided to turn in early since his interruption, the duo would leave the forest and head back to Crux. Their journey would likely have been made with Mila requesting a piggyback ride the entire way, for she was still without shoes in Winter. Both concluded their night in their own dormitories respectively, in preparation for school the next day.
00:55:15 Leila had the recent pleasure of meeting a self proclaimed chairperson of the Brax fanclub and of course the Were had laughed at the fool of a girl’s introduction, which in turn led to a rather ridiculous conversation about how attacking him was a definite no while waltzing into the Hall wearing his shirt was an even bigger no. Apparently Werewolves waltzed these days... go figure. Needless to say Leila had turned more than a few heads with that stunt and had found herself being the focus of more than just a handful of stares, but all in all she had yet to lose her cool and after already losing it once she was not about to go ahead and do it a second time. The term ‘grin and bear it’ was quickly becoming a mantra in her head and along with the mortifying idea of having to walk through the school wearing next to nothing again made Leila more than happy to stay human despite all the crazy. Day whatever of only the second week back and she was already bored, it was long past curfew and the Magnus Were was nowhere near her designated dorm instead she was in the forest about to no doubt get herself into more trouble. Leila lifted her gaze toward the general direction of the school with a small smile as her thoughts drifted to the impending Durusball game between Magnus and Crux. House rivalry at its best, the first game was bound to be positively insane and Leila could not wait especially since she had been added as a midfielder after her tryouts last year, but now that she was a fifth year student she was more than a little eager to show off her abilities as a Were, which was why she was out in the forest on a school night. Crouching suddenly she pulled off the small backpack that had been slung across her shoulder before quickly pulling off her clothes, there was no way she was going to rip them to shreds as she practised for the game this coming weekend, kitted out in her super durable spandex underwear (courtesy of one Professor Blaze) Leila quickly shoved her clothes into the bag and hid it in the small clearing. With that done the lithe teen slipping into the shadows her bare feet making little to no sounds as she found another spot a bit further away from the clearing she had hidden her stuff before willing herself to change, the sounds of bones breaking would drift through the forest along with the eerie noise of limbs being rearranged into a completely different form altogether. [e]
01:00:56 Mila was conveniently pulled from the lull of sweet slumber when the sound of creaking movement carried through the girls dormitory hall, presumably coming from the common room in Crux. Hex was an old structure and to say some parts of it were a little on the decrepit side of the mark, would be fair. Figuring it to be a mouse or the creaking structure in the wind, she paid it little mind but being cumbersomely awake, she slipped silently from her bed and tiptoed stealthy from her room meaning to secure herself a DRANK from the girls bathroom. Water was on the menu. Given that her room was by chance the closest to the handful of steps that simply put the dormitories on a higher mark rather than the next level of the school, she was more than close enough to find that the sounds were definitely coming from the common room. As curious as the female lead in a Horror flick; one that was customarily going to horrify viewers on 'her team' when she died and a random, inconsequential character survived instead – Mila followed the noise. Impractically, she was wearing an oversized, long-sleeved Dball Highlander's jersey, one that met mid thigh and left her slim legs as bare as a baby's bottom. No socks, no shoes but she crept silently after the looming presence. A dangerous, careless act given that there was a murderer on the loose – but Luthor had kept this news hushed and failed to warn his students.
01:39:43 Chase` made his way outside into the brisk winter wind. Unbeknownst to him, a semi-nude girl was following him. He stuffed his hands into the pocket of his jacket after he buttoned it up. His boots crushed the slightly stiff grass and he moved away from the main building of Hex. He wanted a good distance from the rest of the school so that his activities wouldn't wake anyone. He headed to the woods and moved along to the very first clearing. When he reached it he moved into the center of the ring of trees and instantly folded himself to sit on the ground. He removed his hands from his pockets and planted his plams firmly in the dirt. His eyes slid closed and he tugged at his power to manipulate the earth almost lazily, and suddenly the ground began to quake softly, the ripples probably reaching Leila but dying before they reached the school. And suddenly the ground cracked in a jagged circle around Chase's sitting form. Next thing, the black-haired young man was rising into the night sky on a thick pillar of earth. When he was about ten feet up the pillar stopped moving and he reached out with his mind to the loose rocks all around the clearing. Suddenly all the loose stone debris was rising up around the pillar in a circle, which began to rotate slowly around the rock as it rose.
01:50:00 [Leila] It would take a good few moments before the creature moved and even then it still shuddered in between deep breaths as each limb was hesitantly stretched, this time Leila was fully in control of the change and though it sounded and looked extremely painful it wasn’t as bad as it truly felt thanks to an in grained healing ability that allowed the human body to withstand the muscle strain as well as all the bone breaking too. The wolf-like beast shook itself much like a dog would after getting itself wet, it was very much a human equivalent as Leila cleared her mind before allowing the wolf’s senses to take over, the forest was alive with a myriad of creatures that only woke after the sun disappeared and that knowledge alone made her all too wary of what resided behind the dark tree line. Standing at roughly four feet in height from paw to shoulder the Werewolf easily moved through the somewhat dense undergrowth her tail wagging slightly as she dug her claws into the ground, biting back the urge to howl out excitement she settled for a wolfish grin and continued on her way or at least she would have if the ground didn’t suddenly ripple beneath her. Yelping in surprise the Werewolf stopped suddenly skidding to a rather graceless halt and then rose to its full height, ears turned to pick up any noise that seemed out of place before dropping back onto all fours and running towards the source of it all, while remaining completely unaware that she was headed toward a student. Leila’s over active imagination had by then come up with several outlandish notions as to why the ground had moved and none of them would have pegged it as an earth mage searching for minerals. [e]
02:08:05 Mila never thought to return to her dormitory and better prepare herself for an outdoor trek through a December night, far too rapt with her following of this faceless presence who, for all her knowledge, could be up to no good. Given that there wasn't too much shade of sparse trees along the grounds until they broke the line of trees, with the cant of her head and soft release of breath she expelled a conjured shadow, sweet darkness that would make it hard to spy her presence in the night unless one were to look closely or create light. Child's play and a good mite useful for her subtle journey, executed with stealth that may have been useful in her observation of Emri. Unfortunately for her, her 'observation' turned into an interrogation, one that seemed centered upon the boy's fixation with Trix, another Sixth Crux. As the boy made his way through the forest, steps turned from tiptoed in cold, dewy grass to made painfully on the small rock, twigs, leaves, prickled bushes and a number of other things Mila didn't want to think about. Somehow, she managed to keep her grunts of pain and 'oofs' quieter than the sounds of the forest, and remained undetected, so she assumed, until he entered the clearing and sat down. Now curiosity got the better of common sense and the brunette who figured the person, man or woman for that matter, to be another student whom she knew well enough – given that their journey began in Crux. Rather than inhaling her trick of darkness, stepping from the trees of speaking, the Seer made further use of her Casting. A graceful flourish of one hand, her gaze fixed with an eye of concentration on the air far ahead of her, she conjured small orbs of light. They were no simple flicker nor torch, but formed from specks of Ether into small butterflies, vibrant, iridescent and pooling light around the area they flew rampantly. In this same moment the ground shook and she'd needed to steady herself with a hand on the nearest trunk of a tree. Meanwhile her tricks of light circled around the newly formed dais of earth until they rose to the height of the boy's face. Mila would know that face anywhere. Crying out with Mirth the brunette darted from her hiding place with a sharp intake of breath – all but removing the false darkness that surrounded her. “Chase! What are you doing here?” And why had she followed a random guy into the Forest in the middle of the night? Spontaneity my friend! When you have seen your death and know it is not this day, one will live with careless abandon, treating every precious moment as if it was their last. One bare foot stomped on the ground and she crossed her arms over her chest. “Come down here.” As Ascension training was yet to begin, she had no manner of casting, and obviously no element to assist her to rising to such a height. Didn't he know the kind of trouble he could get himself in? And her? For that matter? Eyes of smoke turned toward the tree line about the clearing where the sound of fast movement and crushed brush drew her attention. On the ground alone and with the area fairly gloomy for her butterflies cast only a small diameter of glow... Mila would be lying if she said she wasn't a little wary. “Chase bring me up!” Just as easily as a mountain could lift him, he could make one lift her.
02:14:58 Sophelia had taken a brief moment in time to spend with herself...and her never ending addiction to smoking. Dressed rather scantily for such a chilling winter night, she had on a pair of badass booty shorts, and what looked to be an older, too little for her frame, long john shirt that didn't really cover much up of her stomach. Hiding out in the shadows of the Institute's yard, she was constantly looking around herself, hoping and ensuring no one was there to find her. The last thing she needed was to get caught smoking again, as well of her room after lights out. Sucking in the intoxicating smoke, as it passed through the filter and filled her lungs, she shivered as she stood in place; if it wasn't for this damn addiction of her she'd not be standing out in the chilling wind having to feed it, instead she could be in her bed all warm and cozy. As she went to inhale another long drag from her crinkled cigarette, she felt the ground tremor some, causing her neatly trimmed brow to perk up in interest. Exhaling a little bit, she grinned and snickered some, someone else was out too, and now she wondered just who it was. Gracefully, and by gracefully she jogged and ran some in the direction she thought she felt the tremor come from. As she approached, she at first saw the boy sitting up top a stone pillar that rose from the ground, a few pieces of debris floating around him; nothing she'd never seen before and nothing too fancy at that. Though as her gaze moved about and she caught sight of the werewolve, her eyes widened a little and she grinned, so more than just her and this boy were outside of their rooms at this hour as well! Snickering some, she stood where she was at, still holding the remains of her cigarette, she lifted it up to her lips and took a long drag off it. Eyes mesmerized at the sight before her, both the earth mage and the werewolf, it wasn't often one managed to see either one out past curfew, let alone together like this.When the other woman suddenly seemed to come out of no where and address the boy who was sitting atop the pillar, she blinked some and nearly burned herself as the cigarette had reached just a centimeter or so from her delicate fingers, quickly dropping it and leaving it to snuff itself out, she kept to herself, just observing and watching for now, she hoped for her sake it wasn't a staff member or someone who might end up reporting her. The woman seemed rather okay with the boy being outside, but for her, well she didn't know how the woman might react and treat her for being outside, let alone if she was caught smoking, and both her clothes and breath carried with it the scent of a cigarette. Letting out a faint huff, she tried to make her presence as little known as possible, but she figured that just her coming closer like this would have at least alerted the werewolf she was around.
02:30:20 Chase` was focused on his practice, too focused to notice the fact that there were butterflies with lanterns for wings floating around the clearing. He was practicing reaching out with his mind to the different type of rock around the clearing. In order to correctly identify minerals one had to know their molecular structure, texture, everything. And while there were different kinds of rocks in the layers of the Earth's crust, they were all similar in structure. But if he studied, he could eventually identify metals, things like coal and gemstones. He had already honed his ability to manipulate metal to a razor's edge, and now he was looking to master probably the most usefule thing he could imagine, being an earth mage. He could pull gold and silver out of the bedrock. He could pull diamonds, rubies, emeralds from it. He could even create those things! The possibilities were, very probably, only limited by the imagination. But he was jarred from his parctice when a voice called out his name. His eyes snapped open and he looked around behind him, and then down over the edge of the pillar, "Mila? I'm practicing." He noticed what she was wearing and he frowned, "I will not come down. I need to practice if I'm ever going to be able to drag metals and gemstones up out of the ground to get rich. You should go back inside where it's warm. You don't even have shoes on!" When he noticed that her attention was diverted by sounds and suchlike, his voice cracked out sharply, "SIT DOWN!" If she didn't do it immediately, she would probably fall off the suddenly rising pillar of rock. The slim pillar would rise to the same height as his and it would be a simple matter for Mila to jump from the pillar she was standing on to the one he was sitting on.
02:39:16 Leila picked up the unfamiliar scents of not just one student, not two but three. The thought would have been chuckled at if Leila were not currently in a form that had little use for vocal cords, entering the clearing quietly didn’t matter much considering that each of the other students had noticed her noisy run through the forest and as such she easily stepped out of the shadows into the light created by Mila. Testing the air the Werewolf sneezed suddenly as the noxious smoke of Sophelia’s cigarette reached the wolf’s sensitive nose, again another laugh was deterred by the wolven form that now curiously sniffed in the direction where the smoke had come from, I guess I wasn’t the only one keen on a bit of fresh air. Leila was completely in control of her current form and as such posed no threat to any of the students, however she did realise that they were probably not all too excited about having to face a werewolf at all but that didn’t mean she was going to change back straight away... being caught in the forest was one thing, but being found out in nothing but your underwear was something she wasn’t about to go through any time soon. Turning to face Mila the Werewolf canted her head to the side before dropping into a low crouch when Chase shouted, flattening her ears at the loud noise she whined softly but made no move toward either of them, peering up at the male perched on the pillar he had created for himself she then sent another glance toward Mila who now sat on a pillar much like the one he did. Shaking her head at the pair of them she flashed them both a toothy grin before doing exactly what Chase had shouted at Mila to do, the large charcoal coloured wolf sat herself down in the clearing and remained quiet as she watched them her tail wagging as she found herself rather amused at the situation they found themselves in. [e]
02:46:24 Mila paid no mind to his explanation but dropped instantly to a balanced crouch with all the precision of a soldier, fingers poised so their tips just grazed the earth. Her eyes shuttered closed while she felt the unsettling feeling of a miniature earthquake directly beneath her, and only dared to open them once she felt the terrain's movement come to a stop. “Of course I don't have shoes on!” She snapped in a childish whisper, “I was following some idiot who thinks the middle of the night is a great time to study!” Hmph! But she couldn't be mad at him, not when she was sitting on a pillar with her bare legs dangling down one side. Sophelia's brought wary suspicion for she was too far from the glow to be more than a dark figure in the night. With a flick of her head, that created a cascade of sleek dark hair, she guided the glowing butterflies closer to the other person, and sighed in relief as she identified the girl as another Sixth year ruling out the chance of a bogeyman, or worse, one of the staff. When the werewolf that had been heard with it's rucus emerged too, the suspicion and ounce of fear that plagued her mind vacated instantly. Mila could not lie that in her first year, the thought of attending the same campus as Were's terrified her and made her particularly uncomfortable with sharing a dormitory one. But, when the Were emerged fairly calmly and reacted to Chase's power, the girl was certain he/she was in full control of their shift. Swinging one leg lazily, she offered a wave to their new companions. “Uh, hey guys?” Now she felt a little bit silly for requesting that Chase rise her to safety. Still it wasn't as though Mila minded being taller than everything for once, and there was simply no getting down without breaking a leg or piercing her foot with a twig. Eugh.
11:50:40 Chase` glanced around as Mila began directing her lantern butterflies around the dark clearing and he frown a little. How did so many people sneak out at once?! Well, there was an easy answer to day. They were all from different houses, save him and Mila. But still, professor Blaze usually kept a tight rein on his werewolves, so he was a little baffled as to how one had escaped. But instead of speaking to anyone else just yet his eyes turned to the girl he'd just lifted ten feet into the air on a pillar of natural rock that he had pulled up from pretty deep, "Well you should have at least put more clothes on before following! You're going to freeze out here!" He shook his head and began unbuttoning his jacket muttering about girls lacking in common sense, "Besides, I couldn't sleep. Practicing helps me calm down and clear my mind. If you hadn't followed me I would have just sat here for an hour or so before going back inside and passing out almost immediately." The accuracy with which he described what would have happened was a tell-tale hint that he had been doing this for a long, long time. Of course, he had been a little careless in his skulking about this night, hence Mila's presence, but still! He had never been caught before!
12:09:19 Mila huffed and threw her hands up in typical Mila comedy, “I didn't have time! I had to get my stealth on!” Even though there was presumably no staff members in sight she kept her voice to a stage whisper, and paused to wave off the two girls who assumingly decided that as there was no Earthquake nor issue, they would resume whatever it was they had snuck from their dormitories to do – in the middle of the night. Go figure. Quicker than lightning, the girl's swift reflexes caught up his jacket and saved it from falling to the dirt below, and instead shrugging it onto her arms. A little too large quite like the oversized Highlanders jersey that acted as a nightgown, the sleeves hung past her hands. Mila was riveted by their outright obedience. She was no goody-two-shoes but after years of learning the strict rulings and punishments at Hex, it was... alluring to know that Chase had been getting away with his daring midnight excursions on a number of occasions. “Can I come with you again?” Next time. Before he could answer, the girl who had risen from her crouch leapt with feline grace for his own thin pillar. Given the sizing and that an oncoming projectile, Mila, could very well knock him off balance – it was a true possibility they may just end up in a tangle of limbs on the floor. Oops. Act first, think later in typical Mila style.
12:26:34 Chase` tell anyone, not that he would ever tell this story, that it was a damn good thing he was still sitting down on his own little platform. And when the slim girl, wearing his jacket backward, came jumping at him he reacted instinctively. There was a short grinding noise as the pillar underneath him shifted, the portion behind him rising father than the rest to act as a backstop to keep them from tumbling over the edge of the ten foot drop and breaking stuff that was of vital importance. But as Mila dropped from her leap he reached out and caught her, the small amount of inertia passing to him and making him bump into the backrest he'd created for himself, which landed Mila in his lap, naturally. He sighed and released his hold on her, rolling his eyes, <I>"Why would you want to come back out here with me and watch me practice? It's kinda boring from an observer's point of view, you know. All I do is sit here and basically meditate."</I. He leaned back a little now to stretch out his arms and chest, "Besides, I never really know when I'm going to do it. If I had an actual schedule I would have gotten caught by now, probably." He placed his elbows on the rocky surface of his bacrest, looking at her, his breath misting slightly, wondering if she still wanted to join him the next time he slipped out to practice.
12:35:08 Mila knew he wouldn't allow them to fall though, she may have been expecting a little much. Expecting another to be on their game, and able to ward off gravity, force and oncoming projectiles in darkness? She was a girl who expected the moon. Unable to grasp at any further argument the girl shrugged her shoulders and allowed him leave from persuasion – for the time being. Provided that he brought them down and decided to turn in early since his interruption, the duo would leave the forest and head back to Crux. Their journey would likely have been made with Mila requesting a piggyback ride the entire way, for she was still without shoes in Winter. Both concluded their night in their own dormitories respectively, in preparation for school the next day.