Monster Academy(IC thread)

[Astro_sol]

"New body? You don't just take human form?" asked London absentmindedly. None of the other students seemed to be taking his bait. Ah, well. He began moving towards the main building, ready to give it a general look-see.

[Mekboy]

"I wish! I'm stuck with this ugly lump now!" Red complained. Leaning in close, she poked London "You mean you ain't stuck like that, pretty-boy? Ugh..."

[Astro_sol]

Before red-hair's finger could touch London, he had grabbed it between two fingers. "Don't touch," he muttered, and tossed her hand away. "I'm stuck while this is on," he said, pointing at the Rosario. He stormed ahead quicker, finishing the cigarette and tossing it away without caring where it went.

[EdroGrimshell]

"He can't take it off himself," Rook says, "honestly I've always looked human, you know the kind," she continues, "like succubi or yuki-onna. They look mostly human even in their natural forms," she avoids actually saying she's a monster, half-truths helped her blend in more.

[Mekboy]

Ignoring London for the moment, Red raised an eyebrow. "You've always looked like that? Real tough break there. Never heard of either of them monsters though. You know a lot about that kinda stuff?"

[delta639]

Luhy waits for a few moments, glancing between Agni and the milling crowd. Then she shrugs. "Doesn't look like she heard you, kid. Eh, well, she knows where the pool is, she can come find us if she wants. Come on."

She leads the blond boy inside the school grounds, giving a wave to Rook and Red as she passes them, and a curt nod in London's direction.

"I'm Luhy, by the way," she mentions to Agni. "Luhy Galt, I'm a second-year here. I'm still wondering, by the way- how was it you pulled off that trick on the bus with my drawing? Using magic on the air currents, or something like that? Telekinesis?"

They head inside, quickly advancing to the pool. "And here it is!" she says with a grin, pointing at the large pool through a window. "Changing rooms lead right inside, that's the boys' one." She points to the leftmost of two doors, and heads into the other. She quickly changes into a blue-green bikini and heads into the pool area, waiting for Agni to come out as well.

[Green Bean]

Agni was a little hurt that Cheong ignored him, but he shook it off with a smile. Luhy was probably right, she just couldn't hear him. As they crossed the campus, he was quickly back to his cheerful self "Oh, that? I made it meant to happen. Like this!"

He pointed at an open spot on the grounds; some inconsiderate visitor had dropped a cigarette butt on the field. He concentrated for a moment, and his fingers twitched a bit. As the two of them looked on, a small songbird dove for a bug, missed it, and managed to snatch up the litter. The bird realized its mistake and released its 'prey', but the butt nonetheless had enough momentum left to carry it through the air and into a nearby trash can.

"See, you just have to knot the fates of the trash can and the garbage together, and the universe sorts it out. My family's a lot better at it than I am, though; my knots only last a couple seconds unless I really concentrate, so it only works on stuff that's like right there in front of me."

The pool was everything Agni thought it would be, and he said as much. "Awesome! I'll meet you out here!"

He changed quickly and met Luhy out on the pool deck. His bathing suit is...interesting. It had white and red horizontal stripes running up its length, and the cut is clearly circa 1920 at the latest. It also had a skirt, with knee length bloomers underneath. He smiles a little awkwardly, a little embarrassed but not overly so. "My aunt's a great seamstress, but she's only knows a few patterns. She mostly just resizes hand-me-downs. Are you a good swimmer?"

[delta639]

Luhy listens to the boy's explanation with interest, eyes lighting up at the bird's behavior and cigarette butt's movement. "Oh, now that's a lot cooler than I'd expected! You actually interfere with the fate of the universe on a manageable level? Wow...I don't suppose that's something I could learn, is it?...nah, probably not, I'd need to be closer to my dad's power I think. Well, maybe eventually."

After changing briefly, Luhy meets Agni out on the deck, where she...gives him a blank stare. "I, um, don't think I've seen that kind of swimsuit before. The ones on most of the boys here are a lot smaller, and..." She smiles uncertainly at him and shrugs. "Well, it probably doesn't matter much, anyway. Human clothing's mostly for show, right? Swimsuits probably aren't much different."

With that, she jumps backwards into the pool, a wave of water splashing up towards Agni. She paddles around in it, giggling, several limb-length tentacles extended from her hair. "Ahh. Well, I'm not as good at it in this form- the body's all weird in terms of buoyancy and stuff- but the water's still where I was from to begin with, so I guess I'm a decent swimmer. What about you? Want to try a little race, maybe?...Just to the end of the pool and back, something like that."

[EdroGrimshell]

Rook takes a seat on the bench near the edge of the pool, "I don't swim," she says, a hand raching behind her collar to touch the spade shaped mark on her neck.

[Green Bean]

"Sure!" Agni dove in with a splash. "Wow, I've never been in a real pool before! This is great!"

Without waiting for any kind of signal, he took off for the other end of the pool. Of course, he was clearly completely untrained, and he inched along the lane, the water roiling as he flailed along.

[Astro_sol]

London followed Rook to the pool. "My swim trunks are in my bag. Which is in my room."

He took off his shirt and sat on the edge of the pool, letting his legs sit in the water. "Eh," was the only sound he gave at getting his uniform's pants soaking wet.

He stared into the water, toying with his rosary.

[Mekboy]

Red took a distainful sniff of the air, wrinkling her nose. "We're expected to swim in that? Stinks of chemicals. No way I'm going in there." Taking a seat next to Rook, she surveyed the swimmers, quickly spotting Luhy. So much for 'keeping human form'.

[delta639]

(OOC: So, neither of us actually have ranks in Swim, but judging by respective modifiers...)

"Yeah, it's nice enough. Nothing compared to the ocean, obviously, but- hey, you started early!" Luhy calls playfully to Agni, and sets off for the other side herself.

Her form is rough, similar to Agni's, but the multiple limbs and greater strength contained therein propel Luhy to the end of the pool several seconds before Agni reaches it. Aww, no challenge here... she thinks, turning to face him and holding up a hand. "Time out. You seem, um, kinda new to swimming, kid. Can't you...I dunno, tie your fate to the end of the pool or something? To make this a little more interesting, you know."

She looks around, seeking inspiration, and her eyes alight on the girls and London by the poolside. "Hey, Red! Hi, Rook! What, did you follow us over here? Come on, if you're at the pool you should at least try getting in," she calls, waving a tentacle at them.

[Mekboy]

"Hey Squidhead. I was just following London here." She glanced over at the boy in question. "Apparently he decided to come here for a staring match with the water." She gave a slightly disgusted look at the water. "You really happy swimming in that stuff? Smells wrong. And who's yer friend?"

[Astro_sol]

London suddenly smiled. "Squid-hair." He chuckled, still staring at the water. He had a new name for the girl.

What was he going to do here? Being at home was easy. Just ignore the humans and they typically ignored you. Only now he was surrounded by monsters, who apparently didn't really care about that "keep human form" rule he'd read about. He wasn't worried, per se. Just confused.

He continued kicking his feet in the water. He didn't mind getting his pants wet, but he didn't need to be stripping down just yet. It'd probably cause a scene.

[delta639]

"Squid-" Luhy starts, before glancing down at her tentacles. "Oh, right. I should probably put those away, shouldn't I? Just forgot I guess, I'm used to having them to help me swim." She shrugs, unconcerned, and the appendages retract into her wet hair.

"It does smell a little strange, huh? From what I've heard, the school puts a few things into the water to make it more like human pools. Don't worry, it's not harmful or anything, and you get used to it pretty quickly. Um-" She looks to Agni, a small frown playing across her face. "What was your name again, kid? I don't think I ever caught it."

"By the way..." she says, looking back to Red. "I'm pretty sure the school has spare swimsuits around here somewhere. That goes for any of you who'd want to try 'em out. Might even be in the changing rooms there...I don't know, I didn't look too closely. Interested?"

[EdroGrimshell]

"I don't swim in public," Rook says, London would know why that was, he'd seen the tattoo, it was one of the few things that could get to her, most of the spotty memories she had were of thoe marks and the people with modified versions of them. But all of them were nightmares, things she'd rather not have remembered.

[Green Bean]

"I could, probably, but fate doesn't have much to work with in my swimming skills." He kicked off again, not much faster but a little less clumsily this time.

He made it to the end of the pool where everyone else had gathered. "I'm Agni, it's great to meet all of you. It's too bad you don't want to swim, it's fun. How about you, really hot guy? Didn't you bring a bathing suit?"

[Astro_sol]

London actually glanced up at Squid-hair. "I'm not wearing something from a public changing room. Sorry since you seem so eager to get me to strip." It was as if his face were stuck in stoic.

[Green Bean]

"Aww, your loss." Agni kicks off, showering everyone with water.

[Astro_sol]

London looked down. "Ah." His uniform was soaked. He furrowed his eyebrows. That was a good school uniform that just got drenched in chlorine.

He jumped into the water, his eyes lit up with...something, perhaps a sick form of glee. Whatever the case, he was beginning to grin as he sloshed his way towards blondy.

"What'd you say your name was, kid?" London had a slasher smile if he'd ever seen one.

[Green Bean]

"Agni!" He was treading water now. "You know, you probably should put on a bathing suit first, it's going to be hard to swim in that..."

[Mekboy]

Quickly stepping back from the spray of water, Red's giggled at London's reaction. "Hey Agni, if I were you I'd start running now! From what I've seen of Pretty-boy here, he ain't the best when it comes to tempers! Rook, he always this easy to rile?"

[EdroGrimshell]

"Not always, he's just nervous, Rook replies, "if you really want to see him on edge you need to do or say something that will get under his skin," she has a bit of a smirk when she says that, a mischievous one that London would recognize instantly even if he couldn't directly see it.

[delta639]

"And people say I'm full of myself. From the sounds of it, boy, Agni here would be more interested in that than I would..."

Luhy stops talking as she notices the course of events things seem to be taking, and paddles back a couple feet in the pool to watch the fireworks. Might as well get a better measure of London while I can. And Agni really needs a better sense for danger if he's going to survive here, so I'm not going to interfere.

[Mekboy]

"Aw, that's why yer so grumpy? We making ya nervous?" Red chimed in, clearly enjoying herself.

[Astro_sol]

London felt a chill coming from his neck. That'd be Rook. He could ignore her, easy; it came with living with the girl. That'd take getting some use to, here. They weren't a hallway apart anymore.

As for the rest of them...

"You keep telling yourself that," he said in an aside to Squid-hair. He couldn't look her in the eyes, though, making her cry still didn't sit well with him.

"And Agni, was it?" he turned back to blondie. He kept grinning as he sank down into the water, until he was fully submerged. Below the water, he let his eyes meet Agni's. I'm scary, aren't I?

OOC

Spoiler

Show

Fear Emotion Control on Agni. DC 18.

[Green Bean]

"Yep!" Agni was a little put off by the whole underwater glowering thing, but to each their own, right? He waited patiently for London to surface so they could talk.

[Astro_sol]

London frowned as the kid most certainly did not start wetting himself in fear. Okie doke. He could work with that.

He moved forward all of a sudden, grabbing blondie by the legs and tugging down.

[Mekboy]

"Oh now this is good! You show 'im, Pretty-boy! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!" Red chanted, swimsuit forgotten. Maybe it wasn't that different from home at all.