villainy commenced [[1x1 w/ the-nug-king & hexspecs!]]

[the-nug-king]

Cazenar ignored their discussion, continuing to drag Lucas to Aurion's room, a couple of floors above.

Aurion sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes as they entered. "Do you have to make so much noise coming in I- that's my minion! What do you think you're doing to him?!" He grabbed a staff from his bedside, pointing it at Cazenar. "Let him go!"

[grey matter]

"Uhhhh... Well, I already told Lucas this, I think I can... actually, he's your nemesis, do you want to explain?" Lazarus offered.

"I'm apparently being half-kidnapped into your dorm for some reason that involves making a void and dangerous items."

Tiny letters emerged from the box once more. "I AM IN A BOX, WHICH MEANS I'M BASICALLY STILL IN BED. WHICH IS NICE."

[the-nug-king]

Cazenar released Lucas, shoving him forward and tuning to close the door. "So here's the thing, my darling, dearest nerds: The Academy's doing a random search for prohibited items, so I'm going to need Aurion's minion here to build me an extra little hideaway they're not going to look in."

Aurion narrowed his eyes, glaring across at Cazenar. He looked a little more normal than usual, missing his fake scar with his hair recently washed. "So you'e in danger of expulsion? And why would you tell me that? Or think that I'd have any interest in helping you."

"Aurion, Aurion, Aurion.. This isn't about helping me, it's about helping yourself. You know my backstory. You've met my sister. You're already an accomplice to my secret. Do you think I'll hesitate for a moment not to sell you out, if they catch me?"

"Then I'll just have to betray you first!" Aurion leapt out of bed, running for the door, and Cazenar tackled him to the ground. "Minion! Don't let any of them out!"

((In other news aurion is Also the Worst))

[grey matter]

Lazarus took Lucas's hand, knowing that, for the most part, Lucas wasn't going to go anywhere without a decent explanation or a reason to leave. "Lucas isn't, at least!"

"I COULD LEAVE THIS BOX ANY TIME I WANTED TO BUT I'M ACTUALLY REALLY COMFY. I'D GO BACK TO SLEEP BUT LUCAS ISN'T."

"I'm aware, Lucdust. And I don't think Lucas will be sleeping until... uh, either tomorrow night or tonight, depending on what time it is right now."

"I want to put my lab coat back on. It's cold," Lucas interjected.

"...Wait, you don't have anything that could aid in your escape in those pockets, do you? Ugh, I can't give you an escape advantage... and there's no way I'm using my scarf, as... cute as that'd potentially be... You just get to be cold, sorry not sorry, Lucas."

"It's fine, I guess... I'll just steal your body heat instead, force us into thermal equilibrium!"

"You're already doing that."

"You're lucky I'm not trying to take more of it..."


[[oadijhvjdsdkjn
meanwhile Lucas and Lazarus are dealing with Temperature and Lucdust is just. Being Dust.]]

[the-nug-king]

Aurion and Cazenar were distracted, wrestling on the ground. Cazenar finally managed to get his teeth into Aurion's neck, but as he started to suck the blood, found himself blasted across the room.

Aurion stood up, grinning. "I've been taking lessons on blood magic for extra credit." He glanced across at the others, satisfied that Lucas wasn't being attacked and approached Cazenar again. "So, give me one good reason I shouldn't go to Professor Gk with this, right now."

[grey matter]

"I still want to know more about what's going on here, too..." Lucas said in a tone that made it clear this wasn't an objection to his commander, just his displeasure at still not knowing what was going on. "I was told I'd get a better explanation when we got here, and I still don't have all of that."

"ARE YOU TWO EXPLAINING THIS OR NOT?! INQUIRING PILES OF DUST WANT TO KNOW."

Lazarus gave Cazenar a worried look, not knowing if all this was permission to explain yet. He wanted to. He had something whipped up for this but he probably needed permission to go on an explanatory tangent involving voids, items, and potential doom

[[I initially felt like Lazarus would've had something to say in response to Aurion but like. Mind empty. Idiot Mode On. He Will Soon, I'm Sure

Entirely offtopic, but boy, have I been inspired to make My Second Recent Hivemind Thingy... kind of... idoscxhvxdsihc it's vv hard to explain]]

[the-nug-king]

"I told you!" Cazenar objected. "I need you to hide my prohibited items or I'll get expelled or fed to the space slug, and I'll drag the rest of you down with me! Why do you need to know anything else?"

"Why would we possibly want to help you? You're my nemesis! You kidnapped my minion!

"Only half kidnapped!" Cazenar smirked. "Come on, Malisar. You know you're not going to turn me in. Informing on me to let someone else destroy me? That'd kill you."

"Hm. I'm still going to need some incentives to help you." Aurion frowned, considering. "I want your minion for a while. I believe he could be... useful to me."

"What? No! You have your own! And the dust pile!"

"And what else do you think you have to offer me? You don't even have your own room!"

((Oooh))

[grey matter]

"I wanted to know what this had to do with Three. Someone mentioned Three. Are you half-kidnapping Three too?" Lucas asked.

"No, not as far as I know! And, for that other thing, I may be useful but I feel like this would kind of... bog up the nice dynamic the five of us have, y'know? It's really tidy as is."

[the-nug-king]

"I'm not asking you!" Aurion snapped.

Cazenar sighed. "Fine. Minion, they're not helping us, so I guess we just call Three now. Like I said, I've implicated all of you in my crimes. So I'm just gonna have Three sort this out with DarkBoard for me, by threatening the rest of you if they don't."

[grey matter]

"I KNOW I SHOULDN'T WANT TO KNOW BUT AT THE SAME TIME I NEED TO KNOW HOW YOU INTE," Lucdust cut off that and dissolved the letters upon realizing Lucas would be threatened and therefore, by extension, threaten them. Oh well.

"...do you think we'll end up waking up Morgan if we go over there now?" Lazarus asked. "That'd be... rude of us."

"Oh, so half-kidnapping me and Lucdust isn't?" Lucas objected.

"We're rivals! We get to be rude to one another! Besides, I have standards and I refuse to be rude to a cool baby... unless I do so unintentionally. Then I will profusely apologize because cool babies don't deserve that. Now, I guess... Yeah, I guess we're getting Three now. Geez, it's like the entire Game Night Assembly will be here minus three of us... and we're getting Three right now. Haha. That's mildly amusing. Speaking of that, when are we playing board games next?"

[[lAZARUS WAY TO BE CASUAL AT A BAD TIME]]