In The Next Life (Me, Wormy and Were!)

[Moonlit Dream]

Lance stared at Chimere, and as she bared her teeth, he bared his, revealing wickedly sharp canine teeth that looked like they had come right out of a fiction story. Growling a little, he let his mouth drift shut, then looked down and stalked after her. From the classrooms he was seeing, it looked like they were headed in the right direction. Seemed like he shared at least one classroom with these creeps. Lance clenched his teeth, and then tilted his head slightly as he saw a teacher checking a picture on a wall. The wall was filled with characters of all sorts, some Lance knew and recognized. Curiously, he approached, and growled in slight amusement as he saw that the check mark had been placed on the image of a large, red dragon that was spouting a torrent of flame. He felt the hairs on the back of his neck beginning to stand on end. What kind of place was this?

Alex looked down at the dog as it approached, holding out a hand to the canine for it to sniff, then following Chimere. Looking around told him that another student had seen that wierd guy putting a check mark on a picture. Alex tilted his head a little, but didn't reply. At least they were nearly back at their classroom now... Alex sighed. It was lunch break after this, then what, he wasn't sure.

[Wormgod]

Javed finally gave up on following Chimere and leaned against the wall, just standing in the middle of a hall full of pictures. Some were funny, some looked realistic enough, but others were just downright insane. Right across from him was a picture set up like an army unit picture; a whole bunch of men in uniforms, holding their helmets in their hands. All them en looked exactly the same; except with slightly different haircuts. In face, they were all the same, and one had a checkmark next to him. Hey look, it's that stormtrooper kid. He thought, remembering how the last teacher claimed some kid in her class was a stormtrooper.

Annika held herself, shivering slightly, even though the room wasn't cold. She looked up at Inle again, her expression unreadable, "People are afraid of me, too. People get hurt around me."

[miraphoenix]

Looking at the pictures as she passed them, Chimere paused in front of the checked picture of the horrible squid-monster, examining it closely. There's something...familiar about this image... she thought, tracing the creature's wings with a fingertip. As much as I hate to admit it, that was the face I saw in that last hallucination.... Shivering as she remembered that particularly vivid image, she saw the caption at the base of the picture, written in rather ornate script; "Cthulhu". Backing up as if in shock, she remembered the principal calling her by that name. No... I can't be that...thing! Backing away from the image, she turned and fled from the pictures to hide in the doorway of a nearby storage closet.

Inle's face, too, had changed; there was ice in her liquid brown eyes, and there were occasional moments where those eyes seemed to be red. "Did they die?" she asked quietly, her past slowly coming clear. "Did those people die in horrible ways?"

[Moonlit Dream]

Watching as the others went to look at the pictures that marked the walls, Alex felt his own gaze drifting back tothe picture of the boy and the wolf, a short distance away. Really... What was with this place?! Alex cringed ever so slightly, wanting nothing more than to call his mother and go home and back to normality, even if he knew that that wasn't really an option as he had been here long enough to have realized that something was horribly wrong with him. Turning as he heard footsteps, Alex was rather surprised to see Chimere fleeing to hide in a nearby storage closet, and he half-trotted-half-floated after her. "Hey," he asked, concern in his voice as he approached. "Whassup?"

Keegan watched the other people as each of them seemed drawn to a different picture, seemingly confused by them. Keegan himself wasn't sure what the fuss was all about, but he stayed silent, and, turning his gaze downwards a little, began to move further down the corridor, hazel eyes glazed as though lost in thought. Occasionally turning to gaze at the different pictures on the wall, Keegan paused as one of them caught his eye. There were two images, actually; one of a man who looked relatively young yet had hair silver as the moon's surface, hazel eyes, and a jewel embedded in his forehead. The man had a ring of gems similar to Keegan's necklace swirling around his neck, and there was light leaping between each of the beads and the man's heart. One hand was stretched out before him, and from his fingertips there leapt a torrent of yellow electrical energy. The other picture was of a magnificent dragon, body coiled and maw gaping wide to let loose leaping flames, the same beads twirling around its neck. It had hazel eyes but other than that, its colours seemed so pale that the animal was almost ghostly. Its eyebrows trailed off into long, long tendrils that were curled at the dragon's sides, and six vast wings were curved into an arc about its body, seemingly emerging from the air itself rather than the dragon. There was a mane of fur starting in a forelock on its head and tapering off into a lions mane, ending in a plume on the tip of its tail, and there were five large jewels embedded in its forehead. Keegan paused, reading the name that was placed beneath the two pictures; Cepheus.

[Wormgod]

Javed turned away from the Star Wars picture, looking at the one next to where his head was leaning against the wall a moment ago. The picture displayed a whole group of odd creatures. There was a golden woman wearing robes made of silver. To her right there were more women; a blond human-looking one wearing similar blue robes, a dark, old hag with little-girl pigtails and pure black eyes, and a grotesque hag covered in boils and cancerous tumors. Then there was a red-skinned man taking a swig of whiskey, a dark green dragon behind him, and a green man with tusk-like teeth holding a gigantic hammer.
A few more shaped were hiding in the shadows of trees and flames, but Javed ignored them and looked at the one who seemed to be the most interesting. It was a man wearing no shirt and old-fashioned breeches, something one would imagine a pirate to be sporting. He had no shoes, and instead of feet, furred hooves poked out from under the pants. He sat on a tree stump, smirking at the camera, black eyes boring into the viewer's very soul, with a huge black dog next to him. One hand propped his face up, and the other was holding the hilt of a purple and black longsword pointed at the ground. The sword glowed faintly, and reminded Javed of something...There were no captions, except for something carved into the framework. It was so old and small, Javed had to squint to read it. It wasn't in English; instead in that language he made up as a child, reading a long list of names, one after the other; Azura Meridia Vaermina Namira Sanguine Peryite Malacath...Clavicus Vile

Annika soon grew very nervous; now the spotlight was on her. She looked down at the table again and twiddled her thumbs, nodding, "They scream and hold their ears...They scream about things only I can see, and they go insane and start bleeding everywhere..."

[miraphoenix]

"N-nothing..." Chimere whispered, holding her head in her hands, braids falling around her face. It was obvious by the qualities in her voice that she was--or had been--crying. That picture.... It's got to be some cruel joke. I can't be that...monster! she thought, seeming to fold inwards on herself, still crying.

"You can relax; anyone who hurts you will have to go through me first," Inle murmured, placing a gentle hand on Annika's shoulder. "I'm sorry... The people in my village, they... Some of them died from mysterious diseases, some of them were killed in their sleep and were found in their beds or in holes covered in long, bleeding scratches and bitemarks...."

[Moonlit Dream]

Alex tilted his head slightly, eliminating the happiness in his face and voice for Chimere's sake. Not that he was really optimistic when a friend was like this anyway, except if it cheered them up, but... would it cheer Chimere up, he wondered. "It doesn't seem like nothing to me," he said softly, blinking his shocking blue eyes and lifting his sunglasses onto his forehead so that his eyes were entirely visible. "Don't worry, it's not like I'd just, like sit back and do nothin' if a friend was hurt. Really, Chimere. What's up?"

Lance looked around, then brushed himself off with a sigh. He folded his arms and then began to move away from the picture, beginning to walk towards his lesson. Upon getting there, he paused, then raised his hand to knock, rapping on the door with the tip of a hooked talon, then entering. The picture had disturbed him deeply, so he hadn't really paid attention to any of the others. He just wanted to get to somewhere normal. Looking quizzically at the other students as he entered the room, Lance moved over to the teacher to introduce himself and perhaps get some information on this strange school and lesson. Absentmindedly, he rubbed the flame patterns or tattoos on his arms.

Keegan blinked, then began to turn away from the picture. As intriguing as it was, he was sure that the teachers would explain what this was all about at some point. Smiling distantly, he approached the one called Javed, and examined the curious runes that were written above it, wondering what thwy said and what Javed found so interesting. Could he really read those, wondered Keegan, but he did not voice his thoughts, his hazel eyes shifting only ever so slightly as he looked over what Javed was looking at.

[Wormgod]

Javed paid no attention as Keegan came over. He stared at the goat-legged man in the picture, who smirked right back at him, as if to say, "See what you are, boy. Now suffer." He rubbed a finger over the carving of that man's name, trying to distract himself with the feeling. It was a little interesting; like all personal nouns, the first letter was the biggest and placed to the left. The vowels were spread around in a clockwise pattern, and the consonants were counterclockwise, written over half of the vowels. When drawn, the vowels were yellow and the consonants were black, while the first letter was a different color--

--F*** this. He thought and suddenly stormed off, heading for the dorm section. Cerberus looked between his master, that picture--he could not see it himself, but he didn't need to--and Keegan. Finally he nudged Keegan's hand and ran after Javed, trying to get him to follow.


Annika smiled weakly and relaxed, "Thanks." She signed and looked up at Inle.

[miraphoenix]

Chimere was silent for a time, staying in her half-curled position in the corner. "It's nothing you have to worry about, Alex. Just my own issues playing on each other...." she whispered; it was half a truth, anyway. "Be glad your mind functions, Alex, and that you're not in my head.... It's scary up here..." she continued, sighing. "So many horrors...."

"You're welcome.... I'm sorry if I scared you, Annika," Inle murmured, watching the newcomer in the room with liquid brown eyes. If her eyes had belonged to anyone else, they would have been considered beautiful, but set as they were in Inle's face, they seemed like they held eldritch powers, and fearsome intentions in certain times, of which this was one of them.

[Moonlit Dream]

Keegan looked down at the dog curiously as it nudged his hand, then sighed and followed the dog after its owner. Wasn't like he had anything better to do, and he was meant to be keeping an eye on these kids anyway, so... He might as well see what the school was like, at least other than what he had already seen. Walking forward as though in slow motion, Keegan's hazel eyes stared straight ahead, his silvery hair shimmering in the light.

Alex blinked, going down on one knee so that he could look at Chimere better. "Well, if you say so..." he said reluctantly, blinking, and then thought again. "Can you at least try to cheer yourself up?" he asked, forcing a smile onto his face. "C'mon, look at me; I never like to see anyone who's sad!" he straightened up, and offered a hand to Chimere so that she could use it to pull herself to her feet if she wanted to.

"Excuse me, Joor. Are you even looking at me?" Lance snapped his taloned fingers in front of the teacher's face to see if she was listening. "I'm Lance Knight, and I'm new here," he folded his arms so that the tattoos were clearly visible, blinking his gleaming grey eyes that burned with hellfires unknown. "Can you kindly explain the situation, and this lesson to me? I am in the right room, aren't I?" he growled, his scarily deep voice seeming rather bored.