.:Mythic Dawn{Fantasy Romance/Action RP}Semi-literate:.

[OneSmartChicken]

[size=90]Hino felt no need to hide her mind as so many did--even honest folk who'd lead honest lives tended to hide their thoughts for the most part she'd noticed and never been offended by, for Hino was a hard girl to offend. She let her thoughts drift aimlessly over what she knew of Mugi, picking up on thoughts from past lives about salamanders and dragons but generally staying with this life cycle. She smiled at Leonard's statement. Yes, Mugi could speak.

He is unusual for salamanders, she told him after a long moment; it took a bit to bring her back from salamanders in general. She picked a few of those thoughts out and showed them to him. Salamanders relaxing in hearth fires mostly, keeping the home safe and warm. She showed him Mugi conversing with a brownie--and then Mugi thought to speak up. Or, hiss up, as it were.

"Wizard-wizard is not what you are to be called then?" he asked, pulling his long tail around to hold it like a child holding his blanky, yet it looked elegant on him. More like a woman absently toying with the train of her dress. "Then...wizard, yes? You are of the shaded variety--'dark'. My old master was like you. He tasted as if he had done evil and could do evil again, but he was a good man, in his way. You are like him, yes?" The image in his mind was dull and colorless; like an old photograph saved from the fire. The salamander's memory was 'not so good' any more, as he would say. "He taught me this language, and others. He taught me magics that a salamander is not born to know." Unlike many creatures speaking of the past, Mugi sounded neither wistful nor sad. In fact, if anything, he sounded pleased. But mostly it was just him conveying a story; nothing more and nothing less. To say that he 'missed' the dark wizard was wrong for he felt no longing for the long-dead man's presence. More accurately, he had thoroughly enjoyed the time they'd spent together and would enjoy seeing the man again, but at the moment he was content with his circumstances. Although he shared Leonard's dislike for that moment--he was not particularly fond of male laps, but sitting on the desk seemed more dangerous than strictly necessary. Stealth was a worthy reason for discomfort.

Hino's heart twisted painfully at the feel of the wizard's anguish, and she sympathized, for she had seen the memories and she remembered--in a distant, past-life way--what such things were like, though those memories flittered away from her grasp and she briefly wished she were older so that she could see them but knew it was best that she not. Instead of saying anything, she sent both Dulson and Everine a memory of flight, flying as only a phoenix knew, for a phoenix had no limitations. She remembered, for wizard and hawk, soaring so high that the planes looked like little wasps gliding over a blanket of pale blue and white, and above was only stars and shadows. Sometimes her fire would go out from lack of oxygen and she would start to freeze and plummet, but the atmosphere would light her up again and she would fall faster than any other, only to swoop up at the last moment with a scream of triumph and bliss. And she showed them the warmth to be found at the core of an active volcano, wingtips skimming across lava deep below as the smoke and heat haze made pictures around her and fire spirits danced around. She missed those times; they were not so long ago. She gave them the feeling of longing too and an offering to stay with them as comfort while they met with the headmaster, all conveyed in wordless thoughts and emotions full of the innocence of an honest and happy person.

Kelpie reluctantly agreed with the spectre, turning to look again at the nix. She was glad to see the lid in place once more, but that intoxicating smell lingered still. A sigh escape her and she covered her nose discreetly, focusing for real on the teacher. More for something to do than out of any actual interest naturally. She noted with interest the comment about the fountain, then remembered it with disgust. There was no way in the seven Hells that she was going to swim with all those creatures. She'd rather not swim at all, thank you very much. Since coming to the school, for the first time in her life she'd felt kinship for others of the watery inclination, but nothankyou; swimming in a little fountain with God only knows how many others was not conducive to a happy kelpie, particularly not a kelpie like Jake.

[Wolf_Fang_13]

Laila snapped out of her daydreams when she heard someone talk to to her in a not so nice tone. She gave the boy an icey cold glare. "What I do with my water is my business, not your's," she hissed back at him. She needed this pure water or else there would be trouble. And the water at this school wasn't pure. It was tainted in chemicals that the humans put in to kill germs. Even the fountain water wasn't pure enough for her liking. Yet, she still found the fountain slightly refreshing. Swimming! An idea popped into the nix's head. She didn't really about the concequences (sp?) that lead with this idea. Despret nd acting without thinking she opened her jar again and placed it on the middle of her desk. She did hope that the teacher wouldn't notice her since she was sitting all the way in the back. Laila concentrated and used a lot of the little energy she had left to shift into a small black beta fish and jumped into her jar of water. She swam around in circles. The water felt nice on her scales. Though she prefered being in her human form, this was better than nothing. Why didn't I think of this sooner?

[Masq]

Everine felt the warm deluge of memories penetrate blissfully, as well as excruciatingly painful, to her mind's outer blockade and slip expertly through to her inner core, left unguarded (for she felt no need, in her long and painful life, to keep it hidden, like most young souls). She closed her eyes, relishing the soft and delicate way that long-ago memories fill your core with rapture (though this was probably immensely rude for the teacher in front of her). A shock of desperate longing shot through her bones, causing her to lurch forward, clinging desperately to the teacher's desk. "Uhnn..." A quiet groan escaped her lips as she was brought back to reality, the harsh reality. "Thank you, Mistress." She nodded to the teacher, "And please excuse me, for now I shall go await many troubles with Master Kastor-- pardon me, Head Master Kastor." She corrected herself, then walked slowly out of the class, her luxurious dress swishing smoothly and elegantly on the hard tile floor. As she reached the door, she held on to it and gazed sadly at Hinotori. She nodded lightly to the kind Phoenix then stiffly to the wise Salamander; then her gaze swept swiftly over to Lowell, a look of grudging respect flicked accross her face, then faded; a look that tells you that they could never be friends, but that she will still show obeisance to the younger wizard. Then she was gone (not literally gone, but moved faster than the speed of light to the Head Master's office), arriving flushed at the door of the Head Master's office, where she was leaning up against the wall, arms crossed, and looking quite stunning to the eye.

[AngelofSins]

((Sorry I take so long to reply guys!@_@ I need to try to get on more often...))

When Hino mentioned that Mugi was unusual, even for salamanders who were quite out of the ordinary in the whole, Leonard nodded, smiling very slightly and shifting his gaze back to the fire lizard. I can see that. Is he a friend of yours? It doesn't seem like that impossible of a match. Two fire-type creatures, both more human than animal in the way they acted, but spiritually the two species were almost always birds and lizards at heart. The dark wizard thought for a moment more and added one more thing, trying to keep any 'laughter' from the words that might be taken as insulting. He uses magic too, and can stand on two legs, on top of the writing, talking, and all the rest. That IS very unusual... Must be fun at parties.

He was having some trouble at this point, trying to keep up with two conversations and one almost conversation at the same time was getting to be a little difficult, but luckily the teacher was more than distracted at the moment. "Call me Wizard Lowel if you feel the need for a title, but Leonard is just fine as well." The wizard 'said', impressed with the apparent knowledge this salamander had. Mugi could not only tell what type he was just from his presence, usually a magician's trick, but he had caught on that he wasn't some crazed killer. "In a way, you could say I was like him. I'm not sure what good your master did, for in his own right he was probably different than me in many ways." Leonard was getting a little annoyed with the attempts to sound formal he had to make-the 'language' didn't make for casual speak, especially if you wanted to use it correctly. Not to mention how much he was saying, usually he tried to keep things to just a few words, which is why he preferred verbal communication to mental, it was much easier to get off without participating in the actual back-and-forth.

The teacher gave Sibbs one last annoyed glance, that weird pause had made it easier to remember that she wasn't dealing with some sad little girl. No human would close their eyes and daze of like that then suddenly freak out and reach out to grab something. Maybe someone had hit her back with a rock or something. Oh well, it wasn't her problem, so the teacher turned and continued to write on the board and blab about the Medici family. Meanwhile, Leonard raised an eyebrow curiously, taking only a brief moment to decipher the look he'd gotten from Everine. Before she left he returned a similar gaze, though maybe not quite so much respectful as curiously intrigued, and a little impressed. He couldn't figure out what to expect from her, and that was an admirable trait in and of itself.

Vaan rolled his eyes when he saw Laila turn into a fish and eagerly dart around in that useless jar of lake water. For one, transforming into a fish was most certainly a bad idea, especially when it was attempted in the presence of a teacher who was bound to notice a suddenly empty seat. Oh well, it wasn't his problem. Though.... the water still called to him in that frustrating way, something he couldn't really ignore easily. Life as a water spirit could be awfully frustrating, though sometimes being a humanoid embodiment of an element had its perks. "It' IS my business when you bring out a damn glass of that stuff. In case you haven't realized, it's not JUST affecting you." He hissed, knowing she would have absolutely no problem hearing him, even as a beta fish inside the jar, since sound carried through and over water. "Go jump through the sprinklers or something." Vaan turned around gruffly, apparently not paying much attention to what he was doing. The water, reading his annoyed mood, heard his unintentional command and tossed itself around for about two seconds in mini=waves, which would probably feel right at home for Laila swimming inside.

"Hm? You're here already?" Kastor didn't even look up from the book he was reading-Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows- not interested in seeing Everine at the moment or even in Harry's pursuit of the next horcrux, but intent upon making it clear that this girl wasn't at all a priority of his. "I told the pup to have you come here later, don't you have classes or something?" Now he did at least shut the novel, but he didn't sit up or remove his elbows from the desk as he continued to use his palm as a resting spot for his chin. Lazily, he stared the wizard in the eye, dissecting the secrets there, rather than be fooled by that confident stance. There was still a tinge of red surrounding her eyes, and the skin was slightly puffy, so she'd probably been crying not long ago. Yet more interesting was that she didn't seem scared of him at all, more as though she were fearing events that had already come to pass. He'd seen that far-away gleam in the student's eyes multiple times, and the idea of how someone could bother to care about some stupid past events was lost on him. "Take a seat, make yourself comfortable. Or do you prefer to stand? It doesn't really make a difference to me, but people often feel refusal to accept an invitation makes them seem as if they have some power of the events that pass. Have you noticed that? I always thought it was odd. More common in humans though, probably because they've seen less and don't know how trivial such a thing can really be" Kastor mused, half to himself, looking around half-heartedly for his suit jacket. It would probably be a good idea to wear a shirt when talking to a student, just for the whole Head Master appearance in general. "So, before you tell me why you're actually here, I have a few questions. One, your name. Two, what do you think, did you actually deserve to get sent to see me? And three, I like to know people's first opinions of me. What's yours?" At least the first two seemed normal for a general conversation in this situation, but the third was his subtle little hint. What people thought of him might be important, but he didn't care about that. Mostly, it was a test of the student's character; would she lie to him? That was easy to tell in most cases. Mostly, if she did lie or even if she didn't, would she pretend to be a meek little girl? Would she stand cool and collected, trying to prove she wouldn't be bullied? Little things like that could come in handy.

[OneSmartChicken]

{{ << uuhnnnnn... -groan- I hate me. Sorry, loves; I'm gonna have to wait a day or two, maybe more, to reply. Some Reality stuff is, uhm...pressing. Any more detail and I'd end up with ten pages so I'll leave it at that. I'll try to reply asap. Love your replies though. In my own sick way, I adore Kastor. Just...fyi. }}

[Wolf_Fang_13]

Laila, annoyed by this water spirit, jumped out of her jar and shifted into her human form. She landed back in her seat and was soaking wet. She didn't care, it was worth it to take a little swim. She now felt slightly refreshed and energized. She then glared at Vaan. "Yes I have realized there are other water creatures here. I do not care if you are affected by the presence of my water. I need it to survive in this horrid place. The water here is not pure like in my lake back home. If you are going to complain then that is not my problem," Laila said with an icy chill in her angelic voice. She closed her jar and hung it back on her belt. She was still dripping wet and a small puddle was forming under her as she slowly dried.

[Masq]

Everine's eyes flashed with distant recognition of the Head Master; not Kastor himself, but rather his spirit and character. She stood up, curtsied, not too low (for he was not a king or even a lord, just a high ranking master), then stood back up to her full height, slightly taller than the man at full height. "Greetings Head Master." She spoke quietly, but not meekly; just formal. Her stance was unchanged until he had finished speaking to her, and asking her questions. "My name is Wizard Sibbs, Guardian and Keeper of Eldenwood and the Land of Alyria." She offered her full title, then took her seat, as is custom after a formal greeting. She sat up straight and folded her hands in her velvety lap, and thought about the answers to his eccentric questions. "Head Master, it is my duty, being under the care and protection of your people, that I must comply with certain rules and conditions, but, if I may say, I do believe you Mistress Scholar may need some mental assistance." She said, trying to read from his emotionless face what he was thinking. She gathered this much; that he did not preferably like humans, humanoids, animals, or anything much, for that matter, and the only thing worth taking time in was himself and his accomplishments. "Head Master, If I may add something, why are you here?" She asked quietly, her lips barely moving, but her brows deepening their crease with much thinking. "I think, Head Master, that you are a man striving for perfection and optimal authority, but have an ever weakening stance for trivial things, and one day, they shall desperately overcome you. In all respects, Head Master." She finished, her lips twitching slightly from eternal sadness within her for this man.

[AngelofSins]

((All right, Phon! 'Tis fine. If whatever is going on is a bad thing then I hope it ends soon, but if it is a good thing then I hope it lasts a long time. Well, as long as you have fun with it, that is. Heheh, thanks. That's sort of what I was going for with him, in an odd sor tof way.))

"Well, then don't act as if it's not my business when it very well is." Vaan hissed in an indifferent yet equally chilling tone. He was not intimidated by Laila, though perhaps he should be seeing as how he barely went a day without collapsing from a fever, or otherwise becoming incapacitated due to various symptoms and illnesses. At her comment about needing the water to survive it was all he could do not to laugh- there was a bit of irony she was missing about her situation. "Well, if you need it to survive you will be sorely disappointed when you find that it may very well lead to death or worse to carry that around. I highly doubt they will appreciate your dripping water all over the floors." He hadn't turned away from the teacher for more than a few moments during this entire conversation, but now he allowed himself a smug smile in the girl's direction. "Not that I prefer it open, but take that lid off so I can put the water back, all right?" If there was one thing Vaan loved about being a spirit it was the control of his element, as opposed to nymphs and the like who were simply connected to it. Not that he would last long against one if it came down to physical battle, but he didn't much want fangs and such anyway, even if they would make him look far more intimidating than he did now; a skinny boy with sickly, dark skin.

Kastor watched Everine as she spoke with a curious sort of interest, and the more she spoke the more his devilish smirk grew, accompanying a predatory shine in his eyes. She was very formal, but not tense, and she had no delusions of keeping up an appearance of power by refusing to lower herself into a seat. No, her strong voice and relaxed demeanor, along with the way she payed attention to minor details such as proper manners and title, were clear enough signs that she was rather confident in herself and felt no need to attempt to establish some form of dominance. With many men this may have caused frustration, but Kastor was openly pleased with this wizard, one of the rare times he would grant her or anyone else the chance to gather substantial information on his psyche. The only time he interrupted her speech was when she spoke of being under the care and protection of his people. Here he allowed himself a small chuckle before speaking his mind, very clearly amused. "Call it what you like, love." It was clear that he would be making no show of his school, he knew that he had created a false haven when building Mythic Dawn, and as long as he ran it more like a prison then anything else then he would be treating it as a prison.

Throughout the rest of Everine's reply he was silent, calculating small things about the wizard from the most subtle movements, and tones. For instance, she spoke quietly when asking her own question, which implied relentless training involving the proper way to inquire anything personal about an authority figure, mild as they might be. She was open with her facial expressions - he could tell without much difficulty when she was reading him and when she was simply deep in thought- so any trust issues she may have didn't involve the need for secrecy, or she would have subconsciously tried to hide her feelings. As it was, Kastor didn't bother himself too deeply with the wizard's words until the end, when she explained what she thought of him. That made him almost furious, though his face held no clue of the fact, not even a twitch of his lip. Her words held no meaning to him, as insulting as they may be. No, it was her tone that nearly set him off, that barely concealed pity revealed not just in her voice but in her expression. What was she going around pitying him for? Kastor had no worries about his situation, he was mostly in control of everything that went on in his school, and he knew she didn't think he was in trouble there. Therefore she didn't pity his situation, but something else. What, though? The answer was obvious, but he could see no reason why she might feel sadness over his tendencies, even the ones she had mentioned. After all, as far as he was concerned he was perfectly normal, perfectly sane, thank you very much. Still, something told him not to get visibly angry over the fact, so he simply replied to Everine's question. "Well, that all depends on what i take the question to mean. If you want to know why I'm at this school it's because I built it, so I should run it. I don't want your kind running around the streets, that could be a problem for humans. I'm sure you understand that fear, darling. You seem smart enough." This was all a lie, and there was no reason to lie really, he just simply didn't want to tell the truth.

[OneSmartChicken]

{{ Feh. I'm moochin off my neighbor's wifi for now, but it's fickle. As in, every couple of hours it decides to work for me and toobadsosad if I miss it. ^^; Suffice to say that we're moving right now, and among everything else that is a good enough reason for my semi-hiatus, yes? Particularly since we're moving from Florida all the way up to Delaware. Dx The cold. The snow. Ohdeargodsomebodykillmenow. -dies- -coughcough- Soyeah. Here ya are! }}

Friend? Her expression drifted towards something a bit blank as she considered answers. Her mind sorted through memories, focusing purely on emotion and images in her own advanced-yet-simple way, far different from the words humans and other sentient beings tended to focus on, or at least use to focus their thoughts. Her mind moved at a ridiculously fast pace, yet at the same time incredibly slow so that it was a few moments at least before she smiled and laughed a little, keeping the sound purely mental. I suppose you could say that. We are...companions. We take care of each other and we care for each other. I have never had the opportunity to clarify with Mugi about the extent of our relationship though. Apparently having gotten a hold on mind-to-mind communication, she immediately began to speak in a way that would have seemed formal a hundred years ago, enunciating clearly and speaking with natural patience. For her, it was normal. She'd had little experience with "slang" words up until the war brought her out of her nest, quite literally. She'd mostly interacted with very old creatures and ones that were raised by them.

Mugi considered his options, muttering something in a wispy language as smoke drifted from his mouth as if in response to the change in language. He closed his inner eyelid, then lowered the outer one to give the wizard an incredibly express, dry-humored look. "Wizard Leonard Lowel," he hissed, somehow making it sound like a drawl. Considering the language he'd muttered in, it was no wonder he'd been able to learn the wizards' hissing, magic or no. They were rather similar, in an unsimilar way. "Leonard it is then--and Mugi of course. I fear that my mental conversational skills leave much to be desired, otherwise I would offer to abandon this style of speaking for something that you may find more comfortable--if I am reading you right--and I do not mean that in a magical sense--then you dislike this language, yes?" He resettled himself, curling his tail around to hold it, rather like a woman holding her clutch.


Jake turned slowly to glower at the wet girl, expression turning to something that could put a finally honed knife to shame. "Yo," she growled, sounding like the delinquent she so resembled. "Shut up, would ya? You too, ghost-boy. If you like your little jar of pond water--" she somehow made 'pond' sound like an insult--"then I suggest you not irk those who could easily, and with pleasure, smash it." She could have offered to share her water--as a kelpie, she could purify water, though in the case of chlorine and chemicals it took days to let it naturally seep away before she could turn it into something water-like, or else she'd have to use more power than she was willing to waste. However, she was not a patient person, obviously, and had no desire to be friendly with a nix and a spirit.

She ground her teeth in frustration when she realized her hair was dripping again and let out a string of silent curses that had Hino looking at her funny. The kelpie tugged at one short lock of hair, considering assorted techniques for killing assorted people and dismissing them all. She couldn't even enjoy the fresh water; there was nothing enjoyable about knowing a part of you was making a small puddle on the floor, already drying up even as she sat there and scowled herself into a sour(-er) mood. Now all she needed was a good kick in the shin and she'd be all set for a homicidal rampage, debt or no, tortured or not. An old woman could only take so much, and not very much at that as it turned out.
Maybe she'd settle for just eating the nix. She'd never tried them after all, maybe they'd taste good. She smiled wickedly at the idea and Hino turned to give her a horrified, puppy-dog-eyed look that clearly said, "You're not really going to, are you?" since she was privy to the top layer of Jake's thoughts; she still hadn't taken down those mental shields she'd so hastily erected, bit such thoughts were hard to hide.

She sighed heavily and slowly, painstakingly, tugged the barriers down, mentally picturing them collapsing in around her secrets. No, she sighed, the only real mind-word she could conjure, but it was more than enough and Hino smiled her relief. For an omnivorous flaming raptor, she was awfully vegan sometimes.

[Masq]

Everine Sibbs openly eyed this curious figure who she knew as Head Master, momentarily relapsing into her ancient thoughts. "Lord Krimus." She whispered, her lips softly forming the long-ago lovers name. Love. Darling. The ingeniously clever words that the Head Master had called her evoked such distant memories of being a wife and mother to a man that would later betray her, killing all but herself. Her hands ached to remember the firm yet gentle curve of his larger ones. Her eyes became fixated on Head Master Kastor, his calloused (not literally) and wicked face ever so slightly resembled her evil lover. As is custom with ancient figures, Sibbs was distracted and therefore subtly perked up and removed her ghostly stare from the Head Master's piercing eyes. "Head Master, why must you call me love and darling?" She asked using that respectable tone again and this time meeting the devilish man's eyes, her own alight with incurable fury. Her nostrils flared as she recounted in her elderly mind the horrific death of her daughters and son, as their own father slaughtered them. The office that belonged to the Head Master began to roll and shake with an oncoming cataclysmic event and as Everine stared into Kastor's eyes, she became aware of her own position as prisoner; thus removing her eyes from his and looking to her left, the room becoming deathly silent. "I apologize, my Head Master." She spoke in that formal tone again, peace once again residing in those tempest seas of green that we call the windows to the soul. "When I say 'your people', Head Master, I am indirectly referring to humans in quite a general stance, If I may. But 'tis the duty of the High and Noble Guardians (such as my kind prefer to be dubbed), we care for those of this selfish and imprudent world, as is charged by the High Lord of all, Head Master." She spoke with a kind, yet with ever so slight of reprimand. She brushed off a large centipede from her right shoulder and smiled knowingly at Kastor as Dulson snatched it up in one bite. Then once again her constantly active mind switched motives, and remembered part of his lengthy reply.

"I understand, Head Master, that you 'run' this school, but I asked why you are here." She repeated once again, her expression daring him to lie again. "And, Head Master, I am much smarter than the likes of you should even dare to comprehend." She spoke ever so politely that one would be surprised at the words that went along with the tone.