Blending In IC

This is the IC for Blending In!
It starts on Monday, October 1st.


Every two or so pages I'll make a plot post, which will be really obvious.

~~~~~
Early morning on Monday, October 1, 2012. Just about everyone should be waking up and getting ready for school...Sue'on, not so much.

Keshira slammed the palm of her hand down on the 'snooze' button of her alarm clock. She groaned and buried her face in her pillow. What a short weekend. She didn't move until the alarm clock went off again. She pushed the smaller 'off' button on the side then dragged herself out of bed.

Once she had gotten dressed in a light blue t-shirt and jeans, she headed to the kitchen to get some breakfast- namely, sourdough pancakes with butter and syrup. She eat her breakfast, pulled on her black sneakers, brushed her hair and teeth, grabbed her backpack, said goodbye to her mom, and went out the door.

Keshira walked down the hallway to the elevator, then frowned slightly. A sign reading 'OUT OF ORDER' was pinned to the door, and she could see why. There were three large jagged slashes through the left door, as if claws had torn through the three-inch-metal. What could tear through metal that thick? Not even a tiger could do that.

She shuttered, then rushed to the stairs. She frowned again. More of those claw marks were gouged into the walls, as well as a vaguely circular shape leading to the outside. It appeared as if something had splashed a large amount of high-quality acid on the wall. There was yellow police tape across the hole, but there were no officers in sight.

Stranger and stranger. Keshira glanced up at the clock. Crap! I'm going to be late to school again! Ignoring her curiosity, she rushed down the stairs and out of the apartment building. She turned left and ran down the sidewalk, trying to get to school before she was late.

Zephyr had gotten out of bed half an hour before her alarm clock went off. She turned it off, not seeing a point in keeping it on anymore. It was only there for the purpose of waking her up if she had fallen asleep while studying. A small chance, but still possible.

After pulling on a red long-sleeved shirt, black jeans and a dark blue hoodie, she walked down stairs, careful not to wake her mother, and into the kitchen for breakfast. Making a piece of toast, she grabed her messenger bag and headed outside.

Zehpyr then began her trek to school, arriving before most other students did. The people who were there, however, were like her. Outcasts, social pariahs, or as most called them, losers. She then proceeded to the library, the one place she almost fit in.

Outwardly, the boy named Manohar Rose was less of a person than a thing to be avoided, despised, reviled, and rebuked. He was of slight and childlike build and seemed to regard everyone he'd ever met with a sightless expression, communicating some vague curiosity - perhaps even distaste at an ambiguously implied offense. The result was clear - ostracization from the secret society that, working in the minds of teenagers and adults alike, formed such clique-like groups as to allow the unwise to fester in their own ignorance, and the superior to indulge themselves.

Manohar Rose would have none of that.

Waging a silent war, he strove to ingratiate himself in the daily happenings of his classmates, and most students in Freerock High grew to regard him as a great and kindly figure whom they applied the utmost respect to - though not one of them would ever admit to it.

It was on a sufficiently cold and morbid Fall morning - October the First, to be precise - that Manohar Rose first noticed markings of the most peculiar kind on his walk to school, obliging himself to take a route parallel to his wont. Old and crumbling buildings were marred with long, rough marks, as if of those made by some leviathan cat. Manohar Rose, an impressive practitioner of imagination, even fancied that - if he listened closely enough - he could hear the dim rumblings of some immense beast's breath. He payed the strange marks a vast amount of attention, befitting their strangeness, and found himself immersed in thoughts of dinosaurs - night-monsters - dragons - for the entirety of the commute.

A droning bell signaled the beginning of first period, and Manohar Rose found himself, somewhat unexpectedly, in his English class - sitting in an otherwise-unoccupied cluster of desks near the back of the room. He shelved his phantasmagoric investigations for the subtle joys of classic literature and social interaction that he found his English class to fulfill most satisfactorily.

Taking the bus wasn't the most fun thing to do, but Ed didn't have a lot of other options. School was entirely uphill from his house, so in a wheelchair, he was basically up a creek. He'd tried to make the trek to school by himself a few times; he'd been late every time and worn out his arms, so it just wasn't worth it he effort. Going back, on the other hand, was a lot easier, so he'd usually go back by himself. The grade was just shallow enough that he wouldn't accelerate out of control, and with a steady hand on the brakes, he could feel almost like he was running.

But sadly it wasn't, and it wasn't even that time of day. It was time to sit in the back of the bus, where he wouldn't roll all over the damn place. But at least he had the bus, and it would always get him where he wanted to be on time.

The bus eventually let him off at the school, and he headed inside for Algebra.

The shrill sound of the roosters call ripped through the previously silent morning air. A loud growl was heard from inside the small farm house as the owners of the house began to awake. Although these warning sights seemed menacing, the rooster refused to cease his cries until he was fed. The growling belonged to the younger member of the house, Tobey. She didn’t seem to enthusiastic to be waking up. If she didn’t have work to do then she would have been in no hurry. Her school day started when her mother wanted it to.

When she was finally able to drag herself out of bed her morning went as usual. Tobey had left the house in clothes suitable for dirty work and began her taxing chores, finishing low before her mother came out of her room. Tobey often wondered how her mother was able to sleep through practically anything. Tobey’s mother finally showed her face about half way though Tobey making breakfast.

Tobey quickly finished cooking eggs and bacon. She served her mother in silence, neither of them had anything to say to the other, they never did. Tobey had finished her breakfast before her mother, who was still eerily silent. Tobey cleared her own dish, trying desperately of something to say, but her mind came up with nothing.

Once her plate was clear she ducked out of the house, walking towards the pond. She had had enough of the deafening silence.

Keshira doodled on her homework during math, having already finished the assignment yesterday. I wonder what could have made those gouges in the walls. She entertained herself with fantasies of what could of happened, then stopped in surprise. Without realizing it, she had doodled a passable dragon on her homework. It was a majestic creature, with four legs, a triple-point tailend, and five horns.

Keshira pulled out some colored pencils and began to work. A few minutes later, she sat back, pleased. The dragon was now azure blue with dark green eyes and lighter blue horns. Her- it just seemed like a female- claws, back spines, tailend, and small hooked spikes on her wings were a darker blue than her scales.

Why did I draw this? Is this dragon a sign? Or am I being the strange paranoid teenager I am?

After the class had concluded, and Manohar Rose transversed the gutters of long and bothersomely-crowded hallways, he found - to some small degree of alarm - that thoughts of ancient creatures and unfamiliar worlds persisted in occupying the happenings of his mind. It could all, fairly easily, be traced back to the claw marks in that strange and deserted sector of the city.

So powerful was the influence, the pull of curiosity, that Manohar Rose decided - himself a boy faithful to the rules of the school, and content to work in cohesion with the resident system of public education - that the nature and origin of such marks, even if the aforementioneds' discoveries were simply vague possibilities at their most fortunate, merited such a level of importance as to surpass all that the homely school provided. And thus, Manohar Rose, under cover of the throng of students and a respectable record, was able to slip out into the bright sunlight and chilly weather.

His footsteps quickly straightened his course towards the direction of the queer district, though Manohar Rose's mind itself did not remember the way.

Noise… emanating from every conceivable direction. Inane wonderings, screaming voices of those who haven’t seen each other since yesterday, complaints… so many complaints.

Livnah hugged her arms closer to her body, shivering in spite of the warmth that should have been contained through her jeans and long-sleeved navy blue shirt.. Monday had snuck up on her yet again, the beginning of another week of boredom. She’d arrived early as usual. She always got to school right when they were opening up the doors. Not because she loved school, but because she loved the silence.

So many questions, so many expectations… I hate them all… I understand them; I know they only want the best for me… but it’s not fair!

Her hands clenched on top of the desk, knuckles fading into white under the pressure. Usually the urges weren’t this… present in her mind. Occasionally they’d make themselves known, that was sure, but they weren’t formed into cohesive commands or words most of the time. They were feelings, suggestions, random thoughts that cropped up at the worst moments.

They've been getting worse lately... eventually mom or dad might take real notice of them.

Thankfully the first bell of the day rang and people began to file inside, distracting her from her own thoughts for the next hour. The class ended and she exited, shouldering her bag.

"Miss Anatas? Miss Anatas!"
Zephyr bolted upright, confused as to why she was being called.
Oh. She had fallen asleep in the library. Not surprising. In fact, she did it a lot. However, now was not the time to dwell on her sleeping habits, because the librarian was still talking to her.
"You were making the strangest sounds in your sleep!" she said, "It sounded like you were speaking in an entirely different language!"
“I was?” Zephyr inquired. “I had no idea.”
“Well, anyway, you have to go to class now if you don’t want to be late!”
“Oh, thank you. Have a nice day.”
“You as well, dear!” the librarian called after her as she left.
‘I wonder what I was saying… Was I really speaking in another language? And if so, which one?’

Keshira jumped at the bell as it rang, signaling the end of her class. She grabbed her stuff and pushed past the other students, wanting to get to class quickly. Suddenly, she froze as she passed the window. She took a step back and looked out. There, on the other side, was a large purple dog with fangs. It bared its teeth wider, tensed its legs, then jumped out of sight.

"The hell?" she wondered aloud. Keshira turned and glanced at the clock. Crap! I'm going to be late! She started running, trying to beat the bell. What was that purple dog thing? Why didn't anyone else notice it?

Manohar Rose, having not previously formulated notions of what might be found in the chilling depths of the queer district, was consequently unsurprised when he arrived to find the entire alleyway marred by gigantic gouges of some unknown, hungry claws that had bored into the concrete and metal surfaces.

There seemed, oddly enough, to be more marks than he had glimpsed that morning, and the ethereal and melodic - as well as unfathomably deep - breathing had grown in unmistakable magnitude. Indeed, Manohar Rose fancied that perhaps he was not imagining it after all.

The marks covered, by Manohar Rose's count, a good six buildings, confined to one single city block, and each alleyway in-between. The alleys appeared to intersect at some unseen point in the midst of the buildings. The more he thought about it, the more it seemed to Manohar Rose that the buildings had been chose with an unnerving strategy, as from none of the four sides of the block could he glimpse what lay behind the defaced dumpsters and clustered slabs without venturing into an alleyway to navigate the rubbish for himself.

After forty-some minutes of speculation, this is precisely what Manohar Rose did.

Livnah pushed opened the door; accidentally causing it to slam into the wall the force she pushed against it was so great. The kids walking towards the door from the other side jumped back, glaring at her as she shouldered past. She was in no mood to talk, much less apologize. This day just needed to end and end soon.

She half-jogged across the courtyard to her next class, AP Environmental Science. It was a pretty entertaining class, but that kind of depended on the day and mood she was in. Right now, her mood could most clearly be described as stormy. It hadn’t helped that last class they’d been writing an essay. Essays meant a lot of thinking, a lot of figuring out purposes, literary terms, and writing artistically in a short amount of time. Just as she was about to open yet another door, a shape in the corner of her vision caught her attention. Turning slightly, she did a double take. In the shadows beneath the towering evergreens just beyond the parking lot were two… dogs? If they could really be called that, even from here she could see that they’d stand well above most dogs she knew of.

Are they pur…

But then a sudden weakness overtook her, causing her to stumble sideways, her shoulder slamming into the doorframe. Livnah rubbed a hand over her eyes, moaning softly. When she looked back towards the border of the school property the two eerie creatures had vanished as swiftly as flames snuffed out by a breeze.

Well, that was strange.

Deciding to store that experience for later thought, she shuffled into the science classroom and rested her head in her hands, azure eyes drifting closed.

Later on during the day, Keshira saw another one of the dogs. She was opening her locker when she spotted it. The dog was standing in the middle of the hallway. The other kids didn't notice it- at all. They seemed to unconsciously shuffle past it. She blinked and rubbed her eyes. It was still there. It bared its fangs, and made a sound that was vaguely like laughing.

"What do you freakos want?" Keshira yelled at it. A few of the kids looked at her like she was crazy, but she paid them no attention. "Why can't the others see you?" The purple dog laughed again, turned, and bounded out through one of the schools double doors. Keshira hesitated, then made a split-second decision. She tossed all her of school supplies in her locker, slammed it shut, then followed the purple dog out of the school.

It had stopped next to the road. It seemed to be waiting for her. She was hesitant to get any closer to it, but she knew that they would haunt her until she did. She glimpsed its feet as she grew closer and her eyes widened. The small claws that were on normal dog's feet were slightly larger and more jagged in proportion on this dog. She quickly matched it to the smaller, less frequent claw marks that she had seen in the apartment. But what about the larger marks?

The dog thing sniffed her from several feet away, then laughed again. "So you're the draconian he was defending. Not very impressive, are you?" Keshira wasn't sure to be more surprised that this thing could talk, or that it had just insulted her. She decided to go with it insulting her, because come on, it was a purple dog with oversized teeth.

Just as she was opening her mouth to say something cutting, there was an angry roar and a crackling noise. A wave of light blue fire blasted out of nowhere at the dog. It yelped as the fire singed its fur, but surprisingly didn't catch it on fire. Both Keshira and the thing turned to look.

Standing there was an eight-foot-tall dark blue bipedal dragon with three heads and four arms. Its four smallish wings were folded, its tail complete with arrowhead tailend swished angrily behind it. Two horns topped each of the three heads. The leftmost one (meaning the dragon's right head) had smoke coming out of its nostrils. All six eyes were bright green. The dragon held two katana-like swords in its top two hands, leaving its bottom hands empty. On its middle head it had some kind of strange helmet- it was a golden spike that had apparently been permanently attached. Its position suggested that it was representing a smaller third horn between the first two.

"Captain Pen." the dog hissed. "I thought I made my message clear. Leave the draconians alone. You lokolangs don't know when to quit." The dragon's voice was unmistakably male. "Food is food. Let me feed in peace." "No. You know as well as I do that if the draconians don't take down Neltharaku, ALL of us will die. Even you."

The lokolang- that must be what the purple dog really was- howled in anger. Without another word, it pounced at Captain Pen. With no apparent effort, the bipedal dragon sidestepped. The lokolang ended up biting a tree. The dragon stepped over and slashed down with both swords on the creature's side. The thing howled in pain as bright blue blood spurted from the wounds. It turned in time for Pen to cut off its head.

The dragon waved one of his free hands and whispered an incantation. The lokolang's body shriveled to dust and was blown away by the wind. He looked at his swords and said something that sounded like a foreign swear word. Pen began wiping the blood off of his weapons on the grass.

The entire time, Keshira had been staring in shock. As the dragon sheathed his swords, she managed to get out, "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?!" Pen turned and blinked. "Oh yes. I almost forgot about you. Sorry." She noticed that only the dragon's middle head spoke. His right head (his right, her left) was looking around as if wanting to kill something, although the smoke wasn't coming out of its nostrils anymore, and the left head appeared to be confused as to whether it should look at her or look for danger. Pen swatted it absentmindedly and it began looking around.

"I don't...even...you're a dragon." Keshira's mind was getting really overloaded. Claw marks, lokolangs, and dragons all in the same day. What was next, wings sprouting from her back?

Khalad narrowed his eyes and watched the draconian walk into the ally. Stupid! You'll get killed that way! That's no wimpy lokolang he's following! The Dratonion grunted to himself a curse word in the language of the dragon troops, spread his wings, and flew out of his hiding place. His bright green eyes glinted in the sun, black scales making them stand out even more as he flew toward the draconian known as Manohar Rose. "Stop! You don't know what you're doing!" he shouted.
---
Sue'on frowned. Why did the Council send ME to pick up one of the other draconians? I'm not better than anyone else. She was using her Cloaker to hide herself in her dragon form. She was also frowning because even though her eyes were locked on her target- a draconian that went by the name of Livnah- she wasn't sure how to get to her. Sue'on ground her teeth with frustration. How do I go about this?

Sue'on got an idea. She knew that other draconians could see through the exo cloaks- but normal humans couldn't. She could roar at the top of her lungs and only Livnah would hear her. She jumped from her tree and stood next to the classroom window. She waved a clawed hand, blue-green eyes locked on the draconian. This better work...

Manohar Rose started in a muffled display of surprise and alarm as an unfamiliar shape launched itself forth from the sanctuary of a previously-undetected alcove.

In the space of an instant, all that he perceived was a great, blustery gale which threatened to sweep him off of his feet, and not dissimilar to those produced by the flapping of powerful wings - though on unprecedented scale. Manohar Rose turned about to catch a glimpse of a dark shape - glistening with ebony, and eyes of pure emerald - before, out of sheer fright, he ran as fast as he possibly could manage into the depths of the alleyways, screaming not with his mouth but with his eyes.

"Stop! I'm a friend! No!" Khalad screamed. He landed and rushed after him. "You're running toward your death!"

Livnah sat in the back left corner of the room, near the cabinet filled with various bones. From the miniscule skeletons of unlucky mice then dug out of owl pellets in lab experiments to the skulls of elk bought for a hefty sum from one store or another, all rested there, steadily gathering a film of dust. Their existence would remain unchanged.

What were those things out by the trees? It just doesn't make sense...

The teacher droned on, realigning her glasses on her nose as she paused to glance around the room. A soft sigh escaped her lips, that same girl wasn't paying attention. Her grades were satisfactory, that was true, but that didn't give her any excuse to doze off during class.

Unaware of her teacher's growing ire (and the draconian standing just outside the window), Livnah rubbed a hand across her eyes and opened them, looking blearily up at the board.

Sue'on facepalmed and paused to consider her next move. Then she grinned. This is the best idea I've had in weeks! She turned and found the entrance to the school, ducking her head to get in. The few teachers in the halls didn't give the 7-foot-tall draconian a second glance- not even a first glance. Her Cloaker was doing it's job.

Sue'on navigated to the classroom, then turned back into her human form. After glancing around to make sure no one was looking, she pulled out her Cloaker. "Koll" she whispered to it. The blue light glowing in the shape of a rune faded into the black. She smiled, them pocketed it. Taking a deep breath, Sue'on adjusted her glasses and opened the door.

Oh Four what am I thinking this is a STUPID idea! "I need Livnah. Principal wants to talk to her about something- sent me to get her." Sue'on found herself announcing to the classroom in general. This is stupid.

Though Manohar Rose was not so far removed in the retreat of his panic that he could not comprehend his pursuer's words, he...

No, no, he was definitely too far gone. The lanky boy refused to halt until he, in a spell of particularly clumsy fright, stumbled upon the remnants of an ambiguous shrapnel of discarded plastic and impacted the ground with a jar that stunned him greatly.

Thus incapacitated, Manohar Rose did his best to scurry out of sight behind a dumpster, hoping that the great ebony bird would simply leave him be.

Khalad didn't get five feet farther before he was stopped by the lokolang leaping out of the dumpster at him. He swore angrily, pulled out his sword, and swung. It was a lucky swing. The lokolang screamed in pain, then burst into ashes. Khalad blinked. It's dead already? He sheathed his sword and slowly walked toward were the boy was hiding.

"Manohar Rose? Are you okay? I don't want to hurt you, it's-" but he was cut off. The second lokolang jumped out of hiding and dug its fangs into Khalad's back. The dragon shrieked in surprise. He struggled to pull out his sword and swung behind him. The lokolang jumped off to avoid the deadly blade. Khalad quickly turned. "You want a piece of me, huh? You're not getting that draconian!" he roared. The lokolang bared its teeth. "We shall see." it hissed.

The lokolang didn't get a chance to move. Khalad barked the incantation for the SL2 spell Ice Shard, shooting a lance of ice through the lokolang's skull. The beast fell silently to the ground, then dissolved into a pile of ashes. Khalad glanced around for any more signs of other lokolangs, but he and the draconian were alone. He sheathed his sword a second time.

"I'm pretty sure that it's actually safe now." he called out in a friendly voice, but came no nearer.

The teacher looked at the young, glasses-wearing girl that had just interrupted her class. A brief moment of annoyance passed over her eyes, followed quickly by confusion. Wasn't the girl a bit young to be in high school? Then again, there were quite a few... smaller students enrolled currently, maybe she was one. But whatever, if it got someone who wasn't even paying attention out of her hair, then she was fine with it.

Livnah raised her eyes at the sound, blinking her dim eyes slowly. Then her gaze sharpened to a stare that spoke volumes. No trust shone from those piercing orbs. There was something off about this...

I haven't had any outbursts in months... okay, a month or two, but still. Why would the principal want to see me?

Her train of thought came to the same oddity that the teacher's had just a few second earlier, wasn't the girl a bit... young?

Better follow her though... creating a scene won't help anything and she's sure to explain herself once we're out of here.

"Fine," she mumbled, rising to her feet and throwing her backpack over one shoulder, stare still suspicious, "Do I need to bring my stuff or not?"

((Ok, not my best, but it keeps things moving.))

"I think you should." Sue'on said, then backed out of the doorway to let Livnah through. It's actually working! Then a thought hit her. Crap. How am I going to break to her that she's part dragon? How am I going to break it to her without freaking her out that I'M part dragon?!

"Alright," Livnah said, a bit of a growl working its way into her tone.

No glances were spared to any of the others students in the room as she made her way out the door. A low current of whispering followed her like a cloud as she went. No doubt the rumors would begin spreading before ten minutes had passed, growing more outlandish by the minute.

Sue'on closed the door behind them then turned to look at Livnah. She dropped her voice to a whisper. "Okay, that was a complete lie. I don't even go to this school- hell, I'm in seventh grade! But I had to pull you out of class somehow. You missed me waving by the window. I blasted some fire and everything."

Sue'on pulled out her Cloaker. "Kyilld" she whispered. The Rune glowed and the exo cloak activated. Livnah could still see her, though, being a draconian. "I have something important to show you. Please don't run away screaming. That would make me very sad."