Hey, teacher, leave them kids alone

[strikefirster]

Who: Johnny, Daniel, Ortus, Gideon Nav's Exquisite Corpse, Paul, Kaworu, Deku, Harrow, Maybe more?
What: Kidnapping, Forced Adoption, Getting these kids away from the Emperor
When: Shortly after boatgate
Where: The Bone House and Cobra Kai

Content Warnings: Probably references to Murder, Manipulation, Johnny Lawrence.

Prompts and Mingle will be in the comments.

Comments

We don't need no education (Johnny and Daniel)

[strikefirster]

[Johnny feels his blood begin to boil the second he hears about the shit show that is Old Blackeye's little boat trip. It was one thing to go out there and challenge the gods to a fight. It was another thing to involve kids. Especially kids that Johnny had become quite fond of. It was messed up and twisted in it's own right and Johnny Lawrence wasn't about to stand for it.

Unfortunately he knew he was in over his head. His 2009 Challenger couldn't fit all the kids in it and they had a lot of stuff too. That was his main concern, it had nothing to do with throwing down a guy who could literally summon an army of skeletons. He wasn't afraid of that shit. He was not a fucking pussy.

But because of that he started to march over to his old rivals home and prepared a message on his omni so the illegal kick using asshole would know he's coming.]

LaRusso. I need your fucking truck. It better be unlocked with the keys in the ignition by the time I get there.

[Could he have been more specific? Yes. Was he going to be? Probably not.]

[miyagimagic]

[ Daniel has absolutely no idea of what's going on. Or what's been going on, really. He's been too busy with even just trying to get himself settled in this place, trying to adjust to the strange ways in which Trench is so very different from anything he's gotten used to back home.

And then there's the fact that he did manage to find a few items from home - which is a good thing, since they at least give him a little bit of comfort. But in the case of mister Miyagi's truck it also meant the entire thing had to be cleaned after its journey here, which has been quite a project for Daniel over the past few days.

And of course, of course, right as he's finished with it, he finds the absolute most horrifying message from Johnny on his Omni. Let's be real, any message that says the sender is Johnny Lawrence is awful, but it's even worse when it's quite literally threatening one of his few dear possessions in this place.

Which is why by the time Johnny shows up, Daniel is already sitting in the truck itself. In the driver seat. Because he knows that if he didn't, Johnny is crazy enough to just get in there and take off. It wouldn't even be the first time he's seen it happen!! And he is absolutely not letting the other take and drive mister Miyagi's truck. Never.

Not that he looks happy sitting there, mind you. He frowns as he sees the blonde approach, already speaking up with a loud: ]

Johnny, what the hell is going on?!

[ --before the other has even had a chance to fully reach the truck yet. ]

We don't need no thought control (Open)

[strikefirster]

[Johnny wastes no time once he gets to the Bone House. He doesn't kick in the door but he's absolutely tempted to, instead he opens it firmly and takes a look around.]

Alright nerds, listen up! We're piling out of this shit hole so get your asses out here. Let's go, go, go!

[That's how you announce you're moving out, right? By giving no actual details that you're here to help the kids.

Ortus the guy outside looked like he already had most of the kids stuff packed up already so Johnny doesn't waste any time grabbing anything but he sees Gideon just laying on the couch and assumes she slept through his little shouting spree. (She's dead.) So he's just going to haul her up in over his shoulder and starts heading toward the door.]

[Once he's got what he came for. He comes back with a can of spray paint and makes sure to spray paint a dick on the wall along with "Suck it Black Eyes." underneath it.]

no dark sarcasm in the classroom (open, in the truck on the way back)

[miyagimagic]

[ .. well.

A lot sure has happened today. A lot that Daniel sure did not anticipate when he woke up this morning. But now, an entire sudden house kidnapping evacuation and everything that comes with it later, and a bunch of kid he either doesn't or only half knows in the back of mister Miyagi's old truck, he figures he's just got to deal with it.

And since he figures he is one of the people with the least stakes in this situation and therefore probably one of the least upset, he should probably do something here to try and lighten the situation a little bit for everyone else. It's probably awkward to do anything too personal, since he doesn't know them well, but..

Well, there's one thing he can do here, isn't there. ]

So I know today has probably been.. a lot for all of you. [ Understatement of the year. ] And I know most of you don't really know me much, but.. there's apparently a slushie shop on the corner there. Anyone's got a favourite flavour?

[ Yes, this is an awkward Dad Attempt at soothing and connecting!! Sue him!! ]

[wannasmash]

Midoriya doesn't feel like socializing. The failure to convince Kaworu to come with them was devastating. There is a piece of his heart still residing in the house belonging to God--Teacher--John. He's still heavily Corrupted from the other day, white-eyed, and he's got tear tracks on his freckles, but politeness wins out. After an awkward silence, the clawed young man in the tattered green hero costume croaks hollowly through his fangs,

"It's nice to meet you, Daniel-san. My name is Midoriya. Thank you so much for your help."

all in all you're just another brick in the wall (open)

[noniad]

[When the truck arrives, they find a stack of crates, bags, and various household objects piled outside of the partially front door. There is no one in sight as they rumble up the ruined roadway, but when the truck comes to a halt it coincides with the door slamming wide as a stone-faced man in smeared facepaint only barely suggesting a ruined skull hauls out another heavily loaded crate piled high.

Cold, implacable anger hums in the set of his shoulders, but he sets the crate down with exaggerated care, as if it contains the most fragile of spun baubles, and straightens to look at the approaching newcomers. With his sword belted at his waist, his muffling outer robes shed, and standing at his full height and breadth, Ortus - for one of the first times in the whole of his life - cuts an intimidating figure.

Ortus recognizes one of the men who emerges from the vehicle. It does not set him at ease. He only nods, once, in acknowledgment.]

Sensei Lawrence.

[A man Gideon had spoken highly of, when she showed off her second place trophy, the first award for her merit she had ever received, which rests now in the careful swaddling of bedsheets inside one of the packed crates. The Beast of the Locked Tomb could arrive on this doorstep promising to bear away that and the rest of their precious cargo, and Ortus would accept its offered hand.]

If you have come to offer aid, we require transportation from this place.

[The man he was in life would have paused there, in hesitance, awaiting an answer. Ortus forges on as if it is already given, and much like one who would, if denied, seek to educate himself rapidly on the theft and operation of trucks.]

My Lady is resting. I will fetch her when we depart. The silver-haired child has refused to listen to me.

Gideon [he falters, only a moment, and his black eyes are hideous with it as his hand rises to brush the sunglasses hanging from the collar of his robes] lies in state inside. We will not leave her here.

[strikefirster]

[Johnny steps out of the truck and catches sight of the guy setting down boxes. At first he's a little on edge because of the skull make up- But then he see how haphazardly it's applied and he's immediately reminded of Gideon and he relaxes just a little. He's tense but he's pretty sure he has an idea.]

You're Boartus, right? The dude camping out in the shed?

[He let's out a breath as he takes all this in. Good. He was planning on leaving too. It looked like Johnny had the right idea by coming here. He takes a hold of some of the boxes and starts to load them up in the truck, making it clear he was here to help.

There is a frown as he goes through the list of people and their stance on stating. Of course Kaworu would be a stubborn son of a bitch. But- Johnny was stuck having to respect that decision, he had earned it and Paul had asked nicely too.]

The Twink is a man and can make his own decisions. I'll try and talk to him but I'm not holding my breath.

you! yes, you, behind the bikesheds! stand still, laddy!

[butnotyet]

[ There's a point, when nearly everything is loaded up, when nearly everyone is loaded up, but not quite yet — that someone else from the house is waiting for Ortus.

Augustine has made no attempts to keep anyone from moving out of the house. (Well, one — but he hasn't actually tried, after all.) Augustine himself has only been gone from the house very briefly, once, to the Archives, to recover a single specific book — and no matter that he looks like absolute shit, the longer he spends in the house, in close proximity to him. Lyctors — necromancers, but given that Palamedes Sextus has long made his opinion of this house and its master plain — aren't meant to spend time in close proximity to Heralds. ]

It's good that you're getting them out.

[ He gives Ortus a nod, respectful — with a touch of a wry smile at one corner of his mouth. There's nothing mocking here, no matter who might be looking: just someone who's spent most of the last twenty-four hours constantly on the edge of flinching at every buzzing, rattling, clicking noise in the house.

There's a crate in his arms; it is, predictably enough, made of thin-lacquer bone, given that Ortus has already calmly repurposed every box that was already extant throughout the house, to move everyone's things out. There's not all that much in it. The bottom layer is carefully-nestled jams, made by Paul and whoever else was willing to help him, last month. There are a few notebooks — simple things, unwarded; chapbooks, hymnals, anatomical atlases, from throughout the Age of Man. And there's a small box under them, too, still sealed up with tape, covered in dust, the word ORRERY just barely visible through the grime — a sticky note attached to it has Augustine's handwriting questioning birthday? without specifying whose. He isn't even aware this is in here; Alfred added it when he was still sorting through the prayer books. The orrery inside isn't assembled, of course, but the neatly-labeled instructional book ought to make it very easy to get things in working order. ]

Good you're getting out, too, I imagine.

[ He's not used to this. (He's not used to any of this.) ]

Thanks, I suppose.

[ He shoves the crate at Ortus. Look, just take it. Make good use of what's inside. Everything is so very well labeled as to its purpose. ]

just nod if you can hear me (Oscar)

[terriblepurpose]

[Nothing went as it was meant to.

In the aftermath of their flight from the house, Paul drifts within himself like a mote of dust suspended in still air. He exists between his breaths in near-perfect meditative abstraction, all sensory awareness without thought. He could catch a knife thrown at him like this, and not falter in his control. Consciousness-without-consciousness is a refuge he has never hidden in so completely.

That is the only reason he doesn't flinch when the truck veers close enough to a pane of glass for him to catch his own eyes and find them, instead, no longer so.]

[justoscar]

Hi, Paul.

[It was all he knew how to say. The fallout from whatever it was that Qrow Branwen had witnessed in his vision had been greater than either of them had planned. Oscar knew he was a fool--
But visions of that horrible creature of chitin and wrath haunted him in his attempts to put his consciousness back together.

He couldn't seem to escape.

... Interestingly, it wasn't Chara that had his nerves steeled for combat despite being the one to stab him through the heart. Oscar took an odd level of comfort with the sheer honesty of the strange kid. The warning he was given while his consciousness faded made him wonder--

But his curiosity didn't matter.

He didn't have a body of his own.

Oscar had watched the goings of the day through the hollow detachment of Paul's perspective. The ether between life and death afforded the chance to see connections he was otherwise blind to because of his own biases. Likewise, truths he couldn't see were revealed:

He was already far more like Oz than he wanted to be.

Shame and worry had kept him quiet until this moment-- and he knew he needed to be gentle with the young prince he had been trying to advise.

Slowly, carefully, he continued:]

Don't panic. I'm not going to hurt you.

you are only coming through in waves (Johnny)

[terriblepurpose]

[The first night in the dojo, Paul sleeps like a stone sunk to the bottom of a riverbed, curled up on stacked floor mats under a blanket too heavy for the weather. He's too exhausted for anything but the mercy of oblivion, no matter how troubled the tides of possibility

It's the second night, when he curls up on a narrow cot (with two t-shirts balled up under a flat pillow), that the dreams come back.

He throws his blanket off, fitfully, sweat tacking his loose sleeping clothes to his skin as his temperature rises. He twists on the cot as he mumbles words never fully articulated, his face crumpling with distress - until Paul arches his back with a sharp cry, fingertips flaring into points of flame in the dark.]

[strikefirster]

[Johnny hadn't slept much the last couple nights. It was more of a choice than the fact that he couldn't sleep. He was concerned about suddenly having a handful of kids under his roof that could be in danger from a pissed off Black Eyed Asshole, and Johnny had done enough to screw up his relationship with the last kid who lived here. He didn't want to make that mistake again and he wanted to make sure Paul and his friends were safe.

So he's just laying on a couch in the middle of the dojo with a beer in hand when he hears he cry. He's up on his feet in an instant and he smashes the bottle against the wall to give himself a weapon. ...He was going to hope LaRusso would clean that up tomorrow as part of some stupid form of training.

Either way he's on the move to Paul's "room" and he comes to a skidding halt as he checks to see if there's any sort of danger. No skelebros, no Black Eyes. It looked clear beyond the flames. Johnny cautiously speaks up as he drops the broken bottle.]

Paul? Kid? You awake?

i have seen the writing on the wall (open + closed; one week later)

[lipochrome]

open. cw: reference to corpse

[ About a week later, the thing that used to be Gideon's body begins to rot. It happens unnaturally quickly, as if making up for lost time.

The next day, Gideon stands in the entrance to the dojo, an angel by her side. Her hair is a mess, her clothes rumpled and ill-fitting, and it definitely looks like she hasn't slept in a week, but she is, without a doubt, alive. Some tension in her shoulders unwinds, as if relieved to finally have made it to a place of safety.

(And this is a safe place, isn't it? It has to be. There's nowhere else she can think of to go.)

Gideon doesn't expect to find the cots and crates, set up as if a whole group (a House?) of people have moved in. She spots her sword, and a tentative, grateful smile threatens to break across her face. ]

Hey. [ Gideon says to whoever approaches, trying to keep her voice level. There are still patches of muscle and bone where her skin has yet to heal, and the chill and numbness have yet to fully go away, but still. She feels warmer than she has in days. ] Sorry I'm late. I know, I know, I didn't bring coffee or anything, don't hate me.

for harrow.

Gideon has been rehearsing this conversation in her head over and over, all through the journey from Gaze to the dojo, although part of her feels like she's been practicing it for longer. Maybe she has, in one way or another. It's been long overdue.

She approaches Harrow when she's relatively secluded, which, thankfully, happens often. Gideon takes a seat beside her necromancer, without warning or introduction, and resists the urge to pull her knees up to her chest. Her heart races like she's about to fight a Lyctor, or a seagull, or God. Which is so stupid, she thinks, because she's not about to do any of that. She just has to talk. That's it.

Part of her wishes she was here to fight. She's fought Harrow so many times that it's become the easiest, most second-nature thing in the world. A good fight might even calm her down. But they're well past that, aren't they? And they have been for months.

Instead, she swallows, picking at a ripped spot in her pants. "Um." Wow! Great start, Griddle, you're killing this. "Hey. Can we talk?"

More references to corpse.

[strikefirster]

[Johnny was handling Gideons death completely fine. It's not like he had been propping her corpse up through the Dojo either doing finger guns, acting like she was lounging around, or training. So he definitely was not the first the first or second person to notice she was gone. (He had to give Harrow some cred it here.)

But for the most part when she shows up at the door he does his best not to make a big deal about it. He leans up against the threshold and thrusts a thumb into the door.]

You'll have to do fifty pushups on your knuckles to make up for that, but it can wait. We've got manwiches cooking.

How you holding up, kid?

[miyagimagic]

[ The entire corpse experience has sure been.. something, alright, especially after arriving so soon in this place. Daniel has kind of been trying really hard to not think about it, especially with the handy excuse of there being a lot to do to make Johnny's dojo habitable look after the kids, but it's definitely the kind of thing that's been nagging at Daniel in the back of his mind. It's not even like he really knew Gideon super well, he just chatted with her on the day he arrived here, but..

.. well, it's not like seeing a corpse is ever not awful. Especially when it's someone so young. No matter how much Daniel has been told that people who die here come back - somehow!! Yet another thing he's trying hard to not think about too much!! - it's still a lot.

And seeing her standing there? Also a lot. At least it's the kind of A Lot that comes with relief of seeing that the information was actually true, and she is walking around and alive. Their little previous social interactions make this a little more awkward, but Daniel would feel like a huge jerk for not helping welcome back a teenager who's clearly been through a lot. ]

.. hey. [ He greets. The awkwardness shows a little in his tone, but the guy tries his best to smile a little anyway. It's a soft smile though, especially when his gaze falls on the parts of her that didn't entirely heal yet. God, it's so awful. ] I'm.. not sure if you'd remember me. We talked on the beach a little while ago.

[ Not that it's the important part here, but it makes this feel a little less awkward to at least announce that. ]

I've been helping out here. But more importantly-- no, way more importantly. Are you okay? Do you feel like you need anything?

open

[noniad]

[Ortus emerges from the back of the dojo with a basket of freshly laundered clothes in his arms, and he halts on the threshold of the room, the door close to where Gideon's sword has been mounted with the greatest respect upon the wall. It bears a woven wreath of dark clustered flowers, petals nearly a perfect black, and there is something of a makeshift shrine on the table beneath its scabbard's point: white candles, bone trinkets, a pair of silver winged pins, and folded sunglasses.

He does not drop the basket. He sets it aside on the floor with exaggerated care and crosses the space between them the same way, trepidation draped heavy across his shoulders and eyes full of anxious awe.

They had explained to him what the dissolution of her form might mean. It had not soothed him. Nothing had, these past shadowed days, but he had borne it in silence that resembled, though was not, stoicism. There is no trace of it in the great open relief that transforms his features, a sheen of tears already in his vision as he beholds a resurrection.]

You are returned to us.

[Not entirely whole, but so much more so than she had been, that hollow, incorruptible shell. He takes in the wonder of her eyes alight, and in an outburst of most unseemly exuberance he reaches out to lay his hand upon her warm shoulder.]

Hey you, don't help them to bury the light (open)

[peripheries]

[Gideon is the one who gets him to stop clinging to the house in gaze like a someone lost in a cold storm with only matches for warmth. Kaworu had to see the house for what it was. Or perhaps he always knew what it was but he just saw what he wanted to see.

In the end he didn't want to be there. He doesn't want to be here. He doesn't really want to be anywhere. Except maybe back in a time and place where none of this ever happened. Look at him, acting like a sentimental human, trying to hide from the pain of the world instead of accepting it as is. A place like that would be nothing but a dream.

Eventually, he tears himself from Gideon and the safety her presence brings to go settle in a corner. He pulls his the hood of his oversized sweatshirt over messy silver hair as thought it creates a wall between him and the rest of the world, shadows covering up the seven red eyes that remain from the corruption of everything that happened on the beach.

He's been such a fool. How does one make up for past sins when you cannot redo?]

[strikefirster]

[If Johnny ever actually had the answer for that question, he'd let Kaworu know. But he didn't. He was the king of making mistakes and trying desperately to try and put things back together, getting frustrated and eventually just making things worse. So he did know a little about about what everyone was going through here on a much smaller scale.

He knew Kaworu wasn't his biggest fan and if he was being honest out of their one encounter Johnny wasn't his biggest fan either, the points Kaworu had won with him had landed Johnny in the dog house with the people closest to him, but that was more Johnny's fault than his.

So he sees the Kaworu sitting there and he doesn't quite have anything to say. But he does slide over and take a seat on the ground a few feet away from him. Actually being careful to give him some personal space. He doesn't say anything right away partially because he's not sure whether Kaworu will stick around to hear it.]

[miyagimagic]

[ Honestly, even after time has already passed, Daniel is pretty sure he doesn't have anything close to the full story of what happened - just the bits and pieces he managed to pick up, and even they aren't much. He doesn't fully know what weighed down the hearts of all these kids so much, but..

.. well, it doesn't really matter, huh. It doesn't even matter to him that he didn't even know some of these kids before any of it happened, and only exchanged introductions with others. What matters is that they're clearly hurting, and Daniel can't just stand by and do nothing when that's the case.

Even though he realises being approached by some random adult when you're vulnerable might be a bit much, it's got to still be better than nothing. So when Daniel's made some tea and is going around to hand it out to people, he doesn't skip Kaworu there when he's in the corner. ]

Hey. [ He says, his voice a tad softer than the usual. ] Do you want some tea?

anytime after kaworupost and callout posts

[wannasmash]

I... couldn't bear it if I was left again. Or if I hurt you both again.

Kaworu's words ensured Midoriya kept his distance when Gideon brought him (back, here, home--not that the dojo is home, but some of the people in it are pieces of a House).

This state of affairs didn't last long. It couldn't. Kaworu's lonely words on the network ring in his ears despite not being carried by sound. Kaworu is hurt. He's in pain. Midoriya is incapable of letting that be. Everything Midoriya has ever experienced has taught him that abandoning someone in pain when he can do something about it is not an option. He can't leave him.

"Kaworu-kun?"

He slouches from room to room as a Corrupted white-eyed shell of himself, calling as softly as someone looking for a lost kitten. Kaworu is not a lost kitten. He is an angel struggling to understand too-human emotions. He is a boy raised without love who desperately grasps for it. He is a killer who did not heed protests against the sacrifice of the prisoners. He is a Sleeper who was swallowed and spat out by Mariana--twice.

He is someone Midoriya loves. His love is broad, gentle, fierce, and expects others to nurture the good he sees in them. When they can't, he extends a hand to help.

"Kaworu-kun?"

I don't need no arms around me

[wannasmash]

Open cw: corpse mention, fangs causing accidental self-harm

He and Paul do not move as one. Midoriya leaves Paul on the dead grass and stalks, animal-like, in Johnny's wake. As then, Midoriya and his jumpsuit are a wreck, but washed and bandaged. His eyes are still milk-white and pupil-less, Corruption defying the rules of physiology, and rimmed with shadows. His hands are tipped with glove-ruining claws, and his fangs cut lips unused to having them. (He remembers stalking recklessly into a house that could be a trap, and a finger on a screen pointing at him with a grin.)

He straightens and checks in the doorway out of habit, reflex, the armor on his shoes likely to put scratches in the floor--the only damage he has ever dealt to God's house, even during Paul's rager of a birthday party. It's not a house rule here, but Midoriya has always removed his shoes in every house he's stepped in, whether he was wearing just his sneakers or fully kitted in his hero gear as he is now.

There is no need. He prowls inside with purpose. He sees Gideon on the couch, his eyes dash away from someone he failed to save, he looks again because he has to, again, and she is not covered in saltwater and sand this time, and all his purpose leaves him.

He remains standing and does not double over, but he subtly buckles like a doll held up by only one thin string. Saltwater floods the moons of his eyes.

Continued and closed to Kaworu

Teacher--John--proved himself to have little regard for the life Midoriya makes it his business to protect. He wielded other people's lives like tools and made enemies of so many on that beach. Midoriya wouldn't put it past him to use someone in his care as a hostage against those who would leave him or set themselves against him. It is too easy for this man(?) to threaten someone at a distance without warning.

Midoriya does not know why Kaworu would, as Ortus mentioned, choose to stay. Kaworu did not answer his frantic messages either.

He climbs the stairs he so often bounded up in his socks with the others in haste and play (Gideon likely to slide down the banister). His shoes thump the familiar path to Kaworu's (and Paul's--not Paul's, not now) room. He knocks to announce his presence, if his familiar footsteps didn't already, and enters. (His body and mind almost expect to find the boys twined in sleep that he would do his best not to disturb while joining them after a long shift, or perhaps awake and inviting.)

"Kaworu-kun?" he says lowly and softly.

[peripheries]

[Kaworu is sitting in the windowsill, back against the frame and one foot dangling back into the bedroom. The glass is open and sunlight pours in, framing him in a soft light, every color reflecting in his hair.

He'd look beautiful if not for the eyes. His gaze is distinctly inhuman, dispassionate, and terrible. It feels like a higher being viewing you as nothing more than a single line drawn on a sheet of paper instead of a living, breathing, thinking thin.

It's hard to look at.]

I thought you had left.

[(But no... he'd have seen the truck leave from this view.)]

The wall was too high, as you can see (Open)

[foulhussy]

[ Kainé wasn't invited here. She was never a part of most of these people's lives, and none in any substantial degree. Once, that would have been enough for Kainé to not get involved, remain aloof and alone, out in the cold. It would be so easy to just find some broken down shack on the edge of town, to freeze her heart and bear the scorn and revulsion of Trench's citizens as she wasted away in silence. It's so easy to pretend that Anna's betrayal, her foolish storm of vengeance, destroyed the last gasp of her willingness to connect.

But she'd been a part of that cursed voyage, not a passenger but inextricably involved all the same. And somehow the thought of all these people, abandoned and betrayed by that man... it's something worth protecting. No, this new home where, against all expectations, she had found comrades, tenderness, and love, isn't something she's prepared to give up on quite yet, or rather, the thought of losing it entirely hurts more than the balm of isolation could soothe.

She sleeps in a tent outside. She comes in the first morning, eyes sweeping the dingy warehouse from the door frame, and steps in as though she owns the place. ]

Where the fuck's the kitchen? And where do I bathe?

[miyagimagic]

[ .. talk about an entrance early in the morning, huh. But Daniel's stay in Trench so far has been - if nothing else - an extremely intense lesson in how to get used to really wild things really quickly, so he's just enduring the fact that this girl slept outside and is now wandering in with her demands, not even thinking about something like language.

He'll let her. Maybe she's still upset about everything that happened. All the other kids sure seem to be, even if this girl seems a bit older than most of them at the same time. ]

Are you looking for breakfast? I made some for everyone to share.

[ If not just so no one else has to bear trying to deal with the state of things in this warehouse... Johnny Lawrence is clearly not an interior designer.

But Daniel is right about breakfast. There is quite a tower of pancakes right there, with toppings and all for people to put on to their choosing. ]

.. I don't think we've been introduced yet. [ Not that Kainé can't have breakfast without that.

He's just trying to keep up with the names of all these kidnapped helped kids. ]

when i was a child i had a fever (gideon, big boy, stasya)

[terriblepurpose]

[Sophia is an elusive Omen. She rarely makes her presence known, and even more rarely does she stray from her Sleeper's side.

The last few days have been different. She's no easier to find, but she is not hidden in one of Paul's pockets or curled against his collarbone. She is a tiny flicker of dark motion at the corner of other's eyes, as silent as the smoke she's made of, and every time someone turns to catch her out she is already gone. There are many places for a mouse to hide in a place like this one.]

[lipochrome]

[ Gideon has summoned her Omen once, before today. She manifested tall and strong and frightening and strange, and Gideon had startled and said I don't know what the fuck you are. She had responded with I know.

When Gideon calls upon the smoke-and-haze creature she thinks of as "Big Boy," it's only because she's out of options and out of time. They split up, (why would they stay together? what's the point?) with Gideon leaving the dojo to look for Paul elsewhere. There's a horse loose in the dojo, but thankfully, she does know what she's doing.

She starts by checking the corners of every room, bowing her head and gently poking around with her nostrils. Where are you, little friend? ]