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Who: Willow and You
What: Acclimating and exploring Gaze
When: Early September
Where: Around Gaze

1. First Night - For Clockhouse Residents

To say it's been a long day is something of an understatement. Has it really all just happened in one day? From turning back into a human, and nearly drowning, to necromancers and pirate ships, and crabs, and reunions with old friends, and scattered memories. It's hardly a surprise that by the time Willow finds her way home, she's exhausted, and quickly retires to her room for some much needed sleep.

The dream is strange; she would have expected nightmares about being back in the ocean, or about tentacled pirates, or reanimated dead. Instead, it's a strange, disjointed dream of a dark forest, a full, pale red moon, and distant howling.

She wakes with a start, and jumps out of bed. The first thing that hits her when she opens her eyes is that she's lower to the ground than she's used to, and the world around her has a strange quality to it - it's dark, but everything is sharp and clear, bathed in a mix of blues, greys and yellows. It's not until she looks down and sees paws where her hands ought to be that outright panic hits.

No, no, no. This can't be happening - she's already been a squid today, and a human, and now, what's this? She dashes to the bathroom, sliding when she hits the tile floor, and puts her hands - no, paws - on the sink to look in the mirror. A wolf! She's a wolf. Not like the werewolves from home, but an actual regular wolf. She looks grey to her own eyes, but her coat is a soft red interspersed with dark guard hairs.

She pushes off the sink and paces in circles. It's a full moon, sure, but she hasn't been bitten by anything, she doesn't think. A spell, maybe? She's sure she didn't cast anything, although she's been vaguely aware that her magic feels different here than it did in Deerington, or Sunnydale. Suddenly, she remembers Amy, trapped as a rat for three years - does she ever not want to be stuck like this long term.

Ozpin - Ozpin is experienced with magic, he'll know what to do. She just has to go find him, and surely he'll be able to help her find a way to turn back into herself again. It's not until she leaves the bathroom to go sound the alarm that she notices the figure still asleep in her bed.

What.

It's a strange sensation to watch yourself sleeping in bed from another form, and Willow isn't quite sure how to parse it. It has to be some kind of spell, or curse. Something to do with Trench, maybe, she's not sure. She thinks back to the nights in December, she shared her dream guide's form, but this doesn't feel the same somehow. This isn't sharing another form, this is becoming something else entirely while her regular physical self appears to be comfortably asleep.

Hey! Hey! Wake up!

It comes out as three short yips, but the figure in bed doesn't wake, and instead just rolls over and pulls the blankets in closer around herself with a sigh. It hits her that this might be some kind of Freaky Friday thing, and maybe if her human form wakes up, it will be the wolf's consciousness in her body. Maybe that's not such a smart idea after all.

She runs to the door and jumps up to turn the handle, except - oh. Right. No thumbs with which to grip the knob. Well, that's just great. She sits back on her haunches with a sigh of exasperation. All she can do is call for help and hope someone wakes up. She tries for her words, but instead gets a frantic yodeling howl.

Hey! Someone? Anyone? I need some help in here!

2. Around Gaze (School of Mutter and Archives) - Open

Willow had been trying to find her way to the Archives in Gaze anyway, so when one of Never Mind's ravens seem to be offering to show her the way to the School of Mutter, she accepts gratefully. Finding answers is a priority - both regarding the things she's seen and experienced since arriving, this new form of magic that feels so unlike her own, and she's also taken an interest in the history of Trench itself. It seems like as good a place as any to start, at least.

She spends most of her day checking out the lectures and classes offered by the school, chatting with the Scholars when they can spare a moment, and exploring options for attending regularly. She still intends to go find the Archives as well and launch into her own research, but it seems like a good idea to get information from others as well. An offhanded mention that she has a couple people looking to learn magic from her once she's more comfortable herself results in the suggestion that she look at running her own class as well when the time comes, and the idea does spark her interest.

At the school, she can be mostly found exploring the halls, or waiting for a lecture to start, or hanging back to try to catch up with one of the Scholars afterwards.

Later in the day, she does make her way to the Archane Archives. It's a both fascinating and horrifying place all at the same time, museum and library all rolled into one and more than once she startles at a monster specimen she comes across unexpectedly while perusing the shelves of books.

It doesn't take her long to settle in and become distracted, losing herself in the stacks. It's difficult to find what she's looking for, though, and frustratingly, the organizational system seems to be - well. Non-existent. Some of the books, too, seem distorted in ways that remind her far too much of the time spent trying to look into the history of Deerington, only to realize there was nothing she could possibly do to force the books to become readable. She quickly reshelves those ones after thumbing through a couple pages, and puts her focus instead into finding ones on blood magic, blood types, and the history of the area. She's happy to be interrupted by someone willing to help in her search, or looking for help with their own, or even someone just looking for the chance to talk to for a bit.

3. Wolfwalking (Archives and around Gaze) - Open

It quickly becomes clear that what triggers the change in Willow, and she hates it. Much of her time is spent in the Archives looking for a solution to either stop or at least control it, but even information on werewolves that change when sleeping seems to be rather lacking, let alone a way to stop it from happening.

It's hard to fall asleep knowing what sleep will bring, but she won't complain about the insomnia that keeps her in her proper body, in spite of the exhaustion she feels.

She's sitting cross legged among the stacks with a book in her lap when it happens. She only gives in and closes her eyes for a moment, but it's enough. She's back to a body that doesn't feel anything at all like her own, and once again unable to see colours properly, but at least she can hear and smell everything around her, and her eyesight overall is sharper. She's already figured out she can't wake herself up immediately - she needs at least some sleep to return, so instead she lets out a huff and flops down on the ground. She stays for awhile, in case anyone comes by - she's not sure what would happen if someone disturbed her sleeping form, so it seems important to stick close.

She gets antsy after awhile, though, and decides to roam the maze of shelves, eventually moving further and further afield the more comfortable she gets that she will remain undisturbed until she leaves the Archives altogether to explore Gaze. The world feels far different lower to the ground, and with keener senses in spite of her perception of colour being weaker. She's cautious and a little nervous as she makes her way through the district - she's not confident in how she moves in this shape, and it feels a little harder to recognize people she's already met sometimes, but if someone's in trouble, she will still stop to try to help, and she will not immediately bolt if someone stops to try to make a new friend.

4 - Wildcard!

[Want something different? Feel free!]

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Ange can't quite resist taking a look in the archives either once she's settled. After all, there's quite some desire within her to know more about the place they've found themselves in - because, unlike Deerington, this is a place they will more or less be staying in. Then she can't afford to know almost nothing about it. And if there's answers to be found anywhere, Ange thinks, it's probably here.

Except it seems like she wasn't the only one with that exact line of thought. She can notice Willow already there, reading one of the books.

The girl isn't too sure how caught up in that book Willow is, and it's not like she wants to startle the other, so she tries to get Willow's attention in a slightly more tactful and calm way, speaking up softly.

".. Hey, Willow. Already reading?"

She's absorbed in a book about blood magic and blood types when Ange approaches. It seems as good a place as any to start - they're going to need to learn about this new magic, and she feels the need to be especially cautious with anything to do with blood.

Willow doesn't hear the approach, but she doesn't startle at Ange's voice either. "Huh?" She looks over and grins as she sets the book down. "Oh, hey. Yeah. Looking into where we landed and stuff seemed like a good place to start. You're planning on the same thing, huh?"

She nods.

"I mean, this place already seems.. strange." With extra emphasis on that word, because whew boy, 'strange' doesn't even seem to cover it. Somewhere between their new squidforms and their weird blood, and that's even discounting everything around them in this place.

She moves to sit down at the same table as Willow is reading at - though across from the table, so she can look at the other.

"Maybe it was a little too optimistic on my part, but I sure thought we were going to be in a more normal place than this after leaving Deerington."

Oz arrives at the school with similar ambitions: He wants to learn the history and intended to reach the Archives, but has settled for school. It's only his second time setting foot in any sort of academic setting and he's mystified by the setting. The soft rustle of classes behind closed doors and intellectual whispers in the hallways are much different from his trip to Lutwidge Academy.

He's not quite sure what draws him to Willow. It's a strange feeling; Not like fate, but like his blood is drawn to her. Oz doesn't yet understand blood types, so does not realize that the moon cycle this month has his vileblood seeking palebloods.

Regardless of the reason, he's casting a casual wave as he approaches. Despite usually being a loud person, Oz keeps his voice down. This is a school, after all. "Excu~se me? Do you know how we would enroll in classes here?"

"Strange sure is one word for it," Willow agrees with a nod. She's not convinced it's all that bad yet, though. It seems to be an improvement over Deerington so far, but after all the warnings she received in the dream about October, it would be a lie to say she wasn't already worried about what next month was going to bring.

"It doesn't seem like everything's such a big secret, though? I mean, at least the books about Trench are... you know... readable." She is not at all bitter about glitched books at the Deerington library. "It is still really a lot with everything."

Willow had always intended to sign up for college classes at Deerington, but it just never really worked out before the dream began to fall apart, and by that time, she had other priorities. It's a nice feeling, though, to be able to put some effort back into academics, and if some of the courses offered here can help her better understand Trench, and the challenges they'll face here, all the better.

She offers a friendly smile and returns the wave as Oz approaches. "Hey. Um. I'm not really sure yet - I guess we'd have to talk to the dean? I know a lot of the Scholars so far have been happy to let me just sit in on their classes for now."

"Hm. I wonder how they'll divide us by age and experience?" He wonders aloud, not really expecting an answer from her. He's more or less confirmed that they are both new here. It would be unfair to expect her to answer questions that they likely share.

Oz does nod a bit to show approval for the scholars, "That's good of them. Don't meant to be nosy, but I'm gu~uessing you woke up on the beach too? Any lectures seem squid friendly?"

If he was more direct, he'd have asked: "Do the lectures make sense to non-natives, or am I wasting my time here?"

At least Ange is fully aware what Willow is talking about, having visited the library back in Deerington often enough. Those books were.. wild, to say the least. And while Ange hasn't opened the ones here yet, it is good to hear that they're at least a bit more normal than those books.

Even if everything about them as people has become a little wilder.

It's something to just contemplate though, rather than talk about, so Ange shakes her head and asks: "What are you reading about right now?"

"From what I've seen, it looks like it goes mostly by experience and intelligence," Willow answers. "From what I've seen of the other students, it doesn't look like age is a big factor anyway."

She nods. "Technically I was still out to sea when I woke up, but yeah. I'm new too. It looks like they were expecting a lot of us - there's been a few kind of really basic introductory type lessons. And I guess there's a library or something near here that you can go do some reading at if you wanna get into the more advanced stuff faster."

It doesn't seem too bad, really, and she is planning on checking out the Archives as soon as possible.

"I'm Willow, by the way," she says with a friendly smile, and extends her hand.

Willow gestures to the stack of books beside her with a sheepish smile. "I pretty much grabbed an armful of what I could find about blood types, blood magic, and Trench and the Pthumerians, in general. Right now, it's, uh - " she turns the book around to check the cover. "Blood types."

So basically, a little of everything, as she wasn't entirely sure where she wanted to start.

"Maybe I have a chance of taking classes after all then." He was glad that things wouldn't be age restricted. It was hardly his fault that he had died young, after all. Hearing her confirm his suspicions about arrivals earned a nod of agreement, "I got that feeling too. The people on the boardwalk were certainly calm about masses of new arrivals from the ocean."

One of his goals was therefore to find out when the next arrival might be.

"Oz Vessalius. It's nice to meet you. Lady Willow?" It seemed that his world's stuffy mannerisms got weird looks around here, but Oz would always open with them out of habit, "I wonder if we'll be classmates."

"You mean our weird new blood?"

Because that sure hasn't gone unnoticed to Ange - nor has it to most other people in the city, apparently. Not that it's very surprising to her. There's only so many times you can hear someone talk about the weird blood they have before looking to see if your own blood is still normal, after all.

Though there's a slight hint of relief at the thought that they actually have books here about it. It means that it's at least something normal in this place. Something that's known, rather than something they have to figure out entirely by themselves.

"So the people here knew about that already."

"Yeah, I mean, I'm not sure how the author knew or anything about specifics, but..." she shrugs. "It seems pretty informative."

She glances to the rest of the pile. Hopefully the rest of her selections are just as helpful, then back to Ange.

"So, have you done any browsing yourself yet? Kinda messed up - nothing doesn't seem to be in any particular order, so it's hard to find anything. You just kind of have to look around and hope you manage to pick up what you're looking for."

Between the calm of the Wakers on the boardwalk and the warm welcome they received, Willow also made the assumption on arrival that they were expected. Probably right down to the day, from the looks of things. She can't imagine there were people waiting for them on shore every single day until they finally arrived.

"I wonder how they knew, though. When to expect us, I mean. It seems a little strange, doesn't it?"

She grins when she hears his name - he's not the first Oz she's met, and he's not even the second. It seems like a good sign, and he's apparently very polite, but there's no weird looks from her, even though she's quick to correct him.

"It's just Willow, nice to meet you, Oz." She gives him an encouraging nod. "I'm sure you'll do great here - hey, maybe we can be study buddies if we end up in the same classes."

"Agreed. And yet, everyone who shares our squid story recalls appearing on the beach around the same time. If there's a precedent for these arrivals, I haven't met the ones who set the pattern." Unless, he worries, the ones who came before them are gone now for some reason.

Even if the thought is strange and dark, it's nice to share them. Oz is quite used to keeping his observations to himself. Meeting someone who he can not only talk to about them, but hope to have keep up with them is refreshing.

"Willow it is, then. And yes, that sounds lovely. I've never had classmates before!"

She shakes her head.

"I just walked in." And considering she spotted a familiar face she sure doesn't mind talking to, she figured she could talk for a bit first before going to look around here herself..

.. though what Willow is saying is slightly discouraging. Not majorly so, but it sure is a pain in the ass.

"But.. really? Why is there no order? I mean, it's a library." You'd think someone was being paid to keep the books here in some sort of order! Some sort of organisation!

[Ruby let's out a yawn as her door opens shortly after hearing the howl. She scratches her head and looks around with bleary eyes.]

Okay Zwei- Okay- I heard you. I'll take you back outside but you literally just went.

[She blinks as she sees the actual wolf scrambling around the hallway.]

You're not Zwei...

"Yeah - that might be something we should try to find out about. Whether there were other Sleepers that came here before us that we just haven't found yet, or if they had some other way of knowing when we were going to arrive." Willow hasn't come up with any particular theories about that just yet.

"You've never had classmates before?" She asks curiously. "Were you homeschooled, or just, like, private lessons, or..?"

"That was pretty much my reaction too," Willow answers. It's deeply frustrating to go looking for particular books, or books on a particular subject only to find that they're shelved at what appears to be random. She can't help grinning, though, she figured Ange would understand.

"This whole place is kind of strange - it's like a museum and library all rolled into one. You gotta be careful when you're looking through the stacks because sometimes you'll just come across some kind of crazy monster specimen - some of them are kind of startling if you don't know to expect them."

It certainly is an interesting library.

[As soon as the door opens, the wolf bolts into the hall, sliding on the floor. She's not used to moving like this, with four paws instead of two feet. Nothing looks right, and the smells and sounds are all far stronger than she's used to.

It takes her a moment to work through the panic and recognize Ruby, but when she does, she runs back to her bedroom, where her human form is still sleeping, apparently blissfully unaware of the chaos.

She puts her front paws on the bed and looks back and forth frantically from Ruby to the sleeping girl under the covers.

Help.]

"Straight from one weird place into another.." Ange sighs as she says it, letting her head drop onto the table for a moment to just lie on there. Something about exploring this place has been so exhausting.

Maybe it's the fact that she expected so much better of this place. That'll teach her to get her hopes up for absolutely once in her entire life.

"I wonder if we have someone with librarian ambitions among us. Maybe they could rearrange this place. I doubt the people who already live here are going to care much, considering the order is now just totally random."

"Come on, we expected at least a little weird - just not, you know, Deerington levels of weird," Willow says gently. "Besides a lot of disorganization in the library - which, yeah, okay, that's bad, but it hasn't been so bad here yet, right?"

She grins at the idea of someone with librarian ambitions completely overhauling the way the library is organized - or, you know, not. "I think that might take some time, but it'd be a good project for someone. I wonder if the Scholars would be okay with that, or if it would just be like fighting a never ending battle against chaos."

[--The night, disturbed only by fitful attempts of sleep, was disrupted with a heart rending howl. Oscar sat bolt upright in his bed, chest heaving as he fought to steady his breath, and looked around frantically with one question in mind:

Since when did Zwei make noise like that.

Fumbling, Oscar made his way toward the sound and flung open the door-- only to stare dumbfounded at the scene inside.]

...A wolf?

[He asked, not expecting an answer.]

What kinda fairy tale are we living in?

[Willow fixes him with an intense stare, silently willing him to understand the situation. She looks from him to her sleeping form still in the bed and back again. Surely as soon as he notices that she appears to still be sound asleep despite the commotion, he'll realize something is amiss.

Come on, Oscar. I don't know how this happened, and I don't know how to fix it, but it's me, I swear.

What actually comes out is a distressed sounding whine, and she flops to the ground in frustration.

Great.]

Oh god, Willow is right. Ange can only imagine what that might be like. Someone organizing the entire library, only to find everything thrown back into chaos by the Scholars a day later..

What a pain that would be.

But it's not that part that she says out loud. Instead Ange focuses on the first part of what Willow says. The part that makes her groan and rub her eyes, looking tired.

"I don't know. Ruby keeps suddenly bursting into flames ever since arriving here, I think that's what's keeping me from liking this place." It's a lot of stress to have to deal with right away.

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