[center]---xX--Xx---[/center]

Kyle had to get pretty forceful with [b]Rak[/b] to move him up from his seat. The Shadowborn had skipped eating, which wasn’t surprising or alarming at all. He simply didn’t need actual food. The young man made it through his introduction to the Gymnasium and the Rec Room. In the [b]Music Room[/b], however, things went sour. In his few minutes of browsing the room, Rak found the bound paper guide to the music programmed into the stereo system. He put on a song from his homeworld and refused to be moved thereafter. When Kyle tried to force him, Rak sent one of his shadow-spikes through the nurse’s body: in just below the collarbone, out through the center of his shoulderblade. Nurses Jean, Greg, and Randa responded. The situation ended with Rak subdued by a trio of ultra-powerful flashlights until a suitable shadow-elemental sedative could be administered. He was returned to his room and also given a powerful hallucinogen as punishment/treatment. Kyle would not return to the patient treatment areas for two days, and [b]Rak[/b] wound up on [b]Basement Level 2[/b], in a coma.

[b]Sasha and Anya[/b] both managed to complete their tours, and were returned to their rooms. [b]Anya[/b] was sedated again, and whether she actually slept or became too intoxicated to escape from her own nightmares was anyone’s guess. [b]She remained asleep in her room until lunchtime. Sasha[/b] attempted to sexually assault the male nurse who was sent to administer her afternoon injection, and [b]was moved to Solitary Confinement on Basement Level 1 for two days.[/b]

[b]Alice[/b] got as far as the Library, where she found a book she especially liked and curled up in a chair that was warmed by a ray of sun through the window. When Sarah attempted to move the neko, the woman clawed the nurse viciously. Alice truly fought like a cat; twisty and scratchy, not doing a lot of real damage but nearly impossible to hold. Although Sara and Stanley struggled happily with Alice, it took the addition of Nurse Buck to finally subdue her. She was sedated and restrained for the remainder of the day, but during the night awoke and broke one of her bonds. She was sedated again and chained to her bed. By morning, she was unresponsive. [b]Alice[/b] was then pronounced comatose and removed to [b]Basement Level 2[/b].

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» [u]Bernadette[/u] «[/center]

[b]“Dante Veneti,”[/b] the tall human said smoothly, and then he proceeded to shock the Sea Dweller by taking her hand in his. Where Bernie came from, the only reason for a male to touch a female was in order to breed with her. The physical contact kept the female from changing into water and escaping. This Dante, she was absolutely [i]certain[/i] he couldn’t move his form like that… she knew what a handshake was, and that wasn’t what he was doing, either. When a human wanted that, they held out their own hand rather than taking the other person’s. And Dante wasn’t stopping with merely taking her hand in his; no, he raised it to his mouth and [i]brushed his lips across her knuckles,[/i] looking up into her silvery eyes.

For a moment, the Angrkillian was frozen. His lips felt warm and soft and dry against her own cool, damp skin. And his eyes… there was a time, during the hot summer on her planet, when the water in the Bay of the Growing turned green with a rich algal bloom. That hue meant food for the newborns, the promise of life for another generation of Bernadette’s people. Dante’s eyes were a little darker than she remembered the water being, but the shade was close enough to make her think of her favorite season at… home.

Coupled with the way he held her hand -she seemed to remember that when humans touched their lips to someone else it was called a [i]kiss[/i] and did have romantic connotations- she found herself caught, unsure as to her next move. He [i]couldn’t[/i] mean to breed with her, surely… she wasn’t even 100% clear on how humans did that, though from what she did know it [i]might[/i] be possible for her to couple with a human. Not that it seemed likely to be pleasurable for her or result in any offspring. 

Bernie couldn’t tell if Dante sensed her confusion or if he simply didn’t intend to breed with her right that moment, but he let go of her hand and straightened. She decided that humans were just totally weird about their mating rituals and she’d worry about Dante wanting to breed with her if he ever actually tried it.

[b]“It is a pleasure, Bernadette. Any enemy of Greg’s is a friend of mine.”[/b]

Dante smiled at her, a gesture Bernie always found amusing. People had such neat, dull little teeth, they didn’t look fierce at all! She gamely showed him her own sharps in return.

[b]“A tour would be lovely, Bernie,”[/b] the Magician continued, gesturing for her to lead the way as he spoke. [b]“Do you mind if I call you that? Or do you prefer Bernadette?”[/b]

[b]“Bernie is okay, say what you like,”[/b] she replied, moving just across the hall to the Rec Room door and laying her hand on the doorknob. Bernie paused, and gave Dante a suspicious glance over her shoulder. [b]“But no more touch.”[/b]

Then she opened the door and stepped inside, holding the portal open and waiting for her new friend to follow. [b]“This is room for rec,”[/b] she chirped brightly as he entered. Bernadette didn’t have the first clue that Rec was short for recreation, or really what recreation meant. [b]“We play games here, and draw pictures. I like to draw!”[/b]

Though it sort of sounded childlike, the discovery of colored pencils and paper had been a game-changer for Bernie. A few Land-Dwellers knew how to make ink and paper out of plants, but Bernadette had never actually [i]seen[/i] them before coming to Osmond’s. She had turned out to be rather talented at sketching, and had produced a couple of remarkable pictures depicting some of the sea life on her planet. They were currently taped to the wall in her room, their corners curling up from the high humidity.