[center][color=#BE81F7][h3]Lola[/h3][/color][/center][hr][hr][center][color=#BE81F7][i][sub]Reno, Nevada. 4am.[/sub][/i][/color][/center]
	[i]Tap.

	Another tap, beak against flesh. Piercing darkness, but not illuminating it.

	Pecks, perhaps kisses? Twinned with each other to bring a new sensation to the void? 

	Another one. Ouch. What the fuck?
	...

	Right. No, the woman on the bed knew what this was. Damnit.[/i]

	[color=#BE81F7]"Damnit..."[/color] Lola whispered, stirred from a dreamless snooze. Her vision, went from black to an almost brilliant, shining gold in a flash. With a sigh, she brushed her blonde locks away, allowing herself, for a moment, to adjust to the neutral darkness of her room. She lay on a bed, that was less a bed, and more an ovular collection of pillows and sheets, and took in her surroundings. She knew what the pecking meant. Waking Lola was a lot like prodding a hibernating bear-- that was way prettier and better than a bear in every way. With shadow magik. Voodoo wouldn't disturb her unless it was [i]that[/i] time of year again-- she knew it was coming-- still, she didn't want to get up.

	Another peck to the skull. 

	[color=#BE81F7]"Alright! [i]Damnit...[/i]"[/color] Lola sat up in the nest of a bed, her golden hair, falling naturally over her scar, covering her left eye. The jade gem in her right began to glow in the purple haze that was her room to compensate. Her abode was a mess, nothing but band posters and black clothes strewn about. The mismatched curtains, protection from the western sun in her casino hell-studio, gave the room a feeling of being a rainbow in the dark. Lola was a Ronnie James Dio fan, so it worked. [color=#BE81F7]"Where are you anyway? You little bastard..."[/color] She asked the smokey air, with a grunt as she rolled herself onto the floor. 

	She felt a shift in her hair. She deftly flicked the bird, nesting somewhere in the blonde tangle, before it could give her another warning.

	[color=#BE81F7]"Yeah, yeah, I know, [i]Dad.[/i]"[/color] She yawned, the oversized red shirt she was wearing reading [i]'Kush Cheney 200420'[/i] shifted slightly, revealing a shoulder. [color=#BE81F7]"It only takes a few hours to step by shadow, I'll get there before last bell to the Hogwarts gates close."[/color]

	The bird whirred, clicked and chirped, quizzically.

	[color=#BE81F7]"Yeah, dude-- even with all my stuff--"[/color] By now she was scouring the room, throwing articles of clothing into the shadows formed in corners, they dissipated, as if melting in a sea of oil. [color=#BE81F7]"Jesus, do we have to go over this every year?"[/color] Already, the room was looking cleaner-- beneath piles of clothes, clean and semi-clean, was actually an almost respectable room, if one ignored the static filled TV, the unmade bed, and the bottles, filled with ashy roaches. [color=#BE81F7]"I'm on time [i]sometimes[/i], man."[/color]

	Voodoo whirred and beeped, unsure.

	[color=#BE81F7]"Yeah, sure, whatever, fuck-off Voodoo."[/color] Lola yawned at the sight or her semi-clean room. Nearly everything she'd need to not go insane at uni, all thrown in an eldritch void of darkness. The bird creature, hopped onto her shoulder, allowing her a good look at it. He was... an [i]odd[/i] creature... that was for certain. Perhaps that was why they got on so well? The experiments that took away his ability to speak meant not many had wanted him as a familiar-- Lola never got that, it just meant she didn't need to deal with another voice in her head. He looked up at her from his perch. [color=#BE81F7]"We good to go?"[/color]

	He blinked, looking her up and down.

	[color=#BE81F7]"No, dummy. I'll change on the way there."[/color]

	A soft whirring.

	[color=#BE81F7]"Oh-- no you're right."[/color] Lola slinked across her room, leaning out of the doorway. [color=#BE81F7]"[b]Ma![/b]"[/color] She sucked in the air through her teeth, [color=#BE81F7]"[i][b]MA! Wake up![/b][/i]"[/color]

	There was a long pause, and then a thump from another room-- the voice of an old New Yorker responded, groggily, [i]"You what!?"[/i]

	[color=#BE81F7]"I'm going to Hogwarts, Ma!"[/color]

	[i]"What? Can you get me some smokes?"[/i]

	[color=#BE81F7]"No Ma, Hogwarts? You know-- school? I'm going-- I'll be back in a little while."[/color]

	Another pause. [i]"You got your little birdie?"[/i]

	[color=#BE81F7]"No Ma, I ate him for dinner. I gotta go."[/color]

	[i]"Keep that bird safe Dolores! I like him..."[/i]

	[color=#BE81F7]"Your concern is well-placed as always, Ma. I gotta go."[/color] Going back into the room, Lola stepped into the shadow of the door, against the wall, feeling a tingle all across her being as she was enveloped by the darkness that made up her being. She could hear shouts of [i]'[sub]Bring me back some Malboros[/sub]'[/i] and even fainter [i]'[sub]I love you, Lola![/sub]'[/i] in the distance, as she allowed herself to be stripped of being, and become one with the shadow of her destination.[hr][center][color=#BE81F7][i][sub]A few hours later...[/sub][/i][/color][/center]
 	And then, just like that-- there she was.

	Black T-shirt with [i]some[/i] rapper etched on it. Maybe Lil Wayne? Black jeans. Black heart. Black parasol. All materialized from the shadow in an instant-- as if black electricity had struck behind a dumpster. Lola inhaled deeply as she approached the campus-- the insecurities of those around her making the air taste like the sweetest ambrosia she'd had in a while. [i]Nothing[/i] beats the first day jitters. Her father-- some bigwig in the woods-- paid for her to go here. Among others that were more like her-- Vampires and wolves-- other creatures of the night. His thinking was that it would help her operate more efficiently. Incidentally, Lola had always despised that man, as far as she was concerned the only thing they had in common was their power. She'd thought Silverspell was a lame idea at first... but then she [i]got[/i] here... Lola unshrouded her scar and felt the tensions of those unsure of themselves rise around her. Her chest welled with the Garmonbozia. She sighed. Letting her hair fall back into place.

	Eventually, after ogling and being ogled, by all manner of freak and geek alike, she made her way to her room-- an apartment comparable to her old one. She put away her umbrella as she stepped into her room, darkening the blinds-- she found a perfect spot of shadow, and snapped her fingers-- black lightening sparking across her fingertips and the areas of shadow in the room. For a moment, the space flicked black, the dimensions seemed to curve and twist and bend-- but only for a moment-- before snapping back into place. With all her posters, sheets, pillows and clothes-- strewn about. As they were in her home. She sighed. 

	[color=#BE81F7]"No rest for the wicked..."[/color]

	The bird chirped out a laugh.

	Lola flinched, [color=#BE81F7]"Shut up, [i]Moonchild.[/i] Not every quipp can be a winner. Besides..."[/color] Another heaving sigh. [color=#BE81F7]"Spacial manipulation always takes a lot out of me. Let's go meet some people."[/color]