[center][img]http://i.imgur.com/a6RYmyh.png[/img]
[@Crimmy][@FlitterFaux][@Plank Sinatra][@Write][@Silvan Haven][@Krayzikk]
[h2]Post Dust Apps[/h2][/center]

After spending the brief remainder of the period in something of a confused daze, I found myself replaying the events of everything that had happened up until now in my head, trying to wrap my mind around the end of what was, for all intents and purposes, going to be a successful demonstration and newfound understanding of key concepts.

The vials were ripped from my grasp by a magnetic pull before I knew it. Professor Cirsium had been there, interposing herself between Diamond and I—

And informed all of us that she was trying to catalyze the Dust in [i]my[/i] vial.

It was as though the air had frozen. I suddenly became conscious again that we were in front of a crowd— A murmuring, stormy crowd, pockmarked with glares, scowls, and killing intent.

[color=d8bfd8]"Now go back to your seat and wait there."[/color]

[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBzpdvDbYLE]"R-Right..."[/url]

I'd walked back from the front and returned to me seat in something of a flummoxed daze, shaking off my friends' concerns with a half-absent [b]"Yeah, I'm fine."[/b] and a waved, undamaged hand. I urged everyone not to worry about the incident, partially because I felt pretty responsible for the disquieted atmosphere, but to be honest...

Try as I might have to focus, I couldn't. Even as a majority of the people surrounding me pinned the back of Diamond's head with the types of glares that went through the eyebrows and promised retribution, all I could muster was a glance every now and again, each time the thoughts popped up, destroying each attempt at notetaking in their wake.

I bid the three Bastilles, one Vignoble, and my fellow Jumpercable farewell as the bell rang.

[b]"I'll stay behind for a bit, I've got something I wanna ask Professor Cirsium. Skye, if you lose your way getting back to the dorm, let us know."[/b] I said in a clipped, but not quite curt manner, holding my scroll and wiggling it for explanation. I wasn't mad at them. I wasn't even sure if I was mad at Diamond, or even mad in the first place.

>Bianca— I'll be a bit late getting back in, need to ask Dust Apps Professor about something. Happy Hunting on groceries
>see you at the dorm

Even now, as I occupied the wall space directly adjacent to the door, all I knew was that beneath my folded arms and furrowed brow, I could feel my stomach churning as if in synchronicity with my thoughts.

Why would she go and sabotage me? 

What had I done to her in the past?

Had I even met this person, Diamond Frost, before in my life?

... Did it even mean anything to her? Was it just another Tuesday?

No, that couldn't be right. People didn't just do things like that without reason. There's always an underlying mentality of why this other deserved to be antagonized, especially in a setting where there's no competition. That required some deeper justification than the usual case of "trying to get ahead". These classes were collaborative efforts to learn and grow, so to poison that well had to mean that this person, who I had only vaguely recognized, believed me deserving of some retribution.

...Right? That was how people worked. Nobody was unreasonably antagonistic.

I didn't want to complain and wasn't going to— I came out unscathed and Diamond was likely getting the book thrown at her inside I707 as I sat there. Taking off a chunk of meat for my own wasn't going to help anything, discipline and justice were already being served. There'd be no point in it beyond needlessly hounding someone who I could only assume didn't care for me.

However, what she'd attempted to do to me had been weighing on my mind all the same.

So I stayed and waited, occupying myself with trying to understand [i]why[/i] it had been done while I waited to ask about [i]what[/i] had been done from the foremost expert available.

[hr][hr]
[@NaraK]
[color=silver][b]Sterling Johnson[/b]

"'Sup?"[/color]