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[color=SkyBlue]"Can't the assignment wait? I'm sleeping!"[/color] were the first words Dakota had uttered that morning. Dakota was most definitely a night owl, and definitely, [b]definitely[/b] not a morning person. She had spent most of the previous night out in the woods, practicing her flight skills, and hadn't gotten into bed until nearly 4 AM. Now, she was alone in her room, on the top bunk, as usual, her bed already overflowing with clothes and other doodads. Dakota had not left her bed yet, and so the Elders were forced to come and find her. Dakota, of course, protested vigorously, insisting that the assignment wait until later, but the Elders would not bite. And so, Dakota was reluctantly forced to get out of bed. She wandered into the bathroom like a zombie, looking at herself in the mirror. Dakota was not exactly looking too pretty at the moment. She had bags underneath her eyes from a lack of sleep (a problem that had compounded over a previous couple of days), and because she had foolishly not taken a shower before going to bed the night prior, she still looked (and smelled) disgusting. Twigs and leave in hair, mud on arms, burrs on legs...she looked entirely unpresentable. Dakota was not the type to always go out all dolled up and perfect-looking, but she did have standards, however low. [color=SkyBlue]"How the hell did this happen again?”[/color] Dakota asked herself in the mirror, before shaking her head and sighing. [color=SkyBlue]"Deborah is going to kill me if I'm too late,"[/color] Dakota said, again to herself, before sighing and turning on the shower. [color=SkyBlue]"Ah, well, I'm screwed either way, right?"[/color]

A shower, an extensive brushing of hair, and a few pounds worth of deodorant later, Dakota looked back to her normal self again (or at the very least, she didn't look like a corpse anymore, which was good). She had adorned a neat black leather jacket with a high collar over an airy, sky blue shirt, and had put on a pair of ripped jeans (not store-bought ripped jeans, [i]actual[/i] ripped jeans) and leather boots. She dragged the comb through her hair one more time, winked at herself in the mirror, before taking the stairs two at a time up to Sister Deborah's office.

Of course, she was one of the last to arrive, but at the very least she was fashionably late, as they said. Dakota listened eagerly as Sister Deborah explained the assignment, overjoyed at what she had heard. [i]Vampire hunting.[/i] Now that was some cool stuff right there. Dakota had more expected to be raking leaves or brewing potions, but vampire hunting was much higher on the list. Almost as high as getting in a couple more hours of sleep. She listened as Deborah assigned her to be heading out to Baltimore with a group of other witchlings, including Calypso, Iris, Arken, Hanna, Rebecca, and a couple of new guys, including that Caleb kid that Calypso had a palpable crush on and some other Chester fellow that she had never heard of before. [color=SkyBlue]"Good team, good team,"[/color] she said with a nod as she huddled up with the rest of the group, noting with a great deal of relief that it was sans Summer. Good. Dakota didn't think she had enough altruism built up yet to save Summer if, or when, she inevitably ended up in trouble. [color=SkyBlue]"Sounds pretty legit,"[/color] Dakota noted as Calypso described the accommodations and assignment. [color=SkyBlue]"Callie, you've obviously never been at a slumber party before...we could probably squeeze all the witches into one room if we wanted to. Also, I call shotgun on the Jeep."[/color]

She smiled, the thrill of the oncoming adventure getting her pumped up, as she took a couple of peeks at the case file that Calypso was holding. [color=SkyBlue]"Alright-y...well, let's get packing! I'll go pack a bag and get ready,"[/color] Dakota said, tapping her thigh with her palm as she thought of what to pack. [color=SkyBlue]"You should totally bring your golem, Curly! They're so cool...and they're like, totally adorable."[/color] Dakota as she started to walk out. [color=SkyBlue]"I'm going to have to bring Astro...he can't stay alone here for a few days, one of the Elders might throw him out,"[/color] Dakota said with a pout. [color=SkyBlue]"Astro tried to sneak into Brother Lucien's room the other night...he left the window open anyway, so you can't blame poor Astro!"[/color] Dakota said defensively. [color=SkyBlue]"Anyway, I guess he's coming with. He can stay in the hotel room...some traveling will be good for him anyway..."[/color] she said aloud as she made her way over to her room.

Dakota grabbed a duffel bag from the closet and stuffed it full of clothes, toiletries, ferret food, and money. She then put in some more unorthodox items, including what appeared to be a few dreamcatchers (they were magically enchanted, of course, with a variety of purposes), a thin book about vampires, a pack of Menthols, a Swiss Army Knife, a much larger knife, and a silver revolver with Dakota's initials engraved into the side. [color=SkyBlue]"That should be about enough,"[/color] Dakota said, roughly tugging the zipper. The bag could hardly close, as it was so jam-packed with stuff, but Dakota eventually managed to zip the bag mostly shut, swinging it over her shoulder. She walked out of the Coven House, bag in tow, towards Calypso's Jeep, a wide smile on her face. [color=SkyBlue]"Remember, I called shotgun!"[/color] she yelled as she tossed the bag into the trunk. [color=SkyBlue]"Alright...road trip time! Woohoo! This is gonna be great, y'all."[/color]

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Jean-Luc, meanwhile, was awake much earlier than Dakota had been but didn't leave his bed any earlier. Instead, he had engrossed himself back into a book, this time a very old, very dusty, and [i]extremely[/i] fragile book about advanced charms that Jean-Luc had borrowed from the Elders. Though the book was very archaic and written in slanted, messy, inky script, Jean-Luc didn't really mind at all; in fact, the antiqueness of the book made it all the more interesting to him. He was so entirely absorbed in the thick book that he didn't even come down for breakfast on time; he was only liberated from his trance by the sounds of the Elders coming to fetch him. Jean-Luc lifted a velvet bookmark from his side, slotting it into the book neatly, before responding with a [color=B90EB9]"right away"[/color] and hustling over to the bathroom to get dressed.

Jean-Luc got dressed into a cream-colored linen shirt and khakis, giving off both a casual and more formal vibe, as he made his way to Sister Deborah's office. He looked over at the rest of the group with a calm, almost blank facial expression as he joined the rest of the newly-inducted witches. Jean-Luc had, in the past few days, made extraordinary progress, at least compared to himself. He had not once criticized any of the other witches in front of them, and he had so far been on fairly good terms with his roommates. He had yet to complain about the abundance of yellow that had sprouted up in the room (despite a deep desire too) and had even complemented Watford FC in the past day. He surely wasn't going to be walking the aisle with any of the group yet, but he had painstakingly attempted to assimilate with the group.

He listened to Sister Deborah as she described the vampire brouhaha, and promptly split the group up into two. Jean-Luc had been assigned to Group Two with Charlie, Jeremy, Maggie, Summer, Kate, Rowan, Cassandra, and Isolde. Jean-Luc was thankfully at least familiar with most of them, though not necessarily on great terms. To his chagrin, though, Jean-Luc had been assigned the smaller case file. Shame. Jean-Luc enjoyed reading, especially case files. As soon as the file touched the desk, Jean-Luc sprang into action like a pouncing tiger, snatching up the file and opening it up. He read through the file with remarkable speed, his dark focused eyes rolling back and forth like a pendulum as he leafed through the case file, putting it back on the desk after a brief moment. [color=B90EB9]"I can't say I'm fully familiar with Gary, North Carolina,"[/color] Jean-Luc explained as he stepped aside to allow the others to access the case file. [color=B90EB9]"Shame, I should probably get out more...anyway, it's a small mining town, not much interesting going on. It seems like a strange target for vampires to nest in, considering a limited population and all...but the signs match up, so we'll head out. We're going to the Williamson Inn. It looks like our accommodations are rather frugal on the behalf of the Coven...so I hope you enjoy sharing,"[/color] Jean-Luc said with a hint of a sigh. [color=B90EB9]"In any case, I'm going to go grab a couple of items from the armory that Sister Deborah listed. I have them memorized, don't worry,"[/color] Jean-Luc said casually, stepping out with his arms folded. [color=B90EB9]"I suppose we'll meet outside once we're all packed to figure out our transportation situation. I have a car, but it won't fit too many, especially with luggage, so I hope a couple of you made your way down to the DMV recently,"[/color] Jean-Luc noted before he was off.

Jean-Luc headed into the armory, removing several knives, daggers, and stakes from the wall, before heading to his room to pack.  Jean-Luc made his way down to the room. His bed and area were impeccably neat, almost inhumanly so for a teenage boy, and it was easy for him to remove some neatly folded clothes and put them into a backpack. He then put in a box of toiletries and then some items that would give a customs officer a good scare- a variety of handmade puppets and voodoo dolls were next into the bag, followed by two curved throwing daggers and a wooden stake, then a few of what appeared to be keys and other strange talismans, and finally a strange little statuette of what appeared to be Vlad the Impaler. Jean-Luc zipped up his bag, which was filled perfectly to the top, and then threw the rest of the items he hadn't taken- a couple of handguns, some knives, daggers, stakes, and more- into a string pack, which he held in his hand. After slinging on his backpack and throwing a few mice into Ghede's tank, Jean-Luc headed outside. He loaded his items into the trunk of his car- a 2017 Audi A8, jet black, before leaning against the side of the vehicle, arms folded. 

Now, to wait for everybody else. 

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