<Snipped quote by Lord Wraith>
Literally writing a post right now. Will have it up tonight or tomorrow (I'm off work tomorrow).
Post is finished, just needs some formatting/mspaint wizardry. Which I will do in the morning.
Roman Member
King of Dirt
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Watch out.
The gap in the door... it's a separate reality.
The only me is me.
Are you sure the only you is you?
The gap in the door... it's a separate reality.
The only me is me.
Are you sure the only you is you?
DON'T TOUCH THAT DIAL NOW, WE'RE JUST GETTING STARTED
Most Recent Posts
Post is finished, just needs some formatting/mspaint wizardry. Which I will do in the morning.
Alright we've been awfully quiet in here lately, time for a roll call.
◼ @Roman
◼ @Hillan
◼ @Tyler
◼ @LancerOfBlue
◼ @FantasyChic
◼ @Polaris North
◼ @Ichorus
◼ @Dusksong
Please let me know if you're still interested and able to post. Otherwise those who don't reply by Friday will be removed from the roster. If you guys don't feel like there's anything for you to reply to or a reason to post in the IC, let me know and I can advance the plot. If you the players are unhappy and don't communicate with me there's nothing I can do to remedy it.
Literally writing a post right now. Will have it up tonight or tomorrow (I'm off work tomorrow).
Off the back of our Episode One Awards, I'd like to mention that Wraith and I are more than open to any suggestions for future awards - we want to celebrate every aspect of what we do here, and we need your help to make that happen!
@roman I don't know whether our characters would actually speak to each other in full, but I was hoping to do something with Brynn's running hobby :3 Maybe she can see/say hello to your character and whoever's there with her?
Feel free to buzz at me for a cameo if you'd like to make a post! Belle and Alex are currently at Crestwood Docks, sharing a few beers and enjoying the sea breeze!
Anyone posts while we wait for the next GM event post, or Wraith delegates to me to put together a GM post. Belle's heading down the docks if anyone would like a collab, otherwise I can safely speak for the majority of players when I say we love seeing individual posts with character development and neatly-done exposition.
G E O R G E 'D I G G E R' H A R K N E S S
"It's like I always say: what goes around..."
| A L I A S ( E S ): |
'Captain' Boomerang
B e l l e D ' V o i r e cameo by Tyler as Aiden
Belle idly batted at a wandering fly as she uncrossed-and-crossed her legs for the third time in two minutes. She was anxious, and growing impatient, and fairly certain her looming fidgeting was starting to irritate the other people sat around her in the reception area. A nurse passed by and gave a polite smile - it was not that nurse's first time around - and Belle opened her mouth to flag her down, but she was swiftly out of the room. Clearly, she had no interest in being caught in that trap again. The fly came back and landed on Belle's arm, and again she shoo'd it away, but this time it only flew to the arm of her chair; she turned her head to look at it, stood stock-still on the pale wood, seemingly staring back at her.
Buzz off. She thought.
The fly took off, flying away and landing on the wall on the other side of the room. She thought nothing of it. Belle tapped her foot, and stopped when an older gentlemen opposite her issued a sharp look. She returned an apologetic look, and stood up, walking over to the reception desk.
"Excuse me, do you happen to know which room Aiden McKenna is in? I know he's on this floor..." She asked the nurse, who carefully put her pen down and affected her best polite smile. "I just...I have to be somewhere in an hour and I've been waiting since twe-"
"That hallway-" the nurse answered, pointing past Belle's shoulder - "and then the fourth door on the right. But he's seeing someone right now." She finished, and went back to her paperwork. Belle thanked her, and turned around down the corridor. The fly watched her from the wall, and another landed unnoticed on her elbow.
Belle approached the door quickly, carefully attempting to peek through the reinforced glass window to check if the room was clear - but failed to see anything before the door burst open toward her, a suited man pocketing a notepad brushing past her in a decidedly brusque manner.
"Excuse me, sir, is it okay to go in?" She asked, surprising the man who clearly hadn't seen her before exiting. She noticed the CHPD badge on his hip, glinting in the harsh fluorescent light. A cop, then - Detective, judging by the plainclothes and notes.
"Oh, yeah, sure kid. He's all yours. Visiting hours end at-"
"Four, yeah, I know. Thanks!" Belle smiled, and slipped into the room, shutting the door behind her as the detective walked off down the hall towards the elevators.
She lingered against the wood paneling for a second, waiting for Aiden to notice her presence, before taking a few steps towards the bed and pulling up the chair that the detective had been sat in, parking her ass in it before leaning forwards, her chin resting in both hands.
"Hey, Aiden. You feeling okay?"
Aiden blinked, curious as to why his classmate had turned up. He wanted with every ounce of his being to be frustrated, to fend off Belle and anyone else who wanted to bother him today with hostile glances and a specific roll of the eye. And yet, as she sat there, politely awaiting response, Aiden could do nothing but resign himself to her charm. He and Abelle had never been best friends, but the girl was always so... Nice. And unlike the majority of the student body at Mather Memorial High, Belle had a sense of integrity and conviction that emphasized the genuine nature of her demeanor. He sighed, leaning back into the uncomfortable bed.
"Hey, Abelle. I wasn't expecting you." he said earnestly. There was a pause before he mustered a weak smile: "Thanks for coming. I appreciate it." He was only half-lying. It was true that he had neither anticipated nor wished for any visitation from his peers... But on some small level, the gesture had touched him. "I'm doing okay. Should be out soon, they're just keeping an eye on me to make sure everything's good." He paused again, looking away from the girl as he wondered whether Belle had a more complete memory of last nights events. Well, it would certainly explain why she had turned up out of the blue... "So," he said, sheepishly as he tried to shatter the awkward silence. "Crazy night, huh?"
"Yeah, I know. Someone ought to check on you though, right?" She replied, chuckling slightly. She wasn't great at 'joking around' - Alex often did the socializing for her. "That's good to hear, though! Glad you're on the mend. You look really great..." she trailed off, her gaze drifting to a blackened hockey mask that had been left on the bedside table.
"Yeah, it really was, huh? I mean, what I can remember of it...I was just paralyzed with terror at that fire, you know? It was all such a rush." She half-smiled, not wanting to betray the true uncertainties she had regarding her memories of the night previous. She had always been sure of her mind, even with intoxication taken into account, and the fog that clouded her memories now disturbed her. She gestured to the mask. "Your costume, I'm guessing? Jason, right? Always liked a cheesy slasher...shame we never got to see it." She regretted her choice of words near-immediately - she knew the basic minimum around Aiden's previous hiatus, and she had heard the rumors that were already spreading like wildfire - but she never meant to pay them any attention. She didn't want to believe Aiden had it in him. He'd always seemed...gentle.
Belle flicked her arm as she felt a tickle, and looked to the ground where she had flung a small brown beetle that had been clinging to her wrist, its six legs flailing in the air as it tried to right itself. She felt sorry for it for a moment, and then it was back on its legs - and again, stood stock-still, pointed decidedly towards her.
Aiden shot her a stern glance, faster than a throwing knife and just as sharp. What was she hinting at? Was this some kind of mind game? No, he scolded himself. It was easy to expect the worst from people, but he couldn't shut everyone down without reason. Even if it did come so naturally...
"I was late," he said bluntly. "Had some stuff to attend to. I hadn't been there long before shit hit the fan." He clearly did not want to discuss the matter any further, breaking his gaze away to inspect the ground in search of anything interesting to distract him. That was when Belle seemed to flinch, and threw a beetle from her sleeve. Aiden watched as it squirmed, eventually righting itself and then... Standing still. It made no effort to flee, no beat of its wings. Perhaps it was stunned.
But no, for in the next moment the insect did move, crawling at a comfortable pace back towards Abelle and beginning to scale her nearest leg. Aiden scoffed, bemused by the tenacity of the bug.
"I think he likes you." he joked, watching the beetle move further up his visitors body.
Belle watched the beetle crawl back towards her, her head snapping up as Aiden cracked a joke. She broke an uneasy smile and nodded. "Yeah, I guess. Poor thing's probably just scared..." She stood from her chair and bent over, laying her hand flat on the ground to scoop up the bug. It obliged, and rested in the middle of her palm as she brought her hand up to eye-level. Just a regular beetle, antenna twitching slightly. From her elbow, the fly took off, and buzzed around near her wrist, flying in a concentric pattern but never landing. "Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhuh..." she said, letting out a long breath as she watched both insects in their equally peculiar behavior.
Belle looked at Aiden, who responded with a bemused gaze that likely matched her own. She cleared her throat, and carefully closed her fist around the beetle.
"Well, I guess I should take him outside...don't want any staff freaking out about contamination." She walked towards the door, watching the fly out of her peripheral vision as it dutifully followed her. "See you in class on Monday, hopefully?" She asked, Aiden giving a parting nod and nothing else before Belle made her way down the corridor, into the elevator, and out of the hospital.
"So he's okay then?" Alex asked through a mouthful of fries, the hum of the mall behind them forcing her to raise her voice above the buzz. Belle was idly playing with the straw of her shake, carefully watching a small wasp that was standing next to the cup. She had hidden it behind the wrapper of her burger, so she could observe it safely without anyone trying to kill it or shoo it away - just to watch it's behavior, see if it did anything peculiar. So far, it had done nothing. Belle wasn't sure if that was the most peculiar thing it could be doing. She looked up.
"Yeah, I think so. Just shaky. I think he already knows what people are saying, you know?"
"Mmm..." Alex nodded slowly, finishing her mouthful before replying. "You don't think it's suspicious, though? After all the talk around his last disappearance?"
Belle issued a stern look that she saved for special occasions. "I think no one knows anything and it's all just talk. Sometimes people forget how powerful a rumor can get."
"You're so wise, Belle." Alex said, chuckling, forcing Belle to break her stare. She took a sip from her shake and looked at the wasp again. Still motionless. She had walked through the park on her way to the mall to meet Alex, and had had a few more close encounters with some six-legged fellows: the few bees left in the late season leaving their flowers to hover near her, before returning to their work as she walked away; butterflies fluttering through the long grass, circling her legs for a few paces and then moving on; even ants, so determined in their mission, breaking from their ranks to deposit tiny leaf fragments and twigs at her feet before rejoining their march. After the beetle at the hospital - only leaving her hand onto the bush outside when she had firmly (and out loud, she was embarrassed to admit) asked it to, she couldn't help but notice; and now, she was carefully watching every insect she saw. Alex finished her fries, and Belle cleared her throat, standing up and shooing the wasp away as Alex bent down to pick up her bags.
"Docks?" Belle asked as they started to move towards the escalators down to the ground floor of the mall. Alex side-eyed her, but in truth she had been expecting it.
"Sure. But let me drop my bags off first. I'd hate to get that sea-salt smell all over my new clothes."
Belle idly batted at a wandering fly as she uncrossed-and-crossed her legs for the third time in two minutes. She was anxious, and growing impatient, and fairly certain her looming fidgeting was starting to irritate the other people sat around her in the reception area. A nurse passed by and gave a polite smile - it was not that nurse's first time around - and Belle opened her mouth to flag her down, but she was swiftly out of the room. Clearly, she had no interest in being caught in that trap again. The fly came back and landed on Belle's arm, and again she shoo'd it away, but this time it only flew to the arm of her chair; she turned her head to look at it, stood stock-still on the pale wood, seemingly staring back at her.
Buzz off. She thought.
The fly took off, flying away and landing on the wall on the other side of the room. She thought nothing of it. Belle tapped her foot, and stopped when an older gentlemen opposite her issued a sharp look. She returned an apologetic look, and stood up, walking over to the reception desk.
"Excuse me, do you happen to know which room Aiden McKenna is in? I know he's on this floor..." She asked the nurse, who carefully put her pen down and affected her best polite smile. "I just...I have to be somewhere in an hour and I've been waiting since twe-"
"That hallway-" the nurse answered, pointing past Belle's shoulder - "and then the fourth door on the right. But he's seeing someone right now." She finished, and went back to her paperwork. Belle thanked her, and turned around down the corridor. The fly watched her from the wall, and another landed unnoticed on her elbow.
Belle approached the door quickly, carefully attempting to peek through the reinforced glass window to check if the room was clear - but failed to see anything before the door burst open toward her, a suited man pocketing a notepad brushing past her in a decidedly brusque manner.
"Excuse me, sir, is it okay to go in?" She asked, surprising the man who clearly hadn't seen her before exiting. She noticed the CHPD badge on his hip, glinting in the harsh fluorescent light. A cop, then - Detective, judging by the plainclothes and notes.
"Oh, yeah, sure kid. He's all yours. Visiting hours end at-"
"Four, yeah, I know. Thanks!" Belle smiled, and slipped into the room, shutting the door behind her as the detective walked off down the hall towards the elevators.
She lingered against the wood paneling for a second, waiting for Aiden to notice her presence, before taking a few steps towards the bed and pulling up the chair that the detective had been sat in, parking her ass in it before leaning forwards, her chin resting in both hands.
"Hey, Aiden. You feeling okay?"
Aiden blinked, curious as to why his classmate had turned up. He wanted with every ounce of his being to be frustrated, to fend off Belle and anyone else who wanted to bother him today with hostile glances and a specific roll of the eye. And yet, as she sat there, politely awaiting response, Aiden could do nothing but resign himself to her charm. He and Abelle had never been best friends, but the girl was always so... Nice. And unlike the majority of the student body at Mather Memorial High, Belle had a sense of integrity and conviction that emphasized the genuine nature of her demeanor. He sighed, leaning back into the uncomfortable bed.
"Hey, Abelle. I wasn't expecting you." he said earnestly. There was a pause before he mustered a weak smile: "Thanks for coming. I appreciate it." He was only half-lying. It was true that he had neither anticipated nor wished for any visitation from his peers... But on some small level, the gesture had touched him. "I'm doing okay. Should be out soon, they're just keeping an eye on me to make sure everything's good." He paused again, looking away from the girl as he wondered whether Belle had a more complete memory of last nights events. Well, it would certainly explain why she had turned up out of the blue... "So," he said, sheepishly as he tried to shatter the awkward silence. "Crazy night, huh?"
"Yeah, I know. Someone ought to check on you though, right?" She replied, chuckling slightly. She wasn't great at 'joking around' - Alex often did the socializing for her. "That's good to hear, though! Glad you're on the mend. You look really great..." she trailed off, her gaze drifting to a blackened hockey mask that had been left on the bedside table.
"Yeah, it really was, huh? I mean, what I can remember of it...I was just paralyzed with terror at that fire, you know? It was all such a rush." She half-smiled, not wanting to betray the true uncertainties she had regarding her memories of the night previous. She had always been sure of her mind, even with intoxication taken into account, and the fog that clouded her memories now disturbed her. She gestured to the mask. "Your costume, I'm guessing? Jason, right? Always liked a cheesy slasher...shame we never got to see it." She regretted her choice of words near-immediately - she knew the basic minimum around Aiden's previous hiatus, and she had heard the rumors that were already spreading like wildfire - but she never meant to pay them any attention. She didn't want to believe Aiden had it in him. He'd always seemed...gentle.
Belle flicked her arm as she felt a tickle, and looked to the ground where she had flung a small brown beetle that had been clinging to her wrist, its six legs flailing in the air as it tried to right itself. She felt sorry for it for a moment, and then it was back on its legs - and again, stood stock-still, pointed decidedly towards her.
Aiden shot her a stern glance, faster than a throwing knife and just as sharp. What was she hinting at? Was this some kind of mind game? No, he scolded himself. It was easy to expect the worst from people, but he couldn't shut everyone down without reason. Even if it did come so naturally...
"I was late," he said bluntly. "Had some stuff to attend to. I hadn't been there long before shit hit the fan." He clearly did not want to discuss the matter any further, breaking his gaze away to inspect the ground in search of anything interesting to distract him. That was when Belle seemed to flinch, and threw a beetle from her sleeve. Aiden watched as it squirmed, eventually righting itself and then... Standing still. It made no effort to flee, no beat of its wings. Perhaps it was stunned.
But no, for in the next moment the insect did move, crawling at a comfortable pace back towards Abelle and beginning to scale her nearest leg. Aiden scoffed, bemused by the tenacity of the bug.
"I think he likes you." he joked, watching the beetle move further up his visitors body.
Belle watched the beetle crawl back towards her, her head snapping up as Aiden cracked a joke. She broke an uneasy smile and nodded. "Yeah, I guess. Poor thing's probably just scared..." She stood from her chair and bent over, laying her hand flat on the ground to scoop up the bug. It obliged, and rested in the middle of her palm as she brought her hand up to eye-level. Just a regular beetle, antenna twitching slightly. From her elbow, the fly took off, and buzzed around near her wrist, flying in a concentric pattern but never landing. "Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhuh..." she said, letting out a long breath as she watched both insects in their equally peculiar behavior.
Belle looked at Aiden, who responded with a bemused gaze that likely matched her own. She cleared her throat, and carefully closed her fist around the beetle.
"Well, I guess I should take him outside...don't want any staff freaking out about contamination." She walked towards the door, watching the fly out of her peripheral vision as it dutifully followed her. "See you in class on Monday, hopefully?" She asked, Aiden giving a parting nod and nothing else before Belle made her way down the corridor, into the elevator, and out of the hospital.
Two Hours Later
"So he's okay then?" Alex asked through a mouthful of fries, the hum of the mall behind them forcing her to raise her voice above the buzz. Belle was idly playing with the straw of her shake, carefully watching a small wasp that was standing next to the cup. She had hidden it behind the wrapper of her burger, so she could observe it safely without anyone trying to kill it or shoo it away - just to watch it's behavior, see if it did anything peculiar. So far, it had done nothing. Belle wasn't sure if that was the most peculiar thing it could be doing. She looked up.
"Yeah, I think so. Just shaky. I think he already knows what people are saying, you know?"
"Mmm..." Alex nodded slowly, finishing her mouthful before replying. "You don't think it's suspicious, though? After all the talk around his last disappearance?"
Belle issued a stern look that she saved for special occasions. "I think no one knows anything and it's all just talk. Sometimes people forget how powerful a rumor can get."
"You're so wise, Belle." Alex said, chuckling, forcing Belle to break her stare. She took a sip from her shake and looked at the wasp again. Still motionless. She had walked through the park on her way to the mall to meet Alex, and had had a few more close encounters with some six-legged fellows: the few bees left in the late season leaving their flowers to hover near her, before returning to their work as she walked away; butterflies fluttering through the long grass, circling her legs for a few paces and then moving on; even ants, so determined in their mission, breaking from their ranks to deposit tiny leaf fragments and twigs at her feet before rejoining their march. After the beetle at the hospital - only leaving her hand onto the bush outside when she had firmly (and out loud, she was embarrassed to admit) asked it to, she couldn't help but notice; and now, she was carefully watching every insect she saw. Alex finished her fries, and Belle cleared her throat, standing up and shooing the wasp away as Alex bent down to pick up her bags.
"Docks?" Belle asked as they started to move towards the escalators down to the ground floor of the mall. Alex side-eyed her, but in truth she had been expecting it.
"Sure. But let me drop my bags off first. I'd hate to get that sea-salt smell all over my new clothes."
C H A R A C T E R
"Optional Creed"
B I R T H N A M E ♦ A G E ♦ S E X ♦ A L I G N M E N T
Ω O R I G I N S:
This is the story of your character's life, their defining moments and how they made it from the womb to where they are now. You can include as much other details as you think is necessary but don't go overboard and spell everything out. Sometimes its best to show through the IC than to tell in the CS.
Ω A B I L I T I E S / S K I L L S:
//ABILITIES:
//SKILLS:
//LIMITATIONS:
//WEAKNESSES:
◼ TBD | Test
//SKILLS:
◼ TBD | Test
//LIMITATIONS:
◼ TBD | Test
//WEAKNESSES:
◼ TBD | Test
Ω N O T E S:
◼ Any further notes your character may require.
I'm excited for the real reason behind Jonas' class to come out. Belle in particular is an observant girl, and it will be difficult for any of the more active students at the dance to put the pieces together if they pay attention.
What are people thinking about for the outcome of this? Honestly this has broken the barrier on a lot of hidden stuff about the world our characters inhabit.
What are people thinking about for the outcome of this? Honestly this has broken the barrier on a lot of hidden stuff about the world our characters inhabit.
B e l l e D ' V o i r e
Belle knew she was weird. She nearly died and was brought back to life by insect DNA combining with her own. It wasn't the usual story of early childhoods shared among students and she was aware that it caused curiosity in her peers.
But real literal werewolves were something else altogether. 'Lunatic' Dance seemed almost grossly insensitive.
-
She'd taken to the benches at the sides of the hall to settle in for the evening, cradling a single cup of punch - thankfully now-spiked by some unknown but reliable imp - watching Alex flirt with her evening's date, a wistful and somewhat jealous smile playing on her face as Belle zoned out into a quiet daydream. Nothing particularly fantastical, but enough to excite the imagination. A series of what-if's and could-be's. She leaned back against the wall and hummed along to the music quietly, enjoying the ambiance and the general tone of the room. People were having fun. It was the start of a new year, and there was so much potential laid down before her and her peers. And with the unforeseen addition of Jonas' new class, she was excited to see what sorts of twists and turns this semester would lead her down.
She was brought out of her thoughts by two very unusual sounds - a deep, long, unnatural howl, followed by the shrill screams of terror. The hall was chaos. Wolves - Beasts - she wasn't sure what they were, but they flooded the hall in a great number, fierce and vicious and a mortal threat, snarling, drooling monsters like some horrific joke by a cruel higher power. The creatures wasted no time in their assault, herding petrified students into a shuddering, weeping cluster in the center of the hall. Belle, being on the outside of the room, managed to slink to the double doors at the end, but spotted Alex among the crowd as she did so.
Now in the hallway - terror clouding her mind, preemptive grief overriding any other emotional response, and shock queuing up for a debilitating onset - Belle slunk down to the floor, quietly sobbing against the wall as the magnitude of what she'd just witnessed set in. Things she'd scoffed at in films, fears she didn't know she had, the realities of mortality at an age where she felt immortal; the weight of it all pressed upon her. She heard another howl and her weeping doubled, her mind conjuring vicious images of crimson slaughter - but it was the sounds of shouted words over the hysteria that gave her an anchor to cling to, and she seized it with an unknown ferocity, pulling herself back to the moment at hand.
Picking herself up off the floor, wiping her tear-stained cheeks, she approached the doors she had fled through and carefully peeked through the glass windows to the scene inside. The wolves remained, but there was a pocket of resistance: Rita and Evander, back-to-back. Beneath them was the body - presumably corpse - of one of the creatures, head violently caved in on one side, and Belle couldn't help but notice the hands of her classmates - Rita's, clenched and dripping with blood, and Evander's turning to ice, frost spilling from his palms. She was trying to workout the meaning of it all hen she spotted Sebastian and Rita on the upper level of the gym, and Jonas darting outside. And then, to cap the confusion off, a figure - dressed like Aiden but disguised enough to be unsure - burst into the room and erupted in jets of fire at the closest beast, soon a charred, flickering corpse at his feet.
With the wolves attention distracted from the students they had gathered, Belle seized the moment. Standing fully and opening the door, she called out to Alex and waved her and the others over as the beasts began to approach Evander, Rita and the possibly-Aiden covered figure en masse. Waving students through, they quickly burst past her and flooded down the hallway, seeking the quickest exit from the gym building and then off-campus. With any luck, they found it soon; she wasn't confident in her classmate's capabilities against the beasts invading them. No matter what peculiarities they seemed to be sporting.
Belle knew she was weird. She nearly died and was brought back to life by insect DNA combining with her own. It wasn't the usual story of early childhoods shared among students and she was aware that it caused curiosity in her peers.
But real literal werewolves were something else altogether. 'Lunatic' Dance seemed almost grossly insensitive.
-
She'd taken to the benches at the sides of the hall to settle in for the evening, cradling a single cup of punch - thankfully now-spiked by some unknown but reliable imp - watching Alex flirt with her evening's date, a wistful and somewhat jealous smile playing on her face as Belle zoned out into a quiet daydream. Nothing particularly fantastical, but enough to excite the imagination. A series of what-if's and could-be's. She leaned back against the wall and hummed along to the music quietly, enjoying the ambiance and the general tone of the room. People were having fun. It was the start of a new year, and there was so much potential laid down before her and her peers. And with the unforeseen addition of Jonas' new class, she was excited to see what sorts of twists and turns this semester would lead her down.
She was brought out of her thoughts by two very unusual sounds - a deep, long, unnatural howl, followed by the shrill screams of terror. The hall was chaos. Wolves - Beasts - she wasn't sure what they were, but they flooded the hall in a great number, fierce and vicious and a mortal threat, snarling, drooling monsters like some horrific joke by a cruel higher power. The creatures wasted no time in their assault, herding petrified students into a shuddering, weeping cluster in the center of the hall. Belle, being on the outside of the room, managed to slink to the double doors at the end, but spotted Alex among the crowd as she did so.
Now in the hallway - terror clouding her mind, preemptive grief overriding any other emotional response, and shock queuing up for a debilitating onset - Belle slunk down to the floor, quietly sobbing against the wall as the magnitude of what she'd just witnessed set in. Things she'd scoffed at in films, fears she didn't know she had, the realities of mortality at an age where she felt immortal; the weight of it all pressed upon her. She heard another howl and her weeping doubled, her mind conjuring vicious images of crimson slaughter - but it was the sounds of shouted words over the hysteria that gave her an anchor to cling to, and she seized it with an unknown ferocity, pulling herself back to the moment at hand.
Picking herself up off the floor, wiping her tear-stained cheeks, she approached the doors she had fled through and carefully peeked through the glass windows to the scene inside. The wolves remained, but there was a pocket of resistance: Rita and Evander, back-to-back. Beneath them was the body - presumably corpse - of one of the creatures, head violently caved in on one side, and Belle couldn't help but notice the hands of her classmates - Rita's, clenched and dripping with blood, and Evander's turning to ice, frost spilling from his palms. She was trying to workout the meaning of it all hen she spotted Sebastian and Rita on the upper level of the gym, and Jonas darting outside. And then, to cap the confusion off, a figure - dressed like Aiden but disguised enough to be unsure - burst into the room and erupted in jets of fire at the closest beast, soon a charred, flickering corpse at his feet.
With the wolves attention distracted from the students they had gathered, Belle seized the moment. Standing fully and opening the door, she called out to Alex and waved her and the others over as the beasts began to approach Evander, Rita and the possibly-Aiden covered figure en masse. Waving students through, they quickly burst past her and flooded down the hallway, seeking the quickest exit from the gym building and then off-campus. With any luck, they found it soon; she wasn't confident in her classmate's capabilities against the beasts invading them. No matter what peculiarities they seemed to be sporting.
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