13th Howl: The After School Numbers Club [Action at the high school]

[professorwolf]

As promised, there are snacks on a couple of the lab tables in Lyall's classroom when school gets out that Monday afternoon. Not much of it is chocolate, though, mostly because Lyall had been pretty sure he'd have been tempted to nibble and then he'd have regretted it. It's not all healthy, though, considering the appetites of teenage boys: next to the cheese and crackers and celery with ranch and peanut butter dip on a platter, there's chips and pretzels and an open box of cookies.

And on the other tables, there are decks of playing cards, small pads of paper, and plenty of pencils, plus a couple science and math books. Hey, Lyall has to make it look like a school event for anyone who wants to poke their head in, after all, right?

Lyall himself is sitting at the counter in the front with his laptop open, though he's paying more attention to the door than the screen at the moment, waiting for students to come in. Stella the ferret is in presence, too, though she might be anywhere in the room at any given time. Lyall has given up on wrangling her, ever since learning she was sentient.


((open to high school students, middle school students, and a couple college students that Lyall actually knows personally ^^ if your character is in the high school but didn't get an on-screen invite, feel free to assume an off-screen invite if you want to show up! multiple threads for mingling and/or planned Magic games are welcome))

Comments

Hope you all like CARD GAMES

[shiromadoushi]

Bakura had prepared for this and once the end of day bell rang, he booked it too his locker where there was an additional bag he had brought with him. A small child sized bookbag that was stuffed with Magic the Gathering cards.

Those regular playing cards were gonna be shunned so hard.

"So! Where are the snacks?" he greeted as he entered the classroom, setting the bag down on the table with a grin.

[scramasax]

"Hello," Anthony called, cutting himself short of adding a name to the greeting while an inarticulate lingering thought to the effect of you said "Mr. Bakura" indeed! floated through his head.

He'd been looking forward to this a bit bemusingly, himself. On one hand, he discomfortingly knew that others that since the beginning of the month he'd gotten different and distant. He hid, he retreated in the middle of meetings with all school year's friends to have looks at the network, couldn't get his mind off of the people like them and their vague calling - and enemies for that matter. Although he hadn't paid it any attention anymore, since that bizarre sensation on colliding with the statue in mid-April, his old natural "glow" hadn't quite come back, nor his top coordination.

On the other, he hadn't gotten a knock at his door or an accosting while walking home from school since touching those statues at the gallery along the lines of which he'd been bracing himself for. The minor "werewolf" bitemarks had all essentially healed through and disappeared. There was a host of reasons to be glad for a closer assembly and acquaintance of if not all considerably more of the ones with numbers who were and had always been short within reach, under the approval and watch of Mr. Lyall.

"You didn't eat much at lunch?"

[shiromadoushi]

"Heeeey, Freshmeat!" Bakura greeted in return, unzipping the bag and starting to pull out stacks of cards. "and of course I ate plenty of lunch. But lunch was 3 hours ago," he pointed out cheerfully.

[scramasax]

Small twitch of a grin. That was going to be sticking, was it - and he had a consideration to return that surely three hours was nothing if it really had been plenty, then retracted it to avoid being the one to edge stumblingly into a line of comments.

Going with the more natural, he crossed over, watched the unloading of the bag, inspecting what Bakura produced as he set it on the table, finding them all - for whatever he'd know - to be trading cards.

"Are these all for one card game?" he asked, and knew it was ridiculous, since otherwise things would've probably gotten scrambled together sharing a bag.

Re: Hope you all like CARD GAMES

[icy_heavens]

Toushirou would have missed the initial greeting; he'd gotten stupidly held up after school and was a bit late. So really the first thing he noticed was the stacks of cards Bakura had pulled out of his backpack. Surprisingly to anyone who'd met him, he thought he might recognize what the cards were. Not that this showed on his face.

He'd heard of the game, but never played. It wasn't like his knowledge was in any way extensive or even useful.

"I guess you came prepared."

[shiromadoushi]

"Of course~" Bakura returned with a grin, continuing to carefully stack the cards by color. "Pretty sure most people don't have a deck."

[seabeast]

On you, she would have hoped! Stella hops onto a nearby table in greeting, then barely stops before doing her best to stick her head into the bag in search of food. Did you bring another chicken breast, chicken boy?

[shiromadoushi]

"Aaa-- not in there, not in there!" Bakura laughed, moving the bag away to try and keep her out of it. "Didn't realize you'd be here too!"

And he didn't have any leftovers from lunch to share either... Alas. Unprepared.

Open

[icy_heavens]

It wasn't that hard of a sell to Granny. Joining a club at the highschool? Okay, he wasn't the most social, but he got along better with older kids than he did ones his age, so it wasn't that strange.

He'd gotten a little held up after school -- for a really stupid reason; that damned idiot just had to come hassle him today of all days -- so he was a bit later than he'd intended to be. And not really in the best mood because unsurprisingly, dealing with bullies was not a happy thing. Even if it was still better than the mess they'd all gotten into with these numbers.

Still, his frown was hardly any deeper than normal when he finally found the proper room, backpack slung over one shoulder. "I don't suppose I missed anything important?"

[spideyfanone]

Kurt fully expected to be the smallest and youngest here. After skipping a couple of grades as a short kid with a summer birthday, it was just the way peer interaction worked. That and the fact that he was pretty good at spotting fellow bullying targets kept him from ignoring the greeting. He'd brought homework so he'd have something to do when he inevitably wound up talking to no one, and he didn't move the precalc book off his lap. Being halfway sociable was one thing, giving up his readily-deployed psychological shielding quite another.

"Probably not." He was snarky and articulate through text on a screen. Not so much in person.

[icy_heavens]

Not that it had been much of a greeting, anyway. He was bad at those. Socializing was hard.

He glanced over in the direction of the voice. Not someone he'd met offline before, though he expected that of most of the people who would show up here. Bakura was the only one he knew for sure. He slid his backpack onto an empty chair.

"Which one are you?" Yes, his phrasing often lacked tact. What of it?

[spideyfanone]

Kurt didn't like talking to people, good reason or not. In fact, good reasons were even worse, because that put the pressure on and brought out his contrariness. And he had no idea what other people on the network were actually like, besides Mr. Lyall. For all he knew, there were football team guys with nerd vendettas and girls in fancy outfits with death glares, all annoyed that he was a rising senior at fourteen.

So he'd brought homework. He always brought homework. But he'd also taken a bit of advice from his nearly-as-awkward dad and brought something strange along to put on the desk beside him. Conversation pieces might make people come and talk to you. Though he hesitated a little before he put up the beat-up tin lunchbox with its stupid picture and suspicious stains. Part of him insisted it was private, but maybe someone would see it and have an idea.

[shiromadoushi]

"Am I seriously the only one here who sees homework for the time sink that is truly is?"

Bakura's tone was light and joking as he sat down backwards in the desk in front of Kurt to grin at him. "Lemme guess, Mr. Grade perfectionist from the planet Mathatron?"

[spideyfanone]

Nice to know who someone was right off the bat. "This desk is now an official embassy. Try and don't start an interplanetary incident with your homework-deriding ways, earthling." It was a little easier to translate his internet snark into actual words when there was already an established pattern. And he just expected people to be older and taller than he was, so that didn't disconcert him any.

[reckless_fire]

Oh hell, here was a goddamned tragedy in the making. Some kid had actually brought his homework. True, the Spiderman lunchbox offered some hope that he wasn't all study, but still. This was a situation that needed to be rectified immediately. After fortifying himself with some snacks, he wandered over and plopped onto a seat near the wallflower. Propping one leg up on another chair, he stuffed a few pretzels into his mouth, munching contentedly for a moment before turning to the other.

"Yo. Dude. You're off the clock, so take a breather, huh?"

[spideyfanone]

This was more like what he'd figured would happen. Immediately defensive and scowly, he shook his head. "Not really. This is usually my homework time. If there is a clock, I'm on it." Of course, after homework time was tinkering in mom's lab time, sitting through dad's college physics lectures time, and then video games and books about aliens time after dinner and before bed.

OPEN

[professorwolf]

During a lot of the chatter, Lyall is mostly keeping back at his desk, watching the students, some his and some not, rather than really interacting much. They all know he's here for them, he's sure, but this club is more for them to get to know each other, not him.

And, he hopes, for Stella to be a little more forthcoming in a safe environment about just what she is. But since he can't force her, he's just watching. If there's trouble, or someone looks left out or unhappy, he'll wander over... but mostly he's just quiet and available.

[spideyfanone]

Kurt had never been savvy enough to try and be a teacher's pet. He was usually as avoidant and prickly to them as anyone else when he wasn't answering questions with enthusiasm totally out of proportion to can someone describe the purpose of messenger RNA? or Does anyone want to demonstrate the solution to number three? But he liked Mr. Lyall, and it was cool of him to have set this thing up. Kurt wouldn't have met anyone without something this safe. So he smiled when he got up for snacks. "Hey."

[professorwolf]

Lyall smiled, back. "Good to see you here, Kurt. Looks like people have even been bothering you now and then." He was teasing, of course, but he was pretty sure that was how Kurt Waggoner saw it as: not socializing, but bothering.

He just hoped it moved beyond that eventually. The boy wasn't a bad sort, he just apparently had trouble relating. Or so Lyall guessed, anyway.

hijacking the peace, open for anyone/everyone

[struckout]

Yeah, so Kallie showed up, eventually, but considering this one wasn't a teenager, sporting pale pink hair that wouldn't have been tolerated in high school and a demeanor hardly indicative of an overly 'friendly' status, it was obvious from the start that she probably wasn't here to play card games and socialize with the others over snack foods.

Rather, the fact that this was a group of people she was pretty sure she could actually trust for the most part, gathered in one place that wasn't that network which carried with it its own parade of problems... she couldn't pass up the opportunity. With a set sort of expression, she slung the messenger bag she was carrying off her shoulder once she was sufficiently far enough into the room, eyeing everyone there with careful attention.

"Alright," she started abruptly, and didn't dare to look back at Lyall to see if there would be objection to her addressing the group as a whole, "How many of you were involved in that... werewolf hunt about a month ago?" There was a pause for a suppressed frown, mental acknowledgment that just because they were young didn't mean they hadn't been there. "Likewise, how many of you have actually been to that latest exhibit at the Thadson... and-or had that feeling like you're being followed, hearing things after dark..."

Haunted, to put it more simply. She ducked her chin slightly as she spoke the last part, pressing her lips together slightly once she was done.

Re: hijacking the peace, open for anyone/everyone

[scramasax]

Anthony was, very briefly, frozen, as he had known to expect the adults - but not for any one of them to step up besides Mr. Lyall, and less for any who did to be a stranger. Naturally she wasn't - but when had he seen this woman?

Abruptly this meeting was now in part a conference, and she was distant authority, and he - he had an answer, on all three counts - was on the spot. She hadn't been at the werewolf hunt or she wouldn't have felt nearly as unfamiliar. Would that be the reason she was asking? Details on what happened that evening?

"All three," he offered, "I was at both places... And I felt the... 'haunting' - one night."

[professorwolf]

"K-- Lightning." Lyall stood up not as she came inside-- he wasn't going to protest her visiting, after all-- but when she started speaking, because he didn't really expect her to address the whole room. (Plus, the pink hair still kind of threw him for a loop, all right? She just didn't look like herself!)

Thus, it took him a second to gather actual words to say. "Ah. The same. All three. Though they weren't werewolves." The last part was automatic. It came out pretty much every time anyone said "werewolf" in regards to those things. "Everyone, this is one of my former students. She goes by Lightning." Sorry, Kallie, you're getting introduced so nobody freaks out at your being there. At least he got the name right.

[seabeast]

Stella will just be here, napping or slipping among you big ones, occasionally pushing her head directly into a hand of cards or getting into the snacks. (She is stepping gently around the celery though. No celery for her. Ever.)

Or she could just nip at food directly in people's hands. Somewhere along the line, she found that she has very little qualms against stealing. Only time will tell if this is going to be a permanent trait, but for right now, she seems... less furtive? She doesn't have one secret to hide, anyway. This is making her downright frisky. (And obnoxious. Very, highly possibly obnoxious.)

[reckless_fire]

Kenji was hoping Stella would be around. As promised, he has brought more jerky for her, and as she seems to prefer plundering to outright gifts, he "accidentally" drops the open bag on the floor near the back of the room before retreating so that she can enjoy her booty in peace.

[seabeast]

... An open bag of jerky? Yes, please, especially when she doesn't realize someone left it for her on purpose. She makes several checks on the lookout before slithering towards the bag, sniffing it gently for any suspicious scents. One can never be to careful. After it passes muster, she drags the entire bag away as before, diving into the bag with gusto. She is very satisfied with this offering, thanks. She'll saunter up to him casually when she's done. Nope, nothing of import happened here. Certainly nothing underhanded, anyway.