savetheearth | 5th Howl [Action]

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5th Howl [Action]

Lyall spends the late afternoon pacing his classroom, laptop open just in case anyone has last-minutes contributions or problems, waiting for people to show up. He's early, in case anyone else is, and he's constantly poking his head out of the room to test the air for suspicious scents. Just to make sure none of those little monsters show up.

The blinds in his classroom are drawn to keep out the sunlight, but all the lights are on, so at least it's well-lit. He has his projector set up, probably to some consternation of the various students present.

Once everyone shows up, the first thing he does is make sure everyone's all right and doesn't need anything: no major questions, no obvious trauma, not in blatant trouble. Then he launches right into what's probably the most interesting part:

"I went to the police station this morning, with some trumped up allegations of arson at my 'favorite student's' house. No one suspected anything of me, as far as I could tell, but they didn't take me seriously, either, which was pretty much what I expected and hoped for. All I wanted was to get in there, and that I did. I interacted with a lot of the staff, and passed even more, and... many of them smell off. As in, not right, slightly like animals instead of people-- for those of you who don't know yet, my sense of smell has magnified into something at least at the dog's level, if not better. I don't know why, but it's useful."

He'll turn on the projector then, which shows an ink sketch of a pillar shaped like a snake with a heart atop it.

"I also saw this. It's at least as tall as I am and made of stone. I don't know what it is, or where it might have come from, but sociology is not my strong point. Being near it made me feel as if I were being-- prodded, in my head, to accept that nothing is wrong and the police chief is to be trusted. It feels rather like those visions I know some of us have been having, except not as powerful. It may be affecting others, as well, who don't recognize the feeling. I'm hoping I can get some of you to help me look into what this could be. I also have a contact working on getting me information on all three of the names mentioned in that video of poor Paul, to start looking into them directly."

That's the meat of his news. He explains a little of his frustrating experimentation on the vermini, which he's dubbed "dandelion sprites" and which have finally managed to suicide on him (he's got a slide for that, too, but it's much less useful), and a brief outline of similar safety tips to what Davin mentioned on the network (which he hasn't seen yet), though lacking the "destroy all records" bit. Then he asks: "What about you all? Anything you have found that I haven't, that might be useful in finding out more about this?"

((ooc: I went the summary route, since we're not getting the mutant storyline and it's more efficient for a large group thread. There are comments below for various threads at various times, and feel free to say your character interrupted with questions at any point in the mini-lecture!))

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"Yeah, I suppose you're right. Still, legends about snakes and hearts--" Hajime would have had more to say, but as soon as the word "hearts" escape him, he feels that odd hollow sensation ring out in his head. There's an oddly familiar rippling feeling around his waist, and an odd belt appears around his waist on top of his clothing, as though someone came in there out of nowhere and slapped a strange belt onto him. Anyone watching might have thought it looked as though it was materializing out of a puddle of water.

There's a startled burst of swearing in Japanese once he realizes what's happened. The buckle's shaped a bit like a stylized heart, much to his confusion. What's worse, the belt feels like it's part of him, despite the fact that it appeared on top of his clothing. He swallows hard as he cautiously reaches out to touch it, and it looks as though he might need to sit down.

"What the hell are you cursing about?" Bakura interjected in Japanese, having been keeping quiet until then. He hadn't been looking over and had missed the sudden appearance, having been idly doodling and lost in his own thoughts until the colourful language had caught his attention.

Hajime had, by this point, grabbed onto the belt and started tugging. He was coming to realize that there was no way this thing would be coming off any time soon.

"What the hell do you think I'm cursing about?" came the angry response also in Japanese. Hajime wasn't paying much attention to what Bakura might or might not have been doing, but his voice maintained that edge of confusion trying not to slip into panic, along with a side of attempting to pretend like everything was just fine.

Edited 2013-04-07 23:33 (UTC)

"If I knew, I wouldn't have asked, idiot!" Bakura snapped in return. "...Why are you trying to undress?"

What had he missed?

It took Lyall a minute to get focused on the pair of them, because that flash of odd scent-- Hajime mixed with something... insect-like?... and utterly foreign to what he'd smelled so far-- distracted him. He blinked a few times, thugh, and then held up a hand. "Calm down, please, both of you," he said firmly, using his best "teacher voice" to both hopefully calm and hopefully distract attentions back not him. "And English, please, I don't know that much Japanese." Considering how many Japanese students he seems to have, he'd learned a phrase or two, but that was it. All he knew was what Hajime started out with had been swear-words.

"What happened?" His eyes dropped down to the belt, which looked decidedly odd and which was obviously what Hajime was fussing with. He hadn't noticed it before, but that didn't mean it hadn't been there, either.

"I'm not trying to undress, I'm trying to--" Hajime trailed off in a slight grumble and took a couple of deep breaths as Lyall stepped in. The teacher voice worked; there was some part of Hajime's brain that was still reminding him that his parents would be called if his behavior didn't shape up.

He pointed at the belt he was still wearing and switched back to English. "This thing just...I had one of those, I dunno, that feeling in my head. And when it passed, this just kind of...showed up around my waist." He tugged a bit more at it. "And now it won't come off." He swallowed again at the realization that was coming with this. "It feels like it's not supposed to come off."

Bakura similarly backed off, shoulders hunching in just a touch at being reprimanded before he blinked at Hajime's explanation.

Not supposed to...

His left hand moved unconsciously to his chest as fragments of the memory that had been floating around in his head like the string of numbers had resurfaced. The words were a jumble, the same voice-- his voice-- arguing with itself, but he remembered that part of the argument had been over something that one side of him had gloated that the other could never take off.

Was this like that...?

"If it isn't, don't tug on it, you may just hurt yourself.... May I have a look?" Lyall asked with a frown, moving away from the counter at the front, towards Hajime. Strange powers and visions he could explain away, or at least assimilate as something that might have an explanation, even if he didn't know what it was. Suddenly-appearing articles of clothing that wouldn't come off... were a little different.

"Yeah, sure..." Hajime raised his hands in an awkward attempt to get out of the way of investigating the belt. He'd started to calm down a bit; admitting he felt like it wasn't supposed to be removable had helped in some strange way.

He was wracking his brain trying to figure out what the belt was or why it had appeared there like that. What am I becoming? The belt and the green blood on their own were bad enough. But that memory? Where he was being talked about like he was some monster that needed to be put down? He didn't like where this was going at all.

Feeling a little odd about the whole thing, but too curious and concerned to let that stop him, Lyall crouched for a better look at the belt, perching his glasses on his nose-- and a good, if subtle, sniff, while he was at it. "What were you thinking about when it-- ah-- appeared?" he asked. "Anything in particular? Or did the feeling in your head come with another vision?"

He knew they'd been discussing the snake pillar. Did that thing's power extend to more than just affecting thoughts...?

"You said something about hearts and ancient cultures and other beings and stuff...and I got to thinking..." Hajime kind of trailed off as he traced a finger over the small angular gold heart that adorned the small box attached to the belt at his right hip. He flipped the box open, only to find it unsurprisingly empty. He flicked it closed again. "I guess I thought too much on it, and then this happened. I didn't see anything with it."

Upon closer inspection, the belt would appear to be both very old and in very good condition. Scent-wise, it was made of some sort of ancient metal, though the alloy wasn't anything that would be easy to identify. There was still the hint of something insect-like about the scent, and if Lyall had spent enough time around bugs to pick up their individual scents, the scent was closest to that of the cockroach. Hajime's own scent likely changed permanently upon attaining it, owing to its nonremovable nature.

"Very odd... I've not smelled anything like it." And since his conversation with Chris, he'd been trying to learn a variety of different smells, though only with some success and generally being interrupted by more important things. This wasn't a scent he'd learned, or even come across. He frowned, pushing back up to his feet. "It smells vaguely... old. And like some kind of insect, but I couldn't tell you what-- and like you. I'm not sure it's likely to come off easily, either."

Which bothered him. Having something attached to one's self was unnatural, especially when it just appeared like that.

"Insect?" That was new. And kind of unsettling. "The armored guy I saw in my vision...his armor was kind of bug-looking," he said quietly, almost to himself. Hajime looked down at the belt again, wondering if this was the seal thing the armored guy had been going on about. He hadn't been wearing it in that vision...but it felt too familiar to be something bad the way sealing had been talked about.

He tried to adjust it once more, but there was no need. It fit perfectly, as though it had been made just for him with no thought as to his need to remove it. "This thing's going to be a pain to hide..."

"Can you pull a shirt on over it?" Lyall suggested, scratching his head and looking back up at Hajime's face. "Though I suppose you could just say it is a new favorite accessory. And wear it proudly." Though Lyall couldn't imagine it went well with Hajime's aesthetic. It wasn't particular... stylish. Nor really attractive, to be honest, at least not in Lyall's taste.

Hajime did not seem to appreciate that suggestion. Even if it fit very well, it was still incredibly gaudy. "Yeah, that's not...maybe I should start wearing a haramaki or something...even if it would be lumpy..."

He looked up at the ceiling and sighed in exasperation. "I just wish this thing would go away..." And it did! For a couple of seconds. The belt rippled in much the same way as it had when it appeared, as though it were about to vanish into a puddle of water. Yet it was still there around Hajime's waist looking just as solid as ever. Hajime didn't notice anything had happened.

Lyall took a minute to reply to that, busily staring at the briefly-vanishing belt. Was that what it had looked like when it first appeared...? "Ah. Say that again, Hajime?" he suggested after a long moment.

Hajime gave an irritated sigh. "I just said I wished it would vanish." The belt remained stubbornly put. "I mean...this thing's pretty easy to identify if things get bad..."

Hajime closed his eyes. "It's not really helping when it comes to keeping this thing a secret." The belt rippled again. It vanished for a slightly longer span of time, but it once again returned to its normal state. Hajime still hadn't noticed anything.

"Whatever you are doing-- or thinking-- is working just fine, actually," Lyall commented, sounding just a little strangled. "It keeps-- disappearing. And coming back."

This was just too damn weird for him, okay?

"Huh?" Hajime looked down at the belt in surprise. What had he been thinking about? "I just wanted to hide it..." Not take it off. Not remove it. It still felt like it was supposed to be there, as strange and gaudy as it was. He just wanted to blend in...

The belt rippled again, and as Hajime watched and tried to focus, it vanished. "Hey! It's go--" But before he could proclaim it gone, it stubbornly came back. "...I think I'm going to have to practice with this." He sounded irritated, but a bit more cheerful. The important thing here was that the weird belt could maybe go away.

"Yes, probably a good idea," Lyall agreed, pulling off his glasses to rub at his eyes. "Though also something that can be done at a later date...." Since they were in the middle of his classroom with a bunch of other people, and all. And he still wanted more people to help him scour the internet and library for snake-and-heart imagery.

"Yeah, I'll...I guess I'll have to practice later..." The shock of the belt simply showing up had been enough for Hajime to forget where he was, and now he was sort of sheepishly trying to slip into a dark corner to avoid even more notice, if that were possible.

Trying not to think too hard, himself, about why he just had a vision of what could only be a materializing ghost, Lyall nodded. "Let me know how that goes." Maybe he could will away the sense of smell, too? ... not that he was sure he'd want to. Too useful.

"All right. Now that that's settled... who else thinks they can help with research?"

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5th Howl [Action]

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