Zafflebrod's College and Preparatory School for the Magically Inclined

[Lost_Deep]

Elsewhere

"Just do what comes naturally."

Gwen will fade to wakefulness in the nurses office. She's in her altered form... but it doesn't look like anyone is around to see her in it. If she tries, she'll find that her powers are instinctive: she does need to concentrate, but it's natural as opposed to how casting is.

[Ionbound]

[Elsewhere]

Gwen looks around the room, and smiles when she realizes nobody is there. She focuses on her human form, taking Iriel's word for it that she could shapeshift. If she succeeds in becoming human-shaped, she gets up and walks towards door, opening it and peering outside.

[UncleWolf]

Dorms

Anna hugged the book tight to her under her hoodie as she ran through the rain to her room. It had taken the rather out-of-shape elf quite a bit of effort to sneak the tome out of the library, but if the little note on it was true, it could grant her everything she wanted and more. A few moments later and she locks her dormroom door behind her before peeling off the hoodie. She wears just a sweatshirt and a pair of sweatpants that hug her butt a little, but she pays her clothes no mind and she flips the book open on her desk and begins reading. A couple seconds of glaring at the book and she recalls that she needs her glasses to read. Once she puts them back on, the girl begins reading anew.

[Slii Arhem]

A Dorms

The book glows as her eyes focus on it, the runes incomprehensible and blurry even with corrective eyewear as they shift over one another in a maelstrom of enchanted ink. Yet their meanings are conveyed in an instant as they begin to fade and twist, tearing themselves off the page and floating around her. A lock, with a complicated combination and key that holds back an immense pressure. That is the purpose the book serves. And now, as the knowledge is passed to her so to is the burden. The words disappear entirely from the pages and the air, and then begin fading into place upon her skin. If nothing's done, though there's very little generally that could be to stop the process, as quickly as it's going, then she'll find her arms all the way up to her shoulders covered in flowing, shifting runes which dart past one another distractingly.

And within her, the knowledge stirs. She is the lock, and behind her is the summon that she holds back. It is the chaos to her natural order, and she can feel its presence exerting itself against the boundaries of its new door.

B Dorms

MEANWHILE, THOUSANDS OF MILES AWAY.

Literally. Through recent changes in the phase-space of the dormitories, they're now physically three thousand and twelve miles apart. Thankfully, portals make walking between them much easier, and also much harder in the event the school locks down.

Regardless of distance, Marissa, a gal who's not been to the school in quite a long time and is therefore having an even worse time catching up in her studies, is making her way determinedly across the campus. She's inspected A Dorm, and now she's heading through B to try to find where her stuff was packed when she went away for familial leave suddenly. Apparently even having an endless series of identical rooms doesn't guarantee someone won't take yours out from under you if you're gone for more than a long weekend just because it's closer to their classes.

She'd also like to find and talk to Isaac, who she didn't even really get to warn before having to go. She later found out there was a very good reason for this, but it's hard not to feel bitter about it even now.

She does have a spell she'd like to try to find him, but she's honestly worried that it won't work, and the implications of that. So for now, she does it the old-fashioned way.

[UncleWolf]

A Dorms

The elf gasps when she sees the runes crawling their way up her arms and Anna can't help but smile as she feels the new power at the back of her mind. She'd only ever been "eh" at Magic itself even though she was great at studying it, and this would help her tons.

Now if only she could master it...

With a small mental twist, she unlocks the door for just a moment, giving one command as she does so. Grant me power.

[Deathkeeper]

B Dorms

The halls twist and turn, bored and excited and experiment-covered students lining the halls in varying levels of activity. A quick inquiry will tell her that his dorm is still around the corner, fourth from the end on the left.
As she approaches, that exact door (still labelled with his name, if she's astute) opens, to reveal a reasonably-sized serpent with a rather beautiful blue, yellow, and peach-colored set of scales exit, a pair of feathery wings at his sides of similar but oddly scintillating color. Feathers run down from the crest on his head to the tip of his very feathery tail, and a very familiar set of glasses perch on a nose that has a slightly odd shape for a snake, maybe hinting at some dragon lineage.

Either way, the serpent turns to her and grins a grin that really ought to be impossible on a reptile. "Marissa!" a familiar voice cries, and flings himself at her. If she doesn't move she'll find herself with a reptilian head nuzzling her cheek, her shoulders wrapped in wings, and a coil or two around her waist. He's very light considering he looks about a hundred pounds of snake, but then, the wings must be for something.

There's an odd little softball-sized round stone floating above his head, which graciously increases its orbit to avoid Marissa's head as it goes.

[Slii Arhem]

A Dorms

The elf gasps when she sees the runes crawling their way up her arms and Anna can't help but smile as she feels the new power at the back of her mind. She'd only ever been "eh" at Magic itself even though she was great at studying it, and this would help her tons.

Now if only she could master it...

With a small mental twist, she unlocks the door for just a moment, giving one command as she does so. Grant me power.

A Dorms

The thing within her laughs as it pushes its way into the world, a cloying, prismatic mist billowing from her pores across her fore-arms as it encircles her, lifting her up and holding her aloft. When it retreats back within her, she's still hovering, though now under her own power, and she can fly wherever she likes with only a thought.

But the cost of the power is immediate, as the unpredictable energies pulsate beneath their skin and the thing from beyond thrashes mightily when it's pulled back into its cage. Her entire body begins to grow, and she can feel the pressure from within stretch and grind her bones painfully longer as she becomes easily nearly eight feet tall. Her proportions are largely the same, only larger in every respect.

The pain fades to merely a dull ache as the thing is finally shut back within its confines for good. Allowing it free may provide great boons, but its mere presence is a strain on reality itself.

B Dorms

The halls twist and turn, bored and excited and experiment-covered students lining the halls in varying levels of activity. A quick inquiry will tell her that his dorm is still around the corner, fourth from the end on the left.
As she approaches, that exact door (still labelled with his name, if she's astute) opens, to reveal a reasonably-sized serpent with a rather beautiful blue, yellow, and peach-colored set of scales exit, a pair of feathery wings at his sides of similar but oddly scintillating color. Feathers run down from the crest on his head to the tip of his very feathery tail, and a very familiar set of glasses perch on a nose that has a slightly odd shape for a snake, maybe hinting at some dragon lineage.

Either way, the serpent turns to her and grins a grin that really ought to be impossible on a reptile. "Marissa!" a familiar voice cries, and flings himself at her. If she doesn't move she'll find herself with a reptilian head nuzzling her cheek, her shoulders wrapped in wings, and a coil or two around her waist. He's very light considering he looks about a hundred pounds of snake, but then, the wings must be for something.

There's an odd little softball-sized round stone floating above his head, which graciously increases its orbit to avoid Marissa's head as it goes.

B Dorms

"Uhm...." She bites her bottom lip nervously, even though between her powerful quartet of arms and her ancient and not entirely safe slew of memorized spells, Marissa's hardly helpless. That doesn't mean she can't be painfully awkward when, for the briefest of moments, she doesn't recognize someone very distinctive who clearly knows her. Has she really been gone that long?

"Mmmmme?" She mutters out helplessly, keeping her hands wide as she doesn't really know how to touch a coatl. Wait. Blurry, really close glasses. "Isaac?" She hazards a guess, knowing that with her and his luck combined, it's more likely than not.

[Deathkeeper]

B Dorms

The Coatl leans back, still with a coil around her for stability, but at least now their faces aren't touching and it's somewhat less awkward.
"Well, a'coursse! Who elsse do you know would ever be this colorful? Sssorry, they must not have told you I got bit by a werewolf. The ssilly kind where the animals don't have to match. So, coatl! You should sssee me with my eyess. I'm downright gaudy." Isssac says with a chuckle.

[UncleWolf]

A Dorms

The elven girl winces as the transformation takes place and she can't help but curse once it is over. She looks down not just at her new size, but also her shredded clothing. She was a college student and one of her three precious outfits had just been destroyed by the magic growth! The elf girl reaches up to rub her face and gives a sigh before taking another deep breath to release just a bit more power from within. Fix Me. She asks it, decided to keep the command simple and straight to the point. As cool as the flight was, she couldn't very well stay at her new height. Especially since she now had no clothes that'd fit.

[Slii Arhem]

B Dorms

The Coatl leans back, still with a coil around her for stability, but at least now their faces aren't touching and it's somewhat less awkward.
"Well, a'coursse! Who elsse do you know would ever be this colorful? Sssorry, they must not have told you I got bit by a werewolf. The ssilly kind where the animals don't have to match. So, coatl! You should sssee me with my eyess. I'm downright gaudy." Isssac says with a chuckle.

B Dorms

"Mine are plenty, thanks. I forgot just how much can happen in a short time around here. Are you stuck like that? What about Tabby, did she get bit too?" Her eyes are beginning to get a bit wide as she realizes she'll have to catch up on a lot more than just school-work.

"Are you seeing someone else?" Aaaand she just cuts right to it. Her main worry, and the reason she suspected the spell she learned might not work, Merissa isn't about to go swapping spit with Isaac again unless she knows if he's moved on. She didn't exactly do well by him, not telling him where she was going or even that she left.

For that matter, she'd have to know if he was contagious with this whole lycanthrope thing through more than biting. If she has a cut or a cold sore in her mouth and he gets saliva into that, could she wind up even sillier than a four-armed volleyball player?

A Dorms

The elven girl winces as the transformation takes place and she can't help but curse once it is over. She looks down not just at her new size, but also her shredded clothing. She was a college student and one of her three precious outfits had just been destroyed by the magic growth! The elf girl reaches up to rub her face and gives a sigh before taking another deep breath to release just a bit more power from within. Fix Me. She asks it, decided to keep the command simple and straight to the point. As cool as the flight was, she couldn't very well stay at her new height. Especially since she now had no clothes that'd fit.

A Dorms

The elf really should know herself better than that. As the thing passes through her again, manifesting itself in the world, an air of smug-satisfaction tinges its clammy embrace. Her body begins to swell even further, this time sideways across her hips and shoulders as her waist remains the same. She winds curvacious, but that was merely the fulfillment of her request. The desire comes at a price, as does trying to force the thing back within herself.

Her ears will stretch almost painfully, coming to long, pliable points unless she can muster the magical might and force of will to force the thing back into its cage before it can extract its payment. If not then when it's done the ears will stick out far to either side of her head, springy and bouncy and quite distracting.

[Deathkeeper]

B Dorms

"Tab's fine, though she got poisssoned by some unsstable potion by Jessssica and her friends. Had to do my best until the pros got here. Don't eat in the cafeteria until I'm sssure they ran out of thosse. Nah, I'm only ssuppossed to be like thisss for a few hours after the moon's been out, but thisss little guy won't leave me alone sso I'm sstuck until I can get him ssomewhere elsse. He's cute though." he says, poking at the little moon.

His eyes go wide, and he suddenly curls around Marissa in a tight but sincere hug.
"Of coursse not! You're the only girl for me, Marissa. No one elsse would be thiss cool with their boyfriend being a snake with an infuriating lissp."

[UncleWolf]

A Dorms

The elf knows she's being changed, but when her ears change she can't summon up the willpower to stop it simply because she doesn't know what the change itself is. It is only after the power rescinds that she realizes what happened and she groans. Not only did the magic not fix her, but it made her larger. Under other circumstances she wouldn't mind that too much as she'd never gotten much attention from her original details, but on top of being this big vertically? It was a nightmare.

"Well...damn." She mutters to herself, unsure of where to go now or what to do.

[Slii Arhem]

B Dorms

"Tab's fine, though she got poisssoned by some unsstable potion by Jessssica and her friends. Had to do my best until the pros got here. Don't eat in the cafeteria until I'm sssure they ran out of thosse. Nah, I'm only ssuppossed to be like thisss for a few hours after the moon's been out, but thisss little guy won't leave me alone sso I'm sstuck until I can get him ssomewhere elsse. He's cute though." he says, poking at the little moon.

His eyes go wide, and he suddenly curls around Marissa in a tight but sincere hug.
"Of coursse not! You're the only girl for me, Marissa. No one elsse would be thiss cool with their boyfriend being a snake with an infuriating lissp."

B Dorms

"Did you two try that extraction ritual we were fooling around with before we had to leave?" Merissa's mind immediately leaps to solutions, though she's worried if they already tried it and didn't have any luck. It's more powerful with more people though, so maybe they could pull the lycanthropy out of him if they all gave it a shot. She's taking this pretty well, all things considered, but her mind's dealing with his difficulties by trying to fix them, rather than adding on a lack of acceptance that would obviously make him feel worse.

[Deathkeeper]

B Dorms

Isssaac shakes his head.
"No, I jussst made sure she was the same sssize as before and mostly human with some transmutation and the pros sssorted out what changes I left her with." he says.
"Everything isss just fine. Though later we need to have a chat with that girl. For now, think you can get this moon off of me? He's cute, but I have practical transmutation homework to do and I need thumbs." he says, eying the satellite.

[Slii Arhem]

B Dorms

A single, sharp syllable that sounds like a gunshot in reverse sounds out, and an opaque globe should shrink into place around the moon, covering it and blocking its rays from hitting Isaac. She does it on impulse, which means that Isaac should return to normal almost immediately.

Which could be bad, since he's still partly wrapped himself over her neck and shoulders.

[Deathkeeper]

B Dorms

Marissa is saved today by Isssac's surprise, as he flutters away from her in surprise at the strange noise. Normally it takes a bit, but in this case within moments he starts spinning rapidly. Subsequently, a very human Isaac is deposited onto the floor, thankfully within his room and clothed. The moon, now covered, will still be around his head if her field isn't holding it.
"I meant grab it and put it in a bag." he groans.

[Fenric]

[Yard]

A young vulpan girl is here, with four large squirrels which are eagerly hunting and devouring grashoppers.

Good, good: eat the bugs. Never again will bugs eat my clothes!

[Slii Arhem]

B Dorms

Marissa is saved today by Isssac's surprise, as he flutters away from her in surprise at the strange noise. Normally it takes a bit, but in this case within moments he starts spinning rapidly. Subsequently, a very human Isaac is deposited onto the floor, thankfully within his room and clothed. The moon, now covered, will still be around his head if her field isn't holding it.
"I meant grab it and put it in a bag." he groans.

B Dorms

"Would've been about the same amount of warning. And this way you can keep it. You're right, it's pretty cute." She reaches out an arm (she's got plenty!) to try to help Isaac up, "Good to see you in your own skin again. Anyway, I meant using the ritual to try to pull the lycanthropy out of you. A blood curse isn't something you want to sit in you for too long, the longer it's there, the more difficult it is to remove." She speaks as though reciting from wrote things that usually aren't taught to mere students, blushing faintly as she really does give Isaac a full look over for the first time in a while.

Impulsively, she lunges forward for a rather strong and squeezy hug. "Missed you." She murmurs faintly into his ear.

[Deathkeeper]

B dorms

Isaac returns the hug.
"Yeah, I missed you too."

Once the hug is done and they pull away, he gets back to the subject at hand.
"Well, I know that it has largely been altered. Before I wasn't quite myself and didn't really have control, and my clothes didn't merge. But recently that was all thrown out, and I'm more or less myself, and everything but my glasses vanish. It's essentially harmless at this point, so there's much less of a rush." he explains.

[Slii Arhem]

B Dorms

An unexpected whap to the head is attempted on Merissa's part, "It is so not harmless, haven't you looked it up, or even thought about it? What if you got your blood or saliva into someone's bloodstream? They could be cursed too, and it'd be your fault. People have killed to prevent the spread of blood curses before, even ones that don't cause ravening rage-monsters or horrible wasting death. We're getting you fixed, mister, before it settles to the point where you can't yank that sucker out of you." Geeze, where did Merissa get all of this book-learnin on curses from? That opaque barrier spell was new too, at least not something she's ever shown off before at school. And considering the main reason she's still picked on is that she can only ever seem to perform archaic, less efficient versions of new spells, you'd think something like that would be a point of pride.

[Deathkeeper]

B Dorms

"Ow. Doesn't work like that. Has to be a bite that leaves marks." says Isaac, rubbing his head and spouting completely accurate statements that he isn't actually sure how he knows.
"And you have been getting quite a lot to say for someone who just got back. Do I get to know where you vanished for half a semester?" he asks, crossing his arms and wholly failing to look stern.

[Slii Arhem]

B Dorms (Borms?)

"Or passed down through a lineage. But there are ways to use werewolf blood to spread the curse using alchemy as well, which some people speculate could be used with just spit." Merissa counters with a glower, crossing her arms (which is always twice as stern when she does it.)

But she relents with a sigh, "My father decided I was going to choose my mastery "away from boys and friends and adventures and all the other stuff that makes you stupidly heroic." His words." Her voice goes deep and serious in a bit of light mockery, a talent she gleaned from her few interactions with her mostly absent father.

"So he locked me in a room with an endless amount of old books and then "tutored" me in anything I picked up until my head spin. I think he was just doing it out of some kind of misplaced bonding idea to make up for all my missed birthdays. But! You're looking at someone who's going to apply for a rituals and ancient lore mastery as soon as she gets some sleep." Strangely, Merissa doesn't look all that tired. But if Isaac has the inclination, he can see she's being held upright by a simple sleeplessness spell that's often used to study or pay attention in lectures. One of those spells Merissa previously couldn't cast, much to her dismay.

It's a common enough thing that the physical signs of it are pretty simple to catch, to anyone used to seeing wide-eyed, slumped, very faintly twitchy young mages.

[Deathkeeper]

B Dorms

"Well, feel free to use my place if you haven't gotten the paperwork done to go back to yours just yet.
I'm glad you've been catching up, though. I think your dad does care, even though he's awful at showing it. I guess being that old makes it even more awkward. Can't even imagine that." thousands is not usually the unit of measuring age.
"Did you learn any neat tricks, though?" he asks, curiosity and excitement in his slit-pupiled eyes.

[Slii Arhem]

B Dorms

"Mostly just basic ritual-crafting and the link between symbolism and why certain magickes worked way back when and don't anymore. Also, I finally got my problems with modern magic fixed, kinda-sorta. I'm absorbing bleed-off from highly magical environments now, and since it's all modern instead of blood-based, old magic, I can use that for our coursework!" Which basically means outside of high energy areas like this, she's stuck with her old stuff. But she still seems happy with the workaround.

"Come on then, you can do your homework or whatever while I pass out on your bed." She reaches for his hand to tug him back to his room, bouncing the bounce of a girl who's completely unable to feel her own exhaustion.

[Deathkeeper]

B Dorms

"Yeah, well, I...got my unstable transmutations sorted out. Now it's just the control issues that normal people have. So there." he says, closing the door behind them as he takes her inside.

[Slii Arhem]

B Dorms

"Oh shush you with your envy. I'm sure if you asked daddy he'd take you away for secluded training without your consent. All it takes is a bunch of tutoring by a millennia-old djinn who's fumbling to ask you if you've had "the talk" yet and silently cursing himself that he's never had a daughter before." Another side-effect of sleeplessness. Saying way too much and also far too little at the same time.

And a little bit lack of self awareness, as Merissa swiftly demonstrates by lifting her shirt over her head with her back turned to Isaac, only her bra between him and her bare skin as she turns. "I learned something else too, but I was afraid it wouldn't work." She says, hesitantly. Isaac will almost certainly spot the small, runic circle tattooed in pink next to her shoulder-blade, and another on the side of her waist in blue as she faces him.

[Deathkeeper]

Isaac's Dorm

Isaac flinches in surprise as she undressed but manages to choke down any vocal indication of his surprise. Play it cool, Isaac. Don't stare at her chest. Her fairy-enhanced chest. Focus on your moon or something.
"Uh, what's that, Merissa?" he asks hesitantly,

[Slii Arhem]

Isaac's Room

She either pretends not to notice his sudden interest in the bright-white wrapped moon, or is actually oblivious to his bashfulness as she looks down at her feet.

"My dad taught me a spell, specifically so I could fine you. It finds a person who's bonded to me in a meaningful way. I guess it was a test or something, but I wasn't brave enough to use it to find out if you were still waiting for me." She sniffs, then steps forward to embrace Isaac and lean heavily on him. "M'sorry. I should've had more faith. I wouldn't have blamed you if you found someone else, but I'm so glad you were here when I got back." Well Isaac, you know what they say. Absence makes the chest heart grow squishier fonder.

[Deathkeeper]

Isaac's Dorm

Isaac does his best to hold up to being leaned on by his much more muscular and tall girlfriend with extra limbs. Gods she's heavy. Maybe it's the fey aspect but he really does wonder how she adapted to the extra limbs and the proportion changes so fast. He can only imagine what that combination must feel like (he has had extra limbs before. would bot recommend) and he doesn't think he'd have done so well if his changes had been so glaring and extreme. He tries to subtly take a step or two with her towards the bed.
"Merissa, you need to trust me more. I'll give you a pass today but next time I don't want to have you think I can't be trusted. I'll always be here for you."

And it is not just because if he'd cheated he would have been lucky if all her dad did was turn him into something horribly embarrassing.

[Slii Arhem]

B Dorms

She leans back, shaking her head viciously as denial and shock compete in her eyes. "No! It's not that I don't trust you, I just thought that you'd have moved on. I wasn't here, and I didn't even tell you I was gone. I couldn't tell you, according to him. And then when I was getting up the nerve to check, you just sort of were there. It was like a dream, you showing up out of nowhere just waiting for me." She sighs and sits down on the bed, trying to drag Isaac down next to her.

"I want to get your curse situation fixed, before any more waiting. I won't lie, Isaac, it could be really bad for you to just leave it around, and I don't really know how you can be so calm about it."