Alice, of course, listened to Ms. Dawn intently, however she found herself more and more distracted. What was Lloyd thinking? Furthermore, would he be okay, what with the rise in demon activity? He was pretty powerful with his regal totem, but there was no telling what sorts of strange and horrifying powers the enemy might now have. Before she knew it, her attention was directed towards him entirely. Few times had she ever met another totem user, and none of them had ever looked and "felt" so... Kingly. Startled by a sudden feeling rising within her, she tore her eyes away and regained her focus, but Ms. Rachel was already done talking. Just then, Lloyd walked up to her and asked her a question.

"I hope there isn't anything awkwardness going on." What? Awkwardness? She thought as she blushed slightly. Then it hit her. She'd been fighting for God knows how long, and the dirt and sweat wasn't pleasant.

"The only awkwardness here is your grammar!" She shouted with a reddened face, and she ran off to take a bath, limping slightly due to her swollen ankle. As her hand reached the doorknob, however, she turned and shouted at Ms. Dawn. "Find me a damn healer already!" And then she bolted to her room.

Phora, who had been gazing mockingly at Lotus, sensed Alice shouting and turned to watch her leave. "Okay, later Alice." Curious to see how long she could be apart from her master, she decided to have some fun and mock Lotus further. "Do you think your huge head would even fit in Dot's mouth? What's your cup size? Have you ever eaten a grasshopper? Do you have pubes? Are they tiger striped?" She fired off these questions with an air of feigned innocence.

Daniel had no idea what Rachel was talking about the entire time. Who the hell was Carter? Why the hell would he make a contract with a demon? Why the hell would they want him back after he consorted with demons? He stuck around to hear that he would be joining a small army in finding an old lady's kettle, but ditched them soon afterwards to explore Apollon. His little mind had a great day planned. Recalling something about a palace of seers, he headed to the Northeast section of the city and came across the massive building. It was a sight to behold, the intricate architecture, the beautiful statues that seemed to incorporate art from every time period, and massive pillars that brought it all together. This was all lost on Daniel, who charged up the steps and threw the door open.

Maximilian was glad to hear that he would be able to stick around and explore Apollon further. There was just something about this city that lightened his mood and the sheer size of the 'enclosure' would guarantee him some peace and quiet. However, just as he was preparing to venture out into mostly unknown expanse of Apollon Maximilian spotted Evelyn who, interestingly enough, was still hanging around. The conversation he had with Evelyn immediately replayed in his head once he spotted the girl and even though the whole thing seemed a bit... compromising, to both him and her, he still felt that he held a keen interest for the girl and wanted to continue conversing with her about well, god only knows what. At the moment the important thing wasn't what he intended to talk about but rather that she would still talk to him so freely. After all, she was still the same girl she always was at heart and her spilling her guts could have just been a temporary lapse in judgement brought on by her emotions. Nevertheless Maximilian felt he needed to try and so, after a small bit of deliberation, he brought himself before Evelyn in as casual a manner he possibly could.

"If you're going to stay here for a little while, maybe we could talk a bit more. Maybe even look around the city a bit together, how about?" he tried to seem as kind but as straightforward as possible. He wanted to avoid looking like he was pitying her based on their previous conversation.

The library was an architectural beauty. Great columns with creeping vines wrapped around them held up a solid triangular stone roof that depicted an scene of warriors in battle against strange creatures. On the very tip of the roof, a majestic statue of a griffon watching perched, watching those that entered the library. There were no doors, though the ground showed signs of wear as if there once were great doors of wood that swung open and shut at the beginning and end of each day. The inside of the library was fairly dark, and Logan's footsteps echoed throughout the halls as he walked. To his left were various diamond shaped compartments, while to his left, traditional shelves. In front of him was another set of stairs that went upwards into what looked like an area with more light than the first floor.

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Daniel found himself in a great hall filled with light, that shone through from the roof above into a great pool of water in the back of the room that rested in front of three elevated thrones made of stone blocks. The walls behind them were covered in some sort of metal covered in patches of hardened dust accumulated from over the centuries. To his left and his right were other corridors.

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Evelyn was mildly off put by Maximilian's new change of character around her, she wasn't exactly sure what to think of it, and further still, whether to trust it. No. She had to stop thinking that way, everyone wasn't out to get her, if anything, this exercise had taught her that most of her compatriots weren't as useless as she had thought them all to be. Aside from that, it was almost winter and she hadn't really made any friends in the school yet; aside from Bernice, she didn't really have anyone to call on as a friend. Not that it bothered her all that much, she didn't need friends. Nevertheless, it wouldn't kill her to make more.

"Um sure," she said aloofly, not wanting to seem too eager, and she walked by his side as they walked away from the plaza.

Lotus listened to Miss Rachel. After Miss Rachel finished Lotus looked down thinking.
"So if what you say comes to pass, why don't you-" She cut herself off as she looked up and noticed miss Rachel had wandered off and the annoying pixie talking to her.
"Yeah yeah...whatever phora." Lotus said as she turned to run towards the school again. Lotus began to wonder abut that one girl, Chantelle... Then Lotus realized she completely forgot to hangout with them over the weekend. She completely stood up one of her few friends. Lotus stopped running to give herself a much deserved facepalm. She then ran faster eager to find Chantelle and apologize.

Maximilian wasn't quite sure whether Evelyn trusted him now or not. She seemed so distant still and though the same could be said about him, he was at least trying be sincere with her. Perhaps if the two were able to engage in actual conversation with one another should would be more genuine as well.

"Are you feeling alright now?" Maximilian turned his head to look at Evelyn as he continued walking, simply following her lead. "It must seem so- oddly suggestive... or perhaps even
perfidious of me to have just came at you of nowhere earlier, bugging you about your life and the way you live it." Perhaps this really wasn't the best way to start a conversation, but he really felt he needed to explain himself to Evelyn. He hoped that if he tried his best to explain his motives, however unclear they might be to her, that she might be more willing to talk to him.

"I just, well... I couldn't stand to see anyone that way, especially you." This really wasn't coming out right. Maximilian was doing a terrible job of choosing his words. "You don't deserve to be pressured in the ways that you are. You put so much of your time and your natural talent into this whole Omnivident thing... You're always trying to get better, to do better. But then when you did your best, better than any of us could have done and we all still failed... I just, I don't know... I guess I admire you a bit and well, I worry about you sometimes... It just felt wrong that we all let you bear so much weight and that no one was willing to approach you or even talk to you about it." Maximilian had truly gone and done it. Usually in this situation he would have actually composed a well structured conversation starter filled with classical wit and even a bit of story telling. This time however, the boy couldn't seem to compose even a miniscule bit of dialogue and instead he just let out clusters of embarrassing sentences.

Autumn/Winter, Monday 16:30 [4:30PM]

School had long since came to a conclusion while the club members had been in Apollon. It was fairly normal to the upper years and faculty that the Darren Archive Club members were absent from class, though for the first years, they found it particularly odd. Most of the students who did not live on campus had already left for home, excluding those that were participant to after school clubs that usually wrapped up around 5-5:30 PM. Those that did live on campus were dispersed throughout the school; some in the cafeteria, some in the library, and others in the dormitory.

It was here that Lotus found Chantelle in the common area of the dorm, sitting on one of the benches with her legs pulled close to her body and an exquisite quilt wrapped around her body. She looked out the Gothic window with a wistful expression on her face as she looked over the courtyard. She found it mildly depressing; the courtyard without its flowers and leaf covered trees.

Her head popped up as she noticed Lotus approaching and she turned to look at her with a smile, "Oh hello Lotus, we missed you on Saturday, though I'm sure things came up"

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Alice heard a knocking on her door a few moments after entering her room.

"Are you sure she's in there?" Alice recognized the voice of her classmate Harpreet.

"I'm pretty sure I just saw her door close," it was the voice of Amy "Open up you hermit!" Exclaimed the girl as she continued to knock on the door, "You missed out on a good sale this weekend but I'll forgive you if you open this door!"

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She had never spoken much to Maximilian before today, but he seemed to be speaking a lot more clumsily than she imagined he regularly did. She resisted the urge to stop him, grab him by his shoulders, and shake him violently. Though, she could tell he was trying, and the compliments were nice, so she listened patiently while he spoke.

"I'm fine," she said with a sincere smile, "You rekindled the drive inside of me to continue fighting," she looked up at the sky as the tropical breeze blew by them. It was odd really, how they were in the Atlantic Ocean somewhere, yet at the same time a few steps from home. She sighed "It's just hard sometimes. My sisters are perfect. While they were here nothing like this ever happened. Yet here I am, a few months into school, and we were nearly defeated on our first mission, and we lost a team member on our second mission." She kicked a pebble on the ground in front of her and watched as it rolled ahead.

"It's just so frustrating, I've been training since I was three," she stopped herself, not wanting to go back down that road "But, I have learned that I can't do it all on my own. We're a team."

The knock on Alice's door reminded her of her other life, one she hadn't been thinking of much in recent days. Being friends with the untouched was sometimes quite taxing. "W-what's the password?!" She called out frantically in an attempt to buy more time while she looked around her room. It hadn't been cleaned in days, and so various ancient tomes and artifacts (trophies she had collected during her adventures) were strewn about, which she haphazardly hid in a panic. After tucking an old wizard's staff behind the dresser she threw open the window to let the evening light illuminate her room. The cheery alternative art adorning her walls lended the room a nice atmosphere, and the perfume she sprayed seemed to somehow match. Sensing her masters troubled feelings, Phora popped into the room with a yawn. "Lotus is kind of mean," She said. "Stupid too. She hurt your ankle right? I'll get revenge later." Alice put a finger to her lips, unconcerned with the totems promise of some petty revenge, to which the pixie rolled her eyes and sat on the bed. They waited for the password in silence.

Daniel walked towards the great pool of water. The water was incredibly clear, very strange to see in the dusty ancient building. Reflections fascinated the Vitri, and he stared down into the pool. He was momentarily stunned, however his natural instinct to mesmerize himself further kicked in. The glass shield flowed like molten lava before him, transforming by his command back into an orb. He brought forth the orb into the light with one hand, observing the light's effect.

Maximilian brought himself to a steady halt after listening to Evelyn's response to his gargled mess. The pair had been walking for a quite sometime and the area they had entered seemed fairly familiar to him. It was only after giving the whole place a once over that he recognized the open area as The Plaza of the Wise.

"I'm guessing your sisters probably dealt with situations that were vastly different than our own. Anyway, it's not quite fair to compare their whole school careers to ours, which, might I remind you, has just barely started. Their skills were probably tested in a more gradual manner than our own and by the time they were combating creatures like the ones we were fighting they probably had already been given plenty of time to prepare and train." It only seemed logical that such would be the case, though it was really his dullest guess at why her sisters never were trialed by such adversity. The thought crossed his mind that perhaps her sisters had never told her the whole truth of their school lives but of course it wasn't his place to go about calling her relatives liars.

"Sounds like you really have quite the family, though I'm sure you've heard that many times before. What about yourself though? After all your schooling and training is actually completed what do you intend to do?"

Lots looked at Chantelle. Lotus almost purred when Chantelle spoke kindly to her. Lotus walked over and sat on thebench next to Chantelle. Lotus thought about what she did last weekend. She remembered sleeping, eating, and chasing a ball of yarn followed by sleeping. Lotus looked at her feet an began playing with her white locks as she tried to formulate a response to Chantelle.
"I'm sorry about that." Lotus soke the upmost sincere sound in her voice. "So whatcha wanna do today?" Lotus asked cheerfully.

Johnathan decided that it would be best to train in the s****, despite how much he would like to stay in Apollon. Having these new energy abilities he had to admit were pretty awesome, but at the same time he also felt that he was still being lapped by the rise in demon activity. He doubted he could be someone significant in helping solve this dilemma in terms of brute force, but hoped he could rely on his wits and cleverness. Seeing almost everyone in the group with all these amazing powers and abilities made him feel... outclassed. Was his fate that he had to hang back on the sidelines while everyone else did all the work? And what about Carter? How could he expect to save him if he could barely hold his own in a simple game of capture the flag? He would be pretty beat up if it weren't for Arx. He hadn't even landed a single hit when he was fighting with Evelyn. The reason behind him even signing the demon contract to begin with was him wanting to get stronger and he saw how much that backfired. He was beginning to question if him being here was redundant. Hoping to push these negative thoughts away through training, Johnny left Apollon to head to the s****. 

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"The only awkwardness here is your grammar!"

So much for trying to be discreet, but seriously? Grammar? Even though he had to recognize his grammar was off the mark, because he was pretty nervous, that was a terrible way to end the conversation. Lloyd eyed Alice as she stormed out of Apollon. He was considering following her, but decided against it. However he had to admit she was pretty attractive when she was angry, even though he knew that was just an act. 

Lloyd also noticed he wasn't in the best condition. Leaving Apollon he headed back to his dorm. 

Tsubaki sat on the fountain while everyone dispersed around her. Tsubaki did this often by chance or on propose and she would often learn a lot about people as they passed right by her without a second thought. Looking upon everyone she spied Derrek, which had apparently left and returned already, holding out the boot he had taken. She stared without a word, but Derrek instinctively had to speak.

"No hard feelings right? We were on different teams and all." Holding out his hand to help her up he added. "Derrek, by the way."

"Tsubaki." She said accepting the hand, but noticing Johnny. He seemed in a bit of a daze before walking off through the new door. There was a distinct sense of longing. She would try to talk to him...

"What does that even mean, there's no way I can remember that, little lone pronounce it. Hey where... are you..."

Tsubaki walked straight pass him following that-kid-that-had-the-flag. That's right, Derrek hadn't taunted him yet, he had come up with all kinds of wit and it was almost wasted.

Having a good two feet on her, Johnny's stride, even dragging his feet was formidable for Tsubaki. It took her a while before she gently grabbed his sleeve and looked up into his face saying, "Um... I know your not exactly okay, but are you okay?"

Logan stood in awe of the majesty of the library for all of three seconds, then made a bee-line for the diamond-shaped compartments. He had never seen shelves like these in a library before, and his curiosity easily got the better of him. With great anticipation, he pulled one open.

Li managed to limp his way to Miss Rachel right as her speech ended. He was reminded about the previous missions before all these deals with demons happened. Li didn't completely forget about it, but currently what was on his mind was when the pain from his bullet "wound" would go away. Hearing that they were allowed to stay in Apollon was a nice idea to Li, but he realized he had school work he had to get too. Slowly but surely, he made his way out of the s**** to continue on with his studies.

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To be honest, Dom didn't really notice that Carter had been taken away, he barely knew the guy. Still, it was concerning that they lost a previous member. After this training exercise, there wasn't more that he wanted to do other than jump around and explore this city. Heading back to the market, he started to climb the lower buildings and practice his jumping.

As the group dispersed for the most part, Damian was left to be with his thoughts. Apollon was interesting and he would surely visit to explore. However, Damian decided it was best to head out. He quickly walked back to the s**** with his hands in his pockets, then decided he would visit the library. He made his way to his destination until he finally arrived and took the first available seat. His only goal was to relax here and he leaned back in his chair and shut his eyes. The dorm would have been a better choice but he did not want to be completely alone. He thought back to the game and how heavily he relied on his abilities. Was he carried away with them or did he resort to them out of fear his own fighting skill wouldn't protect him? As far as he knew, it could be either. Much of these students are trained fighters so he felt the latter was more likely. At this point, Damian had zoned out to converse with himself over numerous subjects.

On the verge of summoning his weapons, Johnny felt something tug at his arm and a voice. "Um... I know your not exactly okay, but are you okay?" 

Turning, he found it to be Tsubaki. Despite his mood right now, Johnathan actually smiled and chuckled a bit, though it quickly faded. It took him but a seconds worth to remember she was a variant of Notatorum. Seeing no point nor an advantage in hiding anything he decided to speak; he realized wasn't exactly the most chipper person leaving after Miss Rachel was done speaking. 

"No. I'm thinking of leaving the club."