The STRANGE: Origins

Stopping his chewing for a moment, Sam nodded towards Lex before pushing himself from the wall on which he was leaning. There was an all-too literal burning in his throat and mouth. The A-Classer shrugged and resumed his chewing, before spitting out a smoking piece of a paper. It was smoking and wrinkled, as if it was drying due to heat instead of wet from his spit. He stepped on it, as one would an exhausted cigarette, and looked down at the remaining ash. He spread the ash around with his foot before looking around for an authority figure. Not seeing one (something he considered strange), he turned his attention to Lex.

"How's it goin'?" He asked, his tone flat. He turned to face down the hall and gestured. "How 'bout a companion for the trip to class?"​

 

◘ Ｉ ＷＯＮ'Ｔ ＬＩＧＨＴ ＴＨＥ ＦＩＲＥ， ＢＵＴ Ｉ ＷＩＬＬ ＮＵＲＴＵＲＥ ＴＨＥ ＦＬＡＭＥＳ ＯＦ ＲＥＢＥＬＬＩＯＮ ◘​

He clicked his tongue as he noticed that of course nothing about yesterday's events would be mentioned. Then again, if he was expecting something about it, he was an idiot, which was why he wasn't at all. The school board couldn't be happy about all the things that started happening this week and he couldn't help but feel like things were going to . . . change. Soon.

He rolled off of his bed, flexing and shaking his wings slightly. They still felt sore from two days ago, when he was shot and cuffed. He hated that. He wanted to get back at them for that, but active aggression wasn't really his style. As he walked to the restroom, he wondered what he could do. Revenge in the little things was always satisfying, wasn't it? At least he wasn't clipped.

Quietly, Nix walked into the classroom and felt a few eyes fall on him, but he made his way to the back of the classroom, letting a cool breath of smoky frost out as he sat down, and it was enough to turn the students away. Some of them had been there for the STRANGE fight; surely they didn't want that happening again. He could see it in their eyes; that curious fear, that wondering worry, the need to know, to move, to start something, but they were being held back.

Always being held back.

OOC: SHE POSTS, SHE SCORES!​

 

Sam shrugged as he turned and followed Lex. The pace was leisurely so he made sure to stay a half-step behind his classmate, enough distance to watch Lex out of the corner of his eye without being noticed. "My name? Ain't that a little complicated to answer," Sam replied, nonchalantly. He turned a corner after Lex -whose own name Sam investigated before- glancing at an approaching clock. Sam did not want to risk being late to class and he doubted Lex -as one of the misfits of late- could be late to class without strict punishment...but did they have enough time to talk? In the back of his head, Jaggerjack urged him to press forward and come out with it.

"Ya see, most people, they don't want the name of the man," Sam started, now keeping his eyes away from Lex, "they want the name of the beast. Know what I mean? That's who really catches their interest." Without realizing it, Sam's pressed his left hand to his chest, slightly over his heart as Jaggerjack suddenly became quiet. "It's where nicknames come from, the ones ya enjoy and the ones ya don't. People want to know the more excitin' ya even if their preferred version of ya ain't the one ya prefer." He dropped his hand suddenly, moving his gaze right back to Lex, this time without regard to whether or not Lex noticed. "So what I'm gettin' at is this: the name of the man? Sam. Nice and simple. Sam's the one talkin' to ya. The name of the beast? Jaggerjack. A little more theatrical than divine, I think, but y'know, that's what he likes to be called. Ya remember him, right? From my performance? Big, red, and steamin'?" Sam was watching Lex closely now as they neared the classroom. "So, Lex. Which do ya prefer: Man or beast?"​

 

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Alice walked along towards science seeming subdued, her head down just watching her feet move. She was anxious of what the day might bring, she was in no rush at all to get to her destination, who knew what awaited them there. She was all caught up in her thoughts to the point that she almost didn't hear her name being called out. Something must have registered though as she paused and looked round with momentary confusion. "Huh?" The brief look of confusion disappeared briefly when she noticed who had called her name. A week ago, if somebody had told her that a girl like Frida would be a friend and actually want to talk to her, she'd have dismissed it as just being silly. Now though, that didn't surprise her at all.


"Oh, hey Frida. How're you holding up after yesterday?" She asked once the girl once she was close enough to hear her soft voice clearly. She disliked talking loudly and it suited her just fine to be selective about the ones who could hear her speak. "It's too quiet, you know there will be repercussions yet no word of it. Like the calm before the storm, just eerie. I suspect it's too keep it hidden from the rest of the school, most of the punishments here for the serious seem to be kept secret, like the random disappearances. Meaning today could be a very interesting day, I just hope we're strong enough to face the consequences." She didn't know what awaited them or what type of strength would be needed to get through it, she could only hope that they had the necessary strength to get through. She looked over at the blue-haired girl with a small smile, Frida wasn't what she'd expected but somehow Alice was happy that they were together in this, no matter what may be thrown at them in the near future.



OOC: Sorry for taking forever to post, I've been soooo busy lately.​

 

Ooc: Courtesy to @Cstar for making this lovely banner. Stay classy girl.


The new day brought about with it some sort of looming sense of dread. The young boy had gotten himself out of bed, recalling the events of yesterday, and the day before then with some sort of sense of unreality. It was way too hard to believe all of these events had actually happened in such a short succession as they had, and the fact that so little was being done about it was something unsettling. First, there was the art project disaster thing that had occurred, in which a group of students had simply been a bit too showy with what they could do and got stopped by the security force rather quickly. Next, there was the gym class STRANGE fight. Something that was bound to get the attention of the big wigs at this school. Sure, Blaine didn't partake in these, as he tried his best to stay out of sight and out of mind when all of these happened. If he kept the overall amount of involvement that he put into these kinds of events, then he would most definitely not stand out and most definitely not be punished.

The lack of actual morning announcements, however, was completely unnerving. While the event was one that had escalated extremely quickly, Blaine figured that if they never mentioned it or drew any attention to it, it would probably fade out of existence. However, totally ignoring just made those who did know about it grow more suspicious. Blaine had wondered if the instigators of said fight had gotten into any real trouble yet, though, even if they did, with the way things were going he'd likely never hear about it. Well, the only way he'd find out about it was if he actually went to class, and with all the rule breaking going on now a days, this was a bad time to be late. Putting on the glasses he didn't need at all on, Blaine started his walk to science class.

As he made his way down the hall, he didn't hear anything too unusual about what had happened yesterday from most of the students. In fact, it was only really same old same old with most of the people. Well that was a let down. The crowd as a whole could not provide him with any information, and so he would have to get closer to the source if he wished to learn more about what was happening. But that was, of course, risky. And he didn't want much risk right now. As he made his way towards the class, he stopped in his tracks, wide eye and frozen at the duo standing in front of the door. There he was. The one with the black motif. He was the one who started the entire hullabaloo yesterday, and of course he was punished, only Blaine thought he was. The fact that he seemed to be casually chatting it up with someone else, perfectly fine, seeming like a regular human being (who just happened to be able to alter his body,) was odd to say the least. Blaine started to put as little attention onto himself as possible as he continued observing the two. Though despite all of the things that were going on right now, he was wondering one key thing before he knew his day could go on as normal...why were they standing in front of the class door?

 

Shrugging as if it was the only gesture his body knew, Sam started to turn. "Hell if I know. I don't speak teach," he said, adding a tone of disgust at the end. Sure, Sam never had much faith in his teachers and the rest of the staff, but the recent actions -specifically restraining him with sapphires- made his view of them...well, something more extreme than simply disagreeing with their attitude. 'Guess we'll finish this conversation another time,' he thought as he started to walk. "To the lidrory it is, then," he mockingly said. As he walked, he made eye contact with a boy who seemed to be watching them. "Well," he muttered, "seems like I have an admir-umph!" With a yelp, the A-class student walked into someone. "Sorry 'bout that-oh." He stopped, recognizing the long coat and white hair. 'Great, another troublemaker...'​

 

OOC: My apologies that this has taken so long. With the end of uni, and driving and everything else, it's just been chaos trying to do anything. At least it seems STRANGE has actually revived stronger than it was before this time.

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Anya was already in the library. She had headed there for several reasons, the first being that she wasn't intending on attending class.
Her body was feeling rough and she frankly couldn't be bothered to surround herself with people. She had headed to where it was quiet, and screw the consequences. She thought back on the events of the previous day.

She had truly thought for a moment that her words might have gotten through to that Lex kid. She'd let down her guard which was stupid of her, and she had paid for it. The second he had resisted, with greater strength than she had expected, she had been lifted off her feet and flung across the room and into a wall. That alone wouldn't have been an issue. She'd have stood up easily had that been all. Anya was created to withstand so much more.
...But no. Her one and only flaw had taken her down.
She hadn't had the chance to resist for he had flung her right through the course. Specifically... the Rendium part, which had caused her entire body to shut down, and that had been that. No chance to recover.
The White Room had come next, not that it mattered. All it did was serve to further torture her body. She did her best not to show it though. She'd simply kept her eyes closed as the nausea took over and her cells slowly seemed to comatise themselves. Eventually, they had been released and she was yet again dragged to her room before being tossed through the door and left there on the floor to recover.
Thankfully, with no Rendium around her, her body had begun to get back in gear and heal itself. Her cells regenerated and thus here she was.
She had naturally, no idea of the note telling her classmates to go to the Library, she had by pure chance and coincidence just been there this whole time. Rather unfortunate considering she didn't want to be around anyone.

 

Sam stammered at the white-haired boy's remarks, but then swallowed and shut up. Grunting quietly, he agreed and followed the other student. In the back of his mind, Jaggerjack was getting a little too graphic with, how in his time, "swinging that way" was done not just ceremonially and celebratory, but something considered sacred. Shaking the images out of his head, Sam simply turned his head as he walked and narrowed his red eyes at the student watching them.​

 

Sam's face twisted into a strange (lolpun) combination of a scowl and a grin. "Trust me, yo, I got no problem staying warm." Joke or not, it was true. Since Sam didn't have any memories prior to his "enrollment" and Jaggerjack's own memory was hazy -even if the flame god refused to talk about it for whatever reason- he couldn't be sure how long he and Jaggerjack have been bonded. However, his earliest memories as a STRANGE student were nightmarish. Sam's body temperature would fluctuate uncontrollably, spiking without warning. There was many a night when he would wake up, his bed covered in sweat and would immediately tear off his clothes before jumping into a freezing cold shower. Hell, Sam could remember a night or two when he would wake up and his bed was on fire. The administrators treated it like it was such a hassle for them, but Sam? Poor kid was terrified to sleep some nights and would spend the occasional night in a cold bath, not daring to close his eyes. It wasn't long before Jaggerjack and Sam were able to figure out exactly how their bond work (well, almost exactly) and Sam's body temperature stabilized semi-permanently. His current temperature was still high for average; cold for him was a fever for most, but Sam was comfortable with it at this point. There were still times when he would heat up, usually tied to his emotions or relationship with Jaggerjack, but the heat of their bond didn't bother hi-huh...now that he thought about it, Sam couldn't recall being bothered by high temperatures at all recently. Oh well, mystery for another day.
"Hm?" He mused aloud as Lex got his attention. Sam peeked inside of the classroom and realized what Lex meant. "Ah, I get ya," he muttered as he peeked his head in. Sam considered himself quite popular, like the upperclassman everyone looked up to because he just didn't give a damn. Whether or not that was true was irrelevant; it gave Sam the confidence to talk to s.t.r.a.n.g.e.rs easily. "Ay yo!" He called inside, stepping in slightly. "Don't they teach ya knuckleheads how to read in the other Classes? We're meeting in the lidrory today!" He enunciated the 'lidrory' while making a funny face. ​

 

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"Oh, hey Frida. How're you holding up after yesterday?"

A smirked appeared onto the tiny girl's lips, "Hah, I'm doing better than ever!" she spat with a loud, arrogant tone. She looked to her right and caught a glimpse of a familiar, serious face who just walked into the classroom. It was that guy from their small little group, she gave him a small smile then looked at others in the room - which weren't a lot of people... she turned back to Alice, "A typical STRANGE fight's all I needed to spark up and I haven't even gotten a White Room hangover!" she laughs.

"It's too quiet, you know there will be repercussions yet no word of it. Like the calm before the storm, just eerie. I suspect it's too keep it hidden from the rest of the school, most of the punishments here for the serious seem to be kept secret, like the random disappearances. Meaning today could be a very interesting day, I just hope we're strong enough to face the consequences."

She let out a sigh as the mood of their conversation obviously hit a more serious note and Frida leaned further back into her seat, crossing her arms over her chest. It was like the blonde read her mind and saw through the doubts she had in the back of her head. The fear inside started to rise up but she had to make sure no one would notice! Everyone will just think she's some sort of wimp. She cleared her throat before speaking as her friend smiled at her slightly, "Well, there's only one way to find out and that's to face the unknown dead on! I'm sure whatever they'll throw out on us won't be anything we can't handle!"

Before she could speak up again to disguise the anxiety building up inside of her, another student opened the door and poked his head in, "Ay yo!"

The candy haired teenager's face lit up for a moment - it was that dude! That one who did the beast-y fire thing that was really cool and impressive. He was from the A-class of course.

"Don't they teach ya knuckleheads how to read in the other Classes? We're meeting in the lidrory today!"

The silly faces he pulled as he revealed the real venue of their class seemed to make some of the other students chuckle - but not her. 'Who is he calling a knucklehead?!' she thought bashfully, immediately turning her soft expression into furrowed brows and a small scowl. The anxiety left her completely. She stood from her seat and stomped towards him, pulling the door open wider. She brought her hands up and pushed the Sam backwards, obviously not causing him to fall but mostly to get out of the doorway - and out of her way. There was a small pause as she glared at him, since for a moment her mind seemed to short circuit, unable to think of a reasonable comeback. Since really, she was at fault since she didn't read the note that was apparently on the door.

"You could have told us sooner, dweeb!" was literally the best she could have come up with and it obviously wasn't any good. She felt her cheeks flush the tiniest bit at how lame she was as it sunk in some more that her comeback really was just... terrible. Plus, she was dissing an A-class man! Someone whose powers were, as she saw, much greater than hers. She wasn't thinking, as usual. She placed her hands on her hips, "And please, learn how to pronounce properly." she hissed, companied by an eye roll from her cherry eyes.

She turned her head back to the classroom, giving Alice a small nod. She remembered their small conversation before being so rudely interrupted, "Come on, let's get to the bottom of this." she said sharply and before she began walking ahead, she glared at Sam one more time and left - ignoring the others he was with.

 

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Anya looked up at the teacher staring down at her, giving him a rather flat and uninterested look in response to his comments. He didn't know her name, but she couldn't care less. The address he had given her wasn't anything racial, and the hair comment was just to define her as his target... even though he was in front of her so it would have been obvious. Regardless...

His comments about how the class had been moved got her attention. That was rather unfortunate, but she simply shrugged at him. "I was passing by. Does it matter when I get top marks anyway?"
It wasn't a dig or sarcastic comment. She was created with a keen and superior intellect. She had been designed to be perfect after all. That had to include every part of her, otherwise how could she be considered to be perfect if there was one thing missing? Especially something as crucial as brain functionality. At any rate, she found classes boring and pointless which is why she didn't attend them. Just because of that though didn't mean that she didn't understand the content. She did - hence the proof with her marks. Of course... what good did such a thing do when you were stuck in this academy anyway.

A paper was slammed down in front of her and she quickly scanned her eyes over it. Examining the names, she couldn't help but inwardly chuckle to herself - something she kept very quiet so as to not catch the attention of the professor.
How obvious could the man be though?

Everyone she had been seated with (apart from one of them) had been those who had been constantly getting detention as of late (herself included). It was the same little group, and they'd been conveniently placed together. Coincidence? Possibly, but more than likely not.

Just what is the game here then? she quietly mused in her head. She honestly had no idea what could be going on, but she was sure that there was 'something' taking place in the wings at least.

 

"Wha-AHH!" Sam may or may not have screamed like a little girl as he tumbled backwards from Frida's shove. His back hit a wall and he slid down to his ass with a "Uf!" and a little bit of smoke puffed from his mouth. He opened his eyes and let his jaw drop as he watched his assaulter scold him and storm off, unable to say anything. As she stormed away, he looked back and forth from Lex to Aiden. "Uh-um--uh--er...what?" As the other students started making their way to the library, most of them laughing at him on their way out, Sam forced himself up and brushed himself off. "Well...what in Mithra's name was that about?" He asked before silently wondering how he knew that name. Shrugging it off to shared knowledge from Jaggerjack (who was busy laughing his tail off in their shared mind), the desert-skinned student followed the crowd, all the while wondering what Frida's deal was.

After walking into the 'lidrory,' Sam noticed and read the seating chart. "Lookie here, looks like I'm with...oh no," he turned to look at his table: the troublemakers. "Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no," he muttered. Grouped with them again? "Is there some sorta conspiracy against me?" He wondered in a whisper as he made eye contact with the others, red irises glowing. "Somethin' to make innocent ol' Sam into some kinda rebel?" He continued, raising his voice slightly, but still to himself. He sat down and slammed his head into his folded arms, resting it on the table before adding aloud, "The universe has a sense of humor and I don't get the joke."​

 

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Something was definitely going on with the library seating arrangements because again, she finds herself with the usual suspects, her new detention buddies - of course this term was used loosely in her head since she didn't even think any of them were even close enough to be acquaintances nor did she actually want to be friends with one- or rather, any of them (with an exclusion to Alice, of course).

She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back into her chair with a sigh, her eyes resting on Sam who had been blabbing since he arrived and realized as well who he was stuck with. Her first impression of him seemed to be dwindling into a rather different, dull impression as he continued on but she always had that image of his performance at the back of her head. Did all that power really come from a clown like him? She rolled her eyes away for a moment sensing how hypocritical she was - who was she to judge his cover? She was one of the most petite in the school yet she sparked enough power to scare some upper class men.

"The universe has a sense of humor and I don't get the joke."

She turned her head back at him as he spoke again and scoffed, mumbling under her breath "You are the joke." 'and I liked your fiery friend much better.' she added in her head. Her eyes lifted from Sam to look at the other faces in her group. Aiden - she scowls at him; Blaine - who was that?; Alice - she sends a small smile, what a relief she was in her group!; Anya - she seemed to be the only one Frida could get along with or actually want to be seen with; Lex - he was the odd one right? Ah ha, but weren't they all? Oh well, don't remember much of him; Nix - that serious one who makes the most sense; and back to Sam.

The candy colored teen let out another small sigh, looking at everyone was like looking at a grenade and waiting for it to explode or not. She would actually prefer an actual explosion over just sitting and waiting.

 

Sam scowled at Frida before leaning. "The joke, my dear, is this unnecessary hostility between us." He continued to lean towards her, the collar of his shirt starting to hang loose. Beneath it, the edge of some kind of marking poked out onto his skin. "Maybe poor ol'Sammy did somethin' to ya in the past, but I don't recall gettin' on your bad side," he growled, nonthreatening, almost sounding like an inquisitive cat. "Regardless of that fact, or any other fact for the matter of this conversation that ya and I are havin', beautiful, I personally think -and I'm sure, considerin' recent actions on your behalf- that this little...groupin' -for lack of a better term- is somethin' that isn't gonna work out for either of us," it came out in a very nonchalant and suave manner. Sam had a habit, especially around the opposite sex, to adopt that tone and make his sentences unnecessarily long, whenever he wanted to avoid an argument without losing it. "So, with all of the aforementioned said, I think it past time for little Sammy here to take his leave." Without giving her, or anyone else, a chance to object, Sam pushed his seat back and headed towards the professor. "Hey, teach. May I, if ya would ever so kindly allow it, switch into Hank's group? At least that kid knows his science." ​

 

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The enthusiasm and cheerfulness in Frida's voice took Alice by surprise, she hadn't expected anybody to be cheerful after yeasterday's turn of events. That said she supposed if anybody was going to be cheerful about it, it would be Frida. Still it took her aback and before she figured out how to react to Frida's go and get 'em attitude, they reached the classroom and Frida insulted the A-class Alice had been partnered up with yesterday. Alice did her best to not really get involved, this time round the boy hadn't seemed to do anything wrong so she wasn't quite sure why Frida had taken a dislike to him. Either way, from the encounter it seemed they were in the Library for the day. It was probably due to with after everything that had happened, they didn't want to risk any practical science experiments.

The library wasn't far away though and the moment they stepped through the door, the tensions seemed to rise again. One look at the list of groups and she knew why. The group pretty much included all of them that had been involved in any of the incidents in the last week, plus another kid she didn't recognise the name of. Maybe he was a big player in the fight, that wouldn't surprise her. Something was going on, she highly doubted it was by chance and unfortunately she knew this meant the day had a much greater chance of being as eventful as the last.

She looked up to see the tensions between Frida and Sam rising again, "Stop, both of you." She spoke quietly but distinctly, looking at her new blue haired friend she continued, "Listen, I know you probably have an awesome come back to that but please save it. This group cannot be a coincidence, but for what reason we've been put together I don't know. It might be to keep an eye on us, putting us together shows they might even want us to cause trouble, I don't know. But you two fighting isn't going to help. We need to find out what's going on, without killing each other or giving them more reason to kill us." She took a deep breath, hoping Frida would listen to her.

She gently touched Sam's arm to make sure she had his attention, she wasn't going to raise her voice. "I understand why you want out and I can't blame you, but if this group is as I suspect, I doubt you'll be allowed. I'm sorry you got grouped with us, none of this was intentional, when we did our performances none of us knew things were going to escalate like this. I don't like it either. However, we're not bad people and we really can't afford to be fighting each other. Give us a chance." In her head, Alice was praying that the group didn't let her down. Saying this was a risk she knew, but she knew she had to somehow stop them fighting and make them work together without incident.