ic Mud Pack

[Ari]

Leroy had said nothing to Davyd, merely nodding at his answer. The reactions of the two sisters had apparently not been what he'd expected, Ashley's words in particular stopping him in his tracks. He didn't immediately follow the rest, looking at the glowtrapper intently as the other students left the greenhouse.

 

Shortly after Corinne and the shapeshifter got to the building, he silently appeared. His mouth was gone, a smooth, blank stretch of skin in its place, some kind of angular rune carved into it, seeping black blood.

 

Raising a hand, he gestured upwards. The light around the various stations concentrated, the color above them filtering to form their names and which areas of the body they best exercised.

 

Leroy looked at Davyd curiously. His hand fell, the light in the room resumed its proper spread and spectrum, and an almost Egyptian pictogram of the new student formed beside Davyd, lifting weights and steadily gaining more muscle.

 

The gravity bender pointed at the pictogram, a question mark taking shape above it.

[Dr Archeville]

"Nice to meet you, too!" he called out after Lulu.  Davyd was a bit sad to see Lulu and Monica going their own ways, leaving him with just Corrine and Leroy.  Well, I'll have more opportunities to chat with them later.  And maybe I can find something likable about these two behind their facades.

 

The Aaron Cage Gymnasium was a short walk from the greenhouse.  It was large enough to hold a tournament regulation basketball court & the surrounding bleachers, as well as lockers and shower rooms for boys and girls, a weight training room, equipment storage bins, and the offices of the academy's various coaches.  Davyd had neither a particular love nor hatred of exercise, but he did appreciate the large enclosed space.  "So is this where we would practice with ouWHOA!"

 

He was not expecting Leroy to do... whatever it was he'd done to his face.  He recovered quickly, though, owing to a life in Freedom surrounded by weirdness.  "So you're a shapeshifter, too?  Cool!  Maybe we can practice together?"  The thought filled him with roughly equal parts joy and dread.  "Maybe we- oh, wait, you're communicating... asking me... how I would exercise?"  He grinned, "that's a good question!  If my body's so malleable, do I even need to exercise?"  He suddenly grew about half a foot in height -- still shorter than Leroy -- and swelled with muscles until he looked like a professional weightlifter.  "I mean, I probably do need to, but... how?  Exercise is about pushing your body to and then past its limits, right?  I guess the coaches here would have a better idea than I do."

[TheAbsurdist]

She was trying to keep herself level due to... all of this.  Include Leroy being a flippant, oddball, jackass.  There was a click, almost audible, if Lulu was still around she might have heard it, as Corinne just sort of went into her Performance Mode™.  Her posturing becoming perfect, and even her movements became precise, exacting, as she moved from listing around the outside to stepping to the fore.

In this way she ignored Leroy blatantly.  "Everything.  As you can see normal workout equipment, stuff for acrobatics, all of that.  There is a jogging trail and track outside, as well.  Pads and equipment for combat skills.  The more... specialized things are elsewhere in more secure manner." 

 

She watched Davyd change and she arched a brow, drawing in a deep breath.  "I can't answer a question regarding your need.  And I am going to bet Leroy can't either.  I can say that doing things to enforce discipline with yourself is useful, especially with powers.  It is hard for them to cover everyone's abilities.  But, they may be able to teach tools to help."

Then she addressed the dragon in the room, "Leroy stop being overly dramatic, and open your mouth."

[angrydurf]

The gym was by luck not particularly busy at the time so Leroys face was unlikely to cause an incident, for the moment at least.  Assorted standard weight machines and other equipment was arrayed neatly about the large space along with some more esoteric devices for the special needs students with strength or speed beyond the abilities of run of the mill equipment.  One tall wall was dominated by colorful studs for climbing, a good full body workout and of great use for students participating in 'extracurriculars'.  

 

At the base of the wall a tall student of african descent stood holding the belaying line tucked tight to his side broad shoulders just slightly flexed in preparation of taking hte load should the climber high above miss a grip in her breakneck pace up the wall.  As the trio entered he glanced across the floor squinting slightly and offered a wave with his free hand to his roommate not seeming to notice any lingering marks of his earlier antics, at the least not calling attention to them.  Which anyone living with the odd extra dimensional student would have learned as as survival technique early on.

[Thevshi]

Up the wall above the student handling the belaying line, a female student was making her way up the colorful handholds along the wall. She was dressed in dark green cargo shorts, a red T-shirt and a pair of well-worn hiking boots. Half-finger black leather gloves covered each hand and her long brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail.

 

Coming to a halt less than seven feet from the ceiling of the gym, the teenager looked to her right, where the rockwall jutted outward to create an overhang along that section of the wall. Pausing a moment as she focused on one the handholds along the overhang, she released her hold with her right hand and let her right foot come free as well.  Shifting her weight as she turned slightly to the right, the teen swung her free leg and arm back to the left before reversing the momentum and swinging to the right. As she did, she launched off her left foot and released her left hand as well, propelling her upward through the air toward the handhold at the edge of the overhang.

 

Catching the handhold with her outstretched right hand, the teenager swung to the right before swinging back to the left and pulling herself up to reach up and catch another handhold with her left hand. Now somewhat stabilized, if still just hanging from two handholds with her feet free, the teen glanced downward to spot the other three students approaching the wall.

 

"Hey Corinne, Leroy."  She called out as she pulled herself further up past the overhang and to another section of the wall. "Be down in a sec. Ready Kam?"

[Dr Archeville]

Davyd nodded at Corinne's words, "that makes a lot of sense, yeah.  If there are students with all sorts of abilities here, then they'd need all sorts of equipment and spaces in order to train with those abilities."  Her mention of more 'specialized things' in a 'more secure' location intrigued him, but he sensed she was not in an approachable mood at the moment, so shelved that for another time.

 

Movement just within his peripheral vision caught his attention, and he turned and saw the two students at the rock wall.  "Oh, I bet that would be good for me!  Get to know what my body can do, work on my sense of pro... pro...," he struggled to recall the word from a recent study of human and animal senses, then suddenly it came to him, "proprioception, that's it!"  He waved at the two students just as one called out to Corinne and Leroy, and began walking towards them, a warm smile on his face, "hi!  I'm Davyd, I'm new here."

[Ari]

The vocal chords behind the carved-in seal thrummed something, Leroy rolling his eyes at Corinne's request but brightening up at the arrival of his co-students, and particularly at his roommate. Waving excitedly to the two new arrivals and falling in behind Davyd, the taller boy indicated Kam, light filtering redly to shape a Raven symbol, a yelling caracal face and an armored guantlet. 

 

Veronica took a moment longer, Leroy frowning and striking his mouthless chin as he considered her, head cocked to the side and beads of black blood sizzling down his neck. At last, the ruddy trio of a fedora, a car and a five-pointed star on a chain.

 

With a sweep of his hand Leroy spun to indicate Davyd, light bending to create a vaguely-humanoid shape that changed one leg to a tentacle, another to a crab

ike claw, one arm to an abstract geometric shape and the other to a second head, the original head itself of course turning into a chair.

 

He shrugged as the light relaxed back into place, the veins on his neck jutting and eyes crisscrossed with black veins. 

 

A warning rumble sounded on the grounds outside the gym, followed by a green dragon crashing out of a portal and into the turf, a frilled monster with sleek emerald scales and skin, clawed and gouged with wings torn in several places. Spitting most of a long, whiplike tail out of their mouth, the dragon slumped next to the gym door. One giant eye glared into the room. "Hey. Got 'im. Or her, I don't actually know. Anyway, you need me to talk for you? Taking things literally? Okay, go." It was unclear how the dragon was talking, lacking an even vaguely human mouth, with no lips, flat plates for teeth and a slithering forked tongue that should have interrupted at least half of every sentence.

 

"Hey 'shifter," the dragon nodded to Davyd "name's Dio, bound to this guy with no mouth. He'll make me put him back to normal when he remembers he needs to talk in class. Shake the earth."

Edited June 9, 2019 by Ari

[TheAbsurdist]

"Of for f-..."  Corinne started, throwing her hands up and just shaking her head, as she didn't want to talk to him, she muttered softly, "Yes, let's just pile on to the new kid, because that is useful.  Swear to god they need to stop having kids give this tour."  Pinching at the bridge of her nose, as her other hand rested against the small of her back, as she slowly shook her head, looking very much like the tired of the bulls*** den mother.

She waved towards Kam and Veronica distractedly, before moving to Davyd, and gently guiding him towards the more normal people and away from Leroy and Dio, and just... that.  Her lips pursed together, then she took off her leather jacket, and hung it up in the air.  "Generally every student is probably world competition level athlete to some degree."

[Thevshi]

Veronica

 

Once Kam indicated he was ready, Veronica released her grip on the handholds of the rockwall and pushed herself off to then come sliding down on the belaying line back to the gym floor. Once, down, the teenager proceeded to unhook herself from the belaying line before turning toward Corinne and Davyd as they approached.

 

"A pleasure to meet you Davyd," she stated as she moved forward and extended a hand to the newcomer, "I'm Veronica Danger, welcome to Claremont Academy." As the girl continued to speak, Davyd could detect a slight accent that sounded like it might be French.

[angrydurf]

Kam was briefly taken aback by whatever had happened to his roomates face, less horror than confusion perhaps but surprised none the less.  At Veronica's prompting however he did signal he was ready and leaned into the belaying line to slow her descent.  Coiling the rope as it came free he approached the group a few steps behind the teen Danger.   "Kameron Kingdom."  he offered extending a hand to the new student for a firm handshake.  He frowned slightly over the young man's shoulder at Leroy with a small sigh,  "While I'm confident you have your reasons for the,"  he gestured vaguely at the body horror on display, "But do you not think it might not upset some of the other students?"  he diplomatically pointed out questioningly trying to gently nudge his roomate into being less of a spectacle for the moment at least.

 

"Leroy is from,"  The Dakanan paused his diction clean but with a hint of accent only placeable as generically foreign, "Ah, Far away and custom is different."  he offered weakly with a vague shrug.  He nodded greeting to the almost perpetually cranky Corinne as well offering some agreement, "Well the student body does tend toward the exceptional I'm not certain all are so physically gifted."  he did counter subtly.

[Dr Archeville]

DRAGON!!! 

 

Davyd was awestruck for a few moments, taking in the full view of Dio.  Even for a native of Freedom, being this close to an actual dragon was a rare occurrence!  Eventually, though, he found his wits.  "H-hey... nice to... meet... you."

 

People talking to him further helped snap him back.  "Oh, uh, yeah, he told us he was from another Earth, another dimension," Davyd replied to Kam, letting his hand be engulfed by the Dakanan prince's, and engulfed Veronica's hand with his other one.  "Oh, I know you!," he exclaimed as his smile grew even wider, "oh, I have read much about the Danger family's exploits!"  He withdrew his hands and shifted his height and appearance, until he was a reasonable match for a teenage version of her grand-uncle Ace.  

[TheAbsurdist]

Corinne was in a state of biting her tongue, and not letting it show on her face.  Not that she wasn't genial, but really when a Danger said hi to you, it was a good lead in.  She wasn't nominally star struck, but she figured it was being from LA, and there was like one or two heroes there?  She didn't know them offhand.

Now that she was freed up a little she started to stretch to remove the tension that had built up, swinging arms back and forth, and bouncing a bit on the balls of her feet.  Now, while the others might not know, Veronica and Kam were certainly of the type to recognize Corinne wearing a savateur outfit, with the indicators that she was a silver glove.  It was not something she ever really discussed prior with anyone.

As Davyd recovered from dragon and star struck, she slide down into a splits, and leaned forward to grasp at the arch of her foot to pull her face down towards her knee with a sort of boneless grace.