forum The Society of Scientific Improbabilities // oxo // Closed

Started December 27, 2019 by @croccin-champagne

tune

(okay!)
"I see," Ronan nodded, taking in everything Jo was saying. He stayed silent after that, though. He wasn't too much in the mood for small talk, and he was getting a little impatient for school to start. However, he still had manners, so he gave Jo a small smile and went back to thinking. About what? About nothing and everything. About how the world worked, about what secrets he though Jo was hiding. And especially about the secret Catori was hiding.

Jo went back to talking about completely inane things, nothing he said really requiring a response. He wasn't expecting one, anyway. He could tell Ronan needed time with his own thoughts, so he babbled on about the classes he was excited for and the classes he wasn't looking forward to, letting Ronan do his think to a soundtrack of casual conversation between one person and a brick wall, nearly.

Meanwhile, Catori weaved her way through the school hallways, committing each turn and hall to memory. She was following after a familiar sight, one that she had been expecting to see in a building this old, but had been hoping to avoid for a little while.

The dead.

A teenager, to be precise, a boy who looked around her age, dressed in clothes from the fifties. A painful reminder, but something she had to get over and deal with. Even if the boy looked so much like Garrett when his back was turned, hair just a bit darker than Garrett's had been. Looking a bit closer revealed him to be taller and more muscled, but she still couldn't get over the similarities. Or the phantom pain in her chest, and the actual pain in her heart. That's not him. It's someone else. Once there were no other people in the halls, she moved up next to him, greeting him in a low tone and earning a surprised look and returned greeting in response.

Ronan started off his thinking with making noises of agreement every now and then, but soon enough, he had zoned out and completely in a state of his own mind. Before he knew it, he looked up and Jo was talking about something completely different than the last thing he remembered him talking about. Oh well, it wasn't too big of a deal, he thought to himself. He resumed his deep immersive experience with his own thoughts once more, seeing that Jo didn't really mind him not answering.

What had he been thinking about again? Ah, right. Secrets. Why did one keep secrets? Perhaps one might think it could protect someone, or perhaps it was because one might think it was necessary in the long run. Perhaps… it was just a painful memory. Maybe, maybe, maybe. All these options tired out his mind. But what he really wanted to know was why were Catori and Jo hiding secrets? Why these specific parts of their life? Clearly, the two used to have five other friends. But now they had only four others. What had happened to the fifth?

It didn't take long for Catori and the boy—who's name, she learned, was Elton—to start talking. Her end goal in conversing with the dead was always trying to help them move on, but sometimes it was easier to do so after starting a sort of…friendship. And teenagers were the easiest to click with. Even when they remind you of Garrett?

About five minutes later, she was slipping back into the main hall. Elton had warned her that the dean was going to make his speech soon, and promptly disappeared with a wink. Leaving her to make her way back to her best friend and Ronan. She got side tracked a few times, finding herself roped into conversation with a few different boys, most of whom only actually wanted to warn her about other boys who weren't too happy about her being allowed to enroll, or other boys who were a bit too happy.

When she finally returned to her table, Catori sat down inbetween Jo and Ronan, tossing her hair over her shoulder and huffing. "There are so many halls in this building. I can only imagine how bad it'll be with all the other buildings too. Looks like I'm making a couple more maps."

Ronan jumped slightly, startled by the sudden appearance of Catori. She even sat down between him and Jo, making it even more startling. "Oh- it's just you," he let out the breath he didn't even know he'd been holding. Though, to be fair, he had only started holding it a couple seconds ago. Well, more like thirty seconds, but still. "Where'd you go?" he asked once more, hoping that Catori would give him a straight answer this time. "…you don't have to answer if you don't want to, though," he added as an afterthought. Maybe these questions made them uncomfortable.

"Just me? Ouch. I think that hurts more than getting stabbed." Catori said, blinking as though she was hurt by that and placing a hand over her scar. "While I would love to answer that, I'm not actually entirely sure where I went. Might've been the West wing, if my sense of direction hasn't failed me." She admitted, dropping her hand. Her tattooed arm lay on the table, and her hand moved to join it, fingers tracing the date and words as though the movement was comforting. "Out the doors, down the hall to the left, straight, right, right again, straight and straight and then left, then two more rights."

"Ah, you lost me already. Suddenly I'm not interested anymore, wonder why that might be?" Ronan joked a bit, though he suspected she knew exactly where she had been. "But then again, there are much worse people to plop down in the middle between Jo and I, so…" he'd learned that the hard way. Not everyone here was nice. Some just liked to beat you up, and others liked to torture you, gaining fun and pleasure out of it. It was sick, really. But then again, there were some nice people. He got along with them fairly easily, though he didn't make an effort to wiggle his way into the friend groups they'd formed already. Why bother? He always seemed to drag bad luck with him everywhere he went, and he certainly didn't want to curse anyone else with his bad luck.

"That there are." Catori agreed with a nod, shifting in her seat slightly to lean against Jo and cross her legs on the bench of the table, conveniently managing to not flash anyone. Lucky, too, in her opinion. That wouldn't be the best way to start the first day of school. "There's nothing boring about maps. Especially making them. Even better? Making ones of places nobody else has ever mapped before. Look, come over to our dorm building, the Corvid Hall, after classes, or at lunch or something. I'll show you."

((do you want to write the dean, or should i?))

(Could you?)
Ronan made a small noise of agreement, his gaze shifting from person to person, not really focusing on anything. Though, he quickly refocused, hearing something that might potentially be important. "…maps? Who mentioned maps?" he started, confused. "Oh, okay! Uh… you sure?" he second guessed his decision not long after he made it, silently telling himself, Don't curse them too! "The Corvid Hall… which room are you in?"

"Dorm room 106. We're on the top floor." Jo piped in, grinning. "Knock three times, if we're not in there, just come on in. The lock's busted anyway, the only reason to knock is if one of us is changing. Mainly Catori." He said, patting his best friend on the head. Anything else he would have said was cut off by tapping on a microphone, which echoed throughout the room.

"Another year at Cloverfall awaits us. Welcome back, to returning students, and a brand new welcome to students here here for their first year." The dean greeted, his tone jovial and a bright smile upturning his lips. He continued on, with a basic enough start of the year speech interspersed with a handful of jokes or puns bad enough to make even Jo groan. Then he bid them all farewell, and announced that the first day of classes had begun.

"Homeroom without you is gonna feel so weird." Catori said, nudging Jo with her shoulder. She looked over at Ronan, tilting her head as the corner of her mouth tilted up slightly, another one of those sly smiles. "How 'bout you? What's your homeroom?"

(Ahhhh I see. So basically like the first fifteen or so minutes of my first class of the day but stretched out over the length of a whole period. It must be pretty nice to have a homeroom.)
"Heh," Ronan said quietly, in response to Jo's comment. "So, let me get this straight," he started after the dean finished speaking. So I should come over to Corvid Hall, room 106, right? Knock thrice?" He pulled his backpack up onto his lap and starting searching it for that small slip of paper with his schedule on it. He could never remember what subject it was, though he knew exactly where it was. Strange. Finally finding it, he pulled it out, scanning it for a second, then answering Catori's question, "English."

"That's exactly right. Three times, to give me enough time to put on pants." Catori said, nodding. She leaned closer to him to look down at his schedule, eyes flickering over the sheet of paper. "Perfect. You and I have the same homeroom, and all three of us have World History fourth block. Sixth, Jo and I have Algebra, so if you need us…oh, here." She pinched the slip of paper, tugging it out of his hands and flipping it over. She pulled a pen from somewhere, though the skirts of the uniform didn't come with pockets(she made them herself, with some tricks learned from an old friend), and scribbled down both her's and Jo's schedules, and where the classes were.

"There. Shit happens, now we're easy to find. I don't skip class without an emergency. Now c'mon, let's head to class." She stood from the bench, ruffling Jo's hair despite his complaints. "Don't be late, Joseph Park. Or your moms are gonna know. They always know. And then they're gonna call me, and I'm gonna have to listen to Kathy's 'keep an eye on him' spiel, as though I'm the responsible one in this relationship."

(Gah, really sorry! I've been out of it, and haven't really been replying to my rps for a couple days.)
"Oh-" Ronan started, only just now realizing that Catori had been looking at his schedule to figure out what classes they had together. He picked up his schedule again, wondering how Catori had pulled a pen from her uniform out of nowhere. He laughed softly at Catori's casual use of what he supposed was Jo's full name, though he didn't think he'd be using that name anytime soon. He'd already gotten used to calling the other boy Jo, and that's what he would call him. "But yes, I do agree, we should start heading to class now," Ronan agreed with Catori, standing up and slinging his backpack over one shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah. God forbid you have to talk to ma. I guess that means no more Christmas cookies for you, if you're that interested in cutting ties."

"I never said that, just that I'm definitely not one of your moms." Catori said, poking the back of his head before turning to Ronan. She shot him a grin, running a hand through her hair as she linked her other through his arm, guiding him easily through the crowds. She didn't have a bag. Just her home-made pockets, because everything she actually needed fit in there. Bags made it harder to move around, let alone run from things. "Kathy's Christmas cookies are incredible. I don't know how she does it, but I can't eat any other cookies without comparing them now. She even shapes 'em like little ghosts sometimes, 'cause of my dad. Waddya do for Christmas 'round here? Stick around over break? Or go home?"