onebetter | Inbox for daybreakacademy

[When Keith finally makes it back to his dorm room, he practically pours himself through the door and shuffles towards bed. It's not that he's injured or hurt, but it wouldn't seem like it at first glance. For starters, his clothes are ripped open across various seams and he seems to be missing his jacket and backpack entirely.

Exhausted barely even covers how he feels right now. So much snowballed out of one questionable decision today that it's difficult to wrap his mind around how fast shit escalates when magic is involved. That said, when he realizes he's not in the room alone, he stops short to stare at James.]

[ This has been... a day, James supposes. Of course, he knows that magical creatures are to be expected in and around Daybreak Academy, but after whatever rampage had been happening in the mountains, he'd really thought the day was fully with anomalies already. Running into a huge wolf on his way home had neither been planned nor in any way nerve-soothing. It really made James realize once more that he's got no real defense abilities that surpass a regular strong human. He needs rune armor and he needs it fast.

So, all in all, James is shaken. Whatever studying he'd planned for the evening has been thrown out of the window in favor of.... staring out of the window, actually. Until Keith enters and makes him turn.

The staring is very mutual. ]

What the--- Are you okay?

[ Quickly, James is on his feet and ready to come closer to examine his roommate for wounds. ]

[The question gets a blink before his mind implodes with a chorus of shit, fuck shit[

Y-yeah, fine. Just got into a scuffle. Gotta change. [...] Clothes. Gonna do that now

[Eye contact dropped immediately, he heads for the closet.]

Edited 2019-05-30 14:07 (UTC)

.... a scuffle.

[ Just. Numbly repeating that. Incredulous.

But Keith's current state is more pressing than judging him for the bad excuse is, so James follows him to the closet to keep looking him over. Make sure there are no wounds gushing blood anywhere. ]

A scuffle with who?

[Immediately he regrets his word choice there, especially considering a pretty conspicuous lack of bodily injuries despite the state of his clothes. Slightly panicked and feeling cornered by James following him to the goddamn closet, Keith whirls around.]

Do you want to watch me strip or something?!

If that's what it would take to be certain you're not just toughing it out about being hurt? Yeah.

[ Under normal circumstances, the accusation would have him flustered, but concern and leftover adrenaline from the way eliminate all traces of that.

Once more, James lets his eyes travel over Keith's body. ]

Seems it doesn't take that much though. But tell me if you need the first aid kid anyway.

[ Decently reassured that no immediate catastrophe is at hand, he goes to sit on his bed. ]

[Under different circumstances, he'd be mortified by James looking him up and down while his clothes are torn in places, but in the midst of panic and exhaustion, it merely turns to a seething kind of glare that doesn't stop long after
James fucks off and goes back to his bed.]

It's not any of your business, okay?!

[And he doesn't know why it's like this. Why in the midst of everything that happened from running frantically on all fours from an enraged dragon to the vague recollection of running into someone he's desperately hoping he's misremembering the identity of on the road, why he can't just catch one break. Why James had to be in here when he just needed a moment to decompress and then recompress every single feeling into oblivion.

He yanks a drawer open with too much force, grabbing some fresh clothes. ]

I said I'm fine. It's just been a rough day.

[ Saying "it is my business because we're friends" is probably going to go over about as well as dumping gasoline onto a campfire, so James keeps quiet about it. Every time he tries to tell Keith that he cares, it seems to backfire some way, so why not just give up on it?

He sits down on his bed with a sigh and leans back against the wall. ]

Seems like something is in the air today, yeah. There was a whole commotion in the mountains, apparently.

[ From the corner of his eye, he looks at Keith's reaction. ]

[Keith keeps his back turned to James to focus on getting out of his shredded clothing as quickly as possible. The comment makes him pause in the middle of pulling off his pants.]

You - [He cuts himself off abruptly. Of course James heard about it. There was a fucking dragon firing off bolts of electricity. Not exactly subtle shit there. Plus, the way James is talking about it, it doesn't sound like he was necessarily around the area at the time so.....

So rather than stand there in this awkward state of undress, Keith quickly steps into a fresh pair of boxers and pants.]

... what did you hear about it?

[ Well, if Keith is trying to pretend to be unrelated to the incident, he's doing a very bad job of it. "What happened" would have been a far more natural question to ask, and yet... James stares at Keith's back with raised eyebrows, then realizes he can see his whole butt and averts his gaze.]

Just that some huge Outland creature was making a ruckus. No details yet. Why, what did happen?

[Quickly.] Nothing.

[He yanks the shirt up over his head, flustered and half way wishing he could just disappear into the fabric.]

Something. I-- [....] Why would I know?

[ The desire to face-palm is pretty hard to suppress, but James manages it heroically. ]

You were obviously already aware that something happened and only wondered how much I <know. Top that off with you coming home all beat up...

I -- [Keith is a terrible fucking liar and he knows it, though it doesn't make him feel any less flustered to be called out in no uncertain terms. He drops the ruined shirt on the floor, then finishes changing to buy himself a few more seconds to compose himself again. Predictably, it doesn't really do much. He turns to face James, arms crossed defensively.]

Look. Kisara and I got ambushed in the mountain by Outlanders.

[ Oh.

Well, that's forward. James resists the urge to check Keith for injuries again, knowing fully well it'd be redundant. ]

Was it a wolf-type by any chance...?

[The question is asked so casually, but it sets virtually every neuron firing on overdrive.]

A what...?

[James saw. They did run into each other and it wasn't just some maybe, hopefully fever dream. After visibly tensing up, he forces himself to move again to pick up his clothes.]

[ Though James notices the tensing, he attributes it solely to Keith's encounter in the mountains today. He certainly can't blame his roommate for being on edge. He is, too. ]

A wolf. I ran into one on my way home, though it luckily ignored me. Not sure what kind of Outland creature it was, but it surely wasn't a normal wolf.

[ There is no suspicion in his tone, mostly because he doesn't actually... harbor any suspicion. ]

Why... do you say that?

[Shit, shit, shit, shit.]

Well, it was huge, for one. Huge and alone this close to the academy. Normal wolves don't raid cities and Soleil never had wolf problems to my knowledge either.

And it... There was something in the way it looked at me.

[ He pauses at that and shakes his head. ]

Or maybe I'm freaking out because I ran into a huge wolf unprepared.

[Keith bites the inside of his lip, looking down and away at the ground. So he definitely had a ru0-in with James and would have more than likely bitten him if there wasn't a dragon rampaging around the mountain. This was...a really close call all around, huh....

But he's been in a lot of close calls in fights and usually he leaves feeling high off the adrenaline. This time? This time he can barely bring himself to hold his head up to look at James again. He fucked up and fucked up badly. Grip tightening on his clothes, he breathes out slowly.]

...oh.

[And for a moment, he struggles to find more words to say. Like maybe he should be coming clean about that encounter, but for the life of him the words stick in his throat.]

[ There's a moment of silence as James waits in vain for Keith to add something else to his 'oh'. But as always, Keith seems to be dealing with his feelings by shutting them up inside. That in itself is at least indicator that the encounter did affect him more than he wants to say - and James really, really can't blame him. The way Keith looked when he came in here... it must have been terrifying, even if it ended up fine. ]

So, was that what attacked you? Or is there something else out there as well?

[His brow furrows, still searching for words, still wanting to believe that he can own up to this one thing to James to at least make him feel better about a nerve wrecking experience. But then he's reminded of little things like beach volleyball and eating dinner together sometimes and fucking toffee, and it chokes the air right out of his lungs.

Maybe he should sit. It's been a long day and he's still vaguely disoriented coming down from all those wolf instincts. But maybe he just deserves to stay standing and uncomfortable.]

...no, I don't know what attacked us. They were hiding in dense fog. The commotion was Kisara.

[And I was the one who scared you. Why is that so hard to say....]

[ To James, this doesn't at all exclude the possibility of the wolf being the same culprit who, scared by whatever this Kisara person did, fled until reaching the Academy. A wolf hunting further up in the foggy mountains at least seems more realistic. ]

Kisara? I'm afraid I never met her, what did she do?

She uh... can turn into a dragon.

[His voice is flat, more distant as he continues, like it's all autopilot.]

Shoot electricity from her mouth. She doesn't have a lot of control over it.

.... oh.

[ Well, that's..... that's sure something. With the variety of absolutely insane abilities and stories at the academy, this shouldn't be surprising, but it seems James has really not lost his capacity for shock just yet.

A dragon? Yeah, that's a new one. He considers it for a moment. ]

Is she... okay now?

[His expression falters -- a look of just intense annoyance crossing his features.]

Not sure. We got separated.

[A beat, then he shakes his head.]

I mean. I left her there. She was going to attack me so I ran. [Hands clenched into fists around ropes of torn fabric, he exhales.] Gotta go looking for her later.

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