::And We'll Draw Pretty Pictures All Day::

[``the K Y R A]

Karima looked thoughtful for a moment, considering this. "Like, sixth former-ish?" she said thoughtfully. "Sounds like Blackjack, he's the one who got himself kicked out of the House of Night in New York City last year."

The hazel-eyed fledgling took another sip of her fast-disappearing coffee and added, "Now that I think of it, he's majorly obnoxious and stuff, but he usually isn't too bad, unless he's angry about something. Yeah, a tip- don't bug Blackjack when he's irritated. He can get real nasty. You should've seen what he did to the last person who tried it."


(( if I remember right, he is pretty indifferent to the whole vollie thing, but that can certainly be changed >:] ))

[Cyra Draven]

Cyra nodded, he did look like a sixth former. She couldn't see the design on his top from here, but he certainly looked that sort of age. "Blackjack? The guy into gambling, or something?" she asked quietly. Not that it mattered, of course. Blackjack was just a funny name to have, but whatever floated his boat.

Cyra leant back, "So a prat, but a bearable prat. Fine." she said easily, thinking about what Karima said next, "Oh? What did he do?" she asked, slightly interested. So Karima might say that she wouldn't want to know, but Cyra had a pretty strong stomach - she reckoned.

[``the K Y R A]

Karima snorted. "Yeah, prat sounds about right. And I don't remember exactly what the story is, but I do recall one of his buddies telling me that he changed his name before being Marked. I dunno what that's all about, but somehow I doubt Blackjack would say."

She set her coffee down on the nearby end table and crossed her arms over her chest. "Oh, nothing, he just pulled knives on him. Poor guy transferred out of state a few weeks after. Not surprisingly, Alaine was pissed. She confiscated the knives, but I hear Blackjack got them back. Rumor has it that he's majorly paranoid too, like the gun-under-the-bed kind of paranoid." She laughed, a short, rough, almost cruel-sounding noise. "I wonder what the hell happened to him- sure, he's an orphan and all, but I can't see that being a reason to be paranoid. Ooo, corpses. How scary."

[Cyra Draven]

Cyra laughed dryly, "Well, I suppose a knife in your face could shake you up a bit." she said, mulling over the part about him being paranoid.
Despite the fact it was probably a metaphor - Probably... - Having a gun under the bed seemed a very impractical place to keep it if you were worried about someone creeping around your room whilst you slept. A better place seemed closer to hand, like under the pillow, or something. Although in that position, you'd might accidentally set it it off. - Oops... -
But what did she know about guns, anyway?

[``the K Y R A]

Karima shrugged, a little less indifferent than she normally was, but not caring much. "I wish I knew what it was that makes him so paranoid. It gets old pretty quickly, especially if you spend any more than ten minutes around 'im. Seriously. You try talking to him when he's being all weird."

She shivered slightly and grumbled, "Brr. I hate this common room, it has a major draft and no one can be bothered to fix it." She took a hesitant sip from her coffee mug, but spat it back in when she discovered it wasn't so hot and nice anymore. "Ew. Cold coffee."

[Cyra Draven]

Cyra laughed, growing up in England had given her the capacity to not mind the cold, but it was fair unpleasant though. She nodded, shivering minutely. "Shame I don't have an affinity for fire, I'd warm us up." she said dryly.
After a moments pause, she looked up again, "Where's the draft coming from? Broken window, or something?" she asked. She was better with cars and moving parts, but she might be able to sort it out...

[``the K Y R A]

"Normally, I could care less, but going from my nice warm bed to this common room really gives me a case of the chills," Karima responded, her tone disguising none of her irritation. When Cyra continued, she shrugged in response. "I really don't know, to be honest. I don't remember seeing a broken window anywhere, but you never know. Some kid broke a window in the guys' dorm last spring and no one noticed until it started raining." She snickered, remembering the incident. "Alaine borrowed one of the girls with a wind affinity to help her dry it all out. So I guess an affinity for fire can be just as obnoxious as it is helpful. Though I don't doubt that Alaine's room is all nice and warm and draft-free."

Blackjack did not like storms. Especially not thunderstorms. More specifically, the lightning that made up a huge component of storms. So when thunder crackled, despite it being daytime, Blackjack was up in an instant, the reaction automatic after so many nights spent outdoors in the storms. He sat cross-legged on his bed, a heavy comforter wrapped around his shoulders and draped over his head, forming a thick hood. He shivered in his dark enclosure, feeling only slightly better because the blinds were closed and the heavy curtains drawn across the window. After a few minutes of silence, he gave up on any hopes of going back to sleep.

Dumping the comforter on the bed in a state of total disarray, Blackjack dug in his dresser drawers for a long-sleeved shirt to throw on over the old undershirt he usually slept in. He considered changing out of his red-and-black pajama slacks, then decided against it, content with just slipping on a pair of socks.

He wandered down the stairs to the kitchen, intending on snagging a blood baggie and something salty to snack on alongside, but hearing voices in the girls' common room, he paused in the middle of retrieving blood from the fridge. Hey... so I'm not the only one who's up. That's a relief, he mused, his paranoia quietly shifting to the back of his mind as he realized he wasn't alone. Blackjack finished grabbing his snack by snagging a bag of pretzels off the counter, then he headed into the girls' common room, intending to invade their conversation, whatever it was. He had picked up a few parts about broken windows, but didn't really catch much more than that, being a little hard of hearing in one ear.

Upon spotting the two fledglings in the common room, he sighed. "Darn. I was expecting someone more... interesting. No offense, Karima, but if this is a conversation about ghosts, then I'm just going to finish my snack and hope the storm's gone by the time I go back to bed."


(( yay awesome post! ))

[Cyra Draven]

Cyra looked up at the new guy standing by the kitchen. She had little trouble recognising him. He was the boy in the picture - apparently Blackjack. Listening to what he said, she tilted her head slightly, thinking. - Probably Brontophobic. Or a really light sleeper. Maybe both. - She thought to herself, deciding not to say it out loud. From what she knew, the bad-ass type guys weren't too keen on people knowing they could fear.

"It wasn't, but you do what you want." She said dryly, watching him calmly. She'd resisted a 'see if I care' comment at the end of that, not the time. She didn't do that sort of thing with strangers. The thunder snarled outside, deep and guttural - not too far from a growl. It was an interesting sound to say the least.

[``the K Y R A]

Blackjack shot a very quick, frightful glance at the windows when thunder sounded again. Ignore it, just ignore it, it can't get you in here... Noticing that he had been spoken to, he returned his attention to the two girls, unconsciously sliding the sleeves of his shirt over his scarred hands. "According to Alaine, I'm not allowed to do what I want. Mainly because it involves breaking human laws, but look where that got me the first time--stuck here in this tiny thing you call a city." The hazel-eyed teenager rolled his eyes, obviously the type of person who was born and raised in a big city; in his case, the big city.

"Oh, shut up. Everyone knows you're just trying to intimidate us. It isn't working, no one believes you," Karima retorted, displaying an irritation unlike her, which only proved that she really didn't like the older male.

Blackjack raised his eyebrows. "And I would care why?" he answered. "I don't care if you believe a word I say, I know how this game works. You pretend not to believe me, but the moment I turn my back, you start telling the world my secrets. Karima, I had three girlfriends. I know your tricks."

[Cyra Draven]

"You looked the type." Cyra muttered, Rochester didn't really look big enough to referred to as a 'city', looked more the size of a town. Exeter had been quite a bit bigger. She might move back that when... if she changed. If. She missed that place, after all.

Cyra's left eyebrow twitched at the small spat between Blackjack and Karima, but had little time to dwell on it when her mobile rang.
She pulled it out of her pocket - it was in the cardigan she was wearing - and looked to see if she knew the ID. She did, it was Tyler. She'd actually been waiting for him to call.

"Hi, Tyler, enjoying the storm?" she greeted in a dry voice, A moment of silence from her and she spoke again, "I figured, you always liked loud, noisy things" Cyra heard Tyler laugh at that comment. "Mum and Dad back yet? Oh." she said. They were, from Tyler's voice, the weren't that happy. Although he said he'd explained to them that it Cyra - or Bev, as they knew her - figured it was better to get there straight away and sort these things out later. Which they apparently accepted.
"This weekend? How nice of them. I'll see you then, I guess." She heard Tyler say goodbye and hang up. Her parents were bringing her stuff over at the weekend, including her Cello. That was going to be a fun day.

She pocketed her phone and looked up at the two, not caring if they'd been silenced while she was talking to her brother, or just ignored her. "Sorry about that." she said calmly. Obviously she cared about her parents and brother, but apparently she was meant to forget them. Naturally, she wouldn't, but she keep an apathetic face to the public if needed.

[``the K Y R A]

Blackjack stayed quiet during the third former's brief phone conversation, but spoke when she returned her attention to them. "It's fine," he muttered, sounding almost annoyed, though it wasn't like he could expect either of them to understand. They still had families... he had lost everything before he even turned thirteen, and even after nearly five years, the loss still stung painfully.

Karima noticed the darker note in the older boy's tone and raised her eyebrows at him. "What's with you today? You're acting weird... um, weirder than usual."

He glared at her. "Hah. None of your business, not that you'd care anyway." Then, he pointedly looked away from the fourth former and said to Cyra, "You're new, right? When'd you get here?"

[Cyra Draven]

Cyra nodded, a little curious at how he'd sounded a moment before - annoyed, wondering why he sounded like that. Had he been irritated at something to do with conversation? Or was it something else?

Either way, she had to answer, so answer she did. "Yeah, I got here a a day or so ago." she said quietly, she was still getting used to the oddities of being a fledgling - including the prospect of losing her family eventually, and the fact that she could die any day. Oh well. The funny dreams didn't help.

"I don't really have anything interesting to say about the whole getting marked part, though. If it even mattered." She added in a dry voice. There was little point in boring them on how it was halfway through an art lesson, she'd had to quit her job at the mechanics, and only give Tyler a proper goodbye. She doubted that they would care.