junipers' fur-tuft at the tip of her ear flicked against marias' cheek, holding her close to her chest so the calico could perch her front paws over marias' shoulder and watch the commotion all around them in the hall. bustlings of students hurrying to their dorms, or scouting the unfamiliar sights across the campus. felt the little, rounded points of junipers nails pressing against shoulder blade, kneading against her skin. excitedly. curious. a smile played at the corners of her lips and she let out a soft puff of a laugh.
" no, junie— can't say hello to everybody, you know? "
there goes the purring, rumbling out of the little creatures' chest against her shoulder. a little shift of her back legs, determined. ( i will, actually. ) brought another short laugh from maria.
probably shouldn't have.
while junipers' bright eyes flicked between people passing them by, tail swishing side-to-side, paws shifting against her chest and back, ears perking up when someone nearly walked by too close in anticipation, relaxing again when they moved too quickly away — marias' stayed focused above their heads, gaze following the intricate detailing of the halls architecture. the beams creating geometric patterns. the way sunrays broke through windowpanes and scattered light and shadow together across the walls.
eerily familiar, she's noticed — in some little corners of wythorne, so far.
( reminded her of home, where stone met greenery. )
a hard swallow. and eyes dropped from above and instead out the windows themselves, at the grounds surrounding the dorm buildings. at the gardens. at the treetops of the forest in the distance. knot coiled in her chest and that all-too familiar nausea of homesick nestled just below her heart—
feels a shift against her shoulder — sudden, jolting; back paws digging against the bottom of ribs to launch herself further over marias' shoulder — and hears a far-too-chirpy meow beside her ear, a too-eager greeting at someone behind them, strayed just within reach of the cats' now-outstretched paw, attempting to grab hold of loose fabric of their shirt to catch their attention.
maria twists her head, peering as much as she can back behind her, past the awkward gargoyle-pose junipers' taken on atop her shoulder, and expression drops, apologetic as she scrambles to get a proper hold of the calico again and cradles her back in front of herself in her arms.
" oh!— juniper, no! "
she gets juniper tucked into her arms and shoots another apologetic glance the others' way, " i'm so sorry, she's a little too excited— she didn't catch your shirt with a nail, did she? or scratch you? "
SHES sitting in the Mess Hall among the mass of Anxious Students , Their Various Thoughts ran through her mind but she ignored them for the most part as it was horrendously boring.
Her eyes are skimming a book and she hears footsteps behind her, she stays unmoving. "Its rude to read over someone's shoulder..." a sharp tone without turning around to face the person.
𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐎𝐘𝐄𝐃 --- didn't even begin to cover what he was feeling this bright and early in the morning. He was tasked with making sure the wards and runes along the 𝗘 𝗡 𝗧 𝗜 𝗥 𝗘 campus were not compromised; Murphy couldn't do it himself, too busy trying to actually fix up the fuck up someone caused last night, so who else was left ??? HIM. He was muttering to himself as he checked the sigils and warding on the mess hall doors; he could feel someone staring at him .... " I haven't had my morning coffee yet, so I suggest you make whatever it is you want QUICK," he spoke without looking at who it was
There is a map of names and notes scrawled out in front of her as she sits in the watchtower, watching her Anique clock tick and tease her; it had been too long since the Wards were messed with, with no leads.
She hears footsteps in the silence, breaking her concentration on a picture she'd drawn of a fellow student. She turns slowly, looking at them.
"State your name and whereabouts when the wards were messed with now --- do not attempt to lie, I can extract the information from you without you even stating a word. I'm giving you a chance to 𝑪𝑳𝑬𝑨𝑹 𝒀𝑶𝑼𝑹 𝑵𝑨𝑴𝑬"
| | | lenora valerius ꨄ︎ open starter.
*͟ ↳ 🪶 ₎ to: wythorne group members.
banality rarely grabs her attention; in the shadows of the mess hall & perched upon the edge of a corner-most table, the vampiress nods once, twice — violet gaze fixed, but mind WANDERING. ( ... ) ❝ found just the coolest thing here, huh ? ❞ between slender, almost claw-like fingers, a quill rolls & ink scatters scars of temporary nature — the parchment lies, its edges up, guarding what passing thoughts she has left behind, immortalized, from the other’s prying eyes. ❝ i suppose you want me to show interest in seeing it. ❞
Off in her own head, she's skipping the halls of the school, her two fluffy companions in tow, they never waver from keeping up with her as she's going at a pace they can purposefully follow after all, she is a vampire, if she wanted to, she could cross the campus in a second and leave her little friends wandering about about by themsleves but the last time she did that they got into the greenhouse and started knocking over precious healing herbs.
It's a rainy day, but she doesn't mind; she can't feel the cold, and she's dressed her furry companions in knitted coats even though they are way too fluffy to fit in them, and the skipping stops abruptly. She sees someone --- in her mind about to drop all their things, panic, get laughed at the whole shebang, and this simply would not do for the first week of school.
𝖲𝖧𝖤 𝖢𝖠𝖭 𝖬𝖠𝖪𝖤 𝖨𝖳 𝖳𝖮 𝖳𝖧𝖤𝖬 𝖭𝖮 𝖨𝖲𝖲𝖴𝖤, scooping up her fluffballs, she darts to the scene, weaving between students, and she's too fast for them to even register. She's not meant to intervene like this -- Especially exposing herself out in the open-- but the sheer panic she felt in this person drove her to come and help.
She stops a few steps away from them and puts her cats down, who are angry that they had to travel like that. She then quickly rushes to the person with the warmest smile she could muster on this horrid rainy day and puts her small hand on their shoulder.
" Let me give you a hand, I simply insist I'd hate for you to drop anything !" --- and just like that, she's changed the future yet again. Her tone is warm and sweet, and before the person can even argue, she is gathering items from their arms. " Ya know... bags exist, right? I have soooooo many cute school bags. If you need one, I can let you have it. It'd be no trouble at all. Trust me, I have a shopping addiction." There's not an inch of condescension in her tone; she's genuine, that's all Alice ever is, genuine. This was her first year here, and she wanted to make a good impression as a teacher to everyone.
She's in the library with her bow and arrow, shooting at non-important editions of school literature that'd she'd surely get in trouble for in the morning. It's the Dead of night, and she can't sleep at all, mostly because she hates her assigned roommates. She hears a creak in the wooden floorboards, and she turns and loses her arrow at the target, 𝑺𝑯𝑬 𝑴𝑰𝑺𝑺𝑬𝑺 𝑶𝑵 𝑷𝑼𝑹𝑷𝑶𝑺𝑬, but fastly reloads.
