Place of Wrath and Tears [ Quinn / Piper ]

[Meduzia]

For 30 Days of SA, Day Nine: Best friends. Piper is not part of SA, so all of their points go to Quinn //he Guess who got luck- /mauled]]

<sub>Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

William Ernest Henley - Invictus</sub>

Academy was a grim place, if Piper ever saw one, and she's seen a lot of grim places. She lived with her cousins, and while Faith Flynn could supply her with daily doses of black humour, there was only so much he could do. The old building gave her creeps, and even though skin of a ghoul that was born as ghoul was not exactly sensitive, it was a feeling she could not mistake. It was a feeling she got somewhere before she fell asleep before the dawn; the cold that seeps in out of nowhere, and leaves only when it's shone onto by the sun.

There is no sun in Academy, and even though Piper is immensely grateful, she is pretty sure this clashes with her metaphor. She'll have to work with what she has anyway.

She has to step inside it anyway, and there is mistaking it - Piper is an adrenaline junkie and that's it. She is not exactly frightened - this whole thing is new and even though it's gloomy at best, there is no reason for it to induce fear in her, yet. Fear has to be made, while courage was something that Piper possessed naturally. Sylvia called it stupidity. Perhaps she was right, in some sense.

Not that you are my best friend, or anything, Quinn wrote, and she was glad only for the fact he did, but they're encouraging us to hang out with people or something of that matter. I need somebody eloquent here, Piper. I've grown born of my roommates. He did not speak very kindly of them, but Quinn rarely spoke kindly of anybody. Piper could basically hear the sarcastic voice drop out of the parchment like ink dripped from her reply when she knocked the bottle containing it over. Sylvia berated her and made her clean it, and Piper was careful not to repeat the clumsiness.

Entrance Hall is much warmer than she expects it to be. The change in air is obvious and what she breathes in now is dry and doesn't leave that chilly burn down her throat and in her chest. She looks down at the part of the letter containing the instructions to everything crucial in the Academy ("What a wonderful thing that I don't have to draw everything for you" - for a good measure, 'draw' was outlined in different ink colour). She knows it by heart - Piper is a quick learner and her memory is impeccable. Quite a feat for a born ghoul, they told her, that she was of above average intelligence. She lacked terribly body-wise, so she assumed every reward was paid in blood, metaphorically speaking. With the instructions she knew so well, though, she could go anywhere she wanted, but she did not know where Quinn would be. With a hum, she made her way to the dorms. Perhaps she should've told him the time when she'll be around.

The Academy was cold and distant, even though, physically speaking, it was not lacking heat. It was new and unusual, and perhaps she'd be able to get Quinn to give her a tour. Maybe they'll make up stories about statues and portraits, or maybe he'll show her the library. It'd be warmer in library, she is sure, and maybe they'll be able to find stories of the previous Academy residents, old student files or diaries.

She'll have to memorize those too, just so that she can remember to mentioned them to him later. Off-handedly, she hopes he's not asleep. She'd hate to wake him up, but she will, if he does waken himself.

[galethewhale]

for 30 days of SA, I'll take those points gladly //mauled Also sorry my reply is so long and it's all waffling so apologies there //ming]]

When Quinn had woken up that morning, he’d felt slightly dead. That could have been due to the fact he’d stayed in a room with two dead people (vampires and ghouls who never slept may he add) or the fact that he didn’t get too much sleep that night. He didn’t want to admit it, but he’d been too excited and anticipating to sleep. Shifter remembered staying up and wondering what he was going to do with Piper when she came to the Academy, if maybe they could scare some students together or read together in the library. Or maybe they’d talk for a while and make up stupid stories, about the teachers, students and even things that happened to be in the Academy (he’d heard of the ‘voice’, but had never actually heard it for himself).

Faith and Isabel weren’t around anymore by the time he’d pulled himself out of bed, guessing that they’d gone elsewhere to either harass students or actually civilly plan a class without arguing over who gets theory and who gets practical. Whatever, really, for the matter didn’t even concern him.

Quinn didn’t know why but he was feeling anxious and nervous to go see Piper, even though they were just dumb best friends. He hadn’t seen her in a while; much less met up with her in the hell-hole they had dubbed ‘Academy’. Scream Academy. Shifter noted to remind Bauman that naming Academy in a literal sense is not funny and actually scares off most kids and parents alike. Except for the nut jobs that were obviously here.

And Quinn? Well, he just didn’t want to go to the hell-hole school in Alegra, the one Piper attended. She’d told him of terrible state, of terrible students and terrible teachers. Scream Academy was the next best place, he supposed, and since he had grown up in Kegan he knew he’d be okay, and he was. In his time at the Academy, he hadn’t been injured or hurt or killed (even if Isabel looked like she wanted to kill him, sometimes) and he certainly wasn’t fazed by the strange group of students and teachers alike that attended here from the human world. In his opinion, it made the harmless.

Pulling on his oversized jumper, he flicks at his ears and clutches a book to his chest as he normally does, walking out into the dorm corridors. By now he realises that he probably should have given Piper some time and some place to meet up (café would have been a good choice, everybody knows where that is), but she’s smart and he knows it. She’ll find her way to him because that’s just what intelligent best friends do. The corridors are empty when he looks and he pauses for a moment, idly brushing the dust from the pale clothing before making his way to the dorm entrances (it was far, since he was in the teacher dorms, but he’d make it soon enough). Quinn just wanted to see Piper and he wanted to see her now, because the Academy sometimes got frustrating and she was one of the only people he liked to see, or even wanted to see. He wouldn’t ever admit that to her though, since he could barely admit that they were best friends, despite the amount of times he said so in his head. “Best friends.” - it tasted funny in his mouth and he didn’t like it.

His movements seemed rather sleepy, though Quinn could slowly feel his body begin to finally wake up. He didn’t exactly want to be sleepy when he met up with Piper, since she’d probably mock him and in this state he wouldn’t be sure what to say back. Shifter didn’t like that notion at all. He wasn’t prepared to let her get the better of him.

Quinn, surprisingly, had reached the top end of the dorms in no time, rubbing his eyes slightly and wishing he could have some tea right now, but he knew Piper was priority. He didn’t want her wandering into Tien maze, only to never be found again. That would be stupid on both their behalves and after the trouble he’d gone to of writing a letter and inviting her to the Academy himself (it was a feat, certainly), he wasn’t about to throw that away because she got lost or because he wanted tea more than he wanted to see her, which wasn’t true.

Pulling his hands away from his eyes, he glanced around the dim lit corridor. It must have been morning, otherwise nobody would be awake and he’d be in trouble. And that’s when he saw her, idly wandering through the dorms like it was none of her business. Piper Mortimer, with her dead skin and raven hair and mismatching clothes because her eyesight sucks so bad. Piper Mortimer, who hadn’t even seen him yet, holding the letter in her hand.

Her eyesight sucks so bad.

“Piper, I’m right here.” - he said it as though she’d been looking for him in that instance, even though she hadn’t. Quinn was just being mean, as usual. “I’m glad you didn’t go wandering into the Tien maze, otherwise we would have lost you and thrown a party over it.” - there was a smile twitching at his lips, one he was trying to suppress, but he was happy to see Piper because he hadn’t seen her in a while. He’d had no excuse to go to Sylvia and ask and no excuse to hang around Alegra for too long, without blatantly saying that he was here to see his dumb best friend and people should stop asking about it.

He’d think of an excuse eventually.

[Meduzia]

I'm sorry of there are any typos or grammar mistakes because the more I look at it, the more they appear
/softlyweeps ]]

Piper eyed the paper in a way one eyed a thief, or perhaps a burglar. Unsure of what they're doing in her house, and yet unsure of how to throw them out. Or, in her case, if she should, at all.

Perhaps her metaphor was not the best, then.

With a heavy sigh, Piper takes a glance at her surroundings. Bright blue eye - not as bright as Faith Flynn's, or any of her Ravensdale cousins, but still not as dark as blue eyes can get - dances slightly, and she has to close them until she feels it stop. Once she looks out again, the hall has not changed. Candles still flicker lifelessly, blurring the vision around the edges of the flame, and the stone still looks cold and distance. The whole Academy is a lot of oxymora; not that it's probably what she should've noticed.

She should have asked if there was something to be afraid of. Something to avoid. Piper was a born ghoul, and born ghouls suffered a lot. She was not like Sylvia, half-blind and half-deaf, because those were things a ghoul could get away with, if only they knew how. No, Piper suffered on some other fields. It goes well to say that her physical readiness in any sense was lacking. It left the bitter taste in her mouth, but then she thought how otherwise she'd probably be put to work labour for her red-headed cousin and made to wear ugly manly clothes, so she thinks she's fine where she's standing, after all.

For now, however, the ghoul must keep moving. She has a shapeshifter to bother, and she feels like bothering him right now. Speak of the devil and he shall appear, they said sometimes. Quinn was much easier to summon than the devil. He did not require runes. Perhaps because he was far worse than his goat-legged, red-skinner counterpart, but it's not on Piper to judge.

"Right there." She mutters with a grin, then folds the paper - two times, evenly, and it's impossible to avoid the letters but she tries because letters being contorted or faded out with time is bother - and then pushes it into her back pocket, along with every other paper of importance she could've brought with herself today. And then--

"You little bitch!"

-- she hugs her stupid, stupid best friend, because they are best friends. She tugs at his cheeks and that's what Piper generally does - she physically harasses him, and somehow avoids to be punched along the way. So far, she's been doing fine, and with the verbal abuse she can deal - besides, she does that to him as well. She's start dragging him down the hall, because why not, but she'd be hopelessly lost in minutes, so she finds it the best choice to just remain standing where they are.

"Do you think me to be an idiot?" No, of course not. That's why her voice doesn't hold the malice; merely the hints of amusement, something probably all-too-evident on her face. Piper was never the one to hide her feelings properly; she envied people who could so easily make their face a mask. She was pretty good in poker, but that just her luck, definitely not her good concealing skills, "So what do you do here, Quinn? Harass those who actually thought this was not a torture chamber?"

It looks impressive, she has to admit. She remembers coming here only once before, when her father was on a job, or something of sorts. It looked big then, and it has no changed. Quinn and Piper were the same height; she didn't know what his deal was, but ghoulish nature, the sickiness of born ghouls, made her as small as she was. She'd take that over the blatant stupidity any day. At this rate, her mental health will probably be preserved for decades.

Unless Quinn drives the sanity out of her, which is not impossible.

She pokes him in ribs, repeatedly, unsure if he's even feeling anything over the jumper (she knows that she wouldn't, but perhaps he's not onion-layered like she is). Comeoncomeoncomeoncomeon--, she keeps saying, and she's not sure if that's annoying or the right way to speed things up (probably annoying one, though).

Or maybe she'll drive the sanity out of Quinn. There is always space for that, as well.