From: redwritinghood	Date: January 23rd, 2011 09:27 pm (UTC)		(Link)

It seemed there was a general amount of unease on campus. Sibyl had seen Leon's entry after hearing about some commotion happening in the dorm earlier in the week. Not to mention two other moments at public gatherings that would have had anyone on edge.

If something was eating people on campus, she didn't want to be there. At least not at the moment, with her mind buzzing. Sibyl eventually found herself in the Dragon's Den, looking around after getting a drink for a good place to sit.

The best place was at the back of the room and near some kid that seemed to be staring out into nothing. Figuring it was better to be sitting next to a space case, Sibyl headed over there.

	From: meandmyuke	Date: January 25th, 2011 07:41 am (UTC)		(Link)

Apple didn't notice anything happening around him until he saw a flash of bright red hair heading in his direction. He was almost certain he recognized her from the New Years Eve party and definitely from school.

He shook his head, trying to get his mind to focus again as she made her way toward the table. He smiled lazily at her and offered a little wave. "Hey," he greeted the red head.

	From: redwritinghood	Date: January 29th, 2011 02:06 am (UTC)		(Link)

"Hey," Sibyl responded with a small smile as she stepped up to where Apple sat, waving back a little in turn. She believed she recognized him from school, but he wasn't someone she knew much at all. Still, he seemed friendly enough.

She nodded to the empty space near him. "You mind if I take that seat?"

	From: meandmyuke	Date: January 29th, 2011 07:37 pm (UTC)		(Link)

"Not at all," he gestured to the empty chair. "You go to CCI right?" he asked after taking a sip of his juice. "I'm Apple," he offered extending his hand.

	From: redwritinghood	Date: January 30th, 2011 11:17 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Sibyl set her drink down, and the small messenger bag she had on one shoulder soon followed. "Yea, I do," she answered with a smile and went to shake Apple's hand. "Nice to meet you, Apple. I'm Sibyl. I take it you go to CCI too?"

	From: meandmyuke	Date: January 30th, 2011 11:29 pm (UTC)		(Link)

"Nice to meet you too," he smiled. "Yeah, I'm a sophomore," he told her. "Needed a little quiet from all the madness, you know?" he grinned.

	From: redwritinghood	Date: January 30th, 2011 11:47 pm (UTC)		(Link)

"Senior," she answered in turn as she made herself comfortable in that empty seat. The first thing she went for was her drink, grasping that in both hands and taking a sip with a pleased sort of smile when she pulled the cup away.

"Oh, I know. There's a lot of madness going around the school lately."

	From: meandmyuke	Date: January 30th, 2011 11:55 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Apple sipped thoughtfully on his pumpkin juice and nodded. "Yeah, it's like... once you think everything is going to quiet down again bam, something else happens," he shook his head. "Pretty epic return to school though right?" he laughed a bit.

	From: redwritinghood	Date: January 31st, 2011 12:03 am (UTC)		(Link)

"Oh yea. A story to tell our kids in later years." Sibyl forced herself to chuckle a bit at that. It had been epic even before term started up again. She still recalled New Years in embarrassing detail. "Got any theories so far?"

	From: meandmyuke	Date: January 31st, 2011 12:08 am (UTC)		(Link)

Apple laughed, imagining for a brief second himself surrounded by little hippies begging for another story. "Definitely," he nodded.

"I... I think I have a crazy idea," he shuffled through his stuff to find his drawing. He pushed it over the table to Sibyl. "I saw that on Halloween, I think it's a monster. Like... a new monster or an unidentified one, you know? I haven't been able to find anything else like it. You got any theories?"

	From: redwritinghood	Date: January 31st, 2011 12:11 am (UTC)		(Link)

She pulled the paper closer when Apple pushed it to her, so that she could better see it. "Well it certainly doesn't look like anything I've seen or read about," she admitted and pushed the drawing back to him.

"You think that's the same thing that was in the Sonnier dorm? Assuming any of the rumors are right, anyway..."

	From: meandmyuke	Date: January 31st, 2011 12:17 am (UTC)		(Link)

"I don't know," he said honestly. "This thing was pretty big, I think it would have a pretty hard time hiding in Sonnier for any amount of time," he laughed. "But..." he thought for a moment. "I do have a friend who saw something different, it's possible that there are other things out there."

"I feel like I'm missing a piece of the puzzle, you know?"

	From: redwritinghood	Date: January 31st, 2011 12:52 am (UTC)		(Link)

The thought that there were more things out there than what was in the dormitory made Sibyl frown. It was bad enough that one of them had been in her dorm. Now possibly different things all over campus?

"I know the feeling. Isn't Halloween when those two kids went missing? So maybe what you saw then was what got them. May or may not be the same thing that was in Sonnier."

Or maybe they were just all screwed.

	From: meandmyuke	Date: January 31st, 2011 01:54 am (UTC)		(Link)

"Yeah, and I saw this thing on Halloween," he said pointing at the paper.

It was still unsettling to know that there were at least two things running around on campus that no one knew anything about. "Do you think it's possible that our woods have some like... populations of animals that have been secluded enough to like... mutate or evolve away from the original animal?"

	From: redwritinghood	Date: January 31st, 2011 02:06 am (UTC)		(Link)

She let herself take a deep breath as she drummed her fingers against her cup for the moment. When she spoke, though, she leaned in closer to Apple and lowered her voice. "I suppose it's possible, yea. Evolution may be out depending on when this started; that's a much longer process. But we don't know how long these things have been around. I'd think if they were here sooner, there would have been more attacks and missing persons in the past. Doesn't mean they didn't migrate."

Sibyl paused to take another drink. "Mutation is always likely. Whether chemically by muggles, accidental probably, or magical."

	From: meandmyuke	Date: January 31st, 2011 02:20 am (UTC)		(Link)

Now this was going somewhere, Apple thought. It was great to get someone else's opinion on the animals he had seen and heard about. "Ooo," he said lowering his voice. "Maybe pollution or something," he said nodding. Apple was way into conspiracy theory so this was the type of thinking that was right up his alley. "Like... maybe they made a toxic dump in the woods and the animals got into it."

"But if it's magical..." he paused. "If it's magical someone would have to be held accountable, right?" He took another drink of his pumpkin juice and laid his hands flat on the table.

	From: redwritinghood	Date: January 31st, 2011 02:29 am (UTC)		(Link)

"Perhaps. Even toxic waste takes a bit of time. It's not like in the movies where you get hit with it and suddenly you're all mutated. It might not show any signs until it spawns." Sibyl again paused to drink a little more of her own pumpkin juice before going on.

"If it's magical, then there is someone to blame, yes. There aren't just patches of wild magic that a creature can bump into. It might have been on purpose by someone, or caused the backlash of a failed spell or something. The other option," she paused for another moment to chew it over. As if speaking it made it a solid theory. "Well, is cross breeding. That the creatures are a combination of two other kinds of creatures."

	From: meandmyuke	Date: January 31st, 2011 02:48 am (UTC)		(Link)

"That's true," he inclined his head in agreement with a little grin. "And you're right if that were the case we should have seen things much sooner, probably noticed changes in animal behavior."

He couldn't imagine someone doing anything like that on purpose, but then again... he had seen worse. Crossbreeding. Now that was a terrifying thought, but... "That makes sense," Apple put his drawing between them again. "Look, you can see like... different aspects of different animals. We thought at first that it was one of those horses," he showed her tracing the shape of the head and wings. "But I had never seen someone die, so we thought it couldn't be that, but if it was breed with something else..."

He took a deep breath. "Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself."

	From: redwritinghood	Date: February 4th, 2011 01:28 am (UTC)		(Link)

Sibyl looked again at the drawing when he pointed out a few details. "Thestrals, you mean. Creatures you can't see until you've seen death." From what pictures she'd seen of them, there were definitely similarities in the picture.

"It's still a logical enough theory. Really, all we have to go on right now are theories." The redhead gave a small shrug and moved to finish off her drink.

	From: meandmyuke	Date: February 6th, 2011 04:34 am (UTC)		(Link)

"Yeah! Thestrals, I can never remember that name," among other things, he admitted a bit sheepishly. "I can't quite place the other animal though if I were to hypothesize," here he looked at her feeling a little foolish. "I would say bigfoot. I wasn't even sure if that's really real though, you know?"

"You're right though, just theories. Can't really figure out too much without having the creature to study, right?"

	From: redwritinghood	Date: February 6th, 2011 06:22 pm (UTC)		(Link)

The redhead gave an odd look to the younger boy for a moment, then turned her gaze back to the drawing. "Bigfoot?" Well, there were some similarities in the picture now that he mentioned it. It just seemed like a pretty far fetched guess.

"Exactly. So unless someone goes out and manages to catch something, we have no idea." Sibyl gave a small shrug.

	From: meandmyuke	Date: February 6th, 2011 09:16 pm (UTC)		(Link)

"Right?" he laughed easily. He stopped and took a sip of pumpkin juice. "It's crazy."

"Anyways..." he tucked the drawing away again with a sigh. "I really want to go looking but it's not exactly the safest thing, right?" he shrugged. "Thanks for helping me pick my brain about this thing, it's been on my mind for a long time."

	From: redwritinghood	Date: February 6th, 2011 09:40 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Sibyl shook her head quickly, eyes going wider in a show that going after those things was definitely not safe. "Oh no. Leave that to the professors. The last thing the school needs is another missing student."

She relaxed after a moment and almost picked up her cup again when she remembered that it was empty. "No problem, Apple. Picking minds is a Sonnier specialty."

	From: meandmyuke	Date: February 7th, 2011 05:54 am (UTC)		(Link)

She was right, it was a silly idea to go chasing monster by oneself when there was a trained faculty to do it. He smiled and nodded. "It's usually not a Rienzi thing, we just dive in head first," he joked.

"Want another drink?" he asked noticing her empty cup.

	From: redwritinghood	Date: February 11th, 2011 11:25 pm (UTC)		(Link)

"I... would have to agree with that." Sibyl said with a nod of her head and a light laugh. "Rienzis are certainly the braver type, but it's better to jump in head first when you have a much better idea of what you're dealing with."

At the question, her eyes went back to the cup and she thought about it. Then, she shrugged. "I don't know. I've been hanging around the Bon all day. Should probably head back to campus soon and get some work done."

	From: meandmyuke	Date: February 14th, 2011 07:18 pm (UTC)		(Link)

"Very true," he grinned ruefully. He really did need to take more time to think about things, especially when it was something as dangerous as a wild creature. He was glad to have run into Sibyl.

"Yeah," he nodded. He probably should go back to campus now that he thought of it, but he just didn't have it in him to go back. "That's probably a good idea," he admitted.