Welcome to Ravenholm (Deviant: The Renegades)

[x] Walk the Grounds - You haven't really explored Ravenholm. You know you're on an island off the west coast, and...that's about it.
[X] Join a club - You should probably do this at some point. Ravenholm (and your therapist) cares about creating a 'community', so you're gonna be expected to participate at some point.
-[X] Band/Choir - Honestly, they're both the same to you; a way to make music with other people. It would definitely be a good way to meet people.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Hello hello. This would've been out much earlier, but 1.4k words into the update the forum went down for maintenance and I lost all my work. C'est la vie and all, but it killed my motivation for a while. Then @Alobomb had to go and update his excellent Life is Strange quest and indirectly fill be with guilt and shame, so here we are again.

(Also, since I never announced it, Jasper's last name is Rowan)
---
[Ravenholm Classroom Building 03 - Comparative Analysis]

Beau Leblanc is the baddest motherfucker around, and one look at his face and arms tells you as much. Six foot four, built like a brick that could bend steel bars, and scarred like he swan dived into a pool filled with razor blades. He dresses like a big-game hunter on safari, loose-fitting leather jacket with worn and dark-stained jeans, complete with combat boots. He looks like he takes no shit, sounds like he takes no shit, and, well, actually takes no shit. Consequently, he's pretty rough to have as a teacher.

Mr. Leblanc teaches Comparative Analysis, aka Occult Biology, which was the first sign that Ravenholm might not have been a normal boarding school. It stands to reason that the paranormal exists, of course, considering that you regularly saw, and even tried to speak with, actual ghosts. Yet there's still something overwhelming about the way that absolutely everything you've ever heard in occult fiction is all real, all at the same time, even the parts that contradict each other. Vampires are apparently omnipresent in any decent metro area, werewolves stalk forests and city streets hunting weird emotion spirits of all things, Fae regularly enslave a bunch of people and then just forget about them leading them to escape back home with weird fairy magic, and let's not forget the honest-to-god wizards that alternate between running the world secretly and fighting each other secretly for reasons you can't quite seem to grasp. This is in addition to the fact that, apparently, there's an entire faction of basically normal people who dedicate their lives to hunting these creatures (your teacher being one, rather obviously). All of that, of course, pales in comparison to today's lesson.

Magical Girls are real.

"Now before you losers go labeling these individuals as 'Magical Girls' and 'Sailor Senshi' or whatever you kids are calling them nowadays," the mid-forties grumpiness of your teacher cuts into your thoughts, "...the correct term for this type of supernatural creature is 'Noble'. 'Radiant' is also a term Nobles use to describe themselves, but it appears to be factionalized considering every recorded instance of Noble infighting is between a group claiming that they serve the 'Light' better than their opposition." Mr. Leblanc has a very matter-of-fact teaching style, which makes for very boring lectures when talking about history, and exceptionally creepy ones when talking about how to kill another sentient creature. Leblanc is an intimidating guy all around, really. He always treats Comparative Analysis like he's a drill instructor briefing you all on the enemies you are going to encounter on the field of battle, but as far as you know most students who weren't in super special honors programs don't leave the island till graduation. Why is he so hell-bent on making sure you know occult biology better than your actual biology?

"Nobility, without exception, are mentally fragile," Mr. Leblanc continues, no doubt about to prove your point in regards to sentient life. "The most effective way to combat hostile Nobles is to force them to confront any sort of moral ambiguity. For those of you with mind-affecting variations, you will likely find this task simple. For the rest of you, be advised that all Nobles are receiving empaths, with their sensitivity directly correlated to how powerful they are. This means..." Your teacher scans the room quickly, locking eyes with you before you can think to look away. "...what, Rowan?"


Your eyes flick around the room wildly for a moment as everyone in class turns to look at you, as you suddenly feel cornered and alone. Slowly you stand, buying time to connect the dots between what Mr. Leblanc was talking about earlier and what he wants you to say now. Your mind is running a mile a minute, until -

"Pain, sir," you answer. It comes out raspy and unconfident, which doesn't seem to placate the teacher now narrowing his eyes at you.

"Come again, Rowan? Why don't you try that one more time?" Leblanc says slowly, glaring at a cluster of psychics who you can hear snickering.

You clear your throat and try to swallow back your building anxiety (oh god they're laughing at your stupid eyes aren't they), "P-pain, sir. If they're all empaths and susceptible to mental attacks, attacking their allies or any other sentients around them should do something to them, right?" Leblanc gives you a measured look, and oh jeez he's not impressed what else, "Oh! In a pinch you could always hurt yourself! If they can't turn it off, and you can't score a messy hit on their side, suddenly stabbing yourself and screaming would probably distract them?" That gets him to raise his eyebrows a fraction of an inch. Does that mean you're safe from punishment detail?

You notice several of your classmates giving you surprised looks. The pod of psychic kids in the back corner look a little...impressed? None more so than your teacher apparently, as you hear a gruff, "Hm. Ruthless and effective, clearly you've been paying attention. Good work; sit down and see me after class." Oof, looks like you weren't safe after all. You suppress sighing out loud for fear of attracting more of Mr. Leblanc's attention, and quietly absorb the rest of the lesson.
Chin up, kid! Not everything is as bad as it seems. I mean, most of the time it is, but probably not here.
--

The bell rings about a half hour later, signalling freedom for everyone not named Jasper Rowan. You quietly collect your things, and wait for the last of your fellow students to filter out before approaching the executioner's desk.
This behavior causes a small smirk to break up your teacher's normally impassive face. "You look like a dead man walking. I take it you've heard of my detention procedures." Boy, have you. It was all people could talk about for the first week: apparently a group of mutants got it in their heads to prank all the teachers for the start of the new school year. Mr. Leblanc found out and black-bagged all of them in the night, then had them clean the creature cages in nothing but their underwear all day. This was only the most recent of stories, but common consensus was that Beau Leblanc was a very cruel and hard-hearted individual.

Which makes it very strange to see him sit down in his desk chair with an exaggerated sigh, before pulling out a cigarette and lighting it with a small silver lighter tucked in his jacket pocket. Now that you've got a real glimpse at him, he looks...old. He can't be have been in more than his late forties at the most, but with the thousand-yard stare through the window and the lonely burning cigarette in his hand, he looks like a veteran from a war that's been going for decades. This does nothing to make him look any less terrifying, mind, but it does more to make him seem...human. He takes a few drags from his cancer stick before he gestures for you to sit down at a nearby desk, which you do. His gaze drifts over to you after a moment, and as he locks eyes with you a terrible chill washes over your body. You assume it's fear at first, but then you notice the spectral hands reaching out from the wall behind your teacher, clawing at the brick and dragging through a strange cavalcade of specters. Three humanoid ghosts emerge slowly from the wall and settle behind your teacher, although he doesn't spare them a look - if he notices them at all. They all spread out a little, exploring the classroom and coming over to try and poke you once they realize you can see them, but seem disappointed as they phase through you as easily as they did the wall.

The individual in question sighs and sets some papers down before leaning back in his chair, putting out the cigarette. "Sorry for the wait, addictions tend to be demanding. Don't worry, you're not in trouble, Jasper. I just wanted to talk to you." You relax almost immediately, before tensing up again. What could Ravenholm faculty have a reason to talk to you about? Clearly your attempts to stop laying low are having some unintended consequences. "Your answer today...has anyone at the school talked to you about School Missions, yet?" That catches you off guard- you had heard something about honor students being sent out on some kind of spy shit, but you sorta figured if you hadn't been asked to participate by now, you weren't going to ever. You weren't even that good at school.

"No, sir. I've heard it has something to do with...extracurricular work sponsored by the school?" you venture. Mr. Leblanc chuckles, apparently not afraid to show more emotion than you've ever seen from him now that you're alone. This provokes a change in atmosphere, though. While Leblanc tries to soften the mood and make you feel more at ease, the ghost brigade hiss at him angrily. This has the side effect of not making you feel remotely at ease, because you're not entirely sure why these ghosts are here or what problem they seem to have with your teacher.

"You make it sound like a club. Not quite the gravitas the other teachers would probably put on this kind of work." You shift awkwardly as you wait for him to continue, hoping he doesn't catch you staring at your poltergeist audience, "Something like that, yes. The fact is, Ravenholm is an expensive institution. We provide for ourselves as best as we can, and largely operate with the generous financial backing of some alumni, but more students are always arriving and facilities constantly need to be maintained, expanded, and upgraded. So, from time to time, we field contract work from...outside sources, and assign some of the best-fitting students to carry out that work," Leblanc explains. It sounds like he's trying to pitch the idea to you, but somehow you feel that 'no' isn't exactly an option.

"Would something like that interest you, Jasper?" he asks, leaning forward to look into your (freakish) eyes. The ghosts are livid, chattering and gnashing broken teeth like they would rip him apart if only they were physical. Meanwhile, Mr. Leblanc is radiating a sense of professional compassion, like he's an interviewer offering you your dream job. You're not amazingly trustful of Ravenholm, and this whole angry haunting thing isn't helping. Any other day you might have gone along just so you didn't cause a fuss, but something about the ghosts' naked hostility gives you pause. Still, you can't not answer.

"Ah...thank you sir, but I thought I'd reach out to the school clubs soon, so I don't know how much free time I would have...?" You trail off, hoping the implied rejection is enough to get you out of this conversation. Sadly, it is not to be, as the mood shifts away from the slightly fake warmth back into the chilly mild fear of class time. The smile drips off Mr. Leblanc's face as he leans back to a neutral position, folding his arms. The ghosts settle down as well, hovering in between the two of you and looking expectantly at the unfolding conversation.

"Ah, too busy to contribute are you, Rowan? You think doing the psychic kids' homework and joining an after-school club are all you need to find fulfillment?" The switch in tone practically gives you whiplash, and he knows you helped Daniel with his homework? "Face it, Rowan, you're not going to be satisfied with three friends and a hobby. You're waking up, and the fire inside you is starting to burn, and If you don't find a way to channel it constructively, you'll end up just like those mutant delinquents." That seems more than a little harsh. Your hurt look must show on your face, as the ghosts begin to converge on you, lightly putting themselves between Mr. Leblanc and you. It's a nice sentiment, but considering your erstwhile protectors' intangibility...

"You're Transformed, Rowan. You have to get acclimated somehow, and conflict is the only real way you're going to get control of yourself. But maybe you need some object lessons-" You tense up again, considering that sounds like a prelude to him hitting you or something, "-so go ahead. Go play chess or whatever you like. Try and make friends, run headfirst into teen social garbage, learn that being a normal student won't satisfy your instincts." Mr. Leblanc growls the last bit out, and you're taken aback. Ravenholm isn't a normal school, you learned that a long time ago, but this is something else. Is...is Ravenholm really expecting you all to go out and do mercenary work for them? That has to be, like, six different kinds of illegal.

"Like it or not, consider yourself drafted. After your showing in class today I'm not worried about your theoreticals, but make sure you put some time in the gym to get your body in line. Report to Headquarters at the end of your month for your mission." your teacher says with a not inconsiderable amount of finality. Mr. Leblanc is too angry to brook any kind of argument, so you nod and quickly scurry away from the old Hunter. The ghost brigade watches you go, splitting their focus on concerned looks for you and glaring at your teacher.

You consider trying to stick around and talk to them, but sometimes discretion is the better part of valor.

---

The rest of the day is pretty uneventful, but you still find yourself a little anxious. Gaining the ability to see ghosts has sort of conditioned you to jumpscares, but there's still an unnerving feeling to sensing a spectral presence watching you all the time. Most of them aren't up for any kind of conversation, and they don't tend to follow you very far. With that in mind, you decide to escape to the beach. Nobody has ever died at the beach!

...well, this beach, anyway. Students aren't allowed to swim because of some toxic chemical concern, but it's still a nice place to get away to every once in a while. It's even got a great view of crashing waves on a gravel-colored beach, if you were into that (you're not). The ocean stretches out for miles, all the way to the horizon, openly displaying to any new student angsting about being sent here that they are entirely alone. You did the math once: if you stand on the hill overlooking the beach from the south (with the rest of Ravenholm even further south behind you), the horizon is something like three or three-and-a-quarter miles away. You don't have magnified vision or anything, but you haven't heard of anyone spotting land from Ravenholm island, which means you must be very far off the coast. Or you're in a giant containment dome and it only looks like endless ocean, who really knows?

You shuffle down the hill, approaching the rocky area a few other students got caught...engaging romantically inside, looking to see if you might find anything interesting. Sometimes students come out here to conduct 'funny business' and get run off by the groundskeeper, dropping all sorts of interesting things. You never really collected any of them for fear their owners might come looking for you, but perhaps this is a way to score some new acquaintances? Or even better, some extra cash?


Your musings about your theoretical windfall are interrupted by a forceful SHUSH of wind. That...wasn't natural. Wracked by indecision over checking out the noise or heading briskly in the other direction, curiosity wins out as you rather loudly and ungracefully ascend a small boulder for a better view of the area. You spot burnt tinder on the sand, and several footprints heading away from you and back into the grass, towards the school. Seems like they ran off when they heard you coming. You feel some pangs of hurt at that, but take comfort that it probably wasn't personal.

You poke around the impromptu camp, notice that it looks like three different sets of tracks ran off, and finally decide this whole venture was a bust and head back to school disappointed.

---

The memory of your conversation with Mr. Leblanc comes back to you as you approach the band room Wednesday after classes. He sounded so...disdainful that you would try and be social with your classmates, completely contrary to your therapist and all of the other faculty who have been trying to get you out of your shell. Is that what the Ravenholm faculty are really like, or is Beau Leblanc an outlier? Your other teachers aren't anything to write home about -- some teach in a style you could only consider a 'daze', much like the same daze learning higher math instills in everybody else. For the first time since coming to the school months ago, you're starting to feel the veneer of a normal student life begin to fray at the edges.

Then, you step into the band room and it all rushes back into you. Three dozen identical black chairs curve around to face a center podium, thick beige webbing lines the walls in an attempt to contain the noise, and scuffed linoleum stretches as far as the eye can see. There's a small hallway-alcove in the corner full of black cage-lockers, most of them filled with thick and oddly-shaped carrying cases for (you assume) instruments. Barely anyone is here, which is strange considering you tried to visit on club day...?

One of the two other students in the room notices your visible confusion and skips over to you. She's a shorter girl, with curly brown hair and freckles on a pale face you could only describe as 'small'. She's plenty energetic though, and when she gets around the chair minefield she gives you a large friendly smile. It's at this point you spot the shine coming from her throat, that she apparently is trying to cover with makeup. Some kind of metallic implant has replaced the entire front of her neck and throat, and now that she's closer you realize her eyes are a more electric blue color than regular people could manage.

"Hello! You look a bit lost, can I help you with anything?" She cocks her head to the side, as you feel an aura of 'cute' coming off her. This is in stark contrast to the other girl who was in the room when you came in, an athletic-looking blonde in a tight ponytail with her arms folded. She looks less than happy at the interruption.

"I...Well, I was here to check out the Band, but..." You gesture at the empty room. The brunette's eyes go wide in understanding as she gives a nod, while you idly note that her voice sounds fine (if a bit squeaky) for having such a...comprehensive implant. Still, you think you're beginning to like her!

"Oh, yeah! Sorry about that, our teacher is-" A pause, as her eyes flick to the other girl, "-gone, for the moment. Some of the people that joined at the start of the year have drifted off, so Sophie and I," The brunette gestures to the blonde, evidently named Sophie, "...have decided to try and help the Band reorganize in the meantime!" She finishes with a dramatic sweep of her arms, showcasing the empty band room as if it were filled with master musicians. You...admire her enthusiasm, at least. Something is scratching the back of your brain, and you wonder if a trio of ghosts is about to pop out and start harassing this girl like they did your teacher.
Oooh, I'm sorry Bailee. This almost worked out for you, too.
"Ah, alright. So should I come back another time...?" Your eyes drift back over to Sophie, and it takes a moment before you spot that she's augmented as well. Her calves have a...square and lumpy shape to them, and you notice a radio dial sticking out of the back of her left hand. She's glaring at you, which is about as much motivation as you need to return your gaze to her friend.

"Hmm..." she ponders, bringing up her hand to touch the corner of her mouth in an exaggerated 'thinking' pose, "...That's probably for the best, since we probably couldn't call everyone back again this week. Does Wednesday at five next week work for you?" she asks, cocking her head to the side in exactly the same motion as earlier. That's...odd. You feel like you should probably get out of here.

You nod, and turn on your heel to escape noticing anything weirder about the genki brunette, before she gasps out, "Oh, I'm so sorry, I never got your name!" she asks, which seems like a normal question and not a trap. Not that you have any reason to suspect a trap, obviously.

"I...uh...Jasper. Jasper Rowan. You?" You only barely manage to tack the courtesy question on the end as you turn around to face her again. This turns out to be a mistake, as you notice that the hand she's extended to shake yours has very obviously had all its digits replaced with metal, which has been ineptly painted over. You stare at the hand for a moment, before deciding that she would've attacked you already if she felt inclined.

She seems to sense your unease by your weak handshake. "Ah...My name is Bailee Smith. I hope to see you again?" she asks in a smaller voice, as if to lure you into-

You shake your head at the thought. "Y-Yeah, definitely. Next week?" you ask, determined to beat whatever weird mood has come over you. You feel the side of your head burning at the force of Sophie's glare, but Bailee seems...sad, now? Resigned? You must've dodged some sort of terrible fate if she's sad all of a sudden-

"Yeah. Hey, if you want, you could sit by us at lunch? I think we're in the same math-" You cut her off as you spot whirring gears in her throat and decided that's quite enough social interaction for one day. You spin on your heel and give a noncommittal 'yeah okay I'll think about it' before briskly walking back through the double doors you came though.

You take a deep breath as the doors close behind you, and notice the ghost of what looks like a freshman, gazing at you in disappointment. You gesture at him in confusion, and watch him, slowly point at the door with one hand and his ear with the other. He wants you to listen at the door? Fuck it, not like your day is going to get any stranger.

"I think you scared him, Bay."

"You're one to talk. I just...really wanted new members. I'm sorry. I wish I could apologize to him."

"We'll see if he comes back, but I don't think running after him is going to make him less scared of you."

"..."

"...C'mon, let's finish up here then grab some ice cream, yeah?"

"...Okay."

Not really in the mood for getting caught in the rampage of a despairing Cyborg and her angry friend's quest for ice cream, you double-time it back to your dormitory.

---

When you arrive, you throw yourself onto your bed and reflect. What the hell was...all of that? Both her and your teacher seemed so normal at the beginning of the week, and turned into something way different over the course of one conversation. Have things always like this and you're just noticing them now, or are you just unlucky in your random encounters with strangers? Still, both of them gave you things to think about, going into the next week...

# It is The Second Week Of October.
# You have NO Required Interactions this week.
# You ARE on Mission Alert for October 31st.
# Choose TWO Activities: (plus any amount of Free actions you desire)


Physical:

[ ] Work Out - You're not the most fit person in the world, maybe it's time to change that? You're pretty sure you've heard someone say "a healthy body is a healthy mind" before.

[ ] Train your Powers - You're not really confident in anything that isn't teleporting or seeing ghosts. Maybe explore some of that?
-[ ] Focus on a specific power? (Focusing will reveal more details and progress mastery faster)

[ ] Walk the Grounds - Now that you've explored the island for a spell, you have some places of interest you want to check out if there's time.
-[ ] The Beach - It's getting colder, so there's not as many students hanging out there, but you're intrigued by the group you barely missed last time. Maybe you could encounter them again if you go back?
-[ ] The Zoo - There's an animal enclosure out near the biology labs, for experiments and things. Maybe you could go visit the animals?
-[ ] The Underground - You're in a skulduggery mood; The Underground is a series of walkways and tunnels under the island to facilitate faster travel for the staff, and it's strictly forbidden to students without a chaperone. Still, if there were a secret mad science lair anywhere in Ravenholm...

Mental:

[ ] Study - There are things you need to know. Maybe not, like, specific things, but things nonetheless.
-[ ] You could brush up on Occult Biology, considering a good answer about Magical Girls is what got you put on a mission in the first place.
-[ ] That encounter in the Band room was too strange. Maybe you should do a little bit of research on your own kind, to be more prepared for those kinds of encounters?
-[ ] Topic? If not chosen (or vetoed by me on account of it not being available) a topic will be provided randomly, or Jasper will study trivia.

[ ] Relax in the Library - It's quiet, it's familiar, and there are books. What's not to like? You might be able to catch up on the latest Jedi Cop, if they have it in.

[ ] Help Tutor? - Tutoring Daniel wasn't all that bad, actually. Maybe you've got a knack for this? You could politely ask around the library if anyone needs help.

Social:

(FREE, if you want it) [ ] Sit with Bailee and Sophie at lunch - Maybe you got off on the wrong foot, maybe you're curious at the conversation you overheard in the Band room after you left. You're intrigued enough to approach these girls again and see if you get the same weird feelings.

[ ] Join a different club - Band was a bust, all things considered. Between the missing teacher and strange students, you'd prefer a club with less baggage.
-[ ] Martial Arts - Beating up someone with your bare hands seems silly to you when you have telekinesis, but you can never go wrong learning the basics of CQC. Which you would need to.
-[ ] Track - You heard jogging was a decent way to stay grounded - why not pursue it a little more? Plus, you're curious how teleporting is handled by the school. Although if Sophie were in any other club, it would be this one.
-[ ] Chess - You're pretty sure Ravenholm bullies have other things to pick on people for than being a 'nerd', so this might be a cool passtime to pick up.
-[ ] Debate - It's like arguing, but with points. You're not a confrontational person by nature, but learning some speaking skills probably couldn't go amiss.
-[ ] Science - You don't really have any science-y powers, and only a passing interest in the subject to begin with, but maybe you should branch out?
-[ ] Choir - The Band Encounter freaked you out a little, but you still think music is pretty fun.
-[ ] Student Council - Not exactly a club, but you could sit in on a few sessions, maybe look for a non-elected position to help out in.

[ ] Hang Out in Public - You wanna be where the people are, you wanna see, wanna see them in general~!

That which seems dead / may never truly die / and during lockdowns / strange quests may revive
----------


You yawn and stretch as you lay on a bed just a couple inches too short to be comfortable. The clock at your bedside reads 7:15, and you're strongly considering skipping the hygiene routine and getting an extra half hour's sleep. Yet, everytime you close your eyes, the band room comes back to you. Cream-colored brick walls covered in soundproofing, the semi-stale smell of air freshener in a room that isn't often used, and an angry cyborg monstrosity trying to trap and kill you. Which, objectively, isn't true. It's not like she altered your memories (unless she did do s o m e - wait, no, she's a cyborg, not psychic) and you clearly remember her being just a normal girl... minus the cyborg parts, at least. So why, then, is part of your brain convinced that Bailee Smith is a duplicitous murderer?

That seems like an incredibly harsh judgement for someone you met only once, briefly. You doubt she's killed more than one person, at most!

Actually, hang on, that's still a bad thought.

With a sigh, you toss back the blanket and shift out of bed. You might as well try and see how taking the girls up on their lunch offer will go, so you should really put your best foot forward by showering. During free period maybe you can hit the library and try to figure out what the hell happened to you and how to stop it from happening again. After that...working out, maybe? You haven't been to the gym in...ever, so you're sure that will be a fun experience.

---

The Ravenholm Library Complex is the third largest building on campus, after the Administrative building and Headquarters. Three stories tall with two publicly listed basement levels (and many more secret ones theorized), the Library has a truly awe-inspiring amount of information, as well as the fastest internet speeds on campus if you didn't feel like bothering with books. You spent a lot of time here when you first arrived, and arguably you've spent more hours here than in your own room, having fallen asleep in comfortable reading chairs in a forgotten corner of the building more than once. You were caught and admonished later, but the nice library staff never seemed to really punish your enthusiastic consumption of the written word.

Stepping through the sliding glass doors and out of the harsh island wind, you give a light smile at Susie, the mid-fifties lady working the desk today. She's a short, plump, fair-skinned woman, and wearing clean pastel colors that give her a kind-hearted schoolteacher vibe. Susie gives you a grin brighter than stadium lights as you walk between the anti-theft sensors. "Oh my stars, Jasper dear, I haven't seen you for a few days! I'd have thought you'd gone missing if I didn't know you got basement clearance this morning!" she says brightly- and rather loudly, considering the environment. Something about what she said, though...

"Basement clearance?!" Your eyes widen. You've tried getting access to the books in the basement plenty of times, but they always turned you away for all sorts of reasons. It just made you more and more curious, until the day Susie explained to you that only honors students had access to the Basement Books. So, from that moment on, you tried very hard in your studies in order to get into the honors program.

It didn't take nearly as long for you to realize 'honor student' at Ravenholm probably meant something different than what it did to the rest of the world.

Susie beams at you. "Yes, dear. Congratulations on making it into the Honors Program, by the way! I know you worked so very hard on it. If you scan your Student ID at the elevator, it should allow you into the first basement level now." She gestures over to the steel cylinder at odds with the more normal-looking architecture of the Library. Wary of taking up any more time in your only free period, you smile and nod as you make your way into the elevator. Sure enough, when you scan your student ID near the elevator keys, the button for BF 1 lights up.

You hit it, and begin your descent into darkness.
---

Wow.

There's...a lot of literature here. Not books, exactly: the wooden shelves are mostly lined with loosely bound academic and research papers. There are no computers here to let you access an index, either. It look like they don't even use the Dewey Decimal System - or any system. You begin pulling out random articles from a random bookshelf, resolving that even if you're not going to find you're looking for, you're going to at least try and make some sense of the place.


As it turns out, you're one hundred percent sure you're in the right place. Every single piece of literature on this shelf (and you're beginning to suspect, this whole floor) is on the subject of Deviants, and The Divergence, and Variations, and Scars, and Origins, and Clades, and a whole bunch of other words that make your head spin as you try in vain to contextualize them. You've got five papers in front of you and have successfully worked out that 'Deviants' are 'Baselines' who have undergone one of five different 'Divergences', before the intercom beeps long and loud to signal the end of your free period. Deciding that you don't want to contribute to the disorganization, you put the papers back where you found them and shift into the elevator.
---

On reflection, this would be a lot easier if you had exchanged numbers or something. It's obvious why you didn't, but if her genki charm had lasted a little longer, you wouldn't have to be awkwardly wandering around the cafeteria in Headquarters. HQ is where most of the community areas are; the gym and cafeteria are here, as are all the clubs that didn't require specially dedicated spaces. A big student lounge area is set up with TVs, game consoles, and pool tables. Useful if you're some kind of Born socialite who has friends. Not that you're bitter or anything. Ravenholm is a school of about four hundred people (last you checked), so HQ can get pretty busy around lunchtime.

You do okay in crowds, but looking down constantly so people don't see your freakishly discolored eyes makes it difficult to scan the tables for two girls you barely know.


You know what makes things easier? Ghosts who are willing to cooperate with you. Despite you not talking to them, and not having noticed these specific poltergeists in the band room, they are able to confer in a pack of four and scour the lunchroom for Bailee and Sophie. If anybody else notices you pointedly don't look at them, trying to follow where the ghosts are leading you without looking directly at them (or up, in general.) Eventually, you bump into a long dark blue table with about nine people at it. Most are gravitating towards the ends, but Bailee and Sophie are right in the middle. Joy of joys.

Sophie notices you first, giving you a wave while she says to her friend, "Oh look, scaredy cat managed to man up long enough to try again."

Rude.

Bailee spins to look at you, and you begin to turn your head away and look at anything else out of frightened reflex before squashing the memory of an evil cyborg monster in a girl's skin. Instead, you look her right in the eyes (which is a mistake, because now she can clearly see yours -- this was a BAD IDEA) and she quickly scoots over so that you can sit down on a cafeteria bench that already had plenty of space.

"Hi!" She beams at you, and for a second you're captivated by how the light gleams off her barely disguised metallic neck before she speaks again, "Sorry for the other day, I've..." She trails off, obviously uncomfortable. You're a little uncomfortable too from the way Sophie is obviously sizing you up, but you're resolved to try and tough it out for a little longer. To that end...

"N-No problem. You offered to hang out, a-and I agreed, so it'd be rude to just ghost you..." Annnnd you've run out of steam. Bailee nods before going back to picking at her food (remarkably human food for a robot monster STOP THAT, BRAIN) while you look across the table at Sophie. She's got a sandy complexion that seems to slowly be turning red as she looks between the two of you, and she looks so frustrated you practically see steam whistling out of her ears. You...should probably say something, huh?


You take a deep breath. In the back of your mind, you consider how dumb this is going to look if it turns out you're right and she is planning on murdering you. Still -- nothing ventured, nothing gained.

"I, ah..." Strong start, but it at least got both girls' attention, "...I haven't been super...curious about what's been going on at school. I only came to school at the start of this semester, so all this..." You wave your hand in the air limply, hoping they catch on to whatever it is you think your point is. "...is pretty new. Sorry if I reacted badly to something, I'm just not used to...being supernatural, I guess." You trail off and look to the girls for their reactions. Bailee is giving you a kind of depressed side-eye, while Sophie...?

Sophie suppresses a small snicker before saying, "You know, I had a feeling you were fresh meat. Only new kids go around hiding low-key Scars like they're Quasimodo." She smiles with entirely too many teeth, as you're rather taken aback. You know you're self-conscious about your eyes, but that's because-

"You want to see some real shit?" She asks as she brings her left leg up onto her bench, so you see the thick black stocking covering her leg up to her knee. "Check this shit out, freakshow," She says as she begins rolling down her stocking. You try and protest, but after not even four inches you see brass and tubing and gears and what is that?

Sophie gives another feral grin as she finishes, leaving her...clockwork prosthetic leg on full display. It's a marvelous and fascinating feat of engineering, full of moving gears and rotating springs. It's polished and well taken care of as well, since despite being covered all day by a heavy wool sock (which would presumably muck with the internals at some point), not a single fiber appears caught in any of the gears or brass mechanisms. You would stare at it longer, but after a few more moments she rolls the stocking back up and puts her leg down. "That's the real shit people brood about, my dude. Nobody is about to give a flyin' fuck whatever you got goin' on with your mismatched eyes, unless they pop outta your head and fly around," She explains with confidence, while you shiver at the thought.

"I...guess?" you offer lamely, because what do you even say to that?

"Do they?" Sophie leans in with a grin, as you lean an equal distance back in confusion and mild fear.

"What? Do they what?"

"Do they pop out of your head and fly around?"

"...are you joking?"

"Maybe a little. I've seen weirder."

"How much..." You look back at Bailee and noticing that she's covering her neck with her hand, rubbing it awkwardly, "...do you know about us, Jasper?"

Uh...

"I assume you don't mean the two of you, specifically?" You ask, primarily as a stalling tactic. It would've really come in handy for the library to have been organized right about now. It's not like you don't know anything, but...

Bailee gives a small smile and shakes her head, while Sophie looks at you with a single raised eyebrow. "I...Well, somebody told me early on that I was an 'Infused', because I have 'weird ghost powers'-"

You're jerked out of your explanation as Bailee suddenly leans into you, eyes sparkling. "Ghosts?! You can see ghosts?!"

"Uh..."

"Oh, you've done it now, new guy."

You consider telling Sophie off for continuing to be rude to you all the time, but find yourself considerably more distracted by the brunette leaning way into your personal space. "...Yeah? I mean, I guess I didn't think everyone could see them too but I didn't think it was really that-"

"THAT'S SO COOL!" Bailee squeals, attracting far too much attention for your liking as you reflexively hide your creepy eyes from the nearby lunch tables. "Are they still here? Are they constantly hanging around you? I bet they're everywhere in this school, it's already super weird with everything surrounding the Basement so it wouldn't-" You put a hand on her shoulder and gently push her away before people get the wrong idea about how close she's getting to your face. This doesn't look like it's going to deter her at all, but your plight is relieved by a spectral spectator floating down behind Bailee as she continues to ask-ramble more questions about the transparent undead.

Sensing a way to deflect the energetic girl's attention, you point at the spirit saying, "Well, there's one behind you now. I think he heard you." Bailee's head swivels around so quickly you feel a twinge in your neck.

As she leans forward to see if increased focus can pierce the veil between life and death, you take a look at the spooky gentleman as well. He's taller than most of the ghosts you normally see, and while you can't distinguish hair color on the sepia-toned specters, you can see his facial hair clearly had a stubble-like texture. That makes sense, because if you had to guess he had to have been in his early twenties when he died. You don't know for sure what happened, but the ghost seems to still be wearing some kind of body armor with three big punctures in the torso, so you're pretty confident at what did him in, at least. Bailee reaches a hand experimentally towards him, attracting even more attention from amused looking students at nearby tables, and the ghost responds in kind. However, to their mutual disappointment, their hands pass right through each other. The ghost's arms droop down to his side as he drifts away in sadness, and you feel a pang of sympathy for the dead man.

Bailee is oblivious however, so after a few more moments of her waving her arm at nothing you speak up. "He tried to high-five you, but..."

Her face lights up and rapidly flicks through a series of emotions, first with an excited 'Oh!' followed by an 'Oh.' of realization, then ending with a dejected 'Oh...'. To your surprise, she rapidly spins back around to face you with a very serious expression. "I want you to tell them that it was nice to meet them." You...don't have a response to that, so you settle for a slow, confused nod. At that point the warning bell sounds, signalling lunch will end in three minutes. "Crap!" Bailee lets out a surprised yelp, and quickly gathers her detritus on her lunch tray and scurries off to dump it in the trash.

Still somewhat stunned by her request, you look up to tell the soldier ghost from earlier the message he almost definitely would've heard anyway, and find that he has already drifted off. You grimace for a moment, wondering if that specter's sorrow will cause him to lash out at somebody like you've read about, but resign yourself to the fact that Ravenholm probably knows there are ghosts on campus and has a process for dealing with them if they become a problem. Still, you can't believe that Bailee just...believed you like that.
Let me help you out here...
"Was she not supposed to?" Sophie suddenly asks. You're briefly startled -- you'd forgotten she was there. Did you say that out loud?

"Look, freshie, you're not as weird as you think you are. You're fuckin' weird as shit with your terrified stuttering and shit, but that has nothing to do with your seeing ghosts and teleporting around. Hell, the ghosts and shit barely even make you special," Sophie says, rather aggressively, as she takes her lunch tray and school bag. "My advice would be, get over your fears about yourself and maybe other people won't be so fuckin' terrifying."

As she leaves you alone at the lunch table with that nugget of... wisdom(?), you come to an important realization.

You forgot to actually eat lunch.
---

After school, you realize with slowly growing horror that you have no idea what you think you're doing here. You're not out of shape, not exactly, but you don't really work out and, well, this is your first time ever in a weight room. The Ravenholm Gym in the HQ building is a fusion of a large sports auditorium, a pretty sizable weight room, and a pool with several locker rooms equipped with showers nearby. You're in the weight room now since the basketball team is practicing in the auditorium (and you wouldn't even know how to get fit there by yourself anyway), and there's a handful of other people here as well. A bored-looking faculty member, two people who seem to be going pretty hard at doing laps in the pool, a group of three psychics who are lifting those small shake-weights near one of the side walls, and an extremely large guy doing... some sort of meditation at the barbell? He's not lifting it, he just has his hands on the bar with his eyes closed and a really focused expression.

...anyway.

You're not entirely sure how to get started, but you're saved by spotting a single treadmill in the back corner of the room. That's something even an idiot like you could exercise effectively with.


...Oof, you'd forgotten how much work goes into getting healthy. You're not really impressed with your gains, either. Maybe if you had specific knowledge of how to more effectively work out, or someone around to help train you, you could get more out of the experien-

"Hey asshole, how long you gonna sleep on the bench?" one of the psychics shouts from across the room. The kid on the bench ignores him, and you'd think he had earbuds in or really was asleep if you didn't see a small smirk form on his face.

Oh, this is going to turn into a problem, huh?

Instinctively you look for a way to escape, but despair upon finding that you either have to cross to the other side of the room to get the way you came in, (and thus right in front of what absolutely will be a confrontation) or you have to sneak around to the pool area and potentially have an awkward conversation with the two students who seemed to have just finished their workout and are chatting in the water. Meanwhile, the three psychics are stalking over to the large kid in an obviously menacing way. You look up at the faculty member who was supposed to be supervising you all, and see them consider the situation for a few moments, then promptly get up and walk out of the room.

"I'll give you boys some privacy," they say with a knowing smile, before exiting the room and taking your hopes of a peaceful resolution with them.

"Hear that, bitch? Looks like we got this place to ourselves." You realize the obvious signalling that you should make yourself scarce, and you hide behind a tall machine while you consider your next move.

"Now, how 'bout you get up off that bench and apologize for ignoring us earlier?" the lead psychic says. Unlike his blond and sorta generic friends, this guy has a shock of black hair and a very dark complexion. He walks like some kind of jungle predator, smiling with his teeth and moving with a lean like he's ready to break into violence at the drop of a hat.

The future victim of the psychics slowly leans up into a sitting position, but keeps his legs parted on either side of the bench. A pretty relaxed position for someone who's about to lose a fight, in your opinion.

"I'm sorry," the boy says, in a deep voice with an...interesting accent. It reminds you of what a mediocre actor thinks a 'traditional Spanish gentleman' sounded like.

"Sorry for what?" the lead psychic says, mockingly.


You thought that sounded familiar. The lead psychic is Barry Welmore, his father is a Ravenholm alumnus and big donor to the school. You usually escape his notice on account of his almost militant hatred of the school's Mutant population, which must mean that the other guy...

Said other guy slowly begins growing, as he takes the barbell (with, like, a hundred pounds on it?!) off the bar and sets it down with one hand. "I'm sorry, you seem to have missed breakfast."

...What?

"What the fuck are you talking about, freak?"

"Breakfast. The meal of champions, the most important meal of the day. Skipping leads to low energy, general malaise, and..." the Mutant gives a smile to Barry as his skin seems to take on a more leathery texture, "...poor attitude."

Barry snorts, unimpressed. "You wanna talk about a poor fucking attitude? I think another monster needs to learn to kiss the fucking ring." At that, several weights detach and begin floating freely, ready to be thrown by Barry's psychic posse. The Mutant seems unthreatened as he seems to finish transitioning to a much bulkier form, stretching his thick arms for some imminent punching.

This is going to get real ugly, real soon.
--
What to do?

[] Side with Barry. Maybe you find this mutant gross and/or too confrontational, maybe you want to get in with Ravenholm's ruling social class.
-[] Write in how you intervene

[] Side with the Mutant. Barry is picking a fight for literally no reason, and he looks like he might need some backup.
-[] Write in how you intervene

[] Stay out of it. Discretion is the better part of valor.
-[] Stay in your hiding spot. It's worked so far, and doesn't risk you getting noticed and pulled into the conflict anyway.
-[] Escape to the pool. If the psychics are going to start throwing shit, your hiding place potentially won't be there for very much longer.
-[] Write in


An Aspiration is forming!
Short: [Organize the Library Basement]

You have (1) Long-Term Aspirations and (0) Short-Term Aspirations [Max of 3, combined]

Do you Accept?
[] Yea
[] Nay