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xxǀcαяυѕ Ɗσмιтσя ♕ 2ηɗ ♕ Tσмαѕ

__ Icarus prepared himself to respond to Yvonne with confirmation that he had, pausing as Ian appeared. He huffed a little at Ian's statement, feeling a bit embarrassed. Yvonne's add-in about him being 'team mom' was enough for Icarus to turn vaguely pink, and the second year turned his face away but said nothing. Icarus scratched at the back of his neck quietly, not responding to either of them.

In truth, Icarus had spent the whole day checking up on the egg in timed intervals. He knew that the new Tomas building had a charmed fireplace, but Icarus had experience with incubating chick eggs (he had done so with his own chicks) enough to know that the temperature the egg was incubating in was extremely crucial.

Not that he was going to mention that to Yvonne or Ian, though. He didn't want to be teased.

"Whatever they came here for in the first place, I guess."

Vaguely recalling the leaked information that had been up on the board for ages, Icarus remembered that the weird elf they had encountered in Justus had been the group's 'shield'. Had she gone rogue or something? It didn't seem entirely impossible, considering that the last time Icarus had seen her she was being toted off to some undisclosed location to get rid of...demon poison, was it?

Icarus wasn't too invested in the situation to bother properly thinking about it.

"I honestly don't care about what's going on," Icarus admit. "I just wanted to make sure whoever from us came would be safe. Otherwise known as making sure Yvonne didn't get herself hurt trying to help somebody and Ian didn't ******** faux-die. Again. Absentmindedly, he hoped Gil and Scarlett weren't planning on showing up. Gil REALLY needed to get his rest. Icarus had half the mind to make them turn back if he saw them (or at least, Gil) approach, and with that thought he scanned the horizon again.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Cas, and gave a little wave. He was a little happy to see her. Cas was the only third year Icarus trusted, and he was a bit reassured that the number of upperclassmen joining in was going up.

Icarus glanced momentarily at the short ekat that appeared and greeted everyone. A quick lookover was enough for Icarus to assume that the kid was probably nervous. Feeling enough sympathy for him to bother moving his head a little bit, Icarus nodded at the kid before turning his attention back to Yvonne and Ian. ＞

Sтσηє ♕┊♕ Mуѕтιc

THIS TOOK ME SO ******** LONG TO WRITE ******** SCHOOL

Nᴀᴏᴍɪ Pʀɪᴛᴄʜᴇᴛᴛ // Tʜɪʀᴅ Yᴇᴀʀ // Eᴋᴀᴛᴇʀɪɴᴀ Rᴇᴘ

It was a bigger turnout than Naomi had expected. At the least, she'd expected Muna and gang to arrive, along with Ari and Aerykah. She had not been expecting her entire house plus a few Tomas to show. Her whole house being here actually brought complications, but there wasn't much she could do about it now. Maybe Averill could be scared away, but not Ian.

"Looks like we're gathered," she noted; if Gage and Din had been coming, they would've showed with Cas. Maybe Yani would show, she wasn't sure, and Pele was probably blowing something up somewhere else. She didn't want to waste any more time waiting for anyone else, so if someone else showed someone else could give them the explanation.

Naomi cleared her throat for attention; for the sake of time she was going to try to stay quick. "I assume most of you read the hidden message on the Headmaster's note," she began. "If you didn't, there was a message that you could only read with Keen Eye. A barrier disappeared in the Forest and unveiled a cottage that's been there for who knows how long. The Headmaster wants us to investigate it." That part was simple enough. Naomi took a breath; time for the part that would probably have most of these people walking out. "A while ago, I and a few others ran upon a thick plant barrier that Carrmin dismantled, and a Unit Thirteen member popped up nearby and chased us off. I'm almost certain that the cottage is their hideout, so here's the plan."

Naomi's emerald eyes glittered, fierce with determination. "We'll go to the cottage and take down at least one Unit Thirteen member, and then we can take them back with us. Even one of them should be enough to swap for the Headmaster. It's stupid, I know, and crazy, but none of the teachers can do it with the Council breathing down their necks. And we're the only ones allowed in the forest. However, I think we can count on one of the strongest Unit members to be incapacitated or dead, because her barrier is gone."

Naomi took another breath. "If you feel like leaving now, I won't blame you. But this is a surefire way to get the Council as far away from the school as possible, and personally I'd rather not have those assholes breathing down my neck." She glanced around at the ground. "That's all I have to say. I'm going. Follow if you want."

With that, she spun on her heel and started trekking further down the path.


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Eloquent Melodies
Itchigotchi
Reilas
Siyaahi
Makhoire
Nivenne

Averill was used to the statements of fact and quickly-moving-on thing that Naomi often did, and fell into step behind her and Ari. "...actually I'm fairly sure that if council members knew about this, we wouldn't be allowed in the forest either--" Averill couldn't help but correct Naomis facts quietly.
He was pleasantly surprised the boy with the chicken affinity cared about the wellbeing of his fellow students, though, Averill supposed that 'whoever from us' didn't include him. It's still nice to see some community spirit going on, I guess Having not known what the pact came here for apart from possibly the oak, he assumed nobody else knew either, and didn't continue that line of questioning.
Ari's comment was less-than-pleasing, though, still somewhat surprising. Vivian is dying? How does she know that? He frowned, suddenly feeling like he should have left the common rooms more frequently over the last 6 months.

"If thats their hideout, why aren't they hiding any longer?" Averill asked the most obvious question, still following his house rep and Ari down the path. "Either they are bold enough to be seen, are setting a trap, nothing is there, or something has gone wrong and their defenses are temporarily down due to.... due to what? Internal issues? An accident?" Averill tried to go over all the possibilities out loud, and felt like he'd covered most of them.
He honestly didn't know what Naomis problem with the council was, though- similar to the school, it had been set up for generations, to look after the welfare of magicks. If that meant breathing down schoolkids necks to make sure they didn't go unlocking ancient demonic runes, he was actually quite in favor.

⊰ａｅｒｙｋａｈ - ｓａｍｐｓｏｎ⊱
Naomi, you're ******** insane. Aery thought, widening her eyes at the plan. Sure, it was the only thing the group could do to even come close to winning this undeclared war, but it was ******** risky and dangerous.

"Naomi, not to rain on your parade here, but don't you think we're a little under-trained for this s**t? Like Unit 13 is the most highly skilled BP unit there is. Don't you think you're under thinking this a little? We have no plan of attack, and no methods of saving our asses in case we get in too far over our heads. The only thing we got going for us is potential, sheer luck, and numbers."

Aery really didn't want to sound like a downer, but really? Even she who pranked a lot always had a plan and a backup in mind. This was ridiculous. Turning her attention to Averill, she nodded in agreement. "I'm not sure why the barrier is down, but at this point, I think they're either genius enough to have us walk right to them, or something is direly wrong. Either way, we cannot go into this unprepared, guys. It will all be for nothing if we ******** fail this."

Walking backwards, she turned to those behind her, Ari, Averill and Naomi, "So, does anyone have any idea of what would be a smart plan of attack?" She had no desire to hear Naomi's bullshit about how they could just waltz in there, so she may as well see what the others had in mind? This operation could not be a one-man show.

☼☀yvønne☀☼☾tømas-øne☽✦ʜᴜᴍᴀɴ✦
 ₕ ₖ ₗ ₘ ₙ ₚ ₛ ₜ ₝ ₞ ₟

Yvonne highly doubted that Lara was dead. In fact, even if she'd been in her weakened state, Lara was still very powerful and in her element. Elves were naturally forest creatures. At least, some of them, she thought. Was that racist? Species-ist? She'd ask Gil later. Glancing at Ian and Icarus, she wondered if she should mention Lara. The woman had acted more like a victim than a perpetrator in this. Yvonne couldn't help feeling sympathetic toward her.

At the same time, she listened to Naomi and Ari, weighing what she'd heard. She was going - there was no changing that. Getting the council off of their backs would be great, especially for Ian. Plus, the headmaster genuinely cared for the students, as far as she could tell. That was much more than could be said about the council.

Not to be deterred, Yvonne looped her arms through Icarus and Ian's and began walking.

"I don't know how much my opinion is worth, but if your main goal is to get one of them for an exchange, wouldn't the best idea be to separate them? Like... Divide their strength. If they work as a team, the quickest way to break them down would be to break them apart."

Nᴀᴏᴍɪ Pʀɪᴛᴄʜᴇᴛᴛ // Tʜɪʀᴅ Yᴇᴀʀ // Eᴋᴀᴛᴇʀɪɴᴀ Rᴇᴘ

Naomi was getting sick of this. Did anyone here besides her actually use their head? "If conclusions were an island, you would've jumped to it," she snapped. "Information, Aery, it all comes down to information. We don't know why the barrier is down. Perhaps the Shield woman is dead, or ran out of power, or both. Perhaps we're walking into a trap, though I doubt that since aside from Summers, they've tried to avoid directly killing us all year. Not only that, but with the Council so close I don't think they would intentionally reveal themselves." She paused. "With these facts in mind I might safely assume that something is internally wrong, but I don't know. So I'm not going to say anything."

Naomi shivered as she passed over some sort of... line. They'd left Carrmin's barrier now, they'd had to. "You seem to have very little faith in your abilities. I certainly don't think I'm a match for a Unit member, but three of us were. That's the secret to their strength, Aerykah. Teamwork. And if they can do it, so can we." She paused. "Which brings me to my next point. There's five of them, and more of us. If we get ambushed, we scatter in groups. Simple as that. They can't catch us all, and odds are even if they do catch us we won't get killed for the same reason I mentioned earlier."

"As for negotiating with Carrmin, you misunderstand a very basic fact: Carrmin's sphere doesn't let the Blood Pact members in. The only people allowed in are students and professors. If you get back within his sphere, you're safe, so there's absolutely no chance of ambush. And if it comes to that, we can chat with Carrmin about bending his rules to let the Council in and clean up this mess themselves." She stepped over a few branches. "That's not the course of action we want to take if we want the Headmaster back, of course, because if the Council takes the Pact for themselves we'll have nothing to trade with." She shrugged. "If we want the Headmaster back, we have to take them on ourselves. I'm not saying it's going to be easy or risk-free, because it's not. There's a thousand ways this can go wrong. But we need to do something, and fast."


Eloquent Melodies

Mυиα Neנeм 「Yєαя 1」 Lυcιαηxxxxxxxx╳ sᴛᴀᴛᴜs﹕ υɴ-cυrѕed ╳
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「 Naomi won 'Most Controversial Leader' award, apparently. If everyone was going to panic so much, why didn't they just take charge themselves?

Muna found the whole deal a little amusing. He, Shanta and End had encountered the Pact so many times that he was null to the whole business. Not to mention that the whole 'go in without a plan' thing was just how Muna worked.

"Kay." Muna replied to Shanta, taking End's hand and tugging him along to follow after Shanta. He listened quietly as the others argued and discussed what was going on.

She's not dead, Muna didn't say. She can't be. Injured, maybe, but no way would she die against Ezrael at full power.

Heavily injured, maybe? Muna hoped not. Still, he thought it wiser to stay quiet. Muna wasn't sure the rest of the students would do with the knowledge, and he certainly couldn't forgive himself if he ended up ruining Lara's plans to escape.

In all honesty, dealing with the Pact was gonna be a waste of time. Muna knew that he personally couldn't offer much resistance against them, and past experiences had taught him that neither End nor Shanta should, either. "Go on ahead." Muna said quietly so only the other two could hear, trying to work his tongue. "...T'Lara." 」