[September 18, 1530 GMT. Katherine takes the high speed train and local train, but finds her own way from the small town near the campus.] [Start!] (How far's the town from the campus?) (Ten minute drive) (And by air?) (three or four minutes.) * Katherine stretches as she gets off the train. She's back into casual clothes: the jeans, the sneakers, a cream-colored sweatshirt. A backpack's hanging off her shoulders, and her hair's in a single braid behind her head. Haven't bothered with a scarf or anything, so the scar's still visible. She looks around, tests the air, and starts just walking out of town. [There's some activity in town but nothing much of notice, is quite nice out here though.] [She's on her own fairly quickly.] * Katherine lets out a faint sigh and walks a bit more. When she's sure she's not seeing or hearing civilization and people, and sure for some time, she closes her eyes and... shrinks into a common house sparrow. The bird chirps once, almost happily, then takes off towards the campus. (Along the way she is attacked and eaten by a gazebo.) [The views quite grand, they really did have a nice location and the architectures they paid did a good job making just enough improvements to keep the antique look. The bordering forest has a slight ominous quality. Sight awareness roll.] (Made by... *counts*) (Twelve?) [There's a few odd creatures in the wood, mostly staying in proximity of the school. There's a quite beautiful black unicorn (with white horn for the record). She also notices a few kids flying about on broomsticks behind the main keep building] (See more detailed campus description in the main channel) [The main keep does have a fair number of spires and subbuildings with lots of windows and the like, nothing too hard to penetrate.] * Katherine stays clear of the strange creatures that may or may not eat her as she continues her way towards campus. She also stays clear of the brooms, though she idly wonders why she didn't ask for one of those instead of a bike when she was younger. (Answer: Your parents would have thought you were INSANE.) (They'd be right!) * Katherine eventually reaches campus, hopefully at least, and flies down to land on a convenient wall, sill, or branch to get her bearings. And eavesdrop, as the case may or may not be. [She does so without any trouble. Soul (Luck) roll!] (By five.) [She lands on a sill and overhears snatches of a conversation in the hallway between two females students walking down the hall, seem to be around the corner though, so no view. The first voice is more insistant, the second more leisurely. "Do you have the books?" "Have I ever let you down yet?" "You've had more than your share of delays and sudden price hikes." "If you'd prefer to just use the library and save on daddy's pocket book. I won't stop you." "Fine, just hurry. Please."] [The conversation is receding down the hallway, out of Katherine's range. They both seem to be moving in a bit of a hurry.] * Katherine cocks her head, but despite being a bird, has no desire to fly into a window to get to them. What building is she perched at? [The keep itself, upper story.] * Frei walks down the hallway after the girls do by a minute or so, actually dressed in a Unicorn house robe. The hair and eyes are definitely not standard school issue, though. He pauses as he passes the window Katie was looking in, and walks up to it, brow knit. * Katherine blinks at Frei. * Frei blinks at... well, he blinks in general. He's definitely looking for something. * Katherine tilts her head the other way, then takes off, circling for an open window or somesuch. * Frei frowns a moment, then keeps walking. (give me another luck roll) (Miss by one. Can I get more capable: Luck? :P) (Ha.) (A cactus leaps out of a window and smacks Katie.) (Hey, I didn't take Cactus Magnet!) [Katherine manages to find a classroom, a somewhat typical one despite the odd setting and the students in robes. Students seem to still be settling in and a few are still coming in as the teacher, a long-red haired female in her late thirties meeting the description of Lynn Theobold starts the class.] * Katherine stays long enough to hear the first few minutes, and assuming there's nothing of interest, goes back to searching while making a mental note to not interrupt that class. So for the last of our five days on the War of the Roses (emphasis, a fairly displeased one, on five days), it's time for you to present what you've found. Better marks for students who actually get into the character of the person you've studied rather than simply droning on about what you gleaned from an interview with a ghost. [There's some snickering about the ghost bit. One kid in the class, Isaac Maddox, the guy caught on tape, blushes a bit. "I thought I might find some interesting..." He then sinks in his chair.] [Nothing much of interest happens after, some students get into it, some try to cover for obvious lack of research, some are just boring.] * Katherine gets a move on. (Luck roll!) [Katherine sees a few empty hallways and what appears to be a dorm room for the Lion house, also presently empty. She keep moving?] (Are there any open windows in any of this?) (Yup) [A hallway and the dorm window.] * Katherine stays outside and glances in the dorm room for anything interesting. Sadly, she's a little too old to grab their robes and pass for a student. (Aw. You're never too old. I'm doing it!) (You look like you're in your early twenties and can probably pass off as even younger. >.>) (Details, details.) (Some of us age, mister!) [There's a central room with a fireplace and two sets of stairs leading to seperate male and female rooms. The central room is a bit of a mess with books and playing cards scattered about. There's a mug on one table that seems to be eternally bubbling some light green colored liquid.] * Katherine decides the liquid probably wouldn't taste any good and wings her way back to one of the empty hallways. Assuming the window's open, she flies in. Beautiful day, isn't it? [It is indeed. Katherine has successful entered a hallway. Still vacant by and large.] * Katherine keeps going, eyes and ears open for anything odd. And maybe a school directory that she hopefully won't fly into. [The hallway turns so that it leads deeper into the keep itself. Katherine can notice a few paintings down this hall as well as sconces where torches seem to burn with a pleasing but unnatural light.] * Katherine stays towards the ceiling, as high places are your friends, and heads into the bowels of the keep. * Frei wanders by, going the opposite direction! But you can't see him 'cause he's invisibibble. (Bibble bibble dah! Can I hear him?) (Maybe! Lord knows he's not terribly stealthy otherwise.) [She notices to her left a doorway with the words 'library' written overtop in stone. To the right, farther down the hall, is a door with the label "Abjurations and Protections." She can hear a class active behind that one.] [Then yeah, she can hear him.] (Oh god. Did we pick the wrong hallway or WHAT?) (Holy crap, we're dead!) * Katherine finds a nice place to perch - probably by one of those unnatural burning torches which are hopefully protected so they won't burn children's hands or her feathers - and idly listens to the class. But mostly, she eyes the invisible spot. * Frei drums his fingers on his thigh a minute *dadadumdadadumdadadum* and then sighs. "And then it's gone again. S'like trying to find a needle in a haystack, but the haystack is actually needles." Pop! Visible again. Same guy as she saw before downstairs. "...aw, damn. Let my concentration slip." [One of the paintings eyes Frei when he pops into view.] (I am making up stuff as I go along!) * Katherine would snicker, but she can't. Bird and all. Ooh, painting. That's fun. * Frei eyes the painting with a raised eyebrow. "What?" (He is still wearing school robes. But I suspect invisibility in the hallways, probably frowned upon.) (Invisibility in the bathroom, definitely frowned upon.) (Aww.) (Yeah, I know.) (Good thing there's no paintings in there!) (Yup!) (Occult check (witchcraft) either of you if you want it) Shouldn't you be in class. (Yep.) (Yup x2.) * Frei hmmms and seems to give that a lot of thought. "You know? You're right. I probably should be. I'm just looking for some lab equipment I dropped." In the hallway. Invisibly. [Would seem likely to be a painting magically enhanced with a certain amount of intelligence for various preprogrammed purposes. Often showing signs of personality but typically faked.] * Painting of a fairly cranky look old witch frowns. "That's not even a vaguely plausible lie." * Frei glances around a bit. "Yeah, I know, but it's the best I could come up with. Why is there a sparrow indoors?" * Katherine doesn't seem to have noticed that Frei's looking. Preening. [Meanwhile from the classroom. A fairly brash and exciting female voice lectures. "So, this ogre, a larger than ordinary to be clear, was chasing me through the castle. I'd already tried most of the spells you'd recommended..."] (It's Gilderoy Lockhart. I kill him!) Why are you concerning yourself with trivial matters and not getting back to class? * Frei walks over and looks birdward, knitting his brow. "Because it's irresponsible to leave familiars sitting in the hallway." He kneels down. (If the painting busts out "a/s/l?" I may cry.) (HA.) ("ive got a webcam its really neat") * Katherine blinks down at Frei for a long moment, then flaps down and lands on his shoulder. Sure, let's play along. She goes back to preening. * Frei smiles responsibly. He is responsible! And law-abiding. "Alright, then. Off to class." He then expedites his departure away from the Abjuration room with all due haste, and believe me, a considerable amount of haste is due. * Katherine would wave, but no arms! Or hands. Being a bird has some problems. ["And found they didn't work. The thing was wearing had a powerful Amulet of Spell Nullification." There's some groans about that, apparently that's given people a bad time before. "And yes, they are out there and you can't neglect physical training because of that."] * Frei pffts to himself as he walks by. "Spell Nullification. That's when you turn the ground under his feet to broken glass or something. Use your head for crying out loud." He can talk and walk at the same time! He's clearly a graduate student. * Katherine stays perched, preening her feathers very carefully. She's a very pretty familiar. ["So, how could I have handled that?" "Smash the amulet" "It's an ogre." "Effect things around it, cause the ceiling to collapse!" "Good thought Terance, but the building was rickety and might have slayed me too."...] ["Kick it in the crotch!" "Less effective on some species than you'd hope. And again, ogre, didn't want to be close." There's a fairly impatient voice, Katie recognizes it from before. "Cast Engorgio."] * Frei snickers, waiting until he's out of eyeshot of the Turing Test Painting before turning and looking at the bird. "I don't suppose you've seen a brass incense burner in the shape of the Merciful Goddess Kuan-Yin around here, have you?" He pauses. "Man, I am losing it. I'm talking to a bird." (That the kid who was caught on tape?) (Nope... the insistent voice from the first evesdropped conversation.) (The girl who wanted books.) [There's some snickering. "Spells don't work on it." "You want to make the ogre bigger?" "All those brains are getting to her head." "No, Maris is absolutely right. And why? Anyone? C'mon, we went over this. Gotta think faster unless you want to be ogre stew."] * Katherine looks up from her preening and blinks lazily at Frei while still listening to the lecture. There's some pause, and then she shakes her head. * Frei pauses. "...did you just shake your head at me?" * Katherine smiles as only a bird can and nods. * Frei doesn't go any further. He wants to know how this works out! Because let's face it, Engorgio sounds like his kind of spell. (It sure does! Let's go enroll. We can be latecoming students.) (They have to have graduate studies or something.) * Frei raises an eyebrow. "Okay. You're clearly not really a bird. Maybe you're where I was getting the weird vibes from." He pauses. "Oh well, what do I care?" (I R SO RESPONSIBLE.) * Katherine cocks her head to one side. What *does* he care? ["Cause it'd explode." "No." "Bigger they are, the harder they fall?" "True, but it's also much harder to make them fall. And yes I see you Maris, wait your turn." "Cause the ugly brute would be too big to move at all inside!." "Good Jarrett, five points for Lion house. So why did the spell work?"] [Silence for five seconds.] (Aw, I should be able to figure this out.) (GM grabs a snack during the silence. :P) (Hee. I should eat something today, sometime.) (Me too, but I'm waiting for food to finish. ^_~) (Hm. Snack for me too! BRB.) ["Because someone bought their amulet on the cheap?" *snickering* "No. Anyone? Okay go ahead Maris." "The ogre was larger than usual, and was probably that way by a spell, considering the use of an amulet which takes great magic to work. However, the amulet can only protect against types of spells, not different casters. Which is why weak and unusual..." "Right, I taught that bit last week, skip ahead."] ["So, the amulet couldn't protect against enlarge without cancelling the spell already on the ogre." "Thank you Maris. Alright, now I've set some drills... Yes, alright five points for the Unicorn House."] (Oh, Jarret was also the one that suggested the buying the amulet on the cheap.) (Heh, okay.) [And it's quieter for a bit, well, lots of individual voices working on drills, some spell casting, some puzzling over work problems apparently. Not too much of interest. Teacher seems to get a fair amount of respect and fairly quickly Katherine would pick up a reference to the teacher as Ms. Ockley.] (I knew it was her! Go me!) (Five points to Katherine house!) (*cheer* I'm my own house! *grooves*) (Should have a sparrow house, but they're just not intimidating. Welcome back. ^^;) * Frei blinks at the solution. "Hey, that's a pretty good answer! And that Maris kid is probably a jerk." * Katherine nods once and moves a little, making herself more comfortable. * Frei mutters. "But as fascinating as that was, it's not getting my stolen property back, either. But where the hell is it supposed to be?" * Katherine tilts her head for a moment, then picks at Frei's robes. Ow! What? (Kate can probably tell he's wearing the usual sleeveless leather shirt/jeans combo under that thing.) * Katherine chirps a low chirp and actually climbs down his robe and picks at the insignia at the chest. * Frei blinks and looks down. "...you're hungry for horsemeat?" A pause. "Oh! You wanna go to Unicorn House. Ah well, why the hell not? Not like I'm getting anything accomplished standing here like an idiot." * Katherine chips again before nodding and climbing back onto Frei's shoulder. Good demon! (Katie; "NO! I really do want horsemeat. ;_;") (Yeah, there was a nice unicorn outside that's *begging* to be shot.) * Frei turns and heads in the direction of the common room thingy, so he can follow someone to Unicorn House. Or he goes directly if he can remember where it IS. [Frei has some time to kill, everyone is still in class for about a half hour.] ...uh... * Katherine blinks at Frei. (But...) (Let's see.) * Frei mutters. "Damn! Isn't there, like, a directory or something?" He looks around as he keeps walking toward the common room. "Like nobody ever gets lost." (Naw.. I'll make him look. ^_^) (Curse you.) (You're cruel. ;P) (Hurry, we have a half hour time limit!) * Katherine would shrug, but bird. (FISSION MAILED.) (OMGWTFBBQ??!!) * Frei walks towards the common room anyway! The wheels, they are a-turnin'. "Okay. Plausible excuses for forgetting stuff. Um..." He snaps his fingers. "Got it." [Frei and his passenger successfully arrive at the great hall. Current ceiling is that of a foggy night on the Bayou. There's a few signs for Voodoo week with a reminder to request a special meal if spices are a problem.] * Frei raises an eyebrow, standing there like a moron. "Okay, now that's just in bad taste." He looks around for people to ask. "Hehe. Squeal pig, squeal! Love that movie." [There's some activity in a kitchen room off to the side.] * Frei hmms and makes for it! "Let's hope sparrow's not a traditional gumbo ingredient, or you're fucked." (...it's not, is it? I'm not big on gumbo. Too much seafood.) * Katherine nods. That's bad. (It isn't) (Oh good.) (You never know. I don't trust Cajuns. c.c) (The foods good) (I do like blackened chicken.) [So, there's actually a fairly conventional kitchen in back, seems to have all the modern hygenic equipment and stuff and is run largely by a staff of a variety of non-European ancestry.] [An Indian (the country) woman notices you enter and walks over. "Shouldn't you be in class?" (What is this, the school mantra?) * Katherine peers around the kitchen. No bird stew or anything. (o/~ Hail to thee / our alma mater / we should be / in class! o/~ ) (Frei should start singing that while prancing in the halls. :P) (That'd be an awesome alma mater) * Frei tries to smile goofily and nods. "Yeah, but I screwed up making a memory potion, or so they tell me. It'll wear off soonish, but I'm supposed to go back and rest... I just kinda forgot where my House is." * Woman snickers for a moment and looks at your uniform. "Alright, go out, make a left. Go down a staircase. Through the secret passage, the one with the lever behind the tapestry of a door. Then third door on your right. Hopefully the painting will remember you as I don't know the password." * Frei does not wince, because he's a good actor. "Alright. Me too. If not, maybe I'll spontaneously remember it. Thanks!" * Frei heads out ASAP before somebody figures it OUT. * Katherine preens. (Give me a navigation roll (hallways). -4 bonus)) (I made it?) (Frei too for descriptive purposes) (Oh boy.) [Frei follows the root quite naturally. Almost too naturally considering he's supposed to have.. naw just kidding. Anyways you get to the door. There's a tapestry with a unicorn prancing through a garden standing next to it. The unicorn is genuinely prancing at this point. It looks up at you and neighs "Password?"] ...aw, dangit! The stupid memory thingy hasn't worn off yet. * Frei tries to look deep in thought. He looks to the sparrow for ideas. Hey, it's his "familiar" after all. * Katherine cocks her head and looks at the unicorn. She saw one outside! Then she looks back at Frei and blinks. * Frei squints with one eye, screwing up his face in concentration. "Do I get a hint?" * Unicorn looks at Frei for a moment, apparently thinking. * Frei knocks his head with a fist, smiling goofily. "I mixed a memory potion wrong. Now everything's kinda blurry." * Unicorn nods it head slightly and inspects the badge on Frei's uniform. (Give me a disguise roll.) (Oh god. I don't have disguise! Um.) * Unicorn eyes him for a moment. "I don't think I recognize you." * Frei tilts his head, then ohs! "Yeah, the hair and eyes, right? I dunno what happened there either." * Frei rubs the back of his neck. "It's cool. Maybe I should just go to the medical wing instead until it wears off." Well... Alright. What's the root of magical power? (Okay, I should know this.) (Roll for it? ^^) (Although I have this feeling Frei's answer would be way more complicated than what the painting is looking for.) (*laughs*) ("Okay, you're a graduate student. You can walk and cast at the same time.") ("Well, it depends on your interpretation of certain nth-dimensional source energy theories and dimensional overlap equations, but TRADITIONALLY...") (Lesse... give me occult (witchcraft) rolls) * Frei blinks. "...no clue." He looks at Katie. "I don't suppose you know?" * Katherine cocks her head for a long moment, and then she glares at the unicorn and chirps accusingly. She seems to consider something a bit longer, then she climbs down onto Frei's arm. * Frei blinks again, genuinely surprised. Then he looks at the painting. "Hey, maybe it does know." Memory or no, any member of our house should know the answer. * Katherine is a smart familiar! And she starts making her way down his arm, sketching out what has to be words through the fabric with the tip of her beak. A little painful, maybe, but he should feel it. * Frei hmmms and knits his brow in thought. And in pain, because ow, beak. Then he snaps his fingers. "Wait a minute. This question doesn't HAVE an answer." * Katherine climbs back onto Frei's shoulder, almost smug-looking. * Unicorn eyes Frei and whinnies. "I'm sorry, I think you're looking for equivicators house." The beast then begins to trot away in the painting. * Katherine almost rolls her eyes, only she can't, because bird. * Frei mutters, then looks at the bird. "Okay, you suck." He starts walking back down the hallway. "Gotta find some other way in there. Hmm." (He's keeping his voice down, for the record.) * Katherine chirps at the tapestry again, then takes off down the hall, looking for a window outside. * Frei grumbles as he walks on. "Stupid pre-programmed decoration. I've forgotten more about magical theory than he'll ever know... hey!" Follow that bird! [She finds one easily enough.] (Open or not?) (Closed but can be opened from the inside) * Katherine perches at the sill and looks at Frei expectantly. * Frei stops behind Katie and looks at the window, then down at the bird. "You know, if I've been talking to you all this time and you're just some bird, I'm gonna feel real dumb." He then looks outside, hmms, and tries to cast a spell! * Katherine smiles, again, as only a bird can. [Frei is invisible! And quieter than usual.] * Frei whews, then takes off the robe and chucks it into a corner; it becomes visible now that he's not wearing it. "Wasn't getting me anywhere anyway. Alright, lead on." He opens the window! * Katherine flies out the window! She begins to glide around towards the rest of the Unicorn branch. Maybe there's an open window, maybe not, but there should be a window. * Frei follows! Presuming he can fit through said window. [She can see in as she goes around, this hall looks a bit more organized than lion house, although it also feels somewhat like a used book store. Magic tomes and scrolls are everywhere, if mostly kept slightly organized. Less of random toys around.] [And Frei can indeed.] (Unicorn = Ravenclaw) (Clearly.) (And their tapestry needs to be burned. >_<) (Yes. >_<) ( I fulfilled my duty and didn't let strangers in.) * Katherine tries to find a good, open window on the girls' side. (luck roll!) * Frei mutters to himself as he flies around. "Feeling kind of dumb for not just trying this first." (Right on.) [She finds a window that's closed, but with her superior vision she notices that it's not latched.] * Katherine flies over to that window and perches at it, listening. * Frei hover-de-hovers over and looks in, saying nothing. See, he does know when to not talk! [Nobody there!] (Throw in a stun grenade to be sure.) * Katherine taps at the glass and chirps insistently, then gets out of the way. * Frei shrugs and gives the window an experimental gentle push. [The window opens!] * Katherine flies in! * Frei blinks. "Huh. Well, there you go." He also flies in! [The girls' dorm has a good number of sub rooms with names on the door, each housing about four people. This particular room is the residence of no one whose names you recognize.] * Frei whispers, sounding a little disappointed, "Man. I could enjoy this so much more if they were a little older." * Katherine chirps quietly. It almost sounds like she's laughing. She takes off, looking for a Maris. * Frei floats along. Quieter than walking! [She finds a Maris! Door's closed at the moment.] * Katherine takes a moment to listen. Hopefully nobody ditching class in there. (What are you, cracked? Hermarisone would never skip class.) (Unless she's the culprit. Ahem.) (Yeah, but there's more than one gal to a room.) (Besides, Hermanamanime also had that crazy device that let her be in two places at once!) [It's quiet.] (Hermione's Head. This fall on Fox.) * Katherine chirps and pecks at the door. * Frei mutters, carefully reaching for the doorknob and giving it an experimental turn. "Isn't there bird for 'please' in there somewhere?" he hisses. * Katherine shakes her head. [The door is unlocked. Boarding schools aren't so big on student privacy.] * Frei grumbles and opens the door. "This better be going somewhere." * Katherine flies in and takes a look around. (Awareness rolls, both of you!) (Sight helps) (Made by... uh... lots?) [There's bunkbeds, two on each side of the room. Nice view of the forest out the window, which is closed and latched....] [There's four chests spread around the room, apparently for students belongings. Also a fair number of personal items, dolls, stuffed animals, the like. Katherine also notices the upper left bunk has a few unusual bumps from beneath the sheets. There's a few books scattered around, and she'd suspect those are as well. Seems some efforts were taken to hide them but the efforts weren't quite good enough.] [Oh, and Frei looks and looks but apparently these girls are careful not to leave underwear out. He also doesn't notice anything else, including the books. Barely notices the chests.] * Frei speaks quietly as he floats around looking for stuff. "...these are some pretty clean girls. They need to join a sorority or something. Naked magic car wash!" * Katherine shakes her head. She flies up to the top left bunk and chirps. Hello, demon! * Frei blinks and turns around, following the birdie. "What?" * Frei hovers on up and takes a look. * Katherine nods, pleased Frei's paying attention now, and tugs at the covers. [The covers move by a very small amount!] * Katherine keeps tugging until Frei gets the hint. * Frei just eyes Katie a minute, then yanks the covers out of her beak. "Yeah yeah. Couldn't you be something stronger like a falcon?" * Katherine chirps indignantly. [There's three books under the covers: Subatomic Thaumaturgy, Cybermancy in a Post-Internet Age, and Magic for Mundanes: Realizable Dream or Cruel Lie?] * Katherine tilts her head briefly, then chirps with amusement. She scoots to the edge of the bunk and down to get a good look at the books lying on the floor by the bed, too. * Frei whistles lowly. "Wow. Someone's trying to live the cyberpunk dream." He snags Magic for Mundanes and flips through it briefly. [There's a mix of advanced and simple books on the floor, nothing too exciting.] * Katherine moves the covers (she can probably do that) of the other two to get a look inside the other books; see if there's anything of note there. [The book on magic for mundanes discusses whether magic can be learned, whether ability can be gained via osmosis through use and practice with magical items, techniques which can supposedly grant magical ability....] * Frei shuts the book and puts it back on the bed, then pulls the covers back over it. "Well, that was fun, but it's not like a know-it-all brat like that kid sounded wouldn't have some of this junk." [The cybermancy book is actually quite specific and of a recent year. Computer (network) roll Katherine.] * Frei frowns and decides to have another look around while the bird plays Oprah's Occult Book Club. (By two.) [Katherine's rather impressed by this book. It does a good job of explaining computer stuff to magic users and vice versa. However, there's also things that are definately above her level in both. She gets the feel this is definately the real deal and rather impressive or nasty things could be done with it, depending on your point of view.] * Katherine blinks a few times. Never mind that she's a sparrow reading a book; exactly what she was looking for isn't in it. She tugs it closed. * Katherine flies over to Maris' desk (she probably has one) and checks it for anything that might point her to the girl who sold the books earlier. Failing that, anything unsual. Failing that, one of those crazy wands, because they're cool. [There's mostly communal workspace. The only real individual thing, which Frei also definately notices now, are the personalized chests. * Frei continues looking, particularly for anything of the artifact or object nature that doesn't seem to belong in a dorm room. ...hello. * Katherine tilts her head curiously and looks over to where his voice came from. * Frei floats on over to the chests and skims them. "Guessing anything useful's in one of these." * Katherine flies over, perching nearby. (Occult (witchcrafT) roll both of you.) (yep.) (Yup.) [Both of you check over the chests and realize that they've got magical locks. Being clever people that you are, you also derive that Maris's is the one with four locks, including a lock on the primary lock.] (Locks on locks. The girl's on magical crack.) * Frei raises an eyebrow. "Now that is suspicious." * Katherine nods. (Not that you can see him, but hey.) (It's the principle of the thing.) * Frei drums his fingers on his arm. "The lock, no problem. But the spells... I dunno about breaking 'em, because I doubt I can put 'em back." (Oh slight modifier. Each chest only has one *physical* lock. The rest are locking spells.) * Katherine adjusts her position. No help here, really. * Frei frowns. "Problem is, if we're wrong, she'll report it, and if we're right, she'll be onto us." He brightens. "We could just take the chest." * Katherine eyes Frei skeptically, then looks outside. * Frei frowns, then takes a deep breath. "Alright, what the hell. I can't let little wizardling brats have that incense burner, that's for damn sure." * Katherine flies to a safer part of the room. (...thanks for the vote of confidence.) (Welcome!) * Frei hmmms and looks the chest over from a few angles. "She's pretty good. No power, but plenty of technique." * Katherine nods, not that Frei's looking. * Frei cracks his knuckles. "Well... here goes nothing. Hope you can pick locks." (And hearing awareness roll while you do this!) [While you work you can hear a distant sound of hooves. Katherine can make out that they apparently have opened the front door and are now coming this-a-way. There's also some muttering about a whacked out paranoid unicorn.] (Snark.) * Frei grits his teeth. "Aw... fuck." * Katherine blinks. She chirps once in alarm and flies over towards Frei. * Frei makes for the door, and back toward the open window as fast as his little flight power will carry him! No time to cover tracks. * Frei actually remembers to take the chest with him. "Desperate times and all that." * Katherine flies after. You know she agrees. (Don't mind the bird following the flying chest out the window. No, really.) [You're both out in time! Whoo, very exciting! Hooves started moving faster once you made your escape, since you weren't trying to be subtle.] * Frei heads for somewhere where a chest floating through the air unbidden won't be obvious. Like the roof or a copse of trees or OFF CAMPUS or something. (Stealth (hiding) roll!) (Oh good god, I don't even HAVE that skill.) (Wanna borrow mine?) (Oh, no! I do!) (Woo.) (I have concealment, does that work as a specialty?) (sure!) [Frei spirits away to the forest. He even thinks to do so in a manner that makes him quite hard to see from the window assuming that the hooved person is going to look out.] [The forest is fairly dark and forboding, but frankly you guys have both seen worse, far worse.] (I am teh awexome.) (Hehe.) * Katherine flies into the forest and makes sure she stays fairly close to Frei. She knows it's him because of the floating chest. * Frei sets down, then sets the CHEST down, then hmms and looks at it. "This better be worth it. And, uh... can birds pick locks?" He looks around for the sparrow in question. * Katherine tilts her head, then nods. She flies down to the ground. * Katherine closes her eyes and grows, becoming the Katherine we all know and love. She opens them, blinks once to orient herself, and walks over to the chest. "You took care of the spells, right?" ... (I think he ran before he described the cast) (Yup.) (I'll let him keep the roll, ,but should actually be described when he does it. :P) (But heck, how do I know? He was invisible. :P) * Katherine looks at Frei. Well, more like past him. "What?" * Frei blinks, then shrugs and becomes visible. "Never mind. Give me a minute." He extends his hand and a violet magical seal appears at the tips of his fingers, then disappears with little violet sparks around the lock. "Now I have." * Katherine grins a little, then reaches into her pocket and withdraws a lockpick. She kneels and gets to work. "I doubt your incense burner is in here, but hopefully there's something that'll point us in the right direction." (Normal roll?) (Actually..) [As Katherine reaches into her pocket for the lockpick there's a sudden bang and smell of fire from within the chest, it shakes a little and you can smoke emerging from the keyhold.] * Frei nods and watches. "Yeah." He frowns a little. "So what's your interest in all this, if you don't mind my asking?" He blinks. "...uh." * Katherine takes a step back, grimacing and putting a hand to one of her ears. * Frei smirks. "Mundane trap. Clever little witch, pardon the pun. Damn." (Well, now that this is a bust. x_x) (Mundane trap with a magical lock keeping it from triggering. :P) (Frei's got enough ability to figure that out IC) * Frei walks over and kicks the lid. "Pretty sneaky. All the magic was doing was keeping that from going off." * Katherine studies it for a moment, then shakes her head. "Paranoid. Why make them curious?" (All one of the four spells was. :P) (The other three were real locks.) * Katherine walks over to finish opening the chest anyway. (Ah. Retcon "the magic" to "one of the spells".) * Frei frowns. "Decoy, maybe? Throw people off from where she was really hiding things." * Katherine comments as she works, "About the same as yours. People in this little school borrowing things they shouldn't." [Katherine gets the lock open without much ado. Inside are a few books which are now largely so much charcoal. There's also a badly singed plushie unicorn, a miniature lantern (singed) and remnants of what looks to be a receipt.] (And I don't sound British, either!) * Frei huhs. He then has a seat in midair. "Go figure. I wonder if there's some way to magically reconstruct this stuff." * Frei waves a hand. "If there is, I sure as hell don't know it. I think." * Katherine frowns a little, concentrating. The wind starts to pick up, dissipating the smoke before it gets too far. "Me neither." * Frei huhs, then extends his hand. "Welp, I guess we're in this together now. My name's Frei." He grins. He has adorable chibifangs! "Nice to meet you." * Katherine snickers. "No relation to a Yvonne, I hope." She stands and shakes his hand. "Katherine." [And so they finally know each others names! End!]