Today was the first day of school. Unlike most school those Phobos worked very differently. The first 3 days of school students would arrive at there own pace. There would be no classes to allow students to figure out classes, make friends, and become oriented with the over all feel of the school. That was nice. It was... Very nice really. Juliet stared out her dorm room window. It had a view of the gardens and beyond that the bright blue sky and the deep rolling waves of the ocean.

She was nervous. She was scared, and she could not run to Romeo. If she ran to her brother she knew he would never leave her be. He would never let her be her own person. Blinking she put away her last few books and marveled at her room. She'd covered the white walls in paintings of the sky or scenery views. Her bed was small and fit in the corner with its blue cover then she had a book shelf and a desk with her laptop on it. Aside that her room was pretty empty. Leaving her room she headed down the hall when she heard the sound of high pitched screeching. The sound only someone moving furniture could make. Covering her ears she felt her anxiety spike. She wanted out of there now!

Running down the hall the pink haired sickly girl directed herself far from the noise. All the way over to the greenhouse. Panting her gripped her chest. She'd run to far to fast. Shaking she slipped into the greenhouse. Her sanctuary and the place she'd be hosting her gardening / nature club. Juliet sat on a bench exhausted and sighed heavily letting the sounds fill her ears and calm her anxiety. The sound of birds filled her ear and the earthy smell filled her mind...

~ . ~

Romeo was in the music club room. No one was running the club or a band so he took advantage of the empty room to do his forbidden hobby. Play his electric guitar. Juliet's phobia of most any noise that wasn't nature noises or extreme hippie noises or speaking kept him pretty tight on his schedule to play his guitar. Juliet always went out of her way for him to be able to and that he knew. But still he tried to not play it too much. But with club rooms far from Juliets dorm or her favorite spots he could finally play.

Romeo played a tune and smirked. This year was shaping up to be a good one already. Far from his parents he did not have to hide his phobias. But out here he could also make new friends and he did hope to make many... But that also meant there would be many people that might hang around Juliet. That made him nervous. His baby sister was just so naive at times and who knew what kind of people might hang around her. Playing his guitar louder as if to drown the thoughts he stared out a window. He would not let anyone hurt her... No one.

Kathrine wandered through the halls- after arranging her room in such a way that she would have optimal time in the morning to get ready in the morning. She had desided she needed to make sure people knew her- and didn't pry or try to become her friend. She was still wandering when she heard a loud noise, one she immidiately recognized to be a guitar. She wandered toward the noise, until she found the source- and the player. A blue haired boy. "Hello!" She yelled over the music and waked closer, then around him. "You mind?!" She yelled, gesturing to the drum set near him. She loved to play it, and it was almost her favorite behind the saxophone. She made sure not to mention her name or who she was as she sat down at the drums and picked up some discarded sticks.

She began to tap her feet to the music, then began to play to it- filling in the spots where the noise got a little softer and backing down as it got louder. She used to apply her phobias to things like that- she could be herself if there was less people, and she slowly faded into the background, hiding herself so she wouldn't connect to anyone as more people came. She smiled as she began to play faster, in out, in out, and again. She listened to the melody for a moment before she adruptly stopped, then began again. She realized she hadn't played the drums for a time- she had been sure she practiced enough not to forget, but then she had to practice saxophone, then guitar, then piano, then do homework- she had little to no time to really play. She had more time now, now that she was here.

A dock; she was standing on a dock. She took note in the old wood that seemed so rotted that she could fall through at any of the slightest movements, and the crashing waves didn’t make her feel any better. Her stomach lurked at the slight sea sickness she felt even from the small movements. Her violet eyes watched as boats passed by the harbor, small ones with only about four people on them, ranging to a massive size from what looked to be hosting party’s. From the heat of the sun and the area the sun was placed, she could tell it was about afternoon, one or two o’clock. Luxia let out a small huff, turning to walk carefully of the rickety dock; as soon as she took a single step although, all hell had broke loose. The earlier sunny clear blue sky turned into an awful grey and black splotch like color due to the massive amount of storm clouds that rolled in. Screams from all around could be heard as massive thunder struck; her eyes getting fearfully big. Then she felt a drop of something wet roll down her soft pale check. Lifting her hand to wipe off what she assumed to be rain, her hands scarlet color told otherwise. A terrible rustic metal smell overwhelmed her, as rain made of blood poured down the sky, the screams wailed louder, but her own screams wailed louder than the rest. Luxia clawed at her skin, trying to wipe the blood off, her heart pounding a thousand beats per minute, she began to run, only to find the dock indeed give out under her weight. Dropping through the hole created below her, her legs and arms got scrapped by the jagged pieces of wood and she herself started bleeding. Luxia let out deep cries of despair, before plunging her head under the water as if for protection against the blood rain. And that’s when she woke up.

A gasp escape Luxias mouth as she fell to the floor gasping for breath, smacking her head pretty damn hard on the way. Her eyes were stinging from the tears she must have shed during her brief sleep. Wiping her face, she tried calming herself down, reassuring herself it was just another dream. Checking her arms and legs for any trace of a cut, a small sigh of relief escaped her to find nothing of the sort. “Is your head okay,” came a familiar masculine tone coming from her doorway. Her attention turned towards Indigo, her puffy red eyes meeting his overly concerned brown ones. “It was just another dream.” She said giving a weak smile that broke with a cough a split second later. Indigo moved hastily towards her and offered a hand to help her up, but Luxia refused and got up at her own slow pace, moving her black hair out of her face. “Indi, I’m okay.” She said trying to reassure her best friend, giving him a small pat on the arm. Indi was a little taller than Luxia, her frail stature only reaching 5’5 and his 6’2. They seemed kinda like opposites at time, her hair a deep jet black, and his a soft silver color. Giving a sweet smile he said, why don’t you go get dressed, I’ll meet you in the ball room.” He knew that place would calm her down, she enjoyed the windows and the big open space. They weren’t necessarily sure they were aloud in there necessarily, but no one had stopped them yet since they got here. “Kay.” She said with a small breath of air, as she moved to her drawers to take out a plain white v neck, and dark denim shorts. Indigo shut the door with a small click Making sure to make little sound with the headache Luxia obviously had.

Luxia looked out one of the narrow tall windows in the ball room. The weather seemed rather nice outside and it seemed like barley anyone had arrived on campus yet. She had calmed herself down quite a bit from the whole dream. She’s had worse ones, but this one she knew she couldn’t tell Indigo about because of the storms. It would scare the wits out of him for even hearing about one. Shaking her head she mumbled to herself “Gotta be happy. It’s a new day, and hey you did get some sleep.” Turning her head to look towards the door, she patiently waited for Indigo to come.

Luke found himself standing at the edge of the docks, he felt the slight breeze in his hair and continued staring at the Academy infront of him. "Huge," One word escaped his lips before he bent down to pick up his two duffel bags, it was pretty heavy as Luke put the straps across his shoulder. His clothes were simple with his blue shorts that hung above his knees and a black t-shirt that was comfortable and simple white vans. Walking quickly towards the entrance, he looked at the other students wondering what reasons they came here for, he focused on looking ahead.

Eventually he found his room, it was plain but that would soon change, he placed his bags in the center of the room and unzipped one, quickly he started pulling out several posters of famous male actors and singers, "No more boring walls!" He would laugh as he covered the walls with the posters using blutack, after he put up the last poster he sat down on the floor and carefully removed the laptop from the bottom of the first bag. The laptop was black and had many colourful stickers on it, he placed it on the desk slowly and turned his head to the closet, pulling it open he grabbed the other bag and pushed it in there, not even bothering about unpacking. "All done," He would smile happily and walk over to the desk, sitting down on the chair provided he booted up his laptop, it took awhile but it was done. The backround was a picture of a group of kittens, Luke likes Felines; he found them calm and smart like himself. Luke put on some Techno music, his head filled with fast beats and mystical tunes. He pushed away from the desk on his swingy-chair and stopped infront of his bag that held the posters, unpacking other decorations and trinkets he bought from home.

"So much for catering to students phobias..." Jacob sighed heavily as he begrudgingly turned a mirror hanging on his dorm room wall so that the back faced outwards and the horrid reflective surface was forced to show nothing but a blank wall. He would have the mirror taken away later but for now simply turning it around would suit. As long as he didn't see himself inside it. Jacobs spectrophobia, when he really thought about it, wasn't entirely severe. It was more so the fact that when he looked within one it would almost certainly trigger his autophobia, if his autophobia was left unchecked it would trigger his chronophobia. All three phobias working against him would trigger his breakdown. In other words mirrors and Jacob were just NOT a good combination. He looked down at his clothes, same things as yesterday, he hadn't bothered changing when going to sleep and it's not as if they were extremely dirty so he had no desire to change that morning either. A white dress shirt and dark denim jeans, covered by a comfortable looking black hooded jacket. It wasn't much but it was comfortable. Jacob decided not to dwell on it as doing so would in the end lead to nothing more than his own self criticizing. He was alone in his dorm, usually a bad thing, but the exciting thoughts of his times to come at Phobos and the now appointed task of unpacking and decorating his dorm kept him more than distracted. He pulled out some small trinkets and decorations first, a family portrait, him and his parents displayed in a frame with the glass removed, which he placed on his desk. A few books, a couple of novels to read as a distraction, a couple of books based on ancient history for the same reason and the remaining few were cook books, obviously for a more practical use. An old MP3 player that he could listen to at night to distract him while he fell asleep and finally a brand new labtop, for personal use and as a means to contact his parents... only his parents... he had never really had any significant friends back home, he realised. Then again, this WAS his home now, filled with new oppurtunities... right? He decided he needed to air out his head before he started thinking bad thoughts and so he left his dorm room for a walk.

He wasn't sure exactly how the dorm rooms worked... he just knew where his room was and that he went there to sleep, if the dorms were mixed gender or gender biased... he didn't actually know. Not like it made a difference to him regardless but his perception told him that either way the gender layout was sure to affect certain phobias. He walked the hallways silently, observing multiple people and using his perception to psychoanalyse them, just for fun. Eventually he found himself in the library... perfect. Jacob LOVED libraries. Being who he was and how he practically needed the company of others to keep him sane, any normal persons outlet for peace and quiet was usually out of his reach. However in libraries there were people everywhere to keep him distracted yet still... almost perfect silence apart from a slight mumbling. Feeling relief at finding this new safe haven he marched into one of the various reading areas available, took a book from a nearby shelf... a fantasy novel by the looks and sat down in a fairly abandoned corner. It was actually shockingly empty in that corner, in fact it would seem that apart from one or maybe two other people he was the only one there. *Whatever.* He thought. As long as he could see and feel that other people were there he had a constant distraction from himself. So with a slight smile he opened the book and began to read. *Chapter one...* He thought as the words read out loud in his mind.

Exhaustion. That was all Ryan felt as he lied in bed, staring at the ceiling of his dorm room above. When he was first told he'd be sent to a school in the middle of the ocean to treat his aquaphobia, he assumed it was some sort of twisted joke; the day he was told to prepare to head there on boat is when he realized his mother was serious. He spent the entire night beforehand just like he was now, staring at the ceiling. He occasionally turned to stare at his alarm clock after what felt like an hour only to see that a few minutes had passed. Although he was tired and weak, Ryan couldn't sleep that night, and there was no way he'd sleep on the actual trip, lest the boat would end up sinking and he'd drown without being able to escape. So, there he was, exhausted and lying in bed. He stood up and walked past everything that was brought for him, which remained in a messy pile for now, and looked out through the window at the sea.

It was all he saw. He watched the waves building momentum in the distance and his body tensed up, as if he expected the waves to continue growing into a tsunami and consuming the entire academy. He dragged the window curtains shut, blocking off the image and relying on the room's fluorescent lamps for light. With a small sigh, Ryan began to unpack his things. By the end of his task, his room looked slightly less empty. A laptop with a wireless mouse rested on his desk with a large pile of clean notebook paper beside it. A mug filled with crisp, sharpened pencils sat nearby. From the next bag, he removed a four-octave electronic keyboard so he could play an electric piano without having to go to the band room for the real thing. Ryan rested it on the space next to the desk before he continued grabbing miscellaneous things such as books, folders and a small row of canned foodstuff. Stepping back to observe the room as it was then, he gave a little sigh of relief. Maybe this won't be so bad, he thought.

♥~
Wyatt inhaled as much air into his lungs as he could, then let it allllll out in a massive sigh. He spun on his heel to face the young girl once again, looking annoyed and desperate for her to leave. "Look I.. I know you're probably lost mate, but I'm pretty sure you have t' find your room on your own, right? Getting used to the area? Your rooms not even on this side of the school, you know.." He huffed lazily, pulling all the books he carried into one arm, and rubbing the sweat off his forehead with the other. He was growing exhausted of having to stop and explain why she needed to leave ever five seconds. "I've gotta get to my own room, too...!" He told her again, but Hazel just wouldn't listen. She stared at him as if she was expecting something, but what? Wyatt glared at her for another few seconds. Was this about what happened earlier? Him tripping over her leg? He told her he was sorry, but he hardly stopped to see if she was okay. Was she still angry? She didn't look angry to him, she just looked... Creepy. Wyatt was okay with her stalking him around for the first five minutes, but every other second after that he was paranoid about her. But seeing the girl hadn't run off yet, he gave up. He couldn't loose her, so he'd have to live with it for now. "Agh.. Alright. Fine. Just 'til we find my room, 'k? Then you gotta skedaddle." He He shifted the weight of the books in his arms before turning back around and quickly walking away.

Wyatt did eventually find his dorm room, and boy was he relieved. The room might have been one of the closest to the library, of which he would visit as soon as he got everything set up. "Alright now, you know what that means. Goodbye!" He chirped, turning around, expecting the girl to still be there. But, for some reason she wasn't. Hazel had already disappeared. Again, odd behavior, because he couldn't get her to leave earlier. Wyatt looked down the hall both ways, but there was no trace of the strange girl. He stood puzzled for a few minutes, before shrugging it off. "...Hmph." Wyatt turned back to his door, put the books down, opened it, picked the books back up, and went inside.The room was pitch dark, save for the light that leaked in while the door was ajar. He found the light switch conveniently placed next to the door, and flipped it. When the lights switched on, the first thing noticed was that the room seemed.. empty. Wyatt didn't really care for how vast the room looked. In fact, he liked it empty. It would give him more room to walk around. But still, putting up a few pictures of his family wouldn't hurt.

✿~
Hazel had already found her room yesterday. The room was now decorated with night-lights and lamps, picture books and drawings, and pillows thrown everywhere. Maybe she did bring a little too many pillows, but she needed them. The window's curtains were taken down, and small boxes were placed underneath the bed, to prevent anything from crawling underneath her while she slept.

Hazel was sitting on a warm bench near the entrance of the school. Currently she's looking for another student to follow. As she watched the students climb off the boats and walk cautiously towards the school, she found out something ...strange. Most of the students came in pairs. Like a buddy system, maybe? This was confusing, but it didn't upset her. more students meant more company. But now, spending around fifteen minutes just watching them, Hazel grew tired. She rested her hands on her chin and her elbows on her knees. She kept watching the students, until she finally dozed off. Hazel curled up on the bench, falling into a dreamless nap.

It had been early in the morning when she'd arrived. Having taken the very first ferry, Alice had landed on the island before most of the other students. This, of course, was fortunate, since she had to take several trips to unload all of her luggage, and if there had been many other people there, someone might have stolen something important. Like her stuffed animal collection. That would have been a dire predicament. It would mean that someone on the island was trying to break her connection to Wonderland, a situation which could have spelled disaster. The end of the world as we know it.

Fortunately, no such calamitous event had occurred, and, compared to the job of moving at least half a dozen large bags by herself - she absolutely refused help, not trusting any of the students or staff with her precious belongings - unpacking them had been delightfully simple. By six thirty AM, the room had been filled with her beloved plushies, and, since the easel she'd just set up seemed to be calling to her, Alice had decided to finish a painting she'd sketched out a rough framework for beforehand - although, as was her custom, she left plenty of space between the lines, as it were, to be filled out as inspiration struck her. It was mostly just a sketch to begin with, but swiftly expanded beneath her skillful brush. The image soon took on a life of its own, more and more of it becoming fleshed out with every stroke she made. Soon, she was looking at an expansive rendering of a fantastical - one might also call it "drug induced" - landscape with countless bizarre and wondrous features that meshed aimlessly one into the other, several forming mind-bending angles that would have given Escher a run for his money. The canopies of trees came from upward-flowing waterfalls, and the clouds reflected the landscape below, but, in doing so, caused many things to change shape or location completely. Within the surreal world Alice had created, the only inhabitants seemed to be a multitude of unique creatures that appeared like a blend of several different normal animals, the fusions ranging from creative and natural-seeming to unrecognizable chimeric things that challenged everything one thought one knew about nature.

After a few hours of carefully adding a detail here and there, or throwing in completely random novelties as inspiration struck her, a sense of finality finally came over the fickle young artist, and, drawing back from her picture, she declared it to be finished, and left the paint to dry. Setting the easel back in a corner and returning her art supplies to a large cabinet she'd decided upon to serve that purpose, she spent the rest of the morning largely simply sitting in a chair, staring out the window and off into space, and wondering if what most people would think were seagulls were actually just parts of the clouds overhead, or what the origin was of the name of the color "Prussian Blue." As far as she knew, there was nothing particularly blue about Prussia, so she really had to wonder about these sorts of mysteries. Any one of them could have been the key to cracking the mystery of the world itself.

But, after a few hours spent in an almost comatose state of contemplation, she was abruptly struck by the urge to go to the library. Rising up from her chair and shuffling between the rows and rows of stuffed animals seated upon every piece of available furniture, the pink-haired girl slipped out into the hallway, and wandered off into the school. Most of the other students, as of yet, were still unpacking in their rooms, so she had little trouble in avoiding people as she made her way to the facility she, more than any other place in the school, wanted to explore. Entering this place, she found it almost empty, and so, taking the eighth blue-covered novel she saw on every left shelf in three randomly chosen rows corresponding in their last number to the past three "lucky days of the week" she had been given by fortune cookies she'd eaten on Tuesdays, Alice satisfied herself with three rather large-looking books about which she knew nothing at all save that they were stories, and so went to an unoccupied reading room and set up shop.

.....

It was over an hour before it happened. Upon entering the room, she had immediately gathered up all the chairs - most of them were somewhere between a particularly poofy couch and a gigantic beanbag chair - she could find and placed them in a makeshift wall around one of the corners. Then, placing herself in this corner, hidden from view behind the assembled seats, she had decided to make reading more interesting by doing it upside down. Flopping onto her back, she then braced her legs against the wall and climbed them upward, using them to "lie" almost vertically upon the surface, all but standing on her head as she did so - although actually, the weight was mostly placed upon her shoulders. Another person might have abandoned this position out of discomfort. Alice, on the other hand, maintained it admirably, and, pillowing her head against one of the beanbag chairs, opened her book, flipped it upside down, and began to read. It was just more fun this way.

However, after a long time which the girl herself didn't really notice the passage of, something unexpected happened. The door creaked open, something which entirely failed to get her attention. Even the sound of footsteps approaching, not noticing the small shape concealed behind the wall of chairs, was enough to snap her back to the reality of the empty room. Rather, Alice had slipped away into the world of the story, forming a sort of mental boundary between herself and reality. She had begun to fantasize, and, in her case, that was a state that might as well have been sleep.

What did get her attention, however, was a sudden jerking on her hair as someone decided to use the beanbag chair she'd been employing as a headrest, and ended up sitting on top of her short pink tresses in the process. Even the pain as her head was somewhat forcefully snapped back by the sudden yank upon its locks did very little to rouse her. She gave a slight expression of displeasure, her cloudy blue eyes slowly beginning to refocus as she cocked her head slightly, staring up at the back of someone who looked to be a boy about her age. Hmm. Was this fate, or sabotage? Or maybe fated sabotage? Or maybe she was fated to sabotage this... whoever he was? Hmm. What an interesting prospect. She almost spaced out again considering it, but then she realized that the pain on her head, a sensation which seemed somehow... distant, to her, had yet to abate. Oh, right. She should probably do something about that.

"Oh. Hello," She spoke up, deadpan. Her voice was quiet and mellow, like her blank, almost sleepy facial expression, giving the impression of one who has been slumbering for a very long time and was only just beginning to wake up. Her blue eyes gazed passively upward, peering over the rims of her spectacles, which had been knocked a little ways downward by the whiplash of having her hair pulled. She sat, almost completely motionless, idly watching the boy to see how he would react, like a very bored spectator might watch a football game. "You seem to be sitting on me," She observed casually.

Of course, although Alice was calm, it was very likely that the boy would not be. After all, a sudden, low voice had piped up from literally right behind him, which, even to someone as alert as him, might still come as a surprise, just like the fact that he'd likely missed the motionless form in the corner - it wasn't unlikely, considering that Alice had perhaps failed to so much as twitch even once for the past hour - might shock him later once he had time to think about it. But, perhaps more startling and unexpected than this would be the position the mysterious girl was in. Despite her relaxed expression, like a narcoleptic overdosed on sleeping pills, she was most certainly not in anything resembling a normal position. Lying vertically on the surface of the wall, reading a book upside down was, quite plainly, a completely unexpected sight. The fact that she was doing it with such a careless, casual air only made things more strange, especially when one considered what she was wearing. A white blouse, the top two buttons undone to allow some air down the collar, and a short skirt made up almost the entirety of her ensemble. Naturally, given the position in which she was lying, this presented several issues with modesty that she either didn't notice or simply didn't care about. As it was, just by turning to face her, the boy would be provided an unintentional but no less direct view down the front of her shirt, and up her skirt. And yet, her expression completely failed to change. As though she'd been tranquilized, or, more likely, simply spaced out the moment she finished speaking, she was simply lying there, her head cocked slightly to the side as she seemed to stare blankly through the boy rather than at him. It might have been uncanny, if it didn't jump clear past that and take a flying leap clear into the realm of bizarre.

He sat silently for a few moments. Jacob had read this one before, unfortunate, it was a lighthearted tale of a young boy thrust into an unusual and unfortunate series of magical events due to his untimely meeting with a girl raised and brought up to learn the ways and working of magic, the girls world was in peril and the boy had to work with her to restore balance. It was a good read for certain, something he thought just might be worth a second read. So to being he moved through the first few pages, they detailed the boys average every day life. Jacob was only a few pages in when he heard the subtle high pitched chime of girls voice behind him "Oh. Hello,"... wait... behind him? That was strange he had been almost certain that the corner he sat in was all but abandoned, yet here he was, another person almost directly behind him. How mysterious. Still this wasn't the most shocking thing in the world and it wasn't as if Jacob was the kind of guy who ignored company so he subtly turned his head to meet the girls voice... before freezing entirely, his eyes widening and jaw dropping.

"This... this is..." Jacob muttered incoherently as he tried to grasp what he was unintentionally witnessing. Before him lay a girl upon a wall, who seemed to dislike the laws of gravity. Her head and shoulders upon the ground and her legs sprawled into the air, she seemed to have been... reading?! What was this? Who in their right mind would purposely read upside down? *Obviously this girl...* Jacob corrected himself. This wouldn't have shocked him normally, in fact in most other circumstances he may have smiled, or maybe even laughed, however the main aspect of this girls appearance that had grasped his attention was the fact that though the girl actively tried to deny gravity... her clothing was not making nearly as much of an attempt to rebel. Jacobs poor teenage eyes began darting upwards and downwards, unsure of where to focus. Yet wherever he looked he seemed to be looking somewhere he shouldn't, be it up this girls skirt or down the front of her shirt, which for whatever reason had the top pair of buttons opened for the populaces viewing pleasure. *Wait since she was upside down would that not be DOWN her skirt and UP the front of her shirt?!* Jacob thought frantically. *More importantly, is that REALLY the matter that should be concerning me right now?!*

While Jacob had an argument with his own mind his body sat completely perplexed eyes darting frantically up and down looking for a suitable position to rest and not finding one anywhere. Jacob wasn't exactly... the best, when it came to girls, due to his phobias he had never really had the self-confidence to approach one romantically and as such never really bothered with viewing them as anything other than fellow humans, however now his teenage hormones and... delicate view of the situation were royally twisting and warping the poor boys innocent brain. He would have read into the girls reaction but at that moment he was so shocked he couldn't think straight. He stopped himself, turning his head at a ninety degree angle and finally managing to pull himself together. *Calm down Jacob, if you know anything about females it's that they don't often go around showing off their bodies for kicks! She's probably even more awkward right now then you are... you need to calm yourself down and take some initiative...* He sighed heavily and was about to apologise to and console what he was certain would be a blushing young lady now covering her once revealed delicate areas.

However... upon turning his head back his eyes widened once again to see the girl still uncovered with a tired expression written upon her face. "You seem to be sitting on me," the girl observed with a casual tone to her voice. Jacob looked down and saw that his beanbag seat was pinned down upon her pink coloured hair. She was so... calm... it was incredibly strange yet Jacob had to admit that considering the situation presented before her, it was almost admirable. His eyes snapped shut then, preferring to not see anything as he slowly rose up and tossed the beanbag chair off of the girls hair in the general direction of a few other similar seats. Before sitting down on an ordinary wooden seat. "A...apologies..." He slightly cracked his eyes open. *Yup... she's still uncovered.* He thought to himself.

"I hate to appear blunt or... in the worst case scenario... perverted..." He shuddered at the thought of that. What if she thought he was a pervert? Openly staring like he did? That would be horrible. "You ehm... your.. delicates they're eh..." He grew sick of this awkward behavior and opened his eyes to reveal a stern expression. "Damn it all woman your panties are showing! Does that not bother you? Cover yourself up... please." Despite his stern disposition within the current circumstances, Jacob being Jacob had to remain as polite as possible.

Still staring off into space, the mysterious upside-down girl simply observed with an emotion somewhere between sleep deprivation and apathy as the new arrival stammered incoherently, spending several moments staring in a rather unusual way at her, all the while trying to pick his jaw up from the floor. Yet, despite this outburst of shock, Alice didn't really seem to notice, and instead just kept on gazing blankly upward, not seeming to really distinguish between the boy she was looking up at or the ceiling and far wall beyond him. Her head tilted slightly to the side, she sat motionless, even as the stranger tried to make sense of the situation. Hmm. The ceiling was blue here. It was a nice color, too.

Abruptly, however, she was once again forced rather violently out of her comfort zone as the boy, overreacting to her observation, leaped up and threw the entire chair she'd been propping her head against away. With a dull thud, the girl's head plopped down, bonking rather hard against the floor, her glasses making a quiet clattering as they dropped from her nose and landed a short distance away. Yet, despite the discomfort she had to have been feeling, her only reaction was to crane her head backward so as to once more turn her gaze towards the newcomer, still looking like she was overdosed on sedatives all the while. For a moment, she was silent, and motionless as ever, as though processing the boy's angry outburst in the same way an antique computer system might contemplate a punch card. She blinked once, in the sort of overly-thorough way that made it seem more like she was beginning to fall asleep than simply clearing her eyes. Then, slowly, she opened them once again, and replied in a manner that, at first, seemed like a complete non sequitur.

"Do you think I'm pretty?"

There was a momentary silence as she stared upward, seeming to lose focus for a moment as though she didn't really care how the boy responded, regardless. "You were staring at me," She added by way of explanation, suddenly giving a slight grin that seemed somehow sly, as though she had just uncovered some great mystery and was insinuating that she knew it without actually saying it. "Do you do that often?" She asked pointedly. "Stare at people, I mean," She added after a slight pause, again clarifying something that really didn't need any sort of explanation. "Or do you just stare at girls?" She asked casually, before adding yet another tactless, rather awkward remark with the straightest of faces. "I don't really mind, but I think other people will get mad at you if you do that. You should probably stop." She seemed to ponder this for a moment, then returned to the previous subject, now speaking more as though to herself in earnest contemplation than to the newcomer. "Oh... Maybe it's just underwear you stare at. Hmm, is that why you're here? Do you have a crippling fear of underwear? How unique."

Within a few seconds, Alice had perhaps become even more off-putting than she originally had been. Not only had she completely failed to move herself as Jacob had requested - even in spite of the fact that she apparently honestly believed that the boy had some sort of terrifying fear of her panties - but she had abruptly begun to rain down a flurry of tactless comments, all without breaking her completely stoic expression save to give an out-of-place sly smile. Her nearly monotone, yet somehow inquisitive and earnest voice was still calm and low, and betrayed very little hint of emotion to help Jacob to discern if she was trying to be sarcastic or otherwise witty, or if she was actually being serious. Actually, as it was, it seemed much more like the latter than the former, as she was speaking with a completely straight face. There wasn't a hint of jest - or, for that matter, much of anything - in either her face or voice. She seemed as distant as ever, as though her head was in the clouds and she was just staring blankly through them, vaguely in the direction of the boy to whom she was ostensibly speaking. The fact that she was still upside down, and just as immodest as she had been a moment ago, only made the sudden encounter all the more bizarre.

Jacob suddenly noticed he had caused the girls head to thud against the floor, in his haste he had probably been seen as a brute, however in reality he was simply trying to rectify his wrong. "Gah!... My apologies I had no intention of causing you any harm..." He took a step close, turning his face at a slight angle to avoid looking directly at her. The situation to him was awkward and what he assumed to be an incredibly bad first impression, however he found he was acting differently to the way he usually did. "Such a sudden change in mental pattern is very unusual of my individual psyche... I find myself in wonderment to the cause, perhaps the shock of this ones general being there yet not mentioning anything for such an extended period of time... or it could most likely be my awkward and... revealing, perception of her appearance..." He found himself muttering his thoughts aloud.

"Do you think I'm pretty?" The semi-familiar voice rung in his ears as the question processed in his mind.

*Jacob think very carefully about what to say next...* He was perplexed then. He had seen more of her then he was sure he should have, saying yes would make him appear as the biggest creep on the face of the planet, however saying no... what kind of insult what that be? Claiming a lady he had just become met to be unappealing to the eye... what horrid fellow did such a thing. However with knowledge of this unavoidable plight what kind of horrid woman would ask such a question upon first meeting, especially considering the circumstances. Jacob sighed and decided the best thing to do would be to look upon her face and make an honest judgement then, he hadn't exactly been paying her face much attention and so he hadn't really gotten a good look at it. Heck, if she was ugly his experience just became a whole lot simpler.

Peering slowly down at her face, his eyes drooped in what appeared to be annoyance or sadness. Which is exactly what he was feeling mind you, but not for the expected reasons. The girl was indeed attractive, light pink hair and contrasting dark blue eyes made quite the impact on Jacob upon looking closely and aside from that she appeared to be generally pretty... despite her apparently strange attitude. Jacob didn't know how to answer the question then. He didn't like lying... but saying yes to her question would be... strange. So he said the only thing he could think of. "I don't know yet." *...good job Jacob.* His own thoughts subtly scolded him for his less then brilliant response.

"You were staring at me," Jacob jolted from his thoughts as the girl spoke again. She was smiling, as if she had realised something. Jacob felt himself blushing despite his usually calm demeanor. He HAD been staring... "Do you do that often? Stare at people, I mean," The girl paused for a moment. "Or do you just stare at girls?" He didn't know what to say so once again he decided to answer honestly. "It depends on the person really... Gender doesn't matter, I mean yes I am attracted to females, but if I find someone or something interesting I might find myself staring in order to better understand them or it... " He blushed even further. "That is... I wasn't implying that I was... I didn't mean to... I just, when I saw you like that I panicked and froze for a moment that's all! Nothing more, I wouldn't be so... perverse." He felt himself rambling and so cleared his throat. "Either way, yes I suppose I do stare occasionally, but whether people like me or not doesn't particularly bother me by a great deal.

"Oh... Maybe it's just underwear you stare at. Hmm, is that why you're here? Do you have a crippling fear of underwear? How unique." The girl commented calmly. Jacob suddenly turned to face the girl, forgetting her unusual positioning for a moment and focusing on her face. "What my fear is of is none of your concern however for your information it is not panties..." Jacob stopped for a moment then. He had perceived her to be mocking him, yet however strange this girl was she could not shrug off the tell tale signs of human emotion. He saw it, a small amount in her face yet just enough... her question had been one of earnest. She seemed to generally think he had a fear of panties. Jacob moved his chair closer to her and began to examine her face in greater detail.

"How strange... you... you were serious..." He realised he was once again exhibiting a habit of staring and pulled his face back. "No... I'm afraid you were wrong, I do not fear your panties, or anyones for that matter... just myself as a male... find being able to see such things and being in such close proximity of them for the length of time I was without a single sound out of you for the few moments I was sat down... well it was embarrassing... in fact I... oh?" Jacob noticed the girls glasses a short distance away. They must have fallen off as she bonked her head, it surprised him he hadn't noticed sooner. He rose from his seat and retrieved them, wiping the accumulated dust from them and swiftly returning to her, he knelt down beside her, making sure once again to not directly look at her, still apparently awkward he held the glasses out in one hand. "These are yours correct? I knocked them from you when I removed the bean bag chair, my apologies." He winced slightly. "But... could you please... turn yourself upright? Please?" He asked awkwardly, still avoiding placing his gaze directly upon her.

Romeo had barely heard someone come in until they started to play. Smiling to himself he played louder but slowed down until they had the beat down and he sped back up. He played loud and proud and smiled the whole time. When the song ended he laughed and spun around to face the person. "Well hello there fellow student~" He said with a pleasant smirk on his lips. The brown haired girl looked young then him... Maybe but older then Juliet his sister. "Might I ask your name? Oh and before you ask for mine first... It's Romeo... Romeo Vlo at your service miss." Smiling becomingly he played a tune on his guitar gently. "And if I can ask another question~ Where did you learn to play like that? You picked up the beat quite quickly." Smiling even wider he played his little tune.

Alice seemed satisfied with the boy's answer to her first question, for she shrugged noncommittally - an odd gesture, coming from someone who was upside down. The end result was something between a full-body wiggle and some sort of bizarre pushup - and gave a single slow nod. One might have called the gesture "sagely," but only in the sense of an old and possibly senile individual that the word "sage" occasionally brought to mind.

"I see," She murmured in a contemplative manner, giving another long, slow blink. "So I'm like an unseen cat in a box you haven't opened. How mysterious I am. Very mysterious." At this point, she again seemed to be spacing out, for her words were almost directed towards herself rather than to the boy who was even now stammering some long-winded response, stumbling over his words, then correcting himself. How absurd, to think that someone would speak without even knowing what they were going to say! Alice always made sure she knew what she meant to say before she said it. Granted, she didn't always know how she knew, but it always made sense to her. At least it made sense to her. But sometimes... She spaced off again, masking the gloom she felt admirably. The greatest change that came over her face was a simple lack of focus in her eyes as she once more began to gaze blankly off into the middle distance. The boy's angry outburst in response to her question, however, was enough to snap her back to the present. It seemed that the subject of fears was a sore spot with him. Or maybe it was the subject of underwear? She could never be sure. People were so confusing.

"Why is it strange that I was serious?" She asked, deadpan. The tone in which the question was asked wasn't at all different from her previous quiet attitude, but the slight cocking of her head to the left demonstrated her confusion at this question, even when her placid voice and stoic facial expression did not. "If I wasn't serious, why would I have asked? Like building a car with no wheels. It doesn't go anywhere. Unless it's a hovercar, but I can't build those." This meandering mockery of a metaphor swiftly seemed to snatch Alice's rather short attention span, and her train of though jumped tracks and began to move in a completely different direction. Even as the boy got up and began to move, Alice seemed not to notice. At the very least, if she did realize that the boy was doing something, she didn't care. Her expression was once more blank, simply staring upward as though watching clouds. That is, until suddenly, a dark shape fell over her view, the boy's still unfamiliar face coming directly into her line of sight. He was holding something, and was saying something in a rather placating tone, offering her something. It took her a moment to realize that the object in his hand was her glasses. Oh, right, she should probably put those on. That explained why her vision was rather blurry at the moment, at least. With astonishing quickness, her hand shot up, closed around the bridge of the glasses, and removed them dextrously from the boy's grasp, swiftly placing them upon her face. As her hand returned to her side at a slow rate that clashed with her earlier alacrity, she blinked several times, very slowly, as though concentrating intensely on performing the action properly. Once she had finished, however, she nodded slightly at the boy's request. Last time he'd asked her to cover herself, she'd been too distracted by pondering his meaning - after all, wasn't she already covered by the underwear she was wearing? - to actually realize his intent. When he asked her to turn upright, however, it was perfectly clear what he meant. Alice was by no means a difficult person, in her own opinion, if you didn't dance around issues or speak in strange ways.

With an audible squeaking as her featureless black shoes slid down the wall, Alice slowly flopped down onto the floor, then rose slowly, lurchingly, into a seated position, rubbing the back of her head slightly, then shaking it back and forth several times, sending her pink tresses sweeping out wildly around her for a moment before she regained herself, blinking once, then once again, and staring blankly at the boy, as though waiting for him to do something. Perhaps it was she expected that since he'd wanted her to come down from the wall, he was going to ask for something else now that she was actually seated right side up. Or, perhaps it was not. Alice's face was as unreadable as ever, giving Jacob no hints as to what she was thinking about, or if she was even thinking at all.

"Hello, Romeo. I......." she bit her lip lightly. "Kat, call me Kat.... but... don't...." she said lightly. That was her middle ground- she didn't care if anyone knew her name, but if they knew her full name they could find out about her life- and that was something she didn't want anyone poking into. She looked down as she continued "I.... um..... it's.... a.... I have a.. uh... problem with... something... and... er.... I practice? I play guitar too... and saxophone, and flute, and a medley of other things" she wanted to tell him, but what if he told another person? It wasn't like she could just go around telling her phobia's to everyone. Maybe if she was his friend- not the other way around- and she knew she could trust him not to tell anyone... who was she kidding, she couldn't tell him. She would have to be dependent on him not to tell anyone- if everyone knew her phobias, it would be okay, but they didn't, so she didn't want to be labeled as something she wasn't. She smiled as he played the tune again, and she waited for him to finish, then played a tune of her own.

Indigo walked into the ball room, his brown eyes scanning the huge empty room before spotting Luxia. Running his hand through his silver hair, he smiled at jogged u to the girl who stood by the window, pressing a bag full of ice on her head where she had smacked it earlier that morning. "Thanks," She smiled lightly, "Are people pooling in now?" She asked curiously, grabbing the bag from it and holding it onto her own head. Indigo shoved his hands in is jean pockets and shrugged. "I suppose so, but it doesn't seem like a bunch of people." Nodding her head, she brushed some of her black hair from her face. "I have a strong feeling were going to be the loners." Giving a small smile at him, she was half joking. Indigo didn't think it was a joke. "I wouldn't be surprised if I didn't make any friends, you, I'm sure you will. You're nice enough." She laughed at his very blunt compliment. "Aw, Indi. You just need to put yourself out there!" She giggled, reaching up on her tippy toes and patting him on the head teasingly. Indigo gave a grunt, but looking down at her, he gave a smirk and ruffed her raven black hair, messing it up. He laughed at she complained and smoothed it out.

"I would compare you sooner to a "cat in the box" that was thrust upon me and surprised me so that I pushed it back within its holdings before I could look upon it properly." He explained his own train of thought as best he could, using her own metaphor as a means to make it easier to understand. "For me to make a true judgement, the cat in the box would have to jump back out again, then I'd be more prepared and able to see it better." He smirked momentarily to himself, he felt he had explained that well. So he let himself have a small and rare moment of pride. The girl seemed to space out for a moment again, as if her train of thought had been cut off by her own words. So Jacob found himself doing the same, he didn't even know this girls name. Yet. He would ask it, he thought, it was only polite that he did so after all. Just as he was about to present the question, however, she spoke again.

"Why is it strange that I was serious?" She suddenly spoke

"Your seriousness? It's strange for the simple reason from another person it would more than likely be perceived as an insult to my reaction." Jacob explained to the girl as best he could. "If I wasn't serious, why would I have asked? Like building a car with no wheels. It doesn't go anywhere. Unless it's a hovercar, but I can't build those." Jacob was about to explain but his expression froze. "That's..." Jacob didn't have a reasonable answer. "I suppose it's just normal human nature..." Jacob muttered, however he was quickly learning that this girl seemed to be a little bit different to the people he usually dealt with. "I don't know why anyone would actually DO that... at least I don't know a definitive reason... I guess, that's a good point." Jacob said with a light blinking as if he had come to an over the top realisation. However he was snapped out of it as the girl made a sudden movement snapping up the glasses from his glasses. She did it with almost pinpoint accuracy, the glasses vanished from his hand and sat upon her face without a single flaw in the movement, as if it were something the girl had practiced for days yet that was in no way possible, perhaps she had snapped things from the hands of others before... yet the definitive shape and weight and grip of his specific hand was sure to be different to anothers, similar perhaps, but enough of a difference to hinder a perfect movement. Then again he DID have the habit of overthinking things... which he was most likely doing at that moment. He always did that... his perception was always on after all, even when sometimes he just wished he could turn it off. His face gave a slight grimace for a moment as he realised that at that previous moment he had been contemplating the girls somehow "perfect" grab, when such a thing could be due to simple concentration or chance. However he decided to move on from the topic, deciding to stop dwelling on his own nature and his face straightened out to a plainer expression.

He was snapped from his mind once again by the irritating squeak that came from the girls slowly descending shoes. She was... doing as he asked. She shook her pink tresses left and right and Jacob frowned as one of the swatted his face. Yet as her hair fell back down he blushed lightly again. He realised he had no idea what to say at that moment, he was still a boy after all, meaning that the appearance of an upright attractive girl before him was enough to make him panic slightly, especially considering his complete lack of experience with most females aside from analyzing them. His eyes widened slightly as he peered at her now upright face. She was indeed, as she had put it, "pretty". At least in Jacobs eyes that is and her apparently strange personality interested Jacob at that point more then it had shocked him a few moments ago. He decided he would attempt to psychoanalyze her then. Use his perception, to read her emotions and learn more about her, so slowly he closed his eyes for a brief moment, visibly longer than a blink, however still not long enough that it was absurdly recogniseable. Jacob merely did this to clear his mind before attempting to read someone, however to the average person it would have made him appear quite strange.

When Jacobs eyes opened it was if he was seeing this girl for the first time again, his vision running over her facial features and noting any little change that he could, he wasn't an expert, however at such close range he had expected to at least see some unease in her face... yet... There was next to nothing there... Jacob blinked a few times, this girl was so... blank, her emotions barely poured through her face. She was either very VERY good at hiding what she was feeling or she... she worked on a completely different wavelength to anything Jacob had ever encountered. *Surely not...* Jacob didn't know what feel at that realisation. Worry at the fact he had no idea what this girl was feeling? Unease at the uncertainty of her intentions? Maybe even excitement at the prospect of an actual unpredictability? He just sat there looking for a moment before realising that, once again that he was staring at her. He shook his head vibrantly, his own hair shaking lightly to the left and right before clearing his throat and speaking.

"Sorry about that... ehm..." He realised then, that he still didn't know her name. He decided that at the very least, at this point, some introductions would be in order. "Again apologies, I don't believe I got your name..." He held out his hand to shake hers as a friendly gesture.

"I'm Jacob Sorata Misaki. Might I ask your name also?"

Sitting in bed, Ryan pondered about what to do next. Classes wouldn't start for another couple of days; for now, it was mostly students coming in and getting adjusted to their rooms and such. He tried to taking a nap to make up for his sleepness night but gave up after thirty minutes of lying restlessly in bed. His next resort was to try writing what was on his mind, so he sat in the chair by his desk and pulled out a blank sheet of paper as well as a sharpened pencil. He rhythmically tapped the head of his pencil on the desk, trying to think of something to write about. Ryan assumed that being tossed into a new environment with complete strangers would serve as an excellent muse for him, but he only managed to write one or two lines before erasing them and starting over. He sighed and picked up a notebook and pencil, leaving the room. Might as well explore the school or meet new people, he thought. Maybe something I come across will even inspire me.

Ryan walked by the many dorm rooms, seeing students hauling all of their possessions inside and attempting to organize them. He heard loud cacophony coming from the band room as he walked past it, so he knew he wouldn't be able to try playing piano in there at the time. He continued on past the entrance to the library; he already had plenty of books with him to read. He trudged onward, crossing by the ballroom, which he assumed to be empty until he heard quiet voices from inside. The only thing that remained in the building itself was several empty classrooms. He considered returning to his dorm until something caught his eye through one of the windows -- a beautiful garden with a greenhouse. Exiting the building and ignoring the sounds of the waves nearby, he stepped into the gardens, taking a deep breath. The air was so much cleaner here than in the city he used to live in.

Entering the greenhouse, he sat down next to the flowers and smiled. A place like this was much more inspiring than the bland dorm room he was given. He opened his notebook to a blank page and began to scribble down words, not really making an attempt to plan them out; he simply let the words flow from his mind onto the sheet, decorating it with graphite. When he thought of an excellent rhyme, he erased the lines beforehand to make them fit. Soon after, the verses filled two columns and the entire sheet. He was so enthusiastic in his writing that he didn't notice the rose-haired girl standing mere feet away from him, her eyes closed as she calmed herself with the sounds of nature that surrounded them both. He jumped a bit upon just noticing her before regaining his composure and asking, "Are you alright, miss?"

Alice seemed to ponder Jacob's response for a moment, gazing silently into the middle distance as she mulled over his analogy. It was a mere moment of blankness, yet it was something that she seemed to do often. Much like how a normal person might mutter a "Hmm," or a "Well," or perhaps some other meaningless vocalization while they thought of a response, Alice seemed to simply blank out, speak when she had something to say, then return to the unfocused, sleep-like state which seemed to be her usual demeanor. However, since the boy began to speak again, after a few words she seemed to set her musings aside as her eyes refocused... somewhere in the direction of the boy, at any rate. It still wasn't clear if she was looking at or through him, but at least he - apparently - had her attention. On some level, at least. That vague, unreadable expression of hers really didn't help when it came to understanding what she was thinking about or paying attention to.

As the boy held out his hand and gave his name, Alice didn't move in the least. Her own arms remained hanging almost limply at her sides, and, at the very most, she might have shot a single glance at the boy's extended limb. And yet, she seemed either to not understand his gesture, or to reject it, and just kept gazing blankly at him.

"So you are," Alice said at last, giving another one of her bizarre, somehow sly un-smiles, the edges of her lips rising ever so slightly in an expression that might have been some sort of grin or another, yet looked somehow conspiratorial or knowing. It wasn't clear if this expression was meant to imply something or if she was just proud of deducing his name from his very unambiguous self-introduction, but it was pretty obvious that she'd dodged his question, as she quickly began to space out again. It was pretty clear she was thinking about something, but it didn't seem likely that what she was pondering was her own name. Maybe. With her, one could never tell. However, when she finally did speak up, it was quite obviously not an introduction.

"Why are you asking if you can ask a question?" She said, cocking her head to the side slightly in a manner that might have signified confusion. "If you're going to ask a question anyway, why not just ask the one you want an answer to?" Alice added, seeming to be interpreting Jacob's request literally, if her perplexity at his politeness was any indicator. "You're weird. Like a person who finds a magic lamp, then wishes he found the lamp in the first place. Pointless."

"So you are," The girl was grinning again. Yet her smile only brought him an expression of unease. It wasn't the "kawaii girly smile" he had come to know from the few girls he had encountered back home. It seemed as if she had come to know or already knew something that he either didn't know or had made some mistake in revealing to her. Yet considering how small her smile was... it certainly said alot, so he decided to pass the thoughts of her smile over. *Yes... her smile... hmm...* Jacobs thoughts began to drift into an almost non-analytical state, but he rectified this quickly. Shaking his head slowly and refocusing on the situation at hand.

Jacob had stared, almost annoyed at the girl as she blatantly misunderstood or perhaps generally rejected his handshake. However as he looked up at her, he noticed she was providing a certain glare of her own. Her eyes felt... piercing as they looked at him. As if she wasn't looking directly at him... her eyes seemed to pierce right through him, yet they were still looking "at" him. All at the same time. As if he was merely a window for her vision yet at the same time he wa.... Jacob stopped his train of thought. Even though the feeling was there and the feeling was strong he had to stop over thinking everything this girl did. She seemed to take things at face value, painfully so, in fact. At the very least that was the impression he was getting. Meaning that for every little detail he over thought, this girl had simply... "thought". Then again there WERE these little dreamy periods she seemed to have in between... he simply couldn't work this girl out he realised... at least not yet... so for now he would try the approach of also taking everything at face value. Making himself as literal as he possibly could.

"Why are you asking if you can ask a question?" The girl spoke again, waking him from his train of thought to reality once again. He had to admit he was acting differently around this girl than he did around other people. Most likely because her very demeanor seemed to be unique, forcing him to think longer and harder about his responses aswell as her own in order to grasp and understand his situation. "If you're going to ask a question anyway, why not just ask the one you want an answer to?" She kept speaking. Incredible, she seemed to be completely oblivious to the fact that he was simply trying to be polite to her. Would this girl truly only comprehend the bluntest of phrasings? "You're weird. Like a person who finds a magic lamp, then wishes he found the lamp in the first place. Pointless." Jacob was getting frustrated, was this girl mocking him? Was she stupid? Was she simply so unsophisticated and untrained in the ways of proper manners that she could not comprehend a polite speaking interface?

Jacob was about to speak sternly but stopped as his mouth opened and he was about to think. *Be literal Jacob... don't over think this time.* He closed his mouth, cleared his throat and began to speak again.

"Yes, I am weird, quite weird in fact..." He admitted. "I'll cut to the chase... I want to know what your name is, what is your name?" He said, speaking as literally as possible, not leaving a single hint of riddle or questionable material in his sentencing.

"Alice," She said at length, and, for the first time, her face broke out into what was unmistakably a smile. Perhaps she was proud for the boy's sake that he'd finally said something that indubitably made sense, or for her own for somehow enlightening him, but whatever the reasons for her grin, it still likely seemed somewhat out of place. Yet, there was something indescribable about it that was undoubtedly earnest, making it almost impossible to assume that her next words were spoken in jest. "See?" She said, grinning. "Getting answers from me is easy, if you just ask for them. In certain cases, anyway. Like, if you were to ask me what the meaning of life was, I'd probably be wrong. Donuts are good, but not that good." She shook her head once or twice, as though trying to somehow physically derail the train of thought before it got too out of hand. This course of action seemed less than effective, however, for she swiftly ceased the movement, halting almost as though frozen by something in the middle of her motion. Struck, apparently, by a sudden thought, she returned to her previous contemplative demeanor, her expression lapsing into one of thoughtful stoicism as she seemed to lose focus on reality. After a few moments, she spoke up.

"Wait," She said with surprising seriousness. Although she didn't move overly much, the way she frowned ever-so-slightly made it seem like she was in deep concentration, as though pondering a very important or mysterious matter. Speaking slowly, as though unsure of the adequacy of her words or the truth of her belief, she abruptly took up an old matter, as though she had suddenly realized something she'd missed upon first contemplating Jacob's words.

"If you need to observe me more closely to understand me, does that mean I should turn upside down again?" The question was asked innocently enough, albeit with a certain inexplicable sense of ever-so-slight trepidation and, of all things, eagerness, but the implication was less than modest. It seemed now that she'd misunderstood Jacob's attempt at a metaphor, despite her own apparent love of misplaced, misused, and oftentimes nonsensical comparisons. Although she didn't seem confident in the conclusion she'd drawn, it was nonetheless apparent that her ability to comprehend most normal concepts seemed tremendously low, and her propensity for misconception was truly unprecedented.

Romeo smiled. He could tell that Kat did not trust him. "Haha sorry if I'm making you awkward." He played his guitar slowly. "You can play quite a few instruments by the sound of it... It can only my guitar. My sister has a phobia of noise so it's hard finding time to practice guitar with her around." He played a happy tune and smiled at Kat. "I can tell you don't trust me... It's cool I get it." Looking away he continued to play with little on his mind...

~ . ~

Juliet jumped as a voice split the silence. She blinked and looked over at a boy who appeared to be writing. "Who? Me?" She blinked her bright eyes. It was strange talking to someone without her brother there to dive into the spot light and drag her away before she got even a sentence in... "I'm fine..." She coughed. "Just a little dizzy and startled... N-NOT CAUSE OF YOU!" Putting her hands up she waved them wildly her cheeks going red. "I-I just heard loud noises and I well umm... Ran and then here and... I should stop talking..." She shyly shifted. "But... Ummm how are you? Are you alright?" She asked shyly to the blonde haired boy.

Ryan couldn't help but smile a bit at her startled response and sudden elaboration of her dizziness. "I'm not one for loud noises, either," he explained after the girl told him what happened. Shortly after, she asked how he was feeling. "I'm fine, just haven't managed to get a lot of sleep recently if the bags under my eyes are any indication," he answered. He rubbed his tired eyes and took another deep breath of the clean air that surrounded him. I guess I could see why somebody would come here if they were in a panic, he thought. It's certainly nice and calming. Ryan closed his notebook and stood up, realizing as he did so that the girl in front of him was a fair bit shorter than himself. He was a bit startled at how he seemed to tower over her despite not being particularly tall himself. On top of that, she looked frail and sickly. He quickly remembered that most people don't exactly enjoy being judged by strangers and shyly looked away. "Sorry, it's just..." he mumbled and trailed off. In an attempt to break the silence, he tried to continue the conversation. "My name is Ryan Corlett... may I ask for your's?"

Juliet blinked and felt herself hug herself shyly when he stood. He was tall compared to her and without her brother to keep her safe she felt a little shy. She blinked at the silence and could feel him staring her down. Juliet stayed still and ket her gave either up past him or anywhere else but his eyes. When he apologized she blinked and looked at him directly for the first time her bright blue eyes going wide. "Sorry? That's a silly thing to say... It's fine." Juliet's voice was soft and gentle as usual. "I get why people stare... They often say I look a little helpless..." Juliet smiled before breaking into a fit of uncontrollable coughing. She pressed a hand on her heart as it began to hurt and she let herself tumble into the grass. After a few seconds dizziness seesed and she peeked up to see the boy still there.

Not only was he still there but he had given her a name. "Of course... My name is Juliet Vlo... I'm really happy to meet you Ryan." A smile brimmed to the surface of her face. "Sorry for toppling over... I'm not very healthy...Sometimes I faint other times I can't stand... Mostly it's just a little asthma and heart troubles..." She withered a little and held herself close. "I-I hope it doesn't bug you if I cough... I can try not too if you'd prefer!" Her voice raised a little at her last words and worry streaked her face. She'd finally met someone... Someone who seemed kind and her brother had not dragged her away... She did not want to scare or annoy them.

"A..lice..." Jacob sounded out the name innocently. He was actually quite surprised, he had expected his new approach to be effective, but not at such an... immediate rate. He contemplated her name for a moment, Alice, it was nice and in a weird way it almost suited her, it had some sort of familiar ring to it, he felt as if he'd heard the name somewhere before but he couldn't quite place it. He decided to ignore the strangely familiar feeling and move state his thoughts. "Alice." He repeated it once more in full. "I like it, it's a nice name for certain." He finished speaking, however he noticed as he turned his attention back to Alice with his words in tow, that she was already smiling and, thankfully, it wasn't one of the dark and knowledgeable smiles she had presented so far, it was a nice proper earnest smile. It seemed maybe a little out of place but Jacob wasn't really bothered. He had always loved making people smile, it was one of the few things that assured him he had done something right, so in equal earnest he smiled happily back. "See?" Alice said. "Getting answers from me is easy, if you just ask for them. In certain cases, anyway. Like, if you were to ask me what the meaning of life was, I'd probably be wrong. Donuts are good, but not that good." Taking this slightly odd comment in his stride and noticing Alice seemingly trying to derail her own train of though through physical momentum, Jacob replied. "Well you'd "probably" be wrong... but there's always a chance you could be right." He attempted to explain a strange view on her strange comment. "Nothing is definite after all... well almost nothing... speaking of indefinite things, the good or bad aspects of donuts are entirely up to perspective... you could see them as "good, but not that good" while someone else could see them as the most delicious baked good in the Universe." His smile turned awkward for a moment as he realised he was probably overdoing it. "But yeah, that's just my take on things."

"Wait," Alice spoke up again with a serious tone that caught Jacob off guard. Had he said something wrong? Had she seen something unpleasant perhaps? Was she not feeling well? Was there some other complex, strange problem that he could never possibly guess? Obviously, Jacob didn't know, however he did notice as she began to frown ever so slightly, she seemed to be in a state of contemplation... over what? Impossible to verify at that point in.... the circumstance. *Yes that's a better way of phrasing it...* Jacob thought. He shook his head slowly and looked back to Alice an inquisitive expression mixed with light concern now replacing his friendly smile. "What's wrong, Alice?" He asked with a slight undertone of caution. Silence for a moment, however a mere couple of seconds later Alice spoke again. The words leaving her mouth serving to leave Jacob in an entirely different state...

"If you need to observe me more closely to understand me, does that mean I should turn upside down again?" For a moment, at her words, Jacob simply sat and stared blankly at her, doing his very best to keep a straight expression, however despite his best effort his mouth opened slightly in shock his eyes widened and he began to blush again. *Why... why on Earth would she think I desired such a thing?!* He thought frantically, his physical body frozen, staring at her face, specifically her face, with shock. *Alright Jacob, think! What did you say that could have triggered this reaction?! You fool! Did you say anything to do with analyzing?!* His thoughts became more and more frantic as an awkward silence fell upon the conversation. *...the meaning of life? No, surely not.... The donuts?! No, no... calm down Jacob she's doesn't appear to be nearly perverse enough to jump to THAT innuendo...* Jacobs shocked eyes began to fill with doubt and confusion before jumping back to a shocked state as he realised what she may have been drawing this from.

"I would compare you sooner to a "cat in the box" that was thrust upon me and surprised me so that I pushed it back within its holdings before I could look upon it properly."

*Oh no....* He realised just how bad that could have been taken. It implied that he wanted to... that he had been too shocked before but that now he wanted to examine... *Oh. No.* Jacobs mind was in an embarrassed and awkward blur. Various thoughts like, *What have I done?!*, *I'm not a pervert! Am I?!* and *What on Earth must she think of me now?!* were flying back and forth through his poor innocent brain. Eventually he stopped thinking and realised that he should probably explain... as in, right at that moment, before the situation got worse. "No." He said blankly. "Alice... by that I didn't mean I wanted to closely examine... that region of your body or in fact your body at all... for the most part..." He stopped. "And by THAT I don't mean I ever WILL want to examine your body!" He stopped again. "I mean... ehm... It's not that you're unattractive or anything! I mean yes you're quite appealing to the eye... but that doesn't mean I'd want to... I mean I wasn't trying to... I wasn't implying that I was ever thinking about..." Poor Jacob was simply digging a deeper hole for himself. "..." He went silent for a moment. "What I meant earlier... was that if I were to get to know you... meeting you in that specific position you were in would not be beneficial to..." He tried to explain but he couldn't think of how to follow up on his words. He hung his head.

"Look I do not want you to turn upside down again... you're very pretty I'll admit... but talking to you while you're in that position and.... examining you... like that is not something I am currently interested in. Those are the base details of the matter."

"Oh?" Alice actually reacted slightly to Jacob's comment about her name, tilting her head to the side slightly in the manner of a particularly curious bird examining something new and unusual. Granted, she wasn't pecking at him, but still, it seemed like an appropriate metaphor. After a moment of thought, she gave her half-present, sly grin, as though proud of herself for some reason or another. "I don't think anybody's ever said that to me before." She lapsed into silence at this point, seemingly intrigued by Jacob's follow-up on her donut theory. As he spoke, she frowned, beginning to apparently contemplate his response rather deeply. Then, slowly, in a sage manner, she shook her head. This time, the motion was very slow and prolonged, making it clear that the gesture that fit so well with her own subdued demeanor was meant as a disagreement rather than to merely snap herself back to reality.

"Some things have to be definite," She said uncompromisingly. "If nothing was definite, then everything would be meaningless. Words, laws, and even people would be impossible to understand. Truth can't be relative, or else it doesn't exist at all. The world is confusing enough with natural laws and definite truths to follow. Think of how bad it would be if there was nothing definite at all. Trying to understand would be like trying to go to the store to buy a Popsicle, but the store is all out of Popsicles, so you can't get one. And they never sold Popsicles to begin with, because there is no store, and even if there was, and even if they did sell Popsicles there, and even if they currently had Popsicles in stock, then you still wouldn't be able to buy or eat one because you're just part of a butterfly's dream and don't actually exist. Stuff like that. Nothing makes sense no matter how much you try to make sense of it because there's nothing to make sense of and no way to do it because you're operating on the premise that nothing makes sense to begin with." This entire tirade had been delivered in a perfect deadpan, yet Alice had scarcely stopped for breath. For someone who gave the impression of complete, objective apathy, acting like she was just observing the world instead of living in it, she really did seem to like stating her opinions. Despite her quiet demeanor, she used more words than most more apparently talkative individuals. In any case, despite the bizarre analogy she used to make her point, there was a certain sensibility in what she said. But, moreover, although it was veiled behind her sudden torrent of words, there was a certain dislike she seemed to hold for... something. It wasn't exactly discernible why she seemed vaguely upset, but, for a split second, her eyes - perhaps the only parts of her face that changed their attitude on a regular basis - seemed almost sad.

This emotion was, however, quickly washed away as the boy recovered from his momentary stupefaction and then began to stammer and act in a way, that, evidently, confused her. She tilted her head first to one side, then the other, one of her eyes narrowing as though in contemplation, the other widening slightly as she raised an eyebrow, seeming to find Jacob's stammering, flustered attempts at a response to be very strange indeed. He contradicted himself at least three times, and his words came so fast and yet so irregularly that Alice honestly couldn't grasp what his meaning was. She tried to discern it for quite some time, furrowing her brow and frowning more and more, shifting uneasily where she sat and several times shaking her head violently to herself. At last, staring at the floor as though defeated, she mumbled something that, like her previous remark, seemed rather melancholy - or at least, as close as she got to it. Her demeanor was still very much subdued, as though she was on some sort of sedative, but there was a distinct air of discomfort about her face, even though her expression was now a conflicting mass of... something. The emotion she was displaying wasn't exactly clear, her face seeming like a mashup between countless different facial expressions that, overall, sent such a mixed message as to be indiscernible save for her irritation or gloom, or maybe guilt, or maybe a thousand other emotions... at.... something.

"I... I don't get it," She said quietly. Her voice was still calm and quiet as ever, yet her complicated expression gave her words a tone of final defeat that her actual tone failed to. "You... think I'm pretty, but you don't want to look at me... but you do... but you don't and never will...?" She abruptly began to shake her head violently, shutting her eyes tightly as though in some form of irritation, but the meaning of her expression was still unclear. "I can't understand it. It doesn't make sense," She declared at last, giving a slight shrug and abruptly returning to her calm, featureless expression as though some sort of reset button in her mind had just been pressed, instantly wiping away all traces of the mystery-emotion she'd been showing before. It wasn't a question, a request for explanation. It was just a statement, a final proclamation of her verdict, an absolute "truth" that, like her previously stated opinion, had absolutely nothing relative or subjective about it. That was all there was to it, apparently.