Shelter is only an Illusion || Open

[Amy Delilah Gray]

She was soaked. She was soaked to the bone, and her hair was flat against her head, dripping onto the cafeteria floor. She was shivering, half from the cold rain and half from the fact she was wet. She hated water, she hated swimming, and she hated getting soaked in the rain. She loved the rain, but this was honestly a little too much.
Amy was pacing back and forth, her shoes squeaking on the floor as she turned around every few steps to retrace her path again and again. She didn't like this storm, she really didn't like this storm. One of the kids were trapped on the other island, two of the others going out to rescue him. She hadn't checked back in, she didn't want them to get distracted by trying to talk to her or anything. She wasn't that important. No, they really shouldn't have went, not in these conditions. This storm was the worse she had ever seen, she didn't like it one bit.
Thunder shook the building, and she twisted her head and spun around to look out of the windows on the far wall. Rain splattered on them at an angle, she couldn't even see outside. She could see the outlines of trees, bending so far over she could have sworn they were almost toppling over. Her heart was racing, partly because she had run all the way down from her dorm to here, and partly because as lightning flashed again, the lights flickered. She looked up at them, biting her lip. It would only be a matter of time before they went out. Amy wasn't afraid of the dark {quite the opposite, actually}, but that would mean the island would be completely cut off from the rest of the world. The other students could be put in danger because of it, which wouldn't be a good thing.
Another flash of lightning followed shortly by a clash of thunder set the lights dead, sending the entire room into the dark. She felt her pupils widen, taking in the darkness with something most humans had no idea about. She more or less dove for her water-proof backpack, retrieving from it not just a towel she wrapped around herself, but a flashlight and her iPod. She shoved the pack back under the table she was pacing by, setting the flashlight on the table itself, and then returned to her pacing with her iPod at hand. There was no internet reception here. If there was, her iPod wasn’t picking it up. The storm must have caused something to fall, something to cut the power. She could only hope everyone was okay...
Again, she bit her lower lip as she continued her pacing. She plugged her headphones into the little device she held in her hands, turning the music up as the instrumental pieces almost blocked out the roar of the wind and rain. She could still hear it, even with the music turned up to the maximum point that her ears could stand, without damaging her hearing.
She closed her eyes, choosing to sit in one of the chairs around the table she had chosen to sit at. She drummed her fingers on the table top, feeling the worry and stress getting to her. She had to calm down, she had to. She wouldn’t Shift, not now. If she did so now, she could very well be injured or killed in the storm. She didn’t want that, she didn’t want to be put in danger just because she wanted to run away from everything. If she ran anywhere, it would be dangerous. Just think of those guys out in the storm, in the water in a boat at the moment. She never liked boats, never would either. Water and she did not mix, in case one didn’t get a chance to look at her hair.
Speaking of, she opened her eyes and looked at the mess that covered her eyes. Yes, she would focus on that. That, she could handle.
She brushed the soaked hair out of the way, tucking what she could behind her ear so it wouldn’t all completely fall in her face. It was better than she expected it to be, really. It just wasn’t styled the way it normally was, she supposed. She let out a short sigh, and gave up on it.
She leaned down, pulling the pack out from under the table. If she couldn’t do anything else, she would find a way to relax. She had to; her stomach was starting to twist in a knot. There was no trace of the normal smile that was normally found on her lips either, that had left her when she had first gotten soaked on her way inside. Now she had a fixed frown on her face, even as she pulled her dry laptop up and put it on the table. She lifted the lid, pushing the power button and letting it flash on as she stood up, choosing to walk to the place where they set the food out. If she was going to be here anyways, she would choose to eat something.
She grabbed a few snack foods, apples, chips, and things of the like before sitting down. She avoided the eyes of the others in the room, even as she sat down and set her plate to the side, opening up several windows on her computer; Word, editing programs, even a few other random things that she really didn’t think about. Her eyes scanned over the screen, her iPod still blaring music into her ears, her hands typing swiftly on the keys as she flipped through the different windows. Her eyes were unnaturally white today, thanks to contacts of course. Yes, she had decided to wear her colored contacts today in attempt to rid herself of the overpowering worry that had settled in her brain. It hadn’t worked, but she didn’t want to dig out her container for the contacts, so she decided to ignore them instead. She would find a way to rid herself of the worry from the storm raging outside, one way or the other.

Amy focused her attention on the screen before her, occasionally glancing up to take a bite of an apple, or a chip, but other than that she didn’t bother changing the music on her iPod, or doing much anything else than looking intently at the computer screen. If someone walked up behind her, she would never be the wiser. She didn’t really care at this point though; she was more focused on the pointless script she had created on one of the programs. Pointless in use maybe, but it got her mind off... other things.

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Talking

Count;;

[/color] 1,125
Music;;[/color] Click! && Requiem for a Dream
Lyrics;;[/color] Raise Against- Savior && Linkin Park- What I've Done
Tag;;[/color] Open to anyone.
Notes;;[/color] None[/size][/blockquote]

[Selah Belle Madison]

--

Selah ran from the dorms, she didn’t know where she was going, but she was fine where ever it was as long as it was away from there.

Her feet hit grass, mud, pavement, grass, mud, pavement, grass, mud (and so on) as she kept running. Her heart was pounding as she got soaked by the storm. She kept running as the storm got worse and worse. The wind howled, the tree’s shook, and all she wanted to do was shift and keep running. Four legs were better than two. But, with as much water around her as there was, shifting probably wasn’t the best idea.

Selah tried to run her fingers through her hair, but it was too soaked for her fingers to be able to comb through it. She kept running, her necklace hitting her chest as she ran. Usually it gave her comfort when she wore it, since it reminded her of her mother. But at that moment not even her mother’s necklace comforted her. She started to think of a song, any song, but the only thing she could focus on was the sound of the storm.

Selah stopped, and she couldn’t help but rub the scar on her left wrist. She tried her best to hide it most of the time, but no one was around and she didn’t really notice she had started to rub it. Selah caught her breath, pulled all her hair behind her shoulders and began to run again.

She would probably feel a little better if she knew where she was going, or at least where she was. She had only been to the gym, concert hall, and her dorm so far. She didn’t really know her way around yet.

Through the curtain of rain Selah saw a building, she didn’t know what it was, and she didn’t really care. She wanted to get out of all the rain and wetness of the storm.

As she got closer to the building she saw the lights go out, but she didn’t hear any one scream, which Selah thought was odd. She stopped running and looked around to see what had caused the power shortage, but she couldn’t see very far with all the rain.

She gave up trying to look for what had caused it, and walked to the door of the building. As she was turning the door knob she internally yelled at herself for not grabbing anything before she left the dorm. She didn’t have her MP3 player with her. But more importantly she didn’t have any paper, a pen, pencil, or any other writing instrument; she didn’t even have her camera. She didn’t have any of that with her. She at least needed her camera in case she saw something that needed to be captured, especially in this storm. People tended to behave differently in storms, and act better (some of their actions would be great for a picture: people helping each other in a crisis).

Selah finally opened the door to the building. It appeared to be the cafeteria. She had no idea how she had wound up there, but she had found shelter from the brutal storm and that was good enough for her. She looked around her as her eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room. There were a few students, none of them looked extremely worried (at least not to her). One girl, who was off by herself, was on her laptop and appeared to be almost oblivious to the storm. Close to Selah there was food. There were racks with snacks on them, and other spots for other foods, a kitchen located behind them.

Selah shut the door, and tried to ring out her hair, which she gave up on shortly after she had started. The storm was still raging outside her newly found shelter/safe haven. She tried her best to tune out the sound of the wind and rain, but she couldn’t seem to get the sound completely blocked. She tried to think of a song again, but again, she couldn’t seem to focus on anything but the storm. She was amazed at how everyone else acted like the storm wasn’t bothering them… she knew she probably looked like she was scared to death. Something about the sound of the storm was absolutely eerie and bone chilling.

She looked around the room again, and tried to find somewhere to sit, but every table had at least one person sitting at it. Selah didn’t really feel like sitting by a stranger, or talking to a stranger (which wasn’t unusual for Selah), so she went to where the food was, hoping someone would move to sit by one of their friends. She grabbed an apple, not really hungry, and decided to sit alone in the darkest corner she could find. Her reasoning was the farther away from a window she was, the farther away from the storm she was.

She pulled her knees up to her chest and began to fiddle with her necklace. She knew that having it out in the rain that long couldn’t be good for it, but she didn’t know how to keep it from rusting or if it would even rust in the first place. She absentmindedly stopped messing with her necklace and started to rub her scar again, a habit she had been developing more and more since she had come to Shifter Academy.

Selah knew that her eyes were probably more of a chocolate shimmering brown than the bright green/hazel they usually were. She put her head on her knees, stopped rubbing her scar, and just sat like that. She wanted the storm to end, but she knew that this wasn’t even the worst of it.

[/size][/color]


[ Clothes are Here
Word Count: 960
Notes: ;D ]

[Amy Delilah Gray]

It really wasn’t anything her heard or saw that snapped her out of her out of her shell of calm, but an icy cold wind. She sat up straight, glancing back as the door shut, blocking the storm outside again. She took one look at the stranger that came in, before turning back to her computer. Another person had come to join the little shelter from the storm, one that was only a little better than the dorms in Amy’s opinion. Still... it was better than the dorms.

She had gone back into her own little world, leaving the storm and the cafeteria behind her as she let things just fade into the background of her music. It was actually a few minutes later that she looked up, scanning the cafeteria for the newcomer. Well, it had just dawned on her the poor person was probably soaking wet. Yes, for a moment, she had forgotten the sight outside. It was not a pretty sight, not in the least. As she glanced down at her iPod, clicking it out of its locked stage and pausing her music, she was violently reminded of the hurricane outside. She glanced behind her, a note of fear in her eyes. She didn’t like this; she didn’t like this one bit. The storm seemed to have a mind of its own, like it was an evil being. What would happen to the school? How much damage would it sustain? It could only be a guess as to what would happen...
She turned back to the room around her, narrowing her eyes in attempt to try and see better in the darkness. She was good at seeing in the dark, but she was no superhuman. In fact, she couldn’t really prove anyone here was human.
She turned to the darkest corner of the room, and blinked a few times. She paused, then turned to her bag and fished out another towel, and flashlight. Flashlights, candles, all that she had overstocked in her room. Candles were good for her meditation, and well, she always ended up losing flashlights, so she brought enough that she shouldn’t have to worry for a while. Needless say, she was glad that she brought them now.
She stood up from her chair, closing her laptop’s lid as she grabbed her iPod and made her way to the other student. She stopped by the girl, holding out the towel and flashlight. She looked like she was absolutely terrified... well, Amy couldn’t blame her... the storm was really, really bad after all.
”It’s like running into a large bowl of Jell-o out there, isn’t it?” she asked softly, the small smile that tugged at her lips failing to become the smile that almost always was present on her face. Her eyes, even with the contacts, were clouded with worry. How much longer would this last? How much damage had already been done?
For a fleeting moment, panic surrounded her. The forest... how much would be destroyed? Her eyes widened a moment before relaxing, forcing herself to focus on that moment and that moment alone. She would not worry until the time came to worry. This was not the time to worry.

She set the towel and flashlight down, pulling her iPod up and fitting one of the earbuds into her ear. She unlocked the thing again, letting the music burst through the tiny speakers in the headphones. She turned her attention back to the girl, yet again struggling to offer a somewhat pleasant smile. She was doing her best to ignore the storm outside, but it wasn’t working very well. She was avoiding her fear, which never ended well. Oh well, there wasn’t much she could do about it.

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Talking

Count;;

[/color] 624
Music;;[/color] Click!
Lyrics;;[/color] Raise Against- Savior && Linkin Park- What I've Done
Tag;;[/color] Selah, Open
Notes;;[/color] Sorry, my muse has died >>[/size][/blockquote]

[Selah Belle Madison]

--

Selah’s head was on her knees, she was drenched and exhausted. She had let her mind wander as she sat in the corner and she was thinking about how there was only three of everything in her dorm room, and how she would much rather there be four of everything, since four was a better (safer) number when a voice startled her.

“It’s like running into a large bowl of Jell-o out there, isn’t it?”[/i]

Selah took her head off of her knees and looked at the girl who had spoken to her. She seemed like she was nice enough, but Selah couldn’t really see in the dark (though she could see better than most). The girl was smiling at Selah, a friendly smile, but (to Selah) it seemed a bit forced…but then again, she couldn’t really see in the dark. [/color]

“Yeah,” Selah agreed, not really sure what to say. She tried to smile, but something about storms freaked her out. She began to rub her scar as her mind wandered.

Selah began to think of what would happen to the school, what would survive the storm and what would be unrecognizable once it stopped. She thought about all the people she had seen the other day when she had arrived, she wondered where they were and if they were safe. Despite how scared Selah was, she wanted to make sure everyone was safe. Then she began to wonder if anyone was on the beach when the storm hit, or out in the woods. She hadn’t ever been to those places, she just knew they were off campus, she didn’t know how far off campus they were.

Selah watched the girl take her iPod out, and she immediately envied her for thinking ahead and bringing things. Selah wished she could think of a song, any song, to distract her from the weather. She noticed she was rubbing her scar, and stopped, she didn’t like her scar and she didn’t want anyone to notice it…but if she kept rubbing it like that someone was bound to ask what she was doing and why. The truth was she had no idea why she kept rubbing her scar, it was a habit she had just started the other day and she hadn’t really noticed until just then.

“I’m Selah, by the way,” Selah introduced herself first, something she never did, the storm was affecting her personality.

She needed something to get her mind off of this stupid storm, and just as she was paying more attention to the girl, trying to see what she looked like in the dark, a huge bolt of lightning struck outside, a crash of thunder following it. Usually Selah liked to watch storms, but this one wasn’t a good storm, it wasn’t just a friendly thunderstorm. No, this was a hurricane. And hurricanes didn’t play nice like simple rain storms.

Selah tried to run her fingers through her soaked hair, but she still couldn’t since it was so wet. She began to rub her scar again as the dark clouds rumbled against the flashes of lightning.



[/size]
[ Clothes are Here
Word Count: 518 (approximately)
Notes: Sorry it took forever and a day, my muse is pretty much dead (also why the word count is so low) ]

[Amy Delilah Gray]

Amy watched the girl in silence. She seemed to be rubbing something on her wrist... a bracelet maybe? It was different, Amy could honestly say she had never seen a habit like that but she had never seen a storm like the one that was outside, either.
When the girl spoke, she turned her eyes back to her, and the smile offered before looking down, the smile fading. This storm was insane. She could hear the howling of the wind even through her headphones, and the rain was a whole other story. Usually it was a soft drumming when storms passed through, but this was as though the school were under a subway system with several tracks right over them, and non-stop trains running over them. The sound was deafening, and a bit disorienting. She was surprised the girl had been able to find the cafeteria in such conditions. She wouldn’t want to go outside even if she had to, at this point. She could only hope that the building would hold up against the storm’s rage.

She turned her attention back to the girl when she spoke again, snapping her out of her thoughts. ”I’m Amy Gray.” She replied, trying to add a cheery note at the end. ”Sophomore, martial arts major, and an bobcat shift.” She paused, and then let out a short-lived laugh. ”I never got why everyone here used such lengthy introductions.” She added. She motioned to the towel and flashlight. ”You can use that to dry off, and to help you see your way while the power is out. I have too many flashlights to count.”
It was about then that the lightning flashed, and she jumped as the thunder split through her music. She turned to look out the windows of the cafeteria, her eyes narrowing. Her heart was pounding... and it was safe to say she hadn’t expected that.
She stood like that for a few moments, every muscle in her body tense, until the thunder died. She turned back to the girl, not bothering to hide the fear in her eyes. ”This is a bad storm, eh?” She stated, giving a half-hearted, weak laugh. She glanced back behind her, at the wall with windows that lined it, as more lightning flashed and was followed by more thunder. There was something bad about this storm, real bad. She didn’t like it; she didn’t even like the rain at this point. Normally she wouldn’t mind the rain, as long as she was inside. She was inside, and starting to dry off, and she still didn’t like this storm.

She paused in her thoughts, turning back to Selah. ”Where did you come from? I was out in the woods when it hit, and then went to the dorms for a little to pick up a few things before I came here. It wasn’t as bad as it is now though; you must be thoroughly soaked.” She tried to smile, and failed. Giving up on the ‘trying to keep a light mood’ mission, she sighed, closing her eyes and shaking her head slightly. ”It’s never been this bad before, not in the years I’ve been here.” She stated, looking outside. The storm still raged, and there really wasn’t much she could do about it. She felt helpless, and that was one of the worst things for her. She was angry at herself. She was angry that she couldn’t do anything. She was helpless in this situation... and it made her mad.

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Talking

Count;;

[/color] 585
Music;;[/color] Touhou music~
Lyrics;;[/color] Raise Against- Savior && Linkin Park- What I've Done
Tag;;[/color] Selah, Open
Notes;;[/color] 'Tis fine. Sorry my muse has given up on me xD;; && do you want to try and see if we can merge it with the subplot on here? It says our characters will be hurt, but it might help our muses xD[/size][/blockquote]

[Selah Belle Madison]

--

Selah tried her best to give a cheerful smile as the girl introduced herself. Amy, Selah stored the name in her mind. She looked at the towel Amy motioned to, hesitated, but then took it and the flashlight. She attempted to dry off her hair first, but gave up on that after she was sure it looked like a frizzed, knotted mess. She rubbed the towel on her face to get the water off her cheeks.

“More like a horrible storm,” Selah agreed and tried to smile cheerfully, but gave up when she realized she couldn’t fake happiness in this storm.

She began to think of who was trapped in this storm, and she thought of how easily she could’ve been trapped if she hadn’t found the cafeteria. She began to rub her scar again, but then stopped after she realized what she was doing. She wondered what kinds of shifters were stuck in the storm, and she hoped that most, if not all, were aquatic or semi-aquatic shifts. She would hate to think of someone drowning in this storm… But then again, people didn’t just drown in a hurricane. They could be hit by a flying board, or tree, or anything. It was like a tornado, but with water. Selah shuddered as she began to think of all the possible ways to die or get hurt in this storm. She ran her fingers through her hair, now able to, more out of nerves than trying to make it look better.

Amy’s voice broke her out of her thoughts. “I was in the dorms when the storm hit, I had actually just found my dorm room when it hit. I was going to wait it out in there…but, I…had to leave,” Selah struggled to explain what had happened. Why had she left? Someone had said something…but what did they say? She couldn’t remember, but someone had said something…that made her remember something, and so she ran. She had run away from those dorms as fast as she could, away from what they had said and the memory they had triggered. She wished she could remember what they had said…had mentioned.

“I’m new to Shifter Academy, so I’ll have to take your word on that,” Selah, again, tried to smile and laugh to lighten the mood. “I’m majoring in photography, not my first choice in major…but more practical than my first choice, at least for me it was. I’m a sophomore too, and I’m a black jaguar shift,” Selah didn’t try to smile that time, the storm was too much.

She had never lived by the ocean; she hadn’t experienced storms this bad. She wished she could do something to get away from the storm. She wished she could get away from the wind and rain and flying objects. She wondered if the winds were strong enough to break a window in the cafeteria. Selah ran her fingers through her hair again, beginning to think of all the possible things that could happen. She began to rub her scar, still thinking of all the possible ways to get harmed, just inside this building.

She looked around her, at Amy and at the others. Amy looked more angry than scared, but Selah couldn’t really tell in the dark of the lightless cafeteria room. Everyone else either had a blank expression or looked terrified….no one looked calm, no one looked as if they knew everything would be fine. Selah shuddered again as she hoped everything would be alright. She wanted everyone to be okay, she didn’t want anyone to get hurt in the hurricane. But she knew that someone somewhere, probably, already was.

She stopped rubbing her scar when she realized she was doing it again. She picked up the apple she had set next to her, and began to toss it from one hand to the other. She felt tears begin to overtake her eyes. She hated crying, but she was just too scared to control her emotions like she usually did. She held the apple in her right hand and rubbed at her eyes furiously with her left.

She felt like a little kid, too scared to think straight. She willed her eyes to stop watering up, and, thankfully, they listened. Selah began to toss the apple back and forth in her hand again…when she got an idea. She looked at the apple, and began to smile. It was a real smile, a bright, honest-to-goodness smile. She rolled the apple around in her hand, and then chucked it at the wall across from Amy and herself. She didn’t hit anyone or anything. The apple hit the wall with a nice, loud thud and crack sound and then it hit the floor with a pop. Selah began to laugh, she knew she must have looked like a lunatic…but something about that apple hitting the wall and giving off a loud sound was funny to her. It took her mind off the storm, and she walked across the room to pick it up off the floor. She walked back to her dark corner, apple in hand, sat back down, and threw it again. This time apple juice and junk splattered on the wall, floor, and a few nearby students. She laughed again, as she found something to do and something to take her mind off the storm.



[/size]
[ Clothes are Here
Word Count: 884
Music: Pressure by Paramore
Notes: I read the subplot thing. Okay, so what would we do exactly? Just reply to that thread but continue the conversation we’re having on this board…? Or what?...or if we don’t want to do that I can PM Yahtzee really quick and see if they’ll post something on this thread to maybe jump start our muses (but if that doesn’t work then we can go to the subplot thing)]