One Rudie, check. Bunch of graffiti on everything, possibly including a now-neon bear, check.

[hummingthebaseline]

[It seems someone doesn't like the Campus' hired decorator, because the entire building, inside and out, has a new coat of paint this morning. Graffiti of all kinds is sprayed seemingly randomly all along the outside and inside of the building, and that may even be a tree with a tag at the top, too. There's something distinctly strange about the graffiti as well, for those who actually pay attention to it. As if it's got an energy of its own, somehow, despite being paint.

For those who are awake earlier in the day or can be woken up by the noise and quick enough, they might be able to catch sight of a young teenager in a blue hoodie with bright green hair.

Otherwise, later in the day when the sun's properly up, said kid can be found sitting on one of the air vents on the roof, tapping his skates against the side of it to a beat unknown by any but him.

Yoyo honestly had no idea what the fuck, to be utterly frank. He had been in Tokyo-to, about to race Beat, and then suddenly he'd crashed full-on into the wall of the Nurse's office, freaking out the nurse there until he managed to smooth-talk her back to calm. She'd told him a couple of things -- something about this place being a "Campus" -- and he'd left to try to actually get his bearings.

What he'd found out wasn't comforting. Namely, that there was something distinctly wrong with this place.

Like in Tokyo-to, he could feel the Campus had a soul of its own, of sorts, but it was all sorts of wrong. Its "beat" was off a couple of notes, and unlike Tokyo-to -- which always felt alive and thrumming -- this place almost felt dead, like a half-beaten creature that continued to drag itself along. It just wasn't right. Corrupted somehow, but Yoyo didn't know how or how to fix it.

He's thankful, at least, that the Campus' soul still seems alive enough to manifest, which the floating paint cans around the area invisible to all but his eyes can attest to; that was half the reason he'd sprayed so much graffiti around earlier, both to test to see if the cans worked like they should (they had) and to see if it somehow revived the Campus' soul (it hadn't). At least it meant he wasn't limited to the 30 cans he brought; even if he didn't understand how they came with him outside of the city, he was not going to expend the small piece of Tokyo-to's soul he had with him unless he absolutely had to.

Above all else about this place, though, there was one major complaint he had.]

Man! There's no radio stations here!

Comments

[ozren]

[Wren wasn't going to worry about it; if he didn't head for the hills the second the birds took flight, she figured she was okay, but it's nice to hear it anyway. She raises her eyebrows a bit as he plays with the apple.]

Show off! Want a couple more to juggle with? [She giggles before calling one of the birds over to herself to pet.] Well, there was the wolf, like I said, and the first day I was here I made a pretty big drawing of Godzilla. He punched some holes in things, but I destroyed him before he could hurt anybody.

[She still cringes a little inside thinking about that, but it's gotten better. She stopped him, Link wasn't hurt, everything was fine.]

Once I can make something that doesn't look like it, I'll let you know. Brownies maybe.

[hummingthebaseline]

Nah! Haven't been able to do it with more than one yet.

[He takes another bite of the apple, finishing it off, then tosses it off the vent. It's chalk, so it should just go on the rooftop... right?]

Don't have anyone who deserves to get a little rattled, huh?

[ozren]

[And onto the rooftop the apple goes, to scatter into chalk dust as it hits.]

...That jerk I mentioned. Don't even know his name, but he can summon monsters out of cards. His stupid bug brought me back to him when he was trying to find the intercom lady. [Wren scowls a bit, and the bird she's petting turns back into chalk.] I wasn't so mad at that, really, just that he acted like I wasn't worth anything. Bet I could find a way outta here someday.

So maybe I wouldn't mind scaring him with something.

[hummingthebaseline]

Monsters outta cards? You're kiddin'!

[Hmm... Yoyo doesn't like that much. Noise Tanks were bad enough. The Zero Beats were worse, and Gouji was above even that. But monsters out of cards...?]

Wait... what do you mean, "find a way outta here"?

[ozren]

Nope, I saw him do it. He put it back in the card when he thought he was done with me, then summoned it again when I called my wolf. [She can't help a little grin, though it fades a bit when he says that. Her remaining birds flap down to the rooftop where they revert back to drawings.]

Sorry about that, it gets tiring keeping things around too long...We can't leave. There's a weird barrier over the school, so even if we took a raft off the island, we wouldn't get anywhere. It's why I'm practicing doors. Maybe I can make them lead some place that isn't here.

[hummingthebaseline]

Shit... better be careful'a him.

[He watches the birds go away, then waves her off, as if to say it's no trouble.]

Man... Corn'n Gum are gonna give me hell if I'm gone long. They were already pissed off about the first kidnappin'!

If you figure out how to make doors lead out, let me know.

[ozren]

I'm doing my best to avoid him, don't worry. [Though it's gonna be hard to not draw a dragon to step on him if he's ever that much of a jerk to her again.]

I'm not sure you have to worry about that! Some people think time just stops when we're taken, so when we get back nothing'll have changed. [Wren gives him a bright smile.] I will, promise.

[hummingthebaseline]

Man, I hope so. I don't need to hear 'em chewin' me out about it again.

[He rolls back over onto his back, crossing his hands behind his head again and tapping his foot against the air vent, agitated. Dammit, he didn't like it so quiet!]

Tell me if you find a workin' radio station, too.

[ozren]

How'd you get kidnapped anyway? [Wren considers going to sit on the parapet, then decides with her luck she'd fall right off the roof, so she stays standing, tucking her chalk away.]

It's really that bad without music, isn't it. [She thinks for a moment, then brightens.] You might be able to find something in the North Wing. The rooms in there are kind of weird. Maybe there's an mp3 player around.

[hummingthebaseline]

Bunch of assassins snagged me while I was tryin' to figure somethin' out. The stupid Noise Tanks made a copy of me while I was gone 'til the other GGs figured it out and finally found me. Wasn't fun.

Damn straight it is. I'm a Rudie; I don't really do not havin' it. It's like if you got your eyes completely covered or somethin'.

[North dorm, huh...]

I'll have to go diggin' there, if that's where they are!

[ozren]

[She just stares at him with her eyes wide. Assassins? Noise Tanks? (Whatever those were, but still.) A copy of him?] Doesn't sound like it.

I think for me it'd be like not being able to animate anymore. I'm used to it now. [Wren points back toward the stairs.] We could go look now, if you want. Or I could just show you where it is.

[hummingthebaseline]

Sure, let's take a look!

[Yoyo hops off the air vent, landing easily on his skates and twirling to face her.]

After you.

[ozren]

[Excuse her while she stares a bit when he does that, because really, she'd have slipped and knocked her head.] Maybe if I ever find skates around here, I should practice.

[Giggling a little now, she heads back to the stairs and down, making sure to keep a firm grip on the railing. She's not a klutz, but it'd figure.] We're over the West dorms so it's not far. Just around the corner, actually. There're a ton of doors to look through to make up for it.

[hummingthebaseline]

You get a pair of skates, I'll see if you got enough to skate like a Rudie.

[He follows behind her easily, though rather than walk down the stairs, he simply grinds down the side past her while turning around back and forth among other suck tricks to show off. A hop off the rail when he's at the bottom, and now he's skating around backwards.]

Store a lotta shit there, do they?

[ozren]

Last time I was on some, I skinned both knees and one elbow. Part of that arm, too. [See, massive amount of band-aids.] But it was a long time ago, and at least I didn't scar.

[Thanks Yoyo, like she wasn't impressed enough.] How do you not break your neck doing that? Some of the rooms have stuff, and some do weird things to you, and others lead to other places. I've only heard about those last two, haven't seen them yet. Guess I was just lucky finding a room filled with nothing but teddy bears.

[Yeah, that had been weird. She'd managed to only take three with her, too!]

[hummingthebaseline]

Lotta practice. If you can't even do that, no way you're gonna survive as a Rudie. If the other gangs don't knock you out, the cops will!

[Weird things and lead to other places? Teddy bears? This was an odd place... but eh, didn't get anywhere by not trying. Yoyo playfully skates circles around her as they go, swapping between skating normally and backwards.]

Better hope one's got music, then!

[ozren]

The cops don't help where you're from? That's pretty messed up. [She shakes her head at that, but grins at his antics. Yep, she needs to find some skates. Couldn't hurt to give it another shot, right? Okay, it probably would.]

Just a bit far- ah! Here we are. [Wren turns the corner into the North Wing and stops, eyeing the rows of doors. Oh boy. Where to start?] Let's try this one! [She darts over to the first door and turns the knob. Giving it a sharp tug, she yanks it open and sticks her head in before yelping.] Tornadoes!

[Just gonna slam that one shut, thanks.] Ha, no music in there!

[hummingthebaseline]

Hell no. They've been bought out by the Rokkaku Group! Even if they weren't, we're delinquents sprayin', so they just want us punished for it anyway.

[He's about to skate in when Wren slams it shut, blinking.]

...Tornadoes? You're shittin' me.

[ozren]

Completely messed up. [Wren makes a face from where she's standing with her back against the door.] Want to see for yourself? It looks like a field full of tornadoes.

[She'll drag him out by his hoodie if she needs to.]

[hummingthebaseline]

Yeah, but who cares what they think?

[Er...]

No, I'll take your word for that.

[ozren]

Not you, obviously. [She smiles at that, then it becomes an outright grin.]

Good! Wouldn't want you getting sucked up and tossed somewhere. 'Specially since we don't even know where the somewhere is.

[Wren gives the door a knock before she moves away, pointing down the hall.]

You pick this time.

[hummingthebaseline]

'course not. Why would I?

[Yeah... he's thinking that was a wise idea, more and more. So don't mind him, he's just going to open one of these doors...

...and nearly get throttled by something until he kicks it back into the room, slamming the door shut.]

Not... that one either.

[ozren]

[Okay, that? That was possibly worse than a room full of tornadoes. Wren jumps back when the lizard-dinosaur-whatever pops out, hand going for her chalk until Yoyo gets it off and slams the door. What would she have been able to do with it anyway?]

...Nope. Maybe we should stop opening the doors.

[But she doesn't mean stop looking. She goes up to Yoyo and gives him a once over to make sure he isn't hurt, before she draws a life-size stick figure on the wall. It drops off and turns to face her.]

Check out the rooms, okay? We need to find a music player. Watch out for weird stuff.

[She doesn't even need to specify what the 'weird stuff' is, since the drawings are a part of her anyway. It'll know when it sees it. The figure linefaces at her before heading off down the hall.]

[hummingthebaseline]

And it wasn't even back home. Guess someone just thought it'd be funny to dump Poison Jam in a tank.

[Yoyo appears to be just fine, with the worst of it just the red marks on his neck that he's rubbing away now. It wasn't hard or long enough to actually cause any bruising, but it's going to hurt for a little while.

He eyes the chalk figure, adding on after a moment:]

And find some CDs or somethin', too!

[ozren]

That's what it's called? Yikes. Hope there's nothing from my home here. [She thinks about that for a second before shaking her head.] Actually, I think the worst that could show up would be anti-mutant bigots. I can handle those.

[Wren plays with her chalk, laughing as the stick figure acknowledges Yoyo's request with a wave.] Watch there only be records now that you've said that. [The drawing stops in front of a door halfway down, pulls it open, and disappears inside. Wren shakes her chalk box lightly while she waits.] Sure your neck's okay?