In reply to Gisela O'Cuinn (msg # 18):

AJ shivers at the memory, "It wasn't the books that bothered me...dad had a bunch of war books...it was that old hag that thought she was the librarian that gave me the creeps. She caressed those books in a way that made me never want to touc...."

AJ wobbles, a hand going to her head as she groans suddenly, and then her eyes roll up...and burst into white pits of fire. She falls back seizing on the ground and foaming at the mouth.

In reply to AJ Rourke (msg # 19):

Drizz hisses and just manages to leap out of the way of being crushed by the human timber. He circles AJ and Gi with his tail a bottle brush and hissing at the scene.

In reply to Drizz (Cat) (msg # 20):

"Aj?"  Gisela exclaims, surprised at first, then scared.  "AJ!  AJ!  Someone help!"

In reply to Gisela O'Cuinn (msg # 21):

"What the hell?"

Wolf slid down to the ground and held AJ down in an attempt to keep her from hurting herself.

"No one cares!" Q called back as he lead his group forward.  If the other two had any other mind they didn't show it, but Q clearly was going to keep on with the tour.

In reply to Wolf (msg # 22):

"I've never seen her have a seizure before; have you?" Gisela asks, recovering.  She kneeled by him and her friend.  "We can't hold her, except maybe to make sure she stays on her side.  Keep her safe," she adds, not bossy, but assured.  She didn't know what Wolf did for a living, but she helped out as she could with medicine as best she could on island.

The headmistress pales slightly and rushes to AJ's side. "Out of the way!" she hisses as she begins examining her. She waves a hand in front of the girl's face. "It's not a seizure. I've seen this only once before."

She looks over her shoulder at a pair of dumbfounded looking students. "Get Thatch!" she shouts. They remain frozen briefly before her addendum of "NOW!" sends them fleeing down a corridor.

In reply to Her Majesty (msg # 25):

"If it's not a seizure, then what's happening to her?"  Gisela asks, moving aside for the headmistress.

"It is the same trance of one who is tapped into the life force of Atlantis," she explained as she shook her head. "Thatch may know more."

In reply to Her Majesty (msg # 27):

From out of her corset AJ's crystal pendant floats up, glowing brightly as it defies gravity in a sympathetic reaction to the energies at work...or maybe channeling them.

In reply to AJ Rourke (msg # 28):

Drizz who had gotten over his angry hissing fit nuzzled AJ's face up until that necklace floated out...and then he could not help but bat at it.  The swipes did not seem to effect it at all...it just drifted back to a vertical position over AJ at the end of its leather thong anchor around her neck.

Quin for his part keeps walking as the Headmistress gets dismissed, nodding to his crew and indicating this would be the perfect time to saunter off and do a bit of unsupervised 'exploring'.

In reply to Quinten Heart (msg # 30):

"But she's not - ," Gisela paused.  The weird pirate speech AJ was occasionally prone to, the fact she was left on the beach, the way she took to water better than a fish, it all fell together.  "She's Atlantean," Gisela states, her surprise evident.  "That makes a lot of sense, but how is she drawing on the life force?"

Jack was caught short, following Q's gang's heels by a few paces, as the commotion broke out behind him.  He turned back towards the collapsing pirate.  His lip curled a moment, buying for a moment that she was begging their attention... but the glowing eyes suddenly warranted it.

He paused.  He glanced down at his watch, a bitter dagger of spite and lapine bashfulness encouraging him to flee the scene.  His gloved thumb wormed along the worry-worn crease in the back of the gold casing, as he felt the second-hand pulse once, twice.

He stopped, hovering on the opposite periphery from the scene, one ear twitching nervously as he watched it unfold.  At Gisela's query, he could only raise an eyebrow, pointing a gloved finger at the hovering amulet.

"Three guesses."

In a blur of pixie dust, Nyxia streaked out of the carriage. Being tiny, she could fit herself most out of the way places. The nap on the ride had been wonderful. The sudden commotion, though, had started her awake.

Tiny motes of fire fluttered down in a trail, marking her path. She alighted on the crossbar of a lamp, keeping herself out of the cat's reach.

She peered down at AJ with curiosity.

In reply to Nyxia (msg # 33):

"You have to be more precise with your words, Gisela.  A princess always says exactly what she means and means everything she says.  Precision matters."  Bluma imparted the words of wisdom upon her daughter in a rare moment of lucidity.  Followed by an extended lecture and, when Gisela didn't master the skill in the moment, a beating.

Gisela hadn't spoken for a week after and still tried to avoid speaking around her mother.  Or, rather, had avoided it.  Now it was simple since her mother was back on the island.

"Of course, I should have phrased it better," Gisela says with a polite, but insincere smile.  "I simply meant how is she managing to channel it, not the tool she's using.  She has to have some sort of innate power or magic to be able to channel energy.  I am curious if it's native Atlanteans who can do it, or if there is something special about her to be able to draw on the life force."

A shaggy haired blonde boy ran up, out of breath and fumbling with a pair of spectacles. "What's wrong? He says it's an emer-" He stopped short, finally getting his glasses on and adjusted. "-gency..
" he finished, wonderment now in his voice. "Impossible"

The headmistress gestured to AJ. "And yet?"

The boy shook his head. "Atlantis was destroyed in the war."

The headmistress waved a hand in front of AJ's eyes. "There are more things in heaven and Earth than are dreamt of by us. Perhaps we have been wrong."

In reply to Her Majesty (msg # 35):

The crystal and her eyes flare brighter, her back arches in a spasm... and then she collapses in a heap. The light coming from both her and the crystal wink out like a switch was thrown.

A moment latter she jerks awake and sits up breathing marathon hard and gasps out, "Chernabog!...he is, had... was destroying a city.. her-my city?!"  AJ goes from crisp certainty to muddled confusion, the vision fading to memory and then getting as fuzzy as a dream.

In reply to AJ Rourke (msg # 36):

"It's all right, AJ.  It's all right. You're safe.  You're... You..."  She doesn't seem to know how to explain it.  "Look around, nothing's happening.  You're at the university, remember?"

He glanced over his shoulder, and up at the sky, then back down.  "No storms of demons in sight.  I think we're all right for now." Jack took a step forwards, offering hands to both of them on the ground.  "We'd better get inside.  We seem to be attracting a bit of a crowd."  He glanced around nervously at the passers-by that seemed to be clustering around the scene.

In reply to Jack White (msg # 38):

Aj nods uncertainly... to which person and which statement is also uncertain but she does get up again and smooth out her clothes. She looks worried however.

"It was a city, a city in the sea. I was my...I think I was my Mother. They were begging me to come back and then Chernabog came. Mom just laughed at them and ignored the plea Gi."

That realization had hurt the most. She had thought that since mother was not trapped on the island like the rest of them then maybe she had been good. Maybe she could be good too...but her mom had left an entire city to die and laughed.

Her mom was a villain...AJ's world had capsized.

The blonde boy was slack jawed, looking at AJ. He pushed his spectacles up onto the bridge of his nose. "This is fantastic!" he blurted, clearly somewhat socially tone deaf to AJs, or anyone's plight, really.

"She connected with the life force of Atlantis! That means there's something left! We thought it was completely destroyed. I.... I mean, it was swallowed by the sea completely during the war."

The headmistress gave a 'harumph' toward Jack, seeming to agree with the sentiment of not wanting attention but it looked far too late for that. Though other students were giving them a wide berth, they knew something was going on.

"Oh, they are all dead. You're quite right," Phasma interjected in a sing-songy and helpful tone. "I'm sorry, you are?"

"Uh, ah, Oliver Thatch?" He didn't sound sure. Also like it just occurred to him he was talking to a girl. He looked like he might have a stroke.

Lola chuckled throatily and offered her hand to AJ to help her up. "That's the rub isn't it? You mortals think death is so permanent. Got any corpses you can spare? I can demonstrate..."

"If you so much as attempt necromancy on school grounds, you'll be back on that island before you can blink," warned the headmistress.

"Killjoy..." Phasma muttered with a giggle.

Oliver shook his head. "We need to talk," he said, indicating AJ and her comrades.

In reply to Her Majesty (msg # 40):

Drizz meows and saunters in the indicated direction, flicking his tail teasingly at Nyxia the fairy as she flew around the group. He wanted nothing to do with Necromancy...and the Voodoo Princess and the Graveborn girl were no longer toothless here like they were on the island.

In reply to Her Majesty (msg # 40):

AJ was too wiped out, depressed and confused to do anything but comply... and practically guzzle a hip flask that came out of someplace on her attire. Where she had hid something like that in those skirts and bodice was something to be contemplated though.

In reply to AJ Rourke (msg # 42):

"How about we discuss this later, when AJ has had time to process what has happened?"  Gisela intercedes.  "AJ clearly has had an interesting experience and it would do well to give her some time first and finish our original plans of touring and finding our rooms."