Logs:Lost in the Woods

Lost in the Woods
Dramatis Personae Kurt, Marinov, Tomas
In Absentia	2020-09-21 "You run. Or your fate might find you too."
Location <XAV> Forest - XS Grounds
Quiet and shady, the trees rise all around here high and thick. In stillness, woodland creatures make appearances, though sudden noises scare them back into the cover. Dappled sunlight filters down between the thick foliage, and the ground underfoot is heavily overgrown, though here and there paths have been worn, by deer or years of students wandering familiar trails. The shadows of the trees are growing longer as the daylight starts to fade. While the birdsong has started to dim down with the light, there are occasional enterprising hoots as the night life's early risers get ready for the hunt. Marinov's eyes remain bright, though, perhaps eerily so as they mirror some of the light shone in them. Between the fingers on their paw-like hand, a joint is being held as they wander seemingly aimlessly through the forest, a bit unfocused. Occasionally, their ears swivel over towards their companion, and for the time being they remain silent until smoke pours from their nose and mouth and they cough a couple of times. The older student is wearing a long eggshell jacket, with white pants and criss-crossing fabric that does little to cover up the fur on their midsection and the middle of their chest. Kurt's fur along the back of his neck begins to raise as the air temperature changes to a cooler fall breeze. As the light dims, so does his appearance, fur blending seamlessly into the shadows of the forest. His bright yellow eyes do not blend. Instead, they shine unusually in the fading brightness. He's wearing a light grey hoodie with black joggers, fitted for his unusual legs. His hair is half up, gathered into a loose ponytail. "I know that, uhm, what I did... it was not okay." He struggles to articulate himself, hands gesticulating as he walks with Marinov. "I was scared a-and I didn't--" He stops himself. "There are no excuses. And I know that now." Tomas was wandering thru the grounds kicking the grass a bit as he walked, he had picked a rose from one of the gardens and put it in his hair. He had on a pair of black sweats, black tennis shoes and a one size to big David Bowie hoodie. Under the hoodie he had his earbuds in at a volume that was audible outside the earbuds. He nodded his head a bit not paying attention to where he was going, one hand in his pocket the other looking at his phone. He continued to wander aimlessly, clearly not paying attention to what was going on around him. He walked right into Marinov, not even seeing that they where there. Walking into them Tomas dropped his phone causing the headphones to become unplugged, loudly playing, 'Ramones, I wanna be sedated' at full volume. He clumsily picked back up his phone and turned the music off, and stood in front of Marinov, looking embarrassed. Marinov makes no effort to get out of Tomas' way, aside from standing still for the few moments before the collision. They are surprisingly sturdy, no shortage of tense muscle within their feline frame. Their eyes narrow slightly and they take another drag of the joint, offering it off-handedly towards Kurt. They do not, however, address Tomas for the moment, instead answering Kurt. "Don't worry about it. I just didn't want you to come along 'cause you could've been compromised. You might not've known it yet, but Jean's sort of a teacher's pet, and has been for decades. But I was wrong about some stuff, anyways." They exhale the smoke and look towards Tomas. "What are you doing out here? It's gonna be dark soon, and there's spooky shit in the woods, and you seem to already have trouble seeing where you're going." Kurt's attention is immediately redirected to Tomas when he hears the music. He jumps onto his hands and toes, although with his already semi-crouched stature, this was not much of a transition. His tail is raised, sharp tip pointed at the other. Yellow eyes fixate on Tomas, assessing him. After a moment, he stands back up, putting his hands in his hoodie's pocket. "Are you lost?" He asks Tomas in his thick German accent. At Marinov's comment of 'spooky shit,' Kurt's shoulder's tense, paying them a nervous glance. "Spooky things? L-Like what?" Tomas looks at Marinov, pauses for a second, puts up his pointer finger as if to indicate "hold on". He turns to his phone and starts typing on it, the phone dictates as he types: "NO I LIKE WANDERING AROUND THE OUTSIDE AT NIGHT" he rubs the back of his neck a bit and continues typing "I WAS FOCUSED ON MY PHONE THAT IS ALL" he looks around a bit trying to seem like he knows what he's doing, shuffling his feet a bit. His attention is redirected towards Kurt when he jumps causing him to notice Kurt, this surprises him a bit causing his phone to say " BLUE blueee..." and emit static without him typing anything, he blushes a bit and looks away from Kurt, nervously shuffling. Marinov's offering hand drops down to their side when Kurt doesn't take the joint. They shake their head, "I like wandering too, but I heard some kids say that a panther lives out here in the woods, so try and pay some mind, or else you'll get gobbled up." They glance down at the phone in Tomas' hand, and they point a couple of fingers down at it. "Some spooky shit like that." A tilt of their head. "There's other stories that I heard around the school, sometimes if you listen real close you can hear all kinds of strange sounds, especially in the fall." Kurt reels back when Tomas' phone speaks on it's own, eyes open wide. The fur on his arms and neck stick up, shivering at a chill. He snaps out of it with a shake of his head. "If you are to wander at night, maybe use a flashlight so you do not bump into people, jah?" His nose twitches. "But maybe do not wander at night alone? This Panther is scary-sounding." He turns to Marinov, leaning in. "... what... kind of stories?," he whispers, nose twitching again. "...ghost stories?" Tomas gives Marinov a confused look and types more: "THE PHONE IT IS NOT SPOOKY, IT IS JUST TEXT TO SPEECH" he shrugs a bit He doesn't seem to notice Kurt reeling, but instead he turns back to him and nodding a bit turning on the flashlight on his phone and giving him a thumbs up and a slight grin. He turns his attention back to Marinov and leans in, he is about to type on his phone when the phone says "Ghost SToriES, Fun" without him typing. He lets out a sigh and shrug as if to agree with the phone. "Nah, the static and spooky voices. I get text to speech," says Marinov, their eyes drifting back again to the phone. The long shadows of the trees have started to blend away into everything else as the sun's rays retire for the night, only a faint red glow on the horizon which is itself giving its way to darkness. Their voice takes on the quality of one telling a scary tale, eyes once again take on the feline glow as they catch the light of the flashlight. Just like a panther stalking in the night. "Guess you're both new here, so you don't know all about the history of this place. We see unexplainable things every day, shit that you never thought you'd ever come across, but sometimes you find things that'll boggle even Xavier's mind. Either of you ever hear the tale of Timothy Graves?" As darkness envelops the forest, Kurt effortlessly blends into the background. His yellow, pupil-less eyes are still bright as ever, focused on Tomas as his phone speaks again. He's less startled, but clearly unsettled. "T-Timothy Graves?" He repeats sheepishly. His face is fearful, eyes blown wide with his mouth slightly agape. His tail, which had absently been waving behind him, freezes. "N-no, I, uhm --" He bites the corner of his lip. "Maybe we should go to the campus now, jah?" He lets out a nervous chuckle. "Where it is not so spooky?" Tomas simply shakes his head no and sits on a nearby stump legs crossed, he pulls out a salt shaker from his pocket and takes a 'drink' of it as he listens. Marinov's gaze moves down towards Tomas and they pause a couple of moments with a , "You can put salt in a bottle, if you want, you know. Like. You could even do it sneaky like and dissolve it in water so it goes down smooth. Shaker's not really meant for sipping." To Kurt, they shrug helplessly, "Looks like we're stuck out here 'til he's done resting his legs." Their voice drops a little as they continue, now telling the story: "Back in 1997, there was a kid who went to school here, named Timothy Graves. His power was to speak to the dead as they were at the time of their death, and find out how they'd died. He just needed something that belonged to the deceased, like those TV psychics, except this was real. Now, he was here 'cause he couldn't control it well. Sometimes he'd come across things, you know, and someone might've died with it. Sometimes, it's an old man having a heart attack or an old lady passing on in her sleep. Sometimes... it's something a little more gruesome." Kurt blinks in disbelief at Tomas, nose scrunching and brow furrowing deeply. However, his attention is brought to Marinov, letting out a small whimper as he resigns himself to listen. He leans forward, eyes wide as he holds onto every word they say. Hands move over his mouth as they finish. "A-are you serious?" He mumbles behind his fingers. A whisper follows. "... w-what happened to Timothy?" Tomas thinks for a second then pulls out a metal water bottle covered in stickers, he uncaps the shaker and fills the bottle. He takes a drink and gives Marinov a thumbs up. His eyes light up as he continues listening to the story. " GhOst SPOoky fUN" his phone says without him typing and the flashlight flickers, he ignores it and smiles "Timothy started to practice with his powers a little more. With some practice... he learned that he could predict the moment of someone's death, and briefly communicate with the dead before it even happened. Timothy Graves could see what was coming. And when he held the ring of a girl he had a crush on, he got a glimpse of a moment out in these woods." Marinov gestures a claw outward, as if pointing to a specific spot in those woods. "He found out when it would happen, where it would happen, but he didn't know who. He would lie in wait. He was determined to protect her. To change fate." They shake their head, "In the greek tragedies, they learn that fate can't change. So it went in this tragedy. It wasn't some murderer, but a wild animal, large and vicious, that tore into her." A growl in their voice rises, sounding wild, predatory. "There was nothing Timothy could have done, but when he turned to run, the spectral form that his powers called was like looking into a mirror. Same clothes, the same spots of dirt, the same frightened eyes. The apparition whispered, 'I am so sorry.' And that was the last time that anyone saw Graves alive." They pause, looking at the two younger students to let the silence punctuate the story as they take another drag. They tilt their head up and exhale smoke. "But it's not the last time anyone saw him. If you ever see a figure distant in the woods, and you hear the whisper in your ear: 'I am so sorry,' and a cold chill down your spine. You run. Or your fate might find you too."