Lighter Than Air

[Rahne Sinclair]

(September 4th, open to all Air Circle Students. This takes place before curfew.)

Rahne's eyes narrowed darkly towards the breezy fireplace where she was curled in front of. The female wasn't wearing her uniform, instead she'd already prepped for bed. Her thick russet hair was drying over her bare shoulders. She was wearing a pink nightgown which ran to her knees. She wore fluffy wolf slippers. She was lying on her stomach on the rug in front of the fire, staring into the embers. She wasn't used to being so high up in the tower so the fire made the female feel more comfortable. She sighed, leaning farther on her elbows and just staring daggers into the flames.

Biting her lip, Rahne recalled the day and what came tomorrow. Classes then fights. She would be required to slaughter. Would she be able to control the beast once she was set loose in the arena?

[Deleted]

Equally prepared for bed, Stitch came padding into the room adorning his cute little blue night clothes and night cap. Tucked beneath his arm was his little turtle plush and there was a glass of water in his free paw. He was drinking it down as he walked in, and when he lifted the glass from his lips he saw Rahne laying in front of the fire. Curious, Stitch tilted his head to the side and set his glass down so he could inspect her. Why was she laying in front of the fire like that? It did look comfortable, of course, but he hardly ever saw humans do that. Normally they sat in front of a fire and roasted marshmallows, like he and Lilo had done a few times before. He had to push that thought aside, though. Stitch wanted to know what Rahne was doing.

"Thinking?" Stitch asked. He didn't sit beside Rahne in spite of his curiosity. Instead, Stitch came to a stop near her and continued to look her over. Why would she have been looking into the fire like that? He wanted to know, and since they were in the same circle he wasn't about to leave without finding out. The blue alien shifted his turtle plush into his arms and blinked big black eyes innocently. So long as they were both there, Stitch wasn't leaving without knowing what was going on.

[Rahne Sinclair]

Rahne looked up startled as she heard a voice. Turning over her shoulder and curling on her side, she looked at the curious creature. She'd never seen anything like him. He was small, blue and fuzzy yet he spoke so she knew he wasn't some kind of dog or koala. Unless he was a mutant which would have been quite odd. "Aye," she said softly. Rahne had taken back her accent. Not needing to hide from the wolf anymore she felt the need to keep her Scottish accent under wraps.

"Thinkin' and enjoyin' th'fire," she purred. He was a cutie, Rahne could say that. It made the young immature girl crack a smile. "Muh name's Rahne. Like Rain from the sky. What's yuir's little critter?"

[Kiara]

Fire.... one member of the air circle who was still awake certainly wasn't at ease with the dancing flames. Like every wild animal, Kiara had been told the destruction fire could cause, and knew to keep well away from it, so the young lioness remained crouched in a distant corner of the room, her amber eyes watching the blaze fearfully. What was keeping it from leaping out and burning the entire tower down? Everyone knew that the only force that could control fire was rain, so whatever measures were being employed to keep in in one place weren't going to hold forever, she was certain.

And why didn't the other two seem afraid of it at all? Were humans not taught the danger it posed? Or were they somehow immune to it? Kiara didn't claim to understand the species that she had only encountered for the first time four days ago. But... the little blue hyena didn't seem at all afraid, either, and that, she really didn't understand. Wasn't he an animal like her?

Screwing up her courage - and ready to dart for safety the instant the flames threatened her - Kiara crept out into the firelight. Unlike the other two, the lioness still wore her uniform; she had loosened her tie some, but then found herself completely stuck as far as unbuttoning the shirt was concerned. Her paws weren't made for such a delicate task as that, so after a long and fruitless struggle with her collar button, Kiara had given it up altogether and decided she may as well just keep the clothes on for the duration of her stay here.

"How come you're not scared of the fire?" she asked as she stepped forward, her wide eyes never leaving the threatening flames. "Don't you know it's dangerous?"

[Deleted]

"Stitch. My name Stitch," Stitch replied. He gave a little purr of his own after he finished speaking, the warmth of the fire gently radiating against him as he stood there, and he contemplated just laying down and enjoying it. He still didn't know Rahne that well, though, and so he decided it would be better to just sit. So, he did. Little blue alien plopped down beside her and set his plush in front of him, gently petting it with a clawed hand after a moment. The second he did, though, his ears gave a slight twitch. He could hear someone approaching, and so he turned his head in interest to see who it was.

...A little lion cub. Quite a diverse group they made up, if Stitch did say so himself. A technically illegal genetic creation, a human (at least as far as Stitch could tell), and a lion cub all together in the same place. How interesting, indeed. When Kiara came over, Stitch listened to her question and thought about it for a moment. Why wasn't he afraid of the fire? He glanced back at the blaze in the fire place and considered his strengths for a moment. Jumba had said he was bulletproof, but fireproof? He'd come up against his cousin Yang once before, and that led to the top of his head being burned. So, no... Stitch wouldn't classify himself as entirely fireproof. Why, then, was he unafraid? ...Lilo had taught him.

"Fire naga bad always. It small, and... Uh... Safe in fireplace. Ih," Stitch said. He gave a confirming nod as though he had solved some great mystery and looked pleased. It didn't necessarily explain everything, though. Rahne could probably do a better job of explaining than Stitch could, anyway.

[Waffle]

The red-eyed hyena had a rather obnoxious nightcap placed over one of his ears.  He probably stole it.  Waffle was quite wide awake and excited when he walked in.  An uneven smirk appeared on his face before he turned and ducked back behind the door he'd entered through and returned to throw a pillow across the room.  He probably stole that also.  The fabric thing landed a few yards away on floor with a muffled thud.  A red tongue appeared out of the corner of the mammal's mouth as he walked sideways, appearing to stalk it for a second.  Waffle halted for a few moments, his apparently pupil-less eyes fixated on the unfortunate decoration.  Black limbs rushed up to the motionless object.  Waffle snatched the pillow in his mouth.  Swinging his muscular neck up, he tossed the pillow toward the ceiling before catching it and pinning it down on the floor.  Pom pom tail was fluffed up in glee.

"Om nom," Came a muffled murmur from the hyena as he munched on the fluffy thing.

Waffle brought his head back up and snorted out of one of his nostrils, causing a few feathers to come floating down off his face.  He knew the other three had been in the room, but pouncing the pillow was so too necessary to wait until later to do.  Blinking slowly, he noticed that the human, cub and blue thingy seemed to be concentrating on the fire.  A quiet fell over the hyena.  He shifted his head and body to the left, and then to the right, a contemplative look on his face.  A bushy eyebrow lifted as he leaned back a little.

"Are we waiting for it to grow legs and start dancing?" Asked Waffle in a cynical tone.

[Rahne Sinclair]

"Nice tae meet ye Stitch," Rahne purred. What an odd name. She wondered in a brief flash whether her animal form would be more pleasing to him. But he seemed alright the way she was, plus she'd been sent the nightgown by...a friend...and she didn't want to rip it.

"How come you're not scared of the fire? Don't you know it's dangerous?"

Rahne rolled onto her butt as the lion cub approached. Of course an animal would be afraid of fire, she mused, it was dangerous to a degree. But it was also a good thing. Dangerous but good, maybe that's why the female was staring at it. "It can be," Rahne said, "But like Stitch said, when it's contained, tis glorious to look at. And warm. Are ye nae cold?"

She clutched her bare knees before pondering again whether she should shift forms. She spotted a hyena, scrunching her face a little at his comment about the fire. "As I said, it's the warmest thing in this drafty tower," she said softly. She paused.

"Would...would ye be...more comfortable if I was...in muh animal form?"

[Kiara]

Small and safe? The young lioness frowned, and, against her better judgement, let her curiosity drive her closer. It did seem to be contained; still, an animalistic fear kept the feline princess at bay. She could feel the warmth that the human girl had mentioned, feel its touch caressing her face, and while there actually was a sort of pleasantness to the feeling, it was far from enough to overcome natural instinct. Fire was a killer, and in spite of the temptation that warming herself offered - for it was chilly in the tower - it would take a lot more convincing for Kiara to step any closer to it than she currently was.

"I didn't know fire could be contained," she admitted, fascinated in spite of herself. Her amber gaze still didn't leaving the flickering blaze before her. "Is this some kind of human magic?"

Finally, her gaze was wrenched away from the fire as Rahne spoke once more, and Kiara regarded the girl with incomprehension. "Animal form?" she repeated blankly. That implied that she could change shape somehow, but Kiara was sure that couldn't be what the human really meant. And if it was... well, she thought that would be kind of gross to watch, actually. "You can stay as you are now if you want," the feline offered. Yes, the fact remained that she wasn't used to humans, but from what Kiara had seen of the species here, she didn't have anything specific to fear from them, did she?

[Deleted]

Jack Frost was in the room along with the others. He had remained quiet as he could, listening to the crackling of the logs in the flames. He was thinking about the fights that was coming up. It wasn't going to be easy and even though he knew that not everyone participated, the winter spirit was scared for Elsa. He didn't want her to get into a fight right away, if she didn't know how to defend herself or control her powers it could be bad. 'Stop it Jack.' he thought shaking his head. 'You can't be a guardian angel for her.' But he could teach her. That was all he could hope for.

He turned his gaze away from the fire to see the other air circle members. The words animal form caused him to raise a white eyebrow. "You have an animal form?" he asked. Now this, this he had to see.

[Rahne Sinclair]

"Oh...alrigh' then." She smiled plainly before waving to the fire. "Tis dangerous sometimes but nae always. Human magic...I sure used tae think so. But tis science or somethin'." She wasn't quite sure. Fire had just always been present in her life. Fire and heat. She shrugged her shoulders softly before she turned to Jack who'd spoken. His looks and voice reminded her of Josh immediately which caused the girl to blush under her russet hair.

"Um, aye," she mumbled, "I'm a mutant. Means I can...I have powers. I shapeshift intae a wolf." She waved to Kiara. "I though' the critters might be more comfortable." She didn't want to admit she'd been longing to change her shape for her own sanity with the desire crawling inside of her.

[Deleted]

Jack smiled at her explanation. "That's really cool. I thought I might be the only one to have powers here. You know besides the ponies." he replied. The white haired boy was relieved to know that most of the air circle was filled with relatively nice people. Along with the school, the only ones he had found that weren't very nice were the girl around nine in his own circle and apparently another unicorn who belonged to the fire circle.

[Waffle]

((meh, I'll add Cheetor too ))

Waffle had kindly gone back to nibbling on the pillow, scattering feathers all over the place.  The hyena didn't particularly care what was going on, mostly because it didn't concern him and his manliness.  Mention of shape-shifting didn't appear to bother the grey-furred creature, either because he was too dense to understand what was being talked about or because he was too nutty to view shape-shifting as something out of the ordinary.  After spitting out a few fluffy feathers, he leaned up and flicked his poofty tail.  Red eyes went from the poor boy who appeared to suffer from albinism toward the lady who talked funny.  Waffle began to smile again before patting his paws on the floor rhythmically.

"Do it, do it, do it, do it, do it," He chanted.

~*~

"Hey guys, what's going on?" Said a voice as Cheetor stepped into the room, very much looking like the poor nerd who was trying to talk his way into sitting at the cool kid table.

The cheetah bot padded in a few more paces, tilting his head curiously as he listened for a few seconds.  He looked confused.  If not many people had these "powers" then that meant they couldn't have been other robots like him.  Then...what were they?  Bewilderment ebbed away and a rather arrogant smile appeared on the swift cat.  Maybe he could show off his "powers" if it came to it.  Cheetor paused once he began to walk past the loin cub.  The grin on his face changed to a more approachable one as he lowered his head slightly to get to Kiara's level.

"Hi.  I think I've seen you around before," Cheetor said, "My name's Cheetor."

[Kiara]

"Science?" That was a word Kiara was completely unfamiliar with. Actually looking away from the fire now, the young lioness tilted her head at Rahne quizzically. She would have enquired further, but the girl had continued to speak, explaining what she had meant by her earlier comment about an animal form. In spite of herself, Kiara was intrigued. "You can actually change into something else? That's so cool!" she enthused. It was easy to wish that she had some sort of powers of her own, now that everyone seemed to be talking about them. Maybe Daddy would have been okay with her going off on her own if she'd been able to change into something that was bigger and more menacing than her normal form.

"Does it hurt? How did you learn to do that?" she enquired, looking up at the human girl with wide amber eyes. It was fairly obvious to anyone paying attention that Kiara was working up to asking if that was something she could be taught to do; if nothing else, she'd be able to ditch Timon and Pumbaa so much more easily back home if she could change her form.

She was momentarily distracted when a cheetah started addressing her. Keeping half of her attention focused on hearing Rahne's answer, Kiara looked at the other feline. "Wait, weren't you the one in the gym when I was playing tag with Ronno?" she asked. That was the only time she could recall seeing a cheetah here before, in any case, though she had been too caught up in her game to really pay attention to who else had been around. That could have been a completely different cheetah; this one might have recognised her from the Pridelands instead. Kiara knew she'd seen a couple of his species distantly, at least. "Was that you?"

[Rahne Sinclair]

Rahne blushed slightly, pushing her hair back as the creature complimented her. She had a sweet smile on her lips as she turned to Kiara and nodded. "Aye. Yes," she said, "Powers. Righ'." Rahne nodded and shifted slightly under her feet. Her head tilted to the side as she pushed her hair back again, blinking large green eyes in the direction of the hyena. It was asking her to shift? What an odd creature, she pondered, not quite dog, no quite cat, not at all wolf. She recognized it sort of.

"Does it hurt? How did you learn to do that?"

"Oh, no. It does no' hurt t'all." Rahne shifted her feet under her again, giving a slight glance to Jack. "Tis...somethin' I learned I could do when I was a wee lass. Change from wolf to girl to girl-wolf." Rahne kept her eyes on Kiara but asked Jack a question.

"What can ye do? Are you a mutant as well?"

[Deleted]

"Mutant? No, no I'm not a mutant." he said, before frowning. "At least I don't think I am. Others might see me as one. I'm actually a winter Spirit. Name's Jack Frost. Spirit of Winter and Guardian of Fun." He gave a wide smile before concentrating and opening his hand, allowing several snowflakes to fly around the room. "I can control ice and wind, oh and fly." True, it wasn't changing into a wolf, but it was still something that Jack took pride in. He wanted to make his circle proud, if he could win a few battles to do it, then he would but that didn't mean he wasn't against hurting people.

"I feel kind of nervous about the whole thing, the fights coming up. It's not really my place to fight other people." he frowned, kicking his feet as one of the snowflakes landed in his palm.