Halcyon Halls

Who: Nyobe and Easton
Where: Karaoke night! at ye local pub
When: Thursday Evening, after dinner/meeting with Ada
What: Friendly? Karaoke champion? Nyobe Whyte, you have many talents!

The pub wasn't far from Halcyon and, only by a fluke, did Nyobe enter. They had karaoke, she didn't see any reason to hang around the city, but the prospect of cheap beer and nostalgia dragged her in. It was a definite secret, but Nyobe loved karaoke and everyone who was close to her knew that, while she did, she fought this love with everything she had in her. On rare occassions she decided that it was time to open up the cover and show people what was under the paling of her serious face. Those small moments when her insecurities, the shoring of her defensiveness, lifted fully and showed them who she may have or might be if she'd let herself.

All in all, the crowd wasn't so aytpical. Even if the duo of male elves had an atonal quality to their rendition of ABBA's Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight) may have been cultural, their love for ABBA, and probably other male elves, still transcended through. The place also had a monster of a selection, as long as you understood the essentials of karaoke: classic rock, disco, and pop with a good dose of modern hits. Unfortunately, it was also run by a pushy faerie. or pixie. or sprite. Nyobe had found a book about identifying different races by their wings, but she'd be damned if she wasn't using it like a sleeping pill.

After her second boor, plied into her hands by the bartender after showing him her ID (that shit worked!), Nyobe found herself staring dully at said organizer. She was wearing so much mascara the clumps would have weighed down her eyelashes if they weren't cemented that way to her eyelids. Finally, after a lengthy debate, Nyobe ascented to be the Jody in someone's Shalamar. Halfway through the song, the other two stepped back to allow their surprise star room. She rocketed through the rest of Dancing in the Sheets to loud applause and more than enough hoots. When she'd first stood up there, so stiff, people thought they'd see a stiff fish, but once the first note came out of her throat, rich and melodic, she was more than she appeared. And that chorus; Nyobe couldnt' help but move a little bit.

Then there was just no getting rid of that organizer this time. Her lime mini-dress, a cheap mod/60's costume was like day-glo in the dark by her table. She even went so far as to lug the massive binder over to her. With the care of a bomb technician, she chose her next, and first solo track. Trying to ignore the fact that most of these people were Halcyon students, she got up on stage. After all, the force had mostly stopped calling her songbird after she'd sang How Will I Know? for them after seven tequila shots, didn't they?

Fittingly, Kelly Rowland Featuring Eve's Like this. Because y'all didn't think she could bump like this. Feminine she was not, but she had swagger and sway. Miss Nyobe Whyte pulled a mean swerve and busted into that verse like she was coaching Destiny's Child herself. There were (off-key) shouting from the ABBA twins as soon as she hit the bridge. Never would she admit it later, but it gave her a rush that pushed her further. That were blood let her dance and sing like never before. This was nothing compared to what she did to her body every morning..and afternoon...and in class. Someone threw a flower from their table vase when she told them in the rap portion that she was N-Y-O-B-E and finished it point-perfect. Three minutes and twenty seconds after the song had begun, it was fading out and the woman on stage was as if transformed. She told y'all she was gonna bump like this.

When it was done, she seemed almost startled back into place and hastily got off the stage. Back to her table she slouched a little and kept her beer near her mouth so she could adequately grunt at anyone trying to pester. And by pester she meant congratulate or generally try to act like she was anything more than she wasn't. God help them if they even suggested she might even be a little bashful. In a way, she was kind of glad when someone came up from the bar and pulled up a chair next to her. One person was better than many. Nyobe was out of her element.

Who: Nyobe and Ada
Where: The club at which Ada plays whose name I have forgotten
When: Thursday, early evening
What: Nyobe cards herself, gets unwanted attention

Despite the island's laws, Nyobe often forced her ID on the bartenders. She was actually a regular Thursday night visitor since she arrived, usually listening to Ada play. Tortured female artists were Nyobe's unintentional preference. Mary J, Shareefa, Loretta Lynn, Keyshia, Big Mama Thornton, etc etc. Ada was a little more country and rock than usual, but Nyobe was okay with branching out a little, musically at least.

Men didn't tend to approach her. She sat on the bar stool directly facing the bar, actually eating one of the sandwiches they served and drinking beer from a bottle. Her jeans fit nicely. Old Navy, Sweetheart fit, although luckily her height and long legs made the hems fall just at her ankle over her half-length camel-colored boots with the inch heel and pointed toe. Shit-kicker boots they got called. They matched her camel sweater with the high neckline. Her chocolate brown jacket hung off the small back of her stool.

Her intense stare, hair straightened to single brown sheets, and general attitude ironically made her stick out like a sore thumb. Nyobe didn't visibly take notice to people taking notice, but she could feel their eyes on her back. Yeah, she knew she was kind of uptight, but she felt like a woman against the world half the time. She really hated attention, too. Nyobe was never comfortable being the center of it.

The bartender, a bald, tall man, three visible tattoos, plain black t-shirt, minimum of facial hair on his chin. Genuine smile. "I heard it's somebody's birthday!" He announced, three people down from her. They'd spoken a few niceties on occassion when it had happened to be slow. Nyobe wasn't rowdy and tipped acceptably. "One on the house, my lady." He slid her a second, full bottle still frosty with cold and took away her old one, nearly empty. She searched his face for some sort of sarcasm, her features hardening just the slightest bit.

He was good. Nyobe immediately thought the gesture was nice and he chose his words carefully. Probably knew how to read his customers extremely well, or even beyond. With the smallest hint of a smile, she raised the new drink to him gratefully, pushing her empty basket with bread crumbs away from her. Anything was better than staying in and sulking.

Who: Xael and Nyobe
When: Friday Early Evening
Where: Gym


The Gym. His second home. Well maybe third. It was at least a close tie with the cafeteria but they did go hand in hand. Had to chow to have the proper amount of energy to work out as much as he did. After all there wasn't any way in hell that Xael was an anorexic crazy woman. He never had understood what was up with girls who did that... insanity. Pure insanity. Had to be the boobs or maybe the vagina. Did something to the brain made them crazy enough to not eat. Hell if he knew.

That had almost been Xael's order of operations for the day. Wake up. Late as usual. Threw on whatever was closest. Sort of made it through classes, halfway paid attention which was pretty good for Xael. He did have an attention span issue. Lots of shiny objects. Food. Football practice. Food. And now the gym. Maybe a bit overkill but Xael didn't see it as a workout, he just enjoyed the gym. Simple as that.

Football had been good, always was. Aside from the fact that there were some douches (okay one) on the team there was also a hot girl or two. As nice as they were to look at... Xael didn't exactly want to have to worry about full on tackling one of them and breaking something. He wasn't trying to be a sexist asshole BUT some of them were pretty skinny and supernatural or not, they were still breakable sometimes. Okay so there probably wasn't a hole he could dig himself out of with this one but it was what it was.

Not like Xael didn't think women were capable or anything. With his mom, it was damn near impossible to think they weren't. But not all women were demons or his mom. So more often than not, he didn't always think that a woman was completely capable of kicking his ass, unless he saw otherwise. Not that he made it a habit to get into it with girls. Er... it all depended on how you defined 'get into it' heh.

Xael had gone for a run first off when he'd hit the gym. Warmed up the muscles. Hands taped up he moved over to the punching bag that was suspended from the ceiling. All practiced motions, he went a few rounds with the bag, until there was a nice red hue to his hands. Didn't particularly hurt, was just toughening them up. But this wasn't exactly about just the punching, or just the burn that he was working for in his muscles. That he could find easily if he just lost himself to the whole workout, instead he was working on not doing that. On keeping the same intensity but also keeping completely aware of everything going on around him.

And that was probably why he noticed when someone else entered the gym. Didn't stop him but at least he noticed.

Who: Nyobe and Kate
Where: Halcyon gymnasium
When: Thursday, before classes

It was still dark outside when Nyobe got out of bed. She went through her morning routine like a drone; dressing, showering, and minimal primping. Her hair was pulled back from her forehead into a ponytail with blue running shorts, a grey tank top, and some blue trainers. Beginning her day, she jogged slowly to the gym amongst the almost empty main hallways.

Two hours later she was just winding down. Having the time, and freedom, to test her limits in the open was already showing her results. Everyday she felt like she could do a few more pull-ups or sit-ups. Not having anything in the way of a social life had to help to. Why not train an extra half-hour if you didn't have anywhere to go?

The silence around her felt so deafening sometimes it made her wonder if it was her. If there was one thing she knew, however, it was to stick to her guns. Halcyon was a completely new world from the one she knew. Nyobe's nature was to get her bearings before venturing out into it. Most wouldn't guess, from her glib remarks and quick bite, but it took more coaxing to get some nice out of her. She didn't give nice for free.

So far, Halcyon hadn't done anything crazy to her or other students yet. Seemed like a lot less happened in this school than others. Considering the attacks and things that happened at her college it was, dare she say it, a little drab? No one had take back the night marches or anything. There was a definitely serious gym crowd though. Each day Nyobe was getting a little more comfortable with them. She had to, she spent a lot of time in their direct line of sight everyday. She saw them and they saw her. First it was maybe a nod or acknowledgement of their existence, maybe a word or two.

One of the girls showed up pretty regularly, sometimes carried a bow around which caught her attention. She looked pretty good, seemed like she was human or human-strengthed anyway. It brought up a whole question about whether or not she considered herself human anymore, but she steadfastly refused to answer that question. This morning she had pretended, as usual, not to notice the presence of too many, but found herself in a quandry. She had put her towel down and either not noticed or the other person hadn't when theirs was right next to hers.

One of them was hers and one of them was not. She couldn't go without one, but she was not going to risk putting someone else's sweat on her body. Hands on her hips, her boxing gloves hanging over her right wrist, she looked for any telltale signs. Looked like it was time to start writing her name on shit again. "This yours?" She asked, evenly, still breathing a little heavy from her workout.