It's a skin condition! I swear! [Open]

((The following events take place 3 days after the events of Meditation))

In the halls of Beacon Academy, 12:21 pm.

Classes are about to end. Gotta get back to my dorm! Indigo Evans scurries through the corridors, attempting to avoid any other students or teachers on her way back to the dorm room. She wears a long sweater and scarf covering most of her face and arms, as apposed to her normal garb. She is also wearing a pair of shoes; something she never does. As a direct result of the poorly fitting shoes, she is significantly less agile than normal.

At this point in time Drake is simply leaning against the wall outside his own dorm room, eating what appears to be a sweet bun of some sort. The face-scarf is lowered, he is naturally at ease and also seems to be hiding something beneath his other hand. Some sort of box of chocolate coated sugary sticks of sorts.

His eyes are closed and all is calm. Well. Mostly calm. It was often difficult for others to figure out the different levels of calm around him simply because he didn't show emotion at all for the most part. Another bite of the bun and he stops. Something wasn't right and he couldn't quite place what it was...

Tyler had just gotten out of Class when he was knocked over by someone wearing a long sweater and a Scarf! needless to say this meant his few books went everywhere. His books he had checked out from the school library had managed to stay near him though. He gathered everything up before looking up and seeing that the girl was gone. Oh well. He'd find her later, but first he had to get everything put back in his locker since he had a free period now.

Mao finished reading his book regarding auras. He yawned and stretched inside his dorm room. He glanced over at the clock which stated that it was almost half past noon. Well, that didn't take as long as I thought it would. Maybe I'll go visit the garden or something. He hopped out of his chair which was placed by the window. He put on some black gloves as they felt too bare without anything covering them before opening the door to the hallway. He peeked his head out only to see Drake leaning against the wall eating something. "Drake, what are you doing? Waiting for someone?" Mao stepped out into the hallway, closing the door behind him.

Indigo sneaks around a corner. Noticing two students blocking the only way to her room, she has no choice but to try and casually walk past them in the hopes that they would pay her no mind. Ducking her head down, she attempts to walk past them as subtly as possible.

Drake pauses a moment, looking toward Mao at the mention of his name and he stops, frowning for just a second. Couldn't Mao feel it? This odd sense of wrongness? He tilts his head and gives Mao a serious look for just a moment.

"Can't you feel it? This sort of...sense of something just being wrong?"

It was a horrible, niggling feeling. Nothing out of the ordinary. Just one of those feelings people got from time to time when something was up. And then Indigo turned the corner. He pauses, noticing her simply because no one wore than many layers of clothing at this time of the year. Or walked that poorly. Especially not in an academy training people to be active combatants.

He waits until she is just a bit closer and then proceeds to step away from the wall, purposefully standing in the hallway to block access. Something was up with this strange person and he would figure out what. No one liked surprises, least of all him.

"Ah ah ah...I think I just found what was wrong and I'm going to find out who and what...."

Indigo's stomach dropped. Covering her face almost entirely with the scarf, "W-What do you mean? Nothing's wrong here!" She said nervously. Trying to push her way past, "I need to get back to my room, so could you please stop..."

"Feel what? The only things that feels wrong is you just standing around for no reason in the hallway. Seriously though, what are you doing?" Mao glared joking at Drake before someone came around the corner in a scarf and a sweater. What...is this person doing? Who dresses like that? He stopped glaring and Drake and looked at the strange person curiously. As Drake blocked the person's path, he heard a nervous voice come through muffled by the scarf. This person sounds familiar...

"Hey you, stranger. Have we met before?"

"Oh, I know we have met, yes."

He announces this with just a hint of satisfaction in his voice, almost smiling for just a moment as Mao catches up to him with his instincts. It took a while but he had faith in Mao being able to realise it as well. People needed to trust their instincts more. He needed to trust his less.

He blinks for a moment as Indigo attempts to push her way past, mumbling quietly at him before carefully moving his hand to under her chin to lift her gaze up. He had to confirm the suspicion. He knew full well it would also have...less positive affects on his psyche as well. Still too many scars.

"Of all the people you try the muffled scarf approach on...you try it on the one person who actually wears a scarf...similar to this in the field. Slow down. Something's wrong and I just have to confirm something first..."

Something that could break his mind. Again.

Indigo pushed his hand away. "I really need to go!" She tries even harder to push past.

Seeing as he had just been studying not 5 minutes before, Mao wasn't particularly in his jester-like mindset. He did want to know who the person under the scarf was, though, so he decided he would just let Drake so his thing so he wouldn't have to get involved himself. The urgency of the mysterious person's voice was outputting. He leaned against the wall and continued to watch. "Drake, don't get carried away."

"I am not getting carried away. You know that. I do not get carried away."

It really must have been odd. Drake showing just the briefest hints of emotion. As his hand is batted away he steps back just a little, his slight smile quickly returning to his usual pseudo-scowl. The urgency of her voice now was concerning to him. And until he could confirm who this was...it was dangerous.

He puts his hand out to stop her, lifting the other and holding up the box of pocky. Probably not the best approach. In fact, he probably was coming off as a bit of a jerk at this point. But he really didn't know exactly how to act in this situation.

"I'll let you go...after you tell us what's wrong? Please? You can have these. But until I can confirm who you are...well. Ask Mao over there about the trees."

He really didn't want to be on edge for the rest of the day. Damn it. Why was this becoming difficult for him?

"I really need to go! Please just let me through!" Indigo's voice was laced with urgency. On any other day she could have passed them with ease, but certainly not with shoes on. "I don't want any candy, I just want to get to my room before it gets any worse..." I shouldn't have said that.

"Worse?"

Mao should recognise this. Indigo would recognise it too to a degree. For a moment the memory surfaces. For a moment Drake's eyes flicker, blue visible beneath retreating tendrils of black. He shakes his head, trying to calm himself. Trying to get the control back.

"No...no..."

He steps back again and grits his teeth, looking at Indigo and then just standing there. There is something off. Something odd. He's halfway gone and her tones of urgency aren't helping the situation at all.

"What....happened? For the love of the memory tell me what happened? Please."

His voice is unsettling. His eyes...halfway blue, halfway his usual black, beginning to dilate just a little. He is trying to keep himself calm. Trying to keep himself in control. But the urgency of her voice...Help me. And then the wolves took her. Then they tore her apart in front of him. No. The memory had to fade. He had to swallow it...

Indigo sees her opportunity and takes it, sprinting past the two and flawlessly making it back to her room. Or at least that's what would have happened had she not been wearing shoes. Instead, she clumsily trips on her own foot, falling to the ground and knocking off a shoe to reveal her foot, now covered in purple scales.

He's resistant to Mao's efforts to cordon him off, being forcibly pushed to one side...and then Indigo trips. The response to that is instant. An angry, grief filled shout as he attempts to push past Mao, just to get to her side.

The Frenzy had resulted in him fighting to protect Indigo during initiation. It would do the same here. Something was very wrong and he tries to shove past Mao again, to get to her side. He is already crouched low, already in a stance to fight and defend. Yet he is unarmed, save for the flickered, blade-formed aura around his hands.

"No! Get away from her!"

His eyes were gone. Deep blue, dilated, almost wild. The memory surfaces as he moves to her side, glancing to her foot and not caring. Was that what she was afraid of? That they'd shun her? Were he not currently of two minds he'd laugh. But instead he moves to protect her, pointed, iron scaled cloak twisting around him.

Mao was not his enemy. He shook his head, realising that and he glanced to Indigo again. He wanted to ask questions. But the Frenzy just saw the need to protect. That was foremost in his mind.

"No one will hurt you again. Never again."

Mao sighed. "Oh for the love of..." He quickly re-grabbed Drake's collar. "If you're going to protect her..." He tossed Drake into his room. "...do it..." He then grabbed the back of the stranger's sweater and slide her into the room as well. ...in there!" Mao took note the the stranger's scaly leg before slamming the door to him room and muttering under his breath as he leaned against the wall next to the door.

Indigo yelped as she was pulled into a room, losing her scarf in the process and revealing more scales creeping up her neck. "Hey wait-" The door shut before she could finish her sentence. She curled up, trying to hide her scales as best as possible.

Drake's response to forced relocation isn't much better, taken a bit aback as he tries to regain his footing before glancing over to Indigo. He frowns and then, with a heavy sigh removes his cloak, bundling it up and offering it to her, scarf and all. His eyes are still that odd, deep blue. His natural eye colour. They're still somewhat wild but at least there's no anger or rage in them.

"Indigo."

He says her name carefully. Trying to disassociate her from the memory. Trying to bury the Frenzy. Some things needed to be forgotten though her very presence made it hard for him at the best of times. She looked so similar to his sister. She was even living what would have been his sister's dream. A dream he took for the memory.

"You don't need to hide around me. Do you think I really care about...those?"

At that he points to his cloak. To the back of his hands to indicate the talons and then to the light armoured plates and canisters. The scale patterning was there. The dragonhead symbol was there.

"But if you need to cover yourself...use the scarf. The cloak. Not much but best I have. I just want to know what happened. But you don't have to tell me. Your choice. I....apologise. The memory came back."

Indigo relaxed a bit, moving her hands slightly off her neck. "I know a lot of people who wouldn't be as accepting as you are now." Signs of tears began in her eyes. "I don't always have to hide. Like this, I mean."

Drake smiles, just a little. Another odd display of emotion from someone who is normally so apathetic and cold. His eyes don't revert yet however. The Frenzy is still there. The concern is still there and he settles himself down, near to her but keeping a respectful distance.

"I've never been one to judge. I have my own issues. Why judge others for their own?"

He shrugs at that and places the scarf and cloak down, crossing his arms carefully for a moment. The scars are visible. Along his arms, and just where his shoulders and neck are though his face is not scarred, save a cut on his chin. He frowns just a little at the tears starting and scoots just a little closer.

"It is...okay. You are safe. Whatever it is...I won't say anything. Promise."

Indigo exhales a shaky breath. After a moment of silence she says "In that case, I'm taking this damn thing off." She pulls the sweater over her head, revealing that, under her normal shirt, her arms are also covered with the scales, the under parts of her arms being covered in white scales. "I really have no idea why they're spreading; They usually just cover my torso, then all of the sudden, I wake up this morning and they're all over my arms and legs and now they're even worse."

"So this is...normal, in a sense?"

He smiles just a little at that and then watches her proceed to shuck the sweater, ducking instinctively in case it became a projectile. He then tilts his head and glances over her, part out of curiousity and part out of concern.

"I am sorry...for earlier. I do not mix well with people. Not since..."

He cuts off there. He doesn't go there. The Memory should be put to rest. He shakes his head and then frowns again. His thinking is visible. His mind is trying to piece things together, trying to find a logical solution for her situation.

"Forgive me...but I am terribly unfamiliar with your situation. I'm trying...to figure out if something stressed you out? Perhaps that affected it? I'm...not too familiar with this at all. I lived an isolated life...in a sense."

"I wouldn't doubt you've never seen anyone like me. Neither have I. Neither has anyone in my family. Congratulations by the way, you're the..." She counts on her fingers "Eleventh person in all of Vytal who's seen my scales."