Important Announcement

[Andrew Williams]

The Refractory had been the only suitable place left for the announcement. The Gym was far too cold, and the room was already threatening to give in. The Ball Room was clearly unmanageable, and the Student Lounge had been far too small. So after taking a grand tour around the school, Andrew finally made up his mind. The room worked better than the rest as a matter of fact. There were many chairs to sit in, and a large trey of ripe red apples sat on every single table within the room… He had summoned every student within the building to come down to the Refractory, informing them there was a very brief, but important announcement waiting.

Andrew had been the only teacher left behind while the other staff members set out into the blizzard (along with a few students) in hopes of reaching the town. Due to his weakness, he had no choice but to stay put. Gothard, however, had placed him in charge – which left Andrew in an awkward position. There were things he could handle, and things he couldn’t handle. Being left to look after hundreds and hundreds of little kids was one of those things he couldn’t handle.

Surprisingly, however, he had been handling it well. It pleased him to think that Gothard might return, if he returned at all, to find the school in perfect place – just the way he had left it. Though it also left a burning awkward, guilty hole in his chest, knowing that everything he said to the man had been a lie – and wondered how he’d really feel about leaving a former assassin to look after his students.

Andrew shook the thought away. He was about to stand above the entire school, and he needed to concentrate. Before him were countless students. Most were seated and getting their last bit of chatter out before they finally decided to pay attention. He knew how uneasy everyone had been since the blizzard, and he felt that despite how much he would sooner not – he needed to speak to everyone. After all, it was he who the headmaster left in charge… was it not?!

Thinking it was best not to wait, Andrew stepped up onto a table he placed at the front of the room, and raised his arms for silence. Soon enough the room went quiet, and Andrew couldn’t help but smile beneath that solemn face of his – perhaps he was wrong about how disobedient these kids were.

“Boys and girls!” he announced his voice loud enough to make a microphone meaningless. “… I understand many of you are… wondering what is exactly is going on, and what kinds of state were are all n as of now. Well, I called you all up here to tell you the plain, simple truth.” He paused for a moment, glancing out over the wave of scared, curious, uncertain faces. “The storm has gotten worse and so far it has no sign of lighting up, but it seems to continue getting worse. I’m not going to lie to you all. We are in danger. Our food supply is running short, and our lack of power denies us any communication to the outside world. Even if that weren’t the case, however, we still would not be able to reach the town – seeing as they too, are out of power.”

He stopped abruptly as talk began to sweep out, and someone stood up shouting, “what about the students and teachers that left? My sister was in that group!” Someone else stood and shouted, “so was my brother!” Suddenly, at the same time, everybody began to stand up and shout. Andrew felt rage flush across his face, and fought to keep himself calm. He needed to do so in order to keep calm, he knew.

“ENOUGH!” He shouted after a few moments pass. His voice seemed to shake the room, and in an instant everyone was silent and seated again. Andrew took a deep breath. “I understand that people may have family out there somewhere, and I understand that those who have relatives who left for town are very… worried. But we all must remain calm for the younger children’s sake, if not our own.” He glanced about again as everyone relaxed slightly. “Now we have not received word or news from the headmaster and his crew since they left a few days ago. Therefore it is up to us to wait here until they return. And they will return, you must not doubt it. We must ALL remain calm and positive.

“Now I want all of us to stay together, and do our best to get through this. But in order to do that you must listen to me, and listen to yourselves – and know that this is no laughing matter, and there are to be no further fucking around.” The word escaped his mouth before he realized. “First off, everyone is to keep away from the highest floor as much as possible. You are to bring all your belongings down here for now… we cannot risk another cave-in. Secondly, as I said earlier our food supply is running low, so I think its best we only eat and drink when we absolutely have to. Note that if people get too greedy, I will be forced to make a schedule for meals that nobody will like. Now, are their any questions?”

[Mr. Gothard]

“Boys and girls!”

The Fiddler was based at the back of the room, it’s body covered as always, making gender an unknown fact, though The Fiddler’s long blond hair was hanging loosely down it’s back, falling to about the level of it’s waist. The Fiddler was lightly twisting it’s hair within it’s finger tips in a slightly worried manner as it waited for this meeting to begin, the announcement caused The Fiddlers pale eyes to move toward Andrew the only teacher in the building at this moment and one to have a strong present in the distant future.

Ellen was based at one of the many tables, she was basically sat on the table, close to the formation of red apples, grabbing a few and slipping them into her clothing for later. Her bright pink short hair caused her to stand out quite a bit, as well as the fact she was dressed in a sort of punk like manner, seeing as she had quite a bit of tartan clothing on, with a mixture of drawing pins and spikes holding her clothing together. When Andrew address the room Ellen puffed into a ball of smoke and moved to one of the seats close by, following with her biting into one of the red apples.

“… I understand many of you are… wondering what is exactly is going on, and what kinds of state were are all n as of now. Well, I called you all up here to tell you the plain, simple truth.”

“We’re fucked…”, Ellen commented quietly to herself with a small smile, worrying a few people around her, seeing their expressions she quietly told them she was just joking.

The Fiddler wasn’t to bothered by all this mess, seeing as it knew when his fate was to come around, so it had no worry of dieing here under this roof, it had a bit more time in this world.

“The storm has gotten worse and so far it has no sign of lighting up, but it seems to continue getting worse. I’m not going to lie to you all. We are in danger. Our food supply is running short, and our lack of power denies us any communication to the outside world. Even if that weren’t the case, however, we still would not be able to reach the town – seeing as they too, are out of power.”

“Glad I got my apples then, I’ll be sure to stock up before all the grubs gone”, Ellen whispered to herself with a smile knowing her powers would give her a bit of a advantage about these things as she could teleport to the food with out being noticed.

“What about the students and teachers that left? My sister was in that group!”, “so was my brother!”

At this point the Fiddler decided it had little need to be here, people were just going to get out of hand and upset, they were human after all. The Fiddler started to get to it’s feet and began to move toward the doors of the room to make it’s way out.

Ellen was now quite, seeing as she was starting to feel a bit bad for a number of the people who were very worried about their families and such. Ellen had her own family near by but she had never really though of her mums getting into trouble in this storm, the pair of them could look after themselves, she guessed some people wouldn’t do as well in this kind of weather.

“ENOUGH!”

The Fiddler glanced back at this point, Andrew had gotten his attention, so it stopped and turned, getting ready to listen once more, though nothing of importance would come from this, but The Fiddler thought it was best to say at this point, didn’t want to up set anyone now.

Ellen simply slumped in her seat at this point, she didn’t like yelling so she just dropped down and out of sight, not really wanted to get in the path of all this negative energy, it was starting to bum her out.

“I understand that people may have family out there somewhere, and I understand that those who have relatives who left for town are very… worried. But we all must remain calm for the younger children’s sake, if not our own.”, “Now we have not received word or news from the headmaster and his crew since they left a few days ago. Therefore it is up to us to wait here until they return. And they will return, you must not doubt it. We must ALL remain calm and positive”

“Hmm at least he’s trying to take control of this lot”, The Fiddler said under his breath as he leant up against one of the outer walls of the room and waited for Andrew to carry one with his little speak of commands.

Ellen grins to herself, of course the others would be coming back, they were a ruffy tuffy lot, they could handle themselves, they must have just ran into a few problems, nothing they couldn’t handle, she guessed it would take about 2 to 3 days more and they would be back with them.

“Now I want all of us to stay together, and do our best to get through this. But in order to do that you must listen to me, and listen to yourselves – and know that this is no laughing matter, and there are to be no further fucking around“, “First off, everyone is to keep away from the highest floor as much as possible. You are to bring all your belongings down here for now… we cannot risk another cave-in. Secondly, as I said earlier our food supply is running low, so I think its best we only eat and drink when we absolutely have to. Note that if people get too greedy, I will be forced to make a schedule for meals that nobody will like. Now, are their any questions?”

Ellen rose to her feet and stretched lightly and with a puff she reappeared quite close to Andrew. A small smile licked her lips as she got ready to speak. “How about a small group venture into the upper floors of the school and create extra supports for the ceiling, lower the chances of cave in, a few of us could do some repairs and such, not all of us here are children remember”, Ellen spoke in quite a logical manner for once and was quite proper when she spoke, seeing as she did have something meaningful to say.

[Reaper]

Normally people would be in an avsolute panick in such a situation as the one that had hit Night Woods and the surrounding area. But for some reason, Nikki Talleran was as calm as if it was a minor rain shower. She didn't quite understand why she wasn't worried, she just wasn't. It might be because she found it hard to believe that a situation like this could be so serious with so many people with powers wandering around the large school. It just didn't seem logical to be scared of such an event.

None the less she listened intently as Andrew spoke, taking in everything the teacher had to say. Some students were growing very restless and making large amounts of nise because of family members nearby. This made Nikkis own mind go into a quick flashback. She had left without saying anything to anybody, they were probably so worried by this point in time. It had been almost three or so years since then.

Now her mind wandered back to the events after that. Shane flashed into her mind for a split second and her eyes were instantly wandering around the room. If he was here, he would most likely be in this room right now. Gathered with the rest of the students, well probably aprt from the other students. He hand't really been the social type from what she could remember. After searching almost frantically, she sighed, yet again, no one.

Her attention was redirected to Andrew. He was at the front of the room still, telling the students that they had to be spareing, and make sure they let the food in the school last as long as possible. Then what's with all the apples, Genius? She thought as she grabbed one, taking a chunk out and chewing. Andrews little speech concluded and he asked if anyone had any questions. None of those had arisen so far.

Instead of a question one girl, who had been moving around in an annoying way at the same table as Nikki, had poofed up to the front and instead made some suggestion. This little plan involved making the school stronger, decreasing the chance of it wrecking and collapsing snow on top of everybody inside. It was reasoanble enough, and it made a great deal of sense. Why just sit here and wait while the group that had left did all the important stuff. They weren't the only ones capable.

Suddenly the idea hit her. It was extremly cold outside, well it would have been to most people, but Nikki knew of one at last that could have went outside without a care at all. Shane would have ventured out, and she knew he would just be doing it to help out with everything. This made her jump up, really without thinking and actually speak," Do you have a list of the people who went to the town?!" Her voice sounded slightly desperate and pleefull, which her face turned an instant scarlet for," I think I have a friend out there," She muttered at last, though chances are it was too quiet to actually hear.

[Andrew Williams]

As Andrew glanced around the sea of faces and listened to the long silence, he figured that the announcement was done. That was before, of course, a girl teleported to his side, speaking of sending a small crew up to the second floor for repairs. He immediately felt annoyed, the girl could’ve simply spoken from her seat instead of suddenly appearing right next to him. Right away, he thought the idea was completely and utterly pointless.

Though he was forced to think twice about it as he heard mutters of agreement throughout the crowd. He glanced about uncertainly, thinking. It would prove useful if repairs were made, and even if the snow would pile in anyways, it might buy them some time. Then again… if he sent a group up there, and the snow caved in and smothered them all, he’d be responsible for their deaths. No, he decided. Too many deaths have been caused by my hands already, I will not have students going up there while their under my responsibility.

“No,” he said at last. “There will be nobody going up there to make repairs,” he turned to Ellen, “and children or no, you are all my responsibility. If anything is to happen, the fault falls into my hands. It is my job to keep you all safe until Gothard returns, and that is all there is to it.” He knew these kids, all of them - and he knew just as well that they were willing to argue if he refused. So he turned from Ellen, no longer interested in continuing the conversation. Andrew saw from most of the students that they seemed to agree, therefore he decided to move on.

He had heard a second voice arise from the crowd, and glanced towards another girl who had voiced a question of her own. “I do not… We all of have friends and family out there,” he told her. “All we can do is wait patiently to hear from them. Until then we must sit and wait it out.”

[Valentina DeFranchesco]

Josh Brega lingered uncomfortably at the side wall of the Refractory, listening to the announcement some teacher gave at the front of the room. It wasn't all the people around him that made Josh anxious or even all the snow that was outside-he could care less about the snow. Having lived in New York City, he was custom to the cold, and always heard about blizzards farther out, it wasn't a big deal, it would end sooner or later.

The boy and his twin sisters had been in the room for half an hour now, while they watched it fill up. The morning had been chaos, everyone scrambling around trying to see if the rumors were true about some big announcement, and where it was being held. Students were already freaking out, always fighting over food, books and blankets, it would actually be quite amusing to watch if his stomach was settled about the other matter on his mind.

Valentina had been missing for the last few days, Josh honestly hadn't seen her since the party when she stormed out, but wouldn't admit it to Bella and Serena, who kept asking where she'd went. He had no idea where her dorm was, where barely anything was for that matter after only arriving hours before this whole event began, and exploring wasn't exactly easy when half the school was blocked off.

The familiar voice concerned his suspicions, a group had gone out into the storm, and Val must have accompanied them, it was something she would do. After all, she could shape shift. That was unless something hadn't happened to her the night of the party, he hoped she hadn't gone go downstairs, though everyone had supposedly been rescued.

It was Bella who pointed out that the teacher speaking was indeed the one Val was ‘friends with’ and Josh nodded, realizing to that that’s why he sounded familiar, even in front of all these students. The teenager had every intention to go up to Andrew after everyone cleared out to ask her whereabouts, but was surprised when Val slipped in the room, along the wall and greeted him with a friendly hug. The two whispered for a few minutes as Josh caught Valentina up on the news, ignoring the flashing glares.

Val moved away again, towards the front of the crowded room, leaving Josh, Bella and Serena for the time being. She wanted to hear what was going on herself, at least if the whole speech wasn’t over. Valentina had planned on going on the little outdoor adventure, then changed her mind when she had learnt Andrew was put in charge of the students, knowing it would probably stress him out even more if she wandered out into a snowstorm. The girl had a clear view of Andrew now, and watched him, wondering if he and anyone else was going to say anything, or if people would start pushing their way out, but no one seemed to move.

[Mr. Gothard]

" Do you have a list of the people who went to the town?!", " I think I have a friend out there,"

Ellen’s eyes drifted over the girl for a moment, feeling a bit sorry for her, seeing as she might have had a loved one trekking though all of that snow, for her sake she hoped Andrew had at least gathered a list of those who wouldn’t be present here today so he could stay on top of things.

“No,”, “There will be nobody going up there to make repairs,”, “and children or no, you are all my responsibility. If anything is to happen, the fault falls into my hands. It is my job to keep you all safe until Gothard returns, and that is all there is to it.”

Ellen’s thoughts about the girl were cut short but Andrews blunt words which seemed to lack any soul, he seemed to be more worried about getting the blame for anything rather than helping out, first time Ellen met Andrew she though he was a cock, nothing had changed in her mind.

“I do not… We all of have friends and family out there,”, “All we can do is wait patiently to hear from them. Until then we must sit and wait it out.”

“Nice one mate”, Ellen said under her breath had his reply, he hadn’t even bothered to collect names of those who wouldn’t be here, she guest it was her turn to speak up again. “I recon you should gather the names of those here, so you have an idea who is left here, just so no one ends up going missing and no one knows about it”, Ellen suggested with a half smile, with that she turned her back to him and disappeared into a puff of smoke and reappeared close to one of the doors to the room.

“I don’t trust my life in his hands thanks, I’ll look after myself”, Ellen whispered to herself, took a last glance back and disappeared once more, reappearing in another area of the school, one of the upper levels of the school to be more precise.

The Fiddler at this point had moved though the room and the crowds to Val’s side. It leaned toward her for a moment and cocked it’s head slightly to one side and smiled at her, making it’s presents known. Drawing back a step the Fiddler began to speak in his soft whisper of a voice.

“Glad to see your still with us Valentina, the storm seems to have left you unharmed, well to a degree in which you can still function, but I predict you will be hit by another form of storm soon Valentina, one not of wind and nice…”, The Fiddler’s eyes were fixed on Andrew at this point, but he still spoke to Valentina as it was speaking of everyday things.

[Rayne Elisse Yukino]

Rayne leaned against the wall, arms crossed as she listened to the announcement. Outside, the storm still raged full-force, and the cave-in she had heard about didn't make their situation any better. Already, students in the crowd were beginning to panic from the announcement.

Rayne frowned at them, turning her head towards the teacher speaking as she processed things in her mind. They didn't have enough food to last forever. She would probably be the last person to worry about the food though, since she didn't eat much anyway. In fact, hardly anybody seemed to be thinking about food right now. Their minds were on the people still out there.

Unlike the others, Rayne didn't have any friends or relatives out there at the moment. Her family lived quite far from here, so she doubted they would be affected by the blizzard. Her concern was more on them---the one's inside the building. The cave-in on the second floor was proof of one thing--the school couldn't handle the weight of the snow for long.

She watched as a girl teleported over to the teacher, suggesting that they send a team of students up there to help repair. She watched as the teacher said no to that, not wanting to endanger the students under his responsibility.

Rayne sighed, wondering if it would be good for her to get herself involved in this whole situation. She was a student of this school, and regardless of what people thought of her, she did care in some way about its students.

Her attention was drawn to her right hand, which was beginning to turn black and fade out. Rayne focused on it, watching as the shadows that formed her hand returned back into a solid form. She tested the hand for a moment, clenching and flexing the fingers, before deciding that it was sufficiently solid. She turned her attention towards the teacher, fixing him with her amethyst eyes.

"Sir, if I may make a suggestion," she said, making her voice audible through the entire room, "Some of us have powers that would help them get away in case anything were to happen, like teleporting-girl over there who just left. My own power allows me to become a shadow, and as a shadow I can't be harmed by falling snow and can get back to the lower levels. If students who have powers like these go up there to make repairs, it would lessen the danger of them getting hurt in case of a second cave-in."

I know I'm going to regret this later, said a voice in her mind as people in the crowd began turning to her. She hated being the center of attention just as much as she hated crowds, and this situation put her right into both.

[Andrew Williams]

Andrew was about ready to confirm that this announcement was over, and to his pleasure as well – for at that moment he recognized Valentine within the crowd. Just before he was about to excuse everyone, another female voice stepped in. He clenched his teeth together and formed his hands into fists, but the anger left him almost immediately after and he looked just as calm as ever. Though deep down Andrew was immensely annoyed. He had already disclosed the matter, and now this girl was bringing it up again.

He waited as she talked, standing their solemnly until she was finished. Finally, he said. “No!” and turned back to the crowd. “Are there any further questions? No? Good. Now I want each and every one of you to grab your belongings from your dorms and return back here immediately. Nobody is to go outside, and as you already know, nobody is to return to the upper levels. You are to grab your stuff, and bring it here. Welcome to your new dorm ladies and gentlemen.” Andrew stepped down after waving them off with his arms and made his way through the retreating crowd towards Valentine.

[Valentina DeFranchesco]

Valentina turned slowly to face the fiddler who now stood close by her side, with a light smile, always happy to talk to the boy or girl, it was so interesting compaired to most at this school, so different. She still hadn't figured the Fiddler out though, and was starting to doubt that she could, unless perhaps she took up his previous offer of 'trading secrets'. It would be interesting, to see what kind of secrets a person such as him or her had, but that would mean she'd have to give up her own, and she just simply had too many of other peoples as well to give away.

At the Fiddlers comment, the second part, the girls face dropped it's smile almost immeadately. She had indeed caught the flicker of its eyes towards Andrew, and bit her lip. So The Fiddler knew? Val had known The Fiddler was different, and had always hinted to her about the future, but how did he know about her and Andrew? Worse off then the fact that somone now knew, apparently there was some kind of storm beteween the two of them?

Valentina turned away from The Fiddler now to face Andrew, who was clearly getting angry at the girl who had just pretty much repeated the question Ellen had asked. He didn't want to be responsible for even more kids, this much she could tell, but did agree that somone should go check out to see how bad the upper level of the school was.

Almost forgetting about the Fiddler being beside her, the teenager muttered "I must go..Perpahs I'll come chat with you later." And walked away towards Andrew, pushing through all the students retreating to their old dorms. Andrews rules or not, she herself had no intentions of staying in this 'temporary dorm', she'd rather risk the snow.

Finally approaching Andrew, Val now had a smirk on her face at the whole situation "You handled that well." She stated in an amused voice, but her face quickly dropped back to a more somber, serious expression when she caught a glimps of the Fiddler somwhere farther off to their left. Its statment, -or prediction or whatever it was- comming distractedly back to mind, it was somthing that was probably going to bug her until she found out what exactlyit meant.

[Reaper]

How could the man left in charge not have a list of the absent party on hand? Had Gothard really made the right decision in this matter? Nikki asked herself these questions slightly out of frusteration, all her attempts to track down that on meddlesome boy were turning into so much of a pain by this point, that she was ready to just give up all together. Of course, that group may indeed include her lost friend. He was certainly not in this room, his hulking figure would more than likely pop out in this room like a sore thumb. This caused her to need to supress a giggle. He would probably be so at ease in such dreadfull weather. Her thoughts were disrupted when Andrew told them to collect ther things and return to that very room.

" Bunk here? Right in the middle of the refrectory?" The idea of this kind of made Nikki nervous. She had primarily kept to herself since coming to Night Woods, and now, sh ewas being asked to stay in this one room cramped with upwards of hundreds of students? She shook her head. She didn't like the idea, but something about the way this Andrew character made his orders made her believe that crossing him was somewhat of a bad idea

But non the less she turned away from where she was still standing and headed towards the doors. She would not be long to return, ro she might depending on how badly she did not want to be anywhere near the other students at this time. It would also take her very little time to go around and collect the few things she would need from her dorm, which most likely meant a bunch of scarves, penicls and her notebook, blankets and other things were indeed a given of course.

[Mr. Gothard]

"I must go..Perpahs I'll come chat with you later."

“Farewell Valentina, have a pleasant day”, The Fiddle rippled with a smile and with that turned away and slipped away from the scene and out of the doors with the rest of the student, most likely looking for a play to get some sleep on his own. With his sleep patens he wouldn’t enjoy waking in the middle of the night surrounding by people shouting about his visions of the future.

[Rayne Elisse Yukino]

Rayne frowned slightly at the announcement, looking around her. They would be sleeping here? That didn't bother her much but...Kotone...

Her cousin had been ill that morning, and had remained in bed. She would have wanted Kotone to stay in bed, but with this new announcement...her fists clenched at the thought of her weaker cousin walking through the cold halls in that condition. She wasn't altogether ready to lose Kotone, and she had been getting sicker and sicker as of late.

Rayne scowled, violet eyes downcast as she exited the hall. There would be no helping it. She would have to find Kotone and get the slightly younger girl into the Refractory before too much cold air got to her. She could take care of her own belongings later.