Issue 1 Downtime

The group appeared in a large, well-furnished closet. The medieval, European sort of closet. Not a place to hang coats.

Although there was a coat hanging from one of the chairs.

The walls were made of dark stone and the floor was covered in Arabian-style carpets. There was a small table with some food, but it all looked very unappetizing. Black bread, oozing fruits, and raw, bloody meat.

There was a half-finished painting in the corner. It looked like a landscape of the XI campus, a peaceful fall morning on the grounds. Quite a few people had been painted into the scene. Kay, Victoria, Haley, Theresa, Alex, Brigid, and even Calvin were all represented.

Regan steps out of the circle and pats Sunny on the head, "Go tell them we're here, boy."

Sunny barks and walks out through a wall, wagging his tail.

"Make yourselves at home," Regan says. She shrugs. "Or don't. Whatever."

After the initial confusion and disorientation clears up Kay looks around and walks over to the painting.

Alex making himself at home apparently consisted of looking suspiciously around for threats or windows for threats to come in.

Regan snaps her fingers and her wedding dress disappears. It's replaced by a more familiar hoodie and jeans, although the hoodie now has been tailored to give space for her wings. Her black t-shirt reads "Demon Bitch Queen".

"That is so much better," Regan groans. She collapses into an uncomfortable looking arm-chair.

"So are you really some kind of demon princess now?"

"Queen," Regan says. "The king is dead. Long live the queen."

She sits up, "It's less impressive then you think. It's probably harder to become mayor then royalty here."

Brigid's resolve seems to be faltering now that she's no longer reacting to everyone fighting. She mostly avoids touching things and goes to curl up in a corner of the room.

"So how DO you become royalty here?" Alex asked, more for something to say than real curiosity. He walked over and sat down next to where Brigid was curled up... he was still metal and probably not all that comforting, but he was also pretty big and imposing now, so nothing was likely to come screw with her if it DID come in.

"Pledge yourself to Belasco. Be useful to him," Regan says. "I mean, I was a knight in his court before I came to the school. I just didn't really remember it."

"After that, it's all politics. Conquering lands. Political marriages. That sort of shit."

Regan was trying to look disinterested in the whole conversation, but her quick replies and the fact that she was actually being sort of informative made it clear that she had been desperate for conversation for sometime.

Brigid gives Alex a faint nod before looking back at her hands.

"You okay?" Alex whispered. It was pretty much under his breath, but the echo from his size made it more or less audible to her.

Regan Rourke wrote:"Pledge yourself to Belasco. Be useful to him," Regan says. "I mean, I was a knight in his court before I came to the school. I just didn't really remember it."

"After that, it's all politics. Conquering lands. Political marriages. That sort of shit."

Regan was trying to look disinterested in the whole conversation, but her quick replies and the fact that she was actually being sort of informative made it clear that she had been desperate for conversation for sometime.

"Sounds super interesting. No wonder you wanted to stay here." Kay says with bit of a wry smile. To her credit, she's not actually being sarcastic, just trying to speak 'Regan'.

"I didn't... want to do that," she mumbles.

"I know," he answered, feeling belatedly disturbed that he HAD wanted to do it. "Let's just hope it's all over now."

"Well, we kinda needed the big demon-things dead," he pointed out reasonably.

"It was just..."

"...it was easy," she sighs.

She slumps, sighing.

"...okay."

"I'm... not sure what would," she sighs.

Kayla crossed her arms, scowling at the various ugly things in the ugly room.

Haley wandered away from the group and bit her lip to keep from just starting to cry.

"That must be why everyone's so cheerful," Regan says, rolling her eyes. "You guys have been here fifteen minutes. Could you try not falling apart?"

"Yeah, we're only in fucking Hell, right? It's not so big a deal."

Kayla turned, flipping the bird to Regan.

"Yeah, well, she said she'd help us get out of here, okay?" Kay mumbles as she goes to check on Miranda.

Miranda was still mostly unconscious, though Kay would get the distinct impression that she was holding an argument with herself. Since all she was doing was mumbling incoherently (and almost inaudibly), it was hard to say where that impression came from.

Kay frowns a little and leans in closer to hear what she's saying.

Most of the words were gibberish, but she did pick out a few like 'archeiofýlakas', 'profí̱ti̱s', and 'kyni̱gós'.

"Archeologist, money and kings?" she blinks. "Can you hear me? I don't speak... that."

There was no response.

Although there WAS a light out the window. A distant light, bright and unbelievably clean-looking in this hellish place. But it was small, and easy to miss at first. Not so much as it grew closer, and the kids probably had plenty of warning a few seconds before it came crashing through the window.

Ryan came to a skidding landing on the floor in a three-point crouch, wings spreading on his back, looking quickly around the room for demons to blast.

"Mister Gabriel!" Kay squeeks out, almost falling over backwards in surprise. In worrying about Miranda she apparently missed the approaching light.

"You know, if you guys want field trips, you could just start to ask. The locations would be a lot better."

Brigid blinks, looking up.

"...is it really you? I mean... this is Hell."

"Not... really Hell. Close, though. And I'd really love to know what got you guys here, but not as much as I want to see you guys out of here. So everyone gather in. I'll... admit, I'm not sure how this works, but Professor Weaver's spell should pull us all back in a few minutes here."

"That... was one badass entrance," Steve grinned.

"You hear that, Regan? He can get us out of here!" Kay says.

"Mister Gabriel, could you help with Miranda? She fainted when we came here. I think she's okay, just unconscious." she says, trying to lift Miranda up.