Locus

Rain dripped from John’s hair down the back of his neck as he stood waiting for the bus. Thursday had dawned with promise - the hope of finding a location for his shrine, and the possibility if he found the right spot soon enough that he’d be able to double back to the park for a little light foliage grinding before he had to make his way home. He had tomorrow to look forward to as well - assuming nothing happened in between, he’d have his first date with Matilda.

As a result, he’d been in good spirits, right up until he was halfway to the bus stop and the heavens had opened. Rain, far heavier than he’d expected for the time of year, had sluiced down; despite running for the stop and ducking under every bit of cover on the way he was still decidedly soggy as he scrambled past the driver and sank into the only free space left.

The bus was filled to the brim; it seemed the rain had made even the most athletic of Ashcroft attendees think better of walking to the Academy that day. On the plus side, the crowded bus meant that John was now sitting next to a girl. On the minus side, it meant he was now sitting next to a girl who was involved with whatever the Order of the Golden Rose was.

Rebecca shifted uncomfortably in her seat as John dropped damply into the space next to her. Her necklace wasn’t reacting to his presence, but then neither was the charm she’d prepared the night before to detect evil. She was pretty sure she’d gotten the engraving right on it; it wasn’t as if she’d been dozing through part of the lessons on crafting back at the Brighton manor. She’d just… not been perhaps as attentive as she should have been, daydreaming about being a warrior like the Warden.

Despite probably not being evil, John was absolutely up to something odd. After he’d left the previous day, she’d checked and it had looked like he’d only scavenged mostly worthless metal from the bodies of the trolls she’d slain. There was no rhyme or reason to it - not to mention the fact that he wasn’t on the list of people that were known to be Abyssals at Ashcroft when she’d checked with the Order’s record-keepers. After some trepidation following that inquiry, she’d spoken with Moira about it. The memory of the redhead’s icy stare and brisk orders to add investigating the young man to her penance for failing to find all the sword fragments briefly made Rebecca shiver.

How to start up a conversation with him, however? That was the question she was currently struggling with. It wasn’t as if she was even that good at talking to people outside the Order in general, and now he was sitting there, dripping wet and looking like his day was going to hell even before they got to where they were going… Taking a deep breath, she turned to him, and tried for a pleasant greeting.

John blinked. The woman in the seat next to him had just said hello - and he was pretty sure it wasn’t something she was being put up to by Frank and Vanessa. As his brain rapidly processed that information, he was dimly aware of eyes on them - which wasn’t good. Talking to women outside of the faculty was usually a recipe for Frank to introduce John to the business end of his fists and Vanessa to introduce the girl in question to the water inside of the women's toilets courtesy of her group of hangers on.

He hadn’t figured out why exactly the pair of them enjoyed tormenting him so, but whether it was his regular smarts or his boosted Wisdom, he reacted quickly. “Don’t talk to me here,” he hissed at his seat-mate, keeping his voice as low as he dared to make sure she heard it but nobody else did. “It’s not safe for you.”

Rebecca froze. A declaration that she’d be unsafe to talk to him? Was he in some kind of trouble? She turned her head away from him so fast she was almost worried she’d sprain her neck. Thoughts rapidly tumbled through her head of all the ways in which Abyssals could get into trouble. Maybe he was being watched by mana-harvesters, or worked over by a gang of some kind. This would be the point if she were Moira where she’d loudly proclaim he was under her protection, and then there’d be a kick-ass fight and she’d look all epic and…

The brunette took a deep breath, forcing her runaway thoughts back to the immediate situation. John seemed to think it was unsafe for them to talk on the bus, despite it being a public place. That, according to her training, meant either he was in real trouble or he was going to try and lure her into a Barrier that he’d set up as a trap. Fortunately she had a solution to both of those problems - find a place to talk to him where he didn’t control the terrain, and where there wasn’t anyone else around to risk whatever danger he was in.

“If you’re in trouble, we can help you. Meet me behind the old gym at lunch,” she hissed back after a moment’s consideration. There was a small area there where she could open a Barrier without risking it overlapping with any of the others dotted around campus - or with the areas that some of the other people on campus monitored for such things. For a brief moment, she swallowed hard at the thought of attracting their attention, before pretending to be engrossed in her book as the bus drove on.

John also had his attention elsewhere as they continued on their way. Mostly, in an internal monologue that was going ”shit shit shit” over and over. Rebecca was still two Levels higher than him, was a member of that weird Order he’d seen mention of, and was asking to meet him behind the gym - a place out of sight of the rest of the campus. It didn’t take an Int over twenty to put two and two together and guess that she’d figured out he was an Abyssal too. Oh, how he wished he had Malal’s icon with him for advice!

Not attending the meeting would be bad. If he didn’t show up, she’d probably think it suspicious, and maybe call for backup - if she hadn’t already. A Level six novice - well, Wesley was also Level six, and John had almost, kinda beaten him at chess. So a Level six he might be able to handle if he was lucky. But if she called for that Level seventeen paladin he’d seen around…

On the other hand, attending could be equally bad if he’d somehow done something to piss the Order off. She’d said she could help him… Maybe this would be an opportunity? They had paladins, after all - and that meant they had to worship something. Given what Malal had told him, if he played it down, acted like he was just interested in Gaia, it would be safe enough - and perhaps Rebecca would be able to hook him into whatever local underground existed. Flyx had definitely given the impression that there was a hidden economy out there - a safe way into the local community would be really handy long term.

John spent most of his morning lessons zoning out while turning his options regarding Rebecca’s offer over and over in his head. Flee, fight or try and fake it until he made it were not exactly a great set of choices - but they were the only ones he could come up with. As it happened, he’d missed out on one final F from the list that caught up with him after he’d eaten lunch and was on the way to the rendezvous at the old gym. Frank.

Despite his best efforts to distance himself from Rebecca throughout the day, it seemed that John’s bullies had heard something; Vanessa stood off to one side chewing gum while Frank very patiently explained in loud words that if John were to be seen near the brunette from the bus again, he’d be eating dinner with a straw for a week. As far as Frank went, it was actually a pretty eloquent speech - there were even words of more than two syllables interspersed through the tirade!

The cheap shot to John’s stomach before the bullies turned and walked away that left him wheezing on the grass at the end of their lecture was far less eloquent, however. The only real saving grace of the entire affair was that, firstly, the pair of them seemed to think John had been hitting on Rebecca and as such wouldn’t be going after her, and secondly, that the brunette was watching from the corner of the old gym the entire time, ducking back out of sight before his tormentors could spot her.

Dusting himself off as he stood and wincing, John noted that Frank’s blow had comfortably knocked a fair chunk out of his hp bar. With the idea of visiting Rebecca now hopefully off the cards for the day, he staggered back towards the main building and his afternoon lectures without looking back.

From where she stood behind the building, Rebecca bit her lip and considered the situation. John had been attacked by people that were on the list of mundane individuals she’d been ordered to avoid if at all possible while at Ashcroft. But it didn’t look - or sound - like anything more than regular bullying. If he was in trouble with whatever the real power was behind those two bullies, then this situation was way above her rank. A novice like her didn’t get to know the reasons why she was ordered to avoid people - she just did as she was told. But if it turned out to be just general bullying, and she went to Moira about it… She winced. She really needed to talk to him, now more than ever, and it was clear Ashcroft was not going to be somewhere she could risk that.