Skye POV
I groaned to myself, letting out a sigh heavy with frustration.
"Dammit! I'm out of electrical tape. Spencer, I'll give you five bucks to fly down to Vale and get me some-"
"Fuck you." He mumbled sleepily. "It's three in the morning, go back to bed." I groaned again.
"But I have to finish this!" I ran my fingers through my hair and sighed again.
"Hey, Amber?" I am answered by only soft snores. "Damn." I adjust my headband to re-center the beam of light on the half-assembled and lose parts strewn on my bed. I looked up as the door opened and Date squinted, shielding his eyes with his forearm. I looked at his bed - which I just realized was empty- then back at him. "Hey, Date, where ya been?" He shook his head at me and kicked off his shoes before flopping onto his bed.
"Doesn't matter." I shrugged and shuffled the loose parts around for a minute before looking over at him.
"Hey, got any electrical tape?" Spencer moaned.
"Geez, Skye, nobody has any tape! But if I did, I'd use it to shut your mouth." Annoyance flashed through me and I scoffed.
"I'm not talking to you, bitch, I'm talking to Date."
"Name calling, Skye? Real mature." Spencer retorted. Now Date sighed tiredly.
"Guys, please, you'll wake Amber up. Just because you won't sleep doesn't mean the rest of us shouldn't. And no, Skye, I do not in fact have any tape at all, so please go to bed." I sighed and gathered all my spare parts into a small box and slid it under my bed, with the unfinished bomb close behind. I turned off my head light sullenly and made a mental note to get some tape this weekend.
Dante POV
Raindrops on skin. . .Raw cheek on pavement. . .Pain. . .So much pain. . .Sickening rocking. . .Humiliation. . .Shame. . . .Disgust. . .Help. . .Please no. . .NO. . .
"NO!" I bolted upright clawing at my face and panting hard, disoriented and afraid, unsure where I was. Beacon. The thought calmed me almost immediately. I sighed and looked around the room. I was the only one awake. "So much for sleep." I muttered and swung my legs out from under my sweat soaked covers.
I stood and stretched, letting the cool air of the dorm room run over my body. I pulled on my black shirt with SCMGWP in fancy white lettering and a pair of sweats, rummaged in yesterday's jeans for my scroll, then sat on the floor with my back against my bed.
I set the brightness on low and connected to the internet. After a moment of hesitation, I typed 'recurring nightmares' into the search engine and selected go.
Links for half a dozen websites popped up and I read through the small amounts of text under each link until I reached a website entitled:
Dreams: The Gates to The Past
I opened the link and found a blog by a former scientist named Dr. Shaye M. LesRuse. I skimmed it for a little while, ignoring most of the medical/scientific jargon mumbo jumbo shit, until I came across the phrase 'repressed memories of traumatic events'. Intrigued, I backed up a bit and read.
Recurring Dream Syndrome (or RDS) is a medical phenomenon that has defied the mightiest efforts of this century's best and brightest minds to determine its source and subsequent cure. The current popular theory on the cause of RDS is that while the brain is hard at work processing new information during sleep, in some subjects the increased activity causes frequent flare ups in the "mental workplace" of the brain which is a network of neural connections that is thought to direct cerebral activity across multiple regions of the brain. This neural network, put quite simply, is your imagination. It is speculated that these flare ups cause the imagination to go into a state of heightened awareness, which in turn affects your dreams by calling up the extreme ends of the vast spectrum of your imagination. In layman's terms, it literally calls up your wildest dreams, your greatest hopes, and your deepest fears.
It is my personal hypothesis, however, that recurring dreams and nightmares are quite simply the result of the brain attempting to remind the subject of repressed memories of traumatic events or even of happiness forgotten.
RDS is quite likely to result in any number of sleep related disorders such as: Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), Insomnia, Hypersomnia, Hypopnea, Narcolepsy, Night Terrors and Sleep Deprivation. If you have these problems, please contact your physician for further information.
I gave a short, bitter laugh and closed my scroll, getting back into bed.
"Repressed memory? If only."
Sometime shortly after the final bell rang, and I was leaving my least favorite class of all time (Remnant History and Mythology), I was walking down a hallway near the ballroom when I came saw Nyx Noire and Ienzo Caeruleus, walking toward me having a very heated, and very quiet argument. I slipped into the ballroom and listened, wondering what they were talking about.
"-pin knows we can't beat that monster if we have to fight again." It was Ienzo speaking. "So why's he got us searching so hard for him? What are we gonna do if we find him? Ask him nicely to submit to tests?" Nyx sighed.
"You shouldn't worry about it. I heard we're not the only ones who were assigned to this mission. Professor Ozpin alluded to another person investigating the Orchid too. Apparently they were there that day." Ienzo scoffed.
"But the asshole didn't bother helping us fend the guy off?
"He probably hadn't arrived yet. They didn't even know to send for reinforcements until that kid Spencer told Ozpin about it, so there was nothing that he could have done to help. Gina was the only one still conscious then." Ienzo sighed heavily.
"Yeah, he even got the drop on Karissa. How is that possible!? It's never been done!" Nyx said nothing for a moment.
"I was thinking about that." They stopped a few feet from the door. "There's only one explanation."
"Oh really?" Nyx paused.
"It's possible Karissa might be the Orchid."
"No." Ienzo said without hesitation. "It's not possible. Karissa wouldn't do that."
"Maybe she was-"
"No. It's not possible." Nyx scoffed.
"Mind giving your little schoolboy crush a rest for a sec and listening for once? Your interruptions are annoying me." Ienzo said nothing. "Good. What I was trying to say is, it's possible that Ozpin set the whole thing up as a kind of hyper-realistic test for us and them. Probably to test their capacity to act as a team, and our ability to think on our feet. My guess is that Karissa was in on it from the beginning." Ienzo was silent.
"Can I talk now? Are you done?" I could almost hear Nyx rolling his eyes. "Two things: One, you're forgetting that Karissa was found unconscious same as us. Two, if it was a test, why bother calling backup?" Nyx groaned.
"Be more predictable why don't you?" He muttered, then spoke up. "You should really use your brain for more than receiving and reciting information. Who told you Karissa was found unconscious?" A pause.
"Professor Ozpin." Ienzo muttered. Nyx tutted at him.
"See? And as for your second question, that's a no brainer, which should mean you've figured it out already."
"I have a brain!" Nyx snorted derisively.
"I know. You do so love to remind us of how smart you are. It's unfortunate you don't use it creatively enough. Think about it, Ienzo. Really think. Don't spit script lines at me, you know the answer." Ienzo growled.
"Fine. If he wanted to make the deception complete, he'd have to call for backup to maintain the illusion." It sounded like Nyx slapped him on the back.
"Excellent work, Mr. Holmes" Ienzo grunted.
"I still don't think it's likely. Where's Gina? What does she think of this?" Nyx laughed.
"I haven't asked her yet. But seriously, where do you think she is?"
Gina POV
"Oh! He's so much cuter than I imagined~!"I smiled to myself as I sat in the courtyard and watched him stroll past me, hands in his pockets.
"Ssssspencer Sssstone." I whispered to myself. "Not bad, not bad at all. Cute face, nice muscle tone, sexy name, and a very nice ass."
Oh, give me a fucking break! Dolores snapped. I could break his ass in half like a fucking toothpick!
"Oh, I bet he's a lot tougher than he looks." I replied, amused at her. "Besides, you do know we're the same person right? You don't have to bluster to me, I know exactly what you really think." Dolores scoffed, but I could feel her embarrassment.
Whatever, just gimme a crack at him and I swear he'll never stand again.
"My, my, Dolores~! You have a very peculiar way of showing attraction."
I am so not attracted to that skinny, showy, adorable. . .heroic. . .Dammit, you're right. He's only a First Year, though, I'm not trying to get a reputation as the campus cougar.
"It'd be totally worth it." I knew she agreed, even though she'd never say it.
Ugh, fine. Go talk to him.
Well that was a bit. . .weak. ^^; Welp, better than nothing right? Now I'm gonna go work on BNSDLS. As for RDS, DJ made most of that up based on actual scientific facts. . .supposedly. BTW, did you catch the pun in Dr. LesRuse's name?
TWAD# 10: SCMGWP stands for Social Club Misfit Gang Wolf Pack.