For years Ennui University has served as a prestigious establishment to train and monitor Gifted youth for their future careers. But sinister histories lurk behind the tailored training and education of Ennui's students, and outside forces, with their own radical agendas, seek to harness the fantastic powers of the Gifteds within. When all is said and done, who is worthy of your trust and will you being willing to lay down your future, your life, for their cause?
03.11.2014 -- Welcome, welcome, welcome! After working out all of the kinks, we are proud to announce that Ennui Uni is officially open! Please feel free to have a good look around and have a chitchat on the chatbox if you have any queries, we promise we don't bite! - teeth & kit
when it's all said and done, we'll shine like the sun
Besides the muted chattering of his teeth behind his almost-blue lips, Charlie couldn't hear much over the loud rumbling of the express train settled outside the cafe. The small granules of sugar he'd spilled over the table when he had attempted to sweeten the bitter, bottom-of-the-pot house brew were shaking and hopping about with the reverberation of the sound. The cafe was cozy enough, it had that old run down delicatessen feel about it, something that reminded Charlie of the old corner stores back home. Besides that, he couldn't think of a reason why the place attracted him so often.
Pulling the sleeves of his lilac, angora sweater to fiddle with the placement of one of the yellow butterfly clips nestled in his birds nest hair, Charlie peeked from behind his arm at the waitress behind the counter. The bright red uniform and the black apron sagged on her exhausted body, her arms looked strong but the bags under her eyes betrayed her. Mentioning something about her endurance when it came to late night shifts seemed a little pointless though, as Charlie was not very good at looking after himself either. Long nights had become more of a friend than an enemy these days.
Moving his hands from his hair to dip his fingers in the scalding hot coffee before him, Charlie was suddenly overcome with a full body shiver. Continuing to watch the waitress lazily refill the coffee pot with one hand and wipe down the counter top with the other, Charlie wondered if he would ever have the patience for such a menial job. The longer he watched her, the longer he began to admire her really. Lifting one hand from the coffee cup and sucking the moisture from his nail beds, Charlie then waved to get the waitress's attention.
"You got any cherry pie with whip?" A hesitant nod, as though she did not admire Charlie or even consider him worthy of a look without hostility "I'll take a slice. Nice and hot."
After her slight grunt of acknowledgement and the view of her back to him signalling he would get his pie, Charlie placed his hand down on the table and collected some of the stray granules of sugar. Pressing his fingertip against them, he let the stickiness of the residual coffee and the singed pads of his fingers grasp the sharp white remnants and lifted them to his mouth. The brief throb when his teeth bit into the flesh around his nail made his smile contentedly, maybe this was the reason he dragged himself to the deserted cafe so late at night, the privacy was always appreciated.
Post by Usha Rettadi on Nov 23, 2014 6:10:13 GMT 9.5
She had to keep reminding herself that everything was temporary, passing in stages like the phases of the moon. Squinting up at the sky, Usha tried to find even a sliver of it still hanging in the sky, but found nothing. Moonless night with the bright clusters of stars visible only from isolated semi-civilizations; each winking pin-prick of light with its own name and story. They'd been more vibrant looking when she was in the compound, even with a full moon casting its foggy opal halo of light, but, then again, Usha found everything was a little duller outside the compound-- like the colors had been sapped out and replaced with a muffled sepia.
She took a breath, stepping over a small mound of snow. It wasn't cold enough for Occide's true winter to blow down from Aquile or wash in encased in the chunks of ice from the cold northern islands of foreign countries. What snow fell hardly lasted through the night and the frost lingered only as long as it had to each morning. The purgatory of seasons made her agitated, fidgety in the feet so that she was always scraping bare toes against the backs of her ankles; leaving tracks of reddish raw skin where her dark leg hard poked through. And even though she repeatedly reminded herself about the phases of the moon, she could only lie in bed at night and rub her feet on the raw, tender skin.
Walking was the only thing that could get her to sleep now. She'd thought of it very suddenly, remembering the time she'd seen Benni up and about past hours in the compound, jumping back and forth to wear themself down into an exhausted state. Usha wasn't much for hopping about, she didn't have the toad's blood in her like the amphibious shifter did, but she knew her legs were strong and that she'd lived in Occide long enough to stand most any cold.
Tonight, though, she was feeling more worn through than usual. Max hadn't tried to contact her in days and she'd felt her clothes sticking to her skin more tightly than before.
"I have to walk," she told herself, "If I'm getting soft and scratching too much it means I haven't been working hard enough."
Phases of the moon. Waning.
She was wandering near the rail station, unsure exactly of how she'd ended up there; the town felt like the stomach of some jagged toothed monster and she didn't know it well enough to navigate it properly, and she didn't want to know it at all.
Moon phases. Waxing.
Ahead was the cafe, though Usha didn't yet know that was where the soft florescent glow of light was coming from. The train lumbering along parallel to her path left her disoriented. She'd rode a train to Ennui but that had been the only time. They looked like giant metal snakes, separated from the will of the land and histories of the ages. That's what Max had always said, anyways.
The subtle tinkling of the bell over the door and Usha found that she'd unconsciously ended up inside the source of the light; a little cafe that looked like it hadn't cleaned the insects out of its lights in a century. The waitress, husky and worn-down around the eyes, acknowledged her with a quick glance but said nothing, and the only other person in the building was running their fingers along a tabletop. Their age was uncertain but Usha could tell that they, at least, were two or three years ahead of her. Feeling her youth, she shivered. A student, obviously. Someone to monitor and collect.
A flare of warmth surged up in her, purposeassignmenthermission, taking the form of a blurted,
"H-hello, I'm Usha, can I sit here?"
She glanced down at the table she was requesting an invitation to and noticed sugar spilled across the otherwise passingly clean surface. Another second and she realized that it was what the stranger had been running their finger through. She found it endearing and felt slightly more relaxed, before having to remind herself that what ever happened here was for the sake of her large, benevolent family.
It's a champagne year full of sober months.Through my mulling days, through my dry moments, I saw the morning Northern Lights. Convinced it was the end of times. I saw the morning Northern Lights.Gotta get young fast. Gotta get young quick. Gotta make this last, if it makes me sick.
when it's all said and done, we'll shine like the sun
Startled from his lonely thoughts, Charlie's eyes darted up to stare at the figure before him, his finger still squished painfully between his teeth. Mint. The girl before him looked like she had skin as soft as cashmere and the strangest pastel green tint to her hair that the boy had ever seen. Charlie wasn't unused to seeing oddities, especially now that he'd been dumped into the pit falls of Ennui, but he had to admit that her features were unusual.
"H-hello, I'm Usha, can I sit here?"
Leaning back slightly in his chair to get a good look at the girl, all the while keeping his finger pressed hard against his bottom teeth, Charlie gave the girl a very obvious once-over. It always bothered him when pretty girls were nervous, like it always seemed unnecessary. If he had all the features they did and even a quarter of the beauty, he believed he would have nothing to worry about. Nervous girls just sort of got under his skin.
Finally taking his finger out of his mouth, the skin under his nail bleeding a little, Charlie gestured toward the other chair. The hair touching the nape of his neck tingled slightly as he welcomed her, phasing in and out of view to no one's notice but his own.
"Go for it," he glanced toward the waitress and then back at the stranger "Do you want a slice of pie? My name's Charlie."
Waiting for the girl to sit down, Charlie readjusted the position of his sweater on his shoulders, tucking himself a little further into the softness. The boy wasn't used to keeping a lot of company, he tended to drop the ball on many social occasions and very rarely made an appearance at many university events. This made making friends a little difficult, to the point where the idea of having people need his attention made him feel more than a little queasy. Seeing the stranger call his attention only moments ago had started up that familiar jostle of anxiety.
"So, you waitin' for a train or just craving a shit cup of coffee?"
Post by Usha Rettadi on Nov 25, 2014 6:53:18 GMT 9.5
The stranger's eyes were on her, she could feel them trailing along her features like two vibrant blue slugs-- leaving bits of sappy, transparent slime behind. Had she been more experienced with the attention of outsiders, Usha might have caught the intentions of her peer's quick observations, but she was still young and both naive and too wary of the beyond-the-compund world. She did not know how to react. So she focused on the dark shapes of the coniferous trees through the cafe's windows and sat down, failing to stifle the nervous tinge of color that touched her cheeks.
By the time she'd steeled herself enough to glance back at the stranger, she found their face as perturbed as her own, if not more so. Had she done something wrong? Quickly her eyes snapped back to the distant trees, boughs swaying faintly with the soft, south-bound wind. People in the compound were always so direct with their intentions. All of them were comrades and well versed in the subtleties of each other's habits, capable of detecting hints of discomfort or unease and jumping to stifle these feelings. Usha could feel a knot forming in her belly but then she remembered her MISSION. Max would want to know. Benni, if they ever came as they had promised during a bleary-eyed, early morning goodbye, would want to celebrate her triumphs with her. Everything was riding on--
"Do you want a slice of pie? My name's Charlie."
Then he seemed to retreat further into his massive sweater, nesting into the fluffy fabric like a fledgeling in the folds of its mother's wing. A mechanism of coping, she wondered, mind attempting to keep professional and sharp despite her tiredness and early teenage shyness.
Maybe he has horns or animal features under that thing?
Her eyes wandered to his dark hair and bright eyes the color of clear sky reflected in the stillness of water. He didn't look like a spliceling, as she had been bought up to call the odd mixtures of human and nonhuman, but she didn't have much experience with them as a whole. There had only been on in her compound: an older woman with horns like a ram and rectangular muzzle that jutted out from her face. Rumor was that her skin was covering in a nearly invisible layer of velvety fuzz but Usha had never been brave enough to touch her in passing. Even Benni had been against it, referred to it as "snoopy and disrespectful", but Usha couldn't help her curiosity.
The new strain of questions rising inside her had made her almost forget that the strange (possible spliceling) boy had asked her a question. Recovering with less confidence than she would have liked, Usha again blurted,
"Pie? Uhh, no, I'm not really hungry at night or, er, ever. I mean, not never ever but, yea..."
She dropped her gaze, the flush returning to her cheeks just in time for Charlie to ask her another question. She took in a little sip of the coffee scented cafe air and then said, steadying herself a bit more,
"Don't really have anywhere to go by train... Just can't sleep I guess."
Silence broken only by the woman behind the counter clattering dishes together with laser-guided, noisy purpose. Perhaps from Charlie's insult to the coffee, perhaps out of sheer boredom.
"Um, do you have any place-- I mean, are you waiting for a train?"
It's a champagne year full of sober months.Through my mulling days, through my dry moments, I saw the morning Northern Lights. Convinced it was the end of times. I saw the morning Northern Lights.Gotta get young fast. Gotta get young quick. Gotta make this last, if it makes me sick.
when it's all said and done, we'll shine like the sun
Lowering his gaze to stare at where his hands had landed in his lap, Charlie stared at the small bloody gouges he had created and focussed his attention on only the girls voice. The girl was distracting. All too young to be roaming around the train station at night, pretty enough that anything that might happen to her would be blamed on her instead of the perpetrator, and nervous enough to make Charlie more than a little concerned for her well being.
Being cared for at Ennui wasn't a big requirement unless you were useful enough to receive special treatment, so he wasn't expecting anyone to really be worried about the girl in front of him.
Digging his thumb nail into the worn, bloody flesh, Charlie closed his eyes for a moment and took in what the girl had said to him. Whoever this girl was, she seemed certainly more approachable than some of the other students Charlie had encountered. He wondered if she was easygoing or just dim.
"Um, do you have any place-- I mean, are you waiting for a train?"
Adorable. At least she was trying.
"Not really, I mean, if one showed up going anywhere interesting I'd probably consider jumping on," he started, lifting his cleaner hand to the table to pick up the coffee mug and bring it to his mouth "But I'm just here because i can't sleep either."
Smiling a little at the girl and then dropping his gaze to the mug to make sure he wasn't going to spill it all over himself. He missed his brother's strong earl grey, even if it did smell like old men to him sometimes. This devil's piss he'd been forced to drink by lack of nothing else always seemed to bring back the sense memory of earlier days.
"Well," he started, distracting himself by swallowing a scalding hot mouthful of the beverage before speaking, his voice rasping slightly "What's your name, anyhow? I can't very well let you sit down any longer without getting to know you at least a little."
TAGS: Usha Rettadi NOTES: wahhh work made me rush it.
Post by Usha Rettadi on Dec 4, 2014 13:40:21 GMT 9.5
Charlie's eyes kept shifting between his hands and elsewhere, passing a wariness onto Usha that made her shiver with the cold air rather than against it. It wasn't that she found the boy all that suspicious, she just felt a sense of alienation that stemmed from their respective origins: she was Trifect, compound raised and a believer, and he, well, he wasn't. There were things he could never understand or even come to understand that she felt pulse through her with every second of life. Of course Charlie wasn't the only one who was incapable of comprehending-- her lack of friends was completely due to this inherent disconnect between experiences-- these things but the hour and cold made him the only one to focus her task on.
"You'd... just jump on a train? Without any idea of where you would stay or what you'd eat or who'd take care of you," she shuddered slightly, making the uneven legs of her chair rattle, which startled her for a second. Once she'd managed to smooth her nerves over as much as she could, Usha continued, trying to act sensible beyond her age,
"And, um, couldn't you get in trouble for that. When I got here they said that you needed a slip or something, right?"
She slipped into genuine curiosity at the end and nearly cursed her verbal clumsiness under her breath. Sometimes her tongue could race ahead of her mind or wind itself around how young and impressionable she still was. Max had always said there was always something improve on, but Usha considered this to be a kind way of telling her that she was not as reliable an investigator or speaker as the other infiltrators from her compound or the ones beyond.
Charlie's attention shifted inward or elsewhere and Usha took it as a sign of boredom. She was FAILING her MISSION-- uselessness must run through her, useless--
"What's your name, anyhow? I can't very well let you sit down any longer without getting to know you at least a little."
With a poorly fronted little smile, Usha tried ground herself in the tiny cafe rather than her turbulent thoughts, which seemed to spiral with increasing volume and darkness. Was he testing her? Did he suspect her for what she was?
"I, um, it's Usha. Usha Rettadi if you were wondering about my full name because that's what it is."
She glanced quickly around room, trying to find a way to carry on the conversation. Nothing. Then something wicked seized her and she thrust her tiny hands across the table and grabbed the mug from Charlie's hands. In the same motion, Usha raised the vessel for the reeking, dubiously colored coffee to her lips and took a disgusting mouthful of the liquid; nearly gagging as she swallowed the sludge down.
Then with a repulsed squeak, as if she suddenly realized the weight of her impulse, Usha half-dropped the mug back onto the sugar scattered table and put her hands over her lips, managing a muffled and horrified,
"Um, I, um, s-sorry-- Charlie."
TAG:CHARLIE QUINNMUSIC:northern lightsNOTES: this is so bad, i am so sorry for this but i had to get SOMETHING down
It's a champagne year full of sober months.Through my mulling days, through my dry moments, I saw the morning Northern Lights. Convinced it was the end of times. I saw the morning Northern Lights.Gotta get young fast. Gotta get young quick. Gotta make this last, if it makes me sick.
? 
