Yin, Yang Flames #2

It's almost as if the whole world is holding its breath, waiting to see just who's going to poke their head into the room. She's honestly not sure if she's expecting a Pokextinctionist dressed up as a pizza delivery man, or someone coming to fetch her for band practice.

To her relief, the boy who finally pushes open the door and pokes his head in is familiar. A fellow member of the band. He blinks confused grey eyes looking around the classroom before scratching a hand through his hair and asking.

"Am I interrupting something?"

"No, not at all!" the teacher says, grin becoming just slightly fixed. The faint twitch causes her to snap her head around, pay just a little more attention. While the substitute hasn't gone weird like her classmates that small action indicates that something is wrong here. The teacher can't be what she seems.

"Tamara?" she blinks and looks back at the boy in the doorway. Hazel tinted red meet grey and he tilts his head. Before straightening it and relaying his message. "Mr. B would like to see you for band practice."

"Right. Gotcha!" she nods her head and a grin flashes across her face. "I'll be right there. Sorry Miss..." she blinks and abruptly realizes that at the start of the period she wasn't paying enough attention to catch the teachers name. "Uh... Sorry..." she can feel the faint heat in her cheeks and her hidden ears twitch. She makes her way out of the classroom, noting that the rest of the class are slowly returning to normal.

So it wears off after a while, interesting.

The moment that she's outside the classroom she takes off, straight for the office. First to collect her instrument, next to actually get down to the music room. That's all the way on the other side of the campus, great. Her shoulders slump just slightly and she huffs out a breath. A bit of smoke comes out as well and her eyes follow it's path skyward.

She wipes one hand over her face and begins walking. It's a fairly sedate pace that she sets. She's in no hurry to get to band practice, not really. And besides Mr. B is one of the more understanding and patient teachers. Well at least he is in regards to her, though that's probably due to all her issues. Mental, physical and of course the others. It's also probably why he's her favourite teacher, aside from Mr. Kline the Drama teacher. Of course both of them are good teachers. Very good at their jobs and at motivating the class.

Or single student, considering that most of the music lessons are spent one on one.

A faint smile crosses her face and she can feel her ears twitch. Only that smile quickly drops, disappearing at the sight of an unwelcome guest on the grounds of the school. A doggy grin meets her scowl and the canine bounds over easily keeping step with her.

"What are you doing here?" she hisses eyes narrowing at the brown and white canine.

"[Tamara needs me!]" Obi says tongue lolling out of her mouth happily. As if the teenager wasn't death glaring her. "[So I come. And stay!]"

A deep breath, inhale, exhale and she looks up.

Avoiding looking at the canine as she finally makes it to the office. She can see the way that the office lady scowls. Displeased with the canine's presence. Well, Obi certainly wasn't a trained guide dog, or police dog so she could understand. She accepts the black case that contained her saxophone, turns and walks away.

Walks away towards the music room. Obi easily keeps pace with her, she's temped to lash out at the canine. To scare her a bit, but the impulse quickly dies and instead she simply huffs out another breath. Walking down the last ramp before the music room she slows and stops outside the door, looking down at her companion.

"Obi..." she says and the dog sits down and looks up at her. "Stay out here okay! Remain out of sight... I don't need to get into any more trouble today!"

"[Okay, I wait.]" Obi says with a happy bark that doesn't translate to anything else. "[Careful, Evil lurks ready pounce!]" she could actually translate that for herself, clear it up a bit. Evil lurks, she rolls her eyes. When doesn't it lurk, always just out of sight. She pushes open the door and instantly her ears are met with a beautiful tune. The sound of a clarinet. Her eyes close and a smile stretches all the way across her face.

Ears twitch again and she opens her eyes to see who's playing.

It's like been dumped under a spray of cold water when she distantly recognizes the boy. Much smaller than he should be, smaller than Richard, missing most of his clothing due to the fact that he's covered in grey fur, pointy ears, a muzzle. Fluffy tail, although, his front paws, are still hands. Yet it's looking at his still human face aside from the muzzle that makes her recognize him.

"Daniel?" she splutters a bit, because wasn't she just seconds ago in class with the same boy seated next to her? "B-but... you were, what?"

"You can remove the beret you know..." he says lowering the clarinet from his muzzle. "We're all in the know here."

"In the know of what?" she finally manages to find her voice. The door behind her makes a sound and she turns to see it open just enough to let Obi in. Her eyes narrow since nobody else enters. Just her canine companion.

It puts her more off balance, like Daniel's presence here when she knows that he was seated next to her in the classroom.

Finally Mr. B enters from one of the back rooms. The slender man holding out his hands, palms facing towards her. An attempt to placate her. It doesn't really work, instead she takes several rather large steps backwards and away from the man the ears under her beret lowering until they're painful against the top of her head.

Daniel lowers his clarinet even further and sighs. Slowly he takes it apart and she snarls, baring her teeth at them both. Mimicking her Obi does the same.

"What's going on? Are you going to do the same thing that my classmates did?" hands curl into fists by her sides and she bristles.

"Now calm down." Mr. B says and she narrows her eyes at him. Hackles raising since that statement has pretty much the opposite affect. Winding her up more, rather than calming her down in any way. "This... this might be hard to believe. First off, what do you know?"

Daniel finishes with his clarinet, closing the black case with a click and then he looks over at her. Over at Obi.

She blinks and frowns. What does she know? Not all that much, but considering her earlier thoughts and reactions. Maybe Pokéumans is more than just a story. It's a strange thought though and it makes her expression pull in a weird way.

"I know that something weird is going on..." she eventually says, still on the defensive. Still baring her teeth, and with ears flattened down against her skull. "Something that echoes of a Deviantart group... a group that I'm only vaguely familiar with." she admits, albeit rather sheepishly. She hasn't actually had much to do with the group yet.

Merely a passing interest. A slight curiosity, and reading the first chapter of the story that began it all... And a couple of others. Enough to recognize some things. But that was still fictional, and this is reality.

"But... that's not real, right?" She's suddenly much less sure about that.

Especially with the state that Daniel is in. The way he appears in front of her. Almost down on all fours, except not quite there yet. More canine than human. Just a few small features that show who he is.

"And yet this is happening..." the almost canine boys huffs out. "Transformations, strangers tracking us down... Odd occurrences that nobody else seems to notice." he taps one hand on the clarinet case by him before offering her an odd smirk. "So do you still think it's fictional?"

"I-I... I don't..." she looks around fully expecting someone to jump out at them. To say that it's all a prank, something like Prank Patrol, or a similar show. Yet no one's showing up. Her ears twitch again and she sniffs at the air a bit. Nervous.

"Tamara..." she looks up at Mr. B, still fearful. "Please understand, we mean no harm. It's just, we're all part of something bigger." she feels like snorting, because that's a loaded statement and it assumes a lot. "You need to understand though... you're not alone." That's rather obvious she thinks, looking meaningfully at Daniel. "Yes, Daniel's a part of it... but also there are more people across the whole world in the same position as you!"

She simply looks at him with a bland stare. She already knows this, just based on the information that she can recall from the story. From the group, a passing interest is still an interest after all. Yet, her bland look turns into a furrowed brow and confusion.

"But... how do you know about this Mr. B, I thought that..."

"People still make mistakes. And sometimes when they're more focused on capturing the transforming Pokéuman, they don't check for witnesses. At least, not quite as well as they should." it makes her want to groan, or facepalm, perhaps both. So even a top secret organization that kidnapped kids and wanted to dominate the world had lazy slacker employees who half-ass their jobs.

Go figure honestly.

"[Idiots...]" Obi huffs from her side and she twitches. Before shifting her beret and scratching the back of her head.

"Okay..."

"Of course, it's not quite as clean cut as that. There are two sides to this secret war, and it's hard to tell which side is in the right and which is in the wrong."

"That's the way with most wars honestly... Both sides feel justified in what they're fighting for..." she says with a frown. "And people just get caught in the middle. Sometimes a cause is obviously wrong... especially in regards to genocide" Oh boy this is reminding her of history class and studying the holocaust again. "But usually it's more grey than that, both sides have their positive and both their negative..."

"Although considering that one side in this case uses brainwashing..."

"Which kind of brainwashing?" she has to ask, because there are more than one kind. The educational, which takes years and years, the persuasive method, which also takes time and also needs a lot of reinforcement, or the final one the suggestive which is more like hypnotism and also can't force people to do anything against their morals.

Everything is silent after she asks the question. It's as if they don't really know. Which is worrying in it's own way, because who knows.

Who knows, although her brow furrows again as a kind of logic inserts itself. It quite likely varies from base to base, after all. They're run by different people in different areas. In different countries, but also it's a pretty important question. Because most brainwashing is subtle, and you don't notice it. But at the same time if you're aware you resist it better.

"Of course, there is a kind of middle ground... and that's where we'll be going! According to Mr. B the Roamers Association has a meeting in this one building not that far away. The next meeting is in another couple of weeks." he explains looking over to her. Meanwhile she blinks, because that's a piece of information that she didn't expect. It also brings up the question of how and why Mr. B would know that.

"I have an associate in the group." Mr. B says with a closed eye smile. "He'll be waiting for you at the other end of the tunnel. And will keep you hidden until the date of the meeting. April third, a Thursday!" he explains as she gives him a sideways confused glance. Annoyance is starting to creep in as well, everyone already seems to have plans.

Plans for her, and they're not asking her for any input. She's not sure if she likes this idea.

"[Danger!]"

"Already..." Daniel says while Mr. B narrows his eyes at the door. She feels her ears twitch and also turns just slightly to the door.