Juniper leaned back in her desk chair, her hands folded behind her head as she stared flatly at the calendar on the wall. It had been a few months now, and for all her efforts she didn't feel any more free than when she'd started. If anything, she felt like she was only beginning to deduce exactly how trapped she was. She could feel a point burning between her shoulder blades, prickling at her skin as the knowledge of the camera she'd stumbled across burned in her memory. Everything she'd found, they knew about. On several occasions, she'd found swaths of her notes purged or censored . . . and then there were the gaps in her memory to account for. She hated working in her room these days . . . but she was learning the tricks, burying her findings on the intranet or finding drop-off points for a thumb drive full of copied notes that would elude detection for a while. There was nothing for it, but to continue to try, and to hope her new approaches were as new as she thought they were.

Her window was open, with a small desk fan oscillating back and forth to stir the air in her room. The air conditioning in her dorm had apparently gone out, and her room mate had left to chew out the RA until something was done about it. Juniper didn't bother to go with her. If Eve couldn't twist someone's arm, there was nothing the would-be reporter could do . . . and besides, she suspected that the climate control failure wasn't an actual mechanical failure so much as someone's idea of a prank of experiment. So far as she could determine, nothing stayed broken on Shokushu unless it was part of a grander design. She considered that for a moment, still staring at the calendar, at the small white circle for the day's date that indicated a full moon. She was still trying to figure out the specifics of that.

With a bit of a sigh, she kicked off from the desk, spinning around on the chair's swivel neck with her legs up in the air until she pushed off of the chair's arms with her hands and hopped out of her seat into the middle of the room. Standing by her nightstand, she grabbed a bottle of tanning oil from where it sat and squirted just a small dab onto the end of her finger. Hopping up onto where she'd left the chair, she reached for the ceiling of their room, seeking out the tiny black stud hidden in the center of the light fixture and smearing the oil over the protective cover of the camera's lens, so that whatever the security staff saw in her room would be a smeared and oily mess. She doubted it was the only one, but every little bit helped as she wiped the rest of the oil off on the bare expanse of her thigh.

Juniper reached under her bed, pushing up against the box frame of her bed and reaching her fingers around the bed post until she came away with a slim spiral bound notebook. Flopping down on the bed, she opened it and set it in front of her, turning the pages. Inside, she'd pasted a series of pictures, each marked with a number. There was a shot of the front door of the infirmary marked "24h (?)", another of a smashed window and then that same window having been replaced marked "2h". A hole in the wall about as big around as her fist, and then a smooth cinder block wall marked "4h". Experimentation, testing limits, trying to understand the processes behind what was going on around her. The next page was a simple picture, a bulbous eyes green alien's head behind red circle with a bar across it, white letters scrawled along the bar reading "E.T. Go Home!" The time stamp was hour, but the picture itself was annotated with arrows and notations about which paints were eaten faster, the location of the wall stud, and how quickly different parts had been eaten away. Then there was another, roughly a six foot rendition of Aegir with his arms spread wide outside the locker room, a white and yellow hallow radiating from behind his back (she'd found the notion rather amusing at the time). Then a third, black shapes creating a sprawling spiderweb in the negative space between them, stretching along the wall leading to the basement. Dozens of tiny green circles, eyes, shone in the dark spaces and she'd scrawled "Don't Get Caught" along the bottom. A red field with two baleful golden eyes glaring out of it had decorated the equipment shed out by the running field at some point, a melting layer of white dribbled over the top of it, though the eyes burned clear through the coating where the two elements crossed.

Tonight was the big one, the exterior wall of the gym offered a canvas too big to pass up, and there was finally enough light for her to work by without needing to announce her presence to the whole creeping monster population of the university with flood lights. She pulled out her sketchbook and chewed on the pencil she placed between her teeth. She just had to figure out what she was going to paint. The sounds of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 filled the room as she closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the wall, waiting for an inspiration to strike her so she could plan out her work.

These were the former senior dormitories, weren't they? Passing the new faces usually turned into a chore as every student had to be cautiously avoided, each of their gazes anxiously averted thinking they weren't even there. Among other students Ryu generally found herself at a loss, particularly the freshmen since they were the most natural acting women on campus, either highly attractive, smart, wealthy or in posession of other traits that made them desirable to the rather unwelcome company on the island. At the same time those aspects of their lives made them arrogant. They reminded her of the unfavorable days before Shokushu, forming cliques and the like, gossiping, having fun at the expense of fellow classmates. That was the general picture at least, nothing someone like her would get involved in although every now and then she wished particular individuals be put in line by anyone or anything. Granted, more than their first semester had passed, but to those with strong personality that wasn't enough, they'd need more time to break. Heading through these corridors, staring blankly ahead, clad in the uniform that sat rather snug around the voluptuous red head there were only this many reasons why she was here in the first place, quite literally reliving the past.

She was running an errand for Aegir, carrying an SD Card that contained 'pictures', as he put it ever so eloquently. Something about it kept her from questioning the nature of these photos, whatever the scenery shown on them turned out to be she probably didn't want to know, not to mention it wasn't exactly the most important thing she could imagine needed to be done for the telepath. Happy to help, however, she agreed to carry out this task for him. Unfortunately neither of them had the necessary equipment to print them off, so naturally, pointing her in the right direction, Ryu Tanaka ended up with a name and room number that only served to intrigue her further into following through.

Juniper Modnar was special in a way, one of his favorites and there was little else another of those ranks could go on. Ryu knew for a fact that she had some of the answers the other wanted in order to get a clearer picture of the school and this opportunity was too good to pass up, thus she pushed on past closed doors and glaring eyes before finally coming to a stop at the right one after double checking the number with the one she was given, scribbled down on a piece of paper.

A moment later there were several firm knocks on the door. Too firm, perhaps? Maybe that'd make her seem aggressive, she thought, but if they were too soft she might've been thought of as shy, or worse; weak. Being on the list meant they were actually important in some sense and she was trying to make a good impression, not that it helped any with the nervosity Ryu had a tendency to struggle with. She was in the middle of looking over her uniform one last time when another thought occured. What if there were any roommates present? That could complicate matters. Come to think of it she had no idea what Juniper even looked like, she could run into anybody ..

It hadn't been long, but the book in Juniper's lap already bore the lightly sketched geometric shapes as Juniper started playing around with compositional ideas, a gaggle of thirteen undetailed female shapes devoid of clothes and facial figures aside from eyes and hair picked out with quick colored marker passes stared mutely out of one corner of the page. Closer to the middle was a flat disk pictured soaring over a handful of conifers with a subtitle hastily jotted in that said "I Want To Believe", the "Be" roughly "X"ed out in Red. It brought a smirk to her face, but she didn't think she'd go that route either. She tumbled the pencil through her fingers, waiting for the next idea to come to her when a trio of short hard knocks suddenly punctuated the music in her room.

"Just a sec!" she called out of habit, though intellectually she knew that the sound would never overcome the school's sound dampeners to be heard through the door. She hopped off the bed and tossed her sketchbook onto her desk without looking, the slap of paper on hardwood telling her she'd made the shot as she reached up and turned the orchestra down low enough that it could be spoken over easily enough. Couldn't be Eve, she'd have bustled in without pause or remorse, so who? She grabbed a button up shirt off the back of the chair and shrugged into it, letting the sleeve cover her tattoo before she gripped the door handle and pulled it open.

For just a moment, Juniper Modnar stood in the open doorway, her head cocked ever so slightly to the side. She was every bit as tall as Ryu, her build wiry and lean, an athlete's figure with little in the way of excess fat. Her light brown hair was still cut short, a bob cut keeping her shoulders clear, though she wore a green hairclip just behind her left ear two indistinct shapes twining around each other. As she wasn't on the school grounds proper, she wasn't in uniform in the moment, favoring a low cut black spaghetti strap tank top and a pair of khaki shorts with the legs rolled up high, giving her body room to breath in the stifling heat of her room, the white button up shirt left open as it hung from her shoulders. She'd been outside a lot lately, her pale European complexion having taken on a darker tan, and her brown eyes widened slightly in recognition as they met the redhead on the other side of the door.

It would have been hard to forget that face, that scarlet hair, that proud, heavy chest. The door moved a few inches as Juniper considered simply closing it again right there, but dimly she remembered that this was not the same person she'd last seen that face on before. No reason to hold what she'd gone through against this girl.

"Oi!" she said, the short sound apparently a greeting, "Ryu, right, the German gal with the Japanese name? What's can I do for ya?"

Patiently waiting outside she swore that music was playing behind the door, although it soon vanished only to return as someone finally responded to those knocks and opened it. Almost immediately did she take note of the near uncomfortable warmth oozing from the room, in contrast to her own dorm it was downright hot if not warmer than outside in direct sunlight, hard to tell when you've been inside all day. Taking in one another's appearances there appeared to be a brief moment of tension, the student partially closing the door again before stopping. The supposed greeting was nothing short of bold, at least to Ryu who'd been rather restrained on the subject of introducing herself. A faint grin still flashed across her features at the notion of her own name.

"So you've heard of me." Which was strange, perhaps Aegir told Juniper about her before or there were certain circumstances that allowed the woman to know who she was, but that was beyond the red head at this point in time. One of the reasons she came here, after all, was the fact that she went out of her way to discover things others didn't though knowing her nationality and stating it outright seemed a bit odd. Part of her was simply relieved that despite the warning of having to prove that she was in fact Ryu and not anyone else, nothing of the sort had discouraged their meeting thus far. "I don't believe we've met before, Juniper Modnar. Then again I should've expected it, coming from you."

It was obvious she didn't have to look any further for the underdog, hands fidgeting nervously then diving into her vest pockets by the time she realized that her question wasn't anwered. "Ah, I'm here because .." Did she dare say his name? There was little doubt they both knew him, but right then there were students out here, their conversation almost out of place with one of the two standing in the hallway like this. She lowered her voice a bit as the card containing the pictures came into view, showing it to Juniper but not quite letting her take it. "Well, Aegir sent me your way. He's asked me to print off some pictures he made, but unfortunately I'm not quite into photography, so .."

"I lack the necessary equipment and it'd be great if you could help us out." While Ryu would most likely drop everything for the mauve tentacle monster, she knew that not everyone would do the same. For now the tiny card disappeared in her pocket again as the ruby red of her eyes glanced past the student for a brief second, awaiting a response. "May I come in?"

"Sounds like my reputation precedes me." Juniper said, a smirk tugging at the corners of her lips. That was something of a mixed blessing, she wanted students to know that her skills were available to them if they ever found themselves with a need, after all. Still, anonymity remained her first line of defense against reprisal from the administration . . . further reprisal, she corrected herself. Finding the balance was proving trickier than she'd have expected.

She quirked her eyebrow slightly as Ryu produced the tiny SD card from her vest pocket, as if she were giving the request due consideration, though she couldn't hide the way her eyes had lit up when she caught sight of the familiar shape. She had to admit, the creature's earnest efforts to pick up the finer points of photography had endeared it to her on a certain level. Tracking his progress was one of those unexpected pleasures she'd found on the island, and it wasn't as though there weren't incentives to staying on the octopod's good side. Finally, Juniper nodded a bit and stepped away from the door, motioning with her head that Ryu could enter.

"Ah, but where are my manners? By all means, come in, come in. Sorry about the heat, we've had a bit of mechanical failure here at room 205. And only in room 205." she paused just a moment to highlight how suspect she found that, before gesturing towards the corner of the bed, "By all means, take a seat by the fan. If you get thirsty there's some bottled water chilling in the mini-fridge, help yourself."

"This is the first time we've had the chance to properly speak, isn't it?" Juniper said as if somewhat surprised, flopping gracelessly into her computer chair, "You can call me Juni, sorry if I got a little familiar there. I've been looking into our little social club a bit, I guess it just slipped my mind that that wasn't actually you before." she chuckled a bit, picking her camera up off of the desk and sliding open a small trap door along the side before she pulled the SD Card out and set it to the side on her desk. She reached her hand out for Aegir's card, smiling easily enough.

"Well, lucky you." Unlike Juniper she hadn't meddled with the administration before and thus assumed it was an unfortunate coincidence above all else that the air conditioning failed. "And thanks, but I'll be fine." Entering the room she glanced around briefly, but found herself quickly assuming a position on the bed close to where the other woman pointed, her skirt dancing in the subtle flow of air as the red head passed through the room.

"It is indeed the first time, but, erm .. Juni ..", she began, a quick flick of her wrist denying the other student to grasp the card just yet. That they supposedly met before was more amusing than out of the ordinary. "Aegir's not wearing me to prom, is he? I've seen him disguise himself as another red head, Ruby, and I'm guessing one can barely tell the difference between us since we look alike, might've been her .. unless there's a doppleganger of mine walking around, I suppose. She's got blue eyes, you know."

With a smile she allowed the girl to take the card then, she wasn't questioning her credibility but to Ryu she must've spoken of someone playing tricks on her. Perhaps Aegir himself, perhaps another that took pleasure in abusing her good looks, but it was more than likely it turned out to be her former lover. "A good friend of mine, I might add .. but I digress." Somewhat lazily slacking in her posture she gave a soft sigh, the heat really wasn't helping.

"I don't want you to think I'm here because I'm just one of his pets running some errands." Ryu didn't exactly feel proud for saying that, but what exactly were you supposed to say when meeting someone that knows the exact same tentacle monster on roughly the same level? "Look, this .. this whole thing is kinda bugging me .. You may think what you want about me, but I'm honestly just another student asking for a favor and perhaps looking for some friendly conversation. Alright?"

"Sure, luck." Juniper said with a chuckle and a smirk, making quick swiping motion as Ryu proferred the SD Card the first time. She blinked and looked at her empty palm for a moment when she missed, the redhead having pulled it back at the last moment. Juniper pursed her lips together in thought at that for a moment, before leaning back in her chair and crossing one leg over the other. Her reflexes had always been a point of pride, so that Ryu could best her so casually made her take a little more notice of the other girl.

"Mmn, no, not Aegir." she said, tilting her head to one side and looking up at the ceiling, shifting in her seat to rest one shoulder along the back of the chair and drape her arm along the back of it, "Clone, I think. Someone trying to figure out something more efficient and reliable than the current school model. Something about genetic instability though . . ." she shrugged slightly, "Sorry, if that's vague. "You" got me caught, so most of my memories of the event were forcibly repressed. I get bits and pieces sometimes, Aegir would rather we get along, so he clarified that particular point for me."

"My gut says it's not a problem anymore. Unless they made another." she smirked slightly, taking the card more gingerly this time. "Still, blue eyes. I'll be sure to remember that . . . usually ol' squid-lips has just been using the surname Adams to tip me off when he's wearing a disguise. You can use that too, if you need to talk about him in public sometime." she added, slotting the SD Card in her camera as she spoke. She'd picked up on how nervous Ryu had been to mention Aegir out in the hallway.

"You're not?" Juniper blinked slightly at the assertion, fiddling with a length of wire and plugging one end into the camera. Very tactful, Juni, well done. She took a moment to straighten out the cord in her hands and plug it into the back of her computer tower, "Not that I'd intended to hold it against you, mind. It's just . . . " she bobbed her head back and forth, "Well, it's really Aegir's favor, isn't it? And, you being ranked second 'n' all, you're carrying one of his little psi-receiver things unless I'm mistaken. I just kind of assumed. Lord knows I can't tell when he's poking around in my head."

Instead of turning to face the monitor, she pulled the keyboard off the desk and balanced it on her lap, navigating via the keyboard shortcuts as she kept the monitor in her peripheral vision, dividing her attention but not tuning Ryu out either.

"I don't think any less of you, we're in basically the same boat after all." she tried to clarify, "And, really, a little pleasant conversation sounds nice. I usually offer tea, but, ya know." she waved a hand around the infernal heat pressing down on them, "So, what's on your mind? Something about the school, current events, myself? Aegir? Lord knows he likes it when people talk about him." she smiled a bit ruefully as she scrolled down through some menus, pausing just a moment before accessing the creature's pictures.

Without ever excelling at anything the red head still remained an above average jack of all trades, spending most of her spare time in the gym or woods for a morning jog before the rest of the girls were awake so these sort of reflexes came easy to her. She was no slouch and couldn't afford to be in an environment where well defined curves and large breasts made her, quite literally, a moving target.

If this woman hadn't been recommended to her by the telepath and if she knew for a fact that Juniper wasn't on his list of favorites, Ryu would've thought she was nuts. Being stuck on an island with monsters looking for attractive prey was one thing, but clones? That'd be a tough one to swallow if true, for now she took her word for it though even for the red head it proved hard to absorb without entirely ruining the mood. "I'm glad you even let me in, he warned me that you might want some proof that it's really me but I had no idea what was really going on." Clone or not it was hard to imagine what she'd gone through, perhaps it was better that her memories were suppressed. "Guess I owe you an apology on behalf of myself.", she added jokingly.

"Well .. you wouldn't be the first to know about our mutual friend, but I generally refrain from talking about him in public .. or anywhere around the campus, for that matter." Ishtar would be the other one to know of course, but Juni didn't have to know that. Then again all the information was written down, every detail about Aegir that came to her neatly spread across pages of her personal notebook like a few other creatures that she knew of. Usually it wasn't opened outside of remote locations on the island so nobody had confiscated it yet though all it took was one curious student to nick it.

"Just second?!" The words just spilled from her lips unrestrained, he hadn't clarified whether she was first or second though now she was aware of Alynia being his favorite. Quickly realizing her mistake she struggled with the words, but got back on track eventually. "But .. um .. You know, it's different. Our arrangement is .. well, not quite ordinary." A hand reached near her stomach, indicating the growth he had implanted within her womb. "I carry one of his nodes or 'psi-receiver things', yeah, but I'm given freedom of choice here, too. If I chose to get rid of it or detach myself from his care entirely then by all means I'd be able to, but .. doesn't seem very smart to pass up an organic tracking device as long as it means protection. Kind of a no brainer, really." The ruby red of her eyes went toward the ceiling for a moment as she considered. "Anything I'd do for a friend, I'd do for him so naturally I don't see myself in a position most others do see me in, so I just wanted to set things straight before we move on."

Did the other girl even know she was in the same ranking? That she didn't fare badly either? Perhaps it'd be fun to find out, a little payback for being tactless back then. "You being in his top five n' all it seemed appropriate to speak my mind."

They were in the same boat, but one day Ryu would be gone whilst Juniper would have an entire year left. Even then, did she really know why the red head did what she did? She shook her head at these thoughts, one topic in particular demanded clarification but she'd start off a little more slowly. "What's your business with Aegir anyway, if you don't mind me asking? As in .. what is it that brought the two of you together and what did you make of it thus far?" This would be an interesting one for sure and for once the student dedicated her full attention to a subject, paying little mind to how the lighting struck the landscape in the very first setting of a series of pictures appearing on screen, a decent portrayal of the contrast between light and shadow amidst the woods.

"Heh, well, even if you were a doppelganger of some kind, I'd likely have let you in." she said with a slight shrug of her shoulders, "I mean, really, what could I ask for in proof? Anything I know, the administration knows, and what the administration knows is available to their clientele upon request." she turned her head to the side to get a look at the thumbnailed images on her screen, opening one up and starting to scroll slowly through the collection as she spoke, "Besides, if it's a clone then it's no stronger than a normal student, assuming it's not immune to the inhibitors somehow it's a pretty level playing field. A creature using your shape, well, that'd be unfortunate . . . but interesting too , in its way. The deception would imply a motivation beyond the simply predatory, and that could be a window into some of the politics pushing and pulling at this place behind the scenes." she leaned forward a bit and looked at the image on the screen closely, pursing her lips in thought. She'd noticed that there was a bit of a recurring theme in Aegir's photos, most of the vistas he seemed to take a shining too were darker than the rest of the island, but always there was that interplay between the bright tropical sun and the heavier shadows from caves or the tree canopy. She'd always figured that it was a residual trait from his aquatic forebearers, most sea creatures didn't see with much clarity, they mostly reacted to shadows rather than recognizing specific shapes. Of course, there was a bit of a trade-off in Aegir's case, his night vision was much better whan a humans, though his sense of color composition . . . well, his alien mind could account for a great deal, but she kept suspecting that he didn't see the full visible light spectrum.

She turned away from the monitor for a moment and quirked an eyebrow at Ryu's outburst. Her rueful smile took on a bemused air as Ryu tried to cover up her outburst by shifting her focus to the Node. Juniper would be lying if she claimed she didn't want to hear a bit more about playing host to a nascent alien being affected one's day to day life, but she decided to stall that particular conversation until she could lead into it more gracefully.

"For what it's worth, I don't see how someone who hasn't met him face to face rates the top slot myself. That's a house of cards I'm not going to want to be anywhere near when it comes down." she said, lifting her shoulders in another shrug, "I think he's just enjoying crafting an ongoing narrative, just, being the way he is, he uses another's mind instead of a notebook. He wouldn't be the first artist to get hung up on his muse." she paused in what she was doing for a moment when Ryu mentioned that Juniper herself had made her way up into the top five. After a few moments, she drummed her fingers across the desk "Hm. The last time it came up, he said he was adding me to the list, but he'd side-stepped the issue of exact placement. I guess that makes me number five, the other top-fiver without a node." she chewed on that for a moment more . . . already out of the ever shifting sands of the low ranks and relatively secure in the top five. It seemed Aegir was more invested in her efforts than she'd estimated. . . though it explained a few things, "Though I've gotta say, I'm surprised to hear such undertones of rivalry over the list. Are you that taken with him, or just naturally competitive?" she smirked a bit.

"Oh, you know, it's different. The arrangement between us is . . . not quite ordinary." she said, mimicking Ryu's own words from before, "Heh, though, seriously "business" is a pretty good word for it. Tell you what, I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours. You seem to be a pretty vocal supporter of the Dr. Mindbender's, I'd like to hear in your own words why he deserves that kind of loyalty." she asked, giving up on thumbing through the pictures for the moment, she hit a few keys on her computer and qued everything in the folder up for printing.

"Well, it goes like this. I didn't exactly get jumped by my first monster so much as I tripped over it, and with a little deft maneuvering I managed to give it the slip. I just didn't get away unscathed, took a nasty fall and hurt my leg. Aegir saw me like that and guided me to shelter, hiding me away with mental illusions while keeping me occupied with the same." she glanced at the printer as it noisely began it's dutiful work, "He made an oblique reference to himself, and I hatched a crazy scheme that needed a telepath to make it work in the limited time frame available to me. Of course, I only had the one thing to offer in recompense. Anyway, the offer intrigued him, and it's kind of colored our dealings passed that point." she shrugged slightly.

"It's an equitable arrangement for the most part. He has information and resources that I lack, but if I want access to them I need to do something for him in turn. He's never asked for anything I wouldn't do, but then, it's hard to bargain with someone who knows exactly how far he can push things." she said, tapping the side of her head, "And it's not all business. He's waived payment on a some things he probably shouldn't have, given their value. I think, on some level, he enjoys watching me wriggle on the hook, and recognizes that I'm more comfortable with an exchange than constantly asking favors from an amphibious sugar daddy." she bobbed her head from side to side, "He's definitely a useful contact, but I try not to rely exclusively on him."

In fact there were a number of artifacts in her posession, all from monsters that sought to lure her into their grasp, to control the otherwise feisty red head. She would've mentioned it, but those objects would affect her involuntarily in some cases safe for a single one she acquired recently. "I've got a .. um .. well, it's just a bracelet, really. Aegir gave it to me so I'd assume it's unique even with all the rich girls strutting about with their jewelery. That could work as proof in the future unless someone makes a perfect copy." Absent mindedly she cautiously brushed over the wrist she used to wear it on, finding that it hadn't been there. "I'll show you another time."

She found herself nodding at the conclusion of Alynia's story, nothing good could come of this if anything positive at all. "I agree. Things might go downhill if he revealed himself to her, but it wouldn't be Aegir if he didn't make up a plan of sorts somewhere along the way. Time isn't exactly of the essence so he's got plenty left to figure it out." She grinned, faintly remembering the first time she heard of the list. "He wouldn't tell me either, but thanks to you he's now in for a little something special, and I don't mean that the nice way." Ryu blushed ever so slightly as she was caught red handed in appraisal of their personal ranking. "That's not- I just .. erm .." She lowered her voice a bit. "A little bit of both, perhaps."

Now the proposal was an interesting one, causing Ryu to feel rather mixed about asking Juniper about their history yet it only seemed fair to give an answer for an answer. Still, she hesitated before accepting, keeping this a secret meant a great deal to her. "Got yourself a deal there, Juni, although I'm afraid it won't be quite as interesting as it'll be personal."

"Why he deserves that kind of loyalty you ask .." Ryu began, letting the words linger there for a moment since providing an answer proved a hurdle that was difficult to overcome. "Not sure why that's important to you, but here goes." Taking a deep breath she had the whole thing set up in her mind, memories she wouldn't ever forget though all she managed to spew out with a smile wasn't what she meant to say. "Well .. There's the sex .." It was a comically awful effort to refrain from giving a clear response although she knew that there was no avoiding it with the particular someone before her. She let out a sigh before casually slumping back down on the bed, the topic being one of the few chinks in her armor as she sat up just barely finding support on her forearms to maintain eye contact.

"Honestly though? Aegir .. took an interest in me when nobody else would." Even then her eyes just swept around the room, settling on anything but Juniper as she told her story. "In those first weeks of my freshman year he was one of the monsters that had a slice of me, testing the newcomers in a twisted, perverted sense though he was the only one that didn't just ravage me and then left me out in the woods at night in a puddle of their bodily fluids. Instead he got me back to my room safely which I'm assuming is the pinnacle of kindness toward students, but it laid the fundament of our relationship .. I think." Ryu swallowed hard at the recollection of these events, the painful loss of her virginity being one of them. "When he came for me the second time I didn't fight it. I don't know whether I just gave up or simply wanted something more humane out of the whole ordeal, but when someone appreciates you for who you are while the rest of the world treats you like crap it doesn't always matter who or what this someone is. In fact I wanted it to happen, to feel that same gentle approach while others just took what they wanted, to know that at least then I was able to choose. That I accepted him on my own volition was what intrigued him the most, he says."

By the time she finished her heart was thumping hard within her chest, this got her worked up more than anything did in a long time. "Even with his powers he never coerced me into doing something I didn't want to do in the first place, and that's worthy of my respect. For making me feel alive after all these years of feeling nothing but dead inside, for protecting me whenever he can and actually caring for me when only one or two people in the entire world would do the same, now for that he has my loyalty." Her gaze finally shifted back to the other woman present. "I'm not ashamed to admit that I enjoy his company because there's nothing wrong with seeking a little hope and comfort in a place such as this, now is there?"

At this point she would've gladly asked for an alcoholic beverage or even a cigarette if they weren't contraband, anything to ease the excitement. Water just wasn't going to cut it. With a gesture of her hand, almost dismissing, she clasped the pair together behind her head as she leaned back against the wall, getting a little more comfortable though the ruffles of her skirt were now dangerously close to revealing the white panties beneath as they barely hid the smooth yet firm texture of her inner thighs. "Told you it wasn't all that interesting."

"Well, the list is supposed to be pretty fluid." Juniper said with an easy smile as Ryu's cheeks began to match her brilliant hair, "A nicer special something might be exactly the thing you need to overtake the top spot, if that's what you want. He's not the easiest thing to surprise, but, when's the last time you sprung an encounter on him instead of simply comming when called?" she asked conversationally, as of she were giving advise to any normal couple back home.

"I, ah, wouldn't know." Juniper shifted slightly uncomfortably at Ryu's little joke, though she didn't interrupt any further. This was something she wanted to hear, after all. She leaned a bit forward in her chair, propping her chin up with and elbow on her desk as the other arm lay draped across the back of her chair, bouncing the bare foot that was crossed over her knee, though her eyes stayed steadily on the form slumped over her bed. It was pretty clear this wasn't something that she was comfortable talking about, but still she plunged on. Idly Juni found herself wondering if it was more out of a desire to keep the books balanced between them, or because it meant defending Aegir's honor.

"Oh, I wouldn't undersell it." Juniper said, leaning back in her seat and looking up at the cieling for a moment as Ryu wound to a stop, "I can understand where you're coming from, having someone treat you like a human being after so many have been content to tear you down or ignore you. I had something like that a long time ago, and my circumstances were never as dire as the situation here. So, no, there's nothing wrong with that."

"As for why it's important to me . . ." she looked back at Ryu, "Well, I've just had a little trouble reconciling what he could do with what he does do. This place doesn't leave scars, it blots memories, and day to day the routine is rarely upset giving things a certain timeless quality. Whenever Aegir comes around, I find myself questioning if I've actually done the things I've done, or if he's just playing me for laughs. Like the clone thing." she gestured towards Ryu, apparently having picked up on a bit of her skepticism "Hearing it from someone else though, well, it just helps confirm my impression of him. I want to trust him . . . I just keep waiting for the other shoe to drop."

"It's not like other creatures haven't tampered with my head, but there it's an invasion, I can feel thoughts shuffling around, or elements of my personality brought forward when it's convenient. But, with Aegir . . . things become other things at his direction. I can pick them up and investigate them, and if there's ever a flaw it's that I always seem to find exactly what I'd expect to find. The guy could make a turkey sandwich taste like a birthday cake and I wouldn't be able to tell the difference, that's kinda scary." she paused a moment, looking back towards the computer monitor to check the progress as her printer kicked out a picture of a violet-haired young woman in a leotard working the pommel horse at the school's gymnasium, legs blurring as she kicked them around in wide looping circles, apparently concentrating on her routine rather than looking at the camera.

Ryu chuckled briefly at the given advice, it almost sounded like the two of them were dating more than anything else and had some trouble in their otherwise fruitful relationship. "Hey, if I'm being compared to someone who doesn't even know the guy and end up second even after all we've gone through I think I've got the right to get a tad upset." Then again she never did anything of the sort, Aegir wasn't the type to remain idle for too long and was hard enough to find whenever he did have some spare time on his hands. Usually he came to her or wanted to meet someplace of his choosing so Juniper might be right that it could earn her some extra points. ".. but I might try it sometime .."

She hadn't missed how the student reacted to the notion of intercourse with him, but decided not to pursue that subject any further. However, she was relieved to find someone who didn't judge her based on past actions, having gone through a similar period in life she could feel sympathy. "I was afraid it might make me look a little pathetic, so .. thanks for not dwelling on it."

With a shrug she replied to the issue at hand. "You could just ask him whether he fooled you for your own sake or if it really happened. Chances are he might lie, but what do you have to lose? Getting to the truth is kinda what you do anyway, right?" The odds were stacked in his favor as they usually were, but that alone should be an inviting challenge for the renowned underdog. "What you experienced might as well be an allegory for how things really are if for some reason he couldn't sate your curiosity with the real deal. Whatever gets you through the day, I presume."

To the red head these doubts were meaningless, but she recalled thinking nearly the same back in the day. "Being around the telepath as often as me takes some getting used to, of course, never knowing if the thoughts I have are actually mine and not manipulated in some way or if what I'm doing at the time is interrupted by a whim of my own and not his doing. I'd be none the wiser even if he was tugging me around on a mental leash all day, honestly. Truth is .. I haven't forgotten that at the core he's simply another monster if it weren't for his personality, but I've already told you all there is to know as to why I trust him, why I'm loyal so it's obvious I'm a little biased when saying all this." She smiled, tilting her head slightly from her near horizontal position. "Of all things it takes time and maybe some faith on your part that he's not messing with you or else you'll never be at ease around him."

Sitting straight once more her gaze started roaming over the girl's desk, particularly the printer in order to check up on Aegir's work which finally caught the brunt of her attention. Cocking an eyebrow at the sight of the latest image she couldn't help but comment. "You know, I've got nothing against the scenery and his technique truly is top notch, but I feel like he's not exactly giving it his best shot." She reached out for the picture of the woman in a leotard, taking the extra step necessary to reach it before slumping back down near the fan and taking a closer look at it. "I'm seeing what he's trying to capture in these photographs, but the truth is everyone can get the same results with the least amount of effort. This for example .." Turning the picture around she showed it to Juniper, a finger dashing about to point out various things. "The girl's a gem, I give him that, and the hair draws my attention toward her since the gym isn't all that much to look at, but the overall composition just seems .. bland. It's dull, boring .. and as much as I appreciate the appeal of a female body during workouts, that's literally all there is. It lacks perspective, maybe a little something that makes it interesting .." Ryu would've tossed the page back into the pile that represented his printed off works, but she was worried about crinkling the paper. "I'm afraid if I handed that to my art teacher, she'd tell me to try again."

Nervously scratching the back of her head she realized that might've sounded more condescending than she meant it to be, but discovering that one of his rare flaws laid in learning things the usual way got her fired up a bit. "He did tell me his species wasn't all that creative and he might just need more practice. Alynia might help, but if she doesn't cut it he might need a nudge in the right direction .. willing models .. or a miracle .."

For her part, Juniper's momentary discomfort had nothing to do with what Ryu and the tentacled telepath got up to in their free time. It was more that she was worried that the admission that she hadn't might get the other girl's defenses back up. So far, for a conversation between strangers, things had been going rather well due to their mutual acquaintance. On the other hand, there were still the ranks to serve as touchstones . . . and given the somewhat defensive streak Ryu was showing, Juniper considered that maybe it was better that she wasn't "competition".

"None of us are strong all the time, especially with what goes on around here. If anyone actually gives you shit for it . . . well, I imagine karma will sort itself out in that regard." she chuckled a bit, "I'm finding it's a bit more important to be able to bounce back than to stand firm. If he helps you do that, by all means, hang tight to him. Though, I'll admit that's kind of a "do as a say, not as I do" coming from me." she gave a self depreciating smirk as she ran her fingers through her short hair. Ryu had a year's more experience on this rock than she did, so she felt a little silly trying to hand out survival tips to the elder girl. Still, she was inclined to believe her . . . trusting Aegir would come in time, so long as she was willing to have a little faith. After all, so far the telepath had been more than accommodating. She just felt like a bit of a louse for still having doubts now.

"A fellow artiste, eh?" Juniper said, as though she hadn't seen the other girl's curriculum, Juniper took a moment to straighten the stack of photos that had been printed so far as a shot of a rocky cove along the island's coast under a steel gray sky was dropped neatly on the stack, an indistinct figure standing out on the rocky outcropping with their hair being tossed in the sea breeze as they looked up at the clouds. Juniper took the photography thing pretty seriously, the pictures being printed out weren't simple colored ink on paper like one could've gotten from the computer lab, no. Instead each image came out on a sheet of thick, glossy paper, the laser printer laying the colors down vividly and evenly without leaving any streaking between passes. It was a more water resistant medium to work with, so it suited Aegir's needs well, though Juniper herself mostly used it to try and keep some of the old celluloid aesthetic to her work.

"Photography is kind of a tricky art to get into. You can't always set up that perfect composition, if there's nothing behind your subject to offset the color of her hair, it's just not there. With enough experience one picks up a bit of an instinct for when a promising shot is coming . . . but you've still got to move quickly to capture it." Juniper said with a bit of a shrug, picking up the picture of the violet haired girl, looking it over for a moment. "Ah, I see." she said with a nod, turning the shot around back towards Ryu "This is a candid shot. When I first lent him my camera he went a little crazy looking to snap shots of "his" girls in their day to day life. This is Number Ten. The center of the shot is the face, so unless I miss my guess he's trying to show a facet of the subject off that isn't normally apparent . . . she doesn't seem the sort to usually look that intense. Also, from the angle, I'd say he's barely two feet from the front door to the gym, probably trying to mingle unobtrusively with other bored lurkers." She turned the photo around again and squinted, "Also, I think he's experimenting with the manual shutter controls, that's a pretty long blur for the automatic settings."

"I'm not saying your wrong about the composition, just saying that action shots take some practice to get down compared to landscapes. I'm just glad he's branching out instead of just sticking to what he's already good at." she smirked a bit, "Though he does have a model shoot lined up soon, maybe you're right and having the chance to arrange the scene with a subject will help him get a better hang of it. Though it's going to be positively alien being on the other end of the lens." she blinked a bit before she leaned forward in her seat, pointing at the redhead, "Hey, if you were looking to surprise him, you could show up to the shoot unannounced. You'd know exactly where he is, after all, and I doubt he'd object to having two models." she blinked after a moment before cupping her chin, "Wait, no, that might not work. Unless--! No, that's just dumb. Mmn." she drew her brow down into a thoughtful expression as she chewed on that notion for a few moments.

"So, what's your preferred medium?" she asked, ducking back to the subject of art as she turned her thoughts slowly over in her head. It sounded like the root of a good idea, but . . . she wasn having trouble convincing herself that it wouldn't explode in her face..

Listening to Juniper she had to wonder whether her own mind was too perverse to reach the same conclusions as her when taking a closer look at the images or if she had been too naive to think like the red head. "Huh, now that's a new one to me. Never took him for the type .. you know .." A smirk crossed her features. ".. Voyeur?" There was some truth to it anyway, for example watching her sleep whenever he looked into her dreams or watched her from a distance since every now and then he saved her from another monster, Aegir clearly had been hiding somewhere nearby if it took mere seconds to reach the damsel in distress.

Ryu merely nodded in acknowledgement though she took a shot at explaining herself. "I'm not big into photography, myself. I merely see things the way they are and while I know that different people have different tastes it's not hard to distinguish between just another so called piece of art and actual eye candy." She shrugged, rather apologetic of what she said earlier as her voice lowered slightly to convey the feeling. "Never did have much interest in it, probably never will unless someone asks me to take a photo just for the hell of it. No, I'm fine with that. Aside from the yearbook back home or the rare, occasional passport I don't even visit a 'professional' to take one of me so don't take my word for it. Everyone's a critic after all and it wasn't my intention to denigrate any of his efforts .. Sorry."

It surprised her to find that Aegir devoted himself to something as ordinary as gathering skills over time rather than take them from another. How he managed to set up a shoot that involved one or several models was beyond her though she figured a few might be well acquainted to his disguises. "A model shoot .. I'm surprised he hasn't told me, but I'm guessing he knows I'd tell him how wrong that is on so many levels." Ryu shook her head, naturally she had to share him even if she longed to be number one seeing how she wasn't ready to do quite everything for him. The suggestion was an embarassing thought, to say the least. "Ah, I don't think that's such a good idea .. See, I don't work well with others, especially if I'm at the center of attention, least of all with Aegir behind a camera taking pictures of me and .. whoever it is, I'd panic long before I even get there .. Not to mention which poses we're supposed to be in by the time he presses that button. Uugh .." For a moment she buried her face into her hands, cheeks flushed with the heat of her embarassment though when Juniper stopped she wouldn't just let her off that easy. "Aww, come on! Don't leave me hanging, Juni .. It was your plan and while I might not like it I'd like to know all the options available. This means a lot to me, you know .."

What followed next began to steer her thoughts in another direction, a more pleasant one that didn't involve their unusual connection, the girl pondering just a bit before answering. "That's a tough one .. I feel inclined to say canvas, if I'm being totally honest." Giving a half hearted smirk she slipped toward the edge of the bed. "Not because I prefer it, but due to the fact we rarely get to use any in class. It took a lot to convince my teacher to leave just one of them to me so I could work on a project of my own, putting some actual use to my after school hours for once, but it was very well worth it."

"Drawing in general is my all time favorite, still. Paper, wood, body art, you name it and I've probably done it. Not that I like to brag, but the things I can do with a pencil .." She smiled at that, her mind already connecting the dots. "Not in that way, of course .. But I'm not an artist per se .. I do it for fun only and by the time something, anything becomes work it loses much of its charm to me hence I'd never try and make a living off of it." For a moment she considered, she'd noticed some doodles on the desk earlier and while the symphony in the background had been running relentlessly Ryu felt as though she might've interrupted something. "Why, what do you do in your spare time? If you've got any with all that's going on around here, that is."

Juniper covered her mouth for a moment to cover a short laugh at the implication that Aegir might be a bit of a voyeur. Still she couldn't keep her broad smile from her face when she pulled the hand away.

"Well, I figured that was a given." she spread her hands out to the side, her shoulders shaking slightly with a repressed chuckle, "Though, I imagine he'd prefer to be thought of as an Observer. Frankly, the lack of television reception out here has probably made voyeurs of us all, there's nothing really interesting to watch out here except each other. Have you heard the gossip scene? It's positively brutal out there." she waved her apology off with a good natured smirk, "No need to apologize, I was just offering a counterpoint. Aegir's going to have to get used to criticism on this sort of thing eventually anyway, he's got an eidetic memory so the only reason to take a picture is to show off or maybe brighten a room, and since he's dabbling a toe in the head of anyone he talks to he's going to hear their opinion one way or the other."

"Though I personally come from the camp that believes that just because something is cheesecake doesn't mean it stops being art. A quick look at a Vallejo painting would confirm that . . . or, hell, the Mona Lisa for that matter." she added with a shrug. Of course, the topic of eye candy lead a little too smoothly into the photo shoot she'd mentioned. She chuckled softly to herself and took the opportunity to push off from the wall with a bare foot and roll her chair across the room to the tiny kitchenette tucked away in the corner, listening but deciding it was probably best to let Ryu finish before she spoke up as she grabbed herself one of the bottles of water she'd mentioned earlier.

"Relax a little. I said a model shoot, not a porno series." she chuckled a little bit, unscrewing the top, "It's just a little tasteful nudity to pay off one of those favors I mentioned. A controlled setting with people who already know one another. Maybe you don't work well with others, but I've worked with a few divas in my time so I play second fiddle just fine, and if you don't want the spotlight, that's fine too." she shrugged her shoulders with an off color smirk, "I think this place is just getting to me a little. I was going to say that if you were feeling bashful, technically speaking I'm the only one who owes him any skin at the shoot. That thought, however, swiftly landed in the gutter." she tipped the bottle towards her and shook her head.

"You can have two naked people in a scene without it being sexual, it can depict naturalness, or openness between the subjects, or hell, even innocence." she paused to take a pull from the bottle "One clothed and the other not though? Almost universal power relationship symbolism. Not exactly solid ground to try and persuade you that this isn't going to get creepy and weird."

She pushed her way back across the room, gliding back to her spot and rolling to a stop in a way that suggested she did this frequently. She listened as Ryu went over her portfolio of talents, her eyebrow rising around the time she went passed canvas and paper. She whistled lowly.

"And I thought I had a diverse portfolio of talents." she said with a smirk, "You're right, you're not an artist. You're a Renaissance woman! Body art, even. I don't suppose you've got any tattoos to your name, you seem a little young for that, so, body paints then?" she leaned back in her chair again and took another sip of her bottle as the question of what she did with her free time came back to her.

"Heh, I suppose that depends on what you mean by free time." she said a bit evasively as she considered her answer, "I guess it'd be safest to say that I'm an explorer of sorts. This island . . . there's so much here that isn't what it seems. Sure, with the monsters, but the students too, and the campus itself holds its secrets. I spend a lot of time just poking my nose where it isn't supposed to be, or in training so that I'll be ready if one of my little expeditions goes pear-shaped on me. You know, picking locks, snapping pictures, hopping fences, raking mud, pathfinding out in the wilderness. I won't say that spending all that time away from the herd hasn't come back to bite me a few times though."

"But, when I need to decompress, I do a little drawing myself. I won't pretend to be nearly as accomplished as yourself, I mostly just put what's in my head onto the sketchbook. Life drawing isn't really my thing, I tend to work a little more abstract or stylized . . . I like it though." she mused on her words for a moment before grabbing her other notebook, "Though, my preferred form, is brick and paint. I figured I'd have to take a hiatus from graffiti work while I was here, but, look here." she flipped passed page after page of hand drawn renditions of monsters, each with bullet-pointed notes on physiological traits she'd witnessed and suppositions about their strengths and weaknesses until she reached the pages where she'd pasted photos against the paper.

"The school's got some kind of . . . I dunno . . . self repair function? I've been trying to map out how it works while I'm out and about, but the sample size has always been too small. Ah, but tonight! Tonight, I finally have a brilliant full moon, a clear and cloudless sky, and a hundred by twenty foot canvas just begging to be filled." she paused a moment and scratched behind her ear, "And I can't figure out what the hell to put on it."