"The fuck do you want?" the voice echoed through the hollow eaten in the mountain, rebounding off of glistening, organic walls, dripping with an alkaline slime and breaking free into the open air of the forest, meeting nothing but cold air. No ears to hear the displeasure of the self-styled prince.

Jareth directed his disinterest to a particularly offensive little nit, a screeching membranous-winged beastie with a lower jaw that broke apart into a pair of huge mandibles. He fancied it was once a bat. With a flick of the wrist, he sent it skittering across the cavern floor, focusing the malevolence in its beady little eyes on his figure before turning tail and fluttering away.

Nothing to do, he paced the chamber, a huge vaulted hollow that looked like a the chitinous inside of a heart. Everything that surrounded him was organic, everything lived, it breathed...

It spat. He was sick of the godsbedamned moisture everywhere. This planet seemed the best place to infest, a temporary hideout when he wasn't running guns in his ship, but the monotony of the slime was getting rather loathesome.

Longing for a bit of companionship, he sent the bat-thing out of the caverns with a force of will, sending the thing, chittering in the night sky, towards that institution of "learning" he'd located on the island.

It was a rather interesting place, from what he observed from beyond the tree line, a college abound in perfect, pristine female flesh. After months with naught but himself and those horrid bugs for company, he decided that a treat was in order. A special girl was picked. Something lean, like a cross between a rhinoceros beetle and a jaguar (he supposed it was actually a deer once) had spotted flickering light in one of the girl's dorms during a number of nights. A little creative exploration and a break-in of his foolish buggies later, and he had a name and a room-number.

He set out from the cavern, waiting for the bat-bug to come back with reconnaissance information. He dearly hoped his sable-haired entrée was up for a bit of company.

"Ouch!"

A bright spark and a faint hiss leaving only bits of ash on the table as Kanoe shakes her hand. Tch, another miscast. Smoke curls up from between her fingers for a moment before she dips her hand into a small bowl of water. Luckily it was only a fire spell at it's earliest of stages. If she had tried to push it further, she would have gotten her hand painfully burned...again. The faint flicker of candle light dimly lit her room. The orange glow dances across several open tomes, dark runes covering their pages.

Even with the books the shadow creature provided, she still had to show much caution with her magic. It was getting easier to understand at least. Her cheeks flush briefly as thoughts of what she paid to get this information come to surface. The young witch shakes her head. No, she can't let herself be distracted by what has happened. It was necessary, nothing more.

Kanoe sighs as she lifts her hand out of the bowl of water. She flicks her wrist a few times to dry before letting it rest on her necklace, gripping the upsidedown cross gently. Perhaps that was enough fire for now. She had already singed a few sets of robes already. The soft spidery words of magic fill the room as the shadows around her hands begin to swirl. She rests her arms on the table with her palms facing each other as the darkness gathers into a small swirling orb. The air began to swirl and whip around the table as she tries to control the darkness. Long raven black hair lifts from her back and shoulders as if blown about by the unseen breeze. Her face was concentrated in a sort of trance. This magic had it's own risks but at least it did not involve burning.

The chattering little batbug flew an uneasy course through the forest, zipping between the trunks of heavy, dark trees. Once he skimmed over a badly-lit encounter between a girl and a rather excited lizard-beast in the throes of passion. He wasn't interested in that, never strayed from his path. As far as he was concerned, the will of the Master was sacrosanct, he could never diverge from that sacred, winding path. He could see it before him now, like a glistening golden thread amidst the canopy, the sky-scraper-like trunks and the down hanging vines, a mix of tropical and deciduous topiary possible nowhere but on the campus. All along the way, there was but one message, broadcast like ubiquitous propaganda through his zealot's conscious.

mastersaysfindthegirlmastersaysfindthegirlmastersaysfindthegirlmastersaysfindthegirl

He bobbed and swayed in the air like an acrobat, letting loose a horrific screech every few flaps, those beady compound eyes focusing on one target after another before the campus building loomed in view. Finally, he spotted the window. Making a beeline for the glass, he smashed directly into it, tumbling downward and leaving an echoing thump to reverberate through Kanoe's dorm.

The bugbat wavered in the air, struck by a shock wave of psychic force, a renewal of commands from his master.

mastersaysseethegirlmastersaysseethegirlmastersaysseethegirlmastersaysseethegirl


He wavered before the window, staring inside with those beady eyes. The essence of the shadow she was conjuring, however, had some unseen effects. The billowing essence of darkness still halted his vision. He waited for it to clear, then tumbled again with the force of another command.

mastersaysdontbeseenmastersaysdontbeseenmastersaysdontbeseenmastersaysdontbeseen

He tumbled away, flying back towards the yawning cavern in the face of the mountainside.

=============================================

Jareth sat upon a rock, jaw on his chin, resembling the classic thinker very much as he awaited his minion's return. He stroked the dog-mantis' head, the thing making pleased chigging noises as he did so, its mandibles shuddering with pleasure, scythed limbs tensing. He assumed this was the little beast's way of "wagging its tail."

Of course, he needn't wait long. The bugbat came back quick as ever, looking very pleased as it perched itself upon his knee, peering up at him. Close enough now, there was that connection, the same base connection between an ant and its queen, there was now between the parasite and its king. He picked its brain for information, spotting the darkness in the window, the lack of his prize.

Looking down to the bat with distaste, he sighed. Standing, with a motion of his arm he raised an army from the depths of the cavern, a living carpet of the nictus parasites and a mass of mutated rats, rabbits, turtles, and anything else unlucky enough to have stumbled upon one of the infectious wriggling horrors.

Petting the batbug affectionately, he let down his arm, letting the thing crawl up the segmented armor. He cooed softly to it, holding it up to his face, showing contrition all the way until he slipped the screeching thing's face into his mouth and bit off its head.

Black ichor dripped from his chin and he spit the head onto the ground with disgust, stalking into the forest. Bad news was never met with mercy.

Jareth sighed as a number of the nictus parasites climbed up onto him, seeking shelter in the folds of his back armor, feeling safe close to their king. He made his way across the forest slowly, trailing a legion behind him, determined to discern the location of his company.

The winds blew harder around the table and the young mystic. The tiny flames of the candles writhe and sputter from the constant movement in the air. Slowly, the swirling orb of darkness floated higher above the table. The swirling became less noticable as athe threads of shadow thicken until it was nothing but a solid jet black orb. So far so good, this was much more stable than before. Now, just need to...

~Thunk!~

What was that?! Kanoe did her best to end the spell gracefully as the the darkness spun out of form and dissipates in a single burst of force. The four candles on the table blew out as the young woman staggers back for a moment. Her hands open and close as she tries to shake the numbness away from the concussion blow to her hands. She sighs and whispers a few words. She snaps her fingers and all four candles spark back to life once more.

"Siolazar?" She calls out softly.

Did the shadow being return? No, distracting her while she was channeling goes against what it wishes. The other side of her room was too dark to see anything. She summons a small floating flame to her hand and walks over to the window. Besides her eyes playing tricks with the shadows, she was still alone in the room. Kanoe lets the summoned flame snuff out as she opens the curtan slightly. Nothing, it must have been a bug or a bird or something. Wonder what could attract something like that to a covered window. She shakes her head, she is just being jumpy again. The young witch returns to the table and returns to studying her texts.

The underbrush withered and crumbled before him, falling away as the creatures that flanked him, large lobster-beasts with scythed forelimbs, hacked the dried dead brush away, cleaving a path to the campus through the midst of the forest. Eyes scanned the visible horizon, waiting for the first peeking of lights, those precious few students staying up late to study in the lofty rooms of the dormitory. A grin found his lips as he walked, surrounded by his loyal living carpet, click of their mandibles and the soft crunch of their many legs in the leafy forest floor resembling a great rolling machine in gait and thrumming monotony.

With a wave of his arm, the beasts halted, everything stone still in its tracks save for the squirming parasites that tried vainly to burrow closer to his back. Dropping into a crouch, he approached the side of the dorm, looking up to the rows upon rows of black windows that stared blankly like the eyes of a skull at the forest. He stole close to the brick and mortar, using one of the bladed limbs adorning his back to rip a gash in the vent traveling from the air conditioning unit to the ventilation systems of the school.

Turning back to his assembled legion, lurking just beyond the fall of the moonlight, biding their time in the shadows, he sent out a command; a single entity skittered forward from the mass. It looked like a four-legged prawn with the face of a scaly jackal, its body ending in a slender, flexible tail with a wicked needle point, like that of a whip scorpion. Jareth fancied it might’ve once been a rat, or mouse.

Regardless, he coaxed it into the gash, the little beast chittering, its clawed, spindly legs clicking on the cool steel as it navigated the labyrinthine passages, making its way to Kanoe’s room. Finding the vent beneath her bed, it used its jaw to push the thing upward, scurrying out to the corner of her bed and observing with beady, compound eyes.

A yawn from Kanoe's lips reminds her of how late the night was getting. But, she was not one to let something like that slow her down. The young woman rises to her feet and heads into the kitchen. She began heating the water to make tea as she takes this moment to rest her eyes and mind for a bit. The smell of tea leaves puts herself at ease as she smiles faintly. It is still going slow but her studies are making progress.

Soft taps from above break the peaceful silence. She sighs, something must have wandered into the vents. The young woman began to notice the small nitpicky things about her room as she spent her nights alone in the dark. Sounds that were natural for a home or building causing her imagination to run wild with thoughts. Was that really the sound of the air conditioner or was something lurking within the walls? It was stupid she knows but somedays she finds herself second guessing such thoughts now. She shakes her head, no point in scaring herself over nothing. All buildings have their little noises, this school was not perfect afterall. Kanoe takes her cup and sits back down in the dimly lit room.

The witch takes short sips of her green tea as she continues to turn pages in her book. Once again it was back to relentless studies and taking notes. She had several journals and notebooks with information she had gathered on her own about magic and translations. Perhaps she will finally reach a point in being able to read the tomes without taking nights just a to read a couple of pages. Kanoe decides to read a bit more before calling it a night, not noticing she had a little visitor watching her.

The little former-mouse made its way out from beneath the bed, digging its narrow talons into the foot of the bed as best it could, making its way onto the comforter in slow, measured steps. The seconds seemed to drag unto eternity for the scheming little creature, its black eyes electric with gleeful malevolence. It observed for as long as it thought wise, slowly creeping closer and closer to her, its weight so miniscule that it caused not a shudder of tension over the springs of the mattress. Finally, one of the long, segmented, antennae-like whiskers that jutted from its maw brushed her thigh. It squeaked convincingly, dropping to the carpet with a muffled thump as it scurried across the floor and back into one of the vents, the ticking clatter of its talons echoing through the ventilation shafts of the dorm.

Jareth lounged with his back to the brick façade of the building, the mantis-dog returning dutifully to him, the severed head of its bat-brother hanging from its muzzle. Wrestling the grisly fragment from its grasp, he tossed it, watching the insectoid creature bound off to fetch its trophy once more. A smirk reached his lips, ruefully cynical though decidedly Cheshire in its disarming nature.

“Old habits die hard, I suppose…” he sighed, laughing softly in the dark.

Finally the skittering little beastie made its way back out of the gash. Climbing excitedly over Jareth’s arm, it found its way to his shoulder, the images it observed immediately finding their way to its kings conscious. He grinned wider, reaching down and ripping a full face of the ventilation duct away, holding it open for a mass of smaller, wriggling carapaces to work themselves inside, trundling like a living river towards Kanoe’s room.

Inside the girls dorm, the cacophony of the hundreds upon hundreds of chittering mandibles and clicking legs would sound much akin to an impossibly sudden onset of rain.

Brushing stray strands of black hair away from her face and setting the now empty tea cup on the table, it was about time to call it a night. Another quiet night to add to the several others. The witch did not bother marking any pages as she closes her tomes one by one. For once, she takes a moment to stack her books on the table and make it somewhat organized as she rises to her feet.

~Squeak~

Kanoe nearly made the same sound as she felt something brush across robes. The young woman quickly pushes her chair out of the way as she looks down at the dimly lit floor. She frowns as she hears the rat land on the floor and scampers off towards the wall. The light tapping of it's claws on the metal vents made the witch shiver. Seems the dorm was getting infested, how troublesome. This time she decides to turn on the actual lights of the room.

Letting the momentary blindness pass, she waves her hand over the candles dousing them. She walks over to the wall and sees the vent. It did not appear to be damaged. She gently lifts it, it's loose nothing more. It would be simple to have someone fix it, just have to let someone know tomorr... Kanoe blinks as she hears the pitter patter of rain but inside the walls. Got to be kidding me? She really needs a new room. The young witch looks around for something to block the vent with. This was one night she did not want to experience.

Jareth ushers the last few stragglers into the gash, those that would fit inside the walls anyway. The remaining legion stands guard outside of the castellan dormitory, proud with their glistening carapaces shining in the light of the moon. He pets the head of the dogsect again, finding it a suitable companion amongst the rest of the horde. Perhaps that old adage about being man’s best friend was true after all…

“Go… go home…” he said, though speaking was unnecessary with the order he implanted within their minds. They turned quickly, the dogsect leading the whole army of them, charging out proudly and navigating back to the nest, back to the hive. They would have their fill another day.

He flicked his wrist, sending a few bugbirds up to her window, smashing suicidal into the glass and tumbling to the grass below for no reason other than to provoke a few scares as she was distracted by the sound of the skittering bugs within the walls. With a simple mental order they fell silent.

Thus, inside the room, the rain left as quickly as it came. An eerie silence permeated through the building, broken only by the distant smash of a window, Jareth making no attempt to be subtle in his entry.

He reached through the shards of glass, feeling them dig furrows into his chitinous armor without scratching the tender flesh beneath. Unlocking the door from the inside, he threw it open and began stalking down the hall, turning into the stairwell with a capering jaunt, his every move infected with a spiteful glee. He really wished he had a cane.

Feeling much like Gene Kelly for no real appropriate reason, he sauntered down the hallway, the carpet muffling his steps as he counted the doors he passed. Finally, reaching the room he had hoped was his prey’s, he leaned forward and, rather unsubtly, knocked.

The army of sounds skitter and echo through the metal duct. There was nothing really heavy nor flat she could press up against the vent in hopes to keep it sealed. She takes a chair and lays it down so the back presses up against the vent. It probably will not stop it from opening enough to let small insects in but, it sounded much bigger and that is what she wanted to keep out definitely. Kanoe steps back as she continues to gaze at the chair covering the vent, waiting to see if something crawls out.

The sound grew louder as the army of what she could only guess was critters or insects grew closer to her room. Was it only her room? She has not heard any other screams which no doubt a woman would do so eventually. If that is true, why was it only her room? Maybe she should really move...and maybe even bite the bullet and see about getting a roomate. But, such thoughts can wait to see if she even gets to rest this night. A loud crash against her window quickly dispelled her thoughts as she nearly screams out in alarm. The woman's long braid nearly spins around her body as she turns her focus to the window. This was not thunks like some lover throwing pebbles at a window but loud crashes like something was literally ramming into her window. The series of crashes had stopped as quickly as they came. Though that did little to silence her own heart beating against her chest. The young witch moves over to the window and gently parts the curtains. The window was still intact though she could see what looked like goo on the other side. Whatever bug it was, it was big and had every intention of breaking in.

Only after studying the window did Kanoe realize the skittering had stopped. She looks around her room once more. There was no movement and she heard nothing from the walls or vent. Was this just a sick joke? No, that was definitely some sort of goo on her window. Something is trying to break in. Kanoe's eyes widen to the muffled crash of a first floor window. Could it be...no, there are plenty of other rooms there is no way that she was being targeted. But, it would be best to cut the lights to give no funny ideas. Best to show caution and appear to not be awake or better yet not appear to be here at all. She quickly cuts the lights letting darkness cover the room. There was going to be no sleep tonight as the young witch moves to the corner near the window and away from the door and covered vent. The dorms must have some sort of security system or something surely the broken window will not go unnoticed. All she had to do was wait. The good idea was denied as a knock came to her door. No way, this simply can not be happening. Kanoe made no moves towards the door, as far as whoever was concerned there was no one in this room but darkness and silence.

Jareth tilted his head to the side at the silence, the wet sound of his tendrils tracing across the armor of his shoulder like the strips of a cat o’ nine tails across hard metal deafening in the vapid emptiness of the hallway. A sigh left his lips, tapping his elbow softly as he waited for a response. Minutes drained slowly, holding his position at the door, statue-still in the darkness of the hallway, his eyes more than adept at picking out any minute detail, staring dully into the wood grain of the door.

“Penny for the Guy?” his voice had a churlish, low-class twinge, a slackened military crispness that contrasted with his northern British accent.

A mere twitch of his brow and the skittering began again, the army of hybrids lurking in her walls rearranging themselves, facing their motley assortment of bladed limbs to the face of the ventilation shafts, ready to burrow their way out.

Another knock, this one a little more insistent.

“Come on, little sister, you’re not fooling anyone,” the slick self-assurance was evident from his tone.

Another twitch; scratching meets it this time, the scythes beginning to burrow into the walls, digging their way through metal with screeching, rending shrieks. The sound comes to a crashing head before halting, leaving the room in silence once more. Jareth swore beneath his breath, his ears ringing painfully from the uproar, attempting to keep his composure, not wanting to abandon the whole dramatis personae in the face of his quarry.

The sound of something grinding across metal sent shivers down her spine. Whatever it was, it was still waiting for her at the door. The next sound was very much unexpected from what she has been hearing through the night. A person's voice? Despite it sounding rather human, she was far from convinced. The old beggar term, at least that's what she thinks the phrase was, shows this guy was rather calm about the whole situation. It was no question that he would have heard the window break and would not be comming to just her room to investigate about it. Kanoe already had plenty of encounters with creatures who spoke english rather well and at this point she had no reason to think her visitor was anything but one.

Her teeth grind together at the sound of the movement within her walls. The creatures were just behind a small grate of metal and a wooden chair. The second set of knocks nearly came at the same pace and strength of her heartbeat. A cold sweat forms on her brow as the stranger lets his intention become much clearer. He knew she was in here and... Kanoe shivers to the sound of metal scratching and tearing as the bugs began to tear through the vent. And the stranger must have many little friends. If these things were bugs and he was controlling them...just thinking about it made her skin crawl.

With one final tear, the gut wrenching sounds stopped. She was in complete silence once more. The thing beyond her door was still waiting and she was pretty sure her vent was gone. Kanoe wipes sweat from her palms onto her robes. She kept her back to the corner as her eyes flick from the door to the area where the vent was. She was trapped and if the things in the vent could tear through metal, she doubts a wooden door will stop whoever came knocking. That leaves only one way out.

The young witch snaps her fingers lighting one of the candles on the table, hoping to mess with the person's vision. Kanoe begins whispering softly to herself as she remains in her dark corner, letting the shadow and darkness gather into an orb in her hand. At this point, she could care less if the person at her door was actually human. Her only escape was through that door and whatever happens to crash through it.

“Give up the ghost, little sister. I know you’re in there…” he trailed off, knocking one last time. Waiting for a few moments for a response, he finally sighed, resting his forehead on the door with an audible thump, “You’re really going to wish you didn’t make me do this…”

The digging began again, this time in earnest. There was no stopping them, the eager little beasts dug, clawed, gnawed, and ripped their way through the scant inch of plaster with startling ease and vicious efficiency. It took a mere few moments for the first creature to bust free. A long, slender beak-like proboscis like a mosquito, it peered out with a pair of wide, bulbous eyes. Slowly the rest of its body followed, skittering through the hole like an overgrown centipede, followed by a literal stream of squirming, chattering insects, all the size of large garden rats.

The second bent out the metal of the ventilation cover with a crack, slamming huge hooked clubs that rested on the underside of its stomach with the force of twin pistols, rending through the metal easily as the crab-like brute made its way out.

A litany of other insects follow, tumbling from holes in the walls, crawling up from tears in the carpet, even tumbling from the ceiling in a literal mockery of their weather impersonation earlier. They hit the carpet in thumps, a mass of writhing chitinous bodies that swarmed towards the door. As the first wave of the squirming masses hit the doorjamb, they immediately began to scratch away, chips of wood flying from the lower half of the door as they dug themselves in, throwing themselves at their task with an insane vigor, a zealotry unheard of in creatures of their assumed mental capacities.

“You see, since you wouldn’t let me in, I’m going to have to get my little friends to unlock the door for me…”

Not a sound came from the room as the person continues to call out to her. Ghost or not, she was not answering that door. Kanoe's focus wavers as she heard something different. It was not scraping metal but more like...chewing. Her eyes grew wide as she realizes that they were not just in the vent. The plaster on one of her walls began to crack and suddenly large bugs the size of rats burst out from her wall. At that moment she forgot all about the person at the door, throwing the bolt right into the first wave of bugs. The orb of darkness bursts in a concussive force along with the chill of darkness and death.

She had no time to check on the effects as she heard the familiar sound of metal tearing as a larger crablike bug crawls out onto the floor. But it did not stop there. It sounded like her entire room was being chewed on as more bugs came from the floor and the ceiling above. A few bugs land on her shoulder. With a scream, Kanoe tears them off her, throwing them to the opposite end of the room.

The young witch abandoned her foolish thought of fighting this and runs into the kitchen, doing her best to avoid the creepy crawlies that had infested her room. She knew she was going to regret this later but she turns on the lights. Her eyes dart around the small room, they seem to have only infested her main room...for now. Kanoe turns around facing the only way into the kitchen. She shivers as she could see the floor literally moving. But why were they moving away from her? The voice of the person answered that question as she heard them chewing away at her door. The student backs further into the kitchen as she could feel her skin crawl. Whoever this person is, he's comming in.

Tapping his elbow impatiently, Jareth sighed, figuratively twiddling his thumbs as he waited the ruefully inept army to grant him entrance into the room. He examined his nails for a moment, jet-black and razor sharp. They looked intimidating enough, that was for certain. Still having a bit of time, he dragged them over the door. Immediately, they dug four long furrows into the wood, he adored the sight of the flecks of door curling before the wedges of his talons. With a sigh, he bent down, checking his teeth in the reflection of the gold doorknob.

On the other side of the door, things were much more frantic. The bugs were scurrying over each other’s backs, working in unison to bring the door down and doing it very, very inefficiently. They dug, bit, and clawed, freeing up the first bottom inch of the door rather quickly and working more and more slowly as their teeth and claws trailed further and further up the door. While the first inch fell within seconds, it took a half-minute to chew away six inches up, nowhere near fast enough for their impatient king.

He sent that psychic awareness out once more, scanning through the miniscule, sinister minds of the insects before finding a suitable little beast. Not certain where it drew its original form from, the thing resembled a cross between a tick and a scorpion, though the tail ended in a puckered tubule instead of a barbed stinger.

Ordering the thing to climb further, he closed his eyes, concentrating and seeing through its octagonal vision as it curled its tail towards the doorknob, firing a viscous line of yellow bile towards the knob that festered and sizzled, the metal corroding from the very touch, the bile dripping onto the squirming masses below. He saw vicariously through the bug as the acidic fluid ate pits in the surface of the doorknob. She could hear, even in the kitchen, the piercing shrieks of the horrified masses as the tiny drips of acid ate holes in their exoskeletons. Directing it up further, he lined the thing’s tailhole up with the keyhole of the door, spurting a full payload inside and smirking as it melted away the full extent of the locking mechanism.

With a grin, he put his shoulder to the door, forcing it inward, finally entering her room. He strode forward regally, the crunch of his minions underfoot audible and grotesque. The stains of the insides dripping from their battered bodies would surely never come out of the carpet.

“What…?” he asked, still mocking in that cockney accent, “Not happy to see me?” arms akimbo, he stood, dark green chitinous armor marking his shoulders, back, waist, and legs, his chest and torso bare, though taking on a sickly green tint as well. Segmented tendrils hung from his scalp like hair, and his eyes were slitted like a serpent’s, one yellow and one albino pink.