Aegir was making his way down the halls of the dorm projecting an illusion of Cindy for all to see. He deceived the senses with the image of this blue aired, spectacled girl that wouldn't draw any undue attention to herself.

Casually he brushed the minds of the students that he passed gathering input, detailed histories and memories as he passed. Perhaps tonight he would see Alynia, or Ryu or maybe even Pia. He was in the midst of debating when he picked up on minds with the actual dorms themselves. Some he had already visited, others he had deals with, others he did not enjoy at all finding them ill-suited for his attentions.

Aegir paused for a moment though after having a rather bizarre image flashed though his mid. It was not of the student and her dealings with another monster, such images were common enough in conscious and unconscious minds after all but rather the images of a baseball bat…

Now that was, well a rather bizarre choice so he followed that mind little, delved into her memories a bit more and discovered a few things. Well, he was interested now and it looked as if he was indisposed of for a little while at least.

Aegir used his telekinesis on the door opening the locks easy enough. He let himself in, scrubbing the mind of the lone student who sayw him as to “forgetting” that she saw him slip into the room before locking the door behind him.

He stalked towards the bedroom where he observed the sleeping student then pondered rather quickly as to how he was going to approach this. A portion of is fragmented mind allowed him to think matters though while another still looked for facts ... Hm, the parents are an athlete, a cop... this might work as he reached out and caressed he cheek of the sleeping student delicately.

Oh, this was going to be fun. It was time to begin and it would all start on a seemingly normal day. Once she entered REM sleep he hijacked her dream making it appear vivid and real like.

“Vikky Nyberg to the office. Vikky Nyberg.” The voice interrupted the class over the intercom and so it began ...

Vikky had been tired that day by understandable reasons. But nothing could cure her troubles like a good night’s sleep. In fact, it was very likely the only thing that could cure her troubles even temporarily now, and most of them would come back when she woke up. But for now, she would sleep with an undisturbed expression, entirely unaware of anything occurring in the real world… yes… she felt so at peace… she could sleep like this fo-

“Vikky Nyberg to the office. Vikky Nyberg.”

“Wa… wa-wa-WA..!?” The voice on the intercom shook her awake. Suddenly, a sense of panic temporarily overwhelmed her as she realized her situation. She was in the middle of class! Tumbling up from her seated position, eyes wide from her realization that she had almost been sleeping in class. Had she? The sun was shining through the windows, fresh air was afloat in the room, row upon row of students with notebooks and currently, every human in the room was looking at her where she was flailing her arms trying to regain balance over the chair that she had almost fell over in her panicked realization of her current status.

“Goodie morning, eh, Vikky?” One of her classmates called out on her waking up, and for a moment she was the subject for many giggles and snickers throughout the room. Vikky felt herself blush as she picked up her books and put them back into her bag since she didn’t know if she’d be back before class ended. Gee… she had made a fool out of herself. Though the attention didn’t feel all that bad, but wrong kind of attention..! Vikky spun around to the teacher when she was prepared to leave.

“I’m-I’m sorry! I need to take my leave…” She said as she made her way to the door. Usually she wouldn’t have need to do something like that and only needed to sneak out the door, but now she had everyone’s attention, including the teacher’s…

“Alright, alright. Just let that serve as a lesson not to fall asleep in class.” The teacher said, hand on her hip as she smiled lightly at the flustered Vikky. More giggles and snickers among the students. Thoroughly embarrassed Vikky picked up her bag and got out of there as quickly as she could.

“Gee…” Not the best show a student could present. By some reason, it felt like every person in the corridor threw her at least one look. That might be expected, she had just been called to the office. Had she done something bad? She didn’t know. She hoped not. A slight shiver of fear went through her when she imagined what it could be. Vikky tightened her muscles a little bit, as if trying to make herself and her school-uniform shrink. Though, the skirt was already small to begin with, so if it shrunk that would probably be bad… wait, what is she thinking about!?

Sighing to herself, Vikky told herself to cheer back up. It worked somewhat. Raising her brown-haired head and smiling, Vikky made positive thoughts run through her head. Thoughts like her times with Vilmer and times with other friends or family. Actually, that scene earlier was downright hilarious when she considered it. Ah, things happen like that. Now, then. To the office, was it? That should be… around here, right?

Vikky gently pushed the door open…

“Hello? This is Vikky. I was called for..?”

Aegir was manipulating the dream now that he was in the driver's seat so to speak. The unconscious girl helpless before him as she sought to escape her troubles the only way she knew of … unfortunately dreams here were not always your own.

He had yet to decide on what he was going to do in this dream though he had already sketched out a theme and story arc. He was more malleable then most in that he never really forced anything and let individuals choose their own paths by adapting things that made sense making things easier or tougher for them.

Now he was usual pleasant with people unless bored loooking for a thrill though that was not always the case and so there was no telling how this dream was going to shape up though he considered that she would find it interesting at least.

A thought did occur to him, something that would be more challenging to do now and since he so often got bored that was something that he might too only because hunting prey here was rather simple for him. He liked simple though it tended to bore him at times where he did little things such as this to spice things up.

All eyes were upon Vikky as she made her way out of the class room embarrassed by the turn of events though thoughts on Vilmer were not entirely her own as he filtered some of them into the dream since it suited his purposes to do so. Now he had options there and since this was a dream he didn't have to be consistent either, if Vilmer was now a drug abuser for instance he didn't have to be in the next dream, if there were a next dream that was. He was not getting ahead of himself though he was interested in how this was going to play out.

He even considered an element that he was going to use as a back drop to events but did better to foreshadow some of the themes that might come up.

“The assistance principal while see you,” and Miss Harris the secretary pointed to the door of his office.

Once inside she noticed and older bald man with short white hair on the sides and back of his head. A dish of candy had been set on the desk and a stack of papers had been neatly arranged on the desk.

He was in the process of reading a fax again as she came in though he set it down at once, rose then made a sweeping gesture to the seat.

“Please, sit, Miss Nyberg.” The name on the plaque on his desk read Mr. Thomas.

He sat, though he eyed her for a moment as if gauging her mentally or perhaps fiddling with his own thoughs though before an uncomfortable wall of silence had been risen between them he spoke.

“Relax, your not in trouble.” Relax, he felt like a dope seeing that the news he had was anything but relaxing. “I've already made the arrangements seeing how this is a special case I figured that you'd want to take a leave of absence for a little bit.” Again he paused then came out with it. “Your father has been shot ...”

Vikky was pointed to the assistance (assistant?) principal of the school, which was a tad higher than the meeting she had imagined. Which meant… this was something important. Vikky felt a light shiver at the thought of what could be the case. Was she in trouble? Had she done something? Was it about… … … The school girl decided to stop her thought process and just get on with it. After all, just thinking about it would not change anything. She’d deal with it when she heard what this was about. With that, she went through the door…

The man inside the room, apparently named Mr. Thomas, looked like a reasonable enough individual. He was polite, but it was also obvious that something was slightly amiss. Feeling just slightly relieved, Vikky let herself walk into the office with a light nod. She was tense, but who wouldn’t be after having been called here? Nodding at his invitation, Vikky went over and sat down into the chair which he offered. She put her bag on her lap in order to have something to relieve her of her light stress at being called here. The silence while Thomas stared at her was… uncomfortable. She was just about to speak when he did.

She found herself breathing out a little in relief as she was told she was not in trouble. However, there was still some reason that she had been called here… and… it came soon enough. Vikky’s eyes went wide as she received the news she had been called here for.

“Father has been… shot..?” She knew. She knew that there was always the possibility of that happening. He worked within the law enforcement, after all. But… to be told about it like this… it didn’t feel more real due to that. “How… how bad is it..?” … That was all she managed. She was frozen in place. If he was dead… if he died… a great emptiness within her was starting to form within her. The fear she felt was that of another kind from one concerning her own being. She could do nothing but wait in fearful anticipation for the man’s next words…

(yes, another catch I missed it was suppose to be assistant)

“I know only a little in the ways of details that I'll share with you. He was on a case to apprehend a rather dangerous perp who was attacking and assualting sexually, teenaged girls. He was amongst those that managed to close in on him and was shot giving the perp a chance to scape.

“Your father was in critical condition but thankful a medical time was close by and he was saved by them. He under went surgery that night and that was when I was informed so I know little about the results,”

He paused, trouble by this matter almost as much as she.

“Usually Shokushu frowns on traveling back to the mainland for anything, such as family reunions, weddings and the like but this is rather unique and I have arranged a flight for tomorrow evening if you desire to go that is. Your more than happy to stay here of course but I figured that you would want to go home and spend time with family. Take as much time as you need, before coming back too, I realize that these are trying times ...”

... It had been on-duty. A real actual situation. He always was complaining how little he could do to make the streets truly safe. And now… he had gained his chance. Vikky sighed with relief as she heard that he had survived. “You idiot.” She was speaking to her father on a distance he could never hear her. “Making your family worry this much. But father is a tough one…” Letting her body relax, her head hang in relief as a smile of pride spread. No criminal could kill off her father that easily, that’s for sure. Now… she just had to hope his situation hadn’t worsened while they hadn’t received news…

She raised her head and regained her worried expression as the assistant principal told her she could go home for the time. … Go home? … In a strange… very strange way. That notion felt more attractive than going to visit father. Going to visit father… was almost secondary to leaving here. There… there felt like there was a great reason why she should leave this place… and not come back. An image… an image of herself… and something big… doing something... surfaced in her mind. … Vikky shook the thought away. She was leaving to visit father. No other reason.

“Thank you, Mr. Thomas. I gladly accept the trip home that you have arranged for me. You hold my most sincere gratitude.” Vikky bowed slightly to the man to show that she meant what she was saying. Now she was just awaiting the additional information about the flight which she’d undoubtedly receive right here. She sat up straight and awaited.

Aegir was working to block a few memories at least for the moment as he observed and felt the swing of her emotions. Relief that her father was not dead, though he supposed things would only have been a little different had she been going back home for a funearl. No this gave him different options of course that were likely to play out.

There was also that nagging feeling that she ought to leave for an entirely different reason that she could not quite access yet. Right now of course such memories would only hamper their fun … she would be more weary for starters, more apt to look for flaws though when one was given something they wanted they hardly looked too closely at it. It had been his experience that matters were scrutinzed more thoroughly when someone didn't want to believe something or their thoughts were challenged so he avoided that initially at least allowing her to relax into the dream-like state more thoughly.

He was rummaging through her memories though seeing what he was to use, seeing what could be adapted or invented even for the scenario.

“Now that the unpleasantness of the situation has been dealt with your flight departs at one PM. I am giving you the rest of the day off from classes so you can pack whatever you think you'll need while at home.”

He got a pass out from his desk, scribble on it a little excusing her if she should chance upon a prefect in the halls. He tore it off the pad and gave it to her before returning the pad to the desk draw. “I hope he pulls through. Give him my best, though I'll let you get started on packing. I don't think you'd need terribly much but I don't know all the things a girl needs either. I have two grand daughters I take on fishing trips on occcasion. Surprising they don't think it's gross but the pair tends to bring everything with them.

“My condolences about your father and I hope he pulls through with a speedy recovery.”

... Unknown to Vikky, the memory of that image was blocked away. She suddenly would not be able to remember about it even if she focused. Of course, she’d never know that it had disappeared. To her, it had never existed in the first place now.

Vikky nodded at the time given, and giggled a bit at his telling about how little he knew about girls and packing using his granddaughters for comparison since she recognized the situation. “Yes, we’re like that, aren’t we? Also, of course they don’t find it gross. You’re their dear grandpa~” She just had to insert that, there. Really. She wouldn’t have minded herself to have this person as her grandfather. Moving on. Vikky stood up after Thomas had delivered his wishes.

“Thank you for your wishes. I’ll make sure to deliver them. Thank you.” She made sure to take the scribble along with her for the case, and went for the door. But just before she left, she realized there was something else that she would want… She turned to the assistant principal.

“Say, Mr. Thomas? When I came here, I brought my baseball bat. However, it was confiscated as a potential weapon.” Say, why hadn’t they confiscated all the kitchen knives? “It holds some emotional value to me. If allowed to, I’d like to bring it back with me so that I can leave it at home. There is no point in having it here if it will just spend all my years here in a locked storage. Do you think I could have it delivered to me to the plane..?” She just had to ask.

Later, regardless of the assistant principals answer, Vikky would go to her dorm-room and pack two bags. She didn’t need more. These containing her clothes and other necessities. She didn’t need the school-books or anything else. She was going home, after all. After that, she simply needed to get to the plane on time. Then… she would simply depart to the airplane wearing a more casual short bright yellow skirt and a white shirt. Behind her she was dragging one bag, filled with her change of clothes and on her shoulder she had a hand-bag with necessities such as such that you apply on yourself at the bathroom in the morning. I need not go into detail~ Now, the plane was over this direction… she walked resolutely in said direction, avoiding interactions with any other people to avoid unnecessary things…

Aegir sealed up that particular memory for now at least allowing Vikky to immerse herself in the moment better. There had been no need to erase it though so it would return afterwards, maybe he would set a delay so it returned an hour or so later, he had yet to decide that of course and he was aware that forgetting “leassons” could be crucial and a bit unkind to as other scenarios were likely to arise where a monster would simple have to remind the student about earlier training too, not that he had really cared what others did of course if it did not affect him at least.

Mr. Thomas grinned at her. “Yeah, their darling girls.” He doted on his grand children and rose when she did. Now Aegir was planning on adding that bat actually as a surprise though being fluid in nature and she bringing it up he made a slight change to the scenario. It was minor of course and really didn't affect anything so far and if it did later, well he didn't care about that either! He was looking to have some entertainment after all and if things kept to his script rigidly they would be boring for him after all.

“A bat? Oh, yeah I guess you can take it home with you, just leave it there though or it will be taken from you again upon your return.”

Bags back, she later made her way to the plane where her beloved bat had been waiting for her of course. Since she was the only passenger today the plane was much smaller and she the only passenger. Save for her there was only the pilot that made small talk with her as they went on. Landing on the other end her mother had been waiting to receive her.

She seemed a little disheaveled, tired looking so clearly things didn't seem to be the best out of the gate so to speak from what she saw.

Vikky had put her bat in the bag with clothes. It was a bit longer than the bag, so the handle of it was sticking out of the hatch. Other than spending a moment to appreciate the weight of it, she wasted no time getting onto the plane.

Really. This was a rather unique experience. A plane being prepared just for her… she’d have enjoyed the experience much more if it had not come across as an act of pity due to the state of her father. But it was still certainly an experience to brag about in the future. Oh, and that pilot… he sure liked talking. Vikky did too, but not as much right now. She was busy worrying about her father, but still. She appreciated the thought. Talking to the pilot felt just a tad unsafe, shouldn’t he be focusing on the controls? But… he was a professional. He could handle himself, obviously.

As Vikky stepped off the plane and bid good-bye to the pilot and brought her bags along… her mother was waiting for her. Josefin Nyberg. An Olympic athlete, and an older version of Vikky. … That was, mostly. Currently, she looked worse than Vikky had seen her… in a very long time. In fact, she couldn’t remember quite herself when her mother had looked so… so…

Vikky wasted no time running over and temporarily dropping her bags just to hug her mother tightly without a word. She… she needed to hug her. It had actually not been that long since they saw each other last, Vikky hadn’t had the time to spend particularly long at the school, but still… circumstances made it seem like a lot, lot longer…

They embraced there near the run way as she dropped her bags and ran over. There were tears of course. A mix of sorrow and of jou. Josefin looked haggard but that was mostly due to not sleeping much these past few days. Hell, this had been the first time that she had left her husband's side since she had gone to the hospital!

“Oh, Vikky! My preacious, precious, little girl.” Joesfin held her a bit longer then kissed the crown of her head.

“Your father's been shot but he's ok … he's gone through surgery and the surgeon said if the bullet where a hair lowere he would have bben paralyzed from the waist down but they expect that he will recover … Vilmer offered to pick you up once he heard of course but I wanted to pass on the good news!”

[By the way, since they are all actually Swedish I assume they are talking in the appropriate language? Or is there some random switcheroo because this is a dream Aegir composed?]

It felt... very comforting to be back in her mother’s arms. Just the sheer proximity of her who had raised Vikky up until she had gone to that school. And by some reason she was still the little girl, despite being nineteen and everything. Vikky smiled as she was kissed on her head. She could read by her mother’s reaction that her father had pulled through. It… was such a relief. Such a great relief. She couldn’t quite describe it.

“I’m so happy… father will be alright…” Vikky breathed in relief. At the sentence with Vilmer, Vikky felt the appropriate timing to giggle. “Mommy is being greedy, stealing a good moment for a boyfriend to be with her girlfriend.” Just to certify that she was joking, she hugged her mother again with a smile on her face. “It’s OK. It was your moment to have. I need to give father a moment, too.” She’s hold on to her mother for a little while extra, just to show how much she liked her mother. Though… there was that little extra thing.

“Vilmer is here? Didn’t he go to some all-boys school far away..?” That was her reason to go to this all-girls school far away, after all. To punish him using the lack of contact since she wanted them to go to the same school. It was a bit childish when she thought about it, which is why she hadn’t told anyone the reasoning behind her choice. But… he was here..? Had he heard about the incident and come here just to… just to see and comfort her..? Silent anticipation built inside Vikky…

(it would all be in Swedish unless there would be a reason not to, such as in the presence of non native speakers for instance. It is easy enough for him to do so.)

Regardless of how old she got Vikky was still going to be her mother;s little girl if she were 3 or thirty! It was a relief that she was back of course and she kept her daughter at arm's length appraising her for a brief moment,

“He's at the hospital I don't think he was planning on staying long until he heard you were coming in, He's looking forward to seeing you again though I stole this moment from him,” she grinned as the two embraced. Helping her with her bag Joesphin lead her daughter to the car speaking as she went.

“I'm glad the school let you come home. It was such a pain dealing with the admin there that it seemed that they didn't want to let you go at first until I got transwered to that Thomas guy who got things rolling pretty quickly on his end.”

“Didn't you get my letter about it? I could have sworn you sent one to me.” And so Aegir hinted at a trace of how Shokushu did things. “He got expelled from school, there was a horrid little incident involving him splitting the skull of another studne opened. He's now going to school at one of the state colleges here while he gets everything in order.

“Apparently he walked in at the gym seeing one of the students sexually assaulting another, grabbed a bat and well, you can figure out the rest. He was lucky that he didn't kill that boy, the DA wanted to go after him for attempted murder though it was dropped to assault with a dangerous weapon after your father managed to pull a few strings.”

Vikky couldn’t help but look forward to seeing Vilmer. Of course. He was her little crush and boyfriend, after all. She hadn’t intended to meet him until after she had graduated… but oh, she cannot defy her own wishes in times like these. She smiled the entire time as they were heading to the car. Wasn’t this supposed to be a return to comfort someone due to having been wounded? Why was she acting so happy-like? Whatever! She had to make sure her father would not get hurt in the future just so she could visit again. They could not look upon this as a good outcome. But… ah, Vikky would be happy for now. She also smiled at her mention of Thomas. “Yeah, the assistant principal is a nice and capable person. I’m glad they have one of his kind~” … She had no idea of the irony of her statement.

Her mother’s order of telling things was a little bit wrong. Starting with saying that Vilmer had got himself expelled by splitting open the skull of another student made Vikky enter a state of chock as she stared at her mother. Then she explained… oh, he had acted like hero for another, and the deed had forced him to quit… Vikky exhaled the air she had locked in during the time she had almost thought her boyfriend had become a murderer in her absence. Nah, he was just acting hero. Vikky found herself giggling. “I'll have to praise him for that. My little hero.” … Wonder… should she reward him..? … … Hold your horses, girl. Just because this is a reunion of this sort, doesn’t mean you should~… She giggled again~

… But on a more serious point. “… No. I receive no letter explaining what had happened to Vilmer. As far as I knew, he was still going to that school. And while I did receive and send letters… none of that was mentioned.” That was the truth as Vikky knew it. “But wow… Father could pull strings that far to get him out of trouble? Is he perhaps a more renowned man than I thought..?” It had always been her mother that had been seen as the famous one to her. Athlete competing world-wide and all. But perhaps due to this, had she failed to realize that perhaps her father, Fredrik Nyberg, also was rather renown..? … Pondering this, Vikky sat back in the car.

Joesphin gazed at her saughter in mild confusion. Perhaps she misread something or maybe the letter was lost and the “response” touched on something else she had misunderstood or misread. It did not matter as her little girl was back.

She got in the car and prior to inserting her key into the ignition she noticed that her daughter seemed to be happy. Happy that her father was doing better? Well, yes, of course but Vilmer had to have something to do with the matter too, she was not stupid after all.

“Your dad is pressing for a job as the police commisioner now though this may set him back a bit. You got to form all sorts of political connections and he knew a good lawyer that he passed on to Vilmer how worked free of charge and got the charges reduced down but he had to leave the school.”

She paused, thinking a little. “Yes, that Thomas fellow seemed to be rather nice and I'm glad he pushed this through.”

She explained the politics behind it as she drove off to the hospital. She made small talk with her daughter along the way though, then glanced at her.

“You know, he's gotten close to your dad since the whole lawyer thing. He's also spoken about you a lot wondering what you've been up too or doing. I think he was more relieved that you choose an all girls school in the end though, you know how jealous boys can get.

“Anyway, why not invite him to dinner tonight? Your father's finally doing a bit better so I don't have to worry about him so much and I'm sure you don't want hospital food as your first meal back.”