She'd sworn up and down that they'd never trick her into reading. Now she was doing it all on her own. And she kinda liked it, NOT that she would ever, EVER tell Becca. Kalos sat in a window sill that seemed to always face the sunshine. The watery winter rays seeped through her mustard colored hoodie and, despite the biting cold outside that also tried to get through the window, managed to make her feel toasty warm. Her hair, especially, seemed to soak in and collect the heat.

"... the yoo... the yup... the upper boooooodies of men," she read quietly aloud to herself, stretching words when she inevitably got stuck for a moment, sometimes circling back to try a word or sentence again when it felt too foreign in her mouth. "front hooooves of horses and a... sperp- a surp..entine fish tail." She turned to inspect the picture, a fantasy drawing of an ikhthyokentauroi that was labeled Ichthyocentaur. Why they sometimes took words that made sense and translated only half of them was absolutely boggling to the coral girl. And why everything became overly pretty in drawings was equally baffling. She'd never met an ikhthyokentauroi in the slums. She had no idea if they were real or not, but... well, nobody had any right to look that good.

She squinted to get a better look at the lumps of man chest. Did that many muscles make sense? Did underwater horses make sense? Did mutants have to make sense?

"Pretty sure that's illegal." She turned the page, taking care not to scrape the paper with her hardened fingertips. "Eeiiiipotane. Ipotane." She looked at the picture and her pink skin faded purple. Oof. That was... exaggerated.

It had been a few days since Rowan arrived at the Mansion. He was adjusting...okay. Mostly keeping to himself in his room, only being spotted getting food or traveling to and from the lavatory. But today he was trying, and struggling, to journey farther and farther from his room. And today he was exploring the library. In a way, he had to go to the library. He had some transfer work to finish before starting his semester at the Mansion.

Rowan was amazed by how large the library was. At his previous school the library was basically a closet with a pile of musty books. This place, however, looked like it leaped from a T.V. scene. And it didn't smell musty.

The young mutant had been searching the shelves for a math book he could borrow, and was struggling. The organization of libraries had always confused him, and he refused to ask the librarian for help. He'd rather struggle for hours than stoop so low as to ask a librarian for help.

He rounded a corner his eyes falling upon a bright pink figure as opposed to the shelves. Rowan's eyes widened. He, despite, being a mutant, was still very new to mutant society. He had never seen someone so...pink. Rowan didn't mean to stare, but found himself completely entranced.

Aoi could not recall sleeping nearly so well. Her blankets felt really warm though. She stood shaking her head a bit and stretching her arms, up at the sky and opened her mouth to yawn. She stood feeling the blanket, really 4 inches of snow fall from her back as she rose to her ten foot height. Looking around she saw a window and her sleepy mind wondered why the window was facing the wrong way.

She saw someone on the other side and leaned closer, placing her paws and claws on the glass as she did. She recognized kalos becuse the Coral girl really stood out with her pink skin and tendency to wear blinding colors. She was excited kalos had always seemed calm and reserved, the kinda person Aoi wanted to be close to. The cracking noises, were the first sign to Aoi something was very wrong, her scream actually being a thunderous roar.

The glass shattered under her bulk and she fell forward even as she desperately tried to apologize which as she was a 1300 pound polar bear translated to soft roars and groans. Her fur kept her from getting cut but she really was far more worried about maybe hurting Kalos.Panicking, Aoi did the first thing that came to mind. Her body began to shrink quickly, the white fur retracting into her skin and her snout flowing back into her face. She also felt like she was falling as she lost nearly half her height, leaving her holding onto the now broken windowsill. As she tried to pull herself into the window she saw Rowan, and her face when crimson, recalling she was entirely naked after transforming.

"I am SOO sorry" she said looking at Rowan with a pleading eye to turn around, so she could haul herself in and get dressed before being banished to the dungeons.

She was vaguely aware of people around. There were always people around at the Mansion. Once, Kalos had even caught a human in the living room. She held him captive for hours and made him tell her about human things. That had turned out rather boring, all things considered. He hadn't even tried to murder a single person. But, because there were people around, Kalos quickly turned the page away from the nude-y bits.

"Nucke... Nuke... Noo-" What the heck? Kalos peered over a gruesome picture of a skinless morse-man thing as a shadow fell over her page. She frowned and started to turn toward her worst nightmare. A soft pop and a slicing crack... and a GIANT DOG WAS PUSHING THE WINDOW IN SO THAT THE OUTSIDE WAS COMING INSIDE.

"DON'T EAT MEEEEEEEEE."

CRASH.

Kalos abandoned the book and the windowsill and her wits. She blindly panic-climbed the first thing in her path: a boy.

It dawned on her, as she had two fistfulls of clothing, that she'd heard words in there somewhere. The growling and snarling drool-y threat had, at some point, turned into an "I'm SOO sorry."

Kalos tried to put the boy between her and the... girl? The naked girl.

The dog.... spit her up ...?

Rowan's sensitive ears twitched. Was that...breaking glass? And then cracking glass became the crash of a polar bear slamming through the window. Rowan hadn't realized America, no less a city, had native polar bears. But now all he could think of was oh god I'm going to be mauled to death. Rowan's anxiety spiked as he leapt backwards, away from the huge creature. He could feel his teeth growing, his nails sharpening.

And things only got worse as the pink girl nearly climbed onto him to escape the bear. If he transformed he would surely end up harming her too.

Luckily it did not come to that, as the polar bear suddenly turned into a....a...

And any thoughts of fear, of transforming, quickly became a burning embarrassment. As quickly as they began to turn his hands were again normal, his teeth blunt. YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO TURN AROUND FOOL!

The young mutant turned beet red, quickly clapping his hands over his eyes. And, to further prove he wasn't peeping, turned and took a big step away. In his confusion, and disorientation, Rowan only managed to ram himself face first into a bookshelf. Rowan grunted in pain. And with his eyes still shut his forehead. This...wasn't going exactly to plan.

"O...ow..."

The pink girl ran in terror and they were in total agreement that Kalos was not for eating. The poor girl tried to climb the other person which would have been funny excpt she was hanging out a window naked. It was likely just a few moments but it felt like forever before Rowan turned around. She thanked whatever random shinto spirits she could recall.

Quickly she pulled herself thrue the window, certain her face would never be it's normal shade again. not wanting to cut herself she pulled herself onto the window sil and carefully made her way in, snatching Kalos's discarded book to cover her her chest and tried to use her other hand for the rest.

Aoi let out a stream of unladylike like words in Japanese as she felt a piece of glass crunch under foot. She really hoped no one currently spoke her native tongue who was around. The Librarian was not there but Aoi made her way to their desk anyway, she pulled out the lost and found box and nearly tried to wear a t shirt as a skirt. Forcing herself to calm down she put on the first shirt and pants she could find. the shirt clearly meant for a someone roughly four sizes larger then her. It was almost a loose dress.

"Not again, I'm sure i locked those chain's, if they broke again i swear." she mumbled to herself as she rose from behind the desk, her face slowly regaining it's color. "So um I'm Aoi, I turn into bear and well i don't have the best of control" she said glancing back at the broken window, her natural silver lower back length hair was a complete mess a few pieces of snow somehow still there. She akwardly stood there looking at the other two, wishing she could teleport to the moon, or maybe pluto.

She felt stupid. OF COURSE it was a mutant. Dogs didn't normally get that big.

While the boy she'd grabbed tried to walk into a bookshelf, the girl picked her way through the glass and went for the librarian's lost and found. That was clever. Kalos would never had thought there'd be clothes just laying around in boxes.

Honestly, Kalos wasn't sure where to start in fixing this. Her book was used as an impromptu censor. She probably wouldn't be reading Mythology and Mutations until the girl was clothed. The tee shirt she pulled out was much, MUCH too thin. Kalos shrugged out of her oversized hoodie and tossed it onto the librarian's desk. Kalos still wore a long sleeve shirt, though this had holes for some of her larger coral growths. She was practically armored except that the armor broke easily into scratchy pinkish dust.

"Are you okay?" She started by asking the boy, since the girl was helping herself. Was that... blood on the ground? Ick. Someone would need to clean the glass, and both the boy and the girl looked too squishy to help much. Did she hear mention of chains?

> "So um I'm Aoi.."

Oh. A bear Kalos was just heaping on the dumb. She knew about bears. She'd just... never seen one.

"Kalos Gorgon Grey-Morris." She was proud of her full name so her full name was what they were going to get. "I've never seen a bear so big and white. Aren't bears brown? And... cuddly? Are you bleeding?" She pointed to the red on the floor. Exhibit A. The glass everywhere else was Exhibit B and wasn't there a broom somewhere?

"I think we should call an adult about the window." Just looking at it gave her a bit of vertigo. Flakes of snow were breezing in when the wind hit just right. And she was already freezing outside of her sweater, despite being plenty covered. She was a child of the summer seas and climate control. Winter and outside were both very much not her thing.

Rowan grumbled again, still rubbing his head. He wasn't bleeding or anything, it would take a lot more than a bookshelf smack to take him out. He'd been in far worse fights.

"'M fine..."

He still had his eyes covered, for several moments after Aoi hurried away. He slowly peeked out from his fingers. She was...dressed...kinda. Rowan removed his hands from his eyes, but made it clear he wasn't looking at Aoi.

He slowly began picking up the larger pieces of glass, not wanting an unsuspecting student to step on them. He carefully walked over to the chair near the window, the one Kalos had been sitting in, and began piling the glass up there. Hopefully obvious to passers by.

"We probably shouldn't tell anyone."

Rowan said quickly, looking at Kalos. It took him a moment to look away, still baffled by her appearance. He huffed. 

"We might get in trouble for the window. Like have-ta pay for or it or detention or something."

He went back to gathering the glass.

"I'm...uh...Rowan, I just got here."

This had happened before to Aoi, it was not even the first window she had broke. She did feel pretty bad though, but a window was better then half a kitchen.She saw kalos toss the hoodie. "Thank you!" she said pulling the hoodie on over her acquired shirt.

Kalos asking about her Bear form caught her off guard and she looked at the other one picking up the glass. "Oh well, Polar Bear, Largest Land Predator on earth. Most bears are happy with berries and fish, i get the Bear who guts baby seals and my...wait what?" she said looking down and sure enough their was a trail of blood leading to her left foot along the buttom and on her the back of her thumb. She had not even noticed in the shock and awkwardness.

She shook her head when Rowan said to tell no one and giggled a bit at that. "Thank you but Don't cut yourself, my mess after all. Kalos is right and besides it's not even the worst damage I have done. Me and a friend once leveled the kitchen when we lost control" she said with a soft smile. She had gotten in trouble for it but it had not been as bad as she had thought it might be.

She sat on the desk, wincing as she put pressure on her thumb. She reached down and started feeling her foot and winced again."I don't feel glass in it....., but Yea adults good" she said shaking her head. "i don't even wanna see my room" she said almost to herself.

Biggest land predator. Kalos hugged herself to keep from sinking down into herself. Aoi wasn't a predator right this moment. Right now, she was a bleeding girl who was talking and mostly making sense.

Oh and Rowan was new? That explained it. "When I was first here, I thought every little mistake was going to have them throw me out on the street." Rowan seemed to have trouble looking away. Kalos smirked. Yeah. She was that pretty. She raised her shoulders in a crunchy shrug and moved toward the phone at the librarian's desk.

"The adults aren't like that here. Wherever you came from, this is probably different." That was right, wasn't it? She was less confident than she sounded, but... no. They were good people here. Whatever the punishment it would be fair.

Kalos picked up the phone and pushed the button labeled "office." Which office? Well, they'd find out, wouldn't they?

> "i don't even wanna see my room"

"Why? What's wrong with your room?" When she put the phone to her ear, it was already ringing.

>>> "The adults aren't like that here. Wherever you came from, this is probably different." 

Rowan grumbled and rolled his eyes, picking up a few more pieces of glass. He seriously doubted that this was place was 'different'. Just because it had a nice library, and dorms, and was full of mutants, didn't mean it was any different from any other troubled youth academy he had been too. 

He'd probably last a month here, like all the others, before being shipped off somewhere. 

And as Kalos picked up the phone Rowan's gloomy thoughts got...gloomier. If an adult showed up, and was mad, he could always pretend not to know the two girls. Or just tell them that Aoi was the one who broke the window. 

All thoughts of throwing Aoi under the bus were banished when Rowan looked over at her, and her slightly cut foot. 

"O-oh...hey wait...you don't want to mess with your foot too much."

Satisfied with the amount of glass he cleaned up Rowan hurried over to Aoi, grabbing a nearby and oh-so-convenient box of tissues. He was still making a big show about not looking at her, but handed her the tissues. 

"Give your foot a wrap...just not too tight."

She agreed with Kalos but Rowan seemed conflicted and she could understand that. She had the same fears back when she arrived, four years ago. Aoi was just happy enough she had not tried to eat anyone, kalos might have been to crunchy for the bear but she was unsure what Rowan could do. She had only seem a hint of his power and it had not been a pressing concern.

"Well I went to bed as a Human, Which means i changed in my sleep to bear and the bears instincts got to have fun. The bear likes to rip my door off it's hinges." she said hoping the bear did not trash her room on exit. It had happened more then once. Her stomach growled loudly in complaint, transforming burned through the calories very quickly.

She was about to saw something when Rowan came over to her and handed her the tissues. She had seem them and dismissed them before but as she thought about it Rowan did have a point. And she did as he said, taking a handful of tissues for her foot and wrapping thin but plentiful brown sheets around her foot. "Rowan You can look, im not naked anymore" she said with a smile, wondering who exactly Kalos had gotten a whole of.

Kalos' eyebrows ground together when she made a concerned face. It made her not want to be concerned, but when someone went to bed as a human and woke up as a bear... "I bet you spark a whole round of nightmares each time you take out your door." Sheesh. Maybe Kalos didn't want to move out of the adult's hall. She was getting older and more comfortable around other kids, but... not bears. Definitely not bears.

"Security office." A nasal sounding guy answered, lightly out of breath.

And... now she actually had to talk. But she hadn't really thought it out yet. She'd been paying attention to Aoi's story and- and-

Crap.

Kalos panicked and hung up.

"We could just... clean it up?" She ended lamely, knowing that she'd messed up and hating herself for it.

An alarm went off somewhere, though there weren't any flashing lights or anything. It was possible she heard the words "perimeter breach" from a strong voice in the hallway before she dove for the cubby under the librarian's desk.

Rowan huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. A gesture he did to attempt to seem grumpy, but it was obvious he was still rather embarrassed. 

"I know you're not naked, I'm just trying to be polite.

His sensitive ears barely made out the voice on the other end of the phone. A security office? Well it could be worse...oh she hung up. 

An anxious chill crashed over him. They were going to be caught, and now they had to add 'prank calling a security office' to their list of crimes. Rowan tried to keep his terror contained, but he could feel his teeth sharpening again. His vision tunneling. He had to stay calm, he couldn't shift. Turning into a terrible monster, destroying a library, and mauling two girls seemed a far worse crime then breaking a window. 

Suddenly Kalos was diving under the librarians desk. She must have heard something. For a moment Rowan is snapped out of his panic attack as his eyes dart around the room, looking for a hiding place. There weren't many great options, at least not nearby. He saw a closet on the far end of the room, but there was no telling if it was locked. Instead his eyes fell on the desk Kalos just went under, there was still some more room. 

Rowan was about to hide when he remembered Aoi. This was technically her fault, he should leave her. But she was hurt, an injured foot wouldn't get her far, and he could sympathize. His mutation was hard to control too. And besides, it wasn't like he...cared. He just didn't want her to immediately get caught and spill the beans, or worse turn into a polar bear again. Rowan offered Aoi a hand.

"Come on, lean on me, we are hiding under the desk."

Moving as quickly as they could Rowan lead Aoi to the desk, helping her scoot under first before crawling in himself. It was...a bit of a squeeze with the three of them, but options were limited. The last thing Rowan did was grab the librarians chair, pulling it as close to them as possible, hopefully obscuring them.

She did not quite understand Rowans reluctance to look at and she wondered if it might be a cultural thing. Aoi nodded as Kalos spoke. "Your right Kalos, I do, if my math checks out and it does, with one swing i could knock an adults head from their shoulders like balloon." she said not considering what effect her mentioning how easy it would be to kill someone on accident might have. Her voice had more pride about her math skills then actual fear in it.

Kalos hung up and Aoi had no idea what to say. Before she could ask Kalos made her way under the desk and Rowan was guiding her under the desk. "All right, thank you"She went with him completely confused as to what was going on now. It was a squeeze but they did fit, partly Aoi figured because she was only 4'9. She rubbed her nose, trying to figure out the best path she could.

She looked at both her compatriots with a confused look. "So ummm why are we hiding?" she asked. Aoi tried to listen to hear if anyone was coming. "Who did you reach Kalos? Was the the doctor?" she said desperately trying to figure out what was happening. She hated not understanding a situation and worse she barely knew these two. She had seen kalos around of course, but Aoi tended to keep herself shut in her room behind her steel door and Rowan was new, so she barely knew Kalos better.

She just had to keep, calm, no matter what someone would come, then she could see her room, get whatever damage fixed, and get a stronger door and higher strength chain. Clearly her current set's had not done the job. Plus she really did not wnat to panic here, she would hurt these two or worse kill them if she did. She could not let that happen. She focused hard on staying calm.