<div class="floatright">(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQbgyjauXhO1CEQQmnGiDe8O0jXLFBLToZgKysWmzMC_63iTaLkxPcPie5lUa77LKvxDJc&amp;usqp=CAU)</div><br/><strong> Tuesday afternoon, library stacks  </strong><br/><br/><br/><br/>It wouldn’t have been accurate to say that Alundra, mysterious woman of the icy norths and wild jungles of suburban America, only had the two states… Burning and a rather seething frozenness. She could be funny, and extremely loyal to those who passed her protective tests. There was even, somewhere, a romantic heart (Perhaps removed and hidden for safekeeping..) that, like all orphans mangled by the system, deeply, desperately longed to be loved unconditionally, to belong somewhere, anywhere. To have a promised place of safety, stability, people happy to see her when she returned. A home, on a level most people never thought about. But the ice was her armor, insulating her from the world, holding her together best it could. And the fire… Well. A phantom heat flared through the room, as if a ghost oven had been opened, connected briefly to the mortal, physical world. Her hair, to those observant enough, shone a little brighter, moved on those momentary currents as those tiny fists clenched, matching the tightness in her jaws. She’d had to put up with a lot of shit from a lot of people, most of it adults intended to be her guardians. The nonsense from her peers was on some level even worse, as they were all in the same boat. But understandable, for not everyone could look into the abyss and come out not a monster.<br/><br/><em><br/>I’m not going to put up with this bullshit from an abomination! How dare it… Vile, vile creature. What’s an MCR? But I’ll be damned before I let that thing sink teeth into me…</em>She was not at ok with letting the faces, normally such a tiny insult, slide. Part of it was the environment, how very keyed up Nevermore made Alundra. A lot of it was the fear and even revulsion the thing created in her. Nightmares walked the earth in her normal life, but the pink blob dug deep at the roots they caused. It wasn’t who she wanted to be, but some things were broken and shattered everywhere.  “Don’t you dare touch me. Don’t ever touch me.” She hissed. The redhead didn’t want to cause trouble at Nevermore, she wanted to enjoy her time there… but of course, she also wanted to get out alive, and that seemed less than guaranteed. A potent mess of damage and desire conflicting with the unknown risks to her preservation. It wasn’t possible that her voice could carry the ice of her homeland, right? She hadn’t been there long. But it was frigid, cutting and searing in the freezing ways that could kill the unprotected, draining heat and life from the unprepared. Alundra was a mess, and it was leaking out on poor Nyx.<br/><br/>Who…. Might be even more unexpected than previously thought? She seemed to be rambling, then making all sorts of weird gestures over… frogs? Concerning, confusing, baffling. Another layer of mystery. Maybe shape-changing made the brain a little too much like pudding? At least they could agree on leaving each other alone, for now. Probably. Shaking her head with a little sigh, some of the tension drained from her soul. A little bit. From her side, anyway. Who knew what a Nyx would do. Alundra was planning on disengaging, already having pushed the boundaries of what she probably should be doing at the school. Staying out of the spotlight was infinitely better.<br/>