Becoming Monsters: Tidbits 12

The words of the Moon's blessing left her mouth almost without her intervention, the green bracelet with blue beads tied around her wrist. The spell was sealed. Across campus, as Todd stood and slowly dressed, he felt the spell change. It was getting late, the others would be waiting for him at dinner. Maybe he'd be able to ask them what was up.

Brittany was much, much slower to stand. "How... how the heck does that crazy class of yours work? I'm freaking Unreadable. You shouldn't have been able to do that!"

"For what it's worth? Your Ability worked. I couldn't get my normal info on you. Strangest thing, all the indicators I usually see were just shifting everywhere."

"Okay, cool, then how the heck did you do... that?"

"Um. Lots of experience in a really short amount of time combined with Bardic Knowledge to make sure I could apply it?"

"Gee, thanks. So you did me the old fashioned way. And... huh. I apparently leveled off of you. Fighting off your scan did it."

It was Todd's turn to hear the ping in the back of his own head. "Looks like it was mutual. So, uh, that was really good."

"Tidbit, how in the heck can you be that good at plowing me into submission and this bad at pillow talk?"

"Probably because we didn't have a pillow. Your back okay?"

"Yeah, I can take it. Go. I can tell you're thinking about your friends. Just... close the door on the way out. I need to get myself straightened back out."

"Sure. Um. Standard warnings. The buff you just got will last for 24 hours. After that, and you'll need to talk to one of my suitemates if you want to get back onto the schedule, since it takes a ton of my mana to use it."

"Fun. And if I just want to get in your actual bed?"

"Same deal. Okay, I do have to move. Have a good rest of the day?"

"You really are awful at pillow talk."

No friends accompanied him on the walk this time... but Todd was on a much higher kind of alert than usual. No sudden games presented themselves, though, nor hostile demons. Just the quiet chatter of a late afternoon college campus. By the time he got where he was going, he was back to being somewhat relaxed.

"Hey, Todd!"

The feeling evaporated in the space between hearing an unexpected voice in line and realizing that it was Tiny, the Gargoyle. Heart rate slowly descending again, the two talked about their classes as they made their way through lines to get their trays and load them up. It was nice, actually. Normal, despite the fact that Todd was having this conversation with someone the size of a linebacker with wings and made of rock.

Together, they looked for their groups of friends. They even found them at the same time. It was, perhaps, inevitable that they would arrive to find the six people they were looking for sitting around the same table, two seats open and a lot of curious looks on their faces.

It looked like the two halves of Todd's friends were colliding sooner than expected.