From: mightbeclever	Date: June 12th, 2011 05:34 am (UTC)		(Link)

Leon had been looking for Rowan, in the same half-assed way he looked for most people. When she wasn't in any of the common rooms people gathered around the dorm, or her room, he'd decided to dress and head out to at least pretend to study. But he headed out of the dorm, lo and behold the person he was looking for came walking in.

Looking thin and tired. Huh.

"You look like you need sleep," he commented a bit drily as he came up to her and stopped. He'd never have admitted it to anyone, not even Rowan, but he'd been following the whole 'missing parents' ordeal since he caught wind. It seemed almost ridiculous that people had gone missing like that and a week passed before anyone in authority decided something was weird about it. For that matter, given all the strange events of the last year, he figured it should have triggered alarms right away.

And high school bullshit aside, he didn't have much else to do than to look into strange events happening around New Orleans. So far he'd concluded that whatever was going on, the women were the important link. The men in the search party had been left behind, in the same state as Bekka and Mack's fathers had been. To him it seemed logical to assume that the women would be found better condition, at least until proven otherwise.

So then the question came down to 'why'. Was it a ritual? He was leaning toward something to do with voodoo rituals at the moment, not that it brought much comfort. His original theory had been that creatures plaguing the campus were involved, but that didn't seem to be the case. Perhaps, instead, the creature of the creatures was involved? A logical jump, but still one he wasn't sure he'd ever go on record saying.

"How are you holding up?" He asked, a bit more concern leaking into his voice than he'd normally have allowed.

	From: cabotine	Date: June 12th, 2011 05:47 am (UTC)		(Link)

She was startled by his voice, not expecting anyone to really talk to her in general. But Rowan found that she was simply lacked the energy to be startled outwardly. Looking up to Leon's face, she tried her best to put on a good face. No reason for anyone else to know how she was doing.

"I could probably use it, yeah." It wasn't her fault that she could only really get it when she was with Keegan. She had tried and tried and it only left her with nightmares and feeling more tired than before she had slept.

"I'm..." she was starting to say the usual, that she was fine but worried but sure that everything would be fine and yadda yadda, but the slight tone of concern in her voice made her stop that before it started.

"I'm ...not really doing well." The tone she used was without self-pity, more a statement of fact than anything else. Swallowing hard for a moment, Rowan took a breath and steadied herself. "But how are you doing?" There was a note of concern in her voice as well. More than a note. Rowan was quite capable of switching from her own issues to concern for someone else in a heartbeat. Even for the swiftness of the change, it was both genuine and a deliberate attempt to not be the center of the conversation.

	From: mightbeclever	Date: June 12th, 2011 06:30 am (UTC)		(Link)

Smooth, he thought. Sliding right from her own answer and deflecting into him. Granted, he'd probably wasted a few dozen braincells while smoking pot and snorting coke, but he wasn't blind. He shrugged a little, though, hands shoved in his pockets.

"Alive, pissing people off, pretty much the norm for me." He answered, looking her up and down for a moment. "Not really me with the problem right now, though."

For a moment he wondered how people did it, the whole concerned thing. It wasn't like it was easy to express it, at least for him. Maybe it was because he spent so much time thinking about how miserable he was, and how unfair life was for him that when he tried to look concerned, he just looked like some kicked dog. It was almost pathetic. Rowan had the ability, though, to look both like a kicked down and concerned at the same time. It was rather remarkable.

"So...any news?" He asked, after a moment, rocking back on his heels a little. This wasn't precisely his forte, he realized.

	From: cabotine	Date: June 12th, 2011 06:38 am (UTC)		(Link)

Well shit. She didn't really get a lot to go on from his answer. Letting her shoulders fall a little she replied quietly with, "Nothing much really new there, no. Glad you're still up to your usual though." Seeing him look her over though brought a slightly too quick, "There's nothing wrong with me."

News. Yes. There was something that she could talk about without it getting personal. She hoped, anyway.

"No. No news for me, or for anyone else that I know of who is... missing someone from their family, that I know of. I've been trying to do some research on my own but not coming up with anything..." Research? She was devoting her waking moments to finding out what could have possibly happened. But the word 'research' was harmless enough.

"But I'm sure everything will work out fine." the words sounded a little flat, even to her, and she had tried to make it as normal as possible and tried to make it sound like she believed that.

	From: mightbeclever	Date: June 12th, 2011 08:22 pm (UTC)		(Link)

He raised an eyebrow when she snapped that nothing was wrong replying to her calmly, "never said there was." She was pretty defensive, though, for someone that was just fine.

He let it go, however, instead focusing on what she was saying about the news, and then her own self assurance that everything would be alright. It was a bit sad how hyper forced she was on the subject. He supposed he'd not be all that different, in her shoes.

"What sort of research?" He asked, glancing at a few other students the were mulling about. He figured that if he kept her talking, she'd eventually relax just a little. "You know, you don't have to be the one that figures it out."

	From: cabotine	Date: June 13th, 2011 08:36 pm (UTC)		(Link)

She shrugged, looking down at her bag for a moment. "Different spells that could be used, rituals for locating people, legends on what it could be that could be taking these women if it's not human. Lore from the area, both mundane and magical. Various roadmaps and topographical information for things like old burial grounds and places where people could just naturally have I dunno... fallen into holes or something..."

At his notion that she didn't have to be the one to come up with the answers, she looked back up at him, a look on her face that was very sad. "I know that. But I have to do something. I can't just sit here and worry myself to pieces. No use sitting on my ass saying 'woe is me' when I might be able to help somehow."

	From: mightbeclever	Date: June 13th, 2011 11:53 pm (UTC)		(Link)

"Hey," he started, before reaching out and wrapping an arm around her shoulders. He wasn't a hugger by nature, but she seemed to need it. Even if she wasn't willing to admit it. "Wanna walk me through it? Two heads are better than one, right?"

And he had his own theories too, for that matter. "Then you won't be doing it alone, right?" It would make it a little easier, and hell...it would keep him out of the way of the faculty for a while, right? "You tell me what you've got, and we'll figure this out. Even if I have to go pretend to be bait."

	From: cabotine	Date: June 19th, 2011 02:23 am (UTC)		(Link)

From the first time that she had spoken to him and they had actually talked about things, Rowan had known that this was mostly a one-sided friendship. She knew that he was working out his own issues, and she never thought in a million years that he would actually care enough to do something like this. Especially hugging her. Also asking her about what she had been working on and stating that he would help her. She decided to give him the chance though.

"I would appreciate that, actually. Quite a bit." It was certainly true that many heads were better than one alone. "I just... there's things that make this a little more, um, complicated. And personal. Is... can we go somewhere to talk?" She didn't want to go about blabbing about this out in the middle of the common room, after all.

	From: mightbeclever	Date: June 19th, 2011 05:04 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Leon wasn't the best of friends. Most of his day to day thoughts were occupied by how people and life had done him wrong, and how he was a victim of the world. He was a drug addict, an alcoholic and hopeless; what did he really have to offer up in a friendship.

He nodded a little, pulling away as she started to talk. Biting his lip, he glanced around before he indicated for her to lead the way. "We can go where-ever you want." He said with a sad smile. "Complicated talk doesn't matter."

	From: cabotine	Date: June 23rd, 2011 12:33 pm (UTC)		(Link)

She gave a brief smile at his words. "My room, I guess." It was the only place that she could think of that she could talk about any of this with a sense of composure and rationalization about her. Besides, she was almost positiver that Frankie wasn't even there. Leading the way in, she motioned for him to sit wherever he liked. It was obvious which side of the room was hers, covered in books as it was. Seating herself on her bed, and moving her bag to the floor, she turned to start talking to him.

"So I wasn't even sure if my mom's disappearance was related to these others for a long time. But I gotta ask... And please forgive me being rude but... Leon, can I trust you to tell you something that I don't want to... get around to everyone else?" Given his past behavior, she needed to make sure.