fandomhighdorms | Behind the Dorms, Tuesday Afternoon

Zack was a little more laid-back then usual today when he stepped up to address the members of the reserves. His arms were clasped behind his back, and he was all but standing at attention when he spoke.

"Today, we're going to discuss something a little more specific than usual," he stated, looking around at the group. "Search and rescue missions, in case somebody goes missing during a raid or invasion. I know, we can't get too greatly into detail, considering it's difficult to tell these things if you don't know the nature of your enemy, but I'd like to get into some generalizations, if we can. Basic stuff, like staying in groups, using our phones to keep in contact with a main party, maybe the support reserves, at specific times in case we go missing too. If there are people with better noses or tracking abilities, that's awesome. If anyone knows of anyone from the magic reserve with a sixth sense for finding people, that's great, too."

"It is also useful to review our maps once more," Arthur cut in. "I would suggest that you split off and scout out specific sections of the island in groups of two or three, so that when we have the need of a specific knowledge of a particular area, we'll have someone aware of the details. Which is not to say," he said, after a pause, "That we don't want all of you knowing the island's specifics to the best of your ability. Should a search and rescue mission be needed, we must waste the least amount of time on figuring out where on God's green Earth we are."

Beat.

"If any of you would like to volunteer to scout out the closest few acres of mainland, we could possibly use that knowledge to our advantage as well."

Zack nodded, and then swayed almost uncomfortably on his heels before he added, "and when we're done discussing that, I've noticed that a few of you have been kinda making faces and grumbling at the activities and discussions that we do here at the Tuesday reserves. If you guys have anything that you would like to see us doing more or less of, please, let us know, and we'll try to work it in. Leto, Arthur, and I all have very different experiences, so we understand that you guys probably do, too."

"Keep in mind that our suggestions may not always seem to make sense to you, but we do know what we're doing," Arthur added, "And for the purposes of this reserve, we'd like to assume you do as well in your own way."

That was... encouraging, Arthur.

[And open!]

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"That's what they say," Mat said, completely irritated. "You'd think I'd tracked mud all over clean floors rather than spring them from a bloody impenetrable fortress."

"How did you get in?" Dinah asked, curious. "I mostly end up following people. They never look up, you notice that?" Yay for parkour and the Bat-clan tradition of using rooftops.

"I blew a hole in the wall after climbing up it," Mat said with a sly smile.

"Awesome," Dinah said approvingly, amused. "Now, why the heck would they object to that? Like they were having such a good time? Please."

Mat was pretty sure that Nynaeve, Egwene, and Elayne had never spent a moment wondering how he'd gotten to them. "Something like that," he said, rolling his eyes. "They were bait and were just angry that I knew that or something."

"Oh, that's always embarrassing." Dinah having been on both sides of that equation. "I hope they were grateful later, though. Were they bait for you, or somebody else?"

Mat was pretty sure he'd see the end of the Age before he'd see an apology from those three. "Someone else," Mat said. "A mutual friend of ours has made some rather intimidating enemies."

"Also sucks." Dinah made a face. "Still. The only real prison on the island is the jail at the police station. Anything else around here, it wouldn't be as hard as your fortress to break into or out of. Even with all the magic."

Mat wrinkled up his nose. "Still not a fan of the magic," he admitted.

"Some other people feel that way too," Dinah had to admit, not glancing toward Arthur or Firekeeper. "Is it illegal where you're from, or just really dangerous or something?"

"Depends who you are," Mat said. "If you're a man and use the Power, you'll go mad and die."

"Whoa." Dinah blinked at him, intimidated by that idea. "So only women use magic where you're from? Kind of like Karla's world, in some ways?"

"Well, some men use the Power, at least until the women find them and gentle them--sever them from the Power. Then they just stop wanting to live," Mat said, "which is only a little better than being insane, lashing out with the Power while being mad and then getting killed."

Fun world Mat was from.

BIG EYES.

"Um. Okay. That's fairly terrifying," Dinah said, blinking a bit, then shook her head. "So I'm guessing you don't have any then."

"Here and there," Mat said dryly. "The ability has pretty much died out in men over the last thousand years."

"I'd guess," Dinah said, subdued. She paused, and said, "I should tell you, I've got some abilities that aren't magic, but kind of look like them. If that makes you uncomfortable." She was guessing probably not, since he'd gone out with Karla already, but better to check if Karla was the exception or not.

Mat's eyes looked wary, but he nodded. "I'm getting bloody used to that," he lied bravely. Besides, he had the medallion to stop women from doing anything to touch him with magic. Just don't let men do it, or he'd freak.

"It's only two things, really. I can move things with my mind, and if I touch your skin, I can read your mind." Way oversimplified in both cases, but why freak him out? "But it's not fun for me to do the mindreading, so I won't be trying. And it's more fun to do this--" She looked around, and then reached out, and another cookie zipped into her hand. "-- than anything else." Munch!

Mat took two giant steps back. "How lovely for you," he said, blinking rapidly.

Dinah noticed the very obvious withdrawal, and sighed. "Well, mostly it's fun. Not lovely. And there to protect people. Not hurt them or freak them out." Nibble. "That doesn't always work out, I guess." They had barely met more than once or twice before. Maybe it was too soon to say this stuff and expect any trust. But. She wasn't going to set up a situation like there'd been with Arthur again, and get accused of lying later.

Behind the Dorms, Tuesday Afternoon

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