Where There's Sand...

Through the halls a meekly girl walked. She looked to be no bigger than five feet and her body jittered like a terrified kitten. No one knows where exactly the girl was wandering to, but no one had really been following her to notice that she’d been to just about every corner of the building. Perhaps she was lost, but there had yet to be anyone to approach her to guide her along. It wasn’t until the meekly individual entered through a corridor near the auditorium that something arose of the situation. It was a hall that was lined with many windows which allowed the setting sun to shine in an almost romantic fashion. It was a sight to be sought by many during this time of year, it made for a gorgeous end to the day. She didn’t seem interested in that though, she continued to wander aimlessly.

A gentleman with a keen eye and dastardly smile was the one that sought to end the wandering of the innocent for his own amusement. The boy pulled a rubber band from his pocket, along with a small pebble that wouldn’t normally seem threatening. He nudged one of his crew and began to construct a makeshift slingshot with only his fingers and the before mentioned band. He aimed his sights down on the weak looking girl and with his super reflects he launched the pebble with the force of arrow leaving its bow.

As the boy chuckled at his act, the pebble not only hit his target square in the back of her head, it sunk directly into it. In that moment, the girl erupted into a torrent of sand and the stream directed itself toward the prankster as his friends fled from the scene quickly. The boy himself stood there in shock and awe as the sand reconstructed in front of him into large golem figure. “That hurt” the mighty figure bellowed as though it was a caveman. It was by that point that the child ran, fear being very clear in his eyes. Tem’s emerald eyes followed the perpetrator as he bolted down the corridor, adding in a more modern humanistic tone “if I see you doing that again you won’t get the chance to run.”

With that, the giant spit the pebble out of her sandy body and began to walk away, taking to the nearest door and shrinking down to a more suitable human size as her usual persona. She slipped through the frame with ease and found herself in one of the drab stairwells. She had always admired the architecture of the school, but this was easily one of the sore spots. She only began to notice the lackluster design of the room when she placed her hand on the simplistic railing. She had work to do, but the eye sore was too much for her to ignore. She allowed some of her sand to funnel out through her hand and the substance began to run down the railing as she shaped her loose particles into new swirling designs, testing how it would look. With a curious quirk of her lip she let her sand form in different ways to examine other possible details. In due time, she became mesmerized in redesigning the entire stairwell, to the point that she dissolved her solid body into the structure of the room, reshaping and reforming everything to her non-existent heart’s content.

(ooc: Yay Sheri's gonna be in two places at once because logic.)

The first and foremost thing that Sheridan discovered about this school was that it was massive. It was probably larger than his entire home village. No, it definitely was larger than his village. He had ascertained that from his wayward meanderings of the past two days.

Ash stopped walking and before the blind student had time to wonder at it, he detected the sound of a voice. He strained his hearing further, determining the owner to be just around the corner of the stairwell. His pale gray eyes widened. The voice sounded enraged, and very deep. It undoubtedly belonged to someone--or something--very big. His suspicions were confirmed a moment later when the floor shook, causing the vibration-sensitive Sheridan to clutch at the nearest wall for support. Whatever it was, it was currently walking away. He gritted his teeth, exhaling in relief. Thank the gods.

But then the vibrations lessened, almost as if...Sheridan's brow furrowed in confusion. Almost as if the owner of the thundering footsteps was shrinking in size. But that couldn't be possible. Could it? Recalling his encounter with the Lons yesterday, he reasoned that anything was possible at this insane place.

Now he heard a gentle rustling sound, not unlike that of rice being poured into a bowl. What the hell? His curiosity overpowering his sense of caution, Sheridan turned the corner into the stairway. "Hello?" he called out, feeling like a moron.

Tem’s sand continued to warp and wrap around the structure of the stairwell, shifting the railings from its ridged and simple design to a more curvy and swirly pattern. The newel posts morphed from basic planks of wood to something that looked much more chess piece in design, Tem even matching the colours of her sand to that of the dead grey wood. She wished she could alter that as well, but she only had so much sand she could use. It wouldn’t be a permanent alteration, but she preferred the overall look. Maybe she could somehow take a picture of the new design and pass it off to the higher ups to give them an idea of what a stairwell should look like because their attempt was pathetic.

As she was putting the finishing touches on the nosing of each step, she heard someone enter her domain. It wasn’t just the steps and the creaking dorm that caught her attention, but the voice of the individual. He exchanged a greeting as though he was expecting someone to answer, so he had an idea that there was someone in the room. His voice sounded somewhat familiar to the being as well, a voice she had been seeking to find for a while. A tendril of sand shot out from the first step before the student could place his dirty boot all over her masterpiece and it held the boy in place so that he couldn’t proceed to do so either. “Human…” the staircase grumbled as two gemstones emerged from the sand to spy on who it was entering her territory.

Tem was disappointed to see that it wasn’t the boy she had been seeking, she couldn’t tell one human voice from another very well. It mattered little though. “Take the other stairs, you might ruin my work” the piles of sand advised lightly. She could have just as easily thrown him out of the door, but her new bosses probably wouldn’t like it if she went berserk on the students the same way she used to with criminals. Apparently young humans were too fragile for her usual motives. She was very proud of the way she structured the old flight of stairs and she didn’t want some kid to come over and kick her sand castle, so to speak.

"Oi, get your sand hands off of me!" growled Sheridan. He concealed his panic. What the hell was touching him? "I ain't gonna ruin your 'work.'" What did she mean by work? And on a staircase? However, he did not move from where he was. This person--or thing, whatever it was--was apparently not pleased with his presence. And she showed it. The mystery-sand-person's voice sounded vaguely feminine, so he guessed her gender to be female. He did not address the issue aloud though, in case he offended her.

She had referred to him by his species name. She clearly was not human, as evidenced by her sand-body. Or sand-abilities. Either way, she seemed to think that species mattered for some reason. "And don't call me human--I have a name."

(ooc: sorry about the shortness, I'm typing this on my phone. I'll probably end up editing this to make it longer.)

The being’s grip didn’t lessen whatsoever, even after the student had commanded her to. Technically, he said to keep her hands off of him and she didn’t have hands, so he was asking the wrong question overall. It was a source of leverage she could easily use if the boy decided he wanted to tattle on her to her bosses. Not that he would get the impression that she worked for the school nor would she explicitly tell him that unless she deem the information necessary to release.

“That remains to be seen. Humans have a tendency to step all over things they shouldn’t. I suppose I won’t hold that against you, but I would still prefer that you take another set of stairs to wherever it is you need to go. If you’re going down and you’re in a hurry I can make some arrangements” the bodiless voice offered in a polite tone. Believe it or not, that was probably the kindness way she could speak to a mortal of such a young age. Regardless of that, it wouldn’t be Tem if she didn’t slip in a threat, intentional or not. She had no reason to act out against the boy, but human emotions had always been a curiosity to her, she was slightly curious how he would react and whether or he would take it as a threat even though her tone would suggest it as nice.

If Tem had eyes she would roll them. Well, she had gem stones that acted as them, but realistically using them in the same manner would mean nothing. “Oh, that is so like your race. So quick to assume inferiority just because I refer to you by your species. Of course I know you have a name. I do as well. You don’t know it though and I don’t know yours. Your species refers to each other as generics all the time, ‘that girl over there’, ‘that boy said this’, yet when I say human you suddenly get all up in arms about it” the golem stated in a rather matter-of-fact tone. “So insecure.”

If the teenager really tried he could break free from his restraints, sure her powers were strong, but it was still a rope made of sand. Most of her sand was being used to maintain the structure she had created, so it wasn’t like it was a thick vine of the earthy substance. Regardless of that, it wasn’t like she was going to allow the boy an easy passage through the stairs.

"I ain't insecure! Now, do you mind letting me go?" snapped Sheridan, not fooled for one second by her tone. "And for the record, I wasn't planning on heading downstairs. I heard a weird noise and went to investigate and here I am. I wasn't gonna touch whatever it is you're so protective of." A few paces back, Ash sat, his harness just out of the boy's reach. He watched the whole display with something akin to amusement. He would only interfere if the sand-being were to threaten his master.

His patience with the strange creature at its end, the boy stepped back forcibly, freeing himself. He brushed the sand off of his torso, an indignant frown on his face. Ash let out a low, huffing sound. Sheridan rolled his eyes, flicking the sand at his companion. "Quit laughin'." The wolfdog let out a short bark, pawing at his muzzle. The sand stung his eyes.

Tem’s grip stood the same being that she wasn’t one to take orders from lifeforms 3000 years younger than herself. Not to mention that he was so whiny. ‘Let me go’, ‘get your hands off of me’, the boy clearly had the power to break free on his own and he eventually did, so she didn’t see the point in his useless commands. “Interesting, a creature that is insecure about being insecure. Makes sense I suppose” the creature mused as her tendril of sand slithered back to the structure of the staircase.

She occupied the other half of her mind in continuing to alter the design of room, doing very minor tweaks and busting in the finer details. She wasn’t sure how long she was going to keep the place looking the way it did, but she was satisfied with staying there for the rest of the day, perhaps the next two days since it was a very comfortable area to do it within. As long as she wasn’t bothered too much by students like the one before her. Hopefully the next couple would heed her advice to take the other staircase, or perhaps she would get her opportunity to toss them down the gap between the railings. She heard that humans had made machines that do the same thing at their amusement parks, perhaps the stairwell could be the next big feature. Hopefully not, she could only handle so much complaining within one day.

The encounter became a bit more interesting though, a canine of all things approached the boy and very comfortably sat down next to him, the interaction between them suggesting they at least knew each other. Tem had been on the island for so long that she was quick to assume that the dog was probably a student in disguise, it was not an insane theory considering how many shapeshifters were around, and in fact she was a counsellor for a good chunk of them. Whoever thought she would be a good student counsellor should be tossed down the stairwell shaft. The sand that the boy flicked into the dogs eyes seemed to be bothering him quite a bit, so Tem thought it would be nice to return the favour. She lifted the particles out of the mutt’s eyes and flicked them into the student’s, laughing mirthfully as she did.

Her interest peaked as the boy mentioned how he had stumbled across her showcase. “You were walking around aimlessly? Sounds like a waste of time for a creature that only has 80 years at most left to live. Less than that if odd noises always draw you in so easily” the golem retorted in intrigue. “Tell me something, how does a human tolerate a short lifespan? How do they find purpose in such little time?” she continued to question, though her tone lacked the overbearing arrogance that it tended to. Instead, it was laced with mild curiosity.

"Agh!" Sheridan's hands went to his eyes as he felt the biting sting of sand. He tried rubbing his eyes--no, that made it worse. He settled for blinking rapidly, still covering his face. "Damn...what the hell was that for?" he growled, his words muffled from behind his hands.

As the sting faded, Sheridan got the distinct feeling that the being he was talking to was far, far older than him. Perhaps it was the way she spoke, or maybe even how she talked of humans. She did say that she considered 80 years to be a short lifespan. He bit back a harsh laugh. 80 years? Short? Sheridan felt the hot wave of anger rising in him. There were so many who never made it to 80.

"I was wandering aimlessly because I can't exactly see. And you're right; those 80 years aren't guaranteed," he said in reply to her statement. He sighed heavily and let his initial anger fade and die. Truthfully, her question had surprised him. No, it wasn't the question. It was the way she asked it--her tone. She seemed genuinely curious. "As for purpose...damn, you ask some deep questions. Take it one day at a time, I guess. Then it don't seem as futile."

Human suffrage was always an enjoyable sight, especially when they only made their pain worse through their own incompetence. It was a sort burst of excitement though as the boy finally figured out the proper way of dealing with sandy eyes. Tem withdrew her particles as they exited from the man’s irises, joining with her scattered body and readjusting her masterpiece as the little bits added to the structure. It was a very subtle difference, but Tem was the type of person (thing?) to notice such lopsidedness. The student complained yet again, apparently forgetting the deed that he had just done to his own dog. Tem was not the kind to be overprotective of animals, but it was still the sensible thing to do in her mind. “I believe it is a human saying. Don’t dish out what you can’t take” she elaborated rather easily.

She tried not to dwell on the matter too much as it was a brief moral and she had a more pressing discussion to take part in. Though she found humour in the fact that his excuse for wandering around without direction was because he couldn’t see. That was like saying a deaf person watched whatever was on TV despite the quality because they couldn’t hear it anyway. Perhaps it made sense to the boy, but Tem didn’t quite get it. To her, it sounded more like an excuse than a reason because even blind people can walk somewhere with purpose. Not that it mattered.

“Pft” the creature retorted, a couple of sand particles flying from its structure in the same way that a human would spit whilst making the same noise. “Such a simple answer. I could ask several humans the same thing and they’d say no different. Some are given purpose, others need to find it and you get no closer if you approach every day as the previous. You have lived for how many years now? Human adolescent, probably around 17 years old. When do you expect to find your purpose? When will you find what it is you were created to do? If you do find it, will it have meaning and will you care?” she mused on, sounding a bit like a fortune teller in the way she spoke. Her purposes for her inquiries were of her own interest, she couldn’t care less of the person that stood in front of her. He would live and expire in the blink of an eye from her perspective, as many have done within her lifespan. Pretending to have an interest in him disguised the conversation from looking like she was getting help from a lesser being.