The sound of heavy combat boots echoed through the empty halls; hurried footsteps, as though the owner of said combat boots had somewhere to be and were running late. However anyone listening would notice that while the footsteps seemed hurried, they seemed to be taking their time making their way down the hall. Various doors opened and closed, various things moved about idly. The sound of something plastic running against metal. A guitar pick against lockers. Quiet humming was coming from the hall, the type of humming that only occurs when one thinks they’re completely alone.
Another classroom door opened as Azure checked inside, scanning the area quickly for any sign of her scroll. She was certain she had left it in here—well, in one of the labs at least—but had yet to come across it. That was possibly due to the fact that her searches of each classroom weren’t very thorough. But how could she stall and be thorough in her search when she had better places to be? What that better place was, she wasn’t sure. But she needed to be somewhere, anywhere but where she was, and she needed to be going towards it. She needed to be done with this place and be somewhere new. She had been in one place for too long, the walls were starting to look boring. Why was everything so boring? See? Chairs. Chairs in classrooms. How typical. How boring. None of these chairs had her scroll on them. There were also lots of other things that weren’t on chairs. Like ducks and pianos and suitcases—well maybe suitcases could be on chairs if someone was traveling somewhere and needed to pack. She hadn’t traveled anywhere in a while which was funny because right now all she wanted to do was travel away from this boring hallway to somewhere new a fun.
“Right. Scroll.” Her scroll was nowhere to be found.
With a frustrated sigh, Azure left the classroom, closing the door behind her. She crossed the hall to the next room; the door was locked.
“No please don’t be like that,” Azure groaned, shaking the handle a couple times. She got down on the floor to peer under the door, trying to see if she could spot her scroll. No scroll, from what her limited vision could see. With another groan of frustration, Azure sat up, rocking back onto her heels. Maybe her scroll was in a different classroom. Hopefully it was in a different classroom. If only she could remember what lab she had been in earlier! Then maybe she’d be able to get her scroll and get out of the drab hallways.
Zoning out slightly, Azure picked up her plastic coffee cup from where she had left it, and took a sip. The logical part of her brain knew she should stop drinking the coffee before her current state escalated any further. But the other part of her kept forgetting to throw the coffee away.
Maybe she had thought her current meds were strong enough to counteract the caffeine. Maybe she had just forgotten to order decaf. Maybe the barista had messed up her order, and it wasn’t even her fault. But regardless of the why of the current situation, the what was that she was, for one reason or another, drinking caffeinated coffee. And she had quickly been reminded as to why she wasn’t supposed to have caffeine.
In short: Caffeine + bipolar ≠ anything good.
In short: Azure had forgotten this fact momentarily, and bought caffeinated coffee
In short: Azure, while not completely manic, was definitely feeling somewhat manic. And this was not helping her find her scroll.
Azure was pulled from her spaced out state at the sudden sound of an explosion echoing down the hall. The area around her shook with the force of the blast, Azure lost her balance. Large amounts of frost and smoke were spilling out into the hallway, momentarily obscuring her vision.
“What... the fuck?” She said as the air began to clear. She picked herself up off the ground somewhat, pushing herself up to her elbows, one hand raised to shield her eyes as she peered towards the classroom a little ways down the hall, where it seemed the explosion had emanated from.
“You better not have blown up my scroll!” She called to whoever was in the room. She climbed to her feet, brushing ash from her clothes. She had dropped her coffee in the surprise of the explosion, what was left of it was slowly leaking across the linoleum tile floor. No matter, it was probably for the best anyways.
Entering the room, Azure’s eyebrows would shoot up in surprise and amusement. Her navy eyes surveyed the area, taking in the large amounts of ice and ash. Well, this was much more exciting that drab hallways, she thought. Eventually, her gaze came across the girl sitting against a wall, coated in frost and soot. With a somewhat amused smirk flickering across her face, Azure crossed the room to where the girl sat.
“If I had to render a guess,” she announced as she approached, “that is not the proper usage of Dust.” Upon reaching the girl, Azure brushed a layer of soot off a nearby desk and sat down on top of it, her legs swinging slightly so her boots scuffed lightly against the floor. She drummed her fingers against the edge of the desk, momentarily getting distracted by the ash that was still swirling through the air. She watched it drift towards the floor, the only thought running through her head being ashes, ashes, we all fall down. A laugh bubbled from her lips at this because, of course, her lip tattoo said ashes; ashes and her upcoming album was called all fall down and now she was sitting in just that exact situation with ashes falling down while sporting ink that said exactly that and wasn’t it just hilarious?
Right, she had a purpose for being in here.
She glanced back over at the girl, her eyes scanning over her. She didn’t recognize her; it was likely she had never had any classes with her. Azure hopped off the desk, dusting ash from clothes. She lent down, offering a gloved hand to the younger girl, intending to help her to her feet.
“You got a name?” She questioned, “or should I just call you frost face?”