2020-10-12 - Teenaged Wasteland IV: Field Trip

Diana is sitting up front, because of course she is. It lets her sit closer to Mr. Bauer and Judd! She's dressed in blue sweats that match the blue sweatshirt she wears above them. It has a telephone on it-- the kind with a receiver and everything-- and the curly 'wire' for the phone has been achieved with curly shoestrings, making the shirt 3D. The shirt says in bright pink letters, "CALL ME!" She's mid-sentence about an episode of Babylon 5 when Mr. Bauer has his mini-freakout, and her eyes widen considerably. She looks too nervous to ask him if he's okay, so thankfully good ol' Judd breaches the question. But that just clears the way for her to ask, too: "Mr. Bauer, are you all right?? Did you get enough sleep last night? Sleep is fundamental."

Look, D&D 3.5 hasn't been out that long, only two years, so there's still good reading on those books. Kevin snuck the Dungeonmaster's Guide into his backpack, and now he's paging through it in the front third of the bus. He wears a brown t-shirt with white lettering in a very familiar font that reads 'Han Shot First' under a gray zip-up hoodie, and khakis. He's 5'6'' at best, and somewhere around 98 pounds of awkwardness behind thick glasses, and so he blinks owlishly when the bus driver's complaint breaks through his haze and he looks up.

Joey is sitting in the very back of the bus, away from the authority and futzing with his lighter. The signature on his permission slip is a forgery. Everyone knows it because he'd have to go home long enough to have his mom sign it. That Jaime's not here is a little weird. Usually the twins are inseparable. Maybe he and Poe got detention? Hell if he can remember so today on this forged field trip the bullyboy is rolling with his boy, Byron, and whatever trouble they might get up to. Good luck, Mr. Bauer.

The kid on the seat in front of them turns to look at Joey for his foot idly thumping the seat. The response is the lighter getting flicked damn close to the dude's emo fucking bangs with a sharp, "The fuck you looking at Turn. around." Annoyed, antsy, the side of his head leans against the window. Rolling a look to Byron he muses, "Well we know he ain't holding."

Wow. D&D. Byron hasn't played that in a few years now. He also hasn't hung out with Kevin regularly since then, even if he might give the nerdy kid a friendly enough 'hello' whenever they run into each other. The Thorne kid didn't really discriminate against anyone. He had nerd friends as much as he had stoner friends or jock friends. Friends on the student council. He was just that kind of guy, drifting between groups of stereotypes. Just like Joey, he forged his mother's signature. Neither really had the time for the other at this age.

Wearing a plain white T-shirt, a black blazer and a pair of jeans with feet tucked into Timberlands, Byron could use a hair cut. While he, himself, isn't primarily a troublemaker, that doesn't mean that he doesn't hang out with them. See: Joey Kelly, for example. Lounging in the back with an arm around a certain Lilith Winslow, he's sitting in the aisle seat just across from Kelly's, idly watching his pal's terribly rude antics. "Figured as much." Turning to flash a smile over at Lilith, he calls out towards the friend, "Hey, Mister B, are we there yet?"

The kid sitting in front of Joey just happens to be that punk ass Mexican that transferred in from Tijuana or wherever last semester. The one who picks fights with seniors, and looks like his mama gave him that buzzcut with a pair of kitchen shears. He has a cigarette tucked behind his ear, and he's eyeing that lighter Kelly's futzing with. And snarls at him again, when the seat kicking doesn't let up. "You wanna fucking stop?" he hisses between clenched teeth. In the Dream, he's leaner, hungrier looking. Like a half-starved animal, all excess bulk trimmed away out of necessity. He's in a faded transformers tee, jeans and converse, with a baseball cap pulled over his patchwork buzzcut and an arrangement of ugly cuts on his knuckles like he got into an argument with a concrete wall.

Apparently, the years long rift between Byron and Lily was amended (at least to some degree) at the shitshow prom. She's seated in between Byron and the window, letting him at the aisle to converse with Joey across the way at the back of the bus. Her body is slanted in lean against the dark-haired teen guy, and she's mostly looking out of the window with a pair of headphones on. One of them is cocked off of an ear to listen to conversation as well, though. While viewing the passing scenery, she's also occupied with a strawberry Blow-pop sucker, which may or may not be allowed on the bus, but it's not a joint or anything, so whatever.

And wouldn't you know, Lily is not wearing eyeliner today. She has on some mascara and lip junk to some effect, but that's it. In fact, her shirt is white, not black! It's a short midriff skimming tee with lacing gap and decoration at the front, paired with some distressed low-slung jeans and flowered sneakers. It's a little like she's taken her goth battle armor off now that Byron's back around.

Abruptly, she pinches Byron's leg when she sees a VW Beetle out of the window at some point before things get strange, "Slug bug." Not a punch, but maybe just as mean as one.

Diana smiles cheerily at Mr. Bauer, all ears when he says he got enough sleep. The rest has her frowning, and she says politely, "I'm sorry you've had a really long week! Sometimes when I have long weeks, I like to go to the library and just hang out there all weekend. You should try it! They have a computer there and everything. And it's really easy to find things in their card catalog. The writing's very clear. One time I went to a library in Sacramento, in California? And their card catalog wasn't anything like that. It was scrawled messily. I offered to help, but." She gives a long-suffering sigh. She blinks several times at his warning to Joey, and turns her head to try and see the just-chastened student in question. Eventually she turns back to Mr. Bauer, saying, "At least we're to the museum now! I haven't been to this one before, and I'm really excited. ...if an ammonite and a trilobite got into a battle, who do you think would win? My vote's on the ammonite, but I'll admit I've not studied it very thoroughly yet."

Magnolia does what she's done ever single fucking field trip since that one in first grade where they all drove off to the pumpkin patch-- she keeps her head down, slumped into the seat so deep she might as well be a lump. In fact, since she's got her Presidents of the United States of America t-shirt on, she could probably be classified as Lump. She's in jeans to boot, and a pair of skater slip-ons that have been vigorously doodled on. She blinks a couple times as the plastic, leather-textured seats come into focus, and then again as she starts to look around. With a slump back into the seat, she mumbles, "For fuck's sakes, what kind of fresh hell, '17 Again' bullshit is this."

She leans slightly to one side, squinting out the single-pane window-- and she's sitting at the janky one that always sits about a half-inch open. She squints at the museum, and then she leans the other way. When she looks down, it is to find that she's got those Sharpie-painted fingernails, the abundance of hemp bracelets, and Bic pen doodles on the back of her hand. Someone is rambling, and she looks over to spot Diana.

Joey responds immediately to Javier asking him if he wants to stop with "You wanna go?" Here. Now. Joey Lee Kelly will fight this whole damn bus just to have something to do. Seriously who let these two little reprobates sit next to one another. He doesn't persist, chewed down fingernail picking at the caulking on the bus window. Byron though gets a civil tone. Looking to he and Lilith he asks, "Where the fuck we going again?" he didn't even read the slip.

Javier also glances over at the nerd who won't shut the fuck up about trilobytes and ammonites. He kind of squints at her, like, why you gotta be like this? then looks back to Joey. And grins, slow. "Sí? Quieres un poco? Justo aqui. Ahora mismo." He reaches over to shove the other kid. Not hard, mostly just the flat of his palm scruffed against Joey's head, meant to jostle him against the window.

Once the kid in front of Joey practically growls back at the little delinquent, Byron finally gets a good look at who the kid actually is. Feeling the pinch at his leg, he turns back towards Lilith before craning his neck to take a peek out the window to see exactly what she's talking about. "Is that what you want your first car to be?" He jokes! Beaming with amusement at her. Turning back to the Kelly kid, though, he calls out, "Ease up, Kelly. He's new to the school. Was also chosen as Prince of the Prom, strangely enough." Protector of the weak, sometimes, but may as not let the new kid feel unwelcome.

When asked where they were going, Byron just says, "The museum." How many museums exist around Gray Harbor? Probably not many. He then half-turns to peer out of the window again, "I'm here to see the theropod." Look, Byron did well in school. He knows stuff. He probably knows some of this stuff. As they prepare to depart the bus, his arm still slung over Lilith's shoulder, he pauses to look at Magnolia sensing her distress, "You okay, Mags?"

Joey brings his hand up, not that he gives a shit about his hair but there's a reflex that is absolutely learned as a survival trait and not some fancy dojo for after school programs. He catches Javier's sleeve to shove his arm back away from him onto the new kid's side of the seat; that internal switch flipped to 'on'. There's no reaction t o the Spanish. He doesn't speak word one of it and is about to assume it to be him talking shit about his mama. There might be more but Byron's words come across the aisle and he squints. "My fucking condolences." Though he too looks at the science nerd confused like ...why?! "The fuck you come from?"

"Ugh, don't be gross, I'd have to start calling you honeybunny and bleach some strands of hair and... get a tan. Then I'd need a little dog in a purse like a low-budget Paris Hilton, and it'd probably have like... an underbite because it came from that inbred dog in the trailer lot that's always popping out pups..." Lily has this all worked out, apparently, all the reasons she does NOT want a girly stupid slugbug car. Then, after a moment, she relents just a little bit and points her sucker at Byron with warning to make herself perfectly clear, "... but it's better than no car. So like. I'd drive it if it was free."

After some delay, though, she puts her sucker back in her mouth and stops looking out of the window to watch between Joey and the new Mexican student-guy she wrote a pissy note too. And obviously, she wants to see them fight, it's right there on her face. But she doesn't say shit to encourage it because they're on the bus in a small space, she'd rather them do it outside, see. They'll be getting off soon from the looks of it, anyway.

Magnolia angles a look at Byron, and again there's some odd hazy nudging-- kind of like coming in and out of a dream right on the verge of waking up. She shakes the fog loose, and then slumps back into the chair. She looks morose, as she often does when a field trip impacts her ability to be keeping up with her classes. She's not even sure what class this field trip is for. "I'm fine," she mumbles. "Just don't know what we're supposed to learn here." She has AP US History and AP English Lit to keep up with.

But then there's a sharp voice, and Magnolia lifts her head suddenly up to Dash, and she blinks hard at him before her eyes narrow. "Tell me something I don't know. Creep." But still, she's got this nagging feeling that she's wrestling with two different mindsets-- one is 17-year-old Magnolia, the other is Adult Magnolia. Then that Adult Magnolia snaps into focus, and she blinks again. She turns toward Byron. "Hey, Ron... how old are you?"

All this has been going on for a bit, and somewhere near the last third of the bus, a scrawny little kid with messy red hair that keeps threatening to turn into curls has been sitting quietly, wearing the outfit that defines him: ill-fitting battered jeans and a hoodie with Rocko from Rocko's Modern Life on it. It's pretty unlikely this is officially licensed merchandise, tho, because this Rocko has bloodshot eyes and what appears to be a lit joint dangling from one corner of his mouth. Rocko's Modern Weed, if you will. The kid, a young James Hecker, has his hood up, staying quiet so far as he stares at the other kids with eyes that seem far older than his body, which is short and scrawny enough to pass for 13 much easier than the 17 he's actually at, would imply. "... teenagers. Why'd it have to be teenagers?", he mutters softly under his breath. With the bus coming to a stop, he sighs, and uncurls from the hunched little ball he was in that kept him from being noticed, those eyes too cynical for any teenager scanning the others, recognizing most from his own childhood, and squinting suspiciously at the adults.

"I doubt Paris Hilton would be caught dead driving a Beetle." If she did, Byron never saw it. Nevertheless, his words did nothing to stop the altercation between Joey and Javier and in these tight quarters, it was easy for people to get hurt. He had Lilith to protect. Holding his arms out, trying to sort of separate the two, he calls out, "Hey. Not here. Not now. Let's just get off the bus first." He makes sure to position himself between.. whatever is going on there and Lilith.

Bauer's words to Magnolia is rather odd, making the teenage Thorne lift a brow. "You know Magnolia Jones, right? I'm sure she has her slip somewhere." He'll even try to help Magnolia find it because she really seems out of it, but right now, he's kinda blocking the aisle. With one arm around Lilith, who he's tugging along, he tells Jones, "Come on, Mags. Let's get out of here and then you can show Mister..." He then blinks at the question asked of him. "Uh... 17. Why?" Either way, he's doing his best to escort both Magnolia and Lilith off of the bus to get away from any brawl that might kick up behind them.

"Clearly, an Ammonite. They're way more mobile. At least CR2, while the Trilobite is CR1." Kevin's got a bit of a squeaky voice, it's still changing at this point, and he shakes his head, blinking over his shoulder at Magnolia, "What do you mean 17 again?" After all, he's not even 17 not. "No, never mind. Sorry." Looking thoroughly confused, but trying to draw back into his shell again, he pries himself out of the seat at Dash's command, tucks away the DMG in his backpack, and starts down the steps, "Byron? Hey, wait, are you back-back?" His eyes go wide behind his heavy glasses.

De la Vega's about to go in with another shove, maybe a grab at Joey's shirt so he can drive the other fist into his face and make this a proper fight.. when Dash's voice echoes back to him from the front of the bus. Fuck that guy, says the agitated look on his face as he shoves off the seat, snarls at Joey, and pushes past a couple of other kids to get in line.

It doesn't take him long to get off the bus. His cap's adjusted as the sun hits his eyes, and gravel skitters under his shoes when he prowls off a short way. The cigarette tucked behind his ear is withdrawn and twiddled between two fingers absently, the scrappy Mexican doing his best to keep his distance from the townies who clearly all know each other.

Diana deflates slightly when Mr. Bauer doesn't answer her question. But then, she also looks like maybe she expected that. In fact, she's so caught up in thinking about all of that, that she almost fails to notice Mr. Bauer being all creepy. When she does, though, she frowns, tilting her head. He heads off the bus and she swallows, nodding to herself and scurrying to follow. The last thing she wants is to trail in the back and miss all the exhibits! Everyone else is pretty much ignored at the moment, and it's clear she's trying to make the best of a rough situation.

"Just checking." Magnolia grunts something else under her breath, and then she hauls up onto her feet with a solid push. Her eyes slide across Lilith, before leaping back to her. Her brows arch, and she is about to ask Lil something, but then... She casts a hard glance toward Kevin, and it takes her a second before she, "Jesus. Kevin?" She'd say more, but there's a shoving person behind her to haul her off the bus and she snags her messenger bag-- canvas and covered in patches-- from her seat before she's hauled off. She half-bumps into Diana once they're off the bus, careening to one side. Then she's looking at Bauer, eyes narrowed thoughtfully.

As they are all descending the steps to avoid getting shoved around by the punks behind them, Byron blinks at Kevin, nodding slowly, "Kev--in." He makes sure to add, remembering how much Walters hated being called 'Kev'. "What do you mean if I'm back-back?" He hops off the final step, then moves aside to allow the other kids space. It's a good thing two because de la Vega and Kelly are hella rowdy. "Jesus. Come on. We're here on a field trip. Away from school. I mean, this is our last year, so if they take field trips off the table now, it would ruin future generations of students, but you get it, right?"

He'll only try to help when the two are fighting. If they are trying to sneak off, well, Byron turns a blind eye to that. "What are you looking forward to most at the museum?" This he asks Lilith, but he's still milling around close to his other non-delinquent friends.

Oh it's a shovey fight. Who doesn't like those? Still they're getting off the bus which is as good as anything else. He waits and follows B, and Lilith out. "yeah yeah yeah." Byron knows sort of how to convince him. Some people don't show up to learn or appreciate the wonders of science and just need a free trip to 'away'. Given last year's trip to juvie for a month Bauer's advice isn't unjustified. Does he go back to fight again? No. Walking into the museum? The tour looks... less interesting than just going someplace to light one up and hang out doors and see some otters and shit. Taht's right Diana, keep asking teach ALL the questions! He'll be sliding off that a way as the group widens and all the chalont goes... towards that other door.

James is soon enough out of the bus along with the others, making sure to give Ruiz and Joey a wide berth. He does almost stumble as he spots Byron and Lilith, the corner of his lips curling up in mild amusement at the two of them, who appear to be in full teenbrain mode- he never thought he'd actually see his old friends like this anymore. "... yo, Byron. Lil.", he mumbles as he goes past them, still keeping his hoodie up, eager to get out of the bus and figure out exactly what manner of bullshit this place has thrown at him today- and ends up right next to Diana outside. He looks at her- close as he is to Diana, he never knew her as a kid, so it takes him a moment to figure out who exactly this is- and when he does, his expression turns into a mix of delight and dismay as his weird little brain goes through a through process that could best be summarized as 'oh it's Diana yay wait this is like baby Diana does she recognize me or is she like teenbrained like the others ah shit if she's teenbrained maybe she won't recognize me wait am I staring fuck I think I'm staring quick look away you moron why aren't you looking away ah fuck she was cute as a kid no James no stop it this is legit weird just stop staring'. Anyway he just stands next to Diana and stares and blushes.

Lilith packs up her headphones while being shielded, then eyes her pepper spray in her purse for a moment before eyeing Joey and de la Vega. After a bit of thought (and because Byron tugs her up and along and away) she just flips her messenger-bag style purse closed and comes along to unload from the bus. She knows she's not about to get away with having candy in a museum, so once she's off of the bus, she starts to look around for a trash can for her sucker while side-eyeing where the two scrappy males might have got to just in CASE there's a fight!

After a time, she just gives up, crunching into the thing with bite before making an 'ow' noise and working on getting the gum part out of the candy. It's very occupying, but she does upnod the greeting from James, making a fist bump reach signal from a distance. She'd answer Byron, but she has gum to chew down first, free hand holding up with a finger before she hip bumps him.

Kevin looks up as Magnolia says his name, his eyes widening slightly behind his glasses, "Nothing. No problem." But she called him by his full name. He blushes as he looks down at his battered and beat-up sneakers. But then he's looking back to Byron, and he practically blossoms when Byron calls him by his full name too, offering a grateful smile -- and then looking confused again, "I... did I say that?" He did. "Um, I don't know." The rowdiness causes him to shrink his already-narrow shoulders together even further and basically try to disappear, only to spot James. Once more, his eyes widen, "James! I didn't know you were here too. I was totally reading through the DMG, getting ready for the next session. I think there needs to be some errata around the..." oh crap, there are kids running off, and even Kevin's nerd-verbal-diarrhea stops as he watches. Because hey, that's a fight! Or almost one. He kind of shuffles along toward the museum with the rest of the group, watching the chaos.

Magnolia falls in behind Byron and Lilith, frowning at the backs of their heads. Her eyes flicker between the various groups, and there's a clear sting even to Adult Mags how the only peeps in her circle are Byron, Lilith, and... "I'm just a teenage dirtbag, baby," she half-sings under her breath as she trudges along behind Byron and Lilith. She cuts a glance toward Kevin, taking in the scrawny dude who would find himself in a few years. Then she is stepping inside, but she continues to stare at Dash. "Hey, douchenozzle... how old are you?" It really is a cheerful way to ask someone a question, but Magnolia just realized she has two wrapped tampons in her jacket pocket, and all she can think is, Motherfucking Veil.

Joey's a fucking seat kicker and hangs with all the wrong people, far as de la Vega's concerned, but at least they're on the same page when it comes to field trips and where the action is. Javier's already well ahead of him, and moseying off with his hands shoved into his pockets and his smoke dangling from his lips unlit, and kind of unofficially falls into step alongside the approaching Kelly as he too strolls off like a delinquent with no intention of participating in the museum trip. "Hey fuckface," he greets with a wolfish grin, withdrawing the cigarette, and waggling it at the other kid like he's asking for a light. Dash just gets a glance, and a scowl over his shoulder, like, what's his problem? when he feels that tug on his clothes that doesn't quite resolve into something.

Diana scurries to get out of Magnolia's way when she's half-bumped into, mumbling quickly, "Sorry. My bad," as she clears more than enough room for the other teen. She's clutching her bookbag tightly to her chest, the one with all the buttons all over it. It's got a Star Trek looking fake communicator pin tagged onto it, too. Most of the others are uplifting sayings and rainbows. She entirely fails to notice James staring at her, so he can easily catch how mousey she is right now, steering clear of the other kids and hurrying to try and catch up with the teacher. "Do you think they'll have the petrified forest exhibit? I read that they had it, but what if they loaned it to another museum?" She sounds genuinely worried about this possibility. Still, even she goes speechless when she sees the mammoth towering over them, whispering an awed, "...whoa..."

"Sup, James." James is another kid who Byron stopped hanging out with because he was a ner-- because Byron had no use for a fantasy world at some point in his life after his father died. They still went to school together more-or-less, but Byron grew to be a scrawny tall kid, while James looked like James. "What have you all been up to anyway?" He's making small talk now, eyes watching as Dash is forced to hunt down both Javier and Joey in the parking lot. However, when he hears their chaperone swear, the dark-haired teen's brows lift and there's this amused look on his face, "You tell 'em, Mister Bauer." A chaperone that curses like that is cool in his book.

If anything, he shoots a look over at Joey. Not so much to tell him to follow along, but more of an inquisitive look, silently asking if he was coming or not.

Not that he lingers long and he moves along with the group into the actual museum to ooh and ahh at dead things. Staring up at the giant mammoth, he seems impressed. Then again, he liked prehestoric stuff as a kid. He even flashes a smile over at Diana who also seems taken by the corpse. However, he hears some nerd discussion behind him and out of curiosity (not because he still loves the game or nuthin'), he asks, "A new one's out?" He's obviously been out of the loop.

Looking back over at Lilith and then up at the skeletons, he asks, "Cool, huh?"

James lets out a sigh of relief as Diana fails to notice him- a sigh of relief coupled with a mild frown of 'hey come on you should totally recognize your boyfriend even if he is being kind of weird right now, he's basically kind of weird all the time so that's not really an excuse'. Look, he has a very expressive face. Before he can act on those thoughts, however, he hears Kevin calling out to him and he blinks- the talk of DMG's and sessions and errata's quickly clues James in on the fact that Kevin is definitely teenbrained, and so he puts on a mildly goofy grin. "Heyhey Kevin. Next session's gonna be dope, man." His smile softens a little. "Man, don't stress out about it too much, tho, right? Like, you are a dope GM." At Byron's question, his grin turns sharper. "You have no idea, man. Anyway, Kevin, next game, you should have Byron's character fight one of those.", he says, hooking a thumb at the mammoth. His tone is light, but his eyes dart here and there. Far as he's been able to tell so far he's the only 'adult' here- while he can sympathize with Dash's despair, oh boy can he ever, these people are his friends and loved ones and someone's got to watch out for them, and so, eyes dart, watch, and wait for the inevitable turn. Because if there's one golden rule in the Veil, it's that you're gonna get fucked with.

Lily points at the dinosaur skeleton now that she can talk without a big mashed blob of chewed hard candy and gum at her mouth, hitting natural stride with her strawberry gum now that's quickly losing flavor 'cause that's how Blow Pops roll, "That. I wanted to see that..." The brunette takes to wandering and hums the song Magnolia started to sing a bar from automatically, like it's done the deed of getting stuck in her head for the day. Her head is tilted up to take in the skeleton, then she ambles toward where the mammoth display is with a bit of a grin.

She starts to ask a question, then widens her eyes suddenly as Magnolia uses the term 'douchenozzle' for what passes as an adult and authority figure. Lily immediately can't figure out if she wants to laugh or egg it on. After a moment, she just gets distracted, pointing between the mammoth and the dino skeleton, "Who would win in a fight? A mammoth or a dinosaur? This is a scientific question. Like... which would you ride into battle?"

"You'd totally think the Dinosaur, right? But an Allosaurus is only CR7, and a Mammoth is CR10." Kevin is quick on the uptake this time, responding to Lilith's question as only he (okay, only he and James) can. He flashes a grin at James, "Thanks, James. I appreciate that. I mean, you taught me everything I know, so that says something good about you too, right?" Yup, he can do cheerful. He glances back to Magnolia for a moment, and then checks his back, as if expecting the tag of his shirt to be sticking out or something like that. Clearly that's why the cute blonde is looking at him. Looking back to James, he adds, "I think he could take him. I mean, if we go back to the old campaign and he used the beatstick... it'd be a pretty quick fight."

Joey is damn good at ducking and dodging but apparently Mr. Bauer's name is 'Dash' for a reason. He has to twist to get away. Well arch-nemesis is now accomplice. Like adults do they give up which is maybe what he's banking on. When Byron gives him that are you coming? look he tosses his lighter, the scuffed red Bic, to Javier."Bum one?" Trade for trade. He looks though, not at Byron but Lilith like Are you coming? knowing if he gets Ms. Mischief Byron will, inevitably, go.

He eyes Kevin and Diana talking nerd at people and murmurs to maybe Javier or whoever , "Baller." He takes the dismissal as permission.

^                                            ^

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--AMMONITES AND TRILOBITES     PALEOBOTANY--

<-- PREHISTORIC MAMMALS        PETRIFIED FOREST -->

Teenage Magnolia would have never called an adult that. Her father would have been told, and no amount of a Jones being the high school principal would have saved her from absolute, terrible retribution. Wait. Magnolia's brows suddenly tighten as memories twist and try to right themselves. Her dad is dead by now. Seventeen-year-old Magnolia would have to face her uncle all alone, and he would have promised not to call her mom because Mrs. Jones is basically catatonic when she's not drunk. So, Magnolia's shoulders tighten and her jaw flexes as she falls into stride beside Byron. "A mammoth, because the dinosaur would already be dead thanks to a mass extinction event." Now her eyes slide over to Kevin, and her expression softens. "Nerd." She scoots up beside Byron as Dash shouts at her, and she narrows her eyes at him. "Look, I almost got eaten by a suitcase once... what could be worse than that." She tugs at Byron's sleeve. "Petrified Forest. Pick that one."

Diana looks positively scandalized when Mr. Bauer cusses YET AGAIN. Sweet summer child. She returns Byron's smile nervously, though, and then returns to staring up at that mammoth-- at least until Lilith's 'which would win' question, which is clearly up her alley. She wrestles with something silently-- perhaps whether to provide an answer? But in the end, she says nothing. Kevin is glanced at with a little smile at his answer, but once again she doesn't comment. Mr. Bauer starts talking crazy, and she looks heavily concerned now, rather than judgmental. She looks to the docent and then back to the teacher, mouth open as she stares. Still, she shakes her head at the question about what to visit first, returning herself to the present moment. "Petrified Forest, please!" she requests politely. It's not until Magnolia speaks that Diana cheers up again, grinning. She blurts out, "That's the right answer! The Great Dying. The mass extinction event. Did you know we're due for another?" She says that like the idea is fascinating, rather than horrifying. She nods to Magnolia at her choice of exhibit, too.

Byron is paying attention to large looming skeletons, if Joey is shooting glances over at Lilith trying to get her into trouble, he doesn't notice. He also could answer Lilith's question, but the other smarties in the class respond before him. "Still, I have a soft spot for the dinos." They were standing here, staring up at the mammoth display though, so he goes on to say, "Mammoths are alright." Byron doesn't even know that Joey was lagging so far behind either now.

Chatting about nerd-stuff though, he knows he hasn't hung out with the others in a while now, but the dark-haired lanky Thorne lifts a brow, "I mean, if you've got space open, I wouldn't mind playing a one off. I'm juggling a few jobs right now, so I don't have much in the way of time."

Feeling the tug at his sleeve though, Byron blinks down at Magnolia before his lips purse into a thin, thoughtful line, "I'm here to see the theropod, but we can take a detour... sure." He has nothing against the petrified forest either. He finds most of this fascinating. He looks to Lilith to see where she wants to go, because it seems all the girls want to go to the forest as if it were enchanting or something. "What about you, Lil?"

Javier pauses in digging out his pack of smokes for Joey, and whips his head around as something starts to snake toward him. "Shhh!" he hisses at the other kid, fumbling for the switchblade he keeps buried under his layers of clothing, and drawing it as he's trying to back away from the vine that starts snaking toward him. Then it catches him around his ankle, and he goes immediately on the offensive, slashing at it with his little knife, a yell going up in Spanish to alert the others to what's going on. Which, of course, there's no guarantee anyone's going to give a shit that the troublemaking immigrant kid's in danger, but hey.

James catches part of Magnolia's statement about the carnivorous carry-on and can't help himself. "Try getting beaten to death by garden gnomes. Or devoured by giant frogs. Dismembered by gingerbread men.", he mutters, and sighs. "I could go on. I mean, like, I really could. This town hates me." And that's about when Diana mentions The Great Dying, which, given where they all are, doesn't sound very great at all. He eyes the direction of the Petrified Forest exhibit with his full actual 30-something age's worth of suspicion. But that seems to be where the group is leaning, and James knows his strengths: leadership ain't one of them. "... into the woods, but no way we're home before dark.", he says, which would sound more ominous were it not coming in his squeaky teen voice.

There's something nice about the soft 'insult' from Magnolia, and Kevin blushes again, scuffing his shoes on the floor before he clears his throat and looks up at the dinosaur skeleton again, only to blink, "Eaten by a suitcase? Big vacation? Now see, if it'd been a mimic, that would've been really cool." He knows D&D isn't real, right? He looks from Magnolia to Diana as they both pick the petrified forest, and he sighs, not putting out any preference of his own. Instead, he looks back to Byron, "Well yeah. Dinos are way cooler. And if you want CR11, you go for the Spinosaurus. And I probably won't throw a Spinosaurus at you guys, even if you bring out the beat-stick." And then he brings out the other side of his nerdery, looking back to Diana, "We've actually started already. Bees are first, and then flowering plants, and then herbivores, and then the carnivores. And us in there somewhere too. And all because a few chemical companies want to keep selling pesticides." James gets a glance, "That's a musical, right?" Into the Woods, of course.

Lilith actually looks sated by that answer from Kevin because it makes perfect sense to her, she's had enough hang time with the boys back when, a fair amount of it stuck and has colored her logic, apparently. When the concensus is being made, though, she blinks a few times and then hitches her shoulders up.

"I'd rather look at long-dead animals, not trees, plants hate me, probably even dead mummified plants. But it's whatever, it's a loop, so we'll get to see everything." Lilith says aloud to Byron, though for a moment, she's turned to catch Joey's signaling before that. The brunette teen's tone of voice is mildly distracted while she watches him sneak off, then after wetting her lips, she reaches up to pull Byron down to whisper who knows what. Probably flirty stuff? Or she's plotting, really it could go either way. When finished, she tilts her head at Byron and eyes the grouping to see where they go with lingering toward the back of the group file line.

(whispered) "Wanna go make sure those two don't knife each other? I have pepper spray."

She has to make it sound like a good deed for Byron to risk misbehaving, but she tacks on something else like teenage temptation.

"... we can make out for five minutes or so before finding our way back, no one will miss us, right?"

If Magnolia could read minds, she'd kick Byron in the shin for thinking that she wants to go to the Enchanted Forest. Who does she look like? Princess Anna? Instead, she just grasps hard on the strap of her messenger bag while she hovers close to her brother from another mother. "Don't worry. You'll get to see your theropod." She darts a look at Dash, and then back to Diana at her shining approval. "Aren't we on the precipice of another mass extinction?" It keeps the nerd engaged, or at least she hopes, while she slides a glance toward James. Her eyes widen slightly. "We're... talking D&D? Not... anything else weird, right?" Magnolia's usually better at asking questions, but right now, she's prodding around like a high school journalist-- because that's what she was in high school. Obviously Sharpie-painted nails are causing regression; chemical leakage, and all that. To Kevin, she sighs, "It wasn't that cool. Definitely a higher than a CR8." Then she glances at Lil at the whispering, and then to the others.

Joey leans and lights the cig. He shouldn't smoke, he knows that but fuck it. Smoking being bad for him is not nearly as a concern as going home usually so fuck it. He takes a drag just in time to see the plants lurch forward at he and the new kid that pulls a damn knife to stab the thing grabbing him. Well his was confiscated a couple weeks ago but his sneakers work just fine to sidestep that fucking ficus and start stomping on the vine to loosen it from grabbing Ruiz'a leg. "The fuck??!And what the fuck is that thing?" Yeah, his eyes? WIDE open!there's getting in a fight and then there's weird plant shit!

"Plants don't.." Byron starts, but he has a memory of prom when plants did, indeed, hate Lilith. For a time, he simply follows along with the group, nodding when Magnolia promises him that he'll get to see the theropod up close. That's why he's here! But then he's caught by a whisper, leaning in towards Lilith to get a better listen. Only then does he realize that Joey isn't following the crowd. Even if he didn't expect the delinquent too, Byron can't help but shake his head as he glances out towards the front door. "Of course, he's not here."

During this, he hears weird stuff being brought up by James and he just has to blink at the much shorter kid. Not that Byron doesn't remember the class being under attack at prom or when Mister A. told off the VP and the Principal that once, but what Hecker says sounds like gibberish. "Are we still talking D&D?" He echoes some of what Magnolia says. Then, perhaps, catching a little more of Lilith's whisper about making out, he announces, "Hey guys, I'm going to check on the others to make sure they're not getting themselves into trouble. We'll catch up with you."

He doesn't look overly happy about missing the trip into the forest. While that wasn't his first choice, it's not everyday that they visit the museum. Turning to glance over his shoulder at Dash, he hurries his pace, "Let's hope Mister Bauer doesn't catch us."

Diana perks up yet again as Kevin claims the mass extinction event's already started. She nods her head rapidly, saying, "Exactly! Though I'm not sure exactly what's going to take us out. But I wonder where the omnivores come in? Do you think we'll last longer than the carnivores? Or maybe we'll end up eaten! It's crazy to think about!" She sounds actively excited. "Do you think they'll manage to crack down on the pesticide makers? I bet they will." And then Magnolia asks about mass extinction, and Diana nods her head excitedly, pointing to Kevin. "Like he said, the avalanche has already started! It is too late for the pebbles to vote!" She grins. Dash's aside to Kevin has her blinking several times, and her excitement carries over enough to make her ask, "Would that work, or would the GM outlaw it as soon as you brought it up, I wonder?" She's so excited, her among the petrified trees and in the midst of mass extinction and D&D, that she barely notices when things start to shake. But then she frowns, pointing toward one of the exhibit pieces as it rattles. "Is um. Is that normal?" she squeaks.

James gives Dash the ol' finger guns. Veil Trauma recognize Veil Trauma. Magnolia's question earns her a curious, searching look from James. She's been oddly aggressive with the lone visible adult, but maybe she was just like that as a teenager? A moment after giving her that look, he gives a half-shrug, glancing to Byron as well. "I mean yeah, there was that time with D&D too. Got stuck being a bard. Nightmare.", he replies, before turning to follow the rest of the group inside. His head's on a swivel, ready for stone trees and possibly stone wolves hiding behind them- or maybe meat wolves, just wolves made of raw meat, because this place likes to keep you on your toes like that- but when it turns out to just look like a regular museum exhibit, he stops dead, looking bemused. "... I hate that I don't know whether this is reassuring or just more worrying.", he mutters to himself, before looking over at Dash. "You're skipping like three editions dude.", he calls to him, before quickly scanning over to make sure Diana has not been disemboweled by an innocent-looking slice of petrified wood or something... just in time for the stone trees to start to wiggle and rock. "Ah fuckballs." He quickly moves to step in between her and that nearby exhibit she just pointed at. "Nope. Not normal. We should all, like, go. Now."

An authority figure knowing D&D is one thing -- there are nerds everywhere -- and Kevin nods, "Yeah, that's a nice build, but by the time you have enough level two spell slots to throw together enough Misty Steps to stay out of the grasp, you're probably high enough level that you don't really have to worry about something that's CR11. I mean, that's the problem with -- " and then he cuts off, slowly turning toward Magnolia with his eyes widening behind his glasses, "Wait wait." Sure, there's some gorgeous backlit petrified forest samples and spooky-awesome lighting, but that's a cool girl (at least in comparison to him) who knows D&D. "You know CRs? You know the CR of a Greater Mimic?" Mind, blown. In fact, he reaches up one hand to his temple and makes a little explode-y gesture. And woah, another girl who knows about mass extinctions? His other hand comes up and makes the same gesture at his other temple. "Pretty sure we're top of hte food chain, so we're not even going to notice until there's no more burgers-on-hooves because there's nothing for them to eat. I think that makes us count as carnivores in this one. But as long as the pesticide makers have money, there's no one who'll crack down on them. That's not how politics work anymore." James gets a blink, "Wait, Misty Step's in the new edition, 3.5." He's far too distracted to notice anything rattling.

Magnolia's gaze trails after Dash now that she's got him on her suspect list. She glances up slightly at the cement trees, and her gaze trails up their fake trunks to the equally fake canopies of feathery leaves just barely masking the spotlights. "I kinda paid attention a couple times at Tobin's house," she says blankly to Byron, which is an outright lie. She never paid attention. Then she starts to let her attention drift across the petrified forest, and she feels some of that high school knowledge slip back into her brain. It's like finding an old filing cabinet in the basement, and even though all the files are dusty and the paper is a bit yellowed, the handwriting is still sharp and clear. She recognizes some of the plant species names, and even brief little snippets of local geological and biological history. She's about to say something, only to then wonder aloud, "Why hasn't anything gone wrong yet?"

But then there's Diana, being so helpful. Her eyes snap to James, and she grabs at him suddenly. "James! You're an adult!" She holds up her hand to Kevin. "Shh-sh-sh, the adults are talking."

Lily spins to walk with Byron making all the casual excuses on the world once he's responsibly checked in with the others about where he's going. She just would have snuck off! Especially now that making out was on the table, she was going to briefly stall at the bathrooms for real and plan for a before and after session with some fight watching between. It'll probably take a while between those two, and besides, who says they're not sharing a smoke now! Dudes are dudes, man.

"Yeah, we're just going to look out the door to make sure they're okay and stop by the bathroom because I... uh... lady... stuff. Nevermind. I'll go later."

Lily's words start to slow way down a few steps in because her steps become pretty slow motion weighted, like there's counter force on her. Abruptly, she stops, decides she doesn't like that, much like a puppy, and turns around with her change of heart and a grab for Byron's hand, "I can totally wait til later for... y'know."

Javier's gonna get that knife confiscated after this trip, you just wait. He's putting it to good use for the time being though, hacking and sawing at the maple that's trying to wind itself around his ankle. Bits of tree bark are chipped off as he goes; his breath a panicked panting, dark eyes jerking to the other kid as he tries to assess whether he's in trouble too, and finds him helping out by trying to stomp on the encroaching limb. And it helps, distracting the thing enough, holding it down so Javier can finally cut it away and wrestle free.

He lunges in to try to push Joey away from the fern uncoiling toward him with a hoarse-voiced warning.

Diana blinks twice as James steps in between her and the exhibit. She seems to think this was an accident, since she says, "Sorry. Didn't mean to bump into you. My bad." She doesn't look too worried about things as of yet, and she snorts lightly before saying to James, "Being a bard is very much not a nightmare. They're great jack-of-all-trades if you build them right! I did a solo game, sort of a me-versus-me campaign, and it was great!" Then she looks embarrassed and blushes, scooting past James without another word so she can walk closer to Mr. Bauer. He's weird, but he is the authority figure. She says to Kevin as she passes, "I'm more impressed she has the Mimic's CR memorized. I was never as good at that." Of course, the 'sh, adults are talking,' makes her blush deeper, probably because she's assuming Magnolia intended it as a put-down. She goes quiet, looking at the floor.

Joey is often scared. That's what the fight and fight response is for. When Javier gets free he shoves him and be it he's used to that meaning something else, or if he's unaware of the danger that close to him he swats the shove falling back but in that same manner to recoil and lunge back to the spot just vacated. "The fuck, buttmunch? I just fucking helped y-" OH THAT!!

Uhhh right. It's not yelling it's a very slow realization that the plants are animating. "Theeee fuuuuuck? B!" looking to Javier he asks, "It stick you or just try to feel you up? The hell is this shit?"

Joey is not good at plants.

Look, Byron's not going to put up a fight when he's caught. He wasn't even sneaking out, he announced it to the group! So when Dash puts his mitts on his jacket, the dark-haired teen pauses in his step, "Wait, it's not something we want to deal with? But a friend of mine is out there at this very moment." While he may have let this slide at one point, he's more defiant about it after hearing of these dangers. "If there's something going on, I'm going to have to help."

Lilith was trying to convince him to stop earlier, so he's hesitant. "Joey might be in trouble out there."

Then there's panic going on inside of the museum as well, with James Hecker stating that they should leave. Looking back towards the exhibit with a wary eye, he asks, "What do you mean? Hecker?" But hey, if this means that they all go outside to check on Joey... He even hears Kelly calling out his nickname. "Shit." Eyes on Bauer, he states, "You're not even telling us what's so dangerous out the..." His words are cut off as things begin to shake, followed by the sounds of POPPING!, leaving them in near darkness, until the stone starts to glow.

"Is that part of the exhibit?"

Javier's been trying not to think about whether the fucking plant was trying to feel him up, thank you very much. And Joey pointing it out is not helping. He scowls at the other kid, palms the pocket knife, and shoves Joey back with his elbow as the plants continue to encroach on their position. "You think we should try to find the others? In case there's other shit going mental in this weird ass place." He wonders, inwardly, if the bus is still here to take them back to school. Not that that place is much better with its tentacle monsters hiding in ceilings and rigged smoke machines, but.

Kevin's blushing, Diana's blushing, and Magnolia huffs out a short breath. The fragile feelings of teenagers, is followed up quickly by, God, Lark is going to be one of these in six years! "Sorry. I just mean..." And she starts to tug James away a few steps. She's temporarily distracted by Lilith and Byron getting busted by Bauer. Any other day she would probably tell Lilith about the tampon she has in her pocket, but Magnolia's pretty onto the ways of Liar Face Lilith! She angles a look at her friend, casting her a lopsided smile. "Nice try. This dude is a bit more clued in than others." To Byron and Lilith, she offers encouragingly, "Good call, dude. Whoever you are." She gets distracted, and her nonchalance fades away as she slowly turns toward the shaking and rattling. Her gaze slides over each case in turn, and her frown turns into a look of frustration. "You're playing fucking NIRVANA? Smells Like Teen Spirit is a bit on the nose." Shouting at the museum displays isn't healthy. She grabs for Kevin's shirt, pulling him closer to her. "Byron... really wish you weren't seventeen right now."

"I resent that accusation.", James says back to Magnolia, eyes flitting to her. "But, yeah." He winces in sympathy at the 'adults are taking' bit, glancing to Kevin a moment, then back to Magnolia. "Look, I'm pretty sure shit's about to get nasty-", he says, as if two of their group weren't already out back literally fighting for their lives. "-we gotta keep everyone safe, they don't realize that things are about to get-" And then pop! goes the fossil. Or at least the lightbulbs. Now, James, our boy, he's not exactly what one would call 'brave' on a normal day. But he's got this thing, y'see, about seeing people get hurt when he could have done something. It's been kind of his MO during these things- he usually only ends up getting hurt because he was trying to protect someone. Case in point: as soon as lightbulbs pop and glass rains down, he breaks off the conversation and rushes to try and shield Diana from the glass with his own scrawny self- he's not exactly built to provide protection, but goshdarn it, he's gonna try. He gives Diana a sheepish smile as he looms close to her- well as much looming as someone who is quite possibly shorter than Diana at this age can. "Look I know you don't recognize me now but I promise you're going to think this was very romantic when you wake up. Also, we need to get out of this room, yeah?" He glances at Dash, and calls out, "Yo we need to move!"

"Hey! He's only three years older -- " Kevin shuts up. Not because Magnolia asked him to, of course, just because he realizes that he's arguing age. Not a thing about Magnolia shushing him. Promise. Shuffling his feet, he looks down in disappointment, pushing his glasses back up his nose as he does. Diana's words get a moment's pause, and then a nod, "I mean, some people do have problems with that. Yeah." But then he glances over at Diana again and mumbles, "Rude" with a little gesture toward Magnolia. Thankfully, there's a great distraction as things start really shaking. His eyes go super-wide, "Earthquake!" He's frozen in place for a moment, looking left and right and back and forth before he comes up with, "Doorways! We need to get in the doorways!" And he starts forward, covering his head from the shards of lightbulb falling around, headed toward the Paleobotany exhibit -- or at least the door between there and here -- only to get the back of his hoodie grabbed by Magnolia, "Woahwhat!? No! We've gotta get into the doorways! Earthquake!"

Joey has honestly no idea what to do about...this... stuff. Were Jaime here he might or they might bash heads and accidentally have an idea between then. backing away, and away more the plants start to move again and now there's sounds? Oh fuck THAT! There's a shove shove shove to the new kid push, dragging him out there as much as he might be shoved to run faster. oh crap. "It moved. I'm out dude! GO GO GO GO GO!" Flailing, hauling ass... it's a damned fine thing he didn't lose a sneaker in teh process of running from this moving plant thing like it's the cops in a sting operation!

"Can't we... at least open the door and yell at them to get their lily white asses-- no pun intended-- back inside before..." Lilith starts to wonder this and kind of plead her case because she's actually more concerned about Joey now that it's mentioned there's potential trouble and danger out that that extends beyond a shanking or fist fight. However, then things start to go strange on their own front and her hand tightens around Byron's with gripping finger curl when dark is lit by the glowing stones.

Is it part of the exhibit? If it is, she doesn't like it and immediately, Lilith is starting to turn or angle herself in the loop to try and angle briskly toward the other exhibits because surely there's light and safety in the others, right? Total malfunction in this room. (It's not, she knows better, but denial is good.)

Diana gasps in surprise as James gets all loom-y, and she's honestly too confused by the exhibits glowing and James' strange words to catch the mention of 'romance.' "Is this... is this part of the tour?" she has to wonder. "It seems-- I mean. That didn't seem safe." She frowns at James for a moment before asking, "Get out of here and go WHERE? If that guy's right," and she indicates Byron with an errant wave of her hand, "...then there are people outside, too. Could be dangerous for them, more dangerous than us in here, right? Seems like freak weather or something!" And then Kevin's announcing 'earthquake,' and she thwaps her forehead. "Of course! He's right, we need to get into the doorways!" She looks at James, and then purses her lips for a moment before saying, "If we're really in danger... help me get everyone to the doorways? Please?"

Javier ain't got no lily white ass, thank you very much. But he is booking it back inside, scrambling along with Joey in a full-out run now. And to his credit, the kid can move when he wants to. He's no distance marathoner, but he's built for short sprints; lean and strong, shoes hitting the ground hard as he jerks an occasional glance over his shoulder and drags Joey along with him if need be. Back toward the main group, gathered near the.. well, whatever the fuck exhibit that was.

It's dark, but for some reason Byron catches some weirdo conversations going on all over the place. He doesn't say anything to James when he's acting like a creeper to Diana. He knows her name for whatever reason. They /are/ in the same class right now. Strange things are afoot, but he can't help but quirk his head to the side to gauge the nerdy girl's reaction to being told... well, that. Then Magnolia wishes that he wasn't seventeen. "I can't help it. My birthday comes up in the summer." What a strange thing to be told!

With the chatter of earthquake, Byron is about to reach for LIlith's hand, but she's clinging onto his now. "Right, doorways. Or.. I don't know, outside. Dinosaur bones and shattered glass isn't going to hit us when we're outside." As he's shooting a glance in that direction now, he sees two figures entering the museum. One was that Mexican kid. The other... "Damnit." Byron drags Lilith along, if she's still clinging onto him, to try and help Javier with Joey. "Are you both alright?" Turning a wary look over at Dash now, he has to ask, "What was out there?" He's asking Ruiz.

"When we all wake up, I hope that everyone thanks me for being the insane one here." Well, her and James, and apparently Dash. Magnolia is yanking Kevin back, shoving his scrawny ass behind her as she reaches so easily for that part of her that she often tries to bury. She doesn't outright Glimmer, but she's about ready to let it loose if she needs to. She watches as the bits and pieces fly together, forming a shape that takes her a bare heartbeat to reconcile. "God, if only you could take home souvenirs from Dreams..." Magnolia is obviously in desperate need of a shoulder dragon. She stands her ground, pressing her heels against the floors, even while she gently tries to keep Kevin and the others behind her.

James winces a bit at Diana. "Look, yeah, of course I'll help, but trust me this isn't an earthquake. I don't know where we're going but I know we can't stay here, this place is filled with glowing things and if there's one thing I've learned about this place is that glowing things are bad." He pauses, tilting his head. "And sometimes non-glowing things too." More rocks fly by, and he tries to pull Diana into a crouch with him. "Get down, this is just starting-", he starts to tell her, when suddenly there's a stone lizard thing. "Ah, fuckwaffles, here we go. Get behind me, stay with the others, please, Diana." And then just like Magnolia he moves to stand next to her, standing his ground and hoping the others are staying safe behind them. He glances at Magnolia. "This is probably gonna hurt, like, a lot, isn't it?"

It's almost comical, in a tremendously and darkly humorous way, the sight of de la Vega hunkered there over Kelly's collapsed body. Switchblade out, teeth bared at the dragon-thing, like he thinks he has some hope in hell of facing off against it. The truth is, he knows for a fact that he does not. But what the fuck's he going to do, leave the guy behind?

He shoves the knife away, and starts to get his arms under Joey, in preparation to carry him out of here. In case he can maybe sneak past the petrified stone monster.. thing, somehow. "Plants," he tells Byron curtly. "Tried to kill us. You don't wanna know. We gotta get out of here."

Kevin's mouth works as it becomes clear that this is not just an earthquake. "Ab -- Bah -- Em -- " he's trying to make words work, but they just aren't doing it. At least he doesn't collapse on the ground and go fetal, or go sprinting away from the terrifying stone dragon-beast. He lets Magnolia herd him back away from the petrifying former forest, his eyes white all around. "J-James? M-Magnolia? W-What's g-going o-on?" Bringing his backpack around on one shoulder, he fumbles inside it, coming up with -- the DMG, which he waves like it's actually a threat, as if he's an actual threat. "B-Besides that thing being t-totally cool."

Lilith skids to a halt with Byron after an 'eep' of close call noise when one piece of flying debris nearly whacks into her. She checks over Joey briefly while listening to de la Vega's answer when he broaches where the pair is headed, somewhere between exhibits to show what's going on double-time-- it just depends on where eyes are pointed. While lots of others see everything coalesce into a dragon-thing, Lily sees the mammoth moving. And suddenly she starts to step back... then turns to see the dragon-thing too, so she steps back again, putting her right where she was, eyes widened significantly.

Rock and hard place much? Tugging incessantly on Byron's hand, she points at the mammoth with the other, "Uh. Who wins between a mammoth and a dragon? Because I think we should maybe try to point that moving thing at the other scary thing... somehow... some way... uh. Uh. Uh."

Sometimes she only really remembers she has powers when she's pissed, it doesn't occur to her to try and break anything yet, that stuff is unreliable life punishment, not superpowers, right?

"Holy shit!" Byron can't help but cry out when not only do things break and splinter all around them, but soon they were in the presence of a few prehistoric creatures come to life. At this point, he's only holding onto one of Joey's arms, but seeing that they'll have to move quickly before any of those things try to eat or stomp on them, he drapes that arm over his shoulder, helping Ruiz cart the guy around.

There was a glowing dragon thing in one corner and gigantic stone beasts in another. To this, Byron has to ask, "Get out of here to where? Weren't you just outside?" Quickly, his gaze seeks Lilith out. Good, she's safe, but they were standing right near the rocking mammoth bones. Shouting over at Dash, he calls, "Mister Bauer, what time did the bus driver say he was coming to pick us up??"

However, Lilith's idea makes some sense, but Byron tries to mentally get the restless beast to, I don't know, trust them. They are friends. He's not sure that it will work, but he'll try to calm it the fuck down anyway.... if anyone is crazy enough to set it free.

"HOLY HECK," Diana says for herself, ducking down with James and letting him be all brave. She gets behind him as requested, whimpering a little in fear. She shivering just a touch, and stays very close to James. He does seem to know things. "What in the world?" she whispers softly, sounding starkly terrified. For all that she was a chatterbox before, she's going silent now.

Magnolia is distracted just enough to look at James, asking incredulously, "Who fucks waffles?" Then she shrugs a shoulder, and nods. "I mean, when does it not? Who the fuck in this town has good dreams anymore?" Then she narrows her eyes on the dragon, and she holds up both hands. "Come on, pretty... we don't want to mess with you, but I've got an entire fridge or dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets at home. Wanna come home with me?"

The blonde doesn't look at Lilith, and she shrugs a shoulder. "Definitely a dragon." She isn't quick to attack the dragon, because motive is important. She listens to Kevin's rambling data points, and she chimes in at the end, "And Chaotic Good. I can handle that."

"It depends on the age of the dragon," Kevin answers automatically, his mouth moving without conscious thought. "They can be anywhere from CR1 to CR25. I think this one's Large-sized, so..." And then he trails off, because holy shit that's a dragon. "CR5 to 14." He gives a little squeak, "I think it's totally at least CR11. Chaotic Good? That makes it Copper or Brass..." stats are better than 'reality' right now. He actually steps forward when Dash starts to scramble back, reaching out to help drag the man back toward the cluster of teens -- except he's not particularly impressive in the 'able to drag people' way. There's a pause, and then he mumbles, "I have good dreams." And then he blushes.

"Look, no kink-shaming, ok?", James quips back at Magnolia, before the dragon-thing is complete. He glances back at Diana and tries to give her his most reassuring smile- for whatever that's worth considering it's coming from a kid who looks 13. "Don't worry.", he lies. "It's all gonna be okaaaheywatchit!", he continues, then yelps as he and Diana are picked up and hauled away by Dash.

Kevin takes a moment to snap-point at James at the mention of not kink-shaming, dropping hold of Dash for a moment to do it. He's not dropping the DMG.

Lilith looks at the mammoth moving, then at Byron after de la Vega gets Joey hauled into a corner out of the way of everything. Then she looks back at the mammoth remains, then the dragon thing in the distance and she starts to lunge forward as if to break the wires and supports. But they start to snap on their own and she backpedals, staring at Byron's face and seeing he's... concentrating? Something is...

"Okay, I'll run real fast and make it follow me like bullfighting, or... wait. Wait. Wait-- are you commanding that thing with your eyeballs?"

She seems confused, but look, she was about to 'toro toro!' that huge thing on impulse planning, so if it's being pretty chill because of something Byron's doing...

"Okay, now what?"

Byron could sense them in his mind, which was a little creepy since he only reached out to one dead creature. Maybe, he's far more powerful than he realizes... "What's got you upset?" He holds a casual enough conversation with the Mammoth. "What disturbed you?" The only thing he can think of is them. This class. "Was it us? Did we wake you?" Not that the tall and lanky teenager expects actual answers, but he is curious.

Someone's talking about waffle fucking and despite the gravity of their situation, he will point out, "Not kink-shaming, but in my humble opinion, that's a waste of a totally good waffle." It's during this discussion when he notices Magnolia trying to coax the dragon to come home with her. He knows what her home life has been like recently, so he won't make a joke about whether she should get permission from her family or not beforehand. For now, he continues to let the unconscious Joey rest partially against him.

"The Mammoth is a friend. And so are some other things..." He's not even sure what! "Is it safe to go outside? If so, we go outside..."

Diana returns James' reassuring smile with a nervous one, because no matter how bad things get, you HAVE to smile at someone smiling at you, right? And then she gasps as she's lifted up, trying very hard to stay still out of fear, rather than realizing the teacher is toting them. "Are you okay?" she hisses at James, and then adds, "I'm really scared," also hissed, like the dragon might overhear her. She clutches her bag as tight as she can, squeezing her eyes shut for a moment, shivering. She's no fun in a crisis!

Magnolia rolls her eyes at Kevin and James, keeping her back to them as she maintains locked focus on the dragon. It doesn't try to eat her, so she's thinking that everything is hunky-dory for a little longer. "See... we're all good. I'm good, he's good, he's good... I mean I think he's good." She shrugs toward Dash. "I'm definitely good. You good?" How many times can she say good. "Everything's good." At least once more.

It is her turn to snap-point at Byron! "That!"

Then she's looking back up at the rock dragon. She is about to step forward, her hands outstretched with palms up to the dragon in a friendly, nonthreatening way, but its head snaps up and hers does, too, as if trying to spot the threat that isn't the dragon. The ceiling starts to crumble, and her eyes dart up to it just as debris start to fall. "Fork!" She throws out her hands in a broad arc, and with that gesture comes the blinding flare of her Glimmer. The debris goes flying off around her and Kevin without striking, and then she is grabbing Kevin's arm. "I successfully got a second date with a dragon, and I think it's time to go!"

Kevin's feeling pretty cool, getting thanks from the teacher, and then there's that bellow, and he freezes in place, that cold dart of fear and adrenaline launching itself down his spine. "Eek?" When the dragon shows off and Kool-Aid-Mans its way through the wall, Kevin throws up his hands in front of himself, protecting his face with the almighty DMG. He is miraculously not hurt -- although that has a great deal more to do with Magnolia's badassitude than his own actions or any inherent protection from being a DM. He's in no position to protest Magnolia grabbing his arm and hauling him toward the door, "Pretty sure that wasn't acid, so it must've been fire, which makes that a Brass Dragon." It's clearly not a brass dragon, it's a Petrifying Dragon. Only then do Magnolia's proud words cut through his haze of terror, "Um... good for you? I think it can take Mark." Which is a high bar to clear from someone said high-school boyfriend pretty regularly put into lockers or trash cans. "Byron, Lilith, is the mammoth skeleton really following the Brass Dragon? Or did I have some really too-old frozen pizza last night?"

Lilith tilts her head and looks between Byron and the Mammoth while they 'discuss' what's going on that's problematic (a lot, in Lily's opinion, including this conversation, but...) and what should be done. Her brows are knit and she looks away with an instinctive crouch-reflex when she sees Mags and Kevin about to get debris trounced, but there's a save of physical counterforce that happens before she can yell... far too late. But it's the thought that counts, right? Batting her lashes, she catches onto Byron saying 'outside' and eyes the mammoth another moment before starting to bolt that way with no real need for convincing or motivation.

Abruptly, though, she stops when she sees bony giant sloths slow motion crawling in from the other exhibits and after a drop of her jaw she turns to look at Byron with wide eyes, "... what'd you do, make a prehistoric fan club? Can you call the velociraptor skeletons to pick up the pace of whatever needs to go down at the museum? Or can we-- oh look. Bus!" Lily happens to be talking and hustling at the same time after her initial fascinated fangirl stare at Byron once she's realized the scope of what he's probably kind of actually doing, whether she understands it or not. The bus is like a light at the end of a screwy tunnel and the perfect distraction for her to shut up, grab his hand, and rub for the yellow rectangle with wheels.

On the bus, once they've flopped into the back breathlessly, surged with adrenaline, Lily stares at Byron and declares what she thinks is kind of a rule of the universe, in general.

"You're so effing badass."

Then she makes out with his face pretty much all the way back. He ends up with her gum at some point when it slips her cheek-tuck technique. What a prize.

"The defiler?" Byron repeats the name that the Mammoth gives him aloud. Teenage Byron really was a helper even if he had the heart of a capitalist sometimes. He's not too different as an adult, he'll eventually realize, but the stakes of the world are much higher.

The violent sound of Magnolia's dragon friend tearing through the wall makes him look in the direction of their exit. The defiler must be out there. Both an adult Byron and a teenage Byron are rather practical in thinking, it's the teenager in him now that almost wants to stay and battle against this Defiler as well. And in the present day, as an adult, he'll scoff at Grant for... the Grant things that he does, though in a sense, this was rather similar. He also almost wanted to wait for his other friends to catch up, but there was no time as they were being ushered out to the bus.

"Sorry, Big Guy. Looks like we gotta go." He's still helping Ruiz with Joey, but he shoots a glance Lilith's way, "We have to go." She probably already know this. As they trudge forward with Kelly in tow, he calls back to the Mammoth and Sloths, "Good luck to you all!" In this escape, hearing something Kevin says, all that Byron can add is, "Mark's an asshole." As for the Mammoth, he adds in, "Uh, the Mammoth and everyone else wants to kick the Defiler's ass." As they can kinda see the antlered beast now.

Once inside of the bus after traversing the battle zone, he lets Joey rest in his original seat in the back as both he and Lilith take their own once again. They are hot and breathless and she's calling him a badass for just making friends. Not that he'll complain, though as they start their makeout session, he can't help but watch the carnage going on outside until its completely out of view.