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SARONA GAYLE
UN: SARINSCRIPTION

STATUS: Student, age 16, 11th Grade

ACCOLADES: Honors Society, Advanced Runic Courses, Fluent in English, French, and Japanese, member of Global Betterment of Society Coalition, can inscribe the primary Inscriptions with eyes closed

BIO: I'm good at what I do and want to learn how to be even better. Knowledge is never a crutch, only a pathway to improve one's self. If you don't believe in hard work, you're not worth my time. I only intend to leave the world after doing something worthwhile with my life. Will you? Also enjoy running, gardening, and hobby golem-making.

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[Early in the evening, there's a knock on Sarona's door. It's one of the academy guards, recently demoted to the most dreaded of assignments: watching Toki. Toki waits off to the side, and has obtained a child leash. He couldn't convince the guard to let him knock on the door himself and start one simple conversation.]

[Sarona hears the knock despite her headphones, as she usually keeps the volume on low. She looks up, pops the earbuds out of her ears, and then heads over to the door to open it. She isn't expecting anyone, so she wonders who it might be. When she opens the door, the guard throws her off and she takes a tiny step back.]

Uh, yeah?

[She hasn't messed with any of the golems on campus in over a week.]

Miss Gayle.

[The guard nods at her in greeting, and then gestures to Toki.]

Mr. Rikugou would like to speak with you. Is this acceptable?

[She sees Toki then and her eyes go a bit wide.]

Sh--[Oh right language.]--Crap, Tik-tok! Come in here. [She looks to the guard.] That's cool, right? I won't let him jump out a window or anything.

[The guard nods and moves out of the doorway for Toki to get by. He'll remain the hallway. As soon as Toki gets inside, he's hissing in a whisper.]

I'm not going to jump out a window! Okay, I did, once, but I'm not going to do it again!

[Sarona is shutting that door to give them some privacy is the guard doesn't try to stop her.]

Good to now, but I wouldn't blame you. I'd jump out of a window to get away from a babysitter like that too. What is that thing they're making you wear?

[She grew up rich enough to never have even seen a child leash. That is what nannies were for.]

[This is not how we wanted to start things off, but it's fine. Sarona seems her usual self, and he's happy to see that.]

It's a leash. [Awkward.] Uhh, I picked out the cat, though. I almost went with a pink sparkly rabbit, but the cat was just a little cuter~!

[He smiles a bit, trying to make light of things.]

[A leash. For a teenager. She's sure that somewhere is her Master Guard thinking about how much he needed that a couple years ago. And it's probably justified considering that Toki can sometimes not be...completely safe for himself, but it still feels patronizing as hell.

But it would be better not to push to hard about it. She doesn't want to make him uncomfortable.]

It is cute. You do have good taste about some things. Now, what's going on? [Seeing as he's been gone for weeks, but she's polite enough not to say that outright.]

I know it's kind of late, but I wasn't here, and I wanted... I figured you went to Australia, and I wanted to make sure you were okay. Which, you look fine, so... But if you want to talk about anything, I just want you to know that I'll listen. I don't think that I ever told you that I care about you and that you're my friend. So... You are okay, right?

[He hadn't meant to be that rambling about it. There were more articulate sentences prepared.]

[You would think that rambling about being friends would make someone worry less, but Toki manages to do it in a way that really makes her wonder what's going on up there.

But he's her friend and rambling is very much Toki's thing.]

I'm more than fine. A couple bruises and scrapes. Already healed. Thanks for asking though. It's been so crazy lately. I hadn't had a chance to check in on you either. How are you doing?

I'm glad you're okay.

[No. This wasn't supposed to happen. Though he can't really blame her for turning it around on him. He makes it easy, unfortunately. There's a little bit of a sigh before he starts; not that he minds the topic. There's just... a lot.]

I'm... not okay, but I'm getting there? [He won't tell her he's fine when he's not.] After the website, there was... an incident. And then I realized how bad it really was, how bad I was. I'm working on things.

[She appreciates that honesty and that he doesn't seem like he's trying to reassure her just for the sake of it.]

Well, my old therapist used to say the first step was knowing there was something to work on, but the hardest part was seeking out help. [Which she never fully listened to.] I'd say you're already half way there.

[He won't ask why she saw a therapist, but that comment gives him a lot of hope. Because Sarona always seems to have everything together. He's choosing to believe that's not a facade.]

That's where I've been all month, getting help. I really think it's going to work this time. It's very hard, but I'm trying. I know a lot of things I said to you, or tried to explain, when you were helping me study- they didn't make sense. Which is what I'm primarily focused on; better communication from an analysis of my absurd thoughts.

[He's half-quoting therapists, but he has the general idea of what's he's aiming for.]

[Sarona gives an understanding snort then.] Absurdism has its place Toki. Just maybe not when someone's trying to explain alchemic transmutation placement to you.

[But then she tries to give him a reassuring smile.]

You said I could talk to you if I needed to, but that goes both ways, okay?

[She leans in so she can elbow him playfully on the arm.] I don't think I would know what to do if I didn't have you around to tutor. You're gonna be my doctorate thesis if I ever go into teaching.

I'll remember that!

[He appreciates that, and may even take her up on the offer one of these days.]

Speaking of tutoring~... So like, because summer classes got cancelled and everyone who signed up got As, I actually passed this time, but... I didn't learn anything and it's not fair. I've been studying on my own about things, but I'm kind of starting from the beginning with magic history and things that everyone else already seems to know, and I get some of it, of course... [He's been reading 1st grade level things.] But it's going to take a while until I actually... understand the things in the classes I'm taking, and anyway, what I'm getting at is that when classes start again, you'll be seeing a lot of me because I'm completely unprepared for 10th grade~!

[Now that sounds a bit more like the Toki she knows. She leans against the side of her bed, hand on the mattress.]

You make it sound like it would be a bad thing? I've been taking random classes for the hell of it that some of the teachers are offering. Seminar kind of things really because they're so short. If you want I could rec some books for you to get you going before classes start up.

[He smiles genuinely; things aren't as hard to get back to as he thought they might be, in some respects.]

If you wouldn't mind, that would be great! Oh! I learned English, or a lot of it, while I was gone and I've been keeping up with it, so like you can recommend English books too!

Works for me. My knowledge of Japanese rune literature is a lot less than my English and Nordic translated texts, anyway.

[She goes over to her desk and starts jotting down a quick list on a sheet of paper in one of her many notebooks. She keeps talking as she writes.]

Anything else you have planned for the rest of vacation? Or wherever you can ditch the babysitter?

No, I don't have any plans... Not immediate ones.

[Because he doesn't know how far they'll let him go, and when, or if, he'll stop being watched constantly.]

I have something I want to do, but it might have to wait.

[There's a roughness in his voice at that, a determination.]

[She doesn't know whether to be glad he sounds like he has something to focus on or worry what kind of thing that is.]

Anything I'd want in on? [Because of course she needs more things to do.]

[Toki glances at the door; he doesn't think the guard would be listening to their conversation, but he lowers his voice anyway.]

I don't know... Have you ever killed a daemon?

[Oh. Well... She replies back in an equally low tone.]

I've had a run in or two back home, when daemons were causing problems and people thought they were originally natural disasters, but most of my daemon fights are lower level ones they give us on missions here. Just how big deal a daemon are we talking here?

[That's not a lot of experience, but it's more than he has.]

I don't know, really. I figure he can't be like a really powerful one or he wouldn't have picked me, right? I was a very easy target, convenient. I plan on talking to him first if I can find him, and trying to dissolve the contract that way, but, I mean, is that really a possibility? So, I have to have a backup plan, right? Kill him. Only... I mean, I'm willing to, if it comes to that...

[That's a bit heavier than she expected, but then she gets why he would want this. But then there's the question...]

Are you sure killing him will solve the problem? Some daemons do poison pill contracts.

A poison-

[He puts his hands up in a "stop" gesture, but it's for himself and not her. Don't panic.]

Okay, wait. First, I should say that like killing this daemon is Plan C. I'm working on Plan A, but if that doesn't work, talking to the daemon is Plan B; which I did discuss with Professor Atchison, kind of, and he said I had a good chance of like out-talking the daemon or something, but he may have been sarcastic or joking. I can never tell with him. Anyway, and I don't remember if he actually said that killing the daemon would break the contract, and he probably didn't, like we may not have even discussed that part, I don't know... Anyway! Where was I? Uhh... It's Plan C! But that wasn't what I wanted to say... Oh! What's a poison pill contract?

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July 25th

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