Like Real People Do (GOLDRIC)

9

Edric was hopeful that the rest of the day would be normal.

And really it should be. Overthinking, overfeeling, it's nothing new by a long shot, and that's what he'd been hoping to pass it off as. He's always had an unlikabley wild imagination, it was part of why his mother was so hard on him growing up, he wouldn't doubt it at all if that's all it was. Everything is normal. You have a bad feeling about today. You ate something bad, that's all. Someone entered the office after you. Titan, the feeling won't go away. It makes you sick. It's just paranoia. Stop being a baby. Something is wrong. Something is wrong. No it isn't, you always do this.

He can't even place who the voice of reason is in his head. His instincts are alight with anxiety, something inside him trembling, like a small animal sensing its impending doom as it locks eyes with a hungry beast. The feeling is detached, yet visceral. Like one of his limbs was cut off, but could still feel it, like it was connected through an imaginary string of nerves. See? All in your head.

When he got all panicked and jumpy like this as a child, it was always Emira who would guide him to sit down somewhere, telling him stories she made up on the fly and comb fingers through his hair until he was asleep. And it worked. Maybe not because the stories were any good, or made sense. But it was Em. In this moment, it only takes that memory of her to bring him back down; collected and calm, at last.

It's not even five minutes into first period when principal Bump says over the intercom. "Students. Please join me in the gym for an important announcement."

Edric wishes he just stayed in bed.

He trails behind Em to the gym, and at some point he catches a glimpse of Amity amidst the murmuring crowd, looking disheveled and tired, and he knows she's still worried about Luz's whereabouts. She has this firebright look in her eyes, the same look before a grudgby match. Dangerously determined.

There's a moment he considers going up to her, but she wasn't very talkative to him this morning and he doesn't want to push it. He can never find where the line is, where his worry becomes annoying and unwanted, and it seems like he pushes it all the time. Edric just can't understand how Emira does it, how she just knows everything about her two siblings. He's always screwing up, or on the verge of doing so.

Before he can dwell on it for any longer, Bump begins to talk, revealing the hooded figure in the center stage as the Illusionist coven head; Adrian Graye. Of course, being in the illusion track for so long, he recognizes him instantly. He feels the shock of his classmates, but up until that point Edric was having a hard time focusing, or maybe just caring.

Now he was wide awake.

Even after Graye's explanation he felt lost and confused. He said something about the Day of Unity; Belos wants every student inducted into a coven early, and that he has a plan to prevent that. All the panic he thought he'd stifled away was surging back in full force, like a tsunami tearing past the shore, until his ears began to ring and his vision runs glitchy and tunneled, arms trembling by his side. This is stupid, Titan you're stupid. Pull it together.

A hand touches his shoulder, and a teacher is guiding him to the stage. Oh please not me, why not literally anyone else. He doesn't have time to protest, and he isn't even sure how he's able to walk, he can't feel his legs at all. As far as he knows, the bones have melted into jelly.

"Before any coven scouts come by, I'm going to make illusions of sigils on your wrists. They'll be temporary and harmless." Graye explains, but Edric can hardly hear, staring out at the herd of students with muted panic, a ringing still in the forefront of his hearing. He wants to catch a glimpse of Emira, but he can't zone in on any faces; vision too scattered.