Welcome to Gaia! ::

((The exam will be officially over when both students have completed their exam and Savage has announced if they have passed or failed ))

Crouching back, he watched and waited, his hand out, a candy held in his fist softly, only enough to entice the cat, but not enough for them to steal it away. It took a little bit for another to find it’s way close to him, the green eyed one watching the hand carefully, almost a Zen moment between them passing as they kept their distances and strong holds.

“I know you want this.” He murmured to the feline, his eyes showing that he wasn’t backing down as the cat’s disposition wavered a little, a soft mewling sound emitting from it as it broke the stand off, coming closer and leaning against the kit-king, a soft purr rumbling from it’s chest. That was one down, and a big ego boost for Jack. He hadn’t had to subdue a cat in a long while, and had started to worry he had lost his touch . . .

Petting the feline, he looked around, waiting for his next victim, offering up the sweet as a present.

Hearing a familiar skitter, Jack’s eyes flashed back from his two new companions to the first cat again, the white tomcat watching him mischievously, his tail flashing behind him. That little b*****d. Making a soft keening noise, his own tail thumped the floor softly, taking a candy from the little pool he had left beside him, the subdued ferals next to him a bit of a challenge with full hands - who knew if they were being kind to him, or just amusing him for the time being. At least they weren’t tipping s**t over.

Making a small showy flash of his hand, he tried that stupid cat again, his face hardening from any show of emotion, trying to get some kind of hold over him.

But it failed again, and with a swift movement, the tom had the candy again, making a tittering sound, almost as if mocking the cat king. . .

Turning his head back to the white tom-cat, another stare off ensued between the Cat King and the feral, his face keeping the vicious look on it, a slip in to his more feline form, before he tried to shake it off. Grabbing a candy, he threw it at the tom cat, which made it skitter off permanently, before looking away, back to the two he was able to catch.

“Looks like I’ve been defeated this time. . . I guess you can’t win them all, no matter who you are.” He murmured at them, feeling a little run down about his luck. He had never lost to cats, they were usually pretty cool about his presence, and this was a first to him. Lifting himself to his towering height again, he looked at Savage a little dejectedly, the cats he had subdued rubbing against his legs softly.

“I’ve done the best I can, I hope two are still somewhat adequate for you, at this time.”

Progressing past her first year was a kind of terrifying concept to Shine. There was a sense of security to be found in a general lack of change, but she supposed she'd thrown all of that out the metaphorical window in her best attempts to make new friends and explore new places. It was an unsettling venture, sure, but it seemed fulfilling...she supposed. It was nice in all of the ways that everyone else thought it was nice, but really, she would be just as content (if not more so) curled up with Rain and a little glowfly, just reading and giggling all day. But that wasn't her ghoulfriend's preference - she enjoyed physical deaducation, the outdoors, leading and being around the other students.

So she had to try. For Rain.

When she got the notification of the time and date of her exam, it took all of her willpower to not crumple it up and feed it to one of her minipets. She'd take the time preparing to take her mind off of any of her worries, and it would be okay. Surely.

But in spite of all the time she spent readying herself, the zombie ghoul that showed herself at the designated location didn't look prepared in the slightest. She wore badly-self-knit gloves over her long, clawed fingers, her Trial of Famine beach day sunglasses, and matted and mottled FEARmuffs over her ears. It made perfect sense to her in Shine-logic - no hurting anyone she wasn't supposed to, no too-loud noises, no bright flashes. The exam would inevitably go just fine. There was no way that it couldn't go fine.

She peered at Professor Savage and her classroom, which seemed to be in the process of being hastily dismantled by cats. Cats! Shine straightened up and seemed to be a little more enthusiastic about the situation, hardly listening to what their instructor had to say. She did, however, happen to catch that she couldn't test them today...which made her shoulders sink once more.

"Oh...I...okay," she mumbled, beginning to back out of the room, until--was that something about passing them to second year if they helped catch cats? She could catch cats! And when this couldn't get any better, Professor Savage handed her a whole pile of candy. Clutching it to her chest, Shine moved towards Savage with a steady, content eeeeeee noise coming from her...and pressed against her in her own idea of a hug.

Utterly thrilled, she began attempting to unwrap one of the candies with her mittened hands, ready to stuff it into her mouth. But, wait...the other student was using the candy to bait the cats! Maybe that was the trick.

It didn't stop her from popping an unwrapped, dust-and-litter-covered hard candy into her mouth, hoping that nobody was watching. Surely just one wouldn't hurt.

Frowning, she dropped to all fours and began to crawl towards one of the cats, meowing at it with dirty candybreath, snatching in its direction.

"Kitty...kitty..." she called, scooping it up and...no, no, she'd startled it this time! She went tumbling over onto her back, wailing from the fright of the suddenly flailing cat. Clinging to it as hard as she could, she kicked her legs and looked not unlike she was throwing a tantrum, wide, teary eyes watching the other student chase the cats around.

Wait...was he a cat himself? How amazing!

Keeping two squirming cats contained under her arm was a little difficult, but she held onto them with a rigor mortis vicegrip that only a zombie could possibly know how to do. She finally chewed through her end of the snake gummy and released the rest of it to the cat, who contentedly batted at it before gnawing on it once more.

Her brow furrowed with concern as she realized that the other student was finished with only two cats, and...and he was getting more candy! She whimpered and frantically searched for another cat, hoping to get a sweet reward.

There was no longer any drive to pass the exam - only the drive for candy. And not off-limits candy like she held towards another one of the troublesome felines. Candy that was really hers.

Something particularly fluffy skittered into the corner of her vision, and she pounced, shoving it under her shirt in one fluid motion. There was some yowling, a lot of wiggling, and a myriad of new tears in her shirt, but a third cat was captured, and she still had her hand free to reach for a third.

Soon, candy. Soon.

Groaning, Shine heaved herself up, leaving trinkets and miscellaneous classroom supplies tumbling all around her. The cat beneath her shirt was moving with the ferocity of a small tornado, and she wasn't sure that the two she held under her arm were still conscious, which was slightly distressing. But she hadn't been told that they had to keep them in tip-top shape...

Trying her hardest to suppress an an ache that began to saturate her bones, she quietly shuffled towards the closest cat, a quiet scratching noise coming from the glass embedded in the soles of her feet. The cat seemed fairly calm as she neared it, staying completely still and staring at her with widened eyes...but flung itself at her, tearing at her face and shoulders until she managed to pull it off of her.

Her sunglasses were crooked, which couldn't really be helped thanks to her partially detached ear and lacerated nose, she was missing one of her mittens, and she looked like she had done something far worse than cat herding...but she'd caught four.

"Candy?" she requested hopefully, holding the cats towards Savage.