Open Black Moon Academy - School for the Gifted

((Good god this is long.))

Everybody was flooding in almost as soon as Nick started to think he’d be stuck here alone. And after just a couple minutes, he wondered if he wouldn’t have been better off. He hadn’t even opened his mouth to answer the first “what’s up” when some blonde girl came busting in trying to shove her words down their throats. Her name was Serena. And Nick found her quite obnoxious. But he’d met worse.

Certainly it was better than the girl who sat opposite of them all. Nick watched the girl hug her things close to her, looking at them warily. Weirdo. He thought. Someone with a 3DS came in and pretty much ignored them.

The Shade stirred in his mind when another girl came in. She had long, black hair, and sickly skin. Something about her gave Nick chills. The Shade said she was radiating something, something it was protecting him from. For the most part. There was a bit leaking through, giving him those chills.

She asked who they were, and eyed the lonely girl. Nick didn’t say anything. He only watched her. The Shade normally didn’t care about people, but this one he was forming an opinion on. When a sickly boy came in behind the girl and sat down to read a book, the Shade seemed interested in him as well. He wanted to go and investigate the boy. Nick had to restrain it. Shade’s curiosity had never been aroused this much. And it wasn’t usually a good sign.

Possibly the outright strangest to enter was the kid in the gas mask. Wonder what happened to Darth, there… He seemed interested in the creepy tattooed girl. It got weirder when somebody claimed that an airship had crashed onto their car, and then some kid started calling people “foolish” and “mortal” while he showed off his hamster. “Freak.” Nick muttered.

There was a hollow crack as the massive doors on the second floor opened. A group of adults, teachers it seemed, entered with a tall bespectacled woman in the front. Her clothes were dark gray, accented with reds, and her pale blonde hair ran all the way to her knees. She did a quick, silent count. “It appears you’re all here on time. Excellent. I won’t have to repeat myself. I’ll keep this brief.

“Welcome to Black Moon Academy. I am Headmistress Cynthia Eastes. It goes without saying that you will not breathe a word of what transpires within these walls to the outside world. For any reason. On a related note, you will not draw unnecessary attention to my Academy. So, for example, if, say, a dirigible were to fall from the sky near my school, I’d have to deal with the situation. Harshly.” She cast a hard look at the girl with the umbrella. “But being that this is only your first day, I’ll make an exception.” She went on as if the incident had never come up. “You all possess unique powers, and it is the duty of the Academy to instruct you in the proper and responsible mastery of these powers. Some are more cursed than gifted, but it is the Academy’s belief that every one of you has something of benefit to offer the world.

“Now, I’m quite busy preparing the rest of the school. I presume most of you have met Larry?” The janitor, still diligently mopping the floor, paused to give them a wave. “He will take your bags to your rooms. He already knows who you are. We gave him reports to memorize, and he’s been watching you come in. While he’s taking care of your bags, I’ll hand you all over to my colleagues.” Without another word, Madam Eastes turned and disappeared through the massive doors. Most of the others in the group followed her.

Only two remained. A tall, well-trimmed and dark-haired man, and a rough looking fellow with tattered clothes, bandages on his hand, and four or five scars just on his face. The well-trimmed one spoke first, pushing his tiny round glasses up his nose. “My name is Professor Cole Pope. I teach history, and serve as right-hand to the Headmistress. As you all know, this is no ordinary school. You are not tested in the same manner you are elsewhere. A test can come from anywhere at any time. And I won’t lie to you… Students have died before.” He gave a small chuckle. “Only the stupid ones of course. Now, you will not be told to go to bed at any certain time. However, between the hours of 11:00 PM and 6:00 AM, you will be expected to remain in your rooms. If you are caught outside your room after hours, you will be accordingly punished. Breakfast is served from 6:00 to 11:00 every morning, lunch until 4:00, and dinner is served until lights out. Finding the cafeteria will be considered a test. With all that in mind, I now take my leave, and leave you in this man’s capable hands.” With that, the Professor followed the footsteps of the Headmistress.

The scarred man stepped forward and looked them all over. “I’m Byron Moriarty; Combat and Strategy Instructor for Black Moon. And you’re a bunch of worthless freaks. Understand? And it’s my job to make you worth something. Below me is a door with a chain across it.” He mounted the handrail on the stairs and slid down to their level and stepped in front of the door, swinging keys on his finger. “This door,” He said, unlocking the chains. “Leads to the basement. In the basement we have twenty desks, a blackboard, and 15 full sized sparring rings. And last year we got a toilet, too.” He pushed open the door. “The stairs are a bit dark, but don’t worry, there’s light at the end.” The stairs were concrete, and there were no lights at all beyond what was flooding in from the doorway. “Follow me, and we’ll get this started. And leave your baggage.”

The stairs were long, but not unbearably so. There was next to no visibility at the bottom, but Moriarty opened a door and light flooded in. The desks and blackboard were right by the door, and the rings spread evenly throughout the basement. The ceiling towered over them, using all the space between the ground floor and the basement it could. “Toilet’s over there.” He said, pointing to a door. “There’s only one. Clean up after yourself.” He moved to the blackboard. “For every hour in one of those rings, I expect two in one of these desks. Your powers may be terrifying, or anything else in the world, but your mind is the best weapon you have. End of discussion.

“Now, I need to see what you can do. And you need to know what your new friends can do. So I’m pairing you up with your roommates, and you’re going to spar in one of the rings for me. I will not tolerate any lethality in this room, ever. If your opponent falls out of the ring, you wait for them to pick their ass up, and get back in. You spar until I say ‘stop.’ Questions?” Without waiting for anyone to so much as breathe, he went on. “Good. I will now list off your partners for this match. This person will be your roommate for the rest of the year. So listen close, and step forward when I call your name and room number. When you have your partner, proceed to any ring and begin sparring whenever you’re ready.” He produced a slip of paper and cleared his throat.

“Room 1C! Raisa Winters and Reneé Crowley!” He paused long enough for them to walk up, but didn’t actually look to see if they were going to respond. “2C! Nick Sloan and Eris Fallton!” Pause. “3C! Serena Holloway and Priam Malack!” Pause. “4C! Gundam Takana and Katie O’Ryens!” Pause. “5C! Aimee Blackburn and Vidal Biryukov!” Pause. “6C! James Levin and Nestor McLane!” Pause. “And 7C! Thomas Lang and Priscilla Messina!” He cleared his throat again. “Alright. Go.”

Gundam turned fiercely red - again. He had showed mercy, pity, even; and with it came insults. Of course, that came as a given, as all humans betrayed each other eventually... even so.

"Must I show you their powers, foolish human? The Four Dark Gods are not to be trifled with, lest they make an example of you worth putting in scripture for its atrocity... strange their powers may be, they are to be feared. The strangeness of their powers is their strength. Should you put them in a ball, they would roll over and trample the Earth once over, stamping down the landscape flat, squashing skyscrapers and moving so fast as to glide over the oceans! A rolling doomsday to smite the unworthy!" Taking a pause, he added, "Amstergeddon, indeed."

Looking around, he saw the one of which she spoke, to whom he had "won out"... There was a boy in a hazmat suit, in a mask just like she had described. Odd enough, to be unable to judge a face. "The masked one may hide in his suit all he likes. It will not spare him from due judgment."

Right after he finished his sentence, the doors on the second floor opened, and out came... teachers, seemingly. They were always a shield between him and the student body; the nurse, of course, was the most useful, as she could always hide him if the need came. In such dire times as mandatory school dances of any sort, he could always flee there.

He listened to what they had to say, but had no concerns worth voicing. It was convenient that their luggage would be carried for them, and he expected no trouble with class. And sparring should be no trouble, he thought--showing off his Dark Gods of Destruction would be easy enough.

So, he stepped forward when he was called, and looked for his roommate, waiting for the supposed Katie to do the same.

~Reneé

Reneé watched as the surprisingly numerous students arrived after him. A rather interesting lot, a few seemed rather normal by first glance, but Reneé knew better. A girl with strange tattoos seemed to emanate unpleasant feelings, not that she seemed to be feeling them, but more of an influence.

"Do not want her as a roomy, might be a bit too gloomy. HAH!" Reneé thought to himself as he continued his mental list. A girl with an umbrella, a rather disproportionately tall guy who emanated the thought vampire as Reneé watched him, a girl who seemed to have over-protective parents, based on the final guard helping her in, hazmat boy whose presence unnerved Reneé more than he would've liked.

"Dammit Doctor Who, now you've conditioned me against gas masks."

Some girl whose expression became rather displeased when umbrella girl's dirigible? Wait, a dirigible, really? Sheesh. The boy with the hamsters was next, and on cue Reneé heard the squee of one of the girls. He didn't care which, so long as she didn't do it as a habit. And finally the guy with a telescope case. The interaction between hamster guy and squee girl, oh, umbrella girl, huh, proceeded oddly, and continued to be even odder after one of his hamsters ran over to one of the boys who already been there. The interaction that occurred led Reneé to discern that the boy had some sort of ability to communicate with animals.


Soon enough the headmistress entered the hall and Reneé found her speech, rather stern, expectable, but not exactly the best first impression. There was bound to be more to her, but for the time being it seemed as though there were things to be done and a the deputy headmaster, "Hah, an almost inverse of Harry Potter...", went over a few basics before leaving as well.

This professor addressed them with a rather stern, or militaristic tone. But the one word that caught Reneé's ear was the professor's surname. Reneé decided that he'd ask when an opportunity presented itself.

The group was lead down into the basement where the room was split between a classroom, and a number of sparring rings. Reneé had chosen not to illuminate the way on the way down, as he figured that his ability should remain secret to his fellow classmates until they were to- oh, they were to spar immediately. And in a non-lethal manner. Cool.

Reneé made his way to the sparring ring indicated for him and this Raisa. he put his sport coat and 3DS off to the side of the ring, having no intentions of allowing them to be damaged. Reneé took his place in the ring and awaited his opponent.

Priam paid no heed to the other students that filed in, even when one starting ranting off something about a falling dirigible and another was boasting about "Four Dark Gods of Destruction." None of them were as intriguing as the one with the mask, so Priam had fully retreated into his quite enjoyable book. All that he had to do was wait for whoever ran this place to show up.

As it turned out, he didn't have to wait too long. Before he knew it, another set of doors opened, and several of what Priam guessed were the staff members here showed up. At the headmistresses' words that the students were to not draw any exterior attention to the academy, Priam smiled grimly. He seriously doubted that he of all people would even consider doing anything to draw attention to the academy (hell, he doubted that he was even going to draw too much attention to himself.)

When she went on to say that everyone at the academy had something they could do to benefit the world, Priam had to resist the urge to burst out laughing. Really? How, I wonder, would a leech like myself contribute to this world? "Sick joke," he muttered under his breath, even as the well-groomed staff member stepped up.

He only slightly paid attention to what this one was saying. Curfew was something he doubted he'd have a problem with; Priam figured that his room would be where he'd be staying for the bulk of his free time. Now as for the test of finding the cafeteria... I suppose the health office takes the place of the cafeteria in my case, he thought, returning his book to his bag, and I suppose they wouldn't make an exception, even considering the circumstances.

Then the scarred staff member made his speech. It was standard, almost stereotypical drill-sergeant fair, nothing surprising therein. The real surprise, as it happened, came to Priam when he followed the group down into the basement area. They were sparring right off the bat, it seemed. And what's more - and this was admittedly not a surprise - no lethalities would be allowed.

That filled Priam with a sense of unease. As far as he could tell, his powers were locked into the "kill" setting. How was he supposed to demonstrate his powers if they would kill the recipient?

Suppose I could simply extend the claws and do what I can to not grab, he decided, walking over to the nearest empty ring. Briefly adjusting his jacket, he stood and waited for this Serena person to arrive.

Serena had to hold back a squeal of delight at the sight of a hamster. The moment the furball showed itself, her experience at the Academy increased by 500%. She didn't get much of a word in, though. The Headmistress had some kind of speech that she didn't pay much attention to. Then some guy talking about curfew. She texted her sister that the schools "fancy as all geddup."

The last one caught her attention. Seemed like this speech might have been given once or twice before. He led them downstairs (she thought the stairs were creepy, by the way), and she was rather shocked to learn they'd be fighting each other. She wore flat soled shoes, but the rest of her wardrobe was hardly appropriate for fighting. She only hoped she didn't damage her coat.

Priam was apparently her new roomy. And her opponent. When she saw him step forward, a lump formed in her throat. He was so creepy! It was better than being stuck with the Sith Lord, but... This one was just...

Serena took a deep breath. "It's fine. How weird can he be? I mean, he's still just a kid. Right." She murmured to herself. "And anyway, I should be okay in a fight." She kicked off her shoes as she approached the ring, and decided to take off her coat. She pushed her hair back (for all the good it did, it being shoulder length) and smiled at him. "Hi, Priam! I'm Serena." She kind of half offered her hand to shake, but stopped. "Guess that's not really the best introduction, seeing as we have to fight." She laughed. "Okay, whatever. I'm ready when you are."

Serena entered the ring, and Priam's expression shifted from neutral to one of slight disappointment. Not the masked one, he thought, looks easily unnerved as well. "Shame," he muttered, getting into a battle stance as he did so. With a flick of his wrists, claws emerged from his fingers, shredding his gloves in the process.

The fact that he wouldn't be able to kill forced Priam to change his tactics. In days where he would pick off random humans to sustain himself, his preferred tactic was to sneak up on the human, and grab one of their arms as well as their face. His claws would extend shortly thereafter, and the human's fate was sealed.

Here, since both lethality and stealth were out of the question, a different approach would be required. Best to size her up first... Priam began to warily circle Serena, looking for a chance to strike. It would do him no good to make the first move, not unless he wanted to risk murdering this girl. Rather, he'd let her attack first, see what she could do, and retaliate accordingly. So long as his hands never touched the girl, things should be... relatively fine.

Katie sighed dejectedly; of course the first thing they'd have to do is fight, because she was so good at that. And no matter what fun other people were making of them, it was pretty clear to Katie that the hamsters were actual gods of destruction which was definitely not on the very long list of things she was expecting to run into at the Academy.

It crossed her mind very briefly to simply bow out of the cage match, since she wasn't here for fighting or training or anything; her abilities were literally her identity, it was essentially as impossible for her to not have mastery over them as it was for her to be unaware of her favorite ice cream (she actually preferred frozen yogurt, with bananas, but that was besides the point). But "accordingly punished" had struck a foreboding vibe with Katie, and though it was not Moriarty who had said it, the systematic introductions of all three faculty members gave no sign that they weren't perfectly in synchronous league, and whatever punishment accorded to refusal to perform in these "tests" probably wasn't worth avoiding the minor injury and mental stress of the test itself.

What did worry her was the ambiguity itself behind the remark--not because they didn't mention what the punishment could be, but because she couldn't read what it was in their minds. She had no idea if Occlumency was based on any real thing, because she certainly wasn't anything close to a Legilimens, but there was definitely something blocking her from reading anything from the faculty. But as far as she knew it was only the faculty that was affected, she could still feel the nervousness of the other students, the subtle but constant closed-ness of the boy in the biohazard suit, the dramatic God-complex of the boy with the hamsters--

At least, thought Katie, he wasn't going to be fighting her one-on-one. It was obvious whether you could read his mind or not that he was planning on using his magical hamsters (still a very strange thing to wrap a mind around, even a supercapacitated mind) to "destroy the mere mortal effortlessly" or something to that effect--it was hard to hear him around his extreme self-absorption. Still, being that the hamsters were gods of destruction, and not just hamsters, possession of them was more-or-less out of the question.

Actually now that she thought about it that was worrisome too; "gods of destruction" were probably the worst kind to be pitted against. Gods of combat, gods of sport or even strategy would be better, because those were all contests, the gods would simply want to win--destruction was an endpoint, it ended in the absence of something that was there before, with something destroyed and Katie didn't like the idea of that. Lethality was outlawed in this room, yes, and presumably (hopefully!) everywhere else in the facility, but as was said, students had died before. Yes, they were the stupid ones, but who's to say that a stupid one couldn't cause the death of another, less stupid one? (Okay that wasn't quite fair--there wasn't anything to suggest that Gundam was unintelligent, but there was enough to imply rash-and-stubbornness, foolhardiness, etc.) Her best hope was that Gundam was exaggerating about the raw power of his familiars.

"Look--don't sweat it about the car, it's not like there was anything important in it or anyone got hurt. Just--be more careful in the future, and maybe offer to help clean up the wreckage somehow," Katie said quietly to the umbrella girl--Priscilla, her name was--in the hubbub. She moved away from the dirigible damsel and towards her roommate and sparring partner.

Katie had already worked out a plan of attack in case the hamsters proved non-possessable (she had smirked when Moriarty had said your mind is the best weapon you have--her mind was the only weapon she had), but it worried her that she'd have to leave her body lying there in the ring. Of course she'd need to distract her opponent from it, try to be as flashy as possible so he didn't realize that she was entirely vulnerable the whole time. Katie considered leaving her sweatshirt on, but thought against it; she wasn't entirely sure of the abilities of the hamsters themselves, and in the off chance that she was unable to phase out of her body, she'd need the mobility (which was a vain notion in and of itself; what was she going to do, dodge four pure destructive forces until someone told her to stop?). As she reached her opponent, she removed the sweatshirt to reveal an ultramarine tank top. The jeans would be sorely limiting, but she couldn't exactly take them off.

"Hey," she said, extending a hand and trying to come off as friendly. "I'm Katie, and I guess we're roommates. And by the looks of it, sparring partners."

"... You don't talk much, do you, Priam?" Serena asked. He hadn't really responded to her greeting. He was just circling. Great. How was she supposed to fight if he didn't attack? She'd hoped to use her power to dodge all of his attacks and counter at the opportune moment. But it looked like he was being cautious.

"Um... Good luck, I guess." She shrugged. Since he seemed pretty keen on not attacking, she figured she had to. So much for her brilliant strategy. Her power probably was completely lame next to his, too.

She closed the distance as quickly as possible, trying for an uppercut to his creepy little jaw. Of course she figured that she could have dodged it, so she followed up with a rather uncoordinated series of punches which only seemed to have the pattern of "left, right, left, right." She made an effort to aim for joints or pressure points, but she didn't know too many vulnerable spots on the body. The best she could do, really, was get him to attack and put her on the defensive. The only way she could think to do that at the moment was to keep pushing him. If he couldn't work in a counter, she would win.

To be honest, she'd never imagined hearing a legitimate strategy as being "put yourself on the defensive." It was really quite odd.

Priam ignored Serena's words as he continued to circle her. Banter of any kind never interested him - after all, that actually involved talking. Still, it seemed that this girl was as cautious as he was in her movements. Perhaps her powers are like mine? If so, this battle will go nowhere fa- His musing were interrupted as she rushed forward, clearly trying to uppercut him. Priam sidestepped the uppercut, but her follow-up left punch caught him on his shoulder. Priam was sent skidding back, but now his expression had gone from its previous disappointed to his usual neutral appearance. Good. She has fight, and her powers don't seem to be like mine. This will go somewhere

Crouching in a stance normally seen in jungle predators, Priam leaped forward at Serena. His intention would be to slash downward at her with both hands, followed by a swift kick from his right leg. If it seemed like his grip would close around Serena, he would of course pull back. However, based on how his attack was aimed, he doubted that those measures would be necessary. And even without his powers, he'd found that these claws could cause quite a bit of damage.

[I missed a post party... dammit, aaaand fast forward. ]

This place... wasn't what she was expecting, at least, not this early. Raisa watched as the others all made it to their individual rings. I see this going one of two ways, she thought, I lose, or I lose. She had no fighting experience, no laser beams or evil hamsters... or umbrellas. She was at a disadvantage, and she knew it. She followed Reneé into the ring, noticing he had already placed what looked like a gameboy to the side. Expensive system, she knew, and pretty hard to get while in school.

What did she have? Well, she just might be able to talk her way out of a complete and total ass kicking.

"A gamer huh?" she said. "I bet I could help you out there. Or not. I probably could rewrite all the data inside and remove all the saved files, if I wanted to that is." She smiled and whispered low so only he could hear, "At least, that is unless you want to make a deal."

It seemed everyone had been too shy to speak up - Eris endured the arrival of several other students, one that was flustered about a dirigible of all things. One came in with an escort, and then -

Another student, clad entirely in a suit complete with mask, as if he was afraid of being contaminated... or maybe afraid of contaminating all of them. Either way, the effect made him look completely inhuman, and better yet, he was heading straight for her. Straightening, she turned to smile at him, even as he stopped at what probably seemed like a safe distance away - not far enough to avoid her powers, though.

"Creepy?" she said, raising an eyebrow. "I'm not doing anything at all. Just standing here, enjoying the peace and quiet... but if we're going to talk about creepiness, it takes one to know one." Pushing aside a momentary worry that if he was... dangerous enough to need a suit like that, that her powers wouldn't have a chance of protecting her, she sauntered towards him, closing the distance a little more. "From the way the people around here are looking at you, I'd say you've creeped them out quite a bit. It'll take me a while to catch up." She could feel that, feather-light brushes of fear around them. But not at her. That was the infuriating part, that so few of them had noticed her. Darth Vader proxy was apparently just more sensitive - or maybe they all thought that they were feeling was just nerves.

Eris considered simply making her fear stronger, so all the far-flung students would feel it - especially the ones cooing over what was apparently a hamster - but maybe that sort of thing was best left alone until the teachers showed up.

She was about to introduce herself when the doors on the second floor opened with a resounding thud, the teachers showing themselves as if on cue. Putting aside her interest in her neighbour, she listened, smile slowly widening into a grin as they kept talking. A school where the cafeteria was hidden, and their first icebreaker was apparently fighting each other. Coming here had definitely been the right choice.

It was too bad she knew barely anything about fighting, but her opponent would have to be too shaky to even try, right? As her name was called, she rolled her shoulders and walked up, running a hand through her hair. The other hand she extended, still grinning. "It's nice to meet you, roommate," she said languidly. There was something different about him. She couldn't pin it down, but there was something that made him seem familiar. Not like she had seen him before, different than that, but...

Interesting all the same.

Eris Fallton, huh? Great. Guess it was too much to hope my roommate could be a guy. And when the tattooed girl stepped forward, he felt Shade... well "shudder" for lack of a better term. He was excited. Even better. Nick thought with a sigh.

He didn't really care for the way she seemed to be examining him when he got into the ring. She seemed to be offering... Maybe not "friendship," but at least an introduction. And a handshake. Nick ignored it her hand hovering in front of him. "Likewise." He said monotonously. Shade started pushing the boundaries. He wanted out. Nick rubbed his forehead. It hurt whenever Shade fought him. "My friend's getting anxious, so if it's alright with you, maybe we should start."

He took a step or two back from Eris, and stopped restraining Shade. Let him off the leash, as it were. A burst of shadow suddenly gushed from his pores, collecting in front of him. It was a very short process before Shade was fully formed, a dark figure with great black wings. His body flickered like dark flames as it struggled to maintain shape. He let out a low hiss, akin to wind running through an empty hall.

"You heard the instructor. Non-lethal." Nick waved him off. Shade let out another hiss, with a hint of excitement. With a flap of his wings, he rose into the air, then quickly dove back down to Eris, raising his claws. Without Shade inside him, he could feel Eris' presence, unhindered. And he felt truly terrified. He bit his tongue and kept his focus on Shade. "Let's see if this pans out." He couldn't believe he had to share a room with this girl. Just his luck.

Something of a fuss broke out as as several of the others responded in like manner to the hamster; the owner of this—"fwuzzy bwuzzy" indeed, so cute—Gundam Tanaka, was that the name?—declared himself owner and caretaker and something about gods and destruction and evil, and what had he called the hamster? Magazine? (Priscilla thought this a funny sort of name, but perhaps there truly was no accounting for taste.)

Nothing seemed immediately unusual about these hamsters, but then it was a school of magic; maybe the hamsters were related to this Gundam Tanaka’s powers? I wonder if he might be any good at breeding, I hope so, I really do want—

But while Priscilla’s mind was occupied by hamsters, a … procession, of adults (well, several of the students seemed like they could probably be considered adults, too, but more adult adults) came in the room.

The woman in front began to speak, introduced herself as Headmistress … Priscilla wasn’t sure she caught the name quite right, it seemed kind of stststsy, something about not speaking to the outside world (could the outside world understand, she had trouble enough understanding this magic—er, the supernatural—herself, and she was magical); the headmistress continued to speak—oh, they noticed the dirigible already (oops)—and apparently the janitor would handle the bags. Her bags were still in the dirigible, she wondered if the janitor would find them. (The dirigible really had been a terrible idea, in retrospect; how many times had she realised that by now?)

Most of the—professors, presumably, at least most of them?—then left with the headmistress, leaving two; the second-to-last introduced himself as history instructor … students had died, that seemed a bit unsafe, although perhaps there wasn’t much to be done given, well, magic. Presumably. A curfew; finding the cafeteria would be a test? … Interesting. She could probably find the kitchens if she tried, though, they’d probably be significantly warmer than most anything else in this building, so she wasn’t too worried about that.

After that one left, the last professor introduced himself as combat and strategy instructor—that could be interesting—and then marched the lot of them into the basement. A basement classroom-gymnasium? That probably did make some sense. And "your mind is the best weapon you have," now, that was a sentiment Priscilla could agree with.

Sparring? We’ve just arrived, he expects us to spar? At that point, the student whose car she’d probably wrecked muttered something, but she didn’t catch quite it, but she didn’t hear "dirigible" anywhere, perhaps it was commentary on what the professor had said?

He was listing off names, and Priscilla was the last to be called; the only other one left was a rather tall boy with a large nose. Quite a large nose. Thomas Lang, it seemed. And she couldn’t fathom what his power might be, nothing about him seemed to give much of a clue. But this Professor expects sparring?

Well. She didn’t know what sort of power she was up against, but … looking around at the those who had already started (well, the first pair, mostly), she decided the first thing to do would be to get in the air. It wouldn’t be very efficient, no, not in this space, but the umbrella could withstand the force[1], she knew, she’d done it before, although she’d been using safety equipment then, but it hadn’t gone too horribly wrong, she didn’t think. After that … what could she do, fire and explosions? But she’d need to draw energy from somewhere for that, and just flying would be expensive enough.

So Priscilla adjusted her flower headband, put down her parachute (it wouldn’t have been useful indoors anyway, even if it hadn’t unfurled earlier) and The Central Science (on a desk, of course), gripped her umbrella … and waited, expecting her partner to go and choose a ring.

[1]: (cf. Mary Poppins.)

((WHAT ALL I DID MISS WHILE I SLEPT GOODNESS))

Aimee sighed in relief as the attention was not addressed towards her, they all now seemed to focus on the hamster and the... guy who started talking. The way he spoke was odd, and it just made her cringe away from him. As soon as he finished talking, the doors opened and people, who must have been officials, walked in.

She just listened to them talk, sighing as she had to follow them, keeping her distance from all the male students and staying the farthest from the teacher, he was bound to be powerful.

Looking around the room they were in her face turned pale. They had to fight their new... partners? Aimee watched as some pairs stepped up, they were both boys and girls, so that could mean...

“5C! Aimee Blackburn and Vidal Biryukov!"

She stepped forward instinctively, looking for who her partner could be, taking in a breath as she realized there was still the chance of them being the masked kid. Oh, please, no, no, nooo...

~Reneé

As Raisa stepped into the ring Reneé realised several things. First, he would have to share a room with a girl, and thus he would have to be polite and mature about it. Second, she was the one with the protective parents, and likely came from a wealthy family, further reinforcing the likely need to be polite and mature. And third, she was making threats against his game, not as a "I'll drop it in water or delete your save file." kind of way, but a "I know this stuff and mess with me an its screwed" kind of way. That basically through his aptitude to be as polite out the window. But she did seem to have a proposal.

"Well, off the bat my assumption is either that you hack as a hobby, and your fairly good at it." Reneé replied, pulling his Zippo from his pocket. "Or you're a techno-path, and thus have little to use currently for combat means. Regardless, I would prefer it if you would refrain from threatening my games." The Zippo clacked open and a small orange flame emitted from it. "However I'm willing to hear out your proposition, but keep in mind that you currently don't know what I can do..."

Vidal couldn't put his finger on it. The girl standing before him... was like fire. Yes, that was the best way to describe it. With fire, long before you got close enough to be burned, you felt the initial warmth. The deep feeling of foreboding he felt radiating from her seemed like an indication of a far more intense lurking horror. Something as raw and primal as fear of the dark, a natural instinct in the back of the human mind that screamed. Was he the only one feeling this? Her remark about him spooking everyone else did offer some explanation. Perhaps they were more thrown by his initial appearance than that of this girl. This awful, frightening girl. Who nobody would care to notice until it was too late.

For the first time, he felt like he wasn't the only monster in any given room anymore.

"Don't be ridiculous. It will take three days, tops." Why was he encouraging her? Well, maybe it was better if she was the one feared. Once people were awakened to what an abomination he thought- no, that he felt she was down to his very bones- they'd go easier on him. Only easier though. He never wanted them to stop fearing completely.

Turning his back, he shied away from her company. Away from that aura of nameless dread that no meager suit could keep him safe from, following along at the back of the herd of students as they were summoned. His raspy breath a constant reminder of his presence. More cursed than gifted... the Headmistress' words struck a chord in him, that time. Perhaps it would be the same case with others? Surely, not everybody who played the superpower lottery could come clean with the practical, easily-concealed powers. Even if people like him were just a minority, he would find them. Seek them out. Such people were akin to the only family he had left in the world now.

But it seemed just as the student body of this school was far from average, so too were the methods employed by the faculty. A cafeteria that had to be found. That, alone, summarized the outlook of the Academy very well. Learn fast or starve- use initiative and ingenuity, or suffer the consequences. Tests would be issued at any time? He couldn't trust that this whole school wasn't already a test in itself. A continuous one, with himself and the other students as the lab rats running around their own little maze. That metaphor made him reflect on the boy he'd seen with hamsters running around... rodent-based abilities, most likely. What a fitting comparison. Here's hoping that by the end of this he didn't do as other rats sometimes did- and eat his fellows alive. It would be rather oft-putting to watch the same kid tearing into something so small as a hamster with his teeth.

Still picturing the boy with the dramatic personality eating his pets alive as they descended the stairs, figuring that it probably wouldn't even take that much to push him that far over the edge, he stood in the middle of the room and waited. Listening to all of the names being read out as they were assigned their roommates for the semester. Roommates who, as an introduction, they were intended to fight. A disturbing notion. He wasn't sure how to feel about it, nervous that his own power might injure somebody, or that an even worse power might come along and do the same with him. The man, Byron, called out his name. He stepped forward, and at the same time, so did a young girl.

Aimee Blackburn, he could only presume.

"Kssssssssh... you will follow me." That comment was directed at her. "You will follow me now. Kooooooooh..." If this school was all about initiative, then he was going to take it. He'd been repressed too long, contained in white rooms, living his life through the people his blood donations saved. Now it was time for him to seize his own chances. And if that meant sparring with this girl... and he would try not to kill her, he really would... then he would do it with unflinching conviction.

And he would not accept any delay. He marched towards the ring, impatient to see what his roommate was capable of.

Her grin didn't falter as he ignored her hand. Oh fine, so he was going to be like that - well, it didn't matter much to her. He was too interesting to ignore, and who could blame her about being curious about her new roommate's powers? Of course, this little fight was a chance to get a good look at what he could do, see what drew her, like an alluring smell she could only vaguely remember.

It turned out that Eris would get her wish really quickly.

Awe kept her frozen on her feet as a shadow seemed to form around him, turning into a winged shape that she couldn't quite see clearly. Not that it mattered - seeing it sent chills up her spine. Not ones of terror, but something stranger, an icy feeling that was somehow home. It was exhilarating, even though she noticed that lovely as this all was, the figure was swooping down at her.

Whatever that was, she wanted to get as close to it as she could. Just... not in a way that would end up leaving her hurt. Snapping out of her trance, she dove to the side, sliding gracelessly on her knees. That wasn't going to do more than buy her a few seconds, and she had the intuition that her powers wouldn't work on the thing he had summoned. It was all... fire, or shadow, or shadowy flames. Regardless, Eris was pretty sure it was solid enough to hurt her. But her dear roommate had been the one to summon it, and order it to deal with her non-lethally, which meant maybe it would stop chasing her if she got to him. It was too bad, she realized grimly, that she had never bothered to really work out, or run, or... or something, because now she actually needed that.

Breathing a little hard, she sprinted at Nick, focusing in the only way she knew - to take any fear he already felt and smash it into him with all the blunt force of a hammer. He had to be scared, had to be terrified, too panicked to move. The closer she got, the more he'd feel - which was good because she had no idea what else she could do.

Sure, her abilities were great but for fighting? Not so much. And she could barely even throw a punch, herself.

As Eris only just dodged Shade’s dive bomb, Nick sighed. Shade wouldn’t go through the trouble of a dive bomb except for one reason: he was toying with Eris. He didn’t know the difference between fighting for keeps and taking something seriously. And now Eris was getting closer. Nick felt the chill in his bones go deeper, and deeper still. If he could have, he’d have just collapsed in a heap and waited for the fear to go away. But he couldn’t just lose.

Shade beat his wings again, making a beeline to Eris. Nick felt his will ebbing, and figured that it must be her plan to use… whatever this power was to cripple him. His breathing shortened and he broke into a cold sweat. “Dammit… Shade!” Hearing Nick’s call, Shade beat his wings at the last moment. He had been about to ram into Eris, but at the sound of his name, he veered around the girl and instead went straight for Nick.

Rather than the normal collision, Shade slammed into Nick and simply vanished. A few remnants of the black flame lingered outside a moment before fading. Nick’s body burned, and he let out a cry as Shade assimilated himself. His sweat turned warm, and he felt the fear draining away. There was no way he could withstand Eris’ power without Shade’s protection. But he’d never been any good in a fight on his own. He’d always relied on Shade. He took a few heavy breaths, and wiped off his forehead. “That didn’t last so long as I thought.” He gave a small smile. “So, if I level the field, will you still fight me?” He may not have been anything special in a fight, but he didn’t doubt that he was at least more in shape than Eris. Even with the fear he felt that got past Shade, he was certain he could still come out on top. Unless she’s only tapping the surface. Who knows how deep her powers run? Hell, I don’t even know what her powers ARE.


Moriarty watched the first matches commence with mixed interest and disappointment. Despite being told to fight, it looked like at least one student was trying to bargain. At least she was thinking outside the box. The keyword being “thinking.” Then there was Nick and Eris. While Moriarty knew how to put up mental blocks on Eris’ powers, Nick required the aid of his “friend.” Another odd thing. He’d never encountered a summoner whose creature was bound to his body like that. Most called to the undead, or sometimes creatures from other dimensions (though that was a matter for debate). And Vidal, the walking plague. More than anything, Moriarty wanted to see his thinking. He’d been essentially caged most of his life. Even when he was walking free, he had to hide in a suit. He doubted the boy had ever acted like himself since he was a toddler. Now he was fighting a small frightened girl. Moriarty was curious to see if he had any sympathy left. He had the most controversy surrounding him among the faculty, if only because he could unintentionally destroy them all. He had zero control over his power.

Though the rest certainly had potential. Vidal was impressive, but only really stood out because his powers were “louder,” so to speak. The rest were just as potentially dangerous. Given the right training, anyway.

Yet they were all so damned cautious. Too focused on winning. Eventually, they’d understand. Winning doesn’t matter. Surviving matters. That much was already made fairly clear to those who had their ears open. A non-lethal fight was just silly, unless it was legitimate training. Moriarty had never really expected any of them to see through it. Not the first time. He had been as clueless as them, once.

The Katie who stepped forward was not anyone he had extensively noticed; she wasn't the one who called Maga-G cute earlier, but that's all he knew. He had no clue of her powers, or if he had to take any precautions facing her. Luckily enough, she didn't seem very threatening.

Gundam was surprised by her introduction; friendliness? The cry of "cute!" was just a normal reaction to his hamsters, one which came without expectations or promises of kindness, and just after it had come the sharp-tongued girl... leading him to expect this to be just like school years past. There was no reason otherwise, after all... "Gundam," He said anyway, shaking her hand, "Tanaka, Crown Prince of Malevolence Incarnate, and continent of the Tanaka Kingdom." At this he took out his hamsters. "If we are to brawl in the pit of darkness, lit not by the sun but by the false grace provided to us by our captors, then it's best that we become acquainted with each other, I suppose... lest the Four Gods think of you as a willing sacrifice."

At this, he set down Maga-G and Cham-P. "Shall I start the fight?" Without waiting for an answer, the hamsters transformed in unison; Jum-P stayed perched on his shoulder, while Sun-D jumped off and ran at Katie. Her intentions were not to attack, but to land on her and darken her vision. With that, his more supportive preparations were done... he could trust Jum-P to hide the scene. First, let's see how that confuses her.

Aimee gasped as what she had feared would happen the most, did. Vidal was already terrifying, his breath coming out in what sounded like hisses, the mask covering any emotion on his face, and the suit made entirely of... rubber. This was not good, at all. This... she didn't even know what to call him was her new partner, roommate, and sparring partner. She didn't want to fight him, let alone touch him, and she had to deal with living in the same room as him.

She turned to him in fear as he was already barking orders at her, hurrying her up and waiting in the area he chose. Hesitating for a moment she looked after him. She couldn't do anything about his suit, and if the methods were supposed to be nonlethal, he might not even be able to take the suit off.

This is what could save her from having to fight him. She tried to walk without any fear showing, bravely stepping into the ring and eying him.

Aimee lifted up her hand and caused sparks to come out, watching for any reaction. She didn't know what she expected him to do. Either way, she was going to get out of fighting him successfully.

"Vidal, I... can't do anything... with your suit on. You seem to need it and me not being able to use my powers would be an unfair advantage..." she looks over to the instructor as she says this, hoping he'll notice.