Malachai:

NOTE: Some concepts in this world are of my own, some aren't, and some are altered by me so that they could fit easier.

As you feel yourself entering this world, it's different.  At the same time of feeling drained, you feel full of something else, then you get a massive headache.  Something-as if a memory was pushing its way into your mind.  The pain is horrid, and you see it hazily.  It's an island with a giant moon, the size of the sun.  It is in the sky with the sun.  Then, there's a giant bird that looks distorted and almost 2 dimensional.  It caws loudly, then you wake up to someone prodding your side.

You feel sand under your face and a couple of guys your age are trying to wake you up.  They both have brown hair and brown eyes, and are decently tanned.  They have average build, but nothing special.  One says, "Dude!  Are you alright?  How'd you do that?"

Opening my eyes slowly, I rub them groggily and look up at the two teenagers standing over me.  "Whoa... do what?  What happened?"  Of course, I know what happened, but the concept would be too much too fast.  Odd... this really reminds me of home... so strange.

I sit up, shaking the sand off of the back of my uniform.  Eh... gonna need to pick up some more suitable clothes somewhere.  "Yeah... I'm fine... ugh... I think."

Malachai:

They both look very excited.  "Wow, so that must mean that you have the Aura!"  He laughs some and punches his friend in the arm.  "Well, Tod, now's your chance to find out if you do."

The other boy, Todd, steps forward some after helping you up.  He looks like he's trying to focus on something, but you don't feel anything but confusion as to what's going on.

All right, so it isn't earth... that was settled fast.  I raise an eyebrow at the two, wondering what they're doing.  "Okay... Aura?  What exactly do you mean by that?"  I always thought auras were some new age stuff... ugh... now I'm confuzzled.  "Also, if you don't mind me asking, where exactly is this?"

Todd makes a stupid face and looks around, "You're at the beach."

His friend makes an even dumber face at his friend and whacks him in the back of the head.  "You idiot!  He knows that."  He then turns to you and says, "You're in Cannon Beach, Oregon.  Auras are some new-age stuff and they happened to open the first American Aura Academy in America just recently in this city, since ADC Cal was destroyed by some rogues.  You are from that special Aura school, right?"

So, then, this is earth... just a different one.  Well golly gee goodness gracious galumpsing goody!  "Eh... sorry to say, but no, I'm not.  Now... what were you going on about before... asking how I did something... what exactly did I do there?"  Looking down at my clothes, I flex my arm and leg muscles, ensuring that all my weapons are hidden where they should be.

"Well, we don't really know."  Todd says, "We were just standing over there," he points to two surf boards in the sand.  "And then we looked away from the beach to check out this babe going out to surf, and we heard some shifting and turned around to find you here.  We've been surfing here for like an hour and no one's been around, so we were kind of shocked."

The other guy just nods to what his friend is saying.

I laugh quietly for a second before responding.  "I really don't know what happened... I kinda blacked out."  I shrug, trying to pass it off as nothing.  At the same time, I look around to see what's in the area around me.  "I must've wandered onto the beach and passed out or something... like I said, I really don't remember it.  Anyways, uh, it was nice meeting you guys.  The name's Malachai."

The boy you don't know the name of speaks up.  "Yeah, nice to meet you.  I'm Henry, and this is my knucklehead cousin, Todd."  He looks around and then looks like he suddenly got an idea.  "If you don't remember anything, you should probably go to the Aura Academy to see if you might have done something to appear here.  If you have amnesia, you might check.  For all we know you could actually be a student-or a victem of an aura attack or something."

Well, there we go, an opportunity arises.  "Heh... that's probably a good idea.  Say, uh, do you think you could point me in the direction of the Academy?  Or even take me there if it's not too much trouble.  I really don't remember anything about stuff here."

Henry smiles, and says, "Sorry, but we don't have that long on the beach today and can't show you the exact spot.  If you follow that street right there," he points towards the main road leading away from the beach, "and move on until you get to Kraft St. and make a right, you'll hit it in a couple of blocks.  You shouldn't be able to miss it, because the Aura Academy campus stops the road.  Good luck, man."

The two of them go over to grab their boards and run out into the water.

"Thanks!"  I reply to them as they run off.  Heh... nice guys.  Turning to face the road, I take off down it and start heading towards the Aura Academy according to Henry's directions.  "I wonder what this place is like," I muse to myeslf.  I don't mean just the Academy, either, but the whole world.  I've been to a few different versions of earth now in my travels... it will be interesting to see how this one differs from the others.

You only run about a mile and a half until you reach Kraft St.  You feel somewhat winded and thirsty, but manage to make it to the Academy gates in a run.  The gates are huge, two wide gate doors that must be at least 3 yards wide each.  It extends far too high to jump normally, and it has stone walls the same height as the gate around the rest.  There's a machine beside the gate that looks like a different version of a doorbell that you can talk into once they accept you.  It also has a keypad, but there's a button on it that says "Talk."  A camera is right above it.

Licking my licks a couple times, I decide to satiate my thirst before entering.  Turning away to face a building and (hopefully) any onlookers or cameras, I summon some water in my hands and drink it.  Afterwards, I push the button and wait for some sort of reply.

You feel strange, different than normal when you tried to summon magic in the past.  You feel like nothing's happening and find that you can't summon the water.  When you press the button, a woman's voice comes over the communicator and says, "Yes, how may I help you?"

"Hey, uh," I say nervously, scratching the back of my head.  "Uh... I kinda woke up on the beach without really any memory or anything.  A couple guys found me and directed me here thinking I might have had and aura attack or something like that.  Uh... yeah."

"Hrm..fine.  We'll get you fixed up.  Come on in and come through the front door.  I'll meet you there to escort you further."  You hear a buzz and the gates open.  You feel something strange about this place.  It isn't a bad feeling, just different from the norm.

"All right, then," I say to myself as I walk through the now open gates.  This feels... odd... what is it?  The place has definetely piqued my curiousity and I'm anxious to find out more about it.  Either way, I continue musing myself as I make my way to the front door.

You all of a sudden, when you're in the middle of the courtyard and half way to the front door, feel something.  You jerk your head up naturally to see a class at a window looking down at you.  The boys are in a blue uniform from the top down that seems to cover their necks and the girls are wearing pink and white uniform.  You can't tell much else from here, the room being too high up to see all that well.  After a moment, they turn their heads and sit back down.

You still feel it strong though, and you see someone by the window, in one of the pink uniforms.  You can't make our her face, but he has brown hair that goes down a little past her shoulders, and she's looking down through the window at you.  "Sir."  Your thoughts are jerked from their present function and pulled towards a woman in a labcoat.  She has long red hair and seems quite attractive.  Still, she looks too old to be legal for you.  When you look back up, the girl is focusing on class now, the feeling now gone.  You enter the place with the woman.

She is smiling at you as you walk down the hallway.  "Did you say that you went to this school?  I don't remember you from around here."

I look at the girl, wondering what she's doing to cause the strange feeling (or even if she's the one doing it).  Odd place... very odd.  Looking up at the woman when she asks if I attend this school, I reply promptly.  "No, ma'am.  As far as I can recollect, I have no prior knowledge of this school at all.  But, like I mentioned, I don't really remember much of anything."  It was really all a big lie, but a half-truthful one at that.

"Hmm.."  She puts his finger to her chin for a moment and leads you down another empty hall.  By the end of your walk, you're at a room with white walls and white tile.  You can easily tell by the hospital bed there that it is what seems to be a nurse's office.  She gestures to some chairs next to the bed and says, "If you could please sit there for a moment, I'd like to check something."  She leaves into what looks like an office and then comes out with a needle.  "I'd like to draw some blood."

"Blood?"  I ask her.  "Well, sure, I suppose."  While she went into the office, I had hopped onto the bed.  I held out my right arm, which didn't have any weapons hidden on it.  "Go for it, then, doc."

She preps your arm and finds the vein.  After a moment, you feel a sting of the needle going in and she draws the blood out.  Afterwards, she puts a cotton swab there and tape over it so that it doesn't bleed out.  "You can get off the bed.  This is to see if you have an aura and possibly to find your aura code.  You aren't sick or anything.  I felt something in the hall, like an aura was resonating from you.  Still, I couldn't pinpoint an eminence."

You personally can't feel anything in or around you at all that would resemble supernatural.  Thus far, you haven't been able to do a single spell.

Perhaps a different type of magic flows through this world.  Yes... that would make sense, now wouldn't it?  "Well, all right, then.  Any idea how long it will take for the test to work?"  I ask her as I hop off the bed and begin looking around the room, waiting.

As you look around the room, you notice that the general medical area of the school is pretty decent.  It's very clean, like it's an area where they group patients of a hospital.  There have to be at least two more beds hidden by curtains in the room, and you see a door at the end that leads to another room.  In the current curtained area you're in, which is right by the entrance, there is a counter with medical supplies, a bed, two chairs, and a moniter that the woman just stuck the needle into and injected.

After a few moments, it beeps and she says, "I don't fully understand this, but I can't read your aura eminence.  It's definately there, but I can't identify this.  I'll have to send this in to TADC.  It will take a little longer, because it's in Canada.  It's the closest one until the one in Boston opens up.  It could take a few weeks for a reply.  For now though, I think we should still enroll you in this school."

I nod my head.  "So I've got an unreadable aura?  Cool."  Yay for uniqueness... hehehe.  "So what exactly do you teach at this school, if I may ask?"  I really don't know anything about the school, besides it's some advanced version of the new age I had heard about back home.  Might as well learn what I can before diving straight in.

"It's just like a normal highschool, accept that gym is different and you have an aura class.  I need to know your name and what grade you're in.  How old are you?  Fifteen?  Sixteen?"

"Sixteen," I reply promptly.  At the very least, I'm sixteen physically, if not mentally.  "My name is Malachai Vanek."  Gym is different?  That sound like a roaring good time, then.

"Alright, Malachai, what math and science are you in right now?"  She asks you, and you can't help but be comforted by the small smile on her face.  For some reason, you get a vibe that you can trust her.

"Well," I reply slowly, trying to think of the convergence between different country's school systems.  Failing, I decide to resort to the Canadian system.  "I honestly don't know how it works here, but last I remember, I was doing my second year of pre-calculus and I was in physics and chemistry."  I shrug sheepishly.  A universal school system would actually make it a lot easier for everyone.

OoC: POST 1000!  YEEEEEEEE!!!
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:26, Tue 29 Aug 2006.

"Okay, I'll take you to your first class of the day, Aura studies."  She quickly typed something on the computer and printed out a slip for you.  It showed you your schedule for classes and room numbers for them.  Before you could ask about the rooming system, she brisked you away to your first class and said, "Come to me after school is over for the day and I'll assign you a room in the boy's dorm, okay?"  Then, she thrust you into the classroom and you looked around.  Everyone was in uniform but you and you felt kind of weird.

The boys were wearing long sleeved blue shirts with gold colored zippers that zipped all the way up to their neck, a little bit on their neck.  They were also wearing blue dress pants and black shoes.  The girls, on the other hand, were wearing the pink clothes from before that turned out to be skirts and brown shoes.

The woman wispers to the teacher for a moment then waves goodbye to you, leaving.

Your teacher, also an attractive female that you guess is around 30, holds you firmly on the shoulder facing the class.  "This is Malachai.  He'll be joining us in class.  You can call him Malachai right now, because it seems that his aura eminence is hard to identify at the moment.  Please, be nice to our new student."  She directs you to a seat near the middle of the classroom that is empty and hands you a notebook and pencil.  "Here, keep these.  You need to get more supplies later.  Bring it up with your dorm supervisor."

"Heh... uh... thanks," I reply, grinning sheepishly as I take the pad and paper.  So they name people based on their auras?  Or something like that, at least.  Heh, I wonder what my name'll end up being.  Walking quickly towards the seat, I take it and open the pad on the desk.  I look around the classroom quickly, taking in the faces and trying to guess the general mood of the area before returning my gaze forward to the teacher.  Wow... been here, what, less than half an hour and I'm already in school?  Jeez, must be a new record or something.

You look around the room and find that half of them are watching and listening to the teacher writing on the board and the other half are looking at you and wispering lightly amongst themselves.

The teacher has a book open in her hand and is drawing an image on the wall of a human.  She starts to draw outside of the human when the bell rings and people start rushing out of class.  She slams the book shut with the hand holding it.  You stand and then people brush by you.  At that moment, it's the same feeling as you had on the ground outside.  It catches you off guard.

You're suddenly filled with some kind of heat in your chest and moves to your face and down your torso from there.  When you look to see who brushed into you, the teacher hollars over the crowd walking out, "Malachai, where is your next class?"

I make my way to the front and pull out the sheet with my classes written on it.  "Uuuuhhh...." I stumble, trying to figure it out.  "I got the number and what it is, but I don't have a clue in heck where it is.  Eh... physics in room 302.  Where exactly is room 302, ma'am?"  What was that feeling before?  It's so... just... odd.

When you look at your classes, they are as follows:

Per.1 Rm. 320 Aura Phys...
Per.2 Rm. 302 Physics
Per.3 Rm. 419 Pre-Calcu...
Lunch
Per.4 Rm. 001 Gym
Per.5 Rm. 317 World Hist...
Per.6 Rm. 405 Chemistry

After you tell her your next period, she instructs you to go down the hall until you find 302 to your right once you exit the class.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:10, Tue 29 Aug 2006.

I look over the class list one more after thanking the teacher and leaving the classroom before pocketing it.  Physics, pre-cal, and chem I've got in the bag.  Gym I should be fine with unless it's really messed up.  Aura whatsit I can't tell yet.  History... well shucky darn I'm righteously screwed there.  History has never even been close to a strong point for me.  Either way, I've got physics now, so let's go!

I move down the hall quickly until I find 302.  Once there, I ask the teacher where I should sit and then take the seat.

You make your way down the hall and find room 302 with relative ease.  When you arrive in the classroom, you're met by a very old woman as your teacher.  You can't help but be slightly afraid.  She orders you to sit in an empty seat near the front of the room.  Unlike the Aura Physics room, there are no windows.

OOC:  In every class, post your plan for the class.  Like study, catch up on your sleep, flirt with the girls around you, etc.

Okay... old lady... ho boy.  I take my seat without question.  This class, at least, I might as well pay attention and see what everyone's learning.  In the future I might slack off some more but, at least for now, I might as well see what's happening.

During the class, it is sort of hard to pay attention to her lectures and you can barely read what she writes on the board.  Still, by the end of the class, you feel like you've learned nothing.  Some of the stuff you already knew, but other stuff you couldn't understand and copied the notes down hoping that you could understand it later.  It's nearing the end of class now and she tosses a book on your desk, going to her desk and typing away at the computer.

People around you are talking amongst themselves.  You're 'conveniently' in the front corner of the room, so you're not between any of them.

Stupid people... why doesn't one of em just come and talk to me?  Bah, I'll let them gossip what they want.  It's their curiosity if they want to talk to me.  Deciding I might as well try and learn something, I pick up the book and begin sifting through it.

You look into the book and find the general concepts you didn't understand.  You find that you get it a little bit better with the last minute study before the bell rings.  A guy that had been sitting behind you pats you on the shoulder when the bell rings.  "Hey, do you know how to get to your next class?  Tyria-sensei isn't always the smartest when it comes to general student confusion."

He looks like a generally nice individual.  He has his light blonde hair naturally against his head, as if it were part of it in a bowl cut.  He's smiling as if he's trying to make you feel welcome.

I turn around and look at the boy who tapped me on the shoulder.  "No, I don't really know how to get there.  That'd be cool if you'd show me."  I stand up out of my desk and wait for the guy to lead me.  He may be just acting silly right now but, then again, he may genuinely want to help... we'll see.

Before the two of you leave the room, he says, "Ah, that's convenient.  We're going to the next class togeather anyways.  419 is a floor up.  They do them by hundreds per floor.  By the way, my eminence is Larik, what is yours?"  By now, you two are halfway there, on the stairs heading up.  He's offering you his hand in mid walk to shake.

I extend my hand as well and shake it.  "Malachai.  Apparently, though, my name's going to change or something when they figure out exactly what type of aura I have or something... they had to send my blood off to Canada for testing, apparently."  I shrug as we continue up to the classroom.  Like physics, I plan on actually paying attention in this class.

Larik smiled wide and said right before you got into the classroom, "Wow, the ADC in Canada, huh?  I have to say that I'm jealous.  To have your aura sent to the ADC must mean that I just made a powerful friend."

In class, you feel like most of it is a review.  You can't help but think Thank goodness when you find out that you already know this lesson, feeling History coming ever closer.  You had gotten a seat next to Larik and the teacher in this class was a man.  He was relatively young, but seemed like he was just out of college and wore glasses.

Halfway through the boring class, Larik tosses a crumpled note to you when the teacher's back is turned.  The two of you are near the back, so it was fairly easy to get away with it.  You open it and it reads as a visual.

It says that the girl sitting in front of you has the eminence Bibet and the guy to your right (Larik is on your left) is called Yonja.

Bibet has what seems to be beautiful blonde hair that is straight, going down about half way down her back.  Yonja seems the same physique as Larik, accept for the haircut.  He also wears his uniform with the zipper down half way and seems somewhat like a jerk.  He has generally messy blonde hair that comes down over his eyes.

Wow there's a lot of people here with blonde hair... guess I'm not out of place like I have been in some worlds.  Larik's comment about me having a powerful aura was nice, and definetely encouraging.  Yet another form of magic to learn, it seems... heh.  Either way, I sit through the rest of the class piddling around until lunch comes (then food! ^_^).

You get out of class after the teacher calls you to the front of the room to recieve your math book.

And then, you're off to lunch with Larik, Bibet, and Yonja.  Larik helps you carry one of your books, having a bag to carry his in to make it easier.  He comments while you're in the line for food that they should give you a locker soon.  After you're out of the line, you and the group head outside.  The only food they give you for free in lunch is a lunch bun, which is just a piece of bread about the size of a meal, and a small bag (yes bag) of milk with a little yellow straw.

You sit outside with them, and find that many other students are out here as well eating their lunches.  Larik explains, "They have a cafeteria in there large enough for us, but they let the students eat in the courtyard.  Something about the outside being better for your aura."  He takes a large bite out of his bun.

Then, it seems like Bibet is reminded of something, "Wait, Malachai, so what is your aura eminence?"

I look over at Bibet and shrug as I take a bite out of my bread.  "I don't know yet.  They had to send my blood off to Canada for testing."  I put my bread down and take a sip of the milk before continuin.  "To be honest, I really don't know much about any of this.  Eh... I was really thrust into all of this quite abruptly.  But, hey, whatever works works I say."

Bibet smiles to Larik and Yonja just simply nods to them.  Bibet speaks up and says to you, "Why don't you follow us to the back of the school?  We like to hang out there sometimes during lunch."  You feel like she means well by this and her wide grin is both comforting and appealing to you.  You really want to please this group of friends for some reason.

This could either be good or bad... either way, whatever, if I can get some semblence of a friendship here it's better than nothing.  "All right, then," I reply, standing up.  "Lead away and I shall follow."

The lot of you get to the back, you going through first.  This area had more trees than the three that were in the courtyard.  It is a grassier area with a pathway to the left and to the right to two large buildings.

Right then, Larik pushes you forward from behind, to urge you on.  You find that the four of you are all alone back here while Bibet and Yonja are at the only door back.  Larik hollars, "Put those books down and get ready!  We're here to see your eminence."  His face has suddenly changed from calm to a current expression not easily described.  Before, it was hard to picture Larik as a jerk, because he was constantly smiling, but now you can see that they were put on for a different purpose.

Well, now, this doesn't seem to be any good.  Despite not trusting their intentions, I drop my books to the ground and then cross my arms across my chest.  I'm not the best with shurikens and I know it, but I'm good enough to at least scare them if they try anything too funny.

As I stand, I shift my stance and weight slightly so that my left leg is supporting a majority of my body weight.  It wouldn't be the most powerful kick if I attacked but, like the shuriken, it should be enough to hurt them a bit.  "All right... so what are you trying to do exactly here?"

You can't do anything before you hear Larik shout out, "Rossu!"  He moves his hand in a large motion towards you before you manage to comprehend throwing shurikens.  A large ball of sparking light comes out of his right hand at you.  You guess that it's about a foot in diameter and it hits you head on, knocking you down and stunning you.

With your eyes closed, you hear something in your head, Hey, Slick!  John!  Henry, whoever the heck, what are you doing on your back?  You barely manage to open your eyes and look up.  You're under the tree that you were just facing him from under.  You're on your back and find that your head had only been half a foot from hitting the tree.  You can hear Larik shouting out at you, "What?  Was that it?  You can't even throw up a guard when you have that much time?"  The three of them laugh, while you try to locate the sound of that other thing that spoke in your mind.

The only thing you see coming from that direction is a squirell sitting up on a tree.

I rub my temples as I push myself into a sitting position.  "Well what do you exepct?"  I ask him angrily.  "I barely understand what's going on here."  And what's with that squirrel... did it send me a message or something?  That was... well... weird, to say the least.  I hop up to my feet, brushing off any excess dirt.  "Seriously..."

You get up some as the Larik's still looking at you like you're pathetic.  Then, you feel something drop onto your shoulder.  Well, I'll help you out this time, sparky.  But next time, you better kick some major can!  The squirell just sits there on your shoulder.

The other three get horrid expressions on their faces and Yonja says, "My god!  It's the squirell!  Run for it!"  The three of them push eachother and squeeze through the door in a full sprint.  You just feel the presence in your mind coming from the squirell, Hehehe...That's right kiddies, run for it!  Uselss brats..

"Well thanks, little buddy," I say to the squirrel.  Holy crap... they're scared of the freaking squirrel... although, it does seem like he isn't an ordinary squirrel.  I wonder what's up with it.  "So," I ask the squirrel slightly apprehensively.  "Why did you help me there?  And, I suppose more importantly, can you help me understand exactly what's going on here?  I mean, I got the gist of it, but that's about it."

OoC: Yay for killer squirrel!!! \m/>_<\m/

Of course I'm not some ordinary squirell!  The squirell knocks you in the back of the head, and you can feel it make your head move foreward.  Apparently that thing's got one heck of an arm on it.  And what are you going off and calling me buddy for?!  CALL ME MASTER!!  You, my friend, are the uncut rock amongst all this rubble, but by the time I'm through with you, boy, oh you will be a diamond yet!

All right, so you can hear my thoughts... that makes things easier.  I sigh, shaking my head slightly.  All right, then, master, I think the last word a little sharply.  What am I supposed to do?  And you still haven't answered me why you're going to help me out, either.

He thinks to you again, Oh yes, slick.  You are a huge pearl at the bottom of the ocean.  The only problem is this thick clam of a skull you have between me and shaping it to be great!  He smacks you on his skull a little, but it doesn't hurt like it did on the back of your head.

I've seen a lot of strange things in my time.  If this squirrel had come to me before I'd started versing, I just might've killed it.  But, now, hey... he's cool.  All right, then, what am I supposed to do?  And I've learnt tons of stuff in my time, thank you very much.  I don't have a thick skull... I'm just a little dazed.  I've only been on this world, what... since this morning for crying out loud.

He speaks more in your mind.  Oh, don't worry about all of that Jon, you'll figure it out soon.  But oooh I have some things to teach you!  You hear a bell ring inside the building, and think that it probably means that it's time for your next class.

Jon?  I ask him as I pick my books back up and begin making my way to the building.  Gym was next, and I figured it would be easy to find (or at least ask some random person to point me to it).  Okay, before we move along, first of all... my name is Malachai.  If that's too much for you to handle, just call me Mal.

That's my pupil!  Mal-pal!  I'm Master Ven Cella Genya, now let's get on to class!  He thinks in your mind.  You find that he has a very energetic and up-beat attitude.  You can't help but smile some at it, but wonder if they allow such things in the classes.

I raise an eyebrow at the squirrel as we walk.  Mal-pal?  For some reason I like that.  And I agree... let's get to class.  I hurry off to gym, where I plan on taking part.  Physical activity, at least, was always beneficial.

You manage to find your way to room 002, which happened to have been in a different building.  It was a large gym.  The teacher, a big man indeed, told you to go into the changing room to a bin and find some clothes that fit him.  He gave you a lock and a piece of paper with the combination on it.  He told you also to keep your normal things in there.

Once you arrive in the changing room, you see Larik and Yonja there, but they just look away from you with the squirell on your shoulder and finish changing.  The gym uniform is a black skin-tight material that you wear underneath along with thick, solid plastic that fit around your groin, a little further down to your thighs, and around your upper chest.  You also had shoes made out of the same material as the armor, but more flexible.  All in all, it wasn't that heavy.  They aren't much of a fashion statement, but they'll be useful for some who can't put up an effective aura guard yet.

Oh really?  I ask the squirrel as I run over the getup one more time.  It's still kind of... well... odd, I suppose.  Shrugging, I finish getting changed and then walk out to the gym for the lesson.

When you get into the gym, the man says, "All right, then!  Let's see how good you guys really are this week!  I'm going to pick one of you at random.  If he has a healthy enough aura that can guard against a small assault by me, then we can go easy today!"  He points straight to you.  "You, our new hot-shot, front and center."

You hear Master Ven talking to you again, All right, slick, just remember.  You need to keep your eyes open.  Watch his aura and try to dodge his sync.  Even if you can't put up a decent guard yet, you should be able to try and see his pattern.  You were stalled for a second by Ven, and the teacher hollared a little more.  "Come on, kid!  Get over here!"  There's a circle in the middle of the room that seems 6 yards wide.  It has a line in the middle.  He stands on the far end of one side and waits for you to get on the other.

I hope you're right, master.  Gulping slightly, I walk over and take my place across from the gym teacher.  "All right, then," I tell him.  The circle seems big enough... I should be able to dodge it.  Looking over at the gym teacher, I bring my left leg back slightly so that I'll be able to quickly dodge out of the way... as long as I can tell what he's doing, of course.

Stop doubting yourself, slick!  Master Ven hits you on the back of the head again and you rub the spot.  Then, you watch the gym teacher closely.  He raises both arms to his chest and says, "Crush!"  Three large spikes of dirt come out from around his arm that he pushes out towards you.  You run towards him and feel like you could see their path almost.  You dodge the first, and barely the second.  Finally, the third hits you square on in the chest before you make it half way to him, and you fly back and onto the ground.

The teacher just grips his hand a little bit and says, "Heh, maybe I should have gone easier on him..  Oh well, class!  That's right, twenty laps around the gym pronto!"

"Ow..." I say quietly as I push myself to my feet.  I wasn't doubting myself, I was simply being realistic.  Sighing, I get into position to run the twenty laps around the gym.  It should be any trouble as I was in good shape anyways.  The other students, on the other hands, might not take too kindly to it.

Just as you get up, you feel it again.  There's a presence in the room that you felt in your class and out in the courtyard.  It's strong, and almost even has an odor to it, but you still can't identify it.  You can feel that it's close though, and start running.  You're easily making it through the first ten laps, still thinking about the feeling you're getting.

Something wrong, slick?  You feel strange that your squirell master and wonder if he's actually concerned.

I... I don't know... I think so, I begin to confess to my master as I keep up the pace around the gym.  I got this weird feeling earlier as I neared this place... I don't really know how to explain it.  And, now, the feeling's coming back.  Except... stronger than before.  I shake my head and continue running.

Gah, don't worry about it, slick.  You've just got to get over the whole 'new school' thing and get on with your training!  You finish the rest of your running with relative ease, but you're breathing a little heavier than you expected to afterwards.  Just now, in this diluded state, did you notice how muscular your gym teacher is.  He is completely cut, and seems strong enough to juggle the whole class if he wanted to.

When you're done running, he takes a stopwatch out and times you for push ups.  "Okay everyone, we're going to be doing some push ups for five minutes.  We'll keep exercising like this until all of you are fit enough to throw up a guard."

"Oh, joy," I mumble to myself as I get down and begin doing push-ups.  It's not just the whole new school thing, though, master.  It's different than that.  I've been at a few different schools in my lifetime and none of them have been like this.  It's not a new school feeling at all; it's... well... entirely different.

Hah, what?  You haven't even been here a whole day and you're already chasing after a skirt?  Get that stuff out of your mind and focus your all into your training!  You can still feel the sensation originating from somewhere around you.  You're sure it isn't Ven, though.

I grunt out a laugh as I continue my push-ups at the squirrel's comment.  It's not that, either, master.  I sigh.  Like I said, it's just hard to explain.  Eh... in time I should be able to just fine.

You finish your push-ups and feel like you still have some energy left.  Still, you feel like this gym class might be harder than you originally thought.  The teacher has you begin to run in place.  For this, Ven gets off of your shoulder and floats midair next to your head.  I'm not into the bouncy bouncy unless it's on a lass, sport.  You look next to you and see that he's looking over to a few of the girls watching them run in place.

You glance over to see who he's staring at and find that they look like some attractive girls.  They are in the same outfit you are, including the chest armor, but you can still tell that they're developed.

The teacher hollars, "New guy!  Stop looking around or I'll have you do grass drills!"

I quickly return my head forwards.  "Yes, sir," I say submissively while mentally grumbling.  What on earth are you doing?  Aren't human girls a bit, well... not your species?  What the heck are you even thinking about like that?

Oh come on, slick, what do you have against those girls?  What, is one of those dames the one you keep thinking about?  Ven talks to you mentally more as you focus on continuing to look forward and run in place.

You make it through the running easily and he calls out, "All right everyone, 20 more laps around the gym and we're done for the day!"  People start jogging slowly around from exhaustion and he shouts, "Did I say to walk?  Move faster or I'll keep you through your next period, too!"  That picked up the pace of the crowd some.

"This guy's a ruddy slave driver," I mumble as I pick up the pace slightly in my half-jog half-run around the gym.  "Twenty more laps... idiot."  No, it isn't, actually.  Well... it might be, but I'm not exactly sure, okay?  Bah, whatever.

After the first ten laps, Van speaks to you more, Apprentice!  Jog faster and catch up to right behind that redhead and her brunette friend!  You can tell that he means some attractive girls up ahead.  You could of course reach them, but it would use up a little more energy than you're using right now.

This is not going to end well, you know it?  Chances are you'll just get me in trouble again... fine, I will, but you better start helping me with stuff after this.  Figuring I might as well please the crazy squirrel, I give a quick boost of speed so that I catch up to the two girls.

As you draw near, you feel something inside of you activate again.  It's the same thing as before, and you almost trip.  Your heartbeat is loud and you can't focus as well.  You almost hit the wall and make a wide turn at the next corner because of it.  When you almost miss the turn, Ven turns towards you from the girls with a serious thought, What's wrong, slick?  Something effectin' your conscience?  Is it that same thing as before, or do girls in general make you skittish?

No, girls in general do not make me skittish.  I reply to the squirrel with a bit of grit to my thoughts.  Well... at the very least... they haven't in the past.  I dunno... I think one of em might be or something... I really don't know, though, man.

After the short run, you have time to shower after the class in their showers and change back into your normal clothes.  Ven doesn't say much important during this time, and Larik and his friends stay away from you.  You're carrying your small amount of supplies in your hands and have about 5 minutes before the bell will ring for the next period.

The teacher gave you this time to yourselves to do what you want to.

All right, master, I say to him slowly as I stroll down the hall slowly.  What and how exactly are you going to be training me?  And, for that matter, can you help me cheat in history?  Cause I really need the help in that class.  All those dates... ugh... I can't do that.  So... can you?

Like I care about your stupid history!  There are more important things than that!  Do you know your eminence yet?  We could do some training whether or not you know it.

You feel like your heart's still beating hard, and your emotions are running wild sending a warm sensation all throughout your body.  You can hear your heartbeat perfectly.

No, I don't know my eminence.  They had to send my blood away, okay?  Bah.  Hitting my chest a couple times, I try to settle my heart down a bit.  Well, whatever, what training can we do in the five minutes until history starts?

Bah, Ven speaks to you mentally that one sound and then the two of you go into history class togeather.  He's still on your shoulder.  The teacher, an elderly man, looks at Ven for a moment and smiles at you, giving you your textbook.  You feel like you're beginning to be overloaded with books and put some on the floor to make room on your desk.  You still have a couple of minutes before class starts.  You don't see Larik or any of his friends in here, but you still feel a strong beating in your heart.  Ever since you sat down among the others in this class, it's been stronger than even in the gym.

You naturally clench your fist in front of your heart.  You look out the window past a seat over and see the blue sky and clouds, feeling drawn to look over at the sky out the window for some reason.

Stupid... whatever this feeling is.  Why can't it just give up and go away?  Annoyed at it, I decide to walk around the class a bit to try and see if it gets stronger depending on where I am.  Perhaps the feeling's coming from a person... I might as well try to figure out if it is or not.
This message was last updated by the GM at 03:26, Wed 30 Aug 2006.

You find that as you walk towards the right of the room, where the windows aren't at, that the feeling gets a little weaker.  It's strongest by the windows, and that's when you see it.  There's a girl looking out the windows up at the clouds.  She has short brown hair and hazel eyes.  You feel yourself almost leave your body.  Master Ven speaks into your mind.  What's up, slick?  Do you know her or something?  The bell rings and everyone starts heading to their seats.  Just as she turns to look at you, you pivot your body and go to sit down quickly.

Not yet, I respond to the squirrel.  But I figured out that, whoever she is, that's probably where this weird feeling's coming from.  Now, this is the one class I'm going to have trouble with.  So, if you don't mind, either help me or at least stay out of my mind during it so I have a decent chance of passing.  Breathing deeply, I open my books and prepare for the nightmare period.

Your mind keeps drifting in the class towards the girl to the back and left of you, by the window.  It is a double-whammy, because it seems that you don't remember what little history you actually retained in your last time in school.  Still, this class seems to be a little different.  It looks like all of it is based off of lectures, which only makes it harder for you.

After the class, the man announces that there'll be an essay the next day on one of three topics he wrote on the board.  He comes by your desk and says, "Malachai, don't worry about this essay tomorrow.  I'll just count double for your next one."

You're soon finished with the hellish class as the bell rings.  You naturally look back at the girl that was by the window.  She takes a moment to get up and sling her bag on her shoulder.

Double for the next one?  Ah, fudgebuckets.  "Yeah, thanks, sir," I reply, half-grinning.  Looking over at the girl one more time, I try to decide whether or not to go talk to her.  After a few seconds of thought, I decide not to and to leave it until tomorrow or maybe just later in the day.

Walking out of the class, I head right for chemistry.  All right, I say to Ven.  Chem I should be fine with, so feel free to do whatever in it... I don't really care.

You head for chem and feel the strange sensation the entire way there.  When you finally arrive and sit down where the teacher tells you to, someone brushes by and you feel some sort of emotion centered on that point.  When you look to see who almost bumped into you, it's that same girl.  You're given a chemistry book and a seat in the back of the room.  He asks "Sin" to raise her hand, and the girl from your last period does.  She's looking down at her chemistry book and the paper inside of it while she raises her hand, not really paying attention.

You sit down next to her, in the seat that you were assigned in.  There are no windows in this room, and for some reason or another that is the next thing that you notice.  Ven chimes in and thinks to you, So, isn't that the dame that you were staring at in History?  She does look nice..  You see the squirell move his head back some to look at her from another angle.

Yes, oh crazy master Ven, that's the "dame" I was looking at before, I reply quite sarcastically.  Deciding I might as well introduce myself, I look over to the girl.  "Hey," I greet her.  "Uhh... since we're sitting next to each other, I figure we might as well know each other.  Umm... the name's Malachai."

You feel him communicate with you more right after you talk to her.  Jeez, you really don't know how to play the game, do you?  You find that she briefly looks up.  Her eyes widen for a moment, but then she looks back down and focuses on her chemistry again.  "Malachai is a weird eminence, isn't it?  I'm Sin."  She's scribbling some stuff really fast on her paper.

"Well, uh," I stummer back.  "They had to send my eminence up to Canada for testing."  I shrug and look back.  Well, no.  I haven't really done much dating in my time, ya know.  Majority of the girls I knew I knew through other people.  So... bah to you.

Ven hits you on the back of your head, sending it forward an inch and acheing some.

"So what, you're some kind of aura master?"  Sin asks, still looking on her paper.  Ven replies, talking in your mind, That's right, darling.  But no matter how cute you are, I'm not going to let you take my little pupil away!

"Apparently, or something like that," I reply to her, this time a bit more confidantly.  What's your problem, master Ven?  Seriously... you seem... well... okay, to be honest, I've never talked to a squirrel before.  Are all squirrels this infatuated with human chicks?  And stop freaking hitting me!  I rub the back of my head sorely.

Through the period, the teacher seems to cough a lot and get lost in her lectures.  She is a generally plump woman and seems like a very happy person.  You look over to Sin to find that she is resting her head on her hands and just staring at the ceiling.  You get a sudden shock through you and get the image of the blue sky.

I shake my head, trying to clear the image out of my mind.  Hey, master, do you have any idea why I would suddenly get the image of a bleu sky in my mind?  It seems rather odd to me, but hey, what do I know?

Ven almost feels hopeful, Why, slick?  Do you feel like ditching this joint and going to do some real training in the field?  Somehow, you don't feel like your definition of training and his are parallel with one another.  You shake off the thought and return to learning chemistry.  The end of the period is there before you know it, and you have an assignment in the book to do that night.  It's just a small 5 question end of lesson thing.

The bell rings and everyone around you starts packing up.

I quickly pack up my books and get ready to leave.  Trying to think of what I was supposed to do after class, I remember that the woman told me to come and see her.

All right, master Ven, I've gotta go see that woman in charge of something or another.  After I get that out of the way we can go and train, mmkay?  I start on my way to meet the woman before Ven gets a chance to reply.

You try to pick up all of your books in class while Ven is distracting you.  Well, slickety-slick, you've gotta go when a woman calls.  You drop them relatively quickly on the floor to your right, a little after Sin had just stood up there.  She looks at you and says, "That's a lot of books to be carrying around.  If I were a boy, I'd help you carry it to your dorm room, but we can't go into eachothers dorms."

"Nah, it's no problem," I reply, still trying to figure out a better way to carry around all my books.  Looking at the books, I decide to roughly half them between each arm and carry them more with my upper arm while pushing against my sides.

Picking up the books as so, I manage to get them at least somewhat under control.  "See?  Told ya I could do it."  And hardy har har.

She's already walked almost all the way out of the classroom as you raise your head to talk more.  Sin doesn't even notice it.  Bad timing, apparently, slick.  Now, let's get going already!  The sooner we get all of this sorted out, the sooner we can start your training!

Yeah, yeah, whatever, I'm moving.  Sighing, I make my way out of the classroom and hurry off to meet the greeter lady to get everything else about this school sorted out.

You make your way to the clean hospital-like room that you had gone to before.  There, you find the woman.  She greets you with a wide smile, which makes her look even more beautiful than she naturally is.  She looks to the squirell on your shoulder and says, "Wow, Malachai, one day and you've already tamed Ven."  She winks and gives you a key along with a slip of paper.  It has a three digit number and a combination on it.  "That's the key to your room and your locker combo.  You can get the supplied school supplies from your dorm supervisor."

"Heh, thanks," I sheepishly reply as I take the key and paper and pocket them before turning and leaving.  So you're well known around here?  I ask Ven.  Either way, I head off towards my locker to deposit my stuff and then go to get my school supplies from the dorm supervisor.

Ven replies as you two put the books away inside of your locker, Well, I might have turned a few heads while I was around, but it's rightfully earned attention.

When you reach the dorms and find the supervisor's office, you enter to find that your gym teacher is in there behind the desk.  "Ah, new kid.  I assume you're here for your school stuff."  He throws you a leather sack.  It is in the shape of your books, and seems like it could fit a couple in it.  Right now, it has notebooks and folders inside.  You also see a pack of mechanical pencils, lead, and pens inside.  "There's a cafeteria in the dorms on the bottom floor that you can get dinner in tonight and breakfast tomorrow.  You aren't allowed to leave campus without a pass from a teacher, and it is against the rules to enter the girls dorms at any time.  Any questions?"

"No, sir," I reply quickly and affirmatively.  "Thank you."  Turning, I leave the office and go off to find my room.  Looking at the key, I see the room number is 68.  So what did you do to earn the attention, exactly?  Walking down the hallway until I find room number 68, I open the door and toss my stuff in before leaving and locking it again.

Once he answers my question, I plan on asking master Ven to start some training before supper.

When you get to your room, you find that one of the beds already has some stuff on it, and you throw your things down on the other bed.  When you ask Ven about his reputation, he simply responds, Well, they can probably just sense my powerful aura.

But when you mention training, you can feel his excitement in his thoughts, Alright, slick!  Let's go!!  Before you can do anything, you feel your body tingle some and then your environment is gone around you and replaced by another.

You're in an alley with Ven on your shoulder.  Okay, apprentice, your training today is known as "babe spot", okay?

"Babe spot?"  I ask him, raising an eyebrow quizically.  And how exactly does "babe spot" work, if I may be so brash to ask?  Rubbing my temples with my thumb and forefinger of my left hand, I try to pre-empt the headache that will most likely be coming when either Ven answers my question or when I start my training... quite possibly both.  Either way, I will do what he says... if only to figure out more about auras.

You feel a hard smack in the back of your head, but your rubbing your temples helps you out some.  Gaw, Slick, you may be full of potential, but you don't know smack about two things: Women and Auras.  Of course, both of these are of almost equal importance, and luckily in my training this lesson combines the two.  Now, let's go out there and find somewhere where some nice ones are congregating..  You move out of the alley and look around.  There's an arcade accross the street attached to what seems to be a strip mall of a few small convenience stores.

"Hey!"  I say excitedly.  "It's an arcade!  Sweet!"  I quickly hurry over, digging in my pockets for non-existing quarters.  Realizing I have none, I hang my head slightly for a second before picking it back up.  Okay, now what?

For some reason, you feel like Master Ven almost hit you in the back of the head again.  But, he doesn't.  He simply replies, Here we are, Slick, a prime location.  Now, let's go inside and pick up some babes!

I walk into the arcade and look around for girls.  Hmmm... she looks okay, I suppose, I muse to myself as I walk over to a blonde.  "Hey," I greet her, trying to get her attention.

Before you get up to her, you hear in your mind Ven shouting, Whoa, slick, whoa!  Not too fast now.  You have to do this right.  Now, there's a pattern to this, okay?  You have to read the auras first, buddy.  These folk, though not very powerful, still have auras.  It shows their current emotions to those who can see it.  You see that blonde you were going up to?  She's got a firey-red aura, and that instantly means bad news.  Now quick, find another one and look at her aura.

You look around and see an attractive redhead about your age at a pinball machine.

Okay, okay... now how exactly am I supposed to see her aura?  You have to remember this isn't something I've really ever done before.  Breathing deeply, I look at the redhead and try, in some shape or form, to see what type of aura she has.

Ah, I see your problem, slick.  It's not quite dark enough for you to see auras easily.  Try moving your pointer and middle finger horizontally in front of your right eye with your right hand.  Then, close your left eye and look through one of the small openings through your fingers.  That might help you spot those auras a little easier.

Ummm... okay.  Even though it's a little silly, I do what Ven says.  Holding my hands in front of my eyes and closing my left, I peek through my fingers to attempt to see the girl's aura.

You look through the fingers and can't see anything at first.  After a moment, you see faint images around everyone, like a color outlining them.  You see a dark orange with a hint of red around the girl.  Well, slick, what do you see?  You convey the color to him and he replies, Right, right.  She's picky right now, not very patient.  Maybe in a couple of days we can check back for her again, but not right now.

Well all right, then, I reply as I shift my gaze away from the redhead.  Removing my hands, I stroll around the area again until I catch another girl which might be acceptable.  When I do, I try the aura trick again.

You find a blonde with short hair, intentionally messed around with in the back.  You can't see her from the front, but you decide to try the aura scan anyways.  You think that you see a light color illuminating around her, but it's kind of blurry.  Ven turns to you and asks, Well, slick, what do you see?

Hmmm... I study the aura a bit more closely before answering.  It's kinda fuzzy and I can't really tell the colour exactly... but it's a fairly light one.  I think I'm going to go in a bit closer.  I take a few more steps closer to see if it helps.

You move closer and find that the color is a sky blue.  It's rather light, and the girl still doesn't notice that you're there.  You hear something and turn your head to see that someone is craning their head at you with a confused look.  You 'hear' Ven again, Don't worry about them, keep your focus!  What do you see?

Shaking my head slightly to get the thoughts of those staring out, I continue his "exercise."  She has a light sky blue aura.  So what does that mean, then?

OoC: Eh... let's keep going a couple more posts before skipping to supper. :P

Ah, good job, slick!  Now, it ain't as good as a nice light pink aura, but this should be good enough.  A blue like that means that she's basically open to others right now, but pretty happy at the moment.

You manage to shake off your thoughts of those staring, then Ven says, You also might want to lower your hand once you've seen the aura of a chick, because she could be thinking one of two things: 1. You are crazy, and what's worse is 2. She knows that you're checking out her aura.  Now go work your magic, slick.

Uhhh.... ummm... okay, sure.  Rolling my shoulders, I remove my hands and quickly approach the girl.  Perhaps a bit too quickly, but at this point I'm a fair bit too nervous to care.

"Hey there," I greet her once I get close.  "How's it going?"

You talk to her with your introduction.  She seems to easily leave her game of pinball and faces you.  She's pretty cute and replies, "Hey."  After looking directly at Ven for a moment, she looks back to you.  The two of you talk for a little bit, and the two of you get into a long conversation about animals, Ven's presence having introduced this talk.  You hear Ven, See how much trouble you avoid with aura-readin', slick?

After a little bit longer, the two of you still in front of the pinball game talking, she comes up with the question, "So, where do you go to school at?  You don't look familiar."
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:09, Sun 03 Sept 2006.

Based on what you said before, I'll ignore the fact I go to the aura school.  "I'm from out of town, actually," I respond as smoothly as I can (but possibly bumbling like an idiot, I'll never know).  "Visiting a couple friends here.  They're off doing some work with their parents so I've been bumming around here.  What about you?"

She apparently buys your explaination and says, "I go to Northwest."  After just about another half an hour of you talking to her, she takes you over to a counter and swipes a napkin from it.

"I have to go now, but maybe I'll see you around.  You got a name?"  You reply, and she says, "Nice to meet you, Malachai.  Maybe this will increase our chances of seeing eachother again."  She folds the napkin and hands it to you, then walking out of the arcade waving 'bye' to you.

After waving back, you open up the napkin to reveal a message:

Call me some time,

         -Karen

Just below the name, there's a phone number.  You feel Ven talking to you in your mind again, Well, that was nice-going, slick.  You look at the clock and see that it's 3:45.  That's enough work for today, let's go get some grub.  Whadda ya say, slick?

Eh... just one game of pinball first.  Come on... I bet I won't even have to pay!  Looking around, I mosey around the machines until I spot a coin someone dropped.  See?  Won't even have to pay!  Come on, man... come on!

You manage to find a couple of quarters on the floor and Ven replies, Alright, slick, great idea.  A game and then off to some grub!  I'll see you in a second, bud.  I need to do some work real quick.  You turn to see him jump off of your shoulder and hear his thoughts as he approaches two attractive brunettes.

See, quick, this is how you do it.  Then, you can tell that he's not speaking to you mentally anymore, but to the others though you can still hear his thoughts, Now come here sugar, and we can have some fun!  He rubs his face up against the bottom of one of the girls' legs and raises up sniffing the air.

She smiles and picks him up, hugging Ven.

"That little pimp..." I whisper.  "He's going to be a cranky old squirrel when he's older."  Shaking my head slowly in his oddness, I walk back to the pinball machine and insert a coin.  Hearing the familiar bwoing-bwoing-bwoing! of the pinball machine sends me back a few months.  "Well... that was a long time ago, anyways."

After a couple of decent games, you drag Ven away from the girls as they give him strong hugs good-bye.  After that, the two of you go outside and into that alley.  So, slick, where do you want to go back to?  The Dorm Room?  You feel yourself going through the same process as before and the world around you changes.

You're back in your dorm room, facing the door to exit it.  You hear something shift and turn around to a boy on the bed opposite yours.  He has a chemistry book out and a notebook that he's writing in.  He just looks at you with a confused expression and says, "What's up?"  You can tell that he doesn't understand who you are or what you're doing there.  "Are you my new roomie or something?"

Warn me next time!  Shaking loose the jeezblies from the teleportation, I muster out a response.  "Umm... yeah, actually, I'm your new roomie.  The name's Malachai Vanek, yours?"  I extend my hands to his in a gesture of both good faith and general politeness.

You're not the only one who can teleport either, ya know.  Or, at least, if my magic wasn't being blocked you wouldn't be.  I'm not quite as helpless as I seem, I just don't have much to work with here.

Yeah, yeah, slick, stop your complaining.  That's why I'm here.  You'll be having babes waiting in your room and teleporting them all about by the time I'm through with ya!

The other boy looks your age and has brown hair cut and neatly slicked back.  It looks rather cool, at least on him.  He's still wearing his school uniform, but it's zipped down revealing the top of his white t-shirt.  He replies, "I'm Bran Fahren Della.  Nice to meet you, Malachai."  He then goes back to looking at his chemistry book and notebook, very confused.

Well, I suppose we shall simply give that time.

Seeing he was trying to figure out chemistry, I walk over to beside his bed and kneel down beside it.  "Having trouble, Bran?"  Heehee... Bran Flakes.  Heehee.  If he'll accept it, I'm willing to help him.  And, hey, if he knows history... all the better in that regard.

Heh, nice one, slick!  Ven thinks to you, and then you go over to help Bran.  For a short amount of time, he seems to understand what you're saying, and then it seems with one more statement, he's lost again.  He looks to his watch and says, "It's almost 4 now, so they should start serving dinner soon.  You wanna come with me to get some grub now or later?  They close the kitchen at 6."

I shrug.  "If you want we can go now.  It doesn't make much difference to me, anyways."  Standing up, I stretch my back out before preparing to leave.  "How busy is it at supper time, usually?"  Once answered, to supper we shall go!

The three of you go to supper then.  Bran explains on the way that it's least busy around 4, but gets really busy when it gets to 5 in the afternoon.  When you get to dinner, you find that they have the basics that you could eat, but nothing very good.  Still, you take the food and head to sit with Bran.

You meet some of his friends.  Since this is the boy's dorm, you find yourself surrounded by only boys, so you don't meet any of his female friends.  His friends are different from the others that you'd almost befriended and ate lunch with today.  They have a lighter attitude and joke around more.

I eat and learn everyone's name and get to know them all a bit.  Afterwards I will do my homework and help Bran Flakes a bit more and then train with Ven for a while before sleepy time.

OoC: Haha, but seriously, you didn't give me much to work with there.  :P
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:03, Sun 03 Sept 2006.

You get to know everybody a little bit.  He seems to have a wide assortment of friends and aquaintances that come and sit at the table with you two.  You introduce yourself to everyone and try to learn a little bit about everyone.  By the end of lunch, you think that you know all of their names and general personalities.

You and Bran go back to your room and you help him out with his chemistry.  It just seems to click after about 15 minutes of helping him out and he finishes it up quickly.  After your short tutoring with Bran, you head to the school and get your Chem and History books from your locker, going back to your room then.

The two of you work seperately on the rest of your work, Ven sitting on your head while you're trying to think.  It isn't a problem for the chemistry, but when you try to read up on the history and retain it, the pressure on your head becomes a major distraction.

I grit my teeth together as the weight of Ven slowly becomes more and more ingrating.  Listen, you codswallop... can you please... freaking... GET OFF MY HEAD!?  Taking a couple deep breaths, I look over at Bran.  "Hey, do you know history?  I'm kinda lost as is."  After finishing my homework, and as long as Ven gets over it, I suppose I'd continue training with him.

You feel Ven get off of your head for a moment, and then a hard hit on the back of your head.  It hurts just as much as the others did.  The Master and Apprentice are as One!!  While rubbing the back of your head and as Ven rests on your shoulder, you ask Bran about his knowledge of history.

He claims that he knows a little and comes over to help you out with it.  Currently, you didn't have any homework in history, but he catches you up on generally what's going on in this chapter that you're on and the next.  Once you tell him about your teacher, he says, "Oh, well don't worry about that too much.  What you need to be able to do is write essays in there.  He doesn't teach the who, what, and when's of history, but the why's.  He doesn't focus on dates so much.  We covered World War 2 in a day and took three weeks on the Jamestown in America."

After a little bit of him helping you out, you feel better about your knowledge on the information.

Then, Ven speaks to your mind when you're done.  All right, slick!  On to more training!  Are you ready for it, slick?!  You feel that Ven is pretty excited about something.

"Only the why's, you say?  Sweet... that's the one part of history I've been able to get.  Not much else, but I get that."  I thank him for his help and then leave the dorm.  On my way out of the school, I drop my books off in my locker.

All right, then, master, let's get some training in.  Now... what exactly did you have in mind?

Before you're out of the room, you feel Ven say, Wait up there, slick!  Challenge your new friend here to a sparring match.  We need to see just how good you are with your aura.  He seems completely optimistic about this for some reason.

Are you insane?  I say and turn around.  All right, but if I embarass myself here you'll get it.  "Say, Bran," I start.  "Do you want to have a sparring match?"

OoC: No way I can remember his last name, by the way.  And Bran is just awesome.

XD

When you turn to ask Bran, he seems to think about it for a moment.  "Alright, I'll do it.  You really shouldn't expect much from me, though.  We don't start combat in class until a couple more semesters, but I learned how to manipulate my aura and summon it into an attack.  So, sure, let's go to the gym."

Great, slick!  This will help us out a ton.  You're probably ready for way bigger stuff than he can throw at you, but you'll be fine for now.

"All right, let's go."  I leave, first heading to my locker to drop off my books and then going right to the gym afterwards.

"All right, then, whenever you're ready."  And what am I supposed to do here, by the way?  I only barely avoided the gym dude's attacks earlier and I have no clue whatsoever on how to attack on my own.

Well, what you need to do is read his aura while he's attacking you.  It should give you an advantage and you will be able to see the path of his flames quicker than with your normal vision.  And if the flames get to coming directly at you, just throw up your aura guard and you'll be fine.

Before you can respond, you see Bran focusing in front of you and raising his fist, shouting, "Fahren!"  His fist gets surrounded by flame and he charges towards you.  Alright, quick, you can either try to dodge his attack or put up an aura guard.  Decide quickly.

Might as well try the guard right now.  Looking at Bran's aura carefully, I cross my arms in front of my chest.  Then, I envision my own aura hardening in front of me and becoming like an impenetrable shield.  Hope I'm doing this right.

You feel Ven leave your shoulder as you do this and get behind you.  You cross your arms in front of you and prepare for the worst, trying to draw anything you can in front of you.  You feel a sudden spike in power that you've never felt before and you look to see that Bran punched and his fist's flames went out.  You weren't even moved back any, though you did feel pressure from your front.

Bran looks to you now and says, somewhat shocked, "Wow, you're good at that.  Do you want me to try and step up the heat, then?"  You feel Ven speaking to you from a distance behind, Yes, tell him to step up his game.  And after you guard this time, why don't you try to release some of your own aura and attack him with it?

"Yeah, let's do that again, and step it up some."  I grin at Bran as we get back into position and I read myself.  This time, I take a right foot back stance.  Raising my left arm, I prepare to throw up a shield.  With my right, I hold it back against my side as if I was going to do a palm strike.  After blocking his next attack, I'll gather energy in my palm as though it's a living dagger and try and strike his chest with the energy.

He steps back again and you see him begin to grunt.  His clothes start to wrinkle a little, the nice clothes that is his school uniform, and he shouts even louder, "FAHREN!"  The same sized ball appears around his right hand again, and he shouts louder even than just then, "FAHREN!!"  It doubles in size and he shouts one last time, focusing all of himself it seems into his right hand.  "FAHREN!!"  It grows a little more and Bran charges into you.

You shift your foot backwards and throw up your left arm for a guard.  You feel like something generates there and when he collides with his fire fist, it holds him for a second, but he pushes forward and you get knocked two yards back, lieing down on your back now.  You feel a little dazed and Ven comes to you, his hands on each side of your head.  Slick, slick!  Are you alright, slick?!  Speak to me!

Bran comes over sweating some and smiling, "Hey, are you okay?"  He offers a hand down to help you up.

I blink a few times, trying to clear my thoughts.  "Whoa... yeah, haha, I'm good."  I reach up and take his hand, using it to pull myself into a standing position.  "Haha, good job there.  I say we try it again, what about you?"  I grin, totally ready to keep at it. Takes more than that to get rid of me, ya know.  If we try again, I'll attempt what I tried last time (but, I suppose, failed).

You shift yourself into position just like before and you see Bran charging himself up.  "FAHREN!"  He repeats it three times, just like last time.  It's about 3/4 the size of the biggest you've seen him make, and he charges you again.

You try to throw up your aura guard again with your left arm, but you can't feel any aura at all in the guard.  Quickly, you shift before he reaches you and try to use your right arm as well with the guard.  You still feel nothing, and he hits you directly with the fist of fire.  You fly back even further this time and skid on the slick gym floor.  You feel a pain in your back, but can still move.

You can't help but pant after that attack and feel that your arms are burnt some from that.  They're very red and heated, but no skin is coming off.  You hear Ven in your mind, Geez, slick!  Why aren't you fighting back?  Why don't you use some of that awesome aura I sense in you?!

Can you possibly tell me how, then?  Besides, I'm having enough trouble even throwing up a half-decent guard.  Rolling my shoulders, I push myself off the ground once again, rubbing my arms as I go.  "Come on, let's try once more."  This time, I plan on purely focusing on my guard with both arms.

You and Bran get into position once more.  As you're doing this, Ven speaks up in your mind, Oh, right.  You don't know your aura code yet.  Well, we can cover that once they get the information back about it.  For now, I guess all that you can do is defend.  You hear Bran shout, "FAHREN!"  He charges you just like usually, with a decently sized fist of flames and you can anticipate his punch approaching.

You throw up your aura guard and he collides with it.  You shift back some, strain pushing on your guard.  After moving a foot backwards, his hand's fire goes out and he's panting.  "Dang, your defense seems pretty solid when you're focusing on it.  Do you want to call it a day or something?"  You can't help but bend over and pant some as well, out of energy from the guarding and failed guarding that you were just doing.

"Heh, thanks," I manage to splurt out between breaths.  Taking a couple deeper ones, I manage to calm my breathing somewhat.  "Haha, yeah, I think that's enough for today."  Eeyeah... it would've been nice if you had told me I couldn't attack without knowing my aura code.  That would've been REALLY nice.

"Heh, it's been fun.  I'll see you later."  After saying goodbye, I leave the gym.  Well, then, anything else you want to go over tonight?

Bran walks with you as you exit the gym and Ven replies to you.  Well, what do you say we leave this stiff in his own room and go bunk with the gals tonight, eh?  Then, something catches your nose.  You can smell the stink from your workout with Bran.

"Whoa... I reek."  Poking my head back into the gym, I ask Bran where the showers are (I'm going to assume he knows).  After he tells me, I head off and shower before changing clothes.  All right, then, how exactly do you propose we 'bunk with the gals'?  Last time I tried something like that I nearly died.  Memories of the Academy floud through my head and I shove them back.

"Don't worry.  They have showers in the dorm building.  Besides, you need to check out your closet anyways.  By now, they probably have uniforms in there for you along with some bedwear."  You look up at the sun as you're outside and see that it's getting a little dark.

You walk across the school grounds and make your way into your dorm room.  It turns out that every dorm room has a bathroom equipped with a bath tub that can also be used as a shower.  Ven goes in there with you as you shower and says, Now, don't get any fairy ideas here, slick.

After you two shower, you look at the clothes that you had already brought into the bathroom with you

Options of Clothing, other than your dirty stuff:
1. School Uniform-blue dress pants, blue zip up dress shirt, and a white t-shirt underneath, plus a belt and nice black shoes.
2. Pajamas
3. Blue Jeans and a white t-shirt and/or a blank, soft blue shirt.
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:00, Mon 04 Sept 2006.

After a couple seconds, I decide to wear the blue jeans and white t-shirt.  Now, I say to Ven after I've dressed.  How exactly do you propose we get to the girl's dorm?  And, morseo, stay there and not get caught?  Unless you've got a freaking good way of doing it I'm out, by the way.

When you get out of the shower and dress, still thinking to Ven, Bran goes into the bathroom for a nice shower as well.  Well, slick, we'll have to work on planning, now won't we?  Now, you get a really good look around the room that you two share.  It's actually a decent size for two boys to share.  Your two closets are on one side of the room, seperated by a small wall in between them.  There's only one dresser in the room, which is by the windows.  There are also desks, one on each side of the room.  Other than that, there's only the beds and your things.

Ven then thinks to you, By the way, slick, what are you doing with so many blades on you anyways?  I couldn't help but notice you had to take all of those weapons off when you got into the shower.  Weapons aren't a good idea when it comes to school, you know.

I sigh and sit on my bed, looking over at Ven with a serious face.  Because, ever since my first world, knives have been saving my life.  I think I told you I'm a verser.  Even if you don't know what it is it doesn't really matter.  All that matters is that blades have been saving my life for years and I'm not going to abandon them.  Plus, I add, adding a mischievous grin.  I'm pretty darn deadly with them.

But, hey, even you only noticed when I took off my clothes.  Just shows you how well I hide them.  Sitting here in my t-shirt, I don't have any shurikens, but I still have my knife and kunai hidden in my pants.  Anything else you want to question about me before we figure out how to get into the girls' dorm?

Yeah, one last thing.  What was with you when you saw that skirt earlier today?  You glance around the room for a second time while you think and look closer at the desk on Bran's side of the room.  It has a drawer in it, like yours, but on top of it is a telephone.

Huh?  You mean the girl who was giving me the funny feeling?  I shake my head slowly.  That I don't have a clue in hell what that was about.  I'm as lost as you are, to be honest.  All I know is the feeling was odd and... well... it didn't go away until I went away from her.  Now... any ideas how to get in?  You just gonna tely us in?

Bah, slick, just forget it.  You're not skilled enough to pull off anything like that yet.  Ven moves over to your bed and jumps on it.  He moves under the cover then pops his head out and lays it down next to the pillow.  And about the skirt, just try to not think about her.  You need to be focusing on your training, rather than gals right now.  He closes his eyes and you assumed he goes to sleep, because you're not getting any other thoughts from him.

I sigh, mulling over what to do.  Deciding it was still a little early for sleep, I decide to try to get out of the building to practice some kunai and shuriken throwing at a tree (conecntrating more on shuriken, as they're my weak point as is).  To hide my shuriken, I wrap them around my left leg.  At the same time outside, I figure I might as well try summoning my sprites to see if that works.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:28, Mon 04 Sept 2006.

You head outside and begin you shuriken and kunai practice.  After practicing for about half an hour outside, you see a group of figures coming fromt he direction opposite the boys' dorms.  You can't tell who is there other than that they're people.

"Time to leave," I whisper to myself.  I slide my kunai back into their holster and then do the same to my shuriken.  Wrapping the shuriken holster back on my left leg, I move my jeans back down to cover them.  And I'm gone.  I leave as fast as I can towards my dorm room, hoping they don't stop me.  At this point, I might as well sleep.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:58, Mon 04 Sept 2006.

You head back to the dorm room and find that the lights in the room are out.  You can see the clear image of Bran asleep in his bed in the dark and hear Ven's thoughts, He must be tired from releasing all of that energy earlier.  It wasn't that powerful, but it was strong for him.  You then go and sleep in your bed, Ven right next to you.

You wake up the next day to an alarm clock and find that it is on Bran's desk.  He gets up, rubbing his eyes.  It looks early, but you consider with time to eat and ready yourself for school, it isn't that early.  You're still a little tired at 5:30 in the morning.

"Snkk-wha!?"  I ask blearily as I push myself up until I find the source of the clock.  "Whoa..." I say out loud in a very tired voice.  "It's been months since I heard one of those alarm clocks... still hate that stupid noise."

Throwing aside the covers, I push Ven a bit to get him up (if I have to wake up early, so does he!) and then move to get a shower and get ready and whatnot.

You manage to get into the shower, dragging a still sleeping Ven in with you, before Bran gets there.  You intentionally make it a cold shower so that you two will wake up.  When the water hits Ven, he leaps up from waking so suddnely.  Dang slick, what's happening?!

After the shower, you head out and get dressed.  Bran informs you that it's required that you wear the uniform to all classes.  (OOC:  I need to know how you dress for this, including weapon placement.)

Wakey wakey, master of muff.  School's starting soon and we need to get ready.  After the shower, I wear the usual school uniform.  As for my weapons, I hide them as I did last night (i.e. everything under the pants).  "Time for classes, then," I whisper to myself as I grab my stuff for aura and head off.  Of course, it would be best to pay attention.  Physics and pre-cal I'll pay enough to know what's going on, but it's not like it would be hard anyways.

After the shower, you feel much more awake than you did a moment ago.  Although you're still slightly exhausted, you manage to gain some of that energy back during breakfast, where Ven steals almost half of your food.  You eat breakfast with the other guys that Bran hangs out with.

After that, you head to the aura class, your first period.  Due to convenience, you take the book for your second class with you and plan to drop them off after those classes.

When you reach the class, you find that Bran and a few of his friends are in that class.  Also, you see that Sin is in there looking out the window.  You then can't help but look out the window at a large cloud until you hear something fall on your desk.

It's a book that has a weird color scheme where there are almost rings of color going out until it reaches the edges of the book.  Your teacher is standing there and says, "This is your book for this class.  We're on chapter three right now, and I'll give you a graded review of the first two chapters in two days, Saturday."

I look down at the book and then up at the teacher.  "Well... all right, then.  Sounds like fun."  Looking down at the book and the prospect of a weekend assignment, I sigh in dismay.  Either way, I open to chapter three to have some semblence of being able to follow along.

In your first class, you seem to understand what she's talking about to a high degree considering you don't know what auras are.  In this chapter, it seems that they're covering how auras are effected by your personality.  Ven chimes in with, See, slick?  My training comes in handy, doesn't it?  I managed to teach you this in half an hour with actual in-the-field exercises.

Physics isn't a problem.  Zarik seems to be constantly staring at the squirell on your shoulder and Ven makes threatening mental comments that only you seem to be able to hear.  You understand the math with relative ease and finish your homework in class before the teacher finishes the lecture on the problems.

After you get your math book and put all of your other things into your locker, you find your way to pre-cal.  You walk into the room to see that the three from yesterday are already in their seats and that your desk's position in the class is surrounded by them.

Ah, ****, this is just great, I murmur to Ven as I walk over to my seat.  Before sitting down, I quickly make sure they haven't done anything to it,  Then, I take my seat in the middle of the group of, quite frankly, my now enemies in a way.  All right... I'm just going to bank on them leaving me alone.  Perhaps feigning interest in the lesson is enough... we'll see, I suppose.  Like physics, I'll pay enough attention to know what's going on but it's not like my full attention would be needed anyways.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:22, Mon 04 Sept 2006.

You find that there aren't any traps that you can see on the seat and you sit down.  Ven comforts you some by thinking to you, Don't worry, slick, I've got your back with these guys.  They're not dumb enough to mess with the both of us togeather.

You make it through the easy class without incedent other than them bumping into you twice when you try to get up at the end of the class, just getting in your way and ticking you off some.  When you get into the hallway and are at your locker, you feel something again.  It's just like when Sin is around and you start scanning the area.  Before you finish, Bran comes up and smacks you on the shoulder, "Hey, wanna eat lunch with us?"  He has a few of his friends from breakfast there with him.

You look around trying to find Sin again from the distraction, but can't.

Huh?  Where'd she go?  Bah, whatever.  I smile at Bran.  "Heck yeah, let's go."  After stuffing my stuff in my locker and locking it, I proceed to follow them to the lunch room to eat.

You grab the normal free lunch and Ven steals a chunk, then spits it out onto the ground.  Go on without me, slick.  I'll find you at the dorms later after school.  For now, though, I'm going to go get me some real food.  You see him teleport away and you sit with Bran and his friends at lunch.

You can't help but feel a strong urge, like when around Sin, and look outside up at the clouds.

Okay, so perhaps this feeling isn't simply restricted to being around Sin.  If that's the case then what is it?  Is it a longing to be free from the shackles of this god forsaken establishment which plagues us all by forcing their views, beliefs, and morals upon us all?  Smiling, I begin forcing down the food despite its repulsiveness.  Or, perhaps, it's nothing more than a liking of the clouds.  Either way, it works for me.

"So what do you guys normally do once you've finished eating?"  I ask Bran and his buddies.

Bran simply replies.  "We do whatever.  Generally, we just hang out here, in the courtyard, wherever.  Sometimes we play poker or something."

Then, one of the other guys chimes in, "Hey, what do you guys say we pool some money togeather and buy a socker ball this weekend?  Maybe we can get some off-campus passes from our gym teach or something."

"Sounds good," I reply to Bran.  When one of the others comments about a soccer ball, I feel it necessary to pitch in.  "Hey, I'd be willing to pitch some in for that."

"Haha, you'd better if you expect to play."  Bran is smiling and you get a generally good vibe from it all.  You seem to lose all thoughts of clouds for teh moment, and then the bell rings for your next class.  It's gym, and Bran along with most of his friends have that class with you.

The lot of you head to the gym in decent spirits, though you're expecting the brutal training of the teacher.  Bran says, "Alright, Mal, do you think that you can put up that guard of yours today like you did last night?  If you do, he might be easier to give us those passes for during the weekend."

OOC:  I need to know how you plan on hiding your weapons when you change into gym clothes as well in your next post.

"You really think so?  Well, hey, I suppose I'll try that, then."  I smile at him.  When I change my clothes, I make sure to carefully undo all the straps as I lower my pants and catch each of my weapons in turn as I take them off.  When I place my pants on the side, I also ensure that they're folded in such a way that the weapons aren't visible.  After changing into my gym clothes, I grab my pocket knife at the very least so that I have some weapon on my person.

You make your way into the gym after carefully changing to avoid the suspicion of the other boys.  After that, you make your way outside to find that the teacher has already chosen his first student to attack today.  It's Bran!

Both of them have a smile on their faces, and the teacher shouts out, "CRUSH!!"  Three spikes of dirt shoot out towards Bran as he puts his arms crossed in front of his body to protect himself.

Each of the three hits gets him dead on in his aura guard.  You can hear the BAM-BAM-BAM as they hit him and dirt flies into the air.  He calls the next three up and all of them manage to get shields up except for one.  Finally, he calls you up.

You feel Sin's presence somewhere around you and it fills you up.  For a moment, you didn't think that you could block his strikes, but now you had no worries.  He shouts out "CRUSH!!" and three spikes of solid dirt fly from behind him at you.  You cross your arms and see the dirt easily splash off of your aura guard and fall to the floor, you not even using that much energy up, while the others seem like they're all sweating like crazy.

The man nods to Bran and you move on with class.

It's a repeat of the same stuff as the day before, but instead of talking to Ven, you're talking to Bran and the others this time.  Sin remains constantly in the back of your mind throughout all of this exercise.  For your final couple of laps of running, Bran asks, "What's up with you today, man?  Are you distracted, maybe dizzy after all of that garding you did from the teach?"

I shake my head at Bran, reassuring him I'm fine.  "Nah, man, I'm good.  I just get weird feelings every once in a while, don't really know why."  I shrug as I continue running.  "The teach's attacks weren't that hard, anyways.  Now that I figured out how to guard properly I've got no problem with them.

"Hey, should we all get togeather after school and work out and spar and stuff togeather?  They have a great weight-lifting area in this gym complex that we have access to."  The others seem to have compliance with this idea and look to you for your opinion of it as well.

I nod my agreement at the suggestion.  "And Fight Club begins," I murmur, thinking of a movie I saw before I versed.  "Let's just hope none of us start melting each others' hands."  Seeing their strange looks, I shrug it off.  "Eh, whatever, sounds good to me."

The other shrug off your strange comment and proceed with the final lap.  After it's all done, you head to the changing room and shower off before leaving to go to your next class, after getting your last two classes worth of books out of your locker.

In your next class, the history teacher reminds you that your next essay, the one that he just assigned for tomorrow, is worth double for you because you missed the last one.  He gives you all a slip of paper saying three possible things that it could be on and that he'll choose one at random, so be ready for all three.

You get to chemistry before Sin and sit down at your seat as she comes in and sits down next to you.  "So, how do you like our school?"  She seems to be directing the quesion at you as she leaves glancing at you to look at the cieling.

"It's pretty good, yeah," I reply, grinning at her.  "It might be slightly redundant, but what do you think of this school?"  What do you think of the man keeping you down?  What do you think of him squashing your dreams?  What do you think of--what the heck am I saying?  I blink a couple times, wondering why I was thinking like that.

She replies, "Well, it's basically the same for me.  It begins to become routine, but it's not all that bad."  She turns away and says something, so you lean forward to hear her.  Then, all of a sudden, she turns back towards you and is only about 3 inches from your face.  For some reason, you get the feeling stronger than before and can feel your heart beating hard, something clicking togeather in your mind, but you can't tell what.  She just stares blankly for a moment, like you do, but then the teacher speaks up and class begins.

Sin turns slightly red and looks back to the front of the class, soon regaining her less colorful skin.  Even with the distraction that you had just felt, chemistry seems to be a breeze.  Still, you can't help but think that you're sweating the whole way through it.  Sin leaves before you can really say anything more to her.


So finally, your school day is over and you shove what books that you don't need into your locker and move on outside.  Bran and your newer friends meet you there and you all head to the gym with your things with the idea of working out and sparring until dinner.  There are six of you total.  Bran and the others look at you with strange faces, almost laughing.  Bran comes up with the comment, "Having trouble breathing, Mal?"

"Huh?  Wha?"  I cough a couple of times, clearing my throat.  "Oh, yeah, I had some stuff stuck in there."  I thump my chest a couple times with my fist.  "I think I got it out now, I'm good, thanks."  I grin, going to the room to change.  "Come on, let's get at it."

When you get to the gym, you find a mirror and realize that your face is beat red and just starting to change back to normal color.  Your time in chemistry must have been more on you than you originally thought, your nerves having been getting at you your whole time in there.

You change and get back out into the gym.  Bran says, "Alright guys, we can work out or spar.  I think that we should work out now and maybe spar after dinner once we get some of our energy back.  What do you guys think?  Or we could just work out and spar and whatever when we feel like it."  Most of them seem to agree with the latter, just going with the flow.

"I say we just do whatever, as well," I add to the conversation.  Taking that into account, I decide to lift some weights.  It's been a while since I've done anything like that, and it would be nice to see exactly what I can do.  Of course, it's not like my muscles have been atrophying, it's just that I haven't been able to compare what they can do.  Except when it's life or death... I still don't get how I can do that.

Everyone seems like they want to lift weights at first.  The lot of you do that for about half an hour and then look at the time.  It's about three o'clock and you her Ven in your head.  Hey, slick, where'd you go?  We should be training right now!  It distracts you and relax and let fall the weights in your current machine (50 lbs. each arm).

I sigh, letting the weights drop down.  A healthy mind leads to a healthy aura, I respond half-jokingly.  Me and Bran and the Gang are doing some weights right now.  Afterwards we're going to be doing some sparring.  Come down to the gym if you want to watch a bunch of sweaty guys do stuff together.  Shaking my head away from the distraction, I get back to the weights.

Hey, hey, slick, since when did you grow a wit?  This time, you feel the thought closer and a smack in the back of your head, you dropping the weights again.  The guys all look to you for a second time and see the squirell.  "Dude, it's the killer squirell!  Mal tamed it!!"  Everyone looks over to him and seem to be in awe, all but Bran.  He just smiles and nods at you, returning to his weight lifting.

"Tamed the killer squirrel?"  I ask them.  "More like he tamed me, actually, but he hasn't killed me yet so I suppose that's a good sign."  Grinning, I go back to the weights.  Seriously, though, what did you do to get your rep as a killer?  And why do you keep freaking hitting me!?

They don't know what they're talking about.  Ven speaks to you, and ignores your second question.  Bran speaks up to avoid further useless communication between the others and you, "So, who's up for a sparring match?"  The others look to him, but none of them speak up yet.  A couple of them return to their weight machines.

I laugh at their disinterest in sparring.  "I can't attack yet, but if someone wants to I'm willing to try and take anything anyone tries.  Or..." I continue, raising an eyebrow mischieviously.  "We can have a good ol' fashioned fist fight."

Bran walks over to you, "Come on.  We'll go up against eachother.  If you're under the impression that you can only use your aura in sparring, you're dead wrong.  You can use your fists, whatever as long as you don't hurt me too badly."

"Really, then?"  I ask him, smiling.  "Well, then, let's get at it."  I hop off the weights, stretching out my fingers and preparing for the fight.  My basic plan for the fight is to aura guard his initial attack and then come in with a shin kick to his upper thigh.  If it strikes right, it'll leave him open for a left hook to the chin.

Your plan's phases seem to work perfectly through the process of the first encounter.  He charges you after shouting "Fahren!" and hits your aura guard, which stops his attack.  You then hit him with your combo and his face flies to the side with your punch.  "Right, I guess I'll have to turn up the heat, then."

He jumps back some and shouts out, "FAHREN!"  He is in a position that his right hand is in front and his left behind him.  He shouts again, "Fahren!"  His right hand lights up with a firey glow.

Deciding to take the offensive before he has a chance to attack, I decide to try and shoot in.  If I manage to pull it off, I'll be in a position to easily knock him over and then get on top of him.  From here, the fight's basically won with a couple good punches.

At that, you charge at him.  It seems that he is easily able to bring his fire fist in front of him and punch you in the gut.  As quickly as possible, you try to form a shield with your chest, but you're still knocked back some yards.  Expecting this to be your opportunity, Bran not having uttered his aura trigger yet, you charge.

When you're almost on him, he brings his left hand in front of him with what seems to be a fireball held in his palm and pushes it into your chest.  You barely create anything of a barrier for it in that small amount of time and fly backwards.  Your eyes are heavy and eventually Bran comes over to help you up.  "Hey, are you okay?"  The other guys are around you as well.  As he's helping you up, Bran says, "You CAN use your physical self in an aura fight, but it's not reckomended.  Maybe you should hold up on it until you find out your aura's trigger from the Canada ADC?"

I laugh slowly, forcing myself up with Bran's help.  "Heck no, man, I'm a sucker for punishment.  I think I'm good for now, though" I say, coughing during the last couple words.  "Say... what's the time?  I'm starting to get a bit hungry."

You all look up at the gym clock at once.  "Hey yeah, it's about 4:30.  Let's go get some grub before all of the seats are taken."

The lot of you are so tired that you don't even bother to shower in the gym, figuring you'll eat to regain your strength first.  You change into your clothes carefully to continue concealing your weapons.

After eating, Bran says, "Well, I feel a little better, but I'm still worn out.  Do you guys just want to wait till tomorrow for continuing this?"  All of them seem to be in agreement to this, looking pretty tired in their uniforms.

I exit out a quick disgruntled "hurgh" while looking at the others.  "I'm willing to go do some more, but if everyone else is bummed out I'm cool with waiting till tomorrow."  I shrug.  Either way, I'm going to either work out with them or train with master Ven.

After they all decide that they'd rather stop for the day, you ask Master Ven to train you more.  His only comment is, You clean all that yuck off of you, boy!  Get in the shower and then we can do some training.  You go to the showers and clean up decently enough.  (OOC:  What clothes do you put on?)

I quickly take my shower, afterwards dressing in my casual clothes.  All right, then, what are we learning today?  I plan to do whatever he instructs me to immediately.

We're going out and looking at some fresh, young auras again, my boy!  Ven thinks to you as you feel yourself teleporting again with him on your shoulder.  Again, you find yourself in an alleyway.  This time, it's accross a busy street from what seems to be a decently sized mall.  There will be more auras in here with different attitudes.  Are you ready, slick?

I smile as I begin walking.  Of course I'm ready ya crazy nut.  Have I ever not been ready?  Err... don't answer that.  So... into the mall, then?

Yes, my squeaky-clean apprentice, into the mall we go.  Head to that entrance to the bookstore first, though.  You walk into the bookstore and see a few people sitting around while some are looking at music in another section of the store.  There's an exit in the back of the small store that leads to a large mall hallway, you presume.

Ven speaks to your mind, Okay now, slick, I want you to get in here and peek around at some of these people reading.  Be sure to look at the section that they're reading in and make a special note of that.

OOC:  Assume there's at least one person in every section that you can see reading a book.

I make my way through the sections slowly, scanning everyone as I go.  Sci-fi... fantasy... history... horror... kids'... I make my way through fast enough, faster than if I hadn't read any auras yesterday.

When I've gone through the store, memorizing the aura and the corresponding section, I ask Ven: Okay, what now?  I got everyone's aura memorized.

You feel like you comprehend general colors for everyone's emotions in there.  Ven speaks mentally to you, Okay, slick.  You've seen the romantics, the fearful, the curious, the thinkers, and the sad losers who read Star Wars.  Now, on to the real stuff.

You walk with Ven on your shoulder out into the mall and find a hot topic.  A girl is in there looking at a clever shirt in the corner.  You hide Ven as you walk inside so that they don't kick you out.  Alright, slick, read 'er aura.  When you look at her through your two fingers, you find that it isn't a simple aura like the others in the library.  There are mixtures of pulsing auras through the light that you see around her.  You see some yellow (confused), purple (thinking), and even some pink (loving) inside of her at once.

All right, I say slowly to Ven.  She has more than one colour... pink, yellow, and purple.  I sigh slowly, removing my fingers.  Seems to be a bit new to me... multiple colours... does it just mean I'm getting more used to it or what?

Right, right..  You hear Ven in your mind with a voice that seems very wise for some reason.  The auras are confused in her, because she has a bunch of emotions.  In truth, she only has one at a time, but they're mixed to your eyes because her emotions are changing so rapidly.

What you truely need to look out for, in combat situations, are when you see someone with a green aura.  If they have a green aura, they have the power and possibly anger of a firey red, but their mind is calm and concentrated so that they can function to maximum skill.  Now, slick, find us a spot packed with pink aura beauties and let's get on with some training!  When you leave, that store, you see a sporting goods store accross the hallway and see a soccer ball rack.  It reminds you that you and the others were planning on going out to buy it on the weekend.

Hmm... I fish into my pocket, trying to judge how much cash I have.  Seems to be around $100... eh, I'll just chip in when we get around to it.  I had always been a saver rather than a spender and saw no need to buy the soccer ball by myself rather than just pitch in later.

Now, to find some girls... I begin walking around the mall fairly quickly, peeking into every store I pass.  When I find one with a decent amount of girls walking around, I check their auras.

As you walk through the mall, you realize that most of the girls are just now leaving the mall, leaving only some scattered around.  You see a few inside a new age clothing store checking out skirts, and a group of about six in the center of the mall sitting at a table right next to a bunch of fast food places eating.

Everywhere else, there are either none or just around two.

You check the auras of the three girls looking at skirts first.  One has a dark red aura, showing her anger at something even though she's wearing a broad smile.  The second one had a decent aura, a generally content attitude.  The third one, however, is a goldmine.  She has the brightest pink aura that you've yet to see.

I gulp slightly, preparing to go and talk to the girl.  I'm not sure about this one, ya know... her friend looks kinda peed off and she is with a group of em.  Eh... might as well go for it.

Gathering my courage, I decide to go up and greet the girl with the pink aura.

You approach the girl, and her friend with the blue aura pulls the angry one away so that you can talk to the cute girl with a pink aura alone.  She always seems to have a clever smile on her face as she talks to you, and you both introduce yourselves.  She has brown hair and brown eyes, but a great fashion sense it seems.  You observe that maybe she is rich.

The only information you find out is that her name is Chrissy and she goes to the local high school.  Her friends drag her off to the next store, and you inconveniently have to go to the bathroom, so they get away.

As I stand at the urinal relieving myself, I mull over how the events went.  Well... I suppose that went pretty good, all things considered.  Her friends didn't attack me so that's always good.  Finishing up, I go to wash my hands and then wander around the mall some more.  "Hmmm... it gets rather boring in class..." I make my way to one of the electronics stores and pick up an old used gameboy and a half a dozen games if I can before leaving (not gonna be more than $50 :P).

You finish up and head out to find the electronics store.  When you find it, you see a game store right next to it.  In all likelihood, the game store probably has the gameboy and games.  You're about to go inside when you hear the electronic store playing music from your favorite band from back when you weren't versing around all of these realities.

"What the heck?"  I ask myself as I wander into the electronics store.  "Weren't... that... from... but... other... going back...?  No, this is... different... but... what the..."  Scratching my head slowly, I walk around until I find the CD area.  There, I start scanning it to find how many bands I recognize from Earth.

OoC: Electronics, games, meh, I lumped em in together there :P

You begin looking through the CDs and find that a lot of the rock bands are from Earth.  Of course, some of them are different like this band Frenzied Viperboys and some others that are still rock.  You find that the section on rap is very small and that you don't recognize any of them.

After a few moments, the store being slow, an employee comes over to you and asks, "Excuse me, but are you looking for anything specific?"

"Yes, actually," I say to him.  "Do you have any Kamelot?  And, possibly, some Death?  I haven't found them here, so meh."  I shrug my shoulders.  "Oh, and where are your CD players?"

"Sorry, we don't have anything called Kamelot or Death here.  Follow me to the CD players."  You notice as you're walking through that they sell the average stuff in here: alarm clocks, nifty little lamps and even laptops.  He leads you over to the CD players.  "The ones that don't skip from jerking are $30 and the normal ones are $20."

"I'll take one of the non-skipping ones, I think."  Grabbing that, I return to the CD rack and pick a couple CDs of some heavier bands that are there (some sort of death metal and some sort of power metal).  After that, I pick up some batteries and then figure I'm done at the mall and leave.

Gah, I was getting bored anyways, slick.  Let's get back to the school and train summore!

When you find yourself teleported back to the school complex, you're in the middle of the gym and some girls are playing basketball, while some guys from before are on the other side of the gym playing.  You look at the time and it's about 6:30.  None of them seem to notice your random appearance their and they don't turn away from their half-court games.

I walk over to the bleachers fairly rapidly, taking a seat and watching the half-games.  All right, then, what are we doing now?  No, wait, lemme guess: you want me to play in the chicks' game?  Am I right?

He keeps on staring down at the girls game, and then begins levitating away from you.  Go ahead and use this as free training time.  Weights, basketball with whoever, whatever you want to do as long as you're working.  I'll be watching you from over here.

He finally lands on ground level, sitting down on a bench watching the girls play their game.  Get to it, slick!  I've got training of my own to do.

Yeah, sure, whatever.

Deciding I might as well use my new CD player, I toss in a CD and go to lift weights for a while.

OoC: ZOMG short pottzstszststzzzzzz

You do some endurance training on the bike first, but decide to move on to some upper body work, not bothering to stretch at least this time.  You work out and steadily increase the weight when you lift weights inwards on a machine and the machine busts, adding more pressure than you can handle.

You feel your muscles in both arms rip and you can't move either.  They're both limp by your sides, but pointing inwards some because of their current lack of mobility.  A burning pain is shooting constantly through both of your arms, all the way through them.

"Well great... guess I pushed a bit too hard there," I mutter to myself as I make my way from the machines.  "Gonna hurt tomorrow... ah, well, 'tis all good.  Just means I'll bulk up all the faster."

I decide to see if I can still throw up an aura guard while in this state.

OoC: You know why I took so long.  ¬_¬

After you fail miserably at blocking a squirell careening at you with your aura guard, you decide to head in.

OOC:  Sorry, but should I assume that you head in to sleep?  Nothing really happens between now and then.

I wake up earlier than normal, early enough that I have a good hour or so before school starts.

I decide to sneak out and walk around.

When you wake, the squirell lazily prods into your mind, having been sleeping next to you and disturbed when you got out of bed.  Well, slick, you're up early?  What is this, some new and great motivation for training?  You see the squirell open his mouth and yawn, but then hover over to your shoulder.

You feel yourself teleporting under the squirell's powers again and you're in the alley that's still very familiar in the morning.  The arcade is just accross the street.  Here you go, slick.  You might be able to find some training subjects this early even.  He curls up and goes back to sleep, and you look over to see that the arcade is still open.

The prospect of going to an arcade this early makes me want to jump at the chance, and I quickly hurry over to it carelessly.

You hurry over, still slightly groggy.  The squirell sleeping on your shoulders relaxes you even more with his breathing, in sync with your own.

Out of the corner of your eye, you then feel something coming.  As you turn, a large wall of steel it seems comes at you and hits you hard.  The shield you put up did nothing against the power of the bus.  In pain, you open your eyes to see the image of the squirell over you, looking down at you caringly.  You can feel him talking in your mind, but you don't even bother paying attention from your exhaustion.

Your whole body is in pain and you cough, feeling blood in your mouth afterwards.  Some people start heading over, and you feel a presence again, the presence of Sin.  Then, you start seeing it clearer.  The feeling, it wasn't unique to just Sin.  You picture her in your mind, but another image comes before you.

A scene from Lakraine dances in front of your eyes in your dazed state of mind.  It was a ball.  The librarian was off to the side smiling and a girl was in front of you.  You begin to remember more of her characteristics, but then you feel yourself spin out, the feeling of death coming over you yet again.