The Rainsford Institute awkwardly crouches amidst the "bad part of town," such as it is. This area is dominated by warehouses and a truck stop, the clerks of which are prone to "accidentally" misjudging the age of kids that wander into the storefront for snacks and cigarettes. It has been forced by the surrounding industry to expand upward more than outward, and thus the central block of concrete that houses the offices and classrooms looms five stories high. The brutalist aesthetic doesn't stop there, with a harsh wrought iron fence topped with spikes to ward away trespassers surrounding the grounds. The dormitory feels more like a barracks with flimsy drywall dividers than a proper series of rooms, with the kids packed in four to a room with bunk beds constructed from steel piping.

The students are currently gathering in the gymnasium, the only space large enough to contain them all. Inside there are clearly marked sections of the bleachers for each grade level, with the freshmen seated on a floor that may quite well have more wax polish than wood in its construction.

Beyond that, the room is filling first with tight gaggles of friends while a thinner scattering of other students takes up the remaining space. Jason and the rest of the military kids have been instructed to arrive in their BDUs and have a place reserved for them at the very front, right where everybody can see them...
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:52, Tue 10 Sept 2019.

Pandora enters the gymnasium wearing her usual mix of sneakers, short socks, and jeans. Rather than a tee-shirt, this time she is wearing a light green and white athletic tank-top with a cute, stylized frog face on it.

After getting her bearings and sorting things out, she heads over to the freshman section and takes a spot in the middle-middle of the sitting area. She brings her arms up around her folded legs and rests her chin on knees. Her expression is of someone expecting to be bored by a long series of speeches.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:36, Mon 09 Sept 2019.

Kenzie had received a ride from her cousin Breanna early in the morning, so that they would have time for Breanna to give Kenzie a brief tour of the campus before she closed out her time as a nurse's aide on campus. Kenzie was feeling less anxious than before about the school now that she knew a little more, but she still wondered how it would go with the classes and her new schoolmates.

She entered the auditorium looking much as she had at the festival, wearing jeans and a long-sleeved red T-shirt, sneakers, and her usual thick glasses. The main change was the addition of the oversized carrying case she was pulling behind her, closer to a trunk than a backpack in size and with battery-powered wheels to aid with its considerable weight.

Kenzie made her way toward the front row where the freshmen were apparently supposed to sit, and was taken by surprise at the presence of someone familiar. "Oh, hi! Pandora, right? I'm Kenzie, we met at the festival," she said with a smile as she drew closer. "Mind if I join you? I didn't know you were a student here."

I am seeing some confusion, so please allow me to clarify: the freshmen are to sit on the floor. Like directly on the floor. There are no chairs for them.

Talberon kind of wanders into the gym seemingly lost in thought but really just taking in the harsh setting around him. He is wearing his usual and less than practical outfit: a long, blood-red, trench-like coat that comes down past his waist, a standard white collared shirt with the top button not done, a loose, burgundy tie with an incredibly faint pattern of flames, navy chino pants, and leather boots.*

He became slightly disoriented by the inexplicit hierarchy of the setting. He briefly saw Jason or who looked like Jason they all had similar builds and outfits so who knows. It looked like he was certainly not allowed to sit there. He meandered around and caught sight of Pandore and assumed that was where the freshman sat. He spied a fairly roomy space a few feet away from her and that cat-friendly girl he never met. (He went by an unwritten rule of not sitting directly next to someone unless he felt comfortable calling that person a friend, and all he knew about her was that she was foreign and was very mischevious.) Tal did give a quick friendly wave with one hand while flicking his lighter on and off with his left to fend off the boredom. His mom called it an unhealthy and dangerous habit, but Tal never quite figured out why she said that.

OOC: *You can call Tal a lot of things but subtle ain't one. And to help you all with a mental picture, I just realized that Constantine from the popular TV series wears a similar outfit to what I imagined. Change the colors a bit, and Tal's will look a lot cleaner/pristine (less like a drunk/disheveled exorcist and more like a showy teenager). There should be an easily Googled image.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:18, Mon 09 Sept 2019.

When Kenzie approaches her and speaks up, Pandora raises her chin up off of her knees and looks up at her. She gives Kenzie a friendly smile and says, "Oh. Hallo. Is Kenzie. I remember. Yes. Is Pandora."

With her nearest hand, she gestures towards a spot beside her and answers, "Okay. Yes. Guardian make Pandora student here." She rests her arms back around her legs.

She sees Talberon sit nearby and wave towards her. She gives him a friendly smile and little wave back with her closest hand.

She turns her attention back to Kenzie and, seeing the girl's big case, she inquires about it. She asks, "Kenzie is [*]going?"



[*She means moving.]
This message was last edited by the player at 05:52, Mon 09 Sept 2019.

Kenzie glanced over when she sensed movement, and gave Talberon a wave, though she was pretty sure it wasn't directed at her. After that, she set her pack on the ground and sat against it next to Pandora with a smile toward the foreign girl. She would have sat on top of it, as she didn't want to get dirty, but but she wasn't sure if that would block anyone's view behind her.

She hadn't realized quite how broken Pandora's English was, but she was able to get most of it okay. "'Guardian' made you a student? Who's that?" she asked, before answering Pandora's question, albeit based on misunderstanding it. "Yep, I'm going here starting today. All my gear is in here, in case we have any practical classes right away." She reached a hand back to tap it against her pack. Then she paused for a second, considering the ramifications of bumping into Pandora here, of all places. "So you're going to be a monster hunter, Pandora? That's neat, I didn't realize it when I saw you at the festival."

Pandora replies to Kenzie, saying to her, "Tex is Pandora guardian." She looks at the large case again and then back to the red-haired girl.

Used to travelling light, the estranged Ukrainian finds it odd that the other girl needs so much stuff for school. Her guardian Tex didn't say anything to her about needing a big case of things. She comments, "You has many school things."

She repeats, "Monster?" With an inquisitive expression on her face, she leans in towards Kenzie, bringing her open hand up to her mouth to help shield her words from any other potential listeners, and whispers, "Kenzie mean [*]'vampir'?" She makes a downward stabbing motion with her hand. Kenzie can smell a light strawberry scent from the Ukrainian girl's perfume.


[*Ukrainian spelling. Pronounced 'vam-peer'.]
This message was last edited by the player at 20:11, Mon 09 Sept 2019.

Creighton was not late. That would get him into more flavors of trouble than he dared imagine. He simply was not as early as his Father would have liked. Even when the man wasn't around to chide him, the chiding still happened.

First year's on the floor was not exactly the most friendly welcome to school he could have imagined. On the other hand, bare floors suited him. It made him glad he hadn't bothered with dressing up. Kenzie and Pandora had found each other again. Even Talberon was easy to find in this mix. Although honestly, he wanted to be seen. Creighton made sure he caught the other guy's eyes and gave him the head nod of greeting. Then he added himself to the crowd on the floor by sitting behind the girls. "Dobroho ranku Pandora. And good morning to you too Kenzie. Seems that the corn festival served more of a purpose than I would have thought."

Legs folded, back straight, Creighton made sitting like this look like second nature.

Appearance Line: For the first day of classes, Creighton is in comfortably battered blue jeans and a white t-shirt with a black swirl pattern across it from and back that looked like it had been done with a brush. Black sneakers complete the outfit. He wears a braided leather bracelet with a few black-on-gold beads.

That second girl that he didn't know had waved back which seemed weird. He didn't break the wave and did that weird continuation of a wave when you try to accommodate someone's embarrassment politely but you both know that there was a screw-up. With the introduction of this new girl, he definitely felt good not having sat next to Pandora, no telling what the social dynamics would be like then.

He began reaching into his inside coat pockets for something to busy himself beside the lighter and found his copy of an outdated book from the last century or two (the kind with the moldy pages, an illegible spine, and redone binding) on the nature of heresy in early Christianity & monastic orders. You know the kind of light reading that you see fly off the shelves. He did decide to pocket the lighter, as fun as it was, no use risking a perfectly good book's life more than he already was just holding it.

With Creighton's entrance, He did a friendly nod in return. Tal did slightly question his original decision.

Huh, so it turns out I know like four people here, kinda five. That's incredibly miraculous for a stupid fair. Maybe I should have sat over there with them...

He internally shrugged. But he kept reading; he was about to hit the chapter on weird, proto-gnostic rituals.

"Oh, Tex is your guardian, I see." Kenzie nodded in agreement with Pandora about the volume of her school supplies. "Yeah, I already moved my stuff into the dorm, so this is just my gear. And notebooks and things of course," she added.

When she realized Pandora was leaning in toward her, Kenzie curiously did the same. "Vam-- oh, vampires? Sure, those are monsters," Kenzie said. "Although I've never met one. Are you going to hunt vampires Pandora?" Then she took in a breath through her nose and smiled. "I like your perfume, by the way." Growing up in a supernatural-aware household, it was fairly normal for Kenzie to talk about monsters and casual topics like perfume in the course of the same conversation.

Her expression turned slightly surprised a moment later, and she turned to face Creighton as he sat down. "Oh, hi Creighton! Wow, what a small world," she said with a friendly smile. "Or did you two already know each other from here?" She might have said more, but she suddenly interrupted herself with a cough covered by a quick hand movement. Behind her large glasses, her eyes shifted in a confused sort of way toward Tal, who had just brought out his moldy book, and she rubbed her nose in a way that suggested the smell had aggrieved her as she looked away again.

Pandora returns a cheerful smile at the compliment and replies, "Oh. Thank you. Like strawberries."

She nods to Kenzie's question and whispers, "Tex say Pandora learn fight vampir...vampires...here. Kenzie fight vampires?"

As Creighton approaches and sits not far behind them, she looks back over her shoulder at him. She straightens back upright and replies back in Ukrainian, "[*]Dobroho ranku, Creighton."

She looks back at Kenzie and says, "Meet Creighton in fair." When the red-haired girl coughs and rubs her nose, Pandora briefly glances over to where Kenzie is looking and then back to her. She asks, "Kenzie okay?"


[*Good morning.]
This message was last edited by the player at 05:11, Tue 10 Sept 2019.

Jason and the rest of his unit, thirteen of them in total, arrive ten minutes early and instinctively fall into a neat square, four abreast and three deep with one standing in front of the formation. Dressed in grey and black fatigue pants, combat boots and a simple grey polo shirt. All of them, boy and girl with the same short cut military style hair under a black beret.

The only distinguishing marks are two embroided badges on the breast of their shirts.
On the right is the Rainsford Acadamy emblem and words.

On the left, above their heart an stylizied eye, crossed with two simple daggers and surrounded with the words,
"Semper Vivit Semper Vigil"

The same symbol is also echoed by the silver badge pinned to the front of their berets, although without the words.

The only distinguishing marks on their uniform is the last name of each student is also embroided on, above the symbol on their left breast.

The leader, the girl standing in front of the squad calls them to a halt and the squad stop with parade ground precision, the crack of booted heels echoing across the gymnasium.

"Squad, Left turn!" She says forcefully and the squad turn in sync.
"Squad, Stand at ease!" The group of youths drop into the relaxed form of attention. The squad leader, a tall, athletic blond girl whose shirt reads "Ross" stares at them for a moment before giving a slow, firm nod and checking her watch and standing at ease herself.

The group is totally silent after that, staring into the middle space before them...

Many of the students that are there have gone quiet at their rather noticeable entrance and there is am equally notable silence that follows.

"Way to kill the mood Dave..."

A voice drawls out from somewhere to Jason's left and the tall bot closes his eyes and sighs through his nose, all to aware of what's about to come.

Ross's head snaps around, ice blue eyes narrowing as her jaw noticeable clenches. There's no need for her to ask who it is.

“Fisher!” She hisses, “Front and Centre!” Jill, a small brown haired girl falls out and marches to the front, exaggerating every movement with mocking precision. She reaches onto her head and sharply removes her beret, snapping it down to the side before barking out, “Corporal Fisher, Reporting!” Her voice carries across the whole hall and a faint flush starts to creep its way up Ross’s pale cheeks.

Ross steps forward, blue eyes blazing and looks like she’s about to say something when something catches her eye. Jason follows her gaze and spots a small, simple ear stud.
Many of the squad have to suppress a grimace, while others start cracking up, well aware of the series of events that are about to unfold.

It’s happened many times before in various scenarios but never in front of an entire hall of civilans as they’re supposed to making a good impression.

Ross’s jaw works frantically for a moment before she finds her voice and points accusingly at Jill’s ear.
“What is that?” She asks aghast.

“My ear.” Jill replies, her politeness an insult.

“In your ear!” Her voice growing louder

“My ear drum.”

“Where-When-How did you even get it done? You ear wasn’t even pierced before today!”

Jason starts to tone them out and wondered if Lesleigh or Talberon are around. Then has a sinking feeling as he realizes they are about to see the unfolding carnage that comes with Jill and Davina’s spats.

Creighton echoed Pandora's response for Kenzie. "Met both of you at the carnival. That boy over there too." Which of course was the same boy they'd already waved hello towards. "This is just my first day, although probably our first day. Just luck that we met at the fair. To be honest, it isn't like there is a lot to do around here. They have another town event we'll probably all be there too."

He looked around at the gym full of people. "This is probably going to be boring, right?"

Talberon is way too lost in his own little world and book to hear any of the words being screamed in the hall. However, he certainly is aware of noise on par of a squad of elephants entering the hall with the parade of cadets. He sighed and had a sneaking suspicion that he wouldn't be able to focus well enough on his book as he would have liked. He did look up and see for sure Jason's tall form in full military-like outfitting.

Geez, he wasn't kidding about living in a bunker. This whole place is nuts. Definitely not the mystical school that I had expected.

He wanted to give a wave towards Jason, but, for once in his life, Tal listened to his conscience and decided not to in case he'd get Jason in trouble like that girl was about to. He did think the whole ordeal to be a tad humorous with Fisher's comedic grandstanding. She reminded him of himself, a bit. However, she had brown hair, so you know, not exactly alike.

Tal is now half-paying attention to what he expected to be a military cat-fight and half-reading his book.

"Oh, just, I caught this smell of mold for a second," Kenzie answered Pandora, shaking her head slightly for a moment as if to clear it. "My nose is pretty sensitive." She looked back at Creighton with a smile again. "Maybe? I was homeschooled, so at least it's new to me. I don't like sitting on the floor though." She didn't like the dorms either, nor did her parents, but the institute had turned down their offer of free renovations. Apparently it wouldn't mesh with their hard-nosed style.

She gave the military students a curious glance, though she couldn't make out much detail at this distance, then leaned toward Pandora again and dropped her voice. "I guess we'll learn to fight vampires, right? I'm not sure how the curriculum works here. I wouldn't mind fighting them if, you know, I could actually handle it. I'm not sure how much we can specialize in our classes." Kenzie had a preferred target of her own, but wasn't sure if saying so would be oversharing.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:37, Tue 10 Sept 2019.

Without looking back at him again, Pandora repeats Creighton, saying, "Maybe boring, yes."

She doesn't know the word 'mold', but gets the gist that Kenzie is okay. She gives her a nod.

The marching of the military group catches her attention. She notes Talberon's friend Jason among them. Going by her neutral expression, it doesn't seem to strike her as being unusual. She does seem amused by the antics of the girl--who is apparently named 'Fisher'--though.

When she notices Kenzie lean in again, she does the same. After the other girl finishes speaking, Pandora quietly replies, "Okay," with a smile and gives her a 'thumbs up' with her furthermost hand.

She straightens back up and glances back over at Kenzie's case. It sure seems like a great deal many things are apparently needed to hunt vampires. She will have to pester Tex more about it later since he didn't get her anything other than the usual school stuff.

She crosses her legs and leans back onto her palms behind her.

"Father likes it when we sit on the floor." He commented for Kenzie and Pandora. "Of course, the floors are usually cleaner and sturdier."

The military thing was odd to him. He didn't know that schools had their own para-military organizations. He changed to Pandora's native tongue to ask her a question. "So what does the descendent of Cossaks think of the military parade so far?"

More people filter into the gymnasium, and as the surprise induced silence of most begins to wear off the overall mood of the student body sours. A great many suspicious glances and outright dirty looks land on the military kids and a low murmur of discontent begins to build as conjecture and rumour starts to fly around the room.

Attracted by the noise, Lesleigh peeks her head in from one of the open doors near the front of the seating arrangement. She's wearing her dark glasses and another simple, possibly hand-made dress with a long skirt and longer sleeves. She spots Jason and waves at him, little more than a wiggle of her fingers.

Pandora looks back over her shoulder at Creighton when he speaks up.

She replies in Ukrainian, saying to him, "Except for the one girl, they all seem too rigid and focus too much on discipline."

She continues, saying, "Discipline can be useful, but adaptability is important also. Having proper training to fall back on, with the ability to adapt it to unexpected situations, is best."

She wonders, if perhaps, she spoke too much on the subject. While Creighton doesn't seem like a soldier boy, he keeps mentioning his father as if he were one. Perhaps his father was a retired solider or something. She mentally shrugs.

She recalls back at the fair where he mentioned he was going to attend a hard school. She doubts he meant the floor. So far the school seems a little strange to her.

"Sounds to me like someone has been getting proper training." He nodded like he thought that was a good thing. "We'll have to talk about training routines sometime. I think we have some things in common."

He swapped back to English to ask a question. "Kenzie, you seem to know more about what's going on. Do you know what the deal is with the military types?"

Kenzie returned Pandora's smile, then was caught slightly off guard when she and Creighton unexpectedly began speaking in Ukrainian, or at least she assumed it was Ukrainian from what Pandora had said about herself. That seemed kind of rude to her, but then it would also be rude to say so, so she just turned toward the front and let her thoughts wander for a little while.

She looked back when Creighton addressed her in English. "Not a lot more, but I've had some family members work here," she said. "Breanna did say that there was some kind of military tie-in to the school, so these must be the students that are, like, in the JROTC? Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps," she added for Pandora's benefit, since she likely wouldn't know the acronym.

When Pandora sees Creighton look over at the other girl, and he switches back to speaking English, she looks over at Kenzie as well.

She waits for Creighton to finish speaking, and for Kenzie to reply, before she says to Kenzie in English, "Creighton ask Pandora about..." She points towards the 13 military students with her hand closest to Kenzie and continues, "Pandora say is like [*]boards."

Creighton's comment makes her wonder if he also is perhaps here to learn to fight vampires, but she was told by Tex that the vampire hunting thing was supposed to be a secret and so she keeps her thoughts about it to herself for now.

Wanting to make sure the other girl doesn't feel alienated by Creighton and Pandora's need to briefly speak in Ukrainian to better communicate, and genuinely curious about it, she asks Kenzie, "What American food thing Kenzie like? Pandora like American barbecue."


[*She means they're stiff like boards.]
This message was last edited by the player at 07:46, Fri 13 Sept 2019.

Jason caught sight of Talberon and Lesleigh and brightened significantly, returning a deeper nod to Tal and in response to Lesleigh, with his hand still behind his back at the "At ease" position, subtly flexed his fingers in mimicry of Lesleigh's own wave.

Jason's attention returned to the arguing non-coms in front of him, they were winding down but still look primed to go on for a while so Jason, speaking in a low but clear voice cut in as Ross finished her latest tirade,

"Sergeant?"

Ross looks around sharply, "What?" She snaps, then catches herself, smothering her irritation and speaking more levelly, "What is it Corporal French?"

"Maybe we should continue this later?" Jason suggests tactfully, then tilts his head to indicate the hall of students.

Ross looks about, as if remembering the rest of the hall for the first time and swallows.
"Fall back in Corporal Fisher" She orders, almost wearily. As Jill about turns and falls back in, Jason meets her eyes and gives her a disapproving look, in response she sticks her tongue out.

"Fall them out Corporal French..." Ross says, waving a hand dismissively, all anger or weariness concealed.

"Yes Sergeant, Squad dismissed!" As one the cadet's turn on their heel before falling out of formation, adapting a more relaxed posture.

Jason glances around the hall again, hoping the deescalation would mean the students would lose interest.

The room does quiet down after the argument ceases, but a lot of that may simply be due to the lack of shouting girls - and there aren't very many girls present, to begin with, with at least three times as many boys present. Speaking of, Lesleigh has her attention called to something outside the door and thus hidden from the rest, but after a minute or so a grizzled old man wearing a tan suit, sans necktie, hobbles into the room while leaning on his cane quite heavily. His presence alone silences the majority of the older kids, and most of the freshmen get the hint by the time he's made it to the small podium.

He fiddles with the microphone but manages to avoid setting off the stereotypical feedback blast before he starts speaking into it. "Good morning, students. Most of you know me, but for the rest of you, my name is Alban Rainsford, and unsurprisingly I am your Principal here at the Rainsford Institute. Today marks the first day of the school year, and the first day in high school for a number of you, but I'm not going to bore you to death droning on about bullshit," he says, though one could certainly refer to his lackadaisical speech as droning.

"I'll get right to the point," he says and someone loudly proclaims, "Thank God!" which nets a few snickers and a contemptuous look.

"As I would hope any future hunter would notice, we have some special guests attending this year. These kids here; come on, stand up you lot and let everybody get a look at you. These kids here have been specially trained by Colonel Marsh with the explicit backing of the Department of Defense."

The confirmation of what was only conjecture before sends a whole new round of griping and conjecturing buzzing around the room. Most of the students, in any year, don't seem all that happy to hear this...

Creighton commented quietly but also easily heard by Pandora and Kenzie. "Military trained monster hunters and this is their first year at the school. Well that explains making a big show about it."

It was still shocking at the same time. When he thought of monster hunters, he thought of people like himself. You got into this because it ran in the family. Or because Something Happened to bring you in. This whole notion of it being more like the army was new.

"At least we know the whole school isn't like this and we didn't just join the military."

Equating 'monster' with vampire, and 'hunter' with fighter, Pandora is a bit confused.

She was under the impression that the whole vampire fighting thing was a secret and only a select few of students in the school would actually be involved in the training, while the other students were just ordinary high school students. But, with the small group of military-style students being on display, the openness of the old man speaking at the microphone, and the few words she picked up from Creighton's comments, she wonders if this whole vampire thing is bigger than she knew. A whole school of vampire hunters? Were there really that many of the vampires out there preying on people in the shadows?

She leans back towards Kenzie and puts her hand up to whisper again, shielding her words from Creighton and any other nearby students. She asks Kenzie, who seems to be more in the know about this school and monster hunter things, "Kenzie. Pandora has question. Students here all is 'monster hunters'? Creighton also?"

Kenzie's expression turned puzzled when Pandora said the military students were like boards. She would have asked about that, and answered Pandora's question about food, but then the principal came in and started giving a speech. Kenzie figured that would be a bad time to be whispering in the bleachers, especially considering that their position was in front of most of the other students, so she kept quiet and listened to the speech. On the plus side, some kid felt free enough to heckle without being sent to the stocks or something. Not that Kenzie would do that, but still, this place was weird and it was good to know the rules on the ground. Similarly, she nearly started clapping when the military kids were asked to stand up, but when nobody else did she quickly caught herself.

She turned slightly toward Creighton when he spoke, and nodded a little to indicate she'd heard him and agreed. She still wasn't sure if it was a good idea to be talking herself, although clearly plenty of other kids were. She wound up forgetting that for a moment after Pandora whispered to her, though, as her words were startling. Did Pandora know that little about what she was getting into? With what she'd said earlier it sounded almost like she'd been shanghaied into it. She leaned back toward Pandora and whispered back to her with the same concealing hand gesture. "Yes, this is a school for kids to learn to be monster hunters... Did Tex not tell you that?" Heck, even if Tex hadn't, Kenzie would have figured there was some kind of school orientation or introductory pamphlet or something. Kenzie wouldn't have needed it considering her own upbringing.

After the old man did the whole "welcome to the military-industrial complex" introduction, Tal became quite uneasy. It was one thing for the school to be training private and religious hunters. But a DOD-sponsored school, now that is absurd.

He just had to vent a bit. He slid over towards Pandora, Creighton, and Kenzie, accidentally knocking over a girl's thermos with what smelled like a protein shake. He hurriedly tried to clean it up and quiet down the whispers that she and a small gaggle of what seemed to be her roommates were beginning to raise. Once his clumsy problem was manageable, he whispered to the group, I get the whole monster hunting, Van Helsing-vibe. But what's with this government militia fiasco?"

Pandora briefly raises an eyebrow when Kenzie replies. She whispers back, "Tex say Pandora can learn fight vampires here. Not say all students learn fight. Pandora think only secret students fight. All students fight? Okay. Not know so many vampires."

And so, Pandora now believes the whole student body is learning to fight vampires...like it's an epidemic of bloodsuckers sneaking around in the middle of the night and praying on the unsuspecting people.

She looks back at Creighton and comments, "Some students is soldiers. Okay."

She notices Talberon slide over near them. After he speaks up, she asks him, "What 'Van Helsing-vibe' thing?"
This message was last edited by the player at 22:56, Sat 14 Sept 2019.

He watched as Tal came on over. Shame he ran over someone's drink but that was what happened when you sat everyone on the floor. "The military monster hunter squad is news to me." He shrugged. He was getting the exact same information as the rest of them. They were all stuck dealing with the shock of a new revelation. "We all came here knowing monsters are real. But soldiers or militia? That's new to me too. Up until five minutes ago I would have said people end up monster hunters because it runs in the family or because, you know, monsters got you into it."

Kenzie didn't want to make a bad impression by obviously talking in the front row during the speech, but at the same time, it would be rude to ignore Tal outright while she was trying to help Pandora. She opted to keep her response to Tal as short as possible by just shrugging slightly and whispering back "I don't really see the problem." Hopefully he'd wait for her to expand on that later rather than trying to dispute the point immediately.

She wasn't actually that sure of monster demographics, so she just gave a little nod to Pandora to answer her question. She'd have to ask her later why she was so focused on vampires in particular.

With all her being at a school for monster hunters, he was surprised that Pandora didn't know Van Helsing. "Van Helsing. Like Dracula's hunter. From the book."

He gave a look of relief to Creighton at his comment. At least he wasn't the only one who was in the dark about the soldiers.

Tal was barely interested in monster hunting and certainly wouldn't fall well into rank-and-file in the military. He gave Kenzie a look that suggested that she was insane. His voice rose a few pitches, and his speech quickened, like a whispering, machine gun argument. "Wha-what do you mean? Like this is a ridiculous overstep of the freakin' government. There is no benefit from them being here. What about a government audit that finds out there are magical and combat-trained teens? Or government co-opting kids into there own personal fighting force for non-monstrous but rather political fights?  Couldn't we be blackmailed into special ops against 'bad people'? Like..."

Feel free to choose to interrupt Tal. If ya don't then he spews all of that and keeps going. He's incredibly long-winded.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:53, Sun 15 Sept 2019.

Pandora listens as the others around her converse.

After Talberon answers her, she replies, "Pandora not read books. Is boring. But Pandora know Drakula movie. 'Van Helsing-vibe' mean 'old vampire fighter man'. Okay." The rest of Talberon's comments elude her, so she turns her attention back towards the front. Apparently the old man at the microphone is a 'Van Helsing-vibe'.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:51, Tue 17 Sept 2019.

Kenzie didn't really care to be harangued while she was trying to listen to the principal's introduction, but she wasn't the sort to just tell someone to his face to shut up, either. Instead she just blinked owlishly at Tal from behind her glasses as he got going, then tilted her head slightly toward the principal, as if maybe Tal had missed him, before turning to face the senior instructor herself.

Hearing Pandora say from the side that she thought books were boring was a slight surprise, but Kenzie figured maybe they could talk about that later, too.

Tal's gonna keep jabbering about some conspiracy stuff until one of the group interrupts him or the speaker begins again. Whichever happens first and more prominently.

Alban allows the grumbles to simmer for a bit as he shows off the military kids, but it does begin to die down all on its own as they sit down with the other students. "They're not the only, uh, special guests. We have a member of the upstanding Knight family joining us, and in an unusual turn of events, we have a member of the Rinne family as well."

A small red-headed boy wearing a black leather jacket in the Junior section stands up and says, "I don't want to interrupt your speech, Sir."

"Well then don't," Alban says in exasperation.

"But you know me, I gotta ask what everybody is thinking. Did you sell us out?"

The murmur of agreement proves that while the grumbling died, the potential resentment did not.

"Somebody smack you upside the head over the summer, Eamon?" the Principal says, eliciting a few snorts and snickers and causing the red-head to grin himself. "These fine folks have paid their tuition, just like everybody else. Well, there's one other special student..."

Few people seem to have missed that this person is a student, instead of a guest, as Alban beckons her from the side door that he entered from. Lesleigh hesitantly walks in and approaches Alban, standing slightly off to the side. She looks even tinier than usual in the large room and standing next to Alban, who is on the taller side. To quote the cliche about cutting the tension with a knife wouldn't seem out of place as she stands there, keeping her hands from shaking by clenching the sea-green fabric of her dress.

"I do believe I told you that your sunglasses have to come off indoors, young lady."

She takes a deep breath and removes the concealing glasses as instructed, revealing her overly large inhuman eyes. At least her dress compliments them.

"I'd like to present to you all, Miss Lesleigh Ebongrove."

The first people on their feet shouting in outrage are mostly wearing suspiciously similar jackets to Eamon but it's not long before the majority of the Sophomores and higher are on their feet and shouting, venting all of their suppressed suspicions on the apparently acceptable target.

Pandora watches and listens as the 'Van Helsing-vibe' continues to speak to the student body.

She doesn't recognize the references to Kenzie or Creighton since she never learned their surnames.

She doesn't really understand the other students' grumblings directed at the American military students. She has no particular dislike for them, or for what they represent. Didn't the non-military students come here to learn how to fight vampires also? What's the difference between them and the military students other than the formality of their training?

She also doesn't understand the student body's seeming outrage directed towards the Lesleigh girl. She asks those near her, "Why students no like little girl?"
This message was last edited by the player at 06:31, Tue 17 Sept 2019.

Kenzie just tuned out Tal until the principal spoke again. She hadn't realized Creighton's family was so well-known, and she was just giving him a quick smile when her own family name was mentioned as well. Kenzie hadn't realized she was going to get her own shout-out. She didn't try to stand and take a bow or anything, but she did stiffen her posture for a moment in case anyone looked at her, and she wore an expression of obvious pride in her family.

She turned back to look when someone stood up and started addressing the principal. This place was more casual than she'd realized, not that she disapproved of that. The exchange that came next was certainly confusing, especially when suddenly, most of the people in the upper classes started booing someone that didn't seem particularly unusual from what Kenzie could tell.

"I don't know," she said concernedly to Pandora. "It seems cruel to do this on someone's first day." She squinted hard as she looked at the stage and tried to figure out if she was missing something.

00:20, Today: Kenzie Rinne rolled 14 using 1d20+8.  Well-Connected, Lesleigh.

Tal's voice slowly grew slower and quieter like slowly turning the dial on a stereo. He eventually stopped jabbering and listened to the Rainsford wind-bag. When the man called out the Knight and Rinne families, he noticed that Kenzie had stiffened up proudly. She must be one of the two. I never caught her name, huh. What's her deal?

He listened to the loud-mouthed red-head talkback and nodded along to the sell-out aspect (only thinking about the DOD as he had no clue about families and figures in the hunter world). Geez, that kid certainly thinks highly of himself. He must love hearing himself talk. Though in this case, he might have a point.

At Lesleigh's introduction, Tal's heart leaped a little bit. Yay! Another friend was here along with Jason. They were difficult to talk to and a little dense at the fair, but, at least, they were friendly and helpful. He really wanted to say hi to both afterward.

But as everyone started booing and yelling at Lesleigh from the upperclassmen bleachers, Tal's blood boiled. How dare they boo his friend. She was like a sister in that only he could bully her in a joking manner (Jason probably didn't have what it takes to make fun of a fly)- no one else.

Talberon lept to his feet his right hand a fist, ready to deck someone, and his left pointing to Lesleigh as he turned his body to the upperclassmen. Someone might have noted that tiny flames had replaced his pupils. He began yelling at the crowd, "Cut it out! That's my friend. She's my friend!" His voice lost in the sea of noise. So it's likely most if not all thought that a freshman was joining in on the jibes. However, it would be loud enough for certainly Creighton, Kenzie, and Pandora to hear.

Creighton took a deep breath at the name mention. It was a good coin toss about whether that would happen or not. The family certainly had a long standing history in the job even without connections to the institute.

He was left wondering - only for a moment - if there was going to be some sort of introduction to the group instead of just a mention. Instead it turned into utter pandemonium as someone else was introduced from the very front of the auditorium.

Creighton did not recognize the name of the girl at all OOC: That's what happens when you roll a 1 on your Monster Lore) but saw Tal hit his feet and start to literally heat up. Creighton rose to his feet and put a shoulder against the other boy, leaning into him to get his attention over the roar. "If she's your friend then stand with her. She needs that more than she needs you screaming at her detractors."

There could be a choice being made here very soon, the kind of choice that happens when you vote with your feet.

The military students let the jeers and grumbling wash over them with a stubborn stoicism although Jason could see Jill making a note of every dissenting voice, her eyes bright with imagined revenge.

Jason was only a little surprised to see a matching expression on Ross's face despite her attempt to hide it.

Jason resisted the urge to shake his head, instead taking a knee with the others and waiting for the furore to die down.

However when Lesleigh was introduced personally by Mr Rainsford a small, concerned frown flitted across his face. A small twisting in his stomach as gut instinct told him that the next few minutes weren't going to be good.

The majority of the cadets looked around in confusion as the hall went mad.

Why was this girl provoking such a reaction, even more than them? None if them reacted apart from Jill and Jason.

Jill went rigid, eyes wide as she sucked in a sharp gasp through her teeth as she stared at Lesleigh.

Jason, like Talberon stood up. Unlike Talberon who leapt to his feet in a bust of explosive energy and noise, Jason stood up slowly, almost casually as his face went mask like as he started to assess the crowd silently.

Kenzie was doing her best to figure out the situation, when she managed to recall a family discussion she'd overheard a while back. "Wait, I know," she said, loud enough for those right around her to hear - assuming they weren't already trying to drown out the crowd, at least. "She must be related to Catriona Ebongrove - she's, like, the head witch of Moorhaven." Kenzie had some guesses as to their exact relation, but it would be unkind to speculate about someone's parentage without knowing for sure. "But this still seems mean, especially if the principal thinks she's okay."

Besides a fondness for cute monsters, Kenzie also had little enmity toward "monsters" that were, basically, people. She was unaware that that might cover a fairly broad swath of them.

Pandora looks over at Kenzie when she replies to her question, but then turns her head to look back up at Talberon as he suddenly leaps up onto his feet and starts shouting towards the upper class students while making a fist. Then Creighton also stands and says some words in an even tone to the red-haired boy. Honestly, she has no idea what all the ruckus is about.

When Kenzie speaks again, Pandora looks back over towards her. She asks, "Witch? What 'witch'?"
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 07:30, Wed 18 Sept 2019.

In reply to Creighton Knight (msg # 42):

Tal is still boiling mad at the crowd listening to their jeers. His hand still in a fist, ready for a fight. He intensely stares at Creighton as he's talking. And then curtly nods in agreement. He realized that a fire fight would end badly even if he didn't die or get expelled which were more likely.

"Listen, Creighton. If you don't want to get painted with this I get it. You've got a reputation to keep. I'll move over there, but all of you are welcome to join me."

Talberon steps away from his friend group and moves back to the emptier space that he had earlier been reading at. Releasing his fists he turns towards Lesleigh and does sweeping, friendly waves, the kind you do trying to flag somewhere far afield. He then makes another sweeping gesture for Lesleigh to join him with his right arm.

He yells as loud as he can in the din, "Hey, Lesleigh. Come join me!" Tal knew full well that this was the ballsiest move he could possibly do without setting off a sprinkler system.

"I know my place." He replied to Talberon. The guy had flared up in a rush but he took to friendly coaching too. He didn't exactly do the thing of walking up on stage but it wasn't bad all things considered.

Mobs rarely made wise decisions. They certainly did not dispense justice. Judgement but that did not make them right. Creighton scowled at the noise and took a breath.

He didn't need to say anything. Tal was doing well enough but didn't take it far enough either. Creighton walked towards the front with the intention of escorting the girl towards her friend. OOC: Pausing here only because intentions don't always get you where and what you want...)

Talberon finds himself set upon by some of the people around him, those that hear what he's saying over the uproar and are reacting badly to either Lesleigh's inhuman features, pedigree, or both. One boy with a crew cut and a scar on his cheek gets directly in his face and yells, "What the fuck? You're friends with that thing!?"

Creighton fares better, finding himself confronted by a tall boy with luxurious blonde hair and piercing green eyes, wearing a long white coat, just before he can step foot outside of the designated seating area. He holds his hand up to forestall him and says, "Hey, let's not be getting too close, okay?"

"Well, now that you're all riled up, perhaps we should skip straight to our annual freshman ranking test, hrm?" Whatever this means, it seems to go over pretty well with the older students. The boy identified as Eamon earlier gives some gestured commands to the other kids wearing similar jackets as him, and they go to fetch several large padded mats from a storage closet.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:46, Thu 19 Sept 2019.

Pandora is unsure of what is transpiring at the opening ceremony, but things seem to be getting unruly quickly with both Talberon and Creighton standing up in turn and being confronted by other students.

With one or more fights potentially breaking out, remaining seated suddenly doesn't seem like a good idea to the Ukrainian girl, so she rises up onto her feet. She still doesn't know what a 'witch' is, but standing up seems more pressing at the moment with all the uproar going on around her than finding out. Maybe Kenzie will tell her later.

The principle speaks again, but Pandora doesn't understand enough to determine what is going on. She keeps her guard up just in case something violent happens.

Creighton paused about a quarter of a foot closer than most people were comfortable with when the boy got in his way. He flicked a glance upwards to the boy's face and then flattened out his glare again. It seemed as if Creighton had no idea this boy was bigger. "Move."

Two people could play the game of Do What I Say.

He looked towards his destination. "Seems to me like I was invited to be there, by name and everything."

OOC: Intention is to Intimidate. Not sure if you like us to roll on Interaction things that can fail or if you want to just make the roll and tell the story

In the heat of the moment, it took Kenzie a second to realize Pandora didn't grasp the word "witch," rather than her asking which witch was involved. With everyone else standing up around her, she did the same and said uncertainly to Pandora "Witch? Um, someone that uses magic and curses people... I guess?" She wasn't sure how to explain the concept to someone that might not know the follow-up words either.

Kenzie wasn't too sure what to make of this situation overall. The students here seemed to come down pretty united in their hatred of the new girl, which could suggest they knew something the freshmen didn't, or could just be a sign of high school cliquishness. She wasn't about to start booing to fit in or anything, but even if she liked Creighton it seemed premature to back him up in what might turn out to be a fight over stakes she didn't understand. For now, she just tried to keep an eye on her surroundings and see what developed.

The freshman ranking test, for example, although she had no idea what that entailed either. Maybe it was something like the SATs? Kenzie hoped so, she was good at those kinds of tests. Plus it would certainly calm things down.

In reply to Aeternitas (msg # 48):

Tal began feeling claustrophobic by these bigoted & powerful teenagers. This loud-mouthed idiot with the crew-cut in particular, Tal really wanted to barbeque him like a whole pig. But probably best not throw himself to the inquisition right now. But Tal was still a wise-assed teen, "The real witch is the one who gave you that passé haircut. Can you tell your toady familiars to get on their brooms and fly back to your hidey-hole? I'd hate for you to get caught in a fire when you can't stand the heat."

He's certainly expecting a fight, but he wouldn't throw the punch- not with the principal watching. For some reason, he doubted that these ranking tests would be like a Myers-Briggs test.

Jason spots Talberon being challanged and started to act, time seeming to slow down as his adrenaline surged. He started to step froward, intending to support the fireslinger before pincering around and reaching Lesleigh-

Jill steps in front of him, one hand on his chest and pushes back firmly just as he starts starts to move, overbalancing him and causing him to stagger back into the waiting grip of of Privates Myers and Halloway.

They don't hold him tight, it would have been a struggle for the two of them to hold a struggling Jason even if they were trying to but its enough for Jason to pause for a moment and assess.

"Don't." Jill hisses, inches away from Jason as she looks over her shoulder at the seething crowd before checking to see if Ross had spotted Jason's purposeful movement and guessed his intention.

Luckily, Ross seemed to be occupied with keeping the rest of the unit cohesive as the crowd grew louder

"She's bad news." Jill says with absolute certainty in her eyes before the head master manages to rein in the crowd. Jason shrugs off Myers and Halloway's grip, jaw clenched as he lets a long sigh out through his nose, steadying his breathing.

Generally, feel free to roll if you think the situation may warrant one. Saves me the trouble of rolling for you. ^.^
20:21, Today: Aeternitas, on behalf of Creighton Knight, rolled 24 using 1d20+6 ((18)).


Creighton finds that the pretty boy falters, but he doesn't back down - probably because the Principal is right there, possibly because he can't back up without getting closer to Lesleigh, or more likely a bit of both. "No, you weren't. And unless Miss Ebongrove says you're a friend, I'm not letting you just walk up to her in this kind of situation."

Lesleigh, who was watching Jason without looking directly at him, misses her cue for a moment but recovers. "I don't know him. I don't know you either."

This causes the pretty boy to half turn and make a sheepish expression, whatever he was going to say dying in his throat under her stare.



Meanwhile, the crewcut boy sneers at Talberon and cocks back his fist, but it doesn't get anywhere. Easily half the guy's size, the loudmouth identified as Eamon comes up behind the crewcut boy and in one motion firmly locks both of his arms and drives him to one knee. "Oh ho, looks like we got volunteers for the first round right here!" he says before hauling the boy back to make room for the padded mat to be deployed as the crowd scatters.

"The rules of this test are simple. You can fight with only your own body. No strikes to the face, joints, or genitals. Lose and you're out. Win, and you can face someone else that won the same number of time as you did. You can decline to fight but your final rank is lower than the people that have zero wins. Once you step up to the mat, you can't decline when you see who your opponent is. Ah, out of deference to biological reality, the ladies can only fight each other until their top ranker is determined. That girl can fight the boys if she wants."

Eamon releases the crewcut boy, who snarls at him and merely gets a cocky grin in response. Then he steps up onto the mat and points straight at Talberon. "You! Unless you're chickenshit!"

Even with all the ruckus, Pandora immediately notices Kenzie as she rises up to stand. She glances back over her shoulder at the auburn-haired girl when she speaks up. She repeats, "Magic...curses?" After a pause, she says, "Sorry. Pandora not understand but gives Kenzie 'thank you'."

She looks towards the front when the principle speaks up again. She grasps some of the words, but not the whole message. She asks Kenzie, "We fight now? Who?"

Kenzie clearly blanched when the principal made his announcement. They were just going to start physically fighting each other, right here and now? That wasn't something she was prepared for, physically or mentally. And the principal hadn't even specified a loss condition - were they going to be knocking each other out? Or breaking bones and throwing on submission holds, if no head shots were allowed? In which case, how could anyone expect to marathon their way through even a single-elimination tournament, unless they were just that much better than everyone else? At least Kenzie herself had one thing going for her - considering it was her idea to come here and not her parents', they would probably think better of her if she came out of this with a lower "ranking." She didn't think that would make a good first impression on her new schoolmates, though. She supposed she'd have to go through with it. At least she still had one ace up her sleeve, albeit one that would make this more palatable rather than actually helping her.

She tried to focus through her rushing thoughts, and realized Pandora was talking to her. Poor Pandora, what an impression she must be getting of this country. "I'll tell you more about the witch thing later," she said as she tried to catch back up with their conversation. She tried to think about how to convey what was happening both clearly and succinctly. "All of us..." she gestured around at the gathered students, "are going to fight each other for, um... school points. Girls against girls and boys against boys first. Then the girl winner can fight the boy winner if she wants. No weapons or, um, that kind of thing." Really, if somebody got punched in the face because Pandora didn't speak English and the school didn't have a translator, that seemed like the principal's fault. It wasn't like just repeating all the rules would help Pandora understand them any better. "You can not fight, but then you get fewer points."

Creighton straightened up even more than usual. He'd won. He knew it. The other boy knew it too. He looked past the guy to introduce himself to the girl. "Creighton Knight. Good to meet you Lesleigh. Seems that many people here recognize your name. Apologies but it seems I've never run across it before. And I'd prefer to make up my own mind instead of dealing with this mob."

Talking to her also gave him the chance to get a closer look. There was something about those eyes, and something else about those eyes. A good solid rush of Mt. Everest adrenaline fired through his system. He knew what it was, he just wasn't expecting it to happen here with someone he'd never met. "Scales and talons." He muttered under his breath somewhere between an oath and a curse.

The sudden announcement that there would be some kind of trial by combat suited his current frame of mind. And honestly, made this feel more like home. A crew of students brought out some mats so at least they wouldn't be fighting on this floor. It didn't feel like it could take the punishment anyhow. There were concerns immediately. What about Pandora and Kenzie? One of them seemed well suited to this, the other like she'd should not be expected to be measured by her ability to perform violence. And what about Lesleigh? Sexist but true, he figured more of the boys were ready for this than the girls.

The guy who got in his way could be a source of information. Or be his sparring partner. "So is this only for first year students while the rest of you watch?"

The crowd around Tal quickly dispersed before he had time to blend into the crowd (like that would have worked or like he would have done that). The crew-cut boy stood behind a sparring mat. With his annoying doppelganger watching, Tal couldn't back down. Tal had only gotten into a handful of fistfights when in Boston, and he knew that he was unlikely to get the upper-hand without taking other measures. He felt his fists heat up before he let them cool again. He decided that he'd keep that in the hold until things got really hairy.

Tal threw down his coat and brushed up his shirt-sleeves. Pretending to yawn, "This should be quick. I appreciate the warm-up, need to loosen up these muscles before I get a real challenge." He stepped onto the mat. The two sized each other up, shifting, preparing for the first strike. Ever the impetuous teen, Tal attempted to land the first hit on Crew-cut.


It seemed like you were setting up for me to roll for a close combat action. If that was wrong, feel free to let me know.

11:47, Today: Talberon O'Malley rolled 21 using 1d20+3. Freshman Ranking Fight Against Eamon (using +3 Fighting modifier) attempting to land a punch against Crew-cut.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:17, Sat 21 Sept 2019.

10:59, Today: Aeternitas, for the NPC Crewcut Kid, rolled 19 using 1d20+2.  Toughness Check DC 16.
11:00, Today: Aeternitas, for the NPC Crewcut Kid, rolled 8 using 1d20+2.  Attack Check DC 13.

The crewcut kid manages to get his arms up in time to weather Talberon's sudden assault, but his counterattack is only a weak jab that doesn't even come close to connecting.



Lesleigh's eyebrows rise but she doesn't respond to Creighton just yet. The pretty boy answers, "It's just for freshmen, though I guess you could call out someone else if you want. The results are used to sort you into ranks, and after that, you can challenge people above you to try and rank up. This first week is called freshmen fight week since you guys tend to get really fired up about the duels."

Tal lets the jab slide by as he barely sidesteps it. And he winds up a mistimed kick himself.

OOC:
13:24, Today: Talberon O'Malley rolled 9 using 1d20+3.  Reaction against crew-cut (using parry).
13:28, Today: Talberon O'Malley rolled 4 using 1d20+3.  Attack against crew-cut (completely forgot that we use DC in this game so NM earlier roll in queue.


Your call GM which is used due to my mistake. But either way, Tal is not gonna hit...

This message was last edited by the player at 18:41, Sat 21 Sept 2019.

About Kenzie explaining the whole witch thing to her later, Pandora replies, "Okay."

After Kenzie explains the situation as best as she can using words and gestures, the blonde girl gives her a nod. She gets the gist of it--some sort of sparring thing for school points. She replies, "Okay. Thank you. Pandora give Kenzie 'good luck' thing." She gives Kenzie a friendly smile and a 'thumbs up' gesture before heading off to her first sparring match.

*****

Pandora vs. Thorn

Pandora stands guarded, looking over the Caucasian girl on the opposite corner of the padded training mat. 'Thorn', the girl calls herself. She appears only average in height for a female freshman but has an athletic build. Her face is attractive, and her hair is short and black. Black eyeliner shapes her bright green eyes, but she otherwise forgoes wearing any make-up. Black, tribal, intertwined thorn tattoos pattern her arms.

Thorn stands at the ready as she faces off against her blonde opponent. She narrows her eyes and says, "Gonna make this quick. Take a fall when I hit you and stay down. Maybe I'll let you be my girlfriend."

Pandora stoically replies in her Eastern European accent, "No, thank you."

The combatants slowly close in on each other in a counterclockwise spiral, shifting the position of their hands and feet around as they move, looking for an opening in their adversary's guard.

Thorn responds, "Have it your way, Pandora. I've got a thing for pretty foreign girls like you. So I guess I'm gonna have tah spank your ass and make you my girlfriend anyway!" She suddenly lunges forward and throws a left-handed straight punch at Pandora's solar plexus. The Ukrainian girl shifts her torso off to the left side of Thorn, meeting the other girl's arm with her own left arm and pushing it down and aside to divert the blow. Anyone watching them can see that both teenagers have had some form of formal hand-to-hand combat training.

Pandora rotates inward and attempts to strike the back of the other girl's head with the elbow end of her right forearm, but Thorn instinctively rolls forward onto the blue training mat to avoid the blow and then back onto her feet again. The black-haired girl quickly turns to face her opponent and brings her guard back up. Pandora resets her own hand guard as Thorn comments, "Not bad."

They circle each other clockwise on the mat. Thorn suddenly goes low, spinning around, and sweeping her right leg around in an attempt to knock Pandora's legs out from underneath her, but the Ukrainian girl does a one-handed cartwheel in the opposite direction of the sweeping leg, flipping over it, and landing back onto her feet. Pandora pivots on her left foot and kicks her right foot out at the black-haired girl's chest just as she finishes her sweep and begins to rise back up.

Pandora's kick hits the other girl square in her chest, but she rolls backwards with the blow to diminish its force and then back up onto her feet. Thorn holds her chest where she was kicked. She says, "That hurt! You kicked my boobs! That's gonna leave a bruise."

Pandora stoically replies, "Sorry. Not see 'boobs'."

Thorn replies "Seriously? A flat-chested joke? You're lucky the rules are handicapping me. Otherwise this'd already be over and you'd be mine." Thorn charges forward.

Pandora throws a hook punch with her right hand at the left side of the charging girl's head, but Thorn ducks underneath it and rams her shoulder into her opponent's chest, knocking the Ukrainian girl off her feet and onto her butt a meter backwards. The black-haired girl pivots on her left foot and tries to stomp on her with her right boot.

Pandora kick's the inner side of Thorn's lower right leg as it comes down with her right foot, pushing it away so the kick misses her to stomp the mat instead and throwing her opponent off balance. With an opening presenting itself, the Cossack girl props herself up onto the palm of her left hand and her left foot, while forward kicking the heel of her right shoe hard into Thorn's solar plexus, completely knocking the wind out of her, lifting her feet out from underneath her, and causing her to fall face first, flat onto the mat.

The Ukrainian girl quickly rises up onto her feet, raises her right foot up, and stomps downward towards at the back of the prone girl's head. "Stop!" yells the supervisor. Pandora just manages to stop her foot short of striking the back of the other girl's head. She steps back away as the supervisor checks on Thorn's condition. She briefly rubs her chest with her left hand where Thorn rammed her shoulder into her.

With Thorn grasping for breath, but otherwise no serious injuries, the supervisor exclaims, "Winner! Pandora!"
This message was last edited by the player at 21:51, Sun 22 Sept 2019.

Kenzie was faintly surprised that Pandora all but jumped at the chance after her rather weak explanation, but maybe she was just good at this and looking forward to showing off. "Good luck!" she said as Pandora headed out. "Talk to me when you're done, okay?" Then she reached down to lift up her self-wheeling bag so it wouldn't get it anyone's way from her leaving it behind, and headed over to a mat near where Pandora was. Kenzie definitely wasn't good at this or looking forward to showing off, but she might as well get it over with. She almost instinctively started singing under her breath as she walked, but cut herself off - that was really something she should save for when she had her gear on.

Once Kenzie was positioned for her first (and probably last) spar, she waited to see who would turn up to oppose her. She also did her best to follow the other fights going on, even if she could barely see to the other end of her own practice mat.

Jason and the rest of the squad look up in interest at the new turn of events. Halloway, a short, compact kid with rich dark hair chuckles deeply, "So he stops us fighting just so we can fight who we want?"

Cally Myers, the blond team medic who always seemed to look really pissed off about something despite being probably one of the more pleasant members of the team shook her head,
"They can't expect untrained kids to just start brawling in the hall." She said, her voice aghast.

"Cally, We brawl all the time! And I'm younger than most of these people.."

"Yes but we're trained...Most of the kids might do more damage to themselves than others, How many boxers fractures have I had to brace because one of you clowns didn't know how the throw a punch!" Cally looks around for her Corporal, "Come on Jill back me up!"

"I think she just flattened Carson..." Halloway said sheepishly as Jill pins fire team two's heavy gunner to the ground with a combination of a knee to the back and a painful looking half nelson.

Sergeant Ross steps up and says wearily, "I think that might just be because Carson called her a midget. Still, the whistle blows and one of the supervisors absently checks off Jill's name and gives her a nod.

Jill hauls the heavy gunner to his feet, who looks like he's trying to be made but can't quite keep himself from cracking up, especially when Cally almost collides with him as she looks like she can't decide to asses him for injuries or beat him up herself.

Jason noticed that not everyone was as inexperienced as Cally had been worried about and both him, Ross and Halloway wince as Pandora slams her foot into Thorne's stomach, coupled with the following faceplant left them in no doubt that it was just amateur night.

Jill however looks on it wonder, already removing her ear stud. "Dibs on the Ruski!"

"I think she might be Ukrainian." Ross corrects.

"Dibs on the Ukrainian!"

Ross just sighs before saying firmly, "Don't do anything stupid Corporal, if you get roundhoused by Ivana Kikya over there I'm not going to enjoy the conversation with the Colonel, and you won't enjoy the conversation with me."

Ross walks over to Kenzie's mat, the athletic blond approaching slowly in front of Kenzie, announcing her presence in a controller manner. She takes on a guarded stance, hunching over slightly and standing side on.

"Hello." She says evenly, rolling her shoulders.
This message was last edited by the player at 10:34, Sun 22 Sept 2019.

"Hi!" Kenzie replied, with a worthy effort at sounding upbeat. "I'm Kenzie." She took on a readied stance of her own, which at least showed some training, albeit just enough to put her experience level around "novice." However, she wasn't angled quite right toward the opponent she was doing her best to squint at through her thick glasses, and she was too stiff, as though she could throw herself off by flinching at any moment.

Kenzie was clearly aware of her own limitations, as she added a moment later "I know I'm not much, but don't feel like you have to go easy on me." That would just be more embarrassing for both of them, in her opinion.

In reply to Kenzie Rinne (msg # 64):

"Right. Okay."Ross nodded slowly, blue eyes flicking up and down the girl, sizing her up. "Do...you want to take your glasses off first?" She says a bit hesitantly, eyes darting to the side awkwardly.

She's still quite guarded however, unwilling to underestimate a student in this particular school.

That gave Kenzie pause. Since head shots were off limits, she figured she'd take a quick body blow and the ref would call it, but now it sounded like she was going to get her face smashed into the mat before this was over. And this girl not telling Kenzie her name in return wasn't exactly a sign of goodwill either. "Um... okay," she said after a moment. "Just a second."

She took a couple of steps back to her bag, then pressed her thumb into a switch to fold out a small wedge-shaped segment with two glasses cases inside. She opened one of them, carefully took off her glasses, tucked them inside, then closed up the whole arrangement again. With that done, she returned to the mat pretty much by memory and returned to her earlier stance, though at this point it looked like she might just be guessing as to the general direction her opponent was in.

In reply to Kenzie Rinne (msg # 66):

Ross raised an eyebrow watching the girl gingerly make her way back to the mat, perhaps her eyesight was particularly bad?

Ross drops her hands slightly, straightening up out of her favoured boxer's stance. "Are...Do you want to do this?" She says a bit sheepishly but still with an edge of caution.

Kenzie zeroed in on the girl's location when she heard her speak again. "Hey, I have eye problems, not... brittle bone disease," she said with a friendly attempt at humor that was marred somewhat by her delivery. She'd realized halfway through that she shouldn't go dropping "osteogenesis imperfecta" on someone outside of her own family. "The principal said my ranking would be better with zero wins than if I refused to fight at all, so I can take a hit for a better grade. Not that I'm going to throw it, though, that wouldn't really be fair." At least on purpose, Kenzie added to herself. She knew she was a sitting duck at the moment, but she'd probably just get banged up worse if she tried to rush in first.

Round 1, Before the Fight

Creighton took off his shoes back to the mat. Bare feet and hands were the normal in his workout life. Of course, so was losing. Most of his one on one work outs were with family members. His most usual work out partner was Father. And while Father knew how to make sure Creighton grew, learned, improved, there was no doubt that he wasn't winning. Occasionally they went to the local and Creighton participated in rounds against people his own age. They needed an outside measuring stick after all.

Breath. This was no time to be lost in memory.
Breath. It was no time to hurt anyone either. They wanted to rank them. It was fine. But they did not need to see every bit of fight he knew either.
One more long deep breath. He turned and took the mat.

The young man waiting for him looked built for American football. Both taller and heavier than Creighton, like nearly anyone else he'd meet. Creighton sized him up. Athlete but not really a fighter.

Round 1, After the Fight

Creighton helped pull Joey to his feet one last time. "Damn it, I even knew you were going to do that again. How did I still end up on my ass?"

"Tell you what, when this is all done, I'll show you how to stop it from happening." He gave Joey a nod. He understood that frustrated feeling of knowing a thing was coming and not quite knowing how to stop it.

"It just seems wrong." Joey was shaking his head and managed a laugh as he got to his feet. "Sorry about running all that smack when we started. Its just part of the game you know?"

"Not a problem. We're all good right?" They bumped fists. It could have gone another way. Good news about athletes was that they could lose a fight and still make a friend.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:52, Sun 22 Sept 2019.

In reply to Kenzie Rinne (msg # 68):

Ross pauses for a moment, slightly shamed before shrugging, "Fair enough." She looks over at the supervisor who gives a single nod. Despite her earlier conviction not to get overconfident Ross comes in quickly. She jukes right, coming at Lesleigh from her left side, assuming that it would be her non dominant side.

Unless Kenzie manages to re position, Ross will try to go for a standard trip takedown, snaking her booted foot behind Kenzie's own, one hand grabbing her by the collar and then dragging her back in an attempt to trip the girl backwards.

If possible, she'll try to guide her down as gently as possible, instead of just letting the girl drop uncontrolled.


Creighton hears a male voice call out to him from behind, "Hey Richy Rich." If he turns he sees another guy, taller than him but slimmer, all corded muscle and sinew, walking away from his own sparring match. He's sweating but it's significantly better than his opponent whose still on the ground retching.

Apparently he'd managed to land a few good blows before the supervisor managed to call it.

The kid stands and spreads his arms slightly, palms forward before jerking his head back as if summoning Creighton to his mat.

It took Creighton a moment to realize that the Richy comment was aimed his way. While he'd never wanted for any necessary things, making him better off than most worldwide, he'd never been considered well off by American standards.

Creighton moved to check on the downed young man but before he arrived a pair of  older students - who appeared to be waiting for just such a thing - came over and began touching and asking questions to make sure he was OK.

While this boy had not broken any of the rules, he may have just as easily bruised some ribs. "I see we don't believe in pulling punches." He paused at the edge of the mat. "Do we believe in introductions?"

Creighton pushed his hair back with his hands while getting a good breath. In the span of time it took to fill his lungs and empty them again black and gold scales came into  glistening existence over his skin. He left them off of his face since there weren't supposed to be head shots.

He took that last step up onto the mat, feet comfortably apart, and nodded like he was ready to go.

In reply to Creighton Knight (msg # 71):

"Lance Corporal Samson Teller" He grins, mouth quirking into a somewhat condescending smirk as he taps the small rank symbol embroided into his left sleeve. His eyes widen as the scales begin to creep over Creighton's body and his smile falters for a fraction of a second before he recovers.

"You shed that stuff as well? I'm in the market for a new pair of shoes..." He drawls stepping onto the mat, his feet still clad in sturdy combat boots unlike Creighton's bare feet.

He starts begins to rock back and forth on the balls of his feet and raises his hands, his posture firm but flexible.

His light green eyes fix on Creighton's intently and the corner of his mouth twitches, giving his smile a hint of eager restraint as he waits for the word to proceed.

Creighton looked unimpressed with the rank and demarcation of it. Maybe he didn't know the meaning of it. Or maybe he just didn't care about it. "Careful there Samson, one good buzz cut and you'll be weak as a kitten."

He caught the eyes of the official to let him know he was ready. And turned one hand flat up towards Samson to offer him the universal gesture of 'bring it on'.

In reply to Creighton Knight (msg # 73):

The supervisor drops his hand and Sampson darts forward fast, lighting fast. He explodes  forward like a sprinter off the start mark. His fist dives then surges upward in a viscious up-jab to the stomach. Creighton manages to twist back and to the side, allowing Sampson's momentum to carry him forward before batting the fist away while allowing the momentum of his own movement to carry his own jab.

Sampson stops and rebalances almost as quickly as he started, unable to deflect or dodge Creightons follow up he twists himself, pivoting like a dancer.

Instead of Creighton's fist hitting his soft belly it instead glances off his ribs. Despite that the hard punch still elicits a sharp exhale from Sampson but at least it's not a kidney blow or worse, a direct blow to the solar plexus that the hall had seen Pandora through her first fight.

Sampson darts back, the whole exchange maybe having taken about five seconds if that.

Touch to Creighton...

Samson was clearly accustomed to catching people by surprise with his lightning assault tactics. In the first furious exchange it didn't work.

Anyone who had Samson pegged as a one trick pony quickly learned otherwise. His posture said he was going to do the exact same thing, charge and fist-stab. Instead he stopped the charge early and took advantage of his longer reach. The initial kick he launched was double-arm blocked by Creighton.

Samson continued the motion as if he'd expected the block and stepped into surprisingly fast striking long range jabs. One hit Creighton in the shoulder that could have been a head shot instead.

It was one to one. Samson stepped back, bouncing on the balls of his feet like he'd just won the whole thing. They paused for a breath, long enough for the supervisor to restart them, and it started up again.

Samson stuck with his favorite charging start but was met on his way in. Creighton ducked in, under, and down. Samson was in the middle of reacting and adjusting when his legs were swept and he hit the mat on his back. His training showed, he landed like he should have but he smacked the mat hard with his hands, angry with losing the point on a knock over.

Kenzie was better at detecting movement than picking out static targets, so she was at least able to orient herself toward Ross as she approached, but it still didn't do her much good. She didn't even see the foot coming in to hook her until it was too late, at which point her inexperienced efforts to balance herself were no help. She wound up making a surprisingly - to her, anyways - gentle landing on the mat, just as Ross intended.

Kenzie kept her guard up for a moment to be sure Ross wasn't going to kick her or anything for good measure, then said "Um... Thanks. Congrats on winning." She wanted to be a good sport, but she had a feeling if she said something like "good fight" it would come off as insulting. Instead she stood up, smiled a little, and offered Ross a handshake.

Talberon's laughably mistimed kick prompts, well, a round of laughter from the large crowd. The Crewcut Kid grins broadly and comes in swinging, but Talberon has no trouble evading the untrained punches while launching a probing counteroffensive of his own.

Which the crewcut kid dodges directly into, taking Tal's fist squarely on his nose.

Eamon's voice echoes over the din, "Oh shit! Hey man, if you're gonna lose, you should try and lose with some kind of dignity. Hey, you okay?" He checks on the flattened freshman and while blood is pouring out the crewcut kid's nose, he seems to be merely dazed as Eamon makes him sit up and then has a pair of his followers help the guy up and haul him off in the direction of the aid station that is rapidly being set up.

Cally doubtlessly feels vindicated.

Since they're moving around so much now, it's hard to avoid noticing that Eamon and all of the other feisty kids with black leather jackets all have the same large patch on the back of them: a demonic-looking skull with a bullet hole in the forehead.

Tal shakes off the fight with Crew-cut. He chalked it up to his long-dead ancestors' residual Irish luck. But seriously, Tal is not much of a fighter, especially not one with these handicaps. He'd rather light someone up like Christmas tree than get physical.

He stood on his mat and waited for his next opponent. Whereas he and Crew-cut weren't ridiculously uneven matches. His next opponent was all of 5'5" and filled out every muscle. Tal's scrawny self gave a silent swear at the sight. Upon which, he crossed himself.

Well, here goes nothing.

"Hey, leprechaun, better run along. Some kid needs his Lucky Charms," bellowed the challenger in a thick Australian accent.

That's fresh. Never heard a leprechaun joke before.

He readied himself. One foot back, one foot planted his shoulder blades, fists up, and ready for a fight. But this time, even Tal's impetuous self wouldn't strike first.

The lumbering mass toyed with Tal a bit. He probed with his fists on both sides of Tal, multiple times. Tal side-swiped and ducked each punch. Tal may not put up much of a fight, but he sure doesn't like getting hit when he's in one.

"Well, if that's so, it turns out you're just unlucky."

Tal finally saw a chance. He let the teen drawback and swing, his fist screaming towards Tal's chest. Tal ducked under and threw a quick jab towards his challenger's sternum. It was enough to take the wind out of the guy's lungs.

The lumbering mass staggered backward, stunned. Trying to recover his breath. But though obviously out of commission, he came back onto the mat, hyperventilating, not wanting to yield to the little twerp. Tal lightly brushed his legs aside. Now on the floor, the teen still struggled for his breath and finally yielded.

Tal was smug at his more worthy victory, "Looks like your luck's run out. I'll get ya a rabbit's foot before there's a rematch. Looks like you're gonna need it." But then he realized that it was just that they were both untrained and, in this match, speed and smarts won the day, just barely. But if he went up against anyone with an ounce of training. He'd be toast.

He isn't a total jerk, despite the trash talk. Tal walks over and helps the boy to his feet, which took quite some effort on his part. "The name's Tal. You did well out there. Hope for you to have my back someday."

The teen took some deep, controlled breathes with his hands on his knees and looked at Tal. "Thanks. The name's Tommy. And you're quick on your feet for a runt like you. Will definitely look forward to it." He did keep a careful eye on Tal as he walked away, having seen the commotion that had ensued surrounding Lesleigh.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:23, Mon 23 Sept 2019.

Ross blinks at the extended hand, a little surprised. She shoots a quick look at the supervisor to make the the round has actually finished and Kenzie is not trying for a cheap shot.

In the end she takes Kenzie's hand, her own is surprisingly gentle, not limp but not over compensating either.

She gives Kenzie a nod.
"Thank you." She starts to move away before turning back, a strange look on her face. "There are...less risky ways to get a grade you know..." She tilts her head towards the rest of the hall, "You could have ended up with someone...meaner..." She nods to Thorne, who despite being winded and battered still cut an intimidating figure, "Like her...or worse..." The blond nods towards Pandora.


Sampson stands up slowly, his grin gone and his face twisted into an ugly scowl. He stands, bracing himself back and in a blink his scowl vanishes into the same cock sure grin as before but this time, Creighton notes, it doesn't meet his eyes which almost glint with malice.

Again he bounces forward, this time slightly more defensively. Fists jabbing forward as he circles Creighton, attempting to get at him from the side instead of head on.

Creighton denies him any easy side swipes however, keeping up with quick side steps that stop either of them from anything but a face to face fight.

As if trying to break the deadlock, Sampson moves forward aggressively,  throwing several easily predictable strikes that Creighton bats away with ease.

A subtle voice instinct nags at the back of Creighton's mind however a split second before he sees the strikes for what they are.

A distraction.

For him and the supervisor...

Just as he parries the last one, Sampson steps forward and drives his booted heel as hard as he can onto Creightons bare, unprotected foot.

Kenzie's handshake was similar to Ross's, gentle without being overly weak. After that, between Ross moving away and Kenzie not having her glasses, it was a wonder she could guess at all who Ross was nodding to. Her nodding toward Pandora as the "even worse" didn't do much to endear her to Kenzie, but she was having trouble getting a read on the military girl in the first place. After a moment she decided to just be direct. "I wouldn't really know, so I appreciate the tip... What's your name, anyways?"

The downkick happened high and hard, with the clear intention of breaking bones. Later on, reviewing the fight in his mind, Creighton would not be able to say for certain if he let it happen or if it really did catch him unawares.

Did he set up Samson or was it just the tiniest bit of luck?

The boot heel landed on Creighton's foot. Like nearly all the rest of him right now, it too was coated in scales. If it would have been his actual bare foot, or even in just a sneaker, it would have had the desired impact. Instead, Samson reaped some of the rewards due to him for how he won the previous match.

Samson's strike hurt but no more than any of the rest of the real strikes he'd landed so far. The surprise of not having Creighton go down showed in his lack of follow up.

Creighton stepped around Samson, bringing a long arm with him for leverage and threw the larger boy down to the mat. At the same time the official came over to stop the match. Successful or not, Samson's intention was clear. Creighton was declared the winner of the match.

The referee in Creighton's contest with Samson motions him closer while a pair of the black leather coat wearers insist, in a friendly way, that Samson shut his mouth and accept the result, maybe sit down, have a cup of juice, do some self-reflection - the smart things to do, essentially. The referee, a gentleman on the older side of middle-aged and dressed more formally than the other faculty speaks with a British accent. "Just to be clear, Mister Knight, I am overlooking the use of your power only because it was in counter to an illegal move. If that's clear, nothing else need be said on the matter."



Over at Pandora's mat, the familiar voice of Tex greets her warmly as he arrives on the scene, but he seems to be there for the other girl, Jill. "Before you get too excited about facing Pandora, Miss Fisher, Ah'd like to point out that the rule is for females to fight the other females."

"Huh!?" She looks like she's about to launch into a tirade but Tex holds up his hands in a mollifying gesture and says, "Ah don't make the rules, and Ah can't change em neither. But seems to me you've got a taker, so if you beat her you're clear to fight Pandora."

"Who the-!?" Jill starts to look for this opponent Tex was referring to and stops dead when she finds Lesleigh standing right beside her. It's at that moment that most of the other people nearby realize that she's there as well, skittering back with muttered curse words and a couple of people crossing themselves.

"If you're willing, of course," she says with her best attempt at a friendly smile.

"... Okay. Okay, that's fine. Then I'll fight the Ukranian."

Tex goes to stand beside Pandora, make small talk, and make sure that she's understanding everything correctly while Jill and Lesleigh square off - if it can be called that. Jill finds herself hesitating as Lesleigh's utter lack of experience combines with her petite form to make her look almost helpless. Almost, when a glance at her eyes reminds one that her real strength is altogether different than this.

Jill's first hit lands firmly in Lesleigh's gut, making her stagger back, but to Jill's surprise and Lesleigh's credit, she doesn't fall and comes back for another round. Then a third. On the fourth, Lesleigh makes her best effort at a punch of her own and gets swung completely over Jill and slammed full force into the mat. "Stay down, damn it!"

She doesn't.

Angry and more than a little unsettled Jill circles Lesleigh and says, "Is there some point to this? Are you trying to look pathetic, perhaps?"

"No, I merely concluded that this was the best way to have this conversation."

"What conversation?"

"The one about you thinking that I might be dangerous to Jason."

"How the fuck do you know his- You didn't."

"We did. We went to New York on my broom. I'd call it a magical evening but I can't decide if that's too cliche, or too literal. It's probably both."

Jill is so shocked that Lesleigh's feeble blow lands firmly on her chest. It seems to be just enough to snap her out of it, and Jill retaliates with a punch to the head so fierce that Lesleigh spins clear around before she falls over onto the mat. Tex and the referee both start yelling, but Lesleigh simply sits up, albeit wobbly, and says, "It's fine. I expected that. Well, I obviously can't win a fistfight so I will admit my loss now."

Jill stares as Lesleigh walks away, more than a little discombobulated...

"Sergeant Ross" Ross replies, "I'm with the military students..." She says, a touch of pride in her voice before she looks down at herself in her uniform and coughs sheepishly, "But you probably guessed that..." She shakes herself, straightening up, "Are you here with anyone else or just as a private student?" Ross queries.

Sampson jumps up, snarling as he rises with the intention of another lunge at Creighton before he's stopped by the Black Jackets. Even then, he looks as if he's considering his chances before Jason steps up from behind him, his own fight finished with only minimal hassle.

"Take five Corporal." The larger kid says levelly.

Pandora turns towards Tex just before he arrives at the mat she was sparring at. She looks up at the tall, barrel-chested man, raises her right hand up in a friendly gesture, and says, "Hallo." Despite her tone being warm, her expression remains stoic.

She watches him step over to the shorter, brown-haired girl and speak with her. She gets that, apparently, the girl called 'Fisher' wants to challenge her, but, apparently, she has to spar against the smaller girl first who, apparently, isn't actually blind despite her strange eyes.

She seems to look at Tex as he comes back over near her and tries to explain the short list of rules to her while she also keeps an eye on the sparring match. She notes that the little girl is tougher than she looks--taking several hits and coming back for more--and that the Fisher girl doesn't like her for some reason that she still doesn't understand. Maybe the Fisher girl is big boy Jason's girlfriend and the smaller girl is challenging her because of it? She mentally shrugs. She blinks when the small girl gets punched hard in the head. That seems mean to Pandora--considering the smaller girl's eye condition. The Fisher girl doesn't seem as funny now as she was earlier when the youth soldier group paraded in.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:08, Wed 25 Sept 2019.

"I did, but I couldn't see if you were wearing a name tag," Kenzie answered Ross's comment. "I'm here by myself. My family does some work with the military, as civilians though." She glanced back at her bag. "I need to get my glasses, so I should probably let you get to your next fight, huh?"

In reply to Kenzie Rinne (msg # 85):

Jill watches Lesleigh walk away for a moment before shaking herself back to alertness. She clenched her jaw and breathed in deep through her nose, her brown eyes flicking to Jason as he lines up on Creighton's mat and her face is a mask.

She pivots on her heel and strides purposefully, past Pandora towards Ross

Ross nods in response to Kenzie's question "Yes. Uh...It was nice to meet you-" She tags on to the end, unsure of how to end the conversation before Jill slaps on the arm and jerks her head towards to door.

"Dave, we need to talk." She says, her tone low and serious.

Ross opens her mouth to retort, probably to bawl Jill out for her lack of proper address.

Then she sees the look Jill's eyes and her mouth closed with an audible click. She starts towards the door, followed by Jill who casts one assessing look over Kenzie before moving off.

Pandora looks at the Fisher girl as she walks past her. She shrugs her shoulders.

She heads over to where Kenzie is at. She steps up close to her--perhaps closer than the American girl is accustomed to--and says, "Hallo. Kenzie okay?" Pandora doesn't seem to think anything in particular about stepping a bit into Kenzie's personal space one way or the other. Perhaps it's just an Ukrainian thing.

Seeing Creighton and Jason getting ready to spar, she asks the auburn-haired girl, "Kenzie want see Creighton fight big boy Jason with Pandora?"

Ross's first name was Dave? Had her parents decided they were going to name their after the baseball player regardless of gender? Well, Kenzie supposed it wasn't really her business. It kind of explained her reluctance to give her first name, maybe. "Nice to meet you too," she said once she wouldn't be interrupting Ross and the new arrival.

She turned back toward her pack to go get her glasses, figuring maybe she could meet up with Pandora next and see how she was doing, but it turned out Pandora beat her to it as she was walking back. Fortunately Kenzie recognized Pandora's strawberry scent, or she might have been alarmed having a blur step so close into her personal space. Instead Kenzie figured she was helping her out, since she could barely see past that distance. She came to a stop to make sure she wouldn't bump into the Ukrainian girl. "Oh, hi Pandora," she said with a smile. "I was just on my way to get my glasses. I'm fine, Sergeant Ross went easy on me. And, sure, I'll watch with you. How did your fight go?"

Kenzie wouldn't be watching much of anything without her glasses, so she finished taking the few steps to her pack so she could slide out the segment with her glasses case and put them on.

Pandora nods, saying "Pandora victory." She waits for Kenzie to get her glasses and wheeled case before she starts walking toward the match. She walks at the same pace as the other girl.

Once near the mat, she finds a spot to sit that is close enough to get a good view, while not being so close that someone would land on them if thrown off the mat.
This message was lightly edited by the player at 07:04, Thu 26 Sept 2019.

Creighton listened to the adults chide both him and Samson. It was typical. He'd done nothing wrong but they found something to complain about so that they could take them both to task. No one had said anything about not using powers, which was clearly what they were implying.

He let the Scales fade away and didn't fight with the grown ups. If this school was as advertised, there would be people here operating with more than the usual 5 senses, capable of more than what you can do with just blood, bone, muscle, and training. Some of them probably did not come with convenient On and Off switches. It was absurd.

Creighton felt himself heating up inside about this, more than he was upset about a classmate trying to mangle his foot. Heating up put him in a particular frame of mind and he found Talberon was still in the mix.

So he walked over to the other guy's fighting space. "Good to see you're still in it Tal. Shame I didn't get to see how you handled yourself. Care to be my next opponent? Win or lose, it'd be good to have some trust in all of this."

Creighton moved around to the far side of the mat to get ready to officially step on board. "I'm guessing that simple body fighting is not your forte, that you have something more interesting that you can do. I'd like to get to see that too, a different time though."

"Congratulations!" Kenzie said with a smile. "You're not hurt, are you?" She wheeled her case along with her as she followed Pandora's lead. Once they reached their destination, Kenzie put her case on its side, then sat on it, since she figured there wouldn't be enough people watching from the floor for her to block anyone.

"Do you want to sit up here?" she asked Pandora. The case was almost as big as she was, so there was definitely room for two.

In reply to Creighton Knight (msg # 90):

Like Creighton, Tal was still fuming about an earlier match (the one with Crew-cut). Though he was impressed with himself for making it thus far without being eliminated, hand-to-hand was far from his forte. He saw everyone else in the middle of their matches and was about to just sit on the sidelines until he saw Creighton finish up and walk towards Tal's mat. Tal gestured for him to join him when Creighton asked to be his challenger. He felt relieved that he could fight with someone who wasn't gonna try and stab him in the back if he got the chance. Plus, Creighton seems short and more of the meditative type, maybe Tal could get an advantage? Tal hasn't seen Creighton fight just physical assumptions

"Yes! Please, join me! I've just been fighting idiots. You being a rational human being is an exciting change of pace.

Tal stretched a brief bit as Creighton got into place. His first impression seemed hastily made by Creighton's last comments. Seems like he could fight or talked a big game. Oh well, might as well go down to a friend. "Nope hate these rules, though those idiots should be thankful. If someone is close enough to punch me, they'll be nursing a lot more than just a bruised chest. But yeah, just bring some corns to pop, and I'll put on a show!"

As the match starts, Tal tries to evaluate and analyze his opponent for weaknesses. But he either doesn't see any due to his inexperience or Creighton seems to be able to hide them well enough. In either case, Tal is definitely not the kind to wait around for Creighton to slip up. He's gonna try and feint right before actually cutting around with his left fist towards Creighton's chest.

Pandora replies, "Thank you. Is small bruise." She points to her upper chest. She adds,"Is okay."

At the offer to sit on Kenzie’s case, she replies, "Oh. Thank you." She rises up and sits on Kenzie’s wheeled chest beside her. She crosses her ankles and rests her palms on the top of the case.

When she sees Creighton is instead going to spar against Talberon, she comments, "Oh. Creighton fight Tabby."

She looks at Kenzie, brings her far hand up to her mouth, leans in towards her, and whispers, "Who Kenzie think win? Pandora think Creighton. Tabby no has fire tricks."
This message was last edited by the player at 17:32, Thu 26 Sept 2019.

"You should put some ice on it," Kenzie suggested. It was probably a slightly silly thing to say; if Pandora was good enough at fighting to have won with just a bruise then she probably knew how to treat them. But then, coming from a family of doctors tended to lead to a lot of redundant medical advice. At least she managed to keep from offering to look at it, as her family always did for the least injury or sniffle. Now that she'd gotten situated, she also managed to keep from waving to Creighton while he was in the middle of a fight.

Kenzie was momentarily puzzled by Pandora's words, then put her hand up to whisper in return. "His name is Tabby?" So this school had a girl named Dave and a boy named Tabby? Either that or Kenzie's eyesight was even worse than she thought. A moment later she added curiously "What fire tricks?"

Pandora whispers back to Kenzie. She says, "Tabby has big name. 'Tabby' more easy say. Also, boy is like much curious cat--always in trouble."

In an attempt to answer Kenzie, she explains, "At fair, boy do fire trick. Two girls see Tabby fire trick. Think he make fair on fire. Little girl with big eyes get mad. Say 'stop'. 'No fire tricks at fair.'"

She adds, "Tabby 'fire trick' is make fire on hand. Maybe also has more fire tricks."

"Rational seems to be in short supply today. Must be first day of school nervousness or something."

Creighton stepped to the mat and waited. Every other boy so far had been happy to charge in. They had their own reasons to be sure. From the very little he knew of Talberon, he expected that he'd lead into the attack eagerly.

It was a good distraction, good enough that it nearly made contact. Creighton slapped hard at the fist, turned, and came around the outside of Tal's now extended left arm. He kept moving aiming a 'tag' slap at the base of Tal's spine while continuing the turn so he ended facing the boy from a couple of steps away.

"Popcorn sounds good. Think they have some sort of rule about how we heat it up?"

Tal was a tad impressed at both how close he got to hitting Creighton on his first go but also how dextrously the man had turned the situation around upon him. Tal's momentum carried him past as Creighton had reversed position on the mat. While in motion, Tal sensed the motion of Creighton's hand and attempted to arch his back. But Creighton's motion was too swift, and Tal felt a sting near his lower back. He winced a bit.

His acrobatic disposition served him well in stopping on a dime and swiveling to face Creighton. Learning that his speed and nimbleness is easily countered, Tal stood in an amateur defensive position and waited for Creighton's strike.

"Stick around me, and you won't need your crude microwave."
This message was last edited by the player at 21:26, Thu 26 Sept 2019.

Creighton nodded in the affirmative. He liked that Tal would talk - although it was no surprise. The fact that he pulled up and didn't just charge around said good things about him too.

"I think we're going to end up being good friends and not because of how things turn out here on the mats."

Creighton came up to the waiting Tal without making a big rush out of it. He did what Tal had done to an extent, creating a distraction of flying hands to slip a punch towards Tal's ribcage. Tal twisted out of it though, forcing a miss.

Since he hadn't charged in to begin with the miss didn't yank him off balance.

"Oh," Kenzie whispered back to Pandora with a nod, although she still wasn't sure she fully got the picture. Maybe "Tabby" was a nickname unrelated to his actual name. Surely it couldn't be short for something like "Tabitho." "So maybe he's a magician or something then?" That was far from Kenzie's area of expertise, or that of her family, but she'd at least heard of them existing. Maybe they would end up here if they weren't monsters themselves.

Pandora watches Creighton and Talberon trade love taps while she whispers with Kenzie. She repeats, "Magician?" She shrugs as she says, "Pandora not know."

She straightens back up and again rests her palms on the case while watching the sparing match. Her expression is stoic and doesn't give away her thoughts on the fighting contest between the two boys. She slowly rotates her neck around, stretching it for a bit, during a momentary lull in the match.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:53, Fri 27 Sept 2019.

In reply to Creighton Knight (msg # 98):

Tal quieted his impetuous nature and again tried for a bait-and-switch like he was about to punch Creighton. Instead, he attempted to knock out his legs with a sweeping kick like he did against the Aussie. However, his attempt was amateurish without his powers to provide a decent distraction.

The leg sweep was a good idea. Knocking people off their feet was always a good notion. But it took Tal too long to get it going. It was like he could hear Father in his head, all the times he tried doing that to the more experienced man, all the times he launched it and failed. Until he could do it quicker, could do it without telegraphing it so much.

And like Father, Creighton stepped in on Tal, the kick still going as he came in next to him. It looked a little brutish but was practiced, repeatedly, learned, sometimes forward, sometimes backwards by being beat by the exact same move. A good hard shove knocked Tal over because of how the kick moved his center of gravity.

In other circumstances that shove would be followed up but this was not that. Creighton got clear before Tal got himself back to his feet again. "You've got some good fundamentals. I'm sure if you weren't busy learning how to handle other things you'd be a more dangerous hand fighter."

Sampson sneers as Creighton brings Talberon to the ground before looking over at Jason, "C'mon Jason, You're up!"

The taller boy looks down Sampson and shoots him a sharp look, having seen both parties use a degree of foul play to which Sampson rolls his blue eyes. "Oh come on J, You saw it, the freak used his scales...What was I supposed to do?"

"Maybe tap out 'afore you got yourself whipped." Carson said slowly as he walked up from behind sweating slightly from his own fight, followed by a fretting and angry looking Myers. The stout heavy gunner grinned and braced himself as Sampson swung about towards him, fire in his eyes before Jason interposed himself.

"Enough." His eyes flicked back up to Creighton and Talberon. Despite his irritation at Sampson, the remaining sparring partners were thinning.He was probably going to have to fight Creighton at some point.

In reply to Creighton Knight (msg # 102):

Tal brushes the dust from his clothes. With Creighton's shove he was stunned a bit and his pride was wounded. But otherwise, he made it out of the sparring matches better than most.

He gives Creighton a courteous handshake, his hand noticeably warm but no where near painful. He says cheekily, "You're not too bad yourself. Good to know you've got my back if I've got yours."

He strode off the mat to grab his coat and went over to join the girls to watch Creighton's next match.

"Sup, Panda.* And you are...?"

Tal finally gets his revenge for her calling him Tabby at the festival. He doesn't know that Pandora has been calling him that since and to others.

Pandora looks away from Creighton and Talberon's sparing match and over to Jason and the youth soldiers. She watches them for a moment before turning her attention to the defeated Irish boy.

She replies, "Hallo, Tabby. Girl is Kenzie."

She gives him a moment before she teases, "Tabby baby fight." Her stoic expression switches to a little smirk.

Creighton shook hands with Tal. "Based on what we've seen so far, you have my back and I have yours sounds like a reasonable choice. And that's before we start to factor in monsters."

It was good to have a moment to get a breath. These things weren't exhausting physically but the emotional toll was something else. Rollercoaster ride sort of a thing. It wasn't that he disliked competition, but it hardly seemed to bring out the best in all of their classmates.

He looked around at the remaining competitors. So would the next one be more like Tal, or more like the guy that enjoyed hurting people?

Kenzie kept an ear on the others nearby without shifting her gaze, since she was curious how this fight would turn out. And sure enough, Creighton won as Pandora had predicted. It seemed they'd wound up as friends in the process, though. People were funny.

Since "Tabby" hadn't given or corrected his name himself, Kenzie figured he must just go by that. She stood up during the introductions to be polite. "Nice to meet you, Tabby," she said as she offered him a handshake. After that, she said "Congrats Creighton, so you and Pandora are both going to fight again, then?" She wasn't sure who she'd watch in that case, assuming they weren't near each other. Maybe Pandora, so she could see how Ross was doing as well. The idea of someone close to her age being a "sergeant" made her curious.

Talberon bristled at Pandora & Kenzie both calling him Tabby. He chose to ignore Pandora's comment.

"I ain't some type of kitten. The name is Talberon- Tal. My dad probably had a touch too much Guinness when I was born. Nice to meet ya, Kenzie. It seems like your strengths lie elsewhere as well."

But anyone who knows Tal long enough would know that he wouldn't let a taunt go unreturned. "Let's go outside, Panda. Mano-a-Hermana. No rules and everything goes. We'll see if you still think it's a 'baby fight.'"
This message was last edited by the player at 01:49, Sun 29 Sept 2019.

Pandora remains calmly sitting on Kenzie's trunk as they converse. She replies to the auburn-haired girl, saying, "Pandora fight more later. Want see Creighton fight now."

To Talberon, she says, "Is joke Tabby Cat. Pandora not want hurt Tabby. Tabby not vampire." She brings her pointer fingers up to her mouth to simulate vampire fangs. She teases, "Bleh. Bleh-bleh."

She chuckles as she lowers her hands to again rest on top of Kenzie's equipment chest. After her attempt at humor, her expression turns slightly sad and her eyes seem momentarily distant as if remembering something unpleasant from the past.

In reply to Pandora Pavlosky (msg # 109):

Jason looked around for someone to fight but it appeared 'Richy Rich' was the only one available. He sighed as Sampson chuckled as he saw what Jason saw.
"I wouldn't go easy on this one Jason. He's a tricky one..." Sampson slapped Jason on the shoulder. He looked around at his squadmates but apart from Myers they were all looking at him with various degrees of expectation.

He wondered where Jill and Dave had run off to as he stepped upto Creighton's mat, his face unreadable.

Creighton watched as Jason came on over. There wasn't a single kid here his own size, which was fine. The monsters weren't going to be his size either.

It would be rude to judge him based on his company. He stepped out to the edge so he wasn't quite on the mat. But he faced the other young man.

"Did you know this was going to happen today?" He aimed for some neutral conversation. "I had no idea there'd be some sort of instant skills assessment."

"I'm Creighton Knight." The constant name exchange game was all from Father. He kept watching Jason as they talked and got into position to start.

Kenzie's estimation of Talberon was going down every time they interacted. Pandora teased him, so he felt justified in challenging her to an unsupervised street fight? "I see," she replied to his clarification of his name. Her tone was faintly cooler than before, and she didn't say anything further to him.

She smiled slightly when Pandora did her vampire impression, then looked around to see what would be happening next. Creighton seemed occupied with someone else now, and Pandora seemed more withdrawn, so... not much at the moment. She supposed they were just waiting for the next round of fights at this point.

In reply to Pandora Pavlosky (msg # 109):

Tal had realized that Pandora was joking/taunting, even though his response was fairly hyperbolic. So he did back down when Pandora didn't build on the joke. "I figured it was a joking challenge. Just sayin' that I can hold my own."

However, Tal picked up on Kenzie's disinterest when she didn't respond to his probing conversation. But he literally shrugged it off and continued talking to Pandora. "You hunt vampires? Huh. So do they sparkle or do they like to count?"

Tal smiled at what he thought was a funny joke before quickly wiping that smile from his face when Pandora's voice grew soft. He is caring of other people's feelings, despite his dramatic appearance, and isn't going to pry. He looks away and shuffles a bit. And without saying anything, just stands to Pandora's side and gets ready to watch the fight.

Talberon makes an assumption, with Pandora growing up in a foreign country, that she knows the references he jests about. Perhaps surprisingly, Sesame Street was shown in Ukraine when she was a small child and she does actually remember seeing Count von Count.

While seemingly suffering a moment of melancholy, she says, "One. Two. Two bats. Ahh. Ahh. Ahh." She looks up at Talberon with her normal expression returning to her face and says, "Not know sparkle vampire."

She looks Jason over and comments to Kenzie and Talberon, "Big boy Jason has advantage. More Big. More long arm. Rules not let Creighton hit face. No hit neck. No hit joints. No hit boy things."

Jason shrugged, though whether this was in response to Creighton's question or was just him loosening his joints in preparation for the fight was anyone's guess.

Truthfully, Jason didn't want to give Creighton or the acadamy at large any ammunition or excuse to make life more difficult for the cadets.

There had been murmuring when the Principal had announced them, not as when Lesleigh had been introduced but enough to be noticed.

Jason hoped Lesleigh was okay.

He glanced around, hoping to see her somewhere, he had lost sight of her when the initial fights had been announced.

In fact, where were Jill and Dave?

He put those thoughts aside, despite a tiny instinctual voice telling him not to.

Jason gave a single slow nod to Creighton. It wasn't exactly friendly but it wasn't rude either.

Just a courtesy.

Jason braced, loose but firm, just like his other fights and his eyes moved between Creighton and the supervisor.

From friendly fights to someone who wanted to hurt him to someone who seemed indifferent to the whole thing, this whole fight for placement certainly brought ought a wide range of fighter attitudes.

Was it the person? Their trainers? Maybe both?

There wasn't really any time to ponder it. There would be more boring meetings that would allow for contemplation of the competition.

So far nearly all of his opponents had been happy to rush into the fray. This one was less eager to dash. Creighton took advantage of the opportunity to turn a step into a roll, the roll into a step that brought him back to nearly where he started, with the intention of making an attack from an unexpected angle.

OOC: Agile Feint against Jason. Trying to set up the next attack.
Jason needs a 15 on either Acrobatics or Insight (whichever is best for you) to avoid the 'trick'

14:59, Today: Creighton Knight rolled 15 using 1d20+6.  Agile Feint vs. Jason.


 

Jason flinches back as Creighton jumps forward, not expecting such a confident opening rush.

He quickly attempts a jab but the motion is jerky and rushed and not aided by the fact that Creighton is  not where Jason had anticipated he would be.

He grits his teeth as his hasty jab carries him too far over, leaving him exposed for only a few seconds but more than enough for Creighton to capitalize on.

OOC: 04:20, Today: Jason French rolled 2 using 1d20.  Insight check for Creighton's move.

04:43, Today: Jason French rolled 9 using 1d20+6.  Attack check(Creighton fight).

Let me know if I've somehow fudged any of these roles. The handbook kept mentioning an attack bonus but I was having trouble finding it. A quick trip to Google told me to was the Fighting ability plus my unarmed attack but I may be mistaken.


This message was last edited by the player at 04:04, Fri 04 Oct 2019.

Just to clarify, Creighton is using a Feint, right?

My brain is just persnickety enough to read that 'trick' and jump to the Tricking manoeuvre instead. ^.^;

Anywho, the result of a Feint is the Vulnerable condition, which reduces the bonus of Active Defences (Dodge and Parry normally) to one half, rounded up. This doesn't get Creighton very much against Jason: his Parry reduces from 3 to 2, or put another way instead of needing to roll a 13 he needs to roll a 12 to hit him.

OOC: I'm sorry you're right GM, I am using the deception skill to perform Feinting in comabt, and Agile Feint lets me use Acrobatics instead.

Thanks for letting me know that it isn't a big deal against Jason. I should have known that from the start but I also feel like it was a thing that CK would try out against Jason to see if it helped at all.   

It was one of those things you only know in hindsight. Did you spend too much energy launching a gambit? Could you have reached the same result with less effort? Against one opponent maybe it didn't matter. But when facing many at a time, or many in a row, wasted effort would matter.

It was a thing that would bother him later.

For now, Jason was out of position, perhaps as a result of acrobatic antics, perhaps because his own swing pulled him farther than expected. Creighton came out of a roll and with a few quick steps came in on Jason. He lashed out a punch.

He didn't need to pull the punch to avoid hurting Jason. At the moment he wasn't capable of striking particularly hard. Others he worked with had to learn to hold back. For him, holding back was as easy as not reach for Power.

After striking he kept his feet and prepared for what came next.

OOC: Since GM did the Mathy Part, then I hit on a 12 (not sure if that includes Fighting skill) so here's the whole thing.
13:25, Today: Creighton Knight rolled 26 using 1d20+6.  Attack vs. Jason.

Oh, natural 20! At least that means it was easy to see a good clear hit on Jason.

 

In reply to Creighton Knight (msg # 120):

The punch caught Jason squarely in his exposed ribs, driving the air out of his lungs in a sharp ragged gasp. There was a hiss from the cadets as they winced at the solid blow.

Jason steps back quickly though, attempting to regain his breath and steady himself.

Jill and Ross rejoin the crowd, standing behind Pandora, Kenzie and Talberon instead of crossing the hall to rejoin the rest of their group. They're staring ahead, watching the fight intently while whispering heartedly to eachother.

OOC:So I think I make a toughness check here right? Also Creighton I think you get to choose somthing if you get a crit? Increased effect,Added effect or alternate effect.

The check I gotta make is my toughness vs your Str+15 with an additional +5 if tou choose increased effect.


This message was last edited by the player at 19:27, Sat 05 Oct 2019.

Jason wheels back before planting his booted feet steady on the mat again. Although gasping for breath he manages to recover enough that he's not out of the fight yet.

"Look at him...he's distracted!" Jill hisses, her voice threatening to go above it's restrained whisper. "He should be mopping the floor with this kid but after one 'date'" Jill utters the word as if it's a dirty word. "One sparkly night with that Ebongrove bitch and he's useless!" Jill seethes, glaring at the fight in front of them.

Ross for her part says nothing, maintaining her own steely eyed watch of the match as Jason darts forward, hunching his body to present a smaller target before exploding forward, a large fist flying towards Creigton's body.


OOC:19:31, Today: Jason French rolled 16 using 1d20+6(Toughness check)

19:46, Today: Jason French rolled 19 using 1d20+6.  Attack check(Creighton fight).

Jason clearly knew the rules of this whole thing better than Creighton. Must have been an advantage of his military training. Creighton assumed this was just about touches. But he should have known based on the other military kid. This wasn't about keeping score. It was about actually hurting each other.

And the fool principal thought he was making all of this 'fair' by saying that using everything you could do was against the rules.

So Creighton didn't hit Jason as hard as he could have. And didn't have his full measure of defenses against being hurt.

Jason hit him strongly, hit him well, and Creighton was more angry about it than anything else. Yes it hurt and yes it made him gasp to get a breath. It wasn't the first time he'd been hit hard. Wouldn't be the last either. But first day of school and the dolt in charge thought everyone knew the rules of his mock combat.

OOC: Failed the save. GM, not sure what I'm supposed to do here. Attack Jason back? Since I 'failed' the save does he win?

So, Jason's Strength is a 4 and that's all he has to work with in this situation, so the DC of Creighton's Toughness check is 19. The difference is 14, which is worth two degrees of success/failure (14 divided by 5 and dropping any remainders) on top of the first one that he gets for failing at all. Three failures on a damage resistance check means he has -1 Toughness on further checks and is Staggered until he can take a minute to catch his breath. As I've said before, he can decide if he wants to continue or concede, since he's still on his feet.

The referee, a distinguished-looking gentleman with whom Pandora is familiar already, steps in to check on Creighton briefly. He looks him over and softly suggests, "You've done very well already, Mister Knight. The rankings are far from final, so there's no shame in bowing out."



"Man, if that's useless, I don't wanna see what he was like before," Eamon comments as he joins the group of people watching the fight, a plethora of small disposable cups full of juice balanced precariously in his hands. "Yo, O'Malley, help me with this will ya? This set has magic in it to fix you up quick," he says, extending his left hand slightly for the younger Irish boy to take and distribute.



On the other side of the mat, Lesleigh appears as the onlookers skitter away from her. She's holding a similar cup in both hands.

Tal had no clue who to "root for" in the fight, being somewhat friends with each, though they seemed to be barely on grunting terms with each other. But they both put up a stronger fight than he could've. Tal felt the obligatory onlooker's excitement and pride during the match. He did notice the girls behind him and briefly contemplated pulling a joke on them after the match, especially on that Jill person, though her language seemed salty now and not the impish behavior he observed earlier.

As his annoying Celtic doppelganger came up to him with the handful of cups with juice, presumably for him to take and pass out to Kenzie, Pandora, and co., his gut twinged a bit. He was way too much in revenge mode to trust Eamon regarding anything.

To play-off his mistrust, he decided to go for full-on smart-alec. He's a freshman; they'd think he'd wisen up later on, right? With a feigned doe-eyed naivete, he asked childlikely "But Father, where's your collar? And without bread?!?! Not even a couple of saltines. Tsk, tsk. The Pope is not gonna be happy when he hears that you held Eucharist like this. He shook his head a few times for effect.

In his mischief, he does go along with taking them off of Eamon's hands but is checking for any funny business, especially when the teen openly admitted that there was magic involved.

OOC: Rolling for a perception check on the drinks being handed to Tal. He'll pick them up no matter if there's something wrong, fine, or unclear.
22:54, Today: Talberon O'Malley rolled 20 using 1d20+5 ((15)).

Kenzie still had her guard up around Talberon, but she did smile a little when he and then Pandora talked about the Count from Sesame Street. Once the fight got underway, she sat down on her pack again to watch. She glanced back when she heard the heated whispering from the newly-arrived cadets behind them, then turned her attention back to the fight.

Talberon certainly had a talent for clowning around; maybe the offer to fight Pandora had been a joke earlier, though she thought he could have been clearer. Still, if he was going to ease off of that then she'd try not to hold that moment against him. This was a confusing new situation for all of the incoming class. Especially considering two of its members were beating each other up right in front of her... Kenzie didn't know if she should be cheering them on or what, so she continued to keep quiet and observe. She also didn't know if the boy nearby was being literal about carrying magic juice around, but if so it seemed like a strange thing to treat so casually. Then again Kenzie hadn't been around magic much at all.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:01, Mon 07 Oct 2019.

Pandora calmly watches the full-contact sparring match while remaining seated on Kenzie's equipment trunk with her palms resting at the forward edge of it and her ankles crossed.

She doesn't react when Creighton gets a decent hit in against Jason, nor when he receives an even better strike back in return from the larger boy. She seems to be just calmly observing their unarmed close combat as it plays out.

She likewise doesn't seem to react when the two military cadets move up behind her, nor when when large-eyed, small girl appears on the opposite side of the mat, or when the Irish boy steps up with 'refreshments'. Judging by her gaze, she seems focused on the duel over everything else going on around her.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:34, Mon 07 Oct 2019.

OOC: If I am reading correctly, Staggered is a combination of Dazed and Hindered. That's reduced speed and limited to single actions per turn. That's pretty much a fight ender as far as I can tell.

Creighton gives the referee a withering glare. Their notions of what constituted a fair engagement left much to be desired. But he recognized his own condition well enough. It wasn't the first time he'd ever been left fighting for air.

Father would make him keep going, get used to what it feels like to fight when you're not at your very best. Of course, he wouldn't be asked to hold back either.

He takes a knee and double slaps the mat to indicate he is tapping out. The other guy - whose name he never got - had been all business about the whole thing. Creighton got back to his feet and remembered his manners. He turned to address the referee. "Thank you for your time."

Creighton walked off the mat, back towards the guy he'd just fought with and what would be his crowd of adoring cadets. Steaming and hurt, he walked across the gym without any real plan other than getting some distance between himself and the majority of the people. He wasn't civil company at the moment. Walking away was the best option.

After Creighton submits and starts to walk away, Pandora gets back up onto her feet. She starts walking after him, stopping long enough to get a cup of 'sports drink' from the red-haired kid, before continuing on.

As she walks past Jason, she pauses and looks up at him. In a friendly tone, she says about his black beret, "Pandora like Jason hat." She continues on. As she passes Lesleigh, she gives her a smile and a friendly nod.

She keeps walking after Creighton, using a larger stride, until she catches up to him. As she catches up with him, she offers the drink and says, "Creighton thirsty? Want drink stuff?"
This message was last edited by the player at 21:49, Mon 07 Oct 2019.

Breath. Everything is about breath. Making sure you don't rip off someone's head when they're being nice to you is definitely about breath.

He stopped walking when she caught up with him. And took a breath. "Thank you Pandora." He took the offered drink. "How were your fights?" Being alone right now was not a thing that was going to happen. "Wish this would have been set up differently so I could have seen your matches."

As they stop and Creighton accepts the drink, Pandora shifts her hips towards her left side and rests her left palm on it while her right arm hands loosely at her side. She replies, "Pandora fight one girl. Pandora victory. Maybe fight more soon. Maybe Creighton watch."

She brushes a loose bang of blonde hair out of her face with her right hand and brings her arm back down. She says, "At fair, Pandora not know Creighton fight vampires. Not know Creighton and Pandora go same school." She gives him a warm little smile.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:03, Mon 07 Oct 2019.

Talberon doesn't see or smell anything out of the ordinary with the juice. It seems to be mostly orange juice, perhaps with some other juice mixed in - for all he knows it could be straight from a bottle of Sunny Delight. Eamon laughs loudly. "My dude, you have no idea how hard it is to not make a very inappropriate response. The last thing I need is somebody calling me daddy, so take the fuckin' magic juice and see if anybody that's done fighting wants some, will you? Make sure they know what they're drinking."

Speaking of, Pandora comes up to get a cup, and Eamon says, "These are just juice. If you're taking one to dragon boy, he might want the magic stuff."



Anyone that drinks one of the cups Eamon is indicating as magic immediately feels all of their pain subside and any bruises and such that they might have vanish over the following minute or two.



With the fight decided, Lesleigh whispers something apparently to herself, but Jason can hear her voice in his ear plainly. "Jason? Behind you. I have something for you."

Tal takes two cups seeing that most people around had one besides Kenzie and him. He also began muttering 'inappropriate responses' himself about how Eamon may or may not have been a father in let's say culturally unorthodox manners.

Grabbing the cups, he realized he'd have to talk to Kenzie. He sighed internally as she so far has been the only one to give him the cold shoulder. Tal probably deserved it somehow; he thought back through today. But nope, must be her problem he concluded.

He swallowed his cup and felt a lot better, though he preferred orange juice with pulp. But hey, so far he didn't feel drunk or dead, and, though his system would recover fast from his minor injuries, this was quicker. He meandered over to Kenzie and gave a brisk, singular wave to get her attention.

Tal's speech was a little choppy, and his vision seemed unfocused and easily distracted, glancing between Kenzie, the army cadets behind her, and her suitcase, but he was cheery enough, "So, uh, Kenzie, not sure if ya fought today. But I have some magical juice from, I don't know, maybe a tree that grew under a rainbow. Do ya want some? It should make you as right as rain."

Jason clenches his jaw as Creighton turns and walks away without a backward glance. He chews the inside of his cheek and frowns to himself.

Not the first impression Jason had wanted the school to have of the Cadets. Sampson hadn't helped but Jason wondered if he should have been more courteous.

Jason snorted at his own thought, "Yeah, I should have remembered my manners as we were beating the snot out of each other..."

He was surprised to see Pandora standing next to him and fought the reflexive urge to drop back into a combat stance, having seen what the small girl had done to Thorne.

He was even more surprised when she complemented his beret and could only offer a sheepish, "Thanks..." before she went after Creighton.

"That's one point to hearts and minds at least..."

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Lesleigh's voice and he spun sharply to focus in on it, even as the rest if the Cadets, bar jill and Ross swarmed him.


"And there goes Russia..."Jill grouses as Pandora moves away.
"Ukranian." Ross corrects her absently, still staring at Jason as he straightens up, favouring one side of his chest.

"Whatever. This day has gone from good to shit real quick." Jill says, sweeping her glare between Jason, Lesleigh and Pandora.

Then Jill notices Jason's sudden movement and followed his gaze, her eyes narrowing.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:11, Tue 08 Oct 2019.

Kenzie sighed softly as she watched Creighton and Jason's fight break up. It didn't seem like most of the people around her were very happy all of a sudden, even the people spectating behind her. She got the sense Creighton didn't want anyone to follow and check on him after that hit, or at least a relative stranger like her; otherwise she probably would have if Pandora hadn't beaten her to it. Kenzie had inherited a healer's impulse for checking on injured people.

She was just listening to the conversations around her when Talberon unexpectedly waved and spoke to her. She looked up at him from her lower position and blinked owlishly, then smiled. "Oh, thanks Talberon. I'm all right though, I lost my first fight pretty gently. Also... I'm not sure what to think about magic yet, if it's really magical." She figured she might as well extend an olive branch since he was being nice to her, so she followed up with "How did your fights go?"

Creighton did what you were supposed to do with a drink. And looked surprised at the tangible warm feeling that went along with it. Apparently RI had their own version of SportsAide that went way beyond the normal.

"Of course I'll watch your next match." The whole school thing was funny in his head. He would have started Day 1 without knowing anyone at all. The corn festival may not have brought couples together but it certainly helped smooth over Day 1 of school issues. Well, some of them anyhow.

"There was no way for us to know we'd be at the same school. So yes, fight vampires. And other monsters too. Although I prefer the idea of policing, not just fighting for the sake of it."

In reply to Kenzie Rinne (msg # 135):

Tal awkwardly kept holding on to the cup. He really wanted to chuck it at someone, either playfully or spitefully. However, that seemed too drastic and inconsiderate.

"Well, two for three, so not bad by any means. Crocodile Dundee and Creighton were respectable, but Crewcut should be relieved that it was fists and feet only, especially after he tried for a sucker punch." His voice slightly dipped at the mention of Crewcut, but his eyes quickly lit up and he returned to bouncing on his feet. He cupped his hands around the cup and produced a faint, contained heat upon the Dixie cup.

As he continued talking, he sustained the heat until the liquid evaporated and the cup melted, giving a silent *tada* complete with jazz hands. "So whatcha doing with a suitcase the size of a slug bug? Smuggling a therapy polar bear in here?"
This message was last edited by the player at 03:14, Wed 09 Oct 2019.

Pandora replies, "Okay." She gives Creighton a thumbs up gesture with her right hand.

As Creighton drinks, Pandora says, "Pandora like how Creighton move when fight. Why Creighton fight no shoes?" It seems strange to her to fight barefoot while everyone is wearing shoes or even boots. It would be different, of course, if everyone was required to be barefoot while sparring.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:38, Wed 09 Oct 2019.

"So you won two fights? Good for you," Kenzie said with a smile. Then she giggled at Talberon's question. "That would be fun, although it wouldn't be nice to the polar bear. No--" She interrupted herself with a sharp cough as the air unexpectedly filled with a smell combining burned citrus and barbecue. With her hands still over her mouth and nose, she asked "Did you just pyrolize that cup?"

He took the compliment with an affirmative nod. Fighting was as natural as walking at this point. "Thank you. There were years when I was new though. I did not always move like this. Takes practice."

Creighton looked down like he'd forgotten he'd ditched his shoes. And now would need to recover them eventually. But he brought his head up to talk with Pandora. "Empty hands and bare feet show that you are only practice fighting and not for real fighting. It is courteous." He held up his hands, open but near his head. "No weapons shows your opponent that you are not trying to hurt them."

He stuck out one foot and ran it along a curve on the flooring. "Bare feet are better on uncertain surfaces. The floors here have seen better days. The mats are worn. Bare feet tell me more than I would know with shoes on. Plenty of dancers and acrobats prefer bare feet to shoes. Most of my practice time has been with bare hands and bare feet."

"And it is a reminder that kicks should be done with care. Lots of little bones in the foot. Easily broken. Honestly knees and elbows are better choices than hands and feet. But sometimes you are stuck making a bad choice."

"So can I ask a hard question? Or I should say, I'm going to ask a hard question but you don't have to answer it. Why did you ask about fighting vampires?"

As Creighton explains, Pandora looks him in the eyes and pays attention. She brings her right hand up so that both of her hands are resting on her hips and shifts her hips back to a more even stance.

She replies, "Each good. Kick more long. Knee...hand...Elbow...more short. All fight tools. Palm...elbow...knee. Stronger. Safer. Yes. Open hand...more things can do."

As far as Pandora is aware, there is only one kind of supernatural monster in the world and that is the vampire. Therefore, all monster hunters are vampire fighters as far as she is aware. So she replies back, saying, "Is vampire fight school, yes? Many vampires, yes? All students fight vampires, yes?"

Everyone came into knowing about the supernatural differently. He grew up knowing about it the same way you grow up knowing about gravity, sunlight, and grass.

Pandora's experience was more than 99% of the world but still rather limited. "Vampires are just one kind of monster Pandora. But there are Black Dogs, Bukavac, Makva, Oni, Werewolves." He tried to name things that maybe she'd heard about. "As far as I know, this is a school to train people to fight monsters, not just vampires. There's, well, there's a surprising variety of real monsters Pandora. Vampires are just one of them."

Lesleigh isn't difficult to spot once Jason can get a look over the other cadets milling around him. She smiles softly and holds up the cup before whispering in his ear from across the mat again. "This will make the pain go away. Mama and I brewed a whole bunch of it for everybody."

Something catches her attention behind him and she has just enough time for her shock to register on her face before...



Eamon hadn't gone far and is the first to notice what Talberon is doing and shout, "Hey, stop!" He's too late, however, as the ensorcelled juice moves straight from bubbling into a thick, vividly green cloud that makes Tlaberon's eyes sting as it rapidly rises.



The alarms blare loudly, drowning out most of the quieter conversation while the accompanying visual alarm strobes obnoxiously. A second later, the sprinkler system kicks in, rapidly drenching everybody. The Principle hurriedly speaks into the microphone firmly. "Everybody stay calm, pick up your things and make your way to the parking lot. Follow the teacher's instructions and group up by grade level."

Tal's life flashed before his eyes. Okay, not really, but he internally overreacted at seeing the green magic mist coming from the cup. He had expected that it would just evaporate and melt. His eyes stung and were wet from a bit of tears. And then the fire alarm and sprinklers went off. I'm definitely the weird new guy now. Goodbye to fitting in.

He looked at Kenzie through the falling rain from the sprinklers. His face showing a sheepish embarrassment and apology that was probably the first and only time Tal ever looked apologetic. He saw the rain hitting her glasses and the students hurrying from their fights to exits. And Eamon appeared particularly perturbed: Tal couldn't tell if it was just frustration, annoyance, or anger.

Humbly, he awkwardly stuttered through his words, "Yeah, I hate looking for garbage cans. Lesson learned: I should recycle more- to save the environment. But here, take my coat. I'd hate for you to get wet." He wiggles out of his coat and offers it to her. "And let me help you with your suitcase. I insist."
This message was last edited by the player at 01:00, Thu 10 Oct 2019.

Kenzie's eyes widened as Talberon's juice exploded into a noxious green cloud, and a moment later the sprinklers started raining down on both their heads. She moved her hands away from her mouth, revealing that she was smiling. Not at Talberon's distress - though there was some amusement at the situation in general - but mostly she was impressed. Indeed, her mood seemed to only have improved. "Wow, I'm glad I didn't drink any of that, thanks! What a useful ability you have." She quickly shook her head when Talberon offered his coat. "No, no, just go and don't breathe it in, I'll be all right. I'm prepared for this kind of thing."

She hit a button on her trunk as she righted it, and a wedge popped out that contained what seemed to be a small set of welding tools. She pulled out a sealed breathing mask and wrapped it around her mouth, then took a deep breath as she donned a set of opaque-looking black goggles. She shut the wedge back into place, then if Talberon was still around, gave him a quick let's go wave before heading for the exit.

As Creighton continues to try to explain the supernatural world as he understands it, Pandora slips her hands into her back pockets and shifts her hips somewhat forward to adjust her balance.

When he names off several types of monsters, she interprets it to mean there are several different types of vampires. This makes sense to her since between the various movies and folklore, she has been exposed to several differing sorts of vampires. After he explains, she nods her head at him in false understanding.

Then suddenly, the alarms go off and it starts raining heavily inside the gymnasium.

Pandora jerks at the sudden loud noise and pulls her hands back out of her pockets. She looks around and tries to shield her hair from the downpour with her hands. She asks Creighton, "School attacked?"

Jason whips around as the firebell goes off, a split second before he's drenched by a torrent of sprinkler water that has probably been sitting in the pipes for decades.

He's just in time to watch as Talberon's juice explodes and starts towards Talberon in concern.

Once he sees the redhead cracking jokes however he let's out a snort,  a small smile crossing his face even as mildly stagnant water rains down on him.

He makes a few gestures to the squad members he can see and turns back towards Lesleigh, making his way towards her against the press of the crowd.

If he makes it to her he'll attempt to assist her in getting out, assuming that her small frame is less than ideal for large crowds unless she has some magic chicanery up her sleeve.

Ross and Jill are pressed with evacuating the Cadets along with any other students that happen to stumble into them.

Ross catches sight of Jason going in the opposite direction, "French! French, get over here and take command of your team!" The noncom bellows to no avail, between the crowd and the din of the alarm there is little chance of him hearing.

Jill is the first to catch sight of what or rather who Jason is moving towards and swears violently as she spots Lesleigh. "Oh fuck that." She growls before breaking away and attempting to intercept Jason.

She powers through the flow of the crowd, what she lacked in height and size the small corporal made up with in elbows and harsh invective.

"Jill get back here!" Ross shrieks from the other side of the river of evacuees, unable to stop Jill as she bulls through the crowd.

In reply to Kenzie Rinne (msg # 145):

Tal waits for Kenzie, wanting to make sure she leaves safely, especially as he expects her to be as blind as a bat with those thick spectacles and the sprinkler system. He was not anticipating for her to pull out goggles and a mask, like she was Q. His eyes grew wide in curiosity as he walks with her, still clutching his coat as he didn't bother to put it back on. He is way too interested in her suitcase now to worry about the massive hysteria and monsoon surrounding him; curiosity was killing the cat (which wasn't a big deal in Tal's estimation).

His voice got back to the loud, machine gun, bubbly awe that seemed to be one of his defaults (maybe comes with the territory of being a teen pyromaniac) "Yeah, it's pretty neat- But you're like some secret agent. Gadgets and everything! I was expecting that to be full of PJs, security blanket, and fun snacks for some reason. But you're carrying around the Bat Cave! Please tell me you have a Sonic Screwdriver or a jetpack or *gasp* a lightsaber?!?!?"

Tal starts day-dreaming about how cool he would look with a lightsaber, wondering what color he would choose. Probably either red or orange.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:54, Thu 10 Oct 2019.

Pandora nodded along, so either she got it all just fine or she was doing the same thing they all did to the algebra teacher. He was stuck wondering if he should try and add in more but then the alarm went off and sprinklers activated.

He shook his head in the negative. It was already happening before she even asked the question. How could the place have fire alarms so delicate that they went off with what must have been a small blaze?

"Not an attack. Sprinklers are to help stop a fire." They had been told to leave but he paused to look around too. If there really was a fire, like a serious one, people might need help. But a look around the gym didn't show any immediate threat of burning up.

He nods towards the exits. "We may as well go. Although this would have made the fight rounds much more interesting."

While Pandora continues to try to shield her hair from the sprinklers with her open hands, she replies, "Fire? Tabby use 'fire trick'? Make fire on school?"

She follows along after Creighton. She lets him lead the way since he presumably understands the situation better. She offers, "Pandora see Tabby and Kenzie. They go. No see fire."

Intentionally going out into the rain is one thing, be being unexpectedly rained on while indoors is another. She's rather unhappy about her hair and clothing being drenched. Fortunately, she is wearing hardly makeup and doesn't have to worry about it running down her face like some of the other schoolgirls might.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:38, Fri 11 Oct 2019.

Kenzie laughed in response to Talberon's enthusiastic questions. The sound came out muffled and strange due to her mask, and she had to speak louder than usual to make sure she would be heard, especially with all the other hubbub. "I'll let it be a surprise, I don't want to disappoint you later if it doesn't live up to your expectations. It's nothing like being able to heat things just by holding them. I'm glad I brought my stuff with me though, I wasn't sure if I'd get any use out of it before we actually started hunting monsters."

She looked around even more blankly than usual. Her goggles over her eyes and her glasses pushed up to her forehead didn't seem to be doing her eyesight any favors. "So is everyone getting out okay?" For her part, Kenzie's spirits were high, but for all she knew the resident witches might start melting or something.

He didn't know to do much more than exit the building. He got maybe twenty steps away and stopped. There was a whole swirl of activity. Students all over the place.

"I don't know if this is really Tal's fault. I mean, what are the odds he made a fire big enough to trigger the sensors that turn on the whole sprinkler system?"

He looked off in the direction she was peering, to see Tal and Kenzie, although Kenzie seemed to be wearing - odd things. "Shared misery. Everyone got soaked. And everyone's stuff inside is getting a good soaking too. I wonder if the school has enough laundry space to deal with this all at once."

Because even would-be monster hunters still wanted dry clean gear.

Despite looking very much like a half-drowned white rat Lesleigh smiles at Jason as he comes near. She has covered the cup of healing juice that she secured for him with her hand to keep it from being tainted. "I, um, I think you're going to get yelled at, but thank you for worrying about me. This is going to take most of my strength but I have this suspicion that nobody is enjoying this, so..."

She takes a deep breath, and before she finishes her spell she's already surrounded by an uncanny wind-like force that makes her hair fly about wildly and her dress rustle. "Oh, blessed life-saving waters falling from on high, come, come and dance for us upon the sky. What goes up must come down, alas, for you have no flame to drown."

A wave of what feels like pressure passes out from her, and then collapses back in just as fast. In its wake, the water on the floor, in people's hair and clothes, and even that not yet fallen entirely slows, stops and ultimately reverses course. It comes free from people's clothes in small sheets and their hair in thin streams of drops, all collecting in one large sheet that hovers about six, maybe six and a half feet in the air. The sprinklers are still on, causing the sheet of water to ripple and dance.

In reply to Kenzie Rinne (msg # 151):

Tal and Kenzie were clustered near some other first-years outside the building. Tal spotted Pandora and Creighton and waved at them. But they probably weren't paying attention.

"Okay, keep your secrets, but if I need a can-opener, I'm going to you first." Tal started flicking his lighter on and off like he did to start the morning off, aware full well of the irony and perception that he was giving off. But he was bored. "I can do a bit more than that... But nothing like having gadgets."

Tal noticed that he was noticeably less wet than when Kenzie and he left the school earlier. That puzzled Tal. "What do you think they are doing in there? It's gotta be obvious that the school ain't burning down."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:43, Sun 13 Oct 2019.

Pandora stands near Creighton outside the gymnasium. After he says something in the tone of a question, she shrugs her shoulders. She sees Talberon wave towards them. Her eyes narrow noticeably, visually pointing imaginary icy arrows of blame at the firebug.

Then suddenly all the water droplets starts floating off of everyone's hair, clothing, and seeming just about everything else in the nearby vicinity like in some weird slow motion science fiction movie scene.

Pandora's eyes widen. She looks first at herself in surprise and then all around them in wonder. She asks Creighton, "Where water go? Space-mans steal water?" It's been a weird day. Maybe a flying saucer from Mars will pass overhead next.

In reply to Pandora Pavlosky (msg # 155):

Jason frowns at the peculiar feeling of water travelling up his body before gaping as the wall of water forms above them.

He slowly ran a hand through the skyward falling water droplets before reaching up and gently placing his hand on the surface of the water.

Jason was again reminded of how powerful Lesleigh actually was and looked down at her in awe.

Then Jill slammed into him.

Caught off guard, Jason staggers slightly which allows Jill to grab him by arm and collar and drag him backwards, using her own short statue and Jason's body weight to drag him backwards towards the door.

"We need to talk." She snarls at Jason, giving Lesleigh a blistering glare as she walks backwards with Jason in tow.

Outside,a deep voice speaks out behind Talberon ,
"Not for lack of trying though..." One of the military kids says dryly, watching bemused as the Lesleigh's spell starts to work it's way outside, dragging the water droplets upwards.

His brown eyes flick back down to assess Talberon, "Magic or not...Who boils orange juice?"
This message was last edited by the player at 22:32, Sat 12 Oct 2019.

You get used to your own version of 'normal'. Farm kid normal was not the same as swim kid normal was not the same as dance kid normal. From rich to poor to everything in between, you got used to your normal no matter how wonderful, no matter how awful.

To a tiny extent, this was part of his normal.

The water went the wrong way off of them, ignoring the demands of gravity. The feeling was extra-ordinary and strange and delightful. "Magic." He said the word like it should explain things to Pandora. "A powerful kind too, strong, selective."   He looked at the rising drops and pools of water. "We should move out from under the flying puddles though. If this simply turns off we'll all get wet all over again."

He matched actions to words and moved up against the side of the building, which provided a pretty good view of the rising and gathering water. "I bet this looks amazing from overhead."

In reply to Jason French (msg # 156):

Tal sheepishly shrugs as Pandora glares at him. How was he supposed to know that the school prepared for lockdown because of a little smoke? What happens if someone burns popcorn in a microwave? Does the whole school initiate Defcom 4? He mouths a sorry and then tries to sign a friendly gesture but thought they'd all get lost in translation and so just motions for Creighton & Pandora to join.

Hover, Tal heard a deep voice that startled him. It felt like a jet engine was taking off by his ear with its sudden intensity and hot air. He turned around, feeling a heck of a lot dryer and confident after that spell. He looked this looming mass of muscle up and down, he definitely was outgunned in every sense. But Tal's mouth never gets him out of trouble but usually adds a little bit to it.

"Have you ever had to carry a coffee cup around with you all day looking for a trash can? Well, thanks to a new discovery by '#firstworld solutions,' we can make those problems- disappear. For only the unbelievably low price of 19.99...", imitating those early-morning "only seen on television ads," even throwing in interpretive hand gestures.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:09, Sun 13 Oct 2019.

Pandora sighs as Talberon shrugs. She looks back at Creighton and asks, "What 'magic' mean?" She follows along behind him as he moves off to avoid the floating water.

Once they stop moving, she also says to Creighton, "Many things here Pandora not understand. What 'dragon boy' mean?" She leans back against the building wall and slips her thumbs into the front pockets of her jeans.

Kenzie made an incomprehensible questioning noise behind her breathing mask as she felt water suddenly lift off of her and stream back toward the school. She could feel it pooling at the corners of her mask, so she pulled it off her face to let the water flow out. It occurred to her that the same thing might be happening to the droplets that had gotten in her pack, so she opened up the toolkit wedge and let the water out of there as well. She tucked her mask and goggles back into it before closing it again.

"How bizarre," she said as she peered at the aerial flow of water around them. "Is that more magic?" She quickly realized as her train of thought caught up that Talberon was busy with the boy behind her, though, and she fell silent to watch just what was happening now. She couldn't exactly fault the guy for being steamed - what exactly had Talberon hoped to accomplish if it hadn't been for the exploding cursed juice? He would have just left some burned carbon on the floor instead of a cup. That seemed rather worse as mess-making went.

In reply to Kenzie Rinne (msg # 160):

After a moment the kid snorts, his wide, expansive features breaking out into a large grin. He gives Talberon a hearty,  if slightly heavy, clap on the arm.
"Sounds like a bargain to me." He rumbles enthusiastically,
"Carson!" He says simply, holding out a large calloused hand before flinching back as if he thought of somthing, "I'm not going to burst into flames am I?"

He also offers his hand to anyone who happens to be around in turn. Unlike Jason
Carson doesn't seem to be aware of his strength and has a rather firm handshake. Nevertheless he seems sincere as he continues around the group,
First to Kenzie, "Y'all look pretty good for someone who went a round with Dave. Must have been pretty close huh?"

He gives Creighton a respectful nod as well as a shake, "Always great to watch Sammy get knocked on his ass as well."

Then to Pandora who he actually seems a bit cautious of but offers a handshake a respectful nod anyway. "Saw your first fight."

"What do you mean what does magic mean?" Pandora knew about vampires but didn't know about magic?

Everyone's normal was different.

He was in the middle of trying to understand how she didn't understand when it was time to do introductions again. He shook the offered hand and had to squeeze into it just to avoid being crushed. Not that it mattered, the guy was obviously much stronger. But it was clearly not a contest with him, just a sort of oversight. "Nice to know that he's like that with everyone. At least then you know it isn't personal."

But it was impossible to ignore Pandora's questions. And she was going to need to be caught up to things in a hurry. Her normal needed to change.

"I bet that this flying water puddle looks really great from overhead." He stepped closer to Pandora, made sure he had her attention. "Let me take you up to the roof of the building. Might clear up the magic thing and the dragon boy comment. You'll have to let me pick you up. Is that OK?"

Pandora watches the brown-eyed military boy as he draws near and approaches them.

As she does, she replies to Creighton and says, "Many English words Pandora not know."

She watches Creighton and the large boy shake hands. And then the cadet offers his hand out towards her. She looks at his large hand and then back up at his face. She doesn't understand why Americans are always shaking each others hands. In Ukraine, generally only businessmen shook hands...and rarely with women or in casual settings. But when in Rome...

She slips her corresponding hand out of her pocket and hesitantly shakes the boy's large hand. She comments, "Pandora not understand hand shake thing."

She looks back at Creighton when he steps in closer. Ukrainians usually step closer into each others personal space than typical for Americans, so she isn't particularly bothered by his closeness.

She raises an eyebrow after Creighton speaks to her again. She replies, "Pandora not potatoes sack. Legs work."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:58, Mon 14 Oct 2019.

He looked up thoughtful after Pandora's chiding. "You're right. It might be too much. Tell you what, just watch OK?" He held up a hand in between them and between one breath and the next his skin went from looking like skin to looking like scales.

Creighton let the effect keep clear of his face but he was covered in scales. They alternated black and bright gold, with other colors here and there if you looked for them. It was form fitting. He turned his open hand so she could see front and back on it.

It was - just scales. No claws or other protruding bits. "I don't know how many people here on campus can do magic, who use magic to fight against monsters. But when I was fighting Sammy earlier, I had my scales turned on. Kept me from getting a broken foot too." He stuck out one bare but coated in scales now foot.

"Ask any questions you like."

I believe Kenzie and Tal are separated from Pandora and Creighton from some distance. So I'm going to reply in that Carson talks with Kenzie and Tal and then walks over to them fairly quickly but open to changing

Phew, I didn't get punched in the gut. There is a God!

Tal gladly accepts the more than firm handshake of this more jovial cadet. Yeah, his hand was a little red and cramped, but he was alive despite his smart-aleckness.

"Well, then any time ya need a microwave, call me up, man."

He internally chortled at the big man's apprehension of spontaneous combustion. "You're chill, man. I can turn it on and off, mostly..." He said mysteriously to add to the drama. Though I should probably be stamped with one of those disclaimers that Dunkin puts on coffee cups- caution: contents may be hot." He tried to be cool with his wordplay and his delivery, trying to bond with what Tal assumed to be a universal interest in (heterosexual) dating, forgetting all he learned observing Jason & Lesleigh about the cadets.

"Hey!" Lesleigh shouts and stumbles as she steps forward to intervene while simultaneously holding up a growing pool of water.

The throng of people slowly filtering out the gym's doors has slowed rather a bit as they gawk at the floating pool above them. The faculty adapts quickly, however, putting up a united front as they effectively push the kids out the door through continued - and loud - commands to get moving. One of them, with a strong accent that has only gotten stronger in his urgency, comes upon Jill as she drags Jason and exclaims, "Knock it off!" He proceeds to enforce this command, expertly taking hold of Jill's hand and dislodging her grip before spinning her around and giving her a light shove toward the door. "Ah swear, you just love pickin' on the boys, donchya? No Ah ain't int'rested in yer sass. Shut up and move!"

Lesleigh catches up to Jason as he is righted, somehow completely out of breath despite the short distance. "I'm sorry, I said something stupid to her that I shouldn't have. Are you okay?"

OOC:Yeah, that works. Wasn't quite sure where everyone was compared to everyone else. Carson is over by Tal now.

Carson guffaws, throwing his head back in a rich belly laugh and punches Tal playfully in the arm, probably a bit harder than intentional. He's still laughing when another cadet, a short pale girl with closely cropped blond hair comes up to Carson from the side. She looks decidedly unimpressed and her voice is a deadpan drawl, "Ah, Carson, here you are...Just follow the sound of morale..."

Carson, still chuckling slightly from Talberon's joke wraps an arm around her shorter frame and guides her to face the other boy.

"Hey Cally, speaking of hot stuff!" He gestures to Talberon, "You got to meet this guy Myers, he's great."

Myers looks Talberon up and down, ice blue eyes sizing him up. "You know you're supposed to wait to the end of school to set off the fire alarm?." She asks sarcastically, eye brow quirked, judging.

Back in the hall, Jill back around her hackles raised and her mouth ready to spit a torrent of vitriol at the teacher. She's shut down before she can even start, a mixture of the teachers stern, no BS stance and her own ingrained deference to authority means she can do no more than glare at Lesleigh and try and not look like a belligerent lion cub being shooed along by an uncaring parent.

Jason turns back to Lesleigh, frowning slightly. He'd never seen Jill so riled up about somthing.

She'd gone from viewing Lesleigh with cold wariness to actual anger the normally chill girl rarely displayed.

"What did you say to her?" He asks, a touch if incredulity in his voice.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:33, Mon 14 Oct 2019.

Kenzie allowed her hand to be squeezed by Carson without complaint, returning the handshake relatively firmly herself, though much more gently. She'd had some social encounters with military types in the past. "Not at all," she said with a smile. "Dave was nice enough to put me down easily, since I had no hope." She really needed to figure out what that was short for. All that came to mind was Davida, but that didn't seem to fit a surname of Ross. "Nice to meet you Carson, I'm Kenzie Rinne. Nice to meet you as well Cally," she added since they'd been belatedly joined by another girl in the military. There sure seemed to be a lot of them, but maybe Kenzie was just bumping into them more relative to other students.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:44, Mon 14 Oct 2019.

Pandora looks at Creighton's hand curiously when he reaches out between them. Her eyes narrow as the skin on his hand and other visible areas sans his face seem to sprout scales suddenly. She looks down at his scale-covered bare foot when he presents it and then back up to his face. Her expression and body language are otherwise stoic.

After a moment, she says in Ukrainian, "Your body armor camouflage pattern is a strange choice. Why not dark urban greys? It is interesting how it blended in with your skin until you activated it though. American technology is impressive. We do not have such advanced technology in Ukraine."

"I, um..."

She holds out the cup to him with both hands, not trusting her strength with the strain her magic has put on her. "As I said, I lost my temper, and I, um, and I told her that we went to New York on my broom, and um, and that we had a good time. I was trying to tell her that I'm not a threat to you, but I did it badly... Unless, um, unless maybe she, you know... Maybe she likes you?"

She swapped over to her native because it allowed her to express herself better. And her rationalizations were interesting. Since he was explaining to just her, he responded in her language. It was worth taking the time to do it. "It isn't technology and the coloring isn't a choice. The scales are the primary color scales of a dragon that my family made a deal with a long time ago. Most of the monster fighters in the family learn  how to do some variation of this."

In an incredulous tone, Pandora replies in Ukrainian, "Dragon? You want me to believe your family fights Gojiras? And you have some sort of dragon blood in you? That lets you make dragon scales cover your skin?" She raises an eyebrow. "And that is why the red-haired boy called you 'Dragon Boy'?"

Her expression turns inquisitive. If vampires were real, why couldn't dragons also be real? She leans forward and starts poking Creighton's scaly skin. **POKE POKE** She says, "Feels weird." She raises her gaze up to meet Creighton's eyes and asks, "Do girls in your family lay eggs?"
This message was last edited by the player at 22:18, Mon 14 Oct 2019.

He nodded along in an encouraging way as things were starting to get past her normal and making a new normal.

Yes, I'd like you to believe all of that. No, women don't lay eggs. Babies happen the same way they do for everyone else. If I had to guess, there are going to be other people here who can do things that do not rely on technology."

He lets her poke. She may as well get the crash course in a friendly environment. "Took a long time for this to feel not so weird too. Not everything is as strange as scales. Speaking Russian and Ukrainian? While I did learn how to do this from my grandfather, it is another bit of magic. I can speak any language. I know, not very fair, but it is probably the most practical thing I've learned how to do. My father can't do it."

Pandora stops poking Creighton's scales and straights back up. She continues to speak in Ukrainian.

About laying eggs, she comments, "That would be strange."

About magic, she says, "Magic? You can cast magic dragon spells also? And you can speak any language because of a magic dragon spell? Does your language spell let you understand words in ancient books? Tex says ancient secrets can be found in old books."
This message was last edited by the player at 23:06, Mon 14 Oct 2019.

This was always hard for him to explain. He didn't have a lot of practice at it. Most of the time, talking about this was done with family. "I'm not really a spell caster. Things I know how to do are mostly done to me.  This thing with the water, how it is flying up off of everyone? I can't do anything like that. But yes, I can read anything I come across. So any old book you come up with, sure I can read it. Found out I could do that with old diaries that family members have kept. " aaa

Continuing conversing in Ukrainian, Pandora asks, "You cannot cast magic dragon spells? Instead you just do magic dragon things? Like, you make skin-scales for body armor? Do you spray fire out of your mouth like a dragon?"

She continues, saying, "You believe someone cast a magic spell to float the water through the air? Do you think we will learn about magic spells and magic things at this school? When I was told I would be going to school here, I thought only a few people would be learning how to fight vampires...in a secret, special class. I thought everyone else would just be normal students...like in any other secondary school. I was surprised when Kenzie told me everyone is here to learn how to fight vampires. I didn't know there were so many vampires out there."

In reply to Jason French (msg # 168):

Tal is visibly confused by the fact that he was now talking to a snarky, girl cadet who could probably kick his wise-ass across the state. Jason wouldn't hurt a fly. This Carson was a barrel of laughs to Jason the class stoic. And this girl knew sarcasm? Jason wouldn't know a metaphor from a punch if they both went over his head. And then Kenzie over there was carrying a suitcase power of high-tech gadgets.

Unlike Kenzie, he doesn't formally introduce himself as Cally joined. Not cause he's being unfriendly, but because he wants to show-off in his signature style.

"Well, with Tal around, anytime can be the end of the school day." He says with fake macho, standing up straight, and saluting. Tal is still clutching his coat in his left-hand. Besides if burning a cup sets it off at a school to hunt monsters, then we're going to be spending a lot of quality time out here in the future." He says ignoring the fact that he definitely needs some eye drops for the slight burning the magical OJ had caused.

"I'm gonna be blunt. I have to know. What's with the whole military getup? I was kinda expecting a lot of yuppies here. Was not expecting military cadets who could totally pulverize me." He says with most of his eye contact towards Cally, having dropped back into casual rest.

"Please tell me you know launch codes!" He says retaining the Talberon enthusiam.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:09, Tue 15 Oct 2019.

Jason pales, looking stricken but still takes the cup if orange juice. He knocks it back like it was somthing stronger and puts his hand up to his face as Lesleigh explains until she implies Jill "likes" him and then he nearly chokes on the juice.

"What?" He says, incredulously, bewildered.


As Talberon talks Myers's eyes slowly slide away from Tal to Kenzie, as if demanding an explanation for her companion, before they move back to Talberon.

"He's got a point Myers..." Carson says, good humour in his voice, "Guess the Sarge was right when she told Brotch to leave her flamer at home!"

Myers stares at Tal, her face impassive as he rambles on but she answers his first question. "As Mr Rainsford said at the start..." She goes on, sounding bored as if she's reciting somthing from a script, "The department of defense is paying the Rainsford acadamy to teach specialised units how to combat certain supernatural threats. They're hoping we can learn somthing that may add a degree of flexibility and perspective to preexisting supernatural focused units." She looks up at the ceiling of water and the many disorganised children milling about outside. "So far it seems to be going swimmingly..." Myers says, deadpan and checking her watch. She doesn't even deign to answer Talberon's second question.

It was his own fault. He'd opened up this door and told her to ask questions. She had a staggering array of good questions. No one should underestimate her smarts.

Creighton turned off the scales. They'd done their job for the moment. "You've got it. I mostly do dragon like things. I have an aunt that is more of a spell casting person, whatever you want to call it. But I can do dragon like things. I can't breathe fire yet, although I think I'll figure it out someday. Right now I can roar really loud. Dad does the whole fire breathing thing. I might figure it out eventually."

He nodded in the affirmative as the roll of questions continued. "I'm sorry you didn't know you'd be coming to a whole school full of people trying to learn how to fight monsters. It isn't just vampires. You might be the only vampire specialist here at school. I didn't come here to learn about fighting vampires Pandora. I'm here to keep learning about how to police monsters."

In reply to Jason French (msg # 179):

As Cally talks, his eyes kind of glaze over, and he distantly nods in a way as to not be offensive but also out of sheer disinterest. Somehow Myers found a way to bore Tal into shutting up for once. He did make a mental note to meet this other pyro- Brotch, was it? And she didn't even roll her eyes at his question about missiles.

Tal doesn't respond to the conversation except to give a, "Em hmm. He begins looking at the sky and the water hovering, hoping it didn't fall on him- his dislike of water being one of the few things he shares with cats.

Pandora, still speaking in Ukrainian, replies, "Can you also speak loudly...like a person with a megaphone can...or only roar loudly?"

Maintaining her calm demeanor, she says, "You are saying there are other monsters besides vampires, dragons, and ghosts? Werewolves, zombies, demons, mummies, witches, and others...you are saying such supernatural beings are also real? What about space aliens? Are there martians here also?"

She leans back against the wall and lifts her right foot up onto it while her hands come to rest on her now propped up right knee with their fingers interlaced together. She says, "You say you want to learn to 'police' them. You are implying that not all of the monsters are malicious and praying on humanity. Why do you believe that? In every supernatural folklore tale I have heard, or movie I have watched, the monsters are always either praying on or acting maliciously towards people."
This message was last edited by the player at 17:23, Wed 16 Oct 2019.

Just roar. I'll show you some time when it isn't the middle of a maybe emergency."

She honestly was taking it really well. Clearly she already knew about vampires. Maybe the rest of it wasn't so much of an enormous surprise. "Yes, there are a large variety of supernatural beings. If you have to go binary on it and wonder, is it real or is it not real, it is probably real." He ended up with a laugh as she asked about alien life. I have no clue if there are real aliens here on Earth." He shrugged with it. There was tons he didn't know and he knew he didn't know. It didn't bother him to admit it.

Creighton watched her lean up against the wall. Maybe that sort of thing was her thinking pose. She'd asked a good, hard question. It took him a few breaths to come up with an answer. "When someone's house is on fire, you put out the fire and save their lives. When a campfire is keeping people from freezing, you don't run over and put out the fire."

"That girl they pulled up onto the stage today, did you get a look at her? She has very odd eyes, very not-human. I bet there are monster hunters out there that would simply kill her right on sight, no questions asked, no worrying about who she is only what she is. They'd probably have friends that would say it was the right thing to do."

Myers keeps talking for a moment before realising Talberon's not listening. Again she share a glace with Kenzie before following Talberon's gaze to the ceiling of water above them then finally turning back to Talberon and starting to speak again in the same monotone as if she hadn't stopped.

"So after every day, Sergeant Ross will send a report back to our Divisional CO, Captain Sears who will make her own assessment and pass it up the chain to SUPSECTAC Command who will monitor our class as a pilot for the program as a whole." Myers has barely stopped for breath and continues on with an absolute drudging vigour.

It wouldn't be surprising if a power point presentation appeared behind her. One with a dull font and a colour scheme that somehow managed to be mundane as well as aesthetically offensive.

Yellow font on a blue background.

Something like that.

"After that the results will be propagated out to high command through the commanding officer of the entire task force and I was just wondering if you wanted to go behind that sports shed over there and start making out? I don't normally go for redheads but there's something about a guy who asks me a question and then completely ignores the answer I'm giving him that really get's me going. Of course, we could just keep talking about the restructuring of the supernatural arm of the US Armed forces. Either one will probably go on for an awkward amount of time, be generally uninspiring and remembered with varying degrees of discomfort for all involved."

Myers finishes her lecture in the exact same tone as she started, staring at Talberon with ice blue, unimpressed eyes which hadn't seemed to blink for the entire lecture.

She pauses for a moment, still watching Talberon stare at the sky before turning to Kenzie. "Hello Kenzie, I'm Corporal Myers, the team medic. On behalf of Rainsford entry 001 let me extend a greeting that doesn't involve bodily harm." She looks over at Pandora aggressively poking and blinks a few times before mentally shrugging and returns to looking around at the milling students.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:31, Wed 16 Oct 2019.

"It was just a thought I had," she says, making mollifying gestures. "We'll have to all sit down and have us a conversation sometime soon but right now we need to get out of here. I can't hold this up forever and we don't want to be under it when it falls." She starts plodding for the door but looks to him expectantly.



Meanwhile, more of the faculty are making it outside as they shepard the students toward the parking lot. The siren of an approaching fire engine wails, signalling the imminent arrival of the firemen responding to the alarm. Just after that, the gaggle of students is approached by the pretty boy in a long white coat. "I know it's impressive but we all need to be going now. This way, please," he says loudly enough that he's clearly addressing Creighton and Pandora as well, motioning for everybody to follow him.

Continuing in Ukrainian, Pandora asks, "So, all the students here are learning about the supernatural beings that inhabit the world and various related things like magic and how to fight them. Does Tabby have fire dragon blood in him, or does he cast magic fire spells?"

About Creighton's point of view, she replies, "I understand what you are attempting to explain. Your view is that each supernatural being is an individual and should be judged by their own actions and deeds rather than automatically be condemned based on preconceived notions of what they may have done...or might yet do in the future. I am not sure I agree with you. Some creatures have instincts and urges that overpower their reason."

About Lesleigh, she says, "I am unsure why the other students dislike the little girl with big eyes so much. I did not see her do anything wrong."

She doesn't fail to notice the boy motioning to them and says to Creighton, "Are we supposed to follow that boy over there motioning to us?"

Kenzie's eyebrows lifted as Cally's strange, droning style of speech suddenly shifted into an awkward proposition toward Talberon, but the way she wrapped it up made her realize it could only be a joke in spite of her dry delivery. She found it a little too odd to laugh, though. Instead she said "Ah, thank you," in response to the welcome, then continued "So you're the group's medic, cool. I'm hoping to fill that role too. What sort of training do you have in this program?" Her tone was plainly one of shared interest rather than competition.

She glanced over at the boy in the white coat calling for them, then shrugged inwardly and headed over, guiding her trunk behind her.

Pandora, anything that starts with 'Everyone' or 'All' I don't know the answers to those things. This is my first day here at school too. But yes, I think everyone will be learning about supernatural things and how to fight them. And I don't think Talberon is dragon blooded. The girl that was up on stage? I think she's got something of it. I don't know why they didn't like her either. But it could be as easy as what she looks like.

But thanks, I'm glad you get my point of view. You don't have to agree with me about it. Honestly folks should be able to, you know, have a civil disagreement without it being a big deal."

He looked off in the direction she indicated. And nodded in the affirmative. Sometime you're going to tell me why you thought it was all just vampires and not other things. But I don't think that's a right now thing."

Creighton switched back to English and walked with Pandora. "They're probably just trying to get everyone together since this was technically an emergency. They want to make sure none of us got lost."

In reply to Jason French (msg # 184):

Tal was still dazed for a bit. At her sardonic makeout proposal, Tal returned violently to reality. He blinked a few times at her. And let her drone on and on. At a stopping point, Tal shrugged and blushed a bit. He realized she was likely to be insulting but wasn't sure. He was more embarrassed by the bluntness of the subject matter. He preferred to play it off to avoid which of the two options it was, "Eh, flattered. But probably shouldn't have sparks flying after what just happened." He said slyly in a way that obviously looked like he was being defensive.

At the boy's request to follow him, Tal joined Kenzie and other people in walking that direction. He began sliding his coat on.

As she stands up from leaning against the wall, Pandora answers Creighton back in Ukrainian, "It is simple; I did not know the other things were also real."

She slides her hands into the front pockets of her jeans, but leaves her thumbs hanging outside of her pockets. She follows along with Creighton, looking down at the ground as if thinking about things as she walks with him to what is presumed to be the gathering point.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:29, Fri 18 Oct 2019.

Jason hurries to catch up with Lesleigh after she reminds him that they were standing under quite a few gallons of water with nothing between it and them than one increasingly fatigued girl.

A bit had opened up in his stomach and he was ashamed of it. Ashamed of feeling guilty for his friendship with Lesleigh and the repercussions it might have on the integrity of the squad. He also thought on what Lesleigh said about Jill seeing her as competition and a shiver ran up his body. Jill hadn't ever shown any interest in him before...had she?

Myers doesn't give a reaction other than holding his gaze for an uncomfortable amount of time and then turning away, following the others to group around the member of faculty.

Ugh, my brain is too full of random crap still, so I'm sorry if this comes out disjointed and crappy but I also don't want to leave y'all hanging. ^.^;

Lesleigh, despite being exhausted to the point of sweat sliding off her brow and gasping for breath, insists rather pointedly on being the last person out and as soon as everyone is clear she makes a gesture as if letting something fall from her hand, and all of the water suddenly remembers that gravity is a thing. Ellen Hayward returns from a round of escorting students to the parking lot to collect Lesleigh, thanking Jason for keeping an eye on her but insisting that he get a move on himself - the headcount is getting started.

The headcount itself is a fairly standard procedure, with all of the kids gathered into four large clumps by grade level with faculty calling out their names from a list and checking them off as they respond. In order to facilitate this process, the faculty without lists in hand vigorously enforce a "whispers only" rule. The fire truck pulls into the same parking lot, and Alban greets them before they amble in the direction of the gymnasium without any apparent hurry - it's likely that a cover story is already in place.

Once the firemen are preparing to leave, the Principal addresses the students with a portable loudspeaker. "Alright, listen up everyone. Due to unforeseen circumstances, we're going to let you out to your lunch break a bit early. Since you're early, you'll have to be patient with the cafeteria staff, maybe take what's available instead of what you want to keep the line moving, alright? The gymnasium is off-limits until it's cleaned up, and any classes that would be held there will be moved or cancelled at your instructor's discretion. You're free to go."

Naturally, a bunch of hyped up high schoolers don't have to be told twice and begin to stream toward the cafeteria, the corner shop across the street, or to their lockers to collect lunches that they brought with them. The cafeteria is about as spartan and generic as it gets, featuring a long queue of students having food of questionable nutritious value but high caloric content piled onto plastic trays to be brought to metal folding chairs and tables and consumed with plastic silverware. Various clear social groups that cross grade levels rapidly emerge from the chaos as people sit down to eat, but the two largest are easily identified by the fact that they appear to have something of a dress code. The largest group is easily the black jacket and patch clad gathering, who take up three adjacent tables. They all wait patiently to begin eating until every one of their members has taken their seat and Eamon says grace over their meal - the full and proper prayer, at that. The second group probably fills a single table if they packed into it tightly, but their members sit more spread out and other kids intermix with them. These kids are identified by the presence of something conspicuous and white, from the pretty boy's long white coat and plain white t-shirts to several who are wearing white bandanas tied around their arms. Quite a few of them also pray before they eat, but they do so individually.

You don't have to get chow from the line but for plot convenience, I would like everybody to wind up at the same table, please and thank you.

Pandora quietly stands around with the other freshmen as the student rosters are called out. Her hands rest in her front pockets while her thumbs hang over them. She responds to the teacher when her name is called out by briefly raising her hand up above her and making eye contact with the teacher. She briefly looks over at the fire truck and then the first responders before her gaze returns down towards the ground in front of her as if contemplating things.

Once the announcement of an early lunch is given, she moseys her way along behind the students who seem to know where to go. She waits in line patiently and doesn't seem particularly picky about what she gets served.

She walks toward an open table near a cafeteria window and sits down. She slowly eats her food while staring out of the nearby window.

Creighton went along with the horde. He wasn't a picky eater to start with and inclined to be nice to folks who provided food so none of this was a burden.

Plenty of people here already knew each other. That was any school any where, so they found their friends and did the thing. It was just easier to go and sit with Pandora so he did exactly that.

"I wonder what they had planned if the contest would not have ended with a fire alarm and actual fire system turning on." He stuck with English, they would probably be joined by others. "Nice of them to have food all ready to go though. Feeding kids is always a good back up plan."

Kenzie was unimpressed at her friendly overture being so completely brushed off by this Myers character. Either she was remarkably rude, or she hadn't been kidding earlier and she seriously only had eyes for Talberon... in which case her approach made her seem like a loon. Either way, she diplomatically kept her mouth shut and went along with the headcount. "Here," she said as she raised her hand when her name was called. She filed along to the cafeteria after that, although she tried to keep tabs on where the other students were going for more options. She hadn't heard good things about cafeteria food.

The reality lived up to the hype, although Kenzie managed to keep any distaste out of her expression when she received what was available on her tray, and she thanked the workers politely. Next time she'd visit a restaurant, since that seemed to be allowed. With that done, she wandered the aisles a little until she managed to track down some students she knew. "Hi Pandora, hi Creighton, mind if I join you?" she said with a small smile. Assuming they didn't object, she took a seat next to Pandora. She didn't want to interrupt their conversation, so she began picking at her food, apparently investigating it to some degree before she actually started eating.

Tal followed Kenzie, and the other freshmen over to the massive huddle, hoping for some distance between him and Myers. As his name was called, he raised his hand and flourished, "Present!" Getting some sharp looks from his fellow classmates for sending on this less than exciting adventure.

He stopped off at the men's room to wash off the smell of burnt OJ and styrofoam before entering the lunch line behind his friends despite being higher in alphabetical order than some. The lunch wasn't spectacular. He could barely make out what some of it was even trying to imitate. However, he grew up on a public school diet. And this was only one step below that, especially when sweets were banned from the Caf. He did thank the servers and the cashier at the end.

Tal walked with his tray and a carton of 2% over to the small cluster of people he knew by the window. He didn't ask for permission to sit with the three, but he wasn't obnoxious. He surprisingly gracefully slid into a seat facing Creighton without disturbing anything on the table or his hands. He then bowed his head, took out a necklace, mouthed a silent grace, and crossed himself. After his prayer, he looked up to listen to the conversation, bright-eyed and eating an apple.

Since Creighton was talking to Pandora, Kenzie figured she wouldn't be interrupting if she addressed Talberon. She had taken notice of his surname at the headcount, as well as his Catholic prayer now. She waited for him to finish, then said "So Talberon, your family is from the Emerald Isle, am I right? Mine too." Since she hadn't noticed an accent, she figured he wasn't an overseas student.

"Hey there Kenzie, feel free." He gave Tal a friendly nod as the guy took a seat and did the whole prayer thing. "From Ireland, like recently or some time a long time ago now? He simply jumped right in. If they were going to hang out for lunch, then jumping in seemed like the thing to do.

In reply to Kenzie Rinne (msg # 197):

Tal politely between bites of his fruit answered Kenzie but broadened it to include Creighton's comments. "Not quite. I'm from Boston then Moorhaven. But my grandparents and their parents immigrated here from Ireland so still strong ties and culture, hence the name and no accent. I did visit a few years back, and it became like a home away from home. You must miss it."

Kenzie gave a soft, friendly laugh, then addressed both Creighton and Talberon's questions at once. "Oh, I meant your family in the ancestral sense - mine came to Boston during the Great Famine. But I've been there a few times, a lot of my family goes to college there, and it does feel like a second home for me. Tiocfaidh ár lá*," she added cheerfully, figuring she wouldn't ruffle any feathers when their listeners were ancestrally (or recently) Chinese and Ukrainian. And if they did, well, oh well. Kenzie's usually diplomatic nature ended where Irish political issues began. Her pronunciation wasn't great, though, as she'd only managed a very rudimentary beginning in the Irish language so far. "So where is your family from specifically, Talberon? We were originally O'Regans, from Munster, but we had to change to blend in."

"Say, that reminds me - Creighton, when we talked at the festival, you were pretty much saying that your ancestors were monster hunters in China, right? Is that still a family tradition, or are you picking it back up after a long hiatus?" Kenzie didn't have the same personal connection to China, or even to monster hunting, that she did to her family homeland, but she was still interested in finding out about her new classmates.

*An Irish Republican slogan meaning "Our day will come."

Family mattered, knowing where you came from, who your people were. It was amazing how often it came up and how fast. So far he'd bee in more talks about that than what kind of burgers people liked best.

"Family tradition, and still active, I'm just the latest in a long line of it. Honestly Dad has been obsessing lately. It is part of the reason I'm here, he wants to, or if you believe him, needs to be on the hunt. Hard to say no, know what I mean? Anyone else have work obsessed adults?"

Pandora looks away from the window and up at Creighton when she hears his voice nearby. She gives him a silent nod. She sees Kenzie approach just after him and replies in a friendly tone, "Hallo." She looks at Talberon with a neutral expression as he comes up and sits down at the table with them.

She hears the casual conversation going on around her as she slowly eats, but she only makes out a few words here and there. She doesn't worry too much about it. More English words will become familiar to her over time since she's going to be hearing and using English regularly.

In reply to Kenzie Rinne (msg # 200):

Tal's face flushed a little bit at realizing that he misunderstood Kenzie's question a bit, but he got over it quickly. He did grin in affirmation at Kenzie's political stance though he didn't verbally assent. He wouldn't do that while maintaining polite company.
"Munster, eh. Well, most of our roots were near Cork, some farming and some minor trading. So, maybe there was some crossing of paths long ago."

He looked at Creighton a bit surprised. He mentally realized that some people would be here because of family ties, but he hadn't met anyone yet who did. The whole family business of fighting monsters was still surprising even though fighting monsters (or at least the occult) he understood being Catholic. "China? Really. Still new to all of this monster hunting geography and culture. Is he like hunting Mushu or something?"

"Wow, cool, having family experience to draw on like that," Kenzie said to Creighton. She considered his question, then said "I think my family is kind of like that, but also family-obsessed? I mean, making sure all of us are going places in life, that kind of thing. I already have a resume with my family's company even though I haven't done all that much, objectively speaking."

"Ahh, okay! My family is from Clare, so kinda close. You never know!" she said with a nod to Talberon. "Funny how life works out. How did you end up coming here?" She figured if Talberon's relatives had led him onto the path, he would have mentioned it by now. She was worried about leaving Pandora out, though, so she looked over at her next. "So Pandora, is Tex a monster hunter too?"

After being directly addressed, Pandora looks up from her food and over at Kenzie beside her. She nods and replies, "Tex hunt vampires. Yes." She silently looks down at the table again for a moment as if remembering.

She looks back up at Kenzie and says, "Pandora learn vampires real. Meet Tex same night. Tex hunt vampire."

There was obviously some sort of story with Pandora. It was in the air around her. But asking about it was not going to happen. She found out there were vampires. There was no way she learned that pleasantly or academically.

"Like your families, we have been living in the United States for a long time now. I've visited China twice now but grew up here, near Pittsburgh actually." He made a bad-taste face at Tal's comment but finished laughing at himself about it. "Yes father is hunting Mushu and after that he's going after that bastard that sells us Lucky Charms cereal." It was his turn to look out into the distance for a moment. "Actually he's been pretty tight lipped about exactly what he's doing just that it needs doing." He shrugged. "The guy can do mystery and is accustomed to keeping his secrets."

"So have you all noticed the color matching groups out there?" He gestured vaguely at the whole cafeteria. "Like it isn't enough that we all came to monster hunter high, but now they have to split up into little groups even more?"

Tal puts down the apple core and starts some of the main "entree," "Yeah, small world. And kinda landed here by accident, long story. But simply, I caught a bad fever in Ireland, and it got worse." He says in a John Mulaney-like deadpan. "So, I'm here to control it better and maybe work on helping against the occult, dunno. This is all new to me."

He laughs at Creighton's facial expressions and remarks. "Dude, no offense. I just only know monsters through TV." His head kinda wobbles as if he is keeping something in and weighing whether to say more, but he doesn't. "But seriously, if he catches that Leprechaun bastard, I want to hoist him by his petard.

He doesn't respond to Pandora. She seemed fairly private or maybe it was the difficulty with English. Either way, Tal would wait until she opens up. "It does seem weird. Not sure about the Yin-Yang color scheme.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:53, Tue 22 Oct 2019.

In reply to Talberon O'Malley (msg # 207):

Without another word, Myers pivots perfectly on her heel and strides off without a backwards glance. Not even acknowledging Kenzie as her blue grey eyes slide over her.


On the other side of the square, Jason watches, face pinched slightly as Lesleigh is led away.

He sighed deeply through his nose, his face unusually troubled as the teacher's voice called out over the crowd.

This wasn't quite how he wanted Jill or the rest of his family to find out about Lesleigh.

"Why had Lesleigh confronted Jill? Why had Jill reacted so aggressively? Why hadn't I just avoid this whole issue and not talked to her!"

From what he had gathered the Ebongroves were famous, or perhaps more accurately, infamous, in the Supernatural world.

But Jill had no way of knowing that if Jason himself didn't know! Not unless she had intelligence that he didn't which didn't make any sense either!

He marched towards the cafeteria with the rest of the kids, his mood stormy, hoping the promise of food in his belly would ease his mood.

He wasn't sure how he was supposed to eat anything with his stomach twisting and turning so much but maybe if he buried it in as much food as possible it would quite down.

Unfortunately as he turned around, plate piled high with food, he stomach dropped even further.

There were barely any tables left!

Jason looked over to his squad and his heart leapt as he saw they had left a space for him.

Right next to Jill...

Who was staring at him with bloody murder in her eyes.

Jason immediately chose the better part of valour and turned around and walked the other way, looking for any port in a storm.

He spotted a flash of red hair, coupled with Talberon's voice and honed in. His heart soared as he saw an empty space and locked on.

It was only when he was already standing there did he realize it was also the table with Creighton and Pandora on it.

Jason stood there for a moment, looming awkwardly with his tray of food.

"Hello." He rumbled.
"May I sit here?"

Creighton looked at the guy, clearly confused. The guy clearly had his own built in social group. He'd come into the gym with them and made a big deal about that entry too. No introductions when they fought but now he wanted to sit with them?

Maybe wanted to was too strong. But he'd found some manners and that had to be worth something.

"Sure, take a seat. Maybe you can answer the question of the moment."   He looked from group to group at the cafeteria, no trying to hide what he was doing. After all, he wanted the guy to notice he was doing it. "What is with faction white and faction black?"

Jason nods at Creighton and then at Talberon as he sits down slowly, every move careful as he gently sets his tray down and take his seat.

He slowly glances around at the gathering groups and says in a even tone,
"I don't know."

He watches Eamon and the Black Jackets, eyes narrowing ever so slightly as he remembered the outcry they had made at Lesleigh's introduction.

"They were...loud earlier...undisciplined." The cadet said, a flicker of a grimace crossing his face as he remembered how quickly the crowd had descended into an unruly mob.

Jason turns to Creighton, looking him squarely and his mouth opens as if he was going to say somthing more, but then, as if thinking better of it, he closes it and focuses on his food with a surprising amount of intensity.

Kenzie was getting a definite feeling that the story of Pandora meeting Tex wasn't going to be a happy one. She didn't exactly want to just leave Pandora hanging if she did want to talk about it, but a busy cafeteria didn't seem like the ideal setting. She gave Pandora a long, quiet look, pondering what to say, and decided to let things drop unless Pandora wanted to say more. "Okay," she said quietly.

She looked over at the boys talking again, and chuckled when Creighton said his father was going to hunt the Lucky Charms leprechaun. "Mm, a little?" she answered Creighton's question, squinting out in the direction he pointed. From her perspective, they were two big blurs that happened to be more solidly colored than the rest.

"How interesting!" she said to Talberon. "I wonder what happened there." She was thinking that over when Jason arrived at their table. She had the sense that it wasn't really her that Jason was asking, so she just gave him a wave at first. Once he was seated, she said "I don't think we've met yet, I'm Kenzie. Jason, right?" She'd heard his name from Pandora when they were talking about his fight with Creighton.

Pandora sits quietly at the table as the others converse. She notices Jason sit down to eat with them, but doesn't say anything. She slowly eats her food as she looks out the window at the sky overhead.

In reply to Kenzie Rinne (msg # 211):

"Yes." Jason says, looking up from his food at Kenzie, "I am." He adds on, worried that he was coming off as standoffish.

"It's nice to meet you." His eyes narrow slightly in recognition before he goes on, "You fought Sergeant Ross?" The slight inflection on the last word is the only thing that stops his words from just being a statement.

Tal lights up again at seeing another friendly face join the table. Creighton's slightly-off reaction suggested to Tal that there was still some tension between the two, but obviously not too much as Creighton invited him to join them.

When Jason sits down, Tal gives him a friendly pat on the back in welcome and then continues eating. Very interested in hearing about Kenzie having fought one of the cadets. Tal still thanked his lucky stars that he hadn't.

The guy - Jason - was giving him awkward looks. He also managed to talk with the others well enough. But this whole looking away and trying to say something was not going to work.

There was no smooth way to say this so he just jumped in blunt as a truck. "Jason, look, your first impression with me was lousy. From the march in with the cadets to my first fight with one of your cadet members all the way down to yes, the combat with you."

He sat up tall, like always, comfortably, like he owned the world. It was just his thing. He paused and got a breath. "I'm pretty sure most of that bad first impression wasn't your fault. You didn't choose how the cadets would walk in the gym, you didn't set the invisible rules I didn't know about when it came to combat time, you didn't cause the combat contest in the first place."


Creighton shrugged. "I was mad for a minute but that's not a serious lingering sort of thing. I've lost fights before, I lose them again too." He stuck a hand out towards the guy. "Creighton Knight, nice to meet you."

"If you can call it that," Kenzie answered Jason with a self-deprecating chuckle. "I'm no good at fighting, she put me on the ground right away. But she was very nice about it. I would have liked to see how she did, I wonder if the tournament will pick back up later."

She watched with interest as Creighton spoke to Jason, and hoped the two of them would end up as friends. They both seemed like nice folks too, even if she barely knew Jason at all.

The large kid gives Talberon a friendly nod as he accepted the back pat.

Jason frowned at Kenzie, unsure if he believed her story. From what he had heard, albeit second hand from certain squadmates who liked to "embellish" certain stories and would never let something as boring as "The truth" and "What actually happened" get in the way of a good story.

From what he had heard, Dave had been hard pressed to keep up with the bespectacled girl and had it had been much closer than the Sergeant would have wanted.

Of course, this was coming from Sampson who was renowned for being a serial bullshitter.

Jason briefly wondered if this was one of those stories that would grow in the telling.

"She's very good." Jason nodded sagely, "She takes her training very seriously. She's much more adept at leading than she is fighting but I think she would have done well."

If he recalled correctly she had gone on to win at least one more before getting knocked out of the runnings by a dainty, if surprisingly robust girl by the name of Amnesty

Jason involuntarily straightened up as Creighton started talking, watching him cautiously as he spoke.

He felt it best not to mention that he had agreed with Sergeant Ross that they should march in,feeling that showing a disciplined professional front would show them in their best light, as opposed to Jill who felt that a more relaxes approach would help diffuse some of the tension.

It hadn't been the first time he had been wrong.

His hand clenched and unclenched in his lap as he listened, despite the sincerity of the olive branch being extended, Jason couldn't help but feel his stomach start to flip flop and he began to regret the few quick mouthfuls of food he had already eaten.

Jason hesitated for a moment, staring at Creighton's outstretched hand before he willed his body out of it's frozen funk and took the other boy's hand in his.

"Jason." He said, forcing his voice to be level.

Creighton finished up the handshake thing and gave the other guy the nod. "Thanks Jason." They weren't going to be building a treehouse together any time soon, but it was the start of something better.

He turned his attention to Kenzie's comment. "That's my other problem with the whole fighting ranking thing. There are going to be people here who aren't hand combat experts. But they probably are expert at 20 other things that I'm bad at."

Pandora looks away from the clouds beyond the window and watches Creighton and Jason make nice. She continues to slowly eat, but finishing up her meal doesn't seem to be a priority at the moment. She takes a drink from her cup using her right hand.

She turns to Kenzie and casually asks her, "What fun things Kenzie like do?" She takes a bite of her meal from the fork held in her left hand.

In reply to Creighton Knight (msg # 218):

"Maybe it's about whose willing rather than who is good?" Jason says. It was true there were people there who were always going to do better than other people but maybe the assessment went deeper than who could beat up the most people.

It took a brave person to step into a fight then knew they were going to lose.

Brave or foolhardy at least...

He looked over at Kenzie and assumed she was in the former category.

Kenzie was momentarily caught off guard by Pandora's question, as she'd thought that the other girl had kind of checked out of the conversation. Now it felt like she was in two of them at once. Maybe Pandora didn't feel like talking about fighting, though, which Kenzie could understand. She gave an agreeing, if slightly confused, nod to Jason and Creighton, then turned slightly in her seat so she was facing more toward Pandora.

"Fun things? Well, I love spending time with animals," she said with a smile. "Like my family's pets, or horseback riding. Not the zoo though, it's too depressing for me. And I like to read. I know you said you don't like books, but they're a lot better if you have a dog or a cat in your lap. What do you like to do for fun, Pandora?"

After having spent a good deal of time separating out her food, she finally ventured a small bite. Her expression afterwards suggested it didn't suit her.

Pandora nods in agreement about animals as she replies, "Pandora like many cute animals. Yes. Like cute things. No ride horses yet. Tex say 'soon'. Want teach Pandora be safe with horses. When littler, go school trip. Go Mykolaiv Zoo once. See many animals. Go petting place. Hold baby tiger. Baby tiger very strong." She takes another bite of her lunch and then another sip of her drink.

She continues, "Pandora not like books. Like do things instead. Do outdoor things. Climb trees. Watch clouds. Explore places. Play games. Swim. Also, do indoor things. Make cute animal pictures. Make little puppets. Make story shows." She takes another bite of her food.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:45, Mon 28 Oct 2019.

"I'm hoping that the school has plenty of planned time for your kind of fun Pandora." He took a look around the room. Even with the kids in uniforms, there was no denying the overall energy of kids who wanted to do something more than they wanted to sit and watch something. "I'm going to guess that there has to be some kind of outdoors club that goes hiking and climbing."

Those were also good skills to have if you planned on going after monsters.

"But I think you're the first person I've met who says that they make puppets. Is it hard?"

Pandora looks over at Creighton when he speaks to her about outdoors activities. She replies, "Maybe." She takes another drink.

She thinks for a moment about Creighton's puppet question before she answers back, "Depend. Simple puppet easy. Take small effort. Small time. Not-simple puppet. Maybe hard. Maybe big effort. Maybe big time. Do some craft. Do some art. Do some smart think. Make fun story hard. More think. What need here. What need there."

She takes another bite of the meal. She doesn't seem to be particularly enjoying the meal in so much as just eating it as a necessity like a soldier eating whatever they are served in mess hall without complaint.

She looks at the others at the table she's not already asked and asks, "What fun things Creighton, Tabby, Jason like do?"
This message was last edited by the player at 07:08, Thu 31 Oct 2019.

Tal began to tune out the table as they weren't talking about him anymore and pulled out that old book he was reading earlier. Well, that was until Pandora's question snapped him back to reality.

"Sometimes you just need to chill. A good book, some tea, plenty of music, and maybe a hike--that's all you need." He slid the book back into his coat, for now. "Puppets, huh. I've met face-painters, graffiti artists, and origamists but never known a puppeteer."

"I wonder if they have classes on horseback riding here? Like if you want to be a mounted knight or something," Kenzie mused. Considering she'd already seen magic going on, it didn't seem that hard to believe. "Aww, you got to hold a baby tiger? How cute. And, wow, you do a lot of interesting things Pandora."

Kenzie was just starting to consider eating again when Talberon pulled out his book, and the combined smells put her right off. She set her fork down to the side of her mostly-uneaten dish. "Sounds like you guys will like PE better than me," she said ruefully. "I've been trying to do more exercise to come to a school like this, but I'm gonna be awful at things like dodgeball. ...Do they still have that in PE?" Like many homeschooled kids, most of Kenzie's knowledge of actual high schools came from media that used it as a setting.

"Fun?" Creighton's tone made it sound like he was either asking a question or confused by the notion. "Don't get me wrong, I like what I do, but having time to just do things because they're fun hasn't really been a thing."

He talked around finishing up bites of lunch. "One of my first solid memories is slap boxing with my dad. Seems like it is a game, but no, it was just part of the training schedule. Everything from just running to acrobatics to parkour to hide and seek, all of it half fun and half work. I'm still trying to figure out how I'm going to get in all of my practice time around their class schedule. Probably going to have to be up early just to put in some running miles. And I'll take company."


"Don't worry Kenzie, there's more to being fit than your ability to dodge a thrown ball. You can still have fitness without needing to rely on seeing an incoming friendly missile."


"And when I'm not working on running, fight training, gymnastics, I have to hit the books. Only reason I know anything about all this monster stuff is hearing stories and reading by the ton. I'm not, well, not bright or anything. Gifted mentally is not on my list of things. Only way I know anything is the same way I can do things - practice and practice and practice. Sorry Pandora, I suck at answering this question. Running into you all at the carnival is the most free time to do nothing I've had in ages."

Pandora listens to everyone around the table as they reply and speak about what they like doing.

About a horseback riding class, she replies, "Maybe school have place for learn horse ride." Perhaps the school does have some land set aside elsewhere for outdoor activities since the campus doesn't seem to have enough room for such things. She wonders about it.

She smiles as she says to Kenzie, "Pandora like hold little baby tiger. Hold and rub face on fur."

She asks Kenzie, "What kind books Kenzie read?"

She says, "Pandora like PE." She teases, "Dodgeball fun. Make boys cry."

She replies to Talberon, "Little puppets fun. What kind music Tabby like?"

She listens to Creighton's long answer and replies, "Pandora like acrobatics things. Creighton need do more fun things." All work and no play makes Creighton a train-a-holic.

She looks over at Jason and stares at him.

Jason hesitates half way through his next mouthful, caught off guard by Pandora's expectant gaze and line of questioning.

He chews thoughtfully as he ponders what he likes to do. In the past it would have been similar to Creighton's activities.

Jason found a deep satisfaction in bettering himself or accomplishing something. More recently though, whenever he thought of a pleasant past time Lesleigh tended to be in the picture somehow.

The midnight broom ride...

"I like...flying?"

Tal mentally searched his music tastes for something that would be "cool" to admit to. Not the time for too many guilty pleasures on a first day. "A little bit of everything. Some Walk the Moon. Some Paramore. Throw in Blink-182. Oh, and don't forget Vampire Weekend.

Tal's faced widened in horror at what he just said. But he tried to play it off and returned to eating.

I see no other comments on this, so...

The pretty blonde boy with the long white coat passes by the tables where his apparent comrades are eating and chats for a while before making his way over to the empty seat beside Talberon and setting down a tray with small servings of the few foods on offer that contain neither meat nor fish. "Yo," he says with a small wave to the table at large.

"What's that about flying? I love flying."

He smells like fresh rain in a field of flowers, and even people with regular senses of smell can notice it if they're right beside him.

Creighton laughed and nodded in the affirmative at Pandora's comment about needing to do more fun things. But before he managed a response people were talking about flying.

"Before we go too far on this tangent, when people saying flying what do you mean?"

It wasn't a bad question. In a world with both airplanes and magic, this could easily mean different things to different people.

Kenzie felt a little concerned on Creighton's behalf, hearing about how all-encompassing his childhood training had been. She just nodded when he said that dodgeball wouldn't be everything, still thinking. She grinned when Pandora talked about her experience with the baby tiger. "Aww, that's so cute!" she gushed. It was too bad she couldn't talk about the time she'd ridden a giant intelligent panther, quite recently in fact. Instead she said "I love cats, my family has a whole bunch at home. It's too bad we can't have pets here. I like all kinds of books, really, I'll read anything. Even instruction manuals, I like to learn how to do new things. I think my favorite is books about animals though."

Kenzie nodded in friendly agreement with Pandora on her assessment of Creighton, then drew an obvious blank on both Jason and Talberon's answers. She hadn't heard any of those bands before, and "flying" seemed like an odd hobby to list off. Being unexpectedly joined by another boy caught her off guard before she could follow up on that, though. "Oh... Hi there," she said. Since the boy hadn't introduced himself, maybe he just planned to stay for a moment, so she followed suit.

In reply to Creighton Knight (msg # 232):

Tal was confused by the surprising introduction of this intensely charismatic vegan who just plopped down next to him. Tal remembered him as having helped during the evacuation but still didn't know him. At the introduction of the new topic of flying, Tal became interested again.

"Uh, flying. Like having wings and slipping the bonds of this earth kind. Not having to deal with the TSA has been a gift.

After Jason says he enjoys flying, Pandora says, "Pandora fly America airplane." She doesn't seem particularly excited when she mentions her trip here.

Pandora raises an eyebrow and replies to Talberon, "Not know vampire music."

She looks over at the blonde boy when he approaches their table. She remembers seeing him earlier, but doesn't have any particular feelings one way or the other about him sitting down at the same table. Maybe he's Talberon's friend.

She says to Kenzie, "Like cats...but not has any. Like cute animal picture book. Kenzie bring cute animal book here school?"

Creighton looked at Tal like he was searching for something. "Wings you say? I don't know how to say this but I don't think you have wings."

He was no pop culture expert but the name had caught his attention before. "It is just the name of a band, like the Beatles was just a bunch of guys and not a bunch of bugs. I don't think the members of Vampire Weekend are, you know, Vampires. At least I hope not. That could get awkward in a hurry."

In reply to Creighton Knight (msg # 236):

Tal looks Creighton in the eye and shrugs, "Okay, your loss then."

He turns to the random stranger and comically whispers loud enough for the whole group to hear, "I've totally got wings."

Jason had no real answer prepared for Creighton's response, let alone the new comer. He shut his mouth with an audible click, silently thanking Talberon for his uncanny ability do divert a subject.

He spooned some more soup into his mouth, followed by a large wedge of bread, partially because he was hungry but more in attempt to ward off any more questions.

He looked around the table and was suddenly struck by the wide variety of people that sat around him.

Even compared to the outlandish variety of the rest of the Institute their little table seemed to represent an enclave of diversity.

Mages and Soldiers, Warriors and Scholars. Some with a degree of training, others with little to none but a great deal of talent and potential.

As well as whatever Pandora was...

Jason still hadn't quite got a read on her yet.

"Are they any good?" He asked Talberon, somewhat abruptly, "The band."

In reply to Jason French (msg # 238):

Tal is indeed taken off-guard by Jason's question. But not more than a socially awkward way.

Which one? Vampire Weekend? Unbelievably, yes. If you ever want to listen, I've got some on my mp3 player.

He reaches into his coat and pulls out a Zune music player with earbuds from another pocket. Yes, that artifact of the late 00s. And lays it on the table next to his tray but with a reasonable motion that suggested permission for Jason to listen to it.

He returns to eating and waiting to hear Creighton's and the new guy's responses.

"Well, planes are the most popular but there's a couple of dozen people here that can fly on brooms. I've only seen one person with wings, myself," the pretty boy says before he picks at his food a little with his fork.

"Oh, I uh, almost forgot. I'm Terry," he says, waving the fork in lieu of his hand.

At this point Kenzie had no idea whether to take Talberon seriously or not. Most other people she would have at least taken the possibility at face value, but he seemed like the sort to make an elaborate joke of this kind of thing. She decided to leave that investigation to the others, especially since the topic of cats had come up. She beamed at Pandora as she said "No, I didn't bring any books with me, but I do have pictures of our cats! Would you like to see?" She quickly pulled out her phone and unlocked it so she could get to her gallery, and swiped to some choice group photos of her family's four cats. She was happy to show anyone else that wanted to look as well. It took some effort not to immediately begin listing their names and personality traits.

She did manage to find the time to give Terry a politely friendly smile. "Hi Terry, I'm Kenzie."

Although Pandora would have enjoyed looking at a cute animal picture book if Kenzie had one with her, the Ukrainian girl is happy enough to see pictures of her family cats instead.

She perks up, smiling as she replies, "Yes. Like see."

As she watches the auburn-haired girl fetch her cellphone, she asks, "Has Kenzie puffy white cat? Much like puffy white cats."

When Kenzie pulls up the images on her cellphone, Pandora leans in to get a better look at the photos. She looks each one over with obvious interest as Kenzie scrolls through them.

Creighton simply refuses to be baited into the notion that everyone else can see wings on Tal. But he did respect how fast the guy was to come up with a funny response.

"Dozens of broom flyers..." Creighton trailed off, caught in between being impressed and thinking it was silly at the same time. "Why brooms instead of carpets?" If one stereotype was as good as the next, then why not go for something with more room to it.

"Where do they get to fly? Seems to me it would be hard to keep magic school a secret with your own band of flying broom folks."

"Oh, we do that kind of stuff off-campus. There's a training camp a couple of miles into the woods we get bussed out to at least once a week," Terry says, making a vague circling motion with his fork as he talks.

Tal dabs his mouth with his napkin.

"Sweet! Looking forward to those then. The name's Tal by the way."

He figured that he might as well avail himself of this opportunity to ask this Terry guy some questions. "So what's with the whole Jets and the Sharks thing going on between those tables? He asks while gesturing with his thumb at the black & white color-coordinated groups.

"Huh? Oh," Terry says, following Talberon's gesture to see who he was talking about, as the reference seems to have flown over his head.

"The guys with the black jackets and patches are Junior Hexenjaeger. There're a few nicknames for us but the popular one is Paladin."

"Training camp? That sounds promising." It was nice that Kenzie and Pandora were having another cats moment but he wasn't going to jump in on their cat festival again.

He gave Tal an approving nod as he asked one of the questions that it seemed like they all should have. The idea that there were school groups you could recognize literally by how they dressed seemed odd and threatening, like you needed to find one of those groups to join.

Creighton looked unhappy at hearing the odd name coming from Terry. "So Terry what do you think of the Hexenjaegers? I have to admit up front, naming yourself after that group is a little like naming your political group the New Nazis."
This message was last edited by the player at 21:22, Mon 11 Nov 2019.

"We don't have any Siamese cats specifically, but I like those too," Kenzie said happily to Pandora. "We do have a purebred ragdoll, this is Cara. She's a huge sweetie." She pointed to a large, mostly-white cat. "Besides her, we have two black cats that are brothers, Alan and Tristin - Alan is lazy and Tristin is really chatty. And the tabby here is Brigitte. She's really smart, she'll come if you call her and play fetch with you. I miss them already, I'm making my family send me pictures and videos all the time. I hope they don't miss me too much though, I don't want them to be sad." She swiped through a number of pictures of them as she spoke.

She glanced up when she heard the name Hexenjaeger, clearly recognizing it, but for the moment kitty discussion definitely took priority.

Pandora shows strong interest in each of Kenzie's cats as she is introduced to them. She listens closely as the auburn-haired girl informs her about their personality traits. She smiles brightly as Cara is shown to her. She says, "Cara is cute. Is puffy cat." She likes the other three cats as well, listening to the other girl as she speaks about each of them and looking each image over as they are shown to her. Unlike the stoic mask she frequently wears, her expression is genuinely cheery while looking and talking about Kenzie's family cats.

She asks, "Has Kenzie holiday kitty photos?"

She doesn't seem particularly interested in hearing about the black and white gangs the others are discussing.

Hexenjaegers, huh. Haven't heard that since jaunt through Germanic Inquisitorial Cults -- Post-Reformation, of course.

"Paladins, huh! That's a name I can respect.

Tal's kind of surprised at the cheery expression on Pandora's face and Kenzie's enthusiasm about her cats. Not his personal cup of tea. But good to know that even macho monster hunters have a soft spot for fluffy animals.

"Not with them in costumes, but sometimes we can get them together for holiday themed pictures," Kenzie answered Pandora enthusiastically, before flipping through pictures more rapidly for a few seconds. "Like, um... Yeah, here's some, for Halloween." Kenzie had managed to use treats to lure them into the middle of some Halloween decorations, of the silly rather than spooky variety, and snap some pictures of the four of them together.

Once Pandora had had a chance to see those, she flipped forward again, this time to various pictures of cats hanging around under a Christmas tree. "Oh, and every year they like to play with the Christmas tree, so we started hanging toys off the low branches. But we had to get a really high tree stand because some of them also like to eat pine needles and then barf, the big goofballs." While the Rinnes weren't given to ostentation, it would probably be clear just from the sheer number of rooms the cats had been photographed in that Kenzie's family home was quite large.

Normally Kenzie would have asked by now if Pandora had any pets, but between her currently living with a "guardian" and her apparent antipathy toward vampires, she had an ominous feeling about asking for details about Pandora's home life. At least in a lighthearted conversation like this.

"Well, they're not named after them, they are them. Well, a youth group of them, anyway. They're organized and effective. Almost every Halloween they catch some poor uncanny person that got careless and execute them. Um... Well, calling them Nazis is a bit of a stretch. Their current leader, Eamon, is fairly moderate," he says, continuing his circling hand gesture as he talks.

"Well, I say that, but If Miss Ebongrove is really your friend," he says before his hand stops and he looks pointedly at Talberon, "You should know that he has it out for that family. I can only imagine that he didn't sic the lot of them on her outright only because Alban was right there and if he allowed this, there has to be a reason."

Pandora continues to look at the kitty pictures as Kenzie flips through them. She smiles the whole time and is clearly happy to be shown them. She brushes back a bang of her blonde hair after it slips down into her eyes.

After looking through Kenzie's holiday kitty pictures, she ask, "Kitty costumes cute. Kenzie put little hat on Kitty cat before? Maybe Kenzie take some Kitty costumes pictures sometime. Pandora has see cowboy kitty before. Is funny memory."

"Calling them Nazis is only a little bit of a stretch though. And not nearly a big enough one." Creighton shook his head in the negative. "And how is it that the school leaders tolerate - or should I say accept - this kind of behavior? I must say everything about school so far has not left me feeling the warm embrace of the principal and other leaders here."

He took a glance around the room. "Does anyone see Ebongrove? Honestly, if there's someone with a grudge against her, I'm not sure they'll wait for a moment to act against her. We should probably go find her."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:36, Thu 14 Nov 2019.

Kenzie glanced up when she heard what Terry said next, her expression briefly registering serious concern. They killed people every year? Not just rampaging mindless monsters, but people like Lesleigh and Felicia? She didn't want to jump into the middle of a conversation or just drop Pandora, though, so she nodded slightly in agreement with Creighton before turning her attention back to the blonde girl.

"Those are cute, aren't they?" she asked in happy agreement with Pandora, although her good mood had been shaken by the discussion of the Hexenjaegers. "But all our cats are super fussy, they don't like that kind of thing and I don't want to bug them. They do like wrapping paper though - every time we exchange presents they like to dig into it, and they'll even sit with bows on their heads. Here, like this." Since she was already in her Christmas collection of cat pictures, she was able to find several of the cats "wearing" discarded wrapping paper.

Jason looks up, speaking for the first time in a while at Terry's words as he felt the same concern that Kenzie did.

He listened for Terry's response to Creighton's question, leaning in slightly, his face stoic despite the rising emotions in him.

Pandora replies, "Is cute, yes." She nods in agreement.

She looks at the Christmas pictures, letting out a few perky chuckles as she sees some of the more humorous images. She says, "Like Christmas bow hat kitty pictures."

She looks back up at Kenzie and asks her, "Kenzie live close, or far? If close, maybe Pandora come see Kenzie kitties sometime?"

Kenzie glanced up when she heard Creighton's proposal. "All of us? ...I suppose we could, sure." Kenzie didn't know the girl at all, so that seemed a little awkward, but this wasn't a normal social situation - she needed to balance that against the possibility that Lesleigh was currently being murdered or something. Even if it seemed like that was more the staff's job, Kenzie wasn't sure how she felt about them so far.

She answered Pandora as she got up from her seat. "I'd like that, if we could make it work sometime," she said with a smile. "My family lives in Boston, so it's not exactly cross-country, but it's not something we could do after class easily unless we don't have a lot of homework. I was thinking of going home this weekend, maybe you could come along and visit on Friday?" Kenzie didn't know if this place would also have some kind of on-site weekend homework, but that at least seemed less likely.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:21, Fri 15 Nov 2019.

In reply to Terry Griffith (msg # 252):

Tal harrumphed a bit. With a bit of over-zealous confidence, he straightened up and puffed out his chest saying, "Eamon and his Crucible cast party are the ones that should be concerned."

At Kenzie's action suggestion, he gave a comic groan imitating a toddler asking if they were there yet. "Do we have to go now? I was just starting to enjoy my meal at Le Café de Meat Mystery. Now I won't get a chance to try the E Coli Broccoli." He winks and nods, communicating that he is willing to join whenever.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:37, Fri 15 Nov 2019.

"Hold up. First of all, all of the Jaegers are over there," Terry says while pointing at the tables occupied by the aforementioned. "Second of all, Miss Ebongrove is clearly strong enough to take care of herself in the event that somebody forgets that we're all on the same side, here. How many magicians do you think could hold up that much water on such short notice? I don't think even Eamon could have lifted that without drawing a magic circle first and speaking of Eamon, that guy is the top-ranked student. Don't even joke about taking him on."

Pandora's eyes follow Kenzie as she stands up. The Ukrainian girl replies, "Yes, maybe. Tex probably okay if Pandora go Kenzie home for weekend. Pandora ask Tex soon." She doesn't see any reason why her guardian would object to her staying the weekend with Kenzie in Boston, but she still needs to run it by him.

She suggests, "Maybe Kenzie make puppets with Pandora. Have puppet story fun."

"None of that answers the question of where she is." Creighton was unconvinced. "And able to pick up water is not the same as being able to keep yourself safe from attackers.  Those are not the same kinds of skills."

Creighton looked over towards the named student just to remember what the guy looked like. "Top rated student, like I care about that. Are you telling me that if he actively did something you opposed, aim for high drama, like he attacked Leslie, you'd just stand by and let it happen because he's a top rated student?"

"No offense Terry but none of this is giving me a drop of peace of mind. I'd feel better knowing that Leslie is currently relatively enjoying herself and no more distressed by her first day at Rainsford than the rest of us."

Jason straightens and speaks for the first time in a while,
"Lesleigh-" He starts before halting just as suddenly,

"She can handle herself."

A part of Jason, quite a large part actually, was in favour of following Creighton, finding Lesleigh and beating all seven shades out of anybody that might have had a problem with it.

A...cooler part of him won out though.

It was only the first day of school and Jason could already see an overabundance of politics in the institute. It wouldn't hurt to get a better lay of the land before they start making enemies.

It helped that Jason really did believe Lesleigh could handle herself.

"We should be cautious."

Kenzie looked between the people present, no longer sure whose lead she was following, then opted to focus on Pandora. "Oh, okay, sure! That sounds like fun." Her tone conveyed slight surprise, as she had actually figured Pandora would just need Friday afternoon to meet the family kitties, but she didn't see anything wrong with a weekend trip per se. Although maybe Pandora had figured it was actually Kenzie pushing that timetable? So she tried to clarify that with "We could also get you a ride for Friday night, if you don't want to spend the whole weekend. Making puppets sounds like fun, too!" Kenzie had a homeschooled child's lack of instinct for what activities might get her made fun of by other teenagers.

Even she knew it would look weird if she stood up and then immediately sat down again, though, so she said "Be right back," and bussed her tray first. She took a curious glance over at the black-clad kids en route, trying to commit them to memory despite their still looking like a black blob to her, then came back and sat down. "Well, I don't know Lesleigh at all, so I'll go along with what you guys decide."

Creighton stood up. Sometimes you just vote for action by where you put yourself. "I can't imagine she's having a great first day of school. She was brought up on stage, it nearly caused a riot, she helped with the water from the fire alarm going off but I'm betting she's not getting a lot of thank yous for it."

He grabbed up his lunch trash. "So lets start with something mundane like looking around before resorting to other means."

Creighton walked to the trash bins and looked ready to go for a walk.

I wanna let Talberon post again if he's going to before I post for Terry again, but I have opened a thread for the people that go looking for Lesleigh. You don't have to stay together, even if you go to that thread.

link to a message in this game

Sorry, went out of town for the day. I also have been drowning in work right as things seemed to slow down for others. Should be mostly back for a bit.

Tal wipes his hands and throws that napkin on his tray on top of some uneaten and unappetizing food. He stands up dramatically in one clean and precise motion. "You don't have to ask me twice. She's my friend."

Following Creighton's lead, he also walked towards a trash bin and cleared his tray.

Pandora gets the impression from Kenzie's feedback that she wants to spend some alone time with her family rather than spend all weekend with a classmate whom she'll see all the time at school anyway, so she suggests, "Maybe go Kenzie Friday night. Come home Saturday night."

Seeing Creighton and the others getting up, one-by-one, the Ukrainian girl guesses lunch must be done with, so she gathers her own trash and follows along with the others to deposit it into the nearest waste receptacle.

Jason let out a quick short blast of air through his nose, almost like a bull, before standing and following.

He meant what he said about Lesleigh but maybe...It wouldn't be a bad idea to check up on her. Their last discussion hadn't ended on a good note, especially with Jill coming in with all the subtly of a battering ram.

"How shall we search?"

None of them really knew their way around the school but it seemed the decision had been made.

"Well, I wish you luck, but from the way she chewed me out, I don't think she needs or wants any help," Terry says with a shrug.

You have approximately thirty to forty-five minutes of time to work with before the bell rings. The areas you can travel to, in no particular order, are:

• Dormitory Building
• School Office Building
• Gymnasium
• Grassy Field
• Classroom Building
• Convenience Store

"That sounds good!" Kenzie said to Pandora with a smile, before looking back to the others and standing up as well. Her eyes turned even more unfocused than usual as she thought back. "Okay, then... Where did we see her last, at the gymnasium? That's not much to go on, but you'd see her if she was here in the cafeteria, right? Could she have gone somewhere else to eat?" Assuming she ate at all, anyways, but Kenzie kept that thought to herself.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:39, Fri 22 Nov 2019.

Lesleigh was not seen at the headcount. The last time Kenzie saw her she was still in the gymnasium holding up a swimming pool's worth of water.

Once the others seem to have taken care of their lunch waste, Pandora draws closer to Jason and looks up at him. Her hands hang loosely at her sides.

The Ukrainian girl wonders how Jason and his comrades learned soldiering, so she asks the soldier boy, "What camp Jason learn soldier things? Camp America? Camp Knifes in Eye?" She points up at the twin dagger-eyes pin attached to Jason's beret with the pointer finger of her right hand.

She asks, "How many training camps Jason go?"

Jason is silent as Kenzie speaks but seeing no one else seems to be answering he speaks up hesitantly,

"The gymnasium would be a good place to start..." He thinks on what he knows of Lesleigh and where she might go, "The field maybe?" He could see her sitting, knees to her chest on the grass.

He lapses back into silence before Pandora sidles up to him, prompting a small double take followed by a couple of blinks at her slew of questions.

Jason was still having trouble getting a read on the blond girl, she moves with a dangerous sort of confidence that came with people who knew how dangerous they could be.

He couldn't shake his first impression of her as some kind of intelligence operative and couldn't help but wonder if her broken English was perhaps a affectation.

"Just the one..." He answered somewhat haltingly, surprised and off footed by the smaller teenager.

"Starting where we last saw her sounds like a great idea." Creighton moved with the assembled group of new friends. Or soon to be friends. People he hoped would turn out to be friends.

"That's a good thought too Kenzie. If one of us knew her better that'd be great but honestly, I'm just worried."

"Anyone have any particular gifts that would be useful in finding someone?"

Pandora raises her right eyebrow, questioningly, at Jason's reply and says back to him, "Jason only train one summer? Hmmm." She finds it unlikely the soldier boy only spent one summer learning soldiering, but she doesn't press the matter further.

Instead, she hangs her thumbs in the front pockets of her jeans and begins walking along with the group. She follows along like a bird in a flock--staying with the group as a whole but not particularly close to any one person as they move about.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:48, Mon 25 Nov 2019.

Now that their excursion was coming together, Kenzie stood up again and took a hold of her large equipment trunk to wheel behind her. She smiled when Creighton said she'd had a good thought, then looked back at her trunk when he asked about gifts. "Mm... Kind of, but it would probably attract too much attention," she said softly. Her manner suggested this was a topic she was keeping close to her chest. "Probably better if I just tag along and make suggestions. So, first stop gymnasium, then?"

"Gym sounds as good a place to start as any. She wasn't at lunch, and there was some food place across the way. But I'm not sure if that's her style."

Tal straightened his coat and strides along Creighton. "Special gifts like that? Nope. I could set off the alarms again and have everyone regroup outside. She'd have to show then. If you're up for some deja vu."