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.