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.