School for Gifted Individuals - Chapter 2
 

Jhael's had told his students to show up at Heleron's arena challenge. Along with both Jhael and Heleron's students*, random fighters from the school showed up as well to participate, for both the hands-to-hands and the weapons side.

Among those random students was Micheal, since the halbred training failed. He wanted to see if he could use his gift with a weapon. Another student was Kilik, who was there for the hand-to-hand fighting. He had no intention to use his runes or his Shifter (The metal shifting artifact), since it would give him an unfair advantage.

-----

The gym teacher, Kyle, glared at the student aiming at Jess' delicious buttocks. The student slowly backed away.

He then turned back to the spectators, and told them, "If you're going to be here, join the class. There are extra changes of clothes in the locker rooms, so go get one if you want to join in. If not, leave." He turned back to his class, to make any slackers work harder. When he turned around, any students still standing there would be thrown out.

-----

Kalal finished his giant cookie and happily ran away from the table, leaving the mad demon possed boy alone.

-----

Nora, who was bored, decided to go through his roommates stuff. Currently he was looking through Clara's clothes, mainly her delicates.

OOC: *Pyros, more than four students for Heleron's class. The rest can be faceless NPCs, but four students for an arena practice wouldn't happen.

Kiros just shrugged and turned around, walking out of the class. The only thing he was particularily interested in seeing was already ruined, and, upon inspection of his watch, he noticed that there wasn't anything for him to do for about an hour until Jareth's class started. He figured he might try to talk Jareth into helping Alex out of trouble, considering her reaction, but he didn't know how the teacher would react. On the one hand, Jareth was a pretty cool guy, but on the other he seemed to really enjoy watching other people squirm.

Kiros just sighed a bit as he ran it over in his head. He could always just make it a 'favor' to pay back all the times that Kiros had taken the fall for Jareth's actions, but he was really hoping he could get something better out of Jareth for that. Like a card game. He'd heard that Jareth never lost either, and he'd kind of wanted to make a bet with him.

Either way, he was heading back to his room for the next hour, he was in no mood to talk to anyone or do anything except lay on his back.

He did catch himself though and realized that just walking away from Razma would be pretty rude, but he also really didn't want to get caught in a conversation right now. So he jutted his hands into his pockets and walked away kind of slumped over, and said, over his shoulder, "See ya, Razma. I'm heading back to my room," somewhat dejectedly, before dragging himself down the hall and toward the exit of the building to head toward the dormatories.

Jess finished the jumping jacks along with the others, finding it miraculous that she could control herself. The only water she could control nearby would be the collective sweat on everyone, which wouldn't do much good, and she didn't want to exhaust herself with singing, anyways. She was told one time by a pervert who accosted her some weeks ago that she had a pretty good slap. Jess did have some minor martial arts training as a rich girl. She could do the occasional straight punch or shoulder throw, but given a day, any human could climb to and surpass that skill, so Jess didn't think it was anything to gloat over. Oh, well, at least she was glad to not have to bounce anymore. Now came the stretching before the push ups and situps.

After the whole ordeal in the cafeteria, Alex had finally managed to compose herself. She worked off her frustration by helping to take out the trash (telekinetic powers made THAT chore easy, and it was satisfying to hurl things through the air, even if it was through force of will instead of strength of body).

Tired, and smelling a little, she decided to retire to her dorm, when she ran into, of all people, Kiros.

"Not you again..." she groaned.

Mr. Hunter glanced at the clock hanging above his door. "It is at 3, so you have a little less than 2 and a half hours before it starts. In the meantime, it may help if you find someplace quiet to try to clear your mind, free it of all emotion. This is a good calming technique," he was saying, standing up. "that allows you to access your subconcious and find the means to control your gift. Just be careful that you don't fall asleep." he chuckled, walking across the room toward the door, Clara followed him. "If you do you will be late for class. I will see you both at 3 then, Good day." They left and he went back into his office and closed the door.

Clara paused for a moment, then turned to Dreamos. "Well, I'm going up to my dorm, I'll see you later." and she walked down the hall and out of sight.

As Clara drew closer to her dorm, she heard a strange sound, a kind of scuffling, like a mouse. At this point her necklace had stopped glowing and she could hear Kurios's voice, he was cursing at her again. Give it a rest, will you? You're giving me a headache. GOOD! Do you have any idea how painful that is?! Well, if you would just behave yourself we wouldn't have to do that every... But at this point she had entered her dorm.

"NORA!!" She yelled, seeing him looking through her clothes, holding her bra in his hand. She looked at the banner on the wall, then angrily back at him.
"What the hell is wrong with you!?!" She screamed at him, Kurios was having a field day, laughing his head off inside her mind. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Priceless! This is absolutely priceless! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!

After watching the show in the gym, Razma was bored and decided to go back to the dorm. When he arrived, he heard Clara yelling Nora and something about hell, but he wasn't paying attention. He got to the door and then the whole situation came clear. Of course, Razma didn't want part of it so he just backed off slowly and went looking for something to do.

Jaren started doing stretches with the rest of the group. After the stretches the teacher wanted us too do pushups and situps. 100 of each, he said. I didnt want too do them inhumanly fast because it wouldnt really be fair so i kept the exat pace with Jess. Jaren kept a eye on Jess's face, not even looking at the rest of her body.

When the student left Azarias was able to regain controll. <Why cant you keep calm once in a while? This could have ended really bad.> Azarias said to the demon. <Why did you not let me kill him? You wanted it as well, dont denie that.> *sigh* 'its impossible to discuss with him' He thought for himself and left the cafeteria. "Hmm... lets see, I have Magic controll now, better get going." Azarias said and walked away towards the classroom.

Jess started having trouble at around 28 push ups. Yuna, the violet haired girl who was interested in Jess on a more personal level, was the one counting. "28 so far, and remember that your elbows need to bend at a ninety degree angle when you go down."

Jess spoke a lot more comfortably with Yuna. Jess understood how Yuna felt about her, but knew that Yuna was trying to keep quiet about it out of respect, a trait that Jess found endearing and became closer to the girl. "It's the breasts." Jess complained through some gasping. "They just add an additional 10 or so pounds to the body." Yuna smiled at that. "You might be big in that area, but not '10 pounds' big. C'mon, keep at it. Kyle will keep you here after class to make sure you finish one of these days."

Jess shook her head, her ponytail flailing about. "It's only because he cares." And she began again. It seemed like she was absolutely drained at 41 push ups. "Do you think I'm improving?" Jess asked through the heavy breathing. Yuna nodded vigorously. "Of course. When you got here, you couldn't even do a single pull up. Now you can do double digits, at least. There's a definitely improvement."

A book appeared his hands sometime after he sat down, and as he ate Ripel's eyes read quickly through the book. Once or twice he would skim back, to see if he missed anything, but he reached the end of the chapter relatively quickly. Closing the book shut, he sent it back from wherever it came from and finished the rest of his meal in silence. Roughly fifteen minutes later, he found himself heading to his club meeting.

Though, the truth was, they were just a bunch of people who sparred with each other. Then again, at this school, almost any interest could become a club.

Things had gotten a little more quiet as he walked. People who were full either went to their room or to their class room, and many of them would fall asleep wherever they would be. Sometimes he could hear the sounds of people playing around as he passed by the windows and doors of the hallway.

Finally, he made his way to the park in the Commons, where his most of the group had been waiting. Unable to help himself, Ripel smirked at them and said, "Are you ready to duel?"

Jaren was tired of the warm-ups. He asked the teacher if he would release him and he said yes. I went down too the park, he thought he would see and get on some action. As he moved along at quite a quick pace he passed razma and then he saw riples. He heard too word "duel" and was ready for a challange.

Ken finished off his sword exercises and replaced the sabers, panting a bit.

He walked back, grabbed his coat and bag, and waved to Raphael as he left. Not having any more classes for the day, Ken crossed the commons and returned to his dorm. There, he dropped off his bag, and grabbed a fresh shirt before he went and took a quick shower. The pants weren't stinking, so he just re-used the same pair.

Back in uniform, and feeling better, Ken left the dorm and went to the Library to do odd jobs.

Kiros glanced up at Alex's voice and stopped walking when he saw her, but he didn't bother straightening or even mantaining eye contact. In fact, his head slumped down and he went back to staring at the floor almost immediately. "...Yah. Me..."

He let out a low sigh and shrugged. "Listen... sorry about earlier. I was a jack ass. Was just having some fun... I'm going to go lay down..." He started shuffling off again, dragging his feet as he walked, and, as an afterthought, said, "Oh... and don't worry about Mr. Silorian... just pretend you're a victim infront of the committee... I have a... sorta friend on it... I'll get him to just let me take the blame. Doesn't matter if I get in any more trouble anyway," but he continued walking as soon as he said it.

The library for the SGI is a very large building, composed of several stories and built in a strange, futuristic style. While unconvential looking, it served its purpose remarkably well, since the design actually appealed to students as opposed to the old stone column approach.

Jonnas walked in, and checked the employee schedule. He was in charge of the front desk today, which meant he got to not only check books in and out, but also deal with the people who can't tell the main desk from the Information desk. Despite the large signs.

He waved as the previous employee left the desk, and began work. Specifically, marking his book as being returned and taken out again, giving him exclusive rights to it for the next few weeks.

"Mail call!" A mind-bogglingly high, but scratchy voice called out, and Jon peered over the counter. At little less than three feet in height, Bek Stonelurker was your typical mail goblin. She was pushing a mail cart that looked more like a child's toy than something used to carry post. She quickly flipped through the somewhat disorganized bin, and pulled out several envelopes of varying size. "Mail today, not much there is. Slow day is today. elf sir have any for Bek?"

Jon reached over to the outgoing mail bin and handed three standard "return the book or we break your fingers" letters. "Thank elf sir, good day," she said, and began pushing the cart back outside to deliver mail to the other offices, when she stopped short and ran back. "Er! Almost forgot, Bek did. Fish lady give package to Bek, say 'give to elf sir, Bek.' Bek give now." Bek held a yellow envelope out to him.

"Oh, thank you. See you tomorrow then." Bek gave a little bow, and returned to her duties. It wasn't until several minutes later that he realized something was up. It was a few seconds later that he decided to just take it in stride. He was in the middle of opening the package when someone walked in. Still distracted, he greeted the visitor with the standard "Hello welcome to the library, how can I help yo-agh papercut!"

"So... tonight's still on?"

She didn't know why she said this. It was like some uncaring author had taken the script of her life and decided to make some amendments which pleased him.

" I mean, I've never really done this before, so... might as well, ya know?"

Kiros just shrugged and stopped, just long enough to speak, "Not like we have a choice, anyway... Mr. Silorian said it is... it is. I really don't feel like talking right now, though. See you."

There wasn't really any reason for him to be so depressed anymore, but right at that moment he didn't want to feel better. There were times, most times really, when he WANTED to be happy. He really tried. Sometimes he thought that was the only reason he ever was happy.

But, there were other times too, like right then, when he just wanted to swim in his depression for a little while. Give in and let himself flow into it. He just wanted to surrender himself to the pain.

One of his hands slipped out of his pocket, and he waved it in the air without bothering to turn around, before jamming it back in and beginning to shuffle down the hall again.

Ken watched the man papercut himself.

"Ouch. Anyways, I'm that student Ken, the one that pops in for the odd jobs. Anything you guys need help with?"

Nora looked over at Clara, and shrugged. "There was nothing to do, so I was looking through your stuff. It's not like you need these today anyways, it's Naked Wednesday." He said as he pointed to the banner.

Of course, Nora was no hypocrite. He didn't assume Clara and Jess would be naked by themselves.

---

Jhael looked around the arena. His entire class was there, along with many other sutdents. Heleron also looked around to find that all of his students were there as well. He also knew that there were students there who did not intend to use a weapon, and were human.

"Anyone who is human and intends to fight hand-to-hand, leave!" Heleron yelled out to the students.

A couple of groans and complaints were heard as students began to leave, among them, Kilik.

Razma got bored and had wandered in some outside reacreational area. It seemed it was quite empty, so Razma decided it was a good place as practice with the halberd. He then formed one and started practicing a few manuvers. He saw Mr Calvin come up. He then heard him say somethings along the line of "Your halberd needs to be perfect level with the ground, the back end is up to high." And stuff like that. Razma then said "Any particular reason why you followed me?" Calvin responded "Your a bit to cocky about using that weapon, so I thought you might want my help in getting better." Razma replied "Cocky? You think I'm cocky?" Yeah "Yeah" Said both the demon and Mr. Calvin at the same time.

Walking by the rec area, Brent heard Razma and Mr. Calvin, and saw an opportunity to train. Training... That may be just what I need to take my mind off of the prospect of Saturday evening with that Hailey girl. Which reminds me, I still have to kill my roommate. He frowned for a moment, then walked into the arena. "You can practice against me if you need to train."

"Oooh, nasty. Hope that doesn't get infected," came the slightly amused voice in front of Jonnas. The elf looked up to see a moderately high human standing there, a bemused look twinkling in warm brown eyes.
"Hi there," Chrysalis attempted as brightly as she could in order to hide the nervousness in her voice. She stretched out a hand to shake, "my name's Chrysalis. I'm looking for the Advanced Science: Biology 12. I heard that this library has almost any book I'll need."
"Shouldn't we be going to find your sleeping quarters, young lady?" a moderately high voice squeaked from several inches below the table. Further observance revealled Master Jal, a former student and teacher from the School of Gifted Individuals. A relatively ancient-looking gnome, Jal was tapping one pointed shoe impatiently on the ground. "I did not come all the way back to this godforsaken school just to end up waiting endless decades for a book that might never be in here, big as it is!" he huffed.
He was not in a good mood. Jal, used to having total access to his magical gift, for once could not sneak into another person's mind unless he exerted extra energy. He was high strung, and likewise wanted to get back to travelling, as he seemed to despise hanging around one place for too long. Then again, he was paid very well as a highly trained psychiatrist, so had every reason to be anxious to leave and be on his relatively high salary again. Chrysalis, however, must be 'delivered' into the School's care.

Chrysalis' outstretched hand did not waver, though her smile was a little more acidic, and directed towards her teacher.

Jonnas wasn't paying full attention to Ken, instead choosing to grip his finger and curse in English, Elven, and a couple other languages. After finishing his tirade, he turned to Ken, with his finger in his mouth. "Ah, yeth, Ken. I hope yah no deh Dewey dethimahl sythtem. In deh back thould be ah box ofth bookth, labelled 'thickered.' Take dem and the boxth labelled 'returred' an put dem out. Juth put dem in deh righta thection, it would ba ah big help."

Jon was examining the wound when Chrys came in. He listened to her, and reached out and shook her hand with the not-bleeding hand. "Hm, well Chrysalis, I'm pretty sure we have that in. Sciences are in the third floor, near the north end. There's signs all over the place, and the shelves are labeled. If it isn't in, wait for this guy-" he pointed at Ken "-to come around. He's putting out some new books, and that might include the one you're looking for. If not, I can pull up the records and see when it is gonna be in, or even order it in." Jon took a breath, and continued. "That last one would take about a week. But I'm positive we've got at least one copy around. When you find it, come back here to check your book out."

((Translated from garbled-ese: "Ah, yes, Ken. I hope you know the Dewey decimal system. In the back should be a box of books labeled 'stickered.' Take them and the box labeled 'returned' and put them out. Just put them in the right section, it would be a big help."))

Ken quickly got to work, scrambling over the gigantic library, placing books. Oddly enough, he was perfectly content to do that work.

Well, that was the last thing I expected, Chrysalis thought, impressed by the half-elf's extensive knowledge of the library. She was sure to get lost in here even if everything WAS labelled.
"Now that you've got your answer, can we go now?"
"Yes, Master Jal. Your patients must be pining away with your current absence. I'll get going," Chrysalis sighed heavily and shouldered her backpack.
She strode out, Jal tottering after her. Soon, the Master was leading the way, and they arrived at the Headmaster's office.
"Wait here," Jal commanded, before pushing the door of the office and entering.

Clara fumed, "You PERVERT!!!" She cast a spell that hit the banner and made it burst into flames. Kurios was cracking up and mocking her, which made her even more angry. She prepared another fire spell and held a fireball in her hand, she glared at Nora. "Drop my underwear, NOW! Before I turn you into a pile of ashes!"

Draemos mixed the two bowls sitting in front of him and stirred, while slowly adding ginger. One of the multiple chefs who took turns teaching this class walked past to make sure that he didn't add the ginger too quickly. Once he had mixed it, he placed it in the oven. As the last student got their mix into the oven, the teacher began telling the class about several mistakes he had seen and how to correct them.

"Right," Jal said after a short while. He closed the door behind him and stood as stocky as a gnome could stand. In his fist was a small slip of paper. He lifted it then and opened it.
"We have you're living quarters," Jal huffed, "it's just getting it to work that's the trick. You remember what I taught you?"
Chrysalis nodded.
"Good. This damned note only works because of magic. You know what to do."
"I understand. Thank you, Master Jal," Chrysalis smiled, "I won't keep you away from your clients anymore."
"Good. Now, just a little note," the gnome commented, putting his fists on his hip, "You've got the rest of the day to yourself. Your teacher will meet you tomorrow morning. You're living with two other students. One of them is called Ishka, and the other is Farenheit. Don't give them trouble, alright?"
Chrysalis smiled slightly, and nodded agreeably.
"Good. Now run along. I've got clients waiting for me." With that, the wizened gnome hurried off.
Chrysalis looked down at the paper, and pondered what to do. If I increase its power, it may do something irrational. If I decrease it, it may not work efficiently. Pffff... magic is such a fickle thing. Give me science anytime.
She settled on decreasing the magic of the paper. Her mind focused, pinpointing her source of power: an unceasing flow of neutralising power that escaped her and dissipated into the air around her, slowly fading away after five feet. She focused on changing that flow, of reversing it and turning it into some other use.
Slowly, the paper in her open palm came to life. It folded into a tiny crane, and with a flap of its flimsy wings, it left her hand.
Chrysalis watched as the crane struggled to stay afloat. It manuevered cumbersomely in the air, and tried to float away. Damn, she gave a little push, increasing the magic, and suddenly it was whizzing away. For a moment, she lost control of her female etiquette, and swore, before taking off after the crazy crane, slipping and sliding around every corner.

"Alright then Brent, let's see what you can do." Razma says as he gets into a battle position with the halberd. "I think I will know who will win, but justfor fun you can make the first move."

"If you insist." Razma followed Brent outside to an empty training area. "You may wish to leave your ego in the corner before we fight, however, so it does not hamper your skill." Brent held out his hand and formed his trademark ice lance, then leaped to one side of Razma and struck at him with it.

Razma spun the halberd around and used the staff part to push the spear off to the side. He then swung the blade down, attempting to cut his hand.

Brent shifted his hand quickly so that the halberd blade hit the lance instead. He stepped back, spun the lance over his head, then lunged at Razma with enormous force.

Razma shoved the halberd into the ground and used it to lauch himself in the air as Brent's attack went under him. He then yanked the halberd out of the ground and came down ontop of Brent, blade first.

Brent quickly rolled out of the way as Razma's halberd came down, barely missing him. Jumping to his feet, Brent swung the blunt end of the lance at Razma like a staff, aiming at his back.

It was pretty close, but Razma did manage to get the halberd up in time to black the attack. "Your pretty good, wonder how you would fare against other weapons." Still holding the halberd with one hand, Razma uses the other hand and makes a longsword. He then pushes in with the halberd and attacks with the sword.

Brent jumped to one side. "Two weapons? I'll have to even the playing field then." He formed another lance with his empty hand. Holding one horizontally to parry any possible counterattack, Brent struck again.

Jess and Yuna stayed with each other, jogging out on the track that circled the football field. Yuna smirked and broke the silence. "You know, I saw a banner that said that today was Naked Wednesday. I figured it's a prank, since nobody, from the teachers to the Student Council, would authorize something like staying naked for the whole day. Jess had to agree, but that put her mind of a bizarre trail of thought, which began with Yuna's powers. Her powers were based on seduction. She was as beautiful as, if not more than, Jess herself, but she often altered her seductiveness to keep people from staring at her. Jess asked Yuna once if she could seduce girls, and Yuna just grinned mysteriously at her. Jess always had this idea in mind when she was close to Yuna, and silently wondered how long Yuna would wait before she would just use her powers to seduce Jess. Nah, she wouldn't do that to her best friend...would she? Suddenly, Yuna shook Jess's shoulder. She almost ran off the track into the nearby fence.

"Thanks, Yuna. Sometimes, I space out on a certain thing."

Heleron walked over to Jhaal and started to converse with him. After several minuets they both nodded their heads in aggrement. Heleron walked over to the rise in the middle of the stadium. "Everyone listen up" He shouted. After the arena had fallen quiet he addresed the students "Alright everyone Me and Jhaal have agreed that a tournement would be a good way to train today". Everyone started talking up again in excitement. "I'M NOT FINISHED" Heleron yelled at the students "Ok first the rules for signing up. Each of you will be seperated into two catagories, those that are fighting hand to hand and those that are fighting with weapons. The people fighting hand to hand will come to me to sighn up and the people fighting with weapons will go to Jhaal. Now in the first rounds of the tourney a person who is fighting hand to hand will be fighting a person who is using a weapon. That is how the tournement is being organized. Now for the rules, firstly every one that fights with a sharp object whether claw or weapon will have to submit it to a remove edge spell to take away much of the risk of fatalities. You lose a round if you either give up, get knocked unconscious or move out of the ring. You are not allowed to strike below the belt or in the eyes. If a person is incapable of fighting back or lost the round you are to stop fighting immediatly. To anyone who loses after the first round you will can participate in another tournement. The winner of both tournements will fight each other. The winners of both tourneys will get a special prize and the one who beats the other tournement winner will get an even better prize. After I finish talking you have one hour to sighn up but first any questions?"

OOC: IHMN told me to remove the rank thing

"No." Nora responded. "If you burn me, you destroy all of your clothes, and you'll start a fire in the room. You will also break a major school rule, attacking a fellow student with the intent to kill. Right now, all I'm guilty of is going through your property. You destroyed mine, and you're threatening me with magic."

Nora smirked before continuing. "Now, I am willing to let this slide, if you take off that skirt. It is Naked Wednesday afterall."

Even if she did attack, Nora was confident that he would win the fight.

---

Micheal signed up for the weapons side. He went to Jhael, who was handing out weapons for those who did not have their own. Micheal didn't want to try anything special, so he took a broadsword.

Ken started whistling as he put books away, but the librarian shushed him. After a while, he was down to two books. That's when he took a step back and looked at them. One book was snarling at him, the other seemed to be somehow exuding this aura that said, "Open meeeee."

When Ken saw the title, A personal description of the netherhells, he decided that it would maybe be best to leave it alone. Except, the room is was supposed to go in was locked. Ken found a librarian and asked if he could have a key to it, but was denied access.

No matter how hard he tried to explain, this librarian didn't understand the concept that it was the last book Ken had to put away. After a while, when Ken said "Well what should I do with it?" and the librarian replied, "Read it," Ken took a step back and tried to consider what he was going to do.

"I don't want to learn about the netherhells. Besides, I get a feeling that opening the book would be a very bad idea."

Obviously not paying attention to Ken's plight, the librarian said, "Some of the books have minor demons sealed within them. Without the right portents, some can get out. They're only minor ones though."

That's about when Ken accidentally dropped the book and the cover came unlashed. A purple hand stuck out from under the cover, so Ken stomped down on the cover. Hard. There was a bit of a shrieking as he got the buckle back into place and kept the book closed.

Finally tired with it, Ken put the book on the librarian's desk, and said, "Look, I've done everything you've asked me to do, including trying to get some book about bats onto the top shelf. Of a magical library. I'd put the book away for you, but you seem against letting me do that. You can put it away yourself."

He left it at that, grabbed his bag, and left. Right when he got outside, he checked the bottom of his shoe. Green goop was stuck onto it.

Well, now I can tell Moros I almost unleashed a minor demon from it's imprisonment...

Kiyoshi had sighed about 3 minutes before Heleron said that unarmed humans were not allowed to compete. It wasn't a big deal for him, he had trained in armed combat as well, but he much preferred to remain unarmed. He thought about concentrating on, and finding, the outcome of the tournament, but he decided it would be more interesting to let the inevitable remain unseen for now. It was so boring to just go through motions, and at times he just wanted to shut his power off. Right now, however, he planned, fully, upon abusing it. He merely had to decide upon which weapon he would use.

The weapons rack held longswords, broadswords, katana, clubs, jitte, halberds, staves, and any other weapon one could think of. His eyes, however, fell upon the boken--japanese wooden swords, carved out of a single piece of oak.

When the teachers finished their announcement, Kiyoshi was already standing next to Jhael, and immediately signed up. He kept a hand in his pocket as he walked over to the weapons and picked out a boken. A laughable weapon against the claws and steel the others would be using, but that's exactly why he chose it.
---
Kiros in the meantime had made it back to his dorm room and entered, letting the door slam behind him.

His personal radio was turned on, and he was glad that Callous-Paw was nowhere to be seen. School-Charter specifically stated that loud music wasn't tolerated beyond certain levels, so as to keep from disturbing other students who may be sleeping or studying, and Kiros wanted to lose himself in his music. He found the music and lyrics cathartic.

The CD tray slid open soundlessly as he placed the metallic disc within and pressed the button to close the tray and begin play. His hand moved to the volume and he slapped the side of the dial, shooting it to near max before walking over to his bed and collapsing onto it.

Outside the room the music could still be heard clearly:

Can we ever forgive love for it's pain,
a tragic poem--the truth that burns on the brain.
The city's sweat is scaring her into her dreams
as the song screams to fill her quiet evening.
Let me out put, your words on fire till i'm gone.
I'm unattainable and crippled with desire
To float away from this mother fucking human world.
Makes you wonder why she laughed when I caught her crying

I am not your savior,
but I'm crippled with desire.

Let this smile give her everything that she needs,
but I'm the song, the song she doesn't want to sing.
Forgive me as I burn into the evening.
I run from love and seek the field of pain.
These words tear at me and make me bleed.
With Enmity, that's where you'll come and find me.
Light, it enters melts away emotion.

As I watch the sun fuck the ocean crying:

I am not your savior
but I'm crippled with desire.
I'm not your savior.
Not the wonder..
Now I sit here crippled with desire.

Desire... desire... desire... desire... desire... Desire!

I am not your savior,
wish that I were.
Now I sit here,
crippled with desire.

Kiros closed his eyes and slipped away under the lyrics of fluxuating pitch and the loud music with its fast beat. He loved this song. He related to it perfectly.

After it stopped, but before the next song began, he whispered quietly, "I'm the song she doesn't want to sing..."

Alex sighed and let Kiros go. He was in some kind of pain, and she didn't want to intrude on his feelings.

And then she had nothing to do. Her classes were over, and she didn't feel like looking over her books.

I guess I'll go work off some frustration with Madoka, then.

She turned abruptly and reversed her direction.

******

This room was one of the more secluded ones. The walls were painted plain white, which revealed many faint red stains, like dripping blood. The woman standing there with Alex wore nothing but thigh-high black stockings and a black silk ribbon that barely covered her nipples.

Her name was Madoka Mido. In addition to possessing a voracious sexual appetite, she was openly bisexual. It was rumored that she never went back to her room before twelve at night.

She stood with hands on her hips, displaying her toned, tanned body to Alex and anyone who cared to look through the glass observation windows. The latter didn't look very comfortable being in front of her.

"Are you sure you want to do this, Alex?"

Alex sighed.

"Yeah, I am. I... I just need someone else now. I'd do it myself, but it just doesn't feel like the real thing. Besides, I'm feeling worked up because I got forced into a date tonight."

"Oh?" The woman narrowed her eyes, her tongue playing over her lips. "Who's the lucky guy?"

"His name is Kiros."

"Oh, Kiros... Yes, he's delicious all right. Come on, let me join in, will you?"

Madoka shot Alex a look of unabashed lust, and the latter's face turned pink with embarassment.

"Miss Madoka... please..."

"Fair enough. Take off your clothes, then. You know how it is."

"Must we? I don't think it'll be as messy as last time..."

"Look, if you go back with all those stains on your blouse and skirt, people will know what we've been doing here. Then you're going to get in big trouble again, and so will I. We shouldn't even be together at all, let alone doing this kind of thing. Besides, I don't have any spare clothes and I don't wear anything you'd be caught dead in."

It seemed impossible for Alex's face to flush any redder, yet it did.

"But Miss Madoka... what if someone sees us?"

"Let them go ahead and look then. I'll teach them how to do it right."

"But we'll be almost naked..."

There was a disconcerting sensation of sliced time, and suddenly Madoka was in Alex's face, holding the girl's hot face up by the chin. Alex's lips quivered as Madoka fixed her with eyes that were suddenly as piercing as a thermic lance.

"Listen, dearie. I'm going to give you a good time, so you'd better give me one too, all right? I like seeing you that way and you know I'm the only one who'll do this for you."

Alex looked down. She'd come all this way. She couldn't just go back now.

"...All right."

There was a brief, uncomfortable silence as Alex doffed her clothes and folded them up in the corner of the room. Finally, she spoke up

"Could w-we start now, M-Miss Mid-do?"

"Always so eager, eh? Fair enough. Get ready!"

Madoka's stance changed. Now she was all business. She leaned forward, one hand on a bent knee, the other behind her. Alex gulped, blinking her embarassment and nervousness aside, and called a piece of cardboard to her side with her telekinetic power, holding it in front of her like a makeshift shield.

Madoka grinned, and flung her hand forward. A trio of small crimson pellets shot forth. Alex shifted and the cardboard followed, turning the pellets into a trio of red stains.

"Very good, Alex. Looks like you've been paying attention. But paying attention where? To my body?"

"Mi-"

Before Alex could complete her sentence, there was that feeling of sliced time again. Madoka had suddenly shifted position in the blink of an eye, and Alex's shield couldn't prevent a paintball from splashing against her shoulder.

Madoka laughed, a teasing, slight mockery, as she chided her pupil.

"Focus, dear, focus. Or is the date tonight getting you hot and bothered?"

To her credit, Alex fought back the heat that suffused her face with the mention of the date and managed to deflect the next volley, which came from above. But Madoka was relentless, and she could move with incredible speed and agility, so much so that it almost seemed to Alex that she was being attacked by four or five people at once. The marks on Alex's flesh slowly increased, until finally, after a good thirty minutes of this, Alex dropped the shield, now painted a uniform red, and raised a hand in surrender.

"What? Tired already? What a shame..."

Madoka swept her hair back, pulling the strands stuck on her face back, thrusting her ample chest forward. Producing a small black band out of nowhere, she tied her flowing hair into a ponytail, then stepped forward to the kneeling Alex.

"I must say, you have gotten better. But your right side's a little weak, and you got hit a lot on your feet. Don't always rely on your shield. You have to move too."

"Yes, Miss Mido."

"Oh yeah, one more thing..."

"Yes?"

"Get more exciting underwear, will you? Plain white cotton just doesn't turn me on any more. Or better yet, don't wear any at all."

Alex blushed again, and Madoka laughed again, clapping her student on the back.

"You're adorable, you know that? Anyways, shower time. And I'd better send one of the cleaners to take care of this place. Come on, follow me."

As Alex meekly complied, she couldn't suppress the part inside her which had taken a guilty pleasure in Madoka's teasing.

"Aww, no," Chrysalis looked down in dismay at the burnt ruins of the crane. I pushed a little too hard, I guess, she thought. Bah, well. Now's a good time to wander. 'snot like I have anything I have that I can't carry, she fingered the rubix cube hanging from a clip in the belt of her uniform.
Well, then, she mused as she looked around, Guess I'll knock around, and see who's here.

She started towards a door, and knocked on it. Inside, music that had been blaring loudly had faded away, and the distinct sound knuckles contacting wood made sounded intrusive to the silence inbetween. Chrysalis wondered if she should've done that, since whoever inside (namely Kiros) was definitely very... angsty.

Kiros's eyes shot open at the sharp sound of the knock, breaking him away from his thoughts violently. Hish and shot under his pillow and fumbled for the remote control to his stereo system, almost as an instinct in the few adrenalized moments. The next song on the CD had already begun to play by the time he managed to lay his hands upon the control and hit the stop button.

'Probably one of my 'neighbors',' he thought bitterly, as he feet touched the ground by the side of his bed. All he had wanted was a little time to himself to make himself feel better, and when he was almost there someone had to complain. Someone always had to interrupt him.

He growled quietly as he walked to the door, and then opened it a crack, getting ready to tell someone to 'fuck off and die.' However, what he saw wasn't a student from a neighboring dorm, teacher, or member of the student police. It was, instead a, not altogether unattractive, asian girl. One he didn't recognize.

His eyebrows moved up a little bit in shock, and the irritation on his face quickly dissipated. It wasn't every day that he was visited by cute women, and, regardless of who she was, he was going to do his best not to ruin the one time one of them did.

The door swung open the rest of the way with a quick push, and he tried to force a bit of a smile, although it was pretty obvious he still wasn't happy from looking.

"Um... Hi...?" He half said, and half questioned. He would have asked her name but he wasn't sure if he SHOULD know it or not, and he didn't want to insult her by not remembering.

The door, however, bounced back after opening and smacked him in the arm, elliciting a second response of, "Ow! What the hell...?" followed by a mystified stare locked directly upon the offending piece of school, everything else forgotten.

He had NEVER been hit by an inanimate object like that, before.

As the timers for the cake began to beep, he could feel the relief pouring off of the other students. They all preferred the normal teachers to the occasional wandering chef because the wandering chefs more often than not simply repeated what they had already learned, in as boring a way as possible. He retrieved his own cake and packed it up in a smaller version of the tray he had used earlier. He would have to return it tomorrow, but he intended to see the cake finished off before then. Now that the class was over, he headed towards the building which Mr. Hunter had told him to go to.

Brent and Razma stood apart, breathing heavily, weapons still in their hands. Puddles and bits of ice were scattered about; one of Brent's lances had shattered at some point during the fight. "Not bad," said Brent. "I'd say you stand a pretty good chance in that exam." He snapped his half-melted lances and tossed them aside before leaving.

"You definitly got skill yourself. Half those moves you did could be aplied to a halberd anyway." Razma said to Brent as he left. Now he was worn out completely, and decided that maybe its time to call it a day. I just hope things have calmed down at the dorm

A trio of fencers (two girls, and a boy) stepped up to challenge Ripel. The taller girl smiled at Ripel, bowing slightly; a moment later and the other two followed in suit. "Ripel, it's a beautiful day here in the park. How about you sharpen your skills against all three of us?"

He smiled back, though he was a little hesitant. He'd never had fought all three before, and they were relatively close to his own skill level in terms of pure swordsmanship. Still, he'd never back away from a challenge. "You're on."

Moving into a wider area of the park, the trio each drew a wooden broadsword while Ripel took a leather whip in hand. Taking their positions, he noticed the three had taken up a triangular formation around him. Deciding that it would be a bad idea to be attacked from all sides, he quickly dashed ahead to try to catch Bow (who was in front of him) by surprise.

Seeing her prepare to strike, he lashed out with a whip to try to knock her weapon out of her hand. Unsurprisingly, she avoided that attack, but got caught off guard when he jumped and kicked her in the stomach, which sent her back a couple of feet into the ground.

Not waiting to see her go down, Ripel spun around just as he landed to see Sham lunging towards him. Rolling to the side, he effectively avoided the blade, and watched as Sham go past him. Regaining his balance, he used his whip again to grab Sham by the legs and trip him.

That only left one more to go. Where is she? He looked around for Roe, the last member of the of the trio, but caught no sight of her; only a couple bystanders stood watching them.

Suddenly, he felt something jumping down from the treetops above him. Tossing his weapon inside, he turned around just in time to catch the blade with his bare hands. As he held it mere inches from his face he could tell that Roe was blushing. "What's wrong? Why are all your movements slower than usual?"

Her face became even redder, and she avoided his gaze. "Ri...Ripel, Bow-chan wa wanted to know if you'd like to come to our room after this."

"What?!" Okay, so over the years, people of the school have become more...playful, but...she's probably just asking if he could study with them.

"Sham could join in the sex too if you want. We've also got toys."

At that point, Ripels brain just died. Even if he could be cold and uncaring to strangers, there was still a part of him that could be considered normal. It was this part of him that fondly thought of them as friends, and so many thoughts had passed through that that he couldn't think straight. The one thing he would later remember was that he realized how soft the girls were.

Finally, he heard someone giggling, and a sword was pushed into his back and placed under his chin. "See guys, I told you he'd get all flustered like this." It was Sham, as usual. Playing games with his head, as usual. He could even hear the teacher watching over the fight laugh at him. Too bad he didn't get that teacher's name.

"Can you do me a favor? You know, like die?"

Roe blushed and apologized, but Bow smirked, and they withdrew their swords. "Aww...if it makes you feel better, the offer still stands."

Ripel then decided that it would probably be a good idea to just lock himself in his room today.

OOC Edit: Posting who the teacher is in about an hour or less. I need to look over those who already exist.

Ken had left the dorm and was heading to one of the sword training buildings. With his jobs around the school, Ken had finally saved up enough money to buy his own sword. He was perfectly okay with using wooden training weapons with Bearn, but when the magic dummies came out (magically made entities that you can fight against) he didn't want to use some of the downright ancient swords the school supplied.

Granted, he'd once had a sword of his own when he'd been a bandit, but he'd given it up. This memory carried him all the way to Bearn's office. He stopped as he heard two distinct voices within. Ms Bloom, and Bearn.

"Do you think we've done what we have to?" said the distinct melodic voice of Bearn.

"It is difficult to tell. Ken obviously knows what is right and what is wrong, but he seems...unable in a way to choose between them. It's like he's been set of a completely random track where he usually chooses the wrong thing."

"Did you hear what he did to one of the students? Now, I'm all for defending yourself, but if I hadn't stepped in...I'm pretty sure Ken would've killed him right there. Normally, I'd be refusing to teach someone so...dangerous, but he's...unique. I've heard of people being gifted with weapons before, but Ken is beyond that. Not in skill, just that...every moment he exists he is perfectly ready to fight. It scares me."

"We must hold faith. I have no doubt Ken can learn from him mistakes. I don't think that the Oracle will be right. In ten years, he'll be off heroing, just like you did. With what we've been doing, there's no way he'll be that tyrant who sits on a throne of skulls."

Ken paused, ready to knock. But he hesitated. He now knew what his two more important teachers thought of him. He'd believed that they had been training him to be a hero, but now...they were only trying to prevent him from becoming a monster.

Silently, he whispered, "A sword is a piece of art, intended for the most brutal acts of mankind..." This mantra he'd learned hit home now more than ever. Giving him a sword wouldn't be a positive thing like he'd thought. It would just be unshackling another chain.

Ken turned on the spot there, and decided to head back to his dorm. Moros would be training for a bit, and if anything, Ken needed some solitude now.

Jonnas' shift at the front desk passed by normally. Which isn't always a good thing, since it usually involves quite a few idiots. After finally convincing a person that letting a library book be swallowed by a black hole constituted losing it, he was greeted by the bane of all library personnel: the Blank Memory.

"Okay, I'm looking for a book, but I'm not sure who wrote it, what the title is, or who published it. But it's got this red cover, with a picture of-"

"Okay, just... stop right there. I have a question: do you mind people sorting through your brain via telepathy?" The student shook his head no. "Ok, just try to visualize the book in your mind."

After a minute passed, Jon shook his head. "Sorry, but the book you're thinking about taking out isn't here. In fact, I'm not even sure if it's been written."

Yuna and Jess were in the ladies locker room. Before the two became good friends, Jess combed her own hair. Now, Yuna insisted, and Jess had no problem obliging the girl. Oddly enough, their discussion this time was about Jess's hair. They never usually talked about so relevant a topic.

"Should I really get it short?" Jess said to Yuna's suggestion. Yuna shrugged as she took Jess's hair and ran the brush through it again and again. "Well, not short short. I was thinking shoulder length. It'd be pretty cute."

Jess smiled. "I want to be beautiful, not cute. You know how it is, Yuna. Long, luxurious hair is beautiful, and short, well kept hair is cute. Besides, I think I need long hair because it fits with the rest of my body." Yuna nodded, finding Jess's point. "Yeah, you might be right. I'm not sure I can imagine you, with your big boobs and your full hips, having short hair. Now that I think of it, you look a lot more proper with long hair, especially done in a ponytail."

There would be little else to do today. After gym, Jess and Yuna usually went to the fountain on the grounds and played together. Nearly a month ago, Yuna decided that she could become closer to Jess if she could join her in song. Yuna's voice wasn't as great as Jess's, but she found an alternative way to join in.

"I figured since so many video game heroes and whatnot played ocarinas, I should, too." Yuna had said then, and Jess was the first to admit that she had a natural talent for the instrument. Often, Jess noted that Yuna's music had a profound effect on Jess's songs. It didn't seem to have a practical effect, like assisting the forces the water at Jess's command when she sang, but there was definitely something there. Then she felt Yuna fix her hair into a ponytail. "Let's go, Jess. I wonder how many people turned up for our performance this time around?"

The walk over towards the dorms was one of uneventfulness. Though he was pretty warn out, so he took the walk pretty slow and he was feeling a little better as he started to enter the building.

Gabriel took a long drag on his cigarette, inhaling the tobacco deeply and letting it drift out of his mouth. He stretched on the bench he was sitting on by the fountain. He had finished with his classes for the day, and was just enjoying the nice weather they were having.

Suddenly, two girls made their way out from the locker rooms and were walking in his direction. He recognized one as a girl who could manipulate water, he had also heard she had a nice voice. The other he did not really recognize. As they approached he gave them a small wave. "Nice day we're having today."

Ken also walked by Gabriel, and said, "Smoking is going to kill you," without even slowing.

"Oooh, I'm so sorry for surprising you there," Chrysalis stated, affecting an apologetic face, but it seemed like Kiros wasn't really paying attention. More, rather, he was goggling at the door. Inside, she wondered if that kind of reaction was due to his gift. Could it be...?
Her mind went through a quick series of deduction of possible answers, and narrowed down to a simple explanation: His gift would probably have to do with something about not being harmed. So if her gift neutralized his, he could be harmed.
Then again, she could be wrong.
"Um, hi. I'm Chrysalis Nithshawl, Chrys for short. I'm kinda new here so I was wondering if I could get directions to my bunker. I seemed to have... destroyed my escort," she held out the scorched bit of crane as explanation.

Thank god, it's started to slow down. Why is it that they come out of the woodwork when *I'm* working?

The library had quieted down now, with only a few unbothersome people coming and going. Jonnas had settled down with a book that he had ordered in, at the SGI's expense. It was a scientific journal on the source of psionic powers. This was something he was interested in, since nothing seemed to match the description of the thing that had given him his powers.

One of the most widely regarded theories on the nature of Psi is that every sentient, and even some nonsentient, species is capable of some degree of Psi potential. The problem, it would seem, is that this power is locked away, deep inside the mind. Jon turned the page.

There are many different ways to 'unlock' this power. One of the most common is the use of magic, particularly by Divination specialists. Many divination spells seem to access a certain part of the caster's brain, which in turn produces the desired effect. Precognition, clairvoyance, and telepathy are all within the bounds of divination magic, so it would seem that the use of magic is one source. The opposite page had a photo of a famous divinator, accompanied by some EEG results that were apparently taken during his use of divination magics. Next page...

He damn near dropped the book from shock. A gruesome photo of a man with his eyes and mouth sewn shut, his head shaven, and multiple scars on his scalp was on the next page. Another photo showed that his fingers were also sewn together, into a kind of flipper. The description claimed that it was a subject of the infamous Zelgadian experiments, one of the reasons behind the recent war between them and Alternia. It would also seem that less ethical means are capable of producing the same effects, without the reliance on magic. While a divinator's powers would be taken away from an anti-magic field or a counterspell, the nation of Zelgad sought a method to produce a Psi without those weaknesses. The man on the opposite page is one of the few living successes of those ghastly experimentations. In addition to the modifications made in his brain - modifications that took many trials to produce a living patient - his eyes and mouth were closed, so as to promote the usage of his telepathy. Also, his hands were maimed, to encourage more fine and dextrous use of telekinetic powers. These experiments were one of the many horrors that Zelgad had perpetuated on its citizens, and surgery and experimentation of this sort has been outlawed in most civilized countries.

With a slightly nauesating feeling, he turned the page, which had more words and less gore. However, non-invasive science has also sought an answer to the existence of Psi. Scientists have used various scanning mechanisms to isolate parts of the brain that seem responsible for Psi, and recent advances in implants, carried out in mice and other test animals, has shown that in the future, all that could be needed to read someone's mind is a simple hat.

"An implant... yeah, that sounds kinda like my situation." He realized that he had spoken aloud, but thankfully no one was around to hear him talk to himself. But still, this book is talking about electrodes and computers and stuff. That's a pretty far cry from a rock that liquefied itself, and situated itself inside my brain. No one's been able to get a good read on it. Scanning machines just show it as a unidentified nonorganic substance. Scrying hasn't been much better, either... Jon's mind continued to turn over what little he knew about his powers.

Jess waited for Ken to pass, and waved gently at Gabriel in responce while Yuna led her outside. Kerensky was out near the fountain. There was a decent crowd and even a few teachers were out there. Out of all of them, Kerensky was the only one who has attended Jess's personal practice every single time. Jess heard from another teacher during lunch last week that Kerensky hasn't even called in sick or taken a day off since Jess started singing near the fountain. If Kerensky strained herself just to hear Jess sing every day, then Jess would feel horrible not to give her the best song she could muster. Jess discussed the song she would sing with Yuna, and they began.

Jess's voice started swimming effortlessly through the wind, joined in sweet harmony by Yuna's ocarina. The crowd was talking amongst themselves before, but were now deathly silent as Jess continued.

Kiros took the little ex-paper crane and looked it over, noticing that it used to be one of those stupid magical slips of paper. Emphasis on the 'used to be'. At this point it was nothing more than a pile of crane-shaped carbon.

"Well, that's not good," he said as he stepped out into the hallway with her and closed the door to his room behind him. "I can show you around, but unless you know what room you're in, I can't bring you there... I could still show you a few other interesting places, though," Kiros offered, dropping the singed ex-paper-crane.

Gabriel shrugged at Ken's statement and lit up another one as he listened to Jess's singing accompanied by the other girl's ocarina. He closed his eyes as he took the melodious sound in along with the fresh air. It was a good day to be alive.

Chrysalis pondered for a second.
"Well, before I... killed the escort, I recall it going in the vague direction of there," She turned and pointed to the opposite side of where they were, "but I had a look over there, and I couldn't see any dorm room or something. Maybe it was about to turn or something. You've been here for a long time, haven't you?" She didn't pause for Kiros to answer, instead, eagerly saying "I'll take you up on your offer to show me around. I hope I didn't disturb you too much."

OOC: am I supposed to ignore the previous bit about Kiros getting hit by the door?

OOC: Yeshers.

Kiros looked down the hallway she had been pointing and shrugged. "Only thing down there is the stairwells leading to the next couple of floors. Finding your room is going to be a chore. We should probably go back to the office building and explain what happened to them."

A grin slid across his face, "But that can wait until after I show you around the campus." He glanced down at his watch and noticed that it was almost time for Jareth to start his class. Another half hour to an hour. "If you want, you can even sit in on one of my favorite classes. I need to talk to the teacher today, anyway."

Chrysalis blushed a pale pink around her ears, since her skin was of asian composure, and didn't redden easily.
"It's very nice of you to do that... Umm, I didn't catch your name?" she put forth an enquiry.

"Guess I forgot to introduce myself. Sorry about that. Name's Kiros Sitharian," he offered in return, "And it's a pleasure to meet you, Chrys."

He glanced around the hallways a bit while thinking, before addressing her again, trying to hide the fact that he was giving her a once over. "So, where shall we go first? Maybe the commons? They're a great area to hang out. I spend a lot of time there... or we could go for a swim in one of the pools. The school provides swimming suits. Or, if you'd rather have one of your own, I'm pretty well off and the school has a mall complex too. Either way, a quick dip would be a good way to use up some time until Jareth's class starts."

His motivations for suggesting the pool after the mall weren't exactly pure. However, he was hoping that she wouldn't realize, or, at least, that she wouldn't care if she DID realize.

Chrysalis thought it was absolutely sweet of Kiros to ask her for a swim. Still, she did not overlook that minute detail Kiros had revealled to her in that single sentence. He's too eager. Something's up...
Her mind went into science-mode. She drew up a few theories and hypothesises, and kept them in mind.
Then, Chrysalis shrugged and affected a shy smile. "Sure! I'd love a good swim. The water uses chlorine, right?"

"Yah, of course... how else would they keep it clean?" he asked with a slight shrug. "But, hold on a second, if we're going to go swimming I need to get my trunks. God only knows who the last person to wear any of the school ones was."

With that he held up a finger and opened his door, heading inside, without bothering to close it behind him. The room was, strangely enough, kept immaculately clean, despite Kiros's less than neat personality. The truth was that he just couldn't stand other people's dirt, and so he kept the place clean because of his room mate.

He had no such reservations for his closet, however. In fact, only a few uniforms were actually hanging up, and they looked like they hadn't been touched in months. The rest of his clothes were in a large disorganized pile on the floor of his closet. Somehow, however, he still managed to pull out a clean pair of swimming trunks in about 5 seconds, as if he actually knew where everything in the pile was.

They were then quickly folded into a size that could fit into one of the coat pockets in his uniform, before he went back out into the hall.

"So, want to head to the mall first and get yourself a suit...?"

(OOC: I'm not sure if she has bags or not [I would assume yes, but you never mentioned any, just the cube]. If so, interject this into this post right here, if not, consider it not ever said/done:

Kiros looked over Chrysalis's bags, "But, either way, you can toss your things on my bed first, if you like. We can come get them later.")

OOC: yesh, she only has one backpack, and that has her general needs in it. She doesn't have much else.

"Oh, heh," Chrysalis smiled nervously, "I've only got the one," she hefted her shouldered backpack, but gratefully accepted and deposited her bag neatly on his immaculate room. How the heck does he keep this place clean, and not his wardrobe?! she wondered briefly, before going onto the more pressing matter. If the swimming pool is kept clean by magic filtering all the bad stuff away, god knows what will happen when she jumps in and neutralises even a bit of it. Following Kiros, and fingering her rubix cube, she mused as to if she did the right choice in agreeing to Kiros' request for a refreshing dip. It was obvious that the school was very rich, and would definitely provide her with an arrangement of bathers. She decided that she would choose a more sparing one that wouldn't show too much but the hint of her curves. Bah, well. A swim would do me good. Relax me a little bit, and get me used to the surroundings.

OOC: Sorry about that whole disappearing thing - I haven't been able to get on much, and the times I have, I couldn't find anywhere to jump in.

With the exception of a late night control session, Jerod's classes were done for the day. Granted, he could have done without that surprise practical in Magic, but for the time being he was content to relax.
The problem was, he had no idea where he was going to do the relaxing. He didn't much feel like heading to his room, and the more common places either didn't appeal to him, weren't a very good place for a discharge, or both. He passed through the door of the building, and had a seat against the outside wall.
This was not his idea of a relaxing place. The wall was hard, the ground was a bit damp, and there wasn't a thing to take away the boredom. Yet what was he supposed to do, wander around like a lost pig while he desperately awaited peace to drop from the sky?
So there he sat when relaxation came from without in the form of Jess' music.
Jerod quickly decided this wasn't such a bad spot after all.

Kiros closed the door behinds Chrys, and started walking with a little bit of a grin. "The pools are out this way. It's about a five minute walk or so, but the weather's nice so that shouldn't be a problem, eh?"

He glanced over his shoulder to be sure that she was coming along, and then slowed down just a bit, so that they were walking closer to side by side. "So, where are you from, Chrys?"

(ooc: Right before work posts always suck.)

Jess finished her song, her arms outstretched to her sides and only one foot planted elegantly on the ground. Yuna ended her tune and opened her eyes for the first time since playing the song. She looked absolutely lost in space. Yuna actually asked Jess where she was. Jess couldn't help smiling and helped Yuna back inside as the crowd discussed Jess's song and Yuna's playing amongst themselves. Kerensky didn't think her tears would stop, but they did eventually.

"You really should make an album or something, Jess." Yuna said, as she always did, when she re-entered the building. Jess nodded. "Maybe, but I think I can do just a bit better."

Jess's classes were over. So were Yuna's, and the two stopped by their lockers and met very soon after that. Jess had four letters in her pocket. "More poetry from secret admirers?" Yuna guessed. Jess shorted through the letters, taking roughly ten seconds a piece to check each one. "One...two...three correct. Heh, and one of these is from a girl." She smiled sweetly, waving the scented pink one. "And the fourth?" Yuna asked. Jess knew this letter type well enough. "My parents. They always remind me when 'his' birthday is, but I know. I need to get permission to go see 'him' from the principal. He hasn't prevented me from going then, and I don't think he won't stop me from leaving now."

Azarias wandered through the corridors of the school on his way to the mental controll class, the magic controll had been a little more demanding this time because of the earlier problems with the demon. He went to the dorms first to get some material before going to the class. On his way he passed Kiros and Chrys, as normal Azarias had a cold emotionless look in his eyes.

Chrysalis was in a dilemma. Here she was, walking alongside a relatively cute, unnattached guy (she figured it out when he was too eager to invite her for a dip... but then again, ALL girls can figure out something like that) and he has just asked her to swim with him. She's agreed, and now they're trying to make pleasant, casual conversation. Chrysalis wondered briefly if she should suddenly yell out "NO, I will NOT sleep with you!" but decided against it. He's made a decent leeway, and she will go along with it, until she finds out his motives.
"I came from a moderately large village just north of the school. There are some students here that I might recognised, because they played a trick on me when I was young with their gifts," Chrysalis shivered inwardly as she recalled the absolute terror and helplessness she had felt when the boys had set upon her, jeering and laughing. She wondered if they'd changed as they neared the swimming pools.

They passed a strange-looking boy about her age, who gave them a cool glare. Chrysalis was taken aback at how startling the green eyes assessed her and then dismissed her. These people are odd...

OOC: hard to RP well when you're about to go on a whole-day excursion :D

Behind him, he could still here the three of them giggling, "them" being Roe Sham and Bow, of course. However, he was used to it; for the longest time they've tried to get the better of him anyway so it was actually surprising that they didn't burst out laughing.

Especially since the teacher who had been watching the fight had jumped on him as he headed to his room to get cleaned up. It wasn't so much that she was on him though. "Rin-sensei, is it?"

"Yes dear?" The kunoichi smiled devilishly, tracing a circle on the back of his neck.

It was the fact that her legs were wrapped around his waist and her breasts were in his face. "Can you get off?" It was hard enough to concentrate, let alone walk down the hall; how could she be a teacher?

"Aww, you're not fun," she said, not removing herself from him.

He sighed, and continued on walking. Surprisingly enough, this wasn't the first time he had been forced to go through something like this; at least this time it wasn't a drunken Sham (he'd taken extremely potent cold medicine).

Rin giggled for a while, watching Ripel trying to act cool despite the odd way he was walking; it probably was hard to keep balance when you were moving around as much as she was. Suddenly, her face became serious, and she wrapped her arms around his neck and whispered into his ear. "You know...I know everything that happened."

Ripel almost tripped. "No, I was not going to have a foursome with them."

With a sad smile, Rin shook her head. "No, not that. I'm talking about what you've been doing since you've gotten to school.

"Researching curses, creating magical artifacts, studying various magical properties...you're delving into something deeper than you might think. Be careful."

"And why exactly do you care?"

"I'm your new teacher!...besides, I'd like to join in too, when you're older of course." Rin giggled, and Ripel suddenly wondered if a Lust Demon had settled into his part of the dormitory again.

It was a good thing they hadn't passed a Naked Wednesday banner yet.

Samoht walked up to the entrance of the school and gave it a good looking over. It was a nice place. Definitally nicer than the shack he lived in with his uncle. Still, he had a few doubts. He heard that there were a few elven students. Samoht pulled slightly on his long black hair, and his red eyes darted around.

Normal elves tended to resent Samoht for his Dark Elven heritage. Thankfully, he saw several humans everywhere, so he wouldn't be lonely. And if he got into a fight, so be it. There were plenty of trees, sticks, pencils, paper, balls, clocks, etc.

Samoht reached to the amulet around his neck, and looked at the picture longingly. His late parents gazed lovingly at him, and it gave a bit of courage.

"Mum, Pop, give me strength. And hopefully, I won't be short of fun here."

A flustered Ken walked by. Since he was free of classes, he'd decided that he may as well go and get a book to read or something. Have some peace. However, he'd locked his key to his room in the room, right after dropping off his stuff. As such, he now either needed to find Moros, kick his door open, or find one of the cleaning gnomes to open it.

As he walked by Samoht he said, "You should get your uniform on, they're cracking down on it." He completely did not care that Samoht was a dark elf.

Samoht pulled his cloak open to reveal his uniform underneath.

"Already on it." As Ken started to walk away, Samoht stopped him.

"Say, I'm new around here, and seeing as how you aren't trying to lynch me right now, do you mind showing me around a bit?"

Jerle walked in almost directly behind Samoht. Dressed in the standard uniform he felt more than a little uncomfortable. After a bit he worked up the courage to walk up to Samoht and Ken. He was glad that the group was so small otherwise he would never have had the courage to join in.

With just a little bit of hesitation he stammered, "Yeah I'm knew here too. I could use a tour. Also, I'm looking for a guy named Samoht he is supposed to be my roomate." He glanced off into the distance starring at nothing inparticular, which was a habit when he was nervous.

Kiros leaned in to Chrysalis and whispered, "Demon possession. We have a few of those. Best to just ignore them." A wry smirk curled onto his lips, however, as he straightened back up. "They are damn fun to piss off, though. They can't quite control themselves, most of the time."

He took a step back away from her, and put his hands up next to his face as he began to speak in a deliberately whiny voice, "Oh no, I don't want to kill him, but the demon controls my arms! Oh gasp! What will I do!?"

His voice returned to normal as he began to walk again, "And then they miss anyway."

Samoht smiled and jabbed a thumb at his chest.

"I'm Samoht! I shouldn't be too hard to point out. As far as I know, I'm the only Dark Elf here."

Samoht sized Jerle up. A bit timid. Not close to Samoht's personality, but with a little work, it would do.

"We're gonna be roomies, eh? That oughta be fun. I'm here for Transmutation and Weapon classes. What about you?"

Chrysalis raised an eyebrow at what he said. Miss? He must have some gift! she thought admiringly.
Just then, she tripped on something and accidentally bumped into Kiros, sending them both hastily stumbling to one side. It was just as well, of course, because somebody had likewise accidentally dropped a projectile pin on the ground (a pin that if pressure is applied, shoots upwards and lodges in somebody's limb), and Kiros was about to stand on it too.
"Oh woops, so sorry," she said apologetically, trying to regain her balance. She had not noticed the pin at all so far.

"I'm a general Alchemist. I've already had a few lessons so I'll be taking some advance classes right away." Jerle wasn't always to keen on people but there was something about his roomate that he kinda liked. "Maybe we can compare notes while we study. I could also use a little more martial training. I had some but nothing to write home about."

He glanced around then back to the group noting the size of the complex and letting out a low whistle. "If this place was any bigger I think we'd have to apply for citizenship."

Kiros had managed to get an arm around her during the stumbling, and helped her right herself, now that they were no longer heading toward the grass, with a rather large grin on his face. "No need to apologize, just so long as neither of us got hurt," he stated happily, allowing his arm to linger about her waist even after she had regained her balance.