Headmaster Malrain Hilfox leaned back in his leather, high back chair. The daily report from Ms. Stern droned in the background of his mind. Of course he was still paying attention, but his mind seemed elsewhere. In between strategies for giving his students the best education he could offer and what was for lunch this afternoon, Malrain unconsciously rubbed his thumb against his black mug filled with green tea. The aroma soothed his mind, preventing his mind from wandering to dangerous times and places.

”Ms. Stern, if my memory serves correctly, we have an applicant who wishes to attempt initiation today.”

Ah yes, Vex Glás Slokta is the boy’s name. Regarding his background information, I can’t say how emotionally stable he might be. Both of his parents were murdered only a year ago and the boy was kidnapped and hasn’t spoken of the tale since officers found him. I believe he’ll pass the initiation quite well though due to his prior training,” Ms.Stern stood perfectly straight as she replayed the new student’s story, casually glancing at her clipboard now and then. Gathering and retelling them to the headmaster was her job, one she did well.

“Mm, interesting.” The headmaster mused. ”We’ll see how he does during initiation. It’s not all about killing the beast you know. It also measures mental capabilities, and usually brings out a student’s true personality. We’ve had some interesting outcomes in the past,” He pushed his chair away from the mahogany desk slightly to stand up and pace the room.

Ms.Stern raised her eyebrow as the headmaster’s behavior. “Sir, is something troubling you today? You’ve seen...disant,” She asked, concerned for him. Try as she might to lessen his burden, Hilfox always had trouble that needed to be dealt with by his hands alone. One student in particular came to Ms.Stern’s mind, Ms.Clarke, the school’s own delinquent. Ms.Stern clenched her teeth at the thought of the troublesome girl.

”It’s nothing,” The bespectacled man sighed, ”I just…” He stopped, uncertain as to what to say. However, his gaze never lowered. Malrain stood in one place for a moment staring off into the distance. ”We’ll just have to see.” He said.

After a moment of silence, Mr. Hilfox turned back to his assistant. ”If this new student were to pass, we’ll need a house to put him in. From what I can see, house #064 seems to be a good fit, but it might be getting a bit crowded with 5 students in there already.”

Ms.Stern flipped through her notes before answering the headmaster. “House #064 holds residence to possibly the most troubled students in the academy, the Clarke twins included. While I hate to admit it, I think the boy would thrive there. I’d advice we place him there despite the restrictions.” Ms.Stern glanced at the headmaster for the final answer though, as it was his decision to make.

”Ah yes, let’s see, there’s Ms. Lowry, Ms. Katsaros, Mr. Cross, and the Clarke twins. It’s been quite an interesting house.” A small grin graced the pale skin of the black haired male. ”Also, I have no wish to open another house. It’d simply use more energy than I’d like. Money is to be used more on educational purposes rather than other things. It’s simply a issue we must overlook.” Approaching the coat stand next to the large double doors of his office, Malrain grabbed his black felt coat and slipped it on. ”Well, I believe it’s about time we met with our new applicant.”

Scratching a note of placing the boy in house #064 on her notepad, Ms.Stern nodded respectively to the headmaster. “I shall make arrangements accordingly. As for meeting the boy, I believe our secretary placed him in Visitor's Center although he might be on a tour around the school as well,” She said while pushing up her glasses, walking toward the door with the headmaster.

”Sounds wonderful,”

Galahad was in the training arena at Freymont, currently launching arrows at straw dummies. One in the head. Another in the chest. And one right through the heart. Had the dummy been an angel, it'd be very, very dead. Galahad reminded himself however, that angels fight back. He ran a hand through his hair and smiled. He'd heard that there was a new student coming in today, though he'd yet to see this new student for himself. "Maybe House 64 will get a new addition. Not like we need any more nuts in that house," Galahad said to himself, pulling his arrows from the dummy's body and returning them to his quiver.

Galahad left the arena, bow in hand, and began the walk back to House 64. He was rather fond of those living there, even if most of them were a bit crazy. Hero seemed cold and distant, but after 7 months he'd come to accept that that was who she was. He figured that she'd warm up eventually. Louise was wonderful, the resident den mother of House 64. The Clarke twins were the oldest students in the house. Galahad preferred Alex's laid back attitude to Abby's harshness. Though her sense of adventure was admirable. Galahad stepped into his home, smiling. "There isn't a newbie here yet is there?" he inquired of any of his housemates that were present.

Ruffling through the various tonics and herbs on her desk, Abby cursed out loud. Where was it? It had only been a week since she collected a new batch of fennel, she couldn’t be out already. If anyone and their grubby hands had came anywhere near her collection of herbs, she’d murder them. Taking a deep breath, she reminded herself not to flip the entire table over. Abby used fennel to rid her mouth and body of foul odors from messing around with all of the herbs she did. It was quite useful too.

Abby glanced over her work table in disgust. It wasn’t the smell, strong though it was, for Abby had gotten long used to the odors. It was the mess of plants and full glasses hiding any sight of a table once being there. “Curse the Angels, I really need to organize this mess,” She said. Abby’s hands passed over some sage leaves and sighed, they’d have to do for now.

As she was about to boil some water for sage tea, an irksome voice ringed into house #064. Abby moaned in annoyance. Galahad was probably back from his training. Although no one was more cocky and bothersome than him, he was debatably one of the best skilled first years and someone even Abby could trust guarding her back. Not that she needed anyone to, she had Alex for that.

“A newbie? Don’t tell me we’re getting another arrogant ass like you? It was ever so peaceful before all of you first years barged in,” She huffed and continued her trek to the kitchen, secretly hoping Galahad got a whiff of her incredible stench.

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Having spent her morning running, building up some long term endurance Louise had gotten back to House 64 just in time to take a much needed soak in a hot bath. Her body ached, not nearly as bad as the first few months that she was there but bad enough to not want to leave the ceramic walls. Her finger tips traced over the scars that laced her flat tummy, her battle scars of the initiation and of time. Things could either get better or worse, and she prayed for the previous. Glancing down at her fingers, she noticed they had aged a million years within the hour, pruny and withered. She pouted, hoisting herself up and letting the water drain as she climbed from the tub.

Changing into her clothes, she wrapped her hair in a towel and made her way slowly but surely down the stairs into the front entrance way just in time for Galahad to be arriving home. "There isn't a newbie here yet is there?" he asked, and Louise parted her lips to speak before the answer was met with the blunt voice of Abby replacing her words, "A newbie? Don’t tell me we’re getting another arrogant ass like you? It was ever so peaceful before all of you first years barged in." she snarked, and Louise rolled her eyes before giving a genuine smile to Galahad. "God forbid that, huh?" Louise whispered with a small chuckle towards the boy, as she pressed against her towel to balance it better on the top of her head. The smell of Abby and her "spices" lingered in her nose, but it was something that was becoming a part of everyday life. "I've yet to see the new guy yet, but I'm excited to meet him." she admitted, crossing her arms against her body as she waited for Galahad to respond.

The sight never went away, did it? Vex wondered if it would be forever etched in the back of his eyes. The blood, the bodies...the lone figure standing...

Long delicate fingers tapped at a wall, they had placed him here. A visiting area, oh who would want to visit this void? Vex found himself staring at what he presumed was a family member of one of the countless students of this 'Academy'. To visit a son or a daughter? A brother or sister? A nephew? A niece? It didn't matter, to visit someone was probably going to be sent off to die. Have to keep up appearances? Oh, I'm sure you love praising them about how brave they are. And they'll talk about how great their doing. And then you'll hug and it will be lovely for all of four minutes before you leave and don't talk to them again.

How long will she keep at it? How long will she bother? How long will she feel obligated to do this? He could see on her face, she did see this as a chore didn't she? Don't worry, your little shitstain of a relative will be off to get their head cut off soon enough. Need not bother to care. Might as well pop out one of your own for the cause eh? No, I suppose not.

So, this place was considered prestigious. Oh how he would of loved to been here. Up to serve, to train, to make friends. Ready to sacrifice himself. How wonderful, how ignorant.

Vex licked his gums. How long were they going to keep him waiting, how down in the priorities was he? He wondered if the family member would get her wished granted first. How funny that would be, though he supposed her wish was to leave. He could do that for her...in parts.

Tapping his shoes together, Vex waited patiently as he could.

Alex's room was an absolute mess. Papers were scattered everywhere. One could hardly step into his room without crushing at least 5 papers. The boy himself, was propped up on his bed which suffered no less from the paper storm. An acoustic guitar sat on his lap, slightly worn from all it's use, but still well maintained. Alex idly hummed while strumming the instrument. He had spent the previous hours working on a song, however he accomplished nothing more than a simple chorus. There had been a bit of homework in between, but the white haired male had grown tired of it fairly quickly.

Pausing for a moment to write down a nice chord progression, Alex heard a bit of a ruckus downstairs. Particularly his sister. Abby's interactions with others are rare, and usually end up not going well. Sighing, the older brother set his guitar on it's stand next to the other various types of stringed instruments in his room. He had to gather up some papers and set them on his desk. He'd have to clean up later. He exited his room and made his way towards the top of the stairs, from there he could see Galahad at the front door, and Louise fresh from a bath. Alex walked a couple steps down and peered over the railing to see his twin in the kitchen boiling water. Probably for her herbs.

"I've yet to see the new guy yet, but I'm excited to meet him." Alex overheard Louise. Suddenly realization dawned on him.

"Oh yea, a letter arrived this morning from the headmaster's office. Said something about a new kid and that our house is a possible candidate for this new kid's residence. Or something like that, anyways." Alex mused, unconsciously running his hand through his hair. "I thought we had enough freshmen here, we don't need anymore. Honestly what does Headmaster Hilfox expect us to do with you all?" He joked, a grin on his face.

Galahad grinned at Abby's barbs, used to them after seven months. "God forbid that, huh?" Louise said to Galahad. He turned to her with a smirk."I mean another arrogant ass in this house would just be plain awful. Everyone knows narcissism only looks good on me," Galahad said, only half joking. Galahad turned as the other Clarke twin entered the conversation. "And the great musician graces us with his presence," the young Protican said, using exaggerated hand movements to feign being starstruck by the 4th Year. "And to answer your question, I believe they expect you take a page out of our book and try being halfway decent. This time, Galahad truly was joking. He was good and he knew that, but he was positive that against Abby or Alex, God forbid both of them, he'd need some dirty tricks to win. He still had a long ways to go before he could handle a 4th Year. If he was lucky, he'd get that good before an angel took his head off his shoulders.

Tossing several sage leaves within the boiling water, Abby tuned the rest of her roommate's chattering out. While she didn’t mean to be rude, practically everyone thought of her as such. What was the point of talking if you weren’t honest about everything though? If people didn’t accept such things, that was there fault. Thank goodness she had her brother or she’d probably be a complete social outcast. Although at times she wished she could be a social outcast, at least then she wouldn’t have to deal with such foolish people. She sighed heavily as quiet footsteps entered the kitchen from behind her.

Hero. A little firecracker who could provoked in the most easiest of ways. While she had a long way before coming close to Abby’s skills, the girl could hold her own. In fact, almost everyone in the house was exceptionally strong and adept. She couldn’t even imagine how much better they could all get as they grew older and gained experience. As Abby turned to fetch a coffee mug, she noticed a fairly pale Hero chug half a water bottle down.

“You look terrible, Hero,” Abby said bluntly. “I have some spare tonics in my room or there’s always tea mixed with herbs to help you relax and feel better if you’d like.”

While it was a known fact that Abby was a wild troublemaker, often causing chaos wherever she went, whenever someone grew sick, she was genuinely concern. There was no point in spending hours studying herbs and tonics only to keep them for herself. It was also great practice if she wanted to pursue the craft of healing as a career in the future.

At Galahad's snide comment, Alex mocked offense. "You mean to tell me that I, Alexander the Great, am less than halfway decent? Preposterous! If anything you younglings should revere us in all of our glory." The blue eyed male was far from serious in this comment.

To be honest, Galahad was one of the most tolerable first years for Alex to get along with, personally. Not only that, but he had seen the brunette hold his own fairly well against difficult opponents.

As it many times did, the realization that in less than a year, he'd go off to battle saddened the fourth year. However, he didn't let it show. He had gotten good at hiding whatever he was feeling. A perk from being raised in an environment where you were constantly being watched. Alex knew the battlefield was not a pretty sight, but being able to use his parent's contacts, he and his twin might be able to go straight into a specialized camp to train Proticans to fight higher ranking angels with more heavenly power. He was more sad about leaving behind all the friends he’d made at the academy. However, all good things must come to an end. It’s a part of life.

Malrain entered the Visitor's center through the main door. He quickly scanned the room. The only reasonable person who qualified for initiation was a boy with many scars. He may have once been considered "ruggedly handsome" by some, but if this was Mr. Slokta, then a certain event had changed him more physically than originally thought. Calmly, the headmaster strided over to the youth and introduced himself.

"Hello, are you Vex Glás Slokta? My name is Malrain Hilfox, and I'm the headmaster of Freymont Academy," The raven haired man stuck out his right hand to shake the applicant's hand.

Vex stared at the headmaster, seeming to look Malrain from head to toe, he let his hand go out. Taking Malrain hands and giving a firm handsake, Vex grinned half-heartedly. Showing off his few missing teeth. A good handsake was a thing that was liked wasn't it? "Yes, I suppose I am."

Vex mentally sighed, it was tiring keeping up even a somewhat happy appearance, but he was in as good as a mood as he got in nowadays. Plus, it was always interesting to see how long he would bother to try whatsoever for certain people. Never for long.

Ms.Stern stared at the young boy before her and the headmaster with sharp eyes. In person, he seemed more like an older man than the young boy he was supposed to be. Something about him made him feel uneasy too, though she pushed the thought down as the three began making their way toward the Initiation building.

“Hello, Mr.Slokta, welcome to Freymont Academy. My name is Ms.Stern, I’m the vice-headmaster here. We are heading toward your initiation, where you will have 24 hours to face a random beast from the wild. Should you get injured, medics will be on standby but I warn you, if you fail to defeat the beast, you will not be welcomed back to Freymont Academy this year.” Ms.Stern look up to the headmaster. “Any advice for the boy?”

"Do whatever comes naturally. It'll help us evaluate you, and more times than not save your life. Human instincts are the same as animals, they help us survive." The old man replied, as the group reached the building.

"This is the initiation building, otherwise known as the REAL building. It stands for the Recreation of Ethereal and Animated Life. This is also where students come to take tests, practice fighting angels, and other miscellaneous things." With a quick scan of his ID badge, Malrain heard the door click before opening it.

Ah, and the Vice-headmaster. She certainly seemed like the person to blather on about standards and such. Certainly someone whose only purpose in life is to make others want to smash her head in. He suppose, there always had to be one person- Oh my her name is Ms.Stern. Now that's just a rather unfournate name, or did she pick that out herself? To really point out her only regonisable feature to the braindead.

Nodding faintly to the Vice-Headmaster telling him the things that anyone who bothered to investigate would find out. He wondered what he would face, something easier? Something large that could crush his skull in one swipe. A fitting end. Though he wondered what came naturally to him. Perhaps he could frown at the beast to death.

Looking around at the enterance of the building, he grimaced to himself. "I'm sure they have tons of fun" He said to no one particualar. Just before the door opened, He had a thought that when it did open they would throw him in and yell suprise! And it would be his two parents. And just before he hugged them a wolf would jump out of a cake and tear his face off.

Raising her eyebrow at the boy's sarcastic tone, Ms.Stern crossed her arms and reminded herself to add Vex to her watch list. The boy's impressive background in training could easily pass the initiation, she was sure it wouldn't be long before he walked the halls of the Academy. Although, she would be lying if she wasn't interested to see the tactics he'd come to develop. The group continued their way into the REAL building before stopping in a colorless room. A single door sat straight across from them, hiding Vex's upcoming test.

Ms.Stern took one more glance at Vex before speaking. "Let me remind you there will be Medics on standby, Mr.Slokta. We will be watching your every move of course, so make your decisions wisely and effectively. If you find yourself incapable of such a task, remember this is only preparing you for what the real battle will be like." She reached for ear piece and turned her attention to a barely visible camera in the corner of the room. "I believe we're ready, proceed to phase I of initiation."

Looking back at Vex, Ms.Stern nodded. "You may enter and good luck."