Ellie let out a soft sigh as she made her way back outside. It was nice being able to just sit outside and enjoy themselves for once. She knew that once things started up, they wouldn't have any time to rest, much less enjoy themselves. Nevermind all the dirty looks she was getting from the other Knights, she wanted to enjoy this. Nolan would have done the same, right? Probably... Yeah. He was the lazy sort anyway.

She looked down at the cold water bottle in her hand and smiled. Evan would be surprised right? She tried to imagine the look on his face.

You... bought me a water? Seriously? ...Thanks.

No... It'd probably be more like...

Dude, why'd you buy me a water? Lemme pay you back.

...No. That's wasn't right either.

Aw, thanks, man!

....Definitely not. She shook her head and laughed at herself, gaining a few stray glances from those around. Eh, no matter. He needed to drink water anyway, whether he wanted to or not, she'd force him. However, as she made her way across the field, something caught her attention out of the corner of her eye and as she turned to look, a frisbee hit her on the forehead with enough force to cause her to lose her balance and fall over, landing on the grates of a water drain.

"WHAT THE HELL!?" She yelled, glaring over at the direction from which the frisbee had flown. Her voice was rough and low, something she'd managed to develop further in the time before coming here. She'd always had a low tone like her brother but it needed to be lower if people were going to believe she was male.

Footsteps on gravel announced Evan's arrival just seconds before his voice.

"Ah, my mighty protector Nolan, laid on his ass by a misthrown frisbee. Truely a tale for the ages." The young Noble chuckled softly to himself as he moved around to squat beside his appointed knight, reaching out to ruffle his hair. The boy wore his usual studded hoodie, along with a dress shirt, green tie, and baggy jeans. It made for a strange look over all.

"Reminds me if that squirrel incident a few years back with your sister."

He left off Nolan's hair and stood up, holding down a hand for him. "I can't believe you almost left me out of the fun." He said.

---

Conrad lovingly slid his worn copy of Plutarch’s Selected Lives and Essays onto one of two filled bookshelves in his dorm bedroom. On either side of it sat an analysis on Sun Tzu’s Art of War and Daring Greatly. His books were likely his most well cared for possessions on campus, and he had read through all of them several times over, making notes in the margins and carefully underlining significant quotes. The bookshelves sat side by side in the corner of his room, lamp and a comfortable armchair-ottoman set. He truly didn’t see a need for much else for entertainment. Besides the corner devoted to reading, his room was fairly sparse. No artwork on the walls, a single rug, and the only thing residing on his nightstand was a battery powered alarm clock, classically designed. Nothing had changed much since freshman year, other than the second bookshelf. Pitiful to some, easy to clean as far as he was concerned. His desk a room over was another story.

He picked up a box piled with torn notebooks, index cards, pens, pencils, and random mathematical drawing instruments and left his room, balancing it on his hip for just a moment to cut the lights and close the door with a precise click. Everyone else was likely out in the commons, fulfilling odd social rituals.

Going to have to go out eventually. He sighed internally, but dropped off the box on his desk before forcing himself out of the dorm. Maybe Ivan or Cain are about, they are always keen to talk. He grimaced at the thought of having to possibly deal with Cedric though. He didn’t seem to know when to back off, or rather did- but relished pushing people a bit further than comfortable. Probably would get on well with Shaw, if the two sat down and agreed not to tread on the others toes.

Out on the lawn, the standard chaos from year to year was well under way. The atmosphere was deceptive when compared to what would dwell in just a few weeks. The first years were rushing about, figuring out their schedules, some talking to each other, some trying to engage in the rougher games the sophomores held, and others awkwardly standing around- the ones who didn’t know anyone yet. He grinned at a young knight that was sprawled on a storm drain grate, shouting across the way. It was a shame his noble stepped in to offer a hand, that pink Frisbee could have been the start of a lovely duel. Conrad laughed under his breath and moved on, keeping an eye out for his own knight. Likely near some younger ladies, if he had to guess. Either that or tearing apart another poor knight in a duel.

Elizabeth slowly walked around the gardens of the academy, occasionally stopping to inspect her surroundings that were foreign to where she was from, that was one word to describe this place, foreign. She had only been at the school for a day but doubted she'd be able to get over the beauty and elegence of the school, one you'd never be able to find anywhere in the town she resided in, a town of farming land with a small cluster of shops and hotels and taverns toward it's centre.

She gave a slight sigh before continuing on. She hadn't glanced back to see if Raven, her assigned knight, was following her. She wouldn't be surprised if he was. That's what he was there for, was it? She never had a knight or protector before, no one in her town had, of course she had heard of them but having one was a new concept all together.

Raven didn't seem like the talkative type, between that and Elizabeth's loss of words as she spent hours looking around the building in awe (even her parent's room wasn't as big as her one here!) not much conversation arised among the pair. Elizabeth turned around to see if Raven was behind her, if it was it might be kind of her to start a conversation, she barely knew him and she was persistent for that to change.

Clicking his tongue, Raven leaned up against the edge of the school, his eyes half-lidded, almost fully closed. He stood across the entrance to the gardens, keeping his eyes slightly trained on Elizabeth as she made her way through the gardens. Taking a small sigh, he heaved himself off the wall and began to follow her, clasping his hands behind his back. His crossbow was strapped across his back, the familiar bouncing rhythm making him feel a little more relaxed as he watched this new girl. His old noble graduated last year, allowing him to remain at the academy.

The girl and him did not talk much, besides the fact he knew her name was Elizabeth, but he could tell from her form that she was new to being a noble. Everything here awed her as it seems, but nothing here surprised him anymore. His eyes scanned around, not looking much at the flora as he was looking for other pairs of nobles and knights or anyone who seemed suspicious hanging about. Deep in the back of his mind, he knew it was pointless to be worrying about it as much as he did, but it was in his nature.

The girl paused again and Raven did with her, his eyes shifting to her as she turned around to look at him. Dipping his head, he questioned, "Did you need something, m'am?" There was a polite tone to his voice, one he had developed over the years.

---

---

"I'm just saying that you can always switch if you're not happy with Carrot Top over there," Shaw said, a smirk dancing over his lips as he leaned over Lily Carmen, one of the older nobles. "Come on, you and I could have a lot of fun. Just imagine it." He got uncomfortably close to the pink haired girl and she rolled her eyes, pushing him away from her.

"Lay off, Shaw." Her voice was snappy and he laughed loudly, shaking his head. He had been going at her ever since she got her, so this response was not knew.

"She is four years younger than you. You may have to wait for her to get out of the jail bait zone," Link Wallace, Lily's Knight, told him, not looking at him from underneath his hat, which covered his eyes. Shaw rolled his eyes, growling under his breath as he turned off, heading away from the pair. It was worth a shot every year. Every year that girl got more gorgeous. Most of the girls did. He smiled at some of the nobles and winked at some of the girls. The yell from Nolan echoed across the yard and Shaw let out a laugh as he saw him get helped up by his noble. He was surprised that it hadn't started a duel. The moron who threw it though probably hadn't come forward yet.

Shaw caught sight of his noble a few yards away and ran to catch up with him. "Hey, Conrad," he said, adjusting his sword to make sure it was stabilized on his hip. "You looking for me?"

With Shaw; @WhiteStar19

---

Speak of the devil. Conrad turned, eyeing his knight up and down. “It’s good to see you’re armed, it isn’t nice to humiliate the new guys barehanded on their second day.” His lips twitched into a grin, glancing past his Knight at his latest victim. “Girl’s tend to travel in packs right? Maybe if you got with her friends, she would change her mind about you.” Probably shouldn’t be encouraging him, but on the same note, Shaw wasn’t that dangerous. His campus-wide game would be ruined if he went steady.

Of course, plenty of poor first year knights would fall defending their ladies ‘honor’ before the new group got used to Shaw. It was a vicious cycle. ”I don’t suppose you have seen Ivan or Cain about?” He glanced over the field of people again. “I suppose we could go hunting for some feminine company…” A chagrined look crossed his face, as Conrad suddenly remembered last semester, “…though you took both of them last time.” It was a good memory, in retrospect.

"Ah, my mighty protector Nolan, laid on his ass by a misthrown frisbee. Truely a tale for the ages."

Ellie let out a quick puff of air as her Noble ruffled her hair playfully.

"Reminds me if that squirrel incident a few years back with your sister."

Awful memories flooded back of Ellie being pelted by acorns by an angry squirrel while her brother and Evan simply laughed, pointing at her with the camera. She was glad she'd finally gotten ride of all the evidence of that encounter but she'd never be able to wipe it from their memories.

"Heh... Yeah. Dunno what that squirrel ate for breakfast that made it so anal." She chuckled, trying her best not to sound irritated by the memory.

"I can't believe you almost left me out of the fun."

"You call this fun?" She replied, holding up a brow as she looked up at him. "I'll show you fun!" She yelled at him, rushing at him to tackling him to the ground.

"Hey!" Evan yelled, still laughing as both he and Nolan fell to the ground. "Alright, mercy, mercy, you win!" He struggled until his Knight let go, trying to calm down and catch his breath. Once he relented, Evan lay on the ground and staring at the sky, watching the clouds roll by.

"When was the last time we got to hang out like this?" He asked eventually. "Back home, it was always my parents yelling at me about 'proper interactions' and my 'station'. Why can't things just be simple?" Evan's mouth twisted into a scowl for a second before returning to his neutral expression. He propped himself up on his elbows and looked across the grounds.

"Hey, maybe we can get Nellie to come down here. We can all hit the town after dark, like we used to."

"Wouldn't it be criminal if you put on your clothes after you did your hair?"

The distinctive mezzo voice of one Charlotte Aldora echoed from the bathroom of a certain room in Elizabeth Hall.

"I mean, that would be three hours just down the drain. What a tragedy that would be..."

Her voice trailed off as she focused again on making sure her hair was Just So®. It had been...pretty much exactly three hours, as it happened.

"What do you think, Ollie? Can you come look?" The Noble expected the same response from her companion Knight that she always got, but it never hurt to ask.

"Mmm?" Ollie responded, still pulling a hoodie over her unbrushed hair. "What's criminal now?" Ollie asked, poking her head into Charlotte's bathroom. "Eh, you look fine. Don't sweat it. the boys will flock to you either way." Ollie told her Noble, shrugging non-chalantly at the girl's question. She always asked, Ollie never understood why. Why did she care what Ollie thought? Was she trying to impress her or something?

Another gentle shrug and Ollie returned to her room through Charlotte's. "Oh, Lotte. When did you want to leave for the lawn? Do I have time for a match?" She asked, looking down at her gaming console.

"I suppose..." Charlotte sighed as she turned her attention back to the mirror in front of her while Ollie went back to her room. "It's not for them as much as it's for me, though..." she admitted softly to herself. "It must be perfect!" The Noble calculated that it would take another 10-20 minutes for it to be perfect. "Sure, go ahead," she called out to Ollie, not turning her attention away from her task at hand. "That should give me enough time to finish up."

"Thaaaaaanks!" She called out in a sing-song voice, smiling from ear to ear as she powered the machine on and the TV screen clicked on. For the next few moments, Ollie was zoned in on her match, a fighting game she'd gotten last year as a present from Lotte and her parents. It was nice and let her vent her frustrations easily enough. This way, she didn't tear up the room with her.... destructive tendencies.

"FUCKING ASSHOLE. I FUCKING HATE PEOPLE LIKE THAT. OH MY GOD!" Ollie screamed, throwing the controller at the screen. It hit with a loud 'Pack!' and fell to the floor in a clatter. "Fucker was fucking camping! OH MY GOD!"

At this point Charlotte had come to expect outbursts from Ollie's room when she was playing her game. As far as Charlotte was concerned, it was better that the Knight got that upset at someone through a screen than someone actually in the room...excepting duels, of course.

Charlotte completed her quest for hair perfection earlier than expected, and nonchalantly peeked her head into Ollie's room. "Sounds like you're ready to go!" the Noble said with an innocent smile. "Game go well?"

"UGH!" Ollie groaned and fell over, laying on her back on the floor. After a few moments of staring up at the floor, she began flailing around and eventually ended up at Lotte's feet. "..." For a moment, she simply stared up at Charlotte with a blank expression before a smile slowly crept onto her lips. "It went about as well as your hair came out." Ollie responded, grinning devilishly at her roommate and partner is crime.

"And you know I'm kidding so don't blow up on me." She added quickly before sitting up. "I'm ready to go whenever. Just say the word, Princess." She told her, grinning as she mocked a bow from her seated position.

Charlotte's face changed very dramatically very quickly, from a cheeky smile to a face that showed her entire world crashing down in front of her...and in the angry way, not the sad way. In milliseconds she had leapt back behind the door out of sight, only to hear her roommate say she was kidding, which she really should have expected. She peeked her head out again, this time with a face of slight disappointment in herself. "Why does that still work on me...?" she sighed. She (predictably) perked up with Ollie's next words, however...as jokingly as Ollie said it, she had to know that Charlotte enjoyed it as she grinned and pranced over to the door. "Well then, let us be going then!" she said, ready to descend on the lawn with her Knight.

Within seconds, Ollie had popped up to a standing position and had offered Charlotte her hand. "Let's, Princess." She replied, a grin on her face. "You're hair looks lovely as always, by the way. No need to worry yourself." Ollie told her as they walked.

The Noble happily took her Knight's hand and the two walked down the halls towards the lawn. "Oh good...that makes me feel much better. I can never not be self-conscious...your approval definitely helps. I mean I know everyone does, but I have my own standards to uphold. You know...?" Her voice drifted off and soon the two of them reached the lawn. They could see that a good number of people (both people they knew and people they didn't) were already there, but it wasn't crowded.

"There are... quite a few people here." Ollie stated rather bluntly, looking around the lawn at the familiar, and unfamiliar faces. She noticed a few faces that looked back at her and waved. "Heya, Isaac." She called out, seeing the white haired Knight waving at them. Still smiling, she nudged Charlotte's side. "Lotte, wave." She whispered between her teeth, still smiling at him.

Charlotte lazily turned her head to face where Ollie's was facing, and managed to force herself to wave and give a little grin. "See, I'm getting better. I actually waved that time," she said, trying to emphasize how difficult it was. "What rank is he again?" she asked.

Ollie stared at her Noble, and blinked. "You could at least pretend like you care about the rankings, Lotte." Ollie sighed, and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Isaac McGregor, rank 2, second only to his brother, Henry McGregor, rank 1." Ollie explained as if reciting from a textbook.

"I only care about your ranking, Ollie. Everyone else is just entertainment value. Who cares what rank they are if they aren't fun to watch?" Charlotte mused, showing her Noble colors very obviously. Listening to her Knight recite the details on the McGregors' standings, she concluded, "They must be pretty good then." She assumed Ollie would have a reaction to her understated conclusion, but she had no other conclusion to give. After a pause, she added, "I suppose his hair isn't terrible."

"His hair?!" Ollie asked. She shouldn't be surprised by this point, but she couldn't help it. "If you'd come to watch any other duels than mine, you'd know that he's a scary, scaaaaary guy." Ollie explained, shivering. And Isaac was just that. "You know how in shows and books and stuff the guy that smiles a lot? Well, he's usually the scariest on eof the bunch. The same could be applied to Isaac McGregor." Ollie grinned at Isaac again while explaining as he'd sent her another look. "His brother, Henry, doesn't scare me near as much as Isaac does..." She let voice fade as Isaac ran over to them.

"Hey guys." Isaac greeted the two ladies, smiling brightly. "How are you, Lady Charlotte?" He asked, winking at Charlotte.

Within seconds of meeting the white-haired Knight, Charlotte had already developed her opinion of him. And if there was anything Charlotte was good at, it was being correct with her first impression of someone. Needless to say, the #2 ranked Knight was cordial enough with his spoken words but entirely off-putting with his forward facial gesture. But, because she trusted her Knight, Charlotte thought it best to not get on Isaac's bad side, especially this early.

"Good afternoon, Isaac," she responded politely, with a matching small grin. "I trust you've acquianted with Ollie here?" she asked, hoping to spread the Knight's attention to more than just her.

"Indeed. We've met once or twice at duels, haven't we?" He responded, turning to look at Ollie with another bright smile, equally as unsettling to Ollie.

"Ahh... Yeah. Once or twice." She responded, her voice small, odd for the normally vocal female.

Noting her knight's less-than-confident reply to Isaac's more-than-confident one, Charlotte swayed the conversation back to her again.

"Well, I'm sure we'll be seeing you in the arena, hmm?" she asked, gently and subtly nudging Ollie away in an attempt to split.

"Mmm?" Isaac mumbled, turning his head to look at Charlotte once again. Slowly, a smile crept onto his face. "Certainly." and as if taking Charlotte's words as her asking him to leave, he slowly turned and walked over to bother a random senior, whom he waved at vigorously.

Ollie let out a painful sigh, relieved that he was gone. "His presence alone makes me tired." She mused, shaking her head as she watched him leave.

Charlotte rubbed Ollie's arm. "I see what you mean. He's not somebody I want to see much of," she mused. "You'll just have to beat him, right?"

Ollie's eyes went wide. "Beat him??! Are you fucking insane?" Ollie shouted back at her. "I'm not fighting that monster and if you came to any of his duels, you'd know why." She explained, shaking her head and turning her nose up at even the idea.

Charlotte shrugged. "I think you could do it," she remarked, and left it at that.

"That's easy for you to say..." Ollie responded, sighing again.

The pair meandered for a bit before sitting down SOMEWHERE IN THE LAWN (nailed it)

With Raven Elemenz @WhiteStar19

Elizabeth saw her knight behind her. She doubted the idea of having a knight would ever rest upon her as normal.

"Did you need something, m'am?" He said politely with a slight dip of his head. Elizabeth pursed her lips looking over Raven, focusing on his appearance. She found him to look quite dashing, not that she'd admit it though. She needed a conversation starter, but what?

What's your favourite food? No, much too casual a question compared to his formal question

Do you have a big family? What if he was an orphan? She didn't want to make it awkward on the first full day.

Her eyes strayed to the young man's crossbow that sat upon his back, tugging on her blue dress which hung loosely around her knees, a pair of black leggings reaching halfway down her shin underneathh. She then looked into his soft brown eyes.

"Is a crossbow your usual weapon of choice?" She asks, her eyes fixating on his face as whole, awaiting his reply.

Oh good job Elizabeth, now he might expect you know about weapons and where are you gonna draw that information from? she thought to herself.

She grinned as the call for mercy came from his lips and relaxed, letting herself fall back.

"When was the last time we got to hang out like this?" Evan asked. "Back home, it was always my parents yelling at me about 'proper interactions' and my 'station'. Why can't things just be simple?"

Before she could even begin to think about how to answer that, he'd already changed the topic to well... her. She blinked for a moment before laughing awkwardly. "Nellie's busy taking care of things back at home, yanno? Mom's not been feeling well and Dad's still working for your family and... Let's just let her be." She told him, waving her hand around as if to push the thought away from them.

"As for why things can't always be simple... Well, if we were able to do this all the time, we wouldn't appreciate it as much as we do now, yeah?" She continued, pulling back the previous conversation. Then, as if she'd decided that was all that needed to be said, she turned to look around the lawn, watching people as they went around and chatted. She felt like she needed to generate conversation with some of them but didn't know how nor wanted to intrude on any... personal time.

She let out a soft sigh and fell on her back, looking up at the clouds. "Mm. Look. That clouds over there looks like the squirrel that attacked my sister." She spoke, pointing to the squirrel shaped cloud looming over them. It seemed that particular event would never leave her shadows. It wasn't like Evan would ever let her forget it anyway.

Meanwhile, far away from the lawn...

"Nonono, don't tell them it was me!"

"But they'll know anyway! They always know!"

"Look, surely there's someone on campus that doesn't...I mean, we have a whole new freshman class, right?"

"I suppose..."

"And that's a good enough reason for me."

"*sigh* Alright Ezra, I'll get them sent out later today."

"Thank you Linda!"

And with that, the tall Noble was gone.

Ezra walked through the halls of Saint Valerius Academy, whistling to herself as she went through the day in her head. The halls were pretty empty as most students were at the lawn, which made Ezra's job of delivering baked goods she had made to the campus chef, Linda, that much easier. The school year had just started so there was no need for any substantial help, but Ezra couldn't just do nothing. The students would now have a tasty welcome treat waiting for them in their dorm mailboxes. Satisfied with her work, Ezra decided to make her way to the lawn and see if her Knight was about. Perhaps she could meet some new students and catch up with old ones while she was at it.

She arrived to the lawn to find it predictably bustling. Walking aimlessly, she recognized plenty of faces and saw plenty of new ones. The inseparable Nolan and Evan were visible immediately, producing a soft chuckle from Ezra. Raven and his new 2nd-year knight seemed to be getting along well enough. Conrad and Shaw looked to be up to their usual antics, and Ollie and Charlotte were predictably making the rounds in their usual dignified fashion. Ezra couldn't see her Knight, Eva, anywhere, so she sat down in an unassuming empty patch of the lawn and people-watched while she waited for Eva to appear.

Evan scowled at her looked up at the clouds, having ruined his good mood with thoughts of home. "Sorry Nolan, I should get back to the room. I'm not done unpacking yet." It was a lie of course. He had never had much of anything to unpack in the first place, but he felt like he needed some sort of excuse to go back inside.

"I think I'll skip dinner today." He said, rolling to his feet and sticking his hands in his pockets before just strolling away towards the dorms.



"Quite the group this year, isn't it?" Evangaline said, soundlessly coming to stand behind Ezra, one hand draped casually over the hilt of her sword while the other rested on her hip. Her silver pin glinted proudly on her collar as she subtly stretched her muscles, maintaining her air of elegance.

"Not nearly as entertaining as it was when I joined, but to be fair, that was a spectacular year" Eva winked downward at Ezra, a playful smile on her lips.