Well there he had it; the woman was an elf. He knew she didn't look like any of the other fae he was more familiar with, and her voice was so much nicer on the ears. Jack's gaze shifted to observe her ear when she was kind enough to show it, before moving back to her face. It all made sense now. He felt like an idiot for not realizing it beforehand. If he could have, he would have tried to play off like she didn't know his specialty. There was no lying to an elf about magic. This year was going to be tricky, figuring out who he could get away with lying to about what. He liked the challenge.

"Guardian applicant," he repeated back with a low whistle. He could overlook trying to compliment the laugh for the moment to focus on her specialty. "I've met a few Guardians - none quite so attractive, but I'm sure you hear that a lot - and I have heard how dangerous the test is. That is quite the impressive task to undertake."

He paused, momentarily, while considering how to execute his next move. "I'm Jack, by the way. I hope you don't find this overly forward, but - have you eaten anything yet? I skipped breakfast for going to orientation, and I was wondering if you would like to continue getting to know one another while we got something to eat. We might have some classes overlapping, and I like to get to know people I will be seeing on a regular basis. I hear the cafeteria has an extremely extensive selection of food." She had every right to say no, and he would deal with it, but what was so wrong about innocently getting a bite to eat with someone with whom you were socializing? Hopefully nothing.

Julian nearly fell over a pumpkin as he walked out of his dorm building, but took a few running steps forward to balance himself. He looked around to see if anyone had noticed. A girl with glasses and a brown ponytail was walking up the sidewalk towards the building. He felt his face warm with slight anger and embarrassment. Walking past the girl, he said, "That pumpkin's no match for my fast reflexes." The girl gave him a look that said, why are you talking to me? before entering through the door. Smirking triumphantly at his quick wit, Julian continued towards the auditorium to attend the orientation.

Although this was his third year at Gringore, he still liked going to the orientation for the chance to see the elusive Headmaster and the principal, and to get an idea of what clubs he would join this year. But the icing on the cake was watching the scared faces of the clueless newbies. He remembered his first day at the academy. He was certain he had looked more confident and sure of himself than these kids, excited to practice his powers, knowing he could or would soon be able to take any of these freaks down in a fight. And freaks they were. All creatures seemed to surround him; part-animal-part-humans, little people with or without wings, people that could transform into creatures like he could, people with all colours of skin and hair and eyes and weird faces. He always seemed like the only normal one at this school, his abilities managing to not demote him into freakdom.

He joined the crowd entering the auditorium and climb the bleachers, picking a seat near the top-left corner so he could see all the action in the bleachers and in front. He was absent-mindedly watching people coming in and sitting down when a large man (@TheIrishJJ) plunked himself down right in front of him, blocking his view. Julian leaned forward with his elbows on his legs and spoke loudly into the man's brown hair as he sarcastically pretended to be talking to someone else. "You know, I could get a lot more out of this orientation if I could see what was going on in front of me."

With the arrival of another sandwich and, attached to it, a relatively hefty 30% "service fee," which he determined to be the natural result of his antics, Alason began to dig into his fresh, feta free meal. This enjoyment quickly gave way to an all too human curiosity, however, when he felt the enigmatic Ms. Oakbough pass behind him, leaving behind her a certain odorless stench of defeat as she walked to her seemingly rather miffed customer. On her return, he extended his leg just enough to block her path, though not enough to denote aggression. Rather quickly, however, he realized that he did not know exactly what to say. Alason knew that he wanted to say something, after all, spending most of his time with humans and the near rest of his time alone, such an encounter was quite the event.

"Er, sorry," he finally let out after an unbearable half-second of silence, "do you perchance think that we could have a real conversation once your shift is over?" Realizing how his proposal sounded, Alason quickly went on to amend, "I'd like to give a proper apology for my," What word makes me not sound like a twit... "shenanigans," Well, that wasn't it. Too late. "and, more to the point, I think that both of us could use, well," and thus, faced with an alien situation of immense discomfort, Alason I. Campbell was forced into a horrible choice: to save his pride or to try to forge an actual relationship.

Following the passage of the longest second in recorded history, Alason made a decision.

"a friend, I suppose." Well, and I'm sure there's quite a bit I could learn from your history.

It was quite understandable that Anwen be concerned about Alason stopping her again. Given that their previous interaction had culminated in her unintentionally cracking a window by calling plants to her anger, she was somewhat hesitant to even listen, let alone speak, to him. Yet, for all that, her generally good nature won out in the end and she stopped to listen. At first, she was quite ready to be angry once again; it did, after all, sound a pretty fair amount like he was trying, in some ham-fisted way, to proposition her. As he quickly rephrased himself, though, she found her head cocked. Now that he was speaking at a manageable rate, she was rather interested in what he was saying. His final words, an offer of friendship, prompted a massive smile to emerge on her face. This time being careful to avoid drawing plants to her in the same way, she practically squealed in glee, a rather undignified sound to be emerging from a being as old as she.

"Oh, sure!" she chirped, lacing her hands together in front of her chest, "I get off work in," she glanced at the clock on the wall, "about three hours. I'll see you then!"

With that, she skipped off, humming happily and holding the tray of coffee high in a display of coordination far more than one would expect of her.

---

A few hours later, Anwen emerged, de-aproned, into the tavern once more. Only then did she realize three things:

One, she didn't see Alason anywhere,
Two, she had no way of contacting him outside of direct conversation,
And three...she'd never mentioned where he should meet her.

Directing a quick upward huff of frustration at her unruly hair, she briefly considered where she would most likely find him before relying on the time-honored tradition of staying in the same place and waiting. She bit her lip as she walked outside to the small array of tables.

I'll apologize when he gets here.

Séamus sat down in a chair by himself in the orientation, not realising that he was sitting in front of another student (@arca9). He was sitting there bored, when he heard someone speaking loudly behind him.

"You know, I could get a lot more out of this orientation if I could see what was going on in front of me."

Séamus turned around to see who it was, and saw that it was another student, a few inches shorter than him, leaning on his elbows, and now that Séamus had turned around, right in his face. "You might want to lean back a bit," Séamus replied. Séamus decided to get up, and go around and sit next to this student. Sorry if I seem a bit grumpy, I couldn't sleep last night. Although, I can't sleep any night, seeing as I'm a vampire, he chuckeld to himself. So what's your name? Séamus asked, "Mine's Séamus, and as you can probably tell I'm not from around here." After learning the person's name, he shook his hand, putting all of his strength into it.

---

After the orientation was over, Ruaidhrí left the room, going to the courtyard, He saw many people walking about, looking busy and important and like they knew where they were going. However, most of them also looked like they had been here for a few years, and he didn't want to risk any embarrassment of asking where to go. However, he saw a girl wearing headphones (@Alina13), who looked like she was lost too. Perhaps he could speak to her, and they could strike up a friendship. Hew walked over to her, before tapping on her shoulder, and asking her "Excuse me, do you know where Alchemy with Mrs. Atwell is?"

@TheIrishJJ

Only half paying attention to what she was looking for, being so absorbed in her music, Deseraei wandered aimlessly around the same block of buildings reading their names and sometimes creeping up to the doors to see if anyone was inside. She had many classes and she wasn't even sure if some of them were in the same building as another. As of right now, she was looking for Demonology. As she turned around to go down the short couple stairs in front of the building, she was suddenly nose to nose with a man who looked like he could bench press 5 of her. Reeling backwards to avoid smashing into him, she swiftly yanked out one of her headphones and answered the question she thought she heard him ask.

"No, I'm sorry. I don't have that class. I haven't even found my own yet. You're free to wander around and look with me if you want. Did you just come from orientation?"

Deseraei suddenly wondered if going to orientation would have been a good idea after all. Maybe they would have shown the students where all the buildings were. Or at least explained it. . . Maybe he knew where Demonology was.

"Guardian applicant," he repeated back with a low whistle. "I've met a few Guardians - none quite so attractive, but I'm sure you hear that a lot - and I have heard how dangerous the test is. That is quite the impressive task to undertake."

Sapphira rolled her eyes at his not so subtle comment on her attractiveness. Yes, I have heard it a lot, and it gets old fast. I am not here to impress anyone with my looks. I only want to impress the people who will make me into an official Guardian. She thought to herself. She would let his comment slide, seeing that he glanced over it so quickly and complimented her on her choice of becoming a Guardian.

After a momentary pause, he continued, "I'm Jack, by the way. I hope you don't find this overly forward, but - have you eaten anything yet? I skipped breakfast for going to orientation, and I was wondering if you would like to continue getting to know one another while we got something to eat. We might have some classes overlapping, and I like to get to know people I will be seeing on a regular basis. I hear the cafeteria has an extremely extensive selection of food."

“I’m Sapphira. And sure, why not,” she replied. In comparison to guys she has dealt with in the past, he was being rather polite. She wasn’t tempted to punch him in the face or body slam him to the ground, so that was a good sign. She didn’t see anything wrong with getting to know him further. Besides, she could use some friends around here. She gestured for him to lead the way. @Nightfury Kat

As he watched Anwen disappear back into her own little mundane waitress reality, Alason couldn't help but let out a quiet snicker. Oh, the simple life. Perhaps he thought himself above the nymph and was mentally mocking her, perhaps he was attempting to suffocate some hidden envy for the content, sensible creature, unburdened by the manufactured problems of social existence, but none of these thoughts possibilities crossed Alason's mind at the present moment. Just then, all that he could be bothered to think about was how unexpected the past few minutes had been, and just how insipid his sandwich truly was without some powerful element of flavor, usually donated by a cheese. He chuckled to himself and shook his head before placing the half-eaten sandwich back on its plate and rising, quietly pushing in his stool as he did so. Oh, irony, my oldest enemy, he thought as he headed for the door.

With a cursory glance behind him as he opened the door, Alason considered the various possible ends his day might have after this unprecedented fork in his lack of a plan. Exiting the building, he was about to turn back forwards and figure what to do for his three free hours before noting something rather odd.

Huh. Didn't notice the cracks in the windows on my way in. Weird, figured this place'd be on that as soon as it happened. Running a thin vine of ivy between his thumb and forefinger before breaking it off the wall, Alason went about his business, promptly forgetting about the chinks in the glass.



"I can't believe I forgot to set up a proper location; she's probably already forgotten about our encounter entirely by now," Alason mumbled to himself. He let out an uncharacteristically angry groan as he tore a burr from his pants. About three hours and twenty minutes after his last interaction with Anwen, he was exiting the forest bordering the town following an unfruitful and, retrospectively, ill-reasoned attempt at finding her "house". Considering the possibility that some staff at the tavern would know where she went off to, Alason headed for the Tipsy dragon, all the while attempting in vain to brush dirt and grass-stains from his knees after a fall during his woodland escapade.

Perhaps a block from the tavern, he finally gave up with a final indignant slap at his pants. I really do need to get outside more often. Turning his attention to the now in-view Tipsy Dragon, Alason squinted as he examined a familiar figure candidly sitting at an outdoor table. Approaching her slowly, Alason, with mossy knees and top button undone, attempted to find an eloquent way of addressing the woman. In all of his intellect and proficiency in language, he managed to muster a mighty and confident,

"What?"

Stuck in her own little headspace, floating amidst all of the curious memories she had gathered among the years, Anwen failed to notice the man approaching her until he was standing next to her. At his single word, she jolted back into the conscious world. At seeing his clothing covered in grass and dirt and his appearance generally disheveled, she couldn't suppress a single burst of giggles. It was quite obvious that he'd been in the woods, by the single sprig of hickory leaves that trailed from his mussed-up hair. Her eyelids briefly flicked closed, her cheeks ballooning outwards to stop herself from laughing more. When she opened her eyes again, they were wide and earnest.

"Sorry about not giving you a place to meet or a way to contact you. I..." she glanced away for a moment in embarrassment, "...don't talk to a lot of people, so I got excited and forgot. I figured that if I just stayed here, you'd come back. I thought of looking for you, but then I remembered that I don't know where you live. My bad!"

Her apologetic face quickly bounced back to oblivious happiness. "Still, it all worked out in the end, right? So what did you want to talk about?"

Scuffing her feet idly upon the ground, she suddenly remembered that she wasn't wearing shoes.

"And when the proverbial shit inevitably hits the fan, I'll be there to back you up- and subsequently deal with Rickard." Tony replied with a lazy yawn. As much as Tony chided Penelope for starting fights with the local hooligans, Tony got into fights almost as often as she did- usually it was to back her up, because there was no way he wouldn't back up his partner, even if she was starting the fight unnecessarily. If she started a fight, they were finishing on top, and they'd figure out what to tell the Captain after they were out of trouble. Tony still had the sinking feeling that a fight was inevitably going to happen tonight, despite any attempted intervention on his part. There were going to be a lot of freshman, and plenty of drunk kids willing and ready to take advantage of one another tonight- including the Fitzroy pack, and knowing Penelope, she'd try to break up each and every one of those. Tossing and catching his cube with his hand, he made a mental note to change a few of the cubes out for cold iron before they left.

"Well, cafeteria then? While, I don't particularly care for the cafeteria food-" Tony said with a stretch. "I'm too hungry to bother walking all the way into town."

The trip to the cafeteria was short, and quick- conversation was minimal, mostly minute details about the party and how they were planning on getting there together. The cafeteria itself was relatively empty, most of the new students were exploring the halls to find their classes, and most of the upperclassmen were still asleep. A few cliques occupied tables in the cafeteria, and the conversation was a dull roar. Luckily, fewer people meant shorter lines, and Tony was in and out of the line with a breakfast sandwich and apple in all but 10 minutes.

As the two of them looked for a place to sit, Tony elbowed Penelope lightly, gesturing with his chin across the cafeteria. "Look, its our favorite people." he noted, referring to a group of shifters sitting in the corner. They wore the colors and letters of the Fitzroy Wolfpack, and while some of the younger members noticed Tony and waved, some of the older members regarded the two auxiliaries with dark glares.

"Well, they're not all bad.." Tony muttered, reasoning with himself more than Penelope. Some of the wolfpack were decent fellas, hell Tony even liked several of them, but for each one he was friendly with, there was another that he wasn't such a fan of. Darrel, the current pack lieutenant in particular despised Tony ever since a fight they got into freshman year. He looked at Penelope, and made a ubiquitous, "lets go" gesture towards another table.

@Nightfury Kat

@TheIrishJJ

The large man turned around to reveal a tough-looking face, his shirt stretching over large upper body muscles. Instinctive fear momentarily shrouded Julian's confidence. He stopped leaning on his elbows, and leaned further back when he was told. The man got up, towering over Julian despite being in the row below him, and went around to sit next to him. He said he was a vampire in a suspiciously nonchalant way, and introduced himself as Séamus. Julian tried not to seem intimidated, and looked him straight in the eye. "I'm Julian," he said, taking Séamus' outstretched hand. He channeled his shifter's heightened strength to match Séamus' handshake, as Séamus was apparently trying to fling him off the bleachers. Werewolves are tougher than blood-sucking creeps. He didn't even notice Séamus' Irish accent. "You're not from here? I'm not either. I'm from Ocala, Florida. I came here a couple years ago to learn about my powers. I'm a werewolf. A shifter, from a long line of werewolves. I can turn into a werewolf whenever I want. I would show you, but I don't think here is the place, what with all the scared newbies and all." The seat in front of Julian filled with a much smaller, elf-like creature. He pointed at it. "See? That's much better. I can see the new kids from here. Look how scared they are. I wasn't that scared on my first day." He was probably even braver than this big guy, but he opted not to say it as the assembly finally started.

The orientation finished, and Julian sat in the bleachers waiting for the path to clear up before he left. He had nothing else to do today anyways, so might as well wait and avoid being tripped by someone. With Séamus' big stature, Julian couldn't not notice that Séamus was sitting and waiting as well.

@Alina13 @arca9

The girl that Ruaidhrí had asked turned around, removed one of her headphones, and answered, "No, I'm sorry. I don't have that class. I haven't even found my own yet. You're free to wander around and look with me if you want. Did you just come from orientation?"

"Yes, I did, actually," he replied, "but unfortunately, they didn't really explain where all of the buildings are."

Ruaidhrí was taken aback slightly by the girl, she was considerably shorter than him, but so were most girls. What shocked him the most was her green eyes, with black edges, which seemed very strange, and beautiful. He didn't want to risk his possible future friendship with this girl by flirting with her right now, so he simply said, "Perhaps we could find our classes together?"

---

Noticing the strength of the handshake that Julian gave him, Séamus told him "That's a strong handshake you've got there, for a werewolf, of course." He liked to show off how strong he was, but he was also interested in being friends with this Julian. He was confident, and that's what Séamus needed in a friend, and perhaps, a hunting partner.

"See? That's much better. I can see the new kids from here. Look how scared they are. I wasn't that scared on my first day." said Julian

"Ah, a big guy like you, of course not," Séamus replied, "and I'm definitely not that scared, and it's my first day. I liked them scared, it makes the effort more worthwhile, and adrenaline is the best seasoning, I find," he told Julian, allowing him to see his fangs in his grin.

After the orientation was over, he looked over to Julian, and asked him, "What lesson have you got now?"

@TheIrishJJ

Much to Julian's selfish pleasure, Séamus noticed how strong his handshake was. His calling Julian a big guy was more food for his ravenous ego. They had just met, but already Julian had managed to show Séamus that he was more special than everyone else. Séamus said it was his first day and that he wasn't scared, which upset Julian somewhat. Julian refused to accept that anyone could be braver than him, no matter how large or how weird a creature. But Julian could let this slide, as Séamus had already remarked on Julian's greatness.

The assembly ended, and Julian and Séamus still sat waiting. "I have a couple hours until Intermediate Theory of Transformation. It's so boring, I'm thinking of skipping it. I hate theory. I don't care about how things work, just let me actually do it." Julian wasn't interested in Séamus' schedule unless it involved him, but he was in a good mood and figured he could make small talk while they waited to leave. "What lesson do you have?"

@TheIrishJJ

Deseraei gave the man a half smile as she unplugged her headphones, wrapped them up, and shoved them in her pocket. She was glad someone approached her, as she knew she would have never had the courage to approach someone herself. As usual, she noticed the man jump slightly when their eyes met. She loved that she could have that effect on people. Her eyes were after all her favorite part of her. Looking up from her pockets now, she smiled devilishly at the man, maneuvered past him and said without turning, "Then come on." She suddenly remembered that she walked faster than most humanoids, being half horse and all, so she made it a point to walk at a more reasonable pace so he could keep up. After all, they had all day.

"Deseraei. What's yours? Your name I mean." He was handsome; she would give him that. But she knew right away that if he was another of those dumb football jocks that thought he was better than everyone else, she would lose it. They couldn't be friends if that was the case. She has dealt with enough of that in her past and she would not settle for it anymore. Suddenly remembering what she was doing before this man showed up, she looked down at her schedule and began looking for plaques on the buildings again as they walked.

@Alina13 @arca9

Séamus listened to what Julian had to say, thought about it, and asked, "I can't be asked to check out where all of my classrooms are in advance. I'm thinking of going to see the town, maybe go to the gym, do you want to come?" Séamus then stood up and yawned, resting on a pose that showed off his large arms, and wide back. He then turend around to face Julian, whom he now towered over, "You coming or what?"

---

"Then come on," the girl said, moving along quickly. Ruaidhrí quickly jogged forward to catch up to her, when she asked, "Deseraei. What's yours? Your name I mean."

"Ruaidhrí, but the Irish spelling. I take it your'e a first year student, too?"

@TheIrishJJ

"Yeah. If I wasn't do you think I would be wandering around like a lost pony?" she asked playfully. She then realized how often she used that phrase. Her aunt had definitely ingrained that into her memory. She then spotted another plaque on a building and changed her path to go read it, not straying more than 10 feet from the boy's side. The plaque read "Potions" and that was a class she had so she stopped and surveyed her surroundings. She had always been better at remembering places by landmarks rather than directions. Crooked tree, crack in the sidewalk that looks like a smiley face. Got it. She made a mental note to herself then trotted back to the boy's side.

"Got one. Which buildings are you looking for? Any we've passed so far?" she asked, hoping to be of help. This was part of the school experience she enjoyed. Finding your classes was always fun, especially when you had someone to do it with. Getting excited, she could feel her smoke building up in her chest and tried to stifle it but she couldn't. She blew some smoke out of her mouth as discretely as she could and hoped he wouldn't notice.

Breck walked around the campus, having been released from Orientation he immediately located where his classes would be held. This being his first technical day of school, he was taking primarily beginners classes in all core subjects, which would change based off his skill level. In Contrary, after his try-out for the guardian classes, he was almost immediately placed in classes with advanced performance, and although the actual book-work for the classes would be extremely trying, he would be extremely capable of physical activities with high-level students.

Continuing to Search for his next class, "Supernatural History 101 he came across dozens of other students, recognizing most of the species surrounding him. Although sadly, he had yet to find another dragon wandering about the campus. As he walked, he watched hundreds of flyers drop from the roof. Upon closer investigation, it appeared to be an invitation to some sort of frat party. While Breck wasn't too fond of a party's atmosphere, he assured himself it would help him meet people, and after picking up a flyer and putting it into his back pocket, he continued to search for his classes.

After about an hour of searching, he had found all of his classes, as well as a handful of public facilities, the cafeteria, and his empty dorm room. Sitting down on the single mattress in his room, he looked around the place, familiarizing himself to his surroundings. The One bedroom apartment was equipped with a full size bathroom, a mini fridge, a microwave, a hot-plate, and a small sink, as well as a desk, bed, and T.V. set in his bedroom/living room. Next to his bed was a small closet, able to fit a handful of clothes and shoes, both of which Breck had a small collection of. After using the restroom and picking up the key to his room, he locked the door and left, heading towards the one of the building areas, watching with a raised eyebrow as a girl blew smoke too dark for a cigarette out of her mouth.

Sitting down across from his partner, Alason took a moment to consider her question. What did he want to talk about? Of course, what he really wanted to know was about her history; she was essentially a living encyclopedia of the last millennia-and-a-quarter's social supernatural history. Of course, it'd be a touch awkward to just up and ask, 'Hey, can I read your palm and analyze everything you know?' or, 'Tell me everything you know'. Perhaps he should simply start with the standard, insipid small talk that was expected of him. Come to think of it, there was a question that had actually been bothering him.

"Why the hell are you a waitress? You can grow your own food, you don't seem to care much for people, so why waste hours of your life to come in, serve people, and all for a currency that barely serves you any purpose?"

The more he thought about it, the more perplexed Alason was by this. Perhaps he was simply missing something - it wouldn't be the first time - but he couldn't make sense of the whole affair. Of course, the whole situation was a bit nonsensical, so a response along the lines of 'I don't know,' would be little surprise.

It took Anwen a few moments to answer Alason's question, tapping her finger on the side of her head. After a little while of thought, she replaced her hand on the table and leaned forward, as she tended to do when engaged in a conversation.

"I'm a waitress because...well, it's fun! It's really easy and the people that run the tavern are really nice. I like doing something other than just sitting in a tree all day, y'know? That would just be boring!" Her face dropped its smile slightly. "Trust me, I would know." After a couple seconds, she perked up again. Humming softly, she considered the man across from her. Despite how much of a jerk he had been to her inside, he seemed like an alright guy. Maybe, she pondered, we really can be friends! Due to her history, she had always remained rather secluded, never bothering to come out of hiding for any reason other than to come to her job.

"And I mean," she added after a thought occurred to her, "money's really pretty!" Out of her pocket, she produced a large, heavy bag full of quarters. "It's fun to collect! Just because it's useless doesn't mean I don't like having it!" Truth be told, she found the monthly checks that she received unutterably boring and always exchanged them for coins at the soonest possible convenience. Sure, it usually took a couple of visits to do so, but she didn't mind. She never used them as money. She had no real practical use for them, so she usually just left the enormous bag of quarters one a bench somewhere for someone else to find.

"My turn to ask a question!" she laughed, clasping her hands together in front of her. "What do you do for fun?"

@hagroden

Turning her head to let her smoke out, she suddenly noticed a strikingly large man whose eyes were a great deal like her own; except his were sunset orange and icy blue. She could only imagine the kind of looks he must have gotten throughout his life but she couldn't help but stare for a moment. She could tell he was perplexed by her smoke so she decided to indulge him. She struggled to produce a little more smoke and then blew it in his direction with a slightly evil smile. As she and her jock companion walked further away from the new man, she couldn't help but admire his stature. He looked classy as all hell, and that was something she was VERY attracted to. Sh needed to stop staring now.

As a result of her carelessness, she stumbled over a fall in the sidewalk and almost ate it. Wanna lose his interest? That's the way to do it. Don't fuck this up. she thought. Looking up at another plaque, she smiled widely. It read "Demonology."

"Score!" she whispered under her breath