Illuminated by what appeared to be a miniature sun, the headmaster sat in front of his desk and staring at him were the stack of registries of the newest addition to the Four Winds roster. With a lit cigarette in his mouth, Jasper scanned through each file.

"More unpolished gems, huh?"

He thought to himself as he leaned back on his chair, moderately inclined and slowly blowing out several clouds of smoke. Each puff eventually congregated around the sun-like sphere at the center of his office, providing some shade and dimming the room in the process.

Interrupting his little review, was noise coming from the outside. Slowly standing up, he walked towards the windows and slightly parted the curtains from each other, only to gaze upon the group of students that were heading towards their most hallowed halls.

"Definitely an interesting bunch. Noisy though" he said as more puffs of smoke came out from his mouth.

---

Individuals from all walks of life had gathered, and if it wasn't for the language barrier that existed between most of them, they would have probably started conversing with one another. Fresh faced and mostly naive, the new students of Four Winds gathered in front of the institute's front gates. Surrounded by a lush and expansive garden and loch, they were finally at the doorstep of somewhere they would be accepted wholeheartedly for who they were and not feared for what they were capable of. This was truly going to be their second home.

However, despite their presence, no one was actually catering to their arrival. For a supposedly renowned institution, this was definitely unprofessional.

OOC: Use this opportunity to interact or maybe you could do something about the lack of personnel, up to you. I just want to see how your character reacts to certain scenarios. Don't worry, I just wanna see what I'll be dealing with before the trial by fire opening ceremony starts.

Annabelle took a deep breath before walking up to Four Winds. Normally in a situation like this she'd be silent, almost unnoticeable, but today was different. She said a lot of "oohs" and "ahs" and even a few "Look at that!" to the kids walking near her. She was utterly amazed by the school. She already felt it was going to be much better than what she was use too.

After some of her excitement died down, she looked around and assessed the other kids. At 17, she seemed to be a little older than most, but not the oldest. She blended in relatively well, which she was happy about. Her long brunette hair was fashioned into a braid that she swept over her right shoulder, and she wore a blue summer dress, similar to a few other girls.

Overall, Annabelle was excited to see what this experience would hold. Anything would be better than the life of a runaway..

"Wow, I can barely see anybody." Clive said, blowing a pink bubble of gum.

The sun was bright, great weather for sunglasses but even if it was overcast right now he would've been fine with his sunglasses. His eyes automatically adjusted to light at all levels so even though he'd been wearing sunglasses for upwards of 5 years now, he'd always been seeing "normally". That said though, this was probably the first time he'd ever seen a downside to his power.

There's so many colors, i think I'm getting a headache...

The courtyard was filled with students of the Four Winds Academy, meaning they all had magic. His eyes allowed him to see magic as traces, and somebody's power as something on their body. He saw some hazy colored auras indicating that a few people were practicing some magic, likely because they were nervous, or they had an Igyo type they couldn't actually turn off yet. Actually, a funny thing about his power was that it didn't work on reflections or photographs, probably because what he saw wasn't light. That meant he'd never seen what his own power had looked like, and also he couldn't see his own emotions all that often.

He could see when he was nervous because it was usually a pale blue in his stomach, for example. And he could see there was a lot of blue in the crowd as well, but not as much as he thought there would be. He looked down at himself, but he couldn't see anything, so that meant he wasn't all that nervous either.

He felt like he should be. His comfort zone these past 5 years had been in hiding his power, and now he could be as free with it as he wanted to be. But it still didn't feel that major to him...

Maybe it was because he was sitting in the garden right now? The sun was warm and the grass felt pretty good. It was greatly relaxing, it would probably help all the nervous people in the crowd if they sat down. If they sat down next to him he'd also have some gum to offer, watermelon would be pretty calming, right? It could be a good way to make an acquaintance.

The plane ride was a long one between Russia and Japan. It was surprising that Valechka had been able to scrape enough money for the trip to school. She was first bussed for hours to the airport, where she waited again, alone for the plane to finally arrive. Valechka kept herself busy with folk songs taught to her by her grandmother. Going through customs was difficult. Not only was there a language barrier, Valechka had never gone through an airport before. She went to claim her baggage, a small sack tied together with a strip of paper given to her at the airport she came from, marking it as her's.

Valechka broke a sweat as soon as she left the airport.

When she finally arrived at Four Winds, there were sweat stains in her outfit, especially on her back where she carried her heavy bag. "Finally" she huffed, looking at the colorful display before her. The signs around her seemed to suggest, with Valechka's limited knowledge in the native language, that she was in the right place. She looked around, scanning for others who she may ask for so much as directions, before spotting a lithe, brunette girl standing alone. @Ayemdar

"Hey!" Valechka waved, running toward the girl, trying to stop her. Valechka tugged on the dress of the excited-looking girl. "My name is Valechka Borisovna Borisenko." she introduced, speaking her name in a manner too quick for the average person to catch any individual syllable of. "This Four Winds, yes? Am excited to go to school. We are class mates, yes? Very nice. Nice meet you."

Junko Adevelt

The sound of her boots was all she could hear clearly through the mist.

To her, this sort of weather was all she had known; she had never seen the sunlight or moonlight, nor the sky for that matter. Not that Junko was particularly affected by it. What was abnormal for others was normal for her after all.

Junko Adevelt looked at the map again, holding it up in front of her. The map was going to be ruined pretty soon due to all the moisture in the air, especially since she was walking around this place since yesterday. It didn't help terribly, considering the academy was up in the mountains surrounded by nature, but the mental map she was making would surely help. It was a habit of hers; everytime she moved somewhere new, she would walk around to familiarize herself with the area. Hidden routes, less traveled roads, and shortcuts was all useful to her in someways, mostly to avoid meeting more people than she liked.

She took off her mask and stuffed the map into her backpack as she neared the academy, wishing not to be noticed as she approached. The effect it had on the mist following her was almost immediate; visibility went down quickly, with barely any visibility. A thick swirling fog that dampened the senses. Not that she was affected, for she did walk around familiarizing herself with the area for exactly this sort of reason. Walking silently through the crowd, she got through the gate with no real trouble.

She had not the slightest idea where to go however, so she just followed the crowd. Donning her mask once more, the fog thinned to a much more bearable mist. Hopefully she would garner no attention, and she can just finish this whole day without much incident.

"Are you sure you don't want to say goodbye to your brothers before you leave?" Nico's mother had asked several days ago as he packed for the trip to Four Winds.

"No--I mean, I'm sure," Nico had insisted, haphazardly plunging into his massive closet in search of more clothes he would actually wear.

More like, I don't want to bother Elliot and Lucien. They have bigger and better things to do. They always do.

For want of companionship, Nico had long ago created a sort of mental dialogue so that he could speak his mind to the one person who bothered caring and who wouldn't be offended: himself.

But maybe they'd still like you to postpone leaving until they're back from their respective genius business...

No. I don't want to see them wish me off.

He loved his family, but there had been no mistaking the relief on his parents' faces when they found out he was someone exceptional after all. And Four Winds was well-known. What better way to usher in the revelation that their middle son was a somebody after all than with an invitation to an elite school?

You're misunderstanding things, probably.

...Probably. But I can't face a lot of things without deliberately misunderstanding them.

Now Four Winds towered in front of him, a massive monument to eccentricity and mystery surrounded by a fantastic landscape that took Nico's breath away. There was something about the skyscraper trees that set his heart aflutter with a longing he didn't quite understand and the clear air rushing through his lungs silenced even his internal dialogue. At least, for a time.

After the initial awe wore off, Nico found himself still waiting for the gates to open. Wary of making eye contact with others and fearing being invited to participate in conversations he couldn't hold (and thereby ruining any kind of decent first impression he could have made), Nico awkwardly shuffled around, staring intently at the ground, the sky, the giant trees, the anything that wasn't people. Standing apart from the motley group of teenagers gathered at the elaborate front gates, Nico finally settled on contemplating the color of the grass.

This looks more like a hunter green than a Kelly green. But some of these patches of grass have more of a fern shade...

You're actually watching grass grow.

I'm contemplating the color of the grass. It's slightly different.

And no less stupid.

I can't talk to them. What would I even say? Do they even speak English? What would I even talk about?--Oh, wait, I think I have this shade of green.

And as he fumbled through his bag looking for the skein of thread with a shade of green between hunter and fern, the focus on something other than himself quieted his inner voice once more.

Kyou half the time walking fast and running with her many sorry's of bumping to new faces. Be it students, teachers and what the not's. "Move, move!" She said while busting through the stuff she have never seen before. Her expression felt the breezing awe and tells herself that it's an awesome school that she's going to be into.

Dumbfounded because an old timer is asking her directions where the toilet is. Suddenly she remembered that there was a new comfort room that is newly constructed. Kyou with a stupid look on her face pointed right, "" GO RIGHT!" She yelled.

"Thank you, young lady." But then.... "NO IT'S YOUR LEFT!". "Oh thanks young lady."
"NOOO NOOO!! WAIT WAIT! IT'S RIGHT!!!!" She tries assisting the old timer student. "Thanks, I'll go right."

Nothing satisfies the answer she received. "WAIT! WAIT!"

"Make it quick young lady, I don't have all day." Kyou walks with the old timer student to the toilet.

They stopped "Ehh aren't you an old timer."// "Yes and we're going to the new comfort room you so speak of?"

"Cuz you should know where the toilet is." Kyou looks at the signs weirdly.

"One of them is the males room and the other is females." Kyou yawned. The old timer is getting impatient. "Hurry up already."

"So this is the toilet in school? Colors of pink and blue? HEH......???"// "What now."

"Pink is manly so you go pink and blue is for girls cuz my favorite color is blue, 2nd actually." Kyou being stupid as she is rearranged the signs. The old timer joined along. "You'll get in trouble kid!" He said. Kyou cried and the young lad apologized.

"I wanna pee too." There's a brief moment of silence between them. Not knowing which leads to the males or females comfort room. "You go right, I go left." The young lad said. "WAIT! WAIT! I'm in the right nor left."

"Suit yourself kid. I'm gonna be late for my literature class. "

"Really. You should go left or right or was it left or right? Seemingly my hands don't match.... cuz if you're facing me and I'm facing you my right looks like left and your right looks like left and I really think you should go left." Now, this whole conversation became phenomenal.

"NO. NO. NO. I have enough of this maze games." He goes inside the toilet and wrong! It was the females toilet due to the reshuffling of signs. Girls screamed and kick him out of the toilet.

Later on. "How come that.. boys didn't care you were in the toilet. Don't you know it's dangerous for a girl like you to go in the boys toilet?"
"You look like a peeping tom." She said with a straight face and people started buying it. "No I'm not!"
"I told you I was left." Kyou said casually and the young lad facepalmed. "You were right." He cried out. "Speaking of which, I didn't go into the boys toilet, I went into the handicap room." Brief silence struck hard again in the flow of conversation.

After the toilet fiasco...

She got even more restless. Asking herself if there's such thing as orientation of the classes in this school. So she finds a good spot to sit in to. The grass doesn't feel good at all, for some reason it makes her itchy. "YO! Glassesman ehh Sunglassman! Eh... Handsome Man. I don' meant to bother but can I sit next to ya? Looks like a good spot you have there, I wanna daydream while sucking my lollipop! Here want some?"@RoflsMazoy

DONOVAN HORSKA

Donovan guessed that the lack of the personnel was an invitation to the students to get to know one another. He was willing to excuse their unprofessionalism for a few more minutes, but if it went on for much longer he was going to get pissed. Socialising had never been at the top of his priorities. No reason to, if people would just play nice all the time. What was even the point of making friends if they were just gonna hang onto his every opinion like a bunch of sycophantic wimps?

At least the weather was nice. Don craned his neck upwards, letting the sunshine warm his face and coax a smile out of him. A beautifully warm day. He felt a slight gust tingle his exposed arms. Man, he couldn’t even remember the last time he wore a t-shirt. Too much risk of having his abilities being shown. Years of sweltering thick jumpers and dark singlets were thrown aside and his rune flared proudly, bright and dazzling through his thin shirt due to the sheer volume of people at the gates. He was never going to wear those sweat-inducing pieces of crap ever again.

Growing tired of waiting, he peered around at his future classmates. The sounds of idle, excited chatter melded together but one thing was clear. Most of them weren’t talking in English. Knowing that would only make socialising more difficult, Donovan stepped out of the crowd. He spied a dude chilling on the grass, enjoying the weather with some nice looking sunnies on his face. Now that was a good idea. Donovan could respect a guy who took relaxation seriously. He was going to head up to the bloke when he saw another teen near the grassy area. Unlike Sunnies over there, this bespectacled bundle of nerves was the exact opposite of relaxation. And was he seriously inspecting the grass?

Donovan strode over to the glasses guy, who was now rummaging through his bag, and dumped an arm onto the guy’s shoulder as to assert dominance.

“Whatcha looking at?” he drawled with a light accent, before remembering an important detail about the students, “You speak English, buddy?”

Some hyper girl was messing around with Sunnies on the grass, so he didn’t expect anything to interfere with his “conversation” with Glasses.

@January

@banjoanjo

Nico had been singularly focused on hunting down that shade of green thread for comparison when a sudden weight dropped across his shoulders. He froze, ridiculously expecting something to rumble ominously.

No terrifying phenomenon of nature occurred and he blinked rapidly as if he couldn't believe it. For some reason the arm across his shoulders was now strangely calming.

And that freaked him the fuck out.

The owner of the arm was speaking to him and Nico took almost a minute to process the words. He had never been casually leaned on by anyone before, much less a complete stranger.

A high-pitched "Uh?" escaped from his lips before he blinked a few more times, as if blinking helped his brain process sudden events more efficiently.

"--Uh, y-yeah!" he almost shouted when he finally grasped the question. "Yeah," he tried again, quieter.

"Hi? Uh, grass?" he only realized he had answered the questions out of order when the words were out of his mouth.

DONOVAN HORSKA

Donovan raised an eyebrow and watched in confused amusement as Glasses practically whimpered then shouted his answer. One thing was definitely clear: this guy was a total loser. Donovan’s heart practically broke at the sight. He was almost too pathetic to mess around with. That didn’t mean he was gonna stop trying though.

“Grass, huh? You find that stuff interesting or something?” Donovan said it so bluntly it almost sounded like a statement.

This wasn’t leading anywhere. Glasses was fiddling around in his bag before, right? Without warning Donovan shot his hand into the bag and pulled out the first thing he could grasp, which turned out to be … coloured string? Was this guy for real?

“You into arts and crafts, mate?”

@January

@banjoanjo

Give it back.

Nico jumped when the stranger suddenly snatched something from his bag and he instinctively turned to look at both the offender and whatever he had just grabbed, though he already knew the only thing the bastard could have grabbed.

Give it back.

A slip of vermilion poked out from the stranger's hand and Nico suddenly saw red. A lot of red. The red rings on his left hand, the red rings on the stranger's right hand, and the red threads in the stranger's hand.

His family didn't quite see him. He didn't quite see himself. In this place where he had hoped to see something more from a different Nico, this person couldn't quite see him, either. And somehow that silly skein of thread was all that helped him cope.

And the other length of thread--the one that kept him from misbehaving all his life--strained under the weight of being, yet again, an invisible Nico in a world of the visible and colorful. A place "to become someone truly great" and this was all there was for him? This stranger and this look like they saw only a faint outline of him? Was it the fury? He couldn't feel that unsettling calm anymore.

GIVE. IT. BACK.

It strained.

GIVE! IT! BACK!

And Nico lunged, one hand looking for a throat, the other looking for his lifeline.

Enver had learned a number of phrases in preparation for his stay at this institution. He was hardly fluent, but he figured it was enough to make some basic communication with all the Japanese folk he would have to deal with. Only, he it was somewhat unnecessary, since it seemed like half the people here weren't even Japanese. He supposed he ought to have seen this coming, given they invited him to this place, that not everybody here would be natives. But then, it seemed like there were an awful lot of non-Japanese around. Was this Four Winds place the only place for magical people? Or did they scout out whoever they wanted based on some criteria? Enver couldn't even guess.

The weirdest thing, however, was the fact that there was nothing of note to greet them upon their arrival. Enver had preformed at 2-bit joints back home that had better receptions than this place. Not to mention this was supposed to be some kind of magical academy of whimsy and wonder. Where was the pizzazz? The spectacle? Enver hoped they had something up their sleeves, because Enver sure did. He felt like his stage magic was a little defunct after discovering that real magic was in fact possible, but he kept his tools on hand nonetheless. Heck, maybe he could liven up his routine with whatever he learned here....if they actually planned on showing them anything.

But while there wasn't much of a show coming from the academy, there was a show developing in the audience. Enver happened to see some guy take a lunge at another. Hand launching for the throat and everything. Not one to leap into a situation with little knowledge, Enver opted to sit back and watch. He had no idea if it was provoked, and if it was, he didn't rightly care. He was more interested to find out if, given what this place was all about, he might see some serious magic come out during this little fight. Whatever was going to happen, it might provide a few moments of decent entertainment.

"I appreciate the offer, but I've already got gum." He said, blowing another bubble. "If you want some too though, take your pick..."

He got up and shook himself down, and then several packets of differently flavored bubble-gum fell out of his shirt.

"Otherwise, feel free to sit down."

The girl's color was sort of an off yellow all over. Yellow usually indicated an excess of energy. It normally showed up in locations where the person was restless, and this girl was almost covered. Off colors indicated either tiredness or general discomfort, so maybe she needed the sits. Clive's power was great for handling strangers because he always knew how they were reacting to certain things even if they tried to hide it. He didn't think this person was the type to hide stuff, though.

That's a tail, right? He thought.

One thing his eyes were bad at was distinguishing between what he saw and reality. In his vision right now, the girl had fox ears, marks on her face like whiskers, and a tail. He couldn't tell if all three were real, or if that was just his power acting up again. He saw her tail swishing around. It seemed to at least be moving the grass, so it was definitely real. He'd have to check the ears. He didn't want anyone to know what his power was just yet though, so he'd have to do something strange.

With how she was, maybe it'd work.

"Sorry in advance," He said.

His hand shot out and he started ruffling the fox girl's hair. One could imagine there would be a glint in his eyes as he did so, if he had not been wearing sunglasses.

"I thought so, you're hair's pretty soft." He said, smiling softly.

So the ears weren't real after all... He thought.

---

@Masaki Haruna

A few days prior to the present:
Today was a rather strange day for the Amazonian tribe. Usually, they would never see strangers venture this far in the savannah to actually reach the jungle’s outskirts where the small community of Amazons were settled. Not only was there a stranger that came out looking for them, but that man actually had a letter for one of their own. It would’ve be a total surprise to know that this letter was to be given to Akasha, but with the recent happening of her magical powers, they felt like this strange arrival was fated to be tied with their young one’s supernatural ability.

The amazon youngster was quite excited at this prospect. She never received a letter before. She knew those were sent to deliver a message to far-away people, and that was actually was intrigued her so immensely. Just who the writer of this letter was? How did she know of her? What did the letter say? So many questions soon to be answered on this piece of paper. Grabbing it earnestly, Akasha tore up the seal and began reading. However, much to her dismay she realized one fatal thing: she didn’t know how to read! All those symbols were unknown to her, and trying to make logic out of this letter was starting to give her a headache.

She would not give up though! There was someone she thought would know how to read such a letter; her auntie, the shaman of the village.

The next day:
Akasha’s world seemed to have turned upside down in only a single day. In only that short amount of time, her surroundings turned from the wild, warm landscape of the savannah to the cooler, less-natural civilization. At the moment, the young amazon was pacing from left to right, waiting for her auntie to come back. She could not help but be amazed by the sight that was offered to her by the large window in front of her. Large, metallic winged beasts were taking off from the ground, some even came down from the sky to land near the building she was in.

After the village’s shaman, Akasha’s aunt, had read the letter, it was shortly decided that the young woman would have to leave the tribe in order to go to a special school. While the idea didn’t truly suit Akasha, some part of herself yearned to know more about herself. And so, that was why the two amazon women were at the airport, waiting for the next plane to head towards Japan. For that, Akasha’s aunt had given the girl more casual clothing, so that the girl would blend in better with normal civilization, as opposed to wearing basically nothing.

A day before the present:
After a long plan trip, Akasha finally reached Japan. This world was unknown to her, so very different from where they came from. It seemed so much more… advanced, less natural. But it was a necessary step for the young amazon to understand more about her powers. Much to Akasha’s relief, it seemed they would soon leave this more civilized area, and head once more towards the wilderness, for Four Winds was located beyond the mountain, in the valley on the outskirt of Japan.

Akasha had so many questions, and couldn’t wait, hoping that her omnipotent auntie would give them to her, and not be too enigmatic for once.

“Auntie, how do you know so much of the outside world? I never saw you leave the village once, and yet you seem to know exactly where we are heading, and how to speak with the people living here.” Akasha asked, curious about the shaman’s history.

“Not always have I lived in the tribe. Before your parents died, before you were born, I have traveled the world in my young days. Perhaps now is your time to do so as well? Meet new people, new places, know more about yourself.” The older woman answered, not revealing too much, but hinting that she may have come to Japan before.

Present time:
Akasha stood alone in front of the massive complex that was soon to be her new home. Before they had reached the mountain, her shamanic aunt gave the young one directions as to where they would be heading. Akasha did not know the reasons why her aunt would not accompany her to Four Winds, nut it was clear that she did not want to come over there.

Among the new arrivals, Akasha was sure to be the messiest of them all. Where others might have come to Four Winds using transport, be it by air or by land, the Amazonian girl was true to herself, she had arrived here by foot, taking various mountain and off-road paths. Her black dress that was given to her by her aunt was a torn mess. She looked more like the way she was meant to be rather than the fake façade of a more civilized girl. She actually felt better that way, feeling the cold breeze brushing against her skin.

There were so many people around, all speaking dialects she couldn’t even comprehend. It made her feel sort of out of place, confused, and lost. She didn’t even know where to start. Until a peculiar sight brought attention to her.

Two guys were talking to each other, one who have seemed to be looking down -or watching the grass- and one who came to him to grab something from his bag. From the looks of things, it seemed like the one who took a string from his bag infuriated the calmer looking guy in glasses. Were they having a fight? If so, Akasha wanted to have some fun as well!

Crouching on all fours, Akasha waited until the glasses guy lunged toward the other guy. It was at that moment the amazon girl jumped out from her spot dashing with good speed towards the two, and pounced at the two boys with arms wide open. Being so close to each other, if they wouldn’t move, she would actually tackle both of them to the ground with the amount of momentum she had.

“I wanna have some fun too~~~~” Akasha shouted, but her voice sounded more like a panther roaring.

DONOVAN HORSKA

Donovan Horska rarely ever felt panic but holy fucking shit.

There was blinding flash of red, infinitely more brilliant than anything Donovan’s rune had ever achieved. After the initial flash, Donovan saw that the light was coming from Glasses’ hand and his own. Now this is what he came to magic school for! He had to admit, Glasses caught him off guard. The sheer surprise of it all allowed the nerd to shove Donovan off his feet and suddenly onto the grass. Donovan grinned even as he felt the air leave his chest. Hah, the guy had some real fire in him. There was no way he would have seen this coming.

“Struck a nerve, eh?” Donovan taunted cockily.

Glasses had obviously never been in a proper fight before, one that he had won anyway. His attention was divided between Donovan’s throat and the string in Donovan’s hand. Don went along with it for a bit, whipping around his hand with the string to stall while grabbing at the wrist of the hand on his throat to make sure he didn’t get choked out. It wasn’t particularly hard, Glasses had just about the strength of a paper bag flapping in the wind. In the meantime, Don prepared to flex his own magical muscles. He concentrated and waited for the moment that he would absolutely ruin this guy’s day and … nothing. Instead of the usual wave he felt murkiness, a pathetic puff of energy. His rune indicated the same, emitting a dull glow unlike the flare from mere minutes earlier. In contrast, the red mark on Glasses’ hand and his own only shone brighter.

Donovan Horska rarely ever felt panic. Ever since his powers emerged, there were never any situations were worth it. But now, with this feeling of sudden inability, it brought out something terrible in him. He couldn’t feel anything outside his physical bounds. But inside, he was definitely feeling something.

Donovan’s grin dropped and he roared. Ignoring the hand on his throat, Don grabbed the fucking Glasses Freak by the head and slammed it sidewards into the ground.

“You. Are. FUCKING. DEAD.”

With the piece of shit on the ground where he belonged, Donovan pulled his fist back, ready to inflict much more damage when a weird sound ripped him from his fervour. It sounded like something running towards them. A large dog maybe? Then the roar sounded and Donovan turned his head to see a puma lunging at them.

“…the fuck?”

Donovan Horska rarely ever felt panic. But with an airborne puma mere metres from them and absolutely no time to get out of the way, maybe it was time to start feeling it.

@Riffus Maximus @January

The thread. The thread.

Nico only had two thoughts on his mind as he grappled with the son of a bitch who only seemed to grow more amused the harder Nico tried.

Weakling.

He wished that was directed to the ginger-haired asshole sneering under him, but he knew who the real weakling was here. And the other guy knew it, too, from how calmed he seemed about everything and how easily he was pulling Nico's hand away.

For a moment, Nico thought there was a chance. The cocksure face had dropped and the cur seemed to be focusing on something. A soft prodding at Nico's emotions faded away quickly and though his peripheral vision noted the dull gleam of magic coming from the other guy's chest, he was more concerned about the thread. The glow on his hand, the glow on the bastard's hand, the sudden tensing of the body below him--all of it could wait. Just as he jerked forward in another attempt to reach the thread dangling just out of finger reach, he heard a shout and felt the world rapidly tilt sideways.

His head slammed against the ground with enough force to silence his cry of pain and Nico only managed a spluttering cough of shock as their positions reversed and that fucker raised a fist for the next blow. He hated the person above him. He hated the guy's superior strength, superior attitude, superior conviction. All Nico could manage with the full force of his rage was a mouthful of grass and dirt and, deep inside, he hated himself the most. Gritting his teeth in both pain and anger, he tried to reach for the arm holding his head down, but before he could even attempt to fight back, he heard a--

--roar? An animal roar? Wh--

His tormentor had heard it, too, apparently, and in the shock of things Nico managed to inch his head towards the direction of the sound. Only to see an actual feline predator pouncing towards them.

An actual predator. Pouncing towards them.

Nico only managed an incredulous "Huh?" before they collided.

@Riffus Maximus

Completely catching her two “preys” unaware while they were having fun fighting each other, Akasha slammed the two guys with her full 125 pounds of black leopard muscles. The sudden attack was sudden, all three of them were thrown to the ground, with the Amazonian panther on top of both. There was some sort of mixed pride and playfulness from the animal as it was sitting on top of the two boys, head held high.

But eventually, it seemed just as if there was something amiss in Akasha’s mind. She got this sudden feeling of confusion, and after pondering over it for a minute, she realized what it was. Why had she taken on her animal form? All she wanted was to have some fun, not actually scare the living hell outta these two. Perhaps it was one of those cases she couldn’t control herself during moments of excitation. Actually shifting into a panther willingly was still hard to Akasha, it still seemed to happen unconsciously.

Realizing just now how uncomfortable they might be, the Amazoness transformed back into her human self, removing a fifth of her animal weight from them. While she felt a bit calmer than before, Akasha still felt like messing around with the guys. As if to prove her current position of superiority, she playfully hopped on top of the body pile, her rear slightly crushing against the angsty snake-looking guy’s chest.

“Hehehe, it’s my win! You guys are fun~” She said with a wide cheerful grin plastered on her face, still sitting on top of the small man mound.

@KOgaming Annabelle quickly turned towards the small, young girl once she felt a tug at her dress. She kind of giggled at the girl. "Yes, this is Four Winds, and yes it would appear we are classmates. I didn't quite catch your name. What is it?" Annabelle assessed the girl speaking to her. She really was a tiny thing. And her age along with her demeanor oozed a beautiful innocence, in Annabelle's opinion.

"I'm Annabelle. I'm extremely excited to be here. too!" Annabelle gave her a friendly smile. This girl eased Annabelle, she felt comfortable around her.

Annabelle is normally wary about letting people get close to her after her parents shunned her from such a young age. However, being in this new environment in a place with others like her, maybe she'd let herself make a friend or two..

The bear-girl appeared to be a little flustered, talking to the other girl. Used to harsher climates and rougher individuals, this new girl wasn't something Valechka was used to. She had naturally gotten a little bit annoyed, face crinkling up. "I am thinking already told you cyka. My name Valechka. Do not making me be of repeating myself, da? Blin." she answered. She mumbled something in her own language, a little angrily.

Valechka's expression changed from annoyed to bewildered. "Da. Very exciting." she responded. Valeshka's hands cupped in front of her body, arms hanging neutrally in front of her. Her tone of voice had diminished, her "Da" sounding much louder than the following words. Did she... make a friend? She stood silent for a moment.

"When is school of starting? Do you know? Where I go? Where put potatoes?"

Upon seeing the irritation of Valechka, Annabelle flashbacked and remembered how fast her parent's had changed how they felt about her, and it looked like this girl was doing the same. Annabelle shifted slightly to a more reserved stance but tried to stay friendly to Valechka.

"I, uh, I'm sorry. You spoke a little fast for me the first time." Annabelle nervously moved a loose piece of her brunette hair behind her ear. However, when she heard Valechka ask where to put her potatoes she couldn't help but giggle, and her demeanor lightened up once again. "I'm sorry Valechka, I don't know the answers to any of those questions. I'm just as confused as you are, but I'll make sure we find a place for your potatoes." Annabelle wasn't being rude by that, she was just being playful and really would help the girl find a place for them.