Atsushi Kurokami

It did seem strange. Atsushi might not have even known of this school's existence until he got the letter but given the parchment, writing, and fancy wax seal this all seemed quit unprofessional. No representatives to greet and guide the new students and as far as he could see no welcoming decorations. Despite the marvel that was the school itself, it wasn't a strong first impression. Atsushi couldn't help but smile a little. It was unfamiliar, it was unexpected. He'd really arrived at someplace with an exciting change of pace far away from the structure and routine of home. "I hope they're not too worried. I did leave a note...they should appreciate my handwriting." He couldn't help but get kick out of thinking about the servants running all over the manner trying to find him only to come across a short letter that simply read:

"I transferred to a new school. I'm sure you know which one and I'm sure you're too frightened of this place to try retrieving me. That's fine. Stay put. I'll be back when I've had my fill of the world you kept from me."

As Atsushi admired the school's structure which seemed to be a miracle of nature and architecture he suddenly found his view obscured by a sudden fog. "That's strange...there was no indication of fog and how quickly it appeared...I wonder..." Removing the shinai strapped over his shoulder, the young man gave it a swift yet powerful swing that blew away just enough fog for him to catch a glimpse of a silhouette at the center of it before the fog engulfed his field of vision once more. With a sense of the general direction of the person he'd seen he made his way towards with a fervent curiosity. After a minute or two Atsushi started to think he'd lost them until the fog thinned, returning relative decent visibility. Now he could see the person he was following and that they were the source as he suspected. "That seems like a rather inconvenient, albeit useful ability." Blunt and to the point. Trying to ditch his formal speech patterns that he was brought up with, he attempted to be casual as he approached the girl shrouded in mist.

@GreenGoat

Enver was hoping for a good show, and this little spat didn't disappoint. At first, Enver started to think it would be nothing but a bit of punching and kicking, but then he caught a brief glimpse of some wacky lights on that guy with the glasses' hand. Could that have been some kind of magic? Enver wasn't entirely sure, since he couldn't tell what it did other than glow a bit. One thing that did strike him as odd is that the guy that had been acting calm until now, even under assault, suddenly flipped out and launched into action. Just when Enver thought the guy was going to go nuts on glasses kid, out of nowhere, a puma leaped on top of both of them. Enver lost it at that point, and burst out laughing. What the heck was he even watching? Did he imagine the whole magic academy thing, and was actually watching a slapstick movie?

Enver didn't think it could get any weirder, but then the puma turned into a girl. It wasn't a wild animal that jumped into the mix, but some nutty person. This was too good to be true. On top of that, Enver surmised he just confirmed the sight of some authentic magic; a person transforming into a puma and back had to be something magical. Or maybe it was the other way around; a puma that could transform into a human? That would be doubly hilarious. In any case, Enver opted to keep watching. Maybe the best was yet to come, and the dudes on the bottom would flip out at the amazoness. Or maybe they would all get up and bow, indicating he had been watching a comedy routine. And maybe, just maybe, they still had some other magic up their sleeves.

Junko Adevelt@Vongola_Hasayo

So many people, so many strange things.

Junko with her gasmask and her red raincoat seemed relatively normal compared to some of those people. But still, what was she really here for? Her parents had sent her here to help her, as they say, but this... still seemed like a place she did not belong in. It seemed more a place for people who won the superpower lottery and was gifted amazing powers.

Hers was... hers was just fog. Dense useless fog. Uncontrollable, unrelenting, undeniable fog.

She had been with the fog for so long, that she too had figuratively become fog. Wandering without reason from place to place, without rhyme or reason. There was a small glimmer of hope, hope that this... academy will somehow teach her to finally control her powers, so she could finally be rid of the fog and live normally like any other girls her age.

"That seems like a rather inconvenient, albeit useful ability."

She shifted her hood a bit, trying to get a good look through the gas mask's thick glass. Ability? More like a curse to her, but all she uttered in reply was but a single word.

"Yes."

Junko stopped moving, the crowd moving around her as she looked directly at the long haired boy.

"What do you want?"

@RoflsMazoy

"Hmm..." She smiled and grabbed the gum. "More sweets then!" Kyou being the sweet lover she is munches in.

That's a tail, right?

To the extreme, Kyou blushes all red. "No.. Yes... No.. Yes... ehhhhh!!" She doesn't like it one bit, the most annoying part about her mutation is the tail itself; the sensation itself is something she can't fathom, it's like the tail itself have a mind of its own and felt like it is distinguishing black from white.

Since it is a grassy area, Kyou feels totally sensitive. He started touching her hair, Kyou tries to calm herself down. "Eh? Your hair also looks good, I dig your style. Pardon me from my assertive intrusion." She stands up on her flashy introduction, giving her hand out for a handshake and the otherhand supports her lollipop stick while sucking her lollipop.

It's all flavor. Kyou is friendly all down to earth from the heavens even if its a stranger unless a no is required from Mr. Tail is Tingling. "Gummy Boy! Ahh! So so.. so so.. I guess I'll call you that. I don't know if you're blind and what not but no matter. Ah.. hahaha, the name is Kyou and you are?"

DONOVAN HORSKA

Donovan had fully expected to see the flaming depths of hell when he opened his eyes. His chest was heavy, being crushed by something. Was this some sort of divine punishment for all the emotional damage he had inflicted with his powers during his lifetime? Donovan attempted a groan but struggled to breathe. Death by flying puma was bad enough. He didn’t need some sort of poetic justice to rub it in. The ground he was lying on surprisingly lumpy too. So uncomfortable. After a while the weight seemed to shift and lessen a bit. He found the courage to crack an eye open and saw … a half naked girl? Oh no.

Her skin colour indicated that she was of African descent but that did not at all explain why her black dress was torn to shreds. While it wasn’t the first time he’d had a half naked girl on top of him (and hopefully not the last, eyyy) Donovan couldn’t help but get flustered. He needed to be emotionally prepared for these sorts of activities; he couldn’t just have it thrust upon him with no warning! He felt his heart beat faster in his chest, which was underneath the girl’s … ANYWAY, he needed to find a way out quickly. He could already hear some bloke a distance away cackling at the situation. While he did feel stupidly embarrassed, he couldn’t even blame the guy. It was like the start of a bad joke; an irate nerd, a manipulative asshole and a shape shifting puma-girl walk into a magic school. And Donovan ended up being at the literal butt of the joke.

The girl cheered gleefully in some foreign language and Donovan’s spirits dropped even further. Great, he had a language barrier to deal with too. And how old was this kid? Was she really that excited to be dog-piling (puma-piling?) people? God, Donovan prayed that he wasn’t going to get into deeper shit for this. The only thing worse than getting tackled by a half-naked teenage girl was getting tackled by a half-naked child. And Donovan was NOT into that sort of shit.

He desperately took in his surroundings, looking for any sort of way out. His powers were out of commission so he couldn't use those. Then a memory struck him. He was at a friend’s house. The pet cat was in his lap and Donovan was teasing it by waving around the drawstring of his hoodie. The cat batted furiously at the drawstring and Donovan earned himself a nasty scratch on his chin in return for the teasing. Would this logic apply to puma people too? Donovan had seen tiger enclosures with those sorts of swinging toys so maybe it wasn’t a terrible idea?

Don jostled underneath the girl; unintentionally driving an elbow into the uncomfortable lump he was lying on (which turned out to be Glasses. Sorry not sorry, dude). He lifted his fist, the one he had plunged into the bag earlier and waved around the colourful string in front of the puma girl’s face. For the love of god, please work.

“Woah there, kitty!” he cooed in a baby-talk voice. He knew she wouldn’t be able to understand him so he had to rely on his tone to carry across the message. “Pretty string! You want the string? You want the string?”

Upon further inspection, he saw that the string actually was a lovely shade of red. If he lost a few levels of sanity, maybe he’d even be able to see why Glasses went batshit insane. Honestly at first he didn’t even think about how his plan would piss off poor old Glasses down there but when he realised it, he grinned, shaking the string with even more enthusiasm than before.

@January @Riffus Maximus

NICO LEHMANN

The impact knocked three things from Nico: his glasses, his rage, and his reaction time.

In the chaos of limbs and joints jabbing each other, Nico had somehow wound up on his back, flattened beneath Asswipe and a panther that transformed into a cute--and underdressed--girl. With nothing but the sky's blurred shades of blue in his immediately visible view, Nico wheezed a quick groan of pain as the throbbing pain from his head forced his eyes shut momentarily. He didn't even know which emotion to pick as a reaction to everything and most importantly--

Heavy...

Physical education was the bane of Nico's normal high school life, but he sorely regretted skipping out on so many periods of PE at the moment. Only able to catch quick breaths of air, Nico's free left arm (the other currently pinned by the combined weight of two people) groped around for his glasses.

That was when Asswipe shifted above him and an elbow thrust into Nico's stomach. He gasped loudly and coughed, glaring at the shock of ginger hair above him. A niggling voice in the back of his mind--the one that had no regard for context--started trying to pin down the hair's shade of color.

Wait. The thread.

At that moment, a blur of red waved back and forth against the sky blue background and Nico's body jolted a bit.

That's mine. That color is mine.

Shoving the rest of his reactions aside for the moment--

Did that panther really turn into a girl?

Goddammit, where are my glasses?

Shoving. It. Aside. For the moment, Nico strained against the bodies on top of him, his free hand now reaching towards the bundle of red moving back and forth above him.

"Give..." he whispered, almost running out of breath just from that, "give it back."

Not counting the roughly 150kg of people weight on him, Nico was drained. The whole exchange with Asswipe had only lasted a few minutes, but he felt like he had just run that mile on the school track that everyone else could always finish in time. His brain duly noted that Asswipe was using his thread as some kind of lure to get the girl off of them, and he struggled to even find the words to express exactly how much he despised the guy above him.

As the thread remained out of his reach like some bad metaphor about Nico's entire damn life, he felt the first pinpricks of tears. If they were from the pain, the magical exertion, or both, Nico didn't care. He just wanted his color back.

"Go--" he gasped another breath in "die."

The sigil on his left hand flickered slightly, but resumed a steady, albeit fainter glow now. There was some strange comfort in the sigil's color matching that of the thread's.

"Uhhh, call me Clive." He said, leaning sideways to look over Kyou's shoulder.

He shook her hand a little hesitantly as he did so. He became aware of the escalating situation when the panther had appeared. Out of all the types, Henkei class users were usually the easiest for him to spot, because he could see the magic happening when they used a transformation. There was a floating panther circling the girl who he assumed was the user. When she had jumped, the panther had slipped into her body as she changed, and when it dissolved, it'd come out.

Next, the guy who was under the pile'd red aura started waning. Seems like he'd been using some magic already but it was weakening now. If he had to guess, he would've said it was a Hatsudo type or an Igyo with an active component. Clive could see some red rings on the guys hands but he had no idea what they signified.

You know, all things considered I think it's better to just ignore all that right now... He thought.

"I'm not blind, it's more like I just see too well." He said, continuing to shake Kyou's hand. "It's more for hiding the color though, they don't really do anything for me. A tail is a lot harder to hide, I would think."

---

@Masaki Haruna

Feeling some movements underneath, Akasha watched with a curious expression what the two below them were doing. They didn’t seem to be moving all that much. Did she just knocked them both out? One certainly looked pretty much out of it, looking all weak and squirming lightly. Well, it didn’t help by the fact he was at the bottom of the pile, but even so he doesn’t look very strong either way.

The guy that she was sitting right on top of showed off the skein of red string in her face. While she didn’t know what he was saying, the panther girl didn’t know if she would have to feel insulted or annoyed by the tone of voice he was taking. What the hell was he taking her for? She wasn’t just some baby or cat to be toyed with!

But gods above that string looked unnaturally beautiful! Akasha didn’t know what attracted her so much to that thread, but unconsciously, she lunged at the ball of vermilion string the guy was holding and leaped with feline grace out of the body pile. The thread looked shiny somehow, which intrigued her even more.

As the amazoness was examining the skein, she could hear the faint voice of the guy that was under most of the mound, seeing him reaching out to her, or rather what she was holding, with such a pitiful expression on his face that would make Akasha feel bad, she realized probably just how dear the belongings in his bag must be to him. Then, the amazon teenager realized just how similar the color of the sigil on the guy’s hand was with the thread. For a moment, she thought the two were actually linked together.

She could bear this face no longer. Akasha got up from her sitting spot and walked to the weak-looking guy with glasses. She knelt in front of him and offered his bag back, with a faint smile.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know it was so dear to you.” The black panther amazon spoke. The youg man probably wouldn’t even understand her, but she had no idea how to express herself by body language. And so she just stood in place, on her knees, with an awkward innocent smile.

For a moment, it appeared that Valechka was almost about to have a violent outburst towards the other girl. She didn't like having to say the same thing twice, after all. Valechka's face curled into a tight grimace, body tensing up, hands balled into a fist. Then, she relaxed, takig a deep breathe to calm herself down. Perhaps it was the other girl's reaction with which Valechka believed the other girl could do no harm.

"Nyet. No worries," the bear-girl relaxed, "tsel' i zatem ogon. Is what babushka always say. Valechka can hear her saying right now. Probably is." She scratched herself over the chin. Valechka appeared uncomfortable, not acclimated to the weather or the people. When the other girl had the audacity to laugh at her, Valechka was confused. She didn't find what she had said previously funny. Perhaps it was an insult, though Valechka reasoned that such a person wouldn't say such a thing so upfrontly. "Blin," she sighed, trying to keep herself in check.

After the girl finished her speach, Valechka held a finger up, gesturing her to wait a minute. She got on one knee and took off her ruck sack. Then, she dug through her potatoes to produce a crumpled piece of paper. The paper was unraveled and there was a message inside. "Is welcome letter. Valechka think is what babushka say. Valechka is not of understanding language properly, but think talk about witch craft. Babushka always talk about woods. This not woods though. Too bright, too hot, not enough tree."

"Hahahaha! Sorry. Sorry, I didn't mean actual blind but yeah having a tail is hard for me to take a shower you see. It's as bad as combing my hair.. HAHAHAHAHHAA!" She laughed about it like it's normal for a girl talking to guy. Openly talking semi - personal things that can go borderline perverted for a guy's thoughts. Kyou starts becoming a chatterbox machine.

"Combing my tail that is. It's not like I comb it but hahaha... every time I'm in public, I keep telling people that I am a Cosplayer. Funny though, I have won Cosplay Contests for the past months. My friends tell me; Ohh Kyou your cosplay is realistic! and I'm like if you guys only knew that it's really really real real real! Reality is such a mess." She makes flamboyant weird gestures by swinging her hands everywhere while talking to Clive. Deep in her mind. Hey Clive, you even listening?

She sighed, while Clive seemed to not pay attention as he was looking around. "Hey Clive. You know Kung Fu or anything like that? Hmm... I feel like doing a lot of things, I kinda love my power because I have gotten faster. My mind tells me to go and do this but my body tells me that I have limits. My mind tells me no sometimes and what not by my body keeps telling me yes, it's so contradicting."

"Say Clive. What do you wanna do now? Seems like there is no Teacher or Prof whatever it is, everyone seems to be happy go lucky. Somehow my Foxy Sense is tingling, I mean my tail. It's saying like oohh there's a fight going on or some sorts.. so many things to do yet so little time. I kinda want to know what our school is like and how are our classmates like. Oh yeah speaking of which I wanna make a club that is a jack of all trades, it's revolutionary I tell you! Let's go. I'll tell you more about it along the way." For someone she just met, Kyou starts treating him like they know each other. Clive is about to enter a wild run with Kyou as she's about to drag him around. She grabs his hand tight. Wherever shall the wind takes them. @RoflsMazoy

DONOVAN HORSKA

Donovan was worried for a second there. The girl didn’t seem impressed, offended even. He prepared for the worst which, coming from a girl who could transform into a deadly predator and probably maul him with a wave of her paw, was bound to be really fucking bad. Thankfully his heart was put at ease, figuratively and literally, as the girl seemed to give in to her animal instincts and take the bait. Donovan immediately rolled off of Glasses and lay in the grass next to him. Ah, now that was much better. No weird lumps to elbow in this well-kept lawn.

He rested as the girl played with the string. He was bloody exhausted after that emotional rollercoaster. A puma-girl, losing his powers, a nerd just straight up flipping out, all within a few minutes of each other. Guess that was magic school for you. His heart was still racing from when his powers shut down. He placed his hand on his chest, noticing that Glasses’ imposed sigil was fading while his own rune was slowly regaining its usual gleam. Donovan frowned at the memory. He actually felt scared. Scared. That was a foreign feeling. From flying fists to horror movies to homework stress, nothing had ever triggered as big a reaction as what just happened. It was … unnerving. If he could help it, Donovan would try to never feel like that again. It was fucking awful.

His eyes narrowed in annoyance as he remembered who exactly caused all this. The loser who was still groaning from the ordeal, looking around for his glasses while nursing the area that Don elbowed (he still wasn’t sorry). This wimp somehow managed to make him feel so pathetic. He glared at the unfittingly cheerful looking sky. This didn’t go the way he wanted at all. He was supposed to measure himself against all these magical folks, prove that he was top dog even among all these magic users. He wasn’t supposed to get flattened by a jungle animal or get psyched out by this pathetic excuse for a man. How was he supposed to know that Glasses would flip out when he had his shit stolen? Hadn’t he ever had a friend steal some of his fries before? That is to say, if that loser even had friends. Or ate fries. Donovan bet that the nerd was on one of those shitty vegan diets, the ones that kept count of his calorie intake and shit. The point was, if he knew that taking his stuff would cause such a fierce reaction … well let’s be honest, he would have done it anyway.

Donovan was really itching to finish what he started. But he couldn’t do it while the threat of getting squashed again was playing with string in such close proximity. He valued having intact limbs too much. His egotism was returning gradually with every passing second as his powers came back. He felt the aura return, felt safe in it. Felt a lot cockier too. And while he wasn’t brash enough to pick another fight with puma girl there, he still wanted to get one last dig in. He made sure to disguise his tone, taking advantage of the language barrier to make sure that he didn’t piss off the girl. He turned his head to see the girl returning the string to Glasses as some sort of friendship offering. God, it looked like it was ripped straight out of one of those cheesy depressing movies where the dog dies. If today’s sudden flux of emotion didn’t make him throw up, this was certainly going to. Donovan shook himself out of his snarky thoughts and back to the matter at hand.

“Oi Glasses~” he exclaimed in a friendly tone that did not at all complement the content of his words, “Fuck with my magic again and your face is gonna look a lot more like that precious string of yours!”

Did he get the message across clearly enough?

“I mean I’m gonna break your fucking nose. Just so we’re clear.”

@January

NICO LEHMANN

When the cat-like girl grabbed the thread, Nico almost gave up hope. What was wrong with people here? (Rich, coming from you.) How did this situation even get this far? And did that girl really turn into a panther and back?

With the weight of two people suddenly off of him as Asswipe rolled off immediately after the girl jumped off, Nico sucked in a breath he had been trying to catch since the girl had barreled into them. In panther form.

A magic school--fine. But the hammering heart in his chest was not having any of that rationality, especially when Nico's version of Prozac was being toyed around with by someone other than him.

His eyes followed the small patch of vermilion as much as he could, though without his glasses he wasn't quite sure what he was trying to discern. And then the blob of tan skin moved closer and he could finally make out the clear details of her face. If his mind wasn't in such a state at the moment, Nico would have blushed at a girl coming that close to him wearing that little. He wouldn't call himself conservative, but he was suddenly glad his glasses were off.

The most surprising thing was the vermilion thread she proffered, her sympathy clear on her face as she gently spoke in a language Nico couldn't understand. He squinted a bit to get a clearer view of her features, but ended up just blinking back the tears that had almost come out. Pushing himself up as much as he could manage at the moment, he tentatively took the thread from the girl's open hand, reaching out carefully as if he was afraid she might renege on her offer.

When the bundle of thread was safely back in his hand, Nico cracked a small smile at her through the dirt and slowly-forming bruise on his temple.

"Thank you," he said quietly, almost too quiet for anyone to hear.

And the tightly wrapped length of thread back in his hands seemed to set the world right, silencing the deafening keening of sound in his mind that sometimes threatened to overwhelm Nico. He took several deep breaths as the sigil on his hand dimmed further and finally disappeared. His eyes flicked to Asswipe's right hand, which was now also free of that mark.

That was when Asswipe spoke up, referring to him as 'Glasses' and threatening more bodily injury if Nico used his powers on the douchebag again.

But with the thread back in his hand, Nico hardly cared. He nodded reflexively without really paying attention to the contents of the threat and instead turned back to the girl.

"Thank you," he said again, his voice a bit louder now. Fumbling around some more, he finally felt the cold frame of his glasses almost a meter away and quickly shoved them back onto his face. The left lens now sported a thin crack running diagonally across the surface, but there wasn't much he could do about that.

With a clear view of the girl now, and a clear view of everything else about the girl now, Nico turned red and then turned away, trying not to think...thoughts.

Wow, she's really cute all over.

Dammit.

Looking around for anything to distract him, Nico remembered Asswipe was still nearby and with a scramble he picked up his bag and backpedaled away, keeping his eyes on the worst human being to ever exist. He didn't want to be surprised by that meteoric asshole again.

Akasha wached silently, with a hint of confusion on her face as the two guys started to get up. One was rather quick to get back on his feet, and then had spoken words unknown to her to the other guy. His words sounded somewhat friendly, but the vibe from the current situation, and the way the frail-looking male seemed to give off something that would tell otherwise.

Maybe it was a love/hate relationship! The pondering amazon could only sympathize with the handsome guy. She didn’t know love herself, but she figured it would be like a dog loving his master who saw his pet more than a burden. How tragic it is!

After having regained his bundle of red thread, the guy named “Glasses” – Akasha really wasn’t sure if she heard that right from the snake-ish looking guy, nor did she knew of that word either – he seemed to be giving the cold shoulder to his would-be friend, instead turning to the panther girl and speaking something to her. Yet again, she didn’t understand the word spoken, but from the voice, his faint smile and expression on his face, she could only guess he thanked her.

Akasha nodded in response to the guy’s thanks, giggled lightly and sprung up on her feet. Well, looks like the fun was done here. In the end, she came out winner, but what mattered was the fun she just had. She wished those two guys would be attending this school as well, so they could have still many enjoyable days ahead of them. The prospect of being here seemed much more pleasant now that she knew there was fun to be had here. She wondered if there were many people like those two going here.

Guess she will find out soon enough. Like the simple girl she was, the shape-shifting amazon was quick to move on to something else, and it was with cheerful humming and joyful steps that made her seem like she was hopping as she walked away, exploring around the school’s premises.

Smoke continued to fill the confines of his office as Jasper enjoyed his daily morning cigarette; a dense cloud had formed, causing almost no visibility at all. For some reason, this didn't bother the Four Winds Headmaster; it was as if his vision was not obscured in anyway.

"A rambunctious bunch; not surprising."

Jasper was still talking to himself while staring outside his window. As expected from children their age, the range of emotions that was present was as varied as magic itself. The thought of having to deal with such a group was starting to give him a headache.

His gaze was slowly redirected towards the distance; at the mountain trail that lead to his institution.

"Finally, they're all here." he said with a hint of relief. He was starting to get impatient; he was worried that they weren't going to start on time.

Putting the cigarette that was in between his two fingers up to his lips, Jasper took one last deep breath before letting out a massive amount of smoke. It filled his room and was forcefully blasted outside. Most of the students outside of Four Winds got a glimpse of Jasper, but the sudden sound of banging windows and the sight of a pale grey cloud quickly filling up the sky called their attention almost immediately.

It eventually managed to cover the sun, blocking out most of the light and dimming the area in the process. This, however, only lasted a few seconds. Sun rays began to pierce to the magical cloud as it started to crumble in multiple pieces before plummeting downwards. It was defintely a strange sight but what made it even more weird was the fact that the fragments of smoke started to take the form of doves and raced towards each and every newcomer that was present.

Many lacked the reflexes to react to smoke constructs that were zooming towards them. There were a few who were fast enough to dodge while others had the skill to block the so-called attack, but they all ended up in the same position regardless. As soon as they were inches away from the students, the doves reverted back to their base form and seeped in through every single orifice you could find on one's face. All the students were left motionless and in a daze. Their consciousness were intact, but it appeared that most of their senses and movement were robbed from them.

It was safe to assume that none of them had any idea of what was happening. Before irrational thoughts of fear could flood their minds, an semitransparent image appeared in front of each and everyone of them.

It was a man withshort black hair, tan skinned, thick scraggly eyebrows, wearing a black t-shirt, jeans and a long stained labcoat. His sleeves were folded up to his elbows, exposing his heavily tattooed arms. He was the same person who was in the room where all the smoke had come from.

"Good day to all of you. You already know me by name, but let me formally introduce myself. I'm Jasper Takayama, Headmaster of Four Winds."

Despite being some sort of projection, he still continued to smoke. A few puffs later and he resumed speaking.

"Its eight o'clock based on my watch, so we're starting just in time. It was surprising that most of you came early. Anyway, you must be wondering what had just happened. Well, in a nutshell, I basically poisoned all of you. The right term might be corrupt, I'm not quite sure." the image of Jasper rubbed his chin momentarily as he pondered for a bit.

"No need to worry though. This is a novel spell of mine that's meant for wide scale transfer of information, but I'm using this now since I don't really have the time to welcome all of you personally; I'm a busy man. The ones that will be responsible for you will be a group of instructors I've personally selected. They'll be showing you around the campus and orienting you on all the rules we have here." The image appeared more faint as it slowly started to disappear.

"I guess that's it then. Well, good luck." And with that, they all started out to cough out the smoke that entered their bodies. While most of the new students were still trying to catch their breath and recover from the whole ordeal, an individual with red hair donned in a black, leather jacket with a fur collar and a white V-neck underneath, emerged from the gates of Four Winds and approached them. Completely distracted they failed to notice the symbols that was gradually forming on their bodies.

The red-haired man gave them a arrogant smirk and spoke. "You lot can call me Varus. I'll be "taking care" of you for now."

Something strange happened though; he just passed by each one of them. "Everyone, follow me." he said in a stern voice as we began walking towards an open field outside of the school.

"Get ready for your first trial here at Four Winds. Those I deem to be unimpressive, are automatically expelled. Capiche?"

OOC: Your character's will probably notice that the existing language barrier between each other has vanished, but the manner of speaking and accents still persist though. Feel free to ask in the OOC for any clarifications or questions.

NICO LEHMANN

Just when Nico was wondering how long he’d have to keep an eye on Asswipe—and how much longer he’d be able to do it without just collapsing from exhaustion, a window in some distance slammed open and he immediately jumped at the sound cutting through the calm chatter of students. Turning to the highest tower of the school, Nico saw a billow of thick, grey smoke rushing rapidly out of the window that had been shut tight just moments before.

He processed a silhouette of a man just briefly before the expanding smoke stretched across the sky like a vaporous curtain, muting all the colors of the world for a brief and terrifying moment. Shafts of light pierced through the grey veil soon afterwards, settling a tiny fraction of Nico’s frayed nerves, but that moment of relief barely lasted before the smoke itself seemed to dash towards the group of students in a much more sinister interpretation of rain.

Nico cried out and covered his head with his arms. Only to see the thinning strands of smog shift into doves. Which still flew straight for them. Bracing for impact, Nico squeezed his eyes shut and heard a strange noise slip into the air around him, like a soft sigh with a hint of a rasp.

And then the smoke was everywhere around him and in him and Nico couldn’t even fathom what was happening to even panic.

I can’t move.

His first thought in trying to process everything.

I can’t feel.

A person appeared before him.

I can see.

I can hear.

…Good luck?

Jasper, or something like Jasper, had barely finished speaking when the smoke that had invaded Nico’s body suddenly stopped feeling like congealing mud. Before he realized it, he was hacking and coughing it out, heaving in breaths of air as often as he could.

Someone was coming. Nico wasn’t sure how he felt something like a presence, but something like an ancient instinct clamored for his attention and he looked towards the gate. A different man stood there. Not Jasper. Someone else. Someone just as dangerous. Just as strong.

Ah. This instinct was survival. Fear.

The moment shattered just as quickly as it had formed, and the man named Varus stepped past the group, calling everyone to follow him to…the first trial? Nico could have laughed at something so dramatic if the entire day hadn’t consisted of so many intimidating first’s.

His first time getting into a fight. His first time hating someone that much. His first time getting manhandled by smoke that turned to birds that turned to smoke.

“Capiche,” he repeated numbly, his thoughts as murky as the smoke just moments before. Still sifting through the mist of his own emotions, Nico quietly followed Varus. His first clear thought was that Varus’s hair was a striking dark auburn.

Alice frowned. There were a lot more people waiting at the front gate of the academia than what she hoped. Even half of the current number would make her feel less special, but this much? She had braved through an unknown nation where she got lost for a while, only to be shown that she was less special than the letter promised her to be. It dampened her mood somewhat, but she decided that perhaps the people there could be used as parts of her story. She brought her pen and notebook, and started her observation of the ruckus that was happening - which didn't last long as a mysterious fog rolled by. Unable to see as much as she liked, Alice let out an audible sigh, and waited patiently until something else happened.

The fog thinned not long after however, and the keen-eyed Alice noticed that it came from a gasmask-wearing person that was still surrounded in a similar fog now. Alice wondered whether she should approach that person, but with how someone else approached them, the girl decided to stay put instead, taking notes on how the interaction unfolded from her current position.

Of course, the peace of mind that would allowed her to write did not last long. The sun suddenly darkened as smoke covered it. A glimpse was enough to confirm that it came from someone else this time. The smoke then crashed into the ground, and in a blink, turned into doves that raced towards each of the kids around. Alice's reflex was to take off her jacket and used her ability on it, but instead of continuing, the dove turned back to smoke, dodged the attempted block, and the smoke then entered her.

She couldn't move. She couldn't do anything but be frozen in her place.

The feeling of vulnerability and powerlessness scared Alice as much as she hated to admit it. Soon however, the culprit decided to show himself. Tattoed short-haired man wearing a lab coat. Alice attempted to memorize that person's image with as much detail as she could. He introduced himself afterwards. This man was Jasper, the one that sent the letter to her, and presumably the other kids too. He explained how he had effectively poisoned every single one of them just so he could allow for a quick transfer of information. This man made Alice felt uncomfortable.

He soon said that he had selected instructors to show them around the academia however, and promptly disappeared along with the paralyzing smoke. Finally being able to move again, Alice attempted to catch her breath. Losing control of her body like that, no matter the reasoning, felt nightmarish. She thought that sooner or later, she should find a way to avoid being in the same situation. Soon a red-haired man entered the scene though, and asked them all to follow him for the first trial. Still shaking, Alice wore her jacket again, and dragged her luggage as she passed through the gate, following the lead of the man named Varus.

This wasn't what she hoped to be the start of her story.

Mikhail Suburov-Tachibana

Mikhail was going to kill Donovan (not that he knew his name). Why? Because he had messed with someone who must not be messed with, someone who he liked, someone who he saw as a friend. And yes, he meant Nico. Nico was precious, Nico was quirky, Nico was someone who thought poorly of others, but that just steadied Mikhail, provided a balance to Mikhail's own idealism. Nico kept him grounded, although the other young man didn't know it. But why had Mikhail missed the fight in the first place? Why wasn't he there to protect the person he liked? Well, there was one answer to that - because Mikhail had been surprised and shocked at how much the school campus stank of crime and malice, which to him, was like sulfur.

If not for the fact that Nico was there, he would have bailed out and ran back to his parents at the smell, smell that was presumed to come from the less...distinguished alumni of the school. But he was not going to do that, he was going to look for Nico - and did that guy just threaten to break his nose?! He was going to activate his aura, then punch that person in the face and show him what a broken nose was like!

Mikhail began running towards where Nico and Donovan were, fist raised against the latter. Then, the ground was shaded in darkness and shadow, and the sulfuric stink intensified. Then, the dark grey cloud that covered the sky broke, transforming into little cloud-doves that forced their way into everyone's nose, that last part counteracted his aura, bringing him into paralysis.

Then, a hologram of Jasper Takayama began to appear, clarifying that the image, and the words spoken, were part of an information-transferring spell that may or may not poison their lungs as well. Well, at least the spell's end allowed them to cough out said smoke. Mikhail breathed out, looking for Nico again...before their asshole of an instructor came out of the campus and asked them to follow him to their 'first trial'.

But right now, Mikhail can only care about Nico and how to make up for not having saved him from that bullying redhead. Plus, also, taking vengance on said redhead for his actions. Taking a glance at a shaken-looking girl who also stank of sulfur - though much less so than the bullying redhead - Mikhail finally found Nico as he said 'Capiche'.

"Nico, is that you?!" Mikhail would say in defiance of Varus as he walked with the other boy towards the open field. "It's me, Mikhail. Mikhail Suburov-Tachibana. Your penpal." Nico looked...handsome in his glasses and black suit. "I'm sorry that I failed to protect you; we'll get the other student - the one who threatened to beat you - later, perhaps during the trial our instructor was talking about."

It didn't matter that Nico stank of sulfur as well, due to his hidden tendencies to think badly of people. Nico was Mikhail's, and Mikhail was Nico's, so everything was all right. One would notice that Mikhail was not going to try hiding his sexuality, his...crush on the other boy. Let the others mock him; Nico was Nico, flaws and all. He was not going to leave him.

He just hoped he hadn't disappointed Nico by failing him today. A sigh.

You could turn off the Presumption of Innocence, you know, his mind told him. Mikhail immidiately rejected that idea, even as he looked at the other girl, the one in the jacket who stank, as well as the bully who tried to attack Nico, the one whom he promised to 'get'. He was not going to let down his guard in this place, not when everything seemed to be heading to bad things for him and Nico and anyone whom he might make friends with in this unfortunate place.

Then...he noticed something; the language barrier, it had faded! Something must have overriden his aura - or did it fade away when he inhaled the smoke?! If so, he had to be careful of the immense power the faculty had...

@Nanashi Ninanai@January@Scio@banjoanjo

10 minutes ago

"Tch...man...I'm considered gifted but I have to travel this far. This is annoying...." The cry of dissatisfaction plastered the young Tavani's face as he walked with his hands in his pockets, thinking back when he had a conversation with his elder sister about this academy he was being encouraged to apply for. Good idea, she said. He'd make many friends, she said. He'll meet people just like him with the same troubles, she said. The problem was, Tavani didn't want to meet others like him. He'd feel less special just like at home.

Coming up to the academy and raising an eyebrow from the the scenery that were before his eyes. He had to admit, the place did look impressive and he was surprised by the amount of other teens who were present but with pouty expression still displayed on his face, you couldn't tell. With the potential students chatting and with Tavani scanning the area to take a look at these...."freaks" who were like him, Tavani decided to stick to himself at the moment and crossed his arms, waiting with everyone else. What were these others capable of? Curiosity tickled at his mind when he noticed a few individuals with interesting features about them. Not to mention, some of the girls present, looked cute.

Now

"The hell I need to socialize for?" he said to himself before looking up immediately at the smoke that formed above them and then crumbled and fell but then surprisingly turned into doves flying at them. Tavani took a step back from what he originally thought were pigeons but with the double take and failure to dodge because of the speed, the doves turned into smoke and entered into him.

The first thought that came to mind....was he high? Did his uncle's good shit extend all the way here? no...not at all. Yeah he couldn't move and could feel his senses were dying, which seemed pretty damn close to shit his uncle was snorting or smoking and had almost the same effects. This was worse though.... whatever this was, it happened immediately. Tavani gained the vision and could hear this man who was smoking in front of him, call himself Jasper. Explaining that he poisoned them, Tavani's heart raced as he physically was sweating from the powerless feeling before coughing and nearly choking after being set free and listening to the introduction.

While down on one knee, Tav didn't notice the other man that showed up but looked up when he introduced himself. Varus...a tough looking guy who not only told the students to follow but gave a tough stipulation. Now Tav definitely felt this was an annoyingly bad idea but since he came this damn far, failure was not an option and he simply nodded. But...how was Tav going to impress him. I mean, all he could do was shift his weight. For all he knew, the others probably had killer magic 10 times better than his but he was going to have to pull something out of his ass to pass this. "*sigh* Thanks Shauna for making me sign up and come all this way potentially for nothing...this is the last time I listen to you, sis...dammit..." he said to himself.

Finally, something official started happening. But whatever it was, it didn't seem like something pleasant. A plume of smoke erupted from the building and blotted out the sun. Then, the smoke began to break apart, and transformed into doves, hurtling towards Enver and the rest. Enver should have been frightened, but all he could think of at first was why this was so bafflingly convoluted? Who needed to make a magic spell that created smoke that blotted out the sun that then turned into a horde of attack doves? Having always been a quick thinker and a quick mover, Enver moved to evade the onslaught of demonic smoke doves, but was caught nonetheless. The smoke entered his body and left him immobilized. It was soon revealed by the appearance of their headmaster via wacky magic image that this was all part of gathering information on them. Enver couldn't help but feel like his privacy was being invaded something fierce. Eventually, the spell was released, and Enver coughed up the gunk from his system. He still felt dirty.

Next they were introduced to the man called Varus who was apparently going to show them the ropes. Yet, he also claimed he was going to toss them out if they didn't measure up to his standards. Enver was under the impression he came here to learn how to be impressive, not to demonstrate himself to already be impressive. He had to wonder if his pissant flames were going to be enough for Mr. Douchebag here. If he was going to get thrown out of this place before he even got to learn something, then this whole trip was going to be a complete waste of time. Enver just rolled his eyes and followed along with the rest of the crowd. He had a feeling he wasn't going to have much fun right now.

Junko Adevelt

She did not get her answer to the question however, for a sudden new incident took hold of most of the new students attention.

Not that Junko can actually see what was happening considering the mist surrounding her. She could hear some of the other students panicking however, before a small smoky shape appeared out of nowhere heading straight for her face. She had no idea what it was or its purpose, but it was heading straight for her and that was reason enough to dive out of the way.

It still found her however, and she was treated to a taste of the principal's power.

After that announcement was finished, she rose to her feet, dusting off her raincoat. Was the headmaster so arrogant that he'd show off in front of all these people? Was a regular PA system too good for him? Using one's power when it was convenient was something she could understand, but new students arriving wasn't something unexpected; there was plenty of time to prepare your speech and everything before sitting down at the PA room, pushing a button and speaking into a microphone.

"You lot can call me Varus. I'll be 'taking care' of you for now."

And finally, someone to actually come and take care of the new comers. Everything about this school was starting to feel tedious already. While she did want to learn more about her ability and how to turn it off, being expelled was starting to look like a good option by now. Especially if everyone wants to be as pompous as that principal or this person.

Not that any of her feelings went further than her thoughts. Her expressions remained unchanged, and the old style gas mask, the kind that typically did not have a large open pane to see through, helped to conceal what little of her emotions that showed. With barely a word, she followed the man known as Varus, wondering what sort of trials she would have to go through to get into their exclusive 'club'.