[color=ed145b][b]NICO LEHMANN[/b][/color]

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.

[color=ed145b][i]I can’t move.[/i][/color]

His first thought in trying to process everything.

[color=ed145b][i]I can’t feel.[/i][/color]

A person appeared before him.

[color=ed145b][i]I can see.[/i][/color]

[color=ed145b][i]I can hear.[/i][/color]

…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 [i]that much.[/i] His first time getting manhandled by smoke that turned to birds that turned to smoke.

[color=f6989d]“Capiche,”[/color] 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.