Meilin Hua

"Oh... I've missed the opening ceremony..." Meilin mumbled to herself under the loud noise of the fireworks exploding, having just arrived.
If it wasn't for her having missed her flight in the previous day, she would still be on time to at least try to know a little better the new students, after all she could maybe be a mentor to one of them.
As an intern teacher, this year would be very different for her. While technically she was still a student, it was expected for her to act like a role model to the other students.

As she walked towards the institute, she gave a quick glance at the students who were watching the building coming into view. For her, the whole thing about the institute and the invisibility was more to ward off curious eyes and to make a show to the new students than to defend it from rogue channelers.
Nevertheless, it surely had an impact over the students, as many of the ones who saw it for the first time often were speechless after seeing the institute. Although she had already seen it many times, it was undeniable that the institute was a beautiful and imposing building. The sharp towers that pierced the clouds, the big open fields designed to more practical classes, the huge, intimidating wooden doors that led inside the building...
"I never get tired of seeing it." she thought to herself, contemplating the building for a second.

"Oh, right, I should at least try to give a look at the new students!" she remembered.

Many new faces were present in the opening ceremony. It was rather amusing as young channelers from many different countries and cultures could be seen reunited, all of them with a single feeling: their desire to learn. On the Institute, they would learn together about themselves and each other in a place completely detached to the problems of the world. A pure place to learn and evolve both as a channeler and as a person. No politics, no racism, no wars... That was the feeling that made Meilin choose to stay at the institute and become a mentor. Lost in her own thoughts, Meilin close her eyes for a moment and simply stood still, feeling the gentle breeze kiss her face and blow her hair.

When she opened her eyes again, she saw a very familiar, old and wrinkled face. Daler Ghumman. He was a wise old man, he used to be an instructor but now is retired. Meilin liked to meditate with the old man, she had a deep respect for him. Sometimes they talked to each other, but other times they simply sat down and meditated. The man had a lot of wisdom to pass.

"Namaskar, Daler." she said with a smile when she got near him with a slight bow and pressing her hands together, greeting him in the same manner they did when they went to meditate together.

"I missed your company." she said, looking to the old man with a smile.

"Not many people realize the importance of meditating nowadays, and even fewer people are as wise as you are."

"Have I missed anything interesting? I am a little late because I lost my flight yesterday."

"Oh, sorry, I didn't saw you there Mako." she said, greeting her after a while.

"Your acquaintance?" Meilin asked, referring to the quiet, doll like girl that was nearby.

"Pleasure to meet you, I'm Meilin Hua, but you can call me just Mei." she said to the quiet girl with a smile.

After she spoke to everyone, she turned to Dr Shin Maxwell.
"Doctor." she said in a distant, formal greeting. She didn't exactly got along with him due to his... Difficult personality, and as such she wanted to avoid any kind of problem with him.

@Azereiah @VitaVitaAR @Western Robot

AKIKO

"Yeah, whooo!" Akiko cheered as she listened to the speech from Asa, making quite a racket. She had long since forgotten about the incident with John and had spent most of her time thinking about the Institute again. By the time Asa showed up and started talking about the Institute, she was once again super hyped up and excited about the idea like she was when she had first arrived. And when the Institute building finally made its appearance, it blew Akiko's mind. This was like stuff straight out of a comic book or something, if someone told her a day ago that she'd be seeing an entire school building just POOF in front of her eyes, she'd slap them. "Guys...guys, did you SEE that?! That was, like, the most awesome thing I've ever seen!!" Akiko shouted excitably to the others, too amazed by the invisible building that she didn't realize she was probably making a fool of herself. Obviously, she was one of the first in the group to head towards the building, immediately grabbing the giant double doors and opening them

HANA

Hana was somewhat less amazed at the spectacle of the Institute building appearing out of nowhere, as she was a little more familiar with the channeller world and had seen similar things before. That being said, she had still never seen anything quite like that before, and was still rather impressed, mostly wondering how they managed to perform something like that. Unsurprisingly she kept her amazement to herself unlike Akiko, not at all willing to draw attention to herself

Hana felt her stomach churn a little bit as she heard someone greet her. Luckily though, it was just someone giving a passing greeting. Hana politely gave a small wave back, not much more. She picked up her bag from the ground, slung it back over her shoulder and followed the group of people into the Institute's main entrance

---

Freyja looked around her as the institute building began to manifest. Just like last year, and the other years before that, many students stared with amazement at what was unfolding before them. She smiled a little at their expression. It was certainly one of her favorite moments when the institute opened its gates to new students every year.

She then saw a young woman wearing a skimpy chinese outfit approaching from the distance. She could already tell she was Meilin Hua, an intern teacher recently employed by the institute. She was the only one who would wear something like that in front of the students after all. She had expressed her disapproval to her before but she disagreed with her views of propriety.

She sighed. It wasn't like there was any dress code that the teachers had to abide with. So she's free to dress however she wanted. It was only her personal request, nothing more.

But still, excepting that aspect, Meilin was a perfecty capable intern. So she had no problem with her professionally.

She then heard the redhead from before shouting cheerfully at the reveal of the institute. Like she had expected, she was the type that was quick to anger, but quick to forget about said anger as well. She should make up with the boy in no time.

@13org

Yasu Hirabayashi

While the sudden appearance of the previously invisible school was certainly something to see, Yasu couldn't help but snigger at the sight of Bradley losing his shit over it. It was just too perfect; it not only proved she was on the right track, but it made Bradley look like an even bigger dumbass in the process. Even Brock acknowledged she was right, although it wasn't so much that she was right, seeing as she just said it could've been invisible in response to Bradley. But she wasn't going to correct him now. "Yasu Hirabayashi." She responded when he told them his name. It wasn't like she needed to keep her name a secret. "And I shot lightning in a guy's face. Then Russky showed up and I thought it would be cool to learn how to shoot lightning at more people." That wasn't the whole story, but she certainly wasn't going to share her story in full with a bunch of strangers. In fact, the less people that knew about her home situation, the better.

Of course, aside from sharing stories, there was still this institute to take a look at. She wasn't exactly expecting an educational facility to be all too interesting, but there had to be some trippy magical stuff in there somewhere. She wondered if they had any good stores too, as she needed somewhere to indulge her spending habits.

@Azereiah @Cu Chulainn @blumenk

@Mercurial@Cu Chulainn@Azereiah

---

Daisuke rubbed his eyes as he saw the building slowly appear from nowhere, he had be imagining things as there was no way they could hide a building this big, without anyone noticing. That wasn't the thing that bothered though, it was the fact that he had to admit that he was wrong. Him deciding to discard the possibility of it being invisible since he never saw something similar, proved him inferior to Yasu and Brock in terms of open mindess and deducting abilities.

Daisuke began visualizing om his head that his dreamed spot of the number one being stolen from him by Yasu or Brock and how him ending up working at a dead end job with Bradley as his coworker. His derilous fantasies would be stopped by Brock who had introduced himself and was clearly asking the others to do the same. Regaining some of his composure Daisuke began to speak "Me? I'm Daisuke Kanzaki and I trained until I was able to create this" raising his fist into the air and creating his knuckle weapon, he could use this chance to show off a bit and find out how his ability compares to the others.

@Azereiah@VitaVitaAR@tipssyCalibrator@Sodium

Mako flinched at the loud invasion of her mind, but her facial expression didn't changed. Would she let him off for that?...yes. She brought it on herself anyway. She was having a lot of fun watching the entrance of a staff member she actually would call a good friend; Skyblue. He was just so constantly entertaining, even if she was often entertained at his expense rather than from his efforts. It was like talking to a walking comedy movie at all times. And this time was no exception; puking onto Asa's shoes. She probably shouldn't find it funny. If it happened to her, she'd actually use her ability, but right now, it was very entertaining to watch him get chewed out.

The institute finally appeared in a shower of fireworks to keep the kids happy. Mako was simply happy just to soon be back indoors with a beer or three. Mako turned to Delar when he offered to ride in the cart. "I'll have to decline, as there's someone more deserving than me, and I don't think all three of us can fit in." she turned to Clarabelle. "I won't make you go through any more exercise than you have to. Why not ride with Delar?"

---

"That will be all, Reginald," muttered Mina dismissively, as she set off towards the school alone. She was a amazed by a building suddenly appearing in her first year, but this time, without the shock factor, the ceremony was a little underwhelming and not as magical as she remembered. She was a little disappointed. As her butler professionally walked back down the field towards the limo, she looked back. Another year away from home, and away from her parents, to get taught more and more about her mysterious power. Initially she thought that her power was useless, but it was graceful, and suited her to a tee. Over time she had discovered more uses for it. This year she was secretly excited to see what else she could learn.

MINUTES LATER

AKIKO

Akiko was waiting around impatiently in the thicket of trees near the Institute building. She was told that all of the first year students were to be at the woods area right at 9:00 for some kind of "assessment test" from that teacher who introduced the Institute building. Of course, Akiko being Akiko, she made it there late, getting there close to 9:08. She had spending the next couple minutes pacing back and forth between two of the trees restlessly, anxiously waiting for that teacher lady to get there. "C'mon, what's taking her so long?! She's a teacher, isn't she supposed on time for, like, everything?" " Akiko said mostly to herself, but loud enough for anyone to hear. She had just been really hyped to start learning some channeller powers all day, and didn't want to sit around waiting

HANA

Hana had gotten there too, and she had unsurprisingly gotten there right on time unlike Akiko. Hana was somewhat far away from Akiko, sitting up against a tree trunk and reading one of her books. She was kind of wondering where Asa was as well, but she didn't make her thoughts known like Akiko was. She also figured that Asa was a busy woman and probably had some kind of business to attend to, especially after that situation during the Institute introduction. She also thought it was maybe a little odd for Akiko to be complaining about the teacher being late when she wasn't exactly on time herself, but she didn't dare say anything about that

---

---

Jonathan had forgotten about the school's power testing protocols. While he wasn't required to join in, he was a second-year student, and on top of that, he had had the power of COMMUNITY driven into his head by Alexei. He very much wanted to take part and help teach the first-years teamwork, but he had other issues to attend to at the moment. Specifically, his nose. Getting that treated took priority, followed by meeting up with some of the other second year students to decide on clubs and other social groups. Perhaps there would be other students interested in Professor Hisakawa's art class.

With that, he made his way to Freyja's office. He hadn't ever been there before, as he usually had his injuries treated by either Asa or Doctor Cartwright.

@Hammerman

---

---

Brock scowled at the small gathering of students. They were still trickling in and the head of the event was still nowhere to be seen. Had he known he'd be thrown head-first into a test, he'd have had breakfast before coming to the school. Tap, tap, tap -- his foot was bouncing on the ground impatiently and he had no interest in stopping it. At least it would be good for taking notes on what he'd have to deal with that year. Around him, the temperature was slowly falling and rising as he flexed his local thermostat power, and he gave off a very soft glow every few minutes. He figured that warming up a bit before the test was appropriate.

He looked around him for his party. He'd been intending to stick with that Yasu girl and Daisuke until they could all get their bearings, though in the commotion, he wasn't sure whether they were joining him or not. He also wondered if that girl he'd spoken to earlier would be joining his group.

@Mercurial@blumenk@VitaVitaAR

---

---

"Namaskar, Meilin. I have missed you too. Have you been well over the break?", Daler responded, opting to forego his usual Sat Shri Akaal, as she was not nor had she ever been a Sikh. She was one of his favorite students, though she seemed to suffer from what he thought of as a lack of ego in his presence. She had perfectly nailed the mindfulness aspect of meditation but almost seemed too respectful at times. Her dress style neither bothered him nor excited him. Materialism -- including criticisms of clothing style -- was anathema to him, and he wouldn't have cared one bit had she shown up either covered in a mountain of cloaks or completely naked. Still, he had given thought to it in the past, which brought him to his current realization that he flat-out didn't care a bit.

Daler opted not to respond to her suggestions as to his wisdom. He realized he was old and experienced, but he wasn't entirely sure about 'wise' yet. Perhaps wise was just a word people used to describe others?

"It's been slightly calmer than usual this year, Meilin. A student made a grave social error and was punched for his troubles, but there has been no fighting. Skyblue is up to his usual antics and has come up with a fresh 'introduction'. He's really outdone himself this time. Oh, and if you would like to join me and the others for tea after scheduled events, I would love to have you."

Once the cart was full of everyone who would join him, he would ride off to drop off Clarabelle at the CTF woods and return to his office until the event ended.

@13org@Silver Carrot@VitaVitaAR

---

Shinichi was prompt in reaching the meeting place. He'd taken a brief look inside the school before heading over, and what he had seen had already confused him. Was it bigger on the inside?

Around him, other students were arriving as well. The timid looking girl—Hana, was it?— had immediately sat by a tree and started reading again. Shinichi wasn't much of a reader, and he envied her ability to relax in a strange situation like this. Nearby, the scary-looking guy Brock was glowing. Was he using his power? This was supposed to be an assessment, but to demonstrate his main ability, Shinichi had to be hurt. He very much did not want to be hurt. He decided that he would only show off his strength, even though it wasn't much.

Several minutes after they were supposed to meet, Akiko arrived and made an outburst right away. Shinichi decided to answer.

"Well, she might be waiting for everyone to get here, Akiko. Maybe she's watching us from nearby."

@tipssyCalibrator

---

Shin was glad to be back in the Institute. Picking up the children was always a dull task, and the introduction was generally the same. At least the fireworks were tasteful this year. He still had bad memories from having to put out a forest fire.

Briefly, shin considered going back to his lab. No, he would need to mentor at least one student this year, so he might as well spectate the match. Security would have cameras around the area, so that would likely be the best place to watch covertly. While he could actually go out there and use his Mind's Eye move to spectate, or go to wherever the staff was supposed to watch, Shin greatly preferred staying in the Institute with the air conditioning.

When he reached the Security room, it was empty. They must have been off doing something else. Shin took a seat in the chair by the monitors and typed in the password. While he wasn't technically supposed to have that password, he hadn't been reprimanded for using it the past. He switched the main monitor to a view of the students' meeting place, and reclined in his seat with his notebook out. It was time to log some new abilities.

It was amusing seeing all the new students marvel at the spectacle of the Institute appearing out of thin air. Three years ago, the same sight had turned Ryuuto's world upside-down. He was certain their must have been some physiological reason that strings were coming out of his hands, but seeing the school appear before him like that... It became rather hard to argue that there wasn't something to all of this. And he was glad his parents had decided to send him to the Institute. It was beginning to feel like more of a home to him than the fancy house he lived in. Once they called all the new students into the woods for the first assessment, Ryuuto gave Terri a pat on the back. "Whelp, good luck. If you want a little snippet of advice, don't flaunt you powers unnecessarily. The less people know about you, the stronger you are." With that he gave her a wave and walked off, letting her answer the professor's call.

However, Ryuuto had no intention of settling in just yet. As he said, the he knew about people, the stronger they were. He was going to see if he could make them all a bit weaker. On his way over to the exodus of new students, though, he caught a familiar face: Kasuke Mina. She had joined the Institute last year and Ryuuto thought pretty highly of her for her excellent grades and work ethic. However, she wasn't the most approachable person, so they were at best acquaintances. Still, he figured a pragmatic girl like her would at least hear out what he had in mind.

"Hey, Mina!" He said, giving a wave as he walked over to her. "I'm about to go collect some data on the new students. I figure a second set of eyes would be helpful. We can swap notes and try to figure out all of their powers by watching the assessment. Are you interested?" He half expected her to just shrug him off and go off on her own like she usually did, but he had nothing to lose in asking her.

@Silver Carrot@clanjos

@Yuuta

Mina, who was headed to the direction of her dorms, turned to whoever was calling out to her. It was Koriyama. One year her junior age-wise, but had been at the institute one year longer than her. However, they were in the same classes, and their grades were very close together. He had even scored higher than her in a few. She didn't begrudge him that. He was very intelligent, diligent and capable, but it did annoy her that she didn't have a clean sweep of top marks. This year, she would have to work harder.

His offer did seem appealing. Her room could wait. She had, after all, given instructions for it not to be changed, altered, or even entered unless for cleaning purposes over the summer. The institute followed these demands. Even in a place as unique and amazing as this, the Kasuke name had clout. It would be wise to get a closer look at this year's new students and what they could do, and familiarise herself with anyone worth keeping an eye on, or avoiding. However, there was one thing about the offer that she could not accept.

"Don't call me by my familiar name, Koriyama. But I suppose it would be useful to watch the new students' assessment test. I have nothing better to do."

AKIKO

Akiko turned around in response to Shinichi and scoffed. "Yeah right. She's probably just running late" Akiko said as she crossed her arms. "It's so rude for people to not be here on the times they say they will. Do they expect us to wait forever?" Akiko complained, still completely ignorant of the irony of her complaining about someone else being late. She then let out an annoyed sigh and continued her anxious pacing between the trees

@Western Robot

Bradley arrived a bit earlier than everyone, spending his time practicing with his cutlass. His fighting style was fast and deliberate, and involved him quickly moving in, swinging his weapon, and then out. Bradley seemed surprisingly fast on his feet, developing this speed and balance from practicing on a ship all his life. Of course, none of this revealed exactly what his power was.

Whatever test it may be, Bradley had hoped to not reveal his powers just yet, letting it be a surprise to the rest involved. If it's a test of ability, the rest will probably assume Bradley's an Augmenter, which is exactly what Bradley had planned. This way, splashing water in other's faces will be quite the surprise. Regardless, he'll have to get used to hitting others with the flat of the blade when training. Or find a practice cutlass somewhere.

Wiping the sweat from his brow, Bradley stretched a bit afterwards. Seeing as he's been waiting for the event to start, all he's been doing was practicing. He definitely isn't a fan of standing idly by, and if he has to, he'd at least rather prefer reading a book. Sadly, however, Bradley didn't bring any of the books with him, preferring to take advantage of a potential library at the Institute. He then saw the purple-haired lass, reading a book. Bradley couldn't tell what book it exactly was, but he shrugged. He had a bumpy start making friends earlier, and she doesn't seem as abrasive as the others. While he doesn't have an immediate need in making alot of friends, it's always nice to have a few people to be at least friendly with.

"Oi, lass," Bradley called as he approached Hana. He stopped around five feet away from her, crossing his arms. "What're you reading there?"

@tipssyCalibrator

HANA

Just like before, Hana was so focused on her book that she didn't even notice anyone walking up to her. She made a frightened jump when she heard the voice, and immediately looked up to see a short haired boy in a blue jacket looking don at her. Oh no, not this situation again. Hana just simply held her book up and showed the title of the book to avoid speaking like she did last time. The book was the same book she was reading when she was talking to Sumiko

Flowers. It was a book about flowers. And what's worse, its poetry about flowers. While some of the epics Bradley has read are considered being poems, he wasn't a fan of how rhimey-whimey and wishy-washy some were. Still, though, Bradley was interested in knowing a few things about learning more flora, and seeing just how well he did giving a first impression to the other three, having at least one friend would be nice.

Bradley bit his tongue, trying his very best not to be as brash as he normally is. Yes, he is self aware of how rambunctious he can be, although sometimes he just can't help it. He backed up a few feet away, figuring that she's either the easily frightened type, before crossing his arms.

"Flowers, eh? You into 'em or something? Closest the sea's got to flowers are sea anenomes, though they ain't plants, they're animals. Heh, funny thing, I think they were named aft'r flowers? You know about anemones?"

Smooth, Bradley. Smooth.

@tipssyCalibrator

HANA

Hana felt the very familiar stomach churning sensation at hearing the boy ask her a question. Luckily though, it was at least about something she knew about. Anemones? Well she kinda knew about them she supposed. She wasn't very familiar with underwater related stuff, but she had at least heard of them. "Umm...a little b-bit...?" She said in her quiet, whispery voice in a somewhat unsure tone

---

After the opening ceremony was over, Freyja returned back to her office. The institute was generous enough to grant her a large office, so she could store her research equipment there. If a student were to enter, they would see a normal office at the front only to be amazed at all the chemistry lab equipment in the back. There was also a bed available if a student wanted to rest. It actually doubled as her bed too as often she would sleep in her office instead of her provided room. She was just the assistant nurse however so there was only one bed. It was still more of an office than an infirmary.

When she arrived, she immediately took out the necessary medicines for Jonathan, mainly some anti-inflammatory and a cooling bandage. She then heard a knock on the door. She surmised it must be him.

Opening the door, she greeted him with "Ah, here you are. Please, come on in." She gestured at him to sit on the bed.

@Azereiah

"Seems like a waste of time, if you ask me."

As if he had been there all along, Jun-Sang stood behind Mina and Ryuuto his arms crossed as he looked at the gathering of newcomers in the field.

"But then," Jun-Sang said, adjusting his glasses, "I guess I have different priorities than you two."

It was true, to be sure. Jun-Sang didn't really care about other people's powers. After all, it's not like he got into a lot of fights. Keeping to yourself gets you far, is what he'd decided early on. Jun-Sang wasn't entirely sure what he was doing outside, anyway. The truth was, he was still interested in these students, and as much as he didn't feel like admitting it, it was more than just because he was interested in seeing which of the newbies would be "good students".

Though that was a huge part of the reason. After all, he might just have to tutor one or two or twelve of those students. Seeing who behaved and who didn't would go a long way to deciding who he'd dread working with.

But then, he told himself, that wouldn't happen for a while, wouldn't it? None of the newbies would know of him until the flood of desperate students flocked to their guidance counselor asking to be set up with a tutor. At that point...

Well. It had been smooth sailing for him so far. Hopefully that would keep up.

"Though this is one of the few moments where I'm not preoccupied with something else," he finished, "you won't mind if I join you, right?"

@Yuuta@Silver Carrot

Bradley found a nearby tree to sit against, grunting as he lowered himself. It brought him a bit farther from Hana than he was earlier, thankfully for her. Bradley figured some idle conversation might work while they wait for the event to start.

"You know alot about flowers? Y'mind if you tell me about some? Never read into 'em on the count of 'em not being around the water."

---

---

Jonathan entered the office and his eyes widened slightly at the massive amount of equipment in the back. He wasn't sure what he was more surprised by -- Freyja's massive stockpile of research equipment, or the fact that she had more legitimate substances than Doctor Cartwright had illicit ones. If he were more chemistry-oriented, he'd definitely have immediately offered himself up as a potential protege for the Professor. "You have a beautiful laboratory, Professor Leden," he said, in awe of the materials.

A few moments passed and he realized he had been staring at the back of the office, so he sat down as instructed. He knew that the Professor had seen the blow, but out of habit, he stated what he believed to be the problem. It was usually better to state the symptoms and expected condition than simply hope a doctor could figure it out on their own, after all. He'd been through this part a dozen times at the Institute alone, and even more than that before. "Typical broken nose with no other problems. That girl has a good arm."

@Hammerman