---

(What it says on the paper slip:
"Remember to buy roasted almonds.")

@CriticalHit @Kalleth

Dia bounced from foot to foot for a moment, before sitting down hastily at the offered spot.

She felt her cheeks heat slightly at the comment on her hair. She pulled a few stands in front of her, noting how they grouped together by her hand.

"Yes, I suppose it is," she said quietly. "I'm, uh, I'm Dia. For the record."

Her gaze fell to the ground, scrutinizing the stonework. As expected, given the Earth elementalists around, it was perfectly symmetrical. Kept clean. Uniform.

She looked back up, shocking herself. She'd started to forget she was with people. She felt her blush deepen.

"S-sorry. I get lost in details a lot..." She muttered, looking down again.

@Regitnui@Kalleth

After the incident with the boy, Kanako pretty much let her feet take her whenever they wanted as her thoughts were still filled with him. Only when a gust of wind hit her straight on her face then she finally woke up from her stupor. She then realized that she was already on her original destination, the rooftops of the academy.

"This is..."

It was an amazing sight, even for her who tried not to be amazed by anything. From here, she could see pretty much nearly everywhere in the academy and even the city beyond that. The breeze that blew at her entire body was delicious, and she closed her eyes and widened her arms to fully feel it blow through her.

After she was satisfied, she decided to return back down. A shame, she thought. If she had control over her element better, she imagined she could just jump straight down from there, manipulating the wind to be her cushion. She had no fear of heights at all, just as you would expect from a wind elementalist.

On her way down however, she came across a scene consisting of a boy, a girl, and an older man who she thought might be a teacher. The girl was burying her head between her knees while the other two talked to her. Kanako wondered what could be going on.

...Ah, now she was reminded of something. She had been meaning to ask a teacher about when they would be assigned their dorm rooms. Might as well ask now, she thought.

"Excuse me, sir," Kanako said to the older man, "Sorry to interrupt but I was wondering when would we new students get assigned to our dorms? J-just curious, that's all." Like a good student, she asked politely, bowing her head a little as she greeted him.

@Aiyanna @CriticalHit @Kalleth

ShiZhen looked behind her as a a girl with purple hair came into the crowded room, whose seemed to have a strand of hair burning. Without thinking, ShiZhen reached out with her still-moist hand and snuffed out the tiny flame. It was a reaction based on instinct, having taken care of younger siblings. The girl was soon followed by an ominous figure, who showed the nurse his arm with the hand apparently having been severed. ShiZhen let out a small whimper and covered her eyes with her hands. She had taken care of small cuts, bruises and skinned knees,
but never anything like this. That's a sparring accident? She thought to herself. Since her own power was nothing but an inconvenience for her, it never occurred to her that the manipulation of the elements could be so dangerous. She broke out in a cold sweat...or so she thought. She was gathering moisture from the air again as droplets coalesced on her body and began dripping onto the floor, creating a puddle beneath her that some might have misinterpreted as another natural response to fear. She grabbed Jake's sleeve, "J-Jake! Wh-what's going on?" Looking back at the arm in horror, she saw it reform magically, the headmaster explaining his position and intent to 'welcome' them to the campus. ShiZhen noticed, with some sympathy, the girl with purple hair running out of the infirmary. ShiZhen was too afraid to leave Jake's side at the moment. She looked at the headmaster, wiping some tears of shock from her eyes, though given how wet her arm was, she merely redistributed the moisture. "S-so th-that was j-just a trick, right?" she asked, trying to find some happy excuse to escape from the horror that she had just witnessed, looking to the nurse for validation.

@Zelosse@Lord Orgasmo@Aquanthe@KRAZY J@Aiyanna

---

AS Catherine hovered over the school grounds, making her presence known as a way to inhibit unnecessary rough-housing or belligerence; people, especially children, usually behaved better when they knew they were being watched. In her scanning of the area, she noticed two girls gazing up at her. She didn't recognize the students, so she assumed they were newcomers. She floated down to them with a mature grace, smiling. "Welcome to the Academy," she greeted, gauging their body language to see if they had any questions or merely wanted to be left to their own devices.

@Pseudo Stygian@Raptra

Jideh smiled broadly, and nodded to Dia. Zeke offered her a spot to sit, and in turn, Jideh figured the least he could do was hand her a granola bar. If he kept meeting people at this rate, he'd need to get a bigger stockpile! Punching Zeke in the shoulder playfully, Jideh chuckled. "I don't care if you don't care, I want to show you!"

Jideh picked a seed out of his seed pouch, inspected it, and rubbed a speck of dirt of the shell. Then he focused on the small nut-like ball in his hand, and let energy flow through his palm with power. Inefficient, but energetic, the seed cracked and burst into a blooming sunflower before wilting almost instantly.

"Ah damn it." Jideh swore, laying the seed down on the ground gently. "I need to focus the power better, or else that hap–" A tremendous growl surged through Jideh's stomach and he involuntarily whimpered. "Ow. That also happens." Jideh sighed, and took out the remaining two granola bars, along with Zeke's rejected bar, unwrapped all three, and began chowing down hungrily.

@Regitnui @Old Amsterdam

---

Jordan saw the girl get up without a word, and hand him a paper slip. The gym teacher wondered if he was being shouldered with the role of disciplinarian once again, despite his clear dislike of the job. Jordan unfolded the paper and read–

"Remember to buy roasted almonds."

Jordan had no words. Quite like the girl who had just handed him a reminder to buy the very thing he had a severe allergy to. Seriously, was this some kind of joke? Jordan was opening his mouth to ask her just that when another boy with blue hair and short stature ran down into the hallway cursing at the both of them, and talking about finals of all things. An involuntary groan escaped Jordan's throat, thinking back to all the paperwork he'd had to sift through at the end of last semester. Kano had saddled him with an extra class, the bastard, and to top it off, he'd been slaving away at learning the new grading system all summer long.

Jordan heard the girl compliment the boy, and he put his face in his hands. Young love, at first glance no less? He thought he'd never see the day... Jordan considered his next course of action carefully, and wondered if either of them would care if he snuck back into his office to finish the damn speech.

A third student made her way down the hall, and that was when Jordan resolved to put up a "No Students Allowed" sign when he had a spare moment. However, she was very polite, direct, and up front with him. Her question in fact, he was perfectly prepared to answer.

"I like you," Jordan said, "Welcome to the Academy, I'm Professor Manilow. The answer you're looking for is that later today after supper, we'll be giving you dorm assignments. As to which assignments those are specifically, I couldn't say. Headmaster Hargor personally assigns every student in the school."

Jordan looked at this girl, and then at the other two, and paused a moment longer.

"Young lady, how good are you at speech writing?"

@Hammerman @Aiyanna

Evidently Silas's attempt to get the girls attention had succeeded, she'd even looked up and it seemed that she'd stopped crying, at least for the moment. He'd overheard the teacher's groan and could only assume it was directed at him, Silas sighed and looked over to the teacher to try and salvage the situation. "Look, I just turned the corner and saw a crying girl who had a teacher crouching next to her holding... that." he said as he gestured to the teacher's.... staff? rod? cane? It didn't really matter. His gaze shifted back to the girl "I'm not trying to be a jerk or anything I just kinda, you know assumed the wor-"

”I love your eyes.”

As those words were spoken, Silas's train of thought ground to a screeching halt and a look of confusion quickly spread across his face. The purple haired girl's voice did not match the way she spoke whatsoever, and why the sudden compliment? To say that Silas was confused would be a massive understatement. "U-um thank you? That kind of came out of nowhere. Like we don't even know each other!" he said as he nervously laughed, trying to play off any embarrassment on his end. As he wiped the look off his own face, he looked back down to the girl who had once again withdrawn herself into the solitude of her own legs. "Come on, you can't just say something like that and then run away. Not only that, you still haven't told us what's wrong!" Having nothing better to do, Silas sat next to the purple haired girl and poked her on the arm, he could see the girls eyes, they were azure, like a calm sky. "Look maybe I was being a bit too harsh a second ago, My name's Silas, and you are?"

@Aiyanna@Kalleth@Hammerman

Fallon and Kane stay outside, hating the fact that they had to go inside to learn anything. They never had many good experiences inside buildings, which is why they prefer outside better. They felt happier outside. "Try practicing, Fal," Kane smiles warmly.

Fallon frowns, and concentrates, trying to draw water from their surroundings. "It's hard," she whimpers, looking at her brother with wide eyes.

"I know, Fal, but you can do it. Remember that," Kane urges. Fallon nods, and tries again. Slowly, but surely, you could see the moisture in the air, forming in her hand, slowly materialising into water. Half a minute, and Fallon has a good amount of water cupped in her hands.

"I did it!" she squeals, showing her brother her success. Kane nods.

"Good job, little sis," he smiles, ruffling her hair affectionately. Glowering at her brother, she throws the water straight into his face.

"That's for messing with my hair," she scowls, trying to fix up her hair. Kane looks stunned for a minute, his hair and beanie wet from the water thrown on him, before roaring with laughter.

"You're still feisty," he chuckles. Fallon pouts. "And now you look adorable."

"No I don't!"

"Yes you do," he smirks.

While waiting for Lyra to think of an answer, Vera glanced back at the violin, which had started playing by itself once again.

"Yes... I do believe that it's you who's doing that," she muttered, right before her companion apologized and spoke about flying, though, Lyra cut herself short when she looked up at the sky and gasped in surprise.

Curious, Vera followed her gaze and spotted what she did - an adult woman gliding through the air right above them, literally flying. From that, Vera deduced that she was a Wind Elementalist. What a coincidence it was for her to show up just as Lyra mentioned flying. Vera imagined that it would be loads of fun to be able to do that. Smiling at the woman, she extended an arm up and gave her an enthusiastic wave.

"She's probably a staff member," Vera then said in reply to Lyra.

"Oh, thank you Ma'am," Vera chirped, right after the woman landed in front of them and welcomed them to the academy. She was rather impressed that this teacher knew her students well enough to identify her and Lyra as first-years. "My friend here is a Wind Elementalist as well."

She then turned to Lyra, wondering if she was going to ask something about flying, or playing her violin with wind.

@Pseudo Stygian @Stern Algorithm

---

Xavier was glad that the morning was over. He often shared his students' sentiments, and he was sure that most of the new students would rather spend the day making friends, checking out the academy facilities, or experimenting with their elemental powers. That last one was one of the reasons why the teachers had to be on patrol, wasn't it? In case some knuckle-headed kid decided to try something they shouldn't, though, sometimes accidents just happened even without any rash decisions made. Well, that brings back memories...

Speaking of accidents, Xavier's thoughts were interrupted when he suddenly felt a force charge right into him, causing him to stumble back slightly. He looked down at the teenage girl, who quickly apologized and introduced herself.

He raised an eyebrow at 'Hailee', whom he assumed to be a student. There were few students he actually remembered, these were the ones who made a sufficiently big impression on him, regardless of whether it was a positive or negative one. "You have an appointment with the Headmaster? He's probably making his rounds, so I'm not too sure either. If you're late, he might have left wherever you were supposed to meet him, thinking you weren't going to show."

Wondering how urgent this meeting was, he continued. "Would it be possible to wait at his office until he returns? Though, if it's really critical that you see him as soon as possible... hmm, let me see how I can help you, kiddo... oh, if you're keen on running around, try the other staff rooms or offices. If it's none of those, you might catch him at spots where many students are gathered."

@Arya10108909

Some parts of Lyra's brain was working twice, three times faster. A person, flying, without being supported by anything? How does that work? A human body weigh quite a lot; it couldn't possibly be simple aerodynamic. Why isn't gravity doing anything to stop it? And look at the way she gracefully made her way down! It was almost like the air was an extension of her body, or perhaps she became an extension of the air?

Her violin played, quietly, almost imperciptibly, an orderly musical scale. Just as before, it stopped as soon as she noticed.

"Ah, uhh." Lyra stared dumbly for a while. "Oh, ma'am. Sorry, I'm just wondering how did you manage to do... that. Flying. It looks so," it took her an uncertain second before she found the word, "improbable?"

@Stern Algorithm @Raptra

@Kalleth
Professor Manilow. Got it. Kanako made sure to drill his face and name to her head.

"I see," she replied to his explanation. "Thank you very much for the explanation, Professor Manilow." She bowed at him once more. "And I believe my ability at speech writing is quite good. I would happily be willing to help if you request it, professor."

Kanako thought there wasn't any harm in helping a teacher. It would make a good impression for sure and it wasn't like she had anything else to do. She intended to really live the school life in this academy after all, now that she was away from all those nagging non-elementals.

She did hope she would get a nice dorm partner though. The headmaster was supposedly the one deciding who would get who so she could only trust in his judgment.

@Kalleth

Jordan was pleasantly surprised at Kanako's acquiescence, and without a word further, he gestured to his office and went inside, indicating that she should follow. Jordan kicked aside some cricket gear, shifted a stack of dusty papers, and chucked a box of "stuff" to the other side of the room. He couldn't help but cough, because the amount of dust that filled his designated work space was otherworldly. Some of it was the result of the pranks of former students, sent on Kano's orders no doubt, and some of it was in fact intentional. Jordan would never say he was paranoid per se.... But it was good to have plenty of his element semi-discreetly on hand.

"Sorry for the mess Kanako, I'm not really an indoors person most of the year, so the clutter really adds up. I'm like a water elementalist in a desert, when I'm in the office, that is." Actually, being in a desert wouldn't be too bad in my case, Jordan reflected, climbing over a half-broken filing cabinet to his desk, the only uncluttered space in the entire room. He sighed and dug around for a folding chair, and plopped it down next to his own in front of the computer. Then, having created a workspace, if you could call it that, he reached up behind them and pulled a cord with all his strength. The blinds slid up and let in a whisper of light, through layers of dust and grime on the window. "Damn it all..."

Jordan took his keys off his belt, found the proper one, and unlocked the window. Immediately, there was a rush of fresh air and true sunlight that poured into the room. He could practically feel the ghosts rushing past him into the outside world, and as he propped the window open with his staff, Jordan felt a bit sunnier. He turned to Kanako, the room now filled with fresh air and sun, and exclaimed dramatically; "NOW KANAKO, LET'S WRITE THIS SPEECH!"

@Hammerman

---

When Kanako looks at the computer, she will she that Professor Manilow has a word program open, and that the following has been written in size 12 Times New Roman font;

Dear Staff, Students, and Associated Members of the Academy,

It is my humble honour, and duty to inform you all, that the school year, has begun! Also there are quesadillas to be had at lunch tomorrow! Oh, and there's a certain Headmaster who should be informing you all soon enough of where you'll be sleeping. Which of you are in my class? Raise your hand!

Oh I almost forgot, if any of you even think of investigating what's in my shed, you'll die a horrible death. So yeah, have a great evening, and enjoy a new year of Elementalism, Education, and new Experiences!

|...

---

@CriticalHit

Zeke rubbed his shoulder. This boy was too loud and annoying. It almost irritated him enough to leave him to his crumbs and plants. But then he would have missed the plant. It was amazing, watching the seed bloom and die. The colours changed so rapidly. He even started when the boy's stomach rumbled. "Everything you do is loud," Zeke said, having forgotten to take a picture of the plant. "Loud and weird."

He turned to the girl. "Hey, you want to see something cool?" He flipped back to the stone drawing photo, showing it to her, but not letting go of his camera. "I was up there," He pointed to the second storey of a tower almost hidden from view by the rest of the Academy, "and I saw the rock on the mountain. It looks like pepper, doesn't it? Pepper on concrete, or in concrete."

@Old Amsterdam@Kalleth

Kanako followed the professor into his office, and what she saw there almost made her jaw drop. Everything, almost everything in there was messy. She could smell the scent of dust right away, like it was some abandoned house instead of an actual teacher's office. She couldn't imagine staying there for a minute, let alone for how many hours he spent in this place.

"Sorry for the mess Kanako, I'm not really an indoors person most of the year, so the clutter really adds up. I'm like a water elementalist in a desert, when I'm in the office, that is."

Still, that's no excuse to be this messy, Kanako thought to herself. She couldn't very well say that to a teacher after all. She could only watch as he paved the way to his computer like an explorer cutting through tall grass. At least he had the sense to open the windows, allowing fresh air to enter the room.

"NOW KANAKO, LET'S WRITE THIS SPEECH!" he exclaimed dramatically, which almost made her jump.

"Y-yes, let's," she responded. She was certainly uncomfortable dealing with this professor's... explosive temperament.

She took her seat before looking at the Word document open in the computer. Let's see here... it started just fine, until the end where he threatened death to any students investigating what's in his shed... wait what?!

She looked up at the professor, only to find his confident grin, like he had written nothing odd at all.

"Umm... maybe it would be better if you tell the new students about what it means to be an elementalist? And I'm not so sure about the whole "dying a horrible death" thing..." she suggested to him as politely as she could.

@Kalleth

Dia sat there, on the ground, holding a granola bar, absolutely dumbfounded.

Zeke made stunning pictures out of light, and photographed them.

And the other boy could grow plants. Was he different, like her, and not attuned to a base element?

Zeke was going on about a rock, so Dia mentally shook herself.

"Honestly, I think it looks more like dirt trapped in ice. Everything else is so uniform, but that stands out. It's different," she mumbled. "It's like a crazy in marble."

She hesitated.

"Unless you mean the color..." She whispered, horrified at herself.

@Regitnui@Kalleth

Jideh nodded enthusiastically, "I am loud and weird. You are absolutely correct Zeke!" He swallowed the last bit of granola and felt his stomach digesting comfortably. There was a threshold where he had to stop, for his own safety, in case the calories had not yet been absorbed by his body. Enough showing off Jideh, he thought disappointedly.

Dia caught his eye, and Jideh really looked at her for the first time. She seemed to be trembling, practically shaking with... fear? Anticipation? Nervous energy? She reminded Jideh of his little sister, who had serious problems socializing. His parents were still trying to get her to make more friends when he had left for the Academy. Jideh wondered if Dia was going through something similar, and he knew how much his sister had appreciated when people came to her, and just spoke to her, and let her listen.

Jideh got up, and very slowly but deliberately made his way around Zeke to Dia and sat down gently next to her. He smiled again, not touching her at all, but just being next to her and admiring the Academy grounds.

"We're all new here Dia, and I hope you're doing okay being away from home. There's plenty of reasons to be worried, this being a new world and all. Although, I am confident that after a few months here, we'll all be feeling right at home. I mean, just look at this place! It's incredible! There's lakes, forests, mountains, jungles, I even heard that there's an underground river of lava! Dia, I can't imagine what it is you like to do, or what your passions are, but I know that there will absolutely be a place for you here. I can already begin to sense my own place here in fact. That greenhouse behind us, it's chock-full of rare and beautiful plants! I can show you some of them if you like, because that's me. I like plants, and there's nothing else I know more about! Just in the two minutes I spent inside, I saw a whole pile of plants I've never seen before! Elementalists might be able to help plants grow here at the Academy that can't grow anywhere else! It's just... Wow."

Jideh was watching Dia as he spoke, thinking she was pretty somewhere in the back of his head, mostly considering how her nervousness mirrored that of his sister's. Of course, Jinnah Basrah was a five year old girl, and Dia had to be at least as old as Jideh. A growing nervousness of his own crept up in his throat, as he wondered if he'd grossly misjudged the situation. He felt a lump form in his throat and to distract himself, he reached into his pocket.

Jideh felt a seed, and smiled, the tension in his throat loosening. He produced the seed for Dia and didn't bother handing it to her, simply placing it in front of her. "There you go, that seed will grow into something beautiful if you desire to plant it and take care of it. That's my gift to you. I hope you decide to nurture it, since I think you would appreciate its beauty."

Jideh realized he'd never blushed this hard while talking to a girl, and he immediately shifted over a bit, giving her space. He hung his head and fiddled with the granola wrappers. What am I doing? Am I crazy? Or just too used to life on the farm?

@Regitnui @Old Amsterdam

---

The seed looks like this.

Dia looked around as Jideh sat next to her, surprise showing on her face.

Dia accepted the seed meekly, scrutinizing it. "It's not structured," she blurted out. She covered her mouth immediately after, glowing a bright red now. "I just - I'm no - errrrrr," she stumbled through the words quickly. "I don't do well with plants. Everything gets cold around me."

Sure enough, the air was becoming noticeably chilled around her as she got more flustered. Nearby a bucket had started frosting over.

"I can't control it. You should take it back. I don't want to ruin it," she muttered, holding out her hand with the seed in it. "I-i-I'll ruin the system it grows into. The structure. The, the symmetry."

@Kalleth@Regitnui

Jideh pushed the seed back into her hand, feeling the cold emanating from her. He looked her in the eyes and pressed her fingers over the seed in her palm.

"You might produce cold, but you are very warm. If nothing else, storing it in a pocket should keep it tucked away nice and safe, as long as you don't forget about it. As soon as we find out where our rooms are, I'll bring over a pot and some soil to plant it in. I trust you'll be able to take care of it from there, because you are absolutely what this plant needs to grow into a beautiful symmetry that will dazzle us both! You can't harm the germ, that is, the part of the seed where the DNA is stored as long as you don't freeze it solid. It can handle the cold just fine Dia. In fact I don't know if you've heard, but around the world they have these seed banks that are used to preserve rare plants, they're like giant freezers for seeds. Anyway, unimportant. Keep the seed, you won't screw it up, I trust you. And... I'd like to hear you tell me some more about yourself. If that's okay I mean."

@Old Amsterdam @Regitnui

Dia nodded slowly, breaking eye contact.

"If you're sure..." She said hesitantly.

She slipped the seed into her jacket pocket, obviously nervous for its safety.

"But really, there's not much to know about me," she said as she looked away. "I like structure and symmetry. Everything fits a pattern. Needs to."

She glanced back at Zeke.

"I don't do well with people..."

@Kalleth@Regitnui

Zeke was looking up at the clouds again. "That one looks like a lizard shouting," he said, pointing more or less straight towards the top of the Academy. His fingers were already dancing, painting the cloud and matching the slow changes as it moved. He loved drawing clouds, but he could never complete one. Maybe that's why he loved them.

Broad handfuls of blue gave him a canvas to work on, and light, deft touches gave the edges the proper fluffy look. The core of the cloud, bright white, stayed more or less intact as his hands flicked around the edges. As the top "jaw" flaked off and began to dissolve, his picture mimicked it exactly, without him looking down.

@Kalleth @Old Amsterdam