Jordan heard Kanako's suggestion and nodded sharply. "Of course, of course. What they need to understand is that my shed is strictly off-limits, and that any inquisitive young student who attempts to gain entry to said shed will be promptly rendered unalive." He scratched at his chin pensively, and began to haphazardly draw sand granules onto the desk space beside the computer. "You see Miss Kanako," Jordan began forming images, shapes, and words that corresponded to his speech. "Every year, Headmaster Hargor instructs a member of the faculty to write an inaugural speech for that year's batch of first year students. I, Professor Jordan Manilow, have the misfortune of being chosen to fulfill this duty. And because of my, er, special talents, I am not particularly experienced in the field of essay writing. However, seeing as you've come along and seem to grasp the subject expertly, I think you are perfectly equipped to write a welcome speech for yourself and your fellow students. On my behalf, of course." Jordan drew out a formatted list and began filling it out for Kanako.

"The speech must be ten minutes long, cover the topics of the Academy's history, your roles here as students, and the boring sleepy info as per usual, stuff like faculty names and disciplines, dorm listings, and something about safety regulations that I could care less about..." Jordan patted Kanako on the back, and gave her a winning grin. "That bastard Kano won't suspect a thing!"

@Hammerman

---

Now would be an opportune time for the headmaster to make his appearance, and perhaps canonize the details of tonight's banquet for the students, eh @Zelosse? :D Helpful Professor Manilow, as always, at your service!

---

Jideh laughed aloud, and watched in wonder as Zeke expertly mimicked the skyline. It was mesmerizing to watch, but even as he kept his eyes on the other boy, he heard Dia. "I think you'll do fine with people. It's just that you're nervous, this being the first day and all."

Jideh got up, turned around and sprinted off towards the other end of the greenhouse, picked up his luggage which he'd forgotten, and then sprinted back, crashing into a tumbling roll of suitcase, duffel, backpack and boy. He ended up in a sprawl next to Dia and Zeke.

"Dia, I asked Zeke the same question, and I think you should hear it too. Would you like to be my friend? Our friend? Nobody should be alone at school, especially not a school where we're learning to use our superpowers!" Jideh said, laughing uproariously as he said it. "I mean, look!" Jideh scrunched up his face, brought his hands to the ground around them, and activated a tiny shred of energy. He waited a minute, and then felt the tickling on his fingers. Grass. The most resilient and enduring of plants, able to grow practically anywhere. Jideh plucked three thick blades from the dirt and gave one to each of them, whether they picked theirs up or not. Then, Jideh gathered his blade of grass into both hands and blew on the edge.

Hilarity ensued. Jideh began playing a tune, the grass-flute honking and squeaking. He used to do this with his friends back home... A trace of melancholy ran through Jideh, but he decided to ignore it. Better to try and make new friends here than worry about the ones he'd left behind. Right?

@Regitnui @Old Amsterdam

---

Because why not.

Dia looked at the blade of grass, completely confused.

So instead she looked at what Zeke was making.

It was a beautiful blend, his style following and methodical in an abstract way. She liked that.

She also liked having this time with these two boys. It was... Different.

"Friends?" She asked, furrowing her brow. "I never had friends before."

@Kalleth@Regitnui

As the purple haired girl once more emerged from the safety of her knees Silas couldn't help but feel accomplished as a grin spread across his face. He'd managed to pull the girl out of her self-imposed isolation not once, but twice, and this whole encounter had definitely been one of the most interesting things that had happened today.

”Je m'appelle Zafiriel Marie Louise de Grantaine. Heureux de faire votre connaissance – wait. No.”

The sudden slew of words spoken so rapidly and with almost mechanical precision from the formerly silent girl left Silas stunned, How the hell did someone take a simple question like "What's your name?" and come back with... with all of THAT! Silas' attention was quickly diverted however, as he caught a glimpse of white, wispy steam trailing off into the air. He pondered as to where the source of the vapour was as the girl spoke once more.

”Zafi”, ”Don’t worry. I am not broken.”

Well that's certainly easier to remember than Zafiriel Mary Louis de whatever the hell. Silas thought to himself as he cracked a snide grin... Which was quickly knocked of his face by a blast of something wet, the same steam from before. Not wanting to force Zafi back into seclusion, he merely waved the steam out of the way, albeit a little violently. " Steam..." The sudden burst of vapour reminded Silas of something he had been practicing, quite excitedly Silas announced. Zafi, check this out!" he frantically shuffled in place in order to grab a water bottle he had with him from earlier. Carefully, Silas poured a small amount of water into the palm of his hand as he sat up and began to concentrate.

At first the water was unresponsive, and calm, but as Silas began to focus more and more, the water slowly and gradually began to respond, coalescing into a long thin shape, akin to a worm or snake. The newly formed "snake" then slowly began moving in the direction of Silas's extended fingers, clinging to the side of his index finger as it gradually writhed it's way to the underside of his finger only to emerge on the other side, as the "snake" finished coiling itself around his finger. He held this position for a few seconds, before cupping his other hand underneath the serpent and releasing his hold on the water. The snake quickly lost it's form and fell with a soft splash into his waiting hand. Silas leaned back against the wall and took a deep breath before asking "What did you think of that? If THAT didn't make it obvious I'm a water elementalist. But that's enough of my bragging... for now, anyway what kind of elementalist are you Zafi? "

@Aiyanna

"I-I see..." Kanako replied. So the part about dying horribly was not really that much of a joke at all? She knew this school would be different from the normal non-elementalists schools she had attended but this was certainly too much for her common sense.

Kanako began writing the speech as she was instructed. She ended up writing something really formal that didn't really suit the professor's fiery nature, but it was just what came naturally to her mind. Of course, she still had to add the shed part but instead of outright threatening the students with a horrible death, she instead changed it to "forbidden due to how dangerous it might be". It still sounded quite grim, but it's better than before, at the very least. And as she wrote, she had to consult with the professor about the details as she really didn't know anything about the academy's history, faculty names and discplines, classes, etc.

"And that's it," she said once she felt she was finished. "How about this, Professor?" she asked him. "Would this be sufficient?"

@Kalleth

"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?"

@Raptra

There were two kinds of air students in the world, those who wanted to learn how to fly before learning anything else without realizing how much training was required, and those who were so grounded in 'conventional science' as to deem human flight impossible. But this girl had said 'improbable' rather than 'impossible'. Catherine smirked, almost evilly, this young student having piqued her interest with that one word. "It is rather mind-boggling, isn't it?" She asked rhetorically in a voice light as air and clear as wind chimes. "But you're right, flight isn't easy, nor is it intuitive. Some can spend a lifetime and never truly master it, and each person finds their own approach, whatever comes easiest to them or whatever makes the most sense to them. My own approach is a bit...on the metaphysical side. But you have quite the gift yourself; sound is not an easy aspect of air to master, but it seems you might have the knack for it. Oh, but I am getting ahead of myself, my name is Catherine Hargreaves. Formality will require you to call me 'Ms. Hargreaves', but as long as you're not in my classroom, feel free to call me Catherine."

You could almost see Lyra's eyes shining at Ms. Hargreaves' explanation. It was not so much the words, but the way she was explaining it. She made flying, and their element, sound like such a wonderous affair. There are so many things she can learn here.

You have quite the gift yourself; sound is not an easy aspect of air to master, but it seems you might have the knack for it.

She looked down at the violin in her hand. "Oh, is it? Do I? I don't know how I did it, if it was me." She couldn't help but smile, though. Of all the oddities of the physical world, she'd always been most fascinated with sound.

It took her a second before she could hone back to the real world. She glanced at her new friend, who was still waiting patiently. "Oh, right! I'm Lyra, and this is Vera. We're, umm, my friend and I are thinking of exploring the academy. Do you know of any interesting place, err, Ms. Hargreaves?"

@Raptra @Stern Algorithm

"Let's head inside, Fal. You look tired." Fallon, looking exhausted, nods.

"...Okay, Kane. You're a wonderful big brother," she smiles, not failing to remind him how happy she is that he's by her side.

"...You really think so, Fal?" He asks, with slight concern.

"Of course," she says, frowning. "You look after me, protect me, stay by my side. You're my best friend, my big brother, the only family I have. I will always love you, and don't forget it. I don't care if we don't have things other kids got whilst growing up. As long as I have you, I feel happy, content and safe."

Kane hugs her tight. "I love you, little sis. I will always have your back, just as you have mine." Fallon hugs him back. Eventually, the head inside, Fallon clinging to him once more, as she keeps a lookout for other people.

"Eh!" Zeke dropped the cloud painting at the sudden noise, bumping into the girl in his surprise. He pushed himself up, slipped on something, and by the end of a sequence of movements he'd not want to remember, ended up face down on her chest. Scrambling away, he feels his cheeks heat up and starts apologizing. "Sorry, sorry, sorry." He puts his hands together in front of him, fingers against his forehead. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to knock you over."

This is weird for him. It's the closest contact he'd had with anyone his own age. What was he supposed to do? He apologized, but what else? "Um..."

Jideh spat out the blade of grass and stared. He watched at Zeke scrambled off of Dia, and felt an awkward silence beginning to brew. Jideh, as it so happened, hated awkward silences.

"So shall we go find a teacher or something? I'm honestly dying to know where we'll be roomed!" Jideh exclaimed, going to throw an arm around Zeke and waving to Dia to follow along. Immediately following this, he tried to bring Zeke's head down next to his as he hunched over and whispered furiously. "Dude! Why would you do that? She was just starting to open up! ...I think. Let's just forget that just happened, and act normal."

Jideh gave Zeke a pointed look, and then to Dia added, "Dia! We'd both be happy to be your first friends! Do you want to come find a prof with us? I'm getting hungry!"

@Regitnui @Old Amsterdam

---

Jordan scratched at his chin, nodding approvingly. "This is very well-written Kanako, I have a feeling you'll ace the language parts of the classes you're in. It kind of sounds a tad... Cold? I'll spice it up when I deliver it! Thanks a bunch. Would you like to go see where said speech is going to be delivered?"

As he awaited Kanako's response, Jordan almost unconsciously gathered a large amount of dust into a swirling cloud next to his desk. The cloud then began to coalesce into a long oblong slate, and as it did, engraved troughs formed on the surface of the slate. As Jordan's idle eyes swept over the speech on the screen, the sand copied it down, word for word, letter for letter. At the very end, a complex series of marks and scratches formed a signature of sorts, followed by a smiley emoticon.

Jordan drew the slate to him, and caught it, brushing off some excess dust, and blowing the slate clean. It was perfectly formed. A very hard skill to learn indeed, and try as he might, without Kano, Jordan might not have mastered it even now. The slate was a featureless, uniform layer of stone, as though formed in the heart of the earth. Millions of grains of sand melded into one unblemished form. The engraved letters even had concentrations of mineral deposits that shaded in the troughs, a kind of ink that could never be erased, save by breaking the actual tablet.

Jordan smiled fondly, admiring the handiwork. It was the responsibility of the teacher giving the speech to somehow codify and preserve their work for storage in the vaults below the Academy. Most earth elementalists made some variety of slab, having by and large the easiest and most practical form of material to use for speech recording. However he'd seen some spectacular feats performed by fire users, water users, wind users, and above all light users. Jordan couldn't recall a year where Kano had called on a member of staff who wielded blood, lightning, aetherial, or... any other kind of element, and it was probably intentional.

Still as Jordan gazed over at Kanako, he knew it would be wrong if he didn't do her justice. At the very lower right corner where some space was left, he engraved her name and year of initiation. Finished, Jordan placed the slate lightly on his desk in a clear spot. He felt a sheen of sweat tickling his brow, and opened a drawer in his desk, retrieving a bottle of water. As Jordan drank, he felt his depleted energies peak a bit, and he also realized he had to visit the john.

"Kanako, meet me outside, in the courtyard. You'll recognize it by the stupid-looking statue of Headmaster Hargor. Seriously, it's massive. You can't miss it. I think he might be overcompensating for his tiny–" Jordan frowned, and then shook his head. "Just meet me there." Jordan promptly ran out of his office, tripping over numerous items that had shifted when he'd created the speech-slate. The "john" was waiting.

...

Loud cursing and curls of smoke enter into the office from outside. Followed by the sound of coughing and frantic footsteps.

@Hammerman

Dia remained frozen where she was, blinking furiously and looking like a deer in the headlights. She barely registered that she was being talked to, still struggling to catch up with what had just happened.

That wasn't part of the norm. Not part of the structure, the pattern.

Her hands moved to her chest. "I-i-i-" she stuttered. She quit trying to speak, feeling herself go red as everything caught up in her mind. She had friends. Even if something incredibly awkward had just happened. But finding others? Could she handle that?

"D-do we ha-have to?" She managed to force out. "I-i-I'm​ not sure. I do-don't know them."

She stood up slowly, checking to make sure she had the seed, before moving towards them carefully.

"I don't have to talk to them, do I?"

@Regitnui@Kalleth

Tears welled up in Zeke's eyes. Why was Yellow shouting at him? It was an accident. He didn't mean to do that. Zeke wiped his eyes on his sleeve, sniffling a little. He stood up to go find somewhere else to sit, where people won't yell at him for apologizing. He wished he was back home. People were confusing and scary and he didn't want to be here anymore. Taking his camera, he walked off. He only made it a couple of steps before he realized he didn't know where he was going.

Back home he had his room, the space by the fence, a hundred little places where he could hide and be safe. Now... He dropped down onto the grass again, wrapping his arms around his knees and hiding his face. Here he didn't have a space. Not yet. There wasn't anywhere to go. Being stuck out in the open like this, emotionally and physically, made him feel more trapped then he had in his entire life.

Dia picked up the pace, her expression turning soft.

The chill permanently around her hit Zeke before she did. Kneeling down, she wrapped her arms around him from behind, laying her forehead down on his neck.

"Please don't cry," she said in a soft voice. "I'm not mad, so you shouldn't be sad. You're my friend, so I need to make it okay."

She closed her eyes. "I need everything to be back to the regular structure. I need you to be happy. Please?" Dia pleaded.

@Regitnui@Kalleth

Hailee Dormin

"Uh, thank you for your help," Hailee said. "Uhm, I wouldn't exactly call it a meeting." She turned and began to walk away. After a few minutes, she heard voices coming from the nurses office. She hurried down the hallway, opening the door. There, standing in the middle of the room was just the man she'd been looking for. The Headmaster. "Excuse me, Headmaster. I'm Hailee Dormin. I was late to the assembly because my train was late, and I'm not 100% sure if I'm registered, sir."

@Zelosse

Jideh started, seeing Zeke and Dia hug made him realize his mistake. He slapped his forehead, hard. He slapped it again, and again, and once more for good measure. Jideh spun around in a circle and stamped a foot. He took a deep breath, calmed himself, and looked to both Dia and Zeke.

"I'm sorry you guys. Friends don't whisper-yell at each other, and they don't get mad at harmless mistakes. Let's just start over. I'm Jideh Basrah, of Hort Town. My family are farmers, and they sent me to the Academy to better learn how to mold the land's bounty. I'm meant to be the pride and joy of my family's crop, not to mention their representative. I can't go making a fool of myself day one can I? Well, I guess maybe I can. But the point is, I'm not a push-over. I can get REAL pushy from time to time. And from what I can tell, you two aren't exactly the go-getter type, am I right?" Sheesh, never thought I'd be the alpha in a group before. Big brother would be so proud... Then again, a stiff-stemmed tulip would have more backbone than these two.

"So I'll do my best to try not to be so pushy, but you just have to let me know straight up if I overstep my bounds alright? And to answer your question Dia, no, you do not have to talk to the prof. But am I right in saying that we're all looking forward to a good hot meal?" Jideh's gaze settled on Zeke, and he felt his expression soften from what was a determined yet hopeful face, into something a bit more fraternal. "That we're all looking forward to a little piece of home? Food's the same everywhere after all."

@Old Amsterdam @Regitnui

The girl was cold, but comforting. He wanted to reach up and hug her back, but instead leaned his head onto hers. With a sniff, he said, "I'll be okay. I think." He closed his eyes, trying and failing to picture her face, not coming up with anything to call her. "Icy," he eventually settled on. "I think I'm going to call you Icy," he told her, finding her picture on his camera. She was the only girl he'd photographed today, so he just needed to remember today's date to find it, hopefully.

Then the other one caught up. Yellow started talking. And talking. And talking. And talking. And talking. And talking. And eventually stopped. "You're noisy, Yellow," Zeke said when the boy stopped to take a breath. He stood up and gave Icy a hug back. He didn't understand what she was talking about some of the time, but he liked her. She was quiet like he was. Not noisy like Yellow. "Don't do that noise again," Zeke told the other boy. "It's weird and scary."

@Kalleth@Old Amsterdam

Dia nodded, slowly releasing Zeke.

"Food is good, if not orderly. And Icy is fine. It's fitting, at the least," she said with a smile. "But where would professors be? This place has no structure. We get to roam and stuff. How would you find one piece in such a mess?"

She hovered between the two, holding herself.

I'm so lost here. I don't know where anything is. And I don't know if I can, because it's so chaotic. But...I have friends. Plural! If I can handle new things, can't I handle this place? she wondered to herself.

Jake watched as the room became quite crowded as miss Stargazer answered his question about lessons. When the head master walked in a huge smile grew across his face. Then the head master revealed his hand was missing and Jake became even more interested. Jake was about to bombard the head master with questions when he felt ShiZhen grab his sleeve. Reflex kicked in and he stepped in front of ShiZhen putting himself between her and the gruesome sight. Jake thought it was awesome mainly because regeneration was one thing Jake had learned from his dad, on a minor scale of course no regrowing limbs and all, along with warming or cooling his blood to suit the temperature for he worked outside allot for his parents.

As the headmaster turned to show off his regenerative abilities to another student Jake turned to ShiZhen "Don't worry it's just the head master I heard he's not really a living person maybe he's held together by his elemental power. That would be pretty awesome and don't worry if someone tries doing anything like that to you I'll kick there ass." Then Jake heard the head master speaking and turned back around still in between ShiZhen and the head master. After the head master welcomed the students Jake bowed as well "Thank you head master your freaking awesome dude I wanna be able to spare with you one day so I guess I better get good at regenerating." Jake smiled while putting up his fist with a rock on gesture.

Then Jake turned back around to ShiZhen. "So where do you wanna go first?"

It was clear to Silas that he had made an impression on Zafi, his little trick with the water serpent had only cemented this fact. She was clearly pleased by his performance, the slight smile on her formerly stoic face said that much. Zafi herself didn't seem like a half bad person, she was just a touch... strange, that's all.

Before long Silas was signalled by Zafi to wait. Eager to see what she would come up with, Silas moved himself a little closer and turned so that he could have a full on view of whatever was about to happen. As Zafi placed her hands over her heart Silas couldn't help but think, Hmmm, what elemental could she be? What is she planning to do? I wonder...

It was just a few short moments later that the fruits of her labour would come to be. At first Silas thought the small glitter that had spawned itself on Zafi's palm was just his eyes fooling him, but upon closer inspection it was revealed to be a small, incandescent cinder. That was only the beginning, a few moments later the glowing orb was joined by more sparks like itself, each individual flare glowed like a beacon across the night sky. Every second the light and warmth radiated by the glowing mass would grow as more cinders joined the fold.

" Fire, That... is amazing. I've never seen a fire elementalist befo-"

Before Silas could finish his sentence, he was swallowed by a wave of intense heat and blackened smoke, accidentally inhaling a great deal of the fumes in the process. It felt horrible, the smog forcing him to drop onto his hands and knees and begin coughing profusely. He tried to keep himself from coughing on Zafi, as it wouldn't be retribution, that would just make him an asshole, and a disgusting one at that. I swear if that was intentional...

Eventually he had expelled the soot from his system, and Silas looked up to see the very same girl who conjured the blast attempting to shoo away the aftermath. The difference in height had struck him for the first time, Zafi seemed like a titan from Silas's current angle.

”Pardonnez-moi! Are you broken?! Are you alright?!”

" Broken? Not a chance, at least not yet. Alright? That depends on what you see as alright, you see I did just get shot in the face at close range by a wave of smoke and fire." Silas said in a semi-serious and sarcastic tone before coughing once more. "Okay, hopefully that was the last of it. But seriously, I'm alright"

@Aiyanna

"Y-yes, I would like that very much, Professor," Kanako replied to Jordan's offer. She took offense a little when he said her speech sounded cold but she just chalked it up to the professor's hot-bloodedness. She wrote the speech the way she thought would be proper for a teacher to say and he didn't look like somebody who liked to follow the rules.

"Got it. The courtyard," Kanako said at his order. She had been there before, and just like he had said, the statue of the Headmaster was certainly quite... something.

Suddenly, she smelled something odd. Not the dusty smell of the room, as she was getting used to it already, but it was a smell of smoke, far cry for the smell of dust. She looked around and she saw the smoke coming in from the door to the room.

"What in the..."

Quickly, she rose up from her seat and went towards where the smoke was, almost tripping to some of the objects sitting on the floor in her hurry. She opened the door, only for the smoke to assault her, making her cough.

F-fire?! Here?

Quickly, she used her elementalist power to create a breeze of wind, blowing the smoke out of her way. Once she was back in the hallway, she gathered all of her power and created a wind blast that blew all the smokes surrounding her. When the smoke finally cleared, she turned off her power, only to discover the boy and girl from before. their hair still blowing for a while from the wind she was creating. So they were still standing here after all.

"You two alright over there?" she said to them as she ran towards them.

@CriticalHit@Aiyanna