Xade was pleased when the lady with the list and the slightly irritated face finally spoke up for the role call. She hoped everyone was here as she looked forward to studying and possibly even befriending many of the others here. When her name was called, she promptly raised the hand that was not clenching the amethyst amulet and spoke up. "Present!" She pulled the raised arm back in and turned to watch the others as the rest of the names were called out. This would be a good way to learn everyone's names.

After attendance, the gates opened and the students were escorted by Baroness d’Aulnoy in to the castle. The front doors were larger than any they had ever seen. The interior was beautifully decorated. A turn and another huge set of doors led them to a great hall. Long tables stretched down to the end where a shorter table stood on a raised floor. Enormous window panes and grand fire places lined the walls. Piles of fine foods rested on all the tables, so many kinds you couldn't find one you didn't like. Plates of servings eaten by others piled beside. This hall appeared to have been filled moments earlier and just recently emptied. There were only those at what appeared to be the head table higher up at the end. They were all very elderly and mostly gray haired men and women. One of the older looking gentlemen sitting in the middle stood up and walked out toward a podium.

"Good morning first year students! My name is Hans Christian Anderson. I am the academy music instructor, and principle. I am very happy to have you join our wonderful school, and I know the you will come to love your time and experiences here. Please feel free to have a seat and enjoy some of the fine cuisine our master chefs have prepared for you this morning. After breakfast you will be escorted to start your classes."

Principle Anderson sat back down at his head seat and began chatting away to his faculty. Baroness d'Aulnoy turned to the students, still looking at her clipboard.

"Don't take too long. we're already running late."

Then she marched off toward the head table, her footsteps echoing around in the great big empty hall.

@baraquiel@Polaris North

Flynn looked at the hall eyes wide it was an amazing sight though it didn't make her enjoy the place and she was almost surtin that she would not grow to love her time or expirence here. She let out a sigh her arm really was in pain know but she would keep up the fight with her own shadow. she sat down at on of the tables but not eating much apart from an apple. Looking at the head table she wondered if she should ask one of them about attaching her shadow they certinly looked like they would know how to re-attack it for her. She gestered for Johnson and Aphemia to join her if they wanted to.

When the doors open, my face light up when I see a great hall and everything, it was like the story that told mom told me about how mom and dad met when I was little.
@The Valkyrie@Hazy
I set down with Nils and Xade since they are my new found friends beside Gray "So what you guys think of this so far?"

@sassy1085

Xade took in every detail as they group moved through the doors and then the atrium of the castle. The walls were bright and well adorned with art and trinkets; windows of glass and color painted them with the sun's light. She made a mental note to return to these places later to take in the people and sights that walked them. Her awe in this place soared to new heights as they entered the great hall. It was more splendid than she could have ever dreamed. She wondered how a place could exist that was so full of light when the place she was made and grew was so full of dark. It was all she had ever known till now and she wasn't sure that she would ever be able to let it go. As she clasped her soul stone tightly, she knew she'd never let it go in her heart even though her mother might try to squash it.

She looked to the front of the hall as their headmaster and music teacher introduced himself to the new students. Behind him sat other people whom she presumed to be more instructors of their various courses. She wondered which one would be the beauty teacher since that class was first up after breakfast. And, oh, the breakfast looked and smelled divine with what looked to be enough to feed a small army. It made her wonder just how many students there were here. Just as she thought this, the headmaster finished speaking and Madison chimed in with her question.

"This place is..." Xade had to search for the right word here to give her first impression of this place justice. "...it's breathtaking and feels full of life." She turned to face her friends now and she couldn't help the rare smile that now drew itself upon her face. "I think I'm going to like it here." Then she moved forward to sit at a table and eat while they still had time before class started. The smile lingered on her face for a time as she thought about her future here and the new friends she hoped to make.

Griffin followed the others inside. His stomach rumbled at the mention of food but he had no intention of eating. Not until the he knew the cost. In the world he had grown up in everything had a price. Without knowing what he was expected to give in exchange he wasn't touching anything. He leaned against the wall and watched the others. He was studying the others.

He knew that their lives were different from his. He had grown up at sea and they had grown up on land. He was sure that there were other differences. But the one thing that they all had in common was that they weren't what their parents wanted them to be. He wondered what methods their parents had used to try to get them to do what they wanted. He supposed some of them would be similar to the things his father had tried to force him to follow in his footsteps.

Flynn finished the apple she was eating reaching over and getting another looking at her shadow once again this was the longest it had ever been away from its normal place on the ground and she didnt know how mucch longer she would be able to keep it in her grasp.

Gray looked at the hall with a little awe. It was bigger than anything she had seen in Arendelle. "Jesus, this place is huge. If I wasn't being forced to be here, I might actually enjoy this."

Aphemia snapped back into reality. She is always like this: whenever she least expects it, it's like her body is turned into automatic and her state of mind is reduced to limbo. She is so embarrassed about her condition that she didn't even put it in the medical records by fearing on what her peers would think of her. Her parents were ignoring her seemingly-non-harmless condition back then until this one time she's one step away on walking off a cliff during a family trip. The family doctors were unable to find a cure for her "sickness" but the Mad Hatter gave their family a lifetime supply of Mindelirium, a kind of tea native to the people of Wonderland and is used to provide treatment for those with a loose screw. "If she drinks this tea after every two smiles of the sun up until her day of adulthood, she will be permanently freed from her own mind's prison", the Hatter said. Her "zoning out" seemed to happen less frequently than before as long as she keeps up with her drinking schedule. Only now did she remember that she must drink the tea before going to school only for her to forget it due to excitement.

"Oh dear, I forgot to drink my tea!", Aphemia said to herself. "I must drink as soon as I can but...", she looked around the beautiful campus and her other peers mingling about, "where am I again?".

@baraquiel

Flynn looked over at her new found friend who hadnt sat down yet getting up and walking over to her getting the last part of what she was saying “Where at the academy remember? we just entered the gate and made are way to the hall?”she asked slightly concerned about Aphelia

They were ushered inside and it was just as magnificent and majestic as he thought it to be. Even he knew what was awaiting them within this castle-like infrastructure. It was no less than grand. He didn't like it here. It reminded him too much of real royalty - to what his father always told him about his life before and how he wanted to go back to it. He already had a mini mansion himself but he still wanted to go back to that lifestyle. Jonathan didn't like it... and now that he is here, standing in something like what his father described, he feared he might grow addicted to it too.

Jonathan tried to get out of his thoughts by listening to the principal. Hans Christian Andersen. Then the Grim brothers were assistants to him then. He then looked around to see the food laid out for them. A grin made its way to his face. At least the food didn't look too bad! He would've jumped in and taken everything he wanted but he noticed that, while the others had already sat down, Aphemia was still standing. Seeing as Flynn had already taken care of talking to her, he waited for a bit to let them sit down before taking his food and sitting down as well.

"Ah~ This just looks too much." Johnson mused, loud enough for both tables to hear. "Now I wonder what the dorms look like. Any of you have gone there?" He asked, sweeping his line of sight to everyone present. He personally hadn't been there, if it wasn't already obvious.

@Secrethood @Polaris North

"Forgive me, my dear Flynn, I was simply... deep in wondering", Aphemia told Flynn with a reassuring smile. Although she thinks Flynn is very kind and trustworthy, she's still skeptical of telling her newfound friend her condition. She doesn't want to be teased and left out again like she experienced in her past school. No matter what, she is determined to not let anyone know of it.

Aphemia focused her around her surroundings much more: like what Flynn said, they were already inside the academy though it has far exceeded her expectations. As much as she appreciates the aura of formality and royalty emanating from the place, she does prefer the chaotic beauty of Wonderland more.

She turned to Jonathan with a warm smile on her face. "An academy as big and as grand as a castle would require lots and lots of time to explore indeed", Aphemia said as she drinks her tea. "Although I am sure we would have the school personnel give us the tour of the whole school, I personally prefer to explore them personally. It would be quite fun to be lost in such a magnificent place such as this, don't you think?". As soon as she said it, she can barely contain her excitement in just the mere thought of wondering and wandering around.

Flynn was glade that Aphemia was ok she was afraid it was something else that was worse than being deep in wonders as she said. “Well im glade your ok and your right it would be quiet interesting to explore this place though I'm not sure about getting lost”

This was the first time Flynn had ever been in a castle and she didnt like it one bit missing Netherlands woods and just Netherland in genral she was starting to feel a little homesick.