Conner stared at the uniform laid out on his bed like it was the enemy. The cream blazer, red tie, and sweater vest practically screamed serious and boring. It was like something his parents would have made him wear.

With a sigh, he flopped back onto his mattress, staring at the ceiling. “This is… bullshit!” he exclaimed, draping the tie over his face. It felt like a leash. “Who thought this was a good idea? ‘Oh, let’s take away their freedom and their style.’”

After a moment of exaggerated mourning, he sat up, running a hand through his hair. If he had to wear this uniform, he was going to do it his way.

Fifteen minutes later, Conner stood in front of the mirror, admiring his handiwork.

The blazer was slung over one shoulder—because there was no way he was wearing that unless forced. The white dress shirt was untucked, its sleeves rolled up to just below the elbow, and the top buttons undone intentionally. He couldn’t really do much about the stupid sweater vest… The tie was tied loosely, more decorative than functional. He’d opted for brown loafers, with blue socks with dolphins on them, and of course, his signature blue swim trunks underneath his black dress pants.

“Perfect,” he declared, grinning at his reflection. “Formal, but make it fun.”

Even though he had adjusted the uniform a little bit, Conner couldn’t help but feel like he was playing dress-up. The halls of the Merryweather Institute were a far cry from the salty air and sandy beaches of home, and even though he was free from his parents, the weight of everything still felt heavier than he let on.

Shoving the nervous thoughts aside, he grabbed a pair of shades from his nightstand and perched them on his head, and made finger guns at his reflection.

---

Smoke trailed from the end of Marko’s cigarette and up into the open air. He leaned numbly against the exterior of the dorms, some ways away from the door. He knew these were bad for him. He always knew that. Yet, each inhale of that cheap poison into his lungs seemed to warm a part of him that would otherwise remain frigid. He sighed and watched listlessly as the smoke poured from his mouth, curling up and away. He really should quit at some point. Gram and gramps would be happy. A cold breeze blew past that made Marko shrug his shoulders forward, pulling the heavy coat he wore further around his body.

It's barely any warmer here than back home...

His right arm was unbothered by that fact.

He looked down at the foreign clothing he wore then. The uniform was… fine. More of a palette swap to the kind of things he wore on a daily basis anyways. Not as warm as his normal attire either though. All being said, he wasn’t even going to try and wear the blazer. Getting dressed in the morning was enough of a pain. Hopefully the faculty would be understanding.

A bitter smile worked its way onto Marko’s face as he took another drag. Asking people to be understanding of him was starting to become a running theme. Realistically, one that would continue. Even so. For now just get through the opening ceremony, was all Marko could muster in the self-motivation department. He must have told himself "don't squander this opportunity" about a thousand times while staring at himself in the bathroom mirror earlier this morning, for all the good it did. Now? Here? The reality was hitting him harder than he would have preferred. No more do-overs. He didn't think he had it in himself to make it through this mess in one piece.

Still. Have to try.

As other students began to mill out of the dorm building's various entrances, Marko hung back against the wall, a bit overwhelmed. Should he say hi to someone? And then what? For now, he resolved to hang back and finish his cigarette. Maybe someone would make it easy for him and come say hello. Or maybe they'd all make it even easier than that and ignore him entirely. It's not that he was some sort of dedicated loner, but how was he meant to act? None of his "friends" in the past had been particularly good people. His head was starting to buzz, and not in the good kind of way. He felt the pressure behind his eyes. He took another drag and began to count to count to twenty in his head as he exhaled. Just stay calm, He thought. Unless you want your scars to come in a matching set, calm the fuck down. So he did.

Marko was calm.

---

It was....a most peculiar matter. To be a primalist. In so many places it seemed people were welcoming and kind enough to them, or at least treated them like anyone else. In others, especially with regards to a certain senator, it seemed like the train of distrust and dissatisfaction with their existence continued to chime along as it had for the past three hundred some odd years she wagered. One one hand, they were just people and it had long showed. On the other, even she had to admit that being able to conjure swaths of fire or to shake the earth was dangerous and could potentially kill someone even if by 'accident' if not being properly noticed, controlled, and trained on the user's part. It wasn't a simple black and white matter to her, at least in her own mind, but the fact that she had been tossed this as her element was a curveball unlike any other she'd had before.

Fire? She could at least do cooking without need for a stove, if she had the supplies at least. Water was useful for not having to run up the school's water bills, frankly, and Earth or even more specialized Metal would at least be useful in making ad-hoc tools for cooking or working on potential class project or such for all she knew. Most things seemed to have a good and versatile use, even some of the more specific stuff, but.....fungus of all things, really[/b]?! Really? Yes, really. She was stuck with something that felt so very unbecoming of someone like herselfto enough of an extent, even if she'd been putting in the time to read about different types of fungus and such in trying to, desperately more or less, get a grasp on what in the world she'd be able to do using this element.

And, as it turned out, those uses seemed to be a bit better than she'd initially though. Fire-resistant char layers protected some species when exposed to flame, and naturally things like the 'white mushrooms' people got in grocery stores as well as edible portabellas or oyster mushrooms were among the edible kinds (and there was even one edible kind she'd seen a video or two called 'chicken of the woods', apparently?). Yeast could be stimulated to make bread without having to buy tiny packs of the stuff either to reconstitute or such. Some were also toxic and harmful, should the need frankly ever arise (persish the thought), or produced psychadelic substances like psilocybin in the case of certain species. Etc, etc.

It wasn't enough to make her feel fully happy about the matter, but at least it wasn't worse! She could have gotten far worse, like 'poop' or 'oil' or 'bacteria' or frankly even a highly volatile chemical or something inane or outright even more dangerous like that.

Yet beyond this, and since she'd arrived and learned where she'd be rooming...well...

"Elena. I'm heading out. Don't forget the opening ceremony is today; they're expecting us all to attend it, so make sure you're not late."

As Sarah opened the door to make her way out, however, she'd find the silver-haired Elena standing there just outside in the dorm hallway before her. The fashionably-dressed girl was seemingly rummaging through the bag she'd normally carry on her back, as if looking for something. Or...making sure something was there?

Elena paused as Sarah came out, her head half-turning toward her for a moment of somewhat 'awkward' silence on her part.

How was one supposed to feel about rooming with the daughter of a politican who'd sound like someone that would rather make an internment camp for their 'kind' than tolerate seeing on on the street? Had people not learned after two world wars, and the incident 300 years ago when a primalist had gone the way of 'total violence' after people had tried to kill him and others like him in witch-hunts (well, primalsit witch hunts and not the other kinds she supposed). Beyond that, she couldn't fathom or truly process the thought of being the child of that sort of person and be a primalist as well. It sounded 'maddening' at the very least, so she'd designed to at least try not to say anything to her roommate.

Well, depending on how her roommate acted and was like at any rate. She hadn't even so much as interacted with her properly as of yet, not even in a proper introduction of all things. It felt strange, just as much as the situation of being a Jager roomed with someone from a certain senator's family felt given the utter irony in that, at that. If she was someone with her head just as far up her own arsehole as her father was, then, oh she'd have words and then some for her. If she was reasonable enough, then, certainly they could at least get along as roommates or such. No way to know for sure, really, until she talked more to the girl or saw her 'in action' or something of the sort...even if they did certainly have differing fashion senses as far as she could tell.

"A-Ah! Yes, Sarah, I had been hoping to, ah, get moving before this point in time. I was hoping to go for some brunch at the dorm cafeteria, perhaps, before looking into one or two things. All of the travel from the other day was...a tad exhausting.

But I seem to have miscplaced my travel bag of makeup. Just a small thing, in a pink-colored zipper pouch. Er...have you seen it fallen on the floor near the doorway of our room or such by chance?"

While she aimed to keep her tone of voice as clear and professional as she could, the awkwardness of asking somone of Sarah's seeming 'fashion choices' was not lost on her either. Nor was the awkwardness unable to be kept fully out of her tone of voice while asking. Such a trifling little thing, she hoped she hadn't lost it on the way out of the room. She'd tried to be stealthy about leaving as well, at that, hoping to give her roommate space or more to to avoid a potentially awkward first-contact scenario like...well...this.

Ugh. Today was just going to be starting on a brilliant note, wasn't it?

@Carlyle