Elbritas beamed at Madison. "Well done kiddo!" He pulled a dowel designed to be difficult to channel fire through out of his desk and handed it to Vlad, having it looked identical to the one Madison was testing with. "Now Vlad, it's your turn. Same as Madison, make a flame steady at the tip and not burn it down the dowel at the same time." He wasn't necessarily doing it to bully him, but clearly the kid had some form of gusto being from a rich family that made him think he was better than everyone else. If he could pull it off, great, but if he couldn't, it'd be a mild lesson in humility that he sorely needed if he was going to fit in at the school.
Having suddenly been hit by an idea, Avarius quickly sits up and excitedly rummages through Brunhilde's supply bag. He finds the deflated beach ball and marker pens he was looking for. As the girls continue to play and exercise (more the former than the later) he goes about inflating the ball and writing all over it. Sixty mathematic problems to be exact. Each one resembling one minute of break time. Unsure of his students current academic level Avarius broke the questions into ten groups of six. Each group would have two easy, two intermediate, one challenging and one trick question. Every correct answer gave the girls one minute of free leisure time.
There were however a few rules; the girls would each given a marker pen, they had to take turns answering a question. They had to stay in their own designated area a short distant apart from each other. Lastly their eyes must be shut unless they are holding the beach ball, this meant they had to catch it with their eyes closed. A dropped ball could be difficult to find.
The teacher would have it ready by the time they had finished their other activities and this one would lead into a lunch break. When they are ready he explains the premises of the exercise
The ball was large and soft, and the rubber squeaked in their hands. At this distance, with expectation alone, this exercise could be played by non-elementals yet it was still good for honing the senses.
The girl stared at him, sort of provocatively or so thought Vlad. It pissed him off. "What does this midget think she is??? Is she looking down on me??" he thought while slowly forming a frown and grasping his wound harder. After she whispered that little taunt to him he nearly exploded but managed to calm himself and looked the other side. He didn't pay attention to what she was doing or how she was doing the test and couldn't care less. He hated her already.
After she was done, the shitbreath teacher gave him a dowel and asked him to lit the tip. Vlad wasn't happy with it either "What is this?? Kindergarten??" He thought and looked into the teachers eyes with an are you kidding me? look. But not wanting another dart somewhere in his body he proceeded to quickly finish this and get done with it. He held the dowel in his hand and briefly concentrated. For some reason the dowel began vibrating and more and more cracks appeared releasing smoke until it suddenly exploded. Pieces of wood flew all around the class and Vlad spat one out that flew into his mouth. "What the fu**?? What kind of dowels are these?" He said in an irritated tone.
"Cold...You couldn't 'ave just told a lie or said something usual and boring could ya? Dark and mysterious might interest the girls but it ain't gonna help you become a master elementalist."
A voice rang from behind him, a student with white hair. A smirk etching on his face as he made light banter towards Luke, even if he didn't know him or anything. He shot him a bitter smile in kind, he was actually pretty amazed that another person would be willing to talk to him, save that odd girl from before. Also now he noticed, everyone has bizarre and odd hairstyles, colour and outlandish clothing, was he the only one that found this weird?
He looked down at his plain polo shirt and pants, maybe he was the weird, outlandish one.
He felt very odd to have linked his hands with his fellow students, reluctantly doing so. Luke knew there was no purpose to this, it was probably for the headmaster's own gaiety. Atleast he knew that the headmaster wasn't all that serious.
Whilst walking he could still could not believe the size of the place. They excited via a spiraling staircase and a giant door... Only to be met with the blazing heat, one could take a wild guess why Luke strayed away from the heat and drifted into shadier/cooler areas. And after a rather long walk Luke found himself in a desolate, open field, a giant wall being the only shade given.
"Right then." Kano turned to the students. "Water students. Strip down to your underclothes and get in the water. Your first lesson will be control."
Luke shot the headmaster a confused look at first, Under different circumstances that can be interpreted wrongly. Luke thought to himself in amusement. He took a glance at the other water students, their faces seemed to be struggling, with majorty having expressions of bewilderment and confusion at their own powers.
After a brief delay and an apprehensively worried sigh of he took off his shirt and pants and slowly sauntered into the waters, underestimating its power.
His eyes widened quickly as his mindset changed. It tore at him from different directions as he tried to control it as instructed. These waters were incredibly rich with mana and felt as if it had a mind of its own. He struggled a bit inside the waters, this was almost impssible to command.
An idea popped into his mind as if a bulb flickered, water was the element of tranquility and flexibility, rather than trying to control it he should try and flow alongside it. As soon as he realized this and adjusted accordingly, he could feel himself with the waters. As cliche as it was, it seemed to be working, now the water flows next to him in a beautiful cascade but it wasn't perfect.
"Sir- Headmaster, what else do we need to do or do we continue on?" Luke addressed the headmaster whilst waters encircled his arm, wondering what else was to be done.
Kano turned his attention from the running lightning students and back to Luke as he entered the waters without caution. As expected, the overload of sheer energy almost overtook him within mere moments. Most students dipped a toe in the pond and panicked, refusing to enter. The first mistake. Luke had disregarded that caution and placed full trust that his tasks would be safe or that he could find a way to stay safe, passing the first hurdle. Amused at the conflicting emotions playing across the boys face, Kano watched his struggle for not just control but balance. Not long after entering the pool the boy was already matching his own body to the subtle flow of the waters.
"You have skill. Most students are hesitant to stay in the waters after tasting it. Very impressive display."
Kanos raised his right hand and casually pointed his finger at the pool and felt his own connection with the pool. Kanos finger flicked from side to side and the waters responded in kind by throwing themselves wildly in every direction. Worst of all, the temperature took a slide into almost freezing temperatures. Even as he spoke, the waters continued to churn violently, tossing its occupants in every direction like ragdolls with waves that threatened to submerge them entirely. Keeping your head above water as it thrashed was a challenge it itself.
"Find a way to regain your balance and control. Soothe the waters."
Controlling your own energies in the midst of a greater flow was often difficult at times. Faced with overwhelming difference in power, the waters could turn into a raging hell of its own. The first test displayed control in tranquility with still waters. If Luke wished to overcome the hurdle it would need a.. deeper connection. Flowing with the water didn't just mean letting the waters do as it pleases. Subtle guidance granted the best results.
To soothe the waters would take time.
"Try to hold your breathe." Was the only hint Kano gave as he walked away from the pools to check up on the lightning students.
Kano slid across the dry field on a platform of ice, flowing at his command until he reached the distant students spitting electricity with every step. As he caught up, one of the students faltered and fell onto the ground. Kano raised his left arm and a cold patch of water flowed onto the boys leg with a soothing relief.
"Do not give up. You can fall a hundred times and still win the race. Adjust your output and try again."
The water flowed back into Kano who simply smiled and urged the student on. The longer they ran, the better. If they fell, he would pick them back up.
Chen rushed through the hallways towards... somewhere. He had woken up late and had no idea what was going on. He stopped near a teacher who was on break and painted a bit. "Where am I supposed to be going right now? I have class with Mr. Kano." He asked with a pant as he regained his breath. The teacher pointed down a hallway and shook his head in exasperation.
"Thanks!" Chen ran down the hallway and towards the desolate field. He arrived there a few minutes later and stopped when he saw Kano. "Hey there Mr. Hargor! Sorry I'm late, I overslept and stuff." He rubbed his head sheepishly and smiled. "Anyways, what am I supposed to be doing?" Chen asked as he observed Kano put some ice on a boys leg. Such a kind person. @Zelosse
Eria was a bit taken back when Master kano had told them to link hand before they had walked to the training area but was even more so by the eagerness of the the boy named Kain when he instantly walked over to her specifically and took up her hand but she let it slide for now. The walk to their training room instilled a well placed sense suspense in her that in the end paid off.
Eria loved the training room, it was so full of energy that the key around her neck immediately collected another large cloud but this time it was more volatile as the different elemental particles collided. Eria had to dodge the random sparks and pops that would form from the combination, that was until she took off her necklace at which point the cloud above her dispersed until it was just a light fog instead of a thick cloud. "I can't wear my necklace in here.... too many wild energies" she said under her breath.
The task that Headmaster Kano gave her was to basically observe the colors and "Links" between the particles, "I guess no physical stuff right now huh?" she said to herself as she pulled out her camera and set up it's stand facing her so she could record anything noteworthy. Eria clicked record on the camera and started, "Lesson one I guess, Master Kano has told me to train my sight, also on a side note I can't use the necklace that my mother gave me here as it amasses a volitile amount of particles that do not react well." Eria said as she turned the camera in the direction of the rest of the students. "The Aetheric particles that are coming from the ground seem to vary in color depending on if it is coming directly from the earth, in which case it turns a greenish brown while if it comes from the plants it is almost a mint-green though it is very hard to see the difference" Eria said as she waved her hand over the ground to attract some of the stray particles to her.
The earth particles collected in her hand but instead of forming the smoke like they did with Headmaster Kano, they formed more of a loose spiral with three tendrils that spun in her hand until it collapsed and a few grains of sand fell from her hand. "As expected this is much harder than master allowed me to think, lets try to use the air for this try" Eria said to the camera as she stepped in front of it and focused on bringing the wind particles together yet they still formed the same spiral of three tendrils but this time it was a much tighter spiral.
Markus smiled as he looked back and saw how he was in the lead still doing what the teacher instructed him to do as he kept stride. However after a few more meters of running he stopped where he was and dropped to his knees. He was tired sure but not to the point that he started to feel pain like this. In the next moment lightning started to shoot from all around his body painfully burning his skin as it left "AAAAAAHHHHHHH!" markus screamed out in pain as he felt his lightning go haywire....
Brunhilde, having grown more accustomed to Emi's presence, put down her pen and journal to return the hug. It was a little bit less awkward and confusing, and a bit tighter, and she greatly appreciated it. That sort of thing would almost certainly help her to remember Emi a little bit better than others.
"We get to stay with each other for a few bits longer!"
Brunhilde smiled and nodded. She opened the journal on the ground after the hug finally ended, flipped to Emi's dossier page, underlined 'Likes Hugs' three times, and scratched out 'Friend???', which she replaced with a much more firm 'Friend'. She didn't bother hiding the journal this time like she usually did.
"Let's work together on yours since I can already feel something"
Brunhilde nodded in acknowledgement. Seemed that was her only real response this past short while, really, but it worked well enough. She was already coming up with a few ideas on how to play with their senses, anyway. Why bother using a small object like a balloon when there were bigger, easier things to use - like people? More light reflected, bigger disturbances in the wind and the like would make it much easier to tell which direction the obstacle in question was. When she asked Emi to touch her, she started backing away, ready to dart away at the first slight disturbance in the wind.
"Will do~"
The gears ticked a little bit through Brunhilde's mind, and she decided to add a little bit of extra incentive. "Every time you catch me, you get to ask me a single question." She had absolutely no idea she was about to be tickled half to death.
...
Brunhilde laid her hands around Emi just like Emi did to her returning the hug. She seemed to grow more accustomed towards Emi and was a little less hesitant to open up to the girl. Emi gave the girl another quick ruffle on the head making her hair a little bit messy and went back to their practices.
Brunhilde kept writing in this notebook of hers making Emi only more hesitant to see the thing in person. She didn't bother asking though knowing that everyone had their own privacy. Emi stared at the book as she laid it down onto her bag instead of in it so she would have access to it easier. Shouldn't be a problem for Emi to have a little peek right? She just had to wait for the right moment.
Emi concentrated on Brunhilde her practices for now and went along with what Brunhilde asked her to do. Brunhilde added something to the practice by letting Emi ask her a question every time she would be able to lay her hands on the small girl. Easy peasy right!
Emi charged right at her and went in for a full tickle just beneath her arms. She wanted to make it obvious to the girl to let her know from which direction she was coming. This was the start to their practises. She would keep coming at her to tickle the girl and once she had caught her she wouldn't stop till she was bursting out in tears.
Brunhilde had no intention of making it easy for Emi. She was still a little distracted by her failed breathing experiment, though. On the first approach, Brunhilde felt Emi coming at her clear as day. Not only was her hair acting like a sail and pushing the air around, but her body heat made her position scream out to Brunhilde's senses like a candle on a cold day. She expertly sidestepped once and moved away. Emi's second approach was a little more difficult to see because the angle of the wind was a bit different, and she nearly got caught. She had sidestepped upwind without realizing it this time, and was caught in seconds, only realizing that Emi was nearby at the last possible moment - too late to run away. Little did she know she was in for more than answering a question.
Emi dashed onto the small girl making her fall backwards onto the grass, she tried doing it as soft as possible so Brunhilde wouldn't hurt herself. She sat onto her knees with her butt just a few inches above Brunhilde her belly and tickled the petite girl under both shoulders. It was the ultimate lockdown. There was absolutly no way to escape from the harsh wrestle move Emi had been training over the years. Emi was merciless, she didn't even let the girl have a single pause making it truly a killer move.
Brunhilde struggled desperately against Emi's onslaught, laughing her head off. This is what death feels like, she thought to herself, as she tried unsuccessfully to keep the larger girl's hands away. It didn't work at all, and the tickle torture continued for quite some time. Brunhilde was on the verge of tears when she remembered she was an air elementalist and blasted herself backwards along the grass to escape. Grass stains everywhere - this would be a laundry nightmare. She slowly tried to sit up, keeping her head on as straight as she could.
From behind his beach ball, a wide smile grew on the teachers lips. He said nothing of their shenanigans and simply continued on preparing his next activity. His marker pen flowing wildly as he rotated the ball.
Kano turned from Kain the moment the scream came out and practically exploded into motion, his physical form incapable of maintaining appearance during the sheer force of his movement. From a seemingly fleshy appearance the headmasters lower body turned to a tidal wave as he flew across the open field to his screaming student. Both of the markings on his arms flared like the sun, even turning a deep yellow, as Kano firmly placed both his hands on Markus and began a process of not just absorbing the lightning, but breaking it down into a simpler energy form to be further accumulated into his body. The process was precise and fast as the lightning threatened to destroy both of them, but years of experience always made the difference.
Over the course of a few minutes the sputtering display of lightning turned to a dull jump of static electricity over Marcus' body. The output of power made it almost a light tickle. Both arms ablaze with power, Kano turned to stare at Eria from across the grounds as he put on yet another trick of Aether magic. Absorbing energy into the body and changing it was good to learn. Another was to absorb energy and send it back out.
Kano took caution and moved a dozen feet away from the boy before he let his grip of the energy go.
KA-THOOM
The resulting thunderclap was deafening as a focused bolt of concentrated electricity momentarily blinded the area before the electricity was gone harmlessly into the sky, dissipating every inch it took away from its source of origin. Unhurt, and ultimately unphased, Kano turned about and returned to Markus. Picking him up and moving him closer to Kain, he set him down on a sheet of ice, doing the same for Kain.
@Dark Light "Rest for now. When the pain is gone, please exercise caution in getting up. Your muscles might have tensed up a bit and I do not desire another injury." His tone was soft and affectionate, similar to a father addressing his children. For Kano it was almost exactly that. Every generation of students that entered the academy were his children, to mold and teach, to help grow. For a brief moment he felt the memory of his wife flitter through his mind but shut it out. Now wasn't the time. Kano nodded and stood up, returning to Eria.
"You are doing excellent. Even sand is an accomplishment, my dear. With the wind, try to aim for a desired effect. Picture it in your mind and try to mold it with your hands. When you have the desired effect, release the energy or directing it at something to start." Kano waved his hand to form a tall thin sheet of ice as a target. Another flick of his hand had the waters in the pool with young Luke further its thrashing.
Another late student? Do they think we are so lax that we will allow every last student to show up thinking they need not fear the rules. Kano hid his sudden, if minor, irritation, and turned to stand in front of young Chen.
"I find my generosity to those I care for has been taken advantage of today. Chen, my boy, do you think so poorly of me that you believe yourself above my request to be on time on the first day." Kano put his hand up to stop the reply. "Of course you don't. Fear not, you are the third to be late today but at least you bothered to show up."
Kano didn't need to mention the Darkness students who were nowhere to be seen. Every moment they did not arrive only made the punishment so much worse. At the moment he figured they would be forced to dig holes in the hot sun for the rest of the day. Maybe well into the night, if they took any longer. Brushing off the thought for later he returned attention back to Chen.
"For now, it will be standard control. You can't use water but you can still feel it. Without learning your base element I fear you may not gain the mastery I desire to instill in you. That being said, strip to your underwear and get in the pool. Try to calm the waters in your own way..." Kano stuck his hand into his lightless hood and presumably scratched his chin before changing his mind. "Actually, no. You'll probably just freeze the water with Luke in it and cause me more trouble. Keep your pants on and see if you can do something for the boys over there. I know you can use ice so lets see how far you can go with your powers. I want you to work on the creation aspect. I want to see a detailed house made of ice by the end of our session here. Without using the pool behind us."
The challenge here was finding a way to get enough ice to even begin forming the absurd request, considering the fact that the bright sun in the sky had cooked what little water energy there was available so it would likely fall to the reserve of power Chen had in him at the moment.
"You have skill. Most students are hesitant to stay in the waters after tasting it. Very impressive display."
Then raising his right hand upwards whilst pointing to the pools, the once calm and peaceful waters turned into rageful waves, if Luke wasn't ready at all he might have been overtaken by the waves. The waves seemed to respond to Headmaster Kano's whims, which by itself, was extremely impressive seeing as the waves seem to have a mind of its own, and for it to listen.
"Find a way to regain your balance and control. Soothe the waters."
Luke thought for a second, how was it possible to control the raging waters when it was being manipulated by a stronger force. The onslaught of the waves didn't help in him being able to think very clearly.
"Try to hold your breath."
Another enigmatic hint dropped by the headmaster before he turned and walked away from the pools.
Hold... Your... Breath?
He sat at the bottom, trying to match his energies to the waves once more, but this process would take an extremely long time and patience, similar to how water can erode even the strongest and stern material. He wondered if holding his breath meant to stay very still while trying to weave the energies slightly.
Trying this he didn't know it was working, and the waters thrashed even harder. He caught a glimpse of the headmaster waving his hands in the direction of the pools once more.
Madison couldn't help but chuckle a little bit at her classmate's misfortune during his first few minutes of class, but she quickly cleared her throat as to not attract further attention to herself. Mr. Kessinger had mentioned the boy's name, "Vlad", and Madison's first thought was that he was some pretentious spoiled brat from Russia whose talk was way bigger than his game. Something about their inflated ego that annoyed the hell out of her.
"I guess we both have a lot to learn," she said, her attention on neither Mr. Kessinger nor Vlad. Madison wasn't looking to instigate a fight, but she did hate people like him, therefore she would use every opportunity she got to reflect those feelings.
"They're simple dowels Vlad, cylindrical pieces of wood. It was just your method that was wrong." He said, pulling another dowel out and handing it to him. "Christ's sake kid you're 18, you should know better than to just shove it in all at once." He said as he pulled out another dowel for himself. "You gotta be gentle, let your energies flow through your body, into your hand, and up through the dowel." As a visual demonstration, he had a thin line of fire start as his chest, slowly snake around his arm, to the base of the dowel. Momentarily, the dowel lit up with a strong, still flame. "However, you incidentally stumbled upon a good trick weapon for a Fire Elementalist. Superheat the core of an item, then throw it at your opponent. Effective if they don't see it coming." He smiled and looked at Madison. "We'll move onto the next step once Vlad gets it right this time."
Vlad looked at the girl with murderous intent when she uttered those words. She was really starting to piss him off, but he closed his eyes and thought about the promise he made to his dad, that calmed him. " I'll play along with those fools a bit" . He opened them again and looked straight into the teachers eyes while he was handing him another dowel, the hostility in his eyes was gone.
While he was demonstrating his little act, Vlad looked at the girl again, but with a look of "watch me, kid" and held up the dowel. While observing the dowel in his hand he noticed something, this one was slightly lighter than the other one. "Teacher... Did you just give me an easy one? Do you think I can't do it??" he said with a calm tone. And then he engulfed the whole dowel in fire turning it into ashes momentarily, and threw the ashes on the ground. "I'd like to have the one I got first please" he said with a slight sarcastic tone.
Eria stood lack-jawed at the sight she had just witnessed, Master Kano had just absorbed and redirected lightning, and a huge amount at that. The thunderclap that occurred when Kano released the lightning into the sky Slightly deafened Eria. She allowed the spiral of wind particles to collapse and had covered her ears even if that didn't help in the long term. "Oww, did he really have to fire it off into the air?" she asked herself before deciding to turn off the camera in hopes that the mic wasn't blown from the sound.
When Kano walked up to her and encouraged her about making sand from the particles Eria felt a bit of pride, but it was quickly changed too worry when she realized that if this was counted as a success now then Master's expectation of her might have gone up. "I won't give up" she said under her breath, before repeating her process of collecting the Aetheric wind particles as she had done before. Using the thin sheet of glass as her target Eria attempted to throw the tight coils of Aether but as soon as they left her hand the coils frayed and burst with a quick and bright flash followed by a burst of pressurized air that launched Eria backwards down a small hill.
"I gave you the exact same dowel as I did last time, which was a higher difficulty dowel since you seem so desperate to prove yourself." He said, scowling. He reached into his drawer and pulled out another dowel, handing it to Vlad. "Don't burn this one to a crisp this time, or you're cleaning my office to get rid of the ashes." Elbritas wondered what this kid's deal was. Every teacher was given a profile on their new students of their basic information. Name, age, gender, personality. They were never given information on the kid's backgrounds, out of respect for whatever they could have gone through in the past. He figured all would be revealed in time, he thought as he leaned back against the windowsill again. "Now, if you please, get on with the practice."
Chen turned to the student who was exploding lightning and his eyes widened. He was about to say something to Kano, but then he exploded into action. Slowly absorbing the lightning, getting the student to a small spark here and there, then nothing finally. "Wow Mr. Hargor, that was pretty-" Chen's sentence was interrupted when the world exploded.
Chen rubbed his eyes as his ears rung, his vision had gone white and he was probably tearing up a little. His vision returned but his ears were still ringing. Kano was talking to the boy, probably telling him to rest. Then he began talking to a girl about something, the ringing in his ears was beginning to go away. He could hear things again. Finally Kano turned to Chen.
"I find my generosity to those I care for has been taken advantage of today. Chen, my boy, do you think so poorly of me that you believe yourself above my request to be on time on the first day. Of course you don't. Fear not, you are the third to be late today but at least you bothered to show up."
"No Mr. Hargor, I would never think something like that!" Chen waved his hands in front of him in a panicked fashion, Chen respected Kano so much.
"For now, it will be standard control. You can't use water but you can still feel it. Without learning your base element I fear you may not gain the mastery I desire to instill in you. That being said, strip to your underwear and get in the pool. Try to calm the waters in your own way..."
"Huh?" Chen had been ordered to strip to his underwear and get in the pool with the other guy. He blushed and began taking off his pants.
"Actually, no. You'll probably just freeze the water with Luke in it and cause me more trouble. Keep your pants on and see if you can do something for the boys over there. I know you can use ice so lets see how far you can go with your powers. I want you to work on the creation aspect. I want to see a detailed house made of ice by the end of our session here. Without using the pool behind us."
Chen let out a small breath of relief and buckled his pants back up. "Alright, house of ice. I can do that." Chen then got to work on creating a house of ice. It would need to be pretty big to fit at least four people, so he got to work on creating a big tepee house. Like the Native Americans used to love in. He sweated a bit as he focused on making sure it didn't collapse, breathing heavily as he drew on his reserve energy. By the time he was finished he collapsed inside of his own tepee, sweating and gasping for air.
With a small sigh of "I knew it" he took the second dowel and observed it, holding it first between his index finger and thumb, turning it a bit around, then let it slid down into his palm and grabbed it tightly. He mostly used his fire for combat purposes and destruction so this was something he didn't put much time into, the whole fire is beautiful a graceful thing bullshit. He concentrated his focus on the bottom of the dowel where it was held tightly against his palm and released his energy into it. The dowel vibrated for a second but then fire burst out of the top of the dowel. It was wild at first but then started to dance around. He did make sure that the flame was much bigger than the one the girl used. "There you go!" he said with a small grin and threw the dowel into the air just above the little girl, which quickly turned into ashes that fell on her head.
For a long time she was able to freely do as she wanted. The girl wasn't able to fight the tickles at all. She was so defenseless that it became a bit sad at some point. Just when Emi thought the girl had enough the girl seemed to realize something. A burst of air was burst against her legs and underneath her. Brunhilde launched herself away from her by using air to propel herself away. Emi blinked a few times and looked a little confused at first. When she saw the girl sit upright again a few feet away from her she gave her a smile and started to laugh a little. She dropped onto her butt and kept a smile on her face.
"Are you okay... Hehe..."
Brunhilde gave a smile and two thumbs up from her spot on the grass.
She got up and brushes off her butt. She walked on over and offered her hand to help Brunhilde up. She helped the girl a little by brushing off some of the grass and smiled brightly at the girl.
"Soooo. What was your life like before you came here?"
Brunhilde took Emi's hand and pulled herself totally upright. She shook herself off and ran a cylinder of high power wind down her back to knock off the remaining grass as she answered with a shrug. "No clue. I mean, I came from an island way up north and lived on a farm with my parents. But it all just sorta cuts off at a point." The tattoo on her right hand reminded her that she should be checking the journal, which she realized wasn't in her hands at all. A moment of panic passed as she looked around, followed by relief when she found the very familiar looking book lying next to her bag near the tree. "...I'll check."
"No clue?"
Emi said as a vast wind ran through the surrounding area. Emi slightly covered her eyes as Brunhilde made herself clean again with the help of wind. When she was done Emi gave a sweet smile at the girl. Brunhilde suddenly got hit with a thought of realization and had started to panic. Emi looked quite confused at her and raised a finger of question to her chin. She waited a moment to see what the girl was doing instead of helping her. She wanted to know the cause of her sudden panic attack.
Some page flips to the index showed that Brunhilde was still seventeen, which still surprised her a little bit, and she found what she was looking for. More page flipping, and a section that was more or less completely flooded from top to bottom with text and drawings on every page could be seen. Most of it was unintelligible to observers because of the sheer density, though.
Brunhilde calmed down again out of nowhere. Emi only started looking more confused and began to worry slightly. Still she smiled at Brunhilde when she picked up her book and quickly started paging through it. 'I'll check?'' you had to check on what your life was like before this? Emi listened to the girl after she had flipped through the pages for a while. She couldn't tell that her life was pretty normal without the book? Emi glanced over the side of the book to take a glance at what was in the book. She knew it was a diary of some sorts but that it was this detailed and long!?
"Pretty normal rural high school student, I'd say. How about you?"
"Oh really? Well I'm glad you experienced it well! Shall we get on with the practices then"
Brunhilde noticed Emi's curious expression. She knew that sort of look pretty well. "If you'd like to know more, you can ask me later. In the meantime... It's my turn to catch you. And I'll expect you to answer one question, too. Ready up!"
Emi gave a bright nod at the girl to agree on asking her more questions later. So it was her turn now eh? She would probably suck at this. If she could only feel the light on her skin at the moment it would be kind of hard to know someone is approaching. Still she could give it a try, it wasn't like she was completely shit at this.
Emi stepped away from Brunhilde and closed her eyes. She tried focusing on the world around her. The shadow on her skin from some nearby tree. It was easy to detect. Her own shadow that was shown on the ground. It was easy to detect and still well detailed. Now onto the hard part, Brunhilde's shadow. She knew someone was standing there but couldn't make it out completely. It was a little blurry still. Her face tensed up a little as she tried concentrating more and somewhat panicked she wasn't gonna see any shadow at all. Emi hesitated for a moment but chose to start not wanting to let the girl wait any longer.
"G-go ahead."
The most recent journal page made mention of reflection thanks to one of Avarius's comments about shadows, and she decided to try something. She walked so that Emi would feel her shadow easily - then kept moving. The instant her shadow left Emi, she lifted herself three inches above the ground so she couldn't be heard, and she focused on breathing away from the girl. After waiting for Emi to move a bit, Brunhilde circled around to Emi's 'blind spot' on the other side of the sun and hovered no more than a foot away. They were in class, so they might as well experiment a little, she figured.
Emi put up a stance so that she could quickly move out of the way when Brunhilde would strike. With the help of her ears and her element abilities she could determine where Brunhilde was a little. Brunhilde was thinking just like Emi at the moment and knew what she could see and couldn't see that well. Emi tried using it to her advantage while Brunhilde used it against her.
"You can feel the sunlight bouncing off of me, right?"
Brunhilde circled around her while she was a tiny bit in the air. Emi panicked a little when she lost sight of the small girl. She circled around trying to spot Brunhilde but had not the slightest idea on where she was at the moment. She suddenly turned towards Brunhilde when she heard her talk behind her and looked quite staggered at he moment. Her face looked quite pained.
"It's hard... But I can try."
Brunhilde found Emi's reaction rather funny, but kept herself from laughing. She figured it would be reasonable to actually start trying to catch her now. She went easy on the first pass, making her approach as bright or dark as possible, fully expecting Emi to get out of the way with no trouble at all. The second pass was a little faster, but still manageable. The third pass... Well. They might be learning to sense things, but part of that was reaction time, she figured. She threw herself towards Emi, aiming to take the girl to the ground. Mid-flight, she found she felt a little guilty about slamming into her new friend, and prepared an air cushion to keep them from slamming into the ground - or, indeed, touching the ground at all.
She concentrated once more and felt Brunhilde's presence just slightly. She knew where her shadow was but the girl her position was a little harder. Still she had a general idea and quickly moved out of the way when she felt the shadow move just slightly. She did it once more when she approached faster and still stood strong but she couldn't dodge the 3rd time. She was simply going to fast to dodge. Emi was tackled towards the ground but was stopped by something invisible behind her. She made a puff and laid defeated on the ground with the girl ontop of her. She gave the girl a smile.
"Guess I failed hehe. You can ask something I suppose."
Her last sentence was somewhat happier. She dropped her arms next to her as her hair was spread out over the ground.
Brunhilde sat on top of Emi like she was some sort of weird park bench as the two sort-of awkwardly hovered in place. She appeared to be thinking hard and was resting her chin on a fist, tapping her mouth with one finger. "Hm..."
A big smile broke out across Brunhilde's face as she figured out what to ask. "...Do you want to go to town and get something to eat later? Maybe during a break, or after class?"
Brunhilde had been sitting on her for quite some time now, luckily the girl wasn't that heavy so Emi could cope for now. When Emi said she could ask a question she had gone into thinking mode and appeared to be quite focused on it. Emi herself had a hard time too thinking up a question but not as hard as this. After a while she finally reacted as Emi gave an awkward laugh in reply.
"That wasn't really a question though hehe, I would have gone with you if you asked too. But if you are satisfied with this question I'm fine with it too!"
"Then it's settled. Either lunch or dinner at the first inviting-looking place we find. And... Hm. If you're giving me a free question... What frightens you more than anything else?"
The second question was a lot easier to come up with, and Brunhilde started writing in the journal again to note the plans for that day. In respect for Emi's privacy, she decided not to write her answer to the 'real' question down and closed the book.
"Hmm, I guess darkness scares me a little, I really don't like it."
Her face looked a little like that of and innocent young girl at the moment. Darkness was something that children would be afraid of but she was already a little older then that.
Brunhilde blinked slowly. THAT was what frightened her more than anything? She doubted it a little, but Emi didn't seem the sort of person to hide that kind of stuff. "...Note to self: Give Emi a good flashlight." She was half-joking as she said it, but wrote it down anyway. Might as well make her future self play into the joke too.
"Those that fear the dark haven't seen what the light can do." Avarius couldn't resist chiming in with his little bit of wisdom. He had finished his quiz ball and explained the activity as he got up and walked over to the girls.
"This ball has some mathematic problems, sixty to be exact. Each one resembling one minute of break time. Every correct answer is one minute of free leisure time for you to enjoy as you wish. However there are a few rules; 1. you each get given a marker pen and must take turns answering a question. 2. You have to stay 10 feet apart from each other. 3. Lastly your eyes must be shut unless you are holding the beach ball. Yes, this means you have to catch it with your eyes closed. Use what you have just learned because a dropped ball can be timely to find. Your break won't start until the ball is complete."
Avarius was smiling proudly, his happiness radiating around him like a warmth on the soft floating winds, though they couldn't be quite sure who he was more proud of, one of them or himself. "Well, so who would like to begin?" he asks holding the pens out in one hand and balancing the large, soft rubber ball in the other.
The teacher commented on Emi being scared of the dark. A lot of teachers were full of wisdom it appeared. Emi gave a small nod and pressed both her fingers against each other fiddling around in front of her face with her eyes focused on them. She shifted her knees a little and made a somewhat annoyed sound.
"I thought I had seen some amazing light but I still don't like the dark for some reason. Do you perhaps know the reason for it teach? It is really bothering me when I have to do something with the dark."
She looked down at the ground looking quite sad for such a bright girl. She really was bothered by the fact she was scared of something. She couldn't imagine being scared for a lot of things like most be people were afraid of spiders and stuff. Emi let go of the problem for a second to pay attention to the teacher their lesson or else he had to pay even more effort to tell them what to do. They had to bounce a beach ball around to each other with their eyes closed and solve math problems once they had caught it. A math lesson and PE in one, well that was something amazing not any teacher could do. She never really had to give much effort to PE since it was always easy to move around and stuff but with math involved it would get a little harder. She was an average at the subject math.
"Give it to Brunhilde first, I'll try catching it first."
She showed off one of her fit arms by balling up her fist in the sky with her other hand on her arm muscle and gave a proud smile. She snatched one of the pens out of the teachers hand and walked away from him with marching steps and big arms swings.
Brunhilde, having forgotten that she decided not to write anything about it down, wrote a note to herself that Emi was afraid of the dark. Genuinely afraid of the dark. She was sure that would come up in their next serious conversation regardless of anything, but she made a note to ask about it anyway. She assumed she had been a bit insensitive earlier, judging by the flashlight note in the journal, and felt she should try to make up for it a little.
She took the ball and walked the requisite amount of distance away from Emi, who was already standing at the ready. She figured that she might as well answer a question first, before giving the ball to Emi. The first question she saw was on the very edge of what she still knew from what she assumed had been her high school math courses. It was a rather complex trigonometry question. She didn't have a calculator on her, so instead of actually answering with a number, she tried to simplify the equation into a more manageable format. She wasn't entirely sure if her answer was satisfactory or not, but she marked it as complete. She spiked the ball hard enough for it to be fairly loud, but not too hard to catch, and closed her eyes before it reached Emi.
She really hoped there were a lot of questions that didn't involve difficult numbers. She might know how to put two and two together (so to speak), but numbers had never been her strong suit. This exercise might take a while.
So he can follow directions, she thought, judging Vlad from where she stood as if she were his teacher as well. Maybe he a chance of passing his first year in the academy, regardless of the level of expertise he may think he had. Madison had a smirk on her face from the moment she stood on the sidelines to watch Vlad, but her expression quickly changed to disgust when he made his dowel dissipate into ashes right above her head.
Something in her snapped, almost as quickly as a light switch. Maybe it was the fact that Vlad somewhat reminded her of Damon, or maybe it was the fact that she disliked him too much already. Or both, honestly.
"What the hell is your problem!" she yelled at Vlad while simultaneously throwing a fireball at him as she would a baseball. At this point, she didn't care if they were in class nor did she care that Mr. Kessinger was bearing witness to her initiating an attack against another fellow student. Madison regularly wasn't this reckless, but when her anger got the better of her, it was another story altogether.
