[IC] Four Winds

[RoflsMazoy]

Stellar "Clive" Arkadian

"Huh? Oh..." Clive said, distracted from Kyou yet again by a feast for his eyes only. "That's some intense magic."

He saw a huge quantity of grey colored magic exploded out from the school building. There was too much of it to see specifically where it was coming from, but it collected in the sky. A moment later, the students would see the cloud splitting apart and simply forming into birds, but for Clive it was a much more beautiful transformation. The cloud itself wasn't magic, but rather a medium. During the few seconds of darkness, the magic which had exploded out had been shaped into a flock of doves, each one meticulously shaped. As the sun pierced through, the magic was released downwards all at once.

The forms of the magic birds raced towards the ground, and the cloud billowed into their shape as if racing after them. Their tails flowed like smoke, as the swooped into the crowd, and there was one for him too. He saw it happen a moment before it was going to, the magic would dissolve inches in front of his face and wash over him. He breathed deeply, and let it enter into his mind.

He wasn't sure how he felt about the message itself. While he could say that it provided a contrasting image of the beauty of the magic he had just seen, and that in reality the style of the message and the headmaster himself fit it quite nicely, he could also have just said it felt lacklustre. But the sight he saw was his, and his alone, to anyone else's eyes the level of the delivery and the message itself would've been about equal.

His vision cleared and he saw their would be caretaker.

The red-haired man gave them a arrogant smirk and spoke. "You lot can call me Varus. I'll be "taking care" of you for now."

Something strange happened though; he just passed by each one of them. "Everyone, follow me." he said in a stern voice as we began walking towards an open field outside of the school.

"Get ready for your first trial here at Four Winds. Those I deem to be unimpressive, are automatically expelled. Capiche?"

@Scio

That sounds a little troublesome. He thought.

How was he supposed to show off his vision, anyway? The most he could do was probably just tell him about it. Well, it wasn't like Clive would have any reason to lie about it so maybe it'd work out. As their instructor walked, Clive noticed a red, faintly pulsating symbol hovering over his shoulder. He doubted the position meant anything, but it was shaped like an explosion. Well, it looked a little more like just impact than explosion, but he couldn't tell for sure.

He made to follow after Varus, but as Clive's hand shifted he suddenly noticed that he was holding someone else's very warm hand.

"Oh..." Without realizing it, Kyou had been holding tightly onto his hand. He couldn't tell whether it'd been before or after the Headmaster's magic show, and realizing it now, she was probably the kind of person who didn't enjoy not being noticed, for want of a better phrase.

"Sorry..." He said tentatively, "I wasn't paying attention. I don't think that'd make up for anything but you ate all my bubblegum. Maybe I could owe you a favor?"

He hadn't let go yet, or more accurately he couldn't let go just yet. Kyou had a vice-grip on it, and she had mentioned something about martial arts in their conversation just now so that probably meant he wasn't getting out unless she let him.

---

@Masaki Haruna

[Nanashi Ninanai]

The crowd of people made the entire procession towards the site of the first trial slower than what Alice expected at first, giving her ample time to actually observe the people around her. The event earlier made her lose track of the gasmask-wearing person and the person that was talking with them, so Alice had to find someone else for now to take notes about. It was an even more convenient time to do it, since now the gibberish she heard around her somehow turned to be actually intelligible voices. The language barrier had been shattered! She never thought of paying any attention to the language barrier in her story, so for it to conveniently disappear was appreciated. Now events had started to unfold on the right track.

On her mind as she continued her observation, this would be the time for Alice to try forming a three-person group. That's how most of the protagonist of these school stories usually do, as far as Alice was aware. Of course, Alice was convinced that she's better than the usual protagonists of such stories, so rather than waiting for fate to give her the group she'd be sticking with throughout the rest of the story, keen-eyed Alice would observe and pick up said peers by herself. However, she still had to play the role of the shy and clueless heroine for the beginning to make herself adorable, so Alice acknowledged that she shouldn't be too forceful with that.

As she started to look around, she noticed that someone was looking at her. It was more of an aside glance, and she was content on leaving it be for the time being, but after a while, she noticed that the look was deliberate instead of just a passing glance. This short-haired boy, was looking at her. Was he impressed by her mere presence? Alice considered to pick him up, but she felt that his first impression wasn't as interesting as she thought, at least from one look. Either way however, being looked at like that did stimulate her curiosity, and perhaps talking with him would set the flag to trigger interesting events in the future. The boy was now looking at another direction, and Alice used it to prepare her meek and shy appearance for the meeting before approaching him while he's not looking at her. Using the crowd of moving people as an alibi, she bumped herself accidentally to the boy.

"U-uh, sorry!

I...I was thinking that I saw someone familiar around here, but...I can't move well on this crowd. So...uh...you looked at me earlier, right? M-may I ask your name? P-perhaps we can go together for now? I don't know anyone here..."

Even now, Alice was still not good at conversing with people, but since she's playing the role of a shy girl now, it worked to her advantage with a bit of extra spices. The thought of whether the boy would be dangerous or not had not really passed her mind for the time being. Neither the thought about whether her speech sounded forced or not. She wasn't really thinking of much right now aside from how she should take this story next, actually.

@Letter Bee

[Letter Bee]

Mikhail Suburov-Tachibana

There was a reason Nico found it easy to think badly of other people, to think of them meeting accidents, dying, or otherwise being greivously harmed. And Mikhail was facing that reason. Still faintly glowing, the russian boy would face Alice, the stink from her increasing with the secretly arrogant lies she was telling. Mikhail didn't know everything, but she was wearing a mask, a mask that concealed something, and quite frankly, Nico would have a field day in his mind taking apart someone who would lie and use her feminine charms to try and gain the protection of people. Granted, Mikhail was obliged to protect those who were relatively innocent even if he didn't like them and they were only innocent in a few aspects of their lives.

He would then say:

"My name is Mikhail Suburov-Tachibana. What's your name?" He wasn't going to confront Alice about her lying just yet. "And, considering the amount of bullying that apparently goes on at this school, all right - but you will have to be on my left side; my friend, Nico, is going to be on my right." The Russian gestured to Nico.

"Would that all right?" he said, his smile genuine. He was going to give her his protection, though he didn't trust her.

@Nanashi Ninanai @January @Scio

[January]

NICO LEHMANN

Nico had barely regained his composure when he heard a familiar voice calling his name. And then he felt his stomach sinking when he turned to see who it was, though he already knew.

Mikhail.

Not good. Ah, shit. Act natural…?

And what the fuck is natural for you?

Smile or something! God, I forgot he was here. This is so awkward.

The corners of Nico’s mouth stretched horizontally.

Tilt the corners upward! Smile better!

He added more facial muscles to the smile.

“…Mikhail!” Nico hesitated slightly in the greeting as Mikhail brought up Asswipe and insisted on fighting him later.

Before he could respond, however, a girl bumped into Mikhail, blurting something about needing help looking for a friend and Nico let slip a small sigh of relief. He and Mikhail had been pen pals for several years and Mikhail had recently confessed his feelings for Nico in a letter that Nico had taken almost a month to respond to.

Romance had never been high on Nico’s list of life priorities. He generally thought girls were cute and probably would have enjoyed the company of one as a friend, but dating was an entirely different beast that he was absolutely certain he didn't have the willpower to wrangle. He had texted his brothers in the group chat the day he had received Mikhail’s confession, asking for advice on how to respond if he didn’t reciprocate the feelings, but the conversation had been something of a mixed bag:

NICOBUTT'S SUNBROS

Elliot: if u date him & he pisses u off ill throw him in the LHC!!!

Lucien: He’s asking how to reject him. Which means you should shut up and let me handle this.

Elliot: no!!!!!! EN OH no!!! u suck ull prolly tell nicobutt smthng inhuman like “I’m Lucien and I’m a callous jerkface so you should just tell Mikhail to fuck off.”

Elliot: how was tht? good impression?

Elliot: im awesum

Lucien: Nico, just tell him to fuck off.

Elliot: wow i fcking knew it!!!!

Lucien: If you don’t reject him properly, he’ll harbor lingering feelings for you until the mental pressure exceeds his capacity to withstand, at which point he’ll pursue you with a single-minded fervor that can only be cured by death.

Elliot: wtf where do u even get that stuff

Lucien: I’m almost certain of it.

Elliot: Just tell him the truth, Nico.

Elliot: and then be totes prepped for the awkssssssss and turlte because ur going to the SAME SCHOOL :3c itll be awesum tell me deets k?

Lucien: Don’t tell Elliot anything because he’s useless. Just tell me. I’ll figure out something.

Elliot: lulz u gotta handle it on ur own nicobutt cuz lu will kill him

So Nico had told the truth and Mikhail had asked to remain friends in the following letter. After rejecting his romantic feelings, Nico could hardly reject his friendship, too, so despite Lucien’s furious advice on the subject (“Lingering feelings will only lead to death!”), he had agreed to remain friends with Mikhail.

And now Mikhail was greeting him like nothing had happened and Nico could only feel like a true shitter for still taking advantage of Mikhail’s friendship and general support even after all of that. Maybe Lucien was right.

It’d be so much easier if he hated me. It’d be infinitely easier. Lu and Elli, too.

With Mikhail distracted by the girl, however, Nico had a small chance to fix his demeanor, hiding his discomfort as much as he could. When Mikhail suddenly gestured to him, Nico looked blankly at the hand for a moment before looking up at Mikhail, clearly conveying with the confusion on his face that he hadn’t paid any attention to what Mikhail had been saying.

He then looked at the girl.

Maybe Mikhail had been introducing him.

Smile. With the cheeks and the eyes and stuff.

“Hi!” he raised his voice. “My name’s Nico!”

That was a little loud. Yeah, that was definitely a little loud.

[Vox Angelis]

Just as Akasha was walking toward what appeared to be the main building, in order to meet whoever was in charge of this place, her head swiftly turned upwards as the windows coming from an office above slammed open, letting out a torrent of thick grey smoke out of the building. At first, the Amazon thought that fire had been set to the school, but this smoke turned out to be something magical as it soon after greyed the sky, letting but a few rays of sunlight passing through.

Her survival instincts kicking in, the young warrior shifted into a readied stance as the smoke blew downwards to crash on the ground and transform into smoky grey doves. Normally, the amazonness wouldn’t be afraid of this kind of birds, but this time being made of smoke and darting towards her made her grow suspicious.

With amazing agility, she had dodged one a few times, but relentless as it seemed, the smoke that was chasing after Akasha managed to finally hit its mark. As the smoke penetrated every orifices, the female shape-shifter found herself in a haze, the world slowly blurring out from her vision, her reflexes and movement sluggish.

Her first reaction to this situation was giggling. It reminded her of that one time she had snuck into the tribe shaman’s hut to steal her smoking pipe. Turned out that this was no ordinary pipe. One blow from the smoke inside was enough to make her feel pretty much the same way she was now, except she had seen visions of unbelievable colorful sceneries, and other things she couldn’t make sense of.

Well, perhaps she was high after all, as she the image of a man, dressed casually in terms of modern society, besides the white coat, appeared in her sight. While she was unimpressed by his clothing style (she doesn’t know modern fashion anyways), she liked the guy’s tattoos.

Akasha didn’t understand much of what the man, calling himself the “headmaster” of this school, said. She however understood that he poisoned them, and people would be guiding them around. Her face turned into a grimace, fearing what kind of poison was running through her. Hopefully she wouldn’t die!

But the most shocking thing was the language. Even though the man had spoken words unknown to the amazon, she actually understood what they meant. Trying to piece together the actual words spoken with their meaning blew the poor girl’s mind. She actually stood there in a confused haze for a whole minute after feeling like throwing up when she was coughing up all the smoke she had inhaled.

She just barely regained her composure when a new guy gestured to the group of new students to follow him, speaking with somewhat harsh words. However, despite what the man called Varus just said about being expelled if he wasn’t impressed, Akasha did not feel anything like annoyance to this. Rather she took it more like if the man was challenging the group, and it gave the amazon renewed strength, to accomplish her best and prove she wasn’t just a weak girl undeserving to be standing here.

Puffing up her chest like a proud warrior, Akasha held her head high. “Alright! I always love a challenge!” She exclaimed loudly. However, instead of an actual voice, the loud roar of a panther echoed in the premises.

What the hell? What was she doing in her panther form again? The wild teenager had no memory of having transformed herself after had beaten the two boys to a game of “King of the Hill”. Again, she had shifted into a panther unwillingly, but she didn’t realize that it had happened right when she lost consciousness momentarily due to the dean’s spell. As her consciousness faded away, her brief moment of distress had triggered her survival instincts, her dominant animal side taking control of her body, thus shifting her into her panther form. However, due to the spell restricting the students’ movements, Panther Akasha (Panthera) couldn’t move while her human side had faded into unconsciousness.

Realizing just out of place she might be in her wild aspect, Akasha focused to revert back to her human form. Upon returning to normal, she scratched the back of her head, chuckling in embarrassment.

“Hehe, sorry for that.”

[Nanashi Ninanai]

What's with this guy...?

"I-it's nice to meet you, Mikhail! I...um...my name is Alais, but people usually call me Alice. S-sorry if I'm being a bother to you!"

The man was seemingly having a genuine desire to help Alice out, however she couldn't shake the feeling that she had inside about him. Something felt off. Acting on it however, would only break her own facade. It's not like she could confirm the intent of the boy anyway. Calm down, calm down. It's nothing more than just an omen. Whatever was the case, she had set the flag here, and while Alice doubted that Mikhail would be one of the routes she could pursue, the other boy on his side that he asked to introduce himself to her could be a different case...

“Hi!” he raised his voice. “My name’s Nico!”

@January

"H-hello, Nico! It's nice to meet you. You look pretty nice..."

Nico's expression and tone felt a bit forced. Coupled with how he looked like he's not comfortable being here meant that he's socially awkward to some degrees. Perfect. Slick and tidy hairstyle, glasses, and neat and orderly clothing with an air of intelligence. Coupled with the social awkwardness, Nico encapsulated the concept of a young man that Alice would consider as a good target to pursue. At the very least, he could provide some good material for her writing. Mikhail looked somewhat clingy towards him however. Perhaps he really was worried about how Alice would pursue this route. In that case, it would set up for some interesting events in the future, but for now, Alice realized the need to open herself up to more potential routes rather than pursuing this one for too far.

Right, for now, establish the three amigos. She couldn't play her role as the heroine in an academia setting without being in that kind of friendship circle. Having a female friend in the trio would be ideal for Alice, but it's inconvenient to pick anyone else now.
She's going to stick with what she had for the time being.

"Uh..." She attempted to look like she was gathering the courage to speak what she had in mind. "L-let's stick together, please? I don't have any friends around so...if you guys can be my friend, that would be nice."

Of course, that was said by someone that had no idea on how people were supposed to make friends.

@Letter Bee@January

[January]

NICO LEHMANN

Friends?

Just when he had figured he wouldn't mind a female friend, this girl offers to be their friend?

Is this how friendships work?

I don't fucking know. Ask your brothers.

Uh...maybe not. But this is...a little...sudden.

Jesus Christ. Get your shit together. She's just asking to be friends, not proposing to you.

"Sure!" Nico replied, the word coming out a little strange, as if he had tried to say "shoe" but then tacked an extra "er" to the end of it.

Elliot had an emote he liked to spam at Nico to represent what he thought Nico "always looked like" and Nico felt, with alarming frequency, how accurate that emote was: @_@.

Okay, okay. Let's make sure to remember her face and name so we don't repeat that other incident again.

Nico almost grimaced at the memory before intently scrutinizing the girl in front of him. Alais--no, Alice--had stunning violet eyes that bordered true violet and amethyst. Nico reflexively tapped the knuckle of his index finger against his mouth, staring unblinkingly at her eyes.

There was a bit of pink in the color, too.

Oh! It's orchid!

Seemingly satisfied, he smiled to himself before giving the rest of her a once-over. Light strawberry blonde hair, a few inches past her shoulders, small stature, conservative style of clothing, collared eggshell white dress with a charcoal grey sweater thrown over, and slate grey beret with brim.

Got it. Orchid, light strawberry blonde, eggshell white, charcoal grey, and slate grey.

Nodding to himself now, Nico fixed that set of colors into his mind, looking to Mikhail for his response to the girl's sudden offer of friendship.

@Letter Bee@Nanashi Ninanai

[Letter Bee]

Mikhail Suburov-Tachibana

Mikhail managed to school himself into calmness as a metaphorical calamity happened; Alice was now looking at Nico with evident interest, and was clearly trying to seduce him. On the one hand, it would probably be best for Nico to end up with a girl, because it's what will make him happy, sexuality-wise. But, that came with the caveat that it had to be the right kind of girl, not people who are clearly lying to get into his pants.

Oh, my, Nico's turning to me, asking me for my own response, Mikhail realized. What do I do? I can't give the girl carte blanche to seduce and use Nico, but at the same time, I have a feeling that if I reveal my suspicions of said girl too early, we'd make an enemy that was willing to seduce someone else - maybe that bullying redhead - to get revenge on the both of us. Besides, Nico would not like being the center of a quarrel between the girl and me.

So in response, Mikhail gave a slight nod to Nico, one meant to convey both agreement and caution. He would then say, on his own:

"Alice, it would be a pleasure to be friends with you. After all, the more we band together, the more we'd be bully-proof, right?" But if you hurt Nico, I am going to make sure that once I acquire a 'smiting' ability, I will expose you as the lying, seducing, manipulative shrew you are.

But right now, I will protect you, because I am obligated to.

@January@Nanashi Ninanai

[hagroden]

~ Nihiri Rakkan

---

---

The cigarette held between his lips left a thin trail of smoke that lingered in the air behind him as he walked through the marvelous gates of the Four Winds Academy. Thanks to his participation in the unofficial orientation a few days before, his possessions had already been taken to his dorm and unpacked, and he was vaguely familiar with his way around the school, but the small map folded into his back pocket assured him that he wouldn't get lost too easily. He had both of his hands in the pockets of his black, semi-formal jeans, and his head wasn't entirely down, but neither was he looking straight forward. Nihiri had several sets of the same outfit, his "Semi-Formal" wear, which included a black vest overtop of a white button-up with cuffed sleeves, a loose black necktie, and a pair of well fitting black dress-jeans. He wore this ensemble at all times, except in the case of Formal events, in which he would wear a black sports-jacket.
As he walked further into the school grounds, the number of people slowly increased until he hit what he assumed to be the center, given the surplus of pedestrians milling about and striking up nervous conversations. His eyes grazed over their numbers slowly, pulling the cigarette from his mouth momentarily, only to flick the build-up of ash off and return the burning stick to his lips. As he surveyed, he noticed a window a story above his height open, releasing a quick yet steady billow of smoke that flooded into the atmosphere, blocking out the sun. He watched in interests as slight beams of light began to push through, growing exponentially until the ground was covered in a magical disco-ball pattern. As he continued to watch, he saw as the smoke began to spiral downwards, slowly forming into beautiful birds, doves to be exact, which quickly began to dive towards each and every student. Doubting the likelihood of a magical attack occurring on the first day, he smiled and braced himself for the Dove of narcotic origins, inhaling the familiar smoke deep into his lungs, only to be caught wonderfly off guard as he felt himself fall victim to it's magical properties.
As Jasper's semi-personal message was relayed, then shortly dissipated, he noticed the sudden appearance before him of a lean, yet muscular man with dark Auburn hair appear before him, as well as in front of every student within his line of sight, assuming that this was a strange part of an odd Orientation, he followed the man happily, taking another slow puff from the cigarette in his mouth.

[Menhir]

Meanwhile, at the Fuji post office, a cardboard box in the recent arrivals tore itself open to reveal a tiny girl, less than a hand's span in height. Around her neck she wore a measuring tape, and across her hip lay a sewing needle. Upon her back she carried a plain brown shoebox, packed full near to bursting and all tied up with string. She passed an arm through each loop, wearing the thing like a great big backpack. The box was easily twice her height, and the overall effect made her seem even smaller than she really was.

Hopping down from the pile and, leaving behind a crumpled note explaining what had happened, she strolled out past the front desk. She turned smartly to inform the clerk of what had happened, but he seemed to be napping. He'd probably had a hard night, and the matron had always taught Layla to never deny a person in need. Did being sleepy count as a "need"? Well, he probably had his reasons, and far be it from Layla to tread on them.

Strolling out the front door, Layla flung her arms wide and took in the mountain air, the bitter cold, the proud peak of Mount Fuji dominating the skyline...

Wait.

Wasn't she supposed to be on Mount Fuji?

Layla wheeled around, craning her neck to see the sign above the entrance. There were some moon runes, and then underneath:

FUJI MUNICIPAL POST OFFICE

"Wasn't it supposed to be 'Fujisan-Cho'?", Layla wondered aloud. She looked over at an adjacent sign bolted to the wall, covered in a variety of foreign languages she had no means to understand. Oh, and English.

BE AWARE THAT FUJISAN-CHO POST OFFICE IS NOT A VALID MAILING ADDRESS AND LETTERS ADDRESSED AS SUCH WILL BE RECEIVED HERE.

Layla squinted at the sign, turned on her heels, glared at Mount Fuji, spun around again, and then looked at the sign a final time. She folded her arms and kicked the ground.

"Aw, son of a bitch.", she muttered to nobody in particular.

[Ayemdar]

Annabelle opened her mouth to respond to Valechka, but then something strange happened. It seemed to happen quick, so before she knew it she was about to be attacked by a bird when the paralysis hit. She couldn't move or speak, which caused fear to seep in.

Wait what's happening. Why am I frozen...? But before Annabelle's thoughts got too crazy, Jasper appeared in her mind. He introduced himself and then she was coughing up the smoke that had entered her. Another man, Varus appeared and ordered the students to follow him.

Annabelle was pushed around by the crowd. She got separated from Valechka and forced into another student. This caused her to knock down and land on top of a Mikhail. She looked down at the boy. He appeared to be around her age, not someone extremely younger like many of the other students. He had black hair and appeared to be Japanese of sorts.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!" Annabelle quickly rolled off him and awkwardly tried to stand up. She smoothed out her dress and extended her hand to offer to help Mikhail up. "I'm Annabelle." She smiled, hoping he wouldn't be too angry at her.
@Letter Bee

[KOgaming]

Valechka noticed the other girl moving before suddenly coming to a stop. "Cyka blyat!" she shouted, a puff of smoke shooting from the sky. The entire area was dark. She clawed at her face, jumping out of the way of one and into another. "Cyka! Cyka! Cyka!" she shouted, thrashing about before whatever magic it was took control of her, even if the magic was fast enough to overtake the other students before they could do the same.. She was staring up at the sky, though her vision was blotted out. In her mind, Valechka cursed up a storm, however there was not much sound coming from her actual body. An onlooker could possibly believe she was having some kind of seizure, arms postured outward, legs outstretched as if she were hanging from a cross, her limbs completely tensed. "нет! призрак гриль кролика шлюха!"

Before her, appeared an unkempt, casually dressed man. She recognized him as some kind of assailant. "Nyet! Get out of my head cyka!" she shouted internally, unable to do anything. Neither 'poison' nor 'corrupt' sounded like pleasant words to her, nothing she wanted done to herself. "Nyet! Babushka was wrong! I want go home! I want go home!"

The bear-girl wheezed as the smoke left her body. It wasn't anything she wasn't used to, but that did not make it any more pleasant. When she got back to her senses, Valechka returned to thrashing about on the floor. "Cyka blyat!" she shouted, scratching at the air. It seemed she was separated from Annabelle. Valechka relaxed, letting her limbs fall back down to the ground. She picked herself up, deciding it'd be best to look for her old-ish acquaintance. Her round, fluffy, and reasonably sensitive bear-ears were capable of picking up Annabelle's voice, or at least what she thought was such, walking towards it, pushing past crowds of people only to find Annabelle among a crowd of three others.

She held herself back a moment, before stepping up to introduce herself. "Eh. Excuse my friend. My name Valechka. This Annabelle. Eh... we uh... foreign. Da."

@Ayemdar@Letter Bee@January@Nanashi Ninanai

[Letter Bee]

Mikhail Suburov-Tachibana

As Annabelle bumped into Mikhail, his concentration on 'Presumption of Innocence' broke, and the smell of sulfur that was coming from everyone around him faded. This allowed him to greet Anabelle and Valechka with a genuine smile this time, taking the former's hand, before greeting the latter, happy to see someone else who spoke Russian (he didn't know about Donovan).

"Hello, Annabelle and Valcheka, my name is Mikhail Suburov-Tachibana; I'm Half-Japanese and Half-Russian. These are my friends, Nico and Alice." Due to not smelling sulfur all around him, Mikhail was more sincere when saying Alice was a friend. "Anyway, want to form a group with us to deter bullies, as well as help each other in academic studies?" He would casually reactivate Presumption of Innocence, faintly glowing as he did so.

And he would find that everyone still stank of sulfur, and his nasty internal mood returned.

Oh, I get it now. Apparently, there are so many people here that my senses have been distorted. Presumption of Innocence is probably closer to Presumption of Relative Innocence to the inexperienced, and that is me. He would look at Alice, realizing that, although she was hiding something, he may have wronged her in his heart. Now to make a decision, stick to thinking badly of her out of pride, or find a way to convey his apologies to her subtly.

Turning off the ability again wouldn't hurt, though; as his parents reminded him, it was subjective. And so he turned it off, before greeting Annabelle again:

"You know, you look like you are just Nico's age; why don't you walk beside him?" Yes, Mikhail found Annabelle beautiful. However, he was going to try and set her up with Nico anyway, because even though his view of Alice had gotten better, he still thought that Annabelle was prettier and more mature than the other girl. "I'm going to take the rear of the group."

I'm going to give give Nico time to be beside one of the prettiest girls I've seen so far! Mikhail thought. I really hope this would make him happy...

@January@KOgaming@Ayemdar@Nanashi Ninanai@Scio

[Nanashi Ninanai]

Perfect.

Alice was both amused and pleasedwith Nico's awkward reply, and answered his words with a kind smile on his part, while Mikhail's answer at first confused her, but she then realized that it was actually pretty relevant. Of course there would be bullies here. The heroine of the story would face hardships in this brave new world of magical high school, and bullies would be the perfect hurdle for her to face. It would show her ingenue that would shine through their wickedness. She could barely restrict herself from letting out an "Ohohoh!" laugh as she praised her train of thought about setting the best academy experience for herself. So while the newly formed group continued their way following the instructor, she opened her notebook once more and started writing.

The best stories were ones that were grounded in reality, so of course, she had to make herself live in those stories to make it accurate.

However, it seemed that it's not only her today that had an idea of bumping to Mikhail. A girl with long, black hair bumped into him after being pushed around by the crowd, and now was profusely apologizing to him. Alice hated to admit it, but she did look quite gorgeous. While Alice was busy deciding whether she was more a threat or a potential friend for her though, another girl arrived. Despite her small size, her mouth spouted more pollution than an old truck's exhausts. Was she a country bumpkin? Ah, those types usually were honest and reliable. Probably hard to approach at first, but Alice was confident in being able to get close to her as she could prove to be quite the asset for her in pursuing the potential routes here.

"Eh. Excuse my friend. My name Valechka. This Annabelle. Eh... we uh... foreign. Da."

@KOgaming

"A-ah, nice to meet you two! I'm Alice, from France! Let's...uh...let's be friends! The more here, the merrier!"

Of course, everything went well at first, but then Mikhail decided to say something that irked her.

"You know, you look like you are just Nico's age; why don't you walk beside him?"

@Letter Bee

No damn it, what the hell?

Before Mikhail finished, Alice had disappeared from his side and reappeared on the right side of Nico as she opened her Window right below herself. She pushed herself to get close to him, and at first thought to try holding his hand, but in the end decided not to since that would seem that she's getting pushy, something a bit unbecoming for a heroine in this school setting.

Even if she's still not 100% decided yet on whether she should pursue Nico's route fully, no way in hell would she allow someone to set up a rivalry this early. With a victorious smile on her face, she turned her head a bit to look at the three behind her.

"With us five teaming together, I'm sure we'll have quite the fun time here!"

@Letter Bee@KOgaming@Ayemdar@January

[Ayemdar]

As Annabelle looked at Mikhail, Valechka appeared and introduced the two of them. "Valechka, hey! Sorry, I got pushed around by the crowd and then bumped into Mikhail here.." She kind of trailed off in embarrassment because she knocked the boy down.

She looked back at Mikhail as he spoke. Annabelle nodded and smiled at Alice and Nico as they were introduced to her.
Anyway, want to form a group with us to deter bullies, as well as help each other in academic studies?
"Uh, yeah, sure!" Annabelle was normally cautious when making friends, but she somehow now had 4, which confused her a bit.
You know, you look like you are just Nico's age; why don't you walk beside him? Annabelle thought this seemed a little odd, but before she could even react Alice had planted herself on that side of Nico. I guess Alice has a thing for Nico Annabelle noted mentally. She tried not to bring too much attention to that display of jealousy from Alice. "I guess I'll be walking next to you and Valechka." She said to Mikhail while attempting to laugh and play off the awkward scene that was happening.
@Nanashi Ninanai @Letter Bee @KOgaming @January

[January]

NICO LEHMANN

Just as Mikhail approved Alice's inclusion into their...walking group?...a girl fell onto Mikhail, who also tipped over.

Wow. She's gorgeous.

Wow, she's a fucking supermodel.

As Nico's flustered mind shifted into autopilot around particularly beautiful girls (Color. What's her hair color? What is it? Brown? No, no. Brown? No. Brown? No.) yet another girl came up to their group.

Teddy bear ears? Brown? No. Wait, bear paws?! Also brown? NO.

He barely managed to catch their introductions while he flailed around in his mind for his own name.

Nico. Your name is Nico. Do not open your mouth and say Nicobutt.

Then Alice appeared--literally appeared--on his right and pushed herself against him and Nico just blurted out the first thing on his mind.

"Nicobutt?"

He immediately slapped a hand over his mouth and froze.

"Nico?" he murmured through his hand, stiffly waving at Annabelle and Valechka for far too long.

"I just--Nico. I'm Nico. Hi, Alice?" he asked the greeting, meaning to ask why she was suddenly so close, but not quite getting there.

Nico's face was about the color of the vermilion thread he clutched in his hand and he began tottering forward, still distinctly aware that an actual female was pressed up against him.

Soft. Girls are soft.

Keep your mouth shut.

Wow, they smell really nice, too.

If you care about yourself at all, you will keep that hand plastered to your face, you dingbat.

[KOgaming]

Half Russian? Valechka could smell a slav, and this "Mikhail", as he called himself, was not a slav. Sure, he had the scent of cigarette smoke wafting about him, but so did everybody else. Not to mention the cigarette smelled cheaper quality than anything a gopnik back home would ever even dream of being caught smoking. Valechka grimaced. She was in the presence of a mongrel referring himself as a slav. She didn't attack immediately however. She remembered what babushka always said.

"Yes. Very nice." she nodded slowly, trying to hide her feelings of contempt. Any snide comments, she felt were best saved for a later date. "Are we saying where from now?" Valechka turned to face Alice, "from motherland. Unlike half-gopnik over there." She tilted her head at Mikhail, letting go of her previous thoughts of holding back, if only just slightly. At the mention of banding together, Valechka wasn't entirely sure. They were certainly welcoming, though Valechka knew better than to simply trust everybody she came across.

"I do not know. Maybe see around school. Maybe classmates. Not know if team." she excused herself.

"Do not be of worryings my friend," her mood changed, "I will stay close as possible, maybe."

Valechka glimpsed briefly at Nico, looking him up and down. "Look red like babushka's kompot. Maybe get drink of water. Am thinking you are of dehydrated." she remarked, then excused herself to the corner of the group, watching the flank but not saying much.

[Masaki Haruna]

"I really have no idea but we could just eat sweets all day!" She can laugh and enjoy all day long when it comes to sweet, the transition is fast but slow for Kyou when all is in full circle. She also doesn't understand the language that the Instructor was speaking, Varus dude.

If it's English, she's cool with it but her English sucks to begin with, if it was Chinese, she knows quite with it; all in all Kyou is language dumb herself.

She herself along with the others followed this Varus Man.

"Okay! I can let go now hahahahaha!" Still she didn't get what's going on well. "Hey Clive. Da heck is going on?" @RoflsMazoy

[King Tai]

@hagroden

Listening to the mingling of a few others going back and forth while walking along, following their so-called instructor, Tav scoped out the other students and back at the small group who seemed to be hitting it off, even though he didn't know what the fuck they were talking about but looked straight ahead once again. "Great...cliques are already forming...they're probably gonna kick my ass together to get ahead in this school....shit man..." The bitching was already starting as he watched a few others talking among themselves.

With a slight sigh and thinking about the first experience with the magic smoke, he looked over to notice two individuals who had something similar to the spell they all witnessed. There was a girl with a mask and what seemed to be fog that shrouded her a bit and another who was smoking. Raising his eyebrow, keeping the smug look on his face, he stared at the one with the cigarette in his mouth and kept his hands in his pockets. "Yo...you have that trippy hippy smoke magic shit that make you hallucinate like my uncles super chron plant too?" he asked the guy a few paces from him curiously, thinking about Jasper's magic.

[banjoanjo]

DONOVAN HORSKA

Someone needed to tell these magic folk that there was absolutely nothing wrong with a plain old PA system. A PowerPoint or some pamphlets would have worked. Hell, a piece of paper rolled into a cone would have been more preferable than this Jasper guy’s bullshit.

At first, Donovan was too distracted by the weird guy running at him with his fist raised to notice the shadows falling over the students. To run like that with your hands up, was that a magical thing or a foreigner thing? Before he could give it any more thought, alarmed shouts from the rest of the teens snapped his attention to the smoky doves that were attacking the new student body. Donovan fucking sprinted. God, that was a smart plan. Literally smoke out a considerable number of growing magic users and wipe them out. He knew that magic was detested but he didn’t think that people would stoop as low as gassing children.

Nonetheless, he too was caught in the smoke. With the smoke invading all his orifices, Donovan could only scrunch his face in anger as the guy called Jasper addressed them all with such a lackadaisical manner. Plus, he just straight up admitted that he poisoned them! What an asshole. When the transmission ended he was left coughing his lungs out, heaving out on the lawn. Donovan hated feeling powerless. Yet he had just been poisoned and the only thing he could do now was follow this Varus dude who had just shown up. Seriously, who still said ‘capiche’ in this day and age? Reluctantly, Donovan followed the instructor, but not before spitting onto the grass as a sign of rebellion to get rid of the acrid smoke taste still in his mouth.

As he walked, he considered Varus’ ominous warning of the first trial and expulsion. Donovan couldn’t say that he was worried. He had yet to meet a situation he couldn’t weasel his way out of. But he still had to take into consideration the fact that his power wasn’t exactly practical, combat-wise. If he could talk down an opponent for a few minutes he’d be fine. But these were the kinds of people who could turn into panthers and disable powers. One wrong move and he’d be flat on the ground again. So the next course of action was to find allies. Strength in numbers and all that. It was common sense, gathering people to cover his own weaknesses (not that he had many). Confidence grew when people were in packs. His high school days with the lads were a testament to that. So he looked around. The language barrier seemed to be removed though Donovan still couldn’t find anyone he wanted to give a shit about. Meanwhile, Glasses seemed to be gathering his own little clique, which included the weird running fist guy before. The latter seemed to be weirdly attached to Glasses. Donovan didn’t give it further thought. Some cute girls seemed to be a part of that little friendship circle too, but they didn’t seem anything spectacular. Overall, just a bunch of goody-two-shoes and average folk. Donovan was too good for those nerds. He nodded to himself. Yep, he was too good, that’s all it was. And the fact that Glasses had already gathered a little team for the first trial didn’t bother him at all. Not. At. All.

Fuck it. Donovan looked around again, this time with much more vigour. As he meandered through the crowd, Donovan smelt smoke. It immediately brought back unpleasant memories from just moments before. He located the source, which turned out to be a dude in semi-formal clothing smoking a cig. Donovan was going to question that guy’s fashion choice but stopped himself when he realised that this guy’s clothing was nowhere near as weird as the other stuff he had seen today. But he was seriously smoking after Jasper’s little trip? Now that was an interesting bloke. Donovan went up to approach the smoker but was beaten to it by an African looking guy.

"Yo...you have that trippy hippy smoke magic shit that make you hallucinate like my uncles super chron plant too?"

He couldn’t help but laugh. It was more out of surprise than any desire to mock, something that didn’t happen often with Don. This guy seemed fun too. He strolled up and addressed both of them.

“You seriously still want a trip after what that asshole just did to us?” Donovan asked with a casual smirk.

@King Tai@hagroden