[IC] Myth Academy - The Exchange

[Joshua Tamashii]

In front of Daelstadht Academy, a black car with tinted windows drove up and stopped in front of the main entrance. From the driver's seat, a young woman in a black suit, not unlike those one would expect to see from the secret service or personal security, exited the car and moved to the back passenger seat and opened the door.
"Miss Averyonna... Miss Averyonna, it's time to get up." the lady said as she gently shook her passenger.

In the back seat, the young vampire let out a yawn and slowly opened her eyes. She was not used to being awake during the daytime at all. Vampires slept during the day and remained active at night. But the family of vampires that had changed her had enrolled her in an exchange program for some human school that was accepting students of a more... mythical persuasion. So she was working on changing her sleeping habits, though it was a tough process. As she moved to get out of the car, her driver unfolded an umbrella to protect her from the sunlight and handed it to the young girl before going to get Amelia's luggage.

Amelia herself looked around at her surroundings while rubbing the sleep from her eyes. To those who where passing by, she must've made quite a sight. Physically, she looked to be younger then all the students here by around three or four years, with pale skin, bright scarlet eyes, and midlength golden blond hair held back in a ponytail. She was wearing a sleeveless shirt that matched her eyes, a pair of light blue jeans, and a pair of sandals on her feet. Probably the most stand out feature about her though was the pair of wings coming out of her back. The limbs seemed skeletal with six crystals hanging from each wing. Each crystal was a different color: white, red, silver, green, blue, and dark purple.

After her luggage was retrieved, Amelia followed her driver into the school and to one of the staff members that was there to help the new arrivals. As her driver left and the staff member led Amelia to her room while Amelia pulled her luggage along. As they moved through the halls, she glanced around nervously. There were several students already here but for the time being, she didn't interact with them.

Once they had arrived at her room and she had been informed of the orientation, Amelia thanked the staff member before entering her room. Inside, it was completely pitch black but Amelia could see just fine. There seemed to be the basic commodeties, but the one thing she was happy to see was her coffin from back home. It was rather big for someone her size but that was to give her room to sleep on her sides so she wasn't resting on her wings all the time. After taking a few minutes, she had her belongings in their proper places and finally left her room, bringing only her umbrella with her to block out any possible sunlight.

As she moved through the halls, Amelia watched everyone around her. The humans held little interest to her. She had been one, so she knew what she needed to know about them as far as she was concerned. Her interest was in learning the scents of all the other species present. She had no interest in interacting with them for the time being, but knowing each ones scent would e important incase any tried to sneak up on her or she needed to find a member of a particular species.

[Antarctic Termite]

Malinal

It was a while after Aelonya recommended her a knife before the thought Ah, shit, I forgot to bring one echoed somewhere in Mali's brain. The experience would be accompanied with a handful of others of a very similar nature over the coming days. For the moment, she still felt confident that she had everything she really needed, and Malinal's alleged demonhood would remain unconfirmed- She passed the question off as a quip.

It was the second mention of the label that finally tipped her off to the fact that the handy lady really didn't have any idea what Malinal was. She let go of the human- They seemed pretty placid, thought Mali personally, and she'd honestly love to hear what kinds of things they'd ask- and tapped her chin with a long finger, thinking. "Oh- Oh, nah, I can't vault planes on my own yet, I'm not old enough. Besides, the round trip up and down again still takes way longer than walking, and I have the absolute nicest legs for that anyway." She spun another little pirouette on a bird-toed heel, still puzzling how to unravel Aelonya's confusion. "Hey, Aelo, are you from Earth or Heaven? You sound just about weird enough to be some kind of Earthling- Seriously, you laugh like a choking turkey- So, uh, I guess you don't see my sisters very often. We're the tzitzimitl." She paused, not really knowing what to explain first, then burst out laughing. "Space skeleton midwives! Bet your species doesn't make nearly such a good band name!"

She'd forgotten to keep walking, but the curtained and strutted building was easily in view, collecting something of a loose crowd. Not familiar with human construction procedures, Mali thought it looked rather out of place alongside the other buildings, but much more fun to climb. She determined to try that out when she saw an opportunity.

@gaudi

[KaiserElectric]

"Well, here we are. Welcome to Daelstadht Academy."

Zaira Sedree extracted herself from the sporty red convertible, stretching out her glossy wings after the long trip and getting a good look at the front doors for the first time. A mixture of apprehension and nausea settled in the bottom of her stomach as her human companion, an older woman in her early 20's wearing a simple tank top and jeans, came around to the trunk to lug the suitcases out. "All right there, Z?" the woman said in the sharp, staccato Insectoid language.

"J-just a little nervous and a lot excited, Ms. Cooper," Zaira stammered.

"I'm not the schoolmaster, Z, just call me Morgan."

"Oh sorry, I keep forgetting," Zaira said with a giggle, before hovering over to help unload the car. Together the pair of them managed to unload the truck and carry Zaira's luggage up to the front door of the academy and prepared to go inside.

"I feel like I'm going to wake up from a very good dream any second now," Zaira admitted at last. "Did you feel this excited on your first day at the academy?"

"Hell no, I hated my old school," Morgan said with an air of disgust. "But I heard this one's pretty good, at least based on how badly my dad tried to get you in on this."

"Oh yes, because my father saved your dad's life when he was lost in Bangledesh, right?"

"And he hasn't shut up about it since," Morgan uttered disdainfully, shouldering the door open and ushering her inside. Following behind her at a snail's pace, Zaira took in all the sights and sounds of the new students coming and going. There were a lot of humans like Morgan, but there were many others coated with scales and fur and with all sorts of strange looks to them. Confined to her small town for much of her life, Zaira didn't know what any of them were called, and desperately wanted to learn what they were. Soon she came to the pleasant realization that a lot of the other students were staring back at her, some with amusement or annoyance but some with the same sense of wonder as she was. Zaira grinned, and in her happiness she took off from the ground and started hovering instead of walking, her wings fluttering rapidly. She came down quickly though, since the weight of two heavy suitcases was a bit too heavy to allow for long-term flying, at least at her age.

"Zaira Sedree?" came a stern yet soothing voice from nearby. Zaira and Morgan turned to look at an official looking woman striding towards them dressed in a forest green tunic and dress pants and a clipboard in her hand. A tall woman with a stern, matronly look to her, she was entirely bald with yellow, chitinous skin like an Insectoid, but with piercing yellow eyes to match her skin tone instead of the usual pure black. When she opened her mouth to speak, Zaira caught a glimpse of her sharpened teeth as well.

"Ooh, I see we had to repeat a year or two," the woman said to Morgan, a lilting tone of sarcasm hidden in her voice.

"Repeat a...HEY, I'm not the student, she is!" Morgan said indignantly, jerking her head in the Insectoid girl's direction. The woman fixed her eyes on Zaira as the younger girl began a well-rehearsed speech.

"Hello, my name is Zaira Sedree," she said cautiously but firmly. "I'm from the town of Narruz-Xan in Southeast Asia and I am very happy to be attending Daelstadht Academy!"

"How long have you been speaking English, Ms. Sedree?" the woman asked her.

"Er....about five months, ma'am."

"I see. Very impressive," the woman said with a reassuring smile, making a note on her clipboard. "In response to your question, we will be meeting shortly for an orientation in the Eastern Dormitory common room. Do you need help with your luggage?"

"No, thank you, I only have the four suitcases, one for each hand. Nothing I am unable to handle."

"Very well then, I'll see you in the common room shortly, Ms. Sedree."

"Did you see that? I totally conquered humanspeak!" Zaira said excitedly to Morgan as the woman walked off to speak to another student.

"Little trouble with the genders, but otherwise, yeah you went Genghis Khan on the English language," Morgan mused, setting down a suitcase to reach into her pocket. "Got something for you, by the way. A little first day present from me and dad."

"Ooh, what is it?" Zaira asked eagerly, looking over the small rectangular device Morgan handed to her.

"It's a combination music player and a phone, in case you need to call us for anything," Morgan explained. "Dad hid some headphones in your suitcase and I loaded that with some songs I think you would like."

"Thank you so much!" Zaira said, barely able to contain her enthusiasm as the pair of them hugged before Morgan handed off the suitcases to her and started for the exit.

"We'll call you in a week to see how you're getting along," Morgan shouted as she departed. "Walk with the ancestors, daughter of Zhia!"

"Cheerio!" Zaira called after her in English, pleased that Morgan had finally gotten the formal Insectoid goodbye correct without descending into a coughing fit. Taking a suitcase in each hand with only a little difficulty, Zaira began to scurry towards the East Dormitories.

[Sanbe]

Students began filling the common room too quickly for Alexander to greet each individual. Not all the students displayed appreciation for the welcome either. Deciding that the effort was leading to more discomfort than good, Alexander remained quiet. Observing the students, he contemplated the various cultural attitudes around him, particularly from the mythical creatures. Various languages and methods of introduction were exhibited, but several others simply kept their own company.

From the corner of his eye, Alexander caught a glimpse of a tall woman wearing a contemptuous expression. Upon stepping inside, she ceased advancing forward and positioned herself near Alexander and the door. Perhaps, like he, this lady was reluctant to venture too far inside with so many strangers. Turning to meet her gaze, Alexander prepared a greeting, but the woman swiftly initiated discussion before he could utter a word.

"Do they always herd you about like sheep?”

Surprised by her outburst, Alexander's composure loosened with a quick chuckle. Though Alexander thought her tone was hostile, the woman's voice was pleasant. With a deep breath, Alexander defaulted back to his formal manner of expression. Gesturing toward the crowd, he spoke to the woman in a stately tone.

“We are a herd, and the sheepdogs join us together for our benefit, not for the slaughter.” He turned to face the crowd, but continued addressing the woman exclusively. “If safety is your concern, than I recommend you remain close to the door and look for wolves.” Across the room a young lady with a baseball bat was glaring at Alexander's companion as an bear looks upon an intruder. Pointing to the young and seething lady, Alexander calmly stated to his companion, “I may have found a wolf, and she has a hungry look in her eyes.”

@Cuccoruler@Aspen Wren

[Pyromania99]

"I have a name, Fáfnir, it's Alicia, not 'Spirit'." The ghostly girl muttered to the dragon girl before digressing. "Anyhow, sure! I guess I'll go with you. I've got no one else right now." Alicia giggled before fixing her internal Gyroscope, setting herself upright again floating down to meet Fáfnir at eye level.

"I've only really talked to three people in my existence, so it's really cool seeing all these new people!" Alicia exclaimed to her newfound companion. "Especially seeing the other things more than human. Like you, of course. Those wings are so cool." She was a little jealous she didn't have them. She didn't even think about how inconvient they could be at times, mostly because there is really nothing that inconviences her.

"OH! Question, I have a question Fáfnir. So, the way you talk is a little odd. Not to say it's bad, it's just different from how I hear most people talk and I'd assume that more people tend to not talk that way and . . ." It was a massive festival of words flowing from the girl's mouth barely stopping considering the lack of oxygen she needed to intake to speak. She had to stop and refresh her vocabulary and took a breath as was possibly a habit back when she was a living, breathing being. "Let me retry that. Is that the way dragons speak? It's different from normal, most people don't use "deign" in everyday speach."

[BytheSpleen]

@KaiserElectric

By the time Zaidra arrived, the common room was undoubtedly full of students of all kinds of shapes and sizes. Just about the entire demographic she could label as "peers" were busy engaged in conversation in one another, all curious about each other's cultures, quirks, and bodies.

Except for the aloof humanoid, one that could be decidedly feminine at a glance. Its shape was relatively similar, if not strikingly so, to that of a regular human's, but it had skin likened to smoldering coals, and eyes that glowered like twin lamps. One would almost say "demon" or imp, but its face wasn't contorted into an everlasting sneer. On the contrary, there was always a small, easy smile, perhaps derived from indulging in the fact there no apparent conflicts...as of yet.

The only issue that the being posed was that of gender, so would it be prudent to make an inquiry?

@joshua tamashii

As Amelia was taking all the scents, a particularly foul one came up to her nose. From what she could discern, the scent was that of salt and iron. The smell belonged to a humanoid creature that, while boasting no extra body parts that would distinguish it from any other homo sapien, looked incredibly strange with its literally coal-black skin and amber eyes. For a moment, one could consider goblin or imp as possible races, but with a feminine face that would suggest it was more human than not, there was a sort of ambiguity as to what exactly the creature was.

The only memorable impression, though, was an incredibly musky whiff of something after all the iron and salt smells adjusted in her nose. Something that screamed lust to an extreme.

My my, was this an incubus?

[Arty Fox]

Adeline

Adeline was quite happily enjoying herself listening in on the two mythics discussing around her in such a playful manner. This was so cool, although Adeline did wish that Mali wouldn’t pinch her cheek so hard. It was starting to get a little bit painful.

“If you do could I take a picture!” A phone appearing in her hand at almost exactly the same time. “Oh, and I’m Adeline by the way.”

Following after the pair of them with an excited spring in her step a little flag propped up in Adeline’s head. She wasn’t certain if it was a very important flag, but it did bring up one of the few concerns Adeline felt she should address immediately.

“Unless, like, taking pictures of you does something back like trapping you in a picture or something?” The scene from some old ghost movie came to mind. “Actually wouldn’t that be pretty cool? Because then you could go through the internet and stuff and be anywhere."

"Do you guys get internet where you are? Oh my gosh do you have like a facebook sort of thing where you can meet other mythics and stuff?" Adeline continued.

Joan

Joan rolled his eyes with a sigh. Dealing with Adeline was starting to wear on his nerves and not for the first time that day either, he was reminded with the lyrics of that Song she’d insisted on playing in the car on the way up rudely popping into his thoughts. On the plus side Adeline had taken the heavy suitcases with her rather than leaving him to take care of them. With a tap on his tail drawing his attention from down below Joan was quite surprised with who he saw.

“Uh, no actually.” He replied to the little dragon. “I’m not from the sea, although I do sometimes visit family there occasionally but I can’t really breathe sea water all the well. Makes my gills itch slightly.”

Rolling along after all the other students and bags on his lap Joan was given some time to look over the buildings around him. Human buildings fascinated Joan, but they also intimidated him to some degree possibly due to how they often stood so high out of reach without going into them. Joan himself was more used to simply swimming up to higher places within the lake without any need to actually go into the caves first in some way.

@gaudi@Antarctic Termite

[Aspen Wren]

Elize Vanzant

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Elize merely laughed at the young man, "Oh believe me I'm quite well equipped to spot wolves and that is not a wolf. Far from it, more likely a bear which in this case seems to be far worse of a trade off." This time her smooth voice was filled with laughter, she had forgotten how easy it was for a human to mistake her kind for a human. Most would never mistake her for anything other than a predator. She had no interest in fooling with a werebear, especially one who was glaring away when she'd never even met Elize. They were always best to ignore, she had come across a few in the time before she joined the pack she was with and they were never delightful beings. Something about a feud of some sort between the two species but it wasn't anything Elize had any experience with.

The tall young she wolf looked directly at the male now as she allowed her wolf to come to the surface just enough to fill her mouth with teeth that should not have been there and her eyes to change to a vibrant yellow, eyes that belonged in the face of a tall tawny she wolf rather than this human skin she was stuck in currently. She wasn't attempting to scare him but simply show him that if there were any wolves here it was her. She had little fear of other wolves, her wolf's face was criss crossed with silver and white lines as was her chest and front legs. Her entire body was covered in battle scars but the visible ones lay where her fur was not so thick. Her human skin showed no sign of these wounds though it carried its own scars.

"Wolves are not so easily recognized, we blend in much better than a bear in sheep's clothes." She explained as she pushed away the wolf so that her human features returned.

[KaiserElectric]

@BytheSpleen @Joshua Tamashii

The humanoid with the darkened gray skin and ambiguous gender was interesting. Granted that was not an entirely impressive accomplishment considering the myriad of strange creatures here, but something about that particular student struck her as strange or unusual, and she couldn't quite put her finger on it, as the human saying went. Looking at the area around him or her, Zaira couldn't help but notice an incredibly young looking student with pale skin making an unusual face as she sniffed the air closer to the strange boy or girl. Did the fiery-eyed humanoid have a strong or unpleasant odor? Like most Insectoids she had no real sense of smell, so she couldn't say for sure one way or the other. Smells and strange looks aside, something about that humanoid interested her, and she had to find out what it was. Not to mention her arms were getting tired from holding all four suitcases, and that cushy lump that the boy or girl was sitting on looked extremely comfortable.

With no shortness of confidence, Zaira floated up to the student and gave a slight bow as she landed daintily on her feet, in front of him or her. "Hello there!" she said, making a conscious effort not to make clicks or buzzing sounds as she pronounced the words. "Do you mind if I sit here?"

[Antarctic Termite]

Malinal

The human was adding her own cheery prattle to the general din of chitchat, although Mali didn't jump to respond, for a little while. Not for exclusion's sake- The excitability of having a few voices colliding and dissociating with the natural flow of the topic seemed to her by far the most entertaining form of conversation- But because her grasp of the lingo wasn't quite snappy enough to keep up very far past 'I'm Adeline'. She loved the idea of photography, from the sporadic occasions when her sisters puzzled out a way to charge Tamoanchan's scant communal phones, though she failed to recognise what Adeline had meant by 'Take a picture'. Her grip on the idea of an Internet had some similar gaps, but she couldn't ignore an obvious question.

"Mm, nah, we never set up the infrastructure, though someone managed to take down a passing satellite once. The Mother wants us to stay independent. Most non-human clades are pretty isolatare you practicing photography?" The sight of a moving picture of the ground on the screen of Adeline's phone tipped Mali into understanding. She threw an arm around Adeline with gusto and pressed her free hand against her other cheek, fingers curled into a loose sign of horns. "Selfie? Selfie! Before the battery dies!" She beckoned from around Adeline's shoulder. "Aelonya, come into the frame! Please?"

@Arty Fox@gaudi