[IC] Primas Learning Center - School for Ex-Heroes

[Tancuras]

Another day in paradise.

The room was dark. It couldn't have been later than five in the morning on that warm September day. A slice of sunlight slipped in through a crack in the curtains on the only window, passing through one of many glass bottles standing about and casting a taupe glow on the carpeted floor. The room was simply furnished, holding each a pair of single beds, wardrobes and desks mirroring each other on each side of the window. It was moderately sized - an old hospital room, meant for two plus staff, and had been repurposed as a dorm room.

Sif rubbed his eyes, casting a spinning head about, trying to remember why he was there. It took a few moments for him to remember coming to the PLC the day before. He was a day early, but that suited everyone just fine, including himself; he'd have rather spent the night under a roof for a change, and the staff probably had special instructions to keep tabs on him. He was there under court order, and he had learned he would have to check in with the office several times a day to report his whereabouts. It was annoying as all hell.

Of course, he had also been issued a prohibition from any alcohol or narcotics, but he could only putter around the campus for so long before he could no longer resist walking into the town - more of a village, really - of Colkirk and picking up a six pack from its one and only liquor store. He doubted anyone would find out, as long as he made sure to get rid of the evidence.

There were several clinks of glass as Sif rose, kicking the bottles under his bed. He was still in his clothes, jacket and boots, following his usual routine of falling back against whatever he was using as a pillow and drinking until he fell asleep. Despite the hour, he was ready as ever to greet the day. He never got much sleep at his age, anyway. He could take his time getting cleaned up, maybe do a good shave, watch the other freaks trickle in. Maybe meet his roommate, if he was assigned one. After all, it was the first day of school.

[Oni_]

Rucks arrived at Primas on the day school was to start, he'd driven there. Surprising considering his abilities, but he tried to stop using them as often some time after the war, not the best idea when the government finally came after him but he felt that fitting in was in his best interest. As he parked he was confident, it would be a hellish few years but he felt it would be worth it.

He grabbed his case from the boot of his car, it was rental. It HAD been rental for years, but he never quite took it back. It was all he had stolen after the war, but he felt they owed him something. He strolled towards the main building at a leisurely pace, trying his best not to look around too much, just in case anyone else was around. He wasn't quite ready for any kind of interaction yet.

As Rucks stared up at the Primas Learning Center, he felt some strange kind of hope. Something he hadn't felt in years, running did that to you it turned out. He'd been promised solace from the world, somewhere that he could re-integrate to society by receiving education. He smiled as he thought of that, at last a normal life, or, at least as normal as he would get after the war.

As he opened the entrance doors, he had to take a moment, he hadn't been in education since he was 15. He doubted he would even remember most of that, and to top it off now he was a fully fledged adult. With all his opinions and knowledge that he had half picked up over the years and then guessed at the rest. If he was going to learn things that everyone else knew, he was going to have to do a damn lot of re-learning. He sucked up his worries and walked through the doors, electing to visit the common room and wait, he was fairly sure that was a sensible idea.

[dee]

The sun that was just peeking through the horizon found a lone motorcycle zipping past the few cars that had scattered in the freeway. It's rider, face hidden inside a black helmet with yellow stripes, had her only possessions tucked in the bag strapped to the motorcycle behind her. A duffel bag was filled with her clothes and an item from a past that she would have rather stayed forgotten. Yet there she was, on her way to a school that would supposedly give home to people like her. She was sure if her self from a year ago saw what she would be doing, she'd have jumped from a bridge. She was done. That's what she told herself so many years ago after the ungrateful people of the world turned their back on her. But look at her now.

It's all because of them, rose the bitter thought. Her family. Briar almost gagged at the word. She'd never had a family but herself, and just because some test said that she shared the same blood as those people didn't mean that she was theirs. They forced her to take up the offer. After all, who in their right minds would return to school after they had everything they could have ever wanted unless it was to escape a fate even worse?

With a sigh, Briar parked her motorcycle in the designated area - taking up two of the slots - and looked up at the looming building overhead. The place was old, and it wasn't her particular scene. In fact, she avoided places like that unless they were abandoned and being used by a couple of kids willing to share their smoke with her. But now she would be living there. Voluntarily. A frown was etched on her lips as she freed her head from the helmet and grabbed her bag. She placed the helmet on the seat of the motorcycle neatly before tapping the handlebars, an electric blue spark jumping from her skin and onto the metal. In her mind's eye, she willed the electricity to coat the vehicle and helmet. It was the most she'd make use of her powers in the last seven years, just to make sure that no one tried to steal her things, but anything more and she often found herself floundering. Hadn't those people who had contacted her said that she would be training her power here again?

"Silver linings," she muttered to herself as she shouldered the bag and headed into the building. Coming into the common room, she found that someone was already there. A man with dark hair. Other than him, the place seemed to still be tad deserted. She sat down at one of the couches present and felt in her pockets for a familiar lump. Not finding it, she scowled. Of course, she would forget to bring a pack of cigarettes with her. She assumed it was her 'mother' that had taken it from her - something about curbing her habits - and she almost wanted to drive all the way back just to give that woman a piece of her mind.

Her eyes strayed to the man and she cleared her throat. "You wouldn't happen to have some smokes and a lighter, would you?" she asked. The man didn't look like someone who'd share her vices, but she didn't really have other choices at the moment.

[Oni_]

Rucks didn't hear anybody come into the common room, so it came as quite a shock when someone spoke up. At first he didn't think it was him they were talking too, but as he looked up he saw that he was wrong. Sat across the way from him was a blonde woman, staring at him expectantly, "you wouldn't happen to have some smokes and a lighter, would you?" she asked, the words hung in the air for a moment as they settled in and Rucks returned to reality from his idle thoughts.

He had never been one for smoking, he tried it once and found that it messed with his head too much, too many distractions were already in the world, especially for Rucks when he constantly saw rifts, areas that had been stretched and shrunk, created or deleted and thus could be easily manipulated. Filtering out these cracks was hard enough without his judgement being clouded. But he supposed that it must have some bonuses for people to take to it so much.

"Sorry," he began, formulating his words carefully, trying to get off on the right foot for once, "I don't smoke, can't stand the stuff,"he took a moment to pause, would the campus even allow that sort of stuff? He supposed they couldn't stop them, after all everyone attending the school would be a fully grown adult.

[Uruvion]

An SUV pulled up, stopped in front of Primas, and the passenger door opened. Vance stepped out, keeping his hands close to his body. Unknown to the driver, Vance had created a small knife that he kept concealed under his wrist, just in case. Everything that he had been through had conditioned him not to trust people easily. This place, though, this 'school', sounded like a sanctuary for people like him.

The blue energy knife that was concealed under his wrist slowly vanished as he calmed down. At least now that he was out of the car, he could run if necessary, but thankfully it wasn't. He tossed the driver a few bucks for the ride, nodding in thanks as the car drove away.

He looked up at the school. At first, he didn't believe it. He had seen too many movies as a kid, and it had him believing that he would be approaching a glorious mansion with all of the amenities, probably led by some bald guy in a wheelchair, but this was far from it. It looked run down, like an abandoned hospital.

"It is what it is" he thought to himself. Sighing softly as he adjusted the pack that was slung over his shoulder, walking towards the building.

He opened the front door, which led to the offices, it was eerily quiet. He started to approach a door, when he heard voices coming from further down the hall. Slowly approaching, he opened the door to the common room, peeking inside before entering, it was that damn paranoia again. When he saw people around his age standing there, talking, he fully opened the door and walked in. Not one to interrupt, he kept his distance from them, though his guard was lowering. He'd half expected an ambush from government officials.

[Willem3141592]

Marc arrived on foot at the Primas Learning Centre. He had never bothered to get a driving licence and he couldn't stand public transport. The thought alone almost made his shudder. He could handle the shocking easily as his sense of balance was so good it was nearly impossible for him to fall over, he could handle most of the sound too, thanks to his headphones. The one thing he would not be able to handle was the hygiene of some of the travellers. Regular people often complained about it, but they never had tried travelling with his sense of smell... If you're able to smell the breakfast of every single person in there, just imagine how easy it was to point out someone who had skipped showering and the smell that brought with it. And there were usually quite a few of those on a bus or train...

Instead he tried to focus on enjoying the walk towards his new 'home'. It went rather well, the air was fresh, if you ignored the dog shitting on the other side of the street, he had avoided bumping into anyone and the sun was shining against his back so he wasn't blinded. He entered the common room and was pleased to smell that the PLC was being kept clean enough to avoid being smelly and that the people already in there knew enough about personal hygiene to not smell like hobo's...

He knew most of them probably were survivors from the war, just like him, and that unlike him they probably had bad experiences with the military and the government and were probably on edge. To look less threatening or suspicious, he took off his hoodie and scarf covering his mouth. He kept his sunglasses on, as the lights in here were bright enough to temporarily blind him if he took them off, and he sat down on one of the chairs. To be honest, he was looking forward to the start of this year. He was amongst people again and hopefully the staff would be able to help him control his powers.

[knighthawk]

*PAF! Pa-paf, pa-p-paf. PA-PAF-PAF!*
It had been a while since Midas had he chance to glove up and he was taking it. He'd been up since four as he usually would be on any day a the circus circuit getting things ready for he day, so insomnia had prompted him to the gym where he had the first long scrub in a while and set to working the bag. Lacking any real gloves, he wrapped his hands in a pair of dirty shirts to use impromptu while he pounded away.

He had taken a moment to make sure he was using %100 cotton shirts so he didn't accidentally give himself a case of 'golden gloves' while he pounded away at the heavy bag. He remembered once where that had been the case, a pair of solid nylon skigloves suddenly shifted and grew ten times heavier as he hit a guy hard enough to shatter his jaw. He left the gloves as payment for the medical bill and got the hell out of there.

Once he was worked up to a good and heavy froth, he came back down his workout and hit the showers again. He took the opportunity to wash his clothes in the same stream from the showerhead as the rest of him to get a layer of filth off it all as the water ran dingy gray. He finally emerged from the gym to the main room spelling of lavender oil with sandalwood emanating from his rucksack.

"uuuhhh....Hi... My name is Midas and its been six days since my last abuse."

Five guys plus him versus one girl, poor thing. He looked around at everyone before taking a seat and rummaging through his pack for something before coming out with a small bottle of everclear. He burned through calories so fast that alcohol was one of the few things that had enough per ounce to keep up with him besides avocados, then it was time for nachos and tequila. He drank from his 'waterbottle' and waited for the round robin of names.

[Oni_]

Rucks hadn't received a reply by the time someone else tried to start up a conversation. He assumed that the blonde girl was a little upset over his lack of cigarettes.

The new guy - although there were several other new people too - called himself Midas, what was he? An Ancient Greek? He didn't look too shabby though, brown hair, stupidly tall too. Also what was with that intro, six days since his last abuse? Had Rucks accidentally walked into an AA meeting?

Either way, maybe an introduction wasn't the worst idea in the world, Rucks spoke up next, "My names Rucks Kennithson. It's been what? A half year or so since I last used my powers? I forget," reflecting on it, it was a statement he could be proud of for once.

[hoppiholla391]

You're fine. Everything's fine. Just breathe.

Even as Amelie repeated the mantra to herself, she knew it was working just as well as usual—which was to say, not at all. She was perched on the soft leaf cover within Primas' park grounds, wrapped in the soft white feathers of a dove. The disadvantage of smaller forms, though, was one of the deeper biological changes—her heartbeat was intrinsically faster. Not exactly helpful when trying to calm down.

The young Korean woman turned her focus inwards, yellow birds eyes sliding closed and feathers settling. She concentrated on her heartbeat, breathing in deeply and letting it out twice as slowly. She'd only had scant months to adjust to being in the outside world, so she had to stick to the most basic tactics to calm down. From a few hundred beats per minute, her pulse slowly calmed from three hundred, to two hundred, to finally a calm one hundred bpm.

Amelie opened her eyes, wings having melted into arms, feathers flattening into smooth human skin. For not the first time, she was infinitely grateful that her clothes seemed to shift with her whenever she changed forms. Standing, she dusted herself off and lifted the bag she'd been using as a nest only minutes earlier across her shoulder. She couldn't hide anymore. Sooner or later, either she'd walk into Primas herself, or they'd drag her in, she was sure of it. Might as well enter on her own two feet. She just tried to empty her brain of anything but the map she'd tried to memorize, kept her head down, and walked forward. Of course, she wasn't counting on the common room being full when she got there.

"Oh," she squeaked out, surprised and embarrassed that she'd been surprised. The first thing she'd noticed was the several people standing around the room; the second was that everyone was so tall. She herself came in just under five feet; if she was going to be dwarfed everywhere she went, things were going to be even more difficult. The others seemed to be introducing themselves; Amelie herself slid to the back, hanging around one of the couches and clutching her bag. If someone asked, she'd give her name, but she wasn't going to talk about her powers with strangers.