VitoftheVoid

Welcome to Marchand!

Helena, until then rather distracted with cleaning, paused for a moment to regard her new acquaintance's arm. She looked for a moment in surprise, before abruptly realizing the potential rudeness there. She then quickly reached for her bag and withdrew a short length of blue adhesive bandage.
"Here! Take some of this. I don't really need it right now." she explained.
"I'm a defensive primary...I guess. I'm not all that good at it honestly. And I guess I'm down for blood magic as well. Not sure I'm going to be so great at that really...I'm not very brave about the having to cut yourself bit."
Hopefully that didn't come across as insulting. Small talk wasn't really something Helena had a huge amount of experience in and it would be a great shame to alienate the only person who really wanted to talk to her.
@EchoicChamber
---

Oren paced around the room beside the door like a puma in a duster, occasionally checking her phone for a look at the time.
The arrival of Ray Matheos warranted a nod from the woman, but also the look of disapproving contempt that people tended to gain when Oren knew they;d fallen down in something.

She wasn't going to berate another staff member in front of the new intake. If they didn't present a united front to begin, the brats would take any opportunity to capitalize on that. However the look alone seemed like it could probably petrify small mammals, so that was possibly enough.

Oren leaned on the wall beside the doorframe, producing a notebook and checking silently down the roster of names. The Professor paused only to sigh wearily and give voice to the young man attempting to leave the common room.
"As much as I enjoy spending my day trying to round up errant students, you can walk right back in, Kyun. Orientation is about to start and we don't need you any more clueless than you already are."
@Gelatinous Cube
@Drazah

--

Having said their goodbyes to their protege, perhaps dragging it out a little more than needed, Hilda and Erik turned and began to walk away. One might, as a casual observer, interpret the expression on the face of Hilda, as being a normal reaction of letting your family member go for the first time. The truth was rather more messy.

The bearded man placed a huge hand on her arm.

"She'll be fine kjære, we've taught her well."

"I don't feel comfortable about this Erik. Leaving her with them. You know what they did."

There was a grim silence between them, something long unsaid, for a number of steps, before he spoke again.

"The aesir will watch over her Hilda, this is something she must do on her own."
For a moment he paused, fancying he might see the glimmer of tears in the eyes of his wife, a woman who he'd seen face down an enraged Svalbard bear without a flinch, but he decided respectfully not to mention it as they made their departure.

-----

Kora was not burdened with the same kind of reservations as her elders. She strolled upstairs, scabbard across her back, bag across shoulder, and huge ancient skull tucked under one arm, with full intention of making a good first impression. She was going to be taking over the council seat in a few years time. This gave her a great opportunity to start inspiring respect in the new generation of bloodlines, and winning over older witches and wizards. She was from an inherently powerful family, and had been receiving tuition in the arts of combat and fire magic since she was old enough to toddle. She was going to be the best of the best.

They stepped over the threshhold of the common room.

Large numbers of students, milling about talking. Nothing of great concern.

Until.

Her eyes had set upon a rather familiar face. Or, at least very familiar features.

Like a wolf that had just spotted a deer, Kora dropped her bag and padded forwards, watching closely to make sure she was correct in her first assumption.

She was.

It was one of them.

A Sterling.

There was only one way to react to this situation.

Only one way.

With a battle-scream of "TYYYYYR!" the whole six and a half foot of Kora cleared the length of the commonroom in moments, shoving aside students and furniture alike until she collided full-force with the standing form of Larke Sterling. She threw him down onto the table before them, dug her knee between his shoulderblades, and grabbed the nearest weaponry to hand.
This happened to be a bowl of yoghurt and granola, which she unceremoniously emptied over the young man's head.

"You have a lot of nerve coming here when you knew we'd be here, Sterling cocksucker!" the girl exclaimed, reaching for another breakfast item to douse her opponent in.
"Now I'm going to avenge the honour of my ancestors!"

The warrior dynasty had started early.

(Just so everyone is aware, this effective autohit was pre-cleared with @ScoundrelQueen beforehand.)

Welcome to Marchand!

Helena had been spending the last couple of minutes struggling to mop up the amorphous puddle of cereal with two napkins, fearing any greater movement to fetch more would disturb the small lake and send it over the rug that she suspected costed quite a considerable amount of money. She had sort of hoped someone might offer some assistance, but after successive entrants had merged into conversations, and too embarrassed to actually ask, she'd resigned herself to this frustrating exercise.

That was until Esperanza intervened. Even though it might well have been just out of a wish to find an open seat, Helena was incredibly grateful, and gave a sheepish grin as she soaked the milk up with the new supply of napkins. Someone had had sufficient concern to help her out, and was sufficiently friendly to offer greeting.

"Thank you so much... I wasn't sure how I was going to.. Oh! I'm Helena. Helena Kingsley. My friends call me Hel."

Or rather they would, if she had friends aside from her younger brother, members of a Labyrinth fan forum, and stuffed toy rabbit she occasionally relayed her problems to.
@EchoicChamber

---

Hilda Norrevinter, the woman stood with the scandinavian group, turned from her niece in order to catch sight of Professor Byrne, and returned with a smile that probably could be considered convincing.
"Maeve, you look well! Kora, this is Maeve Byrne, she was a ...friend mine and of your father's, during the war."

The pause in the statement was apparently lost on the tall, ginger-haired teenager, who extended her hand to shake Maeve's in a way that had probably sprained some wrists in the past. Being as she had a set of headphones hung round her neck that were still issuing the quite background-noise of someone scream-growling in norwegian it was probably not totally her own fault.
"You teach combat right? I can't wait. "

With the bags sat at her feet was a large leather scabbard, a hilt and crossguard of a large, roughly-hewn sword visible. There was also a decorated bear skull, a bag of runes, and a small wood box filled with aesir idols carved out of volcanic rock. Kora was apparently well-prepared.@ScoundrelQueen

Welcome to Marchand!

'So it begins.'

Professor Oren Kovalenko, an angular figure with dark hair and a long blue coat, watched the numerous new students filing in, passing through the front office and signing off on forms with a sceptical eye. Well, one eye was on the throngs of their new intake, the other was on her phone where she was busy informing any staff members that were not already aware that the first large bus had pulled up and the place was beginning to fill up.

And she didn't expect a group of young mages to maintain any standard of behaviour for very long.

Especially not ones that were more often than not rich, privileged, sheltered, and had never been taught how to properly behave.

Speaking of that-

Norwegian shouting from the entranceway. Oh christ.
From where she was standing Oren could make out three figures at least a head taller than most of the people filtering around them. A woman in he late thirties with long, grey-flecked ginger hair and a crimson coat on, and a hulking man with a beard you could lose a family pet in, both hugging and saying their goodbyes to a third figure. Younger, but still with nearly a foot of height on the Professor, with a mop of red-orange hair and a voice with a strong nordic accent that was carrying over near enough everyone else's together.

Norrevinters.
No mistaking those.

With one deft movement Miss Kovalenko stepped back into the shadow of one of the hall's pillars, and melted into the darkness without a word.

Somebody else could handle Ren's spawn and the ginger storm. She'd see to making sure no-one had started killing each other in the common room.

As it was some students had started eating, or introducing themselves. Oren materialized out from behind the door, quite alarming several students who'd been milling round up there, and proceeded to check over the status of things.

Over to one side, on an otherwise yet unoccupied table, a small figure was slumped over the the surface, next to what was now the degenerated milky sludge of a bowl of cereal left uneaten beyond its time, and something that long ago ceased to be a hot drink.

Her long, rather untidy-looking red hair was spread across the table like seaweed, and she was wearing a blue sweater lined with knitted purple cat faces, the phrase 'Have a Mice Day' inset into the back and front. It was at least two sizes too big and luridly coloured enough that the student was clashing with the furnishings.

Professor K came to a halt behind the student, regarding the girl with her look of pitiless reptilian distaste before finally speaking up.

"Are we boring you already, Kingsley?"

The redhead awoke with a start, knocking her bowl astray with one hand and splattering the fortified mud across the surface.

The Professor remained perfectly stationary whilst one of her charges scrambled, blinking, to try and both stem the flow of milk from the upturned bowl, and address her at the same time.

"Oh..no! No Professor! I was just um...is it breakfast time?"
Apparently only just realising how many others had entered the room, the student known as 'Kingsley' gave a rather sheepish smile.

Kovalenko's expression however was her usual weary mask of disapproval.
"Well Kingsley that is what everyone else is doing, if you would like to try and catch up with the timetable, I think it would probably be beneficial for you. And please try and avoid wasting food in the future."

"Y-yes Professor..." the girl hastily responded, pale cheek reddening a little as the watched the aquamancer turn and walk off down the row.
"...so that's the year off to a good start..."

Welcome to Marchand!

And (maybe) finally of my apps...

Helena Kingsley

Helena

Full Name: Helena Alys Kingsley

Nicknames/Aliases: Hel

Age: 16

Gender: Female

Primary: Defensive

Student

Secondaries of Interest Blood Magic

Description: Helena is not a terrible imposing creature, topping out at out an unintimidating 5'2. Her build is slim, with light curves on the hips and chest rather than any defined muscle and her face is heart-shaped and girlish, with a set of wide, blue-grey eyes.She has a mop of untidy, red hair, which falls for her lower back. She has very pale skin that is quite prone to burning.

People often pick Helena out on her somewhat..idiosyncratic sense of fashion. Her outfit tends to frequently consist of skirt, leggings, sheepskin boots, and some of the most hideous sweaters known to mankind, hewn in rainbow colours and emblazoned with animal designs. All are at least two sizes too big. Seeing what abomination she will wear is quickly becoming a bit of a morbid curiosity among students.
Personality: Helena is a bit of a socially unadept young woman. She is painfully shy and awkward around people, mainly due to an acute awareness of how people view her. This tendency to assume others think the worst of her often makes her seem rather aloof. Getting past the initial strangeness of the young woman, she is a pleasant, highly intelligent individual. She appreciates the friendship of others, even if it’s not always openly visible, and is very dedicated to those that she is close to.

She tends to let her mind wander frequently, and doesn’t often commit to things, her actions and her appearance often making people assume that she is rather weak-willed, but, her outward delicacy hides a fire or great proportions. She pursues things with a dogged determination that can be quite impressive.

Helena is not too easily moved into fighting. She tends to put up with a great deal before losing her temper. That being said, when pushed too far, Hel’s temper is completely explosive in its short bursts.

Skills: Helena appears to have some low level of inherent negation, however by magical bloodline standards she is quite underpowered.

Aside form that she is a fairly talented artist and painter, though it has little practical application.

For her size, she can be impressively strong.

Weaknesses: Helena seems to have quite a weak magical ability.

On top of this she seems prone to rather peculiar behaviour, often spacing out in the middle of tasks.

Brief History: Helena's family, the Kingsleys, are an old, relatively well-known magical family, coming out of Wiltshire, Southern England. The family was held in high regard for many years, however suffered a considerable lapse in its reputation after the civil war, when rumours began to spread of their tacit support of the portal cult. Investigations were launched into their possible involvement with the enemy force, but nothing was ever proved. The Kingsleys retain their wealth and status, however the mounting pressure drove them to willingly give up their council seat in order to preserve any kind of amicable relations with some of the major players in the magical world.

Helena is the daughter of Aeryn Kingsley, the current family head, however it is also clear that the girl was born some time before the woman married to her existing husband, and her primary being utterly different from either supposed parents, has suggested that the man was not her father. This led to Helena being something of an embarrassment at formal events. This, combined with the general magical tendency to educate their children at home, and her parents' constant travels in their frantic attempts to repair their familial reputation, meant that Helena frequently found herself with lots of time on her hands. She read, drew, and watched a lot of cartoons to pass time, and spent little time with people of her own age.

As such, the prospect of a school that accepted those such as herself was highly appealing to the girl...however she quickly found this life fraught with complications.

Welcome to Marchand!

And another. :D

Dinah

Full Name: Dinah Jael Fox

Nicknames/Aliases: Di, Tigger, Pothead

Age: 16

Gender: Female

Primary: Terramancy

Student

Secondaries of Interest: Tracking, toxin production.

Description: Dinah is a little on the tall side (albeit nowhere near as much as a Norrevinter) and built like someone not unused to exercize. She has long, unkempt-looking light brown hair. 'Rat's Nest' might be a term used by some. She doesn't brush it quite as often as she should, and it quite often contains the odd leaf or twig. She has brown eyes and a rather laissez-faire attitude towards fashion, if the faded appearance of many of her outfits is to be taken into account. Most of her appearance reflects her rather laid-back (perhaps too laid-back) attitude to life.

Skills:
Bonded with Nature Dinah's upbringing has lacked much supervision, but her rather wild background has given her a very keen sense of the flora and fauna aspects of her primary. Spending time out in the woods with just plants and animals has done wonders for her abilities.

Survival Related to this, Dinah is pretty self-sufficient,she can survive well on her own, and is perhaps rather more worldly than many of the students.


Weaknesses:
- Slacker A tearaway with little sense of discipline, Dinah is a slacker with little drive or direction, and doesn't tend to apply herself in academic studies, meaning her chances of developing secondaries are rather unlikely.

Personality:
Dinah Fox is a person who has nearly always lived by her own rules.

Di is not a person to keep how she feels about anything to herself. She is outwardly affectionate to people she likes..to the point that a personal bubble doesn't seem to exist where she'd concerned. If she likes a person she'll flying tackle them and hug them to death as a greeting if she wants to. At the same time if she dislikes a person, she will not in the slightest bit hesitate about showing them the extent of that.

Possibly in a similar vein, Di could be seen as being rather...feral. She always has been that way.
She doesn't wear makeup. She was once persuaded to try wearing nail polish and ended up scraping it off with her teeth because she thought it made her nails feel odd. She had no concept of manners or formality. She eats pretty much everything with her hands...unless it's soup, then she'll just lift it up and drink it right out of the bowl. She is perfectly happy to break school rules for her own interests.

Despite this behaviour, something that can often cause a bit of friction, Di has an innate sense of compassion. Seeing others suffer disturbs her enormously and she cannot stand unnecessary cruelty or sadistic behaviour.

Brief History:
Dinah's own history is relatively uneventful. She and her older brother, Cyrus, spent most of their childhood being passed around peripheral relatives in their extended family, staying some time with their aunt, before a large falling-out in Dinah's early teens resulted in her and Cyrus living with one of the aunt's work colleagues up until the time the invitation came to attend Marchand.

What is far more notable about her is the history of her family.

The Fox family, once the council seat of Terrmancy, are fairly infamous among others for having supported the new world cult during the civil war. Both terramancers, her mother and father, Matthew and Morgana Fox, were key players in some of the frontline assaults during the war, until their detainment. This fracture lost the wider family their say in political council, the removal of the Fox crest from many official archives. The extended branches of the family have, in the fourteen years since the war, remained on the periphery of the magical world, having little contact with others from that community.

As such, Dinah grew up rather aware that she had few expectations of success. Divorced from the terrible war years, but well aware of the reputation they'd gained as a family, she developed a general feeling of apathy towards the jostling and machinations of the magical bloodlines. This was to the point that she was in two minds about whether she wished to attend at all. However, after falling out with her current set of guardians after a certain incident involving crashing her brother's car, she came to the decision that it was in her best interests to attend for a while.

Welcome to Marchand!

Kora

Kora

Full Name: Jarla Kora Mari Nørrevinter of Vollr, Firstborn of Reinhardt the Red, Bearer of the Fires of Surtr

Nicknames/Aliases: Kora to most people. Ginger, The Viking, Princess, Conan the Barbarian to some others.
Age: 17

Gender: Female

Primary:[Pyromancy

Student[/size]

Secondaries of Interest Familiar Conjuring, Weapon Infusement

Description: Kora is, shall we say,a rather distinct individual. Over six and a half feet tall, she comes across as pretty intimidating at first glance. And for many she only becomes more intimidating from there.
She has a mop of red-ginger hair that reaches above her shoulders, and pale skin that makes her a magnet for sunburn. Her eyes appear a dark, blue-tinted grey.

Kora speaks with a distinct scandinavian accent, and is able to speak in English and Norwegian, having been born off the coast of Norway. She tends to shout when annoyed, or excited, or trying to emphasize, so she's rather hard to ignore.

The girl rarely thinks too hard about clothing, (and at 6'6 can't exactly afford to be picky) so tends to just wear whatever she can get hold of and whatever happens to be easy to move round in at the time. What tends to be less negotiable is her pewter Mjölnir pendant, that she will wear as long as she is able to. An old, plain thing that retains a large amount of spiritual significance to her.

Personality: Kora is defined mostly be being quite...intense. In pretty much all ways. If she is angry she is screaming and shouting and breaking things. If she's happy she's also screaming and shouting and breaking things. Most extremes of emotion seem to manifest in destruction of some form, and when she isn't doing any of these she's often listening to far-too-loud heavy metal music or bragging about something her or her family can do. She can...grate on people a little.

Kora has a serious trouble controlling her temper, and struggles not to let small slights turn into fighting.

In addition, she is also kind of a brat. Kora has been raised to see herself as destined for greatness. The child of 100 generations of selective breeding, she feels that she is special, that she is just waiting to show the world something amazing. Whether this is justified or not, remains to be seen.

Stemming from this, Kora is a little bit elitist in regard to bloodlines. She tends to see herself around the top spot, other bloodlines below. She doesn't mistreat them, but she will sometimes condescend to them and neglect to understand why they might be irritated by this.

Whilst she has many faults, Kora is, if nothing else, extraordinarily brave and unflinchingly loyal. She thinks nothing about taking a hit for others, or fighting to defend people. As far as she is concerned, that is her reason to be.


Skills:
-The Nørrevinter family have been preparing Kora for her destiny for years, since she was a very young child. As a result, Kora is both athletic and a very skilled pyromancer already. She demonstrates impressive power and control for her age. (And has no problems showing it off.)

- The Nørrevinter family's perfected technique, berserker rage, was taught to her at a young age by her aunt.
The technique allows a pyromancer to remove the natural 'safety limits' their own minds and bodies place on the manipulation of their element.
A berserk pyromancer's abilities vastly increase, and their own temperature skyrockets, skin starting to become searingly hot to the touch, enough to cauterize wounds shut very quickly.
They can channel huge amounts of energy in this time.

Weaknesses:- The berserker ability is extremely damaging for a pyromancer. As such, Kora has been frequently instructed to use it only in dire emergency, and it more often than not results in the death, or horrific scarring, of the user.

-The combination of selective inbreeding within the family in order to increase their pyromantic ability has resulted in many inherited defects in the family. As such many of her family die young, or suffer from poor health in later life. It is thought to e part of the reason that the Nørrevinters still stress the usage of the potentially fatal berserker technique.


Brief History: Kora was born on the small island of Vollr as the daughter of Reinhardt (or Ren) Nørrevinter, the then family head. As the named heir she was showered with attention that her siblings did not receive, and had most anything she could want.

The Nørrevinter are an ancient and very powerful pyromancer line, who have held a seat on the Council of Eight for centuries, and who have always had a loud (and often angry) voice in the political mage world. Their own folklore claiming that they have the blood of eldjötnar in their veins, the family have been warriors since their inception, and have selectively bred over generations to that end. Tall, loud, aggressive, and built like giants, to provoke the wrath of a Nørrevinter was the risk great danger for yourself and anything flammable in your general area.

This however, did little to prevent the war, and Kora's father father was killed in action when Kora was only three years old. As such, much of Kora's upbringing was seen to by her Aunt Hilda, and Uncle Erik. Hilda had resolved to take over leadership of the family after the death of her brother, awaiting his heir's coming of age. In the interim time Kora was raised on the isolated scandinavian isle, and relentlessly trained in pyromancy and combat. She was only too eager to take up her place at the school. For her, it presented a chance to shine, to show what one hundred generations of preparation could do.

Welcome to Marchand!

@Shirochankun Yup, still very much open!

Welcome to Marchand!

@EchoicChamber A question about aeromancers - can they lift themselves in air? Or is it just limited to controlling the air currents and so on?

EDIT - Nevermind. Apparently, levitation does the thing.

@Aiyanna

Basically Levitation= Floating
Levitation + Aeromancy = Flying about like Superman

Welcome to Marchand!

@EchoicChamber A question about aeromancers - can they lift themselves in air? Or is it just limited to controlling the air currents and so on?

EDIT - Nevermind. Apparently, levitation does the thing.

@Aiyanna

Basically Levitation= Floating
Levitation + Aeromancy = Flying about like Superman

Welcome to Marchand!

Professor K

Professor Kovalenko

Full Name: Oren Dariya Kovalenko

Nicknames/Aliases: Professor K., The Robot, The Snow Queen, Elsa (If anyone wants to antagonize her).

Age: 36

Gender: Female

Primary: Aquamancy (Cryomancy specialist.)

Professor of Aquamancy, Cryomancy and Shadow Magic

Secondaries[/size] Shadowstep, Blood Magic.

Description:: Oren stands at about 5'7, an angular-looking woman with blue-black hair, grey eyes. She has high, noticeable cheekbones and a naturally pale complexion.

She often wears black fingerless gloves and a dark blue duster, sporting a small grey band on the arm with an oval and concentric circles pattern laid in black print.

Oren is usually seen wearing black eyeliner, and a look of general humourless disdain.

An accomplished shadowstepper, Oren has learned how to move quickly, gracefully, and economically, and makes her way round the school with the stealthy surefootedness of a wild cat, and the pitiless piercing stare of a hunting owl.

Personality: A lot of people who know Oren have compared her to a robot. Except she is a robot programmed to hate you. The aquamancy professor is antisocial, unempathetic, and has very little sense of humour.

She holds everyone, including herself, to unreachable standards and is quick to express her contempt for people due to their inability to meet them. She either has no sense of tact, or has chosen never to express it, as she has no issues with insulting others, including students within her classes, and has a highly caustic mode of interaction which is sure to rub some the wrong way.

Despite this, it's clear that the woman is highly intelligent and very dedicated to her work, and puts a great deal of effort into educating the next generation...even if her methods are a little bit controversial.

The general view held in the student population is that Professor K is good at what she does, but is kind of....scary. She is quite inflexible when it comes to enforcing the school rules, has no issue meting out some kind of punishment for infraction, and to make it more intimidating is often doing so alongside Professor Byrne (something that has resulted in some slightly inappropriate graffiti about them in the ground floor bathroom.)

On top of that she rarely ever seems to sleep, as she can often be seen stepping out of the darkness in the early hours of the morning from...wherever she came from.

[Skills: -Very adept hydromancer. Oren tends to specialize particularly in cryomancy, or ice manipulation, and is experienced enough that she can form ice simply out of airborne moisture, rarely leaving her without any form of weapon.

- Oren is one of the most experienced shadowstep users on site. She is able to step in an out with near as much ease as strolling through the courtyard, and seems to be capable of appearing most anywhere. This tends to keep students on their toes and prevent them from being too quick to speak ill of the professor.

Weaknesses: - Oren has very little in the way of social skill, and tends to quite easily upset people.

-Oren cannot materialize ice or water in very dry air, meaning she will struggle round widespread fire or in very low humidity.

-She cannot stand unwarranted physical contact and is likely to lose her cool if grabbed or held for any length of time.


Brief History: Oren Kovalenko was the (very much illegitimate) daughter of Emil Kovalenko, a prominent and well known hungarian aquamancer. The birth of a bastard child was a disaster for the (married) mage, and her presence was the source of rumours and ridicule. As such, the young Oren did not have the most affectionate or understanding upbringing. She was pushed very hard for intelligence and academic achievement, and had little opportunity to make friends.

It was through formal gatherings that Oren was taken to that she first met Maeve Byrne. Their initial interactions hardly pointed towards them making a very meaningful bond, but through a twist of fate, it was the red-haired aeromancer from her childhood that Oren found herself teamed up with during the hardest fights of the civil war.

The war is not something Oren talks about in detail...not if she can help it certainly. She was part of the youngest generation involved in the conflict, and because of her strong aquamancy traits was placed in the position of a frontline soldier. Despite her promising skills in her primary, Oren, and those of her age group, fund themselves wholly unprepared for the ferocity of the conflict, and the initial casualties were massive. The young woman gained her skills very quickly, as she needed to do so in order to survive. And skill was something she ended up with no shortage of, ending up as the second component of 'Storm II',working her freezing abilities in conjunction with Byrne's abilities to manipulate the atmosphere to cut swathes of destruction through enemy forces.

Afterwards her place as a deadly cryomancer was set into the public consciousness, at least as far as the council were concerned. As such she found plenty of work after the end of the war for them. Despite her reputation for being a very difficult, and almost reclusive figure, she seemed surprisingly invested in the creation of an academy for young magic users, and had a hand in the setup of the location of Marchand and the installation of its facilities.