Main Lobby

[RaineScarlet]

Kris felt the rush of wind as the boy from room 302 flew off the stage. Her brows twitched in slight annoyance, but she refrained from making any comments about how hasty youths were nowadays as she made her way up. Leon was still in Nimue's arms. That was fine. She was considerably calmer--mostly thanks to Guile.

In front of everyone now, she stretched the mic so that it was closer to her lips, and ran her eyes swiftly over the audience. That was all she needed to memorize everyone's faces.

"Room 303. Kris Rosenfield. Pleased to make your acquaintance. I don't have any noteworthy talents, but you may come to me for studying assistance."

She finished her incredibly vague introduction, bowed politely, and returned to her seat.

There really isn't much to say. It's foolish how everyone is laying their entire hand out so early in the semester, but it's better for me anyway. Data, data, data.

[Phagetthree]

She lives in the room just before mine, right? Guess I'm up next, then.

As she descended from the stage, Frederick stood politely at the edge of the stairs and allowed her to pass before he ascended.

"Greetings and salutations, I am Esquire Frederick, and I hail from the keep of Asgard. I'm an Aspirant of the Order of Æsirs. Most of you probably wouldn't have heard of it anyway.

I enjoy sparring and religious studies, I hope that this will be a fruitful year for all of us."

Not a man of many words, Frederick took a short bow and stepped off stage.

--

Blah blah blah blah. I'm bored.

At least Fred didn't go around lecturing everyone about his stupid beliefs, saves some time.

Vareena scanned the audience, her eye searching for the next speaker, and also subtly piercing enchantments and wards, discovering their usage and magical properties.

These will be useful to know...

[Mathus]

"Room 303. Kris ..."

"... I hope that this will be a fruitful year for all of us."

'Not good, they've started already and it's my turn next. Just great.'

Zero slides into the lobby just as the previous speaker stepped down from the stage. After catching his breath, he walked onto the stage.

"Greetings. Excuse my entry, my name's Zero Havoc and I'm the occupant of Room 305. I hope we'll have a great year."

With that Zero steps off the stage and went to look for a seat.

'I think I'll be in big trouble for this, hopefully that hastily created speech will be sufficient'

[ponpokorin]

"It's our turn."

The girl and the pretty boy stood up and walked to the platform (stuttered, in Jorryn's case) and stepped onto the platform.

Nimue found the microphone to be of perfect height for her, and spoke into it.

"My name is Nimue Nanami Nincanegue. My room is 306. I'm a scholarship student as well. I haven't actually done anything of note like some of you..." Nimue's modesty and shyness caught up with her and she blushed. "I-I hope to get to know you all better..." Nimue smiled shyly. Her face grew hotter. Did she mess up?

Jorryn gently pushed her friend out of the way, leaned forward on the podium, and proceeded to yawn into the mic.

Nimue pinched Jorryn discreetly and she flinched slightly.

Straightening up, Jorryn rubbed her eyes and fired up her brain circuits. She probably injected a bit too much sugar though, for she began to yell into the mic.

"HELLO EVERYONE!"

Nimue plugged her ears. It was useless to reason with Jorryn in this state.

"MY NAME IS JACK! SO PLEASE CALL ME JACK OR I'LL-" Jorryn thought for ten seconds or so. "or I'll fall asleep. Pleased to meet you everyone~"

Nimue gently nudged Jorryn, and she stepped back. Nimue spoke gently into the mic. "I'm sorry everyone, s-bleh! he gets a bit worked up sometimes."

Nimue grabbed Jorryn's arm and lead her back to their seats with Kris, heart thudding heavily against her chest. She'd almost given Jorryn's gender away.

Jorryn swung close as if by chance and muttered, "I'll make you pay for that."

Nimue shivered, and pretended it was the cold.

[NPC Controller]

Yoon was back. Only now, she was sitting very quietly in her seat. All the Year Twos knew better than to approach someone who had just been 'nicely communicated with' by Ms Wunderwaffe.

The titular lady was nowhere to be found, however. It was only after one had done a quick survey of the premises would one find her in another dark corner, even more quietly leading Zero Havoc away 'for a quick word' about his lateness.

The casualties were already starting to appear.

Seirenji, who had been talking softly with someone over the phone since the first Year One's introduction, once again walked onto stage to speak.

"Year Ones, I've been notified that some of you have not yet chosen your subjects. You can do it in the reception by submitting a form with your details on it and subjects chosen. Please do it by tonight, or you will be left out of the current semester."

She paused a moment to let the message sink in, then continued.

"Venser, if you please."

A slight pause. Seirenji looked slightly at Venser.

"Well then, you can go next. Lucetia, your turn?"

[Carillus]

Lucetia stood up from her chair - not that it made much difference to her height. padding softly along the central aisle, she cleared the front of the stage with a single soft leap, and landed lightly next to the microphone. Seirenji backed down the stage, and resumed her talking of the phone with what seemed like further urgency.

"Salutations. My name is Lucetia Scarlet, and I come from a long line of Scarlets, most of whom have attended this academy at some point or the other. As you can tell, my family has had considerable lineage in this institution."

Raising her left hand, within which the silver cross was held, she once again spoke.

"Seeing as how everyone so far has forgotten to do so, I would like to present this as one of my treasured possessions - the Silver Gilded Cross of the Church of St. Montgomery, prised from the altar after the building itself had collapsed in an earthquake."

Why treasured, she neglected to say - it was one of Uncle Montgomery's favourite things, back when vampires were still very much feared as bloodsucking devils. He, a forward-thinking priest, had often played with her in the backyards of the church when she was but a child; the situation was better today, mostly thanks to him. When Montgomery had passed on, he had, on his last breaths, bequeathed the entire church unto her - but a rogue earthquake had reduced most of it to rubble in the years that followed. What was left of it she now carried around with her.

"I do hope we get along. We've got quite a year ahead of us."

[schrodinger]

Perhaps it was inappropriate - rude, even - to callously ignore such a lovely lady, but Venser felt it was unavoidable. His attention had, after all, been diverted by a more pertinent (if not pressing) issue. Frederick's cousin, the diabolic doyenne (he hesitated to use the term 'kooky broad' with relation to her, even if it seemed well-deserved), was apparently trying to fool around with discerning spell wards. That in itself was bemusing enough, but the real kicker came from her attempts to pierce them. With spellcraft that could be described as inept at best, and technique that didn't even match up to the basic standards of a starter course in Enchantment, the most advanced enchantment she'd be able to detect, let alone manipulate, was the equivalent of a 'Do Not Touch' sign.

Well, perhaps that was exaggerating a little, and he was probably just speaking from a needlessly pedantic viewpoint. Still, he felt completely justified in his stance that meddling around with the spellcraft of others was an art best left to those who knew what they were doing - a group of people that she eminently did not belong to.

No nuance, no forethought, no chance of finding out anything meaningful... as far as he was concerned, at least. The elitist in him said that anyone who had a spell ward shoddy enough to be overcome by her fumblings probably wasn't losing much anyway, but this impulse for callousness was overcome by the memory of what had happened the last time he'd stood idly by when he'd had the opportunity to make a difference.

No, he couldn't let her have her way - he'd previously established that she wasn't to be trusted, and her choice of affiliates cast some compelling aspersions on her motivations. Who knew what she'd wind up doing with the knowledge she'd gain?

It shouldn't be up to me to make this decision. But who else is there to take this role?

All things considered, it wasn't actually a difficult thing to do - all he needed to do was identify existing enchantments (a fundamental component of his coursework) and temporarily augment them to increase their resilience to attempts at penetration without actually altering their basic functions. Granted, that last part was a little complex, but it took him little more than a moment (and a swish of the fingers, and a condensed incantation) to perform the necessary rites. Of course, taking the time to do this probably led to Ms. Seirenji interpreting his lack of a reaction to her as ADD or something, but it was a small price to pay for the surety that nobody would be paying for his inaction.

Oh, Ms. Scarlet had finished her short oration. Odd, he hadn't read anything about prized possessions in the school's prospectus, but perhaps that was just how these institutions rolled. Oh well, he hadn't brought anything particularly valuable with him, so it was probably best to skirt the subject.

Taking the stage, he quickly surveyed the overall mental state of the crowd before speaking. The main vibe he was getting was that of boredom, which was understandable given the frankly uninteresting nature of such sessions. At least there wasn't any overt antipathy towards him that he could discern... though that in itself was problematic. He would simply have to trust that the would-be meddler wasn't crazy enough to lash out at him in the middle of his introduction.

"Good evening, everyone. My name is Venser Savoir. I've met some of you already, but I'm sure that there are plenty of people that I haven't had the pleasure of acquaintance with just yet - I certainly hope that we'll have more opportunities in future to get to know one another better."

It was harmless, generic patter, the kind of thing that anyone could say without putting any serious thought into it, and it didn't really reveal much about himself, either. But so much of his life was intertwined with magic that to describe himself would be to presuppose the acceptance of magic in his audience's worldview, and that hadn't gone so well earlier, so it was best to leave well enough alone. He bowed slightly and returned to his seat, picking up the still-miniaturized Guile, whom he'd left on the chair as a placekeeper of sorts.

[Kim Kwan-Jang]

Sou was waiting for Venser to clear the stage.

Looking at Yoon-Joo's sudden change of mood, she wished she could do something to cheer her up. However, Mao butted in and put a finger to her lip.

Feeling uneasy, she stayed quiet and got up from her seat after Venser had returned to his.

"How convenient; I won't have to introduce myself to each of them separately this way," she thought as she stepped on the stage.

Posture...back straight, legs closed together, hands behind the back.

Her mother had taught her how to look presentable, and she had always kept it in mind. It worked through her last school; there shouldn't be any problems here either.

"Good evening everyone." She began in a clear voice.

"I'm Kaizawa Sou, and I'm pleased to meet all of you for the first time. I'm a Capricorn and Type A, if anyone else is interested in those kinds of things like I do."

"I'm quite average at Home Economics and D&T, so if you have any questions regarding those two subjects, I guess I could help in some way or another."

After that, she paused for a bit, obviously thinking of what she could say next. When nothing worthy of mention came to her mind, she chortled to nobody in particular and did the "We can do it!" pose.

"Everyone, let's work hard together this year!"

She then took a bow to the usual mediocre sound of clapping, and rushed off towards the stage exit.

In her hurry she almost tripped on the microphone wire.

After settling down in her seat, Mao inquired with a hint of ridicule, "Home Economics? D&T? Who've ever heard of these subjects! What kind of school was your previous school anyway!"

Sou could only smile in response, but something sunk within her.

[NPC Controller]

The period of silence immediately after Sou's introduction was the next person's cue to appear. She swept out of her seat, her long skirt billowing out behind her, striding purposefully toward the front of the hall.

"Good evening, everyone. My name is Madeleine Dawson."

There was a brief moment of scattered applause. Madeleine's eyes swept over the audience, scanning them.

"I come from Denmark, as one of a long line of the Dawson aristocratic family."

Suddenly, her eyes stopped, as did her speech. The lobby rang through with deafening silence.

The pregnant pause was filled with emotion. Normal people would identify it as a kind of pressure bearing down on them.

A trained fighter would immediately class it as bloodthirst.

Lucetia and Madeleine were locked in a fierce gaze, their eyes communicating years of contempt with each other. Though their faces betrayed no emotion, the crackle of pent-up energy in the air was enough to silence the entire hall.



Then, just as suddenly as it had come, the moment passed, and everything was back to normal.

"I hope we enjoy a good year together," Madeleine said as she walked down from her position on the stage.

[NPC Controller]

Vedeloitte slowly made her way to the stage, eyeing Madeleine warily as she strolled past.

She had noticed the enmity that flew between Madeleine and Lucetia. No doubt both warranted a rather large amount of research that Richard, from what she had heard from him, would be willing to and rather easily provide.

On the stage, she flicked her eyes around the place, giving Vareena a slight look of distaste, a small smile for Friedlich - did Miyo see that? - and then pointing them toward the back of the lobby, letting out a small sigh as she banished the slight ball of nervous energy in her stomach.

"Evening, everyone. My name is Vedeloitte P. Katyushka. Some of you might know me already." The members of the Year Two cohort exchanged knowing looks, and several of the Year Ones were noticeably surprised. "I am a citizen of Orlania, and served as one of many personal attendants to Ms McIntyre, the Governor-General of Orlania."

'Personal attendant' in a very wide sense. Vedeloitte, as most from New Technia and Orlania knew, was a member of ODESA, Orlania's openly secret Special Operations team.

"This here is my favourite book," she said, lifting a small, black book with gold gilded edges. "It's one of my most important possessions given to me by my dad."

The Mystique Biblica.

"Hope to have a great year ahead."

And with that, she headed stage left.

[kaisan]

Hitomi nervously made her way up to the stage. Watching another introduction event was one thing; making her own introduction to a huge audience was another.

She had plans to pass off as another ordinary student, but with her identity revealed to several, keeping the pretence would not be easy.

Well, there's still the rest who don't know yet. Just stay calm, keep with the simple greeting.

She glanced down at her hands. They were still opaque.

Don't panic. Don't fade out.

She took in a deep breath before beginning.

"Good evening, everyone. I'm Hitomi Takara, from Room 312. I may not be as special as everyone before me, but I still hope that we'll have a great year ahead."

She bowed politely, and walked off the stage.

[Shirafune]

Somehow, Rika had been able to drift aimlessly without realizing she was supposed to settle here.

If anything, Rika didn't step onstage; she wandered onstage. Premature instincts regarding the tense atmosphere somehow led her to the conclusion that this was an introduction ceremony of sorts.

"Hello. I'm Rika."

She ran through her mind for snippets of things to say - picked up from the lingering voices of the other students.

"Have a great year. Hope we get along."

An awkward pause, an extended breath.

"Nevermind."

Rika took a flimsy bow and headed offstage to somewhere else.

[Carillus]

"Linz du Forschet, of the Forschet family of Erutaretil. Glad to be in your company."

The introductions were moving slowly; what should have been a short presentation had taken what seemed like months to complete. Li looked at the clock; barely half an hour had passed.

Ah, it was his turn. He went on the stage.

"Li Kwon-eun, of the Li family from Aurelia. My family manages the power grid of the country. I hope we have a good year together."

[schrodinger]

Venser was, frankly, bored. The introductions had gone on long enough, and it wasn't as though any incredible revelations had been unveiled. Just a harmless way to pass the time, he supposed. At times like these, his mind tended to wander. And when his mind went on these bouts of wanderlust, it was wont to revisit the point where his life was changed forever. More than a year ago, when he'd seen the fruits of his own inaction.

I often wonder what would have happened if I'd stopped Gestalt. If I'd tried to make a difference. Could I have stopped him? What would have happened to me? To everyone? One thing's for sure - that was a crossroads in my life, and the path I chose... it's changed me.

I'd probably be a very different person right now if I'd stepped forward. For better? Or for worse?

He looked around briefly at the people surrounding him. There was a significance to this session, he supposed. Prior to this, they would have been strangers to him. Now, however, they were introducing themselves... as schoolmates. Schoolmates. Just like the myriad he'd forsaken,resigning them to eternal captivity.

Nimue. Jack. Frederick. Kris.

And everyone else he was beholden to now.

It was all he could do not to recoil from them, dreading the infathomable debt that he felt he owed them and yet, at the same time, fearing the consequences of his cowardice.

[Kim Kwan-Jang]

Sou tried her best to suppress her yawning throughout the remainder of the session and to look interested about whoever was on stage at the time.

She wondered if her own speech was that of a bore as well. The more she contemplated, the more she was certain that she did make a boring speech, and felt a tinge of uneasiness.

Well, it's over already, I should get over it.

Though that is easier said than done; Sou found herself staying moody throughout.

She looked to her side. Yoon recovered somewhat, and was absentmindedly stroking Mao's earlobe with her hand. Mao appeared contented; Sou thought that she might purr any moment.

Sou continued staring at the stage. The youth up there introduced himself as Shichi...

She hoped this would end quickly; it was getting harder and harder to stay awake.