Essays and Evildoers: Claremont Academy IC [M&M2e]

Introduction

It is a new year at Claremont Academy, the official unofficial top school for the differently capable. The brief introductory ceremony was held just past noon by the aged Head of the Academy, Duncan Summers, an older-looking man who initially seemed to have retained much of his vigor and strength, but also clearly had white and grey streaks appearing in his hair and signs of wear and aging could be seen on his face.

He walked to the podium with a slight limp, supporting himself with a cane, and briefly welcomed everybody to the academy, be they locals, those with connections to the academy, complete newcomers, 'exchange students,' or anyone else. He went on to mention a few of the expectations they had of the students - mainly things such as not to use your abilities for selfishness, keep a good grade average, be responsible and thoughtful, follow the directions of your instructors, and the like.

Shortly after he finished speaking the ceremony ended and the new students were let off to prepare for the new school year: those whose families were present went off to spend their remaining free time saying their goodbyes, those who had final procedures to settle went off to finish those and the remaining few who already had everything taken care of and whose families were not currently present (you all included) were lead to their dorms and shown their rooms.

The male and female dorm managers gave their respective subjects the lowdown of acceptable behavior: boys are not allowed in the girls' dorms, those who destroy the facility have to rebuild it by hand, if you must personalize your room then use paint and not wallpaper as it's a pain to remove, don't leave the seats up or hog the showers, etc. You are then given a map and a broad pointing-out of landmarks and directions, and by that time most of the day is over.

Now in the present, you see that your dorm room is relatively spacious (for dorms) and that there are enough beds for four people. Currently there is only one other person with you in your room, but you are told there will be a third or possibly fourth occupant once everyone's families leave and everything settles down. The beds are arranged one per corner, the foot of the beds facing toward the opposite one, with corresponding desks set next to each other in the middle wall area with windows above them. Another door opens to a hallway with four smallish personal closets and leads to two other rooms, a bathroom and a mini-kitchen area with basic food, cooking and cleaning equipment. You are told to get along with your roommate, and then the group moves on to bring the remaining people to their assigned dorms.

Avari & Conduit

Spoiler

Show

You two are roommates; you're told there will definitely be one more roommate who is currently with her family, and it's uncertain but unlikely they'll need to move anyone else here after that. Keep that in mind when partitioning space and personalizations/decorations.

Curio & Warp

Spoiler

Show

You two are roommates, you are told chances are high you'll have another roommate who is still dealing with transfer issues if the bureaucracy goes through on time, but after that it is unlikely there will be any more. Keep that in mind when partitioning space and personalizations/decorations.

Dorm Design (not to scale, they're a little more cramped than they look)

Spoiler

Show

http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/8636/dorm.png

"So, looks like it's you and me, then," Jacob says to the other boy, a friendly smile on his face. "Jacob Allen, though my friends call me Warp." Jacob offers his hand to his roommate for the forseeable future.

Angelica puts down her suitcase, which only held clothing and her power harness, which was pretty much all she owned at this point in time, she was a permanent dormer. That didn't sit well with her, she liked her privacy, and if the people here knew her past, which was likely, she wouldn't get any peace or privacy. She flops onto the bed and puts an arm over her eyes, staying quiet after that unless someone talks to her.

Arranging his stuff around one of the beds by the window and carefully placing a well worn stuffed monkey on the pillow with care, Magnus turns and looks at his roommate, Jacob, with barely contained glee evident on his face. I'm Magnus Brighton, but please call me Curio. If I had friends that's what I'd want them to call me, its really good to meet you, Warp. I am very glad to be here.

Dropping her bag by one of the beds, Avari takes the opportunity to take a proper look at the room - her roommate didn't seem like she wanted to talk, and truth be told Avari was a little nervous about properly greeting her. The kitchen proves to be particularly interesting. Most of the implements seem familiar enough, but a couple's purpose are particularly elusive. The food however is a different story entirely. She recognises some of them from the Cultural Immersion tests, but others seem entirely alien.

Eventually Avari gets bored of exploring the wonders of earth cuisine. Fiddling nervously, she walks over to her roommate's bed.

"Er... hello? We will be sharing this room, will not we? I am called Avari. What should I call you?"

Angelica moves her arm to look at Avari, "Interesting name, I'm Angelica Eisendiel, at least when out of costume," she says. She sits up and rubs the back of her neck, then turns her head to she side with a loud crack, "so, how'd you get your powers?" she asks, the girl seemed nervous, and having a nervous roomy was annoying, "got mine after being struck by lightning a few years ago," that was always a good ice breaker... any telepath could tell she was mentally facepalming.

This will be a fun one to explain. "I was born with them. The Goddess blessed me with Her Light." She gestures to the bed "Do you mind if I sit?"

Angelica raises an eyebrow, "go ahead," she replies, "blessed by a goddess, eh? Sounds interesting," she chuckles, though the bored look to her eyes never changes, she then looks at Avari, seemingly scanning for something.

Sitting down at the end of the bed Avari continues. "I guess so. It is the reason I am here after all." She smiles a little nervously. "First time I have been off the ship."

"Curio, huh?" Jacob says, a note of curiosity in his voice. "Interesting handle... so, what brings you here to Claremont?"

"Guessing you're not accustomed to Earth then," Angelica says, "what's your planet like?" she asks, genuinely curious.

"I think you misunderstand. Coming to Earth was the first time I have been outside a ship my whole life. We do not have a planet of our own now. The majority of us live in, um... I think the best way to translate would be world-ships. I lived there before I had to come here."

"Really?" Angelica sounds surprised at that, and it's evident, though it's easy to see the bored look on her face with it, it's an odd combination, "never expected that, you seem acclimated to Earth well enough, normally there's bone degeneration from the lack of gravity, unless you had artificial gravity... did you?" her eyes light up a little at the mention of artifician gravity, literally, her eyes are glowing bright green.

"Yes, but I am afraid that I do not really know much about it. Um... your eyes, do they usually do that?"

Angelica looks confused for a moment, then, "oh, right," she says, her face going red as the glow dims, "side effect from my powers, my eyes glow, though how bright it is depends on my mood at the time."

Avari stops a little awkwardly. I think I may have embarrassed her."Sorry... do you mind talking about your powers?"

"I don't mind them, it's just, that particular side effect is a little embarrassing, it's sorta like a mood ring for me," Angelica says, scratching the side of her face a little, "the powers themselves are actually pretty simple, I can drain electricity from anything that uses it and store it, then shape and release it," she holds up two fingers in a peace sign and has electricity arcing between them, startign at the web and going up to the tips before starting over again, "I'm also immune to electricity, though it still causes the usual side effects, hair standing on end and all that, it just doesn't hurt. The electricity itself does fade after a while, but it's usually not a problem with how I tend to use it."

Avari leans in a little to get a better look at Angelica's display. "Amazing. Quite amazing." She pauses. "What is a mood ring?"

Angelica smiles, lightly, "it's a ring with a kind of gel inside that changes color based on how hot it is, the human body temperature changes just enough for it to actually tell you someone's mood based on the color of the ring. My eyes are similar, only it's how bright the glow is at any given time, and if they're throwing off sparks, though that only really happens when I'm angry."

Magnus' face droops a bit as he turns slightly away from Jacob. "My parents disappointment," he mumbles. Then trying to recover the situtation, So what type of music do you like?

"Oh... sorry, didn't realize I was stepping on a touchy subject there," Jacob says, quickly, before gratefully accepting the change of topic. "Music? I really don't have much preference... except I can't stand country. Beyond that, I'm fine with anything. You?"

Evidently confused, Avari gives up on trying to understand and latches on to the remainder of the sentance. "I do not think I would like to see you angry."

"Not many people do, esspecially when I have my harness on," Angelica pauses then opens her suitcase and pulls out said harness, "this thing amplifies my physical abilities when I'm using it. It's only a minor increase at the moment, but I plan to improve on the design as time goes on," the harness is a bodysuit made of sturdy kevlar and leather with light-weight metal plates, circuitry can just barely be made out at the edges of the cloth and leather. The helmet, however, is another thing entirely, it would cover all of Angelica's face except her eyes, and with the way her eyes glow, in the dark, or even just shadowed, it would make a terrifying image if she were truly angry, "Mom always did say I was a little too theatrical with these things, and that I should change my middle name to Overkill," she laughs nervously at that, "I tend to go overboard with my electricity, it's one of the reasons I'm here."

Spoiler

Show

Describing it now rather than later, I will update the look as she improves on the thing.

"I see you have put a lot of thought into this. I only brought clothes and a few curios from home. This would truly be an intimidating sight." She pauses. "You came here to learn control over your abilities?"

"More like how to properly gauge them, I have decent enough control, but I generally go by the feel of it, not the actual amount needed, which has caused problems in the past, last year I accidently caused every streetlight down one street to blow up when a stray lightning bolt hit it because i put to much power into it. Also left my hand partially burnt from using too much at once," Angelica says, "I try to keep them in check, but sometimes I just put a little too much into whatever I try."

That's unfortunate, Magnus says with a little smile pulling a battered iPod out of one of his bags, I love country... Hank Williams ... Toby Austin... I just can't get enough. Then he plugs in a set of small speakers and turns up the player. A Beatles song starts up. I'm just kidding. I love lots of music, I think that sort of thing happens to kids that are on their own a lot, but country isn't one of my favorties, too depressing most of the time. I really prefer the older rock stuff.

Nodding, Jacob says, "Hopefully our other roommates will share the same tastes. Anyway, if you don't mind my asking, what exactly do you do? I'll admit, I can't think of much that works with the name Curio..."

Amazed and a little shocked, Avari leans in a little further. "You burnt your hand channelling your power? Did it heal acceptably? I feel lucky I was granted more controllable energies."

Magnus looks a bit green as the conversation turns to powers. I don't do much of anything really. I can ... Well talk to things... You know books, chairs, doors that sort. I can talk to them and sometimes they tell me useful stuff. If I try really hard I can convince them to do things for me. It doesn't always work but it's handy when it does. Feeling dry awkward for talking so much about his least favorite subject Magnus tries to at least take the focus off himself. So what does Warp mean?

"Oh, I can teleport stuff. Not people, though... just stuff," Jacob responds, smiling. He points his hand at his bag, firing a pale blue bolt at it. When the bolt strikes, the bag vanishes, reappearing on the empty bed across the room. Another bolt returns the bag to his side. "I'm trying to develop it more, to be honest."