Avalon Academy IC

[OutOfThyme]

Colin was a little surprised at being assigned a room with the others - he'd been expecting to room with someone else. There were forty-four others admitted to the Academy, so did the administration just decide to group entrance exam teams together?

Colin carried both of his bags into the room. One was a steel case that contained his gear, while the other was a hard-shelled suitcase with whatever he thought he'd need for staying in the dorm. He slid the steel case under his bed, and propped the suitcase up on the bed.

"If we unpack now, and make it quick, we won't really have to worry about it later," Colin says. "Besides, I'm sure that they'll probably drag us out for some kind of orientation something-or-other in a bit."

[Thokk_Smash]

Marcus' smile was brittle and forced, as anyone could tell, when the scores were initially shown. Internally, he fumed and ranted and raged and ~yelled far too much at innocent knowledge spirits~ which were then summarily thrown into another horrendous memory. Still, eventually he accepted the realization that he had actually, really been accepted into Avalon Academy. After his anger subsided, he had also made sure to check if Gabriel had been accepted.

Now, inside the(ir) room, the reality is sinking in. He'll have to keep his magic under even tighter control now, being in close quarters with near-total strangers. Suddenly he feels the extent of the change in his life. It's a tad daunting. He flips through the handbook from front to back--in his mind, having been released from his personal hell, Barty reads along and stores the knowledge for future reference.

"Unpacking sounds like a good idea," he says out loud, going to his own bag. Mr Anderson, Gabriel's father, had done a good job in instilling a basic work ethic in the short amount of time Marcus had been living with the Andersons. His nostrils flare in psychosomatic reflex, and he casts his senses around the room.

Spoiler

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If it's okay, shuffled things around to upgrade Marcus' Detect Magic. Now it's a Ranged, Acute Detect Magic, so he can at least feel it at a distance. Expertise (Magic) to determine what kind of magic is in the walls/floor/ceiling: (1d20+16)[24]

[Dodgeson]

Girls Dorm

"I mean I kinda meant about like lights out and stuff but whatever." Mollie took Claire's unexpected question in her stride as she launched in to her explanation "Okay so time to get a little 'secret origin' here but when my metagene kicked in I kinda hit the jackpot, I can copy the powers of any other metahuman as long as I have something that belonged to them that I can use as a focus.

"This." She held up her hand to reveal a strip of fabric wrapped round her palm, before tucking it back in to one of the pouches on her belt "Belongs to a guy in Year 12, he can mark things and then 'port them to him later. This little gizmo." She continued, tapping the device "Just gives me a heads up if anyone's got something fun I don't have yet, by the way I'm totally looking for a power-enhanced that's willing to play ball. Anyone?"

There was some murmuring amongst the crowd but nobody spoke up, undaunted she turned her attention to Kelly, her visor giving off another ping as it created a readout on her super-speed "I think there's something in the back of the handbook about that but if you're not breaking anything and you don't run in to anybody most people are pretty cool about it."

Mollie fielded a few more questions about bed times and dorm swaps but slowly the students began to dissipate as they all drifted off to find their new rooms and begin unpacking.

Kelly might have been first to the room but she would soon be joined not only by Claire but also by a glamorous looking girl already wearing the school uniform and a girl with a bright green pixie cut.

"So we armwrestling for first dibs or what?" The green haired girl asked with a grin.

Boys Dorms

"Just get your stuff unpacked and I'll do a call round for dinner, then you're free to do what you want until lights out." Sahib answered with a shrug "That's a one time thing by the way, you're expected to make sure you don't miss any meals yourself." The prefect fielded a couple more questions before heading up the stairs back to his own floor once the new students went off to go discover their new rooms.

Spoiler: Marcus

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Their wards specifically designed to interact with your magic, within the dorm at least you won't have to worry about accidentally ruining anybody's tech.

The First Day of School!

Everything started bright and early for everybody, prefects arriving to deliver a wakeup call just before seven and from there they were ushered downstairs for morning announcements, this largely consisted of being introduced to the matrons (a team of (mostly) woman who handled the domestic side of things) and the new students being told which form room they were expected to report to. It was during this little meeting that Anthony's phone would buzz.

Spoiler: Anthony

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<I knew you could do it kiddo! Sorry this took so long, caught me at a bad time last night, new gang trying to make a push in to London. I'm coming up in a few weeks want me to bring anything?>
As proof a grinning selfie was attached of him and Britannia standing in front of a pile of unconscious helmeted thugs

After that it was on to breakfast and the enormous dining hall with its long wooden tables where students eagerly devoured seemingly endless amounts of sausage, eggs, bacon and beans accompanied by loaves upon loaves of toast and enormous vats of cereal. Somewhere off in the corner a bowl of fruit sat lonely and neglected.

Now the form room you'd all been assigned was Room F, asking around would reveal that this was the big building down by the sports fields, what people neglected to mention however that calling Room F a classroom might have been just a tad generous. Sure there were just about enough desks to fit everybody in and a well-used looking white board up at the front but what there also was was sports equipment. Nets, sticks and balls for every kind of game imaginable fort for space along with cones and weights and boxes of whistles, timers and other sports gear.

"Somebody sit on it!" Not that this was bringing anybody down of course, the blonde girl that Kelly and Claire would recognise from their dorm had wasted no time in piling as many of the weights as she could find on to the table and was now lifting it high in to the air whilst a trio of boys watched on with interest (though it might not just have been at her feat of strength). Whilst at another desk a boy and girl were currently engaged in a game of chess (which the boy was playing without touching the pieces) and a pair of girls kept snatching glances at Adrien trying to work out if that was really who they thought it was...

[zzzzzzzz414]

Claire arrived at the form room with their head buried in the student handbook, rereading it once again to make sure they had the rules well memorized. If they were going to avoid calling attention to themselves or attracting any trouble from the teachers, they needed to know these things front to back! Breaking rules meant getting in trouble meant close scrutiny meant their real nature being maybe discovered meant Very Very Bad Things.

They stowed the book in their bag once they'd arrived in the assigned room, double and triple checking to make sure that it WAS in fact the right room before heading inside. They were honestly a bit anxious about this whole procedure; they were still not sure what the function of a "form room"...was, precisely? But the way the staff had been talking about it made it clear that it would look incredibly weird and silly indeed to ask.

Claire greeted their friends from the previous day who'd already arrived with a cheerful wave and grin (if there were any) and stopped to give a "Wow!" and a thumbs up to Tansy a she lifted the table before looking around for a good, non-obtrusive place to sit; it seemed that whatever official things were going to happen here ("role call"?) were not happening yet, but they still wanted to be prepared. However, they caught sight of the chess game in progress on the other side of the room and drifted over, eyes lighting up as they took in the layout of the pieces with keen interest. Claire took a seat at a desk near the pair, craning their neck to get a better look at the board. "Um, hello! Do not mind me, I just wanted to watch if that would be ok? I am a big fan of chess!"

[Llyarden]

For a pop star, Adrien was - perhaps surprisingly, considering how much of a showoff he was when it came to hero-ing - just a normal boy when it came to mundane stuff. He unpacked and tidied his stuff away neatly (and did so without using his powers), and though his response to the wakeup call was a sleepy grumble, once he'd woken up a little more he was polite enough, and he made it down to breakfast with plenty of time to spare. Perhaps the most unusual thing he did was venturing over to the fruit bowl and collecting an apple to go along with the rest of his breakfast.

"...huh." His first reaction to 'Room F' was a rather muted one. "What happens when they need all this stuff?" he wondered aloud. "Are people just going to pop into our lessons?" Still, considering the 'entrance exam,' he suspected that occasional interruptions to their lessons were probably going to be the least weird thing they'd have to deal with.

When he noticed Claire waving at him, he waved back and ambled over towards her in the absence of any particular destination, watching the blonde girl showing off for a moment with something of an amused expression. "Heya," he greeted Claire with a friendly smile, speaking relatively quietly in the hopes of not distracting the two chess players she was watching. "Looks like our group's going to be sticking together a while longer."

He noticed the two girls watching him, but didn't pay them too much attention. Their suspicions would be confirmed soon enough when the register was taken anyway.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly rose with the sun. The boundless energy within her didn't abide sleeping late. ...Also she was eight hours ahead of where she was used to so her body couldn't have stayed asleep much longer if she had wanted to. She had fallen asleep rather early despite her best efforts at staying up chatting with her new roommates. Speedsters had a pretty robust set of Required Secondary Powers, letting them not burst into flames from friction, or blow holes in their bodies with every mote of dust they impacted, or navigate efficiently at top speed, or not shatter the ground with every step, etc. Tragically, immunity to jet lag was not among them. Or not among hers, at any rate.

She absolutely devoured breakfast. Speedster's metabolism. She wasn't...entirely sure what to make of beans on the breakfast menu, cultural differences lol, but yeah she piled her plate high with everything else, made up the difference with extra bacon 'cause her country had a reputation to uphold or something, and went back for at least a couple of refills. She had several bowls of the most sugary cereal on offer. (She also got some of the fruit, but it had nothing to do with it being healthy and everything to do with it being sweet).

In the classroom, she waved back to Claire, tossed some upnods to people she recognized, and pretty much just took a seat when she arrived. Her hair was no longer red white and blue. For the first day of classes she had left it her normal pale blonde. She was...kinda fidgeting uncomfortably in her seat. Mandatory uniforms, ugh! The tie, in particular, could go die in a fire. She wished they could at least substitute costumes. It was a hero school, substituting costumes would make sense, right? Right?

Both at class and at breakfast, she had basically just picked a random seat, rather than specifically seeking out people she already knew. She wouldn't be able to make more friends if she just sat with the ones she had already made, after all ('course, she wouldn't object if any of them picked seats near her either). She chatt(er)ed with whoever ended up nearby, at least until a teacher arrived, though her attention was constantly jumping about as she seemingly tried to keep tabs on the entire room at once. The gentle glow of rainbow light playing over her skin indicated that she was using her powers to help her do so, hastening her perceptions so she could pay attention to everything.

[Dorni]

Anthony arrived at the room excited. He'd been cooped on campus with not nearly enough to do for way too long by this point; he was excited for class to start to give him something to focus on more than anything. That, and for the message he'd received. He hadn't been frustrated by the delayed response - in fact, he wasn't sure yet how much he could really expect from them at all and he could understand why they might be busy.

So when he walked in and saw one of his classmates goofing around with weights piled on a table, he grimaced. Sure, he was virtually indestructible - a few thousand kilograms meant little to him, but most of his classmates were probably far more fragile. So he approached the girl. "Miss, you've proven how strong you are. Maybe now is a good time to put it down before you break the table?"

[OutOfThyme]

Colin had basically been the first person out of the dorm. He'd tried to be as quiet about it as possible, but he wasn't sure if any of them heard him getting ready for the day. He was wearing the normal uniform, but had opted to wear a simple, red-and-orange enamel pin of a sword (a gift from his mother) on his collar.

Much like Kelly, Colin's plate was piled high, with mostly eggs and meat, along with a bowl of fiber-rich cereal. Colin wouldn't have eaten like this a year ago, but with Gramps always made sure that he ate well during his time training. He was glad to see this kind of variety, though.

In the class, Colin's gaze settled on the chess game, trying to identify who was the better of the two. He might give that a shot later, if they had any remaining time before class.

[Thokk_Smash]

For an hour or so after unpacking, Marcus just stares at the walls intently. Occasionally he scribbles notes in a notebook, with symbols and sigils and mutterings under his breath talking to himself. There are wards that can be created to counter his magic's anti-technology aura? He must inspect!

The early wakeup call is met with grumbling and malcontent. He puts on the uniform without complaint, although he does attempt to bring his duster slung over his shoulder. "I spent hours each night for literal weeks enchanting this, I'm bloody well gonna at least bring it to my superhero school classes," he'll say to any prefect who might tell him he can't bring his duster to class. And thin as he is, he's still six-foot with a mean glare when he wants to really get his glare on.

So he brings his duster (if he can) and uses it to save his seat as he loads his plate with stacks on stacks on mounds on piles of every kind of breakfast meat and a genuine loaf of bread. He obviously doesn't hold a candle to a speedster like Kelly, but he puts away a damn respectable amount of food by the time they all go to form room. He does his best to find Gabriel to check how the other boy is settling in, although Marcus admits that the current wielder of Caliburn has most likely had far more success than himself.

Now, in the form room, Marcus' natural awkwardness has its time to shine. He nods to everyone from the Test of DOOM (as Barty kept referring to the entrance exam as, which has unfortunately stuck in his brain). Even though no one has a visible bit of technology, Marcus still keeps his mind shield firmly up to head off any stray bits of magic that his nervousness causes to flare out. His nerves get to him such that he actually puts his leather duster on while they wait for the professor to arrive, assuming no one in the dorm had stopped him from taking it. The familiar weight and smell help to calm him down and he is relieved to feel his tension begin to drain.

[Dodgeson]

Luckily for Marcus the school rules treated his duster just like any other coat and outside of lessons he was free to wear it as much as he liked, even if he would get a few odd looks here and there from other students. Out at breakfast whilst everybody was eating their fill and Kelly was on the hunt for new friends he wouldn't have much problem locating Gabriel, just as he expected he seemed to have settled in just fine, who was sitting with his girlfriend (still nursing a broken arm) and two of his new dorm mates. He happily exchanged pleasantries with his friend and introduced him to the table before having to head off to Room E wherever that was.

"Hi Claire!" Tansy waved back to her friend with enough enthusiasm to jostle the desk she was holding and send one of the weights tumbling off her stack, slamming in to her head before it hit the floor with a heavy CLANG. Of course being a paragon this didn't so much as muss up her hair but it did embarrass her enough that Anthony admonished her she set the table back down on the ground

"Yeah, maybe you're right..." She said with a nervous chuckle, rubbing the back of her head "...kinda getting off on the wrong foot here, I'm Tansy. I don't normally do that kind of thing, I'm not a show off or anything, it's just this school you know?"

"Sure." The boy playing chess responded to Claire, his pieces moving across the board even as her turned his attention away from the game and to her "You can play winner if you want. Checkmate."

As far as Colin could tell the game definitely the boy, it's not that his opponent was bad, in fact the moves she was making were indicative of a high level understanding of the game, it was just unfortunate for her that he seemed to be able to anticipate every single one of them.

Having had enough of stealing glances and whispering to each other the pair of girls that had been focusing on Adrien finally bottled up their courage and decided to approach him "Hi, I bet you get this all the time but are you Adrien Zhey?" the first girl asked, her silver eyed friend waiting eagerly over her shoulder.

[Llyarden]

Adrien winced slightly as Tansy's pile of weights reached its inevitable conclusion - not so much because he was thought she might have hurt herself with it, since she was obviously far stronger than any normal human, but rather because he didn't envy the unfortunate janitor who would have to fix the divot in the floor had the falling weight not been delayed slightly by the paragon's face. (Then again, holes in the buildings were probably par for the course for a school full of teenage superhumans.)

He swivelled in his chair to turn to face the two girls. he nodded. "And yeah, I get it pretty often," he added, an amused little smile twitching at the corners of his lips. If he was exasperated at the attention he certainly didn't show it, offering out a hand to shake and giving them a friendly grin. "Nice to meet you."

[zzzzzzzz414]

Claire gasped as the weight tumbled down and conked their friend right on the head, almost getting up to go see if she was alright, but Tansy appeared to be...unharmed?

Right. Invincibility!

"Um, oh, yes I would be super delighted to! Um, if your friend doesn't mind that is?" Claire responded as the (psychic?) boy extended the offer of a match, turning to look at the defeated girl across from him.

If she was fine with it, Claire took her former seat, beginning to reset the pieces to their starting positions. They could only hope that this went well, seeing as they...hadn't actually played a game of chess before? Well, for certain definitions of "they".

As Claire surveyed the checkered field and rows of pieces, unfamiliar yet familiar memories and fragments drifted to the forefront of their mind; flashes of matches and tournaments they'd never played, old gamebooks they'd never read, years of familiarity that wasn't technically theirs. Possibilities and configurations swirled in their head, seeming to project themselves onto the board.

Claire grinned. This was going to be fun! "So, um, white goes first, then! What is your name, by the way?"

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Not certain if this is a roll or a straight comparison. Here's a roll just in case, though:
(1d20+8)[11]

[Dorni]

Anthony darted forward. He didn't jump quick enough to save Tansy from getting hit by the weight - not that she was in any danger to begin with - but he did snatch up the disk before it could break the floor.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Anthony," he replied as he looked around for the nearest rack to return the weight to. He carried it casually in one hand, making it look light as a feather even though he wasn't trying. A thought struck him. If the school was making Tansy feel insecure...

"I take it you're new to being a super-hero?" The corner of his lips curled up in a slight grin. The irony wasn't lost on him.

[OutOfThyme]

Colin was surprised. He didn't expect to see someone play a Marshall swindle here, in the classroom, of all places. Gramps had taught him to play chess - even before finding Fragarach - and strategy had been part of his training after that.

As Claire took the seat, Colin grabbed one of the spare chess sets. "Are you down for another game? We should have time to kill before class," he asked his apparent classmate. She was skilled at the game, so this would be fun.

Spoiler

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Rolling for Chess: (1d20+12)[18]

[Dodgeson]

The two girls blinked and stared at Adrien's outstretched hand for a moment, seemingly trying to mentally work through the situation that they found themselves in, until the first girl wrapped her own glittering hand around his and used it as handle to try and pull him in to a tight hug.

"It really is you! You're Adrien Zhey!" The girl with gently glowing eyes squealed as she rummaged around in her bag for something before pushing a book covered in arcane glyphs that shimmered silver in her shaking hand towards the young star "Could you sign this? Please? I'm Helena by the way. Such a huge fan!"

To say that the whole scene didn't draw more attention to Adrien would have been a lie but it was less rushing towards him and more amused looks and smirking and at least some people had more important things to pay attention to right now whether it was their phones, a magazine or poking a sparking gizmo at their desk, some of them were even playing chess (the nerds).

"She doesn't." The boy playing chess replied to Claire without waiting for his opponent to say anything, getting her to vacate her seat with a small gesture whilst the pieces began to float through the air and reset themselves putting the white pieces in front of Claire.

"It's William." He said with a dazzling smile, gesturing towards the board "Ladies first."

Spoiler: OOC

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Expertise (Games) (1d20+8)[11]
Also give me a DC18 Will Save and a DC20 Perception Check

Spoiler: DC20

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He's totally trying to read your mind

Banished from her seat Colin just about caught the brown girl before she scurried away to another table "Me?" She said in surprise, her accent vaguely continental "I should warn you, I'm not very good..." Sitting down opposite him she took a deep breath and nervously adjusted her glass.

Spoiler: OOC

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Expertise (Games) (1d20+12)[20]

"Totally, I mean I used to watch them on TV and follow the forums all the time but that's why we're here right? So we can learn how to be heroes?" Tansy started to reply to Anthony before a thought occurred to her "Wait! Does that mean you're not? That is so cool! Did you have a name? What was your costume like? Were you somebody's sidekick? What were they like? Ooo ooo what're your powers?"

And on and on she went...

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly was still paying super-speed attention to the room at large (she didn't show any notable concern regarding Tansy's antics, might have come from growing up with a powerhouse as a big brother), while chattering more-or-less incessantly with whoever happened to be nearby. Not really on any topic of merit. Basic small-talk, really.

"-to all fifty states, but I *super* can't wait to see-"

...

"-a pile of moldy tacos. He got out maybe fifteen seconds later, but by then-"

...

"-PIZZA FOR EVERYONE! Pretty sure it was the best trip to the DMV ever. Well, aside from-"

...

"-yours itch? Mine totally itches. And whoever came up with ties deserves to be-"

...

"-kick off the wall into a double-backflip that I kinda mistimed but I managed to turn it into a cartwheel when I hit the ground. Honestly I had no idea they held that many bullets, but at least-"

...

You know.

Normal stuff.

[Llyarden]

Not what I was meaning, but sure, hugs work too. Adrien reached over with his free arm and hugged the glittery-handed girl back briefly (not nearly as tightly as she was hugging him) before turning to Helena. "Sure!" he nodded cheerfully, producing a well-worn fountain pen and writing in an elegant, flowing script that had entirely too many flourishes and loops to be useful for anything but autographs.

For Helena,
AZ

[zzzzzzzz414]

The corner of Claire's smile twitched. Something about this boy's demeanor was immediately rubbing them the wrong way. Not to mention the way he'd immediately dismissed his friend (?) without even giving her a chance to answer the question for herself. Claire was not exactly what one would call an expert on the intricacies of human relations, but that had seemed pretty rude by their estimation!

Still, maybe they were being too quick to judge? They had just now walked in on this, maybe they had already arranged it beforehand, or the other girl was shy and didn't like talking, or maybe William just didn't realize that that was a little rude? Claire certainly worried about that a lot themselves, or maybe they were just misreading this all entirely and he hadn't been rude at all.

"Oh, uh, alright then," Claire said, taking the first move and skipping a pawn into position. "Um, I just wanted to make sure she was fine with it, is all," they continued as the game progressed, "after all I do not want to hurt anyone's feelings on the first day of cla-"

Claire dropped the piece they were holding as their mind reeled from the sudden but unmistakable feeling of someone trying to worm their way into their mind.

Oh no, oh jeez, oh no, oh god, oh god, it's happening why does it have to be happening here oh god oh jeez oh no oh f***

It took every ounce of willpower Claire had to keep the pure panic flooding their system from showing on their face as the scenario they'd been mortally dreading from the moment they got here began to play out. They fought off the attacker and immediately threw up their mental defenses, but they had no idea if it was too late. Did someone know? Was it all about to be over, right here, right now?

Every muscle in their face strained to maintain the same placidly cheerful expression as they looked across at their opponent. "O-oops, my bad, sorry." Claire said, straightening up the toppled bishop. "I've always been pretty clumsy, hahaha." Internally, their mind raced. Was it him? Yes, they were pretty certain of it now, actually, something about the look on his face and the feeling of the mental tendril they'd fought off. Why? Did he know something? Was he suspicious of them? Had he learned anything before they'd ejected him? Was the whole chess game a ruse and any minute now a bunch of Avalon Academy staff were going to burst through the door and drag them away?

Almost instinctively, Claire lowered the mental barriers again and launched a counterattack.

Spoiler: OOC

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Switching Totally Not Psychic Shenanigans to "Really Good at Reading People"

Attempting to Mind-Read William. Initial contact roll: (1d20+8)[12] opposed by Will. DC18 Will check to resist at every question past the first.

Going to search his mind for answers to the following questions, in order. If they only get surface thoughts they'll listen in for one turn then immediately cut it off next turn and switch the array to "Exceptionally Clear Minded" (Immunity to Mental Effects)

-Which of my thoughts did he read, if any?
-Why did he try to read my thoughts?
-Does he have any idea or suspicions that I am either psychic or not actually Claire Thomas?
-What are all of his powers?

If they detect William attempting to read their mind again between any of these turns, they will immediately cut off after fighting (or attempting to fight) off the attempt and switch the array to "Exceptionally Clear Minded". If William resists the effect or they get through all of the questions with no mind reading attempt from William, they will switch the array afterwards.

[Dorni]

"Well, sorta. No, I don't have a hero name. No, I'm not a sidekick. Super-strength and Invulnerability..." Anthony tried to keep his head above water responding to the torrent of questions pouring out of Tansy.

"What about you?" He managed to get in edge-wise. "How long have you been empowered? What was it like?"

[Dodgeson]

Helena stared at her idol's signature in her mystic tome for a moment before squealing out a "Thank you!" with fangirlish glee before slamming it shut, clearly valuing his mark above all the arcane knowledge held within before scurrying back to one of the unoccupied desks with her friend following suit, releasing Adrien from her grip and pulling out her phone, it was safe to say that this was going to be all over social media before the period was over.

Back at the chess tables William seemed somewhat distracted during his match with Claire, maybe it was simply the fact that he seemed unable to get any concrete advantage over his opponent, with the game going back and forth without either side being able to pull ahead or maybe it was something else. Who knew?

"Um...checkmate?" Colin's opponent said as she moved her final piece in to place as with everything else she'd said during the game she sounded unsure of herself even as she'd outplayed him "I'm sorry, I guess I just got really lucky..." The game sealed she nervously offered him a handshake.

"I'm not Empowered, I'm a meta, I don't have like a cool weapon or anything." Tansy stopped mid her barrage of questions and mentally shifted gears, grabbing completely the wrong end of the stick "It happened this year, you've probably heard this story like a million a times. So one day these guys at my old school had it in for me right? I start running, and they're gaining and I had to climb over this fence and the next thing I know I'd cleared it and the street and the next building! So anyway I get home and when I try to open the door the thing comes off it's hinges! The whole day was super weird, so I went to take a nap and it was a super bad idea, worst sleep I've ever had but when I woke up BAM! It was a whole new me! Good bye old life and hello Incred...Amazigirl!"

To emphasise her point she crossed her arms and floated up in to the air with a wide grin on her face.

"Good morning class." A cheery female voice came from the door as their teacher walked in to the room a plastic bag in one hand and a stack of papers under one arm, she was wearing a tracksuit emblazoned with the school's emblem and a whistle around her neck, oh and she looked like nothing so much as a statue of a woman carved out of a single flawless diamond.

"It's nice to see that you're all getting on so well." She continued as she moved towards the front of the class "But we've got to get down to business so if you'd all like to take a seat, I know it's going to be a bit of a squeeze but two to a desk should be fine." Placing the papers and her bag down on the desk she turned to face the class "I'm Miss Diamond and I'm going to be your form tutor for your time here at Avalon, so if you have any problems you just come to me, okay? I'm going to call you out one at a time and you just come up and collect your timetable, oh and feel free to take a piece of fruit from my desk." She gestured to the plastic bag "I don't care how invincible you are, nutrition is important and I've seen what passes for breakfast in the dinning hall."

Just as she said she called the class up one by one in alphabetical order to receive their timetable, the mornings were given over to standard school subjects like English, maths and science whilst the afternoons (and Saturday mornings) were for the classes that you would more associate with a school for trainee superheroes such as Costume Design, Rescue Theory and Ethics in Heroism (aka heroing 101). What was more each student would find the curriculum customised to fit their particular power set, Anthony, Claire and Kelly all had Advanced Phys Ed, Marcus was signed up for Intro to Magic, Adrien had Psi Studies and Colin was timetabled for something called Artifacts.

"Okay now that's out of the way, if you have any questions about your timetable or would like to request a transfer to another subject then now is the time to do it."

A hand went up, it was the girl who had been playing chess with Colin, a red tinge to her cheeks like the whole room was staring at her.

"Miss Diamond...I've been put down for Advanced Phys Ed could I please move to Intro to Magic?"

"I'll see what I can Sheree." Their teacher responded to the quiet girl

After answering any more questions she moved the lesson on.

"Now today is supposed to be about getting you all settled in and making sure that you all know each other so I figured the best way to do that would be with a fun little game! Everybody go and get changed in to your PE uniforms and meet back here in 15 minutes and after that I've got some exciting news for you."

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly came to attention when the teacher entered. When her name was called, she walked up to collect her timetable (and snagged a piece of fruit while she was at it), looking over her classes while the other students were called.

When Miss Diamond (...was that her codename or was her surname just that apt?) told them to change into their PE clothes...well. You didn't have to tell her twice! There was a blur of rainbows shooting out the door, and the next moment Kelly was back in her seat and much more comfortable!

[Dorni]

Anthony accepted his timetable and returned to his seat. Of course they put him in advanced phy ed. It was obvious where they'd put him. He briefly pondered what it would be like in Intro to Magic. He already had super-strength. Wasn't he supposed to be learning new skills in school?

Either way, it could wait till after their lesson. Anthony joined the wave of students heading out to change.

[OutOfThyme]

As the match went on, Colin wasn't suprised at how she was able to match his moves. From her match with the boy, Colin knew that she was, at the very least, a natural at strategy. Despite all his training, she was able to counter just about everything he'd done. At the end, however, he wasn't able to get out of her initial check. Colin nodded as she pointed out the checkmate, and knocked over his King.

"Good game," Colin said, shaking her hand. "The name's Colin, by the way."

As Colin packed away the chess pieces, their apparent form tutor walked into the class and introduced herself. He was a little surprised that he wasn't in Intro to Magic, but a class about Artifacts would be useful. Maybe it might even put him in touch with the other Empowered students in his year.

Like the others (and unlike Kelly, who was back even before he'd left the class), he got back to the dorm room, changed out into his PE clothes, and made sure to hang his uniform back up before going down again.

Whatever Miss Diamond had planned for them, he hoped his first day of class would be interesting.

[zzzzzzzz414]

Claire was almost relieved when the teacher's entrance interrupted the chess match (From what they could tell, the game would have ended in a stalemate in a few more turns anyway.). They quickly stood up, gave him an uncharacteristically terse "G-good game" and went to sit somewhere else...and then the teacher announced they'd be sitting two to a seat. Claire quickly cast around for another seat partner, but within a few seconds every other desk was filled - save for William's. With a forced smile they returned to the seat, trying to remain calm but unable to keep themselves from shooting him the occasional nervous glance.

Claire's breathing quickened just a smidge when they read the phrase "Advanced Phys Ed" on their timetable. Claire...wasn't athletic. At all. They could fake strength, specifically, to a certain degree, but would that be enough? What if they needed to do a bunch of sprinting or climb a rope or the PE teacher had some kind of special psychic-cancelling power to stop the exact sort of cheating they needed to do? They really wished they could see what Psi Studies was all about, but asking to change to that would be way too suspicious. Maybe they could ask Adrien later?

When Miss Diamond announced they were going to change into PE clothes, Claire sprinted from the room as quickly as they could manage, only lowering their mental barriers to focus on flying once they'd lost sight of William completely.

[Thokk_Smash]

"So if I draw the circles intertwining...no, but that leaves hardly enough room for the runes...oh, but what if..."

Marcus spends the time before class scribbling in a notebook. Anyone overhearing versed in magic can tell that he's trying to come up with a spell circle, though the reason is a bit esoteric--preventing magic from interacting with technology? Why would someone need to do that?

He hurriedly finishes up when the teacher comes in, and greets his new deskmate with a customarily socially-awkward smile-slash-head nod. He reviews his timetable with interest and ponders. When asked for questions, Marcus raises his hand. "Is there a cutoff date for when we can request transfers to other classes?" he asks.

The call to switch to PE clothes brings a bit of surprise for Marcus, and he hurries to the dorms with the others. Well, he's not going to be very mobile, seeing as he probably won't be allowed to wear his duster. Hopefully they'll at least let him keep his staff, otherwise his options in PE will be very mildly above-average.

Still, he brings his duster just in case, along with his brown staff and the Blackstaff slung across his back on their straps. Once back at the form room, he idly checks his staffs for signs of wear and tear until Miss Diamond calls them back.

[Dodgeson]

"That's a good question." Miss Diamond responded to Marcus' question with a bright smile "You know I'm not sure, I'll check with the administration and get back to you, most people get their schedule settled in the first couple of weeks though. You don't want to be coming in behind everyone else after all do you?"

---

"Good to see everybody's so eager. Let's get going!" She might have said that to the whole class, but she was certainly looking in Kelly's direction before she led them out of their storeroom form room and across the way to the adjacent sports hall. Inside the hall was largely featureless bar the large glass windows that let in the light and the markings on the floor that delineated the playing space for a variety of different sports, in the middle of the room foam balls had been laid out in three neatly spaced lines.

"Now I'm sure you all know how to play dodgeball but this is Avalon so we've got a couple of ground rules, first this is going to be three on three and if everybody moves one space after every game everyone'll get to play everyone. Next, I know some of you are going to be a little disappointed but if you could put any um...unusual equipment over to one side for safe keeping before we start."

There was some grumbling from Eckehard as he moved to the wall and removed the harness he was wearing over his gym uniform, letting of a distinct whiff of ozone.

"And last of all, I know you're going to want to use them, but using your powers on members of the other team or damaging the ball will be a game loss. Now that that's all out of the way lets play ball! Anthony, Adrien and Claire you're team 1, Liam, Samantha and Tansy you're team 2, Colin, Kelly and Marcus you're team 3, Sheree, Wolfgang and Gwen you're team 4, Helena, William and Isaac you're team 5, you three'll have to wait for the games to move before you can start unfortunately."

As she read out the teams a boy in a long sleeved shirt and gloves sheepishly moved to the side and just hoped that nobody was going to notice him.

Spoiler: OOC

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Now some actually rules! With thanks to QD for the help cobbling this together. Throwing the ball is a standard action to make a ranged attack like normal or you can ready an action to try and catch the ball, you make an attack roll, if you beat the attack roll of the guy throwing the ball at you it's yours. If you miss the ball ends up on the other side.

Everything else goes like regular combat.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly zipped over to drop her whips off with the gear, and then back to join her team with a bright smile, holding out her hands to offer a double high five. They had half the L-DEFeaters (hrm...that would have worked a lot better if it weren't for the obvious Harry Potter reference. Flipping Voldemort ruins everything!) for their team, which was aces with her.

Plus, it's like, dodgeball. She was pretty confident.

Kelly settled into a ready stance, rainbow light shining around her as she faced the other team.

Spoiler

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Initiative: (1d20+15)[35]. Speedster, yo!

How many balls are there? And how many on our side of the field? Oh, and what's the action to equip a ball?

[zzzzzzzz414]

Oh! Dodge ball! They were...pretty sure they had heard of that! And they didn't really need to fake super-strength or anything like that, you just, throw the ball to hit someone, and don't get hit when you got a ball thrown at you, and they were pretty sure that was it? This could be fun!

Claire grinned broadly when they heard they had been put with Anthony and Adrien, and skipped over to join them at the assigned spot. "Um, hello! Let's do this!!"

Spoiler: OOC

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Initiative: (1d20)[6]

[Dorni]

Oh. Dodgeball. Ok. He could do that.

He walked over to join his team. Claire already seemed so excited. What was an appropriate response? "Yeah! Lets win this!"

Spoiler

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Initiative: (1d20)[6]

[OutOfThyme]

Colin tensed slightly as Miss Diamond instructed them to put their gear against the wall - Kelly had left her whips to the side, and one of the other kids had some kind of harness, of all things, but Colin wasn't sure if he was allowed to use Fragarach here.

Still, he did have the magic from the sword's bond that he could use. It could help him get out of the way, but given Sheree's request to switch into Intro to Magic, Colin decided to direct that magic into his eyes - keeping Marcus' staff out of his peripheral vision as much as possible.

Colin returned Kelly's high five, and spoke in a low voice when she and Marcus were close enough to hear. "I'm not going to be able to do much without my sword, but I can keep an eye out for any kind of illusions. Or magic in general, I guess."

As they made their way to their places on the court, Colin settled in a stance, ready to run to the right. His left arm glowed with silver runes, and his eyes took on a shimmer of silver light. He wouldn't be able to get to the balls faster than Kelly, and but he could at least respond to any tricks the their opponents would throw their way.

Spoiler

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Going to set Airgetlam to Sense Magic

Initiative: (1d20+8)[25]