Avalon Academy IC

[Dodgeson]

It was an unusually quiet day at Britain's premier school for metahumans with none of the usual hustle, bustle and explosions one would expect from an establishment with a high concentration of superpowered youth. This wasn't to be unexpected however as it was the day before the start of a new term and so most of the school was empty save for a skeleton support staff and those students who for one reason or another had no home to go to.

Of course whilst the main portion of the campus was quite just a stones throw away on one of the academy's well tended athletic fields a crowd of new potential students all buzzed with excitement. Whilst most of them were wearing street clothes (and a few were even presumptuous enough to already be wearing the schools uniform), there were enough costumes of varying quality amongst the crowd to convince those who might be having second thoughts that they were in the right place. To say nothing of the occasional set gossamer wings, technicolour skin tone or burning hair.

In front of the crowd a small wooden stage had been erected but as of yet there had been no sign of anyone trying to approach it. Some way in the distance the academy's chapel bell tolled a quarter past the hour (a sharp eye would spot several members of the crowd flinch at the sound), the letter you'd all received had said to be here by noon, surely someone would show up soon right...?

((The festivities will start shortly, so what are you doing?))

[Quellian-dyrae]

WHOOSH!

A streamer of rainbow-colored light went zipping through the athletics field. It raced up towards the stage and kinda zipped around it, shot off about halfway for the main campus before briefly stuttering and immediately reversing direction, made two or three (dozen? At the speed it was going it was hard to say for sure) passes around the rough perimeter of the crowd, before plunging into it in a chaotic zig-zagging path, never actually hitting anyone but slipping through spaces between individuals and groups, and finally coming to a halt nearish the center-front portion. The rainbow light faded gradually as it moved, but even so, it went fast enough that for a portion of a second, the entire path it had taken was more-or-less clearly visible.

Once it had slowed down (or to anyone with fast enough vision to make out the movement, either way) the source of the light was revealed as a slim, five-foot-and-change girl whose big brown eyes were wide with energetic excitement and looking around at the crowd with a level of eager randomness that seemed more-or-less identical to that which had guided her trail of movement. Her shoulder-length hair, normally pale blond, was at the moment dyed in red, white, and blue. It was meant to be a sign of respect for the country of the school...but since the U.S. flag used the same colors and my understanding is that the U.S. is, if not uniquely flag-happy, then at least a fair bit more-so than the average country, it probably just made her come off as even more obviously American but whatever it's the thought that counts!

While Kelly did have a costume, she wasn't currently wearing it, for a couple reasons. First, because it was kinda associated with her (limited) past crime-fighting along with her family so it wasn't really what she wanted to be wearing for her first impression. Second, while she had not gone to St. Ambrose herself, her siblings all had so she knew enough about how it worked to know that the general assumption was that students would design their costumes during the school year (there was a class for it and everything) and she wasn't sure if Avalon Academy followed the same protocol. Seeing some of the other kids in the crowd wearing costumes answered that, but whatever. Instead, she was wearing a loose pair of jeans that had several precise cuts in them (partly for fashion, partly to improve mobility) and an Adrien Zhay T-shirt (she didn't have any idea he would be attending, she just knew he was from here and she was a fan of his music, so it was just a horrible and/or hilarious coincidence).

"Hi!" she said brightly, with a cheery little wave of her hand, to whichever potential student she had ended up both near and facing (unless they were already talking with someone, she wouldn't interrupt a conversation, that would be rude). "I'm Kelly," she introduced herself.

[Llyarden]

Adrien was in an unusual situation - he wasn't standing out.

Granted, this was at least partially because he was (somewhat reluctantly) restraining himself from any particularly flashy displays of his powers - at least until he'd learned whatever ground rules there might have been about using powers on school grounds - but not having the most unusual appearance in the crowd probably helped. Indeed, compared to the costumes - so cool! - and inhuman physiologies - also so cool! - on display, his spiky blue hair looked positively tame. In fact, he'd so far gotten more attention for the guitar case slung over his back than his appearance.

Whatever the reason, though, the whole 'mob of people wanting autographs/selfies/etc' thing that tended to happen around him, especially in a group of teens his own age, just kinda...hadn't happened. It was a surprisingly refreshing experience.

Needless to say, he hadn't gone completely unnoticed, and there were definitely a few more copies of his signature floating around the fields than there had been when he'd arrived. But as a whole, the newly-arrived students seemed unaware of his presence, and for now Adrien was keeping a low profile, looking around at the assembled soon-to-be-students with an awestruck expression.

So cool!

Of course, all it would take to change that was someone to point him out loudly enough...

[Dorni]

Anthony was one of those students presumptuous enough to wear the school uniform. Although in his case, it wasn't so much presumption. He'd been dropped off at the academy little more than a week ago and told it was going to be his new home. Gagmagog had explained Anthony's... situation with the headmaster, who had also made clear Anthony wasn't to leave the school grounds alone before the year started. And while the school's staff had been very helpful over the past week, with the start of the school year fast approaching they didn't have time to take him on a shopping trip. That suited Anthony just fine, but it meant that his wardrobe consisted mainly of his school-issued uniforms. The rest was mainly gifts and stuff he'd taken from the lost-and-found, and the uniform seemed the more appropriate choice for orientation anyway. It didn't look bad on him either - at not-quite-6ft with plenty of sculpted muscle and a strong jawline, he looked good in uniform. If only none of the staff had thought joking about him having great genes was clever.

Living on campus had also given him an excellent reason to be early to the orientation. He'd wandered around a bit and right now found himself nearish the front of the stage without having been absorbed by any of the forming student groups. So it was to his surprise when a bright rainbow came streaking around the field and through the crowd before abruptly stopping in front of him and revealing itself to be a bright rainbow of a girl.

"Um. Hi. I'm Anthony," He introduced himself after only a beat. Ok, beat-and-a-half. "I don't suppose you have any idea what's going on?" he asked, nodding toward the stage.

[OutOfThyme]

Colin had spent quite a bit of time at the academy fields by the time that a certain rainbow streak had sped through the crowd gathered there. He'd dropped off his stuff at the dormitory a little earlier (mostly because his grandfather had explicitly forbidden him from wearing his costume) and was here mostly to socialize with the other students.

Colin couldn't help himself, really. He'd spent a little over a year training under his grandfather, without too much in the way of interacting with other teenagers with superpowers. This was exciting for him. Instead of seeing superheroes on television or online, or looking through his grandfather's old case files, he was actually talking to people who were here for the same reasons he was.

He was glad that he'd decided to stick to dressing in the school's uniform for the entrance ceremony (although he kept the tie a little loose) instead of sticking to his costume. It would have been flashy and he'd probably have given a stronger first impression instead of being an Irish teen in the Avalon Academy uniform.

As he made his way through the crowd, trying to get closer to the front - as the bell had just rang - he caught the eye of someone with a guitar case and blue hair.

Eh, he seems normal enough. Maybe some kind of music power? That'd be pretty cool.

As he was about to make his way over to strike up some small talk, he was interrupted by a prismatic blur moving through the crowd - some kind of speedster, most likely. Taking a brief moment to ensure that he wouldn't bump into the speedster making their way back into the crowd.

"Hey," Colin said, as he moved beside the blue-haired musician(?) "You've probably heard this a billion times by now, but do you use the guitar with your powers?"

[zzzzzzzz414]

"Claire" looked down at the letter in their hands for the fifth time in two minutes. This...was the right place, wasn't it? I mean, it certainly looked like the place, and they'd double and triple-checked the time, address and location, but maybe they'd somehow gotten something confused, or there'd been a typo on theirs, or this was a different event entirely or something? Maybe they should go to the front, see if there was a staff member near the stage or something who could explain what was happening.

They gently and slowly began to work their way through towards the front of the crowd, mumbling a steady stream of "excuse me"s and "sorry"s and "oh hello"s as they went. They tugged nervously on the collar of their hoodie, sweat beading on their forehead. They could feel their heart pounding as though it were about to burst out of their chest, and every muscle in their body was tensed as a maelstrom of emotions swirled around in their head.

On the one hand, this was incredible! So many new people to maybe meet, so many different powers, so many different things happening and about to happen everywhere they looked! That one girl's hair was made of fire! Amazing! How did that even work!? Claire's mind was absolutely brimming with burning questions, and the more they looked the more of them built up, the more they absolutely needed to find out.

On the other hand, every new hero and power they saw only hammered it home that much further that they totally, definitely, absolutely did not belong here. Their hands had started shaking the moment they saw the gates, and they hadn't stopped since. There was an underlying dread that threatened to rise up like bile, screaming at them to run, to hide, that that one boy with the third eye who looked at them funny was probably a psychic who knew everything and was mentally contacting the school authorities, and they really didn't want to check in case he had some sort of mind-reading detection ability. Half of Claire wanted to run up and start a conversation with everyone here, and the other half wanted to go find a bench to lie down under for a few hours, so they'd sort of averaged out into a general ball of nerves sitting in their chest, feeling like it was going to explode any moment.

They felt hyper-aware of everything about themselves as they worked their way towards the stage. Did their hair look weird? Were they walking correctly? What should their hands be doing? Were the purple-rimmed glasses too ostentatious-looking? Should they have a costume, the letter hadn't said they needed one but a lot of people seemed to have really cool ones? Was their outfit normal? They'd picked what they hoped were unobtrusive-looking street clothes: a brown hoodie with a design on the front composed of six hexagons (each a different color, with a different terrain pattern on them) over a plain white tanktop, and a knee-length jean skirt. But now that they were here the hoodie was sort of hot and uncomfortable in this weather and nobody else seemed to be wearing one and they probably looked stupid and were drawing attention to themselves, maybe they could find their luggage and a bathroom and change? But then they might miss the event, which would be even worse; maybe if they flew they'd be fast enough? Could they do that? Nobody else seemed to be flying, but there hadn't been a rule against it or anything mentioned, but what if it was like a general taboo, or maybe flight was actually a really rare power in real life and they'd draw a bunch of attention and suspicion, maybe they could ask someone if OOF

Claire had been so wrapped up in their reverie that they had completely failed to notice the boy who'd suddenly moved in front of them, and had walked directly into his back, knocking their glasses to the ground. They quickly knelt to the ground and began to feel around for their lost eyewear in the grass, looking up at the blurry figure above them as they did so.

"O-oh, I'm sososorry, wasn't, um, paying attention, I didn't mean to-"

krnch

Claire looked back down at the fuzzy, but still all-too-identifiable purple-rimmed object crushed under their sneaker.

"Oh jeez."

[Thokk_Smash]

Okay, this is fine, this is okay, just keep it cool, focus on the Shieldus spell, you can get through thi--

~"Yowza, did you see the legs on Lady Rainbow over there? God bless America!"~

Marcus grinds his teeth so hard his jaw hurts at the intrusive thought that was most certainly not his own. ~"Barty, I swear on Merlin's stupid beard, I will lock you in with the memory of massaging my grandma's feet again if you don't shut up,"~ he thinks, not says, to the other voice in his head.

The voice in his head (no, for reals, he's not insane; well, at least not from that) replies in a sing-song tone, ~"If you could do that, you'd've already done it, Boss. Gotta focus on that mental shield spell you made, or else everyone's cell phone goes kablooie, right?"~

Deep breaths, in through the nose, out through the mouth. Instead of rising to the bait, Marcus just tunes out Barty, the spirit of intellect inside his own mind, as the lecherous spirit continues to comment on pretty much every female in eyeshot. Marcus supposes it's a better white noise than the otherwise-constant whispers of the Blackstaff, which is fastened securely in its specially-made holster attached to his belt. Catcalls that no one but him can hear are better than being told over and over how the world is a terrible place, how Marcus could have the power to change it if he only gave himself up to the Blackstaff--

And Marcus throws up his mental walls with ease of practice, tuning out both Barty and the Blackstaff at the cost of being able to notice pretty much anything. It isn't exactly hard for him to move through the crowds: at six feet, odd inches, simply moving forward is usually enough to get past someone. Except for the two staves of wood he carries--one pitch black, at his belt, and the other a rich brown in his hand--he's fairly nondescript: black hair, blue eyes, with an AC/DC t-shirt and jeans on his lanky form. Well, he supposes that the leather duster on top of all of that is kinda notable. Someone's gotta have style around here, after all.

Keeping up the mental shield and bulling through the mental noise of Barty had been, at least, distracting him from his own nerves. He doesn't exactly like being among such a large crowd of people. What if someone recognizes the Blackstaff, and makes a scene? Ah, he wishes Gabriel were here, but his friend-slash-housemate had disappeared to find his girlfriend. Lucky sunova.

The crunching of glass breaks him out of his reverie, and he quickly looks around. Okay, so he wasn't the one that had broken something this time--good, that's good. To his left, he sees a girl kneeling on the ground, regarding what looks like a broken pair of glasses. Ah, man, that sucks. Acting on autopilot as he had been, Marcus finds himself beside the girl and the boy she had bumped into before he can stop himself.

Focusing for a moment to gather the power within his mental shield spell, he nudges the broken glasses with the butt of his brown stave and whispers, "Reparum." Assuming the glasses weren't shattered to small pieces, his minor cantrip should be able to mend them enough to still be used.

He waits for a moment, checking to see if the glasses had been repaired sufficiently. Then, with a vague noise in the back of his throat, he makes a motion as if to continue walking past.

Spoiler

Show

Zees or Thyme, feel free to stop Marcus from heading off. He's not much of a socializer by choice, is all ^_^;

[Llyarden]

"A few times," Adrien admitted, with an amused grin, turning to face the brown-haired boy that had asked the question. "But nah, it's basically just a hobby." Before he could say anything else they were joined - for a given definition of the word - by a girl in a hoodie. It took him a moment to figure out what she was doing as she patted around the ground. "Oh, they're by your -"

krnch

A moment was, unfortunately, at least half a moment too long.

"...foot."

Then they were joined by another boy, who promptly repaired the glasses with magic. "Cool!" he murmured, somewhat unconsciously. He knew magic existed, of course, and he'd seen it performed occasionally when he'd been doing errands for Cobalt, but this was the first time he'd seen anyone use magic close-up. Though if he was honest he'd...kind of expected more sparkly stars and special effects.

He returned his attention to the girl in the hoodie, crouching down slightly (mostly to make sure she didn't tread on her own glasses again.) "You okay?"

[OutOfThyme]

"That's cool," Colin noted, before Adrien turned around. Colin hadn't noticed the girl who'd just bumped into the apparent hobby-musician until just before the fateful crunch of glass-under-foot. Colin awkwardly stood there for a moment, when a towering student (wearing a duster, of all things) fixed the glasses with a quick magic spell.

Colin was very tempted to turn on his magical senses - the part of him that used Fragarach's powers naturally was curious about this person's magical powers. Were they powers inherent to him, or did they have a source, like Colin did with Fragarach? Were they limited to repairing things, or could he do mo-

Focus. You can figure all that out later. For all you know, he's in your class.

"Hey, thanks for that," Colin nodded to the towering magician, as the latter was about to leave. Mr. Blue Dye (Colin didn't know his name, and he wasn't sure if the hair was natural) had started talking to the girl in the hoodie.

"You didn't drop anything else, did you?" Colin asked the girl as he made a quick scan of the grass around their feet.

[zzzzzzzz414]

"O-oh!" Claire gingerly moved their foot off the suddenly repaired glasses and put them back on, using just a tiny bit of telekinetic power to make sure they stayed on this time. They smiled at the (vaguely familiar-looking?) blue-haired boy they suddenly found before them.

"Uhm, I'm fine, I think. Thanks! Sorry about that, haha." They stood up, brushing off their skirt and looking over to the brown-haired boy who'd just spoken. "And I think that was all I dropped, thanks!" They looked back to the blue-haired boy, noticing the guitar case slung over his back. "Oh, are you a musician? That's so cool! Do you use music with your pow-hey, wait!"

Out of the corner of their eye, they noticed the tall boy (wow, they really needed to ask some names) who'd fixed their glasses preparing to step back into the crowd and turned to face them. "Uh, wait, don't go! Hi! Thank you soso much, that was amazing, how did you do that?" They continued on breathlessly, not even waiting for a response. "Like, was that actual magic, or just a power that looks like magic, or what? How does it work? Is it a magical light construct thing, or some sort of time-rewinding, or does it just sort of reshape and reform whatever's there? How does it know what the thing looked like before, or do you need to already know that for it to work, and is there a limit on the size? Oh, does it work on people? What else can you do with it? Oh uhm wow I'm talking too much I'm sorry I do that and I think it makes people uncomfortable but it's so hard to not, uh, "geek out" over all this stuff you know? Uh my name is Claire by the way, what's yours? Sorry."

They start to offer a fist bump, then quickly change it to a handshake, change it back to a fist bump, and finally settle on a small, awkward wave.

[Thokk_Smash]

The thanks from the boy in the school uniform prompted a wave-salute of Marcus' free hand, but doesn't slow his attempted retreat. The exuberant string of words from the girl, however, freeze him in his tracks quite visibly. Sheer confusion is written all over his face as he regards the girl who seems likely to run out of breath before she runs out of words. Marcus' face being an open book, one can actually easily see that his confusion is at being asked to stay rather than the fast pace of her talking. Someone wanting Marcus to stick around, purely for his company, who isn't Gabriel or Gabe's father? Inconceivable.

"Um." Ah, yes, Marcus. So witty you are. He holds out a hand for her to slow down (which, coincidentally, may be construed by someone unfamiliar with social niceties as offering a high-five, apropos of nothing). "It was nothing, really." Yeah, that was even better, make yourself sound like a pompous arse. "I-I mean, you're welcome. It was just a little bit of Thaumaturgy, didn't even need a circle for it or anything. The glasses knew what they looked like before, and it had hardly been any time at all for that memory to fade. Like-to-like, and all that, I just gave a bit of energy and will and snap, it goes back to how it used to be. If the glass had been ground to dust or scattered too far, I probably wouldn't have been able to do it so easily, and no way could I have done it with something much bigger than those glasses. The size limitation kinda precludes using it on people, and messing around with others' bodies like that kinda nauseates me anyway."

Marcus realizes he's giving the girl a run for her money in the talking-too-much scene, so he shuts his mouth with an audible click of his teeth. Faint pink graces his cheeks as Barty's laughter echoes in his head. "Er, the name's Marcus," he finishes lamely, mirroring her wave. He nods in acknowledgement to the blue-haired boy and the boy who had thanked him earlier. "Uh, just fair warning, if you guys have cell phones, you may wanna turn 'em off while I'm around. Technology and me don't tend to get along, and if I lose focus on reigning in my energy then bad things happen to complex electronics."

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Nice to meet you, Anthony!" Kelly replied, before following the direction of his nod. "Mmmmmmmmm...no specific idea! I mean, I imagine they're probably going to be making an announcement or something? Maybe, like, assigning us dorms or something? Ooh, or maybe assigning us teams! That would be fun!" According to her siblings, that was more-or-less how it worked at St. Ambrose. Except they didn't have a stage for it, they just had upper-grade students do it.

...Also something about handing out literature to raccoons? That didn't sound right. Maybe her siblings' descriptions of St. Ambrose shouldn't be used to guide her assumptions...

"Oh! But there's supposed to be some like...test, right? Or entrance exam thingy? Maybe they'll be announcing how that works," she further speculated. She wasn't particularly concerned about the lack of, well, anyone around the stage. She knew as well as anyone just how quickly someone with the right powers could reach a designated location, and honestly she'd probably be a little disappointed if the Avalon Academy staff didn't take the opportunity to make a flashy entrance.

"Soooo...what's your superpower?" She asked curiously, although only a bare instant later she added, "Wait! Let me guess!" with a bubbly breath of laughter. The dancing cheer briefly left her features as she studied the tall boy before her with a squinty, serious expression.

He was big and built, sure, but judging a book by its cover where superpowers were concerned was silly. However, he was wearing the school uniform already. Far as she figured, that could mean one of two things: he was extremely confident that he would get in, or he knew he was going to get in. The first one didn't offer much evidence other than perhaps being indicative of a particularly strong power, so she went with the second one. Obviously, some sort of foresight was the logical conclusion, but she didn't want to just go with plain old precognition because that was too easy. "Personal Destiny Manipulation!" she decided with a big grin and a confident nod.

(Kelly does not have the Sherlock Scan Benefit, oh no she does not.)

[Llyarden]

Adrien tried not to grin at Claire and Marcus as they jabbered at each other in turn. He tried. Whether he succeeded was...debatable. (Most of the actual content of their conversation went totally over his head.)

"I keep mine off most of the time, but thanks for the warning," he said to Marcus. "Long as you don't blow up guitars as well, we're good. Though, uh..." He paused for a moment as he considered something. "Isn't that going to make it hard for you to keep in contact with people when you go doing hero stuff, if you blow up everyone's phones?" The tone of his voice made it sound like this was more of a minor inconvenience than a potential tactical liability.

"Oh, I'm Adrien, by the way," he added, holding out a hand to...well, any of the other three who felt like shaking hands instead of waving. (And yes, actually introducing himself was kinda an alien concept.) "Nice to meet you guys."

[OutOfThyme]

Unlike Adrien, Colin couldn't help but grin at Claire and Marcus. He was a little glad that there were people who were just as curious about powers as he was. Well, at least Claire was - Colin wasn't sure if Marcus or Adrien were like this. Marcus' comment about messing with technology was interesting, because Colin never had any such problems with Fragarach.

Maybe it had something to do with Tuatha magic. Who even knew how these things worked?

"I'm Colin. Nice to meet you all," Colin said, shaking Adrien's hand. Colin glanced at the stage for a moment, hoping that something - anything, really - had happened by now. It was kind of weird, though, since this event was supposed to start at noon.

[zzzzzzzz414]

Claire briefly put their hand up in preparation to return the high-five before realizing that that wasn't what it was at all, and sheepishly putting it back down. They hung on to Marcus's every word though, eyes gleaming, occasionally nodding or interjecting a little "Oh!" So, some magic did require circles? What kinds? What did the circles look like, how did you make them, is there a pattern or like a language or something? How long did it take for an object's "memory" to fade? Was he making them alive, sorta? Ok he couldn't use it on people, but would it work with something small and alive, like a hermit crab or a bug or something? Would it even remember being crushed?

Claire nearly unloaded another flurry of questions on Marcus, but he was already looking sort of confused and awkward, which was (in their admittedly limited experience) usually a good sign to let up a little for now. Weirdly enough, he seemed more confused about being asked to stay than anything else. Had that...not been the correct thing? Like, was that not usually something people asked of strangers? Still, he didn't seem to be leaving, at least.

"Oh, right, I'llll do that then!" they piped when Marcus mentioned the electronics thing, pulling out their lavender-cased phone. The battery was near-dead, anyway, they'd probably not have been using it much.

"It's good to meet you too!" they said as Colin and Adrien introduced themselves. "Uhhh, so, what are you guys' powers?" They turned to Adrien. "I didn't mean to be rude before, sorry, so you play guitar? Are your powers music-based? Or like, sonic or vibration based or something?"

[Dorni]

"Hahaha!" Anthony couldn't help it, the girl's smile was infectious. "Yep, I can change Destiny. But only for myself," he added conspiratorially. I hope.

"I'm also really strong. They tell me I'm nearly Indestructible." From most teenage boys it would have been a boast, but Anthony and his perfect white smile made it a statement of fact.

The girl's powers on the other hand on the other hand were quite obvious. An american with super speed and a rainbow light show. Something sounded familiar about that, but he couldn't quite place it. "I don't recall hearing about an entrance exam, but I suppose they might have a test lined up. Or maybe them being late is a character test? See how we react to no one showing up?"

Then it clicked. Super speed, rainbow lights, female, teenage, big brown eyes, dimples. The list of traits came to mind just like they'd been written in an online hero profile, complete with a mental image attached. He never met the girl before; the knowledge and image had to be one more thing his maker had shoved into his head.

"...You said your name was Kelly. Albion?"

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Cool!" Kelly said as he 'confirmed' her guess, and went on to explain his 'other' powers. "So like, powerhouse, right?" she asked, although evidently rhetorically, as she didn't wait for an answer. "My big brother has that type of power. Hey! That would probably mean we'd actually make a pretty good team, right? 'Cause, like, super-speed and super-strength. Cover our bases, and stuff!"

"Yeah I don't know exactly, but the letter I got didn't actually say like 'Congratulations! You Are Accepted!' or anything like that. It just said to be here at noon, so I figure there might be some sort of test or something. Or I dunno, maybe they just want to announce it in person because it's more dramatic that way?"

It only lasted for the briefest of instants - it might not have even been noticeable if it were not for the fact that Kelly's face was very expressive - but when Anthony took his guess at her last name there was a flicker of...hesitance. Not quite concern, even, just a flash of uncertainty that came with a brief play of rainbow light over her skin, an almost mother-of-pearl-like glow as her super-speed allowed her to put several minutes of thought into her answer to that question in an instant.

And then it was gone and she was as cheerily exuberant as ever. "That's me!" she said, and there was pride in her voice. The last thing Kelly wanted was to live in her family's shadow, but that didn't mean she at all resented her connection to them. Quite the opposite. More than anything, she wanted to live up to their reputation. She didn't mind being recognized as an Albion...what concerned her was being recognized as the newbie baby sister of the Albion family. That wasn't the first impression she wanted to make.

[Llyarden]

"It's fine," Adrien smiled at Claire. "I play, but the guitar's not anything to do with my powers. I just didn't want to leave it with the rest of my stuff." He had, once before, left a guitar out in the open while he went to get a cup of tea. When next he saw it it was being sold on eBay for a thousand dollars.

"As for my powers...uh, technically I think I'm a psychic? But I don't really do the typical 'psychic' stuff like reading minds or whatever. Am I the only one that thinks that's super creepy? Uh, anyway, my powers are more..."

Anyone paying particularly close attention to him would notice his eyes (he wasn't wearing his normal sunglasses) shimmer with light, and from behind him (even though it hadn't been there at all a second ago) stepped...a cartoony, anthropomorphic tiger, about four-and-a-half feet tall. Which was wearing a bright red hotel porter's outfit. Because that made sense.

The tiger waved a paw and made a growly sound that sounded vaguely like a 'Hello!' (Or possibly 'Uh-oh!'. It was kinda hard to tell.)

"...playful," Adrien concluded.

[OutOfThyme]

"Huh. That's actually kinda cool. I wish I could do something like that," Colin said, looking at the porter-tiger-thing.

It's a bit unorthodox, but I can see why a power like that would be useful.

"As far as my powers go, I'm actually Empowered. I've got a magical sword." Colin motioned for the others to give him a little bit of space (at least, as much as could be reasonably expected in this crowd), and extended his right hand. Fragarach snapped into view, blade pointing down towards the grass.

"I've picked up some magic from using it, but it's definitely more limited than anything Marcus can do." Colin let go of Fragarach, and it snapped back to its native extradimensional space. "What about you, Claire?"

[Dorni]

"Yeah, your speed and my strength should make a pretty solid combination. Why don't we stick together?" As a bonus, the girl - Kelly - he told himself, probably had plenty of practice fighting alongside someone with similar powers to his own. He probably didn't need to worry about her being in the wrong place and accidentally crushing her, and she probably knew a few good combo moves too. Anthony knew that being in this academy meant he'd have to fight at some point. While his makers had imprinted plenty of fighting knowledge into him, even that knowledge told him it wasn't the same as actual experience.

But, he reflected, more important than any of that was that Kelly already seemed like she'd be fun to be around. Her cheer really was infectious.

"I don't know about that. Aren't other academies starting too? I think it would suck to get a letter and show up to this school just to be told on the first day you didn't actually make it in. Wouldn't those kids need to scramble to find another school? Even then they'd be starting a few days late."

Anthony paused when Kelly broke out into rainbows. Being an Albion seemed like a sore spot for her. Come to think of it, the Albions were supposed to be active on the US' west coast. There had to be some reason driving her to go to a school thousands of miles away and across an ocean. Maybe she was distant with her family? There might be some family friction. Or maybe she felt trapped? He... he knew what that was like.

The thoughts played out on his face as a sympathetic look, followed by a nod. He wouldn't ask her about a sensitive subject in the middle of this crowd. Later, though.

[zzzzzzzz414]

Claire's smile wavered for a moment when Adrien said "psychic". An ice-cold jolt of panic ran through their system before the rest of Adrien's sentence (sorta) halted it. Still, when he said "didn't", did he mean "couldn't" or just "wouldn't"? There was a very, very crucial distinction.

The sudden appearance of the cute cartoon tiger was sufficient to temporarily distract them from that line of concern, though. "Oh, wow! Incredible! Jeez, is he...really here, a tangible physical thing, or is it just a mental image?" Claire bounced forwards, reaching out to touch it. "I mean forming a telekinetic bubble of force like this in such a shape, with the light and sound too, I don't even know how-"

They cut themselves off. They'd nearly gotten carried away, exposed a bit more than they should have known. Stupid. Needed to calm down, try to swallow the excitement. Claire stepped back, withdrawing her hand. "Uhm, anyway, that's really neat!" Their grin remained as bright as always, but someone paying very close attention might have noticed that it was a tiny bit forced, that their breathing had quickened just a bit. A psychic.

I mean, he said he didn't read minds, right? He just said he found it creepy, even. I mean is there really any reason to doubt, to assume he was lying about his powers? The irony of what they were thinking suddenly struck them. Should they...should they check? No. Adrien was a psychic (of sorts), even if he couldn't read minds he'd surely know better than most if others were reading his. "Claire" quietly focused their power instead, preparing to strike at even the slightest psychic prodding.

They'd been so busy staring at the ground focused on their thoughts for the last few moments that they nearly missed Colin's display. A magic sword! Ooh, and he was empowered! What kind of magic did it do? Where had it gone when it vanished, was he just teleporting it or was it going to some sort of sword dimension or what? Where had he found it? Was the empowerme-

They had been about to unleash a flurry of questions on Colin, but their breath caught in their throat when Colin asked the one they'd been dreading.

Steady now. You knew this was coming. It's fine. Everything's fine!

"Flight, superstrength, increased durability, and some enhanced senses," they recited, closing their eyes and lifting themselves a few inches off the ground for a few seconds as demonstration. "Not much to talk about really, I guess I'm...pretty standard, as far as superheroes go, anyway, haha. Not at all as cool as you guys' stuff, really. You guys are amazing!" They giggled, just the barest hint of nervousness creeping its way in.

"So uhm anyway," they said, changing the subject just a tad too quickly, "do any of you know anything about this...event, that's supposed to happen? The letter I got said be here at noon, but, uh, it's getting to be quite past that now..." They pulled out the folded and crumpled paper from their pocket. "I was actually headed up there," they said, pointing up towards the still-empty wooden stage, "when I bumped into you. I was sort of hoping there'd be like a staff member or something to explain what's happening, but I don't know if there's anyone up there. Do you think something's gone wrong?"

Spoiler: Dice roll+Other stuff

Show

Bluff roll for the description of their powers: (1d20+14)[29]

Also, they're turning on their Immunity (Mental descriptor) power ("Exceptionally Clear Minded")

[Thokk_Smash]

Marcus eyes both Adrien and Colin's obvious (to him) grins with wariness and trepidation. They hadn't seemed like the types to bully others, but looks can be deceiving. He's relieved when the anticipated barbs don't come, but honestly, that just brings with it more confusion. Three whole people who don't mind talking to him? All at the same time? The universe is never this benevolent, or even neutral, toward Marcus. Marcus glances up at the sky--is something gonna come out of the sky and smack into him? It wouldn't be the first time something had fallen and nearly killed him; there was that time with the frozen turkey from the sky...

He shakes himself briefly and realizes Adrien had asked him a question. "If I were a hazard to guitars, I think I'd lock myself in an asylum voluntarily for music's sake," he says with deadpan severity, marred only by the slight twitch of his lips that might be a smirk. "And, I mean, you're not wrong. I figure I can eventually figure out a telepathy spell if and when I need to, although I'd probably have to somehow shield electronics as well? I love my magic, but it doesn't always love me. I'm the only magic-user I've heard of that this happens to, to boot."

He shakes Adrien's offered hand, and watches with open fascination at his display. "Nice," he says under his breath, unintentionally mirroring Adrien's own prior declarations. He opens his mouth to ask more about the boy's powers, when--

~"BOSS!"~

Marcus can barely hold back a flinch at the volume of Barty's voice in his head. ~"Barty, if this is about another girl's assets I will stick my mental foot straight up your--"~

~"How can you think of that at a time like this, boss?"~ Okay, that had far too little sarcasm, which meant that something was definitely going to come out of the sky any second now...

Marcus turns and sees Colin had pulled a sword out of nowhere. Marcus almost asks Barty what the big deal is when a trickle of memory comes in, one of those nights Marcus had spent curled in a ball from the headache of processing even a fraction of Barty's knowledge.

"Fragarach..." Marcus says in a whisper, his voice a mixture of surprise, awe, and slight confusion. I mean, sure, Marcus has Merlin's staff (and right on time, the incessant whispers start to ratchet up from the black hole of evil), but an even more legendary artifact being wielded by another kid his age? "Damn, man, that's awesome."

~"Boss, you gotta make friends with this guy yesterday,"~ Barty chimed in, and Marcus had only heard this level of excitement in the spirit's mental voice when talking about the internet. ~"The last time I saw Fragarach was on the other side of a battlefield a few millennia ago, if I could just get a chance to see it up close..."~

Welp, that's interesting. Marcus files that little tidbit away and proceeds to ignore everything else Barty says afterward. He listens to Claire's explanation of her powers and nods along. He dismisses her slight tics as her being Claire, what with everything else she had done or said in the past few minutes, but gives her a small but genuine smile. "Don't sell yourself short, now. Magic or no, a clean shot to the head'll hurt me just as much as the next guy. There's something to be said for the classics."

Marcus does have to nod in agreement at the others' comments on the time. Just what is Avalon Academy planning? Whatever it is, it'll probably be funny for the staff and a nightmare for the kids. Marcus is an optimist like that.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly nodded, "Sounds good!" she agreed brightly. Yay for making friends!

She wasn't exactly the most perceptive person on the planet, so she was quite thoroughly unaware of Anthony's assessment. (Also? Of the adorable cartoon tiger being shown off not-too-terribly-far away. Seriously, the only reason she hadn't rainbowed over there and probably tried to pet the thing was that she just plum hadn't spotted it. The time would come.) She considered his point though, kinda pursing her lips and tilting her head a bit to the side, one brow inching upwards as her eyes rose up towards the sky a bit. It would have seemed like an almost exaggerated display of "thinking about it", but she wasn't putting on a show or anything. Again, her face and body language was just very expressive. "That would kinda suck," she admitted, with a light shrug and a little breath of laughter.

Of course, it did kinda beg the question of what was going on. And where the teachers were. A dramatic arrival didn't preclude punctuality, after all, and they were already more than fifteen minutes late. Kelly was a speedster; patience wasn't exactly her strongest suit. Even in the midst of conversation, she was starting to jitter a bit, alternately bouncing a little bit on the balls of her feet. "You think we should, like, check what's going on? I could run through the school real quick and see what's up..."

It was probably a good thing she had met Anthony; if she had been just standing around by herself she probably would have just whoosh done it. But at least this way just arbitrarily running off would have been rude, so she actually ran her immediate impulse by another person rather than just converting it into instant action. Bethany would be proud of her. Or, well, pleasantly surprised, at least.

[Llyarden]

"Oh, he's tangible," Adrien explained to Claire. "He's a 'manifestation of unconscious will given form by psionic power,'" he recited. "Whatever that means. But thanks!" The tiger seemed pleased by the compliment as well, because it gave a little bow to Claire.

Adrien watched the suddenly-appearing sword with curiosity, but (unlike Marcus) he didn't know any of the Arthurian lore behind it, and while it was definitely cool, he seemed more interested in Claire's powers. Not because he suspected her of being anything other than what she claimed - just the opposite, in fact.

Although pretty much any metahuman power you could think of existed in the world, and from a logical perspective there was nothing setting any of them above each other...the stereotypical 'paragon' powerset was classic for a reason. The only reason he didn't immediately start quizzing her about how powerful she was was that he had noticed that she seemed to be somewhat nervous around them, and interrogating her probably wouldn't help. (And besides, it wasn't like he wouldn't have the opportunity to see how strong she was once they actually got into the school.)

"Hey, that set of powers sounds amazing to me," he replied to Claire. "And to be honest, my powers are flashy, but not great at actual...power." The tiger, still standing by his legs, looked down at the ground and made a sad little mewing sound. "Sometimes the straightforward powers are the best."

Claire's next comment made him pause. "I guess it is getting on a bit," he remarked, rather pointlessly. "But I'm pretty sure that if something had gone wrong, there'd be a much bigger sign of it than an empty stage. He offered a friendly smile, seemingly unconcerned by the delay.

[Dodgeson]

Whilst the crowd talked amongst themselves there was finally some movement on the stage as a door appeared out of thin air and a dark haired man with a goatee in blue suit casually stepped out of it, tapping two fingers to his throat he opened his mouth and his voice was magically projected across the field.

"If I could have everybody's attention please! I am Merlin, yes that one." He paused for a moment as a murmur of excitement ran through the crowd, he liked to think it was because of him but many of the students were just excited that something was finally happening "Now normally the headmistress would do this part, but she's busy today, and we drew straws at the last staff meeting so here I am. You are here today because you believe that you have what it takes to be a great hero, or your parents paid us a lot of money. Either way I'm here to answer any questions you might have regarding what faces you today, first of all, yes the rumours you have heard are true, yes we have a dungeon, no we don't know how it got there. Still, when life gives you lemons you make lemonade!"

Grinning, he theatrically threw one hand up along with a few choice arcane words and the area around the stage began to shake before it slowly began to sink in to the earth as if somebody had pushed a button on an enormous lift, if his name didn't awe the newbies then this would, where would be the fun in being a mage if you couldn't show it

Once the shaking stopped the ceiling above them sealed up as if nothing had ever happened, leaving the students in a large stone room lit by torches, behind the stage was an enormous wooden door bared with an equally big plank.

"Once I unseal this door it will be your job to venture forth in to the dungeon and bring back an item of your choosing, the deeper you go the more points the item is worth, though I wouldn't recommend straying much further than the fourth floor, things start to get...hungry after that. At the end of the day the 50 highest scoring students will be admitted." He might have enjoyed the sounds of panic running through the crowd just a little bit too much.

"Now then, are there any questions before we begin?"

[Llyarden]

Adrien couldn't help but be amused at Merlin's nonchalance even as he watched wide-eyed as they descended into the ground (so hey at least Merlin had impressed someone). His amusement faded when he learned that this would be the 'entrance exam.' Kind of harsh to bring people here and then not let them in, especially if they've already paid the fees. Though I guess the letter never actually said we'd been accepted.

When Merlin asked for questions, Adrien raised his voice to call over the general noise. "Yeah, I have one."

He clicked his fingers and what appeared to be a trapeze formed of shining yellow energy swooped down from the ceiling. Adrien stepped onto it as it arced past with a practiced ease and let it whisk him back up, so he was floating slightly above the general mass of potential students, to allow Merlin to actually see who he was talking to instead of carrying on a conversation with an anonymous voice in a mob. (I mean okay Merlin was a wizard so chances are he could find out who was talking to him easily enough, but still.)

"What happens if we work in a team to bring back an item?" The possibility of the reverse happening - of potential students backstabbing and ambushing each other to steal items - briefly occurred to him and was swiftly dismissed. This was an academy for future heroes, after all.

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Ooh!" Kelly blurted excitedly when the blue-suited man stepped out of the invisible door. She was still kinda bouncing on the balls of her feet, but now instead of an antsy foot-to-foot bouncing it was an excited both-feet-at-the-same-time bouncing.

And then he started speaking, and a wide-eyed, hugely-yet-somewhat-dumbfoundedly-grinning Kelly grasped Anthony's sleeve with both hands, tiptoeing up closer to his ear and saying in what was more a quiet squeal than a whisper, "He's Merlin!?"

She drew back with a quiet "Sorry," although the word was spoken with self-deprecating amusement rather than awkward embarrassment, and listened quietly and attentively to what Merlin(!!!) was saying for...a solid half a paragraph, before demonstrating that apparently she wasn't too sorry because then she did the exact same thing again only this time it was "We have a dungeon!?"

Then Merlin cast a spell, and the whole area began to sink into the earth.

"Woah!" Kelly did not react on instinct. Kelly was a speedster; instinct was far too slow. Kelly reacted on impulse, racing out of the affected area, although this time rather than trailing along behind her like a banner, the rainbow streamer kinda came out beneath her feet like a sort of road, spilling out under Anthony's feet as well and (unless he pulled away, stepped off, anchored himself, whatever) pulling him along like one of those airport automatic walkways, only if someone had gotten its motor mixed up with one of the airport's jet engines somehow. However, a mere fraction of a second after she cleared the spell's area, Kelly realized it wasn't like a sinkhole or collapse or anything, it was basically an elevator. And zip she (or they) were right back in their prior position. The ground had only gone maybe six inches down in the entire time it took.

It wouldn't likely go easily noticed among the crowd of eager students, but standing right beside her Anthony might have heard a soft, shaky gasp as the ceiling closed up over them. Kelly was very claustrophobic and being sealed in underground briefly set her heart beating like it had rainbows coming out of it. But it was only for a moment; she calmed down quickly once it was obvious that there was still plenty of room to move.

Merlin explained the task before them, and Kelly's grin was back, a slender, impish little smile, amusement dancing in her eyes. "Oh, man..." she said with laughter in her voice. "I wish I had a beer so- Well, I wish I was old enough to drink, so I could have a beer, so I could ask you to hold it for me." The laughter escaped the confines of her voice, bubbling up in a little giggle as she faced the door, rainbow light already dancing lightly over her skin as she awaited the door being unsealed.

She had no questions.

[Dorni]

Anthony tossed Kelly a quick little grin when the teacher appeared in perfect time to Kelly's complaint. The fact that they were finally getting underway also helped.

He kept the grin as Merlin cast his spell and the ground shook and whisked them away on a rainbow. It took him a startled second to realize that A) it wasn't all the students being transported, just him and Kelly and B) that the rainbows were Kelly's, not Merlin's. He took the first step in his instinctive dash, but by the time his first foot hit the ground Kelly had already whisked them back where they'd started, leading to an awkward stumble as he tried to stop the dash he'd just started. He managed to keep his feet but only just.

He shot Kelly a glare in time to catch her wide-eyed gasp as the ceiling closed in. Of course, he thought, expression softening. Her power was speed. She couldn't run freely in a confined space, much less if she was trapped underground. He wasn't sure what to say to comfort her, but before he could try the moment passed and her cheer was back and he found himself returning her grin. If anything, exploring a dungeon sounded like it was going to be fun. He had nothing to fear from traps and monsters. "Heh. It'll be a long time before I can drink." he joked.

In contrast to the showboat on the glowing trapeze, Anthony just raised his hand and his voice. "Question! Do you want us to bring back just anything we find, or are there designated items?"

[OutOfThyme]

Colin tilted his head ever-so-slightly to the right at Claire's explanation about her powers. She seemed a little bit nervous about describing her powers, but Colin couldn't pick up on exactly why. Was there some aspect about her powers that she would prefer to keep secret?

Either way, it wasn't really his place to judge her. She seemed nice enough, so if there was something to hide, Colin was sure she had a good enough reason for it.

What was more interesting, however, was Marcus' gaze at Fragarach. Colin could have sworn Marcus said something, but with the sounds of other students talking around them - some looking at Adrien's tiger and his sword - he couldn't quite figure out what he said. Did he recognize Fragarach on sight, by some chance?

And if so... how?

Colin had questions about that. He'd found Fragarach in a clearing that he'd never been able to return to after that day, despite his and his brother's best efforts, but maybe Marcus could shed some light on it.

Unfortunately, Colin's train of thought was interrupted by the appearance of Merlin(!?), and the start of the entrance exam. Colin was expecting an entrance exam, but being lowered into a dungeon was definitely unexpected. As the ceiling closed up above them, Fragarach snapped back into Colin's hand.

As Adrien lifted himself above the crowd, and he and another - rather tall - student asked their respective questions, Colin lowered Fragarach and gestured for Claire and Marcus to get closer. "I really think the four of us should stick together. Claire - you and I can probably handle any threats up close, while Marcus and Adrien are better at a distance. What do you guys think?"

Spoiler

Show

Since Marcus whispered, and we're in a crowd, I'm just going to have Colin not actually notice that he said anything.

[Dodgeson]

The eyes of the crowd were inevitable drawn to Adrien as he rose in to the air above them. "Is that...?" A girl mumbled, tugging on her friend's sleeve and pointing towards him.

"Adrien Zhay!" A boy in the crowd swooned, and he certainly wasn't the only one.

Ignoring the commotion, he wasn't exactly in Adrien's target demo after all, Merlin simply answered the questions at hand "Then all members of the team will be given points, teamwork is a virtue after all."

Then Anthony's hand went up "There are no designated items, once you hand in your trophy a simple divination will tell us what floor you obtained it from and points will be assigned."

If there were no more questions the wizard would simply wave a nonchalant hand towards the door causing the plank baring the door to slowly float in to the air and the enormous doors to creak open, revealing a wide set of stairs that descended in to the darkness....