Avalon Academy IC

[zzzzzzzz414]

Claire hung on for dear life as they rocketed through some weird tunnels and back towards the surface. They'd never gone this fast before, and while it was amazing, it was also terrifying. But fun! But gut-clenching. But exhilarating! But also they felt like they were going to empty the contents of their stomach onto the stone floor.

"Yes!" they chimed in as Kelly began trying to convince the tie man to let them go back down. "It involves a pixie who is almost certainly in a large amount of trouble, and her friends that we promised to help! And, um, as superheroes I think we have a responsibility to do that!"

Spoiler: OOC

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Aiding Kelly's Persuasion check, if applicable: (1d20+10)[25]

[Dodgeson]

The man behind the desk took Kelly's sword and stowed it in a box behind him whilst the colourful girl made her case (what the heck was a dean?) and her two friends chipped in.

"Three hours remain before the end of the testing period." He replied to Adrien, taking his phone out of his pocket to double check the time "However once an applicant or applicants have deposited their item they are to make their way to the waiting area." He continued, reading off the instruction sheet he had out in front of him. "If I let you bend the rules here then he will found out, he's like clairvoyant or something, and if he finds out then the Headmistress will find out, and I am not getting on her bad side. So if you would please proceed up the stairs in to the waiting area, I believe there will be refreshments."

Spoiler: OOC

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Unfortunately for our heroes this piddly little PL1 desk jockey just so happens to have "Jaded Administrator" Immunity 5 (Interaction Effects)(Limited:Only within a work context)

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly blinked twice. She considered the rationale here. There were three hours to go, and this would probably not take them long. She had already promised not to interfere with the other students. They could have just gone and done this in the first place rather than coming back up here. She considered that hypothetical world and didn't really see how it was meaningfully worse-off than this one.

She could understand where the bureaucrat was coming from. He had been given a simple task, and lacked both the elaboration or imagination to consider alternatives in unexpected contexts. He was doing his job and didn't want to get in trouble for doing it wrong. That was entirely fair.

It didn't make him any less wrong though. And when you took considerations of Authority out of the equation and looked solely at the information provided...he hadn't really given her any actual reason why they couldn't go back into the dungeon.

"You know...my Mom and Dad have some Rules for effective superheroics," Kelly told him. "Rule #27 is that disobeying authority figures is not an intrinsic part of a Hero's job..."

And then with a flicker of a smirk, she turned back to the rest of the group and extended a hand, the rainbow light one more shining over her skin, spreading out along the ground beneath her feet in the rippling beginnings of another Rainbow Road. "...But sometimes it's a necessary one."

Spoiler

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If you guys want to head back down anyway, Kelly is totally down to whoosh us off. Otherwise whatever we can head up to the waiting area and get refreshments, I'm pretty much cool either way.

[Llyarden]

Adrien paused to consider briefly. "Well, our item is here." He proffered the still-blinking eye of L-DEF at the man. "But...well, it's still here. We haven't deposited it yet. That -" he nodded to the cupboard where the key-sword had been deposited "- was just kinda a bonus because...well, like we said, it doesn't sound very secure to have the key to an Eldritch Entity that wants to slaughter everyone it meets just chilling outside the room."

"So, it doesn't sound to me like we'd be bending the rules - or disobeying any authority figures -" he added, with a glance to Kelly "- at all. I mean, if Merlin wanted us to not be able to go back in the dungeons once we left, he could have just said that."

He didn't immediately move to stand with Kelly again, though.

[Dodgeson]

He wanted to sigh but he didn't, it would be unprofessional to do that in front of potential students, casting his gaze between the key and the eye that was still twitching away in Adrien's hand. All he wanted to do was get this shift over with without any complications or ideally without having to leave the desk, but they just had to have questions didn't they?

"You should have asked the member of staff in charge before you went in to the dungeon." He replied after once again checking his sheet, he couldn't get in trouble as long as he followed it to the letter.

"I'm sorry but I'm just following the rules."

[Llyarden]

Adrien had dealt with jobsworth types before. It was a consequence of tending to prioritise the comfort and enjoyment of his audiences over ticking every box and filling out every form that his venues demanded. And while he couldn't very well fall back on the gravitas of fame (and profit) here, there was no reason he couldn't deal with this situation in exactly the same way.

"By that logic we could be arbitrarily penalised for...I don't know, sneezing too many times or something," he pointed out. "No-one asked about that either. But, anyway." Adrien looked away from the eye and back to the administrator. "So, since you're just following the rules, what you're telling us is that it's the official position of the faculty of Avalon Academy - an academy that is supposed to train heroes - that they don't actually want their students, or potential students, to help people when it might possibly be mildly inconvenient for them." There might have been just the faintest uplift in his voice that could have suggested it was a question, but it sounded much more like a statement. There was no malice in his voice, though. It sounded rather more like he was trying to solve a tricky maths problem aloud.

"Who was it that gave you this list of rules, exactly?"

[zzzzzzzz414]

Claire looked back and forth between Kelly, Adrien, and the man behind the desk, biting their lip. On the one hand, they definitely needed to help that poor pixie as soon as possible; on the other hand, breaking the rules here would very definitely get them in trouble with the very people they very definitely most did not want to be in trouble with! After all if Mr. Merlin or Ms. Headmistress started to get suspicious of Claire, things could go quite badly quite quickly. Maybe there was another way...?

Struck with a sudden idea, Claire rushed up in front of the desk, blurting out "Um! Wait! Excuse me! Um, we-we never actually said we were all in the same group!"

They continued on, seemingly figuring out what they were saying as they were saying it. "Um, Mr. Merlin said that a group can work together and bring back one artifact. But, uh, even though we did happen to come up together, we never actually officially told you that we were all in one group. And Kelly is the only one who actually turned in an artifact."

"So, um, if there were people NOT in a group with the person who turned in an artifact," they said, turning to glance at the others for a moment, "then, uh, those people going back down into the dungeon wouldn't ACTUALLY be against the rules. Right?"

[Dorni]

Anthony raised an eyebrow as the exchange escalated. "Um, I'm not exactly sure that's fair. I would think the position of Avalon Academy is that they expect students to follow the rules. Avalon trains Heros. Isn't ignoring any rule you don't like more like how Villains act?"

[OutOfThyme]

"I'm with Anthony," said Colin. "No point in coming here if we can't follow the rules for the exams." He pauses for a second, trying to think up an alternative.

"We could always try to petition Merlin or whoever else is in charge of the dungeon. Maybe we'll be able to go down in a few days or something."

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly kinda deflated a little, the rainbow light fading, when it turned out the group was actually not down to just ignore the bureaucrat and go. There was some momentary surprise at that, but only momentary. On consideration, if it had been say her siblings, while sure she'd have definitely expected Percy to agree with her, Dove and Beth probably would have agreed with Anthony and Colin (on the merits of being leery of making such a decision unilaterally and it being irresponsible, respectively), while Gerard probably would have responded more like Adrien and Claire, trying to game the rules rather than breaking them.

That understanding didn't keep her from making a face at Anthony's point, as if she had just eaten a piece of candy that unexpectedly turned out to be licorice. "Um, no. For two reasons. First, villains can follow the rules and still do great evil, and sometimes following an intrinsically corrupt or even just brokenly designed rule can be the wrong thing to do. Second, nobody is talking about ignoring rules because we don't like them. Rules are meant to serve a purpose, but no system of rules can account for every possibility when you're talking about regulating real-world behavior. It seems unlikely, given that the intended scope of this rule is to direct students upon completion of the exam, that it was devised with the expectation that it might encounter a situation where students had returned and deposited an item but have credible reason to believe someone back in the dungeon is in trouble and be inclined to investigate that."

"So what we have here is a situation where a reasonable authority might be consulted to adjudicate the applicability of the rule and determine whether we have in fact encountered a valid exception. Unfortunately, we don't have a reasonable authority present. Our buddy here is only able to tell us what the rules are, not to actually exercise his own judgment on whether they are applicable in this particular circumstance."

"And as if that didn't muddle the situation enough, we actually don't conclusively know whether this is in fact a rule or an instruction. Is he actually intended to prevent us from returning to the dungeon, or to guide us to where we are supposed to go next? If his instructions were, like, 'Tell the students after they deposit their artifacts they are to go to the waiting area' that could carry either intent, which means he himself may misinterpret what he's actually expected to do. We're here to become heroes. That means people in trouble will be counting on us to make the right decisions. If we ignore a person in trouble because we think there's a rule against helping them, when in fact we're just being given a general instruction, that's a fail."

She looked to the rest of the group. "I wasn't there. I don't know what actually happened with the memory trader and the pixie and such. If you guys don't think there's any actual risk of another person's situation getting meaningfully worse if we don't intervene immediately, then that's fine. If you think this pixie needs help right now, my own judgment is that this instruction is too vague for us to weight it more heavily than that need."

She looked up at the ceiling, "And, um, Professor Merlin if you are like clairvoyant and watching this or something and would like to clarify the issue and/or like...moderate the magic market that has evidently sprung up in your School Training Dungeon that would also work!"

[Thokk_Smash]

"I'm not against some good ole rule breaking as a generality," Marcus begins, leaning on the Blackstaff casually. "But going off of Kelly's assessment, and as one of the two who actually interacted with the memory peddler: I don't think this pixie is in immediate danger. Well, I suppose it's more accurate to say that the worst that the peddler has done is probably already past. Considering the peddler had the memory, she had the pixie captive for a decent amount of time. And as creepy and immoral as she seemed, she didn't seem the type to tarry on a single creature when there was peddling to be done...or other creatures from which to extract memories."

Marcus shrugs, seeming displeased with the conclusion he had drawn himself but presenting it anyway. "Odds are, the pixie's situation won't get worse by us waiting. And with a little time, and maybe a boost from Adrien, I could probably teleport us straight to the market even if it changes its physical location or the dungeon is closed after the test. And hell, if we wait then we can even ask Merlin or a faculty member for advice on what to expect or how we can get the peddler to give us info without having to trade much."

[Llyarden]

Adrien took his gaze off the unfortunate bureaucrat to look over at Anthony. "I agree we should follow the rules where we can," he nodded. "The whole 'doing the wrong thing for the right reasons' thing never seems to work out very well. But I also don't think that blindly obeying a rule that we were never even told about is necessarily the right thing."

He paused, looking back at the eye of L-DEF again for a few moments. "Think of it another way. Imagine that this wasn't Avalon Academy. Imagine it was just some random...I don't know, an office or something, and the goblin market was there. Same rule: once you left, you aren't allowed to go back in - at least not immediately. No particular explanation for why that's the case. We have no confidence that the market will still be there even if we got to go back in a few days later. From what I've heard of goblin markets they very rarely stay still."

"So, I'd like to hope that no-one here would decide that a rule that's completely out of place for the situation takes priority over helping someone." He didn't wait to allow anyone to argue with that assumption. "We're obeying this particular rule because we trust the judgement of the faculty at Avalon Academy, based purely on the Academy's reputation or assurances from people we trust. And if they have an explanation - like, maybe we were all magicked by Merlin so the most dangerous bits of the dungeon were off-limits to us and the spell wore off the minute we left - then that's fine."

"But we do deserve an explanation." He looked back to the bureaucrat. "Which is why I was asking Mr...uh, I'm sorry, I don't know your name," he realised, with a slightly embarrassed look. "Which is why I was trying to find out who wrote the rules," he corrected himself. "Because then we can get an explanation for this rule and make an informed judgement on it. Until then we're just playing guessing games."

[Dorni]

Anthony gave a little grimace. On the one hand, he wasn't entirely sure the pixie the other group had mentioned was really in trouble - Marcus' assertion didn't help that case. On the other, if she was in trouble he understood why Kelly would want to help someone in need. Sure, Anthony wondered if the american's drive to graduate from 'popcorn heroics' might not also be a factor in why she was leaping at this chance and maybe inflating the actual danger in her head, but he could tell the desire came from the right place. He... appreciated seeing that in her.

On the other, other hand, rocking the boat was a bad idea right now. It hadn't even been two weeks since the Worthies had released him from his pod. He could still remember overhearing Pendragon arguing that he be kept in stasis until they were sure who made him and why. Anthony had no idea how long that could take and had been relieved when the suggestion had been voted down for now, but the Merlin and at least some of the Avalon staff knew about Anthony's... condition. Deliberately breaking the rules before he'd even finished his entrance test seemed like something that might make the others reconsider, and Anthony had no desire to be locked up.

"That seems shaky to me, Kelly. It sounds like you're raising an objection to a rule, and because there is no one who wrote that rule around to explain its intent, we can use our judgement to determine if we can ignore the rule. But that creates a situation where the rules only have force when an authority is around. When they're not around anyone can raise an objection and use their own judgement to decide if the rule has an exception. Which kinda seems to undermine the point of there being rules in place in the first place. I think Marcus' has the right idea, especially if the pixie isn't in immediate danger."

"To be fair to the rule, it isn't like its coming out of nowhere. Remember that direction earlier that we only had until the end of the day to complete the test? The rule that students need to wait out here after finishing seems consistent to me. I mean, Avalon is one big nexus, right? I'm not entirely sure that the giant maze we went through is a big cave complex under the school. If Merlin told us he wanted everyone out of... wherever that was by nightfall, maybe he's got a reason for it."

Anthony listened to Adrien finish with more than a little skepticism. The whole idea that the rule must be baseless, that he 'deserved' an explanation, calling the staff-member a no-name, the implication that he was the one to make a judgement and Avalon was in the position of needing to make an explanation... the pop idol's whole attitude reeked of entitlement.

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Not...really? I'm raising an objection to a rule because I find myself in a circumstance where the rule is preventing me from helping a person in peril, and unless a rule has a really really good reason for doing that yeah I'm gonna pretty much straight-up ignore it. If I don't know the reason then maybe I'll get it wrong and that sucks, but I'd rather risk violating a rule that may or may not have a good enough reason to justify leaving someone in danger than risk leaving the person in danger. Basically, the rule 'If someone is in peril, help them you're a superhero!' probably supersedes most other rules in most cases."

"But yeah, that's assuming imminent danger. If the pixie probably isn't in immediate trouble...then I believe snacks were mentioned?"

[Dodgeson]

The bureaucrat watched the applicants talk amongst themselves, hoping that maybe they'd just sort it out amongst themselves, unfortunately they did ask questions, and he was professionally obligated to answer them.

"It's just procedure, it's been like since before I started working here." He explained to Adrien before he turned his attention to Claire "If you're saying that she isn't part of your group, and she can confirm this then I don't have anything here that says that rest of you couldn't go back in to the dungeon. I'm going to be honest with you, this has never come up before."

Up in his office Merlin saw Kelly call out for some help, he would certainly be able to resolve the bureaucratic trouble she seemed to be having, and he started to feel like maybe he should do something, taking a sip of coffee from is "#1 Magus" mug and looking at the unfinished game of solitaire arrayed in front of him on his desk. The moment soon passed.

[zzzzzzzz414]

Claire's expression brightened as the bureaucrat basically gave them permission to go back down. "Oh! Ok! Um, thank you very much Mr, um, Sir! I am very sorry, what is your name?"

After receiving his answer (or professional lack thereof), they turned back to the others, who were still arguing about the issue. "So! Um, it seems like we can just go back down without breaking the rules after all! Um, uh, most of us, that is." They gave Kelly a quick apologetic look. "As for if we should...well, um. I think Marcus was probably right that Ms. Lethe would not really want to bother with keeping a pixie that she had already gotten all of the memories from. But, um. I am not sure if the part about, uhm, her situation not getting any worse is correct."

"Georgie might-" Claire thought for a moment of how easily and casually Ms. Lethe had mentioned her mother's "untimely death" after the fae woman had stolen her secrets. "-she might just be, um, dead. It would be very hard for it to be worse than that. But if she is not, she might have been just abandoned somewhere in that dungeon, or, um, sold to someone else, both of which are situations that might get worse very quickly. And, uh, if getting more memories is something she has to do very regularly, then it seems likely that there are other people that Ms. Lethe has maybe taken, which seems like a position of trouble that is quite immediate. I suppose we do not really know, but, uhm. That is the part that is very troubling to me; we do not KNOW if the situation needs immediate help or not. And um, I do not know if I want to leave and go back to the school for many hours while there is such a situation. Unless, uh, you all think it would be better to maybe get help from Mr. Merlin or the, um. Worthies."

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Only one I went into the dungeon with was Anthony," Kelly said with a nod to the powerhouse. "We met everyone else once we were already down there, so I don't think we're actually the same group. I just played taxi."

Kelly wasn't sure whether Claire or Marcus had a more accurate grasp on the situation, but Claire's concerns did make her think it was at least worth checking out. She wasn't going to do anything that got in the way of that. Unfortunately, she also couldn't really justify breaking the rules (procedures? She'd be honest she still wasn't entirely certain about the practical or ethical weight of this rule, but whatever) just to be personally involved. What mattered was that it was handled, not who handled it.

Spoiler: Insight DC 20. Or, like, Detect Emotion senses or something, I suppose.

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That said, anyone with a decent sense of people would notice a certain stiffness in her voice when she said it. Truth was she was feeling kinda put out to be not allowed to help. It reminded her a bit too much of how she always had to stay home when her parents and siblings were out being heroes, because she was too young and hadn't developed her powers yet and such. She forced the feelings down, because helping people who needed it was what mattered, but that didn't keep her from feeling them.

[Llyarden]

Adrien...kinda frowned a little when the bureaucrat revealed that Claire's loophole would work. Like Claire, even if the pixie wasn't in imminent physical danger, Adrien didn't like the idea of just abandoning Georgie - especially since they'd promised to help. On the other hand, if the price of going back down was distancing themselves from Kelly and Anthony...he wasn't at all worried that the two of them would need the extra 'points' from handing in L-DEF's eye (especially since the key-sword had come from literally the next room over), but the six of them were a team, even if it had been just for a short time. He didn't like leaving people behind.

Then his expression brightened as an idea hit him. "Wait, Marcus, you said if I boosted you you could teleport straight back down there, right? Why can't we do that now? I mean, you said Ms Lethe left her stand just as we were leaving the market, right, Claire? For all we know she might have already left the market, at which point all this discussion is kinda pointless. But if you can teleport straight down there, Marcus - you and Claire, maybe, since you guys were the ones that spoke to her last time - we can find out if she's still there, and if she is talk to her and see if she's willing to trade for information about Georgie. It's not like we all need to be there just to look around."

[Thokk_Smash]

"I said I could probably teleport us there, with a little time," Marcus replies, curling in on himself slightly with traces of defensiveness. "In theory, I can create a resonant link between myself and the energies of the goblin market itself--which, theoretically, should allow me to teleport there even if it becomes disconnected from the school itself. But my magic, well..."

He shrugs, and feels a spike of magic threaten to burst from the mental shield he had put up. "I can't use my magic without frying nearby electronics. Doing something more complex than throwing fire or ice or force around is a process, requiring foci and research in order to actually make them work. Hopefully, in ten years I'll be able to snap my fingers and teleport, but that's sorta why I'm applying to Avalon Academy in the first place."

He realizes he's ranting and sighs in embarrassment. "Sorry, tired. Long story short: I need time to work out a spell to teleport there. Can't do it now."

[Dodgeson]

"John." The administrator replied to Claire, breathing a sigh of relief as the troublesome applicants ascended the steps behind him and headed to the waiting area, with any luck nobody else would ask any more difficult questions and in a few hours he could clock out and go home.

Back up on the surface it was easy enough for the six of them to find the waiting room by following a few helpful signs with large arrow, not that it was much to talk about, only a large empty room with some chairs and a table towards the back containing several large plates of sandwiches and a couple of metal casks filled with different flavours of juice along with stacks of flimsy plastic cups. The six of them would have the room to themselves for about an hour before other students began to wander in in dribs and drabs, some of them were looking a little worse for wear (Marcus would spot Gabriel coming in with a girl nursing a broken arm who was stubbornly refusing his offer of healing) but they were all in high spirits.

Eventually when the room was almost full to bursting with potential applicants a woman in glasses walked in to the room with a large folded sheet of paper clutched in one hand, the lanyard around her neck marked her out as another of the schools administrative staff.

"If I could have your attention please, the test period has now concluded and your scores have been calculated." She began, students already jockeying to get closer to her as she unfolded the paper and began to affix it to the wall. "Please read this document carefully to find your score and position, to those of you in the top 50 please make your way to the common area and wait to be collected and assigned a dormitory, to those of you below the cut off, thank you for applying."

With that she left and all hell broke loose as teleports and speedsters all tried to get closer at once whilst those capable of flight took to the air and surged forward above their heads and countless lights and auras sparked in to life across the room as those with extra senses decided to take the easier route. Many of them were disappointed (far more than weren't, for obvious reasons) and right at the top of the page were six names...

Albion, Kelly 250
Hughes, Colin 250
Stevens, Anthony 250
Thomas, Claire 250
Zhey, Adrien 250
Dorn, Marcus 245

[Quellian-dyrae]

When they got up to the waiting area, Kelly pretty much immediately zipped over to grab some of more-or-less the sweetest snacks she could identify, before taking a seat. She chatted - or maybe it would be more precise to say chattered - with the others pretty much incessantly while they waited.

Once the scores were posted, she raced over in a blur of rainbow light to review them. She pumped one fist straight into the air, and then zipped back over to the team, a huge grin on her face and her eyes dancing with barely-contained excitement. So, you know, her usual look, pretty much. Only more-so. "We're in! Top points at 250! Well except Marcus had a five point penalty for some reason I guess. But whatever!" Even as she was saying it, her fingers were flying over her phone, sending a text with a frankly kinda disturbing letters:exclamation points:emojis ratio.

[zzzzzzzz414]

"Oh, we did? That's incredibly great!" Claire said, an equally wide (though somewhat nervous to someone paying enough attention) smile spreading across their face. They supposed it wasn't actually all that surprising; their item had come from what seemed like the lowest part that it was actually possible to get to? Still, it was nice to know that they hadn't been disqualified for, they didn't know, arguing with Mr. John or teasing the Eldeff or something.

Still, this also meant that there was really, truly, no backing out, now. (Not without looking really super suspicious, anyway). And it sounded like they would probably be meeting with the staff soon, which made the sour knot of anxiety in their gut that had been there ever since they arrived at the school lurch sickeningly. Claire bit their lip and unconsciously toyed with one of the curls in their hair as they stood up, picking up their hoodie as they did. "So, um, I guess that means that we head over to the...common area, now? Although I'm, um, not sure where that is yet."

[Llyarden]

Once the group had found some seats, Adrien spent a little while removing his guitar from its case and retuning it (and, y'know, generally checking that it hadn't somehow become an Eldritch Guitar of Evil after sharing its case with L-DEF's eye) before setting the case aside and...just leaning back in his chair a little bit. He seemed relatively calm, but he was nervous enough about the results that he didn't pay much attention to the refreshments, instead just kinda letting Kelly's stream-of-consciousness conversation wash over him, occasionally contributing with one or two words.

He didn't make any immediate move to join the clump of people crowding around the results - he wanted to know how he'd done, but not so desperately that it was worth getting crushed. Kelly zipping over there kinda solved the problem for him, and he met her grin with one of his own. "Awesome!" he beamed. "Well except the random penalty for Marcus I guess." He was speaking quite calmly and quietly so as to avoid any obnoxious celebrations in amidst all the people who didn't have anything to celebrate, but like Kelly, his happiness showed plainly in his expression. "Yep," he nodded to Claire. "I...think I saw a sign for it somewhere around here. Or just follow anyone else who looks like they got in I guess?"

He kinda...hesitated a moment before actually heading out, though - and not just because he couldn't actually see the signs pointing to the common area in amidst the crowd - instead glancing around briefly to check that no-one looked too broken up about not being accepted. (Granted, words of comfort coming from one of the six five top scorers on the whole list might ring a little hollow, but that wouldn't stop him trying anyway.)

[OutOfThyme]

As the group sat down, Colin was somewhat surprised that they were the first individuals. He'd expected others to have finished earlier, considering how far the group had went.

But this meant one thing - their group had first dibs on sandwiches. Colin would return with a small plate of sandwiches, passing them around if the others wanted any. He was a little disappointed that he couldn't mix any of the juice, but he didn't want to complain.

Once he was done, Colin pulled out his phone, and sent quick texts to both his family and his grandfather, letting them know that he'd finished the entrance exam, and was waiting on the results.

As Kelly gave them the news about their scores, Colin's eyes were wide open. He'd expected to do well, but to score a top score? Gramps would need to know, so Colin shot him a text almost immediately.

"I think I know the way. I dropped off some of my stuff earlier," Colin said, getting up, and doing his best to recall which way the common room was. Surely, he'd passed it by on his way to the exam.

[Dorni]

He'd expected to get in. He'd half wondered what would have happened if he'd done badly on the test - would the school have bumped up his score to take him anyway thanks to the Worthies? He hadn't expected getting the top score though. How wondered how to feel about that.

Anthony wore a self-satisfied smile. It felt good. A confirmation that he belonged here and maybe he did belong in the Hero life. Maybe it would get dad's attention? Probably not, but magog would care. He pulled out his phone and sent a quiet text.

That done, he slipped his phone back into his pocket and his grin turned wry at the sight of his somewhat confused companions. "The common room is this way," he announced, starting to walk and turning to wave at the others to follow him. He'd been not-quite-but-not-exactly-not-locked-up here for a week. Of course he knew where the common room was. "Follow me."

[Dodgeson]

With an already familiar guide the group would have no problems reaching the common room, divided roughly in to two areas by a set of book cases half stocked with old dog eared paperbacks. A pool table dominated the section closest to the door whilst the other half sported a large television and several sofas behind which were a large set of windows looking out on to the school grounds.

They would have a little bit more time to kill here whilst the other successful applicants trickled in a few at a time, giving Kelly and Colin an opportunity to reply to the exicited messages of congratulation that were currently flooding in to their phone, but eventually two new figures stood in the doorway a redhaired girl and a bespectacled boy of Indian descent, both of them were wearing the Avalon Academy uniform (though the girl had chosen to supliment this with what could only be called a utility belt around her waist and a wrap around visor covering one eye) with a prefect's badge pinned to their blazers.

"Hi guys, first off, congrats on making it through the dungeon." The girl began, the device on her eye pinging several times "I'm sure you're all eager to unpack before class starts tomorrow so we're going to show you around the dorms and make sure that you all get settled in properly."

"So guys, you're with me and girls if you can just follow Mollie." The boy added before the pair turned and began to walk towards the large staircase at the front of the building before the split off, the boy going left up another flight of stairs and the girl going right.

Colin, Adrien, Anthony, Marcus

Pushing through the double doors you were lead in to a long corridor lined with doors, on the floor was a small stack of black books that their guide picked up and began to pass out.

"Take one of these and pass it back, this is your school handbook, the front's the school calender and the back's got the rules in it. I'm Sahib, one of the prefects, that means if you're having any problems and I'm around I'll see what I can do to help. This is your floor" He gestured down the hallway "Bathroom's the red door at the end and the stairs behind me lead up to the dorms for the older years, there's nothing technically stopping you going up there but some of them can get pretty terriorial. Other than that, lights out is at 9 and wake up's at 7 and whatever you don't go in to the girls dorms, the staff will come down on you HARD. I think that pretty much covers all the important stuff there's sheets on the doors with your names on, your bags should already be inside."

It would come as no surprise to Anthony what room had his name on it, he'd already been here for a week after all, but joining him would be Colin, Adrien and Marcus, their bags waiting for them on top of the three other previously empty beds. The rooms weren't exactly luxury but along with a bed each of them had their own desk and there was a enough cupboards and draws between them that storage shouldn't be a problem.

Spoiler: MARCUS

Show

There's something in the walls, the floor and ceiling too, something magic

Kelly & Claire

"Okay, like Sahib said, I'm Mollie, one of the prefects. If you're ever having any trouble just come and find me, my rooms on the top floor, first door on your left. Don't be a stranger." The girl started once all her charges were through the doors, another set of bleeps coming from her visor "Lets get the boring stuff out of the way first." She snapped her fingers and a small black book appeared in the air in front of each of the new students, some of them even managed to catch it before gravity took its course.

"Those are the school handbook, it's got all your holidays and exams in the front and the school rules in the back, its pretty obvious stuff but you should probably give it a read some time. Anyway bathroom's just down the hall with the red door and if you don't know what room you've been assigned already it should be on a notice on the door, your bags'll be waiting for you inside. Once you're all unpacked I'll pick you guys back up and we'll head down to the dinning hall for something to eat. So does anyone have any questions?"

[zzzzzzzz414]

Claire spent most of their spare time in the common room curiously picking through the selection of paperbacks lining the bookshelves, skimming through the first few pages or just staring at the cracked and faded (but still incredibly interesting!) cover art. They didn't even notice that the prefects had arrived until Mollie began talking, prompting Claire to hurriedly re-shelve the trashy sci-fi novel they were holding and start paying attention.

Claire let out a tiny gasp as the handbook suddenly popped into existence before them, grinning widely as they bent down to pick up the fallen book. "Teleporting powers!!" Claire whispered to themselves excitedly. Or some kind of mystical book-creation powers? Or maybe the books themselves had some sort of special property that let you summon them by snapping? Who knows! Despite their nervousness and misgivings this was all sort of exciting!

Many students probably would have found the introductory guff to be rather tedious, but Claire actually felt their nerves calm a little as Mollie talked. For the last several months they had been in a near-constant state of "not knowing what was going on at all but expected to know anyway", piecing together the information they were supposed to have basically on the spot. So to actually be expected to not know what was going on, in a room full of other people who also did not know what was going on, was...comforting, almost. For once they did not have to worry about feigning understanding. And the rules that they were supposed to be following were all neatly written down in this book instead of having to be pieced together from the internet and unfortunate trial-and-error, which would make not being yelled at and not attracting a bunch of attention much easier.

When Mollie asked if there were any questions, Claire immediately thrust their hand in the air in what they hoped was a good display of academic manners, eager to pursue the question that had been gnawing at them ever since Mollie showed up. "Oh! Um! Yes! Excuse me!" they blurted, then continued without waiting for a response, "Um that visor you are wearing is very cool and if it is not too personal I was wondering what it does and why it is bleeping and if it maybe had anything to do with-" Claire looked around at the other students and slowly, sheepishly lowered their hand. "-uh, that, teleporty thing you did earlier, uhm maybe this is not actually the most relevant question im sorry nevermind"

Once Claire had received Mollie's answer and the other questions (if any) had been asked, then, assuming no interruptions, Claire proceeded down the hallway with the others, searching for their room.

[Quellian-dyrae]

A shimmer of rainbow light flickered over Kelly as she caught the book from the air. Speedsters cheat at literally everything it's great. She took the prefect's advice to read it some time in the pause between sentences immediately following the giving of that advice. Seriously they just cheat so hard.

At the request for questions, she thought for a moment instant and raised her hand. Once called she asked, "Are there any particular rules regarding power use on campus, beyond like obvious don't use powers on people unless they're okay with it type stuff? ...Uh, and what's the school policy on running in the hallways?" she asked with a bit of an impish grin.

--

Once she had found her room, Kelly...well, she was about to just unpack all her stuff in a blur of rainbows and then go exploring, buuuut she held off for at least a moment until all her roommates were there so they could like figure out who went where and stuff. Would be rude to just "speedster dibs" things, after all.

[Llyarden]

Once the stack of handbooks had passed him and carried on down the line of students, Adrien promptly opened the book and skimmed through the rules - he might not have been a speedster, but with perfect recall all he had to do was glance at each page to imprint it in his memory to be mulled over at a later date. "So, uh, what do we do now?" he asked Sahib. "I mean, after finding our rooms and stuff."

---

Once they'd found their room, Adrien carefully set his guitar down on his bed before looking back to the other three. "Huh. Guess we're sticking together for a while." He...wasn't quite sure what to think about that. On the one hand, the four of them (and Kelly and Claire) had worked well together down in the dungeons. On the other, surely it would be more beneficial for them to all be grouped up separately so they didn't just end up as a small clique for the whole year.

[Dorni]

Anthony plopped down on his not-occupied-by-a-bag bed and rolled onto his side, relaxing with one arm supporting his head. "Seems like," he answered his roommate. He wasn't quite sure how to feel about that either. He'd supposed that his roommates would be assigned randomly rather than whomever he happened to have met in the dungeon. He supposed they'd been fairly agreeable during the exam. Although he supposed fighting a lovecraftian monster like LDEF probably did wonders at bringing people together. It made him briefly wonder if human history would be much different if humanity had demons and monsters to fight instead of each other.

"So what now? Do you guys need time to unpack? Do we want to celebrate?"