Gilded Halls ★ IC

[Mana1]

→ Jamie Lane ● Sparks and tremors

Kevin leaned back in his chair smiling, proud at what he managed to achieve with the sand, granted it wasn't very much but it was something. Endless possibility's started to enter his head, what could he achieve with this? Could he create land mass on a whim? The possibilities were endless however his train of thought was soon interrupted by a girl darting across the classroom and bolting out the door and noticed Matthias running after her. "What in the world was that about?" thought Kevin.

Immediately after that he looked over and seen that a girl near the front of the class managed to put her desk on fire, it didn't take her long to put it out but luckily she seemed okay. As Kevin leaned over to resume conversation with Jamie, somebody who was unknown to Kevin entered the room. Kevin stared at the boy for a few seconds before the boy slammed the door shut, leaning over towards Jamie, "You know that guy? He seems a bit late" whispered Kevin.

Jamie had been watching the accident-prone girl across from him, "huh?" He asked, looking up at the newcomer. The boy was around Jamie's age, from the looks of it, but was nothing like the guys from his old school.

The tall, ill-looking boy backed his way out of the classroom, closing the door behind him. "Well that was weird," Jamie commented, taking a mental note of the easy target.

"Did you see what that girl did?" Jamie asked, getting back to the more important matters, "She managed to put the fire out, herself..."

Looking over at the girl Kevin scratched his brow and then looked back at Jamie. "He seems shocked. Surely he must know this school is for gifted students. I'm pretty sure I've got a good idea how she put out that fire" thought Kevin.

"You seem surprised" Kevin responded looking over at the girl although ultimately directing his question towards Jamie. Kevin began to think that Jamie didn't know about the other students possessing powers … there was only one way to find out.

"This could sound totally stupid," said Jamie, not sure whether to continue. He had noticed some strange things happening in the school - this lesson was the big give away, he was never asked to 'control the elements' in his last school, just memorise a periodic table.

"Is this place like... Hogwarts?" Ready for Kevin to laugh at his odd question.

Kevin couldn't help but give a slight laugh at Jamie's question. Kevin sat himself upright in his chair and bestowed a more serious look on his face before speaking, "You know Jamie your actually kinda right. Okay maybe this place isn't actually Hogwarts, but this is a place for gifted students. My roommate and I managed to work out amongst ourselves that nobody here got in because of their grades or behaviour, we got in here because of who we are. Jamie, I know you can do something that no-body else can and so can I, and probably everyone else in this school. How do you think that girl put out that fire over there?"

Kevin leaned back once again in his chair and exhaled, waiting to see what Jamie would make of all this.

"So I'm not crazy?" Jamie laughed, glad that there was something different. He had never been around people with abilities before, so he naturally kept his secret a lot of the time. He pondered on what this meant - what could other people do? If we were here controlling the elements then what could everyone individually do?

Jamie's mind sprang to comicbook superheroes, what if Ginny, someone he had really pissed off, could shoot lasers! Or throw fire! Although, he considered, she would have probably tried that already.

"I guess that explains this lesson," he said, flaring up another match - he had just about got the hang of increasing and decreasing the flame size.

Kevin watched as Jamie continued to mess around with the flame on the match, increasing and then decreasing its size. "So then Jamie, what is it exactly you can do?"

Kevin so far only knew of one other person's ability and that was Matthias's. He was curious to see what other people had, perhaps they had something similar to him? He could make a fairly educated guess that the girl who put out the fire definitely was able to manipulate heat or water perhaps?

Jamie paused, thinking of the best way to demonstrate his power. Taking advantage of the abundance of glasswear on the desk, Jamie pushes his hands flat against the wood.

He gently drummed his fingers, not loud enough to make an audible noise. However, he manipulated the vibrations, amplifying them via the desk. The beakers on the desk trembled, the beaker of water being the more noticeable as the water rippled continuously.

Kevin stood open mouthed as he watched the beakers on the desk rattle and shake. Bringing himself closer to the beaker of water he could clearly see the top of the water rippling and jumping around, this was astounding. "Wow, how the hell are you doing that?" Kevin laughed looking over at Jamie. He could see that Jamie had his hands firmly pressed on the desk and seemed to be drumming his fingers against the wood, but it wasn't making a loud enough sound to have the beakers tremble . "This is pretty damn cool Jamie!", Kevin added.

"I can change manipulate sounds, or something like that," Jamie had never been too worried about the specifics of his power, just that it worked. "I can change the frequency if sound and vibrations, and make it do weird things," Jamie said, shifting the sound of his voice up a view octaves at the end of his sentence to prove the point.

Jamie raised an eyebrow, "Your turn."

Kevin cracked a smile when he heard Jamie's voice increase in pitch at the end of his sentence. "Okay … my turn then". Kevin took his hands and placed them beside his knees, he only wanted to show Jamie his power not the entire class. He clasped his hands into fists and then quickly opened them again, and almost like striking a match his hands ignited with blue lightning. The lightning jumped and moved around his hands freely, like it had a mind of its own and Kevin's face was slightly illuminated by the hazy blue glow. Looking over at Jamie he gave a smile as he rotated his hands around, giving him the best demonstration he could without breaking something.

Jamie stared, in awe of Kevin's power. "Why are you wasting your time with sand if you can do that!" He whispered, harshly. Trying not to draw too much attention.

"Does it hurt?" He questioned? "What would happen if I touched it?" He asked curiously, not sure if he would risk it anyway.

"To be honest, I don't really know why I'm messing around with sand. I guess I'm just doing it because everyone else is trying to learn something new …. Nah it doesn't hurt one bit, as I said to myself a while ago, it's like a second bloodstream, I can feel the electricity pumping around inside me, it's just … natural I guess and as far as touching it goes, uh … You'd probably just give yourself an electric shock, I can't imagine it's too powerful but then again I'm not sure."

For once in his life, Kevin felt strangely proud of his power. His parents never mentioned it, they wanted to forget it existed and at times so did Kevin, it made him feel different almost like he didn't belong with the other the kids. So to Kevin being around other people with powers strangely felt good, he could finally talk openly about it and he certainly didn't feel like an outcast.

"That's pretty cool," remarked Jamie, nodding in approval at Kevin's cool power. "If there's ever a powercut I know who to call," he laughed.

Bzz bzz, Jamie felt his phone vibrating in his pocket. He had wondered how long it would take for his Mum to try calling - he had only had his phone back on for an hour or so.

"Ergh," he sighed, "I guess I better take this," he said, relunctantly, getting to his feet and quickly walking out of the classroom, before answering the call.

Kevin couldn't help but laugh at Jamie's remark as he clasped his hands back up again removing the lightning from them. Lifting his hands back up onto the table again, he smiled as he looked down at them. Just then he heard a vibrating noise which seemed to come from Jamie's pocket, obviously a phone call and an urgent one at that as he excused himself to take it outside.

With Jamie now outside the classroom, Kevin looked around and seen the other students working hard, Kevin figured he might as well do the same as he leaned forward, clasped the beaker full of sand again and closed his eyes to concentrate.

Joint post with WooliestSteam1​

​

 

[amerininja]

Kyle Marx

Kyle stepped out of the dirty yellow cab he had just ridden a full 3 hours in, with his trusty albino ferret Max, thanks to his Father's work giving him a surprise emergency meeting. It took $126 for the stinky ride, but by the looks of the school in front of him, it was well worth it. The sun was out and very hot and shining, the school's campus was huge and well decorated, and...... it was 11:30! He was late on his first day.

Kyle ran for the main building, with Max on his right shoulder, as he normally does, and swung open the large doors to reveal a reception desk with several gift bags with names written on them. Knowing that one of them had to be his, Kyle looked at the bags to find that one of them did indeed have his name on it. He opened the bag to find a map of the campus a letter, a key card, a schedule for the day, and several other bits and pieces. So he picked out his key card and read the room number: Room 11. He picked up his luggage and held out his map to find, what the letter called, River Lodge. He took all of the right turns he was supposed to and soon found himself in the midst of several rooms the one on his right said 10 so he knew that the one to his left was 11. When he turned around he discovered that this was true. So he slid his Key Card through a slit connected to the handle much like a hotel's. He opened the door to find two beds separated by a night desk, again oddly resembling a hotel room, which Max jumped on to claiming his new bed. So he put his suitcase down as well as his bag. He checked his schedule and discovered that the next class was called Elements 101.

Kyle didn't know what this class would teach, but he feared that it was an advanced chemistry class and although the letter stated that he could skip this first lesson he knew what his mother would say if she found out I was being lazy and irresponsible. So Max jumped on back on his shoulder and they followed his map to Classroom A-1 to find that the door was shut closed and students were sitting at desks with jars in front of them. So he walked in to find that the jars had rather odd contents such as; sand, water, a leaf, and a box of matches. I guess this isn't chemistry at least. He thought to himself. Then he read the chalkboard to find something even he had only read close to it once in an ancient Greek text from before the times of their religion even.

We are part of nature, nature is part of us. Within each and every person is the ability to control nature, to a limited degree.
Choose your beaker wisely. Not every road leads to success.​

This was a class teaching us to control an element! He looked down at the desk in front and instead of seeing a teacher he saw various jars filled with all of those things he had seen earlier in the students' jars. So he walked up to the front and Max scurried over to one of the jars of sand egging Kyle to take it so Kyle started class by grabbing a single jar of white sand.​

 

[ShaymieTheShaymin]

Priscilla Bellerose

Priscilla sighed softly as she stepped out of the car. She watched her bodyguard reach into the trunk and pull out her luggage. "Why am I here?" she asked. "Why would Mommy and Daddy make me start going to school now?" She groaned softly. "Hello? Sir?" she asked. The bodyguard ignored her and slammed the trunk shut. Priscilla sighed again. She could tell that he was pretty annoyed with her. She didn't need her powers to know that much. The bodyguard cleared his throat. "Miss?" he asked. Prscilla held her teddy bear in the crook of her arm and sighed. "Let's go, Jeeves," she said. She really wished that she had bothered to learn his name earlier, but it didn't matter. After today, she wouldn't have to see him anymore.

Priscilla walked behind her bodyguard nervously. "Y-You can go now," she whispered. The buff man shook his head and walked towards the reception desk. Priscilla followed him, tilting her head when she saw a bunch of bags. "What are those for?" she asked curiously, sticking her thumb in her mouth. Her bodyguard ignored her again and picked up a bag from the desk. Priscilla didn't understand how he could carry everything with one hand, but it was kind of impressive to her. She followed the man in silence. "Meanie..." she whispered. The man sighed and led her to the dorms.

Priscilla sighed when her bodyguard led her to a room and opened the door. "Here's your room," he said a little bit sadly. Priscilla peeked in and gasped when she saw that there were two beds, and that someone else had already left their things there. "I have a roommate?" she asked. She sighed and sat down on the bed that wasn't occupied. Her bodyguard set her things down by the bed. "You have a class to go to," he said softly. "But you don't have to go if you don't want to." Priscilla curled up on the bed and held her bear tighter. "I can't even read," she muttered. "If I go to class, then everyone will make fun of me." The bodyguard sighed and nodded. "Well... I guess I'll get going now..." He looked at Priscilla one last time before walking out of the room. Priscilla sighed and closed her eyes. "No class for me..."

 

[amerininja]

Kyle walked over to a desk near the door with his jar of sand in his left hand and his faithful friend, Max, on his right shoulder. He took a seat and set his jar down gently in front of him. Now how does this work, exactly? He thought to himself. He lifted his hand over the jar and imagined the grains forming a funnel twirling down towards the bottom.

Nothing happened. The sand just stayed stable and flat. Then he thought he saw one of the grains move over top of another. Then more fine grains climbed upwards. It started slowly just one grain at a time. Over time they all started to form a pillar about a centimeter thick around. This is soooo not what I am trying to do. This is the COMPLETE opposite of what I wanted. He thought to himself. Then he began to imagine the funnel with his eyes closed. All was dark under his eyelids when he heard a small noise coming from his jar. This caused him to open his eyes and see that none of the sand was touching the bottom of the jar and it was forming a constantly spinning ball. Crap! He thought to himself as he realized just how uncontrolled he was. Then he felt it touch his palm and feel an excruciating heat causing him to stand up quickly and knock the sand to the ground. This is really NOT looking up at all I think I'll go to bed. He thought to himself yet again. So he sweeped up all of the sand with his map of the campus.

After cleaning everything he grabbed his stuff and secured Max, whom had managed to lose his balance multiple times, back on to his shoulder. Kyle walked back over to the door and left Classroom A-1. He started to backtrack to his room. When he finnaly made it there he looked at his ferret and made a series of squeaks that a normal human can never say which translated to, "Well that wasn't a very good first impression."

Then he remembered something that had not passed his mind at all since he left his room. He forgot his only means of getting in there. This caused him to panic greatly. What to do! What to do! He began to think to himself, Wait the extra bed. I might have a roommate.

So he nervously walked up to the door and knocked three times hoping that someone would answer.​

 

[ShaymieTheShaymin]

Priscilla Bellerose

Priscilla sat up when she heard knocking at the door. "Who is that?" she asked, looking at her teddy bear. She stood up and opened the door, whimpering softly when she saw a boy with a furry... thing on his shoulder. "What is that?" she asked out loud. She shook her head. "Who are you...?" This boy couldn't be her roommate, could he? He was old... And he was a BOY! This seemed kind of weird to Priscilla. "A-Are you my roommate?" she asked, sticking her thumb in her mouth. She stepped to the side to let the boy enter the room and tightened her grip on her bear. My roommate can't really be a boy, can he? What if he's a creepy pervert? What were Mommy and Daddy thinking? She whimpered at these thoughts and looked down at the ground, brushing her hair away from her eyes.

 

[amerininja]

Kyle Marx

When the door opened a young girl with long black hair appeared in the doorway. She can't be my roommate. He thought to himself, This is my room right? He checked the room number and, low and behold, it was his room. She looked scared and began asking him tons of questions that kinda made him feel like he was going to explode with anger if she didn't just shut up.

"This is my room kid," Kyle began almost shouting but not quite, "Are you lost or something?"

Kyle noticed that she was letting him in so he sat down on his already picked out bed and asked the little girl, "What is your room number?" The girl looks to be around 11 or 12 but she sucks her thumb like a baby. He thought while hoping she couldn't read his thoughts. "And this is not a that," he began while pointing at Max on his shoulder, "He is my friend Max."
​

 

[ShaymieTheShaymin]

Priscilla Bellerose

Priscilla winced when she felt how angry Kyle was. "I don't think that I'm lost..." she whispered. "But you might be. I don't know what my room number is. My bodyguard led me here, and I can't really read the room number..." She sat down on her bed and hugged her bear tightly. "You don't have to be so mad at me..." she mumbled, feeling tears in her eyes. Was this why her parents never let her out of the house? People are so mean... she thought, sniffling. She curled up into a ball on the bed and set her bear next to her. "I'm sorry..." She stuck her thumb back into the mouth and started to rock back and forth softly.

 

[amerininja]

Kyle Marx

When Kyle saw the little girl wincing from the pain of his words and then start to cry he knew he needed to calm down and talk to her.

"Listen", he began, "I am truly sorry for yelling at you like that. I guess this must be our room now. So you are my roommate now." He looked down at the poor girl and thought to himself, if I can just not freak out too much this could turn out fine. "Why don't you sit up and tell me what your name is?" He asked with as comforting a face as possible. "I am Kyle. Kyle Marx and I am an omnilinguist." He said hoping to gain her trust by being as nice as possible.​

 

[miltankRancher]

Manchester O'Brien // Gilded Halls

Funny thing about taxi drivers is that they seem to know where everything is. Even the most secret and secure establishments are not safe from the geophysical memory of the cabbies. It was not a surprise to Manchester that the driver of the taxi he rode in knew where Gilded Halls was even if nobody in the circus have ever heard of it before. It just took him a few dollars and a two-hour travel time and there he was, standing under the wooden doorway flanked by pillars. He would give a good bet that they were made of marble or similar stones. He tightened his bag's straps and passed through the doorway. The gate guard acknowledged Manchester with a nod.

"Ugh, hi," was everything Manchester managed to say. Wow, first time in a proper school and this is how I start. "What do I do now?"

"Just proceed inside," the guard said. He was holding a piece of paper with a bunch of names written on it. There were just a little more than twenty. "Your name is?"

"Manchester O'Brien." The guard pointed to a bunch of bags just lying on the corner.

"You'll find one that has your name on it. It'll have the things you needed inside it," the guard replied, apparently used to this kind of behavior. True to his word, as Manchester went over to where the guard pointed, he did see a bag with his name printed on it. He opened it and saw a bunch of stuff.

"Okay, Manchester. You're in River Lodge, room 10," Manchester told himself as he rummaged around the bag. It contained a key card with the room assignment printed on it, a map of the school grounds, and his class schedule. As Manchester walked away he took another look towards the guard and saw that he already had his earphones on. Oh well.

According to the map, the River Lodge is located just past the Valiant Lodge. A curving line was placed next to the lodge. At least I know now how it was name as the River Lodge. That line there could not be anything but a river. He walked past a small building which he assumed was the Valiant House. Manchester thought to explore the area but according to his timetables, he is supposed to be having class that moment. Elements 101, huh. Hydrogen and all that jazz? There would be time to explore later.

Manchester reached the River Lodge. It seemed to be made of wood but Manchester know better. Circus tents are more flimsy than houses and he knew that wood could not support the cloth for the tent. There would be cement and other bunch of engineering jumbies underneath all that wood. He looked around first, trying to spot the river. He could not hear the roar of water he expected. I guess it dried up. Manchester entered the lodging.

There were just three rooms here. All of it has a golden number embedded on top of the doorway. Card said I'm room 10. As he passed the doorways, he saw two other people from room 11. One was a girl of around ten or eleven and the guy of around fourteen. Manchester was never good with guessing people's ages. "I am Kyle. Kyle Marx and I am an omnilinguist," Manchester heard the older guy say. Omnilinguist. Manchester whispered the word around his mouth as he passed by. I wonder what that means.

Room 10 was just directly opposite room 11. He swiped his key card (woah) and entered the room. There were two beds inside, both were unmarked. No bed sheets, no pillow covers. I really did not think of this very much. Manchester dumped his bag and the gift bag on his bed and got his cellphone out. Its battery was dead. Thankfully, the sockets around the room were compatible for his charger so he plugged it in.

"Let's get settled later. Elements 101 first."

---

Classroom 1A was fairly easy to find in the main building, although the weather outside the lodgings was soon becoming unbearable. A little rain would be welcome. It was already a few minutes past 11:30 in the morning and the class was scheduled for 10:00-1:00. Manchester would be barging in on a class. Well, I've never been in a class before. I guess that would be a good reason. A really pale-guy was standing outside the classroom door. Manchester looked at him and saw that he was sweating. Not very much, but enough for him to see. Oh well. However, when Manchester entered the classroom, he could find no teacher around. Most of the people inside were just a bunch of people like him. Almost all of them were talking to one another. All of them have something like a glass bottle in front of them, filled with various things. Sand, matches, water, and leaves.

Oh bother.

 

[amerininja]

Kyle Marx and Priscilla Bellerose

Priscilla sniffled softly and looked up at Kyle. "My name's Priscilla..." She grabbed her bear and tilted her head. "What's omby... Whatever you said?" she asked. She looked at the floor and grabbed one of her suitcases. She threw it onto the bed and rummaged through it. "Where is it?" she mumbled. She smiled and pulled out a faded gray hoodie. "At least they didn't make me leave this behind," she whispered, pulling the jacket over her head. She fumbled with it for a few moments before she somehow ended up with her head through an armhole. "Help..."

"Here" Kyle said soothingly as he pulled the jacket off of her and put it back on her correctly. "An omnilinguist is someone who can speak any language or even read any for that matter. Human and animal." he said the last sentence with a nod towards Max who was currently lying down on the night stand.

Priscilla smiled. "Thank you," she whispered. She grabbed her teddy bear and tilted her head. "So you're an animal whisperer? I think I heard about that on TV." She looked at Max and giggled. "Do you take him everywhere?" She hugged her teddy bear and looked down at the ground. If he could read any language, then maybe he could teach her how to read... "K-Kyle... Do you think that you could teach me how to read? You don't have to if you don't want to..."

Kyle decided to answer her 2nd question first. "Yeah me and Max go everywhere together nowadays. And I really feel like calling me an animal whisperer is sort of a demotion." He said laughing softly. "Now about the whole reading thing, I can teach you on one condition." He said trying to hide the fact that he was curious. "Wh-what is your ability?" He finally asked haste fully.

Priscilla giggled softly. "But you are an animal whisperer, right?" she asked. She tilted her head. "My ability?" she asked. "I can sometimes feel what other people are feeling. And sometimes I can hear thoughts that are connected to their emotions... But that's not as cool as what you can do." She blushed and looked up at Kyle. "Now can you teach me?" That's the first time that I told anybody about that... I never even told my parents. How'd they know...?

"Okay then, ummmmm," Kyle began, "Do you at least know the alphabet?" I wonder how she has gone on all these years not reading and all. He wondered without giving it another thought.

Priscilla shook her head. "I don't know it... Isn't that what order the letters go in or something?" She frowned and hugged her bear even tighter. "I feel stupid... I hate it..." She started to cry again and laid down on her bed. "Why am I even at a school when I can't read?" she mumbled. "Why did Mommy and Daddy do this to me?"

"Hey don't you start crying again." He said as soothingly as he could. "I will teach you the alphabet and how to read." He said with confidence. "By the way next class will be required so I think we should start as soon as possible with the learning." He added hoping she would understand.
Priscilla sat up and nodded. "I guess I can't skip every class... How are you going to teach me, though?" She sniffled. "It can't be easy to teach someone how to read. Why are you being so nice, anyway?" She put her thumb into her mouth and whimpered. If everyone's as nice as him, then why wasn't I allowed to go outside? She shook her head and groaned softly. "Do you have any books to teach me with?"

"I'm not being nice. I'm just doing what really needs to be done." He said shaking his head and hoping to not sound like a pervert with the whole 'nice' thing. "And no I have no books with me but I'm sure the librarian can help us out in that department." He said with a smile.

Priscilla cocked her head to the side. "Librarian?" she asked. "What's that? My house used to have a library..." She winced softly as some memories of her lost sister cane back. She always used to read to me... But I ignored her... Then she left... Priscilla shook her head. "I can't think about her now," she mumbled. She stood up and stretched. "Where's this librarian?" she asked, trying not to show how sad she was.

Wait has she never heard of a librarian before? Kyle thought to himself. "Okay follow me down to the school's library. I need to go there anyways." He told her calmly.

Priscilla nodded. "Okay. You lead the way!" She grabbed the teddy bear from her bed and sighed. "I can't read the map..." She looked down at the ground and asked, "Why are you so confused? I feel that coming from you... Am I weird or something?" She hugged the teddy bear tightly. At least Teddy doesn't think that I'm weird...

"You are not weird." He said realizing just how careful he had to be with his emotions around her. "I'm only confused because well.... that doesn't matter what matters is that we get you to the library." He said as they walked out the door. "Follow me." He said as he walked all the way to the library with its shiny golden handles.

Kyle grabbed them both and swung the doors open to reveal a desk sitting in front of what looked to be thousands of books. Kyle walked up to an old lady and whispered, " This girl with me needs books on how to read as well as on the alphabet. Do you have anything? Oh and do you have any foreign language books?" I asked both questions hopefully.

"Come with me." She said through pursed lips while pointing to Priscilla. Turning to Kyle she added, "The language shelves are right in the back."
Priscilla grabbed Kyle's hand with her free hand and whimpered. "Can you come with me?" she asked. "This lady scares me... You never told me that librarians were so mean." She sensed the woman's feelings and whimpered again. "She's mad," Priscilla whispered. She stuffed her bear in her pocket and sucked her free thumb.

"This is a battle you have got to win on your own, okay?" Kyle said reassuringly while removing her hand from its grasp. "Listen you get the books and in 5 minutes we will go to the pool. How does that sound?" He asked with another warm smile.

Priscilla whimpered again, but nodded. "You're still teaching me though, right?" she asked. "You still have to teach me the words and stuff..." She turned to the librarian. "Where are the books?" she asked shyly. The librarian sighed and grabbed Priscilla's hand. Priscilla flinched and let the librarian lead her to a shelf of books. "Here you go," the librarian said. Priscilla looked at the books and frowned. "This will be impossible..."

Kyle watched Priscilla walk away with the grouchy old lady until they were both out of his line of sight. I need to focus. He thought to himself as he shook his head. He walked over to the 'language' section to find that it wasn't really the language section at all. Why would the librarian lie to me? He began to ponder. Wait! Priscilla! He suddenly thought as he realized that this librarian may well be as mean as his little roommate had said. So he ran back to where they were before she was taken.

Priscilla looked up at the shelf and stood on her toes, trying to reach a book. "Dumb things..." she mumbled. She managed to pull down a few books about the alphabet and stacked them up on a nearby table. When she got as many as she thought she needed, she picked them up and walked over to Kyle. "What now?" she asked, struggling under the weight of the books.


He saw Priscilla come up to him with a rather large pile of books in her hands. "Oh good you're safe. Well let's go back upstairs now I guess we will start studying after lunch, but right now I am going swimming. What about you?" He asked still relieved that she was safe.

Priscilla shook her head. "I don't have anything to do without you teaching me... I can't swim or anything, and I can't go to class..." She sniffled softly and sneezed. The books fell to the ground. "Excuse me..." Priscilla whispered, bending down to pick up the books. While she picked up the books, her bear fell out of her pocket. "Can you get him for me?" she asked.

"Sure thing." He said happily while scooping up Pricilla's books and picking up her teddy bear. "I guess we can start learning now." He said as they arrived at their room's door.
​

Joint Post with Shayshaytheshaymin​

 

[Fuyu]

"Angel. Wake up. We're here."

She hadn't been asleep, not out of excitement, but of dismay. However, she gave a slow, simple smile and replied obediently enough. "Yes, Mother." Servitude was best with this indomitable woman. It was something familiar. Angel had been submissive as a boy. As a girl, she saw no reason to break tradition, so to speak. Her fingers lunged and searched before catching hold of a white sunhat. Placing it on her head, she grabbed the bags she could carry and opened the car door.

With reluctance, Angel opened her eyes.

Instantly, the world went from peaceful black and red to vivid white and she almost reeled, falling back into the car. However, decorum prevented that and she shelved her discomfort and hopped out. She sensed her mother only a few feet away and smiled in her general direction. "Mother..." she began carefully. "You certainly don't need to trouble yourself. The flights will be soon, will they not?"

People... they probably did not speak this way. However, Angel was used to being different... to being underheel, for lack of a word. So formal wording made her stand out and be heard for a moment, so her trifling existence could be taken care of.

Her mother sighed, sounding, not disapproving, but disappointed. Why would that be the case? Had she not been raised in this manner? "Angel, this isn't easy for us."

"What is not easy?" There could be all sorts of implications in the word this, could there not?

She chuckled wryly. "If I said that you are not an easy child, would that make more sense?"

"Quite." In truth, it made even less sense, but Angel enjoyed the tone of her voice so she did not disagree with her. She liked when her mother sounded like a mother instead of a queen.

"Whether... this ability... had manifested or not in this manner... you still would have had to leave our house eventually. Parents are not expected to enjoy that."

Ange nodded. She had never really considered the possibility of being a parent, so the idea only made sense in an emphatic sort of manner. However, leaving was painful. She understood that.

Her mother, tall woman she was, knelt to hug her. "Be all right, Angel," she said softly. "You'll do better here, away from that boy."

Angel stiffened. "Yes, Mother."

She would not think of Benjy. She would not.

Instead she began her trek inside, keeping her eyes half-lidded to avoid the light. For someone whose name was a word for light, Angel felt safer in the dark. She swiftly began to walk away from the car, head bowed.

Reaching the inside, her heart swelled with relief. It was quiet... there must have been classes going on. There was a bag with her name on it. With it was a strange card... a key? Again... quite strange. Angel stood there a moment, reading the letter. Her room was by a river... well, that sounded rather nice. She went to go find it, dragging her small bags after her. Finding it was surprisingly difficult, given that her hands were currently filled with her baggage and she had her eyes barely open. But... she managed it and quietly went inside.

Inside of the room was someone else's belongings, still packed. Angel smiled to herself and sighed a bit. She supposed it was all right to get settled in. She wasn't exactly expected to be in class. With that thought, she got to work, enjoying the feel of fabrics on her skin. Even before, Angel had liked the feel of things. They told stories, good, bad, beautiful stories. She had loved that... but now...

Would she be able to tell that anymore?

Finally finished dressing her bed, Angel sat down upon it, her rabbit plush in her arms. Suddenly, she was very tired. It wouldn't be too much of a problem to sleep now, surely. Nobody was here.

Just a moment would be enough.

 

[ShaymieTheShaymin]

Priscilla Bellerose

Priscilla nodded and sat down on her bed. "How are you going to start teaching me?" she asked. "Are you sure that you want to do this? You can just leave if you want to..." She was suddenly having second doubts about this... If her parents couldn't bother to teach her, why would a stranger want to? I wish I could hear this thoughts or something right about now... Priscilla looked at the stack of books and shook her head. "I'll never get this... We should just give up now. And give me my teddy!" She curled up on her bed and whimpered softly. Mommy and Daddy should take me home already... I was safer there...

 

[WooliestSteam]

Kevin Blake

Removing his hands from the beaker, Kevin slouched back in his chair and looked at the time. He thought for a minute before jumping up out of his chair and headed out of the classroom. Closing the door behind him, he could see the boy that closed the door on himself from earlier and Jamie on the phone, he decided to bother neither of them and he headed off down the corridor with his hands in his pockets.

As he continued to walk down the corridor, Jamie's words hung around in his head "Why are you wasting your time with sand if you can do that!", Kevin stopped in the middle of the corridor, pulled his hands out of his pockets and rotating the around, looking at them. "Maybe Jamie's right, what if I am wasting my time on other ability's like sand?" he mumbled. Looking around Kevin managed to spot a small door in the corridor which definitely didn't fit in with the rest of them, no markings on the door it was just a blank black door. Looking around and giving a smirk Kevin quietly opened the door and headed inside.

Upon heading inside, it was clear that this room was definitely off-limits to the students. The wind howled through this seemingly forgotten part of the school, the water droplets dripped onto the floor hitting a puddle underneath it giving off the classic water dripping sound, and the cold was all around sending shivers down Kevin's back. He ventured forward curious as to what he would find.

Placed in the middle of the room making a loud whirring noise although it wasn't loud enough to be heard throughout the school as no student has picked up on it yet, was an electrical generator. Kevin knew deep down that going near this stuff was dangerous even for him, but something deep down kept telling him to move closer. It wasn't long before Kevin stood right beside the generator, the noise at this distance was almost deafening. He looked down at his hands and decided to place them firmly on the generator, it was time to test just how powerful a charge he could take.
Suddenly the generator started shacking and Kevin could feel electricity being transferred into his body, like he was draining the generator of its power and replenishing his own however, it didn't feel right, he could feel sharp pains shooting up his arms and his entire arms were soon covered with lightning. Kevin knew for a fact this wasn't normal, he wanted to lift his hands off but he couldn't, it was almost like his hands were stuck to the generator. The pain is his arms continued to get worse and the power being transferred was also becoming too much, it became more and more until 'BOOM', the generator exploded creating a massive bang and sending Kevin across the room, his back smacked off the wall and as his eyesight faded he could hear the sounds of bulbs shattering into a million pieces.

He slowly opened his eyes to notice he was in the nurse's office, he didn't have the energy to ask how or why? He could see that she was walking frantically around the room on the phone to someone, "I'm telling you, I can't do anything his arms are covered in lightning … yes I said that correctly lightning!" she bellowed. Kevin weakly turned his head to see both his arms all the way from his fingertips to his shoulders were covered in the blue sparks. He had no energy, all he could do was lay there and wait.

After a while he found himself carefully being handled onto a trolley and was soon being wheeled out of the school and into the back of an ambulance. Laying in the back of the ambulance he could see the school through the small window, all he could do was lay there and wonder "Will I ever return to the school again?"

 

[<Challenger>]

Beege Davis: Chapter 1 Part 1: Fashionably Late...As Usual

Beege arrived on campus with a smile and a skateboard, as well as his duffel bag swung on his shoulder. He rolled the skateboard and hopped onto it, riding it all the way across campus. It seemed like a pretty decent place. It was clean, and there were no hooligans causing any trouble...Yet. He gave a laugh and decided that he would pull at least one prank this year. Nothing to serious. Maybe something like TP'ing the girl's dorm...Mwhahahahaha! He moved with his board, bracing for each jolt that comes with hitting breaks in the concrete. "Gilded Halls...Here comes Beege." He grinned and rolled straight into his dorm builiding. As he entered the open door, he leapt off his skateboard while keeping it in his free hand. Beege approached the front desk and recieved his key. "Thank you, madam." He said to the front desk-lady and gave a smile. He turned to the stairs and climbed the stairs. He arrived in his dorm room: Number 5, and set his duffel bag down on his bed, claiming the one closest to the wall. "Ah yeah! Room to myself!" It seemed that his roommate was nowhere to be found. Beege plopped down on his bed, unsure of what to do, and placed his headphones on his head. Time to listen to some Green Day...

 

[amerininja]

Kyle Marx

"Listen, Priscilla," Kyle began as he returned her stuffed bear to her and sat down on his bed facing her curled up body, "I know that it will be hard for you to learn but I promise you that for now on if you can't read something just come to me. Okay?"
"Hey," he began to whisper to Max in an nonhuman language, "I need you to go to the night stand and stay there for a while." As Kyle finished Max did just as he was told and even fell asleep.
Kyle picked up the first book in the pile, A-Z: How to Learn the Alphabet Fast!. Was this really in a school's library? He asked himself. He turned towards Priscilla and said, "Let's start with this one."​

 

[Sephear]

After 7 minutes straight of under water meditating (if he was wise enough to call it meditating) Will had finally had enough, he could have held his breath longer and he had been able to concentrate under water but there was too much pressure from the volume in the pool for him to move any of it at all from the bottom. He floated back towards the surface with his mouth open and voiceless bubbles until he broke the surface shouting. "BOOOORRRRRREEEEEDDDD!" After climbing out of the pool Will realized he hadn't bothered to grab a towel either, really wishing he had whatever power that girl who burned her desk did to dry himself off he sulked towards the school. I wonder what Selena and Matthias are doing right now...maybe I could find them and-ARGH! They were going to practice alone together...maybe they-and I don't wanna be a third wheel-but I have't talked to anyone else yet-and there's no point in going back to class right now and I-The nurse! Maybe I could get to know Ginevra a little better, and I'd like to meet that asian guy too.

After being back in the air for more than thirty seconds his hair's curliness caused it to poof a bit and curl much more like some sort of prissy, yet disorganized perm, leaving Will looking quite silly. But the annoyance of his hair drying had been a constant throughout his life so Will merely kept walking towards the main building, he couldn't have the pool to himself all the time and someone would see it sooner or later. He found he didn't feel bad about dripping on the floor of the school either. They seem to have a plan for, or ignore everything so I doubt they'll care, as long as I avoid splashing Ginevra or anything I should be fine...I hope she doesn't think I'm following her...nah they must have made it their by now. And with his thoughts in order he made for the nurse's office.

 

[ShaymieTheShaymin]

Priscilla Bellerose

Priscilla sat up and grabbed her stuffed bear. She nodded and stared at the book. "Let.s get started," she whispered. "The sooner we get started, the better. What do these words mean? And how do I spell my name?" She smiled and giggled giddily. This could be fun... It could make me smarter. Then I could fit in with everyone... But... What if everyone else is mean? Not everybody could be like Kyle, right? Priscilla looked down at the ground and sighed. "I wish she was still here," she mumbled under her breath, but not loud enough for Kyle to hear.

 

[amerininja]

Kyle Marx and Priscilla Bellerose

Kyle opened up the book and saw that there was a table of contents and lucky for him the first section was the ABCs. He looked at the section to see that each page was decorated with a upper and lower case letter on each.

"Okay now repeat after me....." he said before starting to sing the classic ABC song.

Priscilla shook her head. "You're going too fast," she said angrily. "How can anyone keep up with that?" She squeezed her teddy bear and sighed. "This is impossible. The only letter that I know is I. How'd you learn this stuff so easily, anyway?" I shouldn't give up before I start, though. She wouldn't want that...

"Sorry 'bout that." He said laughing a little. "I didn't have to learn it, sorry. My ability allowed me to know the whole English language at 2." He said while scratching his neck. "Here", he began while showing her a page with an upper and lower case A, "is A. Now repeat after me. Ah, A."

Priscilla sighed. "Lucky you," she mumbled. She looked at the book and frowned. "Ah..." She giggled. "Isn't that what doctors make you say before they put that stick in your mouth?" She shook her head. "Sorry... I should focus now..." She turned back to the book. "A? What's the difference between what I just said? A and ah are the same thing..."

"Most letters have multiple sounds." He explained. "Such as apple and acorn both start with the letter A. Got it?" He asked.

Priscilla shook her head. "I don't get it, but I guess I have to... This is too hard!" She laid back down and curled up into a ball. "Do I really have to read, anyway? Can't I just give up? You can just read everything to me while I'm here!" She hugged her bear and nodded. "Teddy agrees with me. You should listen to him."

"Okay. Fine I'll read everything for you from here on out." He said calmly. Maybe what she needs are real world reasons to learn. He thought. "Let's go to the pool!" He said enthusiastically.

Priscilla smiled and nodded. She stood up excitedly. "I can't swim, but maybe I can soak my feet or something..." Not the most exciting thing in the world, but this is my first time out of the house... Priscilla hugged her bear and ran to the door. She held it open for Kyle and smiled. "After you!" she said excitedly.

"Let me get on my swimming trunks!" Kyle said excitedly as he dug through his suitcase and pulled out a pair of black trunks. He ran into the bathroom and came back out with 2 towels. When he came out Max ran up his arm and onto his shoulder ready to go. "Let's go!" He said while leaving the room and heading to the pool.​

Joint post with ShayShayTheShaymin​

 

[ShaymieTheShaymin]

Priscilla Bellerose

Priscilla followed Kyle and smiled. "I've only seen pools on TV before... Are they fun?" she asked. She felt how excited Kyle was and couldn't help but feel a bit excited herself. For now, she'd just sit back and watch, but maybe once she got better at being more like a "normal" kid, she'd get to have some fun too. "I can't wait, Teddy," Priscilla whispered, hugging her stuffed animal tightly. She stuck her thumb in her mouth and followed Kyle without another word. What should I do if we run into another person here...? Hopefully, they'll be nice, too. People can't be as mean as Mommy and Daddy told me they were...

 

[Sir Bastian]

Matthias & Selena - Outside

It didn't take long for the two to return to the classroom. As per Matthias' suggestion, he peeked in to make sure nobody were setting anything on fire before giving Selena the all-clear to enter. They went over to the desk where there were still a couple of beakers with the various items in them and Matthias glanced at Selena, giving her an encouraging smile. "Alright, so... pick whichever you feel the best for, I suppose. What're you going to go with?" Matthias made sure to keep his focus on Selena rather than looking at the slight chaos in the classroom, with a girl sitting in the corner in a swimsuit and looking distraught, and some other kids chattering and working on their elemental control.

Selena followed Matt's instructions, she didn't dare to look at the students, especially since many of them were working on their fire elements. She immediately rushed to the desk and grabbed the first beaker that was on the edge of the desk. She swiped the beaker...suddenly slipping from her hand as she grabbed it. Her vine sprouted to grab the beaker as it was close to hitting the ground. Gasping for air, Selena took a deep breath. Slowly she picked up the beaker with her right hand and immediately ran out of the classroom.

"Alright..." Selena told Matt as he stood by the door. "I got the beaker...I didn't even get to see what I got."

She checked the label of the beaker and it said: "AIR".

Matthias managed to take a step forwards as Selena's grip on the beaker slipped, but she managed to user her ability to sprout a vine and grab it. He blinked a few times, not quite used to seeing a person with such good control over her ability before he followed her outside, the two of them breaking in the hallway on their way outside. As she looked down at the beaker and announced what it was, Matthias blinked in surprise.

"... Air? That's weird, there wasn't an air element on the board... and I didn't see that one before. Hmh. I guess it makes sense though, if you could control fire or water, that you could do something with air too..." He raised a hand to rub his chin thoughtfully before shrugging and giving her arm a little pat, grinning as he started walking down the hall again. "Come on, let's go get a nice spot and get some practice done before the class is entirely over."

Finally outside, Selena and Matt glanced over outside of the building and scanned for a place to do their element lesson. The student body outside died down from the time she hung out with Ginny earlier. The pool was also semi-empty. Until a few moments later, Selena finally found an empty stone table at the courtyard. There were flowers and bushes everywhere, and a luxurious fountain in the middle. Selena tapped Matt on his muscular shoulder and pointed to the empty table. "Over there, that sounds like a lovely place to work on our lesson." But she also found another table right by the pool. "Or we could go over there too..."

Matthias glanced over his shoulder at Selena as she tapped him and turned to where she was pointing, nodding his head. "Let's go over there, then. The important thing is that we get started so we won't be behind when the lesson ends." He knew that they were already behind as it were, but he was going to do some practicing in his spare time. The 'controlling the elements' had made him very interested in the various abilities. Even more so than he was before.

They stepped over to the stone table near the fountain, where Matt sat down on the right side of the bench, scooting in to about the middle, to give Selena room to sit down next to him if she wanted to, though in his mind, the most important thing was getting started. He folded his hands on the table and took a breath. "Alright... so, considering you already have pretty good control over your ability, I think that'll only make it easier to affect an element... so, take it away, I suppose!"

She placed the beaker on the stone table and took a seat in front of it. The leaf remained inside the Air beaker, where Selena would have to do something with it. She began to stare at it for at least a minute, hoping for an idea would come to make the leaf become manipulated with the wind. Then moments later, she picked up the leaf from the beaker and observed it for a few seconds. Then, carefully she placed the leaf on the stone table. Crouching down to eye the leaf towards the beaker, laying down with the opening in front of it.

Suddenly, with much eye concentration, the leaf began to move slightly, then it started to wiggle. Selena grinned at the wobbly leaf as it has temptation to move. As the concentration level was right, the leaf moved. But instead of moving to the beaker, it moved back. Selena twitched her eyes and stepped back to see where the leaf had landed, hoping she wouldn't lose it.

Opening her eyes, the leaf was stuck on the tip of Selena's nose...with the tip end of the leaf stuck on.

"Oh..." She chuckled, "Did I...do it right?"

Matthias sat across from Selena, smiling encouragingly before lowering his gaze to the beaker and the leaf. He was very curious as to how she was going to go about it, and if she could even do... well, anything with it. He rested his arms on top of the table, ignoring the soft breeze blowing through the nice and sunny garden and he watched her growing more and more concentrated. Then, the leaf started shivering, as if it was about to move.

He held his breath as he watched it slither towards the beaker, before pulling backwards, with Selena sitting up again, the leaf stuck to her nose. Matthias blinked a couple of times before letting out a laugh at the sight and her question, grinning playfully. "Well, you made it move alright!" He reached over and pulled the leaf off of her nose, holding it up in front of her with a snicker. "Well hey, at least you can actually affect your chosen element, right? Now it's just about practicing."

"Ow," Selena felt the leaf being pulled off of her nose by Matt, chucking along with her. He gave her words of encouragement, he wanted her to practice more. If she can re-establish leaves on her nose, then it's a good chance that she could use air to revive plants. She can only grow the plants, the flower beds, the grass, anything, but reviving them was another side-ability she hadn't known.

Selena got the leaf once again and placed it on the same spot as earlier. This time, with much more concentration as before. She placed her left arm near the leaf in case the leaf went in that direction. In just a few seconds, the leaf shivered once again, and it headed to Selena's left hand. The leaf was glued and all of the sudden a red-petal flower grew on her thumb. It was a small flower, which glowed beautifully. The leaf was stuck on the flower stem.

"So, it's official. With the air, I have the ability to revive plants." Selena said, "but all this work is making me thirsty." She grabbed her bag to take out her gallon of water, ticking the tap off the gallon and began to jug the water into her mouth.

In just a matter of seconds the water from the gallon was gone, and Selena was still dying of thirst. But she didn't want to resist another dramatic number like she did with fire earlier. She'll be able to master her lesson of air...now if only she could form another leaf to practice a little more.

Matthias smiled as she put the leaf down and started practicing again, this time managing to stick the leaf onto her hand, followed by a flower growing on her thumb. He wasn't sure if her ability came from her being excellent at controlling it, or if it was more… wild and unruly, like the plants she grew. Whatever the case, watching a flower grow from a person's thumb was quite the sight to see.

He grinned and clapped a few times. "Nice! You know, I hadn't thought of the leaves and stuff not attached to the trees and bushes as not being alive, but… that's really cool! Man, your ability is awesome."

He raised his arms over his head, stretching them out before lowering them again as he pulled his phone (An iPhone 3G if anyone wondered) and checked the clock. "Hrmh… lesson's just about done. I think we had lunch afterwards. I'm gonna head over to Valiant House and whip myself up a sandwhich. You can come along if you want to, Selena." He gave her a smile, though clearly not wanting to force her into anything, pushing himself to a stand as he raised his hand to give a little half-wave to her. "It was a good lesson! I feel like I learned something from watching you, so thanks! I'll see you around in either case." With that and another smile, he climbed over the stone bench fastened in the ground next to the table and headed towards Valiant House, going over the lesson in his head and reminding himself to practice a little more with fire.