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 Posted: Sat May 28, 2011 8:01 pm
 "The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children." -- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Not all is safe on the inside either, where the walls of a school surrounds them. It is rumored by some that the school itself is alive, the memories of all the children before them and the souls of the deceased burned into the brick and mortar until the school came alive with grief. Other rumors say that the headmaster is a vampire, and the mysterious disappearances that sometimes happen are his doing. The strangest, and least spoken of, rumor of all is that the children are secretly being trained for an ulterior motive, one that includes the enslavement of the "norms" outside of the Mist. Of course, they're just rumors.. right?
Students.
Inside "the Academy" you may feel free to play any assortment of characters.. from humans with a special ability, vampire, fairy, or even alien. However, remember that your character is here to master their abilities and no one, not even the oldest among them, is any match for an instructor's power. Student ages range according to race, but the average year of enrollment is 9, while the expected age of graduation is 18. Instructors.
They look human, and they sound human, but there is no mistake in even the youngest of minds that the teachers at this school are not human. Many don't even act human, displaying a cool, apathetic attitude towards their students. The oldest students call them the "Old Ones," a reference to a class that has since been cancelled. Whatever they are, their abilities are awesome enough to keep the entire school hidden in the mists and fool the entire outside world that this school is nothing but ordinary all while containing even the wildest of students within. "Nothing is so common as the wish to be remarkable." -- William Shakespeare
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Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 1:41 pm
Enjoying the feeling of the sun on his skin, Casey kept his eyes closed as he heard the morning bell. Today was such a nice day, if the Old Ones wanted him inside a classroom to learn more about abilities he didn't have, or history that he didn't care about, or even writing that he found boring, then they'd have to come out here and get him. Not that he doubted one of them would, eventually, but he wanted to enjoy the time he had now while the morning stayed bright.
He both regretted the fact that the sounds of the city and traffic were muted by the Mist and enjoyed it. On one hand, it would be hard to relax with the sounds of people that couldn't hear him invading his head, but on the other hand it also made him feel so... disconnected.
Enrolled in a school for different people, and so far being the only student that was either so ordinary that he was different even to his peers, left Casey feeling a bit... confused most days. Today though, feeling the soft rays of the sun even despite the city's famed pollution (the Old Ones did their best to provide the students with a natural, unpolluted learning space), wasn't a day to ponder the meaning of his life. It was too depressing, anyways, and Casey preferred uplifting thoughts.
Though now he was starting to get bored with only himself to keep him entertained, so he cracked an eye open to see if there was anyone else cutting class, maybe someone with a free time block, or, even better, someone running late.
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haphazardly parked Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 6:50 pm
Page after page of the sketchbook was filled with unfinished drawings; a partially-drawn mystical creature here, a body-less face there, three books and a small, overturned lamp scattered across a desk without legs three turns of a page later. She could explain why she couldn't seem to finish any drawings just as easily as she could explain when the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse were going to show up on her front doorstep. It was an enigma; a puzzle that baffled any who marveled at the unfinished work and wished that they could see what else the artist had in mind. It was frustrating for everyone left with a sense of loss- but it hit her the hardest.
It wasn't that she didn't know how to finish her picture. Most of the time, she knew exactly how she wanted it to end - she just... couldn't do it. Couldn't put the pen, or the pencil, or the charcoal or paintbrush to the paper or canvas and finish it. She was almost... afraid to.
And on her fifteenth birthday, she quickly learned why.
It was small, insignificant, and not nearly as elaborate as any of her other drawings, but it was elegant in its simplicity. The smooth, curved wood of the bow shaded in neatly with pencil, the thin but strong and supple bowstring strung, and an empty quiver surrounded by arrows drawn haphazardly strewn about. There was no background - adding any setting would have ruined that something in the picture that made her lips curve, like the wood of the bow, into a smile as she set the pencil down and drifted off to sleep, strangely exhausted.
When she woke, the first thing she noticed was that her one finished drawing seemed lighter than it had. As if she had barely pressed the tip of her pencil against the paper... frowning, she spun her chair around - a habit she had when she was in deep thought - and quickly stopped it, staring at what lay before her eyes.
The bow she'd drawn... exactly as she'd drawn, with the same coloring she'd imagined and the quiver with its inlaid silver design and the arrows strewn about her room in the exact positions that she'd drawn them...
Her shock knew no bounds.
(Neither did the pitch of her shriek.)
Exactly an hour and thirty minutes after her initial shock, a man dressed impeccably in a black suit and tie appeared at her front door with a letter addressed to a 'Miss Isabel Everard'.
Her parents thought she was going to a normal highschool -- if a super elite fine arts school was "normal" -- but the truth was more fantastic than corporate accountant father and a tax-calculating accountant mother could imagine. She was learning how to create real things from her drawings, though she hadn't quite managed to control her magic.
Which was clearly evident.
She'd been out early in the morning to watch the sunrise for inspiration and had ended up drawing a bull instead. Halfway through the sketch of the bullfighter, a bull -- her bull -- sprang into being and ran straight for her.
Isabel screamed and ran in zigzags like she'd been told you were supposed to do when things were chasing after you, like buffalo or something. She heard the morning bell and was almost relieved -- she hated being late for class because the Old Ones always made her feel unbelievably guilty for sleeping in late. It meant someone was going to be sent out to find her -- and hopefully it'd be someone who could help.
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Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 9:40 pm
Another morning sun rising over the sky and the man standing on one of the long balconies just smirked and turned his back to the blazing ball of light. The lanky man leaned heavily against the railing as he pulled out a cigarette and lit it with his old flick lighter. The casing was worn out and the small shape could barely be seen. He had found the thing in the oddest of all places, a hospital gift shop while he was visiting some possible new students. He found it odd a hospital would sale something that could cause you pain but he was captured more by the symbol on the front than anything. As Professor Sheppard blew out the last puffs of smoke from his smoldering piece of paper filled tobacco the man flicked it towards the sun and just smirked again.
"Show off,"
It was then the instructor saw a truly humors sight to behold. A student running for her life from what looked to be a bull. The last bell had just sounded and the funniest thought of a student truly 'running' late came to his mind. It also appeared another student seemed in the mindset that time was not something they had to worry about and Sheppard simply could not allow that, and he should probably save the other girl before she is impaled.
Professor Sheppard appeared a few feet from the running girl in a blur and gave a heavy sigh watching her scramble for her life. looking at the situation seemed like one that would have an unpleasant ending for the one running but Sheppard knew he had to save her none the less. The instructor vanished from his position and appeared just behind the running girl and put out his hand as the bull drew closer. A dust billowing crash erupted from where the bull and the instructor meet and when the dust settled the bull was laying on the ground apparently unconscious. With another heavy sigh Sheppard lit another cigarette and looked at the girl who had been running.
"Alright enough goofing around, get to class and I might even put in a word for whatever teacher you have first period on account of life and limb or some other matter. If you got my class well then I guess you're in luck," Sheppard blew the last of his cigarette away and flicked it at the sleeping beast at his feet and turned a casual glance over his shoulder to the other boy, "You too, sightseeing is over I assure you the sky and the sun will still be there at lunch and you can look at it to your heart's content now let's get going shall we?"
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Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2011 8:54 am
A roguish smile replaced the look of astonishment that had taken up residence on his face at the sound of trampling hooves, a girl screaming, and the sight of the bull chasing her into the school yard. He wondered briefly about the origins of the beast but, considering the nature of nearly all the students at this school, wondering too much about it would just lead to a headache.
"Can do, Professor Sheppard." Casey said, standing and brushing off the grass from his jeans. "I got you, anyways." He said, walking towards the door past the Instructor and the other student. As he passed he couldn't help but wink at the girl, who still looked distraught, before heading in the doors for his first class of Economics. This subject he didn't mind so much, not because it was exciting to him or even something interesting, but because it didn't remind him of that special "something" that he was lacking in this school.
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Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2011 9:31 am
--tap-tap-tap--
With a slight sound of exasperation, Aeryn peered over the rim of her glasses at her class. Three, not four, student peered back at her anxious and unsure. She never started a class without all students in attendance, not unless once of them had been excused and she hadn't excused anyone.
"Wait here." She said, the tone of her voice alone forbidding any one of them to cause mischief in her absence. The click of her heels echoed foreboding down the short hall as she stalked gracefully towards the front doors. A student passed her just as she neared them, coming in from the courtyard, and she glared at him.
"Faster!" She hissed as the boy hurried to his class. Tardiness was one of many things she had no patience for. Aeryn would find him later today to issue a detention slip.
Opening the doors with a thought rather than a hand, she peered into the courtyard looking for signs of her missing student. She did not have to look far to see her, as well as what looked to be an unconscious bull, and another Instructor. Sheppard, she rolled her eyes at the sight of him. A whiff of cigarette smoke had her frowning disapprovingly at him, and it helped matters none that he was standing there with her student.
"Isabel." She said, not taking her eyes off of Sheppard. "You have class."
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haphazardly parked Vice Captain
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Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2011 9:41 am
Isabel nearly cried with relief when Professor Sheppard knocked her bull unconscious, mortified as she was. Nevertheless she still managed a scowl for the boy who winked at her and hadn't done anything to try to help her -- who just ignored someone being chased by a bull? She'd be even more angry if she found out he had some kind of combative skill, because that was just plain cruelty.
"Professor Sheppard, thank --"
Isabel. You have class.
Professor Aeryn's sharp voice made Isabel stop mid-sentence and freeze. "Professor," she immediately began. "I am so sorry." Had it been anyone else Isabel would've pointed to her unconscious bull and called it a day but she'd been late to Professor Aeryn's class twice this semester already and she knew excuses were useless.
Quickly, she trotted over to the bull and pulled out a small pocket knife. In a practiced motion -- she'd killed a number of her accidental creations -- Isabel drew the knife against the bull's throat and stepped back as black ink took the place of blood. A moment later, the bull and the pool of ink-blood faded and the picture in Isabel's sketchbook regained its original color.
Isabel herself swayed then stumbled, overcome with exhaustion. The bull hadn't been animated for that long, though, so she knew the fatigue would fade in a few moments.
Looking properly apologetic, Isabel returned to Professor Aeryn to follow her back to class.
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Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2011 6:31 pm
The economics teacher watched the boy get up and begin to make his way towards the school first. He tried to remember the students name but was never good at remembering any students names, even the ones in his class. As a matter of fact Sheppard couldn't remember what was so special about that boy either, it had to be something but the details escaped him at the moment. As he watched the boy go through the doors to the school he saw Professor Aeryn come out.
A sigh escaped him as he watched his fellow instructor try and make the first late student move faster. It was a good intention but likely wouldn't happen, but the boy might make it to class before Sheppard did now. With a casual grin Sheppard waved haphazardly to the blonde teacher and watched with a sideways glance as the female student killed the bull and it vanished into ink. That brought some memory recall to the economics professor, making a small thought about a girl who could make her art come to life. Seeing the student thank him he rubbed the back of his head with the same hand he had just been using to wave at Aeryn.
"Get going or Professor Aeryn might turn you into a newt, I think she can really do that to," Sheppard looked back at the professor in question and sighed again, "What are you doing out here? You're going to be late for your own class you know?" The lanky teacher knew he would likely catch an ear full for the statement but he couldn't help himself sometimes.
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Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2011 11:10 pm
"Unlike some of the faculty in this school," Aeryn said, turning sideways as Isabel joined her on the steps and opening the door to hold it for the girl, "I've already been to my class and called attendance at the bell." She finished with a scathing glance, another look of disdain towards the morning sun, and then added, "I don't need to worry about the attendance of my students.. I always find them."
This was followed with a direct gaze from Aeryn to Isabel, a pointed look at the hall that lead to the classroom, and a slight elevation of her chin as she looked one last time at Sheppard before closing the door behind herself and her student. After walking a moment in silence and with the privacy of the empty corridor, she said to Isabel, "Your creatures are getting larger." It was more than an observation, but the slight edge of approval was only discernible to the most sensitive of ears.
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Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2011 6:15 pm
BEEP! BEEP!
“Gosh dog it!” Ryan said out loud as he lay in his bed. His covers where pulled way over his face, but that didn’t stop his hand from coming out from under them. With a loud ‘crack’ his clock broke in several pieces. ‘Back to slee… sleep…’ He thought as his eyes closed and he almost fell asleep.
BEEP! BEEP!
“What the hell!?!?” He screamed as he sat up in bed, this time. “Where’s that beep coming from…” He said as he jumped out the bed. He searched all over his room, but couldn’t find where it was coming from. Then, to Ryan’s surprised it stopped. ‘Wow…’ He thought as he sat down. ‘I’m up now… What time is it…’ He thought as he looked at his broken clock. ‘Aw man now I got to get another one…’ He thought as he grabbed for his phone.
[7:55]
“I’m late!!!” He screamed as he ran to his closet and pulled on some jeans. ‘Again…’ He thought as he threw on an AC/DC T-shirt. ‘Mr. Shepherd will never let me live this one down…’ He thought as he slipped on his socks and shoes. The school was a full ten minutes away at a steady jog; something Ryan got used to after a few times of doing it. He ran to his window and pulled it open. He walked out onto the air and gently closed his window. He walked down the air onto the sidewalk and began jogging towards the school. ‘Thank gosh there was no cars or people there…’ He thought as he started the long jog towards the school.
[8:07]
Ryan made it to the school as fast as he could. Surprisingly, the gate was still opened. ‘What the…’ He thought as he pressed his back on the wall and peered into the school yard. He saw Professor Shepherd, Professor Aeryn, and a girl he had yet to meet. As soon as he saw Professor Aeryn, though, his head was back on his side of the wall in a hurry. ‘I hope she didn’t see me…’ He thought as he waited a minute or two before looking again. This time, he saw only Professor Sheppard and he knew it was going to be a cake walk from here. He slipped into the school yard and hid behind a tree. Now all he had to do was skip from tree to tree without being noticed. Unlikely, but he would try anyways…
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Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 11:13 am
Of course Casey slowed his pace as soon as he was out of sight of Professor Aeryn, and even more so once the click of her sharp heels was out of earshot. Then he whistled, quietly of course because he was cocky, not stupid, and shuffled down the hall. The Instructors would call it "doddling" whereas he liked to call it "meandering".. though, even as he thought about what they might call it he realized that he could not once recall any of them using a word like, "doddle", or any variation of its tenses. Any smile that might have emerged from that observation was quickly snuffed as he realized that he was entertaining himself only... and that was a drag.
Perhaps he should get to class after all. With Sheppard still in the courtyard for now, maybe there could be some mischief to get into inside of the classroom. Looking over his shoulder, sure that at least, one if not more, of the Instructors were capable of sensing mischief before it had even fully been conceived, Casey whistled a bit louder and picked up the pace to Economics.
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Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 11:27 am
Sensitive ears Isabel did not possess; she'd failed her hearing test in third grade, though she claimed she had done it on purpose just for kicks.
"But I still can't control them," she said glumly. It was true that the bull was large than anything she'd drawn before -- most things came to life as smaller-scale versions of the drawing, or matched the size of the drawing. The bull, however was life-size... and clearly dangerous. And Isabel hadn't meant to make it real.
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haphazardly parked Vice Captain
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Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 12:17 pm
Command, eh? That was something that the Professor could teach the girl, given the time... Aeryn lowered her head with the quietest of sighs, pushing her glasses up with one, dainty, finger and then continued walking. Sometimes, she despised this school. Oh, she could understand the desire of bringing all of the special children of the world to one place, for more than one purpose, but when her energies were divided from the ones that she truly wished to nurture.. then she grew impatient, to say the least.
"It will come with time." Was all she said, a statement of fact rather than encouragement. Aeryn did not give encouragement, only expectations.
Entering the large classroom ahead of Isabel, Aeryn did not watch the girl and wait for her to seat herself. Instead, walking past the rows of desks, she went straight to the chalk board. She picked up a small piece and turned to her class. "What," she began, "is the first step to your basic enchantment?"
Though this was not her beginner's class, the majority of the students before her being sophomores, but they still hesitated to answer. Not because they did not know the answer, but because Aeryn's classroom was always in fear of her volatile moods. She did not wait for courage to be found. "A clear mind."
Turning her attention to the chalk in her hands, Aeryn waited a few moments while visibly relaxing before the children. "Then, focus." With her eyes trained intently on the chalk it rose above her, dissolving into dust before her. The tendrils of dust defied gravity, swirling around her hands instead until taking shape into a chalky-white, incorporeal snake. "Next," she said, bringing her yellow-green eyes directly to Isabel as she spoke, "Command. Your will over the molecules that form your enchantment." Writhing out from Aeryn's hand to the chalk board, the snake wound it's fat belly over the black surface to form the word, 'COMMAND. and, when it finished, still without looking to her creature, Aeryn snapped her fingers and it became nothing more than dust.
"Today we will go over these steps, beginning with clearing your minds..."
----------------------------------------------
"Tomorrow.." Aeryn was at the limits of her patience as she spoke, having spent the past two hours testing the concentration of the children before with illusion after illusion. "You will conjure your own creature, in whatever way you feel comfortable.." There were murmurs of excitement, to be snuffed out by her next words. "And you will demonstrate to me your creature's ability to follow one simple command. If you cannot do this.."
She was interrupted by the bell, but she did not finish, preferring her words to hover as a vague thread. Her students, in varying forms of disarray, shuffled out of their desks and gathered what remained of their belongings after Aeryn had tested them, again and again, on their concentration. Some had to chase their pencils as they danced across the floor, leaving trails of doodles in graphite as they went, but Aeryn ignored them. "Isabel." She said, before the girl could hurry out. "Stay after class."
There was a resounding, 'oooooh.. from the rest of the students, which was immediately hushed under Aeryn's scathing glare. "The rest of you, OUT."
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Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 1:19 pm
Sheppard watched the two go inside and chuckled at his fellow instructors comment. He always found his students too, it might be after class but he found them…usually. He did have one of the odder classes among the faculty as well, it dealt with nothing odd or magical or supernatural at all, just numbers and money. It was a course most people found odd to see Sheppard teach and with a good deal knowledge to bestow to his students on the matter.
With a shrug the professor began to head back into the school when he caught something vague out of the corner of his eye. He was frozen in mid stride with his hands in his pocket as he titled his head one way and then the other lazily looking about. With a sigh and something of a wry grin Sheppard vanished from his current spot.
Now leaning against a tree with a student crouched on the other side trying hard to be sneaky, Sheppard clicked his lighter open and closed it with a snap. The sound would likely be all the kid needed to know he was busted and it was slightly amusing to mess with the late ones from time to time. Not like he had much room to talk but it was still fun.
“You’re late…and lucky, if Professor Aeryn had been the one to find you it would be a detention. Instead you’ll show up early tomorrow to make up for the time you have missed now for whichever class it is you have. Should you show up right on time or late again I will give you a detention of my choosing,” Sheppard flicked open his lighter once again and closed it with another click, and was likewise now gone from his spot against the tree.
*****
Sheppard appeared at his desk followed by a breeze catching some of his student’s papers and a few of the girl’s hair. He chuckled a bit while placing his feet on his desk and leaning back a bit as they scrambled to gather up their papers and blink a few times seeing their teacher suddenly at his desk. Another heavy sigh escaped the teacher’s lips and he titled his head about to see he was still missing a single student. Likely the boy from earlier…for a moment Sheppard thought about going to look for him but thought against it as he let his feet slide off the edge of his desk and slap the ground.
The noise was enough to get everyone’s attention as they opened their books and pulled out pens and pencils to take notes. The professor walked up to the podium he had setup by the blackboard and leaned heavily on it. He flicked the course book open and then looked up at his class.
“What chapter did we leave off on again?”
“Eight sir,” one of the bright eyes girls in the front row.
“Right right, let’s see now…Macroeconomics huh, I remember now we were on John Keynes yes?”
“Yes sir.”
“Right right, I’ll go slow while our last student makes his way here…”
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haphazardly parked Vice Captain
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Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 9:37 pm
Isabel hurried to an open seat by one of her classmates and spent the class trying to concentrate with varying degrees of success. Clearing her mind had always been difficult-- every time she tried to, she'd end up thinking of something she wanted to draw instead. And whenever she tried to focus on something, another unrelated thought was bound to come wandering along to disrupt her train of thought.
And command? Isabel wished. She tried to will some things to life and it never happened, and then she didn't even think about living but instead just drawing, and something would come alive. It was frustrating, how little command she had.
Her stomach flipped when she heard the assignment for the next day and she literally flinched when Professor Aeryn requested she stay after class. The professor was going to say something about her complete lack of control. She knew it.
When the other students fled after giving her sympathetic looks, Isabel stood. "Yes, professor?"
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