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Helmut wasn't sure what an aptitude was, or why a career needed one, but she was pretty keen on at least trying.

Until she saw the papers in front of her, and sank low into her chair. Reading? Really? Nooooooooo~~~~ The little Wendigo tried to sit up properly to take this seriously like an adult, but the moment she grabbed her haunted pencil, she realized she was doomed. It was stuck, and there was nothing she could do about it.

A low whimper of distress left her lips and she leaned over, grabbing the pencil with her sharp little teeth, trying to pull it from the desk with sheer brute force.

Exam?

Exam?

Exam?!

Maybe Serafina should not have been spending her whole day on Critter. Maybe then she would have known of this mysterious exam that was apparently happening today. She wasn't ready for this! Serafina bit her lip, looking down at the paper. What was she supposed to do here? She supposed the first question was rather obvious, at least, but it was also loaded. FEAR was a lot of things. It was a life source, it was what humans gave off when they were scared or surprised and maybe were even enjoying it from what she found out on her field trip...

Serafina tapped her lip with her pen, before jumping out of her seat. What? Why did her pencil call out of her hand? No no no no-- and now it was in the desk. No. Really? Haunted pencils could go intangible too? Was that really necessary?

Well.

Two could play that game.

Making her own hand somewhat intangible, she attempted to get a grip on the pencil, yanking it hard in an attempt to get it out. Unfortunately, becoming intangible herself didn't necessarily seem to be the most immediate answer, the stubborn pencil deciding to keep itself lodged in there as long as it possibly could.

In an attempt to ease it out, she poured a bit of her water on it, before yanking on it again. It seemed to become a bit looser that time. Aha!

So she poured more water on it. Hopefully she wouldn't need that later.

Eventually, the pencil came out with a pop, so rapid it nearly sent her arms flying back due to the unexpected expulsion of force--or something. In fact, she almost ended up dropping the pencil at more. She scrambled, getting it back in her hands, before getting back to work, pondering over the questions with a determined look on her face.

Poppy stared at the exam, and up at the stage. Important, huh? It will shape her future?

. . .

Meh.



As Popo reached to take the pen, it immediately began attacking. The demon had a flailing slap war with the haunted object before smacking it across the auditorium.

Now he hand was useless, and she had nothing to draw on the exam with write with.

The Fire Impe grumbled, and began to take off her shoes with her not so great hand. Write an exam? Screw that.

Popo started folding the exam into something with her feet and toes. Arel had been making some sort of thing with one earlier. Obviously that was the secret all along, right?

It was turning into a true masterpiece.

The Jiang Shi had quickly squished herself into a desk. The amount of other students all around was almost suffocating. Guess no one wanted to be a failure in life....or unlife...or whatever.

An exam to determine their future was important. So important that she just couldn't miss it. At least that's what she could hear her father's voice repeating over and over again as she had been making her way to the auditorium.

But Mei already had plans for her future. She knew what she wanted to do. Oh Jack what if she screwed this up and it gave her some totally horrible thing. Could she go on existing being stuck in that future?

With a heavy sigh she opened her envelope. Pulling out the paper and letting her pencils roll out. Almost instantly one sunk half way through the desk. Flailing around, hissing and spitting as it did so.

Greeeeeeaaaattttttt.

Persing her lips, she gave the haunted pencil a stern look. "Hey now look, don't start with me ok? This is a super important test so don't start being a jerk!" She waggled a finger at the pencil before grasping it's slender body between her fingers giving it a firm tug. Apparently it just didn't want to listen so she sat there and fought with it before pretty much giving up and taking hold of the second one. Flattening out the paper and giving the test a good look over.

Oh boy.

Name. "Meeeiiixiang." Easy enough.

'Where does FEAR come from?' Humans.

'A healthy FEAR consists of a healthy' .....glow 'and a healthy' ....consistency...? Sounds right.

'To become a Boogeyman you need to have' All of the above. She circled beautiful hair a few extra times just for emphasis.

'To become a ToTer you need to have' All of the above. In the side she scribbled 'Though not so much about a love of teaching students as a love of watching students get themselves into all sorts of crazy predicaments.'

'To become a Professor you need to have' Battling cafeteria food sounded good. Not all Professors were familiar with all the courses or gnome wrangling. Love and caring was just right out.

'What are the key elements of a human' FEAR. Meixiang tapped her pencil against the desk, glancing up at the clock. Uhhhhhhh. She wasn't too sure so just left it at FEAR.

She wasn't too sure what the next question was asking. So she just scribbled down 'I would handle it the best I could.' Yep. Easy peasy.

Next. All the classes were important. ALL of them. While she hadn't done all of them she still had at least a year left to do em. No rush.

FEAR Mastery hm? Pretty decent. Maybe not the best but most certainly not the worst. She had a bit more experience with it while doing her dealings as an Initiate.

Currently in Year Two. Goal is to become....well that was a hard one. While she wouldn't mind being a Professor or a ToTer it wasn't her unlife goal. Of course, she could mix em up. Same with Boogeyman or Minipet master. So she circled all of the above.

Alright! Last question. The school provides me best with....all of the above. Even thought perhaps she is more part and partial to certain answers of that question it pretty much covers all of how she felt.

There done. Mei sat back in her chair, glancing at the clock.

Lottie smiled absently, an almost empty look in her eyes. It was as if the wind could blow right through one ear and out the other, causing majestic whistling like walking through a mountain range.

She was new to school, and already her future was in Jeopardy.

She had not learned anything yet.



"EYAFFFFF-----" Lottie clamped a hand over her mouth, tears forming at the corners of her eyes. She stared widely down at the pen chewing on her fingers. Cripes! NOW WHAT!?

Oh! She could simply write it out with her blood, now that the pen had fled and left her little digits leeking.

She ran out of blood and passed out on her exam.

Terra picked up the pen--then yelped as the pen bit her right hand--"I do not appreciate that, senor--" Then she stopped herself as she realized it would get her in trouble. She pried the snake off, wincing as she realized the wound was bleeding--but would it be considered cheating if she used her FEAR to heal it?

Did she dare risk it?? This was a mucho mucho MUCHO important test!!

Wincing, she grabbed the pensnake with her left hand and stared at it for a long moment before starting to write in wobbly, ugly handwriting.

Name, TERRA SCYTHE. Date, 7/6. Where does FEAR come from? El Mundo de THE HUMAN WORLD, she wrote down carefully, her tongue sticking out in concentration. This was SO HARD!!

A healthy fear consists of... she had no idea. She was tempted to look around, but that would be cheating, right? So she stared at the paper until it blurred in front of her eyes. Then she carefully wrote "HEALTHY LIVING" and "PROPER NUTRITION" because you could never have enough "healthies" in a sentence it seemed.

To become a boogeyman one must have... she stared at that one for a moment, but honestly she'd never met a boogeyman before, so she thought of the ones she had seen on the skelevision and promptly circled, "BEAUTIFUL HAIR." Because even the hombre boogeys on the skelevision had beautiful hair!

To become a trick or treater... well, she saw the word "trick" in the first answer, so she promptly circled "SKILLS OF A TRICKSTER" and didn't bother reading the rest of the question--reading common was hard!!

The professor question got stared at, the words read repeatedly and slowly with much mouth moving, and then "ALL OF THE ABOVE" circled when she couldn't figure out the answer.

What were the key elements of humans? "BONES" she wrote, because that was the thing they seemed to leave behind the most, right?

She... had no idea what 2DAC meant. Most likely Roch would know! But... she couldn't ask him right now, could she? She frowned, realized it might be messing up her makeup, and then wrote the first thing that came to mind. "FIND A DIFFERENT SITUATION." Hopefully with a name that she knew.

Which classes? Um... "ALL OF THEM" Although she erased the question mark she put at the end--somewhat. As well as she could, at least.

What was her level of FEAR Mastery? "I HAVE NOT MASTERED IT. WHY WOULD I BE HERE IF I HAD?"

Then the final round, she thought. She knew the answers to these! "FIRST YEAR," "NONE OF THE ABOVE," and "ALL OF THE ABOVE."

Then she sat there, staring at the blood welling from her right hand mournfully. She LIKED that hand. crying

Lan would take this test only, she knew her career already.

To be ~Fabulous~