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Garret sat very silently and very still just listening to the teacher, his gaze unbroken. One thing that really excited him about a class was when the teacher clearly had a love for the subject that he teaches, since Garret desires to know pretty much everything, this is what makes or breaks a class for him. When Mr. Vay concluded speaking and asked for questions, Garret almost wished he had some for him, but sadly he didn't. He did however for another student in the class.

"Hey, umm, Tombstone right? Can you tell me a little bit about your guns and how they work?" He whispered in a low-tone to his seat neighbor. The only guns he had ever gotten to work with were m-3s, m-1s, and m-14s, and he had only shot the m-14s on a digital range, so it was safe to say his knowledge was fairly limited and he probably wouldn't even comprehend the answer he received.

This was it. He was finally going to get answers. Answers to the bombardment of things that the universe had been throwing at him all this time. That she had been forcing onto him all this time.

Zane Vincent was an ordinary kid in a not-so-ordinary place -- the sky above him was a side-scrolling montage of painted fluff, for crying out loud! Upon arrival at the university, he had been in utter awe, and it was this bout of amazement that diverted his attention from the blue haired woman, of whom appeared to serve a task that was not much different than that of Hagrid from Harry Potter, towards bigger and better things. Things such as the discussions that were going on behind the various open and closed doors that the pair passed along the way to wherever it was that she was taking him. Half a dozen times, the woman turned to find Zane lingering behind and down the hall, sneaking peeks inside classrooms and lecture halls.

At long last, the woman finally gave up on this kid with the tophat and a head of shoulder-length jet black to boot. There were other latecomers to the orientation that she had to shuttle into the school besides this one hold-up. Besides, they were close enough to Vay's PSY101 class that, given the kid's track record, he could probably have found his way to the right classroom all on his own. The old woman smiled a knowing smile before vanishing in a puff of smoke, much in the manner of the other members of the faculty would at times.

It hadn't taken long for Zane to realize that his guide had ditched him for whatever reason. Many, many minutes, perhaps hours, had passed since he had lost sight of her that he had ultimately decided that it would be a good idea to ask for directions -- if only to bring him closer to his goal of finding what she was up to.

He opened the next door he came across by a crack to observe and guage whether or not it was safe to interrupt. There was something about guns and then characters coming out of their shadows. It seemed that he had walked in on the lot as they were entering question period. Zane just so happened to have a question. Perfect timing, eh?

Casually, he stepped inside the room and raised a hand tentatively. He straightened out his plain white t-shirt before making a little 'ahem' with a fist against his mouth and starting the moment there was a lull in the questions. "Yeah... I was wondering if you could tell me where I'm supposed to go. I'm new here and..." His eyes rolled towards the ceiling and a wry grin spread across his features as he jammed both hands loosely into the pockets of his skinny jeans. "...I kinda got sidetracked. I'm not even sure where I'm supposed to be headed, to be honest."

In the back of his mind, he mulled over how much text that she would end up devoting to his embarassing detour through the school grounds. He felt as though she only ever wrote so others could laugh at his predicaments. That harpy.

Just about to answer Alex's question, Vay paused when the door opened and a lost student stepped in. At the student's admission of being lost, the teacher grinned wryly and waved a hand toward the board which still said 'Welcome to PSY 101' in big letters at the top. "Guessing old Effie May ditched you in the halls, eh?" he winked slightly then nodded to the desks. "Have a seat, we were just doing a bit of QnA. Let me get this first question answered then you can give the class a bit of introduction bout yourself, when you're ready." Vay turned his attention back to the rest of the class, "Our lovely Registrar decided to open the class up for late comers so there might be a few additions wandering in. Just keep asking your questions while we get them introduced."

That taken care of Mr. Vay smiled at Alex to answer his question. "Without knowing the exact specifics of the situations I'll be optimistic and say the change in the character is actually an example of a player being flexible, making changes to their original character to better fit the RP. The main reasons a character falls behind are either a flawed design, or player problems. POL 101 will discuss the player problems. As for flawed designs, the GM should catch most of those in character creation but sometimes you just can't predict what will and won't work. So players occasionally must make changes to their character's design mid RP. There are good and bad ways to do this but if something isn't working it needs to be changed.

"The best way to make character revisions is to do it gradually and you should always discuss revisions with your GM. A good GM will give you ideas to help fix problems and might even create a subplot dedicated to making your character better. For example, Ellen is playing Steph, a shy but quirky girl who has gotten herself excluded from the rest of the group by being shy. Ellen decides she doesn't want Steph to be left out so she discusses with the GM ways to fix this. The GM agrees it's time for Steph to come out of her shell so they give her the upper hand in a situation which forces the rest of the party to rely on Steph to get them out of trouble - thus building relationships and giving Steph the confidence to get over being shy. Notice how this situation not only fixes a problem but also makes Steph a more layered and dynamic character as well as giving the GM a subplot to enrich the RP's action. If you didn't know better you could think this situation was part of the plan from the beginning.

"The wrong way to make character revisions is just suddenly pulling a switch on the character without discussing with the GM. For example, had Ellen just made Steph not be shy out of the blue with no explanation, no reasoning, and no build up. That's the fine line between inconsistent and flexible. A flexible player will do the work and give their character reasons to change whereas an inconsistent player will just suddenly change it.

"That you used the word 'randomly' in your question does imply that maybe the players you're asking about made the change poorly but since the change was beneficial (or at least not detrimental) to the RP as a whole the GM tolerated it. A good GM (and good players) will make the best of bad players and keep all scolding to PMs so you will occasionally see instances where a bad player example is embraced and built upon by the GM and other players. Hate to use this example again but that bad etiquette in SOUL was wrapped up with a fundamental character shift as well. The original character concept (as the GM and other players understood it) was neither delusional nor associated with the other character (Doc) to which he suddenly formed a strong attachment thus provoking the conflict between him and another character. Had it been planned this attachment and resulting conflict would have been a good subplot; however, it was not. Remember, making up a relationship between your character and another without asking the other's player is just as rude as hitting them." Vay paused briefly to let that sink in. "And this is why: the nature of the sudden relationship contradicted Doc's personality (she's not nice). In order to have the sort of relationship described by the bad player, Doc would have to fundamentally change her personality which had already been established both in her profile and previous interactions within the RP. There was much discussion between Doc's player and the GM (as well as the provoked character) on how to handle that situation and in the end it was decided the bad player had just earned his character some major issues in perceiving reality, thus allowing him to think he's got that relationship with Doc while not actually having it.

"And you would never know there was a problem had I not just told you. This is because the GM and all players involved handled the situation with tolerance and flexibility," Vay paused briefly to consider then walked to the board and added another item, 'Tolerance' under good player. "Tolerance is fundamental to being a good person and closely related to flexibility but important enough to put up there on its own. Had Doc's player bitched out about the mistaken relationship there could have been rage quits on both sides. Had the provoked character's player reacted to the threat with violence there would have been a bloody mess - literally. Had the bad player not accepted the GM's character change it would have forced the GM to be heavy handed. Had the GM been heavy handed it could ruin RPing for the bad player, which given that this infraction was accidental, is a bad thing. Hopefully the bad player will learn from the incident and improve, much like you're doing here. But if there is not tolerance for mistakes then there is no learning. If there is no flexibility there is no improvement. So, let's all be tolerant and flexible." Vay flashed the class a smile then settled back in against his desk.

"Come on now, don't be shy. Questions are good."

Alice attempted to slide down into her seat to hide from the new students that had entered but soon realized that wasn't going to work since she sat in the front row. "Maybe if I look busy, they'll ignore me." she thought to herself. Alice tapped her chin in thought for a moment, trying to think of something to do that would make her look busy. Then she realized Alex's note was still on the floor next to her chair so she quickly picked it up. Alice unfolded the note and dusted it off with her hand. She frowned at the little smudges on the paper, sliding it around on the floor had gotten it dirty. After reading the note and not knowing what else to say, Alice simply started to fold it into her favorite origami shape, a dragon. After all, it would take a while to make and it would satisfy her main goal, which was to look busy in front of the newcomers.

Mayura noticed the two new students that got in late with interest, she got back her attention to the board and the teacher, she placed her thumb nail in her mouth again and then raised the hand "I'll like to know if you could explain a bit on what you meant when you said 'you should do some character exposition' " she asked, soon after she felt her face go hot, she was getting red, that's what happened normally when she got to much attention on her, as normally happens when you ask a question, she simply kept her attention on front, not really wanted to know if people were staring or not.

The sudden change of wardrobe in the first new student elicited a wry grin from the teacher, who himself was wearing the t-shirt and jeans combo, but he didn't make comment. Vay just watched and listened patiently as the new student spoke then gave the boy a nod and friendly smile, "Good to have you, Zane. Hopefully at least this mind-screw isn't so unpleasant for you, though you've only seen a sliver of it," he gave the class a wink then tilted his head at the new boy as he sat down before the teacher looked back to the class, green eyes settling on shy girl #2.

"Fine question, darlin'," he purred, "And for simplicity sake I'll use Zane's first post to exemplify. Rather than coming directly into class, Zane here shows us a lot about himself by getting lost and wandering a while. We get a sense of who he is through his reactions to the world, inner thoughts, feelings, even a goal, and interesting relationship with his player. This is character exposition and it is the main point of a first post, or introduction, to give the readers a sense of the character. But exposition shouldn't be limited to the first post, it should be sprinkled about in most of your posts and definitely when your character is alone with nothing better to do.

"Zane's is a good example here because his player manages to make it meaningful by giving us reactions to what he's wandering about in rather than just focusing on him. She also uses the APC (all player character) of the blue-haired woman to give us a humorous bit of action out of ditching him. In both posts so far she's included little tidbits from previous posts by multiple other players to weave her character into the world and action around him. The length does verge on a bit much but she keeps it interesting by keeping it open and not just dribbling about her character while still telling us things about him," Vay gave Mayura a nod then with a snap of his fingers a lollipop appeared on Zane's desk.

"For brilliantly breaking the fourth wall, noticing details, encouraging interactions, and all round goodness," the teacher flashed a grin, "We'll work on your back-story in a bit." The grin lingered a while then turned to the others.

"Come on, questions are fundamental to understanding. I'll even take challenges if you don't agree with something I've said, just be able to support your argument," Vay invited the class to discussion as they waited to see if anyone else would show up.

And what a library it was. EB had never seen such a thing, never dreamed of it. More like a cathedral of light and air and books than the dusky shelves and shaded rows she was used to. The Academy's library stood proudly at the center of campus, beyond the green space and columned academic buildings where the students had wandered in. It had taken quite the feat of getting lost for her to end up there but then, sometimes the paths and hallways of the less used places in the Academy didn't always lead to the same place twice. So she had managed to stumble into the golden glow of the library's main rotunda.

The smell of old books lingered like a fine perfume where four balconied stories of marble floors and glass shelves lined the curves of the central room with vaulted hallways radiating out from the circle in a sunburst pattern. The lofty glass dome overhead shone with a glittering light that illuminated the whole building. Not a single corner was dark, defying the nature of shadows, as if the air itself held some soft glow perfect for reading. At the center of the circle was a round desk that ringed a tall column of tiny drawers, a catalog for all the books within these wondrous halls.

So many books. More than she could take in. Books from everywhere, in every language, in every time. Books bound in leather and cloth, paper backs and tin plates. There were scrolls and tablets too, all tucked away on glass shelves, all there to touch and hold and read. First additions right alongside compendiums and abridged collections. Her eye caught an odd title, an unpublished work from a favored author. A glance at a sign on the shelf labeled the section 'Unfinished Works' and confirmed her awe of the place.

It was the strike of a clock tower somewhere outside the library but easily heard within that shook E.B. from her reverie and reminded her she had somewhere else to be. Luckily the door she darted through took her close enough to the class to find it with relative ease. And the library would still be there for exploring, as would the rest of the campus, when the class was over and the students were allowed to roam before the next classes began.

Fang had listened intently for about 5 minutes, but then began to be distracted by a fly buzzing around his head. At first he tried to ignore it, but the buzzing was driving him nuts as the clock ticked. Trying to find a way out of hearing the buzzing, he raised his hand. "I have a question, but it's more about the RP rather than the class itself. What happens when we leave this class?"

As if on cue, a boy wearing all black and bound in chains appeared. "Sorry for not introducing myself, earlier." He whispered as if raising his voice any higher would hurt. "I'm Stealth. Excuse me for not being here, I've been sick for awhile now. But what I meant to ask is, is this RP going to become like one of the bigger ones, with its own subforum, or what?"