[Lynn Morgan]

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drifting

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the

waves

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Today was going to be a wonderful day, Lynn would make sure of that. It was going to be her first time running the homeroom class for the red group of students at Haven. She had chosen to cancel homeroom the last few weeks to give her class a chance to decompress and get back into the swing of things after the attack on Haven and Rochdale. It had been about a month or two, and finally she felt it was a good time to get homeroom started again. Given what she had seen since arriving, and what she had read on the students chatrooms, they all needed to just have a good, relaxing day without any stress or yelling or any of that. So that's what was going to happen. Lynn had stayed up all night the night before making salt water taffy, each wrapped up in little wax paper bundles sealed with little stickers that looked like ocean waves. They were all dyed different bright and happy colors like yellow and blue and green. [Break]
Bags of taffy in hand, Lynn rushed to the homeroom class bright and early so that she could get everything set up and be there before the first students arrived. Anyone who saw her running to the homeroom at the crack of dawn likely would have thought her crazy. She didn't have a jacket or gloves or anything on to deal with the snow and she was wearing sandals of all things. Ontop of that she had enough little bags in her arms that she could barely see where she was going. She only tripped a few times. [Break][break]

---

The arriving students would be met with the desks arranged in a semicircle with an open end on the side of the room where Lynn's desk and the board were. Each desk had a little personalized name tag on it in bold font and covered in little stickers and doodles of things Lynn assumed that student liked. She was right about 25% of the time. And of course, each desk had a little see through baggie filled with ten pieces of Lynn's home made salt water taffy with a label that simply said 'eat me!'. [Break]
Lynn herself was sitting ontop of her desk in criss-cross-applesauce position. She'd covered the desk in various little potted plants, including a wide selection of tiny adorable little cacti that she had placed little googly eyes on. There was a fish bowl too, containing a small bright red fish and a wife array of little sea plants and shiny rocks. [Break][break]

Each and every student was given a happy wave and a smile as they arrived, and once everyone had sat down and settled in Lynn hopped up from her desk and went to stand right in the middle of the circle. Those who hadn't seen her running across campus in the morning would get a full sight of her outfit now. She wore sandals and a knee length dress covered in ocean waves designs, and her top was a simple open front blue cardigan with a blank white shirt underneath. And of course she had her wide brimmed sun hat on, because you never know when you're going to visit the beach. [Break]
”Good morning everyone! My name is Lynn Morgan, I'm going to be the new class red homeroom teacher and counterbalance to the endless grumpiness that is Shadecloak. I've met a few of you already in my counseling role, I won't name names but I'm happy to see that each of you showed up! Today is going to be a relaxing day, I don't have anything extreme planned other than sitting here and having a chat with my new class. You're all very talented students and I want to spend today getting to know each of you and learning what you expect out of me!” She held her arms out and did a little spin around the room, pointing at each of the bags of taffy still on the desks. [Break][break]

”But before we do that, please help yourselves to the taffy! It's home made by me and I hope you all enjoy it! Now,” Lynn walked back over to her desk and climbed back up on top of it to sit down. ”If you're feeling up to it, I'd love it if you could tell me what things your previous instructor did that you would like me to continue, as well as what things your previous instructor didn't do that you think I should start doing. I'm open to any ideas, and I want to make this environment as pleasant and beneficial for each of you as I can!” With that, Lynn left the floor open for anyone to talk if they wanted to. She had a wide smile on her face and her hands were palms up on her knees in a sort of yoga pose.

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[Berwyn Rhodes]

Homeroom, all right. That is a normal class that is sweet and easy, right? Meeting your teacher, meeting your fellow students. Just show them your best side and be happy, and maybe you can make some friends to talk to! Maybe it sounded just a little bit too much like group therapy like Berwyn but that was all right! She got through that and she could get through this!

Berwyn marched through the hallway with a big smile on her face, her arms heaving merrily along as she made her way to homeroom class. She arrived first, strangely enough, and she gave a big wave when the teacher waved. Lynn Morgan, wasn’t it? She looked more like someone you would see at a beach than a teacher, but that was alright. She was most likely trying really hard to provide a positive and homely attitude! She even placed little bears on Berwyn’s name card! How sweet and thoughtful! The giantess looked at the name card for a moment, making sure to get a picture of it with her scroll.

The desk was…well…it was not Berwyn-size. The giantess sat down on the chair, but she needed to pull the seat back as she did not easily fit under the table with her legs. Even if she did try to squeeze herself under it the limited space would ensure that she could not move her legs enough and then they would get all sleepy. Still, if she bent over slightly, she could still easily enough reach the candy on the desk. Did this lovely little sunshine of a teacher brought us candy as well?

Oh no, she was going to be a push-over, wasn’t she?

Berwyn gave a strategically number of nods as she had already put one of the taffies in her mouth before being given the freedom to do so by the teacher. She had silently hoped they were chocolates, but salty taffy was still very nice. Even if Berwyn wanted to brush her teeth afterwards. Very sticky. What Lynn said didn’t made Berwyn all that confident that she wouldn’t be immediately destroyed by the first student who gave her a real hard time. She looked more like a kindergarten teacher than someone who was supposed to educate…well….us! Berwyn felt some internal mamma-bear feelings welling up even though Lynn was most likely older and could most likely kick her butt.

At first the giantess looked around for anyone else to answer the lovely provider of taffy and smiles. She did not know the previous instructor here, so she would chime in later about her life. Only, well…were the students giving Lynn the silent treatment? Nobody spoke up! Was this some form of prank that Berwyn didn’t know about? Were the students still too much in shock about what happened to the previous homeroom teacher? Did everyone go to a night-long rave and were too sleepy to answer? Eventually, Berwyn could not take the silence as it dragged on, so she just eventually raised her arm in the air. Maybe it was because Lyn reminded Berwyn of being a kid in class again, but she almost didn’t think about how it would look to see the beefcake of a woman sitting in a too-small seat raising her hand to get permission to talk from the gumdrop princess who was their teacher. Clearing her throat slightly before speaking in her suitable deep voice.

“I…uhm…I am a transfer from Haven! My name is Berwyn Rhodes. Some of you know me from…eh...from Sanctum.”

Not the best time to bring up one of your worst times, Berwyn, but you can roll with this! By ignoring Sanctum!

“We could all share one of our favorite songs or music each time and listen to it together! My homeroom teacher at Haven was Mrs. Fialova! She always started homeroom with music to, uhm,” Berwyn tried to imitate a higher pitched voice, but it sounded funny more so than authentic. “’…to unbar the soul from its sweltering suffocation brought about by vicissitude modernity'."

From the ease that the giantess could speak the line, it was quite obvious that despite everything that happened since she even went to those classes, it was made sure that the line was engraved on her mind like that. Mrs. Fialova made sure to repeat it every homeroom like it was her personal mantra or something. She was honestly a rather draconic teacher in many ways, but she did also have her good sides as a teacher. The music was one thing that Berwyn always liked about her.

Going on with some more general knowledge about herself, Berwyn made sure to look at her fellow students and give them all the ABC’s of Berwyn. With enthusiasm to match Lynn, she went along the usual things people would ask here. “So, some things about me: Yes, I am really this tall. The weather is quite nice up here. I have never met a shelf I cannot reach! Not only because of my height but because I can float! I like math! I like watching animal documentaries in my free time, and I eat and work out a lot! If you want tips on how I take care of my hair I can give them! And uhm… I am scared of scorpions and thunder!”

That about covers the basics. Taking another taffy, Berwyn looked around as she awaited what her fellow students had to say. Don’t leave me hanging here!

---

873 Words

[Bianca Sabbato]

I had absolutely no idea what were we supposed to do in homeroom class or what the idea even entailed. Where we supposed to learn things related to... Homes? Or something? So I basically entered the room with an open mind and with the mindset to be prepared for anything and everything to happen.

Either way, what I was not expecting was to see an adorable looking woman sitting on a desk, surrounded of adorable looking trinkets and smiling and waving adorably at me.

-Mornin’ Boss!- I replied eyeing her with curiosity. Everything from her looks to how she handled herself in the room was so... So...

UGH. I. JUST. WANTED. TO. GO. AND. SQUEEZE. THAT. WOMAN.

She only had to show herself and wave, and she’d managed to make me lower my guard in an instant. Looking around, I saw at least 5 places from where a surprise attack could have come that I didn’t even bother to check until it was too late.

What a scary lady.

As I made my way into the room, I started to notice how the desk were all decorated with... Things, colorful stickers and drawings of multiple, seemingly unrelated things. Eyeing a small tag with my name on it, I approached on of the desks close to the center and inspected it cautiously.

It presented a couple starfish and seashells doodled all over a pattern of cyan colored waves. With the occasional sticker of multiple cartoonish depictions of hair care products or music notes (some that only looked like, but didn’t actually exist) along a pretty drawing of a violin that occupied almost the entirety of the left corner of the desk.

The message was clear, this woman already knew us, and with this demonstration of power she let us know that she has eyes everywhere and can find out about anything that we did.

The atmosphere was weird and I wasn’t sure if I liked it or not... Not like anything I had ever felt with any previous instructor. So that kinda gave me pause for a while, as I was half expecting it to be a trap to teach us to always stay on guard or something like that.

... Yeah... It was at least a little suspicious. So very slowly I took out Nereida from its shaft and supported it in a standing position against what I assumed was my desk.

Worst of all, if her words were true she already had informants amidst our ranks, but she wouldn’t be telling who they were.

When her feet touched the ground, my eyes naturally were dragged towards them and the comfy looking sandals she wore with pride. “She’s a woman of culture as well, so I cannot let my guard down” I tough as I saw her do her little spin and point to the inconspicuous bags resting on our desks.

“Eat me!” Said the ten or so little bags. Each and every one with an exclamation point at the end, not a suggestion, not a petition... But an order. And homemade by her, so there was no way to know what those things really had inside them, that was a secret only known by a certain Lynn Morgan.

Swallowing hard, I took one of the little treats and gingerly put it on my mouth.

It tasted sugary and tarry... It tasted good, so good I found myself lost in the soft flavor and texture along my own wandering mind to the point I hadn’t noticed the uncomfortable silence that had taken hold of the classroom.

The booming voice of my roommate rescued my from my trance. And made me noticed I absentmindedly had already pooped two more pieces of candy that I was currently munching happily at that time.

Berwyn didn’t say much that I didn’t know already, although the part of her fearing scorpions and thunders was new.

“Uh, I guess I know what I’m doing for prank day this year”

But back to the important stuff, Berwyn had already broken the ice, so I decided to rise to the challenge and show our new teacher that I was no scared of anything.

-Well I’m Bianca... And in regard to what I like. Well, I really like these things, that’s for sure... Whatchamacallit? Tofi?- I said already unwrapping another one.

-Besides that, I like music as well, I play the violin and have an earth manipulation semblance... What else...- I wasn’t very sure of what exactly was expected to say in that situation, was I supposed to say I liked girls? I didn’t know, so I kind of just went with whatever.

-I guess I like reading, although I never had access to a lot of books before Haven. And I’m pretty much down for whatever to see if I like it or not-

That kind of covered that part, now in regard to previous experiences with instructors... Well, most if that was things I really didn’t want to do again, but there was some undeniable usefulness to some lessons.

-Well if we're talking previous instructors... I remember there was this exercise I liked. He would gather a group of us- Of gang members. —And fling us into a completely dark environment— Often an abandoned building at night. —Then formed random teams and sent us to beat the shit out of each other in the dark-

I let silence fall for a couple seconds while I correctly recalled the details.

-Some times the teams would be unbalanced or there would be solo people. I remember boss said it was to teach all of us to be prepared for unfair or unexpected fights- Adapt and survive was the name of the game, so you got better and kept advancing or fell behind probably to never catch up again.

-Yeah, more often than not it was us the faunus just curbstomping humans since night visions and stuff. But that was only to teach the humans to adapt to fight against faunus on their element while the faunus learned stealth and shit, and coordinating with humans companions in the dark- It was a pretty good training for both groups, and since I was a faunus I always had the better part of it... Except when the boss decided to make solo against a large enough party of humans.

Satisfied, I stepped back to let some other student have their turn. But just as they were starting to speak I raised my hand to add one last thing I had remembered at last second.

-Oh, oh. And the boss sometimes was hidden in the corners trowing wrenches at us to add some environmental hazards... So there’s that, I don’t know if you take care of battle training or not, but you could always raise the idea to the combat teach if you want-

I mean, I still couldn’t look at a wrench without flinching, but hey! I had gotten pretty damn good at dodging!

Expecting that was enough to please Morgan, I popped the fifth caramel into my mouth, the papers said “eat me!” so you could be damn sure I would. If only to not warrant the anger of the strange teacher.

---

1200/1200 Words.

[Aegle Verdant]

It was just before class was due to being when Aegle finally sagged into the homeroom, lank hair hanging before her face, still sodden from the showers. She felt strangely lopsided, and not just because of the heavy duffel bag that hung from one shoulder. In fact, everything since returning from winter break had a tilted feeling to it. Between Rochdale, and Van Sange, and everything to do with Carmim. And now, here she was, about to meet her new teacher. It had a sort of surreal quality to it, and she was trying her best not to give any of it too much thought. Like so many things, she was especially bad at not giving things thought. She was bad at not thinking about how this would be her first class with Ms. Morgan, and she was bad at not thinking about the finality such an event brought to everything that had happened to Haven over the break. She was bad at not thinking about all the people who'd been at the Academy who weren't any more, just like she was bad at not thinking about what it all meant.

She wondered, not for the first time, why she was doing this.
'Why anyone would do this...'
But those thoughts were a black hole and, as she rather expected her new teacher would frown on her starting fist fights in homeroom, she knew she didn't have a good means of working her way through them. She might have begged off sick, to go be alone and sweaty with all the bad ideas bouncing around her head, but she would need to meet her new teacher sooner or later. Best to get it over with. Best all 'round.

Lifting her head, Aegle found the room was far from what she'd expected. She hadn't necessarily been expecting anything, true, but that did little to lessen the strangeness of the sight before her. The tables had been moved for one thing, and their new arrangement was evocative to say the least. Their's wasn't a big class, so it hadn't taken much to give them all a front row seat, but the effort was still apparent. It put Aegle in mind of the physiotherapy she'd undergone just before being discharged. Specifically, the way they'd all gathered in a circle to do stretches and say their daily affirmations. She knew from Carmim that Ms. Morgan was a therapist, and wasn't sure she liked the comparison she couldn't help drawing. Glancing at the teacher in question, Aegle was met with smile and wave, all bottled sunshine under the broad rim of a hat. Like everyone she met, Aegle couldn't help sizing Lynn up. The first thing she noticed was how very pretty the new teacher was. 'Eternally Eighteen' is the way her mother might have described Lynn, with slight features, smooth skin, and impossibly big eyes. She looked like she should have been hosting a sit-in or weaving flower necklaces. She definitely didn't look like the kind of person to be teaching at an Academy, but Aegle was still very Atlesian in her conceptions of such things.

Still, there was something kind in her bearing and her gaze did not weigh on Aegle the way so many others did. Despite herself, Aegle even found herself honestly, if only briefly, smiling back. She didn't go so far as to pull her hands out of hiding to actually return the wave, but she went to her seat feeling strangely reassured all the same. Upon seeing the state of her desk, some of her apprehension reasserted themselves. There was no mistaking that it was her desk
'There's my name, after all. And spelled correctly, for once...'
But it wasn't the spelling of her name, correct of otherwise, which had truly captured Aegle's notice. It was the stickers that surrounded it. Stickers, like the kind you win at a fair. Tilting her head as she moved to take her seat, the baffled Atlesian shrugged off her duffel bag and inspected the offerings. A couple of sigils from past Vytal victors, a punching bag, something suspiciously like the emblem of a comic she used to read.
Aegle blinked, then shot Ms. Morgan an uncertain look. Just to make sure she wasn't mistaken in her conclusion, Aegle cast a glance to either side, to the desks of her neighbors. They also had stickers, though few, if any, meant anything to her.
'Suppose I have to commend the effort, if not the execution.'

Unsure whether she was reassured or put off, Aegle tried not to wonder how Ms. Morgan had gathered her intelligence. The punching bags and fight-night logos weren't hard to explain, everyone in the class knew she spent every free moment training, but how had Ms. Morgan known Aegle used to read Sleepless Domain?

So captivated was Aegle by the stickers and doodles, it was only when Ms. Morgan pointed them out that she noticed the bag of taffy which had been set out for her. Hands still firmly enshrined in her pockets, the crooked girl leaned forward for a closer look.
'Home made? As in she made it herself?'
Her teacher was seeming more and more like a caricature with every new development; She couldn't have been any different from Van Sange if she'd been from an entirely different planet.
'Why does that thought make me feel so guilty?'

After a not inconsiderable stretch of deafening silence, the new girl, Berwyn, took Ms. Morgan's up on her request. Given what Aegle already knew of her, this didn't come as that much of a surprise. It was a good thing she did, because it saved anyone else from Class Red from answering Ms. Morgan's question regarding Van Sange's teaching methods. Aegle leaned back and listened to Berwyn's introduction, redundant for her as it was, and felt a slight grin slip onto her face with each new detail.
'Be nice, being a bit more like her, and not just because I'd be taller and stronger...'
She earnestly wanted the best for Berwyn.

By the time Berwyn was done, she was looking around with that awkwardness Aegle had observed upon first meeting the tall girl. Awkwardness and anxiety born, possibly, of being the one person to speak up.
'The one person to speak up,' Aegle thought, 'In a room full of strangers, addressing the woman replacing our dead teacher.'
Aegle glanced around the room, wondering how many people felt as unmoored by this whole experience as she did. How many others found it surreal, to be sat in a room with taffy and stickers, surrounding Van Sange's replacement. It was almost enough to compel Aegle to speak up, but she was once again beaten to the punch. This time by Bianca, of all people.

Bianca's own introduction was a bit more to the point, though it couldn't have been any more surreal if she'd shed her tail part way through. Aegle wasn't sure what 'exercise' the faunus girl was referring to, but she was pretty certain Van Sange, for all his flaws, had never thrown wrenches at his students.
'And no awkward story is complete without implied Faunus on Human violence...'
Perhaps it was just her recent confrontation with Argent weighing on her, but Aegle could practically feel tension growing thick around her. The rest of the class trying to decide if she was talking about some one else, or taking the opportunity to drag Van Sange's freshly buried name through the muck. Given his history, the things he'd been accused of doing, and the enemies he'd evidently had...

'Damn you, Argent. Bloody damn you.'

"Wish I'd met ye a week ago, Berwyn." Aegle said loudly, before the last of what Bianca had said could really sink in. Flipping her soaked mohawk with a flick of her head, Aegle looked across at the big woman, "If I had half y'skill for mane-tenance, I wouldn't have had t'cut half'a mine off."
She grinned, showing off all her teeth, then looked to Ms. Morgan. Coming forward with a mechanical whir, Aegle rose from her seat to stand at her full height, such as it was, without taking her hands from her pockets.
"M'Aegle and, bein' that I know some in here don't really like my way've talkin'," She resisted the powerful urge to look at Bianca, and kept her eyes fixed to Ms. Morgan instead, "I'll do us all some favor and keep my own spiel brief."
She shrugged, with some difficulty, "Or brief as I'm able t'make it. Them that knows me, know I have some tendency t'ramble..." She resisted and equally powerful urge to look at Carmim.
"Buildin' off'a what Bianca was sayin', y'have already done more than Van Sange ever did." That came out poorly. Aegle fought the urge to wince, "Meanin' he didn't do much, and I doubt there's much of worth f'ye t'continue, aye?"
Trying to talk around the taste of her own foot, Aegle forced her smile wider instead.
"Van Sange was sort of hands off in the way he taught, and I don't reckon there's a one of us who doesn't reckon he just did what he did for a laugh."
'You spoken ill enough of the dead yet, you reckon?'
Aegle decided it might be best to append further observations about their prior teacher's teaching methodology, or lack their of, and did her best to lessen the bite of all she'd said with one final quip.
"I mean, just look at who he made captain."

'Yeah,' Aegle thought, 'That ought to do...'
Then, smiling, she sat back down and dropped her eyes to the table top before her.

---

Aura - 100% || Words - 1,617 || Total - 1,617

[Forsythia Kotenshi]

So... homeroom was a thing. Honestly, it shouldn't have surprised Forsythia as much as it did... Haven Academy was still a school, of course they'd have homeroom. And despite that, she'd still been caught off guard when she learned that they'd had to go to homeroom. Of course, she didn't think she could be blamed for being surprised, since they hadn't had homeroom for the entire time she'd been at Haven until now. What did you even do at homeroom in a huntsman academy? Hell if she knew, but she hoped that the teacher would be nicer than some of his or her... grumpier colleagues.

The teacher was nicer than her grumpier colleagues. Way nicer than Shadecloak some other examples of teachers. Forsythia didn't even know Ms. Morgan yet, and she was already sure of this fact just by looking at her own desk. It had her name scribbled on it, spelled right for once. Not Forcynthia or Foursythea, but the proper spelling. She liked this teacher already.

Looking at the rest of her desks, it was littered in stickers. Childish, but also cute in a way. There were whoopee cushions and mythological heroes and monsters stuck to the table, meaning that the teacher knew a little bit about her students' likes, and that honestly impressed the eagle Faunus, since Shadecloak some other teachers wouldn't have gone through the effort. Although... how had the professor found out about her affinity for mythological epics? She hadn't been open about her liking for those kinds of tales. Eh, a question for another day.

The final decoration to the desk was a white package sitting on top of the desk. It seemed to be made of of wax paper and was kept closed by the same kind of little stickers that littered her desk, this time of ocean waves. Opening the bag, she saw a bunch of colourful candy. Taffy, if Forsythia had to guess by the smell and feel of the sweets, but she could be wrong. Popping one into her mouth, she tasted it. Oh yeah, definitely taffy. Not her favourite candy ever, but she didn't hate it, and she appreciated the sentiment all the same.

Snapping out her own thoughts, she realised the homeroom teacher had begun talking. She chuckled a little at the Shadecloak analogy, and was a little sad that she'd never met the teacher before now. Well, no time like than the present. Learning that the taffy was meticulously homemade, Forsythia was glad she hadn't dissed it too much earlier. She'd probably be feeling really guilty or at least little  remorseful if she had called it trash. Still, it just enforced her belief that Ms. Morgan was a really nice teacher.

When the new homeroom teacher brought up the old one, the eagle Faunus felt... kind of indifferent. After all, she'd never known the previous guy, so she had no idea what he or she was like or had any bond with him or her. Of course, she was a little worried that this attitude would be a first class kinda thing and she'd be a slave driver, but from the way she had acted, she'd convinced Forsythia that she was just a good homeroom teacher. She silently hoped that Ms. Morgan wasn't the kind of two faced teacher to try something like that.

The newest teacher was done talking. That was apparent, but now it was just kinda... an awkward tense silence. Nobody seemed to want to be the first person to talk, and it sure as hell wasn't gonna be Forsythia. Looking around at everyone, she saw that most everyone seemed to be the same way. Would it just stay silent for the rest of the class? That would be kind of awful, since it'd be boring to just sit in silence for an entire period worth of time. So... was anyone gonna talk?

Berwyn was the one to shatter the tense silence, and for that the eagle Faunus was graceful. She listened to the older girl's short speech. It was a little awkward, but honestly, it was better than the nothing that had been occurring prior to it. She silently took mental notes on what Berwyn talked about. Likes, fears, banter. Forsythia was glad that when the giantess sat down, she looked very pleased, which meant she wasn't embarrassed by the speech. Good, the older girl had suffered enough at Sanctum.

The next person to step up was the dark skinned girl that had spoken earlier at the Class Red Rescue Operations. She introduced herself as Bianca, and once again the eagle Faunus made sure to remember what she said she liked and disliked. Bianca also talked a little about what the previous Red teacher had been like, or at least how he had trained them. A little more interested, she listened to the other girl's words. Forsythia agreed with the previous teacher's motives, even if they seemed a little harsh. To be fair, there were always worst things a teacher could have done to teach their students what the real world was like, so she wasn't too disapproving of the previous guy. Uh, but she'd rather not have the combat teacher rigging class against the students, if possible.

She was glad that the third person to speak was quick enough to try and draw attention from Bianca's last statement. She introduced herself as Aegle Verdant. Forsythia was pretty sure this girl was the class captain, if the class roster was up to date. She'd started off with a pun, and that put her in the younger girl's good books immediately. She didn't talk much about herself, only talked about the dead teacher. She portrayed the Van Sange guy as a little more sadistic. She was kinda rude about the guy, considering he was dead, but she just assumed that they'd had a bad relationship when he was alive. Still, wasn't there a whole thing about respecting the dead? Eh, she was gonna hate on the older girl for something as small as that.

The silence was back. And now that some people had talked, it was even more awkward. Well, she wasn't be a coward now, wasn't she? She decided to cut in, one of her signature grins on her face. "What's up all?", she spoke loudly "The name's Forsythia. Forsy, if that's too much of a mouthful for y'all." That wasn't a bad way to start, right? She sure hoped not.

"I'm new around here, so I haven't met many people for real either." she continued, "Hope we can get to know each other better! Uh..." Great. She wasn't sure what to talk about now. She'd never known what the Van Sangers guy was like, so she couldn't really expand on it. But Berwyn hadn't known the dude either, and she'd be fine. Ok, likes and fears.

"I like jokes." I like jokes? What the hell kinda like was that? 90 percent of people liked jokes! Something else... "I also enjoy flying around campus. It's big and has a lot of aerial space for me." That was a little better, though she was pretty sure she'd just confused anyone who didn't know about her semblance And... that was it. She didn't really have anything else that she was comfortable sharing with... well, to put it bluntly, a room of mostly total strangers.

Well, she wasn't sure she was exactly comfortable sharing her big fears, either. Well, she could talk about the less bad ones. "Snakes kinda give me the jitters. And I don't like apples, I think they're kinda gross." And... that was it. She wasn't sure how much of the class were racists, so she'd be open about her Faunus nature if asked, she wasn't gonna flaunt it. It's not like it was easy to see, like ears or a tail. Her jacket and shirt were enough to cover them. And she definitely wasn't gonna tell them about Lucy. That was a really personal thing, and she was sure Berwyn some of them wouldn't really want to hear about Sanctum. So... she was done.

The silence was back.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

1357 / 1357 Words

[Kishka Burzanova]

KISHKA BURZANOVA

Homeroom. It was a class that Kishka had, for an exceptionally long time, felt to be a complete and utter waste of everybody's time. It had been nice not having homeroom for the past few months, you know? More time devoted to Vytal training. More time devoted to self-improvement. More time devoted to Argent. Devoted to way more important things than wasting air doing teambuilding workshops and stupid icebreakers. That shit was lame, and from what little she'd seen and heard of the new teacher, she fully expected all of that irritating bullshit. It didn't matter how she felt about her role in the Red Class right then- she was annoyed to have to stop working on new techniques to make it to class on time. Whatever bullshit they were going to cover, she was already over it. ...That is, until she got to the door. A few students were already there, but she ignored them in favor of eyeing the teacher who was smiling and waving at her. She waved back,but her expression was neutral, and about as hard as ever, her purple eyes fixated on the woman who belonged in a toy shop, not a Huntsman Academy. Not that she doubted her qualifications. Surely, Haven learned from the last time they made that mistake. Her seat was easy enough to find, though she did find it entirely unpleasant that she was seated next to Aegle, of all people, according to the nametag beside hers. Though she certainly didn't have the time to think too much about any of that. Not when she saw the dizzying array of... stuff, on her desk. The taffy caught her eye first, and while she was immediately predisposed to count them out, she had to admit, they were very well-presented, and the little sign was admittedly very cute. Something she never thought she would ever think about anything any of her professors had ever done, ever. And the stickers. Fuck, she couldn't help but allow her face to soften just a bit, and the slight hint of a smile formed, which was betrayed fully by the full smile in her eyes. How much effort had gone into all of this? It was stupid, and pointless, but it was also way more endearing than it had any right to be. A little umbrella. A punching bag, much like the one on Aegle's desk. A few stickers gleaned from several of her favorite comicbooks, which definitely made her question the sources for her sticker research. And a few, including the classic comedy and tragedy masks, and a Spectre at the Theatre poster, in sticker form, which confirmed her suspicion- she'd probably asked around with some of Sanctum's staff members for students' interests. A second glance at Aegle's confirmed that she had put a considerable amount of thought into all of them. It also informed her that Aegle had uncannily good taste in comics. Which was. A thought that she wasn't sure she was comfortable with, because it implied that Aegle's brain wasn't entirely ravaged by poor decision-making and questionable stability. Not entirely, at least. Her eyes snapped forward as the last of the class trickled in, including the ridiculous-looking Captain herself. She listened closely as Lynn spoke, but honestly, her being impressed over the desks aside, she wasn't cutting the best first impression. It was pleasant, yeah, and saccharine sweet, but it was like eating an entire family-size bag of candy in one sitting. She felt like she was getting diabetes just from listening to her ramble on. Still. She had clearly put in a huge amount of work to make this first meeting as positive as possible for the class, and while Kishka didn't exactly give a shit about positivity, or good vibes, or whatever the hell else everybody needed to survive for some reason, she could appreciate that Lynn was working to the majority of the class's best interest. Something that Kishka was going to have to do more of. If she really did plan on stepping up and being a leader, instead of just shitting on all these annoying, underdeveloped, poorly trained, morons, then she'd have to start by conceding to their needs a little. It was going to hurt her ego, and her soul, but dammit, she was tired of watching her class go on being the objective worst one. Which was Van Sange's fault, and Aegle's fault, and ultimately, her own fault for moping so damn long. But Van Sange was dead, and so was the old Kishka. So much shit had happened between then and the draft that she felt like a different person. She'd start by letting the others speak first. They had to take some initiative, and she wasn't about to spoil the vibe in the room by going first; it was abundantly clear to anyone that wasn't new that she was not a favorite classmate for anyone in Red. In no small part, thanks to Aegle's doing. And she'd endeavor to listen. Even if they did piss her off, and most of them talked way too much. First to go was a new girl, one that Kishka didn't know, but who seemed... Oddly familiar. The familiarity was confirmed as she mentioned going to Sanctum, but Kishka still couldn't exactly place who she was. She was fucking huge, though, which made the lapse in memory even more unusual- she would have definitely remembered seeing someone that big in her time there. Maybe she started after Kishka did, or something? Whatever the case, she droned on for a long time, clearly awkward and nervous and not wanting to go first. She also spent most of that time saying shit that was obvious to anyone with two eyes. But at least she'd gotten this going. Bianca was next, and someone Kishka was a little curious about, because they had worked together before, and she'd studied her Vytal matches. She was intriguing, and clearly skilled, which was, as far as she was concerned, a great thing, and a big change from all the other losers in the class. She also talked a lot. But at this point, it seemed like everyone in the class was prone to talking too much. At least her suggestions were good- and earned an approving smile from the purple-haired girl. She would definitely like to see a lot more intensive training in this class. Green already had Shadecloak's morning workouts, which were absolutely brutal, and if she thought she could get away with it, she'd have already been skipping her own homeroom to go through that instead. Unlike the majority of her classmates, and apparently Lynn herself, Kishka had zero problems with Shadecloak at all. She was a remarkable woman and Huntress, and damn good at what she did. Next was the girl seated beside her. She took this time to unwrap one of the taffies, instead of turning to look at Aegle while she spoke. She could hear her just fine without having to stare her down for the five minutes she was incredibly likely to take up with her long-winded introduction. The purple taffy called out to her first, and for good reason. It was grape, and it was tasty, even if it did taste like she got punched in the throat by a sugar factory. And surprisingly, Aegle cut her intro short. And equally surprising, she spent the entire thing shitting all over Van Sange's memory, which was the weirdest, most surprising, flex she could have imagined. If anyone in the class was supposed to have liked the man, she'd have assumed it would be the one he pushed through everything by force, making her the Captain, and pulling way too many strings for her. She also noticed that Aegle had managed to skip over the likes and dislikes section that so many of the others had already added to Lynn's original request. That omission hadn't slipped past her, even as she slowly chewed her too-sweet candy, casting a curious side eye in the mad Atlesian's direction. And neither had the self-deprecating half-joke she chose to sour the mood of the class with. Hmm. You'd think after so many months, you'd get to know a person. But it seemed even Aegle, that last dig at herself aside, could surprise her sometimes. She didn't dwell on it for much longer, though, as another new girl spoke up. There were an awful lot of them. Probably an attempt to bolster the average scores of the Red Class versus the Green- funnel all of the new talent, with the newer, better, entrance exam requirements, into the worst main class. At least she halfway knew this girl. She also attended Sanctum, and was in the Drama Club with Kishka, although she didn't exactly remember ever spending much time with her. She hadn't spent much time with most of her classmates at Sanctum in fact. Case in point, she had absolutely no idea who Berwyn was. She'd definitely have some catching up to do later, but for the moment, she stood up easily, as soon as Forsythia finished, and addressed her new teacher with a face that wasn't too overly cheerful, but which also wasn't negative either. Her tone was very slightly more amiable than usual, though, partly because she'd just finished her grape taffy. Look, bribery is a successful strategy, okay? "Hey. I'm Kishka, I think mostly everyone in here has met me at least once before, but I'll keep it brief for those who haven't. I enjoy combat training, musical theatre, and comics. Also a Sanctum grad. I second Bianca's suggestion for tougher training- maybe not wrenches, but we haven't learned anything in this class, essentially ever, while Class Green puts in hours of work. And I think we're better than that; we've got a lot of stepping up to do." She offered Aegle a brief, but pointed glance from her peripheral, before returning her gaze to Lynn. "And you're off to a good start, already." She gave a small smile, before sitting down again. There was a lot more she had wanted to say. But this was Lynn's show, and she wasn't angling to steal the spotlight. She said everything that needed to be said, at least right then, so she was going to lean back and listen to the rest of the class make their introductions. Maybe she wasn't the Captain. Or even on the team she'd wanted to be on. But she was determined to come away from this with a better understanding of her classmates. Because in order to lead them, she first had to know them. And as much as she loathed the idea of getting to know some of her less-than-pleasant peers, she was willing to put aside her pride long enough to figure out how the hell she could motivate them into reaching Green Class's work ethic, in less than half the time Shadecloak had had. Wasn't going to be easy, but she wouldn't want to suffer the effort, if it was.

Notes// m a t u r i t y | Tagged// g r o w t h | Aura// 100% | WC// 1857 | TWC// 1857

✬

[Alexandros Skouriá]

[nospaces]

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STEP ASIDE, RELOAD, TIME TO GO[break]

I CAN'T SEEM TO CONTROL ALL THIS RAGE THAT'S INSIDE ME

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[attr="class","lovemad2"]

Another day, another homeroom class. Another morning routine to set it all off, but ever-so-slightly late this time; a few extra laps in the pool would do that.[break][break]

Alex wandered in and made his way over to his desk with no sense of urgency, giving a few low-effort and non-commital nods or waves to his fellow classmates as he went. Throwing out simple politeness and greetings were the sorts of things that came so very naturally to the dark-haired youth, burnt into his mind as an immediate action to take, whatever the circumstance, from years of forming the habit -- even when he was much younger the boy was kind, yet meek, and his pleasant-if-unassuming presence had been something of an absolute default state. Indeed, the smiles and hellos were as habitual as the placing of a hand on one hip when standing, or the running of one through his hair under stress, or the enormously unprofessional manner in which he sat: half-turned with one arm half-draped over the back of a chair and the other either resting on a surface set before him or across his lap, one foot raised and tucked up against its opposing thigh.[break]
Thus, unsurprisingly, when the young Skouriá happened upon his spot, he sat half-turned with one arm half-draped over the back of his chair, other resting on the desk, fingers softly drumming away, one foot pressed to his leg.[break][break]

At first, Alexandros scanned about the homeroom for a moment or two, then out behind him to the doorway, and finally to the handmade card name plate and accompanying bag of goodies. At first he just sat and stared, kind of puzzled by the effort taken by Ms. Morgan, but then his heart promptly melted; in all his time at Haven so far, there had been precisely zero attempts to do anything similar to what his new teacher had done... it was nice, truly, in a way that was kind of hard to place. His card had been personalized with a sticker of a boxing glove on one end of his name and an open notebook on the other, and was otherwise adorned with a couple doodles of the pieces of a chess board. The stickers were on-point, and the drawings, well, less so, but the fact that Lynn Morgan had gone to the trouble at all inspired something delightful in its earnestness in the boy. It was a series of pretty good guesses, considering the total lack of insight into the interests of the students she probably had, and Alex couldn't help but admire it. What was at first a rather neutral expression quickly turned to a slight smile, and a faint chuckle with it.[break][break]

Some of the others each took a moment to introduce themselves in line with Ms. Morgan's request, and in no time at all it seemed that the almost-awkward almost-silence between spiels had decided it was his turn. The boy straightened himself up where he sat and cleared his throat, partially to ready himself before speaking and partially to stall for time, if only for a second or two. "A few of you know me already, or, you know, not, but, I'm Alexandros," he started, "or just Alex. I didn't go to a school before this one like some of you did, because I trained under a lot of different masters and teachers here in the city -- I'm a local, by the way, Wind District, uh, not that it matters."[break]
Keep talking. You're not done yet.[break]
"What else? Well, I have an interest in world history, I'm a tea person more than a coffee person, and I like to sew and knit when I'm not maintaining my revolver."[break]
Go on...[break]
"...I, yeah, I use an old handgun from the war. So, hey," Alexandros continued, clasping his hands together as he found himself making an open offer, "if anybody here ever wants somebody to do some firearms restoration or maintenance, I'm your guy; there's nothin' I can't work on."[break][break]

He grew quiet, looking about the room once more, though faster, unsure of what to say next. Ms. Morgan wanted to know of ways to try and make their learning experience at the academy the best it could be by suggesting things that had and hadn't worked from previous members of faculty, but Alex honestly didn't have much to say. Van Sange hadn't really done much in any specific sense, and none of his martial arts mentors had anything that would seem appropriate -- nothing at all, really, considering how little time he had spent with each of them in his constant bouncing between dojos and styles.[break]
"I guess I'll just echo what Kishka had to say earlier," he eventually decided to say, slowly and with a hint of uncertainty. "We don't need to do anything ridiculous, but some more involved training or exercises wouldn't be a bad idea."[break][break]

That just about covered it. Right?

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[attr="class","lovemad1"]

825/825 WORDS

[attr="class","lovemad1"]@reds

punchlad? more like introductionlad

PHARAOH LEAP CREATES

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[Carmim Clover]

❝ AURA: 100% TAG: @introtime NOTES: Aegle, pls WORDS: 1323 | TWC: 1323 HAVE YOU SEEN HER? HAVE YOU HEARD? THE WAY SHE MOVES, THERE ARE NO WORDS Carmim was very excited! Extremely excited, actually. It was her first day of proper homeroom with the new Red Class faculty member, and she had the benefit of already having established a pleasant rapport with her, over the time since Rochdale. She may have been initially reluctant to follow Shadecloak's dumb instructions and get anger management therapy, but after the very first meeting, she'd found that she really liked Lynn as a person, and as a teacher. She was really different from Van Sange, too, which was honestly helpful. Carmim was probably in the incredibly small minority of people who liked Van Sange as a person, and respected him as a teacher, even if he wasn't always the best at it. And learning after his death, of his close ties to her family, she had been even more torn up about him dying than she was before. The thought that maybe she could have done something, anything, to save him, had she been at Haven, instead of in Rochdale... it was one that still kept her up at night sometimes. But Lynn wasn't at all like Van Sange. Which made it easier for her to think of her as something other than a replacement for him. She was one of the first ones to arrive to class, and flashed her teacher a bright, cheery, smile and an enthusiastic wave as she entered. "Good morning, Lynn!" Her eyes lit up at the sight of the stickers and taffy on her desk, too. It was exactly what she'd come to expect from the teal-haired woman, but that didn't take away from the joy and pleasant surprise at all. A glance at her taffy bag revealed that Lynn had remembered which ones were her favorites, as there were a few more of those than the other flavors- cinnamon and watermelon. She quickly stuffed one of the latter into her mouth, relishing the sweet, juicy, flavor, as she looked over the stickers and little doodles on her desk. She saw her drum, Lynn's rainstick, a bunch of funky flag-y looking symbols, and a very cheesy-looking (n both senses) doodle of a pizza. It was very cute, and her smile stretched as far as it could go as she looked over each sticker in turn. As everyone gathered, she listened as Lynn spoke, cracking a grin at the little dig at Shadecloak. She was eternally grumpy. That was true. Also she was just a terrible person, but that wasn't as funny. She started to answer first, but restrained herself- Lynn knew her already, and so did most of her classmates, so she figured her introduction could wait for a minute or two. Still, the awkward silence at the start was tempting. Fortunately, someone filled it- an absolute, bonafide, real, honest-to-goodness, giant. She stared up at Berwyn with a look of stunned amazement, as she suddenly realized the girl was there, and couldn't suppress a little, "Whoa..." under her breath. She was almost as big as Asterion! Carmim didn't even think they MADE people that big!!! And she had really good ideas too! Carmim loved the idea of sharing favorite songs! That sounded really fun! Even if she didn't quite understand the weird quote Berwyn said along with it. She beamed at the taller girl as she finished and sat, and turned to face the next person who moved to speak. Bianca. She had a really neat tail, and Carmim remembered her from the uh... Music club incident. And halfway from Vytal, even though she was pretty sure their teams never faced off. At first, she was with her, on music, and kinda on reading (not that she was good at reading, but Carmim could appreciate it as a thing. Books told lots of good stories), but she was a little skeptical of the idea of "beating the shit out of each other in the dark." It was definitely not something she planned on doing, any time soon, at least. And she was a lot less convinced of the faunus curbstomping humans part. She absolutely did not want to be curbstomped, and she was more than a little concerned that Bianca was so excited about beating up humans. Hopefully Lynn wasn't going to go with her idea. Because her idea wasn't an especially good one. Aegle's introduction was next, and Carmim watched with a renewed smile, as the Atlesian spoke. The pun directed at Berwyn took her a moment to catch, but when she got it, she laughed, and was pretty sure she was the only one aside from Aegle that did. It was a pretty corny joke. But she still thought it was funny, at least. She definitely wasn't laughing as much, though, as Aegle went on... And on... And on... About Van Sange. The first little jab was a little awkward. The next was uncomfortable. And the third left her frowning as she glanced over at Aegle. Van Sange had made her Captain for a reason. She was sure of that, even if Aegle wasn't; it hadn't just been some cruel joke, like the Atlesian always made it out to be. Even if he could be like that sometimes, with a really weird sense of humor, he wasn't that terrible of a person that he'd do something like that. He wouldn't put her in charge just to laugh at her. He'd had faith in her, more than anyone else had, but her. She wished Aegle could see that... She didn't really pay much mind to the next few, as she instead just continued watching Aegle, deep in thought, and a little frustrated with that oh-so-familiar self-deprecation. They'd have to have a talk about that later... But for the moment, there wasn't much she could do. Halfway paying attention, she grimaced at Kishka's voice, and let her face relax again with Alex's, and as he finished speaking, there was a little lull before she realized she still hadn't gone. So, even though she definitely seemed, and felt, a little more distracted than usual, she bolted up from her chair a few seconds after the rambling lad's introduction ended. "I t'ink most people here know me already, but for anyone new, hello! I am Carmim! I am from Vacuo, and t'is is my first school, since I did not go to a combat school, and um..." It was hard trying to think of what she was trying to say, while her mind was so preoccupied with Aegle. Which was nothing new, of course. Aegle was usually towards the forefront of her mind, after all. Still, she took a second before continuing. "I liked your suggestion, Berwyn!! We should do t'at, wit' t'e music sharing, I mean! I have lots of favorite songs, t'ough, I would need time to figure out which one is my most favorite one! Uhh, I like gardening, and making new friends, and- oh! And taffy! I like taffy a lot, t'ank you, Lynn." She smiled at her teacher. "I am really strong, and I am scared of uhh... Probably elevators, now!" That was definitely a harrowing experience... "And beetles are my favorite animal! They are very cute and small." Satisfied with her introduction, and also still a little flustered, she went ahead and sat down, before abruptly blurting out one last thing. "Also, Aegle is a very good Captain! She is just being modest." She bit her lip and stared down into her stickers again, not entirely sure if she should have just said that, the way she had. After a moment or two of trying to regain her composure, she tilted her head a bit to catch a glimpse of Aegle's expression, and shot her an encouraging little smile. She doubted the other girl would accept the compliment, or the encouragement, but it was a lot like carving a drum. One little scrape at a time.

LAIKA OF GS!

[Raul Adalwulf]

Raul had never thought about it before, but he really disliked being in-doors. Before coming to the capitol, the biggest building Raul had ever been in was Sanctum Academy, and compared to Haven, Sanctum was little more than four walls and a roof. The campus at Have was enormous and labyrinthine. The quad alone had more buildings than the entire village where Raul had grown up, and the smallest of which was bigger than the largest of the cottages in Toll. The strangeness of the building didn't end with their size either, as many of the interior walls were made of sliding paper panels, allowing for a modular design, and the propensity for these walls to move or shift meant that just when the big wolf thought he had memorized a reliably path through the building, he would discover that it had all changed around on him. There must be some reason to it, because the other students didn't seem to have trouble finding their way around.

Ironically, even with as large and confusing as the building was, it still felt far too small compared to the wilderness that he preferred, and that wasn't helped by how everything was designed for occupants of average proportion, and therefore left Raul feeling as if the entire thing had been constructed in miniature. It was a familiar issue for him, as even the largest constructions felt cramped and awkward for him. 

Then there were the crowds. Teeming, chattering, milling bodies filled what felt like every space of the building, right down to the tiniest niche. With a single glance down one of the long halls Raul could see more faces in an instant than he'd seen in all his dozen years living in Toll. It was overwhelming, dumbfounding even, and the proximity and density of those strangers only made him feel more and more out of place. It didn't help at all when he would stumble into view, towering head and shoulders above everyone around him and find all their heads and eyes in uncanny unison as they turned to look upon his vastness in mute astonishment.

Of course he was lost again, as he scrambled through the corridors, spinning and weaving to through the crowds, like his bust was afloat in a churning sea of strange faces and heads that he could only view from above. He did his best not to bump into anyone, trying to avoid getting in the way, but with his size there was a lot of way for him to get in. And he was late too, naturally. He was due at the home room what felt like it must surely have been months ago.

The only chance he would ever have to make a first impression on the classmates that would be his for the rest of his stay at Haven, and he was fixing to miss it.

Ducking and weaving, and doubling back when he took the inevitable wrong turn, and leaving behind a wake of stunned onlookers and half hearted apologies and excuse me's and more than one actual curse that evaporated the moment the aggrieved party laid eyes upon the towering form that had just stumbled into them, the door to the Class Red homeroom finally came into view. Raul recognized it less from sight and more from smell, as a hearty floral scent struck his nose. The stress was getting to him by this point. His hair was standing on end, and face had taken on a bestial aspect that made those who looked shy back, but Raul hardly noticed any of them.

Finally! I hope I'm not too late! He thought as he grasped the door's handle and pull it open, ignoring the resistance it provided, thinking it simply to be a result of poor maintenance and rusty hinges.

CRAAACK!!!

Raul stumbled back into the hall, nearly pitching back onto his rump as the door swung outward without all at once, slamming loudly against the wall as if the deafening cracking of wood hadn't been enough to herald his arrival. Stunned, and more than a little mortified to have made such a graceless entrance, he poked his shaggy grey head into the room allowing his pale blue eyes to pan across the sparsely populated seats, feeling the great desire to shrink into nonexistence as their attention swung towards him.

The first detail that would surely be noticed by the occupants of the room would be the stature of the newest arrival, implied by the angle at which his neck stretched around the door-frame, implying that though his head was but slightly beneath the top of the threshold, he'd actually had to stoop significantly to accomplish it. Careful to maintain a neutral expression that would not betray the very real sense of panic descending upon him, giving his features an unfortunately menacing quality, the giant stepped carefully through the entrance and into view.

Raul was suddenly keenly aware of his own appearance, in a way he only ever was when confronted for the first time by a roomful of strangers. He stood more than seven feet tall, having had to crouch to even fit through the door. His long lean limbs intensified the sense of height about him, making him seem even taller even as he hunched his shoulders and bowed his head to seem less gigantic. Even still the lupine ears that sat atop his mop of scruffy grey hair were only a foot or so beneath the rafters, and if he stood up straight it seemed nearly as if he'd be able to look right over the wall that ringed the room. He wore a school uniform, slightly too small, and further amplifying the leanness of his frame while also demonstrating the wolfishness of his bone structure which was curiously bestial even for a faunus.

As he stood there gaze drifting steadily towards the floor beneath the attention of his peers, Raul looked down and realized that the door to this room opened inward, not outward as he'd initially surmised.

He deduced this latter detail based upon what he still held in the paw-like grasp of his right hand. The doorknob, with a sizable portion of door still attached, dangled there like an accusation. Raul swallowed as he carefully stalked back to the door, and swung what remained of the heavy boards shut on hinges which were now slightly warped. He tried vainly to slot the chunk in his hand back into place, but it simply toppled out of the shattered frame and clattered on the floor, so loudly that Raul thought his heart was going to stop. He winced, grey ears flat against grey unruly scalp.

A moment of uneasy silence followed as he looked down at the kindling his entrance had created, and then turned to face the class once more. His gaze slid quickly off the other students, unable to endure their silent judgement and choosing instead the singular attention of the teacher, still seated at her desk in the front of the room. It was easier to address one face instead of many.

Raul pulled an uneasy smile. He only did it because his mom had told him people liked you more if you smiled, and right now he could use all the help he could get. It was an expression that showed probably more long lupine teeth than was typically considered polite, and it felt strange to him to be bearing his fangs at people he wanted to be friends with, so he abandoned the attempt almost immediately.

"I'm Raul..." He said, his booming voice filing the silence so suddenly that it was a miracle Raul wasn't stricken deaf or dead of a heart attack.

"Sorry I'm late..." he added after a moment, as if that was what he most needed to be apologizing for right then.

[Lynn Morgan]

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The silence that stretched on after Lynn first spoke didn’t seem to bother her in the slightest. She would have been entirely comfortable sitting quietly on her desk for the entire homeroom period if that became necessary. Students could be shy, especially around new authority figures, and while she had done her best to set them all at ease with the room and the candies and her own general… Personality, she was not going to force anyone to speak if they didn’t want to. But, thankfully, someone did. And she gave a bright smile to the young woman as she stood up to kick things off. Things went smoothly from there, thankfully. [break]
Lynn listened to each student from her perch atop her desk. She was the type of person that could make you feel like you were the most important person in the world when you spoke, giving every last ounce of her attention and dedicating it to every single word. She laughed when the students told jokes during their introductions, she smiled when they told everyone about themselves, and she nodded rather seriously at any suggestions for what she should do with this homeroom. [break]
Some students gave glances to her as they noticed how particular the stickers were on each of their name tags, and all she offered to each of them was a bright smile and a nod of the head. She wasn’t one to tell her secrets, but the fact of the matter was that the school and an awful lot of cameras about and an awful lot of students that gossiped if you listened. Children always thought they were so clever and sneaky with their interests, but you could tell most of the time simply by looking at them, they were young and wore such things on their sleeves. [break][break]

Lynn was just about to stand up and address the class again when their final student burst in. Lynn didn’t seem to mind about the door, simply giving a soft wave of her hand towards the empty seat that was waiting for him along with a bag of taffy and a nametag. Then she stood up, stretching out for a moment and pulling her hat off of her head to fan herself. Her hair was quite long, longer even than it seemed with the hat on. She had braided much of it and simply tucked it up into the hat, so when it was removed her braids fell down like a waterfall over her shoulders and back with an interesting sound of beads clicking against each other - beads woven into her hair - that sounded like rain.[break]
”Thank you all for being willing to speak! I know for some of you ” She looked briefly at Aegle as she said this. ”your previous teacher being replaced so abruptly may be difficult to handle, but I think this is an excellent start! Now we had some wonderful suggestions from the class, and I will be putting each of them into effect in our coming homerooms, so those of you who didn’t suggest anything really missed out on a chance to shape this class! Leave your own mark. But before I talk about those, I’ll bring us full circle and introduce myself.”[break][break]

Lynn grabbed her rainstick and placed her hat atop it like a coat rack and then began to walk around the room softly waving the rainstick to give a nice soft ambiance as she spoke. ”Like all of you, I went to a huntsman academy, Beacon in my case, and graduated of course or I wouldn’t be standing here! Me and my team were not quite as glorious as some other huntsmen or teachers you may know about. We operated very well together, and worked as a team from the time I graduated to just around a few months ago when the rest of my team found jobs at Beacon. I would have taught there too, but I heard this school was in need so I moved my life over here instead!” She giggled softly, shaking her head. ”Sorry back to the topic. We acted as a rescue unit! We managed situations somewhat similar to Rochdale though usually they were much, much less active than that was. We would go in and pull people out of destroyed or dangerous areas and keep them safe from the Grimm as best we were able. It was less glorious as I said than going out and killing the biggest strongest Grimm, but I believe very firmly that all of us - Huntsmen that is - are servants of the people, and seeing the people we saved thank us and live to continue their lives was more rewarding than any dangerous hunt or tournament win.” As she went on, her spare hand drifted over her heart and stayed there, fingers curled inwards slightly in an instinctual gesture on her part to convey sincerity.[break][break]

She passed by each student's desk in her circuit around the room, bringing with her the music of her rainstick and the scent of petrichor combined with roses. She was very expressive, nodding and moving her head a lot as she spoke and as a result the beads in her hair continued to add their rain sounds to her stick. She was the happiest rainstorm you would ever see.[break]
”My semblance allows me to make copies of myself! Plenty of them. And I used them mostly for carrying big groups of people to safety. I enjoy candy, the beach, swimming, and speaking with people! My ex girlfriend always used to tell me that she thought I was the corniest dating app profile you would ever read, I even like poetry!” She smiled easily once again as she finished her circuit of the room and leaned against her desk, pulling her hat off of her rain stick to fan herself again.[break][break]

”From now on, Homeroom will start with exercises accompanied by music provided by me or any other student volunteers from this class that would like to contribute! If you don’t like someone's taste in music, then you will simply have to show off your own in the next class, mm? The exercises will vary! And I won’t tell you what they are ahead of time so come with spare clothes and dressed for anything! I may not be as abrasive as Shadecloak, but I am still plenty able to make all of you sweat and grumble quietly about the two that suggested this as a class activity.” She glanced at Bianca and Kishka, giving each a wink. ”I will also organize some combat scenarios for us to try, perhaps with the random team suggestion and in the dark that will change on a match by match basis. We’ll start with one of these for our next homeroom so I’d like some volunteers… I’ll set up a signup sheet, we won’t have everyone in every match, so we’ll start with the people that would really like to participate and work our way down to the others.” [Break]
Lynn paused then, tapping a finger to her lip and humming quietly as she tried to figure out what else to say.. Eventually she had an ‘Ah ha!’ moment and raised her finger to the sky.[break][break]

”We’re all introduced now, so if anyone has any questions for me or suggestions for the class now that they know I will be taking all of them into account quite seriously, now is your chance! Otherwise, It has been a lovely first meeting. I hope that I can give all of you a good experience at the school, and if you ever need to speak with someone about anything - school or family trouble or otherwise - please don’t hesitate to come to me, my office is always open so long as I’m awake! Same goes for private lessons. If there is a topic you want covered that doesn’t have a class, we can arrange something one on one between us.” Once again, Lynn ceded the floor to her class and perched up on the table again. The only difference was that now as she looked around there was the tinkling of rain from her hair.

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Words: 1364/2201

[Bianca Sabbato]

Pleased with my own introduction, I sat back and watched the rest of the group have a go at theirs, and found myself both smiling and frowning at the little life stories and glimpses of personality that the conversation allowed them to bleed off upon all of us, it was a nice sensation even if a little bittersweet from time to time.

A most glaring example of this was Aegle's. Something about the tone and demeanor of captain just put me in a sour mood. That unveiled self-loathing badly disguised as the gallows humor she liked to use seemed kinda... Off.

Or at least that is how appeared to me, as my own experiences with Ryan and the clusterfuck that had been the encounter with plant girl at the cafe had planted a small seed of doubt into my mind that suddenly blossomed to life as soon as I made the connection between current Aegle and how Ryan used to behave going by Holly’s own recollection.

I wouldn't doubt she really felt that way but... Why bring it up out of nowhere in an otherwise relaxed environment... Could she be inadvertently fishing for sympathy?

“Or maybe she is unable to hold it in”

Flabergasted, I watched Aegle making herself look weak, pathetic, and dejected in a way I knew no one with a life history as harsh as hers could actually be. And for some reason, that compelled me to do something about it, even if I didn't know what.

-I dunno, I’ve got no complaints with you being captain, Aegle. You helped me and Berwyn get set up and all of that, maybe he saw something in ya. Just saying- I shoot with a smile towards our twisted captain, being completely sincere with my words. I had no problems with her leading me and the rest of the class. But it was clear that the first one who needed convincing was herself.

No Captain should be made to look like that, not even by herself. A leader is not supposed to act like that... I just don’t get it, if she doesn’t wanna be class captain she could just resign... Right?

Brandishing that idea in mind, I decided to address the elephant in the room since it was apparent no one else would.

-But if you don’t feel you are up to the task. Well, the dude that made you captain is apparently dead, so it’s not as if anyone is stopping you if you wanna resign, Aegle-

Yeah, either do that or put some pants on and address that already, because I was just pointing out what she brought to the table first, her own self-sabotage.

All of this I spoke directly to Aegle, not addressing nor caring for what the others could hear or comment on their own. Whatever they made out of it was their problem, not mine.

Next was Forsythia, a new girl I hadn’t have the time to get to know yet. She seemed nice enough if a little compelled to nervousness by the reigning atmosphere. But she seemed to pull through with a cheerful attitude and a beaming smile. All in all, she looked like a pretty normal girl.

“That, or she was playing her cards close to her chest”

Then came Kishka, with a presentation that honestly didn’t shake me in any particular way. It was some interesting trivia about herself at least, and I was honestly excited when I got the confirmation of the rumors of her being a training aficionado. Since I was eager to know what all of these folks were doing for theirs, and maybe get a few useful tricks and bits of advice for my own personal use.

“Firearms restoration huh? Well, not really a firearm in any way, shape, or form... But maybe...” Como to think of it, Nereida’s restoration was long overdue by now but... I still didn’t know if I was actually willing to do it in the end... No, to say the truth, there was something I needed to do beforehand, and that was what I was really postponing... But this was not the time, nor place for thinking about that. 

Knitting and sewing were by themselves things I didn’t care much about, I knew the basics things pretty much anyone that had ever picked up some tread and needle knew... What was really interesting, was that I knew another person with similar interest that coincidentally lived in the same room as I.

Launching a pointed look at Berwyn until I got her attention, I gently jerked my head into Alexandros's direction while giving my roommate a teasing smirk and a wink. Before turning my focus to the rest of the class.

And Carmim seemed to already know Morgan beforehand, so she could be the dreaded spy that was providing her of information on us... But it that was the case, it was not a particularly good one if she went broadcasting it like a sports commentator. So I halted my suspicions in that one.

And when things were just about to wrap up, the last member of our little ensemble decided to make his triumphant appearance.

And boy, an appearance did he make. If I thought Berwyn was tall, then this guy gave even her a run for her money, to the point that it made me realize how weird huntsman physiology could get once in a while.

Even while trying to get a hold of myself, I couldn’t help but let an entertained smile creep up my face, not product of his little accident in and out of itself, but concerning the sheer guile of his nonchalant demeanor as he brutalized to a poor wooden door.

The whole ordeal was so bizarre I couldn't tell if it was something done on purpose or by mere chance.

-Hey Forsythia, for someone who likes jokes, this dude’s introduction was way better than yours- I whispered to the blonde girl as I raised a hand to greet the boy who apparently was called Raul. After all, it wouldn’t be Haven without a little madness every once in a while.

After that, the teacher decided to approach us directly again, standing from her position and revealing a pretty long mane of hair, even comparable to my own if not for the dreadlocks keeping it in check and restrained.

Her introduction was as good as they can get, concise but not methodical, emphasizing her strong suits and pretty much weaving a sense of positivity around herself as she drifted her way over the room.

Everything about this woman screamed safety and kindness. The sound of her instrument felt as relaxing as the rain hitting against a metal sheet roof on a warm summer day. And the aroma of her perfume made me forget for a second of my previous reservation towards her... She was also very pretty with her hair down...

“No! Bad Bianca! Vanish those foul ideas from thy mind, girl! If there is something you don’t need right now is getting thoughts like that! And you! Don’t wink at me like that! You are only making it worse!"

I needed a distraction! And fast!

-Well. More you sweat in training, less you bleed in battle! Amirite?- I said with a burst of nervous laughter as I gave a thumbs up for the rest of the class, making sure to try and focus solely on the students.

Sadly, this woman was good, really good. Just when I thought I had her figured out, she pulled something like that and showed me again how truly outmatched I was. Turning in her direction, I was forced to address the one offer that in all honestly was too good for me to pass.

-Oh, I could use some of that boss, I’ll need to get to speed in a lot of subjects... But, ah. I wouldn’t wanna waste all of your time. So maybe I could meet you to get some pointers? Maybe some book recommendations, places I could go and things like that?- I asked without a hint of shame in my voice, only seldom people offer any truly usefull things in life, and even more rarely they'll do it for free, so if I had the chance I was going to take it.

---

1387 / 2587 Words

[Jay]

XP Distribution:

Lynn Morgan: 22 + 50% (Completed Class Thread, Storyteller) = 33
51 + 33 = 84

Bianca Sabbato: 25 + 20% (Completed Class Thread) = 30
94 + 30 = 124

Raul Adalwulf: 13 - 5% (No TWC) = 12
12 + 20% (Completed Class Thread) = 14
0 + 14 = 14

Carmim Clover: 13 + 20% (Completed Class Thread) = 15
38 + 15 = 53

Alexandros Skouriá: 8 + 20% (Completed Class Thread) = 9
92 + 9 = 101

Kishka Burzanova: 18 + 20% (Completed Class Thread) = 21
278 + 21 = 299

Forsythia Kotenshi: 13 + 20% (Completed Class Thread) = 15
25 + 15 = 40

Aegle Verdant: 16 + 20% (Completed Class Thread) = 19
990 + 19 = 1009

Berwyn Rhodes: 8 + 20% (Completed Class Thread) = 9
89 + 9 = 98