Welcome to the Academy

[Headmistress Briarthorn]

((OOC: Okay guys, stuff you want to post for the days before class start can be back posted, but I'm moving the main timeline forward to the inauguaral speech. Just want to get things rolling))

In the evening right before the start of classes, the quad, normally an open area for all, was full of row after row of chairs in front of an ornate wooden stage carved with briars and vines. On this stage were a row of chairs, broken only by the podium in the center. This stage was right in front of the, currently empty, fountain. Both Briar and Hanover were certain both Rocky and Shad would be on there before the first day of classes was over.

The chairs, both on the stage and in front of it, were empty except for a few early arriving students, and Briarthorn, on the stage, herself, with Talon, Hanover, and Nurse Thompson.

The Nurse would not be at the actual ceremony except to make a brief appearance. A siren, everyone attracted to females who looked upon her perfectly curved body, impossibly pretty face, or heard her voice, despite her scales, fangs, and dark green hair, would have been raptly attentive of her instead of the Headmistress.

Still, she was a good way to get the troublemakers quiet and focused in the beginning of the speech.

Hanover looked about as uncomfortable in his uniform as Talon did in hers--which was also a military-cut version of the standard that the students wore. "if you are going to be a teacher in my employ, Talon, you must look the part." She had said earlier. The vampire had merely grumbled at that.

Glancing at the clock tower, Briar cast a quick spell. Her voice could now be heard throughout the Academy.

"Attention, all students. The welcome speech will commence in fifteen minutes. I hopefully do not need to remind anyone that, especially for new coming freshmen, attendance is mandatory. Please come to the quad as soon as possible. Thank you." The spell ended, and the sorceress starred up at the orange-purple, darkening sky.

"You got a bad feeling too, boss?" Talon said earnestly.

Briar only nodded. "This year starts something, the cards say that much. Something awful, but with the potential to come out amazing."

"The little ones aren't going to come to any harm, Briar." The gruff Hanover said, trying to reassure the woman he cared for.

Aria Thompson tried to ignore the longing glance a pair of boys in the front row were giving her, blushing slightly in embarrassment. "John and I will both see to that." Her crisp, british voice said.

Briar's eyes stared up at the stars that were starting to peak out of the purple parts of the sky, saying nothing, waiting for her speech and, perhaps, the comforting start of a new school year.

[Ethan McCordy]

Ethan absently pushed his unruly red hair as flat as he could as he stepped into the quad area. The werewolf was dressed neatly in the school uniform as had been suggested several times by the rule books he'd read cover to cover. The lone nerd made quick work of weaving through the other clumps of laughing, talking teenagers. Instead he moved to a nearly-empty row and sat, absently shoving his glasses more firmly onto his face.

Ethan's nose twitched, and he found his gaze roaming across the stage and the few adults already standing there. Talon was one, he recognized her from the scent of blood and death. And Headmistress Briarthorn, he found with a small sigh and a faint blush, while still somehow mostly managing to ignore the embarrassing implications of such a reaction.

There was the huge man who had broken up that almost-beat down from those bullies the other day. Ethan had heard later that his name was Hanover, apparently the head of security here at Briarthorn. And from the way the man stretched the seams of his uniform, Ethan wouldn't doubt he could more than accomplish his job. That's not even taking into consideration the fact that, from the way the wolf inside him growled testily whenever he smelled him, Hanover had to be some sort of Were himself. The fact that he didn't wear a necklace in order to subdue the animal inside of him just made Ethan that much more wary.

Also on stage was a female he'd not yet seen before, one who looked like some sort of marine-creature with scales and claws and green hair. But at the moment Ethan was far more concerned with her scent, which wafted into his nostrils like some sort of erotic dream made manifest. It was hard for him to describe it really, but somehow the mysterious female smelled . . . so good. Perfect. Female and warm and sweet and tingling and very, very slightly like a clean fish.

Ethan squirmed in his chair, his face beginning to burn uncomfortably. Especially as the front of his slacks were becoming highly tight and uncomfortable, as young teenage hormones on top of his wolf combined to make his sudden, uncontrollable lust very physically apparent.

[Mattie Sykes]

Mattie was literally skipping her way down the hall toward the quad area, bubbling with effusive amounts of excitement and giddiness from the fact that her first official school year at Briarthorn's Academy was about to begin. Her roommate and friend Rose, and her other friend Kate, were slightly slower to follow. With the werecougar rolling her eyes and the pale-featured girl smiling a little at Mattie's antics.

"It's just a Welcome Speech, Mattie," Kate was groaning blandly. "You're acting like we're going off to a party." Her lip curled into a smirk. "Despite what you want otherwise, there aren't going to be any huge magical banquets or Sorting Hats involved."

Mattie just waved her hand dismissively, ignoring Kate's naysaying. "We're in the middle of Magic Central. Who knows what could happen? And besides, I don't really care either way. I'm just psyched to get started. Right, Rose?"

The white-haired girl blinked a little, but managed to nod somewhat haltingly, if only just to agree. "O-oh yes. Very much so."

Appeased, Mattie started humming along with her skipping as they began through the rows of chairs, looking for seats in the rapidly-filling quad. After a few steps, Kate suddenly grinned wide like the cat she was.

"Hey you guys, save me a seat," she near-purred. "I gotta go take care of somethin."

Mattie lifted a brow, but not seeing any apparent cause for the way her friend suddenly slinked off into the crowd, she just shrugged and continued walking. Then she hopped in place.

"Oh look, there! There's three seats, let's go nab 'em!" And then Mattie grabbed her friend and darted foward before anyone else could claim the coveted chairs. She carefully maneuvered her friend to sit next to the tall, blond male teen currently sitting there before plopping down herself.

"Hey, these seats aren't taken are they?" she questioned somewhat breathlessly. The boy turned to pin them both with a grumpy blue-eyed glare before turning forward again and ignoring them. "Oookay then, I'll take that as a no," she muttered to herself, though probably loud enough that anyone in a ten foot radius could hear.

[Anastasia Noldavir]

Ana followed Gabby as the other girl led the way into the quad. Still somewhat nervous, she wasn't nearly as unsettled as she had a few days ago, probably mostly in thanks to Gabrielle's own calm, seemingly unruffable demeanor. Still, the taller, paler girl was fideting somewhat restlessly with the hem of her skirt as they looked for seats.

A moment later they were both seated side by side, with Ana doing her best to ignore the leering looks she was getting from the group of guys sitting behind her.

[Headmistress Briarthorn]

It did not take long for Kate to zero in on her prey. Wolfy, getting an eyeful of the nurse and having the usual reaction.

"Hey there, stud." She purred as she slumped down next to him, obviously giving him a once over. "This seat taken?"

Ethan stiffened like a statue, his face getting now even darker red.

"Guess not." The werecougar said with a smirk, lounging back in it. "So, what do you think of the nurse? Ready for your.." She glanced down and smirked even broader. "Physical?"

Wolf boy gave a small canine whine, shifting uncomfortably in his seat and trying, and failing, to hide his uncomfortable condition. He turned a cranky glare to Kate and said, "Aw, bloody hell, go bug somebody else, will ye?"

"I would, but damn are you fun to bother." She said crowding out of her seat so she was pressing against him, her head on his shoulder.

He gulped and clecnehd his fists, but allowed himself to sniff her, which was cute, in a dog kind of way.

"Myers!" Came a shout from the stage. Hanover was watching them, arms crossed over his chest.

Kate pulled off of Ethan and sat straight up in her chair non-chalantly, as if that had been her goal the entire time and she had anticipated being yelled at. Ethan, on the other hand, looked moments away from dying from embarrassment.

"Gotta continue this later, fido." She said lazily.

--------------

Rocky Jones, with his scrawny body and dirtly blonde hair, did not cut a terribly imposing figure, despite the dark red eyes and ruby pendant that marked him as a vampire. However, he had the respect of his peers, despite spending two days as a statue on the very fountain he now found himself sitting in front of. Which was good, because his peers, such as his partner in crime, Shad Carlyle, were the type to quickly pounce on anyone not in their good graces.

When the two atractive vampires sat in front of him, some of his companions snickered but he, instead, eyed them carefully. One had all the markings of a teacher's pet--both figuratively, given she had a textbook with her at the gathering, and literally, as her solid black eyes marked exactly which teacher she was a pet to.

The other, however, was a pale beauty, clearly posh and stylish. He firgured he would give her the chance to make the better choice.

He was also fully prepared to make her life hell until she did.

"Hey hot stuff." he called out in a thick Brooklyn accent. "How's about you ditch the bookworm and sit back here with the real party."

The sandy-haired girl snickered her hyena laugh as she watched Rocky work.

She turned and gave him an uncomfortable, disgusted frown. "No thanks."

"Aw, you're gonna hurt my feelings, babe." He said in a tone dripping with smarm. "You don't wanna hurt my feelings. Things around here might get difficult."

"No doubt, as difficult as higher math is for you." The bookworm said softly.

"He wasn't talking to you, bitch." One of the others in the group barked, causing snickering to rise again in the pack.

The pretty vampire's pale eyes narrowed dangerously. "Look, I don't want any trouble, so deal with your own feelings. Just leave us alone." She turned back forward and gave a worried glance at the bookworm, who seemed completely stoicly and stone-faced ignoring Rocky, which, just a little, enraged him.

"They're probably just dykes, man." Shad said, which earned another round of giggling, especially for the hynea-voiced girl. In response, the bookworm took the hot one's hand and tugged on it.

"Come along, there are probably far less annoying seats elsewhere." She said in her emotionless voice.

The hot one nodded, and the two vampires walked off, the group cackling at them behind their backs, all save Rocky, who watched them move away with calculated interest.

No one rejects Rocky Jones. Soon, she'll be begging to be with me. He thought with a mental sneer. And poor little teacher's pet will be all alone.

[Róisín Brennan]

Roisin raised her eyebrows with some skepticism. Honestly, could they not have been given some warning before hand? That was, undoubtedly, too easy- or maybe it was one of those things that teachers and school administrators enjoyed doing in order to view the reactions of students. She wrinkled her nose at this thought, not at all wishing to appear as an obvious problem student, and made her way to the quad.

It was very crowded, but not so much that it was completely impossible to find a suitable seat. This hardly meant that she was willing to sit anywhere. The furthermost seats were nearly all full. Unperturbed, she passed them by for Roisin never sat in the back. She was especially glad at this choice as she heard the conversation (if it could actually be called that) between one collection of students and a pair of others. Idiots of that nature had no business being.... well, being anywhere, really. She rolled her eyes very obviously, though as she was not a part of this confrontation it would hardly matter, and moved on.

The crowd was less dense towards the front, both from the fact that more people were now sitting than standing, and that the seats in the foreground always filled after the seats behind them. The Sidhe made her way nimbly through the remaining masses and claimed seat next to a skinny, red haired boy with glasses and looking very uncomfortable. On his other side sat a girl, tall and quite becoming, with a nearly pleased expression on her face. Roisin wondered at this slightly, but then, it really was not her business.

[Kovach Twins]

Jalora was nearly dragging her brother down around the quad to find them a pair of seats. She couldn't convince him to change out of his gangster attire. At least that was what she thought it was, with the baggy pants and baggy hoody. She wished he would just follow the rules but for some reason he felt the need to look intimidating. "There's two seats.." She smiled to her brother and continued to drag him by the arm towards them. Unfortunately when they got there Jalora realized the seats were seperated by one person. Juraj didn't approve of this idea, he glared down at the student before he smirked in his direction. "Why don't you move over..."

"Don't be so rude Juraj," Jalora tried to apologize for his lack of manners but Juraj was still staring intently at the poor kid. She sighed and sat down in the empty seat. Eventually the student moved over to avoid the uncomfortable glare coming from her brother. "Was that necessary?"

"Of course."

[Headmistress Briarthorn]

"Mr. Kovach." Briarthorn called out. "if you would be so kind as to fetch your uniform, please. You would not want to get detention before classes even started, would you?" The stately woman locked eyes with him. "I would hate to tell your parents that you have purposefully shirked one of our rules that exists for your own safety, and I would especially hate for you to have to miss helping your family out on the farm because you had to come into class early for punishment ." She added dryly. Several people in the crowd snickered. Among them was Talon.

[Kovach Twins]

Jalora blushed deeply to the embarassment of her brother. Of course he didn't show it while his eyes leveled at the headmistress. "That's fine...didn't want to be here anyway. Come on Jalora." He pushed himself up to his feet and headed out from the row of chairs. Jalora sighed but stayed put...at least she could brief her brother on the information later. He was so stubborn. Juraj frowned as his sister decided to stay but he walked out of the quad without another word....but that didn't mean he'd come back.

[Grove]

Grove muttered under his breath. So much for trying to sit by himself.

This presentation, or whatever it was, was actually the first time he'd willingly left his room since that mess in the Common Room. Unwilling to risk socializing with anyone, he had decided to memorize the school's Rule Book, until classes actually started, and he could focus on other things.

He hissed slightly, as his back suddenly began itching, for no reason other than to annoy him. The damn Brand had been itching a lot, since leaving Radcliff's place.

Since no one had actually said anything to him about it being dangerous, he'd simply ignored the itching, deciding it was mostly in his head anyway.

For now, he did his best to ignore the motormouth, hoping that Briarthorn would hurry up and start. He wanted to get back to the isolation of his room as quickly as he could, and away from the glare he could still feel from Shad. The older teen had done nothing but glare in his general direction since he had sat down earlier, recognizing Grove.

Though, he had to admit to a certain satisfaction at the lovely bruise that had blossomed under his eye.

[Prince Adashan]

Prince berated himself for almost arriving late to the assembly. Perhaps he shouldn't have spent quite so much time admiring himself in the mirror, but it wasn't every day, when you could admire yourself with Platinum Hair and eyes. He had to admit, it was a rather striking look.

Coming upon the quad, he looked around quickly for an empty seat, before spotting one nearby. He hurried over, and slipped in beside a girl he hadn't met yet. He noticed her Were amulet, and smiled as he sat down.

"Hello, I'm Prince. I'm afraid I haven't had the pleasure yet of making your acquaintance."

He held his hand out to her, while maintaining his brightest and friendliest smile.

[Kovach Twins]

Jalora gasped slightly, mostly because she hadn't expected someone else to take her brother's seat. It took her a moment to calm down before she smiled to Prince. "Hello, my name is Jalora Kovac. Nice to meet you." She took his hand to shake it while she continued to glance back up to the potium to see if the speech was starting.

[Peony]

Peony quietly entered. She saw the chairs and found one in near the middle but without anyone near it and sat down. 'there now I wont look like an outsider but I wont bother anyone else.'

She thought. She sat with her feet under herself and fiddled with the end of her long braid as she looked at the other students trying not to stare at anyone.

[Kawano Minoru]

Minoru had to admit to himself, it was nice to be in a school uniform again. There was something comfortable about it, familiarizing. He had worn them since he first went to school (though not always willingly), but when he had transferred to a school in the states the uniforms disappeared. He liked having the opportunity to wear them again.

He seemed to have been one of the very last students to arrive at the school, and therefore had had little time to familiarize himself with the grounds, or his fellow students. He had come to quickly understand that, while demons may have been rare, students who were different elsewhere were very common here. This was somewhat peculiar, but not unwanted.

He was now pressing through people to the opening ceremony of the school, and found that there were even more varieties of beings than he originally had imagined. They smelled vaguely odd, but, moreover, they sounded weird. Perhaps humans themselves never had thought about it, and growing up human Minoru had not either, but creatures, whether or not they look humanoid, do not always sound that way.

There was a collection of still empty chairs near the center, where only one girl was now sitting. He moved towards these. "Excuse me, is this seat taken?" Minoru asked, gesturing to the seat on the girl's left.

[Peony]

Peony who had been lost in her own thoughts fiddling with her braid turned her head to the voice. She smiled at the boy who spoke. "No, please feel free to sit."

Peony smoothed out her own uniform and shifted on her odd perch of the chair before extending her hand. "I am peony"