Phantom Academy: An Education for the End of the World

[Raleigh]

Sandra was a bit of an odd girl. She would be one of the first to admit it really. Raised by a brilliant but very eccentric scientist of a father meant that she had read and encountered on a few occasions things that defied what most thought possible. Rather than looking terrified as most did after the demonstration, she was grinning like she had just gotten the cream and was about to have a nice cat nap. "This place will definitely help me find my father, I know it."

[Haylie]

After several thank yous to her helper and listening to the woman's speech, Amy stands there, hands folded in front of her, seemingly in prayer, with a slight wimper escaping her throat. She seems to have felt the effects of the spell, but being unable to see, isn't so horribly affected as the others around her.
I hope everyone's not like that, she thought. I don't know how much my nerves can take...

[Shadowmaster]

That was...intense. Noah thinks to himself. I wonder if all of the faculty around here is like that.

[Alissa of Someday]

/Shivering, Carl clenched his fist tightly in his pocket--not out of any violent urge, but just to hold his will steady, and to keep himself from making a break for it--he had only faced a dread like this once before, and though it had had a different feel to it, he had ran. For this though, he had to hold on, he knew in his mind. If he ran from the school, where would he go?
This bit of saddening logic held him steady.

This was a good thing, he reminded himself, building back up his composure, as the wave of terror left. If the old woman could do something like that...well, this might be the school for him after all./

[Shadell]

Ms. Fantom smiled happily, satisfied that the students were too cowed to ask any questions, and continued on.

"Now, there are four dormitories on campus. We're using the Oxford system here. Infernal is in the south, Celestial is in the North, Terrestrial in the east and in the west ephemeral. You have all been divided to get a good cross section of students in each house. We want to encourage diversity.

Now, teachers will call students to them. Follow the teacher who calls you to your dormitory. They will explain more and then you will have the day to settle in."

That said, Ms. Fantom stepped back and simply faded into the fog.

"Showoff." Doctor Meyners muttered under his breath as he walked toward the area where Ms. Fantom had been standing.

"For the Celestial House. Morgan Fane."

The red head whom Amy had bumped into earlier hopped up and walked toward the Assistant Headmaster.

"Gemin Aquar."

An unsavory looking boy with a purple mohawk stood up disdainfully and slouched his way over toward Meyners.

And on it went. When fully a quarter of the students had been called Doctor Meyners stopped talking, shouted "Those called, follow me." And walked off into the fog, taking his students with him.

Almost as soon as Doctor Meyners vanished a woman appeared, or rather stumbled out of the fog. Her long blond hair flew errantly in the wind as she fell head over heals onto the cold stone steps of the building. She blushed beat red and jumped to her feet so suddenly she almost tripped again.

After she successfully finished regaining her balance the woman dusted off her skirt and adjusted her headband, which oddly enough sported a pair of fake cat ears of all things and coughed politely.

That done, the woman with the fake cat ears finally spoke. Her slight japanese accent carried a definate tone of embarrassment as she spoke up.

"I'm Mata-sa... Ms. Mata and I'll be leading Infernal house." Abruptly she paused, and when she resumed speaking her voice was different. It held a wild predatory air. Those quite close to the woman found the opportunity to see that her eyes were slanted like a cats.

"So listen up." She challenged, "Come when your names are called and we won't have any problems."

She then proceeded to rattle off the names of another approximate quarter of the students. That done she leapt over the heads of the nearest students, landed delicately on the fingertips of one hand, sprung up into the air and landed perfectly. As Ms. Mata was walking away, another change like the first seemed to overcome her and she tripped on an errant leaf of grass.

As expected, a third teacher emerged from the fog. He was dressed in a suit. Over the suit was a large white lab coat. That, combined with the thick spectacles he wore, gave him the appearance of nothing so much as a mad scientist.

"I am Doctor. Ivan." his voice boomed. The emphasis on the word doctor was quite blatant. "I will lead you lucky students to Terrestrial House."

Without further ado he started yet another long list of students. Once finished, he too departed, leaving the remaining students alone in the cold.

Gradually a fourth figure emerged from the fog. He was easily the oddest looking of the lot, wearing thick linen robes that flowed around his feet in such a way that one would imagine he'd at least stumble every now and then. A long straight sword was attached to a belt on the left side of the waist of his robes, and even more oddly, the left sleeve of his robes hung empty. The man only had one arm.

His right eye was covered by a large leather eye-patch roughly the color of his hair. His hair was dark brown and long and matted.

"I am Pyrrus Nike, the Director of Ephemeral House. You will call me Mr. Nike, Professor Nike or sir. I assume I will be in charge of the rest of you louts; but, given that several of you are most likely too stupid to recognize your own names, I'll go through the list anyway. To those of you getting tired of the cold. Deal with it.

"Sandra Drake. Mathew Towers, Elvin Archer.... Some parents reads far too much Tolkein... Amythest, Miyo Musato, Alview Able, Watlorobe Komroohch.... Chione Drake, Noah Miller... Carl Maensh.... Orius Altelier...." and on he went, listing names with the occasional sarcastic interjection.

Finally he finished, and without a word, turned and began to walk off into the fog.

((And hopefully that should be about it for the excessively long boring posts for now.))

[Raleigh]

Sandra began to follow the jaded teacher. "Well he does seem to have the most middle ground look of the lot."

[Haylie]

Amy taps her cane methodically in front of her as she walks toward her teacher's voice. She secretly hopes she can corner Ms. Fantom and ask a personal question later, for she's not too good at speaking in front of large groups.

[Shadowmaster]

Noah follows the teacher silently.

[Alissa of Someday]

/Carl...well, he really wasn't sure what to think of these teachers. They were certainly abnormal-looking, besides Meyners perhaps--a punk who didn't look too different then a lot of kids he'd seen since leaving home, to be honest--a Doctor that looked like he'd be better off in an old horror movie--a one-armed, one-eyed swordsman, that made him shiver slightly, not out of fear for the man, but out of fear for whatever had scarred him so--and the leader of the Infernal House, (He wasn't really sure about that house names either). He didn't quite know make of her, but she seemed to have mental...problems.
All in all, though he quickly followed the class led by the slightly irksome cyclops of a teacher, Carl was dubious, at best. The old lady, he was sure had something to her, but these people...Well, they seemed almost like a joke--('A Swordsman, a Mad Scientist, and a Stage Magician... walk into a bar...'). Maybe it was just to wow the new students?
They couldn't be like that all the time, right?/

[Shadell]

Professor Nike moved quickly, leading the group of students through the fog for what seemed like a good half mile. As he walked he spoke, or rather lectured, his voice broke no room for interjection much less disagreement.

"As students here you will be expected to obey all school rules absolutely. Thankfully, those rules are simple so you'd need to be complete idiots to break them. Don't assault a teacher, don't disobey a teacher, don't damage the nurse's office, don't fight in class, don't go into off limit areas. Other then that, anything goes.

If you want to fight, feel free to do so." His voice softened a bit as he said this, "We will educate you, provide food, rest and a socially acceptable habitat. Our medical services are top notch; but we will not enforce discipline.

This school exists to train people for a reason, time is short, so we're forced to adopt a rather strenuous policy. Survival of the fittest. Comfort, power, anything you want that exists within this school's walls can be yours for the taking. If you don't want to be oppressed then stop people from oppressing you. Don't rely on administrators for help, they won't be there to coddle you when you graduate, so why should they be here now."

Abruptly he stopped walking. "And here we are." Professor Nike calmly gestured to the large building that stretched out in front of the group.

The building was designed in an Asian style, specifically Japanese. It consisted of an outer courtyard, marked off by lower walls in the same style as the rest of the building, that enclosed a large two story complex. The walls were bright red, with black shingles for a roof. All the doors were sliding doors, the rooms all had wooden or tatami floors, and most of the inside walls were quite literally paper thin. Of course very few of those present had any way to observe that as of yet.

"Your rooms are marked clearly inside. Boys are in the hall to the right of the entrance, girls are to the left." That said, Nike pulled open the sliding door, removed his shoes and entered.

[Haylie]

Amy paid as much attention as she could while trying to walk blind with her cane and making sure she stopped and walked when she was supposed to. It took her a moment to realise she was supposed to remove her shoes, and only when someone tapped her shoulder and told her so. Needless to say, she apologized. Several times.

She did her best to find Professor Nike in the crowd without making a complete fool of herself. "Uh... excuse me, Professor?"

[Shadell]

The professor had quickly disentangled himself from the crowd, and was standing in a third hallway straight ahead from the entrance.

"Yes?" He asked coldly, as if he was sure whatever question was coming would be a waste of his time.

[Haylie]

Amy seems to cringe, but presses on. "Um... would it be okay if I, uh, brought a pet here? It's for a good reason, and he won't be any trouble..."

[Raleigh]

Sandra smiles at what she sees. This reminds her of where she had been living for the past three years with her father. Admittedly their place was a little out of the way on that hill, but it had a similar style to this one. "Dad would have loved to of seen this place."

[Shadell]

Amy seems to cringe, but presses on. "Um... would it be okay if I, uh, brought a pet here? It's for a good reason, and he won't be any trouble..."

Nike paused for a moment. "Did I say anything about pets being banned?" He asked harshly, "Obviously not, so there's no rule against it."