Chronicles of a Monstrous Academy

[MelancholyMelody~]

{{I would've posted yesterday, but I had a killer migraine attack. :C NOW HERE I BE! }}

Lily shook her head upon hearing some of the teachers weren't talking to one another. She'd noticed a couple of them being a little less than polite with one another lately, but she obviously didn't realise the extent of the problem. "How stupid can you be?" she said angrily. "They're acting like children. This is the worst time to be doing so. They do realise we need to work as a team here and help the newbies? What a wondrous example they're setting, the morons! Give me five minutes alone with them and I'll put them in their damn place." Lily had more than half a mind to have words with them. She was respectful when she needed to be, but at the moment the teachers deserved none from her; as long as they were going to act like children she would treat them as such.

She looked up as she heard a soft cawing noise above her, seeing Harmony had come to find her. "Hey there girl," she said with a smile, patting the seat beside her. The harpy landed rather softly on the bench and Lily grabbed some more meat to place on her plate, now feeding Harmony as well as Venus. The two would interact with one another every once in a while, playfully poking one another and appearing to hold some form of conversation.

A lot more students and newbies started to enter the room. "Well, the teachers better get their asses in gear. People will be expecting a welcoming speech soon. They don't want to come off as the imbeciles they actually are to all these newbies."

~~~~~

A flood of students and fellow new people had started to fill the room out now. Tate looked around, wondering if he could find any clue of what was going on, if anything was at all. It could just be the breakfast rush or something.

He watched as the room was also filled with lots of monstrous companions with the uniformed people, not all of them that young. In fact, quite a few were rather old. Much older than him at least.

He leaned forwards against the table, looking at the weird and wonderful creatures interacting with what he assumed were their masters. The humans were filling plates with food and either handing them to the monsters or feeding them themselves. A lot of the beasts looked rather intelligent, and he was a little disturbed by how human some of them were. Some had human torsos, in particular he felt rather creeped out when he noticed a large half-human half-snake woman come and get some breakfast beside the group of girls he'd watched walk in before.

"Just what the hell is this place, anyway? Monsters everywhere. It's like some...monster...taming...school?"

[LadyHarpy]

Clarissa continued to look around the room quietly until someone caught her eye. It was a boy the looked close to her age. He seemed out of place among all the older people, especially in what he was wearing. She looked to her own get up and sighed, she looked a little out of place as well. She pushed her glasses up her nose and decided to walk further into the room to look some more.

She looked about quietly observing the scene and creatures in it. All the demon like things hanging about made her think of the cartoons she used to watch at home when mom and dad were out. She got a little startled at a snake woman and would have screamed if she hadn't covered her mouth quickly.

She backed away slowly over to a table with only a small amount of people and leaned her back on it, still a bit shocked.

"That was scary. This place can't real." She said out loud to herself.

[Maeve]

((Don't worry Mel, and take care of yourself ^^ ))

"If they don't come soon, someone will have to do their job. We can't let the newbies in here all day long, after all," Aurelia said, gently patting the head of her lynx under the table. She was annoyed too by the behaviour of the teachers. She knew some of them were intelligent enough to understand it wasn't a good time to fight, but she also knew some were real selfish jerks and only cared for power.

"You're not thinking about doing it yourself, do you?" Ophelia said, lifting her head from her plate, a bit worried about what Aurelia could do.

"I wasn't, but now that you say it," Aurelia answered, looking at her younger friend, with a strange glow in her eyes.

"If you try to do that, I'll make sure to wake you up at 3 every morning for the rest of your life," Ophelia threatened, as she knew her lazy friend wouldn't appreciate.

Aurelia returned to her plate, apparently discouraged, when she suddenly heard a small bell ringing a the front of the room. It was coming from one of the two doors placed on each side of the large fireplace the occupied the end wall, right behind the teachers' table. She lifted her head, wondering who might be coming in, feeling a bit relief at the same time.

[MelancholyMelody~]

{{Thanks~ ^u^ Here a little post to keep things movan. Also added why Tate doesn't have a last name, as I forgot it before, to his profile. I believe near the end of his background.}}

Lily smiled a little and shook her head as she listened to Aurelia and Ophelia talking. She wondered how they ended up being such good friends being so different from one another; maybe that's what made it work.

Harmony was grabbing sausages of the plate with her teeth, obviously too hungry to wait for her master to keep feeding her. Lily patted her on the head. "Take it easy, girl, just don't choke yourself." She grabbed a couple of the sausages and flung them up into Venus's mouth. She too had sat down now, as best she could. It was more lowering herself closer to the ground and letting her large roots spread out a bit instead of propping her up so she could use them as legs.

Lily turned as she heard the bell at the top of the hall signalling that the teachers would be out to make an announcement soon. "Let's hope they don't give a crappy first impression. Last thing we need is a bunch of doubtful or disrespectful newbies because the teachers have the wrong attitude." she thought to herself.

~~~~~

Tate continued to look around curiously, hoping to get some kind of affirmation of his guesses of what this place was. Among the people he noticed a girl with rather large glasses than magnified her eyes to an unnatural size. She seemed to be looking at him. She looked down a moment later, either having noticed him looking back at her or having not been looking at him to begin with, rather just staring into space or looking past him or something.

She appeared to be examining her clothes now. Tate looked down at his own clothes and suddenly felt a little awkward, embarrassed even. He looked around again; nobody was dressed like him. Not even close. There didn't even seem to be anyone who was dressed lazily or in the clothes they'd wear for laundry day or something. He wrapped his arms around himself, trying to make himself smaller so no one would notice him, looking down at the table.

"This is ridiculous. It's not my fault I'm dressed the way I am... I bet everyone's already thinking I'm something pathetic." It wasn't that people would think he was poor, or dirty, it was obvious that he had to have been homeless back on Earth, but that's what bothered him. People would be judging him based on that. He hated that.

His attention was pulled away from his own thoughts when he heard a bell ringing at the top of the hall. He turned to look up. It sounded like it was coming from one of the doors either side of a large fireplace along the back wall, behind a large table he assumed was for whoever was in charge. "Finally I'll get some answers," he thought, knowing that surely he wasn't alone in thinking this.

[LadyHarpy]

Clarissa was startled a bit by the sudden sound of a bell. She looked around trying to figure what was going on. Everyone was looking at a large empty table and some even started to crowd closer if possible, making so she couldn't see. Some people shoved past her, as if she wasn't there. A bit of insecurity popped into her heart but she shoved it back and quickly started to push forward as well to see what was going on.

Clarissa ran through a group of less then happy deamons, all looking irritated that she had just burst through the conversation...if you could call screeches and growls a conversation. She then ducked under a few of the older students and made way over to a table. She quickly stood up on top of it to see what was happening.

She could see a little better but wasn't having much luck. Clarissa looked around to see if there was anyone that she could ask what was happening, but most were deep in there own conversations. She then looked down and noticed the boy from earlier, now looking a bit insecure. A small voice, which the medication usually surpressed, told her to make him look at her so she knelt down on the table in front of him and stared at him.

"Hey, do you know what's happening?"

[Tsemara]

Melanie nearly dropped her fork when a naga approached the students she was sitting next to. The shock value of the apparently domesticated lynx paled in comparison to the reptilian being. It's not polite to stare! It's not polite to stare! Stop staring!!! No dice. That's it. I'm not in a comic! I'm in someone's tabletop game!! The portal was me falling off my original board and not I've been accidentally put in someone's Dungeons and Dragons campaign. Right? Mel shook her head. It was a ridiculous thought.

She didn't hear the banter of the upper classmen, so caught up in the moment. She was about to open her mouth to ask about the newly arrived diners when her train of thought got derailed by the sound of a bell chiming. She looked around for the source of the sound, as well as the reactions of the students. Apparently they were waiting for someone. Teachers, at that. They can have this many student gathered in one place without the supervision of school staff? That doesn't seem right for any school policy. Unless the monsters and things were supposed to keep the students in line? That thought hardly seemed correct, as some of the creatures deferred to the humans. The redhead supposed she just had to wait and see like the rest of them.

[Maeve]

A woman entered the room, followed by a tall muscular man with wings on his back. A couple of other men and women followed, some of them with their fellow monsters. They headed toward the teachers' table, the first woman taking a spot in the middle and staying up while the other sat down. She cleared her throat and spoke, her voice resonating through the room without effort.

"For those of you who don't know me, my name is Ellen Stafford, and I'll act as the spokesperson for the teachers council. On behalf of the teachers and all the staff, I would like to welcome you all to the Academy," she started. "Today is the start of a new school year, and we all hope it will be filled with discoveries and achievements." She took a small pause, before adding: "For those of you wondering, the new headmaster has not been chosen yet. Until we can come to a compromise, Daren and I will be taking care of those responsibilities." Hearing that, a lot of students started to talk, each wanting to let go their thoughts on that.

Ellen paused, letting them the time to clam down, before adding: "Now, I'm sure a lot of you don't even know where they are and what they're supposed to do here. To help you discover the school a bit, you will be taken on a tour by some of the older students once breakfast is over. You have already been split in small group, and your names are indicated on the board over there," she said, pointing toward a large announcement board hanging on the wall near the entrance. "But for now, let's just all enjoy a good meal peacefully."

As soon as she finished, the students started to talk again. Ellen smiled and sat down, Danaë by her side. Some students started to move to the board, wanting to know if they had something to do or could just take the rest of the day easy. Others, looking a bit older, headed toward the teachers table and started to talk with them.

"Well, at least they are all here," Aurelia said, looking at the teachers table. For some time, she had thought they would have just fought to dead or something like that. She didn't really enjoy the sound of Daren giving orders, but Ellen was fine. She was her mentor, after all, before the blond got her gold badge. "I'm guessing we will have to help newbies," she added, apparently not pleased by the idea.

"That's pretty much what you are supposed to do everyday anyway," Ophelia answered. "I'll go see who we have on her team," she added, getting up and making her way through the crowd up to the board. She came back after a few minutes. "Melanie's with us," she said, smiling at the new girl. "With nine other people I don't know."

[MelancholyMelody~]

Lily remained quiet, listening to what Ellen Stafford had to announce, then turned back to her tea. Some of the students got up to check the board, seeing if they were required to do anything or could just relax for the rest of the day, while some of the older ones headed over to the teacher's table to talk with them.

Lily decided she'd check later on when the crowd had dispersed. Squeezing through a large group of people was her idea of hell on earth, and doing so to try and find out something that she could do leisurely if she just had a bit of patience was just stupid.

She turned to Aurelia as she spoke, throwing the last of the bacon on the plate into Venus's mouth as Harmony grabbed the last sausage. "Yes, at least they managed to cover up their incompetence. I wonder if I'll be having to give a tour...probably, there's enough newbies to go around. I don't know whether I'd rather have younger or older people. I don't know who'd be more work to deal with."

She drank the last of her tea and wiped the mess from feeding her Monsters from her hands with her handkerchief, then sighed heavily. She'd much prefer to finish gathering the items she needed and then do some reading than give a tour to a bunch of strangers. It was going to be hard enough mentoring a group, let alone having to take on several other responsibilities beforehand when she wanted to be psyching herself up for the main event.

~~~~~

Apparently already having a seat somewhere meant Tate was quite lucky. He didn't get shoved over while all of the larger people around him forced their way forwards, fighting over seats and being able to see and hear clearly what was going on at the teacher's table. He got pushed a little as people moved past, and grabbed his bag and placed it under the table in front of his feet so it didn't get lost in the commotion, but he was able to see what was going on and didn't get crushed either.

Just as the speech was coming to an end a girl climbed up onto the table, he assumed to get a better look around. Suddenly she kneeled down on the table and stared directly at him, making him jump a little, and inquired as to what was going on.

"Uh," he looked around a little then back to her. "Well, apparently that woman talking is the spokesperson for the teacher's council, because they haven't decided on who's going to be the new headmaster here yet. Um, then they said in a while we'll be split into groups and the students here are going to take us on a tour and tell us what the hell is going on. I think...that," he craned his neck and then pointed over her shoulder to where a large crowd was gathering around a board upon the wall, "is where we find out which groups we're in. Er, did that help at all?"

[LadyHarpy]

Clarrisa smiled at his responce and nodded her head.

"Yep, thanks. By the way, what's you name? I'm Clarrisa!"

She moved from a kneeling position to a sitting position.

[Tsemara]

Melanie listened to the person she had assumed was the principal speak. Obviously, she had been incorrect in her guesstimation. Headmaster? These guys Brits? No... but they might have been once. So I suppose we'll be put in houses next. At least, that's how I think it works. The redhead looked around, noting the student's uniforms. There seemed to be four different color schemes. But the students themselves didn't seen to be segregated by the colors of their uniforms.

She hardly noticed when Ophelia left, still pondering about the dynamics of the school. Though, when the timid girl returned, Melanie's attention was drawn to her. She was a bit pleased at the announcement, if only that it meant that she did not have to be hunted down by another group of students. She gave Ophelia a slightly lopsided grin. "That's good to know. I've enjoyed your company so far. I suppose I could stick around." She wiped her hands on her napkin. "So, how do we find the others? We can hardly go about waving signs in the air, hoping that whomever we need to meet is paying attention."

[Maeve]

((Little note: Just for your information, Daren (the other person in charge of the school for now), is some kind of rough warrior guy. He isn't especially nice, though he appreciates people who make efforts to get what they want. He isn't especially bright either, and that's why some of the teachers question his application for the headmaster's job, thinking he is probably manipulated by one of the "bad" teachers (the ones that seek power and all). So yeah... Daren is officially up for grab for the mods, if one of you want him. Otherwise, I'll just make him a NPC later on.))


"Shouldn't we be three to lead the newbies," Aurelia asked. It was usually how it worked.

"Yeah, I thought so too," Ophelia said, handing a sheet with the newcomers' names to Aurelia, "but the third spot was empty. Oh, and I haven't seen your name anywhere, Lily," she added, sitting back with the others.

"You know what that means? Your coming with us!" Aurelia said with a grin, not letting the other any chance to answer. Instead, she brought her attention on what Melanie was saying. "Hmm, yes, that would hardly get us any attention," the blond said, trying to find a way to get the other students she was supposed to guide to notice her. She was about to climb on the table, when a hand grabbed her by the collar and brought her back on her seat. "It'sss not a good idea," Sitha said, shaking her head, apparently wondering why she had chosen to team up with Aurelia. The blond just replaced her cloths and acted like if nothing had happened, throwing the last piece of her sausage to her lynx.

"Just wait a little, maybe," Ophelia suggested. As she said that, the room started to clear out, some of the older students running around, yelling names and grabbing their newbies. Some even climbing on their chair or table, getting an irritated look and sigh from Aurelia... Before long, the room was half-empty, and it was much easier to see around and find people. "Now, maybe we can just go around and ask the few newbies left if they are on our list?" the shy girl said, getting up at the same time.

Aurelia didn't say anything but she got up and started to look around. Sitha and the lynx did the same, but instead of following her through the tables, they headed for the door and waited for her. The blond had noticed two kids not too far away, a young girl with large glasses and a boy. She headed for them and, reaching their table, she asked them if they knew who they were teamed up with.

[BubbleTrouble]

Lucia was just packing up to go back and finish her shift as Ellen came in. "Ah, just in time." She listened as Ellen spoke, it wouldn't be too hard to take care of a newbie.

She threw away her rubbish and uneaten food in one of the bins and made her way to the board as the crowd dispersed. "Looks like I'll be showing some of the newbies around." she murmured, she smiled a little and went to look for those she was meant to take care of.

Just then she saw a rather confused, scruffy looking boy, clearly he was new. "Huh," she went over to him and tapped him on the shoulder, "Are you alright?" He turned around obviously shocked by her sudden appearance, "Sorry I didn't mean to scare you... do need need medical attention?"

He shook his head a little at her. "OK then, what's your name?"

[MelancholyMelody~]

Lily looked to Aurelia as she spoke, then turned to Ophelia as she mentioned a third spot being empty, but that Lily's name hadn't been anywhere. She sighed, relieved to not have to be a part of it. That's when Aurelia said she'd be going with them. Before she could answer it seemed to have already been made final. Lily sighed again, but this time not with relief.

After a while the crowd was beginning to organise itself, even if it had been done with some rather stupid methods such as standing on tables and shouting out names. Lily shook her head and stood as the other girls did. She followed along behind them, looking at the last items she'd had on her list to gather. Only a couple more. She sighed once more before returning to the notebook to her bag; it would have to wait until later.

~~~~~

Tate was happy to have been of some use to the girl kneeling on the table in front of him. She introduced herself as Clarissa and asked his name. "Oh, I'm Tate," he said simply, offering her an awkward smile. Before they got a chance to talk any more he felt a tap on his shoulder.

He turned around to find a red-headed girl who didn't look that much older than him looking at him with concern. She asked if he was all right. "Uh," he was unsure of what to say. Why had she randomly chosen him? Then she asked if he needed medical care. Suddenly the reason became all too clear. He frowned a little, trying to force himself to be polite even though it angered him that she thought he'd need medical attention just because he was dirty and clearly homeless.

"No, I don't...thank you," he added, trying to keep the disdain from his voice, shaking his head in answer to her. "I'm Tate," he introduced himself for the second time that minute. He kept telling himself not to be nasty to her just because she wanted to help, but he hated it when people assumed things just because he lived on the streets.

Just then he and Clarissa were approached by a group of older girls, the ones Tate had noticed passing before, accompanied by the giant Venus fly trap, and other strange creatures now too.

The oldest of the group, a blonde with a large bust, looked down and asked if they knew who they were teamed up with for their tour. "Um, I...have no idea. I didn't get a chance to check the board yet." Suddenly he was surrounded by girls, almost all older than him, and the vast majority with large, monstrous companions.

"W-why, is it you?"

[LadyHarpy]

Clarissa smiled and nodded her head.

"It nice to meet you."

Before she could continue the conversation another girl came up and started to talk to Tate about helping him. She was a little upset that he was talking to someone else but she shoved it aside when an older blond girl came over and asked if they had checked who was in their group.

"I haven't but I was about though. Are you in my group?"

[Maeve]

"Probably," Aurelia answered to both their questions with a smile, looking around the room and noticing there were few newbies left, just enough to make her own group. "What are your names?" she added, looking at the list Ophelia was holding for her.