PREP Highschool

[Ironsmith]

"Except pronouncing a Z properly, it seems." Aikobaz quips, turning her attention to the tables. "Right. This should only take a moment."

It doesn't.

Fifteen minutes later, Aikobaz meets up with Micah again, clutching her folder under her arm. "Unbelievable. Ridiculous. Simply ridiculous." She grumbles. "If I ever meet the person who arranged this outrageous system, there will be mallards."

If Micah had been watching, he might notice that she'd been bounced around between four different tables and the lines connected to them, which seems to be the source of her frustration. First T, then the # line to the left of A, then to the "N/a" line to the right of Z, and then to the "B" line, where she was finally able to claim her schedule.

And to top it all off, she's holding a seifuku in a sealed plastic bag and is apparently officially registered in the system as "Baz, Aiko".

"I sincerely hope things went more smoothly for you." The empress mumbles, in a dour, "screw my life" tone of voice.

[Gold]

Micah looks at Aikobaz strangely. Doesn't everyone pronounce Z that way?

In stark contrast to Aikobaz' experience, Micah is done with relative quickness, and comes back with a packet labeled 'Cardcaptor, Micah' containing a packaged school uniform and a class timetable.

Micah watches the whole scene, an expression of surprise in his eyes. When Aikobaz gets back, he responds earnestly with "They really did, thanks!"

[Ironsmith]

"...Well, good." Aikobaz frowns and flicks open her folder. "Let us see... Mathematics, Literature, Fencing, Naval Strategy, Physical Education, Chronology, Classical Mythology, Home Economics, Theoretical Metaphysics, Introduction to Romance, Chronology, Drama, and... hm. It would appear as though I have second period free." The empress glances over at Micah's schedule. "...And it looks as though we may have the same lunch. Perhaps we will have opportunities to see more of each other over this year."

[Rebonack]

"Khannie."
"Thanks for catching me with your face!"

Not very profound. Khannie isn't dumb, she knows how the forces of the Nexus work. She immediately turns on her heels and heads straight toward the V table where she finds herself waiting in line behind... no one! Last names that start with V aren't the most common. Class schedules, locker assignments, pretty standard stuff.

Why does she apparently snub Kol?

Because she doesn't want to get dragged into some kind of zany adventure before she even manages to find her locker.

Duh.

She will, however, scoot over to Mary and just sort of exist in proximity to her in case she needs help reading her assignments.

That's something a friend would do, right?

Elsewhere!

"Hey! You can't just run over gates and rip up the asphalt in the parking lot! Sensha-dō club members have to use the tank entrance," says a rather cross looking faculty member who is apparently just an allosaurus wearing a comically tiny hat.

Looks like the girls have gotten in trouble already.

[Earl of Purple]

"Oh, I'm sorry, uh, sir. There was so much traffic, and I'm afraid we got a little turned around by all the signs." The speaker is the purple-haired girl, who turns to the others. "Come on, let's get back in and move it round to where we should go." Which will cause more destruction, but can't easily be helped.

The mechanical girl and the identical ones will turn to get back into the tank and start it back up again as the purple-haired girl climbs into the turret.

[bc56]

"What does this mean?" Mary nudges Khannie.
The schedule includes:
Demonology,
Leadership,
Physical Education,
Remedial math,
Remedial english,
Art,
Biology,
Oneiromancy,
Introduction to Romance,
Military History

Her finger is hovering over "oneiromancy." That's a strange word. It looks like she has it Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, right after lunch.

[Beans]

Cola has had a much easier time getting her schedule than Aikobaz. "Let's see... Hexology II, Demonology, Honors Ritual Magic, Literature, Geometry, Introductory Astrology, Classical Mythology, and Honors Computer Science." She glances about. "Looks like I overlap with at least some of you." She looks at her packaged uniform and sighs in resigned relief. "At least I actually got the long skirt, I sent in like three forms for it."

[Rebonack]

Khannie squints at the word.

Oneiromancy?

What the heck is that?

"Dunno," is her succinct reply. This very likely makes Mary feel a bit better. If Khannie doesn't know what a word means either then it must be a really hard one! She quickly pulls out her phone and types it into a Moogle search. The answer, of course, comes quickly. Moggles know their stuff.

"I guess it's dream interpretation? I guess that's sorta like what your mom did when she was helping you out, right?" Khannie reasons.

If Sekhmet has magic like that then it makes sense that Mary does, too.

Or something.

There are so many different types of magic in the Nexus Khannie has a hard time keeping them all straight. It doesn't help that she's got at least three. She isn't sure if her connection with Sirius counts as magic, too.

Elsewhere!

"Oh no no no, you'll just rip the road up even more. And those things haven't got any reverse. You four get to the administration building for your class and locker assignments. We'll move your vehicle to the proper parking are," the dinosaur replies.

Obviously HE isn't going to do it.

He's got tiny little arms.

But SOMEONE is going to move it! Maybe some teachers with super strength or telekinesis or something? Who knows, this school seems pretty wacky.

[Keeper]

Kol gets his assignment from the L table.
"Mathematics, literature, bio...did they give me all the boring stuff?" he asks quietly to himself.
This begs a question: is that what he wanted? He isn't even sure. I mean, all this crazy stuff is total nonsense...but wouldn't he want at least something exciting for being here.
But then he realizes the page is double-sided.
"Forces of luck and destiny? What the heck kind of class is that?"

[Gold]

Micah also begins reading out his timetable. "Okay, I have... Mathematics, Literature, Classical Mythology, Computer Science, Home Economics, Art, and... Hey, I got Forces of Luck and Destiny too!" Micah looks up at Kol excitedly. "I'm, uh, not completely sure, but something tells me it's gronna-uh, gonna be great!"

[bc56]

"I guess it is?" Mary replies. She does feel better that Khannie didn't know that word either. "I guess I don't need to know much magic to do that." In fact, other than her demonology class, it's the only magic class she is enrolled in (her mum is teaching her the basics at home). At Cola's comment she looks at her own uniform. "Oh, mum'll go mad when she sees this..." The skirt is just barely knee length.

[Ironsmith]

"I hear it is a 'bird course'." Aikobaz scoffs, turning the page on her schedule. "You can pass simply by writing an essay explaining that you are destined to pass." She glances back down at her schedule and scowls. "'Miss Aiko Baz, thank you for your application to enroll in the Honors Ritual Magic program, but we must decline, on the grounds that you're already overscheduled'?! Bah! That was the course I was most sorely anticipating." Aikobaz crumples the paper and tosses it into a nearby wastebasket. "...Right after Astrology." She adds, tossing in a second paper. "...I suppose this is a sufficient swathe of academia for now. Perhaps I will not even need to officially learn ritual magic." She mutters to herself, in a not-particularly-hopeful tone.

[Earl of Purple]

Elsewhere

The dinosaur's belief that tanks can't reverse makes the girls frown, but they don't comment on it- all tanks reverse, since it helps reduce the size of the turning circle they require by throwing one side into reverse as the other side goes forward. Regardless, they'll head in and away from the tank and split up, since they've got to sign in in different places. The identical girls go to one place, whilst the mechanical girl and the one in very much not uniform go other directions.

[Beans]

Cola glances at Aikobaz. "I mean, there's always next semester. I couldn't fit in Home Ec right now." She shrugs. "Hell if this place doesn't have a wild spread of courses, though."

[Rebonack]

Sometimes having someone else to be clueless along with you makes life a little better for everyone.

Also of note?

Khannie isn't reading off her classes to the other students. In fact, she's folded up her schedule and stuffed it in her pocket.

Wonder what her deal is, anyway?

Seems shifty.

"What's wrong with the uniform?" Khannie asks, having already worn hers to the school. With, of course, the addition of her magic cloak. It's pretty well known that only weirdos don't make any modifications or additions to their uniform. "Isn't your mom a succubus?"

The only reason she knows what those are is from some video games. There was that fighting game with all the monsters in it! And the succubus character wore... not much. Maybe all of them don't have the same fashion sense? Sekhmet always seemed to be wearing stuff that wasn't very flashy.

At the question of DESTINY Khannie shrugs. "I think it's a class for protagonists that do stuff based on luck. Like rolling cards and drawing dice."

A beat.

"Uh, wait. Other way around. Rolling dice and drawing cards. If the stuff you're good at is all SKILL then you don't need any luck."

Khannie hasn't got any room for luck!

The tank-girls will find a gaggle of students clustered around chatting, the forces of DESTINY already weaving webs around them. Stupid DESTINY forcing people to be friends. It's terrible.

[Keeper]

Kol nods to the other kid.
"Yeah, sounds fun." And he's not lying. It sounds fun. Weird. But fun.
Though...
"Wait, you guys got to choose your classes?" He doesn't remember being told he was supposed to sign up. He was told he'd get his schedule on his first day.

[bc56]

"She is, but... She doesn't like it. What did she say?" Mary takes a deep breath, puffs out her chest into a pompous pose, and says, "If you show off your body, they won't care about you as a person, just the pleasure you can, uh, give them." It's clear Mary doesn't understand or doesn't care about the point Sekhmet's making, but she's still young. Maybe in time she will. "But she dresses like that sometimes anyway, so I don't get what the big deal is."
To Kol's question, she replies, "Mum explained my situation to the school, and they picked the classes, I think." It seems unlikely that Mary wouldn't know what Oneiromancy is if she had chosen the class herself.

[Gold]

"Everyone needs a little life in their luck, though. I mean, a little luck in their life. E-even you!" A lot of things in life are left up to luck. Pretty much any time something happens that you have no control over, it's luck that decides whether that affects you positively or negatively or not at all.

"Actually, m-my, uh, grandpa picked out the classes for me." Micah explains. "If it had been, uh, up to me, I p-probably would have, er, made the same choices."

[Ironsmith]

"Of course you can pick your classes." Aikobaz scoffs. "Within reason. There is a system in place wherein the school directs you along a specific path, but you can put in requests to change that path. My understanding is that is is intended to serve both students who have no idea what their calling is and students who are completely aware of it." She unwraps her uniform from its bag and stares at it disapprovingly. "...Your mother would be right. This skirt is entirely too short. It would leave one's stockings exposed. Terribly inappropriate for a school setting." She bristles. "As soon as I get home, I am burning this."

[Beans]

Cola winces at the short skirts. "It's probably not too late to request the long skirt." She tugs hers out of the bag; it falls just above the dewclaws of her cervine hooves.

[Earl of Purple]

The girls had split up, since they have different surnames and are therefore not collecting their papers from the 'B' table. Two of the girls are, however- the twins. They're going to approach the group and say, in perfect unison, "Excuse me. I need to get my schedule." It's possibly a bit creepy, especially given that they've so far even walked in perfect step with each other and are completely identical.

[bc56]

"The school disagrees with her," Mary points out, "They wouldn't give them out otherwise." She walks towards the restrooms. "I'll be right back." She returns a few minutes later dressed in her uniform and, apparently feeling the protagonisty need to accessorize, also a gold circlet. "So? How do I look?"

[Beans]

Cola looks Mary over. "S' not half bad---you feel comfortable in it, though? How it looks isn't worth too much if it feels skeevy to wear."

[bc56]

"I don't feel skeevy about it," Mary declares. "It's mum that has a problem with showing my ankles." She means it too. She regularly wore short skirts and even pants before she was adopted. But Sekhmet has a different understanding of what clothes a proper lady should wear, even if she does break her own rules on occasion.

[Keeper]

Later

Kol has reappeared at the school. He was out for a couple of days. But then reappeared with a fancy spear.
This was enough to convince the school administrators that he was simply on an unscheduled adventure and nothing more was made of it.
Kol is very confused by all this and can be found wandering the school. He still doesn’t have a lot of friends. Or many at all. Maybe he should try talking to more people…

[bc56]

Later
"Kol! Where have you been?" A familiar voice calls out. Sure, he doesn't have many friends, but he does have acquaintances. Mary waves to him. "Everyone was looking all over for you. What happened? ... Excuse me." The demon princess turns away and coughs hoarsely into a handkerchief. "Sorry. I've just come down with a cold." Kol might feel scratchy in his throat just watching that.

[Keeper]

Later

Kol scratches at the back of his head awkwardly.
"Um. I kind of got lost in a magical forest. Long story. Are you okay?"
He gives a very small cough, not the kind that he opens his mouth for.
"I didn't know demons could get colds."

[bc56]

Later
"Mum says that because we're supposed to live in hot places, it's easier for us to get colds," Mary explains. Of course, that explanation relies on a complete misunderstanding of how one gets a cold. But Sekhmet hasn't had any science education, and Mary has only been taking biology for a short time, she hasn't learned germ theory yet, so give them a break. "I need to really bundle up when it gets rainy." She sneezes. When she pulls the handkerchief away, it's slightly singed. "I'm fine. I can handle it."

[Keeper]

Later

Kol shrugs.
“I haven’t been feeling great the last day either so maybe it’s just going around.”
He coughs over his shoulder.
“So uh. Are you doing anything today?”

[bc56]

Later
"I have to get to History soon, but I've got a free period after that, and then lunch," Mary replies, "Oh, or did you... Achoo!.. mean after school? I think I have some time then too, if mum doesn't want me to do another magic lesson. Why do you ask?"