A.N: Thank you again to everyone who submitted. I am still accepting characters, so if you feel like joining the revelry, just fill out the form in the first chapter and I will do my best to make your character shine.
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She tossed her braids and waited for the crowd to settle around her. All of the freshmen were like rocks in a river, insignificant in the rush of the water. Around her swirled faces that gave her the same sort of look, like they had been past where she was standing, like they had been frozen alongside movement once as well. In each of their eyes she heard music, swelling in the pulse of people, twirling and dancing like leaves in a windstorm.
Beside her, Aster shook his white hair in frustration. He wanted to get going. Inside of her head, she felt his probing question, like words to her music. We go? He thought, glancing up at her with confused golden eyes. She ruffled his hair and sank down to his height, smiling. "Not yet, Aster. We have to wait with the rest of the freshmen," she purred at him, and then rose back up to her full height. She felt his frustration like an inky swelling in the back of her mind, twisting with impatience. She understood exactly what her Shiftry was feeling. She blew out a long sigh and dragged her slim fingers through her autumn-gold tresses, letting the straight strands twirl their way back into place. She fiddled with one of the several braids she had in her hair and absently kissed the silver feather she had tied in there, just for luck. It made her feel better, like she wasn't alone, despite the way the music in her head trembled with a single, sorrowful violin chord.
Izzy sad? She felt him question. She smiled and shook her head, and inside her mind little bells rang out. "No, not really. Just…a little scared I guess," She replied, and he reached up one leafed paw for her to hold. She laughed and took it, thanking him. He always knew exactly what to do, every single time.
Abruptly, the motion stopped, to a gong in Izzy's head. A little porter trotted up to her, smiled, and tipped his hat. "Name?" He asked, and she hastened, "Izamina Tessman. I'm a violinist?" She beamed at him, like a ray of sunshine. He missed it, instead marking something on his clipboard. Without any sort of explanation, he sort of danced away to the next person, evidentially disregarding the option to converse.
A knight in grim black armor bumped into her by accident, wrestling with a sword that was almost his height. He was muttering to himself through the helmet on his head, something about shuriken and how many knives it took to kill a man. He didn't apologize, but instead lifted his visor and sent her a glare through deep blue eyes. His right eyes dripped a dark scar down onto his cheek, making his gaze dark and sharp and somehow filled with woe. Izzy raised her eyebrows.
"What in Kanto are you wearing?" She asked, one hand on her hip. Her Shiftry stood in front of her, grunting a little with agitation. No like man in metal, he thought at her, and she had to agree. Look, it wasn't her fault he had no idea where he was going. Or that he had no sense of direction. Or that he couldn't just, you know, apologize for bumping into her. What, was chivalry dead or something?
He yanked it off his brunette head angrily. "For your information, I happen to be wearing a state-of-the-art suit of armor that is literally on the cutting edge of basic defensive technology. I could faint – not that I would ever – in this suit, faint right off a cliff, and nothing would happen. I wouldn't get a scratch. I'm sorry that I'm prepared for attack, whereas a young female like you could not possibly understand the protective qualities this suit entails," He replied, frowning with disgust.
She wanted to hit him over the head with a violin or something. In her mind, cymbals crashed with irritation. As was her personality, fire met with fire and did nothing but consume. "For your information, I happen to be an individual with an advanced education, so not only could I probably outwit you, I am lighter and therefore I will be able to escape easier. In the time it takes you to swing that impossibly large sword you are toting around, I will have taken a strategically acceptable position and wrung your neck with a spare violin string," She growled.
He looked at her, shut his mouth, thought about this and asked, in a much calmer voice, "So where do you think they're taking us?" As if nothing had transpired at all. Since he was calm, she was calm. Hey, it wasn't like she was unreasonable or anything. She just didn't like it when people attacked her. Who did?
She shrugged in response to his question. "Dunno," She mused, "I suspect someplace nice for our initiation. I mean, this is actually the first time I've been to this campus, so I have no idea what it looks like really." She paused. "Also, hello, my name is Izzy."
He grinned. "Mika. And me too. I mean, this is the first time I've been able to get to the campus too. Actually it's the first time I've even heard about this school." He paused as a single porter strode to the middle of the crowd and coughed for attention. He inhaled and thundered, "All freshman! Please follow me. If you fall behind, shout, and someone will help you. Alright then? Off we go!" He called, and started off at a brisk pace. Mika and Izzy shuffled to follow, along with the forty other freshmen. They walked alongside the gate to a path that tumbled up the mountains, past the school, following the bend of the forest. It twisted out of sight in the darkness of the trees.
Izzy realized she was still holding Aster's paw and smiled. He trotted along beside her, humming to the music he heard in her head. Mika stalked along her other side, trailed by a Charmeleon and an Umbreon. Izzy smiled. She loved taking walks in the woods. She loved everything about the woods. She tossed her hair and watched Mika lumber along. "So," She started, "Explain this whole outfit to me."
He sighed, exasperated. "First of all, it's not an 'outfit,' its armor; secondly, I wear it because my talent happens to be in the handling of many weapons you probably have never heard of. This armor makes sure I don't die. Because my talent involves dying. And death. And things like being amazing without trying."
"Really?" Izzy smiled, "Because my talent just involves the amazing bit. That's so strange! It's like we're talent twins," She noted, because at this point she didn't feel like arguing. Clearly he had some temper issues. She was joking, considering her talent was being a musician, but Mika just looked confused. "So," She said, after an awkward silence, "I had this dream last night. It was sort of funny," She paused and chuckled a little at herself. "I guess it was a nightmare, or whatever. Maybe because I was a little nervous about the school or something. Anyway there was this scientist or some guy in it. And fire, I guess. All over me. I mean, how ridiculous is that?"
Mika twisted his head to the side and helped his Charmeleon over a log. "Weird," he said, "Déjà vu." He squinted at the horizon through the trees as they trekked. "Hey, how long are we supposed to be out here?" He asked, shifting his black armor to scramble under a tree branch. Izzy shrugged. Whatever happened, happened.
She looked up to the horizon too, where slowly, slowly, night started spreading its shadows deeper and deeper across the forest. Instantly she felt unease touch her bones. But no, she promised herself, she wouldn't be scared. They were safe. This path was just dimly lit, was all.
But they kept walking and the shadows kept spreading until they were just two people in a flood of movement, just one note in a symphony of promises.
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A boy with grey hair whistled softly to his partner, before creeping along with virtually no sound at all. He listened to the answering twirl of notes and grinned, his tawny eyes reflecting the darkness. He pushed off the balls of his feet and darted forwards, sounding like the wind, sounding like the rain.
It wasn't long now.
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The porter seemed to have melted into the darkness. Nathan peered at the teenagers in front of him, skittish as he felt. Next to him, silent on her feet, padded Grace, who was humming quietly. He kept a respectful distance. She wasn't strikingly pretty or anything, but Nathan was never a "people" person. And, despite the way words twisted to his whim, when he spoke, they tumbled like chalk and splintered against the air.
"S-s-s-s-s-so," He started, but when her dark, glittering eyes looked at him, he had to stop. He faced ahead and tried to think of her as someone he was already friends with. He figured there was a way he'd made friends before, right? He knew there had been talking involved in those relationships, but he couldn't remember a single thing he'd said. He bit his lip. Exactly what was wrong with him? He cleared his throat and rolled his Murkrow's pokeball over and over his knuckles like a waterfall. He watched the way it reflected the light and tried again. "So, I'm a w-w-writer."
Grace nodded, but he didn't see her. He was watching the path, watching the trees, watching the people in front of him, anything but her. She waited for him to elaborate, but when met with silence, she had to intervene. "Alright, then…uh, what sort of things do you write?"
Instantly his slate blue eyes lit up and words worked their way back onto his tongue, like rain in the desert. "The world is lined with white picket fences, trails of tar, and rivers of endless wisdom," He said softly, speaking into the night. He rolled the pokeball over the back of his hand, around his wrist, and continued, "We survive off the misery of others."
Grace looked at him, astonished. Not only had he not stuttered, but the words had rung in her head like the finishing notes of music, endlessly repeating. They sounded like freedom – they twisted and turned and danced. "Ok, then," She said, slowly. "I guess you are a writer."
He smiled and looked at her, but only for an instant, before going back to watching the ground. "Sorry," He mumbled, "Sometimes it slips out." He shifted in his jacked as they rounded a crest and came upon an open field, surrounded by the dense forest. Students made little groups around fires, teaming up against the darkness.
"So," Grace said, twisting the watch on her wrist, "I guess we sleep here tonight." Nathan furrowed his brow and wriggled his jacket sleeve back so he could see his wrist. "Hey," He commented, "When did I give you my watch?"
Grace smiled and slipped it off, sliding it to him. "You dropped it, remember?" She purred, and Nathan shook his head. But then, he hadn't really been looking at her, or anything. Maybe it had dropped. He would have been too busy avoiding her eyes.
"Alright, then," She sang, and skipped to an empty space. Her Absol trotted next to her as she stomped down a circle in the long grass. The white beast bounced along happily, as if staying outside in the darkness was normal. Nathan bit his lip and followed her. He figured that Absols could sense danger. Tabbot would do something if there was disaster about to happen.
Right?
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Davion trotted across the plain with Tobi in tow. The black-haired one sighed, tired from the climb. The person he'd inadvertently made friends with hadn't been much for talking, so the entire trip had been spent in silence. In Tobi's head reeled the horror movie, where creatures from the deep darkness skulked into the clearing, on a mission to kill. He was sort of unsure as to why he was following the attractive boy – it wasn't like his counterpart was all there, per say.
Davion noticed the girl in black awhile ago. He liked her. She had just nodded to him and gave him a smile, but didn't appear attracted. This bothered him for some reason. Was he doing something wrong? Maybe he was doing something wrong. He was determined to make it right again, as soon as he figured out how to. But first, he had to talk to her. He'd been following her from the moment they set out.
Tobi watched Davion's stride across the plain to a short girl who was shaped like an hourglass, her dark clothes letting her blend in the night. Tobi grinned as they got closer because in his head he saw her dark eyes lift, peer into the camera, then a gasp, and then her hair, sweeping out in a wave as she fell. She looked like monster bait, all right.
Tobi was not surprised when he ended up having to make introductions. Davion just stood there in the circle Grace had made, holding his Growlithe and staring at her. TObi ran his hand through his hair awkwardly, watching as Nathan gathered sticks for a fire. Across the plain, little spots of flame licked at the darkness. Davion watched this process and put down Ginji, his little fire pokemon. It bent forwards and with great care blew life onto the timber, letting fire crawl from his maw. Davion then sat down abruptly, an action that was then followed awkwardly by the other three people.
They talked for awhile, getting to know each other, watching as one by one the other campfires flickered and went out. Grace smiled and noted that the rest of the people were going to sleep, and they lowered their voices. Tabbot put his head on her lap and fell asleep, something that made Nathan comfortable as he listened to the grass shift.
The wind whistled, and suddenly the four were enveloped in sticky, horrible, unnatural darkness. Nathan felt Grace's muffled shriek echo in his head, until with a sickening crack he felt nothing at all.
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Sorry! I know a lot of people's characters did not show up in this chapter, but that is probably because they are upperclassmen. Please forgive me! D: I love all of your characters and felt really bad not mentioning them.
New characters who I deconstructed:
Izamina Tessman: Korona Karyuudo
Tommi Brace Rua: SoujaGurl
Also, I would like to apologize to Korona because I shamelessly stole two years from her character's life in order to use her. The character is actually eighteen but for her to really fit as a freshmen I wanted her to be sixteen. Sorry! And thank you.
I hope you enjoyed this installment.
Take care.
