Nina's Arrival (Open)

    The trip had been a long long but not an exhausting one. Nina had spent some of her funds for the journey and been taken to the island in the cargo hold of a ship. It was quiet and dark and allowed a lot of time to sleep and rest. Nina had disembarked to find a dock of the port of Albion. It was so nice for her to be back on an island. Her childhood memories of the island that she grew up on were not good ones, but there was something about the air that was different than being on the mainland. With no directions and only a letter of acceptance from the mysterious Foresta Academy, Nina began to make her way through the town and to the forest.
   

    The young girl walked with a quick step and a quiet grace. Her only possessions appearing to be her satchel bag at her side and some papers in her small hands. After sometime of walking aimlessly, she finally came to the castle that would become her home. Unsure of where to go or even what she was supposed to be doing, Nina clung to her acceptance letter and some other scraps of paper with generic responses and looked around the courtyard.

Jax had wandered outside, enjoying the spring weather, and was currently leaning against the trunk of one of the many trees in the courtyard, head tilted back and eyes closed. In one hand he held a number of wrapped candies, appearing to be Hershey's kisses or something similar, and he occasionally unwrapped one without looking and popped it into his mouth. A few students were scattered around, doing whatever activities entertained them, but it was quiet and peaceful. Quiet enough, in fact, that the sound of footsteps made him open his eyes and look over to see an unfamiliar girl. Though he couldn't claim to even begin to know every student at Foresta, judging by her lost look and young age he guessed she was new. And, from his experience, probably in need of somebody to explain things to her. He was new enough himself, still, but had at least begun to get into the flow of things.

Being as lazy as he was, he elected not to walk the 10-second walk it would take to approach this girl, but to vanish from his current location and appear before her in a puff of snow-white smoke. "Hey," he said casually, unwrapping another chocolate. "You new?"

    Nina jumped back slightly and observed this newcomer who had, only a moment ago, been standing nearby. Her blue eyes were wide as this tall and lanky young man looked at her. It took Nina a moment to register the question he asked. The young girl nodded timidly and looked through her papers before grabbing a small one and turning it to face the boy. It read only, “Yes”. Some of Nina’s concern alleviated at seeing the candy that this young man held. Nina suddenly remembered that she was quite hungry.

"I'm Jax," he introduced himself, studying the papers she held. Why the hell was she carrying papers with things written on them instead of just answering his question? Either she was just weird or it was something else. The thought that she may be unable to speak didn't cross his mind for longer than he'd care to admit, but when it did he decided to keep it to himself rather than ask questions. She seemed shy and timid enough and he didn't want to scare her away on her first day. "I can give you the grand tour if you want, but I'll warn you I've only been here for, like, a week so don't trust everything I say." Following her gaze to his handful of candy, he held his hand out to her. "Want one?"

    Nina looked at Jax with a small and pouty glare. He just told her not to trust things he said, then offered her food. She shook her head slightly at the offer and dove her hand into her satchel, producing a small red licorice wand and bit part of it off. This was her welcoming committee? Some teleporting guy with a perpetual grin and way too happy of an attitude.
    Nina grabbed a pen from her bag and wrote on a scrap of paper, “Where do I go?” and handed it to Jax. Nina finished her licorice piece and grabbed a piece of candy from her own bag, still ignoring the other person’s offer.

As it to prove the candy was in fact free of poisons or razor blades or whatever she might have thought, Jax dramatically unwrapped one, showed it to her, and ate it. "See? I'm not gonna kill you." In answer to her question, he shrugged and looked around. He'd managed to figure out the layout of the school enough to find his way around alright, but he had no idea how to introduce a new student to the place. "Well," he said slowly, trying to find a helpful answer. "Let's start with your dorm, I guess. What dorm are you in?"

Nina, more out of curiosity than anything else, decided to go with Jax. His penchant for sweet things didn't hurt either. Nina produced her school acceptance letter which clearly read that she was to be a part of the 'Lyra' dorm for Jax. With no one to help or guide her, Nina decided to put a little bit of faith in this being. As he read over her school papers she produced additional food from her satchel and munched quietly. This seemed like a good enough place afterall. It was an island, no one had been blatantly rude and maybe she could have a stable place to stay. The other students here seem happy enough, she thought to herself while observing some other children in the courtyard.

"Oh, you're in Lyra," Jax commented brightly as he read the paper, nodding. "Me, too. So I'm guessing your artsy or whatever. Most people in Lyra seem to be. It's the...eccentric dorm, be warned." Without waiting for a response he led her through the courtyard. For the most part the students scattered around looked to be your average high school students, but here and there were small displays of the strange abilities Foresta students had. It had been weird for Jax at first but he'd gotten used to it, and he watched Nina to see her reaction. A lot of the students here seemed to have arrived used to being surrounded by Gifteds, but there were some, like Jax, who'd been alone before. "So this is the courtyard," he continued. "People hang out here a lot. Those doors lup there ead to the entrance hall. Am I gonna get a name at all at any point?"

    Nooooo this guy was in her dormitory??? Could he even be a roommate? Surely not, he seemed older than she was. Did he say the eccentric dorm? This could certainly be interesting...or bad. Nina never had been the best at making friends and being shoved into a room full of hyper artistic children might be more than she could take. Though on the other hand, some loud and eccentric people could be a nice change from her own childhood. Maybe some news of others around would do her some good afterall. This could be a good thing, she assumed.


    With her apparent lack of ability to speak, Nina found many other ways to express herself such as through art, it was why she had picked Lyra in the first place so maybe there would be other people with similar interests. This thought calmed her to the idea of the dorm and even made her somewhat excited for the experience. Perhaps there were musicians amongst the group who could lend her and instrument or teach her how to play one!


    Nina then realized that Jax had, in fact, asked her a question. She put her finger on the top of her application that Jax currently and pointed to her name. Nina Galethren. She produced a sliver of paper that she kept under her wrist for introductions and showed Jax. “My name is Nina,” it read.

"Well, Nina," he said, continuing towards the huge doors that led into the school. "Foresta's not bad. It's a lot on your first day but you get used to all the weirdness everywhere. Some things sooner than others," he muttered, remembering his own welcoming committee, which had consisted of a robot and that tentacle...thing he still hadn't gotten a name out of. At least it was entertaining in hindsight, and had made for a memorable first day. How this girl would react to something like that, though, he had no idea. She looked shy, and easily spooked.

"So this is the entrance hall," he continued as he pushed open one of the doors, holding it for her to pass through. He pointed towards the dorms. "Lyra's down that way, if you wanna go there first and get settled in or whatever. Boys and girls are separated, so don't worry about getting stuck with any of the weird Lyra guys as roommates. Me included."

    Oh good. Nina wouldn’t have to room with Jax. She didn’t know if she could take that, especially on her first day. Nina stepped through the massive wooden doors and into the castle of a school. Producing her licorice stick once again, Nina chewed on it absently as she observed the impressive interior of the school. It was certainly much nicer than the Galethren villages she had grown up in. This place could definitely make a good home, given time.


    Nina produced a piece of paper, placed it on the door and scribbled. “Just show me around wherever,” the note read. Nina wanted to see it all, she was just somewhat uncomfortable with her entourage at this point but he had began to grow on her a little bit. She still didn’t trust him or his magically summoned food items though.


    As they began to set off, Nina wondered what kind of roommates she would come across after seeing what some of these people could do. She certainly hoped that they were nice or at the very least people that she could live with in the dorm. Anyone would be better than being alone was her initial thought but what is she had to be classmates with some kind of deranged being claiming to be a god or something? Surely there was no one here like that though...