Rozmonda sat in her chair, a dull and bored expression on her face. Her elbows were propped up on her lap, head resting in her hands, and she drummed her fingers lightly against her cheek. Instead of looking towards the Principal, her dark eyes wandered across the sea of students. Most of them were politely paying attention, though she noted a few who seemed as bored as she was.

The corners of her lips twitched into a small smile as she noticed that someone was literally sleeping through the opening ceremony. How lucky they were to be capable of napping on such uncomfortable chairs. The foreign student gave a sigh, her smile slipping into a frown, as she lamented once again the miniature stature of the culture she had been forced into. The Academy did make efforts to accommodate their wide array of students, she admitted, but they could hardly change Japan itself.

When the speech finally came to it's lukewarm ending, Rozmonda didn't bother applauding or standing. Instead she sat up straighter in her seat, rolling her shoulders lightly to try and work the kinks out. Waiting for the as-always-late researcher, she took a moment to smooth out her skirt, straighten her blazer, and ensure the dress shirt underneath was the 'proper' amount of unbuttoned. Running a hand lightly through her red hair to give it more of a fluffy look, she idly wondered who her supposed partner would be.

As Rozmonda expected the principle called for the students to stay put, though they didn't need to wait for particularly long. When the head researcher stumbled in, somehow looking more disheveled and lost than she remembered, the foreign girl couldn't help but click her tongue in disapproval. Were the woman simply ugly, that would be unfortunate but simply how it was. However, the problem as she saw it was simply that the head researcher either was utterly lacking in the skills of self-maintenance or put zero effort into it.

Even her clumsy, stammering personality could be spun the right way. Especially in Japan, there were plenty of people who liked the shy bookworm type. She could easily see a decently attractive woman in there if she bothered to play to her strengths, and that was without bothering to exercise and diet. If she did, well, she certainly had potential. 

As the students were directed to Room 4B, she rose to her feet along with the rest. She noted that, while she wasn't the tallest, she easily towered over the majority of students as usual. Walking with a confident stride, she followed along with the rest of the students. Though the opening ceremony bored her and she was hardly any more enthusiastic about being here, curious thoughts as to who her supposed partner would be wormed their way into her mind again.

[hr]

Sora sat with a politely attentive demeanor that was hard to distinguish from genuine interest. She had one leg crossed over the other, hands lightly clasping her bare knee. The overhead lights cast a glare across her glasses, to the young students mild irritation. She slightly tilted her head this way and that in an effort to avoid it, but met no success.

The orientation speech was, honestly, nothing particularly informative. At least not for her, as she had spent the past few months leading up to today doing extensive study and research on the Academy. Even had she not, her nearly lifelong obsession with eventually attending here would have informed her of most of what was said. It didn't help that most of the actual information being given was peppered in around flowery sentimentality.

She supposed it was to be expected, however. She allowed her gaze to briefly flick down towards the students seated in front of her, assessing them. She was hardly the standard example of a student. Most would have come here with barely any knowledge at all, likely only knowing what family and friends might tell them.

Sora pursed her lips in a puzzled manner as the speech seemed to end, many of the students rising from their seats to leave. Had the opening ceremony been changed from what she had heard? She was certain that the partnering of new students was meant to be handled by a researcher that took over after the opening speech. Bringing her hands to her lap and uncrossing her legs, she was about to rise from her seat along with the rest when the Principle quickly confirmed her thoughts.

Settling back into her seat, she allowed herself to idly wonder what kind of person this researcher was. Surely they held a in depth knowledge of Receivers and Tuners, but how much did they know of Aether? Perhaps she would get the opportunity to pick their brain on the subject sometime. The academic young student didn't have long to wait for her musings to be given an answer.

The frazzled, disheveled woman that stumbled in was not quite what she had expected. A small frown on her face, she mentally chastised herself. The expectations had been of her own conjuring, after all, and what she was being presented with only spoke of a scatter-brained and nonathletic personality. She could hardly judge on the former, only avoiding such situations thanks to her methodical series of alarms.

The latter, however, left her with mixed feelings. She firmly believed that in order to best care for your mind, you needed to care for your body. The researcher clearly didn't. Yet, she had no information as to why that might be the case.

Was the woman simply too busy with study, delving into topics and matters that a student such as herself could only guess at? Did her job leave her with so little free time that a routine such as her own was impractical? She found the thoughts somewhat troubling, as she intended to become a researcher herself someday. Frowning, she concluded that she would have to look into such matters at a later date and construct a revised schedule that accounted for stricter time constraints.

With a start she realized she had tuned the world out around her, the crowd of students already flowing past her. Mentally chastising herself again, this time for spacing out while the researcher had been talking, Sora quickly rose from her seat and allowed the crowd to guide her to wherever it was she needed to be going. As she walked, she couldn't help but have her thoughts drift off into assessments on what kind of person she would be paired with.