[right][@vietmyke][/right]
[color=f6989d]After freshman year living at home and trying to deal with the five in the morning starts to her day, Penelope learned better. Commuting to school for that early was hard on her, especially with how full she made her schedule the first year. A lot of activities all focused on making her better, set on being at the top of the program and all of her classes. So she dormed at the school during the school year now; it meant not having to get up as early for the training, and not having to make use of one of the lockers in the Aux rooms. It also meant she was able to get up and start warming up for the training sessions before anyone else, which she stuck to the Aux rooms rather than trained in the open corridors. Daithi had reassured her the bracelet was charmed to nullify her aura that upset vampires, but she wasn’t entirely convinced and had no desire to put it to the test more than knowing she could walk around the corridors without incident.

She hadn’t given any notice to the beauty of the morning; she never did. Even back in Lusk, she focused on the early morning training and her surroundings than the atmosphere and beauty of it. Penelope just focused on maintaining speed and pace for the laps they ran in warm up. It wasn’t her heritage that made this easy, but all the years she trained as part of the Guardian Applicants and the Guardian Auxiliary, and with her uncles that let her keep pace with some of the physically gifted metahumans. Still, she always hated running. The rest of the training routine was what she really excelled at. Give her short distances to cover and she was there. Give her combat practices, power usage drills - hell, give her workout drills to run - and she could handle it with ease. Well, she felt it was easy. There was always going to be someone better than her, and she was always going to push herself to make it to those standards, but there was always that line where certain supernaturals were just stronger or faster or had better abilities than she did.

The burn of a good workout continued after heading back to her dorm hall, and taking a hot shower. Penelope actually liked it; it marked improvement, but if it didn’t pass before lunch, she would have to do something about it. For now, she was more focused on figuring out what to do with her day. She could head home, visit with her mother - she hadn’t done that since she moved into the dorm a week ago - or head off to see her uncle Connall as he prepped for classes tomorrow. But that all was, well, boring after spending the summer doing more training and hanging out with her mother; besides, Connall had made her promise to get more social.

Dressed in her typical jeans, combat boots, and white tank top under a dark grey long sleeve shirt, Penelope headed out. Her long hair was still damp, but that made it a bit more manageable to leave down; she still wore a ponytail holder on her wrist, just in case. Today, she decided against any makeup, which made getting out to the courtyard faster, even if by only a few minutes. Heading back to her dorm after practice was time consuming, but she preferred that than having a napsack with her training outfit in it. One less thing that could get in the way, just in case. Paranoia? She preferred to think of it as being prepared.

Her hands rested in her leather jacket pockets as she walked, dark gaze drifting over her surroundings. She wasn’t looking for trouble, but more anyone she knew that she could hang out with; that was a very short list. Just as she spotted Tony hanging out on the courtyard fountain, fliers rained down from the roof. Snatching one from the air, she glanced up briefly before reading it. The Fitzroy pack was throwing a party; sounded like an interesting time.

Without a second though, she headed straight for Tony. She held up the flier she had, noticing he had one of his own.[/color] [color=CD5C5C]“Hey, got any other plans for tonight?”[/color]

[hr]
[color=D8BFD8]The new setting didn't sit right with Ariel. She didn't understand why Nola wanted them to stay at the school. It wasn't a comfortable place, not for her. She had a hard time finding a quiet place to herself, especially feeling that way in her dorm room. She didn't mind the size, but she just wanted to be out in the open air. Or at least have her roommate be someone she was familiar with already. She wanted to make a good experience out of this, and was determined to get to know the girl she was rooming with, but still. Nola had a reason when she suggested they dorm instead of just make the commute daily to and from the house, a reason she never told them.

Sleep wasn't restful last night, but at least she got some. It wasn't a lot, but it was there, bookended by drawing or working on her ASL lessons using a booklight carefully angled to stay in her own bed. She desperately wanted to practice on her violin, but the first night she found what she thought was an empty hall, a vampire had come along. It wasn’t a horrible experience - nothing aggressive about it anyways - but it was unexpected and she still wasn’t exactly comfortable being around most of the other races at the school. With how many enemies the coven - save for Nola - had made, she wasn’t sure who would end up harboring a grudge against her family and who wouldn’t. So she had spent her other free days this past week practicing outside with the company of her brother.

When her alarm howled that it was time to get her day started, she made no attempt to get to the shower first. Instead, she sat and brushed all the snarls out of her hair. If she didn't, it would be a tangled mess and never wash properly anyways. Or at least that was the reason her mother got her in the habit of doing so when she was little. Most of the habits she was trained into by their parents were broken, but it had been so many years it was one of the habits that she would never break. Besides, it meant there was no fight to get a shower; after all, it didn't matter to her if there was hot water or not. It gave her time to deal with her hair, pick out what she would wear, and still have time for breakfast before the assembly. 

By the time that half of her morning routine was done, the showers were free. Better yet, there was still warm water left. Shower finished, her off the shoulders sweater over a cream colored tank top matched to a nice pair of jeans all put on, just a touch of makeup on (mostly just to give her lips a hint of color and downplay the color of her eyes just a hair while all making it look like there was no makeup applied) and putting on all her various jewelry - save for the locket she never took off - she gathered her sketchbook and few other things she might need for her day in her messenger bag and put on a comfortable pair of sneakers. 

She grabbed a quick breakfast, her usual of just a piece of fruit to go, then headed off to the assembly. Her sketchbook rested on her lap throughout it, making quick sketches of each speaker with a brief note here and there about what they were talking about or who they were. A few of the clubs sounded interesting, and she had consideration of going for them, but that would depend on how she really adjusted to school.[/color]

[hr]
[right][@mnkee][/right]
[color=ADD8E6]Dorm rooms sucked. No, not literally, and most of the others would disagree, but as far as Jack was concerned it sucked. The beds were uncomfortable, the rooms claustrophobic, and he would have preferred if he could have dormed with his sister, but that wasn’t what happened. He’d live, but he didn’t have to be happy about it. It wasn’t that his dorm mates were horrible, he just - they weren’t familiar, and he was more than a little cautious with who he got close to even four years after his parents’ deaths.

At least sleep was getting easier. The first night he barely slept, but stubbornly tried. The second night, he got a bit more, but was too restless to even try to fake it and ended up in an empty classroom practicing a spell from his father’s grimoire. It wasn't magic he practiced regularly - hell, it wasn't magic he had any affinity for whatsoever - but he liked a challenge; he couldn't help it. It was rather unsuccessful; illusions weren’t anywhere close to his specialty, but he was close enough to getting it work that smoke billowed in the approximate form that he had been trying to manifest.

Sleep came easier last night, though he still woke up extremely early for when his day needed to start. Rather than attempt to fall back to sleep and wake up tired, he just settled for showering - four in the morning seemed a good time anyways since only the vampires at the school were really up to use the facilities at that hour. Dressed in jeans matched to a black t-shirt and a heavy, cream colored hoodie, he packed his grimoires into his sling backpack and headed out to see what the campus had to offer so early. Which brought him to the field a group of kids were training in.

He decided to watch - he had nothing better to do anyways - until they dispersed. It looked like some tough stuff. Challenging and interesting - just his favorite combination of things. He made note of what the guy leading the group looked like, and made sure to keep it in mind for the assembly. 

Which was exactly what he did when sitting in the assembly. He had looked for Ariel, but the room was pretty crowded by the time he finally figured out where he was going. So he just sat, did his best not to fidget, and listened as patiently as he could. The Guardians Auxiliary seemed interesting, extremely so, but had the catch of kind of needing to be interested in becoming a Guardian. Maybe that was what he should do with his life; he hadn’t considered what he would be doing after Gringore, not in earnest anyways. Ariel seemed like she had it figured out, her proficiency naturally leaned toward a profession. Him, well he could be in rather uninspired jobs, or he could do something challenging and fun. Maybe. Maybe he’d seek out someone that was part of the program for their thoughts.

Which was what he was planning to do until he spotted the flier floating down from the roof. Today was shaping out great. He might not have personally known anyone in the Fitzroy pack, but he knew enough to know this would be an interesting party. One he didn’t want to miss. 

A smile on his face, he looked up from the flier to spot a beautiful fae also leaving orientation. White hair, fair skin - if she wasn’t fae, then that was an amazing dye job. Well, no time like the present to start making acquaintances with new faces. Jack walked up to the woman, offering her a broad grin.[/color] [color=8493ca]“That was quite the thing, huh? Excited for the year to come?”[/color]