The interior of the Audience hall was just as captivating as the exterior design of the academy. Vera was impressed with how the natural features of the hall blended so well with the man-made ones. It seemed more like an indoor garden than an Audience hall. It all felt very unfamiliar to her, however. It wasn't just the surreal, almost magical charm of the place, but it was also due to the fact that because of her background, she had little opportunity to be so close to nature. For her, nature and the outdoors had always been associated with dirt, grime, and contamination. This mindset had her uncomfortably trying to settle into one of the bush-chairs, and awkwardly shifting for awhile longer after she had finally taken a seat. She eventually felt compelled to sit still after realizing that a couple of students seated nearby had turned to look at her, noticing her apparent discomfort.

Hargor was the first to speak, providing the details about student accommodations. She liked how he took care to mention that the dormitories weren't like the Audience hall. [i]Well, thank goodness for that.[/i] She wondered what her dorm mates would be like, if she even had any. She also imagined that the students' living quarters would be much smaller than what she was used to, though that might just a good thing, considering she'd have to keep her own place clean now.

Manilow was up next. Vera was beginning to think that the guy had a knack for making extremely umm... memorable, first impressions. It had first been that whole show at the fountain, and then he start his speech shouting out some threat? In spite of all that, including the loud, boisterous teacher having a rather questionable choice of underwear, Vera had to admit that the second part of his speech, when he had stopped yelling, was actually well-delivered, and even inspiring. [i]Guess first impressions aren't everything. Too bad so much importance is placed on them, though.[/i]

Vera recognized Hargreaves when she stepped up to say some words of her own. It was intriguing to hear the elegant, graceful woman, who projected an outer image of what was expected in high society, speak about freedom and chaos. Vera was raised to believe that image was everything, that those who dared to be authentic would lose out, that it was important to impress others. It just didn't fit - the front that this teacher was putting up had no relation to what she was saying. Perhaps people weren't as simple as she thought, and that no two or more traits came as a package, but each individual possesses a unique and different combination of them. If what Hargreaves said was true - if there was no one at the academy who was going to tell her what to be, if they were going to let every student be themselves, Vera was going to take this opportunity to discover who she truly was, and to not be afraid to make mistakes and learn from them.

Considering she had somewhat met the first three speakers before the ceremony, the earlier events were still playing in her head. That whole fountain experience had really been something. She had seen fellow students with rather rare and distinctive abilities, helped save a teacher's life, and witnessed another teacher's interesting lifesaving method. That other boy with longish black hair who helped out with her and Hargreaves though, she didn't get his name. She glanced around the audience, and spotted him sitting behind her. She gave him small wave and leaned slightly over her backrest.

"Hey there, I didn't get your name earlier," she whispered. "I'm Vera, by the way."

[@Kalleth]
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Xavier leaned back in his seat as he listened to the various speakers who took turns to address the new students. Apart from the first part, which had been completely expected of the gym teacher, he was admittedly impressed with Manilow's speech. Who would have thought that he was secretly a metaphor type of guy? In fact, that entire second half almost didn't sound like him at all. [i]Strange, yet pleasantly surprising...[/i] Now that Manilow had mentioned it to the entire cohort, Xavier would be expecting that a few curious and overly-adventurous students would be trying to break into that shed throughout the year, not that it would be his problem.

He decided to pass when his turn came, gesturing for the next teacher to take their turn. He figured that the first-years had gotten enough motivation from Manilow and Hargreaves. This was assuming Reyes would have had anything motivational to say in the first place. Well, that would have been subjective. He shared Hargreaves' sentiments about daring to take risks yet not going too far with them. Accidents were understandable, but it seemed that there would always be at least one knucklehead in every cohort who would try to blow the lab up during his classes. Hopefully there wouldn't be any this year, but he'd save the lab safety talk for the first lesson.