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Lineage and class. To display such things so openly via hair was… it was a foreign concept. Were there patterns proscribed from use except for members of certain classes? 

There were plenty of peers and patricians or the progeny thereof enrolled and employed in Avalice. It scarcely affected anything, but Misaiya idly wondered if Sanhan was of aristocratic heritage as well. Discord was not uncommon in such households, or at least so the stereotype goes. Hopefully he hadn’t struck on something sensitive. But she thankfully seemed quite unperturbed. 

As for her question… [color=gray]“My magic? Isn’t it obvious? It’s quite simple, and it’s not that subtle, after all—“[/color]

Ah, Nyx was calling. The last stragglers had arrived as well — Alberta, dragging along her (some would say ‘misfortunate’) room-mate Kress. Gates open: it was boarding time.

Sanhan looked a bit uncomfortable as she stepped up and into the cabin. As Misaiya followed behind her, carefully manhandling his bicycle around and about all the obnoxiously ostentatious opulence. The staff almost seemed to stare, twitching whenever its wheels came too close to something or another. Surely it couldn’t have been so strange to bring a secondary vehicle into another vehicle… though putting it that way did, admittedly, sound a bit odd. Well, there‘s always time for firsts.

That’s right. Sanhan was from a rural area, wasn’t she? This was probably her first time taking a train. Misaiya parked and secured his bicycle to a handle on the cabin wall, then sat on the vacant bench across the steppe girl, with his bag beside. He still hadn’t given her a proper answer yet, and it would simply be unfair not to.

[color=Gray]“I don’t have any magic. Sensing and manipulating my mana is the best I can do. I haven’t got any natural aptitude for it anyhow, and besides, most people fare just fine without.”[/color] A little caveat was probably needed there, since most people didn’t attend a notoriously selective adventurer school.

[color=Gray]“In my mother tongue, trains are called ‘fire carriages’ because they burn coal.”[/color] He gestured all around to the surrounding train cabin. [color=Gray]“Although, now there are some places with ones that run on electricity alone.”[/color] His hometown was one such place. Their introduction saved many lungs from the noxious smoke of steam engines.

[color=Gray]“Tonnes upon tonnes of cargo and thousands upon thousands of people are moved across continents by rail every day. All that, powered by nothing but boiling water.”[/color] A contented smile crept onto Misaiya’s face. [color=Gray]“You could say that this is a kind of ‘magic’. A magic wielded by no one individual, but born of a collective, collaborative effort.”[/color]

Misaiya let out a single laugh. It sounded almost more like a cough, and would have looked like one too, had he not accompanied it with a grin.

[color=Gray]“Which is all to say - I can’t use magic, so I turned to science and engineering. Haven’t given up on trying yet, though!”[/color]

It did, however, seem that Alberta had given up on staying awake. All sense of dignity went out the window as she plopped beside Sanhan, glanced at her with hazy confusion, and eventually just… gave up. Misaiya was no physician, but after a decade of school, he had learned how to diagnose sleep deprivation with remarkable accuracy. Either this was Alberta’s first time staying up late, or she had substituted a siesta in place of solid sleep. 

It was a shame that Mandi either did not notice this, or did not care. 

He kept silent for a while. Mandi had overstepped by no small degree, but - perhaps it ought to be called naïveté - Misaiya was still of the belief that the mischievous boy had not done so out of malice. As such, he would rather avoid offending Mandi or alienating him, while still telling him off sternly enough that Alberta would be spared the untimely ribbing. Coming off as a no-fun authoritarian would be counterproductive, after all.

Mandi was more the teasing type, and he did that to pretty much everyone, albeit with a focus on the girls. The sheer prolificness of the boy’s juvenile humour had slowly come to annoy Misaiya, even if only slightly. And to think that Mandi was a year his senior! The only person in the class who was remotely as raunchy as him would be Eris, who [i]also[/i] chased skirts (poor Kiara, she had it the worst) and seemed to outright disdain boys. Truly a twisted tag team for the ages.

Ahem.

Plus, there was more than just one boy in Camellia who had made it a hobby to bother the flower- and tea-lover. Ty and Caelum ended up in shouting matches with Alberta on a semi-regular basis, and they shot demeaning nicknames and insults at her (and vice versa) every time they met. Admittedly, she was the one initiating confrontations a disproportionate amount of the time, but still — 3 on 1 hardly seemed fair. Sekhandur didn’t get nearly as much flak for behaviour at least as egregious. Plus, Kress seemed to have a more positive opinion of her, though even a devil in human form would receive no worse an appraisal, so perhaps he wasn’t the best source…

Either way, Misaiya didn’t want a fight breaking out so soon after setting off, and right when he and Sanhan were having a perfectly peaceful conversation, too. Mandi had to go.

[color=Gray]“Hold the ribald comments, Mandi, cease your bawdy tease. 
If you have any empathy, then let her rest in peace.”[/color]

…that double meaning had not been intentional. At all. Whoops? Hopefully Alberta wouldn’t take it poorly. Why was he saying this in iambic meter?

[color=Gray]“Whence you came, our friends await; they long for you again. 
Go back and entertain them three: Sophiel, Ty, Yvaine.”[/color]

The four of them did seem to get along well, and Misaiya could sincerely testify that Yvaine was a most pleasant person to be around. It wasn’t like he was attacking anyone, right?

[color=Gray]“Such baits and barbs are tiresome — note, briars have hearts too.
The circumstances bid us part, so we bid you adieu.”[/color]

That was probably enough. He couldn’t come up with another rhyming couplet anyway. And so, as if Mandi had already vanished from his sight, Misaiya waved over one of the train staff. [color=Gray]“Excuse me!”[/color] A steward came over at once, with a practiced gait. 

[color=Gray]“A pillow, please. Make that three, actually. And a pot of tea.”[/color] Misaiya turned to the two across the table. [color=Gray]“Have you eaten? The school is paying for food onboard.”[/color] It was too late for another breakfast, and still far too early for lunch. Fruits it was, then. [color=Gray]“Duri— no, that’s out of season. I’ll have a pineapple.”[/color]