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[color=00a99d]"S'right,"[/color] came the reply from the verdant monolith seated to the right of the pair, opposite Crystal and Rivka. A small bandage had graced her brow in the whirlwind aftermath of their initiation testing, a result of the otherwise sterling medical examination. It was telling of their newfound potential that the practitioners weren't terribly surprised that a scrape and some bruising was all she had earned for her meteoric descent— Selma had to admit, even she was a bit concerned after she'd felt her bones shake a little with the impact. [color=00a99d]"We just took our first steps today. Only goin' up the mountain from here."[/color]

Biting deep and heartily into a drumstick, her emerald eyes slid over to regard the two newer arrivals as she mulled over their conversations a while longer. Rivka and Crystal weren't always terribly much for idle chatter, but she'd managed to pull them into some friendly nonsense before they'd showed up— and it had stepped away from the forefront after this had taken root. for her part, she hadn't really given [i]too[/i] much thought to whether or not she was really ready to acknowledge herself as Ars Magi...

[i]How did it feel to use your powers, Miss Rosmarie?[/i]

[i][color=00a99d]"It rocked. I wanna do it again. I felt like I was invincible, unstoppable. Nothing in the world could beat me."[/color][/i]

[color=00a99d]"But, hey, we did just [i]start[/i] being 'em. They'll still be training us, y'know? It'll probably sink in more once we really put our noses to the grindstone on it. It's like, uh..."
[/color]

She paused momentarily, eyes floating between the two girls as she searched for the comparison.

[i]And do you, now, feel differently about yourself since the transformation?

[color=00a99d]"I'm trying not to. But I gotta say, it [i]does[/i] feel like I'm a lot closer to what I've always wanted."[/color]

That being?

[color=00a99d]"Protect people from the Voids. Take back home. That kinda stuff. But aside from that I wanna make sure I stay the same ol' me."[/color][/i]

Inspiration flashed as the memory faded back out, and as she swallowed, she raised the bone aloft as though a pointer finger, the classic gesture of "Eureka!"

[color=00a99d]"It's like [i]dancing[/i]. You don't really feel like a dancer after you first shuffle to a nice beat, but if you keep working at it and learning how it all works, it starts to feel right."[/color]

The bone unceremoniously clattered back to the plate as she wiped her fingers. That made sense, right? It did to her— it should to the other ladies, then. For all their personal misgivings with themselves, all their uncertainties, all their needs of a good solid hug every now and again, Selma was pretty sure that if she could grok something, [i]they[/i] could grok it too. They seemed smart. Surely they'd also needed to train stuff from the ground up before— and they probably didn't need to fight stuff like a gangly build, but the point remained.

She made to clap Chie on the back, good-natured and fraternal as ever—

[i]How did you feel your peers performed, in that case?

[color=00a99d]"I'm glad everyone's okay. It got a li'l touch 'n' go at the end there, but poor Chie still gritted her teeth and fought through her injury like a champ."[/color][/i]

And decided instead to venture north, tousling the smaller girl's long brunette locks in between bites of food, favoring her with a confident smile. After a moment, it graced the rest of the table in turn— Aoife, Crystal, Rivka. They'd been through a lot together in the past three days, nobody could deny them such. They'd faced the fire head on even when they weren't meant to— nobody could have predicted that train station going the way it had— and always come out swinging for the fences, even if it wasn't the perfect concertos someone like Sokolov had expected of herself. They'd [i]always[/i] found a way.

And for her, their hard work was gonna be a badge of pride.

[i]So regarding your encounter with the Void...

[color=00a99d]"Heh heh heh. Kicking [b]them[/b] around for a change was fun."[/color]

That'll be all, Miss Rosmarie.

Congratulations, cadet. Today,[/i]

[color=00a99d]"Just watch. If we could handle all this [i]before[/i] we start learning from the best in the business? Before you know it, we're all gonna be cracking their masks like old pros. They shoulda got us on that train when they had the chance."[/color]

Her grin passed [i]confident[/i] and into [i]wolfish[/i], as she returned to her food with redoubled vigor. Payback Time was a-comin', and she'd long set her clock.

[i]You are an Ars Magi.[/i]