A strange mist descended on the grounds of Athalia.

Well, not really [i]all[/i] of Athalia, but more like a very localized part of the garden out front. And it wasn't really a mist, but a gaseous bird of some sort. The only thing unusual was that it was emanating music. It would have been incredibly beautiful to a listener if there was a listener to hear it, but all of the rest of the students were nowhere to be seen. Nowhere, that is, until the skylark turned her head and saw the campus. Assuming the rest of the students were inside, she flew over to it, and quickly spotted students all leaving from a central location - something that appeared to be an auditorium. [i]Wonderful[/i], she thought sarcastically. [i]That must have been the introductory speech that I just missed. Why wouldn't they give me enough time to get here on time to hear the speech?[/i] - thinking back to just twelve hours earlier that she had received her invitation to the Academy and flown as fast as possible from the other side of the planet to get there. Although, thinking back on it, she might have had a couple of sonic expeditions that made her journey a bit longer. Oh well.

Touching down near the crowd of students and shifting to her human form, she joined the masses. Appearing angelic but at the same time...not, she walked aimlessly, trying to figure out where all the students were going. It seemed that everybody was going somewhere different and some weren't going anywhere at all. Grasping her enormous trumpet that appeared as soon as she became human, she noticed that much of the population was converging on what appeared to be the cafeteria. Curious, she walked in. Her visit to the cafeteria was brief; she walked in, didn't stop walking and walked out the other side. During her stroll through, though, she saw a few things. Some people sitting on their own, some in pairs, and a particular pair of very similar looking males who seemed to be attracting every female in the building - and seeming very smug about it. As she walked past them, she raised one eyebrow and abruptly turned her head back to the front, flipping her hair in a typical diva-like fashion. Walking back out into the crowd outside, she walked to and fro, trying to find an in to the many conversations that were going on while simultaneously observing all the different species in one place. Unfortunately, the first conversation she walked into didn't seem like the most pleasant one.

As Carmen's path converged on two figures conversing, she sized them up. On one side was a rather ordinary looking male, but as she approached he seemed to have something...less human about him. [i]Zombie? Ghost?[/i] She couldn't tell. One the other was an extravagantly rustic-looking male, who clearly was more than an ordinary human and seemed to have a facial profile similar to Carmen's. The two seemed to be having less of a conversation and more of an argument as Carmen walked up. As she walked up, the tension was almost palpable. "Pardon me, is everything alright here?" asked Carmen in a weird combination of an almost mother-like tone of voice and a hard, intimidating facial expression. She hoped her extremely melodious voice would ease tensions a bit. She might have been a bit of a diva, but she definitely cared for others.