The Harbinger of Ferocity

Academy 218: Still looking for new people to join - now is the primetime.

I have missed a significant amount of activity over the course of a mere four days. That said, I will scrounge up what I can to put Mark I here he should be during and now after Ruben's class.

Academy 218: Still looking for new people to join - now is the primetime.

Delayed response is delayed.

I am unlikely to respond much, if at all, this weekend given my work cycle.

Academy 218: Still looking for new people to join - now is the primetime.

Mark Tybalt

@bluemoon277

---

Kanala spoke with a sense of adamancy that one of her qualities, perhaps the most pronounced of her person - the ability to glean one's mind - was as an intrusive as Mark had imagined; there wasn't an ounce of doubt in his person to begin with about that, not from the moment he learned such a thing was possible. Her demeanor however, had the same general impact on his person as did most things, which likely proved mildly confusing to anyone not readily familiar with Mark's level of indifference or, as in this case, feigned indifference. Realistically Mark was not fond of the notion, but to show any reaction well or weal, for or against, was bound to generate more problems than solve any.

He provided a nod, quietly eating another roll after having dabbed it gently into the saucer of soy while Kanala continued.

The interruption to the conversation as Kana proved to cringe uncomfortably, even bumping the table, was what perked Mark's curiosity. Raising a brow, he watched with a sense of mild confusion and attentiveness to her reaction of, what he soon discovered to be, the drink's frothy carbonation which proved to burn the girl's nose lightly. It ended as abruptly as it began, Mark having held almost entirely still during much of the conversation, as if assessing how if at all he should respond, to which Kana did before he opted to.

"Sorry about that." She laughed lightly, proving to smile afterward.

Mark nodded with a faint grin of acceptance; it was amusing, but he did not have the time to reply as yet another interruption came. Some sort of mass notification, the sort that made the young man less than pleased with the arrangement and mentality of the school; everything was done on their time. To Mark, this reminded him of his father's regiment when he was much younger, that everyone else's time did not matter as much as his. Sighing, having finished his meal - or so he was given the situation - he stood, replying to Kana as he adjusted his loose over shirt and glasses.

"I would." He said simply, taking up the backpack before departing alongside her.

---

@SepticGentleman

The night before the school day itself was not an enjoyable one; Mark was separated from the one person he "knew" and thrust into an unfamiliar environment. Not that the conditions were poor - for what he expected, they were just as seemingly lavish as anything else, but that was neither the point of his concern and discomfort nor the end of it. Feeling as awkward as ever, he had slept little throughout the night - nothing much out of the norm he experienced, but with an added sense of it all being more foreign.

The day following proved to be as consistent in that as well.

All of the oddities, the strangeness, all just taken for granted, as if these sorts of matters happened every day; which, realistically with meta-humans, they did... but that changed nothing for Mark. Everything about these people felt strange, even Mark himself. The academic courses were straightforward, but just the ambient personality to everything? Hardly.

By the time he sat down in the last class of the day, Mark wanted nothing to do with the general repetition of it all. Everything was broken down into the same overview of the course, introductions, some sort of private then group exercise, then completion of it. He hoped that this "Doctor Ruben" proved to be more the atypical normal sort.

That was wrong. Very, very, very wrong.

As Mark sat, roughly in the middle of the class, setting his bag aside, drawing out a pad of paper and a pencil, he took brief note of his company; needless to say, he certainly wasn't early, but the moment the clock struck the class' start, Mark was rewarded with the presence of a, well he guessed it was, man. Not just any ordinary man, the one wrapped and bound as he was, but most strikingly bearing what appeared to be an antique diving helm with an early era television mixed in, along with a prevalent scent of flesh - meat, sinew. The furthest Mark could be from normal and though he wanted to gawk, the animal in him rather bristled and sat uneasily in his seat; deferring to the latter, he listened, then soon watched as the teacher produced a bizarre looking device.

Toying with the construct as he was, Mark wasn't immediately surprised when Ruben produced more tendrils and withdrew the stock of dimly glowing devices; their faint green radiance against the unusual fleshiness of the teacher. Now, between accepting of what he understood was strange and what he didn't, Mark was not sure which prospect was more frightening - the teacher or the fact these devices, according to him, were concentrated sources of meta-human energy.

This is going to end poorly.

Thought in forefront of mind as Ruben approached, setting the device down without slowing, Mark examined the workings... well, once Ruben was out of reach and sight; Mark wasn't sure how to feel about him one way or another. He was suspicious of everyone, particularly something - that wasn't fair, someone, like Ruben. Not only because he was a teacher at the academy, but because he so casually provided these devices, which he either was confident were safe for the students to handle or realistically unconcerned with the remote possibility of something going wrong.

Handling the device, giving it a faint shake and watching the liquid flow within it, Ruben's words caught Mark's attention.

“Place. The band. Around. Your arm. And observe. How the meta. Energy. Reacts to yours.”

Begrudgingly, Mark watched the other class members handle them, but proved otherwise to do as told, slipping the mechanism over his wrist and soon up the arm; it reacted about in the manner Mark immediately expected, roiling about at first as it seemed to try to keep a single, coherent shape and substance. Its hue darkened and changed from a green into a amber, before turning a deep crimson - steadying his breathing, attempting to remain calm, Mark allowed it to behave as it wanted to. Which only resulted in the formless liquid attempting to stabilize itself again and again after rolling about in its confines, bloody coloration and all.

When it did remain idle, for the few seconds it could, he noted it was largely because he let his concentration of it go; the more intent and focus, the more work he put into it, the more it tried to seemingly fight against its stability. In a way, this proved a bit enlightening to Mark, as the nature of his abilities was more instinct... less application. It was just embracing the "knowing" of what it was he was to be doing, rather than trying to actually do it.

It would have been easy - would have - to control if he could at least relax, but the fact it reacted with a bit of a blood-like coloration and behavior made it concerning; if anything it merely proved his blood and body itself was malleable, capable of changing on whim.

All things considered, Mark's reaction was stable the less he thought about it, as if ingrained in him.

A girl across the classroom - a huge woman, no less, easily towering over him without even the slightest of effort in standing erect - did not have such a passive, but consistently aggressive reaction. Her exposure was... quite violent and raised the hairs on the back of Mark's neck; that sense of animal hostility, which provoked a response from his own band, which seemed now to shudder slightly as if on edge with rising and growing vibrations - the wanting to react instinctually.

Subsequently, the band burst on her, to which she did her best to hide the after effects as best she could; arm pulled close and out of Mark's sight, he relaxed ever so moderately, but found himself still quite on edge, with the volatile currently crimson liquid still proving to vibrate on a harmonic manner - an awareness and alertness that betrayed whatever camouflage Mark displayed as outwardly attempting to pretend to be quite human when his presence here alone made that unlikely.

Muttering slightly to his partner beside him, Mark commented; "That could have gone worse."

Academy 218: Still looking for new people to join - now is the primetime.

I believe more than anything there would be some rotation and or ratio of classes, given there would be a curriculum the academy would legally be obligated to uphold, or so I imagine. That said, switching after each class makes the most sense, or each semester.

Fatal Souls | Crusader Kings & A Game of Thrones-inspired Dynasty Setting

This concept has the mark of personal investment and effort in it as a fairly original idea with origins from good, solid material, thus I commend you and you've won my interest.

I would like to see more of your in depth analysis of your world, especially magic and the forms it takes and what role it has in the world, if at all. I am not fond of fantasies where magic is overwhelming as it is in many. That said, I await the out-of-character piece.

Cara's Originally Titled OoC Hangout Thread ♥ (Still)

Every category has its merits, but one-to-one and small group efforts I believe have the most potential for character development and story; large groups become decentralized, splinter, disorganized or, just as often, begin that way from the start. In those regards they are somewhat notorious, but that is just an underlying quality I've noted to them, which is fairly universally true for any system which requires a hub with plot and character spokes coming out around it.

Admittedly the Advanced category's most glaring weakness is the sheer slowness between posts; there is a great amount of downtime between them, a few days more often than not. Higher ends of the Casual spectrum often have one, maybe two per day, depending on the scheduling. One-to-one? Varies with a partner, but that is my preferred interaction given there's more ability to just build upon a steady, streamlined concept.

That said, welcome to the Guild, @Zara.

Academy 218: Still looking for new people to join - now is the primetime.

Mark Tybalt

@bluemoon277

---

Seeing Kanala set to the sushi on her plate, Mark followed suit; it had been some time since he had even had sushi - it wasn't exactly cheap, or even really plentiful. It reminded him of the time before all of this, even before his father died. It was sort of a rare occasion to eat it, but the academy made this celebratory banquet overboard as it was, making sushi one of the more tame and comparatively less exotic things they presented. Mark had sort of gleaned over everything else there, keeping to what Kanala had more or less chosen to eat, as he considered it impolite to choose otherwise.

After all, he didn't know what her qualms were with other foods.

That said, he toyed with the chopsticks between his fingers, getting accustomed again as to how to even use them. That knowledge returned as Kanala talked, drawing Mark's attention to her more so as she described a scenario aboard the boat they came in on. Mark had been asleep then, which begged the question - or so he thought - if that made one's thoughts more difficult or easier to read; he assumed more difficult as the subconscious was a confusing, often illogical place.

All the same, Mark noted the sudden change in Kanala's voice and demeanor, listening as he took up a piece of sushi and quietly ate; doing his best to provide her an answer when he finished eating. Setting down the utensils and drinking from the condensation covered glass, Mark continued the conversation.

"I get the sense that it is an awkward thing to contend with." He said simply.

But you're not the only one who deals with the uncomfortable. His thoughts continued, on a mundane undercurrent as he dabbed a roll into the small basin of soy.

If Kanala did hear him, she'd likely get the sense there was more to what Mark was capable of. This didn't worry him, as at this point he realized there was a chink in her armor; a point of weakness. She visibly felt uneasy and somewhat awkward about her psychic eavesdropping, as unwilling for both her and her mark at the same time. This, in a way, made Mark far more comfortable; it took the focus off him. Not to use Kana as a distraction in the conversation, but to do his best to preoccupy the matter for the time being.

After all, if she was going to learn about what he really could do, short of empathic powers, he'd rather not make it known here. He had no doubt there would be a class where that would get brought up.

Academy 218: Still looking for new people to join - now is the primetime.

Okay what's actually going on in Ruben's class?

@Prince of Seraphs

I assume a similar set of requirements, given it is a school that pushes pretty much universal degrees. Just with Ruben's take on the material.

Mind you this is an educated guess based on the fact that a government organization, especially a militarized one (NEST) has a hand in all this.

Cara's Originally Titled OoC Hangout Thread ♥ (Still)

Or a tremendous boon depending on which side you are on.

Looses a devious chuckle.

Academy 218: Still looking for new people to join - now is the primetime.

I would be interested in having Mark attend Ruben's class.