Welcome

[Professor Cooper]

I'm living in a bad rip-off of Harry Potter, the headmaster thought as he looked around the dining hall. Granted, they had one more house than Hogwarts, but still, all the long tables were lined up in the hall, with one at its head containing teachers and staff. At least they didn't have those silly floating candles. At least Hugo hadn't gotten his way. They'd have had the floating candles, the messenger owls, the parchment and quills--hell, the idiot might have even scrounged up an evil wizard. More than a century of magic use had taken its toll on the man, and his mind was starting to slip. He could still cast and teach better than anyone Tobias knew, but outside the classroom, he was a bit...fuzzy.

Ah, well. C'est la vie.

He glanced over the rest of the teachers, pausing on a few--Ona, the voodoo practitioner he'd picked up on a visit to the Americas who happened to be a zombie; Leona Valerian, the cursed sphinx-turned-librarian; the aforementioned spellcaster Hugo Oster; and last, Professor Thomas Dowding, his most recent acquisition. He was interesting, to say the least. A bit on the dreary side, but he had a feeling. He felt confident in this year. This year, he would finally attain what he'd searched for so long.

The stream of students filing into the dining hall slowed to a few stragglers here and there, and Tobias stood. He usually prepared a well-thought out speech for the opening ceremonies, but he'd been a bit distracted of late. Best to just...get it over with and hope no one noticed.

"Ahem," he started, half-heartedly trying to gain the students' attention. He waited til they quieted mostly on their own, then began.

"Hello, and welcome to the Icarus Institute," he began, his voice clear and loud, despite the fact he wasn't yelling. "Though some of you are returning students, we have many new faces, more than any year since our first. I'll trust you're all familiar enough with the rules, or at least have enough sense not to get into too much trouble, haha." Humorless as his tone and forced laughter were, it garnered a few chuckles. Tobias smiled in an almost pained way, then continued.

"As I'm sure you newcomers have noticed, you have all been issued a key card. not only will this grant you access to the school, its facilities, and probably most important, your dormitories, it has something a...charm cast upon it. At your will, those of you without the abilty to change your appearance will be able to shift to a more humanoid form, in order to facilitate communication.

"I would also like to remind you that you must sign up for classes this week. You have the next few days to get settled in and meet some of your classmates, but as the next week begins, so does the semester. The quicker you sign up for classes, the better chance you have of getting into the ones you want.

"I would also like to mention that we will be enjoying our beachside location this coming Friday! We'll be throwing a beach party to start the year off. Please prepare accordingly.

"...well, I hope you all are as excited for this year as I am. I hope you enjoy your time here. Now...dig in!" He pressed his lips together in what might be a smile, from a certain angle. Maybe. A dozen or so servers, apparently not expecting the abrupt end of the speech, sprang to and brought out platters of food from the kitchens to set them on the long tables while Tobias sat back down, running a hand through his hair.

He wasn't sure what he was going to do if he didn't manage to get what he wanted. He couldn't fathom anything beyond that point.

[Delaney Donovan]

((No one else seems to be going, so I guess I will! Also, apology in advance for how terribly I wrote her accent. It's supposed to be Irish, but it looks...redneck.))

Of all the tables, the loudest was probably that of House Magnus. This was par for the course, as far as most were concerned, but this was Delaney's first year here. She absolutely adored it.

Between her house's shouts of "Pass the potatoes!" and "I grabbed that first!", she stood and waved over at Rosqa's table, hoping to catch Gal's attention. Fortunately, her shaggy haired faun-friend had already been looking her way and waved in return. She made a few faces at him, then tried to mouth something that he apparently didn't understand. She sighed and tried again, but when he shrugged and shook his head, she groaned dramatically and ran over to his table.

As she came up behind him, she grabbed his nubby horns and said, "Beach day! I can't wait ta see ye tryin' ta swim!" Before he could respond, she cackled and ran back to her table, sliding in the least graceful way onto the bench nearest her. This wasn't even where she was sitting before, and she digs into a plate that definitely wasn't hers. Whatever. She was among her own kind for once. No one even seemed to notice the stolen plate. She'd been in the school all of ten minutes, and already, she was in love with it.

[Professor Dowding]

He was called Thomas. just Thomas, or else, Professor Dowding. Not Thomas the Patient, nor Thomas the Industrious; not even Thomas the Tolerant of Persons-Age-Twenty-Two-And-Under. Oh no. He was none of these things. Yet here he was, sitting in a too-long ceremony, for the start of another year of a job which he quite frankly did not want to do, and watching a swarm of his sworn enemies flood into the hall.

He growled and sat down, then sent Tobias a venomous sidelong glance. Thomas had tried learning how to shoot lasers from his eyes all summer, in preparation for when he'd face his employer again. As his dog had not been zapped into oblivion by the end of July, the efforts were deemed inconclusive, and dropped.

The professor proceeded to sigh and grumble and utter the occasional 'hurry it up already' through the end of the speech. As soon as food was set on the table, he grabbed one biscuit, shoved two more in his pocket, stood, and began edging away form the staff. His goal: his office, where he could just sit undisturbed by the laughter of children. Oh, how he hated children.

Even now, there was one girl darting between tables to chat. Thomas' lip curled, and he moodily shoved the remainder of the biscuit in his mouth. "Dummkopf...."

[Reynard Lee]

Of all the voices sounding through the hall, Lee's was one of the loudest. He persisted to talk to his friends (neither of whom really talked back) all the way into the school, then into the hall, where they finally split up. He then conversed a few people he'd met over the course of his five years at Icarus. Even during the speech, he talked at those sitting near him at the house table. He cheered loudly when the headmaster said something about 'not getting into trouble.' Lee looked around to his friends with a ridiculous grin. Neither one looked too amused, particularly the dark-bodied centaur sitting over at the Terdor table. The mouth which grinned grew wider, then carried on to its neighbors. The only thing which stopped the chatter was food. As soon as it arrived, the redhead piled an obscene amount of chow on his place, forsake utensils, and suddenly looked more like a hungry fox than a man as he dug in.

The binge ended only when a girl whom Lee did not recognize slid onto the bench beside him a couple seats down. He stared a minute, digging through his mind for recognition, before leap-frogging over the person beside him and sitting sideways on the bench next to her. He grinned toothily (one was gold), made his eyebrows jump a couple times, and muttered a quick little, "Hey."

[Delaney Donovan]

Without missing a beat, Delaney (a class act, to be sure) smiled broadly, her mouth stuffed with food, and wiggled her eyebrows right back. She said something that might have been "Hey, baby," but her mouth was so full, it was hard to tell.

She swallowed and wiped her hands on her shirt, then held one out to Lee. "Name's Donovan. It's m'first time hare. And I'm not enterested in dating, boy the way." Mostly because the majority of people who were around her for an extended period of time quickly got fed up with her shenanigans. Besides, dating just wasn't her thing. Causing trouble was her thing. Having fun was her thing. Boys and girls and hormones just aggravated her most of the time. She shook some of her bangs from her face and looked at Lee. "'Sides, you look a fare bit older than I yam. Not moy type. Also, missing a few crucial curves, if ye know what I mean." She grinned again and resumed eating. "So," she muttered through another mouthful of chicken, "how d'you like it here? It's not too bad, is it? I ran into a lot of trouble at my old schools. Hopin' t'avoid tha' hare." She hoped the headmaster was less stuffy than he looked. She intended to do just what she had in her previous schools, but she hoped wouldn't get caught quite as often here.

((Dude you have no idea how much I cracked up writing this))

((Also I'm tired and all of this writing just looks like shit to me, bluh bluh.))

[Gal Gimble]

He'd always considered himself open-minded, social, a pretty fun guy, but sitting off by himself at the Rosqa table, Gal just felt like a fool. He didn't really know how to talk to anyone. He tried to smile at a few people, but they either didn't see him, ignored him, or only smiled back and returned to their conversations.

Eventually, he gave up and looked for Delaney. She was actually sort of hard to pick out, what with all the other rambunctious members of her house, but her red hair and her blue beanie gave her away. She suddenly stood and waved to him--oh, crap, he'd been staring at her like some kind of creep. He waved back sheepishly, feeling dumb. He was the dumbest.

She mouthed something at him a few times, but she was too far away. He shrugged to let her know he couldn't understand her--they'd probably talk later. He'd find out then.

But no, suddenly Delaney was flying across the room, and there she was behind him, grabbing his horns and making him blush like a kid.

"Beach day! I can't wait ta see ye tryin' ta swim!" she teased from above him. He wanted to respond, but then she was gone again, back to her table and talking to some guy. He sighed and folded his arms on the table, resting his head on them. "She's something else," he murmured, smiling slightly. Something else that would never know how he felt for her. But that was okay. He'd take being best friends.

((I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M DOING ANY MORE. JUST LEAVING OOC COMMENTS ON EVERYTHING OK))

[Erika Strand]

Erika sat docilely through the headmaster's speech, much like the rest of her table, even though she wasn't quite fully listening; she was still trying to get her head around where she was. She had never known that there were so many people like her in the world, and discovering this place was a dream come true.

Finally the command came to dig in, and Erika realized for the first time how hungry she was and she went about the business of politely asking for and passing along several different dishes before quietly beginning to eat. Only moments later an extremely loud redhead materialized beside her to shout something at the faun she had sat down next to - a crack about seeing him swim on beach day - before disappearing again with a burst of laughter.

"She's something else," the faun said, and while he was almost certainly talking to himself, Erika smiled at him and replied, "Seems so." Her smile widened when he turned to face her. "I am Erika. This is your first year, too?" she asked with the careful pronunciation of one who speaks English as a second language. She hadn't yet found the fisherman's son - she hadn't thought to ask after his house, and therefore only knew his name - so she figured that she should try to make as many new friends as she could without his help.

[Reynard Lee]

Of course, Lee didn't look like he knew what she meant. At all. Nevertheless, he nodded. "Sorry dear, I'm French, it's just how we are. It's normal, reflex even, to pursue les dames."

He picked a little at his neighbor's plate, before the rather annoyed looking first year snatched it away. He looked back at Delaney attentively when she spoke again. He snorted loudly. "Pffft. It don't matter, Ginger. I prettymuch just do what I want. For example-."

Lee climbed up atop the table and stood. A few of his peers muttered; those who knew him well either booed or cheered a little. He bent and scooped up a handful of pudding. "OIIIII! LOKI, MY MAN!!"

The pudding was flung toward the Terdor table, and Lee cackled madly.




(Mm-hm. Delaney. Don't like older men, huh? *raised eyebrows*)

[Laku Nicolita]

Laku disliked the school. He did not enjoy coming back here every year. There was no purpose nor appeal to the whole thing. So why was he there? His friends had dragged him there. For the past five years, he'd been dragged through that door; on several occasions, quite literally.

The only thing he liked was the break from Reynard. Yes, they had been friends when they were kids, and yes, they still were. But goddamn if Reynard Lee wasn't the most irritating creature that had ever slunk 'cross his path. So, when, they broke apart upon entering the hall, Laku felt himself breathe a sigh of relief. He found his way to his old spot at the Terdor table, and pushed away a few first-timers (he was a pretty big guy, so he didn't receive any complaints). He sort of pawed at the bench with one big, fluffy hoof, before looping it over. The rest of his horse body lay down, placing him level with most of his classmates. He sat through the speech, only looking away from the headmaster to give Lee a disapproving look, and silently set in to his meal.

At the squawking of his nickname by Lee, Laku sat up a little and looked over toward the Magnuses, just in time to receive a face full of pudding. He stood in awkward disbelief for a moment. A younger student sitting a little ways down the bench chuckled. Laku shook his head like a dog drying, and wiped some of the mess away from his mouth, nose, and eyes. He then got up the rest of the way, clip-clopped along the table, and turned a bowlful of salad upside-down on the head of the boy who had giggled.

Hearing Lee's infernal cackling, Laku began flinging rice and stuffing back toward his old friend. Other members of the house began to follow suit. Someone announced a food fight.

[Gal Gimble]

Gal jumped a little when Erika spoke, his face flushing. Someone had heard him? Oh...oh dear. That was--that was awkward. He laughed and smiled and tried to think of something to say that wasn't completely inane.

"Um...yes." So much for quality conversation. He sighed and tried again. "Heh, sorry. Yeah, it's my first year. Hers too. We came here together. Heh, I've never seen so many others outside of a family reunion." At least here, they're not all drunk, he thought, recalling the previous year's reunion. Twelve uncles dancing on top of your table in nothing but their skivvies--he loved his family, but that was one mental image he really, really didn't need.

"My name is Galahad, by the way, but everyone just calls me Gal." His face was less red now, which was good. He didn't seem to be tripping over his feet quite as much now. He was about to strike up some actual conversation when he heard the cry of "Food fight!"--he knew the drill.

"Sorry!" he shouted, ducking under the table and pulling Erika with him. "I'm sorry, I've just...I've got some experience with this sort of thing." He smiled meekly, running a hand through his hair. "You probably think I'm nuts now. Sorry. Just--we should probably stay under here if we don't want to be covered in dinner."

School 1, Gal 0. Yup, things were off to a wonderful start.

[Clio Maera]

When Clio first entered the hall, she did not go to sit with the rest of her house. Rather, she followed her friend Helen to the Vitus table, discreet as always, and stayed there through the opening ceremonies. She didn't eat much during dinner, but rather played with the food on her plate, drank a bottle of Dannon, and chatted.

Soon enough, she felt that she should return to her own house. She stood, stretched, and glided back toward the table full of Aevenus asses.

Then it happened.

At the ringing voice of Reymond (or whatever his name was; Clio didn't care much for her best friend's bizarre ex) her head shot up. Her eyes widened as a pudding torpedo was launched, then dove under the nearest table when fire was returned. She huffed, and muttered, "that goddamn Lee," under her breath, before looking over at a pair of 'refugees': a faun and a...something with no recognizable features. She gave them a little wave before glancing back out at the building chaos.

She dared poke her head out for just a moment, to try and wave Helen over. When Clio returned, she was picking Alfredo noodles out of her dark hair, and looking more than a little peeved.

[Helen Alba]

She loved going to this school. She loved that her best friend went here. She loved the classes. She loved being around others of her own species, and similar. And for the most part, she loved the ridiculous stunts that her best guy friend liked to pull.

This, however, was a bit much. Just after Clio left, Helen was starting to converse with a few of her neighbors. Then, it started. The demented lovechild of the Food Pyramid and the Lord of the Rings. Helen immediately sought cover under the table, and looked worriedly over to where Clio was hiding. When the naiad waved for Helen to come over, she pouted and shook her head, her dreads slapping her in the face.

Nevertheless, she pursed her lips, nudged a few legs out of the way, then dived, rolled, and dived again to the sanctuary of the Rosqa table's underside. There, she army crawled over between her friend and a couple of Rosqa students. From there, she quite ignored her friend, but rather began grabbing food from off the table and randomly flinging it out into the fray. Finally, she settled down and giggled a bit, then smiled widely around at Clio, then the two others. "Oh, hi~"

She ducked out a moment, threw a jam-covered roll, and returned. "First food fight?"

[Delaney Donovan]

Oh. Oh. He didn't want to play that game. That was her game. Delaney grinned, her eyes pulsing slightly, and leaped up on the table next to him, ramming him with her shoulder.

"Yeh're a right smarmy bastard, ain'tcha?" she teased, picking up a bowl of soup. "Oh dear, my hands slippin', oh no, look out!" Standing on tiptoe, she managed to dump the bowl on his head, then ran for cover, grabbing the body nearest her to put between her and the flying food.

Much to her dismay, the body was thin and gangly, which she mostly noticed when some mashed potatoes hit her arm.

"Goddamn man, yer rail thin! How m'I sepposed t'deflect stuff with ye?" She shoved him aside and ducked behind the teacher's table, grabbing what she could and lobbing it out at the crowd. Of course, it was then she noticed that her failed human shield had been a teacher trying to escape, but some radishes sailing past her ear quickly diverted her attentions once more. With one loud, unnerving laugh, she flipped the table. The teachers were too busy watching Lee on the table and the rest of the students to see her slip away into the kitchen.

First day: success.

[Gal Gimble]

Being under a table was cramped enough, but when a few extra people moved their way in and invaded, Gal nearly toppled over.

He chuckled at the girl with the dreadlocks and shook his head. "Oh, definitely not. This is...hold on." He started counting on his fingers, mouthed a few things to himself, then said, "Number seven for me. I just prefer not to join in." He watched her throw a few more things, then said, "I suppose it's not your first, then, either?"

((GAL, YOU ARE THE ONLY DUDE EVER THAT WOULD BE UNDER A TABLE WITH THREE CUTE GIRLS AND NOT HAVE ONE SINGLE DIRTY THOUGHT.))

[Helen Alba]

"Oh, no." She took a large bite out of a biscuit before tossing it at a first year girl, hitting her square in the back of the head. Helen fist pumped and hissed a happy yessss, before turning back to Gal.

"N'uh. Lee-that's the guy with the red hair the one standing on the table with the soup in his ears- Lee likes to pull this kinda crap. Does it aaaaall the time. Not always food fights, though." Helen narrowed her eyes. "He once started a spitball fight...."

Helen grit her teeth and looked straight on at Gal. "You know no shame until you've washed the phlegm of half the school out of your hair and clothes." She watched for a moment as sets of feet and hooves and other extremities darted about. "They've really got to break this up s-AHAHAAA they got Dowding!" Helen looked absolutely delighted.