Solirus
Grossly Incandescent
A Brief Farewell
Roderick maintained eye contact with Mittens, "Truly? Fascinating, for such a thing to occur..." eventually Roderick would break eye contact with Mittens. "Very well, I but have one pearl of wisdom, stay positive, young lad."
Jaquie paused at Leander's further questions, but eventually, rightfully concerned about the cat going hungry. "Just, don't give it any of the food in the basket, I'll leave you some cat food for the thing." Jaquie sighed, only to have his attention switch to his phone, quickly pulling it out and checking it. "Shucks, well, I've got something to attend to. I'll be on my way, any of you can keep the basket if you want it, of course, just don't abandon it." Jaquie commented.
"Ah but of course!" Roderick's voice boomed once more, "I've nearly forgotten, mine fellows and I have plans, I must not tardy!" Roderick explained, rushing towards the door with vigor.
"Not like that, you aren't." Jaquie cheekily commented, seemingly teleporting next to the door, "get yourself cleaned up, as for the rest of you, I'll be seeing you all tomorrow." Jaquie would comment as he leaned back into the door, "Oh and Mariana, keep me up to date with the curse, I'll look further into it when I can." the door would swing wide open, causing jaquie to fall into the destination he sought.
"Hm, perhaps I should" Roderick would wait for the door to shut then used the door himself, "I bid you all Years of the First a farewell, I look forward to all your growths." With his mind spoken, Roderick would walk through the door, slamming it shut.
With the sun still high up in the sky, there was still time for the students to enjoy the rest of their days before the next day of class. For those that would stay near the abandoned asylum for a while longer, the miasma would soon disappear, signaling the success of the team of arcanists sent for cleanup.
Respite
The marked door would creek open as Percival walked out from it. Today had been a long and tiring day, and he wanted nothing more than to take a moment to relax. To that end, he'd headed to the lounge, the floor was entirely covered by a fine and intricately patterned carpet, while the walls were a dark oak, accentuated by the light orange glow of the lights. Short tables and cushioned chairs filled the room, all meticulously placed while also being easily moved from place to place. At one end of the lounge there was a bar, with the shelves filled with all manner of drinks one could imagine from all corners of the world. One never did complain about the variety nor the quality, but to Percival it almost felt excessive, a show of wealth, but perhaps this whole place was that anyway. The bartender, a null, worked diligently to clean the bar and its stalls, the man's effort seemingly rose when Percival himself entered the lounge itself.
Only one other man was at the lounge itself. Dozing off at one of the longer cushioned seats was his brother Julian. He always appeared as the tired sort, always finding a wall to lean on to get more seconds of rest or a cozy spot for a quick nap. While many would call the man lazy, Percival knew better, it was only a shame that Julian hardly seemed to care about what others thought. Percival would walk towards the chair in front of his brother, taking a seat, Percival could only be thankful that his brother wasn't a snorer.
Within a few seconds, Julian would awaken from his nap, his Stoic expression switching to a warmer and cheerful one as he woke up to his brother. "Percival, what a surprise!" Julian happily commented, "didn't expect to see you here so soon."
"Well, it's not like I had a busy schedule today" Percival rather dryly responded.
"That's nice." Julian yawned, stretching before regaining a modicum of composure. "So, how was work today?"
"Mostly uninteresting, but, I did have to visit Anima Studies." At the mention of the school, Julian would become more interested, leaning in forward.
"Oh yeah? Who did you have to supervise?"
"Guy named Roderick."
"The knight guy?"
"Yeah that one. He performed scarily well on the trial, you'd expect someone with his condition to simply overpower the third ranks, but he didn't..." There was a pause between the two before Julian broke the silence.
"I feel bad for him."
"I honestly don't know why they keep him around, it just feels cruel. But it is Jaquie, shouldn't be surprising."
"Hmm, oh, one second though, do you want any drink in particular?"
"... Whiskey's fine"
Julian would turn to face the bartender, whistling to get his attention, "Whiskey for two please!" The bartender would nod and began working on preparing whiskey for both men. "Anyway, heard Anima Studies got new students recently."
"Yeah, they did, just a load of freaks, more so than the previous year."
"At least you didn't say that in front of their faces." Percival remained silent, giving Julian an answer, "Did you actually say it?"
"Well, kind of, Jaquie was also around."
"Perci, are you missing a screw? I'm almost surprised you didn't come back to us in an urn."
"Well, some students did seem to calm him down, but surely Jaquie would never go through with it. He wouldn't want to start a fight with our family."
"I'd rather not want to figure that out."
"Oh please, he's only one arcanist."
"Andrei is also one arcanist."
There was a long pause between the two as the bartender finally arrived with their whiskey, Julian would thank the bartender for the drink while Percival hardly acknowledged the man, only reaching to take a sip from his drink.
"So, do you reckon there's any talent in the new group?"
Percival gave a long and annoyed sigh, "I hate to admit it, most of them do, I don't know where Jaquie keeps finding these freaks."
"Most of them?"
"The Montgomery didn't seem very impressive, which reminds me, I'll have a talk with them later?"
"She hurt your feelings or something?"
"No, she stepped out of a line and I believe her family should be made aware."
"That's petty."
"Whatever, there's also more demons this year than the last."
"Yeah?"
"We have a possession, maybe two, and then I believe I saw a devil."
"Ah devil? Those are rare,"
"Very. If I were him, I'd just put them out of their misery."
"You know, I don't mind having someone like him giving them a chance to live."
"You call it a chance to live, I call it extending their suffering."
"But there have been cases where it turns out well."
"Too few."
"Well, it's good to have a little hope. You reckon I could meet the new students?"
"Unless it's at a public event, you'll have to convince Jaquie and others from the staff. Besides, I'm sure they'll hate you based on their first impression of me."
"Well, your first impressions are as pleasant as sewage water, so I'm sure mine would go better." Julian chuckled to himself.
"Oh piss off!" Percival exclaimed, taking another swig of whiskey.
A New Day
Along with the sun, a new day would arise for the students, a peaceful day and calming day. Only this time, Crimson and Mariana both would be awoken by loud caws of crows, even when the outside should no signs of such birds around. Even through it all, Crimson could not sense the curse, while reading the anima of others was easier than trying to read her anima.
Morning students, Jaquie's voice, would echo in the mind of the students once they had all awoken. You all know the drill, however for this day in particular, I want you all to attend, this will be one of the most important classes, so I'd recommend none of you to miss it. The voice would abruptly disappear from the mind of the students. Only in this case, for both Crimson and Mariana, the voice almost sounded static, as if it had trouble connecting.
Arriving at the class, Jaquie would be found leaning once more on his chair, feet resting atop the desk, and hand on the back of his head. In addition to the usual sights of the classroom, there was a mannequin of sorts next to Jaquie, its design seemed to suggest it was more used for training rather than for exhibition. As the students would enter the class, Jaquie would simply acknowledge them with a simple greeting and nod.