Fantasy Carlisle Academy of Magical Arts

[TheLoyalAcorn]

"Senora Sanzhez una ensalda y... chicken?" Mrs. Sanchez laughed "es Pollo, gringo" at that all the workers laughed at Jace's terrible Spanish much to his own humor.

Jace turned to Vanya his speaking monotonely. "It's easy enough. At the national level you get to bring 7lbs of raw material. I usually pick a shield. Most of my opponents are already on their way out. You know manipulators like my mom get genetic defects pretty easy. Other than that you're looking at one of the few manipulators that can do bone manipulation at a young age."

Jace bit into his food thinking a little. "Ballet, piano and violin are hard. You have to play something flawlessly and do it with exceptional skill. Me? I just have to be half a second faster or just wait until their bodies fall apart."

Minipulator duelist were the most widely watched because of the tragedies. It wasn't uncommon for someone to try and manipulate their body only to give themselves a heart attack due to creating too much adrenaline or turning their heart into something it shouldn't be.

"You rely on being flawless or hiding your flaws. I rely on my opponent having flaws. Practice couldn't hurt either."

 

[Bellatsakha]

He sounded confident enough but, as the queen of faux confidence, she wasn’t sure. What he said made sense, and she finally figured out what his mother’s illness was, but things were always easier said than done. She had to admit it put her off eating a little, but she didn’t outwardly show it because, once again, it wouldn’t be polite. The image alone of someone’s body just falling apart made her grimace.

She also didn’t miss the way he degraded himself in comparison to her and it felt almost identical to the way Hannah spoke. A wave of anxiety swept through her stomach because if they only knew what went on behind closed doors. She felt like a bit of a fraud having everyone think she was so good at things when really she was only half as good as she could be if she worked harder.

“I’m sure. I'm not saying you have to be like me and practice every hour of the day, but a few hours wouldn't go amiss.” She said as to not start an argument. Then she suddenly remembered someone else who was competing in those nationals, “In fact, I’ll probably be there to see it because a son of my parent’s friends,” Not a friend of hers, “Will be competing. You’d better make it through then because if I have to listen to him go on about winning then I’ll probably have a few choice words to say.”

 

[TheLoyalAcorn]

Nationals should be easy. It was getting on the Olympic team which would be hard. The level he was competing at were infamous being called the meat grinder. Last year, one out of three competitors were no longer in the sport. Hell, the kid Jace beat managed to mess up and instead of creating adrenaline somehow made a poison out of all things.

Jace shrugged thinking about practice. Itll probably turn into an obsession again. "I'll probably just practice a few hours every now and again. How badly do you want me to beat that kid? We could always give him lead poisoning" Jace said the last bit as a joke.

Vanya was somewhat growing on him. She was quiet and didn't press too hard on what she saw. He did think it was hilarious that her sharp mind seemed to be stuck in a body that betrayed her intelligence.

 

[Bellatsakha]

“Well, it’s better than nothing.” She conceded, “And I think poisoning him would be a bit too obvious, but if you could make it look like a suicide then I’d be down.”

It was a joke, but if for some reason he miraculously disappeared one day she wouldn’t be upset. She doubted anyone else would be either. He was one of those people who just ground on one’s nerves like a sword to stone and made her want to pull her hair out every time they spoke. It didn’t help that her mother and his mother were partners in setting up a charity organization. He was also one of the people on the ever growing list of suitors her father had lined up for her to marry.

“His name is Elliott Hawtrey and he can teleport. How do I know that? Well, he’s only told me every single time we’ve ever met.” So maybe she was a little annoyed about him, but it was for good reason. One just had to meet him to understand.

 

[TheLoyalAcorn]

Vanya was surprisingly down to kill him. Mrs. Sanchez sat the chicken salad in front of Vanya.

"He sounds like a tool bag. I don't understand why he would want to be in the duelist competition. I heard he's near the top for his classification."

Jace kept eating enjoying Vanya talking about herself for a change. It was nice just listening to someone who wasn't asking questions about his family drama.

"It sounds like you hate him. It also sounds like he has a thing for you" Jace joked as he smiled at Vanya.

 

[Bellatsakha]

“That’s one way of putting it.” She said, cautious that she’d said too much and come off a bit too opinionated, “He just wants fame and notoriety, hence why he busies himself annoying me so much. He’s hoping if he stays close enough to my side then people will start to associate us with each other, it’s pretty smart actually.”

She looked at the salad with apprehension, but took a small bite as to not get anything around her mouth, “That’s why you have to be careful with rich people; there’s a lot more that goes into becoming rich than a good idea."

 

[TheLoyalAcorn]

Jace shrugged "if that's the case you're my favorite rich person. I think after all of this I'll disappear for awhile and see the world"

Jace nodded to himself and just enjoyed the company of someone who didn't seem to mind the days sights, scenes and food.

 

[Bellatsakha]

Her brain stopped for a second. Did she hear that correctly? She had never heard that before, at least not sincerely. It was possible he was also lying in order to get something since the general consensus was to move up the ladder of class but, from what she’d seen that day, she wasn’t sure. The more she thought about it, she realized he probably didn’t know many rich people so the net for that wasn’t too wide. That was one way of looking at it that made it easier to understand.

She didn’t know how to react, so she fell back on what she knew and ignored it at least in her reply. It stuck in her mind though, “Well, I know France is nice all year round. It may come as no surprise, but I’d like to visit Russia. I’ve been once but that was a business trip and barely lasted a weekend.”

 

[TheLoyalAcorn]

"That sounds like fun. I would love to see what type of food they have there" Jace greedily rubbed his hands together thinking of all the finest cuisines. He may be poor.

Russia and France. A look at Vanya with her Violin case, ballet body and cultured sensibilities. Jace could put two and two together and realize Vanya would be in heaven looking at the sights and sounds of such culturally rich areas.

"It sounds like fun going that far away for a weekend. I just want to see the beach... like a real one with the salt, sand and a nice breeze"

 

[Bellatsakha]

She took another bite of salad, not minding the taste after all. It wasn’t bad, just different. One thing she disliked about traveling overseas was the food because a lot of it was just too much flavor for her to handle and she much preferred the blander, less spicy taste of her home country.

“How nice. I’ve never been to a beach, we have a beach front property but I was never allowed anywhere near the sea. It looked nice out of the window though.” She’d spent many days as a child watching the sea rise out that window and imagining herself walking across the sand barefoot. She hadn’t been there in years though. Last time she checked her mother’s extended family had taken it over and she hoped they were making more out of it than her family did.

 

[TheLoyalAcorn]

"That's a shame. I've never been to the beach I hear it's nice and calm." Jace got a faraway look on his face.

He always dreamed of the beach. He even put sand on the bottom of the kiddie pool in his room to pretend it was the beach. Vanya was full of surprises it seems. He expected her to have been wherever she wanted to go. No beach too far and no destination too exotic for her.

"You have anything else planned for the day?"

 

[Bellatsakha]

She smiled, “Oh, not much, just six or so hours of ballet practice and three hours of practicing my powers. The usual.”

She was aware that to any normal person it sounded excessive, but she was truly in love with ballet. If she was going to ever be able to dance in the Mariinsky Ballet Company in Russia, the leading ballet company in the world, she had to practice as much as possible. However, for now, she’d settle for the Royal Ballet since it was a bit more realistic to pick a company that was actually in her country.

Practicing her powers was just one way to keep her parents happy. Besides, a lot of that training actually aided her dance practice and taught her how to be quick on her feet.

 

[TheLoyalAcorn]

Jace stood up and waved good bye to Mrs. Sanchez. "Ready to go then?" Jace walked to the exit and waited for Vanya to catch up. He figured her could read up on his competition while she practiced.

He would practice later tonight when no one was watching. He hated messing up in front of people and having quite literally two horns growing out of his head.

 

[Bellatsakha]

Vanya felt rather pleased with the day so far, although she did miss out on violin practice, she could make it up at night. She supposed having Jace around all day wasn’t as bad as she’d thought it would be, but there was still ballet class to go and she just had to attempt the new routine which put her on edge. She’d just have to be extra vigilant with the steps. At least Jace wasn’t a ballet expert so he wouldn’t notice if her foot placement was wrong or her arms looked crooked and she could correct them without them being pointed out.

They walked back to the school in time to meet Mrs. Redwood in the hallway. Apparently, she’d been looking for them and when she didn’t find them inside, she assumed they weren’t honoring the punishment. It was a little amusing to see her face drop when she realized there was nothing she could tell the other teachers about.

Vanya walked to the other end of the school where there was a dance studio. It was practically the only new room in the school. The floor had been redone with new wood, one of the walls was replaced with mirrors all the way up to the ceiling and wooden barres had been screwed into the two other walls. The last wall had three large arched windows with mustard yellow curtains pulled apart.

Vanya undid the rope and closed them because she didn’t like the feeling of being watched from outside, even though someone would have to be on a very tall ladder to see in. She slipped into the changing room and locked the door. She had her ballet uniform in her bag so she changed into it; white tights, a white long-sleeved leotard that fell into a skirt over her thighs and peach pointe shoes. She didn’t have to redo her bun because the amount of hairspray she’d attacked it with that morning was enough to keep a plane on the ground.

She walked back into the studio and started to stretch. Her ribs protruded out as she lifted her arms above her head and the little air bubbles between her joints popped loudly every time she rolled them as if she’d broken something. There was a music player in a small cupboard alongside a tall stack of CDs so she found the one that was entirely Tchaikovsky and would play for at least 2 hours straight and put it on.

She sincerely hoped Jace liked slow classical piano music.

 

[TheLoyalAcorn]

Kill me now, Jace hated classical music. He wasn't going to say it out loud. He was the one intruding on her personal time. Plus, he had headphones. He pulled out an older phone he used for music and pulled out the sketch book. He drew Vanya as she stretched as best he could.

He did it all from glancing for half a second at her. It was a memory exercise to see what he could see and remember. In the margins he wrote down estimate height, weight and a list of relevant information.

Once he finished sketching her pretty well if he said so himself. He he glance back up and just watched. This time focused on her. He watched her twist and move fluidly. Impossible motions made possible with practice. He searched for imperfections, and the flawless executions.

It wasn't the most entertaining thing, but it was interesting to see ballet in any capacity done the first time in front of him.

 

[Bellatsakha]

Everyone who said dancing came from the heart had never entered a professional ballet studio. Of course, you have to have passion but it only goes so far when there are a hundred and one things that are more important. Chin up, long neck, ribs closed, round elbows, open chest, shoulders down, long arms, hips under, inner thighs engaged, shaped hands, straight legs, knees together, heels together, heels forward, pulled up arches, weight in the forefront of the foot, long toes, turned out feet and don’t forget to smile. That was just for first position. And don’t forget all the French words you have to memorize.

She practiced singular moves on the barre for an hour before moving to the floor and debating whether to practice for the audition. She decided to practice the steps she knew she could do before moving onto the harder ones so she could gauge how much Jace was paying attention and whether he would notice if she tripped. She did a few sequences, basic things, before moving onto leaps. She had always been good at them due to her light weight and long legs so it was easy to propel herself into the air. Coincidentally, they were also the main feature in her audition routine.

Watching herself in the mirror, she couldn’t pick out a single flaw in her Grande Jete, nor her Sissonne Attitude and that made her extremely happy because they were the moves judges looked out for the most. She ran through a few variations from past auditions before moving onto pirouettes. She managed 23 in a row before landing in an arabesque to finish.

Jace didn’t seem to notice anything, not that there was anything to notice just yet, so she decided to try the routine. She changed the music to the score for the Gamzatti Variation from La Bayadere and moved to her start position. She performed it fine, but fine wasn’t good enough. There were plenty of times where her feet were misplaced or her leaps weren’t high enough or she forgot to smile and that just wasn’t acceptable to her. Luckily, she had all day.

 

[TheLoyalAcorn]

Jace did some of the hand motions when he thought she didn't notice. He strained his muscles trying to figure out ballet. He didn't understand the full beauty of ballet.

Vanya seemed to do every emotion he fumbled. She did flawlessly with a smile on her face. The music blended well with her... routine? Dance? Act? She was a prodigy like everyone said.

It made sense people would enjoy ballet. The idea a beautiful score would be followed with a flawless performance. A beautiful flowing woman who smiled and executed the moves that were impossible. It was... incredible even if Jace never or couldn't understand the motions. With that Jace's hands fell in his lap and he started to sketch one of Vanya's leaps

 

[Bellatsakha]

It had been four hours and she’d finally gotten tired enough to take a break. Turning off the music, she sipped some water, placed two tall wooden blocks on the floor and sat in an over split, just stretching for half an hour before she could carry on without her moves being impaired from exhaustion. Jace was poured over his sketchbook and she wondered idly what he was doing. Whereas she wouldn’t have spared him a single glace a week ago, he’d suddenly become very interesting with his oddities that she couldn’t figure out.

She would have asked him but he had headphones in so he wouldn't be able to hear her anyway. Whatever he was up to, he certainly looked like he was enjoying himself.

 

[TheLoyalAcorn]

Jace looked up feeling eyes on him. He saw Vanya finishing the last of her stretches once again doing the impossible. Putting away his sketch book, Jace walked over to Vanya offering a hand assuming she was done stretching.

"What's next on the list Vanya?" Jace felt like a rent a friend. Then again, Vanya probably felt the same way when she followed him into Popeyes.

Normally Jace wouldn't want to be near a queen bee or rich person, but Vanya seemed fun enough. Hanging out with her, he felt like he was experiencing a whole new world watching from a distance. It was something new and he felt someone accountable to sketch and do what his mom drilled him to do to train his powers.

 

[Bellatsakha]

She took his hand and stood up gracefully, “Well, I think I’ve put you through enough classical music for today.” She smirked, “At this time the younger classes have the powers practice rooms occupied and it’s still too hot for me to stay outside for long enough to train so what do you usually do? Baring in mind I have to be back in about two hours.”

Usually, she would practice ballet more or pick up her violin but right now she was more curious in Jace. If she could get him talking about something he liked then she could find out more about him, therefore hopefully discovering what he was all about and satisfying the urge to figure him out.

 

[TheLoyalAcorn]

"Usually Major Kelly finds me by now and takes me out to eat Dinner." Jace looked around as if he might emerge at any moment. "I guess he has more important things to do"

Jace had a very flexible schedule. In all honesty, he was either selling contraband, he smoking, pretending he was on a beach or going home to help out. All those options were less than optimal to do with Vanya.

"I guess we should..." Jace was absolutely lost. "Any chance you can summon us anywhere else but here?"

 

[Bellatsakha]

“Well isn’t your life interesting?” She said with the smallest hint of sarcasm that one could barely tell if she was even being sarcastic, “Here’s an idea, how about you practice your powers?”

As much as she enjoyed entertaining people, she didn’t want to do it all day and it was becoming a bit much. She was going to have to practice later too so it was only fair that she should watch him before he was forced to watch her.

 

[TheLoyalAcorn]

Fair enough Jace thought. He ruffled into his bag and pulled out a bottle of calcium and downed them all with the help of a water bottle. He sat down on the floor. He closed his eyes and started to change his body. As he did this he started to recite the kids from his moms list from name to home of record.

His body changed as his forearm shot out a blade. His left arm he grew a very small flattened disc of bone. Opening his eyes, Jace slowly ran through some slices and dices.

Jace then returned the bones to their point of orgin. Opening his eyes, he tried moving around and see if he felt any discomfort.

"I mostly just practice to see if I do the calculations right. My ability is harder to practice since I'm suppose to have a medic handy" he never did that of course it cost too much. As he spoke he continued to shift the bone under his skin fusing his ribs together and shifting his body as he spoke to Vanya. It was probably odd seeing a humans skin, bone and muscle shift before her very eyes as he casually spoke to her.

 

[Bellatsakha]

Vanya’s stomach stirred as she watched his skin move and she couldn’t help but think it looked like there were bugs crawling around under it. It was lucky she had a good gag reflex. She silently wished death upon whoever came up with politeness because she struggled to not look away even though it made her want to squirm, yet manners dictate she not vocalize those feelings or show them at all. She’d have to sit through it and besides, she did kind of bring it on herself by asking.

She’d seen some disgusting powers before; blood manipulation, bug summoning, people who could control their fingernails and many more that made her want to vomit, but she figured out pretty quickly that people didn’t take kindly to that reaction. Most injuries were another source of distaste for her. Unfortunately, she didn’t discover that until after she figured out her powers so a lot of her practice was dedicated to making as clean of a cut as possible so she wouldn’t have to see intestines or anything like that.

“You should probably wait for one of those then.” She replied, hoping he would agree and stop on his own and she wouldn’t have to say how she really felt.

 

[TheLoyalAcorn]

Jace stopped and reformed his body his body as it once was as quickly as he could. He opened his eyes and smiled. Unknown to him a tooth was missing, the missing tooth was on his forehead.

"Nah, I think I'm done practicing. It think I did pretty good what do you think Vanya?" For some reason he felt the need for Vanya's approval the last thing he would admit to himself.