Episode 5: When the Knights Go Marching In

[Lioness075]

Name: Lara Hart	Rank: D
Attire: Blue sweatshirt with Nemo on the front, tan capris, white sneakers	Location: Facility 108 Front Entrance
Tagged: Necessity4Fun (Cecilia), Natealie (Nix)

Walking through the quiet halls of Facility 108, Lara found it peaceful to not be overwhelmed by the hundreds of conversations flowing all at once. It was nice to have strong senses, but sucked in loud situations. It was just another good excuse to avoid parties altogether.

She caught the faint sound of a conversation near the entrance as she neared it, smoothing her hair a bit since she'd slapped her own face into her textbook. Studying wasn't always productive, sadly.

Opening one of the doors to Facility 108, Lara stepped out and blinked in the sunlight. Once her eyes adjusted, she broke out into a wide grin at the sight of Cecilia. They'd met during their physical discipline exam and quickly become friends.

"Cecilia! How a'e you today?"

She then noticed a student standing nearby, whom she'd never met before. They had to be new, since Lara made it a point to meet every student she ever saw.

Holding out her hand towards the student, Lara smiled warmly and said, "Hi! My name's La'a and my supe'powe' is flight, what with my wings and all."

Her British accent rang through every word she said, her 'r's mostly silent and her name sounding a bit off as a result. Every time she introduced herself, it sounded almost like she was saying 'Laya'. Struggle was forever real if she wasn't speaking to another fellow Brit.

After saying this, Lara jostled her wings a bit underneath her sweatshirt, a feather or two coming loose and falling to the ground as a result.

Lara quickly followed up her introduction by asking, "Any chance eithe' of you have some headache medicine handy? My head's been pounding since I finished studying in the lib'a'y."

 

[Lioness075]

Name: Piper Farrar	Rank: E
Attire: Spa Robe	Location: Spa --> Female Locker Room
Tagged: ManicMuse (Page), Gus (Manami), Syrenrei (Luther)

Piper was relieved when Manami agreed to join her. They could get out of Ms. Morgan and Luther's way now, leaving the two to relax and enjoy their spa date together. If relaxing was even possible for Ms. Morgan. No wonder she had so much trouble controlling her power. Piper could only imagine how stressful it was to not be able to control one's power. It seemed like an endless cycle for the poor woman. The spa was an overdue visit for her.


Nodding at Manami's agreement to join her, Piper left the sauna and inhaled deeply once she could breath the cool air outside. She could only enjoy that intense heat for so long. Letting out a faint cough, Piper quickly realized she needed some water before they moved on. It felt as if the sauna had dehydrated her and Piper could only imagine Manami felt the same way.

Giving a small wave to Ms. Morgan and Luther, Piper then looked at Manami.
"Want to get some water before we get our facials? I don't know about you, but I feel parched now."

Leading the way to the locker room area first, Piper then filled up a paper cup with some cucumber-infused water from a jug that was on a table in the center. Downing the entire contents of her cup in less than a minute, Piper quickly refilled it before looking at Manami.
"So, you guys only have one final exam at Facility 108? How does that work? Don't you guys take several classes throughout the year?"

Piper figured a brief conversation couldn't hurt before they moved onto the facials. Technically, they were still a couple minutes early for her scheduled facial.

 

[Natealie]

Nix had done a bit of research once they realized that they had an ability. After all, isn't it only natural to want to know more about your own condition? To make a long story short, they read about the myriad of powers that were possible and tired their best to think about how they might play out in practice. It was very interesting, and watching the others here at Aegis really helped them understand more about how it works. However this was the first time that they had ever encountered a British angel. Despite the thick accent, Nix clearly and completely understood everything that she was saying.

"I think I might have something for that." The genderfluid one responded, taking off their bag and digging through it. Within were mostly gaming implements. Nix was very much into playing games, and doing so with others. With how frequently they did so this meant that most of their gaming devices were at the top of their bag, leaving their emergency cache at the bottom of the bag. After a minute of digging however, Nix produced a container of pills and handed them to the angel.

"I do have to warn you though that it is pretty strong. I generally keep it around unless there's an emergency that I need to use it for." That was all that they really had to say. Nix didn't have to go into their power at all. They might if asked though.

Necessity4Fun Lioness075

 

[AllHailDago]

Melody Elanna Vance

​

Location: The bus stop
Current Mood: Taken off guard
Current form: Human

Melody was completely taken off guard when the girl at the bus stop with her suddenly went off on a fashion tangent. She visibly sank in on herself in discomfort as the girl pointed out her eyes and the mostly pale color scheme of her clothes. She wasn't nearly as self conscious about her appearance moments ago, but now... Though hearing it let her be unnoticed, which was indeed actually the point, scored a positive note.

"I like muted colors is all..," she murmured softly. "Purple is colorful isn't it?" She wasn't exactly denying what the girl said though. When the girl reached into her bag to search for something Melody was mildly fearful of sudden make up attack. She wasn't fond of makeup, even setting trying to blend in aside. Thankfully the girl pulled out something else altogether and her fears were assuaged.

Melody eyed the rainbow necklace with a muted smile. It was rather beautiful. She decided to accept it seeing as the girl was so set on her fashion and appearance. She took the necklace gently from her hands and went about putting it on. She set the teardrop rainbow over her jacket after admiring it for a few moments. "Thank you. How.. how does that look? Better?" She flicked a glance at the girls face, toying with her hair in a nervous gesture.

Necessity4Fun

 

[Necessity4Fun]

Kendrick Haywood

​

Location: Brahn's Best Bakery
People Around: Sam, Chris Kravitz and Tabitha.
Interactions: Lioness075
Today's Toys: Ted, Spiral, Lieutenant George, Humphrey and Millie.

Note to self: Never enter a random bakery ever again. At least I can try and make this enjoyable...I guess.

Kendrick had finally paid off the parfait and grabbed it out of the counter. He had been about to duck towards the door...And then Sam's usual voice rang from behind. Bloody Hell! There was no running now, he had been seen...
Fuck.

Awkwardly turning around to face the girl, chocolate parfait in one hand, credit card still in the other, the boy was forced to take a breath to not start a ruckus... Really? Kenny? What, why? Hadn't he expressed his distaste for nicknames several times already? Oh, wait! This was definitely just to annoy him! Brilliant, this was absolutely everything he needed after two hours of Economics:

"I, yes?? Why are you asking about it as if it's something unusual?", he raised his eyebrow in confusion. Kendrick would think that no one could possibly pass out on dessert, which made this completely normal and thus not really that worthy of commenting. Was that wrong?

Before the teen could ask further about it, the door bell chimed and someone else entered the store. He took a quick glance in the direction of the newcomer, but soon wished he hadn't. The boy wanted to have a blank, clear opinion of the girl looking through the menu, he really wanted, but after hearing time and time again about Tabitha's Rampage, as his dad he put it, as an example of how dangerous his 'kind' was or whatever, it was extremely hard to ignore any of that. Not to mention the TV and internet repercussion. Poor girl. She didn't even seem to match the stereotype others kept forcing her in... Human beings are truly cruel creatures.

Suddenly feeling uncomfortable, Kendrick decided to look elsewhere, just in time Sam made him another question. The girl seemed extremely eager in reminding him of the team set up, that nearly chaotic team set up... If anyone had asked him if he wanted to be paired with Sam for the exercise, of course he would have sent them away with such a preposterous idea. But, here he was, paired up with Sam for the exercise... They hadn't even asked about it!!
Whoever wrote down this thing was definitely missing a screw or two. There was no way this was going to work out...

"I'm as ready for the exam as I'm ready to have you bothering me. Guess how much that is. It's not that hard.", Aaah! he was so done already and the day was barely starting!

Seeing as there was no point to leave now, since well, Sam had seen him, the boy decided to join her. I mean, it couldn't possibly get worse than it was being at this point, so why not enjoy that break he was wanting after all? Granted, it wouldn't be as peaceful and quiet, but at least it wouldn't be another class on the History of Economics. He could compromise with that much.

Without asking ,-because screw that, the girl was being annoying so he didn't have to be polite to her-, Kendrick carefully settled his parfait, credit card and phone over the table, before equally as gracefully, pulling the chair a bit out, sitting down and then pushing it back where it had once been. He set up his phone in the right, the card by its' left, neatly aligned and then finally brought the parfait to sit right in front of him.
The door's chime rang again, but he paid it no mind as the spoon, that had been resting on top of the dessert's glass, was briefly cleaned with a paper napkin by him. Then at last, -as you can imagine by now, in the most correct, and maybe a bit stiff, posture possible-, Kendrick was ready to eat some of the parfait. And that he did.

Eh, it wasn't all that much really. But, it would have to do.

 

[Necessity4Fun]

Cecilia Rizzo Pellegrini

​

Location: AEGIS Facility 108 - Entrance
People Around: A pretty brown haired girl (Nix) and Lara.
Interactions: Natealie , Lioness075

Yeah, I'm just going to be quieter until that medicine starts making effect.

Seeing the girl smile was extremely heartwarming, she was so adorable! It made Cecilia want to hug her and never let go, similar to what she felt when surrounded by children. Though the other was clearly not that young...And actually a bit taller than Cecil herself.

"Oh. So I guess you're not lost then...", she laughed awkwardly, "I was trying to avoid that what I went thought on my first day happened to you too. I know enough about getting lost and it's never fun...", the girl had shaken her arms in front of her, in a X manner, alongside her head, "But yeah! I have a map with me. There's won't be a better guide than that~ ...I think."

Not long after that, there was the distinct noise of someone moving a door, and Cecilia turned her head to look at it. As a delightful surprise it was a friendly and well known face:

"Lara!", the Italian had excitedly exclaimed even before the Brit could say anything, "I'm great! Very hyped for the exam, it looks like fun! I've never been in a...what's it called? A water...park? Before, so I'm really looking forward to it!", she said so while bouncing in place, almost unable to contain her energy.

Being used to the winged girl's accent at this point, and the other used to her's -though it wasn't as thick- Cecilia was able to understand every single word Lara had said. In fact she had noticeably flinched in a 'Sorry!' at the mention of a headache. The request for medicine was quickly fulfilled by the new student, so the little Italian just watched as the other handed some pills over to the Brit, unsure of what to do or say.

 

[Necessity4Fun]

​

Location: Some bus stop, not so far from Marcelo's house.
People Around: A beautiful curly brown haired girl, who looks possibly stunning now!
Interactions: AllHailDago

*feeling extremely pleased with herself*

"Muted colors is one thing honey, this is blending with the sidewalk, sorry to say.", the Brazilian had looked at the other girl as if she had said something odd, which she had, to Juliana at least.

"Well, it depends on the shade of purple...If you start descending from Violet it becomes bleak and somber.", she shivered, "Ugh, no, then you would blend with the pavement instead... I can't decide which option is worse.", then something dawned on her, "Wait, does this mean you're hiding some pretty purple behind that tan jacket? Why would ya even do that?!"

Legitimately puzzled about it for a couple seconds, the teenager stood there, fixated on the curly haired girl, as if by staring at her she would understand...something. Which was obviously not true, the confusion wasn't going anywhere.
Despite everything, Juliana was noticeably pleased when the other took the necklace out of her hands and then her eyes lit up in awe when she finally put it on. Jú was internally beaming and cheering, because yes! She had done it again, this girl was going to be a lot more fashionable thanks to her, awesome!

"My! Dear, you look outstanding! I knew it would fit your look to a T!! A job well done, the day has been saved! Woohoo!!!!", she completed with raising her hands up high, unable to keep her excitement to herself anymore, "This calls for a celebration!!!!!"

"...If...we weren't stuck waiting for the bus... Kiiiiiiiinda forgot about that tiny detail."

 

[Lioness075]

Name: Scarlet Calloway	Rank: A
Attire: Plastic black small square glasses, grey sweater with an anime-style cat on front, cropped light blue jeans, grey Converse sneakers	Location: Bus Stop --> Facility 108 Final Exam Grounds
Tagged: Necessity4Fun (Juliana), AllHailDago (Melody)

Scarlet eased out of her driveway and began making her way to Facility 108 in her silver camry. As she drove, she continued to nibble at her big chocolate chip muffin, which was her breakfast on the go for today. She'd signed herself up as a course marshal for the final exam event. She wasn't too keen on being around so many people for such a long time, nor the potential disasters awaiting so many different teens with superpowers being in one place at one time. Still, she loved to help around the facility and doubted anyone would be visiting her library by now.

Scarlet had only been working at Facility 108 for a week now and final exams were already here. Well, just one final exam. She couldn't even begin to imagine the stress of having only one final exam! Oh wait, she did that, too. Well, it was certainly overwhelmingly stressful considering this was the one exam that determined if you got to move on to blue card training. Scarlet was pleased to have her own now, but she still felt like she was recovering from all the stress of the process.

Throughout her first week, even her first day, Scarlet had been appalled at the state of the facility's library. The books had been organized by genre, but not by the author's last name, so it'd been impossible to find any books. Then to top it all off, several students treated it like a social gathering area, which was far from what a true library is. Scarlet had been quick to tape rules to the entrance and enforce them. 'Only whispering allowed', 'If you take a book off a shelf, return it to the front desk', 'Do not try and guess where you found the book originally', and 'Do not reorganize the books as you like'. Any student who had elected to ignore her rules had been promptly dealt with. Suffice to say, students quickly learned to follow the rules, though a few lagged in doing so regardless.

Turning the corner, Scarlet slowed down when she noticed two teens standing at the local bus stop. Considering she'd passed the bus a minute ago, the two teens must've just barely missed it. Stopping at the curb and rolling down her window, Scarlet curiously peered out at the teens and then recognized the louder one, Juliana. Quickly masking the annoyance she felt, Scarlet recalled the times when Juliana would enter the library and completely forget to shift to her quiet voice. In fact, Scarlet was still uncertain if Juliana had a quiet voice, given that she was a natural megaphone.

Regardless of how she felt about one of the students, Scarlet knew they needed to be to the final exam on time and she'd feel guilty if she drove past both of them. After all, she didn't really recognize the second student, which suggested she might be new to the facility. Not the best start to a new school and school semester.

Raising her voice, Scarlet tried to get their attention, "Hey, did you two miss the bus to Facility 108? I could drive both of you there, if you'd like. I'm already headed that way since I'll be a course marshal for the day."

 

[Lioness075]

Name: Samantha 'Sam' Casan	Rank: B
Attire: Black tank top, torn jean shorts, barefoot	Location: Brahn's Bakery
Tagged: @Necessity4Fun (Kendrick), Teh Frixz (Tabitha), B Bag o Fruit (Chris)

Sam rolled her eyes at Kendrick's initial confusion. Poor kid was definitely not properly socialized. Not that Sam was any better, but at least she'd adapted! Despite her unusual and abusive upbringing, Sam had quickly caught on to what was considered 'normal' to do around fellow students and how to properly speak like a teen. When Sam had first arrived at Facility 108, she'd avoided everyone and barely ever spoke. Her personality had drastically changed once she regained her confidence.

Smirking at Kendrick's mention of her bothering him, Sam merely shrugged in response while he continued speaking. Snorting at his attempt at a comeback, Sam raised an eyebrow before saying, "You really think you're clever, don't you, Kenny?" He'd given her a faint reaction earlier upon hearing the nickname, so Sam figured 'Kenny' could stick for now. At least, as long as it got her a reaction.

Furrowing her brows when Kendrick decided to join her, Sam suddenly felt a bit uncertain. She'd just spent the past minute or so taunting the guy and she knew he hated how much she pushed his buttons. Why the heck would he want to sit with her? For a moment, Sam just kind of stared at Kendrick. Then she regained her composure and decided to be blunt about it.

"Why are you sitting with me now, Kenny? Don't you want to be early to the stupid final exam thing?"

 

[Lioness075]

Name: Lara Hart	Rank: D
Attire: Blue sweatshirt with Nemo on the front, Lion King backpack, tan capris, white sneakers	Location: Facility 108 Front Entrance
Tagged: Necessity4Fun (Cecilia), Natealie (Nix)

Lara felt immense relief when the new student was able to find some medicine to offer her. At the mention of it being strong stuff, Lara mindfully only took one pill from the bottle before handing it back.

"Thank you so much for this. This headache has been tryin' to kill me all mo'nin'."

Pulling a bottled water from her backpack, Lara downed the pill with the water's help before she put the bottled water away.

Not a moment later, Cecilia exploded with excitement as usual. Normally, Lara would excitedly respond, but her headache wasn't going to go away that quickly. Instead, she frowned slightly and moved one of her hands to the side of her head. Hearing Cecilia apologize, Lara instantly felt bad despite being unable to control her headache.

"It's okay, Cecilia, you didn't mean to. I suppose I should've just accepted the fact that I cahn't fo'ce anything else into my brain fo' this exam when it's the day of."

Then glancing at the new student, Lara resisted the urge to frown, as she realized the student hadn't bothered to introduce themselves back. Maybe they just don't know any better? Some students came from rough beginnings after all.

"Um, just so you know, it's common cu'tesy to introhduce you'self after someone introhduces themselves to you."

 

[Malikai]

Jeremiah "JJ" Johnson
Location: Just outside AEGIS
Mood: Content
​

Walking down the street, Jeremiah breathed in the morning city air. In the time since the jailbreak happened in Baltimore Jeremiah had a lot of things happen in his life. One of the biggest things was the police finding his "home" in the alley and telling him he had to get moving. It was quite a rude way to be awakened but it was something that Jeremiah had expected since he had set up there. Still, the fact that they had found him was also surprising considering that the law enforcement hadn't been so aggressive at searching for homeless camps like his. He chalked up the searching to the jailbreak that made the whole city go wild.

The second thing that happened to him was actually finding a place to live. Not that he had searched for one, more like it had found him. A day after he had been kicked out of the alley one of the people in the office of AEGIS noticed him hanging around the school and asked if somebody was coming for him. After Jeremiah explained the situation they quickly offered up the idea of staying at the provided commonwealth apartments. Seeing as he had nowhere else to go it was easy to decide on what to do. The process for getting into the apartment involved signing a contract, and then getting fitted for a limiter. Apparently he was supposed to get one as soon as he found out he had some form of powers. Somehow it must have slipped his mind when the doctor was explaining it to him.

So although it was a process he did eventually get the limiter, which had the appearance of a thin black band that fit tight on his neck. From there he was told that he could move his things into his room that he would be sharing with another student whose name was Hadrian. From what Jeremiah was able to tell about Hadrian he seemed to be pretty nice and friendly. He was also definitely helpful, and it was from something he said that caused Jeremiah to go and get some clothes from a local thrift shop. So finally Jeremiah could begin wearing some clean clothes, especially after taking them to the washer provided in the building. Though Jeremiah was a bit embarrassed at having to ask how someone how the washer worked. The building wasn't all too great as he found out one morning when walking down the street and a dog ran up to and attacked him. With how small he was Jeremiah had a difficult time getting the dog off of him and during the process he had somehow gotten one of his few possessions taken from him: his earrings. They had been ripped out as he rolled on the ground. Jeremiah reached a hand up and felt the holes where they used to be, a painful expression shown on his face as he remembered that day.

The final and most important thing that happened to Jeremiah was finally figuring out what his power was. Sort of. Although he didn't have any kind of name for what it was he was able to determine part of what he could do. One night while he was laying down in his bed he had wished that he could see around the room without having to turn on the lights to wake up Hadrian. That's when he felt an intense warm feeling in his hands, and when he brought them up he saw that they were glowing very faintly. Concentrating a bit more on the thought of wanting to see he watched as it intensified just a bit more. It had changed from faint light to a stable light that might have been able to come from a lamp or small bedside light. Unfortunately after a few minutes the light disappeared and he wasn't able to make it come back for the rest of the night. It wasn't much, but it was still something in the right direction.

Stepping through the gate leading to the facility he snapped out of his thoughts and focused on where he was walking. On a clear day like today he was wearing a plain white shirt and a pair of pale blue ripped jeans. As well as the shoes he had been wearing for around a year. Letting out another sigh he sat down on a bench just outside the entrance of AEGIS and closed his eyes to focus on the silent exterior of the building. He might as well enjoy it while he could, whenever most of the students arrived at the facility they brought with them a fair amount of noise.

 

[ManicMuse]

SCENE SETTING​

Thursday, April 26, 2040



Weather: Sunny and windy



Preparations had been in play for months. It had been quite taxing, getting the permission slips from not one, but three facilities. Arrangements for the bussing of that many students had also been its own headache. Apparently, standard vehicle insurance policies did not cover transporting that many Super minors at once. It took a few strategic calls to the Commonwealth to get the transportation company on board.



Surprisingly, the request for volunteers had been met with a great response from the community. Dozens of people had signed up to come and help support the Super students, and oversee their safe completion of the exam.



The poor staff of Facility 108 had been on a time crunch, building the course in less than half a week, due to delays in arrival of equipment. The majority of the build was left in the capable robotic hands of Larry, the groundskeeper.


Now with the course erected over the waterfront behind Facility 108, it was time for the games to begin. Small boats sat tied off, floating idly in the filled dry dock, which had been used as the arena for the last exam. In the distance, beyond the course laid out across the water, Marine patrol boats were watching the waters and surrounding harbor. Pop-up tents, folding chairs and tables had been set up strategically around the grounds of Facility 108. The tents had been weighed down at the posts to combat the gusts of wind which kept sweeping in from the open water front.



A few early volunteers were already at the openings in the chain link fences, which surround the grounds of the Facility. Clipboards with lists of the approved attendants had been given to an official at every check-point. After verifying the identity of a volunteer, a white bag was provided containing:

A yellow shirt

Two way radio

Whistle

Volunteer brochure with a Map of the course

​

Emergency services vehicles sat idly in the back of the parking lot with their crews, hanging out in the first aid tent. The sun hung high in the sky, leaving little shade beyond the tents to hide beneath.

The buses containing the students from the two other Facilities were minutes away.

In a short time, everyone would be asked to gather in the back courtyard of the Facility. There instructions for the day's events would be given and the games will begin.

Spoiler: @'s

@Anarchist AxelVanDeriz B Bag o Fruit Damafaud DamagedGlasses Aldur DJ MagicHat Giyari Gus D. Rex lazee Lioness075 Malikai Ozmic Necessity4Fun Nidelia simj26 @St Sin @SweetNicole Swoob Syrenrei Tanya Degurechaff Degurechaff Teh Frixz The Oldest Blueberry The J yoikes ViAdvena welian Zahzi

 

[yoikes]

Sato Tomoko
Location: Training Facility 108
Mood: ＼（*´･∀･｀*）／
ps: Tomoko sees this event as some sort of a summer sports festival

The girl sat on a plastic chair, beneath one of the tents, enjoying her cup of vanilla ice cream. Erica is away, probably helping the volunteers, but Tomoko knew that she probably busy going around making sure that she won't be joining the test.
Boooo, the girl puffed her cheek and glanced at the test course, It looked fun. Why can't i join?

She continues to eat her ice cream, before it all melts into flavored water.
I wonder if i can ask Erica to buy me another one? A strawberry one!

 

[Teh Frixz]

Tabitha​

"Uhm, hem, s'cuse me? Uh, it's... it's Tabitha, right? You go to AEGIS?"


Pulled from her trance like contemplation of the menu, Tabitha looked over and down at the mention of her name and not at the initial point of contact between her and the unknown person. What she had heard was simply 'You go to Aegis?' Honestly, it was a fair enough question but Tabby was still dealing with the zoo scandal and the best advice she'd been given in public was to outright deny.

"No..um...no I don't have powers or anything. Just...uh...ordering something for for friends. I get that sometimes."

Having bought some time for her ordering issue, Tabitha finally settled on the 'variety' pack option. A premade bundle of baked goods that should satisfy groups of possible friends. Placing her order and paying she looks back at the guy. Maybe it was something about his face or his almost beat up posture but suddenly all she felt was guilt about lying.

"Sorry, that was a lie. I go to 108, I'm Tabitha. I'm sorry, I'm just supposed to deny it mostly. You don't look like a reporter though"

 

[Gus]

Kyo and Makoto Hamasaki
​

The sun glinted off of the Chesapeake like the scales of a sea bass. There is a fresh onshore breeze and the swells are just nosing over 4 feet. The Momotaro-Maru cuts through them, seemingly effortlessly, nimbly navigating among the many larger and sleeker vessels choking the bay. She is well worn, but shows signs of many years of careful dutiful maintenance. One imagines this boat has seen many things; she has an adventuresome look about her. At the prow, jet black hair flying in the wind, stands Makoto Hamasaki, adoptive mother to Manami. She is beaming with pride already, anticipating her daughters testing ceremony. She is glad it will be on the water. Manami is always at her best when she can take breaks from the air to catch her breath.

As the boat approaches the line of buoys holding rubberneckers at a distance from the water course, the engine throttles down and there is a rattle of chains as the anchor is dropped. Moments later Makoto is joined by her husband Kyo. She favors him with a fond look as he begins spreading a picnic blanket on the deck and unpacking their lunch. She turns back to course and raises a pair of binoculars from around her neck to her eyes. Her hands are calloused, practically the only sign other than the smile lines around her eyes that she has been working this boat with her husband for more than a decade. She scans the area to see if Manami has arrived yet, but does not spot her. She hopes the spa day went well. It is hard to know anymore what her daughter needs. She pushes the thought away, but it bobs back up like one of Manami's favorite bath toys. There is no denying it. They are losing their daughter to her training, bit by bit, day by day. Makoto feels as if her heart may break in two, one half lightened by pride, the other weighted down by loneliness. This is what it is to raise a child, she thinks. One day, you have to let them out into the world and hope for the best.

She swallows hard, banishing the turbulent emotions by sheer force of will.

Is it her imagination, or is that third float on the course drifting out of position? She beckons her husband over to her.

"Annn-ohh.. Asoko no bui wa ne? Keiryu wa, dame deshyo ka?"

 

[Gus]

Aaron Mallory
​

Location: Pier --> 108 PD Supply Closet --> Bottom of the bay
Mood: Nervous Energy
Nearby: Various students, staff, onlookers and volunteers
Aldur

Aaron sighed. It definitely was not his imagination. The mooring on the "Levels" float had broken loose. Too much wind today (and too old a cable, probably). He could feel the slight shift in density under the water as the cable flapped loose. No time to call in a repair crew; the exam was due to start soon! He supposed Manami would be the logical choice for such work, but then again, teaching her to weld underwater had not been going particularly well, and anyway, she didn't seem to be around. Quick as he could, he hustled up to the gym and got a pair of scuba tanks and mask from the supply closet. On his way back to the pier, he shucked off his jacket and shirt, grabbed the welding gear, and after brief consideration stripped down to his boxers in the shadow of the pier. He would accept the consequences of getting those soaked in the interests of modesty. His 'blur' effect gave a perfectly reasonable approximation of modesty of course, but did not assuage his sense of propriety. (Granted, given how much tougher his skin was than his clothes, there were times in his youth that he'd been on the news pre-blurred for the censors, but then, he'd been in better shape back in those days.)

A few minutes later, there was no sign of Aaron but a trail of bubbles slowly moving toward the broken mooring.

 

[Natealie]

Nix took the medicine back from the angel. Fortunately they were able to help her. At the very least, that made Nix happy. There was something that they could do after all, despite being so powerless here. That thought would surely keep them going. They decided to step back for a bit as it looked like the two girls had something to discuss. Not wanting to intrude, Nix decided to keep to themself for a bit. Unfortunately though, they were called out on it. Apparently they couldn't even do common decency right. Disgusting.

"I-I'm sorry, I just thought that you two were going to be talking to each other for a bit. So I didn't want to interrupt." They responded meekly. "I'm Nix Chrysanthemum, and I only really just started going here a bit ago. My power is Understanding and everyone who I know says that it's weird and works in unusual ways. Sorry for being a pain." They apologized. Hopefully this angel didn't hate them already.

Necessity4Fun Lioness075

 

[Necessity4Fun]

Kendrick Haywood

​

Location: Brahn's Best Bakery
People Around: Sam, Chris Kravitz and Tabitha.
Interactions: Lioness075
Today's Toys: Ted, Spiral, Lieutenant George, Humphrey and Millie.

An eye for an eye... I'm allowed to make use of similar methods to the ones you're using on me.

"It's Kendrick", the boy emphasized in thoughts, meanwhile giving the girl an irritated glance, "Why, yes. Since you asked, yes. I do think I'm extremely clever.", he had replied with a rather cocky grin.

Since the girl seemed so intently in messing with his buttons today, Kendrick figured out that giving the most annoying answers ever would be fair game. Sam wanted to play around with him, fine. But he would make it so painfully ego-filled that in the end perhaps, she would be the one having her buttons pushed. This could prove to be very entertaining as well.

The parfait's taste was a bit unbalanced. So that's what cheap chocolate tasted like? Or perhaps there's a higher concentration of sugar in there? It wasn't all that bad, but it certainly tasted...different.
While he had reached out for a new spoon of his dessert, Sam had decided to question why he had sat down alongside her. Pretending not to have heard her, the teenager had taken a new spoon of the parfait and focused on that. It's not like he had to reply right away after all.

"'Wanting' and 'having to' are two very different things..."

And with that, he took another spoon of the sweet. He seemed to have a knack for being vague with his answers, so why not actually use it on purpose this time? Let the girl have fun picking out the pieces of his omitted dialogue marks, she was so intently in playing today, why not make all of this a game as well?
Why should solely one side of the conversation have a good time?

"As for why I'm seating here, with you. It just seemed appropriate. I would normally sit by myself, but granted that we know each other and you're talking to me, right now, I figured out it wouldn't make sense to have a chat across tables. It is simply common courtesy to leave the tables to the other clients, is it not?", he made sure to stare at her, eye to eye, "Why? Am I bothering you in some way?"

 

[Necessity4Fun]

Cecilia Rizzo Pellegrini

​

Location: AEGIS Facility 108 - Entrance
People Around: Nix and Lara.
Interactions: Natealie , Lioness075

I don't want to see you sad!!

Something about Lara's response had been confusing. Cecilia could get studying and so on if they were talking an actual test, with questions you had to cross out or written questions. But, this was not the case:

"How do you study for a water course through reading books??", she had tilted her head puzzled, "Do they have books on tips in how to go through the course quicker? Oh! Are there like guides on exercise techniques? But then how would you put these in the exam? Do you need to mimic all the book's illustrations yourself?"

Lost in her never-ending questions, the little Italian had almost missed when Lara had urged the other for an introduction. It made Cecil look back into all of the times she had forgotten to introduce herself to others. The girl was just so easy-going that she would often start chatting without even asking people's names or anything... She would even forget to do so at all! Only remembering she didn't know their names after they had already left. Perhaps, she should be learning something about this too...
And then the new student, Nix was her name -it was so adorable!-, replied but she seemed upset... Cecilia didn't want to interrupt them, this was between Lara and her. Some people really hated being interrupted. But then at end of the phrase, that 'Sorry for being a pain' rang out... And it just broke her HEART!!!

"Oh no! You're not being a pain!", she had interpolated between Nix and Lara, "Hey, I also forget to introduce myself all the time! it's not that big of a deal. There's absolutely nothing to worry about!", the girl tried reassuring the other, while making rather panicky hand waving during the sentences, "So please, don't be sad! You didn't do anything wrong! You're just, very very friendly! Like me. That's all~"

 

[Bag o Fruit]

Chris Kravitz Teh Frixz Necessity4Fun Lioness075 "Hunh, well... thanks, I guess? Heh heh..." Chris's permanent mental image of reporters was that of a crowd of people being herded out of his hospital room by his delightful nurse. "Um... You don't either." Fuck. "I, uh..." Chris tried to stare really hard at the menu. Out of habit, he rummaged his hand through his empty pocket... which, upon inspection, was empty. Shit, he gave all his money to that cab. Today had not been a well-planned day.

"I- I... I'm so sorry, do you have any- do you have any money I can borrow? I just- no, sorry, stupid question, I... hhuh. Sorry." Sweat enveloped Chris's skin in pinpricks, like a dull paresthesia.

 

[Bag o Fruit]

Anneliese Van Can Lioness075 Natealie Necessity4Fun "I just feel like... I don't know. She didn't give me any closure! Like... I would have been fine that she started dating the other guy..."

"You would have been fine?"

"Yes. No. No, I don't think so."

"Mm."

"Yeah... But I... Fuck, I- wait, is that okay? Is it okay if I swear in here?"

Anneliese nodded. "Better here than outside, eh?"

"Okay, thanks... I just don't know how I feel about it, you know? I think I'm a bigger person that being all pissed off about it just because she led me on for so long... but I do feel pissed off about it. Or about not having any closure. Or something. I mean, maybe you already know. Do you know if I'm angry? Or... Do you know what's making me? Angry?"

"I think..." Anneliese leaned back into her chair. "I think it doesn't matter."

"What?"

"You know how to blow off steam, and that's what's important for dealing with your anger. Closure can be overrated, and trying to find it, I think, will only make you angrier. Might lead to some bad decisions down the road. What's bothering you is your doubt in your own character. You don't want to be pissed off at this. You mentioned it before: you want to be a better person than that. And you are."

"But I'm... I am angry."

"Everybody gets angry. Most people get angry at things they wish they weren't angry at. That doesn't make them any better or worse a person. That's thought, emotion. Messy stuff, stuff nobody has control over, E-Ranks and S-Ranks alike. What defines you as a person isn't control over your thoughts, it's your thoughts' control over you. You're a man who won't let anger tell him what to do, no matter how hard it may try. That makes you a hero in my book."

Her patient readjusted himself on her couch, noticeably puffing out his chest. A smile played on his crystalline lips. "Thanks for seeing me today, Anneliese."

"Of course." She smiled, and stood. He followed suit with a sharp harmony of joints, and clinked out of her office. She shut the door behind him and immediately frowned. Something was very wrong. She flattened herself against her door and took in her office.

A buzzing immediately caught her attention. Her eyes found a housefly, mid-flight, doing figure-eights over her white, marble-topped desk. She reached for a stack of papers to swat it, but stopped. Something about the action felt... improper.

The fly circled the top of her desk seven times, then abruptly changed course and landed on the mahogany wood side, with the shit-colored coating that felt like it would melt on a hot day. It took flight again, landing only a few inches from its initial perch. Again. Then it took off. It circled her linoleum tile floor, again, seven times. Then it took a direct line to her stage-brown painted bookshelf. Hop. Hop.

She became aware that she was watching it intently, her face only a few inches from the absurd thing's oily green shell, when it took off of the bookshelf and headed straight for her. She jumped back instinctively, but it gave her a decent berth as it made its final descent to her windowsill, where it seemed to wait motionless.

She observed it for a second, then opened the window to a gust of fresh air, against the current of which the fly departed. She lost track of it almost instantly, and began to wonder if she imagined the whole thing. Perhaps she was experiencing the first manifestations of some latent trauma disorder?

She shook her head. The theory seemed unlikely. Just a weird fly, that had to be it. But she couldn't shake the feeling that something was very wrong. What day was it?

Reaching over too many things to her calendar, which had somehow fallen back to January, she flipped the pages up to April. The days had a neat red dot in the corner, all except the 26th. Testing day, it said. How had she forgotten??

She poked her head out of her office, checking the hallway before fully exiting. She wandered up and down the hallways, looking for... something... until she noticed a group of students standing at the front entrance. Among them was Nix Chrysanthemum, about whom she'd heard much. They seemed hopelessly self-conscious, which Anneliese had noticed was true of about one in three students of Facility 108 at any given time. She sighed.

Cautiously pushing open the door, so as not to bump anyone, she gave the students a familial smile. "Good afternoon! Is everyone alright? I thought I heard some commotion..."

 

[ManicMuse]

Page Morgan

location : SPA> Mud bath


State of being: Stressed to Happy


Nearby: Luther, Trent > Piper, Manami

@; Gus Syrenrei Lioness075 Dano

Page was grateful that Piper and snuck in the comment to off-set the curiosity about Luther's comment. There was no doubt in Page's mind that she would soon be getting the details either way. Now if only they could wrap Luther in a towel or her robe! With Manami's interest in the mud bath, Page had mental images of different awkward issues that could arise.

'Did fish girls even take mud baths?'

Piper suggestion of a seaweed wrap and facial sound much more, aquatic Super friendly. A swim, even better. With the pair of them heading out with a wave, Page suddenly felt awkward about her own suit again. Just as Page was about to reprimand Luther, the door behind them swung open. There two attendants dressed all in white gave a smile of greetings. The shorter of the pair spoke up, "Ms. Morgan, Ms. Rousseau your spa treatment awaits. If you would follow us."

Following the lead of the attendants, Page assumed Luther was trailing behind. Wrapped up tight in her robe once again, she filed in behind the women in white to a room with three tubs. One of which was occupied with a man who already had several women tending to him. Page could not help but stare. It was rather rare to see a guy at the spa. Let alone getting that much done. Working poorly to stifle a laugh, she wandered over to her individual tub. The attendant drew the curtain allowing her to disrobe fully in privacy before climbing into the tub. It was warm and thick. The dense mud slowly engulfed her entire body, leaving nothing but a head poking out the top. Once encased in the thick rich ooze, the curtain was pulled back by the attendant.

"Are you comfortable Ms. Morgan?"

"Oh yes, can I just get a towel for me head to rest on? I don't want to get my head scarf dirty."

Shifting about in the thick cakey batter like mud, Page raised a hand attempting to flick a bit of mud towards where Luther's tub was located.

"Don't, ya know, open yourself while you're in there. You will be scooping out mud for weeks," Page snickered at the idea of Luther's weapons being caked in mud for the weeks to come. With a towel tucked behind her head, she leaned back, and closed her eyes. A pair of cool slices of cucumber were placed over her eyes. Now this was the life.

 

[Necessity4Fun]

The Pellegrinis

aTablitaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Edmondo

Spoiler: Translations

"Honey, where is my tie?"

"Which one? You have quite a lot of them."

"The red one, dear. The red one."

"Isn't it in the second drawer?"

"Oh! Found it!" "You're wonderful! What would I do without you?"

"Ehhhhh." "Probably not much, I admit"​

"Lively as always, I see" "Don't be late for work, eh?"

"We won't, mom!" "I certainly won't let it."

"Something wrong?"

"I have committed a mistake."

"Dolcezza, dov'è il mia cravatta?"

"Quale? Avete abbastanza un sacco di loro."

"La rossa, amore. La rossa."

"Non è forse nel secondo cassetto?"

"Oh! Ho trovato!", he kissed her in the forehead,"Meravigliosa! Che cosa potrei fare senza di voi?"

"Ehhhhh.", she pretended to think about it, "Probabilmente non è molto, riconosco."​

Both laughed, knowing very well that was the truth.

The misplacement of things wasn't uncommon in the Pellegrini's residence, it was in fact almost a daily occurrence. Edmondo wasn't the most organized of men. He was forgetful, humorous, dramatic and a helpless romantic, with the worst sense of direction ever, even getting lost in the very place he worked everyday. But despite all that the man was also hardworking and stubborn, to an extent that he never gave up on anything he had started. That goofy man was who Tablita Rizzo Fiscella, now Pellegrini, had fallen in love with. Cecilia's mom was a more practical, straight-forward woman, someone who was both delicate as a flower, but capable of putting order to the most chaotic of places, just by raising her voice. Truly a fierce, proud woman.
He had been blown away by her confidence, and she, had been enchanted by his sense of humor.

Years later and their dynamic hadn't changed all that much:

"Ancora vivace come sempre, vedo", Fiorenza commented all the way from the living room, "Don't essere in ritardo per il lavoro, eh?"

"Non ci sarà, Mama!", Edmondo replied. "Io certamente non lo lasciò."

Pleased, the old woman had raised up the volume of the television, letting the couple handle themselves. Edmondo, finally wearing his tie -after making a mess of his wardrobe searching for it, only to discover it wasn't in there-, got out of the bedroom wearing his usual black and white Panama hat. Tablita laughed softly at him, only this man was able to pull such a silly look and still look relatively good in it. He was really quite the figure. Her, on the other hand had picked a more traditional looking dress, with long, though still wide and flowy skirt. One could argue that the flower pattern would look better for curtains not dresses and that it looked like old lady's clothing. But honestly, that was exactly what she was going for and she loved the patterns too much.

Following her husband out of the room, Tablita was surprised to see Edmondo not finishing to pick up his things to leave, but instead looking at the computer screen, unmoving:

"C'è qualcosa di sbagliato?", she asked concerned.

"Ho commesso un errore."


A little red Chevrolet stopped, merely a couple blocks from facility 108. It was a paid parking lot. Well, better to leave it here than try to head directly to AEGIS, the Italian couple probably wouldn't have permission to head inside with their car anyway.

The 'emergency' had been nothing more than a missed e-mail. Apparently, Cecilia had put her dad's e-mail on her profile or something, and Edmondo had received a neat invite to come to today's event in his inbox... But he hadn't seen it until the last minute! Dramatic as always, the man had been upset at the fact this could mean their inability to cheer their daughter on. They were finally all together again and he had missed this opportunity completely! His lack of attention was unforgivable!
But Tablita wouldn't accept not going as an option. She had managed to do the impossible! Called their boss in the spot and after explaining the entire situation and negotiating here and there, got them the day-off! Unbelievable...

Now they were here, having a peaceful walk towards facility 108, which they had only heard about from their daughter. The couple was a bit apprehensive. They hadn't found Cecilia in a very good state first time they had met again. She had been frightened, fragile, it had made them extremely worried. It still did.
Edmondo and Tablita had discussed the situation amongst themselves, deciding to move from Baltimore if their daughter ever ended in that state again. Luckily it hadn't come to that and the girl seemed to be actually enjoying her time on AEGIS. Today, they were finally going to see the place by themselves.

Hopefully it would put some of their doubts to rest...

((I kinda went crazy with this... Oops? >w<))

 

[ManicMuse]

iiNPC Card:

--Name--

Richard Chase ​

--Role--

Izzy's Dad / Volunteer​

Isabella Chase

Location: Gym Facility 108 > In courtyard


State of being: Frustrated


Nearby: Random people, too upset to tell.

A faint echo of tapping on the key board rippled through the gymnasium. The normally empty space, was filled with piles of extra life jackets, folding tables, chairs and other supplies for the day's event. In the center of the mess a pile of tumble pads were neatly piled up with a rope dangling just a above them. A middle aged man with a laptop was hunched over awkwardly on the bleachers. Typing back responses to varying emails, his glasses reflecting back the glow of the white screen before him. His well groomed mustache, twitched as he muttered under his breath while typing. Every few minutes or so, his gaze would flicker up to the rafters of the gymnasium checking on his daughter.

High above the cushions piled up on the floor, Isabella Chase sat cradled in her harness. Each large pointed ear erupted from a low pigtail, each flickering and twitching, expressing her frustration with the task at hand. A nest of padlocks and various different types of knots dangled before her. In the center of it sat plastic container filled with Izzy's lunch. Richard was constantly thinking up new ways to motivate his young daughter, to master her talents. Izzy was too young to understand the recent events but that did not mean that Richard was not going to prepare her. After Izzy was attacked at school several months prior, Richard knew her appearance would always make her target to those that disliked Supers.

The sound of another padlock dropping to the mat below caused him to pause mid-sentence and look up to see how Izzy was progressing.

"Good job, sweetie. Almost there. Now be careful. Remember, things are not always as simple as they appear."

Seeing only two more knots standing between her and the container, Izzy smirked. Pulling the cords, hand over hand, she made quick work of one knot and was half way through the last when suddenly the rope supporting her shifted. Peering up at the cord that anchored her, she cocked her head sideways with both her pupils narrowing to slits. Her gaze drifted upon the lines and varying anchored carabineers. Then she noticed, just where her line was anchored to, it was the last line in the puzzle she had been working on for the last hour. More importantly, she had just unwrapped the part that was keeping her up in the air. A long twisted noose of wrapped rope had been unraveling since the last tug. Izzy let out a squeal before suddenly her entire body dropped like a rock. Plummeting to the pile of pads below, Isabella called out for her father, "DADDDDYYYYYYY!"

Richard was already calmly setting down his laptop and climbing to his feet. Luckily for him, Izzy had amazing reflects. The second Isabella began to drop, her body's physiology had taken over. Her long thin tail had began to whip in a circle orienting her body in a corrective bias. Despite Izzy clearly being surprised by the drop, moments later, she landed in a crouched position on the mats, unscathed.

Walking over to his daughter, Richard offered her an extended hand to help her to her feet. Isabella was hyperventilating. Peering up her at father, her normally icy blue eyes were swallowed whole by the black rounded pupils. Richard did not have to see the bristly bushiness of her tail to know what that face meant. Isabella climbed to her feet, ignoring her his outreached hand and was already storming off for the door by the time he called out to her.

"Hunny, please don't be like this. You know we are just doing this to prepare you. To keep you safe!"

His words were met with a hard hollow slamming of the gym door as Isabella disappeared outside. Giving an audible groan, he returned to his laptop, stuffed it into his briefcase and looked down to the yellow hue of the shirt he wore. He knew his daughter well enough, to know she would give him the silent treatment for at least an hour. He was better off letting her cool down. Stuffing the briefcase under the bleachers after locking it, Richard Chase headed out of the gym.

By the time he made it out the doors, Izzy had disappeared into the chaos of the last minute preparations. Checking the time on his watch, Richard consulted the brochure he'd tucked into his pocket earlier that morning upon arriving. Based on the schedule, things were about to get underway. Deciding to make use of himself, he headed off toward the checkpoints to help usher people in.

 

[Syrenrei]

Luther Rousseau
"Reliquary"
Location: Spa
Nearby: Page ManicMuse , Manami Gus , Piper Lioness075 , Trent Dano
​

Luther had laughed lightly as Page had attempted to use her own body to conceal her from Piper and Manami. Of course the Physical Discipline Assistant Teacher had not anticipated meeting students of any sort here but she was hardly ashamed. Sure, her outfit might be scandalous, but they were all adults and knew what the female body looked like.

"It's called a string bikini, Page!" Luther had declared proudly as she put a hand on her hip, posturing in such a way that is was impossible to miss in such close proximity that the little bits of cloth attached to string were not opaque. Part of Luther's body, hidden inside and out of sight, had let her down and destroyed some of her dreams of the future. It was perhaps ironic that in spite in all of this she took such pride in her physique. More than once she considered she was compensating for her barren status. Even if it was she had no reason to suddenly become modest. She was not a taken woman and it was unlikely she would ever be.

Ignoring the query about her prior evening, and the glare and roll of the eyes that accompanied it, she grinned as Page mentioned the mud bath. Perhaps she could sneak a little bit of this 'special' mud into her portal and then later withdraw it for personal use... or repackage it for profit. Surely the spa wouldn't notice some missing and they certainly wouldn't discovering her smuggling it out with a strip search. Luther almost hoped they'd a do strip search, though, and have the staff that performed it be an attractive man... Shaking her head free of hedonistic thoughts, she caught Manami addressing her.

"Sorry Manami, maybe next time, eh? Besides, you don't need to worry about softening your skin. Not all of us can look that pretty in blue," she remarked with a wink. The way that Manami held herself worried Luther. Knowing of her Japanese background, Luther was well aware that she had a different upbringing guiding her actions. Americans weren't as dedicated to etiquette and deferential reverence of their elders. Still, she had a tendency to second-guess herself and question what she could say and do. There was a more vibrant and confident Manami buried underneath that someday she hoped with stay for good. A Manami that was not naive, and not helplessly impulsive, but understood the realities of the world and could take it all in stride without stumbling.

"Oh, Piper! I'm Luther Rousseau, but please just call me Luther. Have fun at your seaweed facials!" Idly she wondered if she and Manami could later corner the market themselves on all this mud and seaweed beauty nonsense. As a water-inclined super Manami had a chance of recognizing the seaweed utilized and maybe getting some straight from the source later. If Manami was able to replicate the seaweed process and Luther got enough of the mud to analyze and manufacture more of it later.... nah. Luther didn't really want to open a spa. There had been plenty of profitable careers and opportunities that her powers alone provided she had elected not to pursue. Toxic waste disposal, for example, would have made her incredibly wealthy but it just didn't jive with her lifestyle. Being a vessel for crap was not her idea of a good time and life was too short to be chained to boredom.

When the attendants came to fetch them Luther wiggled her eyebrows at Page mischievously, putting her robe back on but not bothering to tie it over her suit to conceal herself. The staff seemed slightly put off by how scant her swimsuit was but they weren't about to throw out a paying customer who was about to disrobe anyway.

It was strange to see a man in the mud room in a tub, living it up like a diva, but Luther's sense of 'weird' had changed dramatically since her time in the military and as a blue card holder. Her attendant was about to pull a curtain around her to allow privacy while entering the tub, but Luther waved it off and stepped into her mud bath as her string bikini melded into her skin. The attendant gasped quietly and was all too happy to shuffle away as soon as Luther was settled sans towel pillow.

"I wouldn't have to scoop it out," Luther stated indignantly. "I could jettison it out, maybe lob it at someone, but scooping? That sounds like too much work. Or maybe pour it from my palm. It does seem a bit thick for that, though." It was a bit strange this was supposed to be a luxury for her skin. During basic training she had been caked in mud but at no point was anyone telling her that it was good for her complexion. Lifting her arm she stared at the ooze and imagined what her fellow soldiers and mercenaries would think of this indulgence.

"You should have been there last night, Page. There were a lot of one-hit wonders if you know what I mean, eh? I can hook you up! It's an even better way to relieve stress, I guarantee it. If you're going to get dirty..." Luther hadn't forgotten there was a stranger in the last tub, she simply didn't care to keep her private life a secret. Most of the AEGIS 108 students who were old enough to be a patron of a bar could run into her. Being a teaching assistant didn't mean she had to cloister herself so long as she did her job, wasn't inappropriate with her actual students, and a contributing member of society. The second there was a code of conduct that required sobriety or chastity they'd all be doomed anyway.