Andromeda High: Yearly Bonds

[Nanaki]

Lauren gave a startled squeak and lunged forward in her seat as the bus came to a rather abrupt, and rough, stop. Several other students around her shared her sentiments and gave groggy groans and little yells of protest at the driver who waved a hand dismissively back at them and stood, hands pressed into the small of his back as he turned his waist and let loose a series of little pops and cracks.

"Off the bus" he ordered mildly over the buzz of their newly resumed chatter and whining. He was already half way out the door as he said this and Lauren had to mutter if that was a good idea. Sure, he had the keys with him but, the kids here weren't normal. What if one of them used super electric power or something to high jack the bus... Nah, that probably wouldn't happen.

She laughed at her over active imagination and, rubbing the sleep from her eyes, stood. The girl who had been sitting beside her when the journey hard started from the airport was now gone and as she looked around she realized, so was about half of the bus.

She figured as much. It was hot and stuffy in there and it smelled kind of funny, she could only imagine how eager some of the other kids, especially the ones with a heightened since of smell or a sensitivity to temperature, would have been to get out. She didn't much care though and took her time, standing and stretching slowly, her tiny body a little sore from being so scrunched up the past few hours. She collected her bag of belongings, being sure to fold her blanket up carefully before setting it inside, and waited for the two or three kids who'd sat in the back, and were just now leaving, to pass her.

She was the second to last one out, and winced as the sunshine, bright and hot, assaulted her already sensitive eyes. She cupped a hand over them as she settled her pack on her shoulders and looked around. To either side of her there were buses, eight in total. Each was long, yellow, and far too bright in the mid day light. Looking at them hurt far too much and so she stopped it, looking at the ground instead.

There were white chalk arrows there, going in slightly slanted straight line. Below each the word Freshman was written and so she, along with the other ninety nine freshmen that had come on her bus and another parked directly beside theirs, walked along them and towards the school grounds.

Lauren drew her hand away as they came upon the grand campus. Andromeda High, school for the special, for the magical and other worldly, was a castle, three castles actually and several smaller home like complexes, spread across a beautiful, expansive campus. They were walking into a court yard decorated with flowers, a banner reading "WELCOME FRESHMEN" hanging on the stone archway that led to it.

A makeshift stage was built up in its center, chairs lined in rows before it. On the stage sat twelve people, all adults, each perfectly human in appearance. Their range of their ages was seen in, one a young man who could have been at youngest twenty two and an elderly woman who cold have been sporting ninety years or more, though she stood mostly straight and looked rather healthy.

All seemed mildly bored and sat in their own seats shuffling papers back and forth to each other. Occasionally a student would wave and they'd smile, waving back but besides that they seemed totally uninterested.

Lauren saw this and though it was understandable. It was a little hot out, the usual fall breeze not yet here, the heated holds of summer still clinging desperately on, and they'd probably been waiting at least the last hour or two. She herself was starting to feel a little toasty in her bulky blue sweater and thought she might take it off when a hand rested gently on her shoulder.

"Go take a seat kid" a friendly young man, probably a junior or senior, said pointing over to the chairs. "Then we can get started."

"Mkay" she nodded, smiling up at him before she wandered over to take a seat. She found one, two rows back, almost dead center, and smiled up at the elderly woman who was seemed to look at her for a moment.

She smiled back and gave a little wave with long, bony fingers. Lauren reciprocated. "Are we starting soon?" she called up.

"When everyone's seated" the woman replied.

Lauren nodded and settled back, pushing her glasses back up on her nose absentmindedly, and waited for things to start up.

[Venin666]

As the bus lurched forward and came to a stop Ryan seemed tobe one of the few, if not the only, people who hadn't hit their head on theseat in front of them. His seat-mate turned to him for the second time in theentire trip and tried to start up a conversation "Man...you would think hecould have made that stop better right?" Ryan nodded quietly saying"yeah..." His seat mate simply shook his head not being one who likeddealing with shy nobodies.

He kind of sat at attention and shrunk back simultaneouslyas the bus driver ordered himself and the other students off the bus. He turnedto the window again. The glass was cool to the touch but he could tell outsidewas hot. After a bit and all the studentshad gotten off the bus the driver came back to the bus saying "Come on kidget off. “Getting up and silently gathering his things he apologizes to thedriver and moves outside.

Groaning at the heat he follows the while chalk lines meantto be put out for the freshmen to follow. Looking around at the other freshmen he wondered what all the otherscould be. His parents had told him the school was divers and would be good forhim. You sure about this Mom and Dad?...there's a lot of people here, couldn'tI have gone to a smaller school? he thought though he knew his parentweren't around to hear his complaint.

He almost ran into the rows of chairs set out for thefreshmen if one of the upperclassmen that had been serving hadn't stopped him.He jumped at the hand being placed on his shoulder. The upper-class studentsmiled at him reassuringly "Watch out...that seats occupied how about youtake this one..?" She directed him to a seat in the front row near thecenter. He didn't openly object to the seating choice but he wasn't a fan of iteither.

He hugged his messenger bag to his chest staring up at the lineupof staff that was about to address the students. While he waited to hear thespeech he did his best to memorize the head staffs faces in case he should runinto them in the hallway. "Is it going to start soon?" he asked tonobody in particular and the kid next to him spoke up "I hope so... it'ssoo hot outside"

[Nanaki]

The students all seemed to be seated now and a slow hush came over them as the elderly woman on stage stood and lifted a hand to them.

Lauren gazed up at her old, smiling face, and wondered what was going to happen now. They'd been waiting for ten minutes now, out here in the sun, and hoped that there wouldn't be a lot of long winded speeches and lectures on rules. She didn't think she could take the heat, bundled up in her sweater.

"Thank you for your attention" the woman said. "I know that is hot out, and I know that you are all very excited so I will try to keep this short. My name is Melais Andromeda and I am the headmaster here at Andromeda High and I, along with the others you see here, have gone through your profiles and test scores to create effective teams for you to work in."

She motioned to the eleven others sitting behind her. "These, are your teachers for the year, you will be meeting each in their respective classes. Bring to them any questions or problems you have.They are here to help you, as am I, so don't worry."

She smiled down at all of the kids, Lauren looked up, returning the smile. "Now, we will get to the matter of the pairings. Each of you has been paired with another freshmen of equal power ability and intelligence. Both of you, however, should have different strengths and abilities. You may or may not be of the same species, this will help teach you to diversify. I will be calling you up in pairs, you will receive from me a key to your rooms, yes you will be living together, and a student hand book that will explain the rules of the school, your class schedule, a class overview, school schedule, and map. Now, come up."

She began with the list, names coming steadily, students coming slowly, looking at each other in mind confusion.

"Lauren Dari and Ryan Suinen."

Lauren stood quickly when she heard her name and and skipped happily up to the stage, waving cheerily at the woman who handed her an envelope. She looked around, waiting for her partner to come up.

[Venin666]

As the rest of the students fell silent Ryan sighed inrelief. The speech was being given. Ryanlistened to every word headmaster Andromeda said only looking away when shementioned and gestured to the teachers. Ryan nodded to himself affirming tohimself that he was right to think his teachers were, his teachers. The factthat she'd said teams passed right over his head. He was wondering whichteacher taught what subject.

When headmaster Andromeda paused to look at the students hegave her a weary smile back. The smile turned into dread as she talked aboutthe parings. It was hard for him to be in the huge school to begin with buthaving to move in with a complete stranger? He wanted a stream to open up infront of him so he could swim home as fast as possible. He tried to focus onthe positives. It was only one person it wasn't like he was being put in acommunity home with like seven roommates. He still continued to hug his bag tohis chest though it still smelled a little like home and he needed that.

As the names were listed off and students went up to thestage and off to their rooms in pairs Ryan kept a keen ear for his name hopingthat he was one of the last called or some filing issue occurred and it turnedout that he was actually alone. He knew it was a stretch but he wasn't going tothink about it for the moment. The student next to him got up and went off withhis partner before Ryan heard it

"Lauren Dari and Ryan Suinen."

Ryan almost squeaked in fear shrinking back for a secondbefore getting up pushing some of his hair out of his eyes and placing hismessenger bag at his side. He walked up to the stage he noticed his partner whowas a good bit shorter than him, he'd guess somewhere around 7 inches, andlooked quite a bit more cheerful. He turned to the headmaster to get an envelopebefore turning back to his "partner". "Ummm...Hey..." hesaid a little softly "I'm Ryan"

[Nanaki]

"Hey" Lauren chimed back happily, sending a cheerful smile her partners way. "I'm Lauren, nice to meet you." She stepped off the stage and waved for him to follow. At the bottom of the small stairs leading down from the stage an upperclassman, the same friendly one who'd helped Lauren find a seat, was waiting for them. He waved at them to follow when they came down and moved a little ways away from the stage.

"Welcome to the school you two" he said with a smile. "I'm gonna show you to your room. You're in the west building on floor five, that's the top, and in hall C with the other freshmen. It's all written down on the paper that comes with your key, check it when you've got a second."

Lauren looked at her own envelope and pulled open the top, sliding a paper out of it. "Room 579" she said cheerily. "That shouldn't be too hard to remember."

The older boy gave a little, good natured laugh. "I'm on that floor too, in hall A though. My name's Brice and if you ever have any problems or questions about the rooms just come ask me. I'll be happy to help you any time, day or night."

"I have a question" Lauren stated and he looked at her in a way that said, go on. "Do we have bunk beds or what? How is the room set up?"

Brice gave another laugh. "You'll just have to see about that one kido. What about you?" he asked looking at Ryan. "If not we can go on over."

[Venin666]

Ryan followed Lauren off the stage and towards a newupperclassman. Lauren was really energetic it was going to be odd and maybe abit scary to live with her at least for a bit, till he got used to it. He hadno clue how long it would take for that to happen he still had trouble withsome of his dad's associates and they came on a weekly basis. With all thethoughts swirling around in his head Ryan's hand nervously started to squeezedown on the envelope the headmaster had given him.


He could only offer a weak smile to the Upperclassman,Brice, when he was greeted and welcomed to the school. He listened to thedescription of where they were in the dorms and everything. Opening the handwith the envelope in it he carefully pulled out his key careful not to dropit. He heard Lauren mention the room numberand check to confirm that he'd heard right. He also heard Brice mention beingon the same floor if he or Lauren needed something


Ryan really paid attention when Lauren asked about the roomsituation mentioning bunk beds. Ryan could feel his face blanche for a momentas his mind cried out Not bunk beds, not bunk beds...PLEASE not bunkbeds he relaxed only a little when Brice said he didn't know. It wasn't"yes" but it wasn't "no" either.

When Brice turned to Ryan to see if Ryan had any questionsRyan shook his head "N-No, we can go over" without really realizingit Ryan had shifted himself to put Lauren between him and Brice like he washiding behind her despite the difference in height.

[Nanaki]

"Okay, let's go then" Brice said with a nod as he turned and started toward the building.

Lauren looked back at Ryan, wondering why he was standing all the way back there. She thought it'd be better for him to walk beside her, it would be easier to talk that way, but whatever. She didn't quite mind it she supposed, she just thought it was a little odd. He seemed a bit odd... or well, not odd, just nervous. She nodded her head, following her train of thought. She could understand nervous, she got nervous a lot, she'd just gotten very good at hiding it.

She ought to teach him how to hide his nervousness too.

She gave a little laugh and Brice looked back at her.

"Something funny?"

"My train of thought... I think it's yellow today" she told him and he gave her a peculiar look before facing forward again.

It had been purple yesterday. Quite a drastic change but, no matter, it was a good thing.

She looked up and up and up at the castle that would serve as their home. It was tall and wide like all the others but different from it's partners in the designs on the door and the foliage growing about and up the walls. Though she hadn't seen the others she was fairly sure they didn't have the same bright green ivy growing up in seemingly random patterns, sprouting colorful flowers every few feet. She was also fairly sure that they didn't have all the tropical looking flowers planted up their cobblestone walkway or the same carvings of birds and squirrels and other happy animals on the door.

She knew for sure thought, still looking up and walking carefully along, that the other two buildings didn't have the same words, built in bronze over the door.

"West Wing. Nurture and Protect" she read it aloud and Brice glanced back over his shoulder at her as the door swung open.

"Yep, that's the our motto" he grinned. East wing, the other residential hall is Innovate and Grow. Personally, I like ours better. Welcome to the west wing by the way, or rather, welcome home" he gave a warm smile to both of them.

"This is the first floor, which you can clearly see, and there are no rooms down here. This floor is the cafeteria, a study hall, the computer room, a couple of lounge rooms, and a rec room. A lot of students spend most of their time down here. There's a schedule for all the rooms, the study hall never closes though."

He walked as he spoke and Lauren, still looking around, ran straight into his back when he stopped suddenly.

She gave a rather high pitched squeak and bounced back, flailing a bit before regaining her balance.

Brice laughed, watching her then jerked his head toward the object he'd stopped at. "We have elevators and stairs. If it's okay with you guys, I'd like to use the elevator."

Lauren nodded. "I'm fine with that I guess... it's only a few floors right?"

"Yep... don't like elevators much?"

She shook her head. "Not really, I mean, I'm not scared but if I have to go more than ten floors I walk part of the way." she laughed.

He nodded "yeah, lots of people around here are like that actually. You okay with it?" he asked, looking to Ryan.

[Venin666]

As he started walking towards the dorm, Ryan stayed back for a bit. When Lauren looked back at him, He did his best to smile at her before he decided to try to catch up with her and Brice. He caught up with Sam about the same time that she started talking about different colors trains ofthought.

He smiled at that, Lauren seemed like a very friendly and outgoing individual. She might be able to help him with his shy nervousness.. I really hope she can

As they came up to the castle that would be their dorm, He pauses looking up at the structure. He didn't know if they had decorated it that way or if the school had been long enough for just happen, but he liked the design and was glad to be in that dorm.

"West Wing. Nurture and Protect" he her Lauren mention reading the bronze words over the door. He liked that idea and apparently so did Brice.

Looking down from the words Ryan noticed that he had fallen behind. Jumping, He sped up his walking to catch up with the others. He caught up just in time to hear Brice talk about the first floor and how a lot of students hung out there. He made a note about that and how it might take him awhile to be comfortable down on the first floor with all the students.

He stopped just in time when he noticed Brice stop walking forward. However, Lauren didn't seem to and ran right into him. When she squeaked animal fell back Ryan bent down and put his hands out to catch her if she needed it. He stood back up as soon as he noticed that she caught herself.

Looking to Brice explain that they had both elevators andstairs and that he wanted to use the elevators, and that's why he stopped there. Brice asked both Lauren and Ryan if they wouldn't mind using the elevator. Lauren didn't seem to mind,and Ryan certainly didn't. So when Brice turned Ryan to ask if he didn't mind Ryan shook his head and was able to calmly answer "No, I don't mind at all" he actually preferred the idea because then it would only be Brice, Lauren and himself, and less people were easier for Ryan to deal with.

[Nanaki]

"Righto" Brice nodded, pressing the up button. The elevator dinged a moment later, it's shiny silver doors opening swiftly to let them inside. The three of them in it closed again and he pressed the five button. Lauren's eyes lit up with the little yellow light and she smiled at the soft glow. She'd always liked shiny things and things that lit up when you touched them, her mother said it was the sprite in her and she figured as much could be true, sprites and many of the other fairy folk they were kin to quite liked shiny things.

The ride up was quick and short, the elevator making no other stops at other floors. When the silvery doors slid open again and they got out they were greeted with the view of a rather sparse lounge. Somewhat large but definitely under decorated the large space had dark wood floors and dark orange walls. There was a large, square, decorative rug in the center of the room, a glass table atop it. Around it were a couple of comfortable looking lounge chairs, a love seat, and a long couch, all were in different, earthy colors that clashed and fit together all the same.

A few other chairs and tables were spread about, set up against the walls and in front of the large window to their right that gave a view down into the court yard. Presently it was spilling rather warm, sunshiny light into the room and making it a fairly pleasant temperature.

The wall directly before them broke off into three hallways. Above each opening was a decorative bronze letter A, B, or C.

Brice, grabbing Lauren's attention again, gestured to the whole room as he said. "This is our lounge. It's pretty sparse right now but give it a few weeks and people will have started decorating it. You can too, any art you wanna put up go ahead. We'll have some book shelves too so if you want to get rid of some books or trade with people just leave em and grab something new. It's pretty cool. Anyway, you can hang out here any time, just try not to be too loud at night, people don't take too kindly to being woken up."

He gave a little nod then motioned towards the halls. "You can see that there are three halls, A, B, and C. C is where you two and the rest of the freshmen live. It's okay I guess but you'll prefer living in the other halls. B hall is for sophomores, it's a little better, you get a tv, and A hall is for juniors, and seniors who don't want to do the individual living project, it's the best because you get lots of room and other stuff that I won't tell you about because it would spoil the surprise." He laughed cheerily and waved at C hall. "Now I guess you two ought to go check your room hm?"

Lauren nodded excitedly and rushed down the hall with an impossibly larger smile on her face. Brice laughed and looked a Ryan "she's a little ball of energy isn't she?" he asked.

Said ball of energy meanwhile had gotten to their room. It was near the middle of the dimly lit hall and the door was a solid dark wood with a lock and knob that reminded her of those really old timey doors. Breifly she wondered how old the school was but then dismissed the thought and fumbled her key out of the envelope so she could open the door and look inside.

The room was pretty ordinary actually if not a bit big. It had white walls and a light wood floor that she was sure she could slide around on in her socks, two beds, both uncovered, one was on the far wall across from her in crammed in the right corner, the other was to the left of her, just slightly past the wall. Two low set drawers accompanied the beds, sitting next to them and serving as both storage and night stands. There was a large window with blue and white curtains beside the bed in the corner and in front of it were two desks, one dark wood one light, with their respective rolly chairs and piles of books set on each. Set in front of the desks Lauren identified her own suitcase and was sure that if Ryan had brought anything else it would be in here too.

Looking to her right she saw a door, probably the bathroom, and disregarded it in favor of going to look out the window, smiling when she saw that they got a rather excellent view of the schools lake and west garden.

"Pretty cool hu?" Brice asked, stepping in a bit later. "You'll be able to ask for extra chairs and a book shelf later and you can decorate however you want. Heck, you could paint the walls as long as it's not gaudy" he laughed.

[Venin666]

As the elevator doors closed on the trio Ryan was able torelax a bit more and it showed in the way that he held himself. He looked andfelt considerably less nervous or tense. When the doors opened again to a quiet un-crowded lounge Ryan was ableto stay that relaxed, there weren’t many students up here or, they were all in theirrooms by now.


As he listened to Brice explain the lounge he moved over to the patch ofsunlight streaming in from the courtyard window. Putting his hand in the warm sunlight as ifit was the first time he had done so in years, slowly rotating his hand feelingthe warmth.
He heard about the book exchange system and thought it waspretty cool. He wasn't a really big reader of books but every now and thenone piqued his interest.


As Brice startedexplaining the hallways, Ryan walked back over to join them. Ryan wasn’t thatmuch into tv so as far as he knew the room upgrades didn’t sound so different.


“She’s a little ball of energy isn’t she?” Brice asked Ryanas Lauren shot off towards their room. Ryan smiled responding softly “Yeah…sheseems to be” Ryan followed Bryce to the room, slipping in behind Brice andclosing the door.


Although the room was fairly ordinary it was actually pretty nice. For obvious reasons, it had two of everything in the room. Near whathe could only assume to be Lauren's suitcase Ryan noticed his own. A glint of light from the window drew hisattention. Moving to the window Ryan noticed the lake and his eyes opened widein excitement. When Brice asked the both of them if they thought if it was “prettycool…” Ryan turned to him, nodding happily ”yeah…”


Brice then explained that Ryan and Lauren could decorateanyway they wanted to. Ryan didn’texpect himself to be doing much decorating, minus maybe a few things here andthere. He didn’t expect to be doing any paintinganyway, and he wasn’t entirely sure about the definition of gaudy either, henever paid much attention to that stuff.

[Nanaki]

Brice smiled at them and shrugged his shoulder. "Well, looks like my job is done and I'll leave you kids to it" he laughed. "You can come bug me anytime if you want to though. I'm over in room 520 alright. I'll be your unofficial official mentor if you want." He gave a cheerful laugh at that and turned for the door. "So just drop by okay... oh, and just so you know, those books on your desks are your text books. Studying is key" another laugh and he slid out the door, closing it behind him.

"Bye" Lauren called behind him, her voice far more controlled now. She moved away from the window and over to her suitcase then looked around. "So, Ryan right? Which bed do you want?" she asked. The exuberant energy that had been around her a moment ago had calmed to a more manageable and tolerable level leaving her happy but calmly so. She press her pointer finger against her glasses and pushed them up her noise again with a bright smile.

"I don't much mind either way really." She grabbed her bag and looked at him with a sweet, wide eyed expression that was common for her and more than a bit unintentional. She rocked back and forth on her heals as she did, seeming almost nervous now that the two of them were alone together. She was... just a little though.

She liked making friends and all, and she liked meeting new people, but she thought it was understandable that she be a little nervous about being around a person she'd live with for a whole year and beyond. She just hopped he didn't think she was annoying, she hadn't really checked herself before and might have been too energetic for his liking.

I hope he doesn't think I'm annoying she thought in a mild panic. I'd really like to be friends with him... he's really tall she noticed this as she looked at him from his place. Or maybe I'm just really short. she hung her head and sighed with a slight laugh. "I'm short" she muttered in a cheerily dismayed voice.

[Venin666]

Eyes still glued to the window and the lake off the distanceRyan listened Brice say a friendly farewell turning around at the last minuteto wave goodbye as the door closed. He’d have to remember room 520 if you wouldever need help from Brice again. His eyes roamed the room once again untilLauren spoke up asking which bed he wanted. Looking between both of the beds he didn't see much of a differencebetween the two of them, but he did have a preference. "Would-would youmind if I got the one closest to the window? I'd like to be able to see thelake"

The pushing some of his hair out of his eyes, Ryan looked toLauren as she pushed her glasses higher up on her nose. She seemed much calmernow, which would help him be able to speak to her." I am-I'm sorry... I'mreally shy with crowds and new people" he figured he might want to getthat out of the way before school really started.

Her energy level had been encouraging and a little bit scaryat first. Ryan had hoped that it would help him get out of the little shellthat he usually lived in. It was certainly going help now that he had to livewith her for the school year and for the foreseeable future of school. If she was the first friend he made it wouldreally help him dealing with the crowds at school, hopefully.

And she mentioned in eight Shirley this may voice about herheight. He laughed quietly "or maybe… I'm really tall?"

[Nanaki]

Lauren nodded, her glasses sliding down her nose again, and crossed to her new bed dropping all her things beside it. “Wouldn’t mind at all” she told him happily, falling back onto the soft mattress with a little thud. She stretched and waved her arms about in a rather silly motion as she listened to him speak again, nodding in understanding when he told her he was shy.

“It’s fine” she told him cheerily, flipping onto her stomach to look at him. Her glasses were resting just about on the tip of her nose and her hair had gotten a little frizzed when she laid down and was now sticking up a bit in odd places. “I’m kinda shy too sometimes, I’ve just gotten better at not showing it” she gave a large grin that finished off her rather disheveled and somewhat comical look. “I can help you with it if you want.”

She stretched again and sat up when he proposed that perhaps he was just really tall. She gave a little laugh. “You are tall” she told him “but that’s a good thing! Tall people are helpful and fun!” she crossed her arms over her chest and pouted a bit as she said “I’m a short person though, we’re not so helpful unless you need to get in a small space!” she laughed again, the pout gone, and finally pushed up her glasses. “Darned things never wanna stay up” she complained.

[Venin666]

Ryan smiled grabbing his suitcase, “Thanks…”he dragged hisstuff over to his bed, sitting down and falling back letting his arms fall wideto the side. He blew with a soft puff of air some hair that fell in his eyestry to get rid of it. It took a few more puffs before the hair would get out ofhis face.after a moment he lifted himself up into a sitting position again.Noticing that she had switched to laying on her stomach to watch him her hair abit frizzy.


A soft smile grew upon his lips. When she mentioned it wasokay that he was a bit shy.. He leaned forward a bit when she mentioned thatshe was a bit shy as well, but could hide it easily, or easier than he could. “mindshowing me how you do that sometime? I don’t know how obvious it was but it’sclear I can’t do it” he said , still smiling. He said it moments before she sheoffered to help him with it. He laughed a bit at his timing, hoping she foundit funny as well...


He chuckled again, when she commented about his height.itreminded him how every once in a while his parents had to get him to getsomething from the top cupboard. He almostwanted to frown a bit himself when she pouted and talked about herself beingsmall, he didn’t have the chance to however because she laughed it off with anentirely different comment.


Pushed a bit of his hair back at the same time that shepushed her glasses up and commented about them never wanting to stay up “it’s almost like myhair, which never wants get out of myeyes…” technically they stayed out of his eyes when he was swimming but it wasfairly obvious why.


All of a sudden, since they were alone. He wanted to ask herwhat she was but she might not want to talk about it. So he bit his lip keephim from asking the question. Maybe he’d wait a little while, till they kneweach other a bit better before asking that.

[Nanaki]

Lauren laughed along with him at his timing, nodding. "Like I said, I'd be happy to help you with your shyness." her laugh died to a giggle as she looked over at him, kicking her legs back and forth as she lay there. She watched him, tilting her head to the side quizzically as he compared his hair to her glasses.

"Really? Hm, I guess so... kinda" she smiled at him brightly and pushed her glasses up again. Blinking she looked at his hair, her thoughts pausing for a moment as she admired the color, it was very pretty. "You have nice hair though" she told him "my glasses are just a pain" she gave another laugh and rolled on her side towards him, head propped up in her had.

"Is it naturally that color?" she asked, wondering out loud. She didn't know many species that had hair colors in that shade of blue and was very curious. It made her wonder for a moment what her new room mate may be but she knew that asking was sometimes a sore subject. Trying to be considerate she clamped down the question and just kept her eyes on him, smile bright, eyes large and curious.

She had a lot of questions, as her curious nature dictated. What was he, where was he from, what did he like, what were his hobbies, his favorite movies, did he even watch movies? She new plenty of people in her own family that didn't want anything to do with human made things like movies, was he one of them? Was that how his family worked. Her head was abuzz with all of these things and she was just about bursting inside trying not to ask them.

[Venin666]

He smiled, lightly blushing at the comment for his hair,"thanks, I've been growing it out for a while" Ryan said smiling as he grabbed a strand of his own hair and stroked it a bit. he looked up to her when she asked if it was his natural color. He lightly shook his head. "No, I had it dyed permanently a while ago. I thought it suited me and what I am a bit better..." he almost flinched as he realized, how he said it might invite more questions about himself. but when he thought about it. He thought why not? They were both going to be living together for next school year and beyond. Why not get some of these questions out of the way. He had plenty of his own to ask her.


however, starting up the offer made him a bit nervous and he squirmed on his bed where he was sitting for a moment "I-I'm sure, y-you have a lot of questions for me. And I have a few questions for you. A-And since we will be living together for the foreseeable future. I-I think that we might want to get, to know each other, better...?"his speech was slow, hindered by his nervousness, but deliberate.


Although he had a lot of questions to ask her it would take him him a lot longer and so he would let her start the barrage and possibly that would help him ask any questions that may not have occured for him to ask and give him a little help in the way that for some answered he only had to say something like 'What about you' instead of repeating the question

[Nanaki]

Lauren cocked her head to the side cutely, reaching up to touch some of her own frizzy hair in unconscious mimicry of what he was doing to his own. “Oh really?” she asked with a smile. “I’ve always wanted to dye my hair but mum and dad are so against it.” She laughed softly, and blinked her big eyes at him, still holding back the questions but… what was that? Was he giving her a prompt to ask?

She nodded her head “I sure do, I have quite a few questions and I’m guessing you won’t mind my asking?” She pushed her glasses up again and sat up on the bed, legs crisscrossed. She didn’t wait for an answer, simply began.

“What are you?” She asked first, being sure to say it in a completely curious way, any other tones and people could take it as some sort of insult, people were weird like that… though she hoped he wasn’t. “I’m half fay half witch” she told him. “And, where are you from, I’m from Nomintine but I live in Grandure City now. Do you know any magic? Oh, and do you like animals or have any pets? I have a kitty cat named Scraps but he’s back home… um…” She paused in her random series of questions to look down at her hands and think of anything else to say.

Or maybe I’ve said enough…I should let him answer. She nodded to herself, frowning at her own fast mouth. She really shouldn’t have fired off so many questions, and in such a random way. “Er… you don’t have to answer any you don’t want to” she told him with a slightly nervous laugh.

[Venin666]

much. Pushing some hair out of his face he began. "I-I'm half elf, half merman"he paused for a moment before adding "The color of my hair is t-to match my tail..." the mention of his tail made him want to go swimming but he figured he could do it later.


"I'm from Sire village, and I still l-live there. My house was right on the coast...." he sighed deeply a hint of longing in his voice. He was going to be homesick for a while he could already tell. "M-my pet ferret, Jenks, is still out there." He paused again thinking of the rest of the questions. "I-I can do stuff with ice and w-water...Not much though...not yet" His mother tried to encourage him that he'd be able to do so much after he got out of Andromeda but at the time, Ryan was too worried about the school in general to hear too much of what she'd said."Oh, and I like animals...except wolves.." a shudder of fear ran through him for a split second though he tried to hide it, hoping she wouldn't ask.


Thinking that was all the questions he asked "Th-that's all of them right?..M-my turn?" He tried thinking of a a few but the only ones he could come up were so boring. At least they were something "W-what about you? do you k-know magic?.." he seperated that question from his others because it was the only one she hadn't self answered like her home or pets. "What m-movies or genres of movies do you like? I like most of them...h-horror not so much though."he could watch the kind that messed with his mind but too much blood and he'd be puking all over the floor "What sports or activities do y-you like to do...Oh! and do you play music?"


It was a short list of questions and a bit boring he thought, but he couldn't think of any thing better.

[Nanaki]

Lauren smiled cheerily as he answered the questions posed. She’d never met a merman before. Elves sure, she had a family of them for neighbors, but never a merman. She thought that was quite interesting and also felt a prick of harmless jealousy at his ability to get his hair dyed while hers had to stay the same.

She noticed his sigh when telling her about his home town and picked up right away that he was having a touch of home sickness. She was sure she’d have it too, though right now the excitement outweighed any other negative feelings that could crop up.

She kept listening, nearly bouncing up when he said he had a pet ferret. She loved ferrets! Bunnies too, but her parent’s wouldn’t let her have one since she wasn’t great at keeping animals in cages. Forcibly clamping her mouth shut she made herself sit and listen, intent on not interrupting him. She was glad to hear he could do a little magic too, ice none the less. That’d be a good match with her fire.

She nodded when he said he liked animals but tilted her head curiously as he added in about wolves. That was a shame, but they really did seem to bother him. She wondered why, she met a wolf once and it was okay… then again that had been her father’s friend’s familiar so it was made to behave well. She dropped the thought for the moment though, nodding her head as he inquired as to if it was his turn.

“I know some magic” she told him with a smile. “Basic fay stuff like invisibility and will-o-wisps. I also know some low level fire magic, earth magic too… erm, I think that‘s it.” She laughed softly. “Um, and movies… I like fantasy the best, odd as that is” she laughed. “Comedy too but really I’ll watch anything... Well, actually I’d need somebody to watch a horror movie with me, otherwise I’d never sleep again!” she laughed some more, this time with a little more enthusiasm. “As far as sports go I like soccer, tennis, and I just so happen to love swimming… though I’m not much for the competitiveness as I am for the floating around.”

Enthusiasm back at full capacity again she bounced slightly on her bed as she declared “yes! I love music!” Scrambling off her bed she lunged for the larger of her suitcases and pulled from it a well-made lap harp that she proceeded to strum gently. “I play harp” she let her fingers drift across the thin cords for a moment to make a gentle sound “and I’m trying to learn how to play the lyre. Maybe lute and piano someday too. How bout you?” she smiled cheerily.

[Venin666]

A smile crept it's way across Ryan's face listening to her respond to his questions. he'd thought they were lame, boring, and overall un-imaginative. Lauren seemed to find them facinating. She certainly was answering with plenty enthuiasm.


He became a little nervous for a second when she mentioned the ability to use fire magic. Maybe it was just Ryan but she didn't seem so confident in her ability to work with that. His curiosity was piqued when she mentioned the basic fey magic. Thinking that although it might scare him out of his skin he'd probably also laugh if she turned herself invisible then jumped out saying "Boo!"


When the topic turned to movies his smile grew when she mentioned liking fantasy the best. He watched fantasy expecting a comedy as he watched the movie to compare to realworld often finding the difference hilarous or at least a bit funny. When she mentioned needing another to watch horror with her he was glad that it would clearly take both of them to agree that they were going to watch a hoor and he wasn't going to have something like "horror night" sprung on him.


Ryan was beaming when she mentioned swimming it may have been obvious but he LOVED swimming, but for obvious reasons he could do it competitively. He'd never played any sports on land but he'd always watched soccer with his dad when they had a time to see a game."I've only ever played water games and swam..." hefinally admitted aloud.


His smile stayed just as enthuiastic but softened a bit as Lauren pulled out the harp pulling a few soft notes letting them sing in the air as they died away. He waited till she'd finished explaining her aspirations before he answered her.


He pulled out from his side bag something that looked like a piece of driftwood at first but upon closer inspection it was clearly an ocarina that had been caringly made out of driftwood. ryan lifted it to his nose for a moment the smell of saltwater was permanently stuck in the wood no matter how much his dad had tried to clean or sand it out of the ocarina. He shifted the ocarina to his lips where he played notes that would have matched the ones played by the harp. Putting the ocarina in his lap he said "I play the ocarina...and that's all I want to play"