((Hello. I have no idea what I'm doing. Rock on. *skateboards away*)) “Mooooom!” Moss called, leaning over the stairway railing to the basement. “We’re gonna be late for the bus! Come on!” Their army surplus duffle lay slumped on the floor next to them; their backpack slung around their shoulders. Moss had spent equal time this summer working and packing & repacking their bags. They had got it down to a fine science now, but it didn’t change their constant quest to find the most compact way to store their stuff. Of course, a quick muttered undetectable extension charm hadn’t hurt either, especially when they had brought their broom back with them from last year. Living in a Muggle family was tough sometimes, especially when you had two books full of quodpot and quidditch maneuvers, and the closest available field to practice in was two towns away. “I’m coming! Be a sweetheart and get the car started, won’t you, Ariel? After I drop you off, I’m going to run some errands.” Their mom appeared at the bottom of the stairs with a bag of old clothes - probably for a thrift store. Moss huffed out a sigh. “It’s Moss.” They muttered under their breath, but went to start the car anyway, dragging their bags behind them. ------ Moss pulled their bags out of the car and slung the backpack on their shoulders again. The air at the bus depot was filled with the smell of gasoline and travellers. “Now, remember, Ariel, send us a letter at least a month - I can’t imagine why they don’t allow computers there. And work on your history grade! I saw you were taking that again.” Moss blew their bangs away from their forehead. “It’s a different class, mom.” They closed the rear door and moved to the driver’s side window. “Look, I’ll send you letters. Just promise not to go too stir crazy without me, alright? Every time you organize the house, dad loses his glasses.” Their mom laughed. “Oh hon, I’ll work on it. You concentrate on class, alright? I know this is your last year, but don’t spend all of it on applications. Try to make some friends.” “Me?” Moss affected a wounded look and hitched their bags. “Don’t worry, mom. I’ll be fine. I gotta get on the bus. Go do your errands.” They looked back at the bus, idling on the curb. People they recognized were starting to climb on board - and some they didn’t. A few older students were getting rambunctious and casting brightly lit spells at each other. “Are those fireworks?” Their mom asked, starting to lean out the car. “Yep!” They said quickly. “Fireworks! I’ll go talk to them. Talk to you later!” And Moss walked quickly towards the bus, bouncing their shoulder against one of the spellcasters. “Hey.” They said. “There are Muggles everywhere. Drop the magic.” Moss didn’t look back until they were looking out through the bus window, and their mom’s car was already gone by then. They felt the familiar bus-drive drowsiness, and leaned back into their seat, knowing that when they woke up, they’d be home.
The first thing Kelly did when ey arrived at Sage was go visit the Headmaster. Or at least that's what e tried to do. As they stumbled off the bus they accidentally ran into Moss, a student ey sort of vaguely knew from the year before. Kelly at least was still pretty groggy from the sleep spell/affect on the bus, and began apologizing profusely. "I'm sorry, wait, that's annoying, I'm sorry, I'm sorry... right," ey looked down at their feet. "You're Moss, right, a Coyote right?" In the back of er mind there was the vague remembrance of a senior's warning of "Coyotes are evil, don't rust coyotes," but house loyalties were loose anyhow so e decided to ignore it. (sorry for short... also sorry for sudden interaction?)
"Whoa." Moss said, and looked down. They were still blinking in the bright sunlight after their impromptu nap in the bus, and they rubbed a hand through their hair, gauging the situation. The white-haired...9th grader? 10th grader? was still apologizing profusely. "Dude. Dudina. Whatever you prefer. It's cool." They slipped their backpack off, opened it, and pulled out their aviators - bought for three bucks at a thrift store, and a little cracked in the right lens from a run-in Moss had had with an exploding Quod without protective gear last year. They put them on, still blinking from the sun. At the 15 year-old's question, they looked at em again. "Yeah. That's me. You're, uhm. One of the bird dorms, right? Hm. Eagles suck at apologizing. Raven?" Ey looked nervous, so Moss grinned at em. Moss was bad with nervous people. Grinning didn't usually help all that much. ((Moss has definitely just woken up. And is terrible at new people.))
Kelly nodded. "Raven yeah. You know apparently coyotes are evil but the person who said it no longer exists as a being made of atoms so I don't think he's to be trusted" e smiled slightly. "You seem mildly interesting and my best friend graduated last year." edit: pronoun corrected
"Huh." Moss cocked their head. "Was that from that.." they waved a hand vaguely "...thing last year? When the sky went dark for a few days? Or was that something else?" They hitched their backpack up onto both shoulders again and pulled their duffel up out of the dust. "Interesting, huh? Well, thanks for the compliment. Here, let's move out of the way. Out of a feeling of fairness, I'll tell you that the Coyote students prank the parking area every year. Well, except for...2013, I think. But that was when we had that dust storm, anyway. Did you miss the last few? Last year Joliet cast his charm wrong and ended up bright green the whole year." Moss started towards the edge of the parking lot, away from the rest of the students coming off the buses still. Either the Raven student would get out of the prank zone, or... Moss thought they'd heard that the prank this year would be the living fireworks show, but it could be the quicksand. Either way, Moss was getting out of the way. They'd been semi-involved on the brief and chaotic planning committee over the summer, but didn't want to put in any pranking effort until the first week of actual classes.
Avery climbed off the bus, inspecting his newly splinted and bandaged arm. The bus had stopped before hitting him the last three years, so he had had no reason to expect things to be different this year. (The bus driver had apologised profusely.) He awkwardly dragged his luggage toward the front entrance, looking around at the other students, nodding a hello to ones he recognised.
Kelly followed Moss put of the prank zone. "Actually no I didn't take the bus last year," e said. "and yeah, he just vanished from the physical plain" e shrugged, "I think that's happens with the Headmaster's chosen a lot." Ey looked over at Avery. "You think they're okay?" e said, gesturing at the injured student.
"That's usually why I try to duck responsibility here." Moss said to the younger student, turning to watch the rest of the students coming off the bus. "It can be...dangerous if you have plans for the future." They were standing near the edge of the main campus "roof", and if they were to turn and take about ten steps, they would find themself staring into a not-very deep abyss, at the bottom of which lurked strange and disturbing shapes. Moss smiled to themself, and put their hands in their pockets. At the other student's question, Moss shrugged. "He's got a bandage on. If it gets worse, I imagine he can find medical attention." They made a mental note to find someone from Bear dorm at some point, and point them in the direction of the student in question, though. A group of particularly young-looking students clumped together in a nervous heap near the front (and main) entrance to the school below. Moss chuckled. "Ah, first-years. This is going to be good."
Kelly laughed. "Yeah, though no one can compare to the epic Salem prank war that happens every halloween. Still should be interesting." "Aren't you curious about me not taking the bus last year?" e asked. It was an interesting story, after all, what with the Headmaster picking her out for some reason.
Moss arched an eyebrow behind their shades. "Salem has a prank war running too? Nice." They looked up at the sky. It was still ridiculously sunny. Perfect. "Alright, I'll bite. No bus?"
"Every October, the muggles are so wrapped up in halloween they don't notice." E sighed. "So, my home life is... special. My mom is non-magical and hoped my dad's magic wouldn't pass on too me, denies it exists now that it does. Ended up attending magic school in Boston without her knowing for elementary. Somehow I caught the headmaster's attention, they don't like humans in pain if the people causing the pain can't explain why, and my mom couldn't explain why. Took the bus this year because I know the place exists." ((if this isn't okay i can change it around?))
Jay stepped off the bus and stretched, nearly swinging her heavy duffle bag into another yawning passenger. She barely even acknowledged the others students admonishments and she set off with a whoop towards the school. It looked just like she had left it- the main building and fields looking calm, sedate, and normal, like there totally wasn’t an age old magic school sleeping beneath. She could feel the magic in the air- figuratively, like this was a place of great beauty and mystery and destiny, and also literally, because there was literally magic how cool was that?! She spun in place, nearly hitting yet another student with her bag, and laughed. Same old great blue sky, same old strange river monster at the bottom of the canyon, same old mentor shitshitSHIT. She practically skidded to a halt. The mentor thing had been annoying enough last year (although what was even more annoying was that she was caught trying to sneak out of the hall)- but this year? This was her second year here already, she didn't need a mentor! She resolved to sneak around them and started tiptoeing past, acting out an almost comical display of “sneakiness”. ((Haven't decided who her mentor is, so anyone can jump in there))
A few hours earlier, in Nightvale: Eliott did their best not the make any noise as the boarded the bus, but the other students weren´t nearly as considerate, laughing and chattering exictedly. It didn´t seem to make a difference, students already on board remained fast asleep. Elitott ended up in the back, next to a dark hairded boy from Desert Bluffs who gave her a single disinterested look and then stared out of the window until they both fell asleep. Later: Santino glared at the familiar school ground. It didn´t seem impressed by him either. He turned and was about to go look for his luggage when he heard someone skid to a halt behind him. When he caught sight of Jays characde he rolled his eyes. Who the fuck thinks I of all people should be a mentor? He wondered, then turned around entirely and gave jay an amused smirk. "Hey, shortstuff. Haing fun?"
Jay froze and pouted at Santino, although only a second later she drew herself up and tried to seem more dignified. "Yeah, I guess, I mean, this'll be my last chance before school starts, right? After I walk through those doors it'll be classes and teachers, far as the eye can see."
Avery put his bags down near the entrance and took a breather as he debated with himself. Should he continue to wait for his friends or should he head on down to the health center and get himself healed up? He didn't hurt, and wouldn't for a while, his mom had packed him a first aid kit which included a Pain Free Potion. But even though it wasn't hurting, and he was all bandaged up, there could be wounds that the collective people on his bus had missed? But he wanted to see what the Coyotes did to the parking area this year. Maybe he'd stay outside for just a little longer...
Santino nodded. "I hear you." Then his face split into a grin "I guess that means we´ll have to make our own fun. As your mentor it is my solemn duty to introduce you to the fine art of pranking first years."
Rifka stretched out as the bus rolled into Sage Canyon's drop off area. She'd fallen asleep in the warm, slightly-cheese-scented bus as she did every year. She trotted out into the achingly bright sun, hanging her bags (thank goodness for expansion spells) over her should and shielding her eyes with her other hand. She grinned as she spotted students milling around waiting for the Coyote beginning pranks. Rifka strolled over to the closest clutch of students. "Morning, guys."
"Haha, Halloween. Nice camouflage." Moss knelt and started rearranging their bags, talking while they moved items around. "I hear usually the wizarding world finds a way around anything the Muggles come up with. I'm lucky - neither of my parents know, and they aren't going to. You're from Boston?" Giving up on normal organizational tactics, Moss focused, muttered "Accio wand" and snapped their fingers. The fingersnap wasn't exactly a standardized casting technique for wandless magic, but it helped Moss focus, so they figured it worked pretty well. There was a rustling in their duffle and the wand zoomed to their hand. Moss already felt a little more steady, awake, with it in their hand. Even though they were pretty good at wandless magic, it was nice to have the proper channel. They sat down on the sun-warmed sand and continued watching the bus drop-off. Something occurred to them, and they looked up curiously at the other student. "Oh hey, just realized. You know my name, but I never asked yours." ((bluh bluh bluh, forgot it was technically my turn, whups))
Jay considered for a second. On the one hand, mentor stuff was still something she wanted to avoid majorly. On the other (significantly larger and cooler) hand, pranks. She made her decision quick and smiled widely at Santino. "Deal. Let's get started!" She started a little at the noise, but calmly turned around and inspected the stranger- a student a few years older then her with bright hair. "Who the hell are you?" she said, with all of her trademark tact, then reconsidered and added, "Also, hi." (Tell me if her hair isn't bright, I took a wild guess.)
Rifka raised an eyebrow. "Rifka Callahan. I'm in Jackrabbit dorm. And you?" Wait, when did people pick dorms again... (Rifka's hair is naturally a very light blonde that's nearly white, but she's dyed it in Jackrabbit and school colors for the first day of school.)
