Practice and meeting in the Courtyard

[Stein]

Stein and Ash were in the courtyard practicing their affinities while their Chimera’s worked on their speed and agility. In contrast to Ash; Stein was very short, only about 5’1”. She was dressed in a white shirt and pants that looked like scrubs and her lab coat; the lab coat it was covered with stitches where it’d been fixed several times over or hemmed. Her hair matched the scrubs, it was bone white with silver highlights, and her forest green eyes were focused through rounded glasses at 5 blurs that were running across the courtyard. The two girls were shooting at the blurs as they dodged through the ice, and avoid metal spikes protruding from the ground.

Stein heard someone approaching from behind and glanced for a moment at Max before returning to her task. he looks lost, he must be new she thought as she shot a spike up directly in front of a small Bone-white Chimera, who swerved to dodge it. Damu was white with black stitches across his body, he looked akin to Frankenstein’s monster, or a mad scientist most recent experiment.

Stein looked reached up with her left hand and clicked the screw several times, it echoed slightly across the courtyard. Stein was pulling up her knowledge on this new boy Name Maxwell Wheeler. 6 foot tall, blonde haired, blue eyed, blood type is -A. Powers, Light and chaos magic, powers are given, or enhanced through a chaos pendent. Stein then continued the debate she was having with Ash “I still believe Chimera’s should be genetically built and created, you breed chimera’s and guess what the chances are of it having the desired traits, even Punnett squares can be imprecise. If you build the DNA to include the desired traits you can insert it into the egg and create the desired Chimera on the first try.” She shot another large spike in front of Snow, confident he could dodge it.

Damu saw a tall blond boy enter the courtyard and turned, making a beeline for the boy, skidding to a halt by his feet. “Hi, I’m Damu, who are you?” he asked excitedly of Max looking up at him from a sitting position. “Damu, you’re still in training time, come back and finish.” Stein said over her shoulder to the small white Chimera, who reluctantly turned and made a beeline to crash into Stein, who stepped aside and produced a spike there, causing Damu to swerve at the last minute.

[Rikka]

Standing slightly away from the four blurs was a girl about 5'8'' with brown hair pulled back into a braid and brown eyes focusing intently on the chimeras runnign around in random circles. Her clothes consisted of a red short sleeved shirt and black slacks with black combat boots. Throwing her hand out several spikes of ice shot up from the ground. Causing a black and gray Chimera to jump over one and dodge around another metal spike. His breathing was slightly elevated as he dodged several more spikes.

As the new person approached Ash didn't even turn to see who it was. Stein would have already known who it was. Concentrating her brows drew together slightly. "Building and creating chimeras from a tube is no way to bring about a baby. By breeding them they have a chance for what we would like. Though the chances are higher with each success. Also by creating the perfect chimera in a test tube you have nothing to strive for which then takes the love and feelings of accomplishment out of it all." Huffing out a breath she tossed up several more ice spikes.

At Ash's feet was a small chimera who looked to only be about 2-3 weeks old and had a black mane over her white body. She seemed to be trying really hard as she ran in circles around Ash's feet. Every 10 to 15 minutes she would blur slightly then trip and have to start all over again. She wanted to be able to train with the others but Ash said not until she had mastered her speed affinity. Which meant working really hard for it.

[akrxiii]

They must really really hate me.

Maxwell grumbled as he traveled along. The other chaos mages thought it was fit that he was sent to this school to better expand his magical abilities, and to work on his peculiar type of Chaos magic. It was warm out, so he had opted for shorts today, and his usual white hoodie was stuffed into his backpack. His staff was strapped to it at a seemingly awkward angle, but it was easier than walking around it in his hands all the time.



The young mage found himself in a courtyard of sorts. Two people stood off to the side, randomly flinging ice and what appeared to be metal at blurs moving around the yard.


So those are Chimeras he thought to himself. He had never seen them before, seeing as Chaotica had none. To his surprise, one of them ran up to him. It looked kind of like a white puppy, though black lines of stitches ran across its body, like it was pieced together from several other dogs. It looked up at him. He almost bent down to pet it when it decided to speak. The fact that it spoke caught him off guard. It only showed for a moment across his pale face before he regained his stoic composure.

One of the people, the shorter one with...a screw in her head? A screw? Why does she have a giant metal screw going through her head? That seems dangerous. The girl with the screw called out to the beast, who reluctantly agreed. After dodging the beast's playful tackle, she resumed conversing with the taller girl, who had some sort of pet running around her feet, most likely another chimera. They seemed very involved in their discussion.

Max turned his attention back to the chimera's running around the field. They seemed competent at dodging spikes and whatnot, but what about walls? Maxwell decided to test them himself. He was sure that the people wouldn't mind a little help. He just hoped they weren't the super friendly type. He did not feel like meeting too many people. He just wanted to study and get out of here. Friends would make it harder. The mage reached for a pouch on his pack and produced a small metal cylinder a little taller than his palm. With a flourish, he clicked the button on the side and the wand extended to its full length. He pointed it at the ground in front of one of the blurs.

"Barrier" he called. A spark of light shot from the end of the wand and landed in front of the running chimera. A brilliant wall of light shimmered into existence mere inches from the creature's nose.

Let's see if he is agile enough to dodge that. 

[Stein]

“There are still genetic problems, even when engineering Chimeras, also there is still love with test tube babies, I created Damu and still felt a sense of accomplishment when I succeeded, I feel that accomplishment whenever I see him. I’m glad I had the technology to grow him; otherwise I’d have lost Damu to an accident. They can still be raised in family packs and by caregivers; they’re just more genetically prepared for the war.”

Damu saw the wall appear in front of him; He was planning on dodging it, but was obviously too close. Stein didn’t know quite what the wall was, but there were some dangerous abilities on campus, as Damu swerved she lifted him up with her metal affinity, he had enough metal bits that she could lift him, she half dropped him on the other side, so he could practice landing a jump. Damu wasn’t as good at landing jumps, so he tumbled a little before he sat up and shook himself off and he ran back over to look at the barrier. He sniffed it, and clawed at it, before thinking to himself It might taste good He started licking it, it tasted good if a little hot. “Shiro, this wall tastes good! Come here and try it. Oh, maybe I can break it if I run into it, it’s thin.”

Stein paused for a moment seeing that the wall wasn’t hurting Damu, but she wanted to investigate she turned to Ash and said “Let’s pause training for a moment and investigate this further, we can continue the Chimera discussion later. It’s time to meet the new student.” She then walked a couple feet over to the barrier itself and looked at it “It’s condensed light all pulled from the area and focused into a wall of light...how stable is it though?”

[Rikka]

"Yes there are still problems but they are happy and they have mothers and fathers. Damu.....Damu is special because you loved him. He was still first born on my parents chimera farm. Besides say your side was reality. What happens to all the chimera farms? Some breed Chimeras because they can't do anything else. Would you really want to take that away from them if they couldn't join the scientific community?" Ash glanced over at Stein almost knowing the girl probably had a solution to this. She kinda hoped she didn't.

Snow stopped as the barrier was manifested in front of Damu. Looking around he spotted the person a little ways away. He must have been testing Damu. Moving back to Ash he guarded her encase the boy tried to test Ash. Not that he didn't think that Ash could handle herself.

Panting heavily Mizu stopped between Ash's feet and noticed there was now a bright shiny barrier. Looking around as she tried to catch her breath she saw the new person and quickly hid herself from his view by hiding behind one of Ash's boots.

Shiro slid to a stop mere inches from a metal spike as Damu called out to him. Running over he tripped and rolled right into the bright barrier. Blinking he rolled over and popped up onto his feet wagging his tail and his tongue hanging out his training mode officially off his mind. Licking the barrier he ended up sneezing. "OH! It does taste good! But this isn't Ash's barrier. Its too bright." Looking about he found the boy with blond hair and a wand. Happy he raced over to the new person and plopped right down in front of him. "Hello! I'm Shiro! Who are you?"

Ash paused when Stein had to examine the barrier. "Alright. We will be continuing that discussion later though." Ash looked over at the boy as he stood there. Looking at the barrier she wondered how stable it was also. Though she wouldn't test it with a barrier of her own because that would be impolite. As it was she kind of withdrew into herself adopting a cold but formal air. She wasn't really good with new people and this student she hadn't scene on campus before.

[akrxiii]

Maxwell smirked as the chimera had a not so graceful landing. When it recovered,  it sniffed and licked the barrier. Licked? Why did it lick it? he wondered. The second chimera tripped over the first in its excitement to see the shimmering barrier of light. This one licked it too. He began to wonder if that's what chimera's did when they didn't know what something was. 

The second chimera finished untangling itself from Damu and lopped over to Max, sliding to a stop before introducing itself as Shiro. So this one can speak as well. I guess they all speak then. 

"Uh....hi, Shiro?" he said, a little unnerved that it could speak. "My name is Maxwell" 

A sudden tiredness washed over the teenager as he realized that he was still sustaining the barrier from earlier. With a flick of the wrist, much like a conductor cutting of an orchestra, the barrier dissolved back into the light it was woven from. Maxwell smirked and collapsed his wand with a definitive *click*. He still felt mentally exhausted from sustaining the barrier that long. His reserves of magic were small compared to other mages of his age group. Though he could not sustain spells for long, he made up for it with raw power, thanks to the Chaos Pendant he wore.

When Maxwell had come back to reality, he saw that the two people had begun the walk over to him.


Lovely, company.

As the pair approached him, Maxwell drew to his full height, and his expression became cold. 

"Hello" His tone was a little more than cordial, not hostile, but not entirely friendly either. He nodded at their direction, and hoped that the meeting woulding be too long.

[Stein]

When Shiro went running to greet Max Damu also took that as his cue that he could go talk to the boy as well. He froze time before running over and appeared a couple feet from Max’s feet before restarting time again. “Are you going to train with us too? The light barrier was amazing.”

Stein did have a solution to Ash’s problem, but she’d save it for their discussion later. She instead walked over Max and addressed Damu “Damu, if the wall had been 3 inches further away you could have dodged it, or if you had been going about just a little bit slower, but good reaction, you would have sustained minimal damage if I hadn’t pulled you.” She finished before turning her attention to Maxwell.

“You’ll get farther if you don’t try to scare us off with the excess terriculis hormone, It will be ineffective since we are both female” Stein said in response to Maxell. When he had stood up straighter and adopted a formal air his production of terriculis increased, which is the hormone that assisted in intimidation of competitive males. “Hello Maxwell, I am Doctor KieranStein, please simply call me Stein. This is Ms. Ash O’Shea. Stein said indicating her taller dark-haired companion “and the bone white chimera is Damu, my companion.. The other Chimera’s are Ash’s and can introduce themselves if they so choose”

Stein looked at the collapsed wand and said “I’m very curious how your wand works. Is it simply a Titanium Tungsteel focus rod, or does it in itself contain some of the light magic.”

[Rikka]

Shiro allowed his tongue to hang out of his mouth as he watched Maxwell. He could tell the boy had been unnerved by him speaking. It caused Shiro to chuckle slightly. Snow walked forward almost 2 feet taller than Shiro as he knocked the paint splattered chimera over. It had been rude for Shiro to chuckle over the nerves of another. Rue looked over as everyone was leaving to meet the new person. Happy she raced forward and smashed right into Shiro as he was knocked over. Hopping back up she looked at Maxwell with round blue eyes.

As Ash walked over she listened to Stein introduce them as she started right into the questioning. Not like she could stop her since Stein had been that way since they were little. Behind Ash was the very small Chimera who looked like she could fit in the palm of a hand. Giving a shallow but formal bow, Ash looked at the boy with a cold expression. "Welcome to the Academy. I am Ash O'Shea. You have met Shiro. Snow is the Black Chimera next to him. The brown and cream Chimera is Rue. The small chimera behind me is Mizu."

[akrxiii]

Max thanked the chimera for his compliment. He tried to keep up the cold air about him, but it was hard to do so when the girl who introduced herself as Stein called him out on his bluff. He was again caught off guard when she had changed subjects and asked about his wand. Max reached back into his pack and pulled the wand back out. With a quick flourish, he extended the wand and held it out for Stein to examine. 

"I do not know the composition of it, all I know is that it was marketed as 'The Amazing Telescoping Wand". It is just a conduit to focus my energy through. It does not amplify light element magic like my staff does."

The other girl had introduced herself as Ashe O'Shea. She seemed very quiet and reserved, maybe even timid. Maxwell thought this might be beneficial to him, since he did not want to make many friends here. It would be easier to return home without friends and ties keeping him here. Even though he wasn't wanting to make friends, he still had to be cordial.

"Hello Miss O'Shea and chimeras. Thank you for your more than warm welcome."

He stood there awkwardly for a few minutes waiting for the girl with the screw in her head so he could get away from the awkward silence and the chimeras sniffing him. He shifted from foot to foot in anticipation.

[Stein]

Stein reached out and took the wand from Max allowing it to hover in her hand; she turned it several times before saying “I was correct, it is a Titanium Tungsteel focus rod, it should be able to focus any affinity used in juncture with it.” Stein pulled an apple from her pocket and handed it to Damu. “Damu, take this 10 feet out, and toss it in the air.” Damu took the apple from Stein and ran 10 feet away where he had started and tossed the apple up into the air, sending it flying about 6 feet up. Stein grabbed the wand and sent her electricity affinity jolting through it, aimed at the apple. Her aim was perfect; the apple was burnt and partially destroyed.

Damu picked up the now crispy apple and brought it back and set it in Stein’s hand. She held it up and examined it “Affinities would be better focused through it if there was a higher concentration of hydrogen atoms in the mix, which could be accomplished by using Tung-14 rather than the Tung 12 it contains. A higher concentration of Titamite would decrease the energy required to use it, and might amplify the affinities, but too much would cause it to become unstable….” She was muttering to herself again and going off the deep end of science.

She blinked and refocused on Max “What classes are you taking this semester?” Stein smiled at him, it was a little bit of a creepy smile “You’re welcome on join our practice if you’d like, I’ve been looking for a new opponent to duel with if you’re up to the challenge. Also, if you want the Chimera’s to stop sniffing you, you can just ask them. And before you ask if I’m telepathic no, I’m not; but you’re shifting awkwardly. You obviously want to either get away from the Chimera’s, or from Ash and I.” Stein handed the wand back to Max.

[Rikka]

Shiro hopped up and moved to Max's feet before rolling over exposing his belly hoping for some belly rubs. Not to be out done Rue raced forward and flopped down next to him using one paw to attempt to shove him away. It didn't work so well as he was slightly bigger and definitely had more muscle than her.

Ash nodded her head and took a step back easily avoiding the small chimera who had hid behind her. Mizu blinked as she was left in front of Ash. Looking at the boy before her she gasped and shook before stumbling behind Ash to hide again. She was definitely the most shy out of them all.

Ash watched as Stein conducted an experiment with the boys wand and rambling off into a scientific babble. Well it wasn't really a babble but more of a weird little train of thought the girl tended to go off into. "Training with us would be a great experience for the chimera's because they are starting to get used to our training pattern. Though if you have other things to do we wont hold you here." It was a subtle hint to Stein that the boy might just be uncomfortable with people and to stop with the complicated questions.

[akrxiii]

Maxwell watched intently as the white chimera ran with the apple held in its jaws. It was tossed and Max jumped as lightning suddenly erupted from the wand and burned the apple to a crisp. Damu returned the smoking apple back to his master, as if that was the most normal thing to do. Stein muttered things to herself before handing the wand back to Max. He nodded his thanks before collapsing it and sticking it into an easily accessible spot on his pack. That was when he was asked about his classes.

Classes? Crap..what am I taking again?

"Classes? I don't know the names off the top of my head but they mostly have to do with control and expansion of my energies." He said, trying to be as vague as possible since that really all he could remember of his schedule. 

In front of the teenager, two of Ashe's chimeras fought over who would get a belly rub. 

So are the chimeras based on dogs? They continue to exhibit dog-like behavior...

Unconsciously, maxwell bent down to rub both the chimeras tummies. When he realized what he was doing, he stood up, cleared his throat, and smoothed out his clothing. They both mentioned that he was showing nervous behavior. They offered to let him leave, but something they said caught his attenion: sparring. While Max wasn't a very accomplished duelist, since he lacked the sustain needed for prolonged fights, he could usually overwhelm his opponents through sheer force and tactics. He had not sparred with anyone in a while, so he jumped at the chance not to fall too far out of practice.

"Sparring? I haven't done that in a while, but as they say, there's no time like the present." He smirked and dropped his backpack, unhooking his staff from it in the process. The staff was almost as tall as Max, with the top of the crook being level with his forehead. A small prism floated in the crook, defying gravity and whatever other forces were put upon it. "So," he said, taking a few steps back. "Who wants to go first?"

[Stein]

Stein listened to Max and Ash both speaking, and Ash gave her a look that practically screamed ‘Stop asking questions’ Stein promptly ignored it. When Max dropped his backpack and pulled out his staff Stein grinned an evil little grin

“I would enjoy sparring, we could do a larger battle and do every man for themselves. A three way battle could be interesting, it’s be an extra test of skill and tactics to avoid two people at once.” Stein reached into her pocket and pulled a small metal disc about the circumference of a small plate and set it to hover, as she sat on it, it expanded just big enough for her to sit on. “I will let you two decide what you want to do. And figure out who wants to begin this fight. I’m already ready.” She finished as she pulled a small metal-plated notebook out of her pocket and sat there writing in it.

It’s clear that Max wants to fight, Ash wants to fight as well, both wish to improve their skills without letting down their ice walls. I know how Ash fights, her speed affinity is difficult to counter, and clearly Max has light energy which he focus through that staff of his. Metal is easy, but I do’t know how destructive his light magic is….This will be….fun

“You two might also like to hash out some rules for the fight….otherwise it’ll be pure chaos; and as much as I’m in need of a new cadaver I’d prefer not to have to explain to the administrators why I’m using another student for one of my dissections….again.” She added under her voice before continuing “I suggest that an opponent is defeated once you’ve pinned them for 5 seconds. Fair?”

[Rikka]

Rue and Shiro happily let Maxwell rub their bellies before he seemed to realize what he was doing and pulled away. Rue jumped up and placed her paws on Maxwell's leg hoping he would pick her up. Suddenly she caught Ash's eye and dropped back down to all four paws before returning to Ash's side. Sitting beside her, Rue shifted from paw to paw. Shiro grinned when Rue got in trouble before he simply waltz back over to Ash's side sitting down.

Ash almost rolled her eyes in frustration over Stein blatantly ignoring her look. Instead she head Max step up to the challenge of sparring them. Stein seemed to jump at the opportunity of a group battle and started to lay out the idea. Ash kind of hoped the boy would go for it. Reaching down she picked up Mizu and wondered where to put her. If they were going to battle she wanted Mizu out of the way.

"Either pinning your opponent or drawing blood counts as a defeat. Cause in real battle their are no other rules." Watching them she hoped this was okay. But she was right. In real battle there were no rules until your opponent were dead. Her only worry was that Alvion would show up and stop them. She had heard Alvion liked rules and punishing students who broke them.

[akrxiii]

Maxwell smirked. This was going to be fun for him, as long as he kept his mana expenditure down that is. He knew his available mana was small, but he made up for it with raw power. he bent down and fished out his wand and stuck it into a pocket, just in case he needed it and couldn't reach his back pack. He tossed it off to the side.

"Those rules sound reasonable," he said once he had finished. He was glad that they agreed to spar, but he needed distance. He had rough idea of what Ashe and Stein could do, based on their practice session earlier, but he figured that they had something hidden up their sleeves. Besides, he needed the range since he was horrible and close range fighting. He backed up several feet, and took a defensive stance, light already reflecting off of the prism of his staff. 

"I'll start us off then I guess," he said, already preparing a spell. Since it looked like Ashe was worrying about one of her chimeras, it wouldn't be fair to attack her. So the mage set his sights on Stein. "Shine hup!" he cried, thrusting the tip off his staff forward. A narrow beam of light energy shot from the end like a laser. Maxwell then swung his staff in a wide arc, hoping to nick Stein with it. At the end of the swing Max flourished the staff upwards, cutting off the beam, spun the staff three or four times before bringing it to rest back by his side, ready for any sort of counterattack.