Gill turned to see a few of his fellow students arriving, as well as a couple people he didn't recognize. One was a white-haired girl with a small little thing in her arms.

"Hi, you're a new face!" Gill greeted Nastya, waving his arm excitedly in her direction. "Are you starting school here today? My name's Gill, it's nice to meet you!"

His thought process was interrupted by a high pitched roaring noise he didn't recognize. He jumped slightly, turning in the direction of the noise, but then looked over at the oncoming Coralie in awe.

"Woooowwww..." Gill gasped, as she flew in, catching herself before a bad spill. "That's... amazing! What is that? Who are you? Are you a new student too? Gee! There's so many new faces today! My name's Gill! Nice to meet you too!"

Outside School

"Well, nice ta meetcha too-too! Tutu? Nah, I left mine at home, heehee." The strange girl unclipped her helmet, tucked it under her arm and trotted over, beaming with pride at her partly-warm reception. "The name's Coralie- short for Coralina, and long for Coral. Guess I'm not the only one here with an oceanic name, eh, new friend Gill?"

Glancing over, she properly noticed the one who'd applauded her. "Oh hey, it's you from the pizza place! Loki, right? Speaking of names- any relation to a certain hammer-swingin' pagan god?"

Edited by LizardOfAus on Jan 11th 2022 at 2:32:26 PM

All Mindy does is just give Coralie a strange look, one that says "what kind of weirdo are you"? But still, that wasn't as bad as the look she gives Alex when he comes by. She just gives the wolf-boy a real dirty glare that says "I'll neuter you if you come anywhere near me."

Loki is thinking of something else when he hears Coralie's question. "Wha - oh, you mean Thor. Well, long story actually... I woke up like a week ago with no memories, and I have it on less-than-good-authority that I am, in fact, that Loki... which would make Thor kinda-sorta my nephew. There's also the possibility that I'm delusional, but I try not to dwell on that."

Before school, Little Haven, outside Oddity High - Alex Palencia the werewolf whose dry fur could make good kindling

Alex vaguely listened to the ongoing conversations; not because he had any interest in them, but because there was nothing else going on. Personally he still didn't buy Loki being the actual deity of his namesake; sure the kid had some magic stuff going on including at will shapeshifting, but an actual literal god still seemed beyond the scope of being in some random little town like theirs.

Alex got that distinct feeling of somebody watching him, and it didn't take him more than one guess to know who. He glanced over, and yup, there was Mindy, still wanting to kill him. As long as she didn't actually try anything though, he didn't care, and she could glare as much as she wanted. Alex just tried to ignore her, turning his attention to Ms. Sims and waiting for whatever announcement she was going to give or whatever.

Edited by FirockFinion on Jan 12th 2022 at 1:37:15 AM

Outside Oddity High

Blake gives an enthusiastic wave at the approaching fishboy and pyromancer buddies.

"Heya! How was your uh... I guess how was your afternoon yesterday?"

There's a sharp 'ahem' from the rolled-down car window that causes Blake to jump and realize about a second later the meaning thereof.

"Oh, right! My mom's here too because of the announcement or whatever. Mom, this is Gill and Mindy. I don't share any classes with them but they're cool."

Blake's mom in the car gives a couple of quick nods of affirmation to those names.

"It was all right. Gilly Boy just needed a book to read for his report. He stayed there a lot longer than I did I think. But it fun. Probably scared him a few times, but he's a nice enough guy. He's gotta be if he can put up with me."

Mindy says all this, showing that even she's self-aware of her own temper. Mindy looks over to Blake's mother and gives her a wave.

Outside Oddity High

"Okay...that's almost everyone, we just need one more person..."

"...I'm here, Ms. Sims..." Like yesterday, no one had noticed Val's entrance, or could tell when it happened. They could have been there the whole time for all anyone knew.

"Oh. Alright, that's everyone. ahem Students!"

All eyes turned to Ms. Sims, and she buckled slightly under the pressure. "...Um...from now on, we will not have separate schedules for each student. Every student will go to Mr. Morgan, then Ms. Hughes, then Ms. Perlman, and then Mr. Davis."

"Anyway, there's still a few minutes before class starts, so..." She paused for a few seconds, trying to come up with something else to say, before she just went back into the building.

Before school, Little Haven, going into Oddity High - Alex Palencia the werewolf who says chatting? No thank you

Alex glanced over with a raised eyebrow as he overheard Blake mention that his mother had brought him to school. Not like it was all that surprising overall, but it still seemed a little out of place to Alex. Then Ms. Sims made her announcement and it was... It was something, alright. At least it was short; Alex was used to the idea of stupid school announcements managing to take approximately a hundred times longer than they needed to in order to tell the students about one simple change. So if he had to give Ms. Sims credit for something, it would be that.

"Well, see you weirdos in class," Alex muttered, and headed for the door, intending to make his way straight to Mr. Morgan's class.

Edited by FirockFinion on Jan 15th 2022 at 9:38:47 AM

Gill grinned when the new girl introduced herself.

"Coral! I like that name, it's pretty," Gill told her. "And yeah, we both have an oceanic name, what a coincidence..." He wasn't sure whether or not he should reveal what he was quite yet, but he had a feeling someone else would mention it first.

He turned his attention to the woman in the car, who Blake had introduced as his mother. Gill grinned and waved at her.

"Things went well, I did a lot of preparation for the report today," he told them. "I just hope that I can remember it all! And you're not hard to put up with, Mindy. I know you're a girl who means well. I can tell you have a good heart."

Ms. Sims catching everyone's attention caused Gill to turn around and meet her gaze. His eyes widened in excitement when she explained that everyone would be sharing classes from here on out. It made him so happy to be able to see everyone at once!

"All right!!" Gill exclaimed. "I'll get a nice seat! See you guys in class!" he told them, moving after Sims into the building.

Coralie stroked her chin. "Interesting, interesting...Few different possibilities, but the superposition's gotta collapse sometime. Man, so many possible angles here, not to mention the specimens to study, mweehee..."

"Eeesh. That one's gonna be a tough nut to crack." Still, no time for dilly-dallying. Coralie adjusted her backpack and headed inside.

"I... I... uh.... yeah..." Mindy blushed upon hearing what Gill had to say, her face turning red like a radish. She found herself at a loss for words. She just looked at Gill blankly before being shaken out of that stupor over what Alex said. "Yeah, like you have room to talk. You're the one who acts like a junkie!"

She grabs her backpack and storms her way into class.

Before school, Little Haven, going into Oddity High - Alex Palencia the werewolf who ironically would have a hard time actually getting high

Alex didn't really hear Coralie's comment, though he wouldn't have cared even if he did. Mindy accused him of acting like a junkie, again; he heard her just fine, but he didn't respond, mostly because he was feeling tired and didn't want to bother. All he did was shake his head a little as he kept walking.

Outside the School, Nastya

"Hey, I'm doing good what about you? My name is Nastya and this is-"

Then Coralie makes her grand entrance and Nastya almost drops Tatiana and catches her in time. Nastya was amazed by her and got distracted from the conversation she was about to have.

"Damn! That girl is so freaking cool..."

"No swearing!"

"Hey, damn isn't that bad of a word!"

Edited by Cutegirl920fire on Jan 22nd 2022 at 11:16:44 AM

Oddity High

"Oh right, the book report that everyone but me has to hand in! I had one ready to go yesterday so... Who knows, maybe I can just sleep during her class today or something..."

Blake shrugged and listened to the announcement.

"Yoooo, we're all in the same class now! We can be class friends too!"

Blake's mom ahem'd from the car.

"Alright, you have a good day at school. I'd love to hear more about your new friends when you get home, okay?"

"'Kay mom!"

Blake gave a wave as his mom rolled up the window again and drove off. Blake turned to ask his buddies whether they were going to have adjacent seats but Mindy and Gill had already headed on in so Blake followed suit.

Mr. Morgan's Room

After everyone had gone inside, taken their seats in Mr. Morgan's classroom, and the "bell" rang, someone who was definitely not Mr. Morgan stood up from her desk and started writing something on the whiteboard.

The apparent substitute teacher looked to be about 18 or 19, barely older than the students, and according to what she had just written on the board, her name was Ms. Gupta. "Good morning, class. Your normal teacher, Mr. Morgan, elected to not come into work today, so I will be teaching you instead."

"Now, before we get to the lesson..." If any of the students were paying close enough attention, they'd notice her grabbing something in her pocket as she spoke. "I've been told you all have...'oddities'?"

"Yep. Now, just to get the shock out of the way..." Loki stands up, twirls around theatrically, and transforms into someone vaguely resembling Ms. Gupta (however, enough details are off that anyone who knew her would be able to tell it's not her).

"Ta-da! Not all of us do this, obviously, but we all do, you know, stuff."

Gill went up to Mr. Morgan's room and sat down, but his eyes widened as he immediately noticed that Mr. Morgan wasn't sitting at his desk, but someone he didn't recognize. At first, he thought he was in the wrong classroom, but then Ms. Gupta cleared it up.

"It's more that I am an 'oddity,' I guess you could say. I'm a..." He cleared his throat, still not entirely used to telling people, but he figured it was all right to let her know given that she might be able to help him. "I'm a... merman," he said. "I was given legs by a magic spell. So I could learn to be human, like you guys."

He hoped Ms. Gupta wouldn't have too bad of a reaction to learning this. Given how Loki decided to show off by changing his form, he wasn't even sure if she would focus on his true race at all.

With a sharp look towards Ms. Gupta, Mindy flicked her wrist, setting her hand ablaze. She managed to retract the flame.

"That answer your question? Be honest with ya, I think it's my fault he didn't show up today. I think I really scared the crap outta him. These people are in over their heads and I'm not sure it's gonna get any better."

Mindy just looks at Gupta with a sense of defeat.

First period, Little Haven, Mr. Morgan's class - Alex Palencia the werewolf expecting to go through a lot of substitute teachers

Alex noted the lady that was there instead of Mr. Morgan, but quickly thought up an idea of why she was there instead of him. Alex felt like his idea was confirmed when she explained that Mr. Morgan apparently just decided not to show up. Then she asked about oddities, and Loki went ahead and shapeshifted to look an awful lot like her, along with Mindy setting her hand on fire; Gill's comment was inconsequential compared to those. Alex just sighed in exasperation and leaned forward onto his desk. "Jeez guys, try not to scare her or anything," he muttered sarcastically, then held up a hand with two fingers pointing up like the peace symbol. "One, I'm a werewolf I guess. Two, no, I'm not going to demonstrate." With that, Alex lowered his hand back down and huffed, wondering if the new teacher would be running out screaming now, or later.

Classroom

While everyone else was giving their introductions and demonstrations of their prowess, Coralie hunched over an outdated-looking handheld device, and with a touchscreen pen was furiously scribbling down everything she could about her new classmates and their amazing powers. Shapeshifters? Mermaids? Fire people? Werewolves? This was solid gold! The next chance she had, she had to check her twin lists of known spaces and compare details with the phenomena of other worlds. The implications this had for shared origins and points of divergences was staggering!

Then, after a brief pause when no one seemed willing or able to give any more wacky surprises, Coralie sprung to her feet, with one foot on the chair and another on the desk. "And I'm a waaacky scientist from another dimension! Well, the correct term is 'alternate space' but you get the idea. Here, let me get one of my gadgets!" She hopped down to the ground and began rummaging through her overstuffed hiker's backpack.

Mr. Morgan's Room

Ms. Gupta reacted to Loki's demonstration with an appropriate amount of shock; she stumbled backward into the whiteboard and knocked a marker off of that little shelf thing that most whiteboards have. She quickly regained her composure, though, just in time for the other students to speak.

She didn't seem shocked by what Gill had to say at all; it was hard to tell if she even processed it properly, what with the shock from Loki's transformation...and Mindy's fire demonstration, which caused a smaller (but still noticeable) amount of shock. Alex's werewolf comment (and standoffishness) passed by her similarly to Gill's, although her eyes did flick to him during the gap between that and Coralie's demonstration.

Towards the end of that pause, she began to speak, only managing to get out a "Well—" before being interrupted by...that, which seemed to grab the substitute's attention more than the other things said. She carefully eyed the scientist, waiting to see what she'd pull out of that bag.

Mr Morgan's Room But Ms Gupta's Class

Blake just kind of sat there as his friends and classmates started shouting over each other to explain their special traits and powers. He quirked an eyebrow at the new girl saying she's a scientist before he shrugged and leaned back in his chair.

"I've... Got nothing. I'm normal I guess!"

Blake was about to throw his hands up for emphasis but realized with his leaning that would be a bad idea and instead swung back into a proper sitting position and returned his attention to the new girl and whatever science project she hauled out of that big ol' bag.

Classroom

"Schoolwork, pencils, snackfood, ball of string aHA! This oughta do 'er!" With a few tugs, Coralie pulled free a strange contraption. It looked rather like a projector for a classroom or board meeting presentation, only encased in a ridged dark-green shell with the scope jutting out the front and a camera display-screen built into the back. Coralie disentangled a cable from the side and plugged it into the wall (flipping on the switch), then extended tripod legs from the bottom, sat the machine down on her desk, adjusted the angle, flicked the side twice, and then turned to the others with a flourish of her coat.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" she declared. "You are about to witness the Quantum-Re-Entanglement Incarnation Beam Machine! I made it myself! With it, I shall now sift through the Incoherence formed from all pasts and presents that might have been, and pull a single object into this reality, from another!" With the speed of a squirrel, Coralie zipped behind the device to peer into the viewfinder, as wire-frame images like the display of a virtual boy blinked in and out of view from the machine's perspective. "Let's see...not that one...food doesn't count...what kid brought an oil lamp? Ah, that one should do it! Oh, real quick, this building's insured, right?"

Without waiting for a response, Coralie pushed a button on the top. With a sound like a laser from an old sci-fi movie, tendrils of white light burst from the scope. If the classroom light were on, it would be dimming and flickering, as the beam rushed towards the spot over a vacant desk and coiled in the air. Like some spectral 3-D Printer, the light sculpted glowing lines and surfaces out of nothing, forming a complex structure in seconds. The device rattled and whined with the effort until at last the tendrils of light broke free from the scope and disappeared over the construct now shining on the vacant desk. As the flickering ceased and the light faded away, steam rose from the top of the newly created...boombox?

"Perfect!" cried Coralie as she put up her goggles and hurried over. "Nothing like music to scrape the frost and bring people together. And hey, if you think you know what 'Alternative Music' means, then wait 'til you hear this!" She hit the play button, and the air was filled with the sound of metal guitar. "All right, roll on!" went Coralie, holding a fist in the air and banging her head as the unmistakable vocals of Judas Priest came on.

Gill was transfixed with Coralie's explanation, and with the strange contraption that she was pulling out of her bag. He didn't know what 'another dimension' meant but he was colored intrigued.

"Woooowwww...." Gill sighed, gazing at her creation as it created a boombox. As the music came on, he grinned.

"Digging the daaancing queeeeeeen....." Gill repeated, in his own melodic, hypnotic voice.