Friendly Neighbourhood Toaster [open]

A warm breeze danced through the area as the dull clang of metal on asphalt, muffled slightly by the rubber of a shoe, sounded out in Beata Academy's frontal courtyard. Peter rose up from his seat in the taxi, sunlight tracing the steel roundels of his shoulders. True to the description he'd been given of the academy, it was archaic. Very archaic. It held an air of regal antiquity that very few buildings of the modern era did, with meticulously perfected stonework and woodwork that exterior designers of Peter's time simply did not have the passion to create any longer. It reminded him of something out of a fantasy novel -- which really was quite fitting, now that he thought about it -- considering the people it held within its doors.

Pulling his baggage closer to him and uttering a short goodbye to the man who'd been driving the taxi, Peter strode through the academy's front entry gate and wandered onto the campus. After a short walk to the academy's entrance, he approached a pair of oak doors. Peter closed one hand around the brass door handle, but paused before opening it. Well, this was it. He was finally going to become a student at the school he'd been dreaming of attending for so long. At last, he was at a place where his.. Unusual appearance wouldn't be questioned so heavily.

A sharp whistling noise made Peter hesitate again before pulling the door open. His backlit glass eyes trailed up the decorated face of the building and eventually came to rest on a lone figure, sitting by herself three stories up, legs dangling carelessly over the side. His mouth parted, but he couldn't quite get any words out. What in the world was she doing all the way up on the rooftop? Unless she could fly and this was just some sort of stunt to show her gift off to a new student, he had good reason to be alarmed. Peter had barely been on the premises for five minutes, and he was already startled.

And then, just like that, the girl slipped over the edge and began plummeting downwards towards the hard ground below. This girl didn't look like she could fly.

Without even stopping to consider the fact that she had jumped on her own volition, Peter’s sense of urgency overrode all of his other thoughts, and he dropped his bag. The blond dashed forward, arms outstretched, and somehow managed to catch the girl just before she connected with the ground. Both Peter and Juliette went flying off to the side. Peter lost both his footing and his grip on the girl almost immediately, and the duo went tumbling inelegantly across the field on their right. The sharp plates of Peter’s arms dug into the ground and uprooted grass as he rolled along, so by the time he finally stopped, he had grass and grit wedged into every crevice of his cybernetic limbs.

Hoisting himself up into a sitting position and holding his throbbing head, Peter’s gaze settled on Juliette. "What in the world was that all about? Are you alright?" The question was addressing her mental state more so than her physical state, really. Who just jumped off of the top of a school when a new student arrived?

"Damn Juliette, great way to scare the guy." Jake walked up behind the two, hands in his pockets and a grin on his face as he looked down at them.

Jake just so happened to be walking around the office, scouting out new students to toy with, when the telephone rang. The office lady talked about some new guy and his curiosity took over. Besides, if there was a new guy in town, Jake would need to see what kind of guy he was and put the newbie in his place. So now, here he was; staring down at the girl who jumped off a roof and a new kid who tried to be a hero. "Honestly, it's the thought that counts, saving her and all." Jake kept out the part of revealing what Juliette's power was. The tall student stood there, finding the utmost joy in watching them struggle. At least now he knew what the new guy was like.

Peter glanced at the second newcomer for a short moment and then back at the girl, disregarding Jake's uppity tone altogether. One of Juliette's arms was twisted out of place, which Peter had neglected to take note of until just now, and various cuts ran all across her exposed skin. He started to stand up, ready to search for the nearby infirmary to fetch a nurse, but then he began to notice something, and halted. Juliette's cuts were slowly disappearing, and before long, her skin was totally blemish-free once more. Even her mangled arm, which looked to be seriously painful, eventually began to twist back into place. Peter watched the process wordlessly, mouth slightly ajar. She could heal herself, just like that? If only I'd had that power a few years ago, before the accident. Then I wouldn't have to be Mr. Living Tin Can.

"Let me tell you, the last thing I had been expecting today was for somebody to jump off of a building." The initiate stood up and picked a few bunches of grass and roots out from between the joint spaces of his arms. "I'm Peter. I just got here from Nebraska." He nodded in greeting at both of the gathered students. He could see Juliette studying his eyes face curiously from where she sat. He shifted his weight. Well, it seemed like people would still be questioning his appearance. He should have expected it, really. At least he wasn't the only weirdo in the area now, though, so it wasn't as annoying. "They're not real," he explained, reaching up and tapping his right eye with his index finger. "but they work like real eyes, thanks to science."

Watching the awkward pair struggle to stand up filled Jake with happiness. Taking a step back to make space for them to stand up, his metal leg gave a clank. Wincing at the sound, he soon shook it off, realizing this guy had something odd about his body too. So it is true, in the end, we're all the same. A smile never left the tall student's face.

"Jake Baxter, a.ka. the computer genius, at your service." He said coolly, waiting for the two to arise.

"I'd always wanted to be Optimus Prime when I was little. I loved robotics." Peter's thoughts trailed back to his childhood, when he'd spend the vast majority of his free time setting all of his electronic robot toys up in rows and making them do battle. His gift had always proved convenient for those sorts of activities, because luckily, battery-powered toys were within the spectrum of objects he could control with it. "I did kind of get my wish, in a sense, but not in the way I'd hoped."

Peter flicked his hand to rid it of all the grit it had collected during his tumble. He'd spare them the nasty details of why he'd become a cyborg. Peter had told the story a hundred times over, anyway. Repeating himself was getting quite tiring. "So.. Do you welcome every initiate like that?" He looked to Juliette again, crossing his arms.

But cooler? What was that supposed to mean? If anything, he was the cooler mecha, all this guy seemed to have was a pair of weird eyes and synthetic looking limbs. Jake's power was cooler, right? Stay chill, you can deal with him later. Especially around Juliette... "Well, I wouldn't say that..." He chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. Standing there, he listened to the two, realizing Juliette never answered the question.