Optimism Forgotten [OPEN]

A tall, lanky young man played with his hands just outside his new school, the Beata Academy. He'd heard many things about the boarding school from his parents, and it looked to be very welcoming. Still, Lucas had learned to keep doubts close. He was pretty reclusive, though that wasn't his fault. 

In elementary school, it had started. Tiny phantoms of butterflies and beetles would appear in his sight, invisible to anyone else. He couldn't control when they came, and sometimes it became a bother. Nonetheless, he whispered to the bugs, and every now and then they'd whisper back. It shocked him at first, and most times it was a first and nothing more. They preferred to flitter around his messy brown mane (which was quite some ways down his shoulders at the time) and crawl up his arms. He remembered it very vividly now. 

Soon, the bugs turned to lizards and snakes, and every now and then he'd get what appeared to be a humanoid critter with big glittery wings. Near the end of 5th grade, he'd become fascinated with reptiles, and his little baby sister had an array of fairies dancing in a mobile above her cradle. He figured that the beings he saw wgere based strongly on his mind, and they weren't random. Often times, he'd run around the playground at recess frolicking with his imaginary friends. He got called names, "crazy" was a favorite. He kept to himself after that.

He told his parents about these creatures, and they knew that he had a gift just as they both did. He could induce hallucinations, though, at the time, they only appeared to himself. Now, at 15, he could never produce anything with more mass than a small bunny, and he could only show them to about two other people at once. His mother promised that Beata would help him improve and perfect his gift. Still, he fretted over how the other students would feel. Deep down, he knew he was just worrying over nothing. He was just as "crazy" as everyone else at the school. He looked around his feet, wondering if some critter had decided to join him. He couldn't control when they came or went, but he usually had a feeling when they were perched on his- ah. A small green parrot had found itself sitting on the strap of Luke's backpack. He smiled a little and looked back to the school's entrance, gulping nervously.

Looks like he wasn't the only one who rolled up to the gates that day.

He had been told it wasn't hard to find your way to the school gates once you were dropped off in Beata. It was rather easy, actually. One single road from the edge of town all the way to the giant academy that was practically as big as the community itself. Now, what they had failed to tell him was warm it would actually be that day. And what a long walk it seemed to be, way longer they had made it sound, and how many damned hills they were.

Oliver had been reluctant to leave home. It meant leaving his old school, all his old friends, and traveling all the way around the world just to 'perfect' some gift that hadn't bothered his life in the slightest, but those people were so damn pushy about it, something about being there for his brother, or being safe from something or other, becoming the something that there ever was, ya-da, ya-da... He never actually read the school brochure.

But what he did do was rack up the school's airline fees sky high. There was just so much stuff he couldn't leave behind. His clothes, his books, his games, his stupid nick-nacks, and whatever else he could manage to fit into his bags. The result was a twig of a young man lugging on bag on his back, one duffled bag in one hand, and an oversized luggage rolling behind him, held with the other. All three together were bigger than he was himself. It must've seem stupid, but he couldn't bring himself to care.

Now that the struggle was finally over, he was happy to see another new student, maybe one who actually knew where they were supposed to go. "Hey, you there!" He shouted, blue eyes staring the stranger down as he drug his entire mess over up to his side. "You're new here, aren't you? Tell me you know where we're supposed to be going." In his haste, it'd taken him some time to even notice the bird.

Lucas's bird tapped his cheek and looked behind him. The brown haired boy followed the parrot's eyes to see an almost flustered looking young man coming up to him. His green eyes bore into the other's blue gaze, and suddenly, the front of his mind twinged like a tiny headache. It was gone in an instant, but the meaning stood clear: The boy walking towards him could now see the bird. Another new student, maybe? 

Luke looked down at his suitcase and backpack, his gaze flickering back to the other student. A ghost of a chuckle escaped his lips. Either he was extremely unprepared, or the pink-haired boy had a hell of a lot of stuff. He was questioned instantly. "Erm... I bet that'd be a good thing to know. Let me check." He started to reach into his shirt pocket to grab a notecard he'd left for himself, but his hand stopped midway. "Wait, I never caught your name," he said, looking back at the new student, "I'm Lucas. Lucas Cartmann. And, if I'm correct, and I wouldn't count on myself for that, we're supposed to go in and find the Initiate Dorms." He stuck out a thin hand as he fumbled for the note in his pocket. The sudden shift in his shoulder alarmed the parrot, who began flapping around the two boys' heads. Lucas took no notice: Your hand would go right through if you tried to swat it away. It was merely an image.

Janya was a bit late with greeting the new students, but she was practicing with her gift. That was important to if she wanted to get better with it. But her running late meant that she had to rush over there and the fastest way to get there was flying. Which meant she might scare the two new students with her gift. In the end it was going to be her fault for forgetting for a moment.

The skeletal dragon that was Janya, swooped down and landed gracefully in front of the two students. Though she stood just as tall as they did. She stood there for a moment looking at the two students before in a flash the skeletal creature was replaced by a blonde haired girl. Her yellow eyes looked up at the two students, and a friendly smile was on her face. "Knowing where you two are supposed to go would be my job." She said in a friendly tone. "Hi, I'm Janya. I'm one of the prefects here, making sure new students get where they are supposed to is part of my job." She said.

Relief visibly flashed across his face, watching as the stranger begin to fumble around for a card or map or something, anything that would tell them where to go. At least one of them was prepared. The young man himself had no where to go, but the best he could supply was a few decks of cards to try and pass the time while they possibly wasted away in the entrance yards. "Oliver Kent." He started to hold out a hand to Lucas, to shake or something, but was dully reminded of the heavy bags in his grasp. It was probably a miracle that they hadn't snapped both of his arms off yet. He ducked his head out of the way, awkwardly avoiding the flight of the strange parrot that flew around them. "... It's a better lead than I've got. They gotta have a sign or som-"

He thought the bird was being strange and troublesome enough with it's flight. Oliver wasn't sure how to process it when a bare-boned dragon came soaring into the clearing, landing on the pavement before them. All the pink-haired boy do was stare at the strange creature, learning over closer to Lucas, not keeping his eyes off of the thing. "You got anything about this in your notes, mate?" He muttered under his breath.

Oliver blinked once and suddenly the shape of the dragon was gone, leaving a small, cute blonde girl in it's place. He was straight-up dumb-founded, however, still staring in confusing in disbelief - leaving poor Lucas to do the talking.

Lucas looked up to see a dragon soar into their line of sight. He jumped pretty high in fright and suddenly, the parrot dissipated. As a blonde girl replaced the freakish skeleton, Lucas shook his head, a hand flying up to his temple. He laughed to himself, though he was far from a laughing mood. Of course, a dragon! I get a parrot, maybe a small rodent if I'm lucky... A dragon! Imagine that! He shook his head. "Well, that's one way to start things off, I guess..." He half-mumbled. Clearing his throat, he spoke to the prefect again. "Well, I'm Luke Cartmann and this is Oliver Kent. It's nice to meet you... Erm, a-and... Wow. Dragon." He shoved his hands in his pockets, his hair falling in different wayward directions as he did so. The boy smiled sheepishly. He felt rude being envious, but still: There was a pretty big gap between a make-believe parrot and a skeletal dragon.

"Hah yeah, normally I wouldn't introduce myself that way but I was running late." She said keeping her smile on her face. "Anyway, Welcome to Beata. It's nice to meet you Oliver and Luke." Her hands were folded neatly behind her back. "As you can see my gift is being able to transform into a skeletal dragon. Anyway, Have you two already completed the necessary paper work? If so I can go ahead and take you to the dorms." Unless they wanted a tour to which she would happily show them around.

At least he wasn't the only one seemingly terrified at the site of the dragon. This girl was so cool and casual about the whole thing, as if she'd thought it was going to be a good idea to just swoop down at new students like a giant monster out of nowhere. Poor Oliver was spent and he'd only been at the school for a few moments, and it seemed liked the same could have been said for Lucas. The new student let out an exasperated sigh. "I have, I think... Could you take us somewhere we could drop off our things?" He asked, glancing back around her, cautious if she had any more dragon friends with her. "Do a lot of people turn into...? Yeah..." He couldn't even bring himself to ask properly. Was he rude or something? He had no idea.

Lucas smiled at the girl. "Y' know, I think your gift is already at least twice as cool as mine," he said lightly, slipping his hand into his pocket to check his phone. No notifications. Taking his hand back out, he looked up at the school, vaguely aware of Oliver speaking. He ran a hand through his hair, eyebrows furrowed as he stared down the school. His thoughts were sliding every which way like they were on ice. "Dorms would be pretty nice right now," he mumbled softly, "I could definitely use a break after being whaled on by an undead dragon." He nodded slowly, agreeing with Oliver.

"Thanks, but everyone's gift is unique and cool in their own way. Also there is only one other person who can transform into a dragon like me. Well she turns into a living dragon with the scales and everything I don't. The rest of the students all have varying gifts like electricity manipulation to teleportation. You will find some interesting people around here." She only really knew of two. Her memory was kind of bad so she didn't really know that many people. Well she did, but she usually forgot them. "And yes I can take you to the dorms. Right this way." She said turning away from the two new students and began to walk in the direction of the dorms.

Oliver stared after the two of them for a moment, taking in a deep breath and beginning the great dragging of his luggage again, following the 'prefect' to wherever these initiate dorms were. He hoped to God they weren't too far off. He was weary of tugging these things around wherever they went. This was a fancy private school, wasn't it? Where were the maids and attendants and everything? Or was that all just wishful thinking? "More interesting than a flying dead dragon?" He huffed, shooting a glance at Lucas. "What is your superpower supposed to be?"

Lucas looked up. "Oh... yeah." He stared at the space in front of him intently. It couldn't be that hard to force one into existence. He willed the green parrot from before to appear again. It took a good minute and a half of awkward staring, but soon, he heard the flap of wings behind him. "Got it!" he cheered, looking at Oliver, "Can you see it? The bird? It's just an image, really. I can cause hallucinations, but the best ones I've made only appear to me. It gets annoying, especially when you just want to be left alone." He kept up a brisk pace, wanting to get inside as soon as possible. He saw that Oliver had similar intentions, and with the amount of luggage, he couldn't blame him. The bird he created flittered around, minding its own business. "It doesn't even do much, and I can't make it go away. Haven't worked that out yet." He sneered at the parrot, scorning its existence. He wondered if he'd be able to control it one day or make something better than a measly bird or a sentient weed. Hopefully, he'd learn how to get them to stay the hell away from him when he wanted them away. "This school's all about mastery, right?" The brown haired boy's eyes drifted to Jayna. "Because I can't wait to control this mess of a 'gift.'"

Janya turned back to the two boys walking backwards as she watched Luke demonstrate his power. At first she didn't see it but soon enough she saw the green bird flying around. "I see it. That is a very neat power. You could trick some people with that once you get a hang of it." She said to the boy glancing over her should every now and then to see where she was going. "Mhm! The school will work with you a lot to get you better with your gift. I'm sure you could find someone here with a similar power that would be willing to help you outside of the class." She had Pepper who could help her.

Her yellow eyes turned to look at Oliver. "What's your gift Oliver?" She would have called him Oli but she didn't know how he would have felt about that.