After some of the students leave and return to the classroom, Melody can take her uniform jacket off and throw on her more durable one; as brazen as she can be, Melody still remains shy in moments about taking clothes off.
The classroom fills with the students and a quickly spoken message is dropped into their heads.
"One more minute class, your principal is being a pill."
Mr. Verim updates the lot of them, speaking to them from all the way down into the main campus building.
The Masquerade campus comprises Six enormous buildings.
Melody and her classmates sit in the second largest- the Blessed classes building where years 1, 2, and 3 are taught. The smallest building is meant for Mason and Sam's Cursed classes, all three years of them. The Main building is the largest of all 6, housing the council's chambers where the leaders of Masquerade and honored guests can convene about matters regarding the Faiths, Blights, Cursed, and Blessed, and more.
The other buildings are an indoor training gymnasium, a sciences building where work is done on weapons, magics, technological advances with magical prospects, and the like. And lastly, an auxiliary building that is specially housed by the highest-tier students of Masquerade that are given special permission to use it as an operating base of sorts.
All relatively close together, the buildings and their students are still hardly ever in contact. The Main building where Mr. Verim is contacting them from is next to theirs, but still not close enough that any reasonably strong Blessed should be able to make contacts to their minds. Furthering the mystery that is their strange new teacher.
Melody resigns to sit back in her seat, waiting for whatever Mr. Verim brings them next. After not too long, the rest of the class clangs and bends into their seats now too. Armor sets of color and many layers find their way to their seats. Wandering eyes drift about the class as everyone checks out their new equipment.
Melody's simple jacket is black with a sharp and thin trim design to each arm's ends. Her jacket has a specially made piece of fabric that is sewn into the jacket that allows her Blessed energy to gather for powerful defense and offense- the cuffs of her jacket split into a broken circlet where her Halo could shine through and release into a powerful beam if she so chose.
Okirk stands at the back, unable to sit down in his thick armor, stayed upward by his skirted belt, made up of thick boney-looking curves, likely the product of an enormous dead Blight or Faith. His father would have made sure to put him in the most expensive and safe piece of armor. Okirk stands leaned against the back of the room, huffing about and waiting for Mr. Verim with the rest of them.
Near the front of the class, Emi sits at her desk, leaning back and letting her feet sit up on another chair in front of her. Totally slacked and lowered down, Emi blows a bubble with her chewing gum and grits her teeth.
"Where the Hell is this guy?"
She huffs now too, crossing her arms and wearing a mean face. Emi's armor and weapons sit in a pile on her desk, reaching to about her standing height in a mess. The shining-blue plates of armor look to be some form of tech, only a few of the students can surmise their usage.
After her outburst, the class starts to wonder if Mr. Verim forgot to come back to class, almost all unilaterally realizing he easily could have.
"Oh right... "
Their thoughts reach out and suddenly and abruptly, a thin body comes crashing through the doors of the class.
KRSHSHS
Mr. Verim is flung through the doors, breaking the sliding entryway off its grooves and flying underneath him as he lands into the opposite end of the room.
"Class!"
He speaks mid-fling.
The class awakens again, waiting for an explanation of their day's plan.
"What're you wearing?!"
Mr. Verim rights himself, leaping to his feet and rubbing his red forehead fiercely. He looks around the room and finds everyone in colorful and larger or thin armor. His eyes start to sparkle and shine, alight with enthusiasm. He knows he asked them to suit up, but he's greatly surprised at what this generation of Blessed seems to be capable of.
"Right!"
Mr. Verim thrusts a sheet of paper towards them, held so that they can just see the title of the form.
'Combat Permission"
A scribbled signature lines the bottom of it, most likely the principal of Masquerade who was finally coerced by Mr. Verim.
"Combat permission?"
Melody says aloud, turning her head to her neighbor, much like the rest of the class does. They all question the very obvious meaning. Mr. Verim smiles and stares at the paper now, turning it to gawk at it.
"Yes, normally a student would get into great trouble for fighting and using their abilities outside of normal training…"
Mr. Verim starts to explain, and Melody turns away knowing that Mason could probably have been kicked out of school already.
"With this, we can get some real fun started."
Mr. Verim pockets the sheet and turns to the door. Stopping on his heel, Mr. Verim swishes his long silver hair over his shoulder and looks back at them.
"Come along…"
His voice sounds more sinister than he probably meant it to, but the class feels a subtle chill reach up and down their spines nonetheless.
This second-year class gets ready to leave for a mysterious impromptu exhibition by their teacher.
Continued in PART THIRTY-NINE…