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[Mellianne Joss]

Mellianne just shook her head. "Of course I have forgotten that the one or two courts I have visited. That would be tiring. Though it would be easier to eat if you sat down. But if you don't want to, then that's that."

She glanced at Kahlen. It seemed someone was shocked to meet a prince. Mellianne had met at least one before, so wasn't as impressed by getting to meet one. Plus with one of the princesses of the fairies, it seemed like there were already going to be plenty of royal people at the school, no sense in wasting time getting shocked at each one.

[Kent of Korbania]

Kent smiled as he shook hands with Kahlen. He smiled a lot. About everything.

"Yes. It's heavy. Waving is a chore in it." Kent chuckled again and rolled his eyes. He chucked quite a bit too.

"Now then," he began stuffing another fry down his gullet (it is difficult to look dignified eating finger food), "What's all this about pictures?" he asked, trying not to distract from the conversation too much. He had been a prince his whole life. it certainly didn't shock him!

[Kahlen Jeanne Nox]

After Kahlen got over her shock of meeting a prince (she was from a country without royaly, after all), she began to find it amusing that he was eating french fries with his fingers. Wouldn't a prince use a fork or something?

'I bet he's pretty nice once you get to know him,' she thought.

"We're teaching Aelita about mobile phones," she told him. "She hadn't heard of a picture before, I suppose."

[Kent of Korbania]

Kent took out his cellphone. In a word it was shiny. In a few words, it was bordering on gaudy. It had his Royal crest on it. He flipped it open. His voicemail was full because he always forgot to check it.

"This is a cellphone. It makes telephone calls as well... sending other messages..." Kent didn't remember what they were. He thought texting was ridiculous. If you want to say something you can call them properly and have a proper conversation, he thought. "Oh, and they take pictures, which as we covered earlier and copies of how things look..."

Kent blinked. He thought it was an odd thing to have to explain.

[Mellianne Joss]

Mellianne smiled. "The other messages are texts, which are just word messages. Though I don't use that feature. But I didn't realize that the fairies didn't have much modern technology." She tried to recall what she knew about fairies, which wasn't really much at all. In the end, she gave up.

[Malakai Meir]

"Oh they were burly enough. It's just that with my strength and healing, it isn't easy to hurt me. I've been having trouble finding a challenge in a fight since before I was ten."

He looked over at Aelita, who seemed to be still staring at the photo on the phone.

"I didn't even think fairies were real. This school is definitely not on the normal side of things is it?"

[Mellianne Joss]

Mellianne looked over at Malakai again. "Oh. I suppose that would be why they weren't a challenge."

She also glanced at Aelita. "Well, I'm an elf, I suppose I'm not really one to say what's normal and what's not. And I don't think many of us, if not all, here are normal."

[Aelita Selena Auberon]

"This is like a painting, then. We don't use very much...technology...our systems are based on magic. My family has the strongest magic, so we are in charge."

Aelita finally went back to eating.

[Kitty Callahan]

"Your mother? It is quite a nice name," Kitty said to Autumpne, hunting for a meatball in her spaghetti. Upon finding one, she speared it neatly upon her fork and ate it. She really was hungry.

[Less Than Beta East Tundra]

Less continued eating. One might notice that he's getting a bit better at not being messy by watching the others at the table. He finished off the steak and stared wistfully at the empty plate. He was used to eating a lot more at a time, but Negotiator had told him that he was supposed to eat like a human. That meant eating a little bit of food at frequent intervals, not gorging and waiting a few days for each meal.

[Malakai Meir]

"Does anyone know if we can get more food? I'm starving." Malakai looked wistfully toward the food line.

[Kahlen Jeanne Nox]

"How many kinds of magic are there?" Kahlen asked. She had never thought magic was real and only knew about what was in books. Nor had she thought elves were real, but here she was surrounded by two. Of course, they seemed to be different kinds of elves. Kahlen's head was almost spinning with all this talk of magic and non-humans.

Kahlen pushed her plate aside and drank her coffee. Caffeine should make her feel better. She had a feeling she was going to get quite a few headaches from trying to wrap her head around all of these strange things.

[Ada Turing]

Ada slipped her cell phone (which was very modern and very thin) back into its pocket, and went back to her food.

"I suspect I'm one of the most normal people here," she said, "which is saying something..."

[Mellianne Joss]

At Kahlen's question, Mellianne shrugged. "Unforunately, it's really hard to tell. There are so many different cultures with their own magic, plus some random boughts of magic. And since I'm not a scholar, I couldn't tell you even more than a few of the more common ones."

[Kahlen Jeanne Nox]

"Interesting," Kahlen said. There was that word... again. Unfortunately, that was the first word that came to her mind when something unexpected popped up. "I bet there are a ton of books about magic here."

She needed more coffee. Kahlen went back up to the drink dispenser and poured herself two mugs. She brought them both back to the table and drank half a mug in one gulp. 'Hm. Not bad. Could be a bit better though.' She was glad she brought her own coffee from home.

[Less Than Beta East Tundra]

Less Than Beta wasn't very surprised at the different types of humans there. Magic was a weird thing, and sometimes one would run into a wild variety up north. Usually it just caused unusual things like a patch of ground where no sound would penetrate, or a stream where you were always five feet from the far side, no matter how far into it you were. It was just natural that someone would learn how to control it at some point.

"Alpha said that there are thousands of types of magic. One of the teaching songs lists one for every star in the sky, but that's probably a metaphor."

((In Less' worldview, anything that can talk is either a were or a human. Therefore, to him, fairies and elves are both varieties of humans.))

[Scott Logan]

((At Melianne and Kahlen, but delayed since everything seems to happen while I'm asleep.))

Aidan looked up from the plate of steak and chips - fries, he supposed he'd have to start calling them, now he was in America- and turned towards Kahlen and Melianne.

"Sorry to interrupt, but did I hear you say you both swim? Awesome," he said without waiting for a reply. "I thought I'd be the only serious swimmer here, and thought I'd have to go swimming alone. I mean, if that's ok to join you- my only other option is trying to drag Scott out of his bed early..."

"Ha, not a chance, little brother," replied Scott, laughing. "Waking up in time for breakfast is going to be hard enough as it is!"

[Kahlen Jeanne Nox]

"Of course," Kahlen replied with a grin. She was such a show off when she was around others. "I'm sure Mellianne would also like the company. We could have races and such."

Kahlen never minded being up early. She always got up to practice dancing. She could dance all day, in fact. Kahlen didn't usually swim until evening, but she could change her schedule a bit to hang out with Aidan and Mellianne.

[Mellianne Joss]

Mellianne looked over at one of the twins, who was obviously the younger one from what she understood. "Hmm, well, I'm okay with you coming to swim. I'm glad to meet another swimmer too. I'm Mellianne, and you two are?"

[Scott Logan]

As Scott turned back to his food, he realised that Kent had just introduced himself as another prince. More royalty, at this school? He sat up straighter, remembering his father's frequent admonishments to behave more like a prince- one of the reasons the twins were at St Dymphna's- and turned to speak to Kent.

Waiting for a pause in the conversation, he stood up and went to stand next to Kent.

"Pleased to meet you, Prince Kent. I am Scott Logan, and my brother Aidan is sitting over there. Our father is the Duke of Kielder. I'm afraid I've never visited Korbania, myself, and I can't recall much about it. Could you tell me about you country?"

That sounded far too formal to Scott, but the other Prince seemed much to care much more about etiquette. In any case, it was probably the kind of behaviour Scott's father was looking for, even if it was less fun.

[Scott Logan]

Aidan smiled - normally it took him a long time to make friends, but the students at St Dymphna's seemed very friendly.

"I'm Aidan Logan, that's my brother Scott over there talking to that Prince. Good to meet you, Melianne. Where are you from?"

[Kent of Korbania]

Kent thought for a moment and then responded to Scott.

"It's a very small citystate," Kent began, still thinking, "And... We pride ourselves in musical arts." Kent shrugged. He never had to explain his country before. He was about to say And there's dirt and trees but he decited there were dirt and trees in most places.

"So, you're a prince, too then? I can't say I know anything about Kielder, so we're even." Ken chuckled a little, embarssed. Not only did he fail to represent his country, he appeared uncultured as well!

[Somariel Lamaron]

Having finished the rest of her food, Somariel was now eating her pudding. Off to the side, she heard Mellianne say something about not being normal. Looking up from the pudding, she said, "Speaking of 'not normal', why did the rest of you come to this school? My parents sent me here because they were tired of dealing with all of my pets. The final straw for them was when I adopted an orphaned bobcat. I can't understand why they had a problem with that. I can talk to any animal in its own language, so it's not like any of my pets ever misbehaved or were dangerous."

[Kahlen Jeanne Nox]

Kahlen perked up at the mention of musical arts. 'Hmm. I think I might like this Korbania.'

"What kinds of musical things are you proficient in?" Kahlen asked Kent. Perhaps she could wrangle him into joining her dance practices.

[Less Than Beta East Tundra]

Less glanced over at Somariel and explained, "Negotiator is getting old. When she dies, we will need someone to take her place. I am here to learn about humans and human society so that I can become the next negotiator. I was chosen because I can read, write, and perform mathematics." He tried testing Somariel's claim by saying in werewolf body language that he hoped they would become friends in the future.

[Kent of Korbania]

"I'm here because my father felt I needed proper instruction from a proper school. He decited, after all of these years, that a tudor was not sufficent for me. I don't know what he's doing about my sister's schooling..." Kent trailled off. He began to think about his sister. He would often play her a lullyby at night when she couldn't sleep. Since the death of their mother who used to sing, anyway. He quickly put it out of his mind-- She was only a little younger than him. It's not as though she were a young child!

"Now, for the next question," Kent said, clearing his throat with just a little trouble glint in his eyes "I can read and write music in every signature and time, I can also play just about any instrument." Kent smiled, but not as fully as before.

[Mellianne Joss]

Mellianne smiled at Aiden. "It's a pleasure to meet you as well. I'm from an area off the Mississippi River in the state of Missouri. My parents have a breeding ranch there."

[Michelle Wilcox]

Michelle finished her cheesecake and silently started on the rest of her dinner. How had Less Than Beta managed to become popular? However, she was distracted from her brooding when the conversation turned to swimming. "I always preferred flying but I can swim pretty well. It's a job requirement when you serve aboard a ship."

[Kahlen Jeanne Nox]

"Oh, that's amazing," Kahlen said to Kent, who looked rather odd. "I love everything that had to do with music, especially dance."

Kahlen looked over to Somariel. "I'm here to be more well-rounded. Apparently mastering dance isn't enough for my parents."

[Scott Logan]

"Sounds like an interesting place," replied Scott. "Do you play music, then? I play violin, and a few other stringed instruments, but mainly violin."

He realised he had failed to answer Kent's question and continued, "Kielder is an island in the far South Pacific, not far from New Zealand. I think it's quite a bit larger than Korbania, but your country sounds a wonderful
place with so much music."