Magical Teacher Professor Landry! - Chapter 1: Just a Normal School

[Teal Mage]

Hanging in the east, the mid-morning sun cast pale rays down on the collection of gray stone structures that composed the main campus of the Amaranth Institute for the Gifted. Pristine walkways of light gray concrete, large enough for several students to walk side-by-side without bumping into one another, ran throughout the school's grounds, connecting the school's many scattered faculties together in a surprisingly orderly network of pale stone.

Neatly arranged hedges of red, white, pink and orange flowering plants flanked many of the school's pathways, their bright, warm colors showing vividly in contrast to both the muted stone of the buildings, and rich green leaves that surrounded them. Frail looking trees bordered the remaining paths, their thin trunks rising no more than nine feet. Though small, the miniature tree's branches were covered with lush green leaves, offering patches of shade for those who passed beneath their shadows. While it was nearing the end of summer, blossoms of muted pinks, whites and pale purple appeared among the foliage of the trees in a handful of places; perhaps those would develop into fruit as the year went on.

Arranged among of this were a collection of shallow concrete canals, each nearly as wide as the main pathways. Cut into the grounds in a neat grid work pattern, these streams worked their ways throughout the campus, feeding the school's many ornate fountains and reflecting pools with a constant supply of clear and sparkling liquid. Decorative bridges spanned the points where the waterways intersected and overran the main stone walkways of the school, their thin metal beaten into graceful arcs and sided with low guard rails. Only where the channels encountered the campus' few remaining old growth trees, many of which towered over the school's actual buildings, did they deviate from their neat pattern, arcing into shallow circular pools around the massive trees, before branching out again and returning to their prearranged patterns.

Any space left was coated in a coat of lush green grass, newly trimmed in preparation for this, the first day of classes in the Amaranth Institute for the Gifted.

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Through the bank of windows on the east wall, sunlight flooded into the stone corridor, painting its pale tile floor and the handful of students moving through it in shades of color muting white. Flimsy sliding doors of light colored wood were set into the opposite wall, spaced apart both widely and evenly. A handful of students moved through the light filled hall, some of their paces so quick they might as well have been running, others moving with lazy fascination, their heads turning left and right, seemingly in awe of their surroundings.

Truly, this was a normal school.

Dressed casually in jeans and white full-sleeved shirt, one student in particular moved at an even pace down the hall. Emblazoned with bright yellow stars, her white runners tapped lightly against the marble-eqsue floor while she silently mouthed the room numbers inscribed on the doors she passed. Held before her was a sheet of white paper, a map of this particular school building, which the young brunette glanced down at periodically. Eventually, she came to a stop before one of the doors.

Room Q-111, She read, hazel eyes flicking from the map to the plain black symbols on the door itself. The girl frowned, brushing a stray lock of her rich brown hair away from her face, it looks like all the other doors in this place. She shrugged, causing her bright orange backpack to shift its position on her shoulder, Whatever. Without a second thought, she reached forward, grasped the door's handle, and slid it to the side.

The room she found herself in was floored in a non-descript gray carpet, walled in off-white stone and had a blackboard set into its front most-wall. In front of the blackboard, and several steps forward from where she now stood, was a large desk made of a dark brown wood which she assumed belonged to the teacher. Across from the larger desk, several smaller ones were arranged on a series for five gradually rising tiers, seven to a ledge, each evenly spaced. From above, white lights set into the ceiling supplied the room with cool, clear, illumination.

None of this drew her attention though.

Sitting hunched over behind the teacher's desk was a figure completely covered in a pitch black, deeply hooded, cloak. Alabaster fingertips peaked out of the robe's long and billowy sleeves, wrapped tightly around the metal of a gold banded dark purple fountain pen. The creature guided the pen slowly through a series of elegant loops, trialing deep blue ink over the paper spread before it. Wisps of deep black light seemed to steam off of the bent teacher's robes, filling the air around it with a strange, and heavy, aura of gloom.

Perhaps it was taking attendance.

"Ex-excuse me." The girl stated, shakily.

Slowly, the cowled head raised itself from the desk, then swung itself toward the brown haired girl in the doorway. A chill ran down the girl's spin as the teacher's eyes fell on her. Icy gold light bleed from the two glowing orbs set deep inside the being's hood, showing up bright in contrast to the shadows that surrounded them and obscured the rest of its face.

Throat suddenly dry, she swallowed. "I-Is this Prof-professor Landry's class?"

Focused on the girl, the glowing eyes narrowed to slits. Slowly, very slowly, the teacher nodded once. One of its robed arms raised itself ponderously, before lazily stretching it out to the side and extending a bony white finger toward the desks at the far side of the room.

"Uhm," the girl murmured, doing a double take from the teacher, to the desks, "right."

Feeling the teacher's glowing eyes on her back, she followed the finger's direction and moved toward the back of the room. One short flight of stairs and a handful of steps later, she slipped into the middle desk in the second row, stowing her backpack beneath her chair.

Her eyes went back to the cloaked teacher, but she was already back to writing in her slow, careful, loops. I heard Professor Landry was eccentric, The girl thought, frowning, but a Halloween costume? She shrugged, idly reaching up to touch the heavy yellow gemstone that hung around her neck, Well, whatever.

Surely, this would be a normal class.

[krogothwolf]

Dean was lounging in the back of class sitting lazily and idly playing with his sunglasses. God school was always such a bore. He would much rather be goofing around with Filia then be stuck in class again. The poor girl was stuck under the school again. Though it was the best place for her, he was pretty sure it'd be hard to explain how she could go through walls even if she looked like a Great Dane right now. He then looked at the watch to check the time.

"Ack, this class is empty right now, guess I got here a bit earlier." He mumbled to himself "Wonder what me new roommate's gonna be like."

He then thought of all the possibilities going through his head. A uncultured country bumpkin, a uptight rich boy, a quiet shy one, a crazy sports player, a beautiful hot chick. Though the likely hood of that happening was slim to none, a young boy can dream can't he? He then heard a noise and looked up as a new girl entered the class.

"Lassie, ye be in the right place fer sure." Dean said, speaking up to her, with a very distinct Scottish blur."Ye dinna have ta look so lost and confused though. This class'll be dull like all tha others."

He then put his feet on the desk and leaned back.

"Ye new here lassie?" He asked her, "Name's Dean William Hunter, ye can ask me fer help if ya please."

He then began to idly play with his sunglasses again waiting for the others to show up.

[Dracorion]

... What the hell?

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Earlier today, Jackson Hall had arrived to Amaranth High. He'd learned that he'd be rooming with someone called Dean Hunter, who he was not looking forward to meeting. It was going to be an awkward time in the dormroom, but his parents couldn't afford a private room for him nor did they think he should be any more secluded. He'd signed up for the Social Club, which he was positively dreading. He wanted to work on his socializing problem, and he was always one to learn new things the hard way. He didn't learn to swim by playing in the shallow end, he'd dived straight into the deep end. But he just knew him being in the Social Club was going to be a disaster.

He was a little intimidated as he made his way through the grounds. They were huge! Elegant, was the word that came to mind. He'd never quite seen anything like this, even during his brief stint with the Selwyns, who were rich. Their huge manor home was barely as big as one of the faculty buildings here. He found himself worrying about what would happen if he so much as bent a blade of grass or scuffed the walkways with his shoes.

He shook it off and made his way to Building Q. He was supposed to go to the first floor, room eleven. He moved slowly, taking everything in. He had finally arrived at Building Q and started looking for room eleven on the first floor. Sunlight filtered through the windows as he made his way through the hallways, counting the room numbers. He passed people by on the hallways and wondered who was a human or a parahuman, perhaps even hoped to see an aura lighting up.

That was another thing. Outside, Amaranth looked like a regular, albeit extremely high-class, school. The truth, however? Some of the students, Jack hadn't been told how many, and he wasn't even sure anybody knew, were part of that secret world of magic. Some of them were much like regular humans. Their powers were instinctual and usually very subtle. Few of them, if any, would even be aware that there was anything special about them. Other students, like Jack, were Parahumans. They were just like humans, except they had had some training with their powers, so they could control them to a degree.

Amaranth was a place where children from the magical world could attend a normal school and still have a small amount of freedom with their magic. Jack's homeroom teacher was Professor Landry, and his first class was with her now. It was supposed to be all magical children there, so no need to worry about freaking anybody out. Though he wasn't quite sure what to expect, if Professor Landry was half as eccentric as people made her out to be.

"Aha." Jack muttered as he found room eleven. He raised his hand to slide the door open, but stopped just short. He had gulped down his hesitance, slid the door open and stepped into the classroom.

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And now... in the present...

Seriously, what the hell?

The figure sitting in the teacher's desk was completely covered in a black hooded cloak. He couldn't even see her face. He assumed it was a she because Professor Landry was supposed to be a woman. The hooded figure lifted her head to stare at him, and Jack realized that he'd been standing in the doorway too long. Jack felt goosebumps as her piercing eyes stared at him. She pointed at the desks, and Jack could feel her staring at him as he made his way there. Screw it, he wasn't afraid of this shadowy creature. He sat himself down in the fifth seat of the fourth row, that is, the side opposite the door.

He didn't think it was possible before, but it seemed Professor Landry was actually crazier than the stories he'd heard about her.

[Steel Shadow]

Diana Elaine Tear woke at dawn. This was unfortunate for her room-mate Sarah. Diana had never quite gotten over the habit of singing in the shower, just like she had never quite learnt how to carry a tune. Over the past few days the girls had been learning to adjust to one another, but this quirk was by far Sarah (a natural noon riser)'s biggest challenge. Maybe thicker pillows were in order, she wondered sleepily as she tried to bury her blonde haired head in her bed. And adjoining bathrooms had sounded so convenient in the brochure.

"KONYA WA HURRICANE!!!" The words rang out through the bathroom door (It was 3 inches thick, how could her singing be that loud?) and Sarah gave up.

"Coffee. Need coffee..." She groaned as she sat up and shoved her blanket aside, fumbling for her dressing gown.


10 minuets later she still hadn't fully woken up when Diana bounced into the kitchen area, towels still wrapped around her body and hair, water dripping everywhere. She dived at Sarah.

"Coffee!!!"

Half awake or no, Sarah's reactions were top notch. She lifted her mug above her head, out of the red head's reach, and used her other hand to push her away.

"Ohhhh no. No coffee for you. You're bad enough without it Di."

"Saaaaraaahhh! No faaaaaiiiiir!!!" Di wailed, arms making grabby motions for the treasured cup.

"Nope, this is a no Diana area. Go get dressed."

"Mean!" Di pouted, then turned with a 'humph', holding her towel tight and stomping back to their room.

She was back a quarter of an hour later, by which time Sarah had re-hidden the coffee behind the sardine cans, and had fixed herself some cereal.

She swept in, still brushing her hair, and began rummaging in the cupboards. She had exchanged her towel for a pair of black jeans and a loose blue T-shirt with a cola logo over her stomach. As she picked through the boxes her free hand put the brush aside and tied her dull red hair into a pony tail. Like always, a sturdy looking camera bag hung from her shoulder. "Hm, is today a coco-pops day or a shreddies day?"

Sarah munched on her corn flakes. "Today's your first day, right?”

“Yup.” Di apparently made up her mind and she pulled a box down from the shelf, grabbing a bowl and moving towards the milk Sarah had left out. “Dull day.”

“Dull?”

Di shrugged. “It'll be an introduction. A run over. Just a 'here's what you'll learn here' thing. No actual teaching, no real camera work, no good directing techniques, no deadlines, no scripts, yadda yadda... Meh. Just one of those things everyone sleeps through. Boooring.” She sat down at the table next to Sarah and began to eat.

“You can at least go see what they have in store before you make up your mind about it.”

Diana sighed and shook her head, before reaching into her bag and pulling out her camera. It was a shiny thing, with dozens of buttons across it, each marked with strange tiny pictograms which presumably indicated their function, but were more likely to drive an unprepared camera man insane trying to divine their meaning. Luckily, Di was a girl, and had read the instruction manual. She flicked several switches and the camera whirred to life, a small red light shining to show it was recording.

With a casual flick of her hair, Di turned the camera to face her, holding it steady with a practiced hand. Unnoticed to either girl present, a light breeze began to flow through the room from nowhere, lifting a few stray strands of red hair and making them flutter prettily, as well as ruffling the loose T-shirt.

“Morning fans! So, today we finally begin my first week here at Amaranth Institute! I'm so excited, how about you?

“So, Today's the day I'll be off to meet my classmates, and see just what this place has to offer me! And we'll all see if this place really deserves it's reputation, wont we? I guess I'll also be meeting one or two teachers, but I have a feeling they wont be giving me anything interesting to shoot, so instead I'll be focusing on my fellow students! They're bound to be interesting, right?

“Hey hey, trust me! I'll keep you entertained! Tell 'em Sarah!” The camera angled slightly to focus on the surprised blonde, still with a spoon in her mouth. She stared at the camera owlishly for a moment before swallowing and tightening her dressing gown.

“Weren't you just saying you were going to be bored out of your skull?”

“That was before I decided to focus on my fellow academics!” Di gave a cheery smile and winked at the camera.

“God damnit how can you be this energetic without any coffee...” Sarah muttered. Di ignored her.

“So, hopefully next time I'll have some fun little interviews for you! I'll see you there!” She flicked off the camera. “You need to improve on your on-screen persona, y'know? Ah well, you can work on it.” And then she tore into her breakfast.

“Not got much choice, as long as you've got that damned camera,” Sarah grumbled, returning to her cereal.

“Exactly!”

---

Something that would later be described as a red and white blur moved through the building. Diana had gotten up early. She had eaten well. Her white jackey had been where she'd left it. She had set out on time. Everything was going to plan.

Then she arrived at the actual school, and the urge to take a few shots with her camera had overcome her. A few had turned into a lot, and now she was down two memory sticks, and whatever lead she'd had over the clock was quickly disappearing.

“Room Q-111, room Q-111!!! Arrrgh, where is ittttt!!!”

She was a little stressed about the matter. But, before to long... “THERE!” She checked her watch as she skidded to a halt. “NOT LATE!”

Taking several deep breaths to calm herself, Diana strode forwards and slipped through the door, and then stopped dead. That was a costume right? Had to be a costume... Of course it was a costume! What else could it be?

Blinking slightly, Di part turned and sidled over to the desks, taking the 3rd one in the 3rd row, and glanced about to make sure she was in the right class. Since everyone else seemed somewhat confused or annoyed, she assumed she was.

Her hand automatically went for her camera. This might be more interesting than she'd thought...

[Menarker]

Jin slouched lazily over his desk, as the teacher seemed to drone about her silent writing, perhaps an attendence sheet. The teacher was dressed in quite a sharp contrast to the rest of the student and the faculties it seemed, but that hardly bothered him. If anything, Jin himself was one of the weird ones, living in the school as if he was one of the faculties himself. He kept much to himself not out of any particular disdain for anyone, but more so for a lack of comprehension and eagerness in these beings.

The djinn had arrived much the same pace as half the class, not too early and not late, but early enough to lay claim to his desired seat in the second last row from the back and second from the wall opposite the door that led in the room. Hopefully, this spot would bring as little attention to himself as possible.

He sighed as he wondered if the arrangements he made to safeguard himself would be effective. The class and school himself didn't interest him terribly. It just happened to be his birthplace and his home. His new dorm-room was at least a nice comfortable upgrade from his lamp, which he taken great pains to hide. Hopefully, none would be able to find it.

[Astral Harmony]

Astarte Whitewrap was bright-eyed and fully alert. This morning's little adventure had pushed all the sleepiness out of her mind...or lack thereof.

-----

When Astarte had woken that morning, she found it impossible to open her sarcophagus. She felt that her strength had not lessened since last night when she retired to her slumber, so that meant that something in the storage room for where her sarcophagus was placed had fallen or shifted somehow, pinning the sarcophagus shut. Astarte was about to actually start crying, thinking that she was going to be late for her first day of actual classes when her friend Linda shoved the obstruction aside.

Apparently, the months of being stored away had caused a large stack of boxes to become unstable and finally topple. But it was just some boxes. What the hell else did they store down here?

Linda was fresh from the shower, and naked once again. It was sort of a morning ritual for Astarte to examine Linda's body for signs of degradation. Linda was a zombie, after all. Once Astarte gave Linda a thumbs up, they both got dressed. Astarte and Linda had ordered some school uniforms from Japan. It was weird, an egyptian mummy and a western zombie wearing seifuku, but the girls couldn't resist. The red and pink uniforms were so cute. And Astarte and Linda, despite their true natures, filled them out really well.

-----

After Astarte and Linda wished each other a good day, they separated, Astarte to get to Professor Landry's class while Linda went to a different class. Astarte's seat was the fourth seat in the third row, right behind this one girl to whom Astarte had never met. Astarte decided not to bother her. She seemed kind of weirded out by what the professor was wearing and figured a woman wearing a schoolgirl uniform and wrapped in bandages would only make her more nervous.

[Bard The 5th LW]

'Oh no oh no oh no,' these were the thoughts rushing through Sean Castevet's mind as he got up from his bed. Why hadn't his alarm gone off? Oh well, no time to think about that now. Kicking his hockey gear out of the way, Sean pulled a light-blue Collared shirt from his dresser. The dress code said nothing about a tie, so he decided to skip that step to save time. He found a pair of khakis as well. Got a brush his teeth now...

---

During the brief time he had been residing at Amaranth, like a day or two, Sean was preoccupied with exploring the large and complicated School grounds. He had made some attempts to see the other students attending, but he didn't see any that looked odd.

He recalled his dad's words to him before he left.

"Don't talk about it, look for it, or listen for it. If you do, then act like you didn't unless its a danger."

Sean was still curious however. He knew his cousin Nicholas was probably on campus, but he wanted to know just how many other people who were aware of the 'supernatural' were around. None that he managed to see gave anything away. Sean himself was fairly normal as well. He was really pale, but that could be overlooked. He was told that he was really cold to, but he doubted people would really find that out easily.

He was usually an organized and punctual guy, but this place was overwhelming. He tried to keep track of to many factors, and he forgot to set his alarm properly. That was how he got into this conundrum. He also didn't even see his roommate, but that was really minor on his priorities. He supposed it had to be someone who liked the cold though, because the AC was heavy in there.

As Sean ran through the halls, he noticed that no one else seemed to be in a hurry. What? He turned his head and looked at a clock hanging on the wall. ...his watch was ahead. Ridiculously ahead. Sean mentally kicked himself for that mistake and took the moment to alight his watch with the clock on the wall. He gave a brief sigh of relief and walked the rest of the way. Room Q111 he believed.

Due to his rush, he was a bit ahead of schedule when he got to Room Q111, perfect. He wasn't quite ready to see the Grim Reaper at the teacher's desk though.

"Don't talk about it, look for it, or listen for it. If you do, then act like you didn't unless its a danger."

With his dad's words of advice in mind, Sean did his bast to act calm as he took a seat, although he could feel goose bumps on his back. How was that even possible? He decided he would be less conspicuous if he took a seat somewhere towards the center. He saw that the middle seat in the third row was occupied by a girl in bandages, a burn victim? Oh well. He walked up the steps to the second row and took his seat one row below and to the left of her. (second row 3rd seat to the right)

[Overcast]

John Helenski had been up for about two hours now. He was the kind of guy who scheduled his life so he could wake up well rested and take his time getting ready for whatever he had to do that day. He would drag himself slowly out of bed and shamble on in an easygoing and somewhat lazy pace as he washed, ate, dressed, and took in a bit of the morning news.

His new roommate wasn't quite so organized.

Jay had just hopped out of bed about five minutes ago going from almost dead sleep to full, heart racing awareness in under a second. The blood rushing from his head going from prone to standing he stumbled hurriedly toward his dresser looking at the alarm clock he'd put on top. According to the damn thing(which he had forgotten to set) he didn't have a lot of time to get ready. He had enough, but he certainly had no time for the news. He pulled random bits of clothing from his dresser, stuffed an eggo in the microwave and stuffed it down his gullet gulping OJ to keep from choking; rushed into the shower and came out hopping into a pair of jeans, toothbrush hanging out of his mouth, and eyes glued to his watch.

To be honest half the fun of having Jay as a roommate was seeing the ritual, he had been much the same during their orientation and John felt like this was way better than watching the news. He looked over Jay's class schedule a moment, sure that his roommate would be frantically trying to remember where he was going in just a moment after he got done rinsing out his mouth and noted the teacher with an amused grin.

Professor Landry, baseball Jay was sure in for one hell of a school year. He wouldn't warn him though, he was keen to just seeing the look on his face when he got back from that first day. The instructor enjoyed first impressions that let you know exactly the kind of atmosphere you were entering. John could only imagine what was in store for him.

"Hey John!"

"Building Q, room 111, the first one is the floor you are on."

"I would hug you right now if I weren't still undressed and sure that fucking Akins would walk in and call shenanigans on us."

In no time flat Jay was out the door, feet in a pair of green plaid chuck taylors, legs in jeans, body in a striped baseball jersey, backpack slung across his back and hair stuffed under a baseball cap. Giving a quick wave before the door closed and dashing down the halls to get out the door to a bright new day.

The campus was beautiful, the air was clean, the pathways were relatively uncrowded, the large trees majestic, the small trees well organized, the grass green. It was a big difference from the city, and the change of scenery really made this idea of his time here being a new beginning that much more prominent. He felt alive running through the campus, but he had to pay attention because he was easily distracted by things like this and missing his building could be the balance between being early or late.

He found his way there, and took off his hat. Used to schools having no hat rules, and no running in the hallway rules. He just assumed that was the case here. He stared at his watch as he walked quickly to the room. According to the little clock he wasn't late which gave him a grin because it always hurt to make such an effort to get ready and still end up tardy. He walked through the door and turned to get a front row seat and caught sight of the shroud of death.

"SHIT!"

He flinched hard and lost his balance, tripping and falling backward onto his bag. Lying there a moment it took him a second to reevaluate the image that had put him here, when he finally had enough room in his head to say anything it was pretty simple,

"...that's Professor Landry isn't it."

[DanteFalcon]

Andy walked into the classroom just a few minutes before class was supposed to start, sitting at the desk closest to the door and noticing the very grim reaper like teacher. Certainly an interesting development. He leaned forward on his desk, watching Professor Landry and trying to read him....her..... It as if he was playing poker. He wasn't completely focused on it, more intrigued to see if he could interpret anything from the small amount of information he had and its body posture. This was extremely difficult without any context or even any good way to determine its gender.

Without any new information he scanned the rest of the classroom briefly before taking out his deck of cards, removing them from their case and shuffling absentmindedly. If the teacher had nothing better to do than play mind games with its students then this class could be very interesting or extremely dull. Hopefully the former or he'd get quite sick of this new school rather quickly.

At least his parents had shelled out enough to get him a private room. He didn't have to worry about following some other students rules and could "organize" it by his own standards. Which admittedly were much lower than many other people could stand. His mother included.

As the time ran short he stopped his shuffling and glanced at the bottom of the deck before placing it away, smiling slightly at the irony as he replaced the deck in its case and back in his pocket and musing to himself.

"The two of clubs is always first..."

[Krylo]

The door slid open one last time just a second before first bell went off, and in stepped an immaculately dressed young man in straight black slacks and a white dress shirt with skin nearly as pale as the shirt. If this were a fictional universe created for teen girls one would almost expect him to sparkle, if not for the palpable lack of angst.

He stood still for just a moment, waiting for the bell to stop before reaching down to offer a hand to Mr. Miles, whom had fallen on his back mere moments before.

"Well, either that or it's the corporeal avatar of death," the young man answered with a slight smirk and an obvious, but unobtrusive, irish accent, "And if that's the case you'd be better off not being caught on your back, eh?"