Battle Hymn of the Republic

Katerina could only respond to Chinami's request with a diplomatic smile and an apologetic bow, "I'm sorry, Chinami-chan, but I can't do any more about it than you can." she chuckled Nervously as Vrey began to, well, be Vrey, and try her best to solve the issue wit her limited understanding of social interactions. until the bald girl was done, Kat could only stand on in silence before trying to give some advice that might help.

"Ah, Perhaps it may help to write one another's names down in your own respective languages, at least the phonetic characters, anyway. Here, let me try-" she suggested, getting a paper out from her bag followed by a brush pen, which she shook momentarily before removing the cap and writing down Chinami's name in Chinese characters, and Sun Yiu Wei's name in Japanese characters, trying her best to make it clear. "Perhaps this can help, just a little?"

Reika, for her part, stood away from the interactions, studying Katerina's methods in an aloof sort of way, though at the same time she found herself glancing over at Willow's hair as subtly as she could, then back at the conversation, until the point that she spotted Chinami's tiny fox spirit, which then garnered her full attention.

Willow sighed and tucked some hair behind her ear as she followed the others out to the commons. At some point in the future Drysi might open up some, but she felt that trying to force the matter would have an opposite effect on the triclops. Once she was clear of the suite she saw what the commotion was about, and like Reika was captivated by the small fox.

"My my, what's going on out here?" the British girl asked Reika as she joined the group.

Vrey's show stole the attention of the room, and a couple of heads poking out of doorways into the hall. The strange spirit-whathaveyou had only been around for so long, and she had already earned a reputation for her eccentricities. Chinami reeled back as Vrey closed in with her bow of forgiveness, which caused the oddly-browed girl to blush again, turning red at the sudden entrance of the more amenable Welshling.

"Um! I didn't... I didn't mean you... Er... Frey? Freya?" the Japanese girl butchered the bald-girl given name, which drew Yiu Wei out of his trance, raising a finger.

"Ah, so you don't just mispronounce my name, you mispronounce everyone's names," the young man had a strange glow to him as he looked to Chinami.

Clap! The spirit-spawning girl slapped her hand on the table, making it a bit red too, her small eyebrows falling heavy on her piercing eyes.

"I'm bad at names, okay?" came a fiery response, the fox in Tanaka's lap began to hiss from the nose, strings of smoke coming from its nostrils. The girl looked back at Vrey, "It's Freya, right?"

"Vrey," Sun corrected, a chiding smile on his face, like a schoolmaster's. The girl across from him snarled, her lips peeling back to reveal a row of fangs, her face becoming savage from the expression, her smooth and tart demeanor washed off. Yiu Wei seemed just as ready to defend himself before Katerina's bow cut them both off. The Elementalist had wedged between the two of them, and her diplomatic demeanor seemed to disarm the feral girl, with Yiu Wei sitting back into his chair.

Meanwhile, Willow's phone vibrated, a text read on the lock screen.

Dada wrote:"Are you settling in now? I heard the first days at Safeholme are mostly adjusting, but it's well accredited. We're closing the shop early today to do inventory. Take a look, your Mom organized the paper racks!"

"Woooou, Michizaki-san, I didn't know you knew Chinese too!" Tanaka Chinami was certainly impressed. She and Katerina were former classmates who had shared introductory courses at Safeholme. They had since branched off into more individual study.

Her sharp teeth were still showing as she stared agape at the neat handwriting of the elementalist.

"So, that's how you say it," said Sun Yiu Wei, somewhat facetiously. Katerina knew him as well. Yiu Wei was a student of the technique-based magics, and was a rather impressive addition to the school's athletics team. His Japanese wasn't very good at all, but he was a well-versed English speaker, although his accent showed in his speech regularly.

"Soan... Yeu... Waya..." Tanaka tried to repeat the letters aloud.

"You're not trying, are you?" Yiu Wei frowned, which caused Chinami to brandish fangs again, getting worked up enough for another little spirit to fall out the hood of her hair. It looked like a fist-sized, glowing pill at first, landing into her lap, and upsetting the fox enough to make it seek the floor for space. The pill stood up, and and its head spun, revealing a beak, and then shook out a pair of wings, before fluttering over to Chinami's knee to stare across the table with deep, piercing eyes. An Owl Spirit.

The fox took this moment to prowl over to Reika, it sniffed her shoe a moment, before catching something else in the air. It looked over at Willow, and affectionately brushed up against her leg, running from nose to tail next to her, disregarding the sword-mage entirely now.

The familiar rattle of the door they had just left sounded down the hall, signaling its opening and the appearance of an elusive triclops. She had a sheepish look on her face, holding her phone close to her chest. The girl made an effort to walk over, before she subsequently turned around and closed the door she had left open. Her sheepish look was slowly giving way to frustration.

Looking up from her position - crouching down from the weight of all the eyes that had danced past her - Vrey cocked her head to the side quizzically as Chinami spoke. The bald girled nodded - her head dipping in understanding with each of the Japanese girl's and Sun's exchanges - and then rocked forward on her heels. Her hand darting out the odd teen captured part of Chinami's arm - neither hand nor wrist or elbow but something between the latter two - and shook the appendage congenially.

"It is good to meet you Freya." Vrey nodded again, confidently, and smiled. "Bravery tumbles with the humble in knowing you can accept such a confusion towards your own name. Though-" Craning her head back as far as it could go Vrey looked up and behind her towards Sun. "-when one discredits their name with the un of needed and heeded it is not a wonder for them to be forgotten." As she spoke Vrey kept up the small, repetitive motion of her shaking hand-to-arm with Chinami.

Reika turned back to the foreign blonde as she asked a question, and blinked once or twice before formulating an answer. "I am, not sure," she began, looking down at her foot as the small fox spirit came by and inspected her before moving over to the young druid. One of the two swords she carried on her back began to glow slightly within its sheath, giving Willow a sense of excitement, witch caused the tall girl to tap on the hilt, before talking to it instead. "Calm, Tomo, Shimo, now is not the time," she assured the sword, which seemed to calm down, though Willow would get a feeling of disappointment and acceptance with the lack of glow.

"I learned many languages during my travels with my family," Katerina answered to the other Japanese girl's query, as if it was an unimportant fact. "Take your time and try to focus on the way the syllables are arranged" she instructed, as Chinami once again botched attempting Sun Yiu Wei's name, as she tried to be as congenial and mediatorial as possible, despite whatever Vrey was doing.

"Ah, Vrey-chan, please take care to honor everyone's personal space, and please take care to learn someone's name properly before deciding on the wrong one. Her name is Tanaka Chinami, not Freya, I believe she was trying to say your name rather than give one for herself."

"Eeeeh," Willow groaned as she discovered that the phone she had been handed was not hers, but in fact Drysi's. Reasonably, it was the other girl who had made the mistake, so how could she possibly get angry about the mix up. To cover her butt as much as she could, she stopped reading the moment it dawned on her that the phone wasn't hers, and wiped what she had read from her memory. All she would do is give the phone back and explain that it was the phone case that had given it away. The only hurdle to jump now was the fact her roommate had already been in a sour mood. One bonus she got to help ease her trepidation was that the little fox spirit had come over to her, and her own spirits soared as she knelt down to pet the fox; but soon enough Willow set her mind back to the task at hand.

Standing up and turning around, the Brit noticed Drysi looking somewhat awkward before apparently giving up and going back to the room. "She must have realized it as well," Willow sighed. "I'll be right back, Reika."

Willow walked back to the room, and after another hesitant sigh opened the door. "Hey Drysi, I must have grabbed the wrong phone out of your hand back there," Willow said in the best apologetic tone she could manufacture, holding the wayward phone out in front of her. The Welsh girl had looked really embarrassed back there, so she was willing to provide her with an easy out to try and minimize the matter. "I think this one is yours."

The small owl sparked, a bit of electricity wrapping about its form as it spun its head one way and then the other.

"Eh!? What's going on!?" Tanaka stared incredulously at her shaking forearm, before looking helplessly at Michizaki. The girl had no clue how to interact with Vrey, especially considering she had trouble interacting with Yiu Wei, who seemed relatively normal. "Michizaki-san, what's happening!? This was a speaking lesson just a second ago, now it's... I don't know what it is!"

She turned back to Yiu Wei, as he was surely basking in her discomfort. Yet, she was shocked to find that he was gone, further shocked to see an arm crossing in front of her, and nearly leaping out of her skin as the young man had somehow placed himself next to her. The bald athlete was shaking the bald girls arm much like Vrey was shaking Tanaka's, there was a bewildered fascination on his face, capped by a hand on his chin to complete the thoughtful expression.

"Impressive, to think that someone could manifest the sun's light through the clouds of the moon! Your greeting shows nothing, yet everything all at once. I am honored, they call me Sun Yiu Wei," said the boy, his eyes sparkling. Chinami's face was aghast, and she could only stare up to Katerina with a helpless look, as this strange scene played out in front of her.

"Michizaki-san, help me!"

Once again, a more assertive desu, Katerina had never heard.

At the doorway of the resident students of the group, Willow saw a sheepish Welshling staring at the floor. The bitter Maelgwyn was very proud, almost to a fault, and she seemed quite unable to meet the druid in the eye, especially after slamming the door in her face prior. The much nicer phone in her in hand also seemed to be a frustrating focus of her attention. Her three eyes looked up from it, with a bit of consternation, showing she refused to accept much from a Druid.

"You know as well as I--OOOUGH!" Drysi yelped, seeing a glowing fox spirit out of the corner of her eye, as it had begun to worm into their room. The scribe threw herself out onto Willow, with her hands gripping onto the druid's uniform. She stared at the creature carefully as it prowled about. In what she may have considered a safe moment, the panicked girl looked back and forth between it and her, "What is that!? Is it yours? Why is it walking towards us!?"

The fox had turned on Drysi, its curious gaze forcing the triclops to back up more into her taller roommate, pushing them both next to the wall in the corridor. With a sniff, the spirit appraised the frightened scribe, and began to growl, bearing a row of teeth.

"Easy, Drysi," Willow said reassuringly as she put a hand on the Welshgirl's shoulder. The fox had behaved itself out in the common, suggesting it either just didn't like Drysi, or it was responding to her nervousness. Using her hand on Drysi's shoulder to separate herself, Willow moved in between the uneasy girl and the fox. Kneeling down she held an open palm out in front of the spirit, and made a hushing sound while rubbing her thumb along her index finger; inviting it over for some petting. "Easy little guy, it's okay. Nothing to be afraid of."

Vrey cocked her head curiously as Yiu Wei grabbed her arm, but then nodded along encouragingly as the athlete made his statements. Looking down at the tangle of arms in front of her the bald girl gently moved her arm that the boy was holding - giving him ample time to adjust his hold and shake - and then clamped her hand for that arm next to where she had been executing her own shake on Chinami's arm.

Letting her original hold go in favour for her new one Vrey now left the situation for Yiu Wei to provide all the weight behind the shake for both her own arm and now Chinami's.

"Effeciency." The teen stated through both a clipped tone and expression as she looked up towards her bald fellow.

Katerina was now at a loss. She was no longer certain what was going on between Chinami, Yiu Wei, and Vrey. All she could do was give chinami a confused and somewhat pained look accompanied by a shrug, as the situation had gotten out of her control. Katerina desperately wanted everyone to get along but also wanted to try and have Vrey act as some modicum of normalcy, yet she did not want to force or try to impose herself upon the odd girl. This left her with very few options and realistically at this point she had given up.

Reika, on the other hand, had been distracted by the others, as Willow and Drysi were now interacting. she peered curiously upon their interactions, trying to figure out what exactly was going on. some sort of embarrassment? Perhaps jealousy? but then both thoughts were thrown out the window when Drysi became accosted by one of the other mage's spirits. "Shimo, go play with the other fox spirit, please get him away from those girls," the swordswoman said, looking over her shoulder to one of her blades. it glowed, and a small reddish fox spirit emerged, floating about playfully before disappearing, and then reappearing near the other fox spirit, enticing it in a playful manner to lure it away from the two British girls.