Just Breathe (open)

beloved · Jun 11, 2015

Nia felt like she was going to throw up, half from seasickness and half from anxiety. Even after the boat had arrived and she was back on solid ground again, she still felt like her stomach was about to explode. She wasn't really sure how she even got to the school, everything just felt like a blur at this point. Cars, trains, a short plane ride, a boat, more cars, and finally Starlight Academy. Not that finally arriving made her feel any better, in fact she felt ten times worse. The car dropped her off in front of the administration building, pulled her backpack out of the trunk, and drove off.

Nia stood there for a moment, just staring. Her body felt like it was made of stone and her feet were glued to the ground. Everything had been happening so quickly and the stress was really getting to her. After about thirty seconds of frozen fear, Nia finally got some wits about herself and reached down and grabbed her bag. She took a deep breath and started to walk slowly into the building.

When she entered, there was someone already talking to the woman at the reception desk and another person waiting behind them. Nia adjusted her bag, took another breath, and went to stand in line. The small girl stood there, fiddling with the hem of blue dress, her knees shaking. There were only about ten people in sight but Nia felt like the room was swarming with people and noise. It made her head spin, her heart beat faster, and her breathing get faster. Now she really felt like she was going to throw up.

"Just breathe... Just breathe..." Nia started to say to herself under her breath, her small voice shaking as she stared at the ground and tried to calm her mind and body.

Romi · Jun 18, 2015

For Anastasia, there had been only a boat. Well, there had been a car ride to the harbor, but that had not been nearly as significant as the very, very long trip by boat out to the islands. It had seemed to go on forever, and to someone as unfamiliar with boat travel as Anastasia was, the trip was not at all pleasant. She hadn't gotten sea sick beyond the first day, but it hadn't been comfortable either. It had simply been the kind of trip where any other option would have been preferable.

She had insisted on walking to the academy. It might have been a sizable walk for many, but she was eager to stretch her legs after being cooped up. There was only so much exercise one could do in an enclosed space like a ship, and she'd been eager to keep out of the way of the crew to avoid making a nuisance of herself.

The island was... well, it was alright. It was hard to feel particularly warmly about it in light of all that had happened, and while it was certainly a great deal better than the boat had been, it was no Russia. Perhaps she was just being patriotic, but Russia had been her home, and the Manta Carlos islands... well, she doubted they would ever be.

The school was at least more impressive than the public school she'd attended, which inspired at least a bit of confidence. The wait times in the lobby did not. The boy talking to the receptionist had been doing so since she'd arrived, and she was rapidly growing impatient with waiting.

So when she heard someone talk - someone she'd barely realized was there - her first thought was that someone had decided to voice their complaints. Only it was too quiet for that, and when she glanced behind her she realized that the person wasn't even talking to her. She was a little girl who couldn't have been more than fourteen, and she appeared to be talking to herself and looking... well, more than a little nervous.

It was not a feeling that Anastasia felt often, but it was one she could sympathize with, and as far as she was concerned, it was her civic duty to help someone so young.

"Are you doing alright?" Her english was fine, even if her Russian accent was a bit thick so soon after arriving.

Tag to @Beloved

beloved · Jun 20, 2015

Nia was trying to do her best just keep herself from hyperventilating. She had already done so twice on the boat ride over and once on the plane ride, and she was really not wanting to repeat the experience for a fourth time in such a short period of time. At the moment, she was still fairly in control of her breathing and she really wanted it to stay that way.

She had gotten so caught up in keeping herself calm that she had zoned out and forgotten about the line she was standing in and the woman in front of her. When the woman's voice cut into Nia's focus, she literally jumped; her whole body doing one giant twitch as her head snapped up to the voice that had just spoken. The tall woman made little Nia feel like an ant and her knees started shaking more. She was got so startled by the woman speaking to her that it took her a moment to realize what she had even said.

"Oh.. I uh..." Nia stammered, trying to think of what the proper answer was to the blonde woman's question. "I'm just breathing..." She said her eyes locked on the woman, her knees still shaking. She wasn't sure if that really answered the woman's question but it was the only thing that she could think to say.

Romi · Jun 22, 2015

The girl was so skittish. She was like a mouse, tiny and jumpy. As best Anastasia could guess, she was probably one of the elementary students - or junior high at most. Everyone she met at the school seemed so small. Was it just because it was a mixed campus, and she wasn't used to being around people so much younger than her? Or was Russia just supernaturally tall?

Her question was firmly not answered by the explanation that she was breathing. Did breathing have a second meaning in English she was unaware of? Her confusion no doubt showed on her face as she tried to wrap her head around it. Everyone was breathing. If they weren't, they would be dead. Did she mean 'trying to breath'? Or... well, she wasn't very good at figuring out things in English.

"You are... just breathing?" Nope, she wasn't following at all. "You are waiting for the receptionist, or...?" She was still shaking, but Anastasia was not quite grasping why she was shaking.

Tag to @"beloved"

beloved · Jun 22, 2015

Nia was really trying her best to calm herself down. She didn't want to look like a nervous wreck, especially since she felt like that would make her look weak and vulnerable. Not that she wasn't and her size didn't already make her look more like pray than predator.

When the woman spoke again, Nia immediately thought Russia. The thought was strange to Nia though. She had never thought about Russia before but somehow she knew what it was and that this woman was most definitely from there. Nia knew she had amnesia but it was still scary dealing with a mind that somehow knew things but she couldn't remember anything.

The woman's questions didn't really make much sense to Nia and she wasn't sure what the woman wanted to know. "Yes. I--I'm breathing..." She said unsure why the woman didn't understand that. She glanced up to the front of the line and gave a small nod. "Yes. I have to figure out where I go." Nia found that her breathing had calmed down some now and though her legs were still shaking it wasn't quite as bad as before. Maybe talking to this girl was helping to distract her from the panic inside her head.

Romi · Jun 23, 2015

Once upon a time, Anastasia would have said she couldn't relate. She had lived most of her life (while not without hardship) without being overwhelmed. Even if things got hard, she still felt fully in control. Even if she did poorly - even if she failed outright - she was doing so on her own terms. She had been in control.

But she had not been in control when her parents had been killed. She had not been in control when she had come back from the dead. Nothing about being on the Manta Carlos islands felt like any sort of control. Her life had been wildly out of control, and even if she'd yet to break down crying (or hyperventilating) in public, she could at least relate to a certain extent, something she never could before.

There were two ways to take it - either she was waiting in line to be told where to go, or she was lost and unsure of where to go. Intentional or not, Anastasia found herself leaning over slightly, being a bit more eye level rather than towering over the tiny girl. "Are you new here?" They seemed to get a lot of new students at very random times, but she supposed that made perfect sense, considering how they recruited. It wasn't as if they could just not recruit people in distress and leave them to the outside world until september rolled around.

Tag to @"beloved"

beloved · Jun 23, 2015

The funny thing about amnesia, or at least Nia's case of it, was that while she had no memories of her life up until a couple weeks ago, she still could remember things. She knew what the sun was and how cars worked. She understood how time worked and could follow along with almost everything that came on TV. It wasn't like her brain was a blank slate; it was like she was a blank soul that was given a pre-loaded brain.

For that reason though, Nia felt very disconnected from everything. She had no personal knowledge of anything. It just felt like she had read about everything in a book and was just now getting to experience it all first hand. To her, feeling this much panic and stress about simple every day things was just how her brain worked; it was just how things were. She didn't know that to this woman, her shakes and crazy breathing were anything out of the ordinary.

As the woman leaned down a bit towards Nia's eye level, she couldn't help but step back a bit as the movement made the woman closer and Nia wasn't so good with personal space. She did find though, that the more even height made her feel a bit better somehow. It kind of evened the playing field. Nia gave a quick nod, "I'm suppose to talk to that lady about where I go.." She said, the words coming about a bit more evenly now that her breathing had calmed some.

Romi · Jun 25, 2015

So she was new, and largely in the same situation Anastasia was... mostly. Anastasia would probably be able to find her way around without too much trouble, and was more there for the paperwork side of things. She hadn't actually been told there was paperwork, but it seemed to go without saying. She would have to sign her name, register for classes, be assigned a dorm... Her brain kept flinching back to 'how do I pay for this', even though she'd been told that everything was being paid for. It just seemed impossible that everything could be paid for, just like that. Where was the money all coming from? Who was bankrolling the whole ridiculous thing?

"So you are new to the island as well? Or did you live here all your life and are just starting school?" It seemed impossible hard to pin down the girl's age. Twelve? Maybe a bit younger? Maybe a few years older? She never would have guessed her actual age. "This place is quite strange to me."

Anastasia had to imagine that it was strange to anyone who hadn't grown up on the island. Most people had probably lived a life much like hers, one where there was no supernatural people, no supernatural powers... no shark men, no people made of elements, and no people made of what was best described as magic. In her mind, there was a very distinct line between people like her, who had passed as normal, and those who had always lived on the island amongst all the oddities that populated it.

Tag to @"beloved"

beloved · Jun 26, 2015

Nia, while she was much older than she believed, was essentially a child. She didn't know how to do anything for herself and in fact, doing anything for herself scared her to death. So far, in her couple weeks of life, she hadn't had to make any actual choices for herself anyways. Everyone had just told her where to go and what to do, and there had always been someone by her side directing her. That was until the nuns shipped her off. They had driven her to the airport and from there, it had been random person after random person just pointing her in the general direction to go and her struggling through anxiety after anxiety to try to get herself where she needed to be. Somehow, Nia had arrived in one piece.

"I just got here..." Nia mumbled glancing around the room. Her brain had started to calm down a bit. Having this woman to talk to was really helping distract her from the panic in her mind and even calming her nerves, though her legs were still shaking. She gave a small nod in agreement to the woman; this place was very strange indeed. However, to her the whole world was still very strange.

Nia still had no idea what this school really was. She hadn't even gotten to read the letter. The nuns had just told her that there was a school, very far away, where she would be at home. She had heard a few people on the boat ride over whisper about the strange students that attended Starlight but she had no idea what lay in store.

Romi · Jun 27, 2015

Nia and Anastasia truly could not have been more different. Nia was older than Anastasia, unknown to either of them, but Anastasia had always had a life of self reliance and independence. If there had been no orientation, no tours, and no maps, Anastasia would have got along just fine. She'd have taught herself the layout of the campus, figured out how to get to each class, and settled in comfortably. She had always been like that, raised in a household where anything less was just laziness.

Even if she was unfamiliar with the whole supernatural thing, she still had a better grasp on it then the poor girl in front of her did.

That said, for all her independence, Anastasia had minimal experience with young children. The girl before he looked to be quite a few years younger than her, and she was very hesitant when she spoke again, worried she would somehow say the wrong thing and screw it all up.

"My name is Anastasia." Didn't American's just say their first names when introducing themselves? It was odd to her, but no one seemed to introduce themselves properly. "Let's get acquainted."

Tag to @"beloved"

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Just Breathe (open)

beloved

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beloved

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