Marble | 17 | Male | Shifter/Merman | Mentions: Alex(?)
He touched the little flower pin on his scarf. It was a white violet, simple and lacking extravagance, but he still appreciated it. Mama had taken the pin off of her own scarf and pinned it onto his in the last hour he spent in the cozy cottage they called their home. “For you, my dear.”
“A - a flower? But… but… but what if they make fun of me for it?”
Mama chuckled. “Then I’ll go over to Tenebris and fight them.”
He’d looked down at the pin, and then back up into Mama’s gray-green eyes. “But I don’t want to go.” This pin won’t encourage me to go, you do realize that?
She just smiled. Of course she did. She was always smiling.
And then she sent him on his way.
It didn’t really matter what he wanted. According to her, it was always what was best for him.
Maybe he was ungrateful, but he resented her for it.
He touched the little flower pin on his scarf and stepped onto the magi-lift that would take him to his dorm.
Oddly enough, the air dorm, as its name suggested, was, in fact, floating. The lofty building cast a soft shadow onto the campus grounds, and wispy clouds seemed to roll off of it, as if the structure was woven from threads of mist. As the magi-lift gradually rose at a steady pace, the air began to carry a gentle fragrance - citrus? Lavender? Mint? It didn’t smell particularly homey, per se, but that didn’t mean that it wasn’t welcoming. This herbal fragrance was quickly accompanied by a scent he knew to be fresh laundry, creating a crisp, lovely aroma that mingled with the cool air.
The magi-lift gradually slowed to a halt. He touched the little flower pin on his scarf and stepped into the dorm.
The first thing he noticed was the drifting wisps of mist in the halls that wove itself into a tapestry above the ground where the ceiling would usually be. Through this fog, he could see the familiar azure of the sky, and although this “ceiling” appeared neither solid nor intangible, he trusted it to protect him from the elements. The wide hallways were also something he very quickly grew to appreciate - he hated cramped spaces, and this high “ceiling” and open floor plan was something that didn’t take him long to fall in love with. The walls were made of a marble-like material, but rather than being white with dark gray veins, they were a swirl of gentle pastel colors that softened the atmosphere. Occasionally, the song of a bird could be heard in the distance, yet every chirp, yet every note would be crystal clear.
He took a deep breath and kept walking.
Suddenly, he picked up the sound of distant footsteps drifting through the building. He whirled around, and, through the faint fog, saw a tall figure with long black hair and glasses. Another student? He thought he’d arrived here relatively early, but he supposed that there would always be people who somehow managed to make it.
He turned away. Perhaps he’d better find his dorm room instead of immediately socializing with others, even though he was slightly curious about the figure in the distance.
After walking around for just a little while, he found the room number that matched the one on the paper he’d received from the Secretary’s Office - 703. It didn’t appear to be any different from the other rooms when judging entirely by the door.
He touched his flower pin and entered the dorm room.
There was a pool in the room.
Perhaps something snapped in him, but his first reaction was to immediately dash out of the room and slam the door behind him. Thank the heavens that the material the door and walls were made of somehow easily muffled the noise.
Then, after calming himself down, he touched his flower pin again and peeked into the room.
The pool was larger than he’d expected - bigger than a bathtub, but definitely smaller than the average swimming pool. Small cloud wisps floated over the surface of the water, and the light danced on the soft waves.
It was beautiful. And he was terrified of it.
He quietly entered the room, tiptoeing so as not to “disturb” the water, and silently set his belongings by the desk. Then he fell into his chair and exhaled so much air he suddenly realized how long he’d been holding his breath.
Why was he so darn afraid of a pool of water?
Gripping the back of his chair tightly, his mind raced to answer the question. I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know.
WHY. IS. THERE. A. POOL. IN. MY. ROOM.
Oh, gosh. The term hadn’t even begun and it was already starting to look like an absolute nightmare for him. He’d have to come back here, every single day, and sleep in a room next to his worst fear. Not only that, as a half-merman, he’d be physically compelled to enter the water, and his body would often defy his mind and do exactly that for him. Waking up in his incomplete merman form underwater instead of on his comfy bed sounded terrifying to him.
He inhaled. He exhaled. He inhaled. He exhaled.
It’s just a pool, the mermaids can’t get in here. You’ll be fine. You’ll be fine. It’s just you in here. You can’t drown. What’s the worst case - you wake up in the pool, so what? No one will find out what you are. They better not find out.
He inhaled. He exhaled. He touched the flower pin.
He stood up, legs still shaking, and looked around the rest of the room.
The room was far more spacious than he’d expected, but then again his room back in the cottage had been pretty small in comparison with the average bedroom. There was a bed tucked into the corner and the desk he was standing by placed against the wall. A thin misty curtain led to a walk-in closet that was more than enough to store all of his belongings.
Dear Blue Marble,
Your dorm room has been prepared in advance for you. There are a variety of mechanisms and little extra amenities in your room, so feel free to explore as you wish. If you wish for any specific accommodations or have any issues with your room, please do not hesitate to inform the Secretary. Once again, we would like to remind you that classes begin September 1st, giving you a few days to settle into your room, explore the campus, and socialize with your peers.
- Headmaster Perceval Coin
Screw this Perceval Coin person. Whoever they were, somehow, somehow, they’d figured out that he was half-merman and had assigned him this godforsaken room with a pool. How? How did they know? How did they figure out? Did they just look at him and see? Or was it the Secretary back in the check-in office who figured out?
One of them did. One of them knew. Maybe they didn’t mean it maliciously, but it didn’t calm him in any way.
And heck, he was NOT going to inform that Secretary that he didn’t want a pool. Maybe the pool was terrible, but trying to explain to anyone why a half-merman would be afraid of water was daunting enough already.
He didn’t know what was more terrifying - the fact that he would be sleeping next to his worst nightmare, or that somehow had figured out what he really was, and deliberately placed it next to him.
Fall 
Night 
Clear Moon: 
