Luminary Institute

3: Post-Break Icebreakers

In a cross-legged sitting position, Nyssa kept quiet as everyone else took their places. With only seven people—the five original students, Angelica, and her—it was an intimate circle. The lights too, were dimmed by Angelica to a cozy yellow. 

“I just want to make it a little more comfortable for a Monday morning, is this alright?” Angelica asked the group. With each person nodding in gratitude, she leaned over and grabbed her laptop. “I’ll just take some light notes as we all talk. I have to keep this class moderately productive after all. Sounds good?”

With a chorus of “Sounds great”’s and “Yep”’s coming in from everyone, Angelica began typing as her hands flew across the keyboard. “As for our general plan today, we’ll ease into the morning, take a short break, then I’ll give you all a solid five hours or something to do your daily general education, then we’ll reconvene and decide our plans from there, any questions?” 

Looking around and seeing everyone staying quiet, Angelica shrugged. “I’ll take that as a no. We usually wouldn’t do this, but let’s just go around introducing ourselves for Nyssa, alright?” 

With the floor open, an awkward silence fell onto their seven person circle. It wasn’t until a couple seconds later when the blond boy who had an orange streak through his hair from earlier cleared his throat. “Fine, I’ll start. Down to me to save the day as always.” 

Striking a stylish pose, the boy snapped his fingers. “I’m Ryker! I’m currently nineteen years old. I’m quite the energetic lad if I say so myself.” 

“Energetic lad?” A different boy with pale-blue hair snorted until he got jabbed in the side by the purple-haired girl. “Sorry, continue.” 

“Thank you, my kind gentleman,” Ryker wiggled his eyebrows while returning to his seated position. “There’s not much I can say about myself. I come from a pretty normal family. My father is a hero while my mother is a hunter. As for my powers they’re... pretty simple. I have one of the best regenerative factors you’ll ever see. I can come back from pretty much nothing.” 

Tapping his chin, Ryker grinned before snapping. “Yep that’s about it-” 

“No way you’re stopping there,” The purple-haired girl snorted as a few sparks traveled down her hair. “We don’t hide things here. Be upfront with Nyssa.” 

“That’s... true, yeah.” Ryker sighed while leaning back against the leg of a desk. “Sorry, yeah, I should follow our own rules. By the way, rule one is, since we all have dangerous powers, we try to be open with each other so everyone is aware of the potential dangers. We’ll fill you in on the rest later, but, anyway, my main power, actually, is the ability to blow up any part of my body.” 

Shaking her head and doing a double-take, Nyssa raised a finger and opened her mouth before deciding to shelve her question. 

“Everyone always asks, but yes, it’s pretty much just like my body is a bomb. No blood does not go everywhere. Thank the heavens.” Ryker shrugged while letting out a small yawn. “Depending on how much I decide to blow up by myself the explosion gets bigger. Quite important to have the regenerative powers because of that.” 

“For sure,” Angelica agreed while adding a couple of notes to her document. “You phrased it differently this time, quite nicely if I say so myself so I’m writing it down. Anything else you want to share?” 

"No-pe," Ryker snapped his fingers once more. “Electra, you’re up next since I said so. We’ll just go from oldest to youngest.” 

“I’m Electra,” The purple-haired girl from earlier introduced herself. “Not much I can say about myself either. Unlike Mr. Ryker over here, I’m the child of two heroes, and my powers are quite simple: Electrokinesis. So, for context Ryker was put in this class because he used to just blow up completely when he lost control of his emotions, but for me I used to discharge dangerously high levels of electricity when I lost control.” 

“How... much? If I may ask?” Nyssa ventured with a hesitant crack in her voice. “Don’t share if you don’t want to.” 

“Like enough to power the whole city for a while,” Electra shrugged, “Also, not a big deal, don’t hesitate to ask questions, I’m open about everything. On a kind of unrelated note, I also have extreme control of electricity too. Especially because of bad past experiences, I don’t discharge much, I usually use electricity to shock myself into having super speed instead.” 

“You should’ve just become a doctor with all your anatomical knowledge,” Celeste teased with a faint smile. “You’d be award winning. Finishing the procedure before the patient could get knocked out.” 

Rolling her eyes, Electra just shrugged. “Maybe one day. I like fighting too much though. Anyway, Albion, you’re next.” 

“Nah, it’s me, Titus,” A red-haired boy waved with one hand while giving Albion a pat with his other. 

“Ah- sorry, my bad,” Electra coughed while glaring at Ryker who was clutching his stomach trying to not laugh. “Shut the hell will you, Ryker? I can’t stand your ugly-ass face.” 

With Ryker breaking into full on laughter, Titus cleared his throat as Electra pounced on Ryker. “Anyway, ignoring those two... I’m Titus! Eighteen years old. I’m noticing a trend but I also don’t have much to say. I’m from a household of famous fire-users, and, well, you wouldn’t be able to guess it but I also have fire-related powers.” 

Getting an ‘elaborate’ hand motion from both Electra and Ryker—having both calmed down by now after getting a stern glare from Angelica—Titus sighed. “What else can I even say? Well, Albion and I come from rival households. We’re also practically the same age, so we’re pretty much friendly rivals. I’m older by half a year though, so that’s a win in my book.” 

With Titus chuckling with a good-natured smile on his face, Nyssa couldn’t help but ask. “Are you an older sibling?” 

“Oh! Yeah, that’s something,” Titus flashed a pair of finger guns. “Albion is the youngest of four, and I’m the oldest of three, so perhaps that contributes to our difference in demeanors. I think of myself as quite laid back.” 

“You still never elaborated on your powers.” Albion sighed as Titus leaned back as well. “I... begrudgingly... respect him because he does some straight up magic with his powers.” 

“They’re not that special,” Titus stretched with a carefree smile. “Okay, they’re kind of hard to explain though. Pretty much, beyond having the normal pyrokinesis power package, I can also do something I like to call fire shaping. It allows me to create constructs of fire. These constructs too sometimes get blessed by the heavens and become pseudo-divine artifacts, which is... well... a little problematic sometimes.” 

“Pretty much he can also sometimes make very powerful cursed weapons.” Albion finished Titus’s sentence with a grumble. “Very cursed, but very powerful.” 

“That sounds about right.” Titus scratched the back of his head. “Don’t worry about it too much. Albion, would you like to go?” 

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