Akori Academy for a Better Future

ChelonianCommander

Strength of Steel, Will of Iron
It was late august on the mountain of Aorki. The New Zealand air was cold and brisk, and light snow from the night before blanket the ground as a breeze tossed around leaves and bits of snow and debris. A sparse drizzle of snow came down from the sky as the buses carrying the newest generation of mutants to the mountainside school for their training to become great heroes of the people. All of them were new and despite their age differences, they were all starting off as equals. Once the buses stopped, they were herded into the school leaving theirs belongings, packs and suitcases inside the bus for collection by the school staff.

The school itself was rather small, about the size of a manor and consisted of two buildings, the gym and the main school building. The main school was built into the mountain itself as only the entrance peered from the side. The students were taken in and were made to congregate inside the cafeteria where there were 4 large picnic style tables, more then enough room for the students to sit.

An old woman, possibly late 50s, walks up in front of the students and faces them. She had blue eyes, pale blonde hair tied in a bun and wore a business skirt dress paired with a set of thin rimmed glasses. The woman held an air of noble properness about her as she began to speak to the students.

"Students. Welcome to Aorki Academy." She said, her voice ringing out with each syllable. "You have either been chosen by the school itself, or have bought, beg and stole your way here so I congratulate you. Regardless how you managed to make your way here, you are all in the same position. For the next four years, you shall be taught standard high school and college material, but that is not why you are here. Those are simply perks of the academy. Why you are really here is because you have great powers, inhuman and dangerous in the wrong hands, but here we are going to help to turn your gifts into a benefit for society. You shall grow and learn more about your powers until you finally can graduate as heroes of society." She takes a small pause as he adjusts her glasses. "You are free to do what you wish, but note that should your powers be used to harm anyone in or out of this acadmy, you shall be punished. Any fighting will ONLY be done under the supervision myself or the physical educations teacher. Failure to follow this single rule shall not only result in expulsion but also possible action from law enforcement." The woman takes another pause, to clear her throat before listing off a few more general rules before finally setting to something of importance. "Lastly, I wish to let you know that here at Aorki Academy for a Better Future, we pride ourselves on being the only mutant training academy in the world and the whole world is constantly watching us, and therefore you. Anything you do will reflect on us so mind yourselves. That is all. Have a good day and I hope you have a wonderful time here at Aorki Academy for a Better Future. Now please get yourselves comfortable and wait for introductory classes to start. The rooms are at the left of you all and you all have rooms assigned to you already, as well as a key inside to lock the doors." With that the woman leaves the room, walking out the back leaving the students to go check out their rooms.

The door to the left opens up to a set of spiraling stairs leading up to a second floor, made up of three sections; a game room with a large flat screen TV, a shelf of neatly organized video games and a variety of consoles, a break room with a ping pong table, a Foosball table and several pieces of light workout equipment, a vending machine and chess table and finally a hallway of doors, each with name for each student etched on a sign bolted to the door. Each room is moderately sized with a bed, a desk with a single room key on it, a small bathroom with shower and tub, and finally the student's belongings on the bed. Now the students have free reign of the second floor and time to themselves it seems.
 
It was cold, to say the least, but the sight of Aorki Academy for a Better Future had a young mutant pushing her fluffy aviator hat off of her brows with a gloved hand to try to get a better view. Elizabeth Baranowski was in awe, even if it wasn't the large, imposing building that she had originally expected it to be.

When the bus pulled to a stop right in front of the double doors that could easily be determined to be the main entrance, it didn't take long for staff to come onto the bus and begin ushering the students off of it. It was way too cold for the end of August, and the drifting snow had Eli pulling her light scarf up to cover the lower half of her face. She didn't bother to look around at the other mutants who would be her peers for the next who-knows-how-long, instead quickening her step to be one of the first to enter the school.

It was much warmer inside, and as extravagant as Eli had thought the exterior was, the interior was even more so. She faltered in her step, and nearly slammed into someone's back. "Ah! I'm sorry!" But there wasn't much time for her to apologize as they were herded into a room in the building that she assumed was the cafeteria. She sat at a random picnic table, and soon, and elderly woman came in and began talking. The woman's speech wasn't long, and it was only a few minutes before Eli was pushing herself out of her seat and finally taking a look around at the other mutants who had been selected to join the school.

The first individual to jump out at her was a girl who's skin was coloured a dark blue and her hair a bright white. Odd. Eli looked away quickly, not wanting to seem rude, and glanced over the remaining mutants. The rest looked, well, normal, except one guy seemed to have weirdly shiny skin. Maybe he just moisturized really well. She couldn't determine who it was out of the group that she had nearly run into, so she decided not to say anything.

Feeling kind of awkward, Eli twisted on her heel and started towards the door, intending to go find her room.
 
Despite her appearance, Alexis was not a girl who enjoyed the cold, even after all her years on the streets of the windy city she never got used to that sharp tugging on her skin as her clothes were picked up by the breeze. It helped that the parts of her she kept metal sorta numbed the feeling of the cold, converting that icy dagger into just an echo that bounced across her insides. She never really put much effort into thinking about how it must look inside her arm when it's both flesh and metal, too much effort, too much confusion, waste of time. However, she'd always felt more comfortable on buses. Cheap, but not dirt cheap. Big enough to house multiple people, but not enough to crowd you. She didn't need much room for possessions, her oddly colored attire was the most expensive thing she had on her and that was just a favor being repaid.

When the droves of students carried her out of the bus and onto the soft ground, she took a moment to get a good look at her surroundings. She would say it was smaller than expected, but then she noticed that it went into a god damn mountain. Pretty remote. Guess they wanna make sure we're far away from the normies, huh? She briefly felt someone briefly collide with her back, but she paid it no mind, just hoping they wouldn't come crying to her if they accidentally wacked their head against the metal parts or something.

Without time to spare she soon found herself mindlessly following along as the scene changed to that of the cafeteria, her butt firmly planted on a picnic table beside some pipsqueak. A brief glance over just noted the words 'old-fashioned' in her mind before she looked back over towards the old woman giving the speech. Your basic introduction stuff. 'This is school, don't make us look bad, be goody-goods, don't start fights unless you have a referee to take bets, enjoy your shit'. She shouldn't complain, she came here to be better, to get out of the lower-class and find something that won't get her jail time. Didn't mean she had to like it, just tolerate it.

The speech over, nothing spectacular going on and a bed sounding nice, Alexis got to her feet to walk towards the door, only to find herself bumping into that small girl.
 
Artyom tossed his black beanie to the side and unbuttoned his jacket upon entering his room. The furnishings were quite nice, and he was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the institution overall. It was a scenic location, and the facilities were practically a vacation resort. The other students seemed like fairly fine people, and the rules seemed quite fine as well, though there were surely more to come the future. Still, Artyom was quite pleased with it all. It was a marked improvement over any institution he had studied at in the past, and put him in a fine mood.

Fixing his door open, Artyom went about unpacking his things, humming a jaunty tune. A pair of skates, a dozen novels (mostly philosophy and science fiction), a laptop, clothes, and an assortment of personal items were all neatly sorted away, and he went to work hanging some posters for decoration. Retro science fiction and old-school horror were the main themes, and Artyom smiled at the finished product.

Artyom grabbed the key to the room off the desk, but didn't bother to lock it as he strolled out of the room, fixing his hat back on. Whistling, he set off to explore the campus, maybe meet some of the faculty, or other students, while he was at it.
 
Blank.

At that immediate moment, Kylie's mind was blank. She paid little attention when the woman overseeing everything here made her speech, the girl too preoccupied with thinking about nothing. She could have thought of anything. How she was unceremoniously sent here without much consultation from her father, how good or badly she'd get along here all things depending, the prospect of being "trained" and its implications, anything. But no, it was just blank, with little more than a passing desire to disappear into her own thoughts. Kylie didn't care much about being here at all, but here she was regardless, so may as well get used to it in the here and now. Still, that was also blank; her thoughts on her fellow mutants, her new so-called peers. It was just like high school never ended.

Even so, just like with then, Kylie didn't care to immediately congregate with the others, not paying much mind to the prospect of how her relationships could affect her experience here. Again, blank. Empty. And yet, that emptiness followed Kylie even as she tried to move away from it all and toward her room, met by a barren room save for the bare essentials. The emptiness reminded her of the very idea of the uncertain future that lied in wait for her, and for once, thought about how the room might look in just a month or two. That is, if she was still even here by then. Who knew? If they were going to be so uptight about these things, Kylie could almost entertain the thought of being thrown into a cell before long.

Perhaps that was one thing she could acknowledge would be better off fixed. A broken toy hurting everyone around.

With little more in her bag than some clothes, not much in the way of personal belongings, the blonde girl stared blankly at the room before her. Kylie figured there wasn't much time to rest before introductory classes; besides, she felt restless anyway (being stuck on a bus leading to the cold, and then being stuck in a seat for some more time didn't help). And yet, at the same time, she felt paradoxically lethargic. Not exactly tired or even fatigued. Just a bit lackadaisical. And she knew just how to remedy that. Even if it meant having to be outside again.

Armed with pocket change, Kylie left her room, nonchalantly moving past everyone else as she made her way toward the vending machine, the girl wasted little time in purchasing a can of soda. As the machine mechanically whirred in order to fetch, Kylie stared at the screen, almost letting the new locale set in as she began to accept her new life steadily, only for that train to be halted as she picked up the dispensed can and snapped it open, helping herself to a sip.
 
The cold didn't bother Zadkiel any. In fact, he actually preferred the cold. You can always add on more layers, is what he always told himself.

Zadkiel talked to himself mainly about the various little things he saw as the buses approached the school. When Akori Academy came into view he incoherently mumbled something about how much smaller it was than he had expected. That, however, was until he saw that it was built into the side of the mountain. He was one of the first people off the bus when it came to a stop. Looking around at his peers, he was a bit underwhelmed by the small number of people attending. "Only about ten of us?" he asked to noone in particular, "oh well."

It wasn't long till they were all herded into the cafeteria where an older woman went through her introductory speel. Basically welcome to the Academy, don't make us look bad, here's the rules, and have fun. The woman seemed nice enough though. That was a plus.

Later, he would wind up in his room. Leaving his door open, he first pulled out his stereo and played the disc that was already in it. Metallica flowed through the air, not overly loud though. Only people close to his door would be able to hear it. He started unpacking and decorating his room with band posters and family photos.
 
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Eugene never really cared much for the snow, though he would like the cold better then the heat. He spent a good chuck of his life wearing as much heavy and concealing outfits as he can to hide his gained traits and during the summer, he would be barred off from moving during the day as the heat would cause a great stink to come off him forcing him to only moving during the night and find shelter in the sewers and alleyways of the city. So the snow didn't really bothered him that much unlike some others, like a blue girl with white hair. There a bunch of strange people here, expected but not as strange as he actually thought. The only one that was really of note was the girl with the blue skin.

When he walked into the school, he was surprised that it was dug straight into a freaking mountain! The school probably had a guy who can move the earth or something. Now that would be crazy. He was placed in a cafeteria with all the other students and was made to listen to this old lady about responsibilities and all that other fun stuff. It wasn't that hard to grasp really. Don't start trouble and you won't be in trouble. Simple enough and he didn't know why it needed 5 minutes dedicated to it but it wasn't like he really listened. After the speech ended he was then allowed to get up and check out his new room. Up the stairs and passing some, admittedly pretty awesome looking rec rooms, and finally after finding the door labeled 'Eugene'. He entered his room and upon a first glance, all he could think was that it wasn't the worst place he's ever been. He had the most minimal of cash and the highest grade he ever passed was sixth grade so he was completely unprepared for a high school education.

Still...life could be worst. Might as well enjoy the time he has here before being kicked out of the academy, either that or running away. With only 4$ to his name he walks out of his room to get himself a snack. The moment he stopped out however, the old woman's voice appeared on the intercoms in the hallways.

"Students it is time for your introductory classes. Please follow the green markings to the gym to meet the physical education teacher. Along the way, please attempt to introduce yourselves to your peers. You might find it beneficial in the future." Said the old woman and a series of green lines, like those found on a treasure map appears in the hallway, spiraling down the staircase, moving through the cafeteria, then the main lobby area and finally out of the main school and into the gym building. The building looked more like a warehouse inside as it was nothing more then a large four sided building with a reinforced glass dome and reinforced concrete walls. In the middle is an African man wearing a black and red t-shirt, a pair of long black and white striped pants and wide brim hat. He sat on a crudely crafted throne that hung in the air attached to a pillar of stone erupting from the ground below.
 
Stuff it.

Kylie's first thoughts came to fruition as the old woman's voice became heard to everyone. It was a reflex, an instinctive thought, the very first thing that came to her mind. A wish to reject the notion of these familiar rituals, getting to know one's own peers and teachers. It was all such a pain, and for what?

Still, she could imagine that she'd get into some trouble for not obliging with the woman's request, so after another sip, she laid her soda can atop a nearby desk and made her way toward the gym building along with the others, keeping to herself during the trip there. The lifeless, warehouse-like gym building didn't help much to brighten Kylie's mood either, imagining as though the execution of this academy was Frankenstein'd together out of necessity more than anything.

Settling herself within the building, she continued to remain silent, waiting for the assumed orientation to begin in the meantime.
 
A larger body collided with Elizabeth's, and naturally, she stumbled forward a few steps, but luckily for her ego, she didn't completely eat it. The small mutant turned around and looked up at the person that had knocked into her. Oh, it was that blue girl. She grinned sheepishly at the other mutant, "sorry about that. Apparently I'm just knocking into everyone today." A bit awkward.

Before the conversation was really able to flourish, though Elizabeth had a feeling it wasn't going to, the voice of the woman from before began speaking through the intercom systems, instructing the students to make their way to the gym.

"Well, I'm Elizabeth. Nice to meet you." She nodded courtly before beginning to make her way to the gym building by following the green lines that the woman had mentioned. Soon enough, she was in the rather empty looking gymnasium, standing behind a few of the other students who had made it there before her.
 
Running up the steps was a red-haired girl who went by the name of Luna. She carried two thick books in her arms, and ran to the vending machine, thirsty for a cold drink. No matter the fact that it was already pretty chilly - Luna felt like she hadn't eaten in days. She got out some money to put inside of it, but then, she saw the girl next to her. A blonde with a fierce gaze that caught her attention, even though she hasn't even looking at her. Luna smiled. Looks like we got a lot of characters in the school. This'll be interesting.
 
Zadkiel had just finished putting up the last poster when the announcement came over the intercom. With a sigh he turned off the stereo and listened. After the announcement was over he grabbed his key and locked his room door before making his way to the gym. He hummed 'One' by Metallica the whole way.
 
"No prob, just be careful you don't knock the wrong person, or they might knock back." The blue skinned mutant rubbed her forehead where a bruise used to be after she'd knocked some jackass's vase over. Yeah, she may have called him names and stuff on top of that, but it was the knocking that was the key! She spaced out in this thought until the girl introduced herself. "Alexis, bud" She responded gruffly, raising her hand to wave as the girl turned to retreat towards the gymnasium. Alexis would have been annoyed about not getting the chance to see her room, but it wasn't like she had much to put in there anyway, so she took off towards the gym. "A gym sounds nice, maybe I'll get to punch something" On her way she found her footsteps heavy and loud, to the annoyance of other students.
 
Once the students entered the gym the african man stands up and with a booming voice addresses the students. "WELCOME!! TO AORKI ACADEMY FOR A BETTER FUTURE GYMNASI-!" He shouts out in a rather thick African accent. However the rather boisterous introduction was then cut short when he began to cough, having spoken a wrong syllable. He sits up from his chair and coughs as he walks off the platform, only for a stone stair to jut out from the pillar with every step until the man was finally at the bottom. With one last cough, a snort and a spit, the gym teacher readjusts his shirt before addressing the students normally, with a bit smile. The throne pillar behind him lowered itself until it disappeared into the ground leaving the throne intact. "Excuse me students but the Headmaster Wayan Stark wanted me to make my introduction memorable. Hopefully I did well enough." He turns around to lower the throne, making it disappear into the earth. "There. A clean gym makes for excellent gym classes, don't you think? Now my name is Mr. Lethabo, and I am from South Africa. I was a civil worker working with families in poverty in my home country, before I was approached by Headmaster Wayan Stark and Ms. Gloria Baker, and was given a position as the gym teacher here in Aorki Academy for a Better Future. As I am also new here, I hope we will be able to teach each other as well as learn from each other. Does that sound good?" He asked, and gives the class a bright smile.

"Now I know you have questions, but please save them until after my little speech. Here at the school, we value safety of the students and civilians above anything else. However as you are to be trained to use your powers in combat situations, it would be necessary to test and train your powers to make sure you do not have a little accident, or cause anyone else to have a little accident. Here in the gym, you may test your powers and spar as much as you want as my powers can create arenas and dummies for you all to fight and train with, though remember that fighting a stone is different then fighting a person, so it is also valuble for you to fight other students, but only under the supervision of myself or Ms. Gloria Baker. Now that introductions are out of the way, are there any questions would you like to ask? There are no bad questions so just say what is on your mind." Mr. Lethabo added.
 
"..."

Despite the man in the front seeming to try his best hand at humor or whatever he was attempting up there, Kylie's intense expression hardly changed, maintaining her serious gaze all the way through. And after that, Kylie's mien was certainly far from coerced as the man went on, changing to a more friendly one as he explained who he was, his background, and all that jazz. She could imagine they had to say these sorts of things -- that is, regulations, values, and the like -- as some sort of mandate, but considering the... unorthodox nature behind the very founding of this school, perhaps anything went.

The prospect of being provided with dummies and arenas to train within admittedly did interest Kylie a bit, as she figured this meant she'd have a decent outlet whenever she could, but she kept from getting her hopes up so high. After all, she could hardly guarantee to herself that she'd even be able to stick around that long.

Not in any mood to drag this out any longer than it was already going, Kylie continued to remain reticent as the man stopped a bit to open himself up to questions that anyone else might have.
 
As Zadkiel entered the gym, he noticed a man on a throne sitting up on a stone pillar. "King of the gym, huh," he thought to himself. Once everyone was in the room "his royal highness" made his way down to the ground level and finished his introduction. Once he opened himself to questions, Zad raised his hand and asked, "is sparring with teachers allowed?" He figured he'd learn more sparring with a teacher than a student, not that he held anything against the other students.
 
All she could think about during that speech was how much she really wanted a throne. Just sounded comfy and grand, something to sit on and laze about with while laughing at others. Maybe if she asked real nicely, she could get the guy to give her one of his thrones. He had to have spares, right? Huh, teach each other? She couldn't understand why someone who still needed to be taught about a subject was taking up teaching in that subject. They weren't teachers, how would they teach him? Maybe he wanted to learn how to be cooler...

Sparring? Training? Dummies? Testing? All sounded like good words to Alexis. She could really go for something to punch and test her metal (Pun not intentional) against. Of course, there were those pesky little rules and safety regulations, but she could handle that for some old fashioned brawling. "So, are any of the staff mutants?" She asked curiously. In her head, who was better to teach mutants about their powers than other mutants? Who better to be able to endure the slips ups of the inexperienced power bearers than those with powers themselves?
 
(Little note, I wait for 3 people to post then post at my earliest convenience.)

Eugene was rather...unimpressed by the teacher's attempts to be cool. It came off more as desperate to him, but descending from a giant stone throne was pretty cool at the very least. He waited and looked around as the students began to ask questions after questions. His eyes soon found themselves focused on the blue girl as she asked whether or not the staff were mutants. A good question actually, as if they were only going to be taught by only normal people, then that might have some health hazards attached.

Mr. Lethabo listened and paid full attention to every question his students asked. Only two of his many students asked questions, but that was fine. Quiet students made for easier learning in his eyes. He took a step back as he held his hands out and a series of thin stone pillars rose from the earth. "Both good questions, and both I think can be answered at the same time. All the teachers to my knowledge are mutants, as you may have found out by my bending of the stone and rock. And as for the second question..." He immediately focused all the pillars into one giant pillar and thrusts forth a pillar of stone that crashed into Eugene who wasn't exactly paying attention, or he wasn't as the stone smashes into his face, throwing him across the gym. "That shall be your first lesson. We are going to evaluate your ability to fight where you are right now. No warnings, no set up. Only fighting. Whoever touches me first will win the spar match for the entire class! Now go!" He said and as he said, without warning the earth shifted and moved, pulling him away from the students as dozens disks of stone rose from the ground and flung themselves at the students.

Eugene stands up after taking a pillar of stone to the face, none the worst for wear, but pissed off nonetheless. "You fucking bastard! I'm gonna rip your throat out!" He shouts as he charges forward, only to get it once again in the face, then in the gut by a pair of stone disks.
 
Artyom stumbled into the gym, breathless, face slick with sweat. He ran through the snow and halfway across the massive campus to get to try to get to the gym on time, but to no avail. Classes hadn't even started yet, and he was already late. Late for what, though, was an entirely different question, as a stone disk slammed into the wall next to him, aimed for another student and missing him by pure luck. The next disk came whistling straight at his chest, and Artyom lightened himself, and jumped up a half dozen feet in the air, bounding over the stone missile in one standing jump before hitting the floor.

"Какой уродливый ублюдок..." What was it the guy had said? Artyom barely managed to hear the teacher though the gym doors. A spar? Just need to touch him? Easier said than done, if the other student getting demolished by flying slabs of stone was any measure. Still, Artyom never considered himself one to back down from a challenge. A sly smiled wormed it's way onto his features.

A third disk came rocketing towards Artyom, and he chose to catch it barehanded, massively dropping it's mass as quickly as possible. He stumbled back a step, thrown off balance, and his palms stung, but it was an easy enough feat, if he was paying attention. Flipping the projectile over in his hand, he looked over at the other kid next to him. He seemed more than ready to test his luck against the professor. "Hey Shiny," he called out to Eugene, "keep me covered, and I think I can keep him from spitting out quite so many rocks."

Gripping the disk like a frisbee and tossing it out at the professor, he increased the mass massively as he sent it. The disk clipped another in midair and was knocked off course, slamming into he ground and embedding itself halfway into the floor. The sly smile widened into a broad grin, and Artyom couldn't restrain a chuckle. "Feels good to stretch my legs again."
 
The instant that Lethabo used his power to abruptly "attack" Eugene and initiate a surprise orientation lesson, Kylie, like perhaps some of the other students around, felt a degree of surprise at the sudden move. After all, on the first day for most other schools, nothing really happened; just a boring orientation and then the day is over.

But then, this wasn't a normal school, was it?

As she quickly recovered from her initial surprise, Kylie mentally sighed as though the prospect of suddenly being thrust into this kind of situation without any warning was, more than anything else, annoying. A part of her had to wonder if the old man fancied himself some sort of whimsical funnyman who got a kick out of springing this on the class, but such muses were wiped away in favor of charging forward, if not for the sake of passing the seemingly arbitrary lesson, then to get this done with and prove herself.

Focusing her Reinforcement power into her legs, green lights in the shape of parallel lines running up the height of both of them, Kylie leapt out of her seat as though to charge forward at Lethabo, her arms still crossed as though it were a casual gesture at first until she dispelled the Reinforcement in her legs and transferred it to her arms the instant she landed safely on the ground again. With fists clenched and arms raised in front of her face like she were a boxer, Kylie moved forward with an unwavering gaze, doing her best to punch the stones out of the air with her newfound super strength or just evading them.

Once she felt confident and close enough, the blonde girl thrust one of her arms forward, hand open, as though hoping to bring the lesson to a quick end by getting a hold on the man.
 
As the gym teacher hurled stone disks at the assemblage of students Jack Holloway remained seemingly inconspicuous against the far wall. Lurking in the shadows clad in a black leather jacket, black skinny jeans, and black leather boots he didn't really need mutant powers to blend in with the darkness.

From the shadows he watched the skirmish erupt as the students rushed to land a blow on their teacher, but to no avail thus far. At the moment Jack was disinclined to make an attempt of his own. For now his focus was on his fellow students, watching their abilities as they all too readily tried to prove themselves. Jack himself didn't much care to prove himself to anybody and so he instead chose to take this opportunity to learn as much as he could about the other mutants. They were new and unknown to him making them dangerous.

From what he had observed so far the tall, muscular guy was temperamental and seemed to be fairly straightforward though his abilities were unclear. The Russian guy who'd been running late seemed to be a team player as he cooperated with the other student and it seemed as if he had superior strength or was he manipulating the stones themselves? Jack was unsure but the broad grin on the guy's face suggested he enjoyed the challenge. And then there was the blonde girl, a spitfire type who was gunning straight for the teacher. Her abilities seemed to involve some form of physical enhancement which allowed her to move with superior speed and strength.

Jack filed these observations away and redirected his focus on his current situation. With mild concentration he bent the shadows around his body and made his way around the corner to the side wall, continuing until he reached the wall behind the teacher. From here, with the shadows wrapped around his still form, he was practically invisible to any of the already distracted onlookers.
 
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