Chapter Text
The wind was especially violent that night, whipping at the window of nevermore and battering at the doors as if trying to alert the occupants of the new arrival that had been huddled at its doorstep for the better part of an hour by now.
Percy was a rather nervous young man, his head crowned a rusty brown short and even, well combed hair-do, that despite the ordeal he had just experienced whilst sprinting to nevermore, had still managed to stay clean and well coiffed. His face was peppered with freckles and his hazel eyes darted from side to side, with an expression of pure anxiety coating him.
Luckily, (or unluckily, however you see the deans) his presence was quickly taken notice of by a seemingly identical pair of men, with the only thing distinguishing them from each other was their pair of mismatched black and white eyes in a pattern opposite to each other, and a seemingly ever-present smile on one, and a grimace on the other.
Before Percy could muster up the courage to speak to the two men, or even protest to what was about to happen, they had already plucked him from the doorstep of nevermore and began dragging him by the shoulders throughout the halls, whilst rambling about the rules and policies of this place, before stopping at the open door of an empty lecture hall.
The more chipper of the pair of men spoke up, “Now that introductions and explanations of how things work around here is out of the way, we’d appreciate it if you would walk yourself to the center of the auditorium onto the stage and have a seat so we can gather the rest of the students here to get introductions and rooming plans worked out, you were paying attention to why this is important, right?”
All Percy managed to squeak out was a feeble sounding “mheeeaaaphf..?”
The more sorrowful of the pair groaned and, began to very slowly and patronizingly speak, putting extra emphasis on certain words in a way an adult would explain something to a toddler, but with much heavier undertones loathing. “YOU are half DEAD, meaning you Can turn into a GHOST. You arrived here LATE so now you have to introduce yourself to everyone. I am Dean Mourn,” he gestured to the man next to him “And this is Dean Merry. If you can finally start talking, we can gather the students and figure out rooming arrangements for you, that means, if you don't start cooperating, you don't have a place to go SLEEP.”
After what felt like hours, but couldn't have been more than a few seconds, Percy managed to stammer out and “O-oHkaY, m-my names.. p-Percy?” as he nervously offered his hand to shake.
Mourn sighed and rolled his eyes while Merry gently smiled at him and said “oh, we already know dear, we make it a point to keep record of all of our students, so please just go ahead and sit down at the stage of the lecture hall and ready your very best introduction, Okay? No need to worry about anything else for the time being, we will sort that all out for you.”
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Lenore found herself being roused from her sleep with a gentle tugging at her shoulder from a very excited Morella.
Still very much in the haze of only just being awoken, most words did not make full connection to her brain at that point, only managing to pick out, “Can't wait to meet,” “His name is” and “New student!”.
Lenore yawned, nodding her head at Morella in a polite [ I have no idea half of what you said, but since you're happy, I'm happy] kind of manner and began to get dressed and brush her hair.
As they headed to the lecture hall, eventually joined by Duke, Pluto, Bernice and Eualie, Lenore asked “Morella, how did you know we were getting a new student today? I don't suppose the Deans have chosen you to be their personal messenger, have they?” she said with a slight chuckle.
Morella turned to Lenore with a smile and giggled before saying “Nope! You're just a heavy sleeper so you didn't hear when I answered the door to one of the wisps that the deans had sent out to inform everyone of the arrival of our new student!, you've seemed to be having a rough time sleeping lately, so I decided to let you sleep in as long as I could before we would have to head down for introductions.”
Lenore gave her a grateful look and said “That's very kind of you Morella, I’d say were all very lucky to have you officially on team misfits, right guys?” This was met with a resounding yes from everyone, plus a big hug from Duke that Morella was happy to return in kind and a high five from Bernice.
The chatter of the group slowly died off as they approached the door to the lecture hall as Lenore made and over dramatic bow and open the door for everyone without even looking into the lecture hall, maybe that was for the better though, because Lenore at least deserved to be seated before losing her damned mind over who she would be met with at the center of the lecture hall.
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Annabel had always been what someone would call an early bird, routine or not, she would always be awake to watch the sunrise, this particular day though, she wasn't alone to watch it rise from her window. There was a knock at her dorm room door that had woken Ada up with a start. Usually Annabel would be polite and get the door for Ada since she had just woken up, but she was currently in the middle of gently removing the curlers from her hair, doing her best not to drop them or mess up any of her well groomed hair, so instead, with a sugary sweet tone, said
“Good morning Ada, Would you be a dear and please answer the door for me? I wouldn't want to keep whoever is there waiting, but I'm a bit caught up with my hair right now.”
Ada nodded and then stretched, stepping into her slippers to get the door. What she was met with though, was not what she was expecting. Instead, there stood a wisp with arms outstretched, holding a envelope of a letter, addressed to both her and Annabel.
She took it from the wisp and dashed over to sit beside Annabel as she was working on her hair to excitedly read out the contents of the letter. She dramatically cleared her throat and the began to read:
“ Dear students of Nevermore, we happen to have a late arrival at our fine school that was delivered to us last night. We would appreciate it if you would join us at the lecture hall to make introductions and sort out rooming arrangements. Please treat him with the utmost kindness and welcoming to our fine school, despite the late arrival.
We look forward to seeing you in the lecture hall at 8:00 AM sharp.
Deans Merry and Mourn.
Ada practically began to shriek in excitement when she saw the word “him” after what had happened with Prospero, and then Montressor, she had been looking for a distraction or someone new to obsess over to keep her mind off the shame and heartbreak. Annabel on the other hand was not looking forward to all Ada had to theorize about this newcomer.