Chapter Text
Lyfrassir Edda wasn't really sure what they were meant to do. The… was he the vice principal? Deputy? Whatever, had met them and their grandmother in the office, handed them their timetable and a card with their login information and sent them on their way.
So there they stood, in the middle of some outdoor common area, with twenty minutes to kill before class started. Lyf briefly considered walking up to some of the kids seated nearby and introducing themself but they had no way of knowing whether or not these kids were in their year and they didn't want to accidentally befriend the wrong person or-
Their increasingly panicked train of thought was interrupted by the sudden appearance of a figure directly in front of them.
"Hey, you look gay and lost, come with me." Lyf didn't have time to protest as the stranger grabbed their arm enthusiastically and began leading them… somewhere. They looked down at the outfit they were wearing which, admittedly, did seem pretty gay. The blue collared shirt over turtleneck and tucked into grey pleated pants on their own were pretty queer coded, but adding in their Doc Martins boots and long braid of light blue hair, which they had taken extra time to decorate with charms that morning and the copious amounts of silver jewellery, they could see where this person had gotten the idea.
The question that Lyf's brain was spouting panicked thoughts from at that moment was where they were being taken. The person leading them gave no hints. He was somewhat tanned and had scruffy brown hair that fell messily across his eyes. He was wearing what looked to be a leather jacket over a white button up and a loosely tied tie, with black jeans and beat up boots. The fingernails on the hand that was holding Lyf's arm, and on the other hand from what they could see, were painted in alternating black and red nail polish, which slightly abated Lyf's fear that they were going to get beaten up. Bullies beating someone up for being queer didn't typically wear nail polish. Or did they?
Lyf was just weighing the pros and cons of moving schools again after one day when the mystery person leading them turned a corner and stopped abruptly in front of a girl sitting cross-legged with a computer in her lap.
"Nastya, I found a friend!" He exclaimed excitedly, not unlike a small child showing a parent their drawing.
"Jonny, please don't tell me you abducted some poor lost new kid." The girl, Nastya, spoke with a slight Russian accent and sighed as she closed her laptop to appraise Lyf. She was pale, and her brown hair was shoulder length with the ends dyed a faded blue. She wore a black t-shirt that read 'Don't talk to me, I'm coding' and loose blue jeans. Poking out from under the sleeve on her right arm was what looked to be an insulin pump for diabetes, if Lyf remembered correctly.
"I'm sorry about Jonny, he's… you know what, I don't actually have an excuse for him. He's just like that." Jonny protested at the insult but was shushed.
"I'm Nastya, short for Anastasia, she/her."
For the first time in several minutes, Lyf actually had a chance to speak and yet it took them a good thirty seconds to think of the right thing to say, or at least the closest they could get in their muddled state.
"Oh, I'm Lyfrassir, Edda, but you can call me Lyf, it's shorter. And they/them pronouns."
Nastya smiled slightly,
"Nice to meet you Lyf, I'm assuming you are actually new and in need of a friend group, in which case, our group is always open to new members, it's kind of how we work, collecting all the queer kids and causing chaos." Lyf sat down across from Nastya gratefully, they might have just set the record for fastest friend group acquisition at a new school ever, they had not expected it to be that easy. After a moment's silence Lyf's brain had settled down for the shock somewhat, they remembered that you were supposed to talk to people you had just met and not just sit awkwardly with your thoughts.
"You mentioned others, how many people hang out with you?"
"There are nine of us in total." Jonny sat down cross legged a little too close to Lyf but they didn't have the heart to tell him to move away.
"We call ourselves 'The Mechanisms' mostly because of Nastya's pump and Marius' arm, having two people with some kind of non-organic component to them is two more than most friend groups I've seen and it's just a cool name in general. Me and Nastya-"
"Nastya and I." Nastya corrected.
"Shut up. We're always the first people here, Carmilla works out of the city so she drops us off pretty early on her way there."
"Carmilla?" Asked Lyf.
"Our mother, adoptive, of course," Nastya chimed in again.
"I could never be blood related to this idiot."
"Hey!"
Lyf just sat there in slightly stunned silence as the conversation fell into all familiar sibling bickering. A pang of guilt and grief struck in their chest and they lightly traced around the edges of one of the scars that were scattered across their face. After a few seconds they hurriedly pushed the feelings down. The first day of a new school was not the time for that.
"Anyway." Jonny pulled out of his argument with Nastya, which the latter seemed to have won, given the smirk on her face.
"Tim, and Ivy's bus should be coming soon, they live on the same street so they almost always arrive at the same time. Brian and Marius normally show up five or so minutes before class starts so you'll probably meet them then. Ashes and Raph, Raphaella, are almost always just on time or a few minutes late, Raph because her mum has to drop off her little siblings too and Ashes because they just don't really care about lateness. And Toy Soldier is always exactly on time. It will be walking through the front gate right as the bell rings."
It was like that that Lyf spent the following fifteen minutes, with Jonny explaining everything he thought they would need to know about the school, which teachers were nice, which bathrooms to avoid, how queer kids were treated, with the occasional comment from Nastya, who had mostly returned her attention to her laptop screen.
They were joined by two new people ten minutes before class was due to start, who introduced themselves as;
"Tim! Pronouns depend on the day, today it's she/her."
and
"Ivy Alexandria, she/they, I love your hair oh my god."
The two of them were filed away in Lyf's brain as 'Tim [shampoo ad hair and glasses]' and 'Ivy [cool clothes]'.
"Is that your timetable?" Tim asked and Lyf looked down to their hands where she was looking. They had completely forgotten they were holding it in the process of becoming a 'Mechanism' as Jonny had called them.
"Uh, yeah, it is."
Tim held out a hand,
"Would I be able to see? I wanna check who you have classes with."
"Oh, yeah, sure." There was no reason Lyf could think of to not let Tim take a look at their timetable. No, that was a lie, they could now think of several reasons. There were no reasonable reasons.
"Cool, thank you." Tim unfolded the already slightly crumpled piece of paper and scanned her eyes over it.
"Okay looks like you've got English with Jonny and Marius, that'll be fun, maths with Ashes, rest in piece with that, but you do have geography with them and TS so, you get to see the two sides of Ashes O'Reilly. Ooh! Physics with Raph and me! You're going to love Raphaella, she's one of the nicest people I know."
"And really smart!" Ivy looked up from the book she had started reading almost immediately after introducing herself to Lyf.
"If you ever need any kind of tutoring, especially any science topics, go to her." As soon as they finished their sentence, Ivy returned to their book.
"Don't mind Ivy, reading is one of the only ways she can get her brain to focus properly." Tim smiled at her friend over Lyf's shoulder before continuing. "Hmm, ooh, you're doing music with us!" At Lyf's puzzled look, she clarified.
"The third thing we all have in common, after being queer and disabled, is that we all do some kind of music thing. Raph convinced the deputy in charge of the year eleven classes to put us all in the same music class, with the argument that we play better together. Looks like you're in there with us too!"
"You play music?" Jonny asked and Lyf shrugged.
"I write it… and sing sometimes. I needed a final subject to pick."
"Well that's better than Jonny." Tim laughed.
"He sings mediocrely and his harmonica playing is some of the worst I've ever heard."
Jonny raised his hand to his chest and gasped in mock offence and Tim just shook her head.
"And art with Marius- Oh, speak of the devil."
From around the same corner Jonny had led Lyf, a new person walked into the stretch of hallway the Mechanisms seem to have claimed. He had short, curly brown hair which they had attempted to tame with a beanie, only somewhat successfully. He wore a red T-shirt with words Lyf couldn't fully make out with the sides covered by the unbuttoned green flannel shirt they wore over.
"Oh, a new person, hi!" He smiled and Lyf couldn't help but smiling back.
"I'm Doctor Baron Marius von Raum, he/they pronouns please."
"He's not actually a baron or a doctor. Just to clarify." Jonny added.
Marius held up a finger to correct him,
"Not yet." Lyf laughed a little at that, the energy of this new friend group they had found themselves in was definitely something they could get used to.
As Marius continued talking, Lyf noticed what Jonny had meant when he mentioned Marius' arm in reference to the name of the group. At least the hand and wrist on his right arm, maybe more, but it was covered by their sleeve, was made of metal. He seemed to have some modicum of control over the fingers, they aided in the extremely hands focused way that Marius spoke. It was something Lyf would have to ask them about some time in the future, not yet though. No one had asked them about their scars yet and they were grateful for that. As they thought that, the bell rang and the group began to disperse. Lyf's timetable said they had geography first and Tim told them to look out for Ashes and the Toy Soldier.
"You'll know them when you see them, especially Toy. See you back here at lunch!"
The first half of the day went by in a blur. Lyf met the Toy Soldier, who dressed like it was a fancy military person and spoke a slightly exaggerated English accent but was very enthusiastic about everything Lyf had to say.
"Well I Hope You Have A Just Spiffing Time Here In Our Wonderful City, If You Wish I Can Provide You With A List Of All The Best Places In Our Area."
Sitting on their other side was Ashes O'Reilly, dressed in all black in a sort of masculine goth style with curly black hair, shaved on the front half of the sides of their head and dyed red on the ends. They had arrived five minutes late and waved to Lyf who was briefly worried they had stolen Ashes' spot but their fears were abated by Ashes sitting casually down next to Ashes' regular seat but after they quickly apologised, Ashes just smiled and waved it off.
"No it's all good, assuming you didn't come over here to pick on Toy, in which case we would have a problem."
"It Is All Okay Ashes, Jonny Made Friends With Lyf." The Toy Soldier smiled wide.
"I Find Them Very Pleasant To Talk To!" At it's confirmation, Ashes smiled and sat down on the third seat in the row near the front that Lyf had followed the Toy Soldier to, though they were the kind of person to gravitate to the front anyway.
"Someday we will get Jonny to stop treating people he meets like abandoned puppies on the street but alas, that has not been managed yet."
The final two Mechanisms Lyf only met in the second last period of the day, where they were all together in music, apparently Raphaella had been tutoring year sevens in the library, though why anyone would want tutoring on the first day of the term was beyond Lyf, and Brian was at an appointment that stretched over lunch.
Raphaella's pleasantness lived up to the praise she had received from her friends, she had positively bounced over to greet Lyf upon seeing them sitting among the group.
"You must be Lyf!" Upon seeing the confused look on their face, she clarified,
"Nastya mentioned you in engineering. I'm Raphaella, she/her." At that, she sat down on the floor next to Lyf, there didn't seem to be any seats in the music room they were in, her brown woollen skirt falling in a puddle around her. She took a moment to adjust the sweater vest she wore over her puffy sleeved blouse but was quickly distracted by another person Lyf hadn't met walking in.
The most notable feature about him was his hair, which made him the second person in the group to have that title. It curled in loose copper-coloured ringlets around his tanned and freckled face. He was wearing a t-shirt from a band Lyf didn't recognise over a long-sleeved shirt and baggy jeans. He tilted his head in confusion, almost like a puppy, at the sight of Lyf but the Toy Soldier was quick to explain their presence.
"This Is Lyfrassir Edda But They Say We Can Call Them Lyf! They Are New! They Got Jonny'd" This seemed to make sense to the new person, who smiled and introduced himself,
"I'm Brian, he/him. Nice to meet you."
It was at that moment that the teacher clapped to call the class to attention.
"Okay everyone settle down. I know we've all just gotten back from our holidays and are excited to see out friends, but we have to dive straight back into our coursework. To start today off not too quickly, I think some icebreakers might be in order as I know we have at least one new face in the room. Everyone go around and say your name and a fun fact about yourself. It can be music related or not."
The whole class groaned and Lyf's brain went into full 'what facts are fun about me' panic mode. They couldn't say 'hi I'm Lyf and I just moved here' because then people might ask why they had moved and that was not something they were ready to do just yet. 'Hi I'm Lyf and I like composing music?' Boring. 'Hi I'm Lyf and I like watching movies?' Mostly a lie.
By the time the question came around to Lyf, they managed to stammer out;
"Um, I'm Lyf, short for Lyfrassir, they/them pronouns and my favourite band is The Crane Wives." This sentence was then followed by several minutes of stressing on whether or not what they had said was socially acceptable and/or interesting enough. They had not come to a conclusion when the class had finished with their icebreakers, none of which Lyf had paid any attention to, and the teacher, began talking again.
"While we do have our prelim coursework to do, there is also the MAD night at the end of this term, the yearly music, art and drama performance. Every year, the year eleven music students perform a song of their choosing, provided it is school appropriate of course, none of this rap music about doing drugs and getting into fights or whatever you kids are listening to these days."
Lyf had to stifle a laugh at that and it was clear Raphaella next to them had as well.
"Since we have exactly twenty students in this class, how about we break up into two groups of ten for this performance. Try to make sure you don't all play the one instrument." Immediately, the whole class moved to make sure they were with their friends. Before they even had a chance to stand up, Lyf found themself being dragged by the arm for the second time in one day, and Nastya's exasperated cry let them know that Jonny was once again the culprit.
They quickly found themselves lying on their back, surrounded by the Mechanisms, all of who were looking accusatorily at Jonny.
"I just wanted to make sure Lyf knew they should be with us." He held his hands up in front of his face, as if expecting one of his friends to hit him, which Nastya did gladly.
"Thank… you?" Lyf said as they sat back up again, brushing off their clothes despite the lack of obvious dirt.
"No problem." Jonny beamed and then beckoned for the whole group to lean in closer.
"So, how are we going to be the best fucking performance at this whole night?"