Two pairs of hurried footsteps are swallowed by the cacophony of sound that is near ever-present at the primary Izzet guild gate, especially in the early morning rush of commuters trying to avoid their bosses ire. Suddenly two becomes one as a skinny human girl barely filling the bulky robes of a Izzet Attendant cranes her head to gawk at the powerful surge of electricity that dances between the spires of the gate. The near earsplitting roar of wild electricity crackling drowns out the footsteps and other background sounds around her, and has the unfortunate effect of also drowning out the words her sister is near shouting at her. Just as suddenly as the show started, it ends, and breaking through the slight ringing of her ears is her sisters insistent nagging. 

"-stand there and gawk all day, we'll miss orientation!" A hand shoots out and grabs her own. It's her nagging sister again, a near perfect reflection of her own face, due to the fact of them being identical twins, and suddenly she's being dragged further along to the heart of the spire. Cobblestone and bricks of the roads and buildings seem to get impeccably cleaner the deeper into the facility they get, and suddenly the two are in a bustling center-hall of the guild, a circular room wide enough to house hundreds of milling people and a few stands with enterprising merchants and bakers with a vaulting ceiling high enough that fluffy white clouds block where the ceiling truly begins or ends. People of all walks of life mill around, some even baring outfits of other guilds, and view several floor models of Izzet inventions that are commercially available to the public. 

The girl, who was gawking at the electric show a minute earlier now tugs on her sisters insistent grip, looking at a particularly appealing array of muffins an elderly goblin matriarch has set on the counter of her modest wooden stall. Her twin shoots her a death glare worthy of the Gorgans who dwell the undergrounds and mutters something of the two having a big breakfast earlier at home, and how people would be able to better tell them apart in the future based off their stomachs. 

The two enter a series of corridors on the far side of the hall clearly marked "Izzet League Members Only." The hallways decor is in stark contrast to the centerhalls polished white stone and plaster walls. They walk down what almost appears to be an above ground maintenance tunnel, with the walls being almost completely covered in hundreds of overlapping brass pipes, gauges, pressure meters, and small windows that show rushing steam, bright blue electricity, and some type of sinister looking red light. These red and blue lights seem to illuminate the setting better then the flickering orange lights periodically dotting the low ceiling of the hallway. The twin in front seems to know where she's going, taking turns with barely a glance at the directional sign's protruding on the ceilings, or the helpful brass plates next to every door that has sometime of lettering combined with a series of numbers, such as "A-412".

The twin in front finally stops at a seemingly innocuous door, same as every other door they passed minus the fact the brass plate said "Hall-012." She looked back to her twin with a look halfway between smug pride and anxious aspiration, and beckoned her through the doorway. The room inside was wider and had a more vaulted ceiling then the series of claustrophobic hallway's would suggest. It resembled the one of the smaller lecture halls of Prism University, the school of magic the twins had graduated previous to their application to the Izzet league, minus the fact that even this room seemed to have brass piping popping out at seemingly random places in the walls and ceiling. The rows and rows of benched seats were built on heightened tiers, descending onto the focus of the room, a circular podium where a professor would usually lecture to perspective classes. Only this time, the professor seemed to be some type of Izzet official, a rather tall blue skinned Vedalken male. Neither of the twins really know of the biology of the race, and this male seemed to be free of any wrinkles or other indicators of age, so they shrugged and scanned the benches for two spots next to each other. The closest they got was in one of the middle rows, a rather handsome human male had two empty spaces to either side of him. The twins descended, trying to be polite to the masses that may be their future coworkers. 

Having gotten their seats, they really took notice of the room and it's inhabitants. Based off a quick head count, there seemed to be somewhere between 40 to 60 people of various races, genders, and even ages sitting on this benches. The only common thread between them all was the proud display of the blue and red Izzet robes they were all wearing. Another glance at the Vedalkan at the head of the room reviled that he was not alone in front of the various flickering monitors that made up a great portion of the far wall of the room. Some type of humanoid looking machine construct stood vigil next to the Vedalken, slightly creeping out both the twins, who like most of those around them had heard rumors of some sort of artificial humanoid the Izzet had built, but believing them to just be rumors. Behind the Vedalken and machine man stood four other humanoids of various races. There seemed to be a female Vedalkin, not as unnaturally tall as the male Vedalkin, but still would tower the rather short human twins, two human males, one being a slightly twitchy long brown haired male in his late thirties, skinny as a bean pole, contrasting against the other human male, middle aged with a bald head and a beard that was more salt then pepper at this point, who looked nearly quadruple the weight of his counterpart. The last adult in the lineup was a squat female goblin looking at the assembled Attendants with a glare that looked like it could melt steel beams, she was the most out of out of place amongst her compatriots. With white hair that nearly defied the rules of gravity with how much was sticking straight out at odd angles, and the beginnings of wrinkles marring her face, her crossed arms seemingly bulged with muscles gained from years, perhaps decades, of hard work with heavy machinery of some sort. 

The adults were either talking amongst each other as was the case with the female vedalken and the two males, or looking upon the crowd as was the goblin female and male Vedalken, so it seems like the twins had thankfully arrived to the hall in time. The Hall was abuzz with the ambient sound of several conversations happening at the same time over each other, and the two sisters leaned over the bench they were stationed at to talk to each other around the human male who looked at the two with amusement.

(Easily Eavesdrop-able conversation for those who deem themselves within Eavesdropping range, as they are talking loudly to hear each other above the other conversations around each other, and at a slight distance because of the guy between them.)

*Part 2 of Introduction will come later tonight, if you see this before I post, you can role-play a little bit of yourself in the crowd, or how you day before the lecture hall progressed*

The Huge metal man on the stage stands there scanning the entire crowd before looking back at the Vedalkin, with no expression detectable to any who look open him

A young red-haired human male, with a strange mark scrawling down the left side of his face enters the bustling hall.

He looks around, trying to find someone, but not appearing to find them, he locates a seat with a few empty ones next to it.

Taking a seat, he pulls out a small pocket-watch-like device. He twisting some nobs and dials on the outside of the device, causing it to start glowing, before he presses a button and the device opens.

He pulls out a small transparent disc from inside the device and slaps in onto the back of the seat next to him. As he goes back and pulls another disc from the device, the one previously placed on the seat begins to enlarge and merge into the seat, leaving some bright yellow words visible on the seat-back.

"RESERVED FOR IMPORTANT PEOPLE"

The human does the same to the next seat over, before putting the device away and going back to his search of the crowed.

(Ethan is looking for Nam and Bêlit, and is guarding 2 seats for them. When/if he sees them, he will wave them over)

Action x2: Use Magical Tinkering: Using the part about creating words, to create the words on the seat-backs.

 An ear piercing blast of static noise seemingly blasted from various speakers hidden in the pipes of the ceiling and walls. The Vedalken male retracted his outstretched arm, a slim silver remote with all sorts of buttons dotting nearly every square inch of available space on the device quickly being pocketed without much flair from the male. His, glowing with a golden light, a unnatural color for the race, scanned the room, before he spoke in clear, but softly spoken, no-nonsense tone that captured the attention of the room without trying to-

"My congratulations to all who are present today. You all have been handpicked for either your above average scores during training, or for unique traits that the Laboratory deems potentially useful to our cause. Thusly, the Laboratory has decided to expedite the usual apprenticeship time rulings that would hold you all back from contributing to the cause as Researchers and Scorch-Bringers." 

The room bursts out in low whispering tones, before another blasting of the static sound killed all conversation. The Vedalkin male had the same aloof expression he has been wearing the entire time you've in the hall together, but the female goblin behind him looks particularly murderous, as she loudly clears her throat, gaining a slight upwards tick of the corner of the mouth of the blue skinned man.

"That is not to say you will all get free passes to becoming Researchers and Scorch-Bringers, nor that those positions even guaranteed. Time honored traditions are time honored because they work, and you all will need to prove yourselves to advance in the guild, as it has been for those who have traveled the ranks of the guild centuries before, and centuries after you. The fact of the matter is that you all are the cream of the crop, and the Laboratory has judged your past accomplishments sufficient to speed along this initial training period."

The Vedalken visibly pulled out the remote, and pressed the buttons in a complicated pattern that seemed to make his fingers blur. In the seamless, smooth metal benches in front of all of you, that some were using as elbow rests, small patches of metal depressed downwards, then to the side, relieving hidden compartments all housing some weird rectangular device. Some of the more curious Attendant's hands instantly shot out to grab the devices, and when there seemed to be no punishment or other obvious penalty, more and more of the attendants grabbed their own. The device did not seem very impressive at first glance, a small screen, two buttons that had arrows going up and down, another button with a circle, and a featureless button on the side, that had no markings to distinguish it's function. 

"These are prototype communication and coordination devices that you will all be field testing in the coming weeks for the laboratory. They are very expensive to replace, and any damage or loss of property will not reflect kindly on your records when promotions are handed out. They are capable of recording and sending audio messages anywhere in the 10th district, without the need of magic from the user as a power source. The screens will momentarily light up with the respective head researcher that you all have been assigned to, and your squad number. You may change between researchers, or even squads throughout the coming weeks, or you may not. Some of you may graduate to Researchers or Scorch-Bearers ahead of your peers, some of you may fail the program and be asked to leave all together." The blue skinned male's golden eyes scanned the crowd once more, his eyes searching for something amongst you all. Weather he found it or not is a mystery to all present, as his face betrayed no emotion. He closed his eyes, and took a deep breath through his nostrils and out his mouth, the ease with which he did it marking it seem to be some well practiced ritual of his.

"Remember this, if you are truly determined to make something of yourselves, the only thing stopping you is yourself. Destiny is forged through action, fate doesn't accept excuses, nor will I. If you have legitimate complaints about your squad members or your researcher heads, find the proper channels, but sometimes change needs to come from yourselves. My contact information can be found in you C&C devices, don't contact me unless it's worth my time. Report immediately to your heads for orientation to the labs."

And with that the Vedalken male seemed to hand something to the robot besides him, and whisper a few words to the automation. (Spoiler is whispered words to STK 056)

 (You all receive a C&C Device, what amounts to a magical phone, but one that can only record and send audio messages, instead of making "phone calls." There are also some other features of the device that will pop up later, such as the ability to have pictures displayed like how it's telling people their squad leaders. This will be considered an uncommon magical device that does not need attunment for record keeping purposes.)

The blue skinned male strode to a side door at the bottom of the room, while the buzz of whispered and not so whispered conversation seemed to radiate through the lecture hall once again. That is until the devices each of you received seemed to light up with a picture and a brief instance of text, labeling the recipients name and squad designation. For all those in the party, you are Squad 5, and you all have a picture of the elderly goblin female, surprisingly smiling at the camera, a large contrast with the glaring goblin that seems to be searching the milling Attendants for any indication of who may be under her command. 

(End of Part 2 of the Introduction)

The Automation scans the crowd for whoever will be in the group he was assigned to with the faint hum of something only heard by those near him (feal free to look, just wanted it fancy)

Ethan looks the device over from every angle, trying to determine any clues to its construction.

When the device lights up with his squad details, he looks up at the goblin on the stage and back down at the device.

Smiling, Ethan slaps his hand on each of the chairs next to him, releasing the magic bound in the words.

As the words fade, Ethan makes his way down to the stage, to introduce himself to his assigned head researcher.

As he nears the construct, Ethan overhears it talking as it scans the crowed for other squad 5 members.

"Oh hey, are you in squad 5 too? My names Ethan, Ethan Maker, I'm in squad 5 as well. Pleasure to meet you."

With an excited energy and a big smile, Ethan holds his hand out to the construct to shake hands.

A beautiful human youth lounges in her chair, leaned heavily on the left armrest, her legs crossed. She twirls her thick dark hair nervously around her index finger and bites her lower lip. She listens to the twins converse, and turns back to smile at them just before the Vedalken begins speaking on stage.

While the Vedalken speaks, her bright blue eyes are fixed on him. Her attention is so focused that the sudden opening of the armrest startles her and she reaches for her dagger, stoping just short of plunging it through the revealed communicator. She sheathes her dagger and lifts the communicator up curiously but stows it quickly while waiting for the Vedalkin to finish his speech. 

After the speech is concluded, she stands and patiently waits for those surrounding her to vacate their seats, calmly filing onto the steps. She retrieves her C&C device from her belt pouch, and reads her squad number. "Five, like fingers on a hand, toes on a foot, points of a pentagram. Five." Her eye widen slightly at the image displayed, and she looks up at her head researcher, and she holds the C&C device up so that she can compare them. She nods, satisfied that they are likely the same individual, her large, bright, eyes accustomed to seeking out every detail of a person's physique. 

She places the C&C back in her belt pouch and waits, appraising the people around her, arms folded, legs at shoulder width, and hips slightly angled. She pays special attention to people approaching the stage, especially those who approach the goblin woman. She raps her fingers on her bicep.

Nam walks in with his long white hair and well pressed clothing ‘must look important to be important’ he tells himself as he finds a seat next to Ethan. After the lecture he takes the device and follows Ethan to meet the head of squad 5. He remains silent as Ethan does all the talking which is pretty common for there group of friends. Nam gives a slight bow and nod of his head as Ethan introduces them. He gently taps his chest to insure that his focus device is around his neck. It’s nothing more then a piece of a device Ethan, Belit, and Nam had tried to construct. He never feels comfortable without it. It helps him to channel his innate magical power.

OOC://sorry for late post. I have the flu and am struggling to concentrate.

Eck sneaks in just as the last words are spoken and everyone starts standing up. Noticing everyone having a device and after a couple of quick questions finds out how they got them. She scans a few rows of the seats and finds one that still has a device in the holder, picks it up and heads towards the goblin woman as well.

Upon arrival she immediately asks, "How does this work? Are there invisible pipes that bring the picture to this device? Fascinating!"

To others she seems like a regular young human female, but upon closer inspection there seems to be something off about her. When she reaches out for something or turns her head you can see a bit of scale-like pattern on the exposed skin. She also doesn't seem to blink, at all. There is definitely an aura about her that says, "I'm here for me and only me."

(I don’t think you can walk up to the stage from the crowd without a proper rank, so unless DM allows it I don’t think that happens.)

Quote from Paradox42 >>

Ethan looks the device over from every angle, trying to determine any clues to its construction.

When the device lights up with his squad details, he looks up at the goblin on the stage and back down at the device.

Smiling, Ethan slaps his hand on each of the chairs next to him, releasing the magic bound in the words.

As the words fade, Ethan makes his way down to the stage, to introduce himself to his assigned head researcher.

As he nears the construct, Ethan overhears it talking as it scans the crowed for other squad 5 members.

"Oh hey, are you in squad 5 too? My names Ethan, Ethan Maker, I'm in squad 5 as well. Pleasure to meet you."

With an excited energy and a big smile, Ethan holds his hand out to the construct to shake hands.

 (Here)

The Goblin matriarch turns a withering glare towards the inquisitive female, a look that looks like she's not used to people asking questions that she deems as stupid. With a rough, raspy voice that suggests a lifetime of smoking, she grunts out- "If you don't know how something works, either figure it out yourself or ask one of your fellow 'ttendants, I don't have the time for idiotic babble." She spat out the word "Attendant" like it was poison, and her scornful gaze swept to the others, clearly dismissing the odd girl. 

Assembled next to your squad is another, with a similarly odd makeup. Two twin girls, with strong Asiain features, stood nervously next to a rather handsome blonde boy who looked right in his element, a confidant smile plastered on his face while he was whispering something to one of the twins. For the more observant among you, his clothing, while still being the traditional Izzet Attendant robes, seems to be of a higher quality then the rest of you. Standing slightly behind the trio, are another trio, slightly dispersed and nervous looking, clearly not knowing or being comfortable around each other. One is an Minotaur male who is almost bursting out of his robes, which look very second-hand and beat up, barely fitting over the straining muscle concealed beneath, with dark brown fur that's cut slightly short, giving him a slight militaristic look. The next is an Vedalkie female, who has a tight braid of hair on-top of her head that's practically a scream of attention, considering the fact that Vedalken's can not naturally grow hair. Some youth either wear wigs, or go through the painful process of stapling fake hair on top of their head's in what some would call youthful rebellion, but almost all grow out of that stage at some point, and adapt the reserved, stoic, and "buzz kill" personality traits that the race is famous for. The last in the squad is surprisingly a male human child, no older then 10. The child looks positively aristocratic, with cloths that far exceed even his blonde teammates in extravagance. Looking more like formal dress robes that happen to be blue and red, instead of the bulky garb that it looks like on most other's, his features seem to be a mix of various subgroups in the city, and he looks absolutely confidant in his place in the room. Some of his squad mates shoot him odd looks, but he doesn't respond at all to them, and they don't say anything in reply. The goblin head researcher doesn't say anything to or about him, which seems to appease the others. 

Some of the other squads and researchers are already heading out of the room, making the small section everyone had gathered in at the bottom of the room not feel as claustrophobic. The goblin matriarch seems to get into a staring contest with the last remaining head researcher, the Vedalken woman who has all sorts of circuitry protruding from her chest piece looking like some odd chest-plate with a glowing circle in the middle that probably isn't thick enough to protect against a simple dagger, but the blue skinned female quickly crumbles from that intense stare off, as she gestures for her own two squads to follow her to some other room. 

There were only your two squads and the goblin left in the large lecture hall. She once more scanned your two groups, and unlike the serene look of the director, she gave off the distinct feeling of you all not impressing her.

"Listen up maggots, because I don't repeat m'self! You will refer to me as Miss Stix. I don't tolerate any snot nosed parasites thinking their shit's too hot for the rest of us, and I'm the one who controls if y'all pass or fail, so I don't expect your total respect, I will get it, unless y'all like the idea of begging from gutters." Her eyes swerve among the lot of you, focusing intensely on the two richer looking boys in the other squad as if begging them to disagree. It seems like most everyone is trying hard to keep a straight face in order to not be singled out, and she continues barking her introduction at the lot of you. "I worked my little green ass off to get to this position, and I don't like that you lot are getting fast passes. I'll say it right now so there's no confusion. I don't have any love for the lot of ya, I don't like the lot of ya, and I certainly don't respect the lot of ya. Anyone and their dogs can get good test scores, or have genetic defects that makes 'em look nice and fancy." This sentence was spat at your group, with her eyes hovering over the girl with scales, the boy with the odd markings on his skin, and the rather demonic looking girl. "Y'all will have to work your asses off to earn any of that, and don't you worry, I have lot's of plans for that." This last sentence was said with a rather wide and toothy smile, and the goblin suddenly started walking back to the entrance of the classroom without saying a word to any of you. The blonde-boy took this as an invitation to follow, and his squad filed in behind him, leaving your group to trail back behind the two.

(End of part 3 if the introduction. There will be a walk of about 5 minutes in game time to your destination, you are welcome to role-play conversation during this time.)

The automation just walks, expressionless to the destination ignoring what others try to say to it.

As Miss Stix appraises the group, Tess stands up straight and sucks in her stomach, keeping her head facing forward. Her big blue eyes dart around a bit looking at what everyone else is doing, and a bead of sweat rolls down her temple. When Miss Stix is done, she breathes a sigh of relief. She hadn't realized it but she was holding her breath. "Miss Stix, River Styx, mystics? Hmm, it'll do." She mutters softly to herself.

As Miss Stix starts walking, Tess sees an opportunity. She walks around speeding or slowing her pace and offering a hand in greeting to everyone she thinks is out of earshot of the head reasearcher. She whispers, "Greetings, I am Tess. A pleasure to meet you." She repeats this process with each person and tries to create a mnemonic device for each, muttering under her breath as she goes. 

She tries her best to keep an eye on Miss Stix and if she notices her turning to look back at all, Tess will stand up straight and keep pace with the others, in an attempt to seem "normal".

Once the goblin is out of ear shot, “I got high scores” he tells Ethan “ you’re a genetic defect”  Nam says matter-of-factly but with a slight smile to show he is kidding.

a young woman in the group makes her way to them introducing herself as she goes calling herself “Tess”. 

Nam gives her a nod of his head in greeting but doesn’t offer his hand. He once shook a mans hand and gave him 3rd degree burn. He has better control now but it’s habit. “How do you do? I am Nam’nha. My friends call me Nam” he tells her, feeling a bit surprised that a pretty girl is talking to him. With the mystery markings on his face and his abilities, usually people avoid him and call him a freak.......and then they get burned.

Belit sneaks in late, cursing under her breath. Noticing the devices everyone has, she shans the room until she finds one and skunks towards her friends and Stix, trying to look like she was always hanging in the background. She gives a little jump when Stix's eyes come to rest on her.

To those around her Belit is clearly a teifling, with blue skin tones, curling horns, golden iresless eyes and a tail. Her hair is cropped shoulder length and black, seemingly moving on its own accord. Her clothing is modest, bearing the Izzet colours and markings. A shield hangs off her back, along with a rather nasty looking flail.

As the group starts to walk she falls in behind, giving Tess a smile as she approaches. "Belit is my name."

As Miss Stix turns to walk off, Eck speaks up in a loud thin voice, "Miss Stix? Miss Stix? What's wrong with the gutters?"

She squints towards the goblin and tilts her head a bit trying to imagine what could possibly be wrong with the gutters.

As Tess makes her way towards Eck, she freezes for a half-step and accepts the greeting. "Do you really think her ass is green?"

Eck's question throws Tess off of her rhythm and makes her step back and bump into someone else. "Apologies, excuse me." she says to whomever she ran into. She falls into line next to Eck and bites her lip pensively, "As her skin at least, but pales from lack of sunlight would be my guess." After she answer's Eck's question, Tess continues her task of trying to greet everyone and learn their names without waiting for Eck's response.

Ethan, drops his hand as the construct seems to ignore him, and wonders over to the group forming around their new head researcher.

Ethan listens to Stix' harsh words, keeping a smile on his face the whole time, even when singled out.

Ethan falls in next to Nam, as their new group starts to follow along behind Stix and the other group.

At Nam's comments about his natural talent, verses Nam's studied excellence, Ethan replies,

"Well I would have better grades, if I remembered to study what the test is for."

"It's just so hard, we already learned the previous lesson, I want to start on the next great lesson."

"I don't understand why we even need tests, we should just start using the knowledge to build stuff."

"Anyway, we both made it, and now we are getting an opportunity to get fast-tracked, up out of Attendant rank. Its so great!"

As Tess walks up and introduces herself to Nam and Ethan, Ethan shakes her hand and says,

"Heh, don't mind Nam, he doesn't like to touch people if he can. But don't worry, its not you, he's actually doing you a favour, believe it or not."

Ethan gives Nam a grin and a wink.

"My names Ethan, I'm one of the genetic freaks."

Ethan smiles and indicates the mark scrawled down the left side of his face.

"If it wasn't for the Izzet League and this mark, I would still be in the gutter, probably."

"Anyway, nice to meet you Tess."

Ethan lets Tess continue on to the others.

Seeing Belit is in the group, Ethan waves her over,

"Hey Belit so you got placed with us too. So that's 2 people I know, how lucky am I?"

Ethan's smile doesn't look to be going away any time soon.

While walking The envoy will say only to Miss Syrx “It will be a pleasure to serve you for my creator” Before going back to the emotionless walking