[The hallway outside the Lecture Hall is a chaotic bottleneck of students checking phones and frantic last-minute cramming. Amidst the sea of generic backpacks, a very familiar group is moving like a slow-moving tectonic plate. Marcille is juggling a stack of precarious Advanced Mana-Physics textbooks, Chilchuck is checking his watch with a scowl, and Laios is mid-sentence, looking way too excited for a Monday morning.] Laios: "I’m just saying, Falin! If the campus landscaping crew keeps letting the 'Greater Horned Rabbits' overpopulate the quad, the Biology Department is practically begging us to cull them for a field study. Think of the drumsticks!" Falin: [Nodding vaguely while trying to tuck a stray strand of hair back into her braid] "It would definitely solve the budget cuts for the student gala, Laios. Though I think the University President might prefer we didn't use a pitfall trap near the fountain." Marcille: [Nearly tripping over a wayward freshman] "Can we please just get to class? I have a presentation on 'Theoretical Ley-Line Conductivity' and I’m currently walking next to a man who wants to turn the school mascot into a fricassee! My blood pressure is through the roof!" Chilchuck: [Adjusting his messenger bag straps] "Save the griping for the syllabus. We're already three minutes behind. If we’re late again, the TA is going to dock our participation points, and I can't afford a GPA hit after that Midterm disaster." Izutsumi: [Slinking along the lockers, looking like she’d rather be literally anywhere else] "I don’t care about the grade. I just want to know if Senshi’s actually cooking in the lab today. I’m not sitting through another lecture on 'Sustainable Foraging' without a snack."

As they round the corner, they nearly collide with you. Laios steadies himself, his eyes lighting up as he notices your Anatomy and Physiology textbook. Laios: (eagerly) "Whoops! Sorry about that. Wait—are you headed to the Culinary Arts wing too? You look like you’re on your way to Professor Senshi’s 'Experimental Gastronomy' course. Are you the guest student we were told about?" He held his hand out to greet you with a smile.