A Gathering of Students – Monday, July 23rd, 2074 – Morning – Blake Island

"Who knew that one square mile could fit so much bullshit into one little package?" griped an older student.

Summer was over and it was time for the first day of school. To the older students it was the same old garbage as last year. To the first years, they’d all been ripped out of their previous schools and away from their previous friends after being tested for magic. They were considered awakened which was a catchall term for anyone who had magic. The newest class among them were either fourteen or fifteen years old and the sudden transition could be disorienting. Their first school assembly added to that feeling of disorientation as an augmented reality cartoon fish appeared in the air and began to swim about. Given time the freshman would learn to despise the fish. Oh, how they would learn.

The students didn't know exactly how old the augmented reality cartoon salmon was, but as is tradition in education the cartoon mascot was both old and dumb. It was the mascot of some sort of failed education branding program that never took off. Even surrounded by this much nature and magic, one still couldn't escape the matrix, augmented reality or the enormous sprawl that was the Seattle Metroplex. In fact, if you went to the northeastern beach you could see the Downtown area rising from the ground like some form of steel and concrete cancer. Its skyline was dotted with famous buildings like the old Renraku Arcology, now a gigantic slum hive named the ACHE, the Aztechnology pyramid and of course the Space Needle which still hadn't fallen down yet despite years of neglect.

If you were a tourist you could get that stock emerald city overlay in AR that made Seattle look vaguely like the city of Oz, but only if you didn't mind the mandatory data mining software that came along with it. Sadly, even that load of shovelware couldn't help with the smell. The stink of over six million people and all that heavy industry that the metroplex was known for smelled foul and wasn't the greatest for the environment either. Thankfully they were all upwind of that. At least they were most days. However, that was miles away. They were stuck in the middle of an inlet just west of the metroplex called the Puget Sound, on a tiny island. This meant that they were far away from such modern conveniences like Stuffer Shacks with their greasy soy food, a matrix connection, social media and generally anything fun to do.

"Welcome to Blake Island!" said a cheery augmented reality mascot.

The red and pink cartoon mascot swam about in the air and magical looking sparkles shimmered in its wake. It came to an abrupt stop and hooked one of its fins to give the assembled students a thumbs up.

"And to those of you who were here last year, welcome back!” he continued, “I'm Sammy the salmon!"

"Fucking kill me," groaned another student.

Sammy the salmon wasn't programmed to notice the complaints of the students on the wooden benches. It was designed to educate children by educators desperate to stop educating. One of the teachers did shush them in a fashion that never went out of style though. At least as much as teachers could be said to have style.

"You're here because you're some of the most talented magically active teens of your age. Your teachers are here to mold that talent into something truly special. Well, your teachers and me of course,” teased the cartoon fish, “Now Blake Island just isn't a school for magic, oh no. It's chock-full of history too! Did you know that the Suquamish tribe used this very island as a camping ground and that according to legend, chief Sealth was born here? Seattle is named after him, so he was a very important chief indeed! I bet you first years didn't know that! Also in 1993, Bill Clinton visited this very island. Neat, huh?"

"Who's Bill Clinton?" whispered another student.

The student was answered by a single shoulder shrug from the student next to her. That whisper earned a second shushing from an increasingly stern-faced older teacher. Already bored, the student covertly activated her smart contact lenses and tried to access her social media feed as she desperately tried to check out of the assembly and post about how lame this school was.

“What the hell? I can’t even get a signal,” she said, and horror crept onto her voice, "Wait, there’s no matrix connection at all?”

An error message in red text appeared in front of her and was accompanied by a second Sammy the Salmon that only she could see.

"Sorry kiddo," said the second Sammy the salmon, only to her, "There's no outside social media access on the island. If you want to link up to a social media account then you can ask me later about Salmon Run!"

She groaned. She was new, so she didn’t know it yet, but Salmon Run had been terrible when it was first released and the school only social media site was dead now. It was rumored that the teachers liked it that way.

It was true that this was a school for magic, though it was also a high school as well. If one was found to be magically active, they were whisked off to a different school where teachers knew how to handle magically active teens. That sort of handling needed to be careful. The teens were a lot like live grenades, if grenades had feelings, opinions and raging hormones. So beyond their studies into their talents and the awakened world they'd also learn all the trivia the becomes instantly useless once one leaves high school.

It was also true that this place used to be a school for talented young people. However, reputations for excellence are made to be ruined. Years ago, the school was known for the high quality awakened it produced. Rich corporate types, politicians and the leisure class found that out and started parking their kids on the island’s school as if to soak in that knowledge and prestige like a sponge. Nuyen is no substitute for talent, but it sure does pay the bills. So while everyone here had some sort of magical talent, as is the price of entry, their actual potential was questionably varied. Also, as their parents were loaded, the teens were almost all human or elven with very few exceptions. Dwarves, orks and trolls normally need not apply.

However, parked in the back were three teens who did not buy their way in with nuyen. They bought their way in with talent. Nuyen had been allocated for "talented children of troubled circumstances". Officially it was to help pump new blood into the school and introduce "cultural diversity". Unofficially it was just a tax write off. Whatever the reason for them being here, there they sat.

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