Morning light flashes off Paragon Academy's iron gates and polished stone crest. Alphonse Valentino stands at the threshold with his bag at his side, the campus beyond all glass, steel, and humming security.
A young man in a spotless blazer strides up with practiced ease, tablet in one hand, campus map in the other. His smile is perfect, almost too perfect.
The Orientation Guide
You must be Alphonse Valentino. I am your orientation guide, welcome to Paragon.
He offers his free hand. His grip is warm, his posture friendly, but his eyes sharpen for a blink like a lock clicking shut.
His smile does not reach his eyes.
The Orientation Guide
Name’s Adrian Vale. I can get you settled fast, if you follow my lead.
Behind him, the gates stand open just enough for a first step inside. The tablet screen glows with a highlighted route, and a campus shuttle hums somewhere deeper in the grounds.
Adrian Vale
So, do we start with your dorm, or do you want the fast tour first?
✓ Quest Accepted
Enter Paragon Academy with Adrian Vale
“Ask to see my dorm and meet my roommate”
SUCCESS (Good Persuasion, rolled +2)
Alphonse Valentino
I’d like to see my dorm first, and meet my roommate too.
Adrian Vale
Good choice. Dorms tell you more about a person than a brochure ever will.
Adrian Vale
Come on, then. If you are sharing a room with someone, you should at least know their face before the campus starts pretending to know you.
Adrian turns from the gate and gestures Alphonse through with an easy sweep of his tablet, the practiced host replaced by something looser.
Adrian Vale
For what it is worth, rooming assignments on the first day are always a gamble. Sometimes you get a saint. Sometimes you get a nocturnal chaos engine.
Adrian Vale
If yours is the second kind, I will deny ever warning you.
His smile finally cracks into something real, brief and amused, as the open gates frame the first steps onto campus.
Quest Complete
Enter Paragon Academy with Adrian Vale
“He drops me off at my dorm and I meet my roommate”
SUCCESS (Great Reasoning, rolled +3)
The dormitory hall swallows the campus noise, all polished floors and doors with numbered plaques. Adrian stops at one door and gives it a light knock with his knuckles.
Adrian Vale
Room 214. Yours, according to the gods of administration.
The door swings open before Adrian can knock again. Inside stands Alphonse’s roommate, half-packed duffel at his feet, one hand still on the knob as if he was already waiting.
Rowan Mercer
You have got to be kidding me. They put me with the transfer kid?
Alphonse Valentino
So this is the roommate.
Adrian Vale
Relax, Rowan. He made it in one piece, which already puts him ahead of the average first-year.
Rowan’s glare flicks from Adrian to Alphonse, then catches on the open room beyond them. A spare charging strip hums beside one bed, already plugged in and lit, as if someone has claimed it for him.
Rowan Mercer
Fine. Pick a side before I decide for you. And if you snore, I am warning you now.
✓ Quest Accepted
Get to know Rowan
“I choose a side and start unpacking, asking Rowan about himself in the process.”
SUCCESS (Good Persuasion, rolled +0)
Alphonse sets his bag on the claimed bed and cracks it open, clothes and chargers fanning across the quilt. The room’s hum settles around the three of them as he works, casual and unhurried.
Alphonse Valentino
Mind if I ask what you are into, Rowan?
Rowan Mercer
Into? I try to keep my things where other people cannot reach them. That is a full-time hobby around here.
Rowan leans back from the doorframe, still guarded, but the edge in his voice loses a little height. Adrian lingers in the hall, silent now, watching like this is the part he wanted to hear.
Rowan Mercer
I build restraints and field rigs. Practical stuff. If something goes wrong on campus, I like being the person with the latch, the patch, or the backup plan.
Alphonse Valentino
That sounds useful.
Rowan Mercer
It is. And if you are asking because you want to know whether I am going to be a problem, the answer is, only if people make me one.
He reaches for his duffel, pulls out a neatly coiled strap tool, and sets it on the bed between them like an introduction. His stare stays sharp, but it is no longer a warning flare, more a test handed across the room.
“"So you got a power or is tech your thing?"”
SUCCESS (Good Persuasion, rolled -1)
Alphonse Valentino
So you got a power, or is tech your thing?
Rowan Mercer
Both, depending on the day. I lean tech because it listens when I tell it to, usually.
Rowan Mercer
My power is small. I can anchor things, people, gear, myself, enough to keep motion where I want it.
Rowan taps the restraint tool with one finger, then hooks it back toward his wrist like a practiced habit. His shoulders stay tight, but his voice stops sounding like a barricade and starts sounding like a person choosing how much to hand over.
Rowan Mercer
The rigging matters more. Latches, webbing, failsafes, portable braces. That is where I am actually good.
Adrian, still in the hall, lets out a quiet huff of amusement at that, then folds his arms and listens. The charging strip throws a thin bar of light across the unpacked bed, the coiled tool, and Rowan's careful hands.
Rowan Mercer
If you want the useful version, I can probably keep your side of the room from becoming a disaster. If you want the honest version, I am still deciding how much of that is me being helpful and how much is me being nosy.
“I tell Rowan about my powers”
SUCCESS (Good Persuasion, rolled +0)
Alphonse Valentino
I do too, more than one. Mind networks, shared skills, thoughts, the whole mess. Four people max, if I push it.
Alphonse lets the words land between the clothes and the charging light. Rowan goes still, not backing away, just measuring the shape of the admission.
Rowan Mercer
...That is either incredible or a privacy nightmare.
Rowan Mercer
Four at once. That is a lot of access.
Adrian's mouth quirks at the hallway edge, but he stays quiet. Rowan lowers the restraint tool to the bed instead of his wrist, a small, deliberate choice.
Rowan Mercer
Useful, though. If you are not just poking around people for sport, that could make a team better fast.
Alphonse Valentino
He is actually thinking about it.
Rowan Mercer
What does it feel like, when it works?
“"When it's voluntary, like you're in a flowing body of water. Just lots of organized movement flowing from one node to the next. If I'm coercing someone, then things get choppy. I only do that on enemies though, to do things like share Intel or give away fighting technique."”
SUCCESS (Superb Willpower, rolled +2)
The room seems to hush around Alphonse as he reaches for the network. Rowan’s attention sharpens, not with suspicion now, but with focus.
Alphonse Valentino
It feels like a current catching, steady and deliberate.
The connection opens cleanly. Rowan’s mind comes through as pressure and structure, like linked braces taking weight in sequence.
Rowan Mercer
So that is what he means. Not grabbing, not flooding, just... organizing.
A flicker of Rowan’s own sensory shape brushes back, cool metal, measured hands, a grid of priorities sliding into place.
Adrian Vale
Huh. That actually looks gentler than I expected.
Rowan Mercer
Yeah. Less like a pry bar, more like a bridge.
Rowan’s posture eases a notch, and the question in his face changes from evaluation to interest. He wants to know what else the bridge can hold.
Quest Complete
Get to know Rowan
Attribute Upgrade: Willpower Superb→Legendary