Falling Star Academy is set on a man-made island, which is quite large. With it's various types of land and climates, it is able to host a wide variety of Pokemon from several regions making it an ideal place for people who want to become a trainer, but don't quite have the confidence or motivation to explore an entire region. The many different biomes allow one to do plenty of exploration while not having to go very far, and will hopefully get them used to the idea of actually traveling through a region one day. The most notable feature of the island itself is that it is actually in the shape of a five-pointed star. Valeria Saren, who established the Academy and serves as the headmistress, named it "Falling Star Academy" because she likes to think of the academy as a place that grants the wishes of its various students...just like how people occasionally make a wish when they see an actual falling star.
In what is known as the Central Area, the main school building and staff dormitories are located. With the possible exception of the Alpina Ruins, the school is easily the largest building on the island. A Pokemon Lab is also located here, and is it there that students will go to receive their starter Pokemon.
There are also five dorms, each one representing one of the five Japanese elements, and located in a different area of the island. There's the Air Dorm to the north, the Water Dorm to the south, the Fire Dorm to the east, the Earth Dorm to the southeast, and, finally, the Void Dorm to the southwest.
FALLING STAR ACADEMY was created by AKIRA. Skin by MINNIE of BACK TO NEVERLAND and edits by Amaryllis. All original content, including the site plot, systems, templates, etcetera, belong to them; images were found on livejournal and weheartit, and belong to their respective owners. Codes as seen and used were taken from sites such as Slightly Insane, Social, and Proboards Support. Do not steal anything / take it without permission.
It wasn't often Valeria got the chance to legitimately kick back and relax. Usually, she had some sort of paperwork she was procrastinating on, or some other business she was putting off because she didn't feel like dealing with something or someone related to it. But here, she had a rare moment where she actually didn't have anything to do. As such, she decided to spend it the best way she could think of. Soaking in the hot spring. Normally, one would have to trek through the desert for about 10 minutes to reach this piece of heaven on earth, but Valeria had a Golurk that could use Fly, so that helped make the trip more pleasant. Even if she didn't, though, it would still be worth it.
Once she had everything squared away in one of the lockers, she made her way to the spring. She brought a towel with her, but she didn't bother to cover herself with it. It was merely in case someone else came to visit the springs and they were uncomfortable or awkward at the sight of another naked woman. Personally speaking, she didn't care who saw her naked, be they male, female, student or staff. It just didn't bother her. Though, as two male Air Dorm students had the misfortune of finding out the hard way, this was not an invitation to try to sneak a peek. She didn't mind being seen naked, but she did mind her students blatantly acting like perverts.
Either way, she folded up the towel and laid it at the edge of the spring, so that it would be easy to retrieve should the need arise, then stepped into the water. Slowly, she lowered herself into a sitting position, and let out a heavy, content sigh once she was in all the way. No matter how many times she came here, it always felt wonderful. She lowered herself a little more, so that the water came to her shoulders, and it was perfect. She could stay like this all day...were it not for the fact that she'd eventually pass out from all of the heat and steam rising from the water. That probably wouldn't be a very good thing.
Having a tendency to work herself until she was sore all over, Katsumi had naturally gotten into the habit of planning occasional hot springs trips. When she'd first started teaching, she never had the time, but planning on going from the start and setting aside time for it made it much easier to fit her training and other duties in around it. Today was one of those days. She had worked herself until she was ready to drop, and while she still had some work to do that evening, she could safely set aside the next hour or two. So here she was, having flown in on Adams because trekking ten minutes through desert on top of everything else was just asking for trouble.
She stuffed her clothes unceremoniously into one of the lockers, deciding that they were already enough of a mess that there was no point worrying about neatness, then draped a towel over herself and made her way toward the spring. The towel did absolutely nothing to cover her, but she didn't care. She had long since thrown away any reservations of being caught without clothes. Although still 'incomplete', so to speak, her body was a work of art that she had no problem with showing off. Which wasn't to say she was about to do anything illegal because of that, but in a place like this she felt that she had absolutely nothing to be ashamed of.
That said, she had occasionally had to aggressively deal with boys (and girls on a couple occasions) with dirty minds. They normally learned their lessons quickly enough though.
She left the towel at the edge as she reached the water, noting that she wasn't the only one there. And the other woman was...none other than the Headmistress herself. Now that was rare. "Valeria. Finally managed to get some time off?" she asked as she lowered herself into the water. Normally Katsumi would have expected to find the Headmistress playing some game instead of doing something else, which she...couldn't always blame her for, no matter how much she wanted to. Laziness and an unwillingness to deal with something mind-numbing were different things.
Valeria's mind had been wandering for a bit as she relaxed in the hot water, so she didn't actually notice that someone else had entered the spring until she heard their voice. Immediately, she sat up to look and see who it was, and was pleasantly surprised when she saw that it was Katsumi, a girl she knew fairly well...even before she joined the staff of the academy. They had encountered each other a few times, mostly in battling tournaments and the like. Valeria usually came out on top, but there was no denying that the other girl was quite skilled. In fact, it was because of this that Valeria even considered hiring her in the first place.
Regardless, once she realized what the other girl had said, Valeria let out a soft sigh "Yeah...for once, I'm caught up in all of my work, so I thought it might be nice to come soak in the springs for a bit. Under any other circumstances, Bernadette would be lecturing me right about now." She let out a small chuckle at her own words, indicating that she was only half serious. Nevertheless, she then looked to Katsumi "And how about you? Taking a break from your training, I assume?" She was often somewhat impressed by the younger girl's dedication to her training. At the very least, there was no way she'd be able to keep up with such rigorous training, so, if nothing else, she respected her quite a bit for that.
Katsumi stole a quick glance over Valeria as she sat up. Now that she thought about it, she had never gotten the chance to see the headmistress's body so...exposed. A certain amount of pride in her own body had also given Katsumi an appreciation of others'. It wasn't anything perverted...although it did occasionally tend in that direction if she allowed herself to dwell on it for too long. But most of the time it was purely aesthetic appreciation. And Valeria, despite being seven years older than her and doing more desk work (and other pursuits usually done while seated) than Katsumi could ever recommend, had quite a bit to appreciate.
That thought was gone again when the headmistress answered her, joking about her assistant lecturing her again. Katsumi couldn't help but think that at least some of those lectures were deserved. While she could understand and even to an extent accept the idea of being inclined to procrastinate on certain tasks, she still didn't wholly approve of it. She couldn't help but wonder if Valeria wouldn't have more of the free time she valued so much if she just finished everything sooner. But that was a lecture Katsumi wasn't going to give. At least, not when both of them were enjoying a moment where they could afford to just relax. And besides, she wasn't going to jump to Bernadette's defense after wasting an an hour looking for the training room inventory sheets, which she'd left somewhere they couldn't possibly get lost only to find them sitting on her desk later.
Instead, she cracked a joke of her own. "I would have thought she'd relish the chance to go through and re-organize your office again," she said, giving the headmistress a small smirk. "In a sense, yes," she said in response to Valeria's question. "I've actually more or less finished for today, and am taking a break before I get to the rest of my work. A much needed one."
Valeria wasn't as clueless as she probably looked. She knew fully well that, a good 85% of the time, she was bringing those lectures onto herself due to how much she was always procrastinating with anything she didn't deem important enough to deal with right away. What probably didn't help was that Valeria had a somewhat skewed sense of priorities. There were times when she'd brush off something that most others would view as important, or, more often than not, vice versa. However, she was always the type to follow whatever her gut was telling her, and, despite how backward it seemed at times, it rarely failed her.
One thing that people tended to overlook is the fact that she was the one who, using her own resources and connections, built this island from the ground up, and has kept it running for more than five years. Sure, there were some bumpy spots, but, overall, Valeria was a woman who knew what she was doing...for the most part. However, this didn't always show, especially whenever Valeria would take the chance to slack off. And, for the most part, she never bothered to defend herself whenever Bernadette or anyone else lectured her. Even if she tried, it'd probably come off sounding like a lame excuse anyway, so she didn't see a point in trying. She knew what she was doing, and that's all that matters in the end.
Either way, when Katsumi mentioned Bernadette rearranging her office, she let out an exasperated sigh "Ugh...don't remind me. While I appreciate her thoughts, I had gotten used to things the way they were, so having it all neat and orderly threw me off a bit." She then took notes about what Katsumi said about her training and nodded, letting out a sigh as she responded "I gotta say, I envy you. My age has already started to catch up to me, and I don't have nearly as much energy as I used to. Hell, I get exhausted just from watching other people work out" Much to Valeria's chagrin, what she said was true. Although the years had been fairly kind to her in terms of looks, being in her mid-30s was still no picnic.
She had watched Katsumi's training on a few occasions and...yeah. Valeria was able to do a pretty good job of staying in shape, but nothing she did would come close to reaching the level of training Katsumi did on a daily basis. And despite how lazy she seems now, she was quite active when she was younger, so it's not like she wouldn't have been able to do it then. But enough about that. She found herself glancing at the younger woman, though she was careful not to let her eyes wander too much. Indeed, she was attractive, but not really Valeria's type. She had a weakness for shy girls, to be honest. Still, she didn't want to seem rude by staring at a naked girl, regardless of how comfortable she appeared to be with her body. At the very least, she was the same way; she didn't mind being seen naked, but she did mind others staring.
Either way, something clicked in the back of her mind, causing her to have a look on her face as though she had just rememembered something "Oh, I meant to ask earlier, but how's it going with your classes? If there's anything you need, don't hesitate to ask...so long as you give me a good enough reason."
Katsumi chuckled at Valeria's comments on Bernadette. It seemed that the headmistress's experiences with her 'organizing' had been much the same as hers. Getting used to things being in familiar places only for them to be moved would throw anyone off. "If she's taught me anything, it's to never trust that I 'couldn't possibly lose' something," she responded. She didn't hold any ill will toward the assistant headmistress, but...in private (which they really weren't, but there was nobody else around at the moment anyway), Katsumi couldn't resist taking a few jabs at her good intentions.
She grinned as Valeria expressed her envy. While she always wanted others to strive to achieve everything they could and believed that making excuses, even ones involving age, was a failure of attitude...it did still feel good to hear something like that from an old rival. "Well, it's nice to know I'll always have something over you, then," she teased. "But you could probably still manage it if you set your mind to it. Age only goes so far...back in Saffron I knew teenagers who would hit the wall after half an hour, while the only person who could still keep up with me before I moved on was sixty years old," she added, taking a more serious tone. Sure, on average people had less energy as they got older, and that was not a prospect Katsumi was looking forward to, but there were other factors as well. Maintaining an active lifestyle was one of the biggest ones. That one of the reasons why she believed she could never let up. "It wouldn't be immediate, but I bet you could still match me.
"Of course, it would mean you had much less time for video games. But the results are worth it," she remarked, sitting up straighter and spreading her arms to rest them on the rocky edge of the spring. The result was that a good portion of her upper body was above the water line and exposed. "You can look as much as you want, by the way. I don't mind," she added. While the headmistress's orientation was well known -- in fact, Katsumi wouldn't have been surprised if there wasn't a single person on the island who didn't know it -- she knew Valeria well enough by this point to trust that she wouldn't be a creep about it.
Then, after a bit, the headmistress got a look as though she just remembered something, and asked about classes. "They're going just fine. I have a few problem students, but that's normal. There's always a few kids who think that just because they signed up doesn't mean they're obligated to participate. Although, it's an optional class, so I have to wonder why they bothered in the first place." She then tried to think of anything she might need. The first thing that came to mind was covered shelters. She had hoped, occasionally, to have classes that were one part class, one part physical activity, which couldn't be done just anywhere. While it would be nice to hold class in more remote areas of the island without always having to meet out in the open (especially if the remote area of the island happened to be Caspia Jungle or Verbena Plains), that wasn't urgent. "Well, if you happened to have the free time to have a few open-air shelters built around the island, I would be open to that idea. Otherwise, I can't think of anything I need at the moment."
Things she wanted, on the other hand, were a different matter. At the moment, the only proper training equipment on the island was that intended for pokemon use in the training area and her own personal gear. For that matter, the training areas themselves could stand to be expanded, so that they were less likely to be full when any given student wanted to get some training in. And that wasn't even getting into some of the activities she had wanted to plan if only she had the necessary gear to do it. But that, like everything else, could wait until such time as she actually needed it.
Valeria listened quietly as Katsumi informed told her that she would be able to keep up with her if she put her mind to it, which, actually, Valeria couldn't really argue with that. It was kinda true. Then she went on to jokingly add that doing so would cut into her precious video game time. "...yeah that's not happening. I barely have enough time to enjoy myself as it is." Again, she was fully aware that she would probably have more free time if she would actually take all of her work seriously, and not just the parts she had any interest in. But...eh. She wasn't really worried about it. As long as the academy was still running, she was fine with things the way they were.
She watched quietly as Katsumi sat up straight, giving Valeria a rather pleasant view in the process, and declared that she didn't mind Valeria looking at her. Valeria couldn't help but chuckle a bit. "And here I thought I was being discreet...but, if you insist." Before, she was trying to at least be a little polite and not to look too much, if only to show some respect. She wasn't the type to get worked up or flustered at the sight of a naked girl, despite her preference. However that didn't mean there weren't girls who were self-conscious, so, until she knew one way or the other, she generally played it safe. Now that she knew, she had few qualms about looking at Katsumi and freely admiring her...assets. In fact, the only reason she wasn't doing the same as Katsumi was simply because she was perfectly comfortable with where she was.
Then Katsumi answered her questions about the classes, and Valeria nodded. Sounded about right. There were always a few "problem children", but it was nothing that none of the staff members couldn't handle. At the very least, she had few no doubts that Katsumi would be able to deal with a troublemaker or two. Thankfully, there hadn't been any serious incidents in a while. Then, she went on to ask about open air shelters. After considering it for a moment, she nodded "...that's not a bad idea, actually. It'll probably take a while to set up, but yeah, that shouldn't be a problem. When you have a chance, give me a list of what exactly you want and where you want them. I'll see what I can do." The more she thought about it, the more she liked this idea. Not just for the uses in Gym Class, but to simply give students a place to stop and rest on a particularly long exploration and/or wild Pokemon hunt. Not to mention new napping possibilities. That was always nice.
Katsumi chuckled at Valeria's rebuttal. Very...typical. And while she hadn't planned to say anything on that subject, it was only fitting after a statement like that. "Well, if you planned your time better you would have more free time," she said. "That doesn't even mean you have to get everything done right away, just so long as you actually do it when you plan on doing it. Then just set aside time for whatever else you want to too. That's how I do it, at least." It felt a bit odd to be lecturing someone seven years older than her on time management, but...well, it wasn't the first time something like that happened. People could still be students in one way or other at any age, after all.
She smirked at Valeria's next comment. So...predictable. She wasn't going to make the assumption (out loud at least) that the headmistress was already taking peeks at her, but...well, it was a very easy assumption to make. Katsumi didn't mind it, of course. In fact, she wouldn't have minded if Valeria did it more often. She had put way too much work into her body to be self-conscious about it.
And, interestingly, Valeria seemed receptive to the idea of building a few shelters around the island. She could already think of a few places where she'd want them. Soldiago Field, obviously, so that she didn't keep having to set up a makeshift classroom. The heavy lifting involved was fine, but weather tended to make a mess of things. Other than that, she could immediately think of Watsonia Field, Lilac Beach, Verbena Plains, Celosia Mountain, and maybe even one at the foot of the volcano. She was sure the Island Nav class would appreciate them too, since they were expected to visit different areas of the island more often than her own class was. ...Actually, that part was mostly her own idea in the first place.
And, of course, that would mean more new areas to discover Valeria sleeping. Well, it would probably be more comfortable than solid rock, at least. "I can probably have it to you tonight, once I'm done with the rest of my work," Katsumi said.
Great, now Katsumi was lecturing her. Of course, Valeria couldn't exactly deny that she was right. In fact, she knew she was. However, this was simply how Valeria had gotten used to doing things. If nothing else, she knew when she needed to be 100% serious about something. Either way, she dismissed it with a simple "yeah, I know", and left it at that. Not long after, she was starting to get a bit stiff in the slouched position she was in, thus she took a note from Katsumi's book and stood up straight. Stretching a bit, there was an audible pop that came from her back, followed by a relaxed sigh from Valeria, who started resting against the edge of the bath, but stayed sitting upright.
Naturally, her entire upper body was now fully visible, though she didn't mind anyone seeing it. And since Katsumi was so casual about her own body being exposed, she figured it'd be safe to assume she wouldn't care about seeing someone else's. But enough about that. When Katsumi responded to her statement regarding the shelters, she nodded quietly. "I actually have a meeting with some sponsors later tonight, so if I'm not there, just leave it on my desk where I'll see it. It shouldn't take too long, but with that sort of thing, it's hard to tell sometimes. Sometimes, they go on for a lot longer than expected, and sometimes it's the opposite."
She let out a sigh "Things like that are the only thing I don't like about this gig. Sometimes, I miss wandering aimlessly and challenging random strangers to battles whenever our eyes met..." She smiled a bit "It's all well worth the effort, but I never liked dealing with all of the formalities that come with running something like this." She paused for a moment, then continued. "Still...for all my complaining, I don't have a single regret. If even one student can benefit from everything offered here, then that's all I need to know I made the right choice when I established this academy..." Letting out one last sigh, she contemplated getting out, as the steam was beginning to get to her a little...but nah. Sticking around for a little longer won't hurt anything.