General Information
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Bainbridge Academy for the Strangely Gifted is, ultimately, a boarding school. Students are expected to attend the academy full time, and as such, are provided with living quarters in the academy's main building. Students are permitted to return home for holidays, should they wish to; Bainbridge is often willing to cover any travel costs incurred. Similar rules apply to personnel.
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The academy is located on an extremely remote island in the South Atlantic Ocean. Its remote location grants security to its students and minimizes any possible danger to the world at large, but its remote location is also why the academy is so generous in covering travel costs for its students and personnel.
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The weather at the academy is fairly warm, humid, and windy all year. Temperatures tend to stick around 70-80°F (20-27°C), and winds are never below 10mph (15Km/h). Rain is unpredictable and sporadically affects different areas of the island, though the island does see a lot of it - the "wet months" are March and August.
Getting to the Academy
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Unless a prospective arrival begins their journey in South Africa, they are almost certainly in for a long flight. The
MSV Bainbridge is the only ship officially chartered to bring passengers and cargo to Newbridge and the academy, and she sails out of Cape Town, South Africa. Bainbridge is, as stated, generally willing to cover the cost of a flight to or from Cape Town.
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The
MSV Bainbridge travels from Cape Town to the island and back every few weeks. Passengers can be ferried on the
MSV Bainbridge year-round, though its primary purpose is to transport cargo and its cabins reflect as much. Students and personnel are encouraged to restrict their travel to the months between October and March, due to hurricane season. Students and personnel also travel aboard the
MSV Bainbridge without cost; visitors and tourists must pay for their cabin space. The voyage from Cape Town to the island or vice versa takes around one week, and a round trip takes around two.
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Given that the island makes for a perfect scenic stop between Brazil and Africa, it's far from uncommon for cruise lines and private yachts to drop anchor and resupply at the island. Any prospective arrival could certainly use these means to get to the island, though Bainbridge would not cover any costs incurred.
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The island does not have a proper airstrip, and Bainbridge does not plan to erect one anytime soon. Arrival by air would require a water landing or a helicopter.
Newbridge
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Newbridge serves as the academy's port. Much of it has been built in the last two decades, and it currently boasts a population of more than 2500 people. Plenty of ships end up mooring in Newbridge's harbor to resupply as they cross the Atlantic, which keeps the port fairly busy year round. The high amount of tourism to the island itself is almost entirely because of the academy, however.
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Amenity-wise, Newbridge has two hotels, one proper restaurant, and a bar, along with a surprisingly well stocked general and grocery store. The town also has a primary and a secondary school for the island's ordinary children.
The Island
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The island discovered by Persephone Bainbridge I all the way back in the fifteenth century was a naturally gorgeous one, all hills and greenery, and the island yet retains some of that natural beauty. Much like its nearest cousin, St Helena Island, the island's natural flora and fauna are quite unique. Its flora include several shrubby varieties of daisy along with gumwoods, with the addition of what has been planted by residents of Newbridge and what is included in the academy garden. Its fauna is limited to several species of birds and the animals introduced by the academy's residents over the years.
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Persephone's Cove, on the northeastern side of the island's eastern end, is an idyllic spot. Given that it's a relatively shallow cove and it stands protected from tides and foul waves by the pillars of rock that defend its connection to the ocean, it's an excellent spot for swimming.
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The East Inlet, on the island's southeastern corner, doesn't have nearly the same protection from the ocean's moods as Persephone's Cove, but it does possess several small islands and even a cave. It's an excellent weekend destination for any would-be explorer.
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Martinwood, named for a Cocker Spaniel favored by the founder of the academy, is a forest which covers a significant portion of the island's southern edge. The wood is comprised primarily of gumwood and cabbage trees, with other species mixed in. Given that the forest itself is quite scenic and birds naturally favor the area, it's an excellent place for a hike.
The Academy's Grounds
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Imposing metal fences mark the grounds of Bainbridge Academy, the security cameras posted atop the fence and an electrified hum near it warning away any would-be intruders. Past the secured gate and the fencing, the academy's grounds are lovely. Alongside all the academy's buildings, the grounds include a large stretch of coastline and a sizable grove of trees, tended to by the academy's groundskeeping staff.
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On the southern end of the grounds sit state-of-the-art training facilities. The largest building houses several floors of classrooms and offices for the facility staff, built to purpose, along with secured basement rooms for housing students or asylees with particularly troublesome or explosive powers. Some distance from--and carefully arranged around--the main building are smaller structures built for sparring and individual practice with one's abilities. Students have free access to these sparring rooms until curfew, so long as they aren't supposed to be in class. Staff have free access to these sparring rooms, so long as they aren't supposed to be working. A walk from the main academy grounds to the training facilities takes around fifteen minutes.
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The gym complex is situated southeast of the main grounds and just a bit northwest of the training facilities. It features: two outdoor fields and two indoor courts that can be outfitted for various sports; one swimming pool built for swimming laps; one swimming pool with a sloping depth for recreation and diving; a respectably well-outfitted fitness center; and a 400m standard track for running.
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Resting near the midpoint between the main grounds and the training facilities, the art building boasts a large theatre, a hall outfitted with mirrors for dance practices, a music hall, and several art rooms. A building housing the wood and metal shops is nearby, but kept at a distance for safety's sake. Welding materials are quite explosive, after all.
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The rec hall, situated across the path from the art building, includes several pool tables, a few arcade machines and an air hockey table, along with TVs students can utilize for gaming events that refuse to be contained in the dorms. The rec hall's second floor is comprised of conference rooms that can be claimed for club meetings or staff gatherings. The student-run coffee shop is housed in the same building as the rest of the rec hall, but is accessed through a different entrance. Students aren't permitted to access the rec hall or the coffee shop during school hours, or after curfew.
Staff Housing
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Staff housing covers the rest of the path between the main grounds and the training facilities. Staff housing includes two large apartment buildings, as well as several smaller homes.
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Staff members with families--or staff members who become a family--are housed in the smaller homes according to their needs. A staff member's household must include two others, alongside themselves, in order to qualify for one of these homes. That said, neither of those others are
required to be their spouse or child.
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Single staff members, staff members who are single parents, and couples without children are housed in one of the apartment buildings. These buildings are the structures closest to the walls of the academy, and they are sat on either side of the main path leading toward the training facilities. There are four two-bedroom apartments on each floor of these buildings, and both buildings are several stories tall.
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Students can visit the dwellings of staff members if they so choose, provided they fill out a permissions slip with an on-duty security officer.
Bainbridge Academy
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The outer walls surrounding Bainbridge Academy's main grounds date back to the academy's original founding. These walls are striking red brickwork dating back to the fifteenth century, built with the cliffs they tuck up against instead of built in spite of them. These walls are relatively tall; careful maintenance over the centuries has kept them solid and sturdy. The academy lacks a moat, unlike other castles from the period in which it was built, but creating one would hardly have been worth the effort. The academy does, however, have a large gate with a working portcullis that faces the training facilities to the southeast.
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After entering through the academy's sole gate, one is faced with a large courtyard containing the gardens. The academy's gardens boast both decorative and practical plant species from all over the world, and span the entire courtyard in a beautiful arrangement that does little to impair one's ability to get from the gate to the main building's doors. The gardens are tended to by student volunteers, supervised by groundskeeping staff.
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The main building's inner structure has been reworked over the centuries, internal walls being torn down and rebuilt to change classroom arrangements or make way for modern innovations such as plumbing and power, but the building's bones remain. It yet stands as an imposing castle, constructed of the same red brick as the outer walls, with large doors clearly made to be defensible. With three stories and with two full wings, the main building is absolutely massive for the time period in which it was built.
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The biggest and arguably the most important room in the academy lies on the other side of those main doors: The Great Hall. Large enough to seat all of the academy's personnel, its entire student body, and an elephant or ten, the great hall is where students gather for meals and meetings. Tall, thin windows line each side of the hall, and can be opened up to keep the place cool; they're nearly always open due to the tropical climate of the island. A fireplace sits at each end of the hall to keep the place warm in the event of a cold spell, but those fireplaces haven't been used in years.
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The academy's second largest room its library. It's been expanded several times since its construction, and it safely houses thousands of volumes on its shelves. Many of its original books - those that date from the academy's founding - remain to be found by the enterprising historian. Several tables with reading lights dot its open spaces, and there are comfortable reading nooks tucked away for those who care to find them amongst the bookcases.
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The underground space that once housed the castle's cellar and...we'll call it the "basement"...has been refitted to house the kitchens and pantries. The kitchens dominate most of the substructure, featuring state-of-the-art appliances and equipment. The pantries are far from lacking, however; there's plenty of storage space for dry ingredients, along with coolers for ingredients requiring refrigeration and a large freezer.
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Classrooms primarily cover the main building's upper floors, though several dot the rest of the building as space allows. Classrooms are equipped with desks for students, a desk for the teacher, and a set of basic supplies. Teachers can--appropriately--decorate their rooms as they choose, and can requisition additional supplies from the academy. Each classroom can sit thirty students comfortably; Bainbridge Academy does its best to keep class sizes under that number.
Student Housing
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Student dorms are laid out along the first two floors of each wing of the academy. They're arranged into apartment style units; four students share a living room and a kitchen, with each of the students having their own bedroom and bathroom. Each living room comes with a couch, two armchairs, and a modest but up-to-date television; each kitchen comes with counters, cabinetry, the expected appliances, and a basic set of cookware and utensils.
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The standard furniture for each bedroom includes a bed, a dresser, a wardrobe for hanging clothing, a desk, a chair, and a lamp. Students can purchase their own furniture or bring some from home, and they can otherwise decorate their rooms as they see fit. Bathrooms are equipped with a toilet, a large sink with drawers for storage, and a bathtub/shower combo. The bedrooms and bathrooms come stocked with low-end but usable hygiene products and linens; clothes can be provided on request. Students can request replacements of these supplies and linens as needed, though they are more than welcome to buy their own.
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The living room and kitchen of a unit are both considered shared spaces; decoration in these spaces from any of the students sharing one are permitted, but must be accepted--or at least tolerated--by all four students in the unit.
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Kitchens within the dorm units are stocked by request, meaning every unit gets a small allowance for stocking the kitchen every week. If a unit doesn't turn in a shopping list, they don't get shopped for. All students within a unit should generally agree on the contents of the shopping list.
Boy just likes handholding ok
