rakuen | Round 1 [new characters and round announcement]

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Round 1 [new characters and round announcement]

You're falling, and you can't remember why. It's a sickening feeling that makes your insides lurch; the darkness and the vertigo combine, and all you can think of is a story you heard once, somewhere.

- I remember now. It's a simple story that everyone knows. A legend of a Princess, the Demon Lord who kidnapped her, and the Knight who fought to save her.

The Demon Lord had kidnapped the Princess countless times, but every time the Knight bested his challenges and rescued the Princess.

No matter what tricks and ploys the Demon Lord used, the Knight would always triumph in the end. This was because--

The world tilts on its axis one last time, and the dream slips from your mind as easily as it arrived. A new voice intrudes on your sleep.

"Next stop: Academy Main Entrance. This tramline terminates here; all change. Next stop: Academy Main Entrance. All change."

Sunlight streams through the windows of the long carriage, making the seats almost uncomfortably warm beneath its waking passengers. The air is muggy and thick, the atmosphere deeply tired. Your nausea settles, slowly. The last of the dream fades.

"We have arrived at Utopia. Repeat, we have arrived at Utopia Academy. Could all passengers please leave the tram, as it is terminating here."

The tram pulls to a stop outside the academy station, and the students onboard are ushered off and directed to the front lobby of the school. They can't miss it; there are signs up pointing toward the main entrance, reading "New student orientation" in big, bright letters. If anyone should care to move off the path, try exploring somewhere else, a teacher will conveniently appear to shoo them back toward the lobby, assuring them that "all your questions will be answered inside".

The lobby is big and spacious, looking more like a university or perhaps a fancy international hotel than a high school. Stood around are any number of students in the uniform of the school. Some of them even look awake. There are several receptionists at the desk towards the back of the lobby, but for now they seem busy with paperwork.

[ Note: the round announcement will go up in a thread once you've all mingled. ♥ ]

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"They are?" If Ed was saying that, it had to be true, right? He wouldn't lie about his brother's wellbeing. His own, sure, but Al's? At least she could set that worry aside for now. She sighed and got back to her feet, brushing her school uniform off in case of dirt. "Maybe it's weird to you, but it's important to me."

But not to dwell on saddening things.

"Right! I've already been here for three rounds... though..." Mei wouldn't call Round Zero an actual round. She shuddered just thinking about it. "I don't know how we can leave yet."

Ed rolls his eyes a little. Of course it's an important memory to her. But at least he got her straightened out on that one, right?

Back to business.

"Did you check all the buildings for any kind of weird machinery? Or even strange arrays drawn out somewhere? Someone mentioned that there are locked off areas around here that might have something, do you know anything about that?"

Mei shot him a glare at the eyeroll. She saw that, mister! She doesn't bring it up, though, and only crosses her arms with a grumble. Even as Ed thought the matter was settled, the update on which brother she had liked was already slipping away from her memory...

He wasn't going to be happy when she greeted him at breakfast with another shriek and hug.

"Ah, no weird machines. I haven't been able to get into the locked buildings. I thought I might try to just break a window in on one of the higher floors." Mei wouldn't have a problem getting up there. "Though I think the entire island has an array laid down on it. I don't know how else to explain what's blocking alkahestry, if it isn't something like that."

Ed's eyes widened. "Wait-- Something's blocking your alkahestry?"

He then turned his gaze upward, looking around at all the buildings. "If there was a giant array... We could verify it with a map or a view from higher up..."

"Yeah, and Fletcher's alchemy, so it must have gotten yours, too." So heads up. There will be no transmuting for any of them. "The desk gives out maps, but if you want to see everything from up above..." Mei points upwards. "There's a clocktower."

"Dammit," Ed growled. No alchemy. This was going to prove a little more difficult than he'd initially thought.

His gaze followed where Mei was pointing, looking for this clocktower. He then nodded, mostly to himself, but he gestured for her to follow him to the desk anyway.

"Then we'll get both. Can't hurt."

"Don't worry! I still won a fight even without alkahestry!" And she's a tiny thing, though already knowing how to fight had helped with that quite a bit. When he started towards the receptionist desk, Mei latched onto one of his hands so she could hold it as they walked.

She hadn't even thought about it. That reminder that Ed had given her about Al? Gone.

"So we're going to climb the clocktower?" The girl sounded excited. Running about, solving mysteries in enemy territory with Edward? That sounded soooo romantic.

And with the inevitability of a trainwreck in a cheap action film, Gino closed in just before they reached the desk. Arms folded, he slouched in his typical obnoxiously tall way, and grinned a little too widely.

"Hey, you found someone! Gonna introduce me?"

Ed tried to withdraw his hand when he felt Mei's hand slipping into it, but he must've gotten distracted somehow. Or he figured it was harmless, if a little weird. She liked Al, after all. They'd just established that.

He stopped short when he heard that voice, turning toward it even though he didn't recognize it at all. Deciding that whoever it was had to be an acquaintance of Mei's and that he obviously didn't have to be a part of this conversation, Ed once again attempted to slip away from her to get a map from the desk.

Mei let Ed escape this time. He needed to get a school map and his dorm key before they could go searching the grounds for signs of arrays. He wouldn't leave without her, right? Right. She was sure of it. Mostly. Kind of. A little.

Though that did leave her alone to chat with Gino while she waited for him to get back. It would be a most regrettable run-in.

"Giiino! I did! It's Edward~!" The tiny Xingese girl watched Ed walk away, looking more or less like the happiest person in the world at that moment. She turned to the knight and beamed at him. "He's from Amestris and we were fighting the bad guys together and someday we're going to get married and we'll rule Xing together and it'll be the greatest and--" Mei paused, encountering one little hitch in her thought process. "...or was it Alphonse that I was going to marry?"

Oh well! It didn't matter. Edward had gotten here first!

Gino watched him leave too, eyes glinting as he appraised the guy for the qualities Mei had spent a while outlining in the last few weeks.

"Wow, you've got that all planned out, huh? Just make sure you've got the right guy before you give him the crown."

Ed could swear Mei was talking about him, and it was making him twitch. He supposed it made sense to an extent, but he was getting the feeling that it was spiraling out of control and into a realm that he wasn't too thrilled with.

Once he'd gotten what he needed, he tucked everything into his back pockets and headed back over to join Mei and her friend.

He would be right. Soooo very right.

"Yeah! I'll make sure!" At least the most terrible things she had said had passed by the time Edward got back to them. Mei twirled around to face him, ~~beaming with the joy of a thousand unicorns~~ smiling way too happily at him. "Ed! This is Gino! He's been here as long as I have and he's a knight!"

"Yo." He gave a half-salute, half-wave. The guy looked incredibly suspicious, which, Gino figured, was the right reaction if you had Mei plotting to make you the first of her royal consorts.

He was immediately wary of that altogether too happy look on Mei's face, and it momentarily made him hesitate in his approach. But, against his better judgment, he pushed himself through it. He made a face at her, just to show her that she was weirding him out again, before he turned toward Gino.

Ed returned the greeting with a simple nod of his head, coming to a stop next to Mei. The introduction he was given has him raising an eyebrow, giving the guy a quick once over. "A knight?"

The look he gave her threw her smile off a bit. Had she done something wrong? The girl couldn't think of anything she may have done. Instead of dwelling on it, she plowed right back on into talking about Gino and knights.

"Yeah! A real one!" Which was an awesome occupation as far as Mei was concerned. "He was my Weapon in the other round..." And vice versa in the one before that. On that thought, there was something else that came to mind. "Edward! You're a Player, aren't you?"

Ed raised an eyebrow at that, glancing over at Gino again. A real knight. He sure as hell didn't look like the kind people told stories about to their kids. At least not the way Ed had imagined it (which involved really awesome looking armor, with spikes).

He then turned back to Mei, giving her an odd look. "Yeah, I guess... That's what the board says, right?"

"It does!" But more importantly... "Edward! I can be your Weapon! It'll be great! I know how the game works already and everything!"

The sudden exclamation made Ed flinch slightly. Why the hell was she so excited about that?

"I... Someone actually already agreed to be my weapon. So you really don't have to..."

Because he was here! Why wouldn't she be excited? Just because he was a short, surly, loudmouthed-- why was she so excited to see him again? Hrm. At least his wariness made her reel in the joy some.

"O-oh. Um. But Players can have more than one."

Edited 2011-02-10 15:15 (UTC)

"Oh. Well."

He shifted his weight onto his prosthetic leg. He had no real reason to refuse. At least in this case he actually knew Mei. Not extremely well, but she was at least a familiar face. So he shrugged, making a face and scratching at the back of his head.

"I... guess. If you want."

Even as he said it, he had the distinct feeling that he was going to regret this.

There was always a distinct possibility for regret. Mei, at least, managed to get back onto a more serious track. She gave him a nod. "We're still on the same side, right? So of course I want to be! And if we're going to be looking for arrays, it's just easier to be partners anyway."

Or else there could be impending warning penalty fail. That would suck.

Ed's lips quirked to one side thoughtfully. She had a point. Even if their alchemy and alkahestry didn't work here, he could end up needing her knowledge of it to help figure their situation out. So he nodded again.

"Right. So in that case..." He took a deep breath, facing her fully as he slipped his hands into his pockets. He was going to regret this. But at least she'd stopped grinning at him like a lunatic. For now.

"I promise to protect you, Mei."

Mei restrained the urge to give a joyous leap and latch onto him again. For whatever reason, the alchemist was kind of jumpy! Hm. Wonder why. Instead, Mei agreed to the Player-Weapon contract with a simple, "Okay!"

With that cleared up, she moved back to the business of arrays.

"When do you want to check out the clocktower?"

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Round 1 [new characters and round announcement]

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