Round 1 [new characters and round announcement]

[utopiamods]

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. ♥ ]

Comments

[summerstars]

She turned the wheelchair to face him fully, and briefly gave him a grimace.

"We don't know. We have to assume it will... But this... uhm, game of theirs may just be the beginning..." Grenn trailed off unhappily and shrugged, remembering the muddled 'dream'. "But if we don't assume that playing their game will get us home... And we get punished if we don't, and we can't leave, what to do then?"

There was nothing to do. Unless there was something else, but she wasn't about to share that with the first person she met, and especially not here in the lobby.

[aureus_veritas]

Ed stays quiet for a moment, frowning while his mind works furiously to figure something out. There has to be another option. Preferably one that didn't end in death.

"The punishment is just losing tokens? What happens if we lose all of them?"

[summerstars]

Grenn looked up at the blond and raised an eyebrow. He wasn't thinking... Probably was. She shook her head.

"Technically, nothing... But you'll continue losing them, and if you want the memories they took away, it's gonna be hard with tokens in the minus," Grenn said with a grimace. "And... I don't know. They might decide to do something else, if taking tokens isn't... uh, deterrence enough."

She really hoped he wouldn't get the idea of doing something like not participating. She shook her head.
"Trust me... Last round two of the children attempted to play an ordinary board game after having drawn the weapons to get around the fighting part..." Grenn looked up again and gave him a brief, direct stare. "There was tokens docked, and the penalty warning. On children."

[aureus_veritas]

A single eyebrow arches upward. While Ed can understand that it seemed especially harsh to issue punishments on children, most of the reasoning behind that became lost on him after Izumi Curtis had become his master. Then again, he and Al weren't like most other kids and had somehow endured that beating. Most kids were more fragile, weren't they?

"But there's still nothing guaranteeing that. And chances are that whatever 'power' is locking our memories away or whatever will become ineffective once we find a way out of here, right? Our focus should be on all of us leaving, not on surviving."

Though even as he's saying that there's a strange, nagging feeling in the back of his head. Like there's something he's supposed to do here as well. But what...?

[summerstars]

"... And, um, leave before our memories are back? We have no guarantee that they'll be returned when we leave..." Grenn shook her head and frowned. "And personally, I know I'm missing at least three things I want back before I think of trying to leave and possibly... sacrifice the other taken memories..."

Grenn shrugged. He could, of course, attempt to do what he thought best. She was, after all, contemplating doing something that could possibly bring down severe punishment on her head. She would still do it.

[aureus_veritas]

"We don't have any guarantees of anything, period," Ed mutters with a scowl. "Like I said, there's still a chance our memories would be returned if we find a way back to our respective homes."

He looks over at the girl with a half-shrug. "I'd rather spend my time doing that then playing their little puppet game."

[summerstars]

"Wouldn't we all..." Grenn shook her head and rubbed her face tiredly. Afterhalf a minte of dithering and thinking, Grenn took a decision.

"You have to understand, everyone of us here spent last... night? I'm not sure... in some sort of..." A sigh. He was probably not going to believe her, but... "Shared dream, hallucination... something. It was real enough my nerves still feel like my left arm shouldn't be here," Grenn paused to look up at the young man, a pinched look on her face. "Because it was chopped off. It was real enough, I know I died."

It seemed completely out there, considering she knew what he was seeing; her sitting here in front of him, seemingly unharmed. Grenn rubbed her left arm and tensed her muscles. It was still hard to imagine it was there.

[aureus_veritas]

Ed frowns slightly. At the very least, he can sympathize with that. He can still vividly remember the time spent without his right arm, how strange it had been to come to terms with the fact that it wasn't there. It had been even weirder going through rehab for the automail and adjusting to how that felt.

But that's still not enough to convince him. "Well, you're still alive. And what's more, I'd think that an experience like that would want you to skip the battle thing altogether and jump straight to 'Someone get me home before that happens again.'"

[summerstars]

"If I could... But I have some proof I can't just walk out of here expecting to end up where I came from..." Grenn grimaced.

"Considering I have to put on my artificial legs to effectively use some of these weapons, I'd be out of here in a second if I could be sure... But you actually think it'd be so easy as to just follow the tracks?" Grenn raised her eyebrows at him and shook her head again.

[aureus_veritas]

"I didn't say that," Ed retorts with a roll of his eyes. "There's probably a good chance that those tracks lead to nowhere and following them out the way we came from could potentially land us dead faster than any number of battles we join here. No, there's gotta be a method that our captors used to bring us in and put us on those trains. Something that could potentially explain why you all had a vivid hallucination or dream or whatever it was. Some kind of power, or advanced technology - something that can be used to fix our memories and send us all back home."

Ed is fully aware of just how ridiculous this all sounds. But it's better to have something like this to shoot for rather than being content to twiddle his thumbs while waiting for further instructions. He'd been following orders for long enough. Rebellion was far more satisfying.

[summerstars]

"Probably..." Grenn frowns and shrugs. "There's one building that's closed up altogether, and the building where we eat has the upper floors locked of. There could... of course, be anything in there." She's not sure she should tell him this, but he'd notice himself soon enough that some buildings just weren't accessible.

You... probably want this sort of adivice, but. You should probably at least pretend to play their game, until..."

[aureus_veritas]

Ed nods slowly, making mental notes of what she's telling him about these buildings and that he should check them out later. His lips quirk to one side while he thinks, trying to keep his thoughts as organized and rational as possible. Which involves expelling a lot of anger and trying to slow the rush of blood into his head.

She has a point about the pretending. At the very least, that would keep suspicion off of him in case the penalties here were more intense than they thought. So he nods again, letting out a sigh.

"...Fine. Guess that means I'm gonna need a weapon."

[summerstars]

It takes her a bit to decide, but he seems reasonable enough, so why not? Grenn shrugs and gives a lop-sided half-smile.

"If you want to try mine, I won't mind." Better him than if it'd had been Tougyu, probably. It's not as if she can't talk to Yuki anyway.

[aureus_veritas]

Ed blinks, eyes wide in surprise at the sudden offer. "Your- We've only just met."

Then he takes on a slightly more wary, almost suspicious look. In his experience, people didn't just offer things like this for nothing. "...What's the catch?"

[summerstars]

Grenn has to scratch the back of her head and blink at the blond for a bit. While she can understand the suspicion, she's not sure at all how to ressure him. In the end, she just shrugs.

"... The catch? That people who don't know each other have to work together, I guess? I... think that's catch enough... Considering we have to attempt to trust each other?"

[aureus_veritas]

Ed raises an eyebrow at her. Well... It's at least true that this girl doesn't know him well enough to want something specific from him. It's also true that she's been pretty damn helpful, and only because he's new and aside from what the girl in the video said, he doesn't know shit about how this place works. So Ed sighs and nods.

"Guess so. We should start with names, then." He extends a hand for a handshake. "I'm Edward Elric."

[summerstars]

She almost takes that hand, then pauses. Shakes her head and then takes his hand and shakes it.

"Grenn Atair. Sorry... um, for hesitating, but there's a penalty for non-vowed Weapons to touch Players, but I remembered it's not in effect today," Grenn said with a grimace and shrugegd apologetically.

[aureus_veritas]

Ed looks confused for a moment, but then that gives way to looking annoyed. "Damn, this place has rules for absolutely everything, doesn't it?"

[summerstars]

"They do... Yes." Grenn said with a sigh and shook her head. "Anyway, don't touch anyone if you don't know they're a Player, or your own Weapon."

[aureus_veritas]

"Right." Ed nods, attempting to cement that in his mind. "Thanks for the heads up."

He then sighs, glancing around. "So how exactly does this weapon thing work, again?"

[summerstars]

Grenn grimaced and spread her hands, palms up.

"The original 'vow' is that you promise to protect and... 'own' them. You don't have to say it like that, though. I think... the protection bit is most important?" She really, really can't stand the 'own' part.

"Then before a battle, you can draw the weapons."

[aureus_veritas]

His lips twitch into a frown. "That's one hell of a weird vow," he mutters.

He then draws in a deep breath, mind working furiously to accept all of this. It's insane, all of it is, but what choice does he have, really?

"And we're all players and weapons at some point, right? So we all end up... 'belonging' to someone else?"

[summerstars]

"Temporarily, yeah." Grenn nods and then she shrugs. "I was a player the... uh... the first round. They called it round -2." She has to pause there, supressing the shiver as she's reminded of what that led up to.

"But yes, they switch Players around each round, and if you lose a battle, you lose the Weapon you used. If you win a battle, you gain the opponent's Weapon."

[aureus_veritas]

Ed makes a face. He's really not very fond of the idea that ownership of a person was so easily transferable.

"And this just goes on back and forth with no end in sight?"

[summerstars]

Another tired rub of hands over her face. She's only been here a few weeks and she's already tired of this.

"Yes... As far as we've seen." She's not sure she can tell him of 'round zero'. Obviously, all the new ones deserve a warning, at the least, but thinking of attempting to tell him, someone who wasn't there, makes her throat close up. Too soon.