ROUND 4 - NEW PLAYERS & ROUND CHANGE

[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 anyone onboard is ushered off and directed to the front lobby of the school. You 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.

Anyway, the many screens are far more interesting. Once a good number of students are gathered inside the building, they all activate at once to show a cheerful, almost cavity-inducing woman in the school uniform. She smiles, waves, and launches into her speech without further ado.

"Good afternoon to our new students here at Utopia Academy! Thank you for choosing to enroll with us for this, our first semester of the new year. Our battle system is the best in the world, set up for you, our students! I hope that you all had a fun journey here, and that you've all made some new friends! You're going to need them soon, so keep them close, okay?

"Now, I'm going to explain the rules for you. Make sure to listen carefully, and remember, you can find all of this and more in the Exaclan manual!"

She outlines the battle system for the newbies as she has every round previous, then claps her hands. The screen goes blank, and the following appears:

PLAYERS FOR ROUND 4:
Dahlia Hawthorne
Edward Elric
Gino Weinberg
Kanaya Maryam
Lelouch vi Britannia
Rudy Roughnight
Sherlock Holmes
Shiro Tougyu
Suzaku Kururugi
Takuto Tsunashi
Tomoko Oashi
Zoro Roronoa

Comments

[swordofzero]

Suzaku smiled and nodded at her words but was a little surprised at her reaction. Because he had just assumed that that was what was done in her world and yet she seemed surprised that he had accepted it so easily, he shrugged again and muttered some response to the thank you.

He smiled again and wondered for a moment where this girl was from, they had people from many worlds come here and some of them were very strange indeed. In Enki's world people grew on trees and so not much surprised Suzaku anymore.

He tilted his head slightly at the question, he didn't really know what she meant but he assumed it was something like a noble. He shook his head.

"Back home I am..." He paused before going for the easiest option, "I am a knight, here we are all students though they have a battle system." He pointed at the screan, "Some people are chosen as players each week and the rest are weapons and they make us fight to regain our lost memories."

He realised she might have not realised she had lost memories yet, "They take ten memories from us, they can be large or small but we have to earn tokens through fighting to win them back."

[ergaleomancer]

What was done in her world... Theta had to deal with a society that insisted she was female because that's what she was born as, that was what was done in her world, but what was common wasn't necessarily what was right. If she thought about it, it was rather disgusting, even, that she'd gotten into the habit of letting people wear her down enough to stop correcting them. This was a breath of fresh air.

"Mm, so I'd seen. It seems I'm to be a weapon this week, I didn't see my name listed with the players. I think that's just as well; I'm not particularly suited to fighting, myself." She tapped her cane on the floor to punctuate her words, discretely drawing attention to it to explain why she thought that was the case.

"The memory-taking must be flawless. I hadn't even noticed anything missing." She frowned at that, now racking her brain to try to find anything out of place.  "You've been here a while, then, I take it?" One thing she does remember, since she saw the list recently, is that she saw a name that started with Suzuku on it, so she adds to her question. "Oh, are you a player this round?"

[swordofzero]

At the mention of not being suited to fighting Suzaku gave a small shrug, "There are many types of weapons here, and some unconventional ones, I am sure if you ask around you can find one that is easy for you to use." He smiled again, after all a well aimed bullet could finish a fight quickly even if you wern't fast on your feet. Suzaku shook his head at himself, but really the more people that could fight the better, it was easier to protect those that couldn't, the smallest children and easier to find a way out of here.

He nodded again, "You will begin to notice, your mind starts to fill with like a fog when you get close to the subject of what you forgot. And if you do learn something you have forgotten you forget it again." He scowled, it was annoying.

"Yes I was in the first group of people to be brought here." He said quietly, "That was almost two months ago now..."

"Oh yes, I'm a player." He smiled again, "Oh... if you need a player? It's always best to team up, they have unfair rules and restrictions against weapons without players..."

[ergaleomancer]

She made a soft 'hmm' of understanding, though she decided that scouring her memories in detail would be a better task for a time she was alone and in private, or at the very least not in the middle of a crowded room.

"Well. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it, at any rate," which was an answer to both the thought of memories and of finding a weapon for herself. This round she was a weapon, so there was no bother there.

"I don't have anyone I recognise here, so I don't really have anyone I can team up with right off hand. Unless that was an offer? I've never been fond of restrictions."

[swordofzero]

Suzaku nodded quietly, "It was, only if you want to, I wont use your weapon in battle if you don't want but it's always better to be an "owned" weapon rather than a "discard"." His tone when he said that showed what he thought of those words and there connotations, which was he wasn't happy with them. But it was the way this school worked and they just had to get used to it.

[ergaleomancer]

"I don't mind at all~!" she answered cheerily, grinning with the pride of arrogance filling her bearing. "I wouldn't mind being in a battle or two, it sounds like fun, as well~!"

[swordofzero]

Suzaku smiled and nodded before going down smoothly onto one knee with a small smile. "I swear to protect you, miss Elizabeθ Buckley for the duration of this round." He looked solomn and waited for Elizabeθ to accept the vow.

[ergaleomancer]

She blinked in surprise at that, but with the level of formality she assumed that it was a necessity of this place. It made her feel a bit feminine, but she quashed that thought in case it was a part of the school traditions regarding weapons in general. She nodded her head, smiling awkwardly. "Thank you, Mr. Suzaku. ...Yes, thank you."

[swordofzero]

Suzaku saw the mark begin to form on Elizabeθ's hand and rose to his feet. He pointed to the mark, "All "owned" weapons get that mark," he remembered something and reached into his pocket grabbing some paper and a pen and quickly wrote a note similar to the ones he had written for Huashi and Kotarou explaining that Elizabeθ could eat desert, and use the gym and the library and everything else.

"It's not fair, but it's the way this school works." He handed the note over with a grimace.

[ergaleomancer]

She took the note and peered down at it, then peered down at her hand and the mark there. Well, as long as she had her freedoms, it didn't particularly matter, did it? "As long as I have my freedoms, I don't particularly care. Each school has its quirks, perhaps this is to teach us humility." Not that she was really interested in learning it, but she could appreciate it in a hypothetical sense.

[swordofzero]

Suzaku nodded, "That might be it," he gave another small smile, "I'm in Black Dorm room 1A if you need to find me. I'll see you around." He gave a nod and went to move off, glad that he had found another potential ally.