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

[grimauxilatrix]

Kanaya realized that she sounded a bit bitter, but that wasn't her intention. She doesn't understand sarcasm so it was really more of a straight forward question than a backhanded one, although it seemed to have the same effect.

"I was not mindful of your outstanding medical condition, my assumption was uncalled for. I am unaccustomed to not being able to view time lines of those I am with contact with. Face to face interactions is foreign to me as well."

[brokencrane]

...Okay, so Yuka didn't know what she was talking about for half of that, but it was good that she hadn't meant to be mean about it, at least. "It's okay..." Must move the conversation to something less awkward now! "Um, what's your name? I'm Yuka, Yuka Osada."

[grimauxilatrix]

She looks up at the board before answering, Yuka wasn't a player. Kanaya knew that she needed weapons in order to win the game, and maybe if she won she could get back to where she should be. "My name is Kanaya Maryam, I am in the position of Player this round, are you searching for one perhaps?"

Straight forward as always.

[brokencrane]

She was a Player already? Yuka hadn't realized you could be assigned as one when you'd only just arrived. That didn't seem very fair. "Nice to meet you, Kanaya-san. I, um, well I wasn't really looking for a Player right away..." She did think it would be a good idea to find a Player this round, since the restrictions on unowned Weapons were kind of annoying, but she hadn't expected to find one very quickly. Suzaku-san was the only person on the list that she really knew, but she didn't know him that well, so she wasn't sure yet if she wanted to bother him. She wasn't sure if she liked the idea of being the Weapon of someone she'd just met, though...

[grimauxilatrix]

"My name is Kanaya," she answers. What is this -san thing? But she nods once, "Is it common practice to procrastinate on acquiring a player?" Again there was no bitterness or anything behind her words, they were just straightforward. "Or is it custom to do so?"

She needed more information about this game, or a human to tell her all about it. Where there protocols she needed to follow? She was already told she couldn't just kill everyone. That was sadly disappointing as that seemed to be the easiest way.

[brokencrane]

She was confused for a minute; that's what she'd said, wasn't it? Oh, but the other girl wasn't Japanese, obviously, she wouldn't know what it meant. No one else had asked about it, so it hadn't occurred to her. "Oh, um, in my language at home it's polite to add -san to people's names. It's rude to call someone by just their name if you don't know them very well."

"Um...well, you can do whatever you want, really. I think most people do it on the first day just because it's easier... I know someone else on the list, so I was going to ask him first," she added. That wasn't exactly the plan, but it seemed more polite than saying she didn't know her at all.