Round One start: Conquest School

[kingofpoisons]

When characters wake up the next morning there will be an announcement on all the screens. "Please report to the lobby at 12 noon for important information about this round." Anyone who is not in the lobby by twelve noon will most likely be found by the prefects and taken there by force.

When the characters turn up in Conquest Lobby they will see the woman they saw battling yesterday, and perhaps talked to before that, on the small raised podium. she is eating a piece of bread. Santana is next to her.

"I hope you slept well," she says when she finishes her bite. "Today the first battle round of your time in Rakuen begins, please listen carefully because I am not going to repeat myself.

I have here the list of students chosen to be Players for this round. Listen carefully, these are the people who have rights this week. The rest of you have no rights, the rest of you can be granted rights by these people if you agree to be their weapon.

Now I am going to assume that none of you bothered to read the manual so apologies if you actually did. There are rules to be followed and they are on page nine, failure to follow them will result in consequences and I'm sure no one likes consequences." She pauses to eat some more.

"The most important rule is that if you are a Player battling is not optional. You will not like the consequences of ignoring that rule at all," yes you should be very afraid of the smile that crosses her face.

"To own a Weapon you must vow to them. Vowing to own and protect them, when the Weapon has given their consent a mark appears on their hand." Here she held her own hand up to show the sword that marked her own hand.

"Players may give their Weapons permission to access the school facilities, and to eat from the full cafeteria menu among other things. If you haven't got a Player then you are a Discard, make sure you know all the rules and do exactly what Santana tells you to."

She paused to eat more bread, really these lot looked like they wouldn't even understand what she was saying. She paused to see if Santana wanted to add anything there. Santana for her part just scoffed and sarcastically wished everyone good luck.

"Today is Sunday, every round starts on a Sunday, Saturday is your free day, no one is a Weapon or a Player on Saturday so I suggest taking advantage of it. Anyone who wants to take on a Saturday job for extra Raks is allowed to. There is no school on Sunday but I suggest you take the time to vow to Weapons if you are a Player, or find a Player if you are a Weapon. School starts tomorrow 8am sharp, breakfast is from 7 until 8."

She grins again, "So since I am sure you are all desperately excited to find out who is a Player, they are as follows.

1. Lithuania
2. Homura
3. Golbez
4. Aqua
5. Feferi
6. Aisha

If you have any questions please come and ask them. If not, follow the rules, don't get into trouble and Battle well!"

She grins again.

Comments

[bloodbrother]

He didn't hear his name. Oh well. He supposed that made it easier to ease his way into this strange system. He hid under his parasol, leaning against a wall to the side. Why wasn't the sun affecting anyone else this way? He didn't understand it. Maybe he'd been spending too much time inside working and he'd messed himself up somehow. It would just figure.

He sighed and walked over toward the crowd. It was time to play along. "Ah, I guess I'm a Weapon if anyone needs one?" He had raised his voice a bit, but he wouldn't be surprised if it went unheard in the excited chatter that followed the announcement. Nor would he particularly mind.

[stoppedhiding]

Having thoroughly read the manual at the first chance he had, Golbez wasn't surprised by anything Day said -- not until his name was called as one of the first round's Players, anyway. He didn't like the idea of owning other people, but this was the way things were for now. He'd have to play along with the system at least long enough to find a way around it.

When Sam spoke up, he turned to look at him. "Do you know what sort of weapon you have?" He could just barely remember using his own in that dream he'd had on the train... Perhaps it was the same for the others.

[bloodbrother]

He considered a moment. "A stake." He blinked a bit. Why would he say that? And why would it be that? "A silver stake. Like you'd use on vampires." Because they're real, dontcha know. He was glad it was at least a familiar face approaching him.

[stoppedhiding]

...on vampires? Golbez looked confused for a moment, unable to see the connection. Maybe it had a Fire-element upgrade?

In any case, that shouldn't be too much trouble to use in a battle. "I require a weapon. I'll give permission for whichever privileges you desire."

[bloodbrother]

"Sure! I guess it makes sense for teachers to team up together." He was glad someone agreed so soon. He was afraid it would take a few days to get someone.

[stoppedhiding]

It seemed that was enough; the symbol of a sword appeared on the back of Sam's hand as soon as he agreed.

"Very well. I'll come by your office later to deliver your permission slip." How juvenile this game was. "If I need use of your weapon, I'll let you know."

[bloodbrother]

"A-Actually," he started. "I kind of want to see the pulling-out of it for myself. Outside of a fight I mean. Do you mind?" He was just so curious, he couldn't help but ask.

[stoppedhiding]

"Ah." Well, he couldn't blame Sam for being curious. "All right."

He took his glove from his pocket and pulled it onto his left hand, and after only a moment's hesitation, reached out to pull the weapon from Sam's chest.

[bloodbrother]

Oh, that's kind of strange. He kind of stares at it. "That kinda felt weird." He ran a hand over his chest experimentally. "It's kind of cool though."

[stoppedhiding]

He looked down at the weapon; it seemed rather plain, but he could handle himself with something like this. Convenient. No need to carry a weapon around constantly and have it get in the way outside of battle.

"Here." He held the stake out, figuring Sam might want to see it for himself.

[bloodbrother]

He took it and closed his parasol for the moment. He hooked the handle over his wrist so his hands were free to examine the stake. But it didn't take long for the heat in his hands to intensify, as though he were being burned. But it wasn't a normal skin burn. His fingers blackened first. He dropped it to the ground, and stared at his hands.

[stoppedhiding]

"What's happening to you?" He grabs for one of Sam's hands to take a closer look. Had the weapon caused that?

"What exactly are the traits this weapon possesses?"

[bloodbrother]

"Ow!" he winced when Golbez touched the burned parts.

"I-I-I...." he was dumbstruck. "I don't know. Did you feel it heating up or anything in your hand?" He turned his hands over to look at the backs, and then up again. The blackness seemed to begin to fade to bright red, and then normalize.

[stoppedhiding]

Golbez released Sam's hand, staring dumbfoundedly as the burn healed before his eyes. "No."

[bloodbrother]

"An allergic reaction? It's a really strange one. And I've never had any problems with any metals before...." Or had he? His mind was getting cloudy. "I can't take this sun. I can't think straight. I'm going up to my office." He started to leave, completely forgetting that that stake ought to go back to where it belonged. As he spoke, the damaged skin began to come loose and flake off. He curled one hand into a fist so that it didn't all fall away.

[stoppedhiding]

As Sam walked away, Golbez picked his stake up and frowned at it. How was he supposed to put it back, anyway, if handing it to its proper owner just caused him pain? "Would you like this back?"

[bloodbrother]

He looked back. "Uh." He thought for a moment. "I'll come back for it. Wait there." And he disappeared into Conquest.

By the time he had gotten to his office, his hands had healed. But thanks to his tightly balled fists, he'd been able to save some of the skin that had peeled off. He decided there would be no harm in waiting, so he took a small portion and mounted it to a slide in one of the chemistry classrooms. Once he got a look at it in the microscope, he was shocked. It looked for all the world like ash created when skin is burnt in a fire. But that wasn't what happened. His skin didn't even properly react like it'd been a burn from touching a heat element. And it wasn't chemical either.

He stared at the microscope for a long few minutes. For now, he couldn't come up with a reasonable explanation for what had happened. But then again, a man with no shoes had just pulled a foot-long silver stake out of his chest with nothing to show for it but a light show. So perhaps looking for a reasonable explanation was a bit beyond the pale right now.

He decided that he'd made Golbez wait too long already, and snatched a pair of latex gloves out of the box on the bracket on the wall as he left.

Once he was down, he waved and called to Golbez from the entryway. "Golbez! Bring it over here!"

[stoppedhiding]

It wasn't as though Golbez had anywhere else to be, so he found a place to sit down while he waited for Sam, and pondered over everything that had happened in the last day or so.

Being forced to play along with a system like this one was incredibly frustrating. Yet nobody seemed to know a way around it, or if the headmistresses and prefects did know, they weren't saying. He needed some way to figure this out. To get out of this city and return to...

...what had he been doing? Going back to that moon, to... To what, exactly? It was undoubtedly important, and yet...

Well, it looked like he'd found another of his lost memories, though it wasn't exactly something he was glad for. Just one more reason to win this game, however he was supposed to do that, and get back to his world.

When Sam returned, he opened his eyes and looked up at him. He stood and went over to him, and held the stake out. "Did you figure out what happened?"

[bloodbrother]

"Not entirely. I know a little more about what it did to me, but I'm still working on why. On my way upstairs, my hands completely healed after they sloughed off the outer layer of skin. I looked the at the skin under a microscope and it was a heck of a lot like skin that'd been incinerated. But that wasn't like a burn I've ever seen before." Here comes that niggling headache again. "I'll have to chew this over a while longer."

[stoppedhiding]

That was like nothing Golbez had ever seen or heard of before, so he had no insight on the situation. "Perhaps the metal from which it's formed has some special property you cannot remember right now," he suggested. Though it hadn't affected him... So there must be something about Sam that had triggered it.

[bloodbrother]

"Yeah, it must be..." he nodded. This wasn't a thing he'd ever recalled happening before. Vampires were allergic to silver, but he wasn't one. Granted, he didn't keep a lot of silver around on account of Jared, so who knew. Or it could just be this place fucking with his head. Or it was all a horrible Thai-food induced nightmare.

"I'll just have to be careful." He pulled on the gloves. "Let me see it again." He took it from Golbez and turned it over in his hands again. There was nothing, no heat, no burning. The gloves seemed to make the difference.

"Well. I guess it does require direct skin contact." He pulled it toward his chest, and it disappeared into him in much the same way it came out. He yanked off the gloves. "Sorry about all of that."

[stoppedhiding]

"It's not a problem. It's best you noticed the problem now rather than in a more serious situation."

What exactly was the logic behind which memories were taken? There didn't seem to be any.

[bloodbrother]

"Yeah, you're right." He nodded. "I should head back up, but I wanted to let you know that if something came up or someone challenged you or something that I don't mind. I think I'm gonna need a little more cash to pay for this hat I ordered from Recette," he admitted with a little bit of sheepishness in his demeanor. "It's probably a lot better than the parasol." It did match those pink sneakers nicely, though.

[stoppedhiding]

A hat and a parasol. Well, it wasn't up to Golbez to decide what others should do with their money, but a skeptical look did cross his face.

"Very well. I'll come find you if I have need of your weapon." He nodded to Sam, and turned to part ways.