rakuen | Introduction!

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Introduction!

The tram quickly arrives at 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. There's a woman sitting at a desk ready to check everyone in, but she's not important right now; what the students should pay attention to is the large flat-screen TV set into one of the walls. As soon as everyone has gathered inside, it clicks on and starts to play a prerecorded video. A cheerful woman appears on-screen; when she speaks, she's so chipper you might just feel your teeth starting to rot.

"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!"

A map of the academy appears on-screen. The woman stands green-screened in front of the map.

"Our academy is fully integrated with a virtual network that includes several layers of tactile, empathic holographics geared toward the battle game Exaclan. Exaclan is a game fought between groups of Players using their respective Weapons; if a Player wins a battle, he or she takes possession of the opposing Player's Weapon. This way, Players can own many, many Weapons. Collect them all!

"As for the Weapons, you might be wondering where those come from. Well, as it turns out, only a few of you are going to be Players. The rest of you are Weapons! Players, if you equip your custom-fitted Exaclan gloves, you will be able to unsheathe your weapon from the chest of any Weapon you own."

Meanwhile, behind the woman as she speaks, a stylized cartoon sequence plays out in which a man in knight's garb pulls a sword from the chest of a woman in an elaborate princess gown.

"Now, since you're all just starting out here, you don't own any Weapons yet. In order to take possession of a Weapon, you must ask permission, and then promise to own and protect it. This is very important! Be nice to your Weapons, and in return, they will bring you to victory!

"The items you draw out of your Weapons' chests aren't real; they are part of the holographic Exaclan system. Each person's Weapon will be different, and they aren't just guns or knives, either. Their form is partly determined by the Weapon's personality, but it's partly randomized. Maybe you'll get lucky. Maybe not. It eliminates natural advantages!

"Now, like I said, the Weapons aren't real, but the damage you do in battle is real. You will feel every blow you take from an opponent's Weapon, and physical damage done to your Weapon will damage the person you drew it from, too. So be careful, or you could cause serious damage!"

The woman holds up one finger, grinning ear-to-ear;

"If you win a battle, ownership of the Weapon you fought against transfers to you. You also earn one Token, and you earn an additional Token for every five battles you fight, whether or not you win. Tokens can be used to buy Upgrades, Link Charms, Memory Charms, and Legend Fragments, so do your best to earn as many Tokens as you can!

"Oh, right, about the Memory Charms... you're probably wondering why there are some things you can't remember. That's just a little precaution we took to make sure that you would participate in Exaclan. You've each been stripped of ten memories: Some of them are very important, but some of them aren't. You can purchase a Memory Charm for five Tokens, which means to regain all of your memories will cost fifty Tokens. Ah, there's a catch, though: You can't use the Memory Charms you buy. You have to give them to other people. So get along with your fellow students and make as many friends as you can, okay?

"Now, if you have any other questions, make sure to consult your Exaclan manuals. They will tell you more about the rules of Exaclan, what you can and cannot do with your Weapons, and so forth. Following this video, the list of Players for this Round will be displayed. Anyone not on that list is a Weapon for this Round. Sorry!"

The woman holds one hand up in front of her face apologetically, but continues smiling as ever.

"In conclusion, welcome to Utopia Academy. Let's all do our best and achieve utopia together!"

The video clicks off, replaced by a pale blue screen stating the following:

PLAYERS FOR ROUND -2:
Dave Strider
Gino Weinberg
Grenn Atair
Koharu Izaki
Molly Hayes

((OOC: Feel free to post reactions and general mingling in this post. From here on, you're free to make posts, fight battles, attend class, etc.! If you have any questions, get in touch with a mod.

Edit: A mod mistook how much Memory Charms cost. They're five tokens, not ten. Oops! So the post has been edited slightly. That is all!))

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At the mention of Exaclan, Tougyu's brain all but drifted off onto a separate tangent.

From the looks of it, this was Utopia Academy v.2 and he was part of the testing group. Just another guinea pig by Iwahijiri's standards. Was he meant to help pave the way for the rest of the men in this school? What about El and the rest of the student council? Had they known this was going to happen or were they just as out of the loop as he?

People like Sumita and Shoujou had always talked about El caring about their wellbeing, but for some reason Tougyu had never felt valued as a peer by the man. No, he had always felt more like... a chess piece. A pawn ready to be moved about as the master willed. Which was fine with him, certainly, but still...

All of these thoughts, however, derailed when he glanced back up just in time to catch the name displayed on the screen and- Koharu Izaki?

He knew that name.

He knew that name.

He knew-

"Eh?"

If the first indication that something was very, very wrong had been waking up on a train headed to Utopia Academy, the second indication had been trying to read the signs pointing to the main entrance and coming up short. Reiko should have known the kanji that were used; they were simple, stuff that she was sure she'd learned in elementary school; even the foreigners had been able to read them (though she didn't yet know about the automagical translation that was in effect). And yet... she couldn't read it. There was nothing.

She stared blankly at the screen for a while after the video finished. This was ridiculous. This was absurd. This was Exaclan in name, but not in spirit. What was this?

When the list of Players came up, most of the names were displayed in katakana, but there was one -- the fourth one down -- that she couldn't read. She wondered who that could be...

Dave suddenly understood very little indeed. This was way more complicated and unfathomable than anything Sburb had thrown at him yet, and he was increasingly certain that this, whatever the hell it was, wasn't part of any instance of the Incipisphere. It just didn't fit. Any freaking out he was doing over this, though, was staying firmly on the inside; he was just going to roll with it for now, at least until he had a better idea of what was going on.

"So I guess that makes me junior fucking nonsensical Pokémon master of pulling swords out of people with the power of friendship. Awesome. Any of you guys feel like letting these magic hands yank shit out of your chest? I promise I'll be gentle. Like a goddamn fall of spring rain or something. Newborn baby deer blinking their massive eyes up at these scarcely inclement weather conditions all over this shit but you won't feel a thing."

Edited 2010-12-28 14:34 (UTC)

As the chipper woman droned on and on about a completely absurd system, Kevin could really only register one thing as the names rolled up at the end like credits.

"I was kidnapped to go to school!?"

"Not remembering anything?" At first, Kallen's thoughts drifted to Gino and their conversation on the train's platform. But... she didn't feel like she had forgotten anything. Of course, she looked over in his direction. The tall male did like to tease her, so for all she knew, he could have been playing a joke and it wouldn't have been out of the ordinary.

"I can't believe this," she muttered to herself. Well that would explain the sudden transferring and how she got her. Kidnapped. Seriously, that song was getting REAL old.

And she refused to be pawn (aka weapon) because the school willed it to be. Not now, not again.

Shivering, Grenn rubbed her arms, resisting the urge to look back over the lobby behind her. She hated people like that... Staring instead at the part of the lobby with the reception desks and some very, very generic, but pleasant, people behind them, she swallowed.

There was really only one question that needed an answer, and needed it now, though her mind was clamouring wildly for more information. How would the battles actually work, where they would sleep, eat, would that cost anything and, an--

Tugging sharply on her hair, Grenn took a deep breath. Please let there be answers soon. But the most important one had nothing to do with the practicalities of... this place.

It still took Grenn almost a full five minutes before she'd gathered herself enough, and managed to (she hoped) formulate a coherent question. Now, she could be completely off, and they'd laugh at her. She hoped (bizarrely) she was right.

"Excuse me," she chose one of the generic receptionists at random, they all looked just as pleasant, and tried to smile. "Um... a question... Time. How does it work here compared to where everybody's from?"

It was a strange way to formulate things, but controversial theories of time-space pockets, of "wrinkles in the universe" and several other half-remembered such things, floated in the back of her head.

A chime sounded from the lobby counter, and one of the receptionists leaned forward to speak into a microphone.

"Dormitory allocations are now available. Could all students please come to the desk to receive their room number and keys."

After a moment, she repeated it, just in case, and then settled back into her previous prim posture.

Koharu took the easiest route, walking along as directed. It all looked the same, nearly, just...different. Her eyes lifted upwards to the screen and she dutifully watched the explanation, frowning. They didn't mention girls being owned by boys or anything--

A startled squeak was her first reaction to the names on the screen and she blinked a few times, trying to work it out. She was a Player? But Sora was the Knight to their princesses, the one who drew weapons--She couldn't help but wonder what Sora's weapon looked like then. Then a thought struck her and she fumbled through her bag, pulling out the glove she had seen in passing--why had she assumed it was just Sora's glove?

"I have to fight?"

See Molly.

See Molly run.

Run Molly, run.

A.K.A Molly is running around trying to figure out where exactly she is. Also, she's a player which sounds pretty cool if you ask her.

It's not her fault if she runs into you, you should have been watching out.

It's the cool, smooth sound of a recording that wakes her.

The voice grasps her and pulls, and she lurches forward, suddenly awake. It takes a moment for her to take in her surroundings; the warm sun, seeming familiar yet distant, the leather of the seating, the voice repeating itself, it's time to get off, and Euphemia wonders-- still quite disoriented-- why it's so drafty in here.

Then she looks down.

She's wrapped in a white hospital blanket and nothing else.

Oh.

She quickly moves to cover what she can-- coherence quickly coming to her-- and grasps wildly for a bag sat next to her. Clothes, clothes, clothes-- she needs clothes-- and ah, there! The bag was a good guess. But here comes the tricky part. She clambers over to pull down the blinds and fidgets under the blanket until she's dressed. Crisis averted?

Swallowing and clearing her throat, willing the flush from her face and the humiliation from her mind-- what if someone saw, oh my goodness-- Euphie can now come to consider the rest of this.

She'd been talking with Lelouch. Why is she here? How did she--

And the speaker tells her, "We have arrived at Utopia Academy. Could all passengers…"

There's nothing else for her here, so she gets off, follows the bright signs and listens to what they tell her, them, all these people. Memories? A game? Her brow furrows and she doesn't understand. She feels dazed, strange. Unsure as to what to think. And it's all written quite plainly on her face, in her posture. It feels she's still dreaming.

She isn't a Player. Does that mean she's a Weapon?

When searching the train had turned up neither hair nor hide of her friends and allies from Central, the next best thing to do was to go along with the crowd and just hope to figure out where she was. None of this looked like anything she'd seen in Amestris. The giant lady on the wall really, really didn't look like anything she'd seen in Amestris.

The small girl, blood still drying in streaks on her face and staining her original clothing that she has yet to change out of, was more intent on listening to the lady on the screen chatter away than recalling she was, in fact, covered in blood. Strange looks from strange people were easy to ignore.

"A school?" Mei stared. "A school that makes you fight? But I didn't enroll..."

Rapunzel clutched her hair in both hands, uncaring of the five feet trailing behind her as she struggled to keep her hair in hand and her bag from falling. It'd already fallen once outside. She paused, then squared her shoulders. No new people with their huge buildings and wide open spaces...and tons of strange new people...were going to scare her...nope. Not at all. Oh where was...what was his name...

Her head snapped up to the board, and the dream flitted back through her head. It was almost as strange as the 'train' outside, but she listened skeptically. She was supposed to fight? How did they plan on making her--oh. Oh.

"Can't I just go home?" She whispered.

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/EDITS THIS A MILLION TIMES??