Introduction!

[utopiamods]

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!))

Comments

[trollofthree]

"Kallen!" Too late, she was spotted as Gino scanned the room for his opponents and found her instead. Hey, she counted. Despite briefly entertaining the idea of asking her to join his team, he didn't come any closer, just waved over towards where Lelouch was talking to one of the uniformed girls across the lobby. "Told you~!"

[queenscheckmate]

The teenager looked into the direction Gino was waving and--

No--

Le--

But he--

She watched h--

Then wh--

No.

Cerulean eyes opened wide and shook at the discovery. No, that couldn't have been Lelouch. But there was no mistaking that outfit. It wasn't the Ashford Uniform and it wasn't Zero's attire.

Emperor.

She took a step back. This wasn't right. That memory was still in tact. Lelouch had died. Kallen saw it by her own eyes. Zero killed Lelouch. Lelouch was dead. She had cried. And two months later, she had gotten over it, finally. But now... No. That person standing there... that couldn't have been Lelouch. No way, no how.

A step back turned into a couple before she turned around and bolted out one of the doors. This wasn't true and she wasn't going to believe it.

She refused.

[swordofzero]

Suzaku blinked sleepily, but ingrained military instincts forced him to wake up pretty quickly and take in the situation he found himself in. He was on a tram, or a train, but it wasn't moving and there was no-one else on it. He wondered if it was a dream but no, this seemed real, more real than the crystalline cave he could vaguely remember from the last time he woke up.

He blinked again, and realised that he had been woken by someone. That someone was a middle-aged Japanese woman. Where was he? In the crystal cave, he had decided that he was in a different world. But this was a normal tram, with a normal, bob-haired woman telling him that he had to get up and go over to the school for the new student orientation.

School? New student? He hadn't been to school since Lelouch became emperor. But Suzaku had decided it was best just to do as he was told until he could work out a way to escape from this place.

"Do I have to tell you again? Hurry up, dear!" Suzaku blinked at the woman. He hadn't been listening at all.

"Sorry, ma'am, I'll go now," he stood and hurried to jump off the tram. He soon saw where he was meant to go, and hurried towards it. Wondering where he was meant to be took most of the walk, and then he was pushing open the door into a huge lobby.
His eyes widened as he saw a girl there, a girl he knew! He opened his mouth to shout her name, but realised that he actually couldn't remember her name. At all.

He knew who she was though, and he listed what he knew methodically, in case there was a name in there somewhere: she was a terrorist; she had been in his class, as a Knight of the Round he had fought her, before he had become Lelouch's knight. Come to think of it, he couldn't remember why he was now Lelouch's knight or what Lelouch was doing being Emperor at all, but that was far too much information for him to take in in one moment.

He concentrated on the present; this girl, whatever her name was, she hated him. For good reason, but at least it was someone he recognised. Maybe he was still in his own world after all. The whole other world thing had been some kind of dream, maybe he had been captured and injected with Refrain after all. Or... something.

"Erm, hello miss..." he said, awkwardly, as he still couldn't remember her name. "Are you alright?" She didn't look alright, now he looked closer she seemed upset. Shocked, even.

[queenscheckmate]

Kallen had only ran to the entryway of where she had walked into the building. She didn't dare look back because she didn't want to believe it. Hell, it might have been an illusion. She was sure she wasn't shot up with Refrain or anything of the sort before coming here. Kallen knew what he could do to people; she saw the reality of the drug through her mother. Broken memories, living in the past. Not even once after Lelouch's death had she considered it. Not to mention, she had fought off Suzaku when he tried to inject her with it.

Finding a moment to catch her breath, her ears picked up a familiar voice. For a moment, Kallen swore she was hearing things. Because honestly, this had to be some sort of trippy dream. Lelouch was dead and she was pretty sure that voice belonged to Suzaku. She had killed him. By her own hand, he died.

Kallen refused to acknowledge the voice.

[swordofzero]

Suzaku blinked; he knew that the girl disliked him strongly but he had not expected to be completely ignored. Not when they were both in this place, Suzaku had no idea about the girl, whose name he still couldn't remember, but he had definatly not came to this place by choice. And if he knew, that girl, at all, which he did he, even if she hated him- for good reason, she was not one to voluntarily come to a place like this. Not when there was so much going on back where they came from.

He should go really, there was no point staying when she hated him and his presence was bound to make her angry. But the simple truth was he had nowhere to go. He had no idea where he was, how he had gotten here or what he was suposed to do.

The girl was the only link between wherever here was and the life he had been taken out of. Despite everything Suzaku felt more comfortable staying near someone he knew, even if they dispised him. "I am sorry, do you know where we are?"

[queenscheckmate]

Why was the voice still talking? Kallen was two seconds from declaring herself insane. "Leave me alone," was the only thing she could muster up to say. There was no malice, no hatred behind it. Just a simple statement of a broken girl. She didn't want to talk to the voice that sounded like Suzaku's. Nor did she want to look at the person who might have been Suzaku. The teenager wanted to be left alone to hopefully find her center and peace of mind.

[swordofzero]

Suzaku blinked and took a step back. Obviously his theory; that they were both in this wierd place and should stick to the known until they figured out the unknown, was not shared with the girl whose name he could not remember.

Still he would accept that she did not want to talk to him and go. He was not sure where he should go though, but took another step away from the girl. "I'm sorry," he said and looked around him, trying to take stock of his surroundings.

[queenscheckmate]

"I'm going crazy," Kallen said barely above a whisper to herself. A hand ran itself over her face, sighing. That was the only explanation. Something told her she wanted to say, [Apologizes are useless] but she couldn't even find a mental connection as to why she would say such a thing.

[swordofzero]

Suzaku shook his head, there was nothing else he could say and whatever was wrong with the girl whose name he could not remember he was only making it worse. He should leave.

Just then he heard an announcement, explaining that dormitory allocations were ready. There was a general movement of people towards a desk and Suzaku followed them, looking over his shoulder at the girl. He hoped she would be alright but there was nothing he could do, she hated him and would not accept his help. He dissapeared into the crowd.