Fortitude Class: Alternian History

[mamarosa]

Characters: Dolorosa + Fortitude students
Format: what ever your heart desires
This log is: open to Fortitude students!
Location: Class rooms
Summary: Come learn about Alternian history from your lovely Headmistress
Warnings: None yet

Dolorosa starts the class by explaining that Alternia has a caste system which influences how the planet is organized. She calls it the hemospectrum and it runs from rust red to tyrian purple, with a only a few outliers usually referred to as mutants. The mutants are usually culled at birth, but that isn't the case for all of them. That story, she tells you, will come later in the semester.

Her lecture for the day is basically a run down of the Hemospecturm, going over each color and class status, explain their amount of influence and the abilities that come along with a certain color. She says that she is a rather rare color, jade blooded, and cuts her finger to show the class her color, explaining that she understands humans only have candy red blood, a cull-worthy color.

If you ask, she will tell stories about the trolls in various colors that she has met, how she has met people who reinforced the stereotypes and proven them wrong, but she won't answer any questions about mutated blood just yet.

Comments

[savedbyasong]

Shion sat taking notes at the beginning, even though this was yet another class he knew nothing about it was fact based and therefore not as difficult as other lessons.

However within a few sentences he was frowning, horrified at what she was telling him. He knew of course than humans had always found ways to separate each other, that No. 6 and it's wall was just one way that they separated those that they thought as worthy humans from everyone else.

But to have such a thing written in your culture through your very blood. Shion raised a hand, "People fight against it right? Are there trolls that work towards equality?"

[mamarosa]

She smiles sadly at his question, "Yes child, there have been some trolls who have fought against it. But they are mostly low blooded and usually get killed for speaking out. Very few rebellions take off, mostly because the Empress has the ability to kill every troll in an instant. We will learn later about one of those rebellions that I was personally a part of."

[veepofchess]

Ah, yes, of course there was unbalanced power and the strong against the weak everywhere. But Lelouch didn't say anything, instead letting Shion do some of the work for him. To be perfectly honest, he was a little tired after all of the preparation he had done the night before for this morning's bombing. He stayed awake, however, as this was becoming a particularly interesting lesson for the day.

He raised his hand dutifully, and when called on, asked, "What is the scale of the Alternian Empire, and the royal family?"

[mamarosa]

It takes her a moment to answer because she gets caught on the word family, "Troll's don't have the same concept of family as humans do. While you have a mother and a father and possibly siblings, Trolls have a guardian who they are not genetically connected to. While there are some genetic matches they are usually generations apart. The Empress is just the highest blooded troll, when she passes her title will go to another." She pauses for a moment so he can take that all in.

"The Alternian Empire spans many planets, I cannot begin to describe how vast it is."

[savedbyasong]

"Kill every troll in an instant?" His voice his horrified, was this what happened in the real world? Was this similar to the truth he was yet to learn?

[mamarosa]

She looks down at her feet and speaks quietly, "Yes, her guardian could emit something that would kill us, it was horrible and all she needed to remain in power."

[veepofchess]

He considered this as she answered. While she had opened up the possibilities of asking about just what the social structure of the trolls were, he wasn't particularly interested in that aspect. He was more concerned with the imperial aspect. "Are these new planets assimilated into your society, or are they simply laid waste, or conquered for the sake of it?"

[pencilpremonition]

Becca sits and doodles in her notebook all throughout the lesson. She's seated near to Shion, and she smiles at his question. Still, she's happy to just draw. What she's drawing, though, reveals that she actually has been paying attention--sketches of trolls with different blood colours and notes in the margins. Apparently she just needs pictures to learn things. She's so grateful she got her memory of how to draw back.

When the headmistress cuts her finger, though, Becca immediately pulls out a bandage and goes to the front of the class, readying to wrap up her finger for her and frowning sadly. "Here...you didn't need to do that..."

[mamarosa]

"I would assume they are conquered for the sake of it, just to show off the power the Empress and her fleet have. If they are frightened and it is for a legitimate reason, then you will not be attacked," she's upset by this kind of logic, but that's just how it is.

[mamarosa]

Dolorosa laughs softly at her kindness, "There is no need to worry about me, I have suffered much worse injuries," she brings her finger to her mouth and licks the blood off, "it will stop bleeding in a moment, don't waste one of those one me."

[pencilpremonition]

"What, do you heal faster than humans, too?" she asked disapprovingly, opening up the package and taking the bandage out to put on her despite her protests. "Seriously, battle school or not, you shouldn't hurt yourself just to prove a point."

[mamarosa]

"Well I do not know the healing rate of humans so I cannot answer your question," she puts up a hand to stop her, "No, I do not need one, nor do I think I was trying to prove a point as much as I was demonstrating. Showing rather than telling if you would like, some may not believe we have different blood colors."

[pencilpremonition]

Ever a stubborn one, Becca readies the bandage and makes a grab for the Dolorosa's hand. She's got some experience in doing this with a stubborn younger brother, and she hopes that having the advantage of surprise will help her too, but that in no way guarantees a success.

[mamarosa]

She quickly steps away from Becca's reach, she may be older but she is agile, "I said I am fine, Becca, please respect that."

[pencilpremonition]

She huffs, and pointedly leaves the plaster on her desk as she goes back to her own. "If you say so. But jeeze..." She sighs and shakes her head, starting to sketch in her notebook again. "Are all trolls stubborn?"

[veepofchess]

The admission made his hair on his neck stand on end, but he didn't let his reaction show. And it was clear that on her planet, Nunnally wouldn't stand a chance. "That sounds like a horrendous waste of resources."

[mamarosa]

"Not particularly, once other planets are conquered we have full control of their resources, and the ships are," she pauses for a long moment, "run on a different type of energy that can be renewed. It is actually better for all of us on Alternia, it keeps the Empress away."

[mamarosa]

Dolorosa laughs, "Yes, I believe that is a trait we all share."

[pencilpremonition]

"Tell me more about trolls in general, then," she murmured, looking down at her sketches. The trolls she'd drawn didn't have symbols, since she didn't know the significance of them. "I don't know anything about you, and it's hard to understand your history without that..."

[mamarosa]

She looks at her drawing, "Well every troll has a symbol that is important to them, often times the symbol coincides with the shape of their horns. That will aid in your drawing."

[pencilpremonition]

Becca studies the Dolorosa's clothes, picking out her symbol and then looking down at her drawing, trying to decide on symbols for the trolls she's drawn. "Are there set symbols to pick from? Or are they all different?"

[mamarosa]

She smiles at Becca's curiosity, "There are many, many symbols, anything you can imagine I assume, well, within reason."

[pencilpremonition]

She starts adding symbols to the trolls she's drawn, some worked into their clothes like the Dolorosa's, some simply the focus of them, like Gamzee's t-shirt had been. "How are symbols picked? Do their parents give them to them like names, or..?"

[mamarosa]

"We do not have parents, we are hatched from the Mother Grub and assigned a symbol."

[pencilpremonition]

"Hatched?" she asked in shock. She didn't realise trolls were so different from humans. "Kind of like bees?"