[IC] Alma Mater Maximus

[Apokalipse]

“Right, right.” Poppy muttered, blushing and getting off of Belle. She stumbled a bit, but managed to stand up alright. How embarrassing. She just met this girl and already she’s made a fool of herself…multiple times. Wow, after this one, Poppy probably should take a breather from people. Yeah, definitely. Maybe then she’ll be able to calm down her seemingly permanent flaming face. Poppy inhaled and smiled lopsidedly, slipping a hand into her pocket and withdrawing a scrap of paper. She always had paper in her pockets, she never threw away her trash and she would have to clean it out soon. Nevertheless, it came in handy. Poppy scribbled something down quickly and then gave it to Belle, hoping with hope that she could read her chicken scrawl. “Uh, I, um, have to go, and stuff. But, call me, and we can, uh, hang out…and stuff. Y’know, if you want to, I mean, I’m not gonna force you to hang out with me, that would be counterproductive and, uh, yeah, so, um. I should go.” Poppy grinned awkwardly, her eyebrow rising slightly and she spun on her heel, walking away to where she assumed her dorm would be. She didn’t spend much time in the dorm; most of her sleeping was even done in the library, after all. It took a couple of minutes to find it from where she cheek-kissed Belle – don’t think about it, Poppy, your just gonna make yourself blush! – and she removed her keys from her pocket, jiggling it into the lock. The door swung open and Poppy immediately collapsed onto her bed. Home sweet home.

[HylianRose]

Now I wish I hadn't told her to get off of me.. Belle thought sourly as she sat up, looking a bit.. down and out. I was wondering why you said that... Muse replied, tsking her slightly. Belle shook her head and got up, dusting the dirt off of her already dirty clothes which felt like a wasted effort at this point. Poppy probably had dabs of paint on her now... She'd have to apologize for that later. Sighing, she turned to unlock her door and step in to start a side project before going to bed. She found herself drawing pictures of that girl pulling all of the metal together. She stood in the middle of a molten metal storm, crying. Belle hadn't really meant for it to turn out like that, it just sort of... did. Soon, she was dressed for bed, a one piece pajama set she'd gotten from her aunt. It had colorful ducks all over it. It wasn't exactly the most attractive thing in the world, but it was warm and comfortable. She stayed laid in bed for a few hours, simply day-dreaming before sleep took her in it's long embrace.

[TheHangedMan]

It was a bit later into the night now, however, most people weren't actually sleeping. Others were getting dressed, preparing materials, cameras - preparing for a war, or an paparazzi shoot. They therefore anticipated when doors were one-by-one in quick succession suddenly thrown open. Bang Bang Bang One after the other, courtesy of the 'Hide-and-Seek' Club, door were thrown open by unseen forces, exposing the people inside. Throngs and huge crowds of students excitedly exited there rooms, and headed towards Sports Complex #1. Since it was nighttime, the students actively began disregarding their use of abilities in public areas, and flashes of light and a myriad of sounds echoed through the night. Time until meeting: 1h : 00m : 00s

[SillyGoy]

The sands of Israel gave way as hundreds of mounted knights ascended the dune and stopped on its crest. Surcoats fluttering in the desert wind, the chainmail that they partly obscured glowed brightly under the harsh sun. Restless steeds, heavily armored as their knights were, stirred under their reins, and the heavy helms at the front of the formation dipped downwards as grim faces observed the sight below: the Saracen militia had engaged theirs while the trusty light cavalry raised from Breton lands had intercepted the Moslem knights, preventing an attack from their counterparts. Half a minute went by, and when the right wing of the formation took shape, the company commander, Cadwal of Godwyn, raised high his sword with his left hand and shouted high, his voice lilting over the sounds of clashing iron: "Battle-brothers! Noble warriors of God! Today, we drink from the cup of glory! CHARGE!" It was a short rallying cry, but the proper speech had been given before the battle by Lord Godfrey. And so the knights followed the ranks in front of them as they began their descent, lances couched. Wind made capes of the loose-fitting surcoats of some warriors as they gained speed, and as the enemy grew larger to the eye as the distance closed, fear melted away into exhilaration in their hearts as they accepted what was to come. Cadwal, appropriately enough, was the one to deliver the first blow: his lance breaking into splinters as it caved in the back of a filthy Moslem. And as the charge brought its full weight upon the miserable peasants in arms, the enemy began to flee in fear. The battlefield reflected itself on Timothy's spectacles as he adjusted them. A rolling of the scroll wheel zoomed him out from the view, and he ordered his light cavalry to retreat from the heavier ones they were harassing with a mouse click: perhaps a little unnecessary, as his knights' charge had broken the enemy so much that it freed quite a number of his spear militia, a unit of which was automatically beginning to harry the Moslem heavy cavalry. He watched as crude, two-dimensional blood spurted from the headless neck of a dying enemy and as the red fountain bathed the dismounted knight who made the kill, and found it good. The battle was all but won, and he would march to the gates of Jerusalem in the next turn. Wearing headphones in the corner of his room, Tim was having fun with Medieval II: Total War on his laptop.

[PlazmaStryke]

Harold quickly left after Thisa had finished up in the cafeterria. He had a lot of time he needed to spend on finding his dorm after all. As Tim had never gotten around to showing him where it was, he was completely clueless on where he had to go. Thus, he began his search. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Harold had finally found the right place after plenty of searching....and admittingly a little bit of direction. However, after he had gotten settled in, set up his work station in his room, and had started to relax, he realized that he was quite hungry, and after the event in the cafeterria, maybe that made a tid bit of sense. However, now he had to go find some more food at this hour. As such, he locked his dorm room, took his key, phone, and his normal "outside" items, and set off in another quest. His lift seemed like quite a game right now, Harold was thinking. Making his way outside, and then on to another cafeterria. Quickly he walked through area upon area. Watching some the scenery as he went by, Harold was quite at peace with the relatively quiet and unpopulated Evening hours here on Campus. (Perhaps I should think of taking a walk every night. It's quite nice out here. And that'll probably be even more true around midnight and everything). While he was moving through one of the courtyard type areas outside of a cafeterria, Harold could have sworn that he'd seen Thisa. Quickly retracing his steps back to the last place he saw her, Harold wondered if this was really Thisa. It wasn't like he knew the whole population of the school or anything. Because of this, Harold called out to the girl: "Good Evening! How might you be doing on this fine night?" He calmly moved toward the girl, hoping he didn't come across as a creep or anything of the sort.

[Damiann47]

Thisa did make it back to her room, at least for a short while enough time to leave her items behind now that school hours were over. Despite her fatigue from the busy day, more so the massive amount of energy sapped from the cafeteria incident, Thisa didn't want to spend the next hour or so sitting around in her room. Too many things to think about and too many emotions to tackle, after a chance to herself she couldn't shake the memories, however fragmented, from what happened. A simple walk seemed to be best, plus there was the off chance she'll run into Harold again, she wouldn't mind spending more time with the guy but they've already ran into each other a lot already, sooner or later it'll start get weird, maybe. Still after a while Thisa found herself dozing off even while standing, after some not very-well-thought-out consideration she decided to sleep in a nearby courtyard, more specifically on one of the many benches in the area. Thisa took off her jacket and placed it down on the hard wood just to give it an extra degree of comfort, besides the night was fairly warm and many students were too busy preparing for the meeting to be waltzing around so it was unlikely anyone would come across her. In about no time at all Thisa was soundly asleep, and fairly heavily at that.

[PlazmaStryke]

When the girl he thought was Thisa failed to respond, other than possible snoring, Harold wondered if there was something wrong with her. Deciding this warrented investigation, he calmly approached the sleeping girl. When he stood right next to the bench, looking down on the sleeping girl, Harold realized that the girl was asleep. And that was why she'd failed to answer him, and notice his approach. While it did very well appear to be Thisa, especially do to the scarf and coat, Harold would reserve judgement. Afterall, it wasn't like the two of them had gotten around to talking about family that day. Perhaps she had a sibling, maybe even a twin. He wouldn't know yet. Best to hold off till he had at least slightly trustable certification. In all honesty, Harold was slightly amused by watching the would-be-Thisa sleep. He normally didn't have the chance to observe a sleeping person, and she was in all honesty, looking a little like a kitten. Harold was also starting to consider rethinking his state of sanity....but then again, sanity is unecessary! Harold was pondering what to do currently. He could let the sleeping girl lie, out here in the cold....alright, maybe he'd let her have a coat or blanket as well.... Or, he could try to wake her up. That would be fairly rude. However, at the same time, Harold wondered if she'd even really meant to sleep all that long. It was already in the evening hours, so it was unlikely one would like to miss diner. As well, it wasn't like she'd brought a blanket with her. She'd even used her own coatas a sort of matress! If that didn't say "I'm just taking a nap," then Harold really didn't know what did.

[Damiann47]

Thisa had little idea that Harold was standing over her they kept meeting as if by accident, perhaps fate had something to say. Whatever the case is she may as well been dead to the world, summoning a giant mechanical knight was quite taxing on the girl's body. She rolled over onto her other side now facing Harold himself. Thisa was having a vivid dream, in this dream she had no idea where she was or what she was doing, as the case with many dreams. There was a huge room completely crowded by various people, strangely she couldn't see their faces guess to the unconscious whoever those people were didn't matter. Thisa was sitting on a bench, doing nothing or was she? She couldn't remember, after a while some boy approached her. They were arguing, what they were arguing about Thisa couldn't pick out. Meanwhile in the waking world she was mumbling to herself, basically sleep talking loud enough for Harold to clearly hear, "...better not be...that Zie guy...wrong ideas...robotics...technology...labor...amazing things...you...unresolved issues...staring..." Thisa trailed off with that last statement, then started snuggling into her jacket. She was still very well asleep.

[HylianRose]

Belle was haphazardly sprawled out over her bed, drool leaking from the corner of her mouth and pooling on her bedspread when the sound of a door being slammed open woke her up with a start. She shot up from her bed, yelling, "I'm awake, I'm awake!" She smacked her lips a bit and blinked, looking around. Her eyes trained on the open door, squinting because of the bright light. The sounds from the hallway assaulted her room, causing a sudden irritation to rise with in her. And here I was, having a nice nap. There was nothing nice about that... Muse replied to her in earnest, shaking his shadowy black head. She sent him a look and shook her head. "Well, regardless. I'm awake now..." She muttered outloud before reaching up and rubbing her tired eyes. Belle was really not a nighttime person, she enjoyed her sleep... Still, she couldn't exactly sleep now. Slowly, she got up from her bed and walked out to the hallway, in nothing but sweats and a crop top. She looked from side to side, watching the people going by with a blank face before slowly shutting the door and returning to her bed. She pulled out her laptop from under her bed and began to continue on her latest work, "Devils' Fair."

[Apokalipse]

The door banged open, colliding with the wall and bouncing off of it before slowly inching closed. Poppy stared at in surprise from where she had fallen on the ground, her bottom aching and her blanket twisted around her limbs. When the shock wore off, she struggled to wrench the blankets off of her, squirming on the ground until she finally managed to kick them off. “God damnit!” She huffed, standing up and crossing the room to the door. Opening it in her ratty Scooby-Doo pajama pants and oversized gray shirt, Poppy felt embarrassment when she made eye contact with a passing boy. Nevertheless, she dug her hand into the air and beckoned him over. The boy, with an irritated, impatient look on his face, engulfed the distance in two steps, squinting his eyes at her and crossing his arms. “What?” “Uh, ah, um, what…what’s going on?” Poppy asked nervously, feeling the animosity run off of him like water off of an oiled duck. "What do you mean is going on? The meeting!” He said incredulously and Poppy cocked her head to the side. “Ah, what meeting?” “The meeting between the rulers!” He answered, now clearly seething as he ground his teeth together. Poppy recalled hearing something about this earlier, involving Henrietta and some other two that she hadn’t bothered to remember, and so she nodded, letting the boy go on his way. She closed the door and figured that she would go, but…well, the rulers seem to be quite violent going by the reaction to that girl’s knight and Poppy didn’t want to go there unarmed. She had the Art of War tactics in her head from earlier that day, but she needed to be able to defend herself. “Hm, I think…” Poppy muttered, shuffling through her book-filled suitcase, shuffling around until she found it. “Ah-ha~” It was a book that taught others how to self-teach themselves karate. Just by brushing her fingers across it, unseen water spilt down her body, embracing her with Alaska itself and her spine tingled as if millions of horses were galloping down it. But with this unpleasantness came the knowledge of stances and kicks. Even though it was all theory, it was better to arm yourself with something than nothing. “Time to go!” Poppy didn’t even bother changing as she slipped on her shoes and jacket, leaving her dorm to witness the meeting. “Ah, I feel like I’m going to regret this.” She mumbled as the door slammed behind her.

[SillyGoy]

Thankfully, the roar of battle had ended and in its stead, the light music of the campaign map gently caressed Timothy's ears. Thus, he was able to hear the knocks on his door, and respond to the rasp appropriately. Retreating from his laptop, and without his trademark glasses, he found Aiden standing in his doorway, arms crossed and looking at him expectantly. "I was wondering where you were," the uninvited guest said, rather smugly. "Well, now you know." "Why are you here instead of out there? Come on, bro, the meet's about to start!" "Ah," realization widened Tim's eyes. "That." "Yeah, that. Well, no sense in staying in your room like a loner, bro, we've got to go!" "I told you I didn't- ah hell, you filthy American-!" Tim found his wrist grabbed, and only barely managed to catch his glasses from the entry table before being dragged forcibly downstairs.

[TheHangedMan]

At the Football field #1 thirty minutes before the meeting, a spectacular show was going on. As it was night time, the students, who had to reign themselves in during the day and halt themselves from using their abilities, where going all-out with their abilities. The whole football field had transformed into a wondrous land, straight out of a fairy tale. Large trees towering hundreds of meters high sprung to life at random places. Teens were jumping from branch to branch or otherwise just flying in loops and curves through them. Some of them had glowing wings of various shapes: Butterfly wings, bat wings, glowing white angel wings. Large animals straight out of a fantasy book flew around unhindered. A giant moth as big as an apartment building flew above the area, carrying kids who jumped straight down from its back with excited yelps. A dragon flew low and went in circles, carrying a band of one person who was conducting an orchestra compromised of hundreds of floating instruments that exuded glowing musical notes as they played. Other students were swimming in a giant sphere of water floating right above the sudden forest. A Pegasus carrying one man swooped low and grabbed a random person every once in awhile, and the teen would cheerfully throw the surprised student straight into the giant body of water. Spires of ice and pillars of fire danced from the ground and twisted into the sky, and lightning crackled and boomed in response followed by sudden sweeping tornadoes or even an occasional tidal wave from out of nowhere. Some areas snowed, some rained, others where bright and sunny. A multi-colored aurora shined in the sky and several people were sliding down a literal rainbow bridge. The whole field looked like a diorama of colors and lights. Heads and bodies popped out of the ground, spirits and apparitions suddenly became visible and appeared and disappeared at random intervals. Laughter, cheering and shouting could be heard from everywhere you went.

[SillyGoy]

The sheer variety and intensity, the explosions of color and light, shook Timothy, and his eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. Trees that reached for the stars continued to grow to his left, and students that glided on magnificent angel wings described loops and arcs in the air to his right. He wasn't sure what facial expression to take, such was his incredulity, and the newness and intensity of what went before his eyes filled him with both excitement and fear. "So this," he spread his arms out, as if to take the whole spectacle in their grasp and compress it into something more manageable, "is what I've been missing out on?" "I told you, there's no sense in being a loner," a smug Aiden grinned. "Always holed up in your room. Why, man?" "Well," Timothy still appeared to be dazzled, and didn't look back into his acquaintance's eyes. "The voice in my head doesn't want me here." "Voice in your head? Does that mean you're a medium? You've haven't shown me your power yet." Timothy mentally cursed himself for letting the hint roll off his tongue. Regaining his focus, he returned Aiden's gaze, wondering whether or not to dismiss him with another but purposeful and playful peek into his powers, but ultimately deciding against it. So it took him a moment to speak: "You'll see it when the time comes." Aiden began to protest, but he cut him off. "Anyway," Timothy pointed at a healthy beast furred in immaculate white as he stepped towards it. "I don't think I've ever ridden a unicorn before!"

[TheHangedMan]

Suddenly, a large voice boomed throughout the field. "Louise Sophoro has arrived!" At once, the people in the air cleared away, as if on cue. Once the air was completely empty, something began happening: A single dark stone block appeared in the air, quickly followed by another, and then another and then another. Soon the whole sky was filled with thousand of these dark stones. They began reassembling themselves, piling on top of each other, forming towers, walls, buttresses, parapets, crenelations and walkways. When they finished, a large obsidian castle loomed over the grounds, casting a dark shadow over it. A strange cold eminated from the great structure, that ignored clothes or coverings and struck you right through the bones and gripped your soul. There, at the very center tower, was a very sleepy looking Louise. She dressed, of course, in spaghetti strapped pajama's and short shorts - not that she seemed to care. Louise was flanked by two guards. One of them was responsible for the creation of the castle. "Oh man, Sky Castle Oblivion always gives me the chills when I see it," commented a random student. He was looking up at the grand structure with a mixture of awe and fear; he was not the only one. "Yeah? Well if Consul Louise's little show was the standard, we'll be seeing Queen Henrietta's and King Winston's own castles as well." The titles 'King' and 'Queen' where not said sarcastically, not when it came to the Rulers, and especially not after seeing their Castles. Of course, they were not castles in the strict sense of the word, as newcomers would soon see. Soon enough, another voice was heard, it just as loud but more feminine. "Winston Chill has arrived!" It appeared from out of the football field next to them. It rose up, absurdly large for what it was; an aircraft carrier, complete with jets and dragons and with a flag hoisted on the command deck. There were rows of turrets and cannons aligned on the side, however they were unmanned. It made for an intimidating sight, but did not quite have the same effect on everyone that the Castle Oblivion had, but then again, it did not need to. Winston Chill himself was at the forefront; he was a slim brown haired young man with noble features, and wore jogging pants and a sweater. Even from a distance, there was something definitely charismatic about the boy. He was the center of attention, not his 'Castle' and everyone seemed to recognize that. His whole group was lined up behind him waving down on the people below. "Haha! I've always wondered where he picked that out from, the 'HMS Mars'. Seriously, he keeps the name of his 'Castle-Maker' a secret so we have no idea who made the thing and how." "Ah, well it's just one of his things; 'there's a certain power in secrecy' was what he said." The random student's sighed. Then they looked up with an expectant grin. "Now . . . it's about time for Queen Henrietta to show up, eh?" "Oh boy, time to duck." Right at that moment, unannounced, a dragon appeared. No, to call it a dragon was like calling Louise's Castle a brick house, or Winston's aircraft carrier a boat. This was no dragon; this was a giant behemoth in the shape of a dragon! Golden scales, large molten gold eyes and large silver teeth; a body so large it overshadowed all that came before it, and a wingspan that nearly covered the whole school. It flew above Louise's and Wintson's own Castles because there was no room for it. On it's back was an acropolis that looked Greek in design, with a replica of the Athena's Parthenon at it's very center. It exuded and aura of power that made it seem brighter than normal. "And there it is, the Magna Divina. I've heard it means Great Divine in Latin. A lot of people prefer to call it Smaug." "Are you kidding? That thing's way bigger than Smaug is!" Henrietta, of course, was somewhere she could be seen: On the head of the great dragon, in thin white silky pajama's that stretched to her feet and a dark red jacket over it. Despite looking like she just woke up, she was still as beautiful as ever, with her long golden hair flying in the wind and her blue eyes staring down on everyone. With or without preparation, she would still be the most attractive person in the school. "Henrietta Fawkes has arrived!" Everyone looked up at these three in awe, especially the newcomers. There was something about these structures and the people they carried that felt so powerful. One of the newcomers bumped into Timothy. "Oh, sorry about that . . . but wow! Those things are just . . . man I wonder, if I become a Ruler, will I be able to get a castle like that? Maybe I should issue a challenge . . ." With the gathering of these three, the meet was about to begin.

[Apokalipse]

The field was big and chaos thrived in it. Poppy found herself shyly moving about the place, wishing she had gained a cooler power instead of insta-learn. A small Chinese-dragon like thing swerved in front of her and riding a top of it was a boy who whooped and hollered at her. Poppy smiled and waved, feeling a sense of desire to ride on top of a freakin’ dragon. No such luck, the shimmering scales disappeared from her view and into the clouds. Colors seemed to explode in front of her eyes and the vibrancy thrummed more-so than it ever did in the presence of the teachers. Biting her lip, Poppy dove into nearby pile of snow and started making a snow angel. That is when she saw it. A castle! An aircraft! A god damn dragon! Poppy couldn’t stop her mouth from dropping. That was the biggest thing she has ever laid eyes on and she quite envied Henrietta for it. Part of Poppy wanted to join her gang or whatever just so she could ride that freaking thing! Golden scales blinked at her like taunting riches and wings spread out such a distance that Poppy couldn’t even estimate how long it was. The blonde whistled under her breath and stumbled to her feet, almost knocking into someone next to her.