Ginnungagap

Silver Gate Academy [Accepting New Players]

Icarus Ochre

Eiseikato

Icarus had been drawn into a world far beyond his own before, and while this shift had been no less dramatic, it had somewhat fewer alien features on the other side. This place was practically homey compared to the discovery of modern Earthly construction techniques. The little firebird had drawn him here away from the humans, but perhaps that was the intent.

After all, the exposition for the student body at large had focused on exorcism, and the tour seemed a bit, well, targeted wasn't really a nice word, but it wasn't so much inaccurate. Meeting another firebird, apparently a "suzaku", well at least it wasn't yet another exorcist or a blacksmith hawking wares designed specifically for exorcists. The game was odd, and he was quite sure the older youkai was simply using it to distract him; he had been given a rundown on the rules, but that wasn't really enough to really know how to play, certainly not against someone with experience.

"I'm still not really sure what is going on with all of this." Icarus began, trying to figure out just how to talk to this person. They were a strange yokai, but he had the distinct impression that he and Hinoyama would not get along very well.
The suzaku seemed a bit flighty and very, very forward. But at least he wasn't infuriatingly reserved. So there was that nice contrast from actual home. But he was just a child again here. Someone who needed about a hundred more years of maturity. "I don't know a thing about a lot of the things you're talking about, but I did come across to learn from this world, so I'd be honored to learn what you're willing to teach me. Maybe I can share a bit about my home too?"

Silver Gate Academy [Accepting New Players]

Icarus Ochre

Seidoujima Island - Ringo Avenue

_{Ft @Amaterasu as Koyuki}

"Oh. Koyuki, right? Fox spirit, if I remember right? You were mixed up in last night too..." Icarus led off as she took a seat across from him, giving her a moment to settle in with her own treat before even considering asking a question, "You seem a bit more lively compared to this morning."
As she asked her own questions of him, he took another spoonful out of his sundae, swallowing it greedily as the ice cream melted in his mouth, which was perhaps the best part of the confection. At least a conversation partner might help him pace it into something nice and relaxed and not brainfreeze-inducing.
Oh what a day would it be if he could have eaten the whole thing in a minute without the inevitable consequence.
Her question, however, was not ice cream related, it was Icarus-related, and it was one he was hoping to avoid. "I was sort of hoping I could keep it under wraps a bit longer, until I had some friends who might understand. Tell most mortals you're a phoenix and they'll assume you have a least a few hundred years on them, after all. I think they forget we have to go through the beginnings of life too."

Silver Gate Academy [Accepting New Players]

Icarus Ochre

Seidoujima Island - Ringo Avenue

It had not taken long at all for him to get a few books from the library, but he'd had to retreat so quickly from the silence that it shocked himself. Icarus wasn't sure what was wrong, but the nice, orderly silence of the stacks had been oppressive in a way that it never had been before. So now he was sitting at an excessively-tall table in an equally-excessively-tall chair with an assorted lottery of things set out before himself, not just books, but also an inkwell, a flaming red quill of dubious origins, and a lovingly-crafted banana split that served as the centerpiece of his organized chaos.

One might think that ice cream and phoenixes were a poor combination. But Icarus had learned how ice cream worked. Waiting for the cold to go away, or worse, taking the cold away left one with just a poorly-flavored slurry that no one in their right mind could enjoy. No, he had learned, through experience, that somehow, despite all logic, that cold was an absolutely vital ingredient to the dish. But that just meant proper pacing.
It's not like a little cold could kill him anyway.
Headaches, sure, but eating it fast but slow was a well-tempered skill.

With the sheer volume of it behind the counter, though, he'd ended up spending most of his time at the table wonder just what kind of spell they had to have on this side of the gate to make so much of the sweet treat. And keeping it all cold too, there was just so much of it after all.

Even if the ice cream soothed his nerves a little bit though, he was mostly just happy to be in a place where there was some background chatter going on. Hopefully there wouldn't be a repeat of last night anytime soon.

Skill Point Expenditure

Getting this out of the way so I can't forget later
Minor Skills (10 points total)

• Charger 1 (2 points)
• Multiplier 2 (4 points)
• Piercer 1 (2 points)
• Spellcaster 1 (2 points)

Known Spells

• Dragon's Breath
• Barrier
• Call of Might
• Elemental Blast

Stretch Goals (things Icarus is working on if he can but his player has deemed not his yet, because he really should just try harder)

• Major Skill - Study of Fire Magic
• Spell - Rallying Banner
• Phoenix Spell - Elegant Vermillion

Silver Gate Academy [Accepting New Players]

Icarus Ochre

Silver Gate Academy Highschool Building, Field

The night had brought with it much revelations and new motivation to other students. Icarus was one student who felt different today. The other ones who had been in the situation were in this class with him, so many of them looked exhausted, drawn far too thin.
He was burning up on the inside. Last night had been dangerous. Too dangerous. And he'd been drawn right into the danger alongside a bunch of other students. No adults to fall back on. No elders to go to. And while some phoenixes might have been content in their lives, and only come to this mundane world in a later cycle, he'd taken the insane choice of entering it in his first. He didn't have the experience. He had come to understand the reality of the world, and that while some little tiny bits of utilitarian magic and academics were seemingly practical, in a fight his magic had been utterly lacking. Fighting was horrifying, he never wanted to be in a fight again in his life, nothing ever like last night ever again.
He had walked right into the middle of the cataclysm and had started fighting without thinking about it, and now he was a bit scared that, faced with that, he might do that again.
And more than anything, he wanted to be safe if he was ever possessed by that kind of insanity again. He needed more power. More fight. And the school was offering that.

Icarus was on fire. In the figurative sense for once in his short life.
Today he would learn how to hide. How to be subtle and efficient. Tomorrow, he would take to the library and the training fields, and he'd learn how to strike. If trouble was going to come to him, and he did so hope that it came to him and that he wasn't once again drawn towards it because that was a disturbing feeling to have, if he had to have trouble like last night again, he wanted to make trouble regret every second of it.
Hopefully there wouldn't be trouble again...but this world was apparently less calm and sedate than the humans made it out to be.

Spending Log

-2 points
> Skill Unlocked: Iga-ryu, Genin Level

CONGLOMERATE: A Megacorp Based NRP

How did I even double post I thought that was impossible

CONGLOMERATE: A Megacorp Based NRP

Well I mean President Walt Disney-Pepsi-Comcast will surely do great things for the economy.

Also I don't want to visit Bisney if Ricky Rat is there. This a dangerous proposition.

And now that I'm starting to really think of stuff I'm realizing I am going to need a company logo...this is clearly more important than what my company will actually do.

CONGLOMERATE: A Megacorp Based NRP

Poking in my nose, though my schedule has started filling up recently so I might not be able to throw in my hat for this one. Depends on what it seems like the time commitment is going to be and if I can spare that little bit more out of my existence.

Silver Gate Academy [Accepting New Players]

Icarus Ochre

Silver Gate Academy Highschool Building, Classroom 4-A

_{Co-starring Koyuki as @Amaterasu}

"I would prefer not to say, really." Icarus said in response to Koyuki's question of what he was, a hand moving lazily to rest on the back of his head, "I came here to try and see what living among humans is really like, and some people might make some assumptions about me knowing what I am specifically, and I don't want to get in the way. Is it enough to know I'm from the other side of the gate? And well the obvious, I'm considered a demon."

He took a moment though, considering what else she'd said, and he pulled the worksheet up in front of his eyes, glancing over what all was on it. She was at least nice enough to not be too pushy about things. And while he wasn't quite comfortable enough to talk about the whole being immortal thing, other stuff was certainly on the table. Like the work for this class. "So what were your tutors like, if you've already had something like the lessons here? I'm somewhat more accustomed to the techniques from Arcanis, the ones here feel similar but it's not exactly encouraged to learn the details through something as dangerous as self-study. Also hard to study something you can't even practice."

The Satsuma Rebellion - A Magical Incursion RP

Gosling "Gus" Mallory

---

Getting into the house had become more of a crowd activity as more of the team had arrived simultaneously, though that also reassured Gus that nobody here was a threat. These were the right people.
The sight of de Silva kind of set that one in place after all. Isolated he might be from the Guild's more active politics, there was no way to really not know who Salem was. Hopefully that wouldn't grow to be a problem here on this mission. But she wasn't the only big name in the room. After all, one of the others had just introduced himself as heir to the Louis name.
He himself had just stayed by the wall during the informal little briefing, of course. It was a quite one-sided introduction to their base of operations, but that was just as well. The secret passage was a nice touch, and at least that meant they wouldn't be squished in to the main house. There were certainly too many bodies just in this room.
The better question then was, how were they going to keep this place under wraps with so many people living here...
But that would have to wait for a later date. There were more priority issues to deal with. Local contacts and a potential supply cache. Though chances were that cache wasn't going to be a safe bet. The Guild had already lost all their official safehouses in the area, so it was doubtful that where they kept supplies was still a secret either.

"Excuse me, ladies and gents, but think I'll go next. Short and simple though." he spoke up next, before the crowd could all start filing down to the meeting room, or heading out to the cars as Miss Boukhary seemed to indicate, "Gus. Gus Mallory. If the name's not memorable, then that's probably why I'm here. Small town, out of the way. No big bloodlines or anything. And if we're going to try and pretend this place is normal, we've got too many cars out there and too many people who need to go in and out. Any way we can hide just how many people we have coming and going?"

Silver Gate Academy [Accepting New Players]

Icarus Ochre

Silver Gate Academy Highschool Building, Classroom 4-A

_{Starring the entire class of 4-A, but extra starring Koyuki as portrayed by @Amaterasu}

Icarus had made a grave error.
A fatal mistake.
A deadly miscalculation.
He had decided that the best place in the class to sit was up front. He was a studious lad, after all, and even if not gregarious, he could get along with an instructor quite well. Kirizanto Kuuto was not an instructor one got along with. There was no mirth in how he taught the class. Function over form had been taken to extremes in this course, but Icarus could have worked with that too.
It's just that he was only one wrong move away from one of those talismans. And those he could not deal with. Sure, they were probably low level talismans, hopefully, ones that wouldn't hurt him, but they were still tools of exorcism. And he was quite vulnerable to that. They could hurt.
He spent most of the class with his eyes driven very solidly into his desk, unable to even look at the instructor. If he had a proper one, he was sure he would have also spent it with his heart hammering in his ears. Thankfully he only had to just listen to the lecture instead. Though he wasn't sure if blocking it out with a rhythmic thump would have been much more pleasant than listening to just how much more advanced the people of Earth had become at the art. The Arrows were already bad enough, but the Earthlings were better?
He resolved to never get on the bad side of an exorcist from this side of the portal. That would be disastrous. And painful.

---

The end of class was of great relief to the phoenix, who took a moment to observe his classmates now that their teacher was no longer being so forward. Looking around, eyes darting from face to face, he did see a few familiar people in the room, though some might be less familiar with him than the other way around. Golden Week had, if nothing else, given him quite the opportunity to at least observe.
He needed a friend today, and it didn't take long to spot one of the other students who had been given the dreaded worksheet instead of the normal homework. If nothing else, they could help each other get through this hellish class, if they just worked together, right?
Anything was better than weathering the storm of Kirizanto Kuuto alone. Even being outgoing and making a friend was a better option. And that is, ultimately, what drove Icarus to take those faint, nervous steps forward, and to start up the conversation himself.
"Hey, I'm Icarus...would you mind going through the worksheet together? I think I might have missed half of what was said in class...and people like us need to stick together in this class, eh?"