Invader Len

St. Fortuna's Academy for the Higher Arts

Richard Bateman

Richard knew himself well. He was well aware he was not a morning person. He was also not a late morning, noon, or early afternoon person. If you had asked him the time he woke up over the course of the summer, he'd he ashamed to say usually past 2 in the afternoon. So waking up at 6:00 in the morning was definitely not something he'd ever do willingly, even with an alarm. He knew this well.

Which was why the night before, he had perched his alarm clock precariously over his head before he went to sleep, knowing that if there was one thing that would jolt him from dreamland. He set it for six, climbed into bed, and apologized to his future self.

It still didn't mean he forgave his past self when it hit him.

Groaning in pain and holding his head, he fumbled and desperately tried to turn it off, fully awake by the time he did so. He dragged himself out of bed, trudging towards the bathroom. He stood underwater for probably ten minutes, his head throbbing and mood sour. Well, he'd be in a bad mood even if his past self hadn't been a dick. Mornings were not for him.

He dried off, got dressed and brushed his teeth and hair, putting on his glasses. He knew he had a scowl on his face, but he didn't care. He was gonna get a migraine if he didn't get coffee soon. He checked the time, it was about time for breakfast. He grabbed his bag, knocking on the partition door. He intended to say something along the lines of "Yo, Robert, I'm going to get some breakfast", but what came out was more along the lines of "Yaamghmamnfgabfest". Close enough.

Like a zombie, more dead than alive, he shuffled out the door and down the hall, subconsciously going through the motions of getting food, and more importantly, getting coffee. He actually didn't know what kind of food he'd gotten, looked like lobster hash with poached eggs. Worked for him, as long as he got the 5-6 cups of coffee he'd need to be human again. He trundled over to where Bee sat, lurching into his seat with all the grace of a recently reanimated corpse. He grunted out a greeting to her, immediately turning his attention to his coffee. Conversation could wait until he finished his second cup.

---

Felicity Goldberg

Felicity was used to her day starting early. 6:00 was usually when she woke up, getting out of bed and doing her morning stretches. Calisthenics were a great way to get ones blood pumping and muscles ready for the day. It was good to work up a little bit of a sweat, to open up your pores a little bit before you showered. That way the exfoliating face and body wash was at its most effective. She was careful with her shampoo and conditioning, so she wouldn't break her hairs when she scrubbed them. Then, while letting the conditioner sit, she'd shave her legs and pluck her brow, and apply medicine to any pimples so they would deflate.

After her hair was done, she returned to her room around 6:20, leaving the bathroom to her partner's use. Next, she pulled the chair of her desk closer to her vanity, and got out her elaborate makeup kit. Now came the most important part of the routine. Hiding that horrible scar on her face.

She had been applying makeup since she was a little girl, and had all the movements down to a practiced swipe and blot. Liquid concealer as a base, brushes to evenly apply it, powder puff to smooth and add more realistic color. By the time she was done, her scar was gone, the only evidence one could discern of it would be if they smudged right on her lip, and felt the slightly pocketed skin. Short of that, her weakness was invisible, and she highly doubted anyone would be smudging right between her mouth and nose.

A little eyeliner, mascara, and lip balm completed her look. A final brush of her hair and the securing of her uniform, and she was ready for the day! Grabbing her bag, she walked to the partition, knocking on it gently.
"Korrey! It's Felicity! Would you like to walk to breakfast together?" she called. If he did, then she could reintroduce him to Monty, and hopefully her brother would be more hospitable to him if he knew he was her partner. Oh! And he could meet Nancy! They would definitely get along!

St. Fortuna's Academy for the Higher Arts

Announcement!

Due to their extended period of inactivity, @General Scales has been put on the waiting list. They are not being kicked, and when they return we'll see about putting them back in the RP. @liferusher's new partner is @Natsu's Rena Narim. Since Janine and Mui were never bonded, it should be easy to have the correction happen off-screen.

I'm still sick as a dog, so my post will likely be postponed until my head stops hurting enough for me to think coherently, which hopefully should be in a few days. Thanks for being so patient, everyone.

St. Fortuna's Academy for the Higher Arts

@dabombjk

Kieran Damond Review v3.0

Oh boy, where to begin here. I had high hopes for this version, and sad to say, it fails those hopes by a long shot. There are more issues in this CS than in the first two combined. My co-GMs and our GM-in-training Natsu will all be writing our own separate reviews for this CS, focusing on the issues we each think are the most atrocious. I'll be starting us off.

Going chronologically, my first problem is his personality. He has 0 personality flaws. The personality itself is meager and bland, but the lack of flaws is what really grinds my gears. Do you mean to say that there is nothing bad about Kieran? That he has no traits, habits, thoughts or mannerisms that others would consider undesirable or obstructive? He has no problems with anything? His personality has gone from being concrete, to shifty, to bland and blotchy. It needs serious construction. Every character should always have at least 1 major flaw, that is, a flaw that seriously inhibits them, and 3 minor flaws. More flaws are usually better, but this is the bare minimum.

Next up is an issue that I find very serious and egregiously offensive. You plagiarized my own writing. This segment, to be exact.
"A small, coastal village known for its seafood industry and stark white cliffs. The hillside is rocky and not very good for agriculture. Is mainly a port city, and people here speak with a strange, northeastern accent. The town is closely packed, with some coastal villas and cottages having enough breathing room. Heavy rains and thunderstorms dominate the weather, and the city is famous for its lighthouses."
Who do you think wrote that? Do you think I wouldn't recognize my own writing? What possessed you to copy and paste my own words into a CS you knew I'd review, to a role play I'm GMing? Were you hoping I'd be flattered by your lifting of my paragraph and sticking it in your CS with no indication that you didn't write it? It sticks out like a sore thumb, you didn't even bother to make the capitalized "A" fit with the rest of the sentence structure.

Not only that, but the entirety of the plagiarized segment does nothing for the history or your character. This is the most useless example of plagiarism I've seen in my entire life. It's wholly unnecessary because it accomplishes nothing. It interrupts the flow of writing and is meaningless to the characters history. What do lighthouses have to do with your character? What does the geography have to do with your character? Delete the stolen segment, both because you took it from me, and because it's stupid where it is. These descriptions are meant to be insight into the character's background, not THE character's background.

Continuing on, there are more problems with the family. The father's job is never given. What does he do? Is he a fisherman? A farmer? A banker? A lawyer? A beggar? The mayor? What is his job? The job and its possible pay grade determines the socio-economic status of the family, since he is declared to be the sole breadwinner of the family. Without knowing the job, how are we to know what kind of household your character grew up in?

Also, more world building. I understand from reading the first sentence of the description for Colbar that you could mistake it for being a collection of tiny hovels overlooking the sea. The descriptions were outdated and long overdue for grammatical revisions. However, that does not excuse that Colbar is not a tiny city. That's a word I use in the description, a city. It is not a place where everyone knows everyone, nor is it isolated. It's a trading city, for heavens sake! It's filled with sailors from around the world with tales of adventure and exotic lands! I realize that I need to correct my writing there, but that does not give you a right to world build it into a tiny, unimportant little place. The background is there as a background. You are supposed to be building a character, not a city.

Now we're getting into deeper problems, problems that directly conflict with our lore. I have to ask. Did you read everything we wrote about magic carefully? Did you miss the parts where we said that that it is normal in this world, that 50% of the population has it, that it cannot be considered "special" in the way we would consider is special? It would not be considered a talent to do little tricks with ones own magic. Legitimate card and hat tricks would be more impressive in this world. Getting accepted into St. Fortuna's for a minor magic talent would be like getting accepted into Harvard for being ambidextrous. It's not that special.

Next up, the mother. I think I liked her better when she was dead, because now she's making problems with our lore. First off, mage is not an occupation. It's not a job or hobby that you can quit. Mage and Familiar are the names of two categories of souls that a person is born possessing. You either have a Mage soul, which can channel mana into magic, or you have a Familiar soul, which holds mana in its raw form and derives its own unique energy from the life of its user. These soul types form spiritual and social roles that the person they are born into fills. A person is a Mage in the same way that someone else is black. It is a part of their identity, something they cannot change, that they are born into. You can't stop being a mage or familiar just like you can't stop being a certain race or ethnicity or blood type. So his mother having been "a mage a long time ago" makes no sense. She would never lose her ability to use magic, she would never lose her soul, and she would never be anything but a mage. A mage is not an occupation. You can be born a mage, and be a farmer, a fisherman, a writer, a bounty hunter, an academic, a housewife, or anything imaginable. There are professions that utilize magic more than others, and some that don't use any at all.

In addition, because magic is so innate and normal in this world, the parents hatred of it is absurd. Unbonded magic is the weakest magic that exists, the magic of a mage without a familiar. Mages have very low reservoirs of mana, so the spells they cast are incredibly weak. Fire mages can still cast flames that burn, but they're weak, unsustainable, and low temperature. Light mages can only manage a dim glow. Mages only unlock the true powerful potential of their spells when drawing from the mana pools of their bonded Familiar, and it's a two person job. In addition, magic is NORMAL in this world. Being afraid of it is like having a fear of air or grass! It's irrational and unreasonable.

Moreover, untrained magic is far more dangerous than trained magic. Mages of all magic types learn in any high school the basics of controlling their magic, it would be a part of his curriculum no matter where he goes. And there are good reasons for that. Imagine being a fire mage who never learned how to control summoning flames. You might not be able to summon flames at all, or you might summon them accidentally. They'd be small and weak, but they could still burn you, and they could appear randomly. You wouldn't be able to extinguish them through magic. Now imagine being that same fire mage, and filling up your car at a gas station. Does that sound hazardous? What about sleeping in your very flammable bed? Or walking through dry grass? Or being around a very flatulent friend? Those are all now serious hazards, because you never learned to control your magic. Untrained magic and untrained abilities are very dangerous, and that is why every high school will teach you the basics of controlling them, even if you never use magic again in your entire life.

With that in mind that EVERY high school will have to teach him about magic, why wouldn't his parents want him to go to St. Fortuna's? Yes, it has a more magic-oriented curriculum, but it's also the best school in the country, not only for magic. We have people attending for the excellent cooking and music courses, we have people attending to learn botany or monster physiology. There are people attending with dreams of being politicians, doctors, academics, scientists. There are people attending simply for the benefits of having "went to St. Fortuna's" on their resumé. There are people who don't even want to be here or care about being here, but are just here because their parents want the prestige of having their children mingle with their fellow elite. There are people from other countries sending their children there! Given that it is the best educational opportunity available in all of Prydain, why wouldn't his parents want him to go?

Now into his likes and dislikes. There's one that stands out to me. Why does he dislike talking about his parents? This is still copied over from the original "dead parents" plot. His parents are alive and well now, and Kieran never hints in his history that he bears them any animosity. So why the sudden angst?

Now onto the quiz. I'm going to tell you right off the bat that your answers to questions 2 and 3 are absolutely useless, they might as well be blank. For number 2, the question was about your character getting caught in a lie. This was for us to judge their responses to getting caught doing something "bad". Here is your response.
"Kieran will try to laugh it off, not admitting to anything at first. But when he is caught and the person will not let up he will stand his ground, Kieran would not lie unless it was for a good reason."
What constitutes a "good reason" to Kieran? The definition changes from person to person. I might think that not making someone sad constitutes a good reason, while a friend might think that lying should be reserved only for life or death situations. Without knowing what constitutes a good reason to Kieran, we have no clue what he will or won't lie about.

Question 3 was about determining your character's response to a sudden betrayal in the form of a lie. This was for us to judge how your character reacts to something like betrayal or perceived betrayal from a close friend. Here's what you wrote.
"Kieran would simply ignore it for a time, unless something happened because of it or it affected him in a serious way."
Quoth the white boy, "lol then what ;)". What happens if it does affect him in a serious way, or if something did happen because of it? There's no reaction here, this question might as well have been left blank. We use these quizzes to determine your magic type or ability if you are accepted, how can you expect us to do our job with that when 1/4th of the information we need is useless to us?

Lastly, more problems with Conrad. Here's what you wrote.
"looked up to his older brother, who did what he wanted despite not being fully supported by his parents for the decisions he made."
That's all nice and good, but what did Conrad do? There's no context here. Conrad's parents never give any indication they disapprove of anything that Conrad is doing. Conrad seems to have gone from being a major part of the character's life to barely appearing here and there. Really, at least give us some context for it.

That is everything I have, but believe me, this review is far from over. My co-GM's and GM-in-training's comments have been tacked on below, and I'm certain they have a lot to say. In my opinion, this CS is worse than the first two you submitted. It's wrought with errors, world building, plagiarism, and nonsense. In addition, the lack of personality flaws and the fact that you have apparently based this CS on yourself makes me suspect a self-insert. This character needs to be heavily rewritten, with the worldbuilding and plagiarism removed, the erroneous details corrected, and a LOT of explaining and character building in the history and personality. As it stands, this is not a character I would allow in this RP. Please make the appropriate changes, and we'll review your submission again.

---

Error's Review

Hey there, Error here!

So, let's start at the top. Everything looks good, up until we get to Kierans personality, the whole four sentences of it! I can garner just a few things about Kieran in what little you've put in this section, and to be honest it all confuses me. There is just so little information here! You say he's cheerful, but he never acts out of anger, but then you say he makes decisions based on how he feels? Give me some more context here. So far I know basically nothing about Kieran. A persons personality is a very intricate, complicated thing, formed through experiences around the person. Right now, his personality doesn't pass a human. He has no flaws, which are necessary and natural, and honestly he's as bland as a bowl of unsweetened oatmeal right now. Who is Kieran? How does his mind work? What makes him so different? Right now I don't have the answer to any of those questions. Please go back and write me a real personality, not a list of vague traits that clash with each other.

Next off, his biography. I'm not even going to go into the fact that you literally just took Colbars description from our OOC and plopped it into your story, just get rid of it. It adds absolutely nothing to the backstory, and it interrupts the flow of the writing. What I really want to talk about here is this:

"Kieran excelled in his academic, but hated living in Colbar. Up until the middle of middle school Kieran he did whatever he was told, went school, never caused too much trouble, was decently popular, did his homework, ate the food that was put on the table. But when he started high school something flipped in his brains."

The first problem I have with this is the fact that your first sentence of Kieran bio was establishing that he was "a little....different than other kids in his hometown of Colbar." From what I can see so far, other than for some reason hating living in Colbar, Kieran doesn't seem different to me at all. So how is he so different from the other kids, and how does it affect him? You say that he's decently popular and seems like a good kid, so then why, just why is he "....different"? What makes this kid special compared to all the other little gremlins living in Colbar?

Let's talk about the whole flipping of his brain before we get onto the bigger issue. You say: "He took a look around and realized that everything around him just seemed.....mundane. The Constant bad weather, the smell of fish, and more. Colbar was small, so pretty much everyone knew everyone, and Kieran hated it. That is too say he never acted out in anger because of it, but it was known that Kieran would smile through a polite conversation neatly discussing how he dislike living where he lived."

...Ok? I honestly do not see how anything in his brain flipped, since you already mentioned earlier the fact that he hates living in Colbar. What changed about him, and his relationship to the other townspeople? Did he stop doing what he was told? Did he stop being popular? Stop going to school and getting good grades? I don't really understand how anything really "flipped" in his brain. How did realizing he hated Colbar change things about him?

And now onto the thing that confuses me the most. You state that everything changed when he went into high school. Ok, so he must be a freshman then, and he would be a transfer student into St. Fortuna's for the second year. This is a little odd seeing as you never mention how or why he would transfer from whatever high school in Colbar he was going to into St. Fortuna's. But then, in the next paragraph you go on to talk about him wanting to find a way out of Colbar at 13. There are only two ways I can understand this. Either we just went back in time from talking about him in high school to talking about him at 13, or Kieran is already attending high school at the age of 13, which brings up some real problems. But then at the end of this paragraph you say he gets a scholarship at the age of 15, adding to this trainwreck even more. Please, for the love of all that is sacred, explain this to me. Is he already in high school like you said? Or is he just now getting into St. Fortuna's at 15, like you also said? HOW OLD IS THIS BOY? Is he a transfer student? Does he have magic aging powers or some kind of horrible disease that rapidly ages and deages you? Please clarify this, because right now Kieran is bending the laws of space and time.

Second part of this issue, why is he even here? St. Fortuna's is the best school in Prydain. It is a high competition, high stakes school. People from all over Prydain and even from other countries are applying there. What makes this kid special, enough to not only get in, but get a scholarship? There are so many people who compete for a scholarship at St. Fortuna's, and from how I see it the only reason Kieran got in is because he has a small magical talent? Sorry to break it to you, 50% of the population does too, and if they aren't then they're familiars with bomb ass abilities. So then why is Kieran able to pull of this scholarship? Does he have extraordinary grades, some talent he's exceptional at? There are other, less expensive and competitive schools to attend away from Colbar, so why St. Fortuna's? He doesn't seem to have much ambition other than maybe becoming a "magic teacher" at St. Fortuna's.

All in all you need to expand on personality, give him depth and flaws, and please, please address the age issue. Either have him be a transfer student at a reasonable age, or fix the high school part so that he is not already attending a high school and make it so he just goes straight to St. Fortuna's.

Error out.

---

Natsu's Review

Ahem.

Hello friend!

Let’s start at the very beginning, A very good place to start. Well, you have a name. And a picture. And an age, and oh! Even a gender and sexual orientation! It’s almost like he’s a real person! Let’s continue through this, hmm?

“Personality: Kieran is normally quite the cheerful fellow. He is not one to dwell on past mistakes, and prefers to smile through any situation than to act out of pure emotion in anger. To say he would act out of anger is uncharacteristic would be an understatement, but that is not to say he is not emotional. Kieran has and will made decisions based on how he felt, but he has always tried to be fair and to do it with a smile.”

Oh dear. It would appear that you’ve mistaken a personality with having a single personality trait. This is concerning for a number of reasons. Firstly, and though you may not be aware of this, that is not how humans work. You see, humans are an interesting species that typically experience a range of emotions on a day to day basis, and often act in ways that are not rational because of that. That means that, while they may have a base emotion, such as cheerfulness, that is only ever on the surface, and not at all encompasses their entire personality. Secondly, while character’s can have these kind singular traits, they need to be expounded upon, explained, and given the depth that a real human deserves.

Now, I would give more review on the personality, but as I can’t quite infer your thoughts from the wealth of depth and care you’re dumped into little Kieran here, I think we should move onto his Biography, don’t you? Maybe you’re the type of writer who likes to build depth from character interaction whether than detailed explanations.

“For as long as he could remember Kieran knew he was a little....different than other kids in his hometown of Colbar. Colbar is A small, coastal village known for its seafood industry and stark white cliffs. The hillside is rocky and not very good for agriculture. Is mainly a port city, and people here speak with a strange, northeastern accent. The town is closely packed, with some coastal villas and cottages having enough breathing room. Heavy rains and thunderstorms dominate the weather, and the city is famous for its lighthouses.”

Wow! That’s actually really well writ-
oh.
I see.
Now, good sir, I would normally not dare to question the moral standing of such an individual such as yourself, but I believe the evidence here is overwhelming. I do say, that this, my friend, is plagiarism at its finest. You appear to have literally copy and pasted from the opening post. Now, normally I would tear you a new one over this, but this is not my battle to fight. I’ll leave that to Len. No, all I will say to this is that it speaks to exactly the type of person you truly are.
Let’s get back to that later, shall we?.

Meanwhile, we’re going to continue on with your amazing backstory! Woohoo!

“Kieran though never liked living there with his family. He had a mother.”

Oh! I have a mother too!

“a father “

Just like a real boy!

“They were an average family, with his father working most of the day and his mother a stay at home mother. His older brother had recently finished school, but had no desire to continue his education. He wanted to move out as soon as he had more money saved, so he decided to find a job as soon as he finished High school.”

Well, there’s no faster way of moving out than not going to college and starting work in your home town! Such a wise young man.

“Kieran excelled in his academic, but hated living in Colbar. Up until the middle of middle school Kieran he did whatever he was told, went school, never caused too much trouble, was decently popular, did his homework, ate the food that was put on the table. But when he started high school something flipped in his brains.”
Wait what? I thought he was, “a cheerful fellow”? He’s happy, and hate’s where he’s living at the same time? Now sir, as somebody who grew up in a very small town, and hated it, I can tell you with utmost certainty, unless you have some form of escape, such as the internet, your default emotion will not be cheer. In fact, you may find that the soul crushing apathy you feel every day leads you to this interesting condition some call depression, which, despite its inspiring name, does not cause you to be happy all the time.
“He took a look around and realized that everything around him just seemed.....mundane. The Constant bad weather, the smell of fish, and more. Colbar was small, so pretty much everyone knew everyone”

Ah. World building. Let me say this. World building is for GM’s, and GM’s alone unless they grant player’s permission. This is a cardinal sin that players can commit, because it interferes with the with the creator’s vision of the world. You neither have the right, nor apparently the ability, to attempt to expound upon the details of the world without the GM’s guidance and permission.

“That is too say he never acted out in anger because of it, but it was known that Kieran would smile through a polite conversation neatly discussing how he dislike living where he lived ”
Of course! Because small town people love it when you talk about how much you hate where you are! “Oh you know, I just hate it here. What? Why am I bringing this up? Oh you know. Just in case you were curious.”
That’s not how people work, at least not balanced, well adjusted people.

“When he started looking into St. Fortunas he realized that this would be perfect. He had a small magical talent that he had practiced with, and started learning what he could on his own. While his family did love him, they did not love his magic abilities. His mother had been a mage a long time ago, and both his parents believed that magic was a very dangerous thing to use. ”

I’m sorry what? Ok, lot’s of thing’s going on here, let’s start with the worst.
MAGIC IS A PART OF THIS WORLD. IT IS NOT FEARED BY ANYBODY WHO ISN’T INSANE. THAT’S LIKE SAYING, “Water man. You know? Like, it really shouldn’t be drunk.”
It make’s NO GODDAMNED SENSE IN THIS WORLD.
Furthermore, you can’t “stop” being a mage. Everybody’s born either as a mage, or a familiar, and there’s no middle ground. It is entwined into your soul.
Even more so, MAGE’S NEED FAMILIAR’S TO PRACTICE MAGIC. Or at least, they need them to do real magic. The type of magic you’d be doing as an unbonded, untrained mage is very, very, very dangerous and difficult.

“At first they did not approve of what Kieran did in his spare time with magic, practicing and researching what little he could on his own, but when he was able to pull off qualifying for a scholarship when he was 15 they felt like they had no choice but to let him go.”

NO. THAT’S NOT HOW PARENTING WORKS. You don’t say, “Oh, I think x is really, REALLY dangerous, but you’re 15 so I guess I have to let you go practice and learn it.”
NO. NO PARENT WOULD EVER. EVER. LET THEM DO THAT.
“Kieran would always appreciate his roots and his family, even if he disliked Colbar and knew his family did not completely approve of his decision.”

Bullshit. You can’t hate your town to that degree, and be 15, and have what amounts to a toxic home life and still “appreciate your roots”.

“He was not sold entirely on what he wanted to accomplish in the end, he had only known about the world involving the sea and even in his research he had not settled on a single career, so as far as anyone knew he wanted to eventually become a magic teacher. Maybe one day he could even teach at St. Fortunas.”
I fucking doubt it.
Now, to the quiz! This is a chance for you to maybe, just maybe redeem Kieran and give him some much needed personality and humanity..

“1. What is your character's dream career?
Becoming a Teacher at the Academy. ”

Ok man. I’m gonna level with you here. You cannot just give a character unjustified goals. Goals not only make a character who they are, but they have those goal’s for good reason’s. This urge to teach is not founded anywhere in what you’ve written. This is not reasonable.

“2. Your character is caught telling a lie/cheating. How do they react?
Kieran will try to laugh it off, not admitting to anything at first. But when he is caught and the person will not let up he will stand his ground, Kieran would not lie unless it was for a good reason.”
This clashes with everything we know about Kieran. It very isn’t human. Very few people, when caught lying, will continue to insist that what they say is correct and true.

“8. Who does your character admire/look up to?
He looked up to his older brother, who did what he wanted despite not being fully supported by his parents for the decisions he made”

He looks up to his brother, who has literally no character development though tout your entire sheet. Great. Fucking great.

Now, you may remember a few paragraph’s up, I said that your plagiarism is telling of who you really are. Allow me to return to that now, just a put a nice little bow on this. It is clear to me that you are not somebody who likes at all to put effort into things. You shamelessly copied text, you put no effort into the personality of your character, and you didn’t even try to make him consistent. If it were totally up to me, you would not be getting another chance, but as it is not, perhaps you can prove me wrong, if you even care enough to do so.

St. Fortuna's Academy for the Higher Arts

@dabombjk

Kieran Damond Review v2.0

Okay, so this second review got a lot of deeper interest as we reread it, and we noticed both issues that have newly arisen and some that we overlooked before. So bear with us as we go through them, they're all fixable with the right solutions.

Let's start off with the mom. So, before, she was dead. That was fine. Now she's alive and is just sick. That's fine too. What's not fine is how she up and disappears after a brief mention. I get the dad mysteriously vanishes, but the mom never reappears in the boys lives again after the complications with pregnancy, and Conrad just assumes the responsibilities of parenting Kieran like that. Can you see the problem here? You're operating the entire story as if the mom was dead. Which would be fine, if she was. The problem is, she's not anymore, she's alive, and retains legal parentage of the boys even if she's sick and in the hospital. Not to mention, complications regarding pregnancy and afterbirth don't last that long. If she's not dead from them, she'd be returning home in a few weeks to a few months. This makes not only Conrad assuming guardianship of Kieran silly and unnecessary, but the father's depression and disappearance as well. The mother being alive changes the entire story, you can't just have her alive and then write the story as if she was still dead. Their are pretty much two choices here: Change the story to accommodate a now living mother, or kill her off again. Either way is fine, but putting her in hospital limbo never to be heard from again is silly.

Speaking of silly, can I just point out that it's a little contradictory if he was born to "loving parents" and the father skips town on them without a word as soon as things get difficult for him? In this revision, the mom isn't even dead, just recovering from childbirth, so why is he leaving? Can you see why that's weird?

We also don't know how great the age gap is between Kieran and Conrad. I understand you tried to fix this by giving us Conrad's age when he assumes legal guardianship of Kieran, but without Kieran's age, it's meaningless. Is he an infant when this happens? Is he five? Ten? Does it happen a day before the story takes place? It could happen any time over the 15 year period, and can have different effects on Kieran at different times. So now you can see why it's rather important to have it as a defined point, rather than abstract.

Next up, some things about Conrad. He's working a job that doesn't pay well and spends a lot of time away. Which begs the question: Who watches Kieran when he's away? Who cooks for him? Who changes his diaper? Who makes sure he doesn't roll over in his sleep and suffocate? Cause that's what babies do. Who makes sure he doesn't get under the sink and drink drain cleaner? Cause that's what toddlers do. Who makes sure he doesn't get bored and climb a tree and fall and break his neck? Cause that's what little boys (and sometimes big boys) do. Parenting is more than just working a full time job and providing the material wants for a child, it's making sure they don't kill themselves or get killed, making sure they eat regularly and healthily, making sure they take care of themselves. Especially for the first 5-6 years of life, it's a full time job. So who's helping Conrad take care of a baby while he works? Neighbors? The missing mom? A 14 year old desperate for spending money and something to put on their resume? Please elaborate on this.

Also, here's something that needs redacting. "Kieran believed that in time he would be able to learn much about the different forms of magical writing such as the many types of symbols and signs," please delete the part about the symbols and signs. We have not revealed how magic itself works, and this is world building. Please do not world build, particularly about magic, as it is a system we have been working on very intricately.

Finally, some overlooked problems. In the quiz, you mention lying quite a lot. To the point of him being a compulsive liar, manipulator, and unscrupulous blackmailer. This is a big difference from what is said in the personality, where he "won't lie outright". He even takes a speech his brother makes about the value of friendship, forgiveness, and understanding, and turns it into "I must lie and hide my true nature from others to survive in this world." Thats a pretty big and pretty deep decision for an elementary schooler, whom I would think would resonate more deeply with the message of friendship and forgiveness. I would suggest toning down the lying in his history and quiz, or correct his personality to make him more devious, ruthless, and manipulative. In addition, the constant lying should come with flaws. Compulsive liars are more likely to have problems empathizing with people, and people who hide things, like their emotions or physical objects, are more likely to suffer from paranoia and be introverted. People who lie to protect themselves are more likely to be flighty and easily frightened, and manipulators and blackmailers are more likely to have problems forming genuine attachments and gaining satisfaction from their relationships with people and things. The psychological impact of lying runs very deep. It's one thing to be a silver tongued persuader, and another to hide the truth and manipulate others with malicious intent on a constant basis.

Those are all the issues we overlooked, and all the issues that have newly arisen in the CS. They can all be fixed with solutions suggested, but they have to be before we can give you the okay. Please make the corrections, and we'll review your CS again. :D

St. Fortuna's Academy for the Higher Arts

<Snipped quote by Invader Len>

My Hider

Hi hi! First off I would like to say I love your energy! So...........motivated! Cheerful!

Second I would like to apologize. If you look at my previous posts in my profile it would be apparent I'm a stickler for details but I will Andy I wrote this CS early AM quite inebriated. So for that I apologize.

Third I am at work so I fixed what I could but I won't be able to add the questions to the answers for at least 7-8 hours. I was hoping that we could move along the vetting process now and I can just add the questions when I get home. But if not it's kewl dawg I'm all about that GM respect low key ya dog it? (I just about gave myself a heart attacks writing like that)

Fourth I changed it so the mom was hospitalized cause she a sick bitch instead of a dead bitch. I stay by this, I am a slight edge lord, and usually my CS are dark af but I realize it would be better not to have that in this rp lol)

@dabombjk

Thank you, you have a very interesting energy yourself. You don't have to apologize, we review everyone's CS's, and this one had very few problems compared to some we've reviewed before. You're welcome to do a little digging if you're interested in how sticky we are on details as well. ^^

As for the questions/answers formatting, you can add them in whenever you have time, we'll continue our reviews overlooking it. As for the mother's death, it's quite alright to have it either way. The only objections we have to deceased family members is if it happened in a rather violent way, and only under some circumstances. For example, car or work accidents we'll allow as a cause of death, along with illness, complications in childbirth, natural disasters or simple, accidental bad luck. Things we will not accept are foul play, acts of terrorism, murder, usually execution, (we could be persuaded to allow a character with a criminal parent, but usually we'll say no), and especially being killed or maimed by the main character. If you're ever concerned over whether something in your character's past could go against our rules or fall into a gray area, PM or ask us, and we'll be happy to answer as best we can.

That also goes as a general statement. If you have any questions or concerns about your character in any area, or are looking for ideas in creation, myself and my co-GMs are always available to help or rule our tyrannical judgement upon thee.

We'll review your character again at the soonest available opportunity. :)

St. Fortuna's Academy for the Higher Arts

@dabombjk

Kieran Damond Review

Alright, let's get into this, shall we? First off, this is not a bad CS, not bad by any means. You're just a few points shy of getting in, and we have just a couple issues that need correction or clarification.

First off, welcome to the Dead Moms Club! We have so many dead moms in this RP, good lord what is up with Prydainian maternity care? Were the characters of this class born through chainsaw C-sections? Is darwinism directly being applied through the maternity ward? Do only the strong survive? This doesn't need to be changed, I'm just poking fun at how many mothers have "died in childbirth" or otherwise met their grisly end in this RP. We might almost have more dead moms than live moms at this point. Feels like I'm GMing a Disney movie.

Also, I hope that having "Male" in your mage/familiar designation is a typo, unless you insist on having "male magic". Which might cross us off the list of PG-13 RPs.

Now onto the real issues. First off, your character's mom dies and the dad skips out on them soon after, leaving your character in the care of his brother. As feel-good as this is, this raises questions. How old was your character's brother when this happened? Was he already an adult, and therefore legally able to raise his infant brother? If not, then they both should have been put in the care of their closest living relative, or in foster care. Alternatively, you could tell us how old your character was when their father left. Did he stay with the boys until the older one was an adult, before mysteriously bailing? This needs clarification and can be built on to give your character a little more depth.

Also, this is just another small thing, but if your characters live in Colbar, isn't a job as a dockworker, fish packer, or farm hand more appropriate for the character's brother? The textile industry is heavily concentrated in Erridún, another city. I like that you're incorporating the cities into your CS, but Colbar is a port city with a heavy focus on trade, fishing, and agriculture. They also have an exquisite trolley system, so finding work as a trolley driver/mechanic/cleaner is also feasible.

Next up, this is the most common correction we ask for, so don't feel bad about it, but it is still important. Why does your character want to go to St. Fortuna's? He's working hard enough to get a scholarship, but why? How does this relate to his dream of being a world famous author? I'm not saying the two are mutually exclusive, but I want to see the connection. Is it an escape from poverty to the lap of luxury? Does he want to utilize not only the amazing history of the school, but the best education in writing and history available? Does he want to make connections with the wealthy and powerful and earn some favor from new friends? Why does he go to St. Fortuna's, and not simply join his brother as a worker in Colbar as soon as he is able?

Lastly, this was more of a formatting issue than a character issue, but could you keep your quiz questions with the answers? That way we can better understand the answers without us all having to keep 2-3 tabs open on understanding and interpreting what you've written.

Those are all the problems we have, I think they are easily fixable with a little clarification and the use of the copy/paste function. This is a well built character, you have a strong concept and they're fleshed out. A little on the darker side, but not too edgy to cross our lines. You just need a little bit of a push to scoot over the finish line, but I think with these corrections implemented, you'll get there. Once your made the edits, we'll happily review your character again.

This is Invader Len, signing off.

St. Fortuna's Academy for the Higher Arts

<Snipped quote by The Errorist>

Okie! I'll do that as soon as I can! Does it matter if it's a mage or familiar? I'm leaning towards familiar.

EDIT: Also, can we make our characters from any of the countries provided? I kinda wanna make mine from Lupinia, if that's alright. :3

@Nyahoo

You can be a Familiar. We're actually short one, so go ahead and submit a character whenever you like and we'll review it ASAP.

And yes, you can make your character from any of the countries provided on the list.

St. Fortuna's Academy for the Higher Arts

Announcement

Alright, we're about ready to wrap up this scene and move forward to the next scene change! @General Scales, @liferusher, you guys are our last pair to be bonded! Get up on that stage and let the magic people hold your hands!

I'm going to put a deadline for the scene change at 10:00 pm, May 23rd, PST. All conversations should be wrapped up by that point, because we will be moving on to the scene change. This scene took much longer than I had hoped, but it's almost over, and we can begin classes soon! Thank you all for sticking with us, in and out of Discord, and for making this RP great!

St. Fortuna's Academy for the Higher Arts

@Melpaws

Emily Akechi Review

Okay, this is gonna be a long one. This CS is probably the one that is taken us the longest to review, because it was so hard to read. While I understand that English is not your first language, I’d like you to go over the CS and clean up the grammar and sentence structure, because there are numerous mistakes that not only make it harder to read, but harder to extract information from. Please utilize proper paragraph breaks so we aren’t just looking at a wall of text, and read your sentences more carefully to make sure they’re imparting information we need. The less useless fluff, the better. That includes author comments.

Alright, we’re going to go through this chronologically, pointing out every issue we see as we come by them. This is gonna be a long review, so buckle up.

Let’s start off with her weight. A growing, 16 year old girl, 5’2 and weighing 106 lbs… Can you tell me the issue here? She’s underweight. The ideal BMI for a girl going through puberty with her age and height is 110-140 lbs. 106 is very low, and while she wouldn’t be starving or suffering negative health effects at that weight, she would not have the bust or hips present in her picture. Here is a picture of someone 5’2” and 106 lbs.

Doesn’t look too healthy, huh? If you’re going to have your character be this underweight, please pick a picture portraying a character with a more weight appropriate body type.

Next up, the personality. There are a number of issues here, mostly revolving around your focus on making this character introverted, but then assigning them conflicting traits. The biggest one is the character’s extreme need for attention. This directly conflict with her introverted nature, because introverts do not like extra attention. Introverts prefer emails and texts to phone calls and conversations, quiet and solitary activities as opposed to large social gatherings, and don’t like to be in the spotlight. However, your character is repeatedly portrayed as needing a very high amount of attention, to the point where she creates a website to get her dose of praise. (More on this later) While there are people who display both introverted and extroverted tendencies, your character’s need for attention repeatedly ventures into extremes that would not be appropriate with her introverted behavior.

The next big conflict in personality is how she’s described as moody, and exhibits mood swings from her need for attention to her desire for space seemingly at the drop of a pin, and at the same time described as careful. These two traits directly conflict with each other. Careful and cautious people worry a lot about how they are viewed by others, and take great steps to ensure that their actions and reactions are measured appropriately to situations. They don’t want to cause scenes or trouble, and are usually willing to compromise to please others. Moody people are more stubborn, and indeed, your character is described as unwilling to compromise on things that make her uncomfortable. In addition, her behaviors are not only polarized, but she seems to have no control over her fluctuations and how she reacts to people getting to close or not giving her enough attention. The conflict in these traits is highly apparent, so please choose one or the other.

The third big personality conflict is how she’s anxious/nervous/lacks self-esteem, yet is easy to talk to. Nope, not how that works either. From the reading, her anxiety and nervousness eat up a huge amount of her emotional bandwidth, so how is she able to be easy to talk to and keep up casual platonic conversations with her peers without effort? If she’s shy/anxious/nervous to a debilitating extent, as later described, then there should be an effect that prevents her from being able to have these conversations with ease.

Also, cat is not a personality trait. It is an animal. There are many kinds of cats in the world. Please refrain from similes in the CS unless you are going to explain them in depth.

To finish up, I would just like to point out that, conflicting traits aside, your character does not seem like a good friend to have. She pushes all the effort and responsibility of friendship onto other people, without giving anything back. Your character seems less interested in having friends, than having people who give her everything she wants and never ask for anything in return. Before complaining about how your character has no friends, you need to ask: Why would people want to befriend your character? So far, she’s lazy, clingy, demanding, has sudden mood shifts that she doesn’t warn her friends about, and lashes out easily, ignoring people when they get on her nerves. The burden of friendship is all on the other people, your character takes no responsibility for her actions. Even telling her friends “Hey, I wanna be alone today, talk to you tomorrow” would be a more responsible course of action than forcing them to guess and giving them the cold shoulder when they slip up. You even say yourself, she isn’t easy keeping as a good friend, which only begs the question more. Why would people want to be friends with your character? She’s not someone I would want to be around. I certainly don’t need a high maintenance friend like that, who demands affection, respect, and attention, without even giving me the respect of warning me when she wants to be alone. You can keep your character like this if you want, just be aware of how whiny she will sound when complaining of a lack of friends.

Now onto the issues with the bio. First off, allow me to shed some criticism on the opener. You start off by saying that everything important happened in middle school, nothing important happened before that. And then you describe her whole life before middle school. Do not do this. This is a horrible way to open. Remove the bad opener and just start us off with her childhood, it’s better than creating a false start into the narrative like this.

Now, there is a huge information gap in her backstory. The background. Where the hell are they? Where does your character live? “Basically next to a forest” doesn’t tell me anything. Who is in her family? Mother? Father? Siblings? Grandparents? You haven’t described her parents or family at all. What do they do? Do they work? You didn’t include a job. Are they poor? Are the wealthy? Middle class? Nobility? What is their socio-economic status? For all I know, your character could have two dads who are stock brokers and live in a cave. There is nothing here setting the scene for your character, no context, no flavor. You might as well just have had her hatch from an egg. Please give your character an actual background, and not just this ambiguous nonsense.

Next up, more contradictions. You say she’s not a prodigy (the wunderkind bit is unnecessary), but then go on to describe her as being a quick learning talent in music and having great grades. Let me show you the definition of prodigy.

So yeah, she fits the definition of prodigy. So either play down her abilities to make her not a prodigy, or remove the bit saying she’s not a prodigy, I don’t care which.

This next sentence took us several tries to understand. I highly recommend you correct the spelling and sentence structure.
“In elimantary school, she was able to visit a school which had a reputation for being for the elite of children.”
Now, what I think you’re saying here is that your character went to an elementary school for the children of the rich. Alright, I don’t know the family background, as pointed out before, but I’ll assume they’re wealthy. If they are wealthy, then this brings up another issue. Why do they send her to an ordinary middle school? More than that, after being bullied, why did she stay? Surely her parents would notice the marks of physical bullying, and their daughter’s sudden personality shift. Wouldn’t they pull her out of that middle school and place her in a pricier one to ensure her safety? There’s no explanation or motive for anything happening here, it doesn’t make any sense.

This brings us to the issue of bullying. WHY is she being bullied? Because she looks like a nerd? But the picture you submitted is of a conventionally attractive girl who just has large glasses. As someone who has been bullied extensively, people don’t get physical bullying you just because you kinda look like a nerd. Especially in the first year of middle school. Yes, middle school is horrible, but being physically bullied for 3 years non-stop because she somewhat resembles the stereotype of a nerd is simply ridiculous, even by the arbitrary standards of bullies. Not to mention, as a child, she was supposedly polite, yet willful. If she’s so willful, why doesn’t she stand up for herself, or tell her teachers, or her parents? As a matter of fact, where is anyone in this story? There is no one here but Emily. I understand this is her background, but everything is so vague and non-specific, it feels detached from reality. If she was being bullied for her desperate need for attention and mean personality, that would make more sense than this poorly put together pity-party of a backstory. It feels like you’re trying to toe as closely as you can to an abuse story with our rules, but because it’s so non-specific, it just ends up falling apart. Make the bullying more realistic, or get rid of it entirely. Make her reaction to it more realistic. If she’s actively hiding the bullying, then remove all implications of it being physical. There are plenty of ways to hurt a kid without beating them up, you don’t need to toe the line in implying it, that just feels insulting.

We’re half-way done with this review, so if you want, take a break from the computer, walk around, get a drink of water if you need to. We still have more issues to go through.

Now, following the already skeptical line that her parents would send her to an ordinary middle school, and keep her there despite ample evidence of bullying, why do her parents decide to send her to St. Fortunas? They have to have noticed the change in their daughter’s personality. Why would they send their lazy, pensive, incredibly anxious daughter who has endured 3 years of bullying to an elite and very expensive boarding school renowned for its taxing curriculum? It doesn’t make much sense at all. But hey, at least they’re not committing academic fraud to get her in, right?

Oh wait.

They cheated. Her parents wrote her entrance essay for her. You do realize how illegal that is, right? That would immediately be picked up by faculty reviewing the essays, and the parents would not only have their daughter rejected from the school, they would be looking at prosecution. Remove this immediately. There is no excuse for having this in the story, so remove it.

Now we get into more confusing issues with motive. If she hates going to the school so much, why does she choose to return after her first year? Why even go to start with? You can get a refund if you choose not to attend the school. In addition, if she’s so pissed off at her parents for sending her to the school, why does she want to make them proud and live up to their expectations? This does not fit with the sour, wrathful, stubborn portrait you painted of her earlier in her personality. Why is she choosing to be such a doormat now if she hates it so much?

Finally, the bit that breaks our canon.
She hates being a familiar. Why??? That is like hating being left handed! It makes no sense in the context of this world, and no reason is ever given for it! There’s no explanation, no reason, she just hates it and nothing is ever built on that statement. It breaks our canon, so remove this bit.

That was just with motive. Next issue is the website and her thousands of fans. Music has sprung up now and then in her bio, but as I see it, it’s not something she’s been working her tail off for. This feels like it’s ripping of another character’s backstory, HangedMan’s character Alice. The difference between them, however, is that Alice has made music the focus of her life, and worked tirelessly to achieve her goal. Your character, however, is repeatedly declared to be moody, lazy, and asocial, and only sees the site as a means to get her daily dose of attention. I don’t see a real passion for music, or tireless effort being poured into her art that deserves thousands of fans. Not to mention, having thousands of fans contradicts your character’s low self-esteem. Surely after being given this much attention, she would see herself in a more positive light and strive to better herself? Nope. I would heavily advise removing the website and the thousands of fans from her story, because it contradicts so many other details in her story, she hasn’t poured in the effort needed for that high number of fans, and it rips off of Alice’s character.

Now, you keep using the word “introvert”. However, you keep describing things that are not specific to introverts, or go directly against an introvert’s nature. There are many people who would feel insulted by your assertion that overthinking is a “perk” or trait of an introvert. It is not. It is a trait of anxiety. While anxiety does factor in with a lot of introverts, there are millions of introverts who do not have that level of anxiety and don’t have problems with overthinking. In addition, there are plenty of extrovert with anxiety who overthink things quite a bit. Perhaps more research on making a introverted character is needed on your part.

That wraps up the issues with her bio. Now onto her dislikes. There’s something I’d like to point out, just for advising. Your character hates ignorant people and stupidity. That is not the trait of a nice, polite person. Hating people is a mean trait. It’s an asshole trait. If you write a sentence with “I hate (blank) people”, and the blank isn’t filled in with “evil, mean, rude”, then the person saying the sentence is probably an asshole. Let’s try it out, shall we? “I hate quiet people”. Sounds like a jerk thing to say, right? While some people might not like being quiet, or being loud, or being stupid, hating people with that trait generally means you are not a nice, patient, or polite person. If you’re trying to make a mean character, a jerk character, or an asshole character, then by all means, keep it in. Jerk characters can be very entertaining and fun to play. But be aware that the character your playing will come off as an asshole, rather than sympathetic.

Next up, the misc section. To start, her mood changes with her music. Let me nix that right now. It’s okay to have certain kinds of music influence your mood. When I hear happy pop songs, I feel a little happier, and hearing sad songs make me sad, or songs that are about fighting might get me pumped up. This is normal. However, experiencing a total mood shift due to music? Not only that, a mood shift that DIRECTLY CONTRADICTS INTROVERT AND LAZY? Stop. Breaking. Your own. Character. This feels like an excuse for your character so behave in a way that goes against what little established personality they have. We’re not going to tolerate a “Waffle tacos! Teehee I’m so random XD” character here, so cut the music based mood swings.

Next, why is she in the closet? This isn’t earth. Prydain is not a homophobic society. While there are jerks everywhere, there are no movements to deny LGBT+ people their rights, or “cure them” through prayer and electrotherapy. We strove to create a society which does not have the same level of homophobia/transphobia/misogyny that exists in this one. Not only that, but her sexuality and her needless anxiety over it are in misc, and not bio? Seems odd to me.

Her favorite color and liking cute things should be moved to her likes. You say is doesn’t justify her love of cute things, but there is literally nothing written afterwards to explain or justify it. Not to mention, it’s not something that needs to be justified, she can just like them. Also, why does she dislike rap? Why is rap not in her dislikes? Please be a little consistent here. Put fruits and healthy food in her likes as well.

Next, this may be a translation error, but hygiene does not mean maintaining an attractive appearance in english. Taking care of your hygiene is doing things like brushing your teeth, showering regularly, wearing deodorant, brushing your hair, making sure you aren’t a disgusting, smelly, filth-encrusted jerk who doesn’t care about the noses of other people. Not to mention, you can look good for yourself. The idea that you can only look good if you’re looking good for someone else is rather outdated and incorrect.

This information here does nothing. “She tried playing more sports once, it resulted in a fractured ankle.” What does this mean? There are no sports mentioned anywhere else in her story, what is the “more” for? What sports was she playing? Did breaking her ankle have any result on her? Are you trying to say this is why she doesn’t play sports? There’s not enough explanation here for this information to be of any use.

Now onto the quiz!

Why is your character’s biggest regret something she couldn’t control? That would be like me saying my biggest regret was the 2008 recession. I couldn’t have influenced that, I was only a kid at the time. Change your character’s regret to something they had control over.

Also, you don’t have to censor bullshit. Cursing is allowed in this RP. Using an asterisk as a placeholder interrupts the flow of action and distracts more than the actual swear. Also, her reaction does not flow with her being described as an introvert or careful person. Waving your arms around and acting frantic is something to be more expected of an outgoing, comedic character.

For question 4, this course of action goes against your character previously stating how she wants to make her parents proud and fulfill their expectations. Skipping all classes because of a mistake is an overreaction that would be noted by teachers, and a headache would not get her out of classes. Either go with the lazy delinquent route, or go with the good student route, but you can’t pick both.

I’m just going to point out the absurdity of the answer to question 6. A piano. Your character is in a house fire and the thing that they can’t live without is their piano. Unless the piano is a small electric one, you’re character is not escaping that house fire.

All in all, your character is way too inconsistent and all over the place. I feel like you tried so desperately to make her an introvert that you just overlooked how all these traits clash with each other, because they aren’t explained at all. Either make her an introvert, or make her desperate for attention, but not both. Make her lazy, or make her work her butt off to be good enough for those thousands of fans, but not both. Give her a proper backstory, actually tell us something about her family and where she’s from. Remove all the useless information and fix the contradictions, and explain more when required. Decide on a proper path for your character, and consider how you want them to be. Do you want to play a self-absorbed jerk character? Or do you want attention and sympathy? As is, we cannot accept this character into the RP. They need a lot of work, both as a skeleton and in being properly fleshed out. There’s potential here, but you need to decide how you want your character to be. There are a lot of choices to be made here, but they can only be made by you. Please make the necessary edits to your character, and we will review them again. This is Invader Len, signing out.

St. Fortuna's Academy for the Higher Arts

Minor Announcement

Due to their absence and our rather pressing need to finish this scene, @Sorrelmyst has been moved to the waiting list. They are not being kicked, and are welcome to rejoin the RP upon their return.

In the mean time, @Raijinslayer and @The Errorist, your characters Jeanette and Beatrice have been partnered! But you already knew that, huh?

We know things have been slow lately, but we're almost done with this scene, so lets steam on through it and get to classes! Then y'all can really learn to suffer.