@ERodeCOURTYARD
All the way out to the courtyard, poor young Davil would drag his feet as if he were the shambling dead. He followed Otis as if he were a wizard's familiar, sleepily nodding his head. As he threw on fresh clothes, his shirt was on backwards and his socks were inside out, but nevertheless he followed the instructions and eventually found himself in the courtyard, head downcast the entire walk there.
"Wait, where am-"
Those were the only words Davil finally spoke aloud, before all at once it was as if the entire morning beforehand had caught up with him all in one condensed second. Eons passed through his vision as the smelling salts and demands to wake up flowed through him. "Gaaaaaah!" With a wail of agony and despair, all at once his present situation had delivered a mean right hook to his hopes and dreams. He was
exhausted, and if that wasn't enough, he was also being asked to
do things. Who just
does things this early in the morning? Utter insanity, that. And yet...
"Okay, chum. I guess it's like that, then. I'd be on a wagon home by now without you, after all, so just... let me try to do this. It’ll be a new experience from the usual, at the very least." Davil would ensure his boots were firmly bound to his feet, the feathers in the wings pure and aerodynamic, the leather creaseless. After a few stretches and flexes, punctuated by punches into the air as if a boxer hyping himself up for a battle of the ages, he was ready.
"Davil, AKA 'Dav', AKA 'The Davster', taking off! Except this time, we're heading
forward! Linearic... Liner!"
Upon taking up a runner's stance, Davil allowed a moment of silence before taking a final exhale as the starting gun shot off in his head. Five seconds passed with agonizing anticipation as Davil stood in that stance, unmoving and rigid. No essence would flow, no changes in the way his prime essence reacted to his desires. At the end of the fifth second, however, this would change very rapidly.
In the span of half a second, many things happened. Firstly, through Otis' enhanced perception of essence in that moment, he would notice that Davil's prime essence - the essence normally gathered in the chest - dispersed as chunks broke off and took residence in the legs. Once this happened, a visual tell that would be possible to see even without this enhanced perception would become apparent: the circulation of a small gust of wind around his feet. The codeword associated with Davil's prime essence would not be obvious in that moment, but that would be expected - to uncover such things would typically be a more involved process, such as through a dedicated and costly ritual or the owner's own realization in a second of 'true clarity'.
The very next half second would consist of Davil smashing his body into the ground, face first, a meter in front of himself. Otis would have seen Davil's prime essence shift such that it was expecting upwards momentum, and upon not receiving that exact command, instead plummeted much like the winged test subject's own body. In a more practical analogy, it was as if a muscle trained and honed for a very specific purpose was being asked to move differently. Even if Davil himself were fully trying to move directly ahead, his prime essence was still very much under the impression that it was instead to fulfill its regular purpose.
Davil rolled onto his back and looked up at the sky for a full ten seconds in silence. Bruises and cuts from the cracked concrete remained on his face, but his expression was deadpan disappointment. He then stared at Otis while still on the ground, his prime essence having shifted from his legs back up to his chest - a sign that Linearic Liner had deactivated. "Was, um, was that it? Are we good now? I've got another twenty four seconds left to burn for the day, but I'm going to be straight with you, chum. That sucked."
@AThousandCursesAPOTHECARY
Upon Chunji's relatively quiet travels across campus in search of an alchemy workshop, he would indeed find one. Located near the entrance to the campus forest was an apothecary, and within a stone's throw from that apothecary in the direction of the forest was a shed that read 'HERBOLOGY AND ALCHEMY' on a sign posted above the door. It would be closed and locked, though, as evidenced by the presence of another student who was already present at the shed's doorknob - a girl in a frilly white dress. While they had yet to be properly acquainted, Chunji would recognize this individual as the one that had been blocking the progress of other students with her aging touch. Her injuries from the previous day had healed, and she was more full of life than ever before as she impatiently tugged on the doorknob, giving the accursed oaken barrier that was the door a few half-hearted kicks out of frustration.
She would notice Chunji's presence after another moment, and glare daggers at him from over her shoulder. "Another early-rising alchemist, is it? Well, I'm afraid you're too early. I suppose, in an establishment that prides itself on securing the future of heroes, the desire to make use of their facilities outside of designated hours is, perhaps, too much on them."
After a final, futile tug, she would once more kick the door with one of her steel-toed boots. "Utterly ridiculous! Who do they think we are?! Haughty Strigari layabouts?!"
@Estylwen@Psyker LandsharkGIRLS' DORM
"Eee!"
Lightbulb girl would jolt as she spun on her heels to face Iraleth, her face painted with surprise and, for a moment, sheer terror. She maintained her defensive stance, mimicking the mannerisms of the protagonist of a mediocre martial arts movie as she took her time analyzing the paladin in front of her. The sleeves of her oversized white coat hid her hands, but they raised upwards in the position of a praying mantis towards Iraleth as she completed her final moment of 'tuning back in' on the reality in front of her. "Oh, sorry. Had me worried for a spot there, but I guess it was nothin'. You're a real sneak-thief type, huh? Real sneaky and quiet type o' gal."
Exhaling in relief, the girl would point behind her towards the other end of the room with a sunny smile, her posture immediately becoming one more comfortable. "The red one over there's incoming mail, the blue one's outgoing. Real old fashioned system, but I guess for people like us, it works, eh? Gotta conserve power where we can."
She would raise a hand as if gesturing for Iraleth to follow, and began limping towards the two boxes. Ciara, were she to continue watching, would presumably be able to maintain clear vision of the entire process from the doorway. In her own personal inquiry into the specifics of the classroom notice, she would find no signatures on the message.
"I was just here wondering why the lightbulb was so bright. Why's it gotta be so starsdamned
bright?! Back in 'Kas, at least people like us knew what we were gettin' into. They just let lights shine so bright in this place. Unbelievable, am I right? If this weren't a multi-million project, I'd have assumed they didn't even have the foresight to limit the fuckin' things from exploding glass and ungodly heat onto us from the sheer power of these leylines."
Grabbing a cane leaning against the wall and promptly bearing her weight onto it, she shrugged. "But that's enough 'bout me. If ya don't mind me sayin' so, you look a little, uh... perturbed. Green under the gills, maybe. Stiff. Not a morning person, or did you also draw shit luck with your roomie?"
Silent Showers
Noctis
TokyoPewPew
wintersoldier
Kaithe Dame
Crimson Flame
Neziul
X Fiendfyre X
Ivar