RoflsMazoy

L'Mordryn Academy

Mort's Adventure

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Moments before the Dragon Impact… @Pyromania99

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The sight of a floating hammer gathering food on its own accord was strange even in L'Mordryn, and the image of nobility didn't really suit a lone hammer getting food for his master who couldn't even muster the courage to enter the cafeteria on some days. But, this was only a problem if Mort was just a sentient hammer. He was a spirit, it wasn't strange for random spirits to be roaming the halls of L'Mordryn.

Mort left the hammer behind, out of sight and proceeded to the food tables, making himself as faint as possible.

A good thing about possession was that, within a certain limit it was possible for him to pick up multiple objects. Loading up a plate of food items was relatively easy. Clarence wasn't particularly picky either. The hard part was getting the plate to Orewing discretely, and then balancing it on the way out. Good thing he was proficient in that regard.

The Land Dragon burst through the door to the cafeteria. The only thought that ran through the spirit's mind was;

I better cover this so it doesn't get dusty.

A few napkins from a nearby stack floated off and covered the plate. The Land Dragon made a nice distraction to leave discretely. This was a serious situation which needed to be stopped, no doubt, but someone else would probably take care of it. He took the opportunity to discretely slip out instead.

---

Clarence! is not in trouble

When the weasel-like creation snapped at Clarence he glared at it, or attempted to. His mouth tightened and his palms started sweating. Clarence was good at making sure his legs didn't shake too much by manually keeping them still. But that also meant that he couldn't kick anything.

The weasel was angry with him but he didn't know why. He couldn't move his legs to run so he had to stand his ground. That meant his only route was intimidation. He tried glaring at it. It didn't have eyes or maybe it just didn't care, but it continued snarling at Clarence. Nothing for it then. If intimidation didn't work then he'd have to resort to friendship.

"E-easy now…" He spoke softly as he stretched his hand out and began to crouch down.

Then the weasel got whacked and ran away, leaving him squatting for absolutely no reason. And now the Nidhogen was looking at him. It wasn't hard for him to hear the nature dragon talk, it was loud, but the important thing was it was speaking to a person. Worse, he knew that person.

There were noble Invokers who hailed from Bestia. Maybe there were less of them or something now, but well, the noble house of choice had always been Dracona. Although, it wasn't as if the other houses were lesser in concentration. There was a bias against Bestia in certain noble houses, although there weren't so many that it rated as more than a passing quirk. Sazel was treated as a pariah by his family that they couldn't judge too much because she performed well when she needed to.

Frankly he didn't know what right his family had judging someone else's heir. Maybe they were trying to bolster a sense of pride in him, or something along those lines. Except Sazel was a better Invoker than Clarence was. They shared a class with Lady Oravierre in fourth period. They hadn't ever talked before but they knew of each other.

With the spotlight on him, he had to step up. With the threat of the weasel gone, there was nothing stopping him from walking confidently up to them and making his greetings. He calmly got up, started walking over, and then tripped on a stray root weasel as it darted out of the bushes and into his path.

The apple in his hand went flying but the weasel caught it and scampered off. He got to his feet.

"S-sup…" He said.

@CelesteEste

L'Mordryn Academy

Clarence and Mort

Clarence was glad someone like him didn't tend to draw attention.

Sure, his reputation preceded him. There were plenty of people at Adept 2, plenty of talented children who'd gotten it just as fast, a few maybe faster than he had. But, there was no one else who'd gotten Adept 2 so quickly, and with his lack of skill with portals, with only a single contracted familiar. Despite not having any other familiar, having such a link with one was significant.

But, it didn't show outwardly, so he was glad. Orewing was flashy, but on a small scale. It was nothing compared to a Dragon. It was unique, but it wasn't Clarence himself that drew the attention, it was Orewing.

Competition between Invokers was sometimes a battle of who could keep their summons' secrets the longest. Theoretically, as long as any Invoker had the ability and knowledge, they could summon any familiar. Clarence's ability to open a rift wasn't that special, so if they could study Orewing and discover its origins, they'd be able to summon sentient hammers too, would be the thought.

Well, not that they'd get any real pointers from Mort. Clarence entertained the thought, though.

He would instantly become less special. Well, only to some other people, though. It'd even be convenient to not be the only sentient/possessed hammer master. Well, only to a certain extent though.

There'd be less attention on him, but if someone were to start comparing the two, the differences might become apparent, and he might get found out... Suddenly he really didn't want it to happen.

"What's wrong, Clarence?" Mort asked.

They didn't have a real link, so it wasn't as if Mort knew exactly what Clarence was thinking, but they'd been together long enough that he could tell what he was thinking at least. He could at least have a good guess most of the time. He knew that Clarence's paranoia ended up feeling too real for the boy. It was his job to snap him out of his thoughts at least.

Any of the students that would've been studying Clarence were looking at him now, or at least Clarence thought they wouldd be.

"Nothing," Clarence said quickly.

His feet were frozen in place, but he forced himself to take some steps. Suddenly, an apple rolled at his feet. He looked up to see the familiar sight of The Nidhogen, a famous familiar now, no doubt. This wasn't the first time he'd witnessed the feats on display right now. He picked up the apple which seemed to have avoided the snapple-ing. This was good, now he didn't have to go to the cafeteria.

"...I'll get you something else before they close," Mort said as he drifted from the boy's side.

Clarence was grateful. He took a bite of the apple. It was sweet.

@ShwiggityShwah

---

Arkadian Elesir, and the Cat Gang!

Arkadian was half-way through his food, when suddenly Tohi and Lohi appeared at his side with a pop! It attracted the attention of the people beside him.

"Tohi! Down!" He cried desperately as she headbutted him in the side.

She tried to snuggle her head under Arkadian's arm, except her head was even bigger than his, so it was like she was ramming him in the side. Lohi was on the other side of him to stop him from being knocked over, but his seating had become a lot more cramped as a result.

Through the link they shared, Tohi and Lohi could feel his feelings. They could appear at his side when he was threatened, but they also just appeared at his side whenever they felt like it.

Arkadian managed to pull himself free from their embrace, and he fell backwards out of his chair. He managed to land on his hands, and not flat on his back at least. He lay back, panting. No doubt, for anyone watching it made a strange sight.

Arkadian had not been here very long, but he was another unusual Master to add to the pile at L'Mordryn's. His situation was somewhat unique, but not unfamiliar to many Invokers. The ones who had trouble controlling their own familiars, at least. Arkadian's familiars were so much higher in standing than he was, that it was kind of endearing.

"...Huh?" He said, after the breath returned to his lungs. "Where'd Krampus go?"

He looked around and spotted him at another table entirely. The table of Nettle.

Most knew of her, an unusual person even in a school of unusual people. Arkadian had never met her, but he saw her every so often. He also heard tales of her, and how one familiar had almost dropped dead in front of her. To Arkadian she seemed like a witch, like someone who would curse you if you wronged her somehow.

But Krampus wasn't looking specfically at Nettle, he was looking more at her soup. Krampus hardly looked at any master besides his own. Although he didn't look at his own master much either. Whatever he was planning, it couldn't be good.

"You're really gonna eat all of that? I didn't think there were any humans who could handle something like this." He chuckled.

Arkadian nearly tripped over his own feet. Krampus had been led by the nose it seemed then. Arkadian had no idea what was with the soup, but Krampus never went anywhere with good intentions. He ran for it.

"Krampus! No!" He shouted, snatching him up before his paw dipped into the girl's soup. However, just as before, his efforts were largely fruitless as Krampus' face morphed into a long proboscis-like affair and took a long sip of Nettle's broth.

"Mmmmm, now that's some good stuff right there." Krampus said, licking his lips in satisfaction. A single claw extended into the broth again, this time bringing back a cube of meat which he happily gulped down also.

Arkadian felt like crying.

"I'm s-sorry..." He whimpered, holding Krampus aloft still. He could barely move out of fear.

Tohi and Lohi walked over to his side, curious as to what was going on.

@A Lowly Wretch

Wareware wa tada betsu no sekai ni tsurete ika reta!

"Huh, you don't need a staff for this so that's pretty good..." Astrum said as he looked over his card.

If he didn't need equipment to cast magic that was good. He paced over to the equipment rack and looked it over. It didn't feel right to be gripping a staff. He didn't really know how to use it as a weapon, although he probably could if he tried. Still, the system of magic seemed like it'd fit just fine with Astrum.

There were a lot of styles you could use in boxing. It wasn't just about punching the other person as hard as possible, you had to open them up first. There were those who played defensively and waited for their opponents to tire out, and those who tried to overwhelm the opponent to get through their guard. Astrum was somewhere in between, he liked to be cautious and probe the opponent with small jabs, hoping to find a weakness to go in on.

Being able to go for smaller hits as well as the big shot with only one spell was definitely nice.

"Well, I don't got any big spender's though..." He said.

Fire bolt, Shock bolt, Velocity, and Speed, meant he was sort of a thousand cuts type of guy. Yeah, he wasn't doing much damage but there wasn't anything the enemy would be able to do with him in the back-line and a front-liner in their face to take care of shields. He'd have to figure how strong the bolts were.

He looked back to see some of their group talking with each other, some going for equipment, squirrel girl was the only one on dummies so far. He turned to face a different one and put his hand out in front of him.

"<Firebolt>!" He shouted.

A bolt of fire burst from his palm and impacted the head of the dummy, bursting open into magic fire which washed over the dummy head. Kind of like a water balloon, but you know... fire. It didn't seem to actually do much damage though. The dummy head was singed, and the impact site was a bit blackened, but that was about it. It was indeed fast though, real fast. That was Velocity at work then, it'd be hard for him to dodge it even at long range.

Now to try Focus, then. For [Enflame], it would seem like it was the quintessential fire spell. His card listed it as support instead of offensive. It stood to reason then that the focus for <Firebolt> would be to imagine the flame as a weapon. He tried to think of a dart, or maybe a flaming arrow, but now that he thought about it, the Firebolt was more like a bullet, or maybe even a micro-missile.

He was sure a micro-missile could be just as fast, if not faster than a bullet, but if he was just imagining it then it didn't matter whether it was realistic or not, he just had to imagine it. He got a real good image of the speed but he wasn't shooting a missile, he was shooting fire. He was shooting a missile that was completely made of fire, and when it impacted, it impacted with a...

Bang!

He looked up to see a smoking hole in the dummy head. It wasn't deep, but still. The sound had been about as loud as someone smacking the table really hard in an echo-y room, so decently impactful. He had not been expecting to fire off a spell like that spontaneously.

Maybe he should put down the magic for a little bit. He looked over to see the squirrel girl practicing her own magic, with... similarly devastating results. He noticed she'd gotten equipped first and practiced after.

She had a dagger on her belt which she hadn't had before. Something to defend herself with if someone got close, perhaps.

Despite having been boxing for years, he seldom did use his bare-hands to fight with. Reason being it kind of hurt to use bare hands, although he knew it'd hurt less the more he did it. Still, it was likely his only close range protection would be himself, and in that case his fists would be a better option for him at least.

He walked over to the equipment rack and searched for some gauntlets to wear. He was looking for a good fit since it was unlikely he'd be wearing any heavier armor. If he wore some leather gloves underneath it made for a more smug fit, and also another layer of protection. While he was at it, he picked up a leather vest, a pair of good pants, and some greaves for his shins. He swapped out his shoes for some steel-tipped boots.

Some metal shoulder pads wouldn't hurt, is there a coat around here? He felt a little exposed so he thought a coat might do some good. Although, it'd be more of a fashion item.

He looked over at the Squirrel girl again. Her cape was kind of cool. He hoped she didn't notice him looking over at her so many times though, or maybe he was. He didn't know her name yet but he wasn't the type of person that asked... Well, except for that one time, but still.

He put his gaze back to his own business, and sure enough, they had more capes in different colors. He picked a brown one with a similar pattern to the squirrel girl's. Half-cape instead of full.

He was strapped up and ready to go, but it'd probably take a while to get out of it. He folded up his old clothes and set them aside. He probably wanted to keep those around.

"Hey wait, I'm supposed to be a mage right now." He said.

He automatically geared up for what melee. Well, he couldn't really help it, he'd been boxing for most of his life so he automatically suited up to take advantage of it.

But still, he knew in some systems metal usually clashed with magic but it always struck him as a way to nerf mages so they couldn't just wear heavy armour and be invincible meteor slinging juggernauts. Akohana might not have those restrictions, they'd said classes restrict weapons but maybe not armor.

One way to find out. He put his hand up and conjured the flame.

"<Firebolt>." He called. A small ball of fire appeared in his hand.

Looks like it'd be alright.

@OwO

L'Mordryn Academy

Dorm 2^nd floor, Room 3

While everyone was already beginning to get into the swing of things, there was a boy in the dorm rooms struggling to get out of bed. Not because of tiredness, he was a farmer's son, he was used to waking at the crack of dawn. The reason was because of the gigantic summon he had sleeping on top of him.

"Tohi, come on, wake up..." Arkadian said as he tried to gently coax the giant cat awake. Trying to shake her awake wouldn't do any good. She was taller than he was just from her front paws to the top of her fluffy head, not to mention she was much, much longer than he was.

"Lohi, help!" He said to the other cat on his bed. Another giant cat, just as big as the other one, thankfully not also on top of him. Lohi looked up at Arkadian and seemed to scan the scene, before promptly settling back down again and closing his eyes to go to sleep.

Nothing else for it then, Arkadian squirmed and squirmed, but it was like being a mouse trapped under the hunters' paws. He eventually wriggled free from the trap.

He looked down, or as down as he could look anyway, at the bed, blanket tossed aside. He didn't need a blanket with these two around. He would've been in a much deeper predicament if he'd managed to get tangled up in the blanket while under the two cats so it was even good that he didn't have it.

Tohi and Lohi were Divine Cats. From legends passed down through his family and his own conjectures coming true as was the way of Invokers, he could only guess that they were what pulled the chariots of some long-forgotten gods back in the past. Maybe it was due to his inexperience as a summoner, or perhaps their nature and pedigree, but Arkadian couldn't unsummon them if he wanted to. He'd tried once, but they simply refused to be unsummoned. Lohi made it clear that he shouldn't try such a thing again, even if he couldn't speak.

"Hey, you're going to be late," Another voice said from behind him.

He turned, and sure enough, Krampus was there.

Tohi and Lohi had allowed him a special admission to L'Mordryn academy. Over the last three months, Arkadian had been living there and learning from its teachers. To test his talent again, he decided to try and summon another familiar. If he'd known Krampus would come out he would've tried summoning something else.

"They're going to run out of those potato snacks I like if you don't hurry up."

"Do you even need to eat?!"

"No."

Arkadian stepped back a bit. Arkadian found it really hard to keep his cool around Krampus. He was a trickster spirit which commonly took the shape of a black cat. And sure, while he was a cat, and when he acted like a cats, Arkadian could deal with him, but while he was being a man in the body of a cat he couldn't deal with him.

"Fine, I'm getting ready," He sighed as he made his way over to the bathroom. "But you're not leaving unless I say so, understand?"

"I don't understand how you're planning to enforce that while you're on the crapper but alright," Krampus said.

Arkadian shot him a withering glare before slamming the bathroom door shut.

---

Breakfast at L'Mordryn was something he'd had to get used to. Sure, it was a cafeteria like he'd expected, but the variety of foods on offer was just... unreal. Because he'd gotten into L'Mordryn in the way that he did, he sort of forgot that mostly everybody was rich. Well, it wasn't that obvious, just the sheer amount and quality of food blew away anything he'd even seen before in his life. It took a while but he finally settled on a few favorites.

He was on a bad start this morning so he picked up an omelette and two waffles, slathered them in syrup and made an impromptu sandwich. He made sure to grab a few potato snacks so Krampus wouldn't get too antsy.

While Krampus was the bane of his existence... Arkadian still wanted to get to know him better. It seemed like it was clear what he was and how he was, but he had some oddities to him. It was possible for Arkadian to unsummon Krampus but he actively tried to stay. Normally he'd stay near Arkadian but he'd once mentioned wanting to try unsummoning and resummoning Krampus, only for Krampus to run away for a whole day.

He gave up on it and Krampus was back the next morning as if nothing ever happened.

He was a handful, that was for sure. If he took his eyes off him for even a second he'd always end up doing something he didn't want him to.

"You got some for me? You're the best master ever," Krampus said.

"Yeah, there wa-" Arkadian looked over at Krampus who was opening his mouth wider than any normal cat could. He was able to partially change his form which he used a lot to unhinge his jaw to eat. It was incredibly unnerving the first few times he saw it but that wasn't the important part.

"Krampus..." He said slowly. "Who's bagel is that?!"

Krampus had a filled bagel half-way in his mouth. Arkadian knew it wasn't his because it was filled. Krampus could take a bunch of forms, even a human form but he couldn't cut a bagel like that if his life depended on it. He had next to no coordination.

"I don't know who it was but it's mine now," He replied, resuming his previous action.

"No!" Trying to scold him was usually futile, but it was how Arkadian dealt with cats to he couldn't help it. He pushed Krampus' face back with one hand and tried to hold the paw he was holding the bagel with back. In response, Krampus extended his fingers and deposited the entire bagel in his mouth before swallowing.

"Mmmmm, Salmon and cream cheese. Nice combo," He said, licking his lips.

So this was how the day started, huh, losing to his own cat familiar.

"How're those potato snacks?"

Wareware wa tada betsu no sekai ni tsurete ika reta!

It was progressing as expected. Astrum had read a lot of stuff with this kind of plot, he was a sort of a sucker for it after all. Visit the guild, and it'll have a whole bunch of quests for you, but first you had to register. Simple enough. Class selection though? That was interesting. Normally you'd get given one in this kind of setting.

It was one thing reading it and another living it, but he was down for that.

She motions to the child of earth, "Now. This process is very simple, all you have to do is place your hand on the crystal and take a card from the deck! This will determine whether you'll be one of the four main classes of adventurers, Warrior, Magician...

As soon as he heard those words, he started breathing faster.

I can be a Wizard?! He thought.

Of course he knew magic existed. The Goddess had told him magicians had opened the portal to the Abyss to pull souls from other worlds, but they were telling him he could be a mage now?! There was no boy who didn't dream of being a wizard at some point, Astrum included. No matter what he had to get Magician, no matter what.

He didn't even notice the suspicious guy had gone ahead of him.

Astrum performed a power slide, sliding in front of the crystal before anyone else could get to it. He drew a card from the deck with one hand, and grabbed the crystal with the other. He held the card outstretched to the side, like our Dark Lord and Saviour himself, Yami Yugi, Ra bless his soul as he is gone from this world. The orb was trending towards green, but by the Goddess, he was not going to let that happen.

Mage, mage, mage, mage, mage, mage, mage, mage, mage, mage, mage, mage, mage, mage,

He felt the two streams of energy he'd felt in his body from the start, surging as he chanted those words over and over again in his head. Slowly the crystal turned from green to blue as his card began to vibrate. Once the orb finished turning blue, Astrum flipped over his card.

He slid to the floor, out of the way of the crystal now for any future challengers, tears streaming from his eyes. He slowly raised his card with one hand, while slowly pumping his other fist into the air in celebration.

"I'm a Wizard!" He shouted. Doubtless, he'd attracted the attention of a lot of the guild but you could almost see actual sparkles coming out of the Astrum's eyes. Maybe it would be a good idea to ask why it meant so much to him, but maybe it was also a good idea for the rest of them to ignore him for now and move on.

L'Mordryn Academy

Clarence and Mort

L'Mordryn academy is home to noble children from all the lands for the beginning of their journeys on the path of invocation. The Veill family is one which has only been a noble family for a little while, but is now seemingly entering their rise to prominence. They've gained a reputation for being talented invokers. The head of each generation have all become masters, and Clarence, the current scion of the house seems to be one of the most talented invokers they've seen yet.

He summoned his first familiar at a very young age, before his schooling had even begun. The link between him and his familiar was unheard of, like the steel of its making was how it was described by a L'Mordryn assessor. It seemed unbreakable, the distance they could be apart seemed limitless. If one were to let their imagination run wild, it was as if Orewing were a being of this Earth, and they didn't have a link at all!

Which is exactly how it was.

"Clarence," Mort spoke.

His call fell on thickly blanketed ears. Underneath a mound of soft linens a small groan emanated from within.

"Clarence." Mort said, more insistent this time.

An hand poked through a gap and widened it, allowing a soft, and small red haired head to poke out of the covers. It breathed through its nostrils for a few minutes before groaning again.

"I don't want to come in today... Help me Morttttt..."

The daily routine. This was Clarence Chaunce Veill, scion of the Veill family.

When one has a burden pressed onto them, they can either try to bear it, or try to lighten it. As the only son of the Veill family, Clarence doesn't have the luxury of lightening it, but if someone can't bear a burden properly, they will inevitably crash, which was Clarence, every day. Mornings were tough on him, but he needed to keep up appearances. For the sake of him, and his family.

"Up you get," Mort said, floating closer.

Orewing was the, decidedly not false name of the warhammer inhabited by the Earth-bound spirit Mort, which Clarence had met some time ago. To find out how exactly he came to be, the both of them had decided that L'Mordryn was the way to go.

Clarence weakly gripped the handle of Orewing, and Mort dragged him around the room to try and dislodge the boy from his cocoon. It wouldn't do to have the other members of the dorm room see him in this state. Mort didn't have a particular preference, but Clarence was rather particular about his appearance.

Once blankets were dislodged, Mort helped Clarence to his feet and guided him over to the bathroom. He deposited him in the bathtub and closed the door behind him as he left.

Clarence's burden was magnified somewhat by his personality. He dwelled on mistakes, and was always somewhat anxious, but once he realized he hadn't done anything wrong and that he didn't have anything to stress about he was generally fine. Clarence emerged from the bath, refreshed and somewhat at ease. There weren't any tests or assessments due for at least a month so he'd be fine for today.

Mort kept Clarence's cup on top of Orewing while Clarence brushed his teeth. He put Clarence's towel into the laundry basket once he finished drying himself off. Once Clarence was dressed, he was as ready as he was going to be.

"..." Clarence was looking at himself in the mirror. There weren't any bags under his eyes. "Let's go get breakfast, Mort."

But a bad night's sleep is a bad night's sleep. He'd have to compensate on the weekend.

It wasn't a secret that Mort could talk, just that Orewing couldn't. It felt strange to call him Orewing in public so they just didn't speak unless they needed to. At this point it wasn't as if they needed to, they already knew everything about each other. Mort was a spirit with no memory, but not one without any discretion.

They both exited the dorm room in silence.

L'Mordryn Academy

Arkadian Elesir

Name: Arkadian Elesir

Age: 14 (turning 15 this year)

Gender: Male

Level/Tier: Tyro, he hasn't been here long enough to see any exams

House: Phantasma

Appearance/Attire: Arkadian is quite short, sitting at 4'9". He has short, spiky brown hair and bright blue eyes. His attire is as good as he can really get for a commoner family with not that much money. Some of his more formal clothing doesn't fit him as they're hand-me-downs from older siblings once it was figured that he'd get more use out of them. He still knows how to keep his clothes clean so he never really looks too shabby.

Alignment: Altruist (Social Good)

Personality: Arkadian is an earnest, hard-working kind of child. He's been small all his life and it affects his personality somewhat. He always feels the need to assert himself in a situation where he has a disadvantage. He used to be mature for his age when things like magic weren't on his roadmap. That being said, his life entered a period of extremely rapid change throwing most of his personality in flux. He currently lives in a constant state of confusion, unable to quite understand his own talents, let alone magic as a whole. He doesn't know what he wants to do yet except get better at magic to please his parents.

Background: Arkadian's family is a commoner family, but his father had always told him that his father's father, and his father's father's father, and his father's father's father's father, had always told them they were descended from the stable keepers of the Gods of Old. Whatever gods they were by this point, they'd mostly been forgotten about, but Arkadian always enjoyed hearing the stories. They had a book which described them in detail, and one of the stories also featured the gods and their mounts. What was very peculiar and most interesting to Arkadian happened to be the ones who their ancestors had supposedly been in charge of, namely cats.

Two cats pulled the chariots of at least one of the gods. The details were frustratingly vague when it came to how they did so. Arkadian wanted to know more about them, he always pressed for details and sometimes his parents would have to make things up just to satisfy him. As he got older they revealed the truth that they simply didn't know and were guessing the details. He'd grown enough to accept that by that point but he was still burning with the desire to know about them. The details they were guessing were things they considered reasonable for the cats to be like from what they knew, so Arkadian continued their lines of reasoning.

He reasoned their traits, their size, and even did sketches for them. Mind you he was 12 at the time so his research couldn't be considered thorough by any means. It got to the point where he started seeing them in his dream. At some point he'd truly become a cat herder! He was even good with normal cats but he couldn't figure out an end-game. How was he going to find them, anyway?

Just before he seriously considered running away to find them in the forest somewhere (he was 13 at the time) when a friendly Invoker who introduced him to the concept of summoning. Hey, suddenly he had a way to find them if they actually existed. On their next trip into the city he looked at a book on basic summoning in the library. Maybe he shouldn't have had access to it but he was so eager the librarians found it hard to refuse him. Even with that book he shouldn't have been able to achieve much except some early study perhaps.

Arkadian was still 13 at the time, and though he could probably be considered mature for his age, no in is ever completely self-aware at 13 years old. He had no idea what it meant when he opened a portal and two of the largest cats he'd ever seen came out. He'd been correct in all of his assumptions except for size. They were as tall as he was, and a lot longer obviously. One was friendly and affectionate, the other one was aloof, but also affectionate. They also had enough strength to just bowl him over, so getting home that day took a while.

But when he did get home the day just got even longer as his parents had to struggle to come to terms with what he'd just done and they also had to explain it to him. Eventually they got an outside assessment on Arkadian's summons, and the assessment was surprising, but somewhat expected. They were true divine creatures, their age couldn't be guessed but they were at least centuries, if not millennia old. He was recommended to attend L'Mordyn academy on special admission even though he wasn't quite old enough yet, but the talent was there.

It's been 4 months since then, and he hasn't become less confused, but he's at least become more aware of his talents. L'Mordyn continues to boggle his mind but he's starting to get used to it.

Favoured Summons:

• Tohi and Lohi - Tohi and Lohi are the names of the divine beasts Arkadian summoned a year ago. They measure 5 feet in height, taller than Arkadian is and are proportionally long. Otherwise they look like ordinary house cats, (Norwegian Forest cats to be precise). They are physically, extremely strong, and can dispatch even wild bears with ease on the off chance one happened to threaten the town Arkadian's family lived in. They're also able to erect a magic barrier to protect Arkadian from harm, but from what he can tell they don't automatically protect anyone else, he has to ask them to otherwise. He hasn't had many opportunities to test them so perhaps they have more powers than he knows, but frankly they scare him a little bit.
• Krampus - On admission to L'Mordyn, Arkadian decided to summon another familiar. More to prove to himself that he was capable of all they told him he was capable of, and to test his abilities, he gave little thought to the target he chose, and this oversight ended up being the bane of his existence. He ended up summoning a type of trickster spirit, a shape shifter which often took the form of a black cat. Unlike Tohi and Lohi, Krampus can talk. He also named himself Krampus so there's that too. Krampus can take many forms and he doesn't listen to Arkadian nearly at all. To make matters worse, even if their bond becomes weak, Krampus is a tenacious familiar and extends the time he can stay in the world for as long as possible. He has yet to tell Arkadian anything about him, so he's still somewhat of an enigma to Arkadian even if his behaviours have become predictable (only in cat form though).

L'Mordryn Academy

@Artifex Finally finished, just in time to be late for the IC though

Arkadian Elesir

Name: Arkadian Elesir

Age: 14 (turning 15 this year)

Gender: Male

Level/Tier: Tyro, he hasn't been here long enough to see any exams

House: Phantasma

Appearance/Attire: Arkadian is quite short, sitting at 4'9". He has short, spiky brown hair and bright blue eyes. His attire is as good as he can really get for a commoner family with not that much money. Some of his more formal clothing doesn't fit him as they're hand-me-downs from older siblings once it was figured that he'd get more use out of them. He still knows how to keep his clothes clean so he never really looks too shabby.

Alignment: Altruist (Social Good)

Personality: Arkadian is an earnest, hard-working kind of child. He's been small all his life and it affects his personality somewhat. He always feels the need to assert himself in a situation where he has a disadvantage. He used to be mature for his age when things like magic weren't on his roadmap. That being said, his life entered a period of extremely rapid change throwing most of his personality in flux. He currently lives in a constant state of confusion, unable to quite understand his own talents, let alone magic as a whole. He doesn't know what he wants to do yet except get better at magic to please his parents.

Background: Arkadian's family is a commoner family, but his father had always told him that his father's father, and his father's father's father, and his father's father's father's father, had always told them they were descended from the stable keepers of the Gods of Old. Whatever gods they were by this point, they'd mostly been forgotten about, but Arkadian always enjoyed hearing the stories. They had a book which described them in detail, and one of the stories also featured the gods and their mounts. What was very peculiar and most interesting to Arkadian happened to be the ones who their ancestors had supposedly been in charge of, namely cats.

Two cats pulled the chariots of at least one of the gods. The details were frustratingly vague when it came to how they did so. Arkadian wanted to know more about them, he always pressed for details and sometimes his parents would have to make things up just to satisfy him. As he got older they revealed the truth that they simply didn't know and were guessing the details. He'd grown enough to accept that by that point but he was still burning with the desire to know about them. The details they were guessing were things they considered reasonable for the cats to be like from what they knew, so Arkadian continued their lines of reasoning.

He reasoned their traits, their size, and even did sketches for them. Mind you he was 12 at the time so his research couldn't be considered thorough by any means. It got to the point where he started seeing them in his dream. At some point he'd truly become a cat herder! He was even good with normal cats but he couldn't figure out an end-game. How was he going to find them, anyway?

Just before he seriously considered running away to find them in the forest somewhere (he was 13 at the time) when a friendly Invoker who introduced him to the concept of summoning. Hey, suddenly he had a way to find them if they actually existed. On their next trip into the city he looked at a book on basic summoning in the library. Maybe he shouldn't have had access to it but he was so eager the librarians found it hard to refuse him. Even with that book he shouldn't have been able to achieve much except some early study perhaps.

Arkadian was still 13 at the time, and though he could probably be considered mature for his age, no in is ever completely self-aware at 13 years old. He had no idea what it meant when he opened a portal and two of the largest cats he'd ever seen came out. He'd been correct in all of his assumptions except for size. They were as tall as he was, and a lot longer obviously. One was friendly and affectionate, the other one was aloof, but also affectionate. They also had enough strength to just bowl him over, so getting home that day took a while.

But when he did get home the day just got even longer as his parents had to struggle to come to terms with what he'd just done and they also had to explain it to him. Eventually they got an outside assessment on Arkadian's summons, and the assessment was surprising, but somewhat expected. They were true divine creatures, their age couldn't be guessed but they were at least centuries, if not millennia old. He was recommended to attend L'Mordyn academy on special admission even though he wasn't quite old enough yet, but the talent was there.

It's been 4 months since then, and he hasn't become less confused, but he's at least become more aware of his talents. L'Mordyn continues to boggle his mind but he's starting to get used to it.

Favoured Summons:

• Tohi and Lohi - Tohi and Lohi are the names of the divine beasts Arkadian summoned a year ago. They measure 5 feet in height, taller than Arkadian is and are proportionally long. Otherwise they look like ordinary house cats, (Norwegian Forest cats to be precise). They are physically, extremely strong, and can dispatch even wild bears with ease on the off chance one happened to threaten the town Arkadian's family lived in. They're also able to erect a magic barrier to protect Arkadian from harm, but from what he can tell they don't automatically protect anyone else, he has to ask them to otherwise. He hasn't had many opportunities to test them so perhaps they have more powers than he knows, but frankly they scare him a little bit.
• Krampus - On admission to L'Mordyn, Arkadian decided to summon another familiar. More to prove to himself that he was capable of all they told him he was capable of, and to test his abilities, he gave little thought to the target he chose, and this oversight ended up being the bane of his existence. He ended up summoning a type of trickster spirit, a shape shifter which often took the form of a black cat. Unlike Tohi and Lohi, Krampus can talk. He also named himself Krampus so there's that too. Krampus can take many forms and he doesn't listen to Arkadian nearly at all. To make matters worse, even if their bond becomes weak, Krampus is a tenacious familiar and extends the time he can stay in the world for as long as possible. He has yet to tell Arkadian anything about him, so he's still somewhat of an enigma to Arkadian even if his behaviours have become predictable (only in cat form though).

Wareware wa tada betsu no sekai ni tsurete ika reta!

"Welp, everybody's here..." Astrum muttered

He was kinda sad that he'd kind of gotten ignored, but it was understandable given the circumstances. He felt kind of bad about the person Big Bill had ignored. He didn't know if Big Bill was his name. It was kind of hard to tell what gender the kid was. It looked safe to assume that he was male, but it was hard to tell overall. They didn't make anywhere near as big of an impression as the Emperor, (Astrum was fine with calling her that but shouldn't it be Empress?), and the big furry man.

Even squirrel girl, or the cat pilot left more of an impression but he was glad that he wasn't the only normal one at least.

Looking over their cast, those present and those who'd already stepped through the portal, it reminded him of the a certain game series.

"This is more like we're 64, though..." He said.

There weren't enough characters for the current game in the series, or probably even the second but they had enough for the first at least.

He could sort of tick one item on the agenda off his list. The green haired, old-man sounding, small girl(?) was getting named Oscar the Grouch. Small, green, talked like an old-man, what else was there to call her by? Although it was possible he was remembering Oscar the grouch incorrectly, but that's what you got if you told a rando he can call you whatever he wanted. He was going to call her what he wanted. He never remembered seeing Oscar the Grouch on screen. A lot of off-hand, but still...

"Huh? That guy..." He looked over to the portal as a black haired boy, not too much younger looking than himself slipped into the portal.

He looked suspicious. Suuuuuper suspicious. Well, his clothes weren't at all similar to the elf dude's so he was definitely from Earth. But he just slipped in without talking to anyone. Maybe he was just bad with people, who knew. It probably didn't hurt to catch up to him and check though.

The cat(?) pilot got through before he did, he managed to step through just after her and caught the tail end of her... demands? She had a really strange way of speaking. The sound of her voice was fine, sounded like military but the words she strung together were sort of not what he expected. He'd popped out directly behind her so he sort of drifted off to the side a bit for a few seconds, taking in the view.

The trees stretched out to the skies, he'd never seen trees so big. There was the smell of fresh flowers on the breeze, but he could faintly recognize the smell of the forest they'd just been in. Whether or not that really meant anything, he had no idea.

But suddenly, a concern of his bubbled to the surface. Actually he'd heard a bit of the start of cat(?) pilot's speech through the portal. Now that he thought about it, there was one thing he had to confirm.

"Wait, am I a child too?!" He suddenly asked her. @Elynwyn

@Lord of Evil (I'm after you ) (I pretty much mentioned everybody else too at some point buuuuut)

Wareware wa tada betsu no sekai ni tsurete ika reta!

Astrum turned towards the voice. And then he looked down. Immediately a certain image flitted through his mind but he punched himself in the side in an effort to resist acting on it. He tried not to bend down to shake the girl's(?) hand.

She isn't that much shorter than me, come on dude. He thought.

"Uhhh_hhhhhhhhh," He replied. "Yeah?"

It kinda felt like the running was coming back to him a little bit. He felt a bit rattled. He kinda forgot what her question was, but she said yeah at the end so he said yeah back.

He was just struck by the thought mid-sentence, that she looked really cute, in a childish way but her way of speaking was kind of gruff like an old man. Her hair was a really soft green which blended well with the forest a little bit. Her overgrown clothes were of an older person for sure, but it looked really adorable the way they were too big for her, so it was really jarring that she spoke kind of like a business man who's on the clock who isn't exactly having a bad time but needs to get some work done after this.

He desperately needed a way back into the conversation.

"_Uhhhhhhhhhh what's your name?" He asked.

@ERode