daybreakacademy | APRIL IN-SERVICE

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APRIL IN-SERVICE

April In-Service
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In honor of the blowing winds of April and the strong crafts tradition - the decor is all handcrafted, mostly by TAs who didn’t have anything better to do. Paper kites, wooden cutouts of fish, and fairy lights strung out in spring-inspired shape. They gave the faculty room a homey, almost primary school kind of quality. Even if April first is well over, there are still traces of a mischievous air - watch where you sit.

However the service is closer to the high-class cuisine as expected of France: Bouillabaisse, Sole Meuniere, along with other dishes such an Italian tomato and anchovy stew, a sushi platter, and American-style fried catfish.

Something Old, Something New
Several troubling signs of the Herald’s presence have appeared in locations around the world. Of these, the most pressing are the dullahan currently guarding a henge on England’s moors, and the fact the supernatural ghost train that carries the souls of the dead as cargo has installed a conductor for some unknown purpose. What Utultar wants with them - and what these new developments might mean - are as of yet unknown.

Midnight Howl
Strange supernatural occurrences are causing a disturbance in a quiet town in Romania. Rumors of something not quite beast and not quite human, from a place that has had little to no supernatural activity for decades, have been cropping up with alarming regularity…

The faculty will also be discussing the various visions that have appeared recently.

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[ Ekkehardt seems more distracted than usual. Given recent events, this might not be surprising, exactly, but then again - it's not that kind of distraction.

Rather than his usual stack of reports, he has a whole pile of photographs and articles in front of him. ]

[Who needs seats when you could just sit on the table, honestly. Plus it gives one better advantage points to the rest of things happening.]

[Not that she was trying to spy on - but the pictures where hard not to notice.] What is that?

[ He barely looks up. ] Murals. Carvings. They're instructions for something, but much of their context is lost.

It's a vexing situation. I believe it's some kind of weapon, but there are no surviving records as far as I'm aware.

[No context, no records...]

How would you know it's a weapon then?

The way it's described and its iconography seem consistent with some kind of object that has offensive power. It's commonly referred to in terms of purification, smiting, or cleansing.

[ He sighs. ] And that's about the only thing that's consistent, so some kind of armament is my best guess. But I'm no archaeologist. [ He pokes at a few of the papers. ]

Well if it can do all those things, it can't be that bad.

Too bad it's not around anymore.

[ He just sort of makes a noncommittal 'mhm' in response. He wouldn't agree with 'can't be that bad', but he's hardly going to start an argument about it, despite his strong feelings. ]

Well, I wouldn't say that. It's certainly possible that it wasn't destroyed or rendered unusable, and I'd like to confirm that - if it is, indeed, what I assume it to be.

Ekkehardt...?

[He scoots over, taking a closer look at the photographs and articles]

Mr Kiske. [ He gives him a small nod.

Many of the articles and photographs are related to old rumors about the Templars and their various strongholds, as well as coded signs and messages apparently hidden in Catholic iconography. ] I can't make heads nor tails of this, I'm afraid. Perhaps you might be able to shine some light on it?

...They're Templar iconography.

[He scans them, and the articles, his fingers tracing the imagery, lips moving silently in Latin before speaking up]

They're not making heads or tails for most - because - people have misinterpreted what they mean over time.

Edited 2020-04-16 02:28 (UTC)

The descriptions seem consistent, at least, but given there's no context or further information to them...well. You can see my trouble.

[ He leans over, clearly curious. ]

What does it mean, then? I got as far as guessing that it might be some sort of weapon, but I'm afraid I'm stuck on anything else. And a guess is rather difficult to go on.

...It's -

[He stops, his brows knitting, as he looks away hesitantly]

Edited 2020-04-16 02:32 (UTC)

I had been sworn not to tell anyone outside of the Templars what it is...

it's why I had been enspelled to sleep all these years.

[He softly murmurs, his hands resting together - then another exhale]

[Then he touches his crucifix]

It's why I am able to heal so quickly, how I can during pitch moments draw upon inhuman strength. And that is with an incomplete ritual.

During the Crusades, the Templars had found something buried deep under Jerusalem, along with a spell-scroll from what we had believed to be written by King Solomon. I - never personally saw what it was they found and brought to the stronghold in Acre, only the scroll - I do know it's the source of my non-magical abilities.

Interesting. Something buried...I suppose that explains the consistent iconography.

Perhaps you should take charge of this, then, so as to not break your oath of silence?
[ His tone is sympathetic. He understands, after all. ] I assume you weren't barred from being able to hypothetically see it directly, which is what this would be.

Besides, I have...other sources I can seek assistance from, that won't need to go through you. Though it might be somewhat more difficult on my end. [ His voice is a bit wry. ]

...Thank you. But - I think if it is showing up now... God is telling me that I might need to reconsider my vow.

[He nods his head]

I believe my higher priority is to keep it from falling into the wrong hands as that is the reason for my silence. I have destroyed the scroll, but that does not mean it'd be impossible to replicate the results.

Edited 2020-04-16 02:50 (UTC)

Then we'll have to undertake two missions at essentially the same time. It seems well enough.

Do you have any idea about where it could be now? I admit, all these clues and hints have proven more confusing than helpful. And I'm not too sure we'd get permission to dig at a holy site.

[ He doesn't exactly have problems with doing illegal things but like

Ky does. ]

I believe there are a few places it could have ended up - I... need to get myself familiar with the locations as they are Now. Many of our strongholds have escape routes built in...

[Jail, being Jail, is just reading his papers upside-down from across the table without waiting to ask permission.]

Scrapbooking?

When have you ever known me for normal, relaxing hobbies? [ He pushes a few photographs around, employing the time honored technique of "if i poke at it enough maybe it will reveal something to me". ]

[Deadpan:] Thought I saw you knitting once, but I was pretty drunk.

[She tilts her head curiously, examining the photographs.]

Got a fun puzzle, this time?

[Hope Ekkehardt doesn't mind Emille trying to take a table-level peek at some of the photographs that he's looking at. Though she knows nothing of the Templars, as the articles scattered around seem to be about, something in the photographs keeps catching her eye.

In some of the carvings, there seem to be swaths of lily-like flowers with a cluster of chipped-out dots above each open blossom. She is about to comment on that alone when a photo of an ancient stained glass window in what looks like a cathedral or church comes into view, and she cries out in surprise:]

Sir Gehring! Where is this stained glass window located? I must know immediately!

[ If he didn't want people looking at it, he would have kept it to himself. It's simple enough.

He turns the photo over to check the location, then flips it over again. ] A cathedral in Toul, it says here.

Is there something unusual about it? [ He peers at it. ]

[She points at the four assumed-to-be saints lining the sides of the window. It looks as if they're all holding something, and upon further investigation, three of them are holding orange flowers. Of course, that makes an alarm go off in Emille's brain.]

Do you see that those figures are holding orange flowers? Yes, they could be tiger lilies, but there were some previous photographs of carvings that had similar flowers in them. The carvings made it clear that the flowers were emitting something. Let me see... [She reaches over and shuffles through some of the photographs, brings one with the flower carvings to the top, and points out a flower and the dots chiseled out above its blossom.] Yes, there. Again, it could only be pollen, as lilies are particularly pollen-laden species, but there is always the possibility that these represent Dragon-emitted Bloom flowers.

[Emille looks back at the stained glass, and notices that the fourth saint is holding a similar flower, but with a more red color than the rest. A closer inspection of the saint itself shows them as swathed in black garb and... sickly?] That person -- [she points to them, in the lower left corner] -- I wonder if they are representative of Death in this image. How odd for a cathedral...

[She also doesn't know where Toul is, but she can look it up later. Sounds European?]

[Christo looks over the documents on the dullahan and the ghost train, humming to himself in thought, his food untouched.]

I wonder... If I remember correctly, the dullahan and the train were dealt with by the Academy in previous missions, correct? What information have we gained from them? If we can't take care of both the henge and the train, it only makes sense to place the majority of our attention on the target that would provide the Herald with a greater tactical advantage.

The train generally takes care of itself, as I recall. It was only acting erratically due to interference, but we never quite got to the bottom of how that interference got there in the first place...

The dullahan is similarly low on information, but it's not moving around. I'd say that makes it more vulnerable to the Herald, given it's staying in one spot, but Outlands creatures aren't my specialty.

So this so-called conductor could be a form of interference...

[He adjusts his glasses, eyes shutting]

Personally, I would put more priority on the train. The dullahan might be more vulnerable, but it could also just be acting on its own. A new player seems more suspicious.

That does seem likely. Though it doesn't seem to be changing from its normal route, so at the very least it doesn't seem to be malevolent.

[ He pauses for a moment, and then amends the statement. ] That we know of.

[ He sort of sighs, pinching the bridge of his mask for a moment. ] There's just too little information on either of them, unfortunately.

Do we have enough resources to send an investigation team to both?

As far as I know, the Academy has the resources...to an extent. We can't focus the same amount of effort on both, since these aren't the only two things going on... [ He shuffles some paperwork. ] And there will be extra costs associated with the train, given that it needs to be actively pursued.

Regrettable, but... understandable.

At least the students themselves should be up to either task. For children, they really are quite talented.

We certainly wouldn't be able to get nearly as much accomplished without them, I know that much. They're growing in leaps and bounds...

[ He frowns, slightly. ] As much as it pains me to say, they're already shaping up to be well prepared for Nightfall.

If it's any consolation, this school is doing much better by them than some others. I wasn't impressed by the Tower of Adamant during the exchange.

At least the children here have some hope of surviving and having some form of normal life if we succeed.

["Children," keeps saying the man who looks to be in his very early twenties]

That's the idea.

[ Listen, when you're surrounded by immortals and you yourself are one 'how old are you' is a question that Ekkehardt understands is somewhat loaded so he's not gonna say much in that direction.

He does wonder but he's not going to say it. ]

Tower...ah, that military school. Yes, they're more of the martial type...very regimented. [ That frown deepens. He could use stronger words, but in a school meeting, he's not going to. ]

[Christo doesn't even bother to hide his disdain]

"Very" undersells it. They acted like machines, down to the limited ability to adapt to their surroundings.

I may disagree with some of the things Daybreak does, but compared to that place...

[It was starting to get very hard to resist the urge to bap some of the paper crafts that were hanging, enough so that Kali had to finally change so the urge would go away. It seems to be working, for now.]

Not a beast or human. I wonder if that's someone I would know...

[See? She was still paying attention.]

[Once the meeting is opened up to new business, Emille stands up and after a momentary hesitation begins to pitch a suggestion to her fellow faculty. She said she'd mention it, so here goes...]

Excuse me, everyone. After a refreshing conversation with Miss Rebecca Fulton the other day, I would like to propose an exercise for our campus to undertake once the weather is appropriate for it. [Note the word exercise.] In order to get all of us outside to breathe fresh air and absorb some vitamin D, I would like for us to set aside a weekend to come together and have a camping experience modeled on a typical Japanese high school class summer camping trip. However, this will not be a leisure trip, but will be packed with skill-building activities for our students that will be both engaging and useful for them to know. [No, Emille's not adverse to the outdoors, she's just not into going outside without a teaching lesson attached.]

This idea is very much in its infantile stages, and as such needs much more planning work done with it before it can truly be feasible. Even so, the basic idea is that students will be assigned to groups, with or without a faculty member or teaching assistant to go with them, and must complete challenges that will bring them to their respective campsites. There they will need to set up their tents and a fire pit themselves, among other things. [She pauses.] I have further ideas, but I would like to confirm that everyone is on board with this proposal and would be willing to help me make it work before continuing. Thank you.

I wouldn't be averse to the idea, especially since the weather is warming up. [ And it sounds like a good way to bond, at least...It's been a while since he's been on a camping trip. ] I'd be happy to assist.

Wonderful, Sir Gehring. Thank you. [Emille nods in appreciation.]

I feel that the main challenge is deciding on how to split up the students into groups, and then assigning tasks to them. Would it be more beneficial to allow students to choose their partners, or do we make the teams based on each student's strengths and weaknesses and then create activities custom-made for their groups? I have not truly engaged with all of our students as of yet, so I am not quite aware of their individual abilities nor who is friends with whom. Hence why I need everyone's assistance.

[She pulls a small notebook and pencil out of her pocket, ready to take notes.] If anyone has any ideas or suggestions at all, please feel free to chime in.

That actually ain't a bad idea.

Everyone should get out more anyway. There's plenty of good spots just outside the town.

[It would be somewhat nostalgic to visit them again, after it's been so many years since she last played hooky.]

Unless you had somewhere else in mind.

[Emille's eyes widen a bit when Kali's comment registers with her.] To be honest, it seems that I have been caught up in the logistical aspects of planning the event and have not considered where it should happen. As I am not as familiar with the surrounding area, do you have any specific suggestions, Miss Coh?

[That uh...seems like it should be one of the first things planned too.]

It takes awhile to get to, but there's part of a forest I used to visit a lot. ...Assuming it is still there.

Got plenty of trees, rocks, lakes - lots of that wilderness stuff that goes with camping. And it's not that far away in case something does go wrong.

[Have to make her own job easier somehow.]

[Well, she did say that she was merely proposing the idea. Now that it's gained some positive interest, though, it's time to really work on the details. Including the really big one that she overlooked.]

Oh? The longer it takes to get to the final destination, the more time and space we have to set activities up for the groups. [But then she tilts her head a little.] Yet why are you questioning if it is still present?

[It is a very big detail!!]

Well it had been awhile since I last went there, so who knows what it looks now. [A little too remote to worry about human expansion, so that leads to natural disasters mostly. Or some other magical creatures could have settled in by now for all they know.]

It would be worth checking out first.

That is only fair. Let us hope that clearing the site of fallen limbs and brambles is the most we must do to get it ready for the excursion.

[A nod.] Yes, it should definitely be checked out, as well as the paths leading to the campsite. We may also need to carve out new paths to allow multiple groups to proceed without running into each other or otherwise affecting their individual activities. Hopefully there is a lot of forest land surrounding the final destination. Would you mind me going with you, Miss Coh? And would anyone else be interested in tagging along? Any and all assistance would be appreciated.

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APRIL IN-SERVICE

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