daybreakacademy | Here in the dark, in these final hours, I will lay down my heart and I'll feel the power

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Here in the dark, in these final hours, I will lay down my heart and I'll feel the power

WHO: Héctor, OTA Catch All
WHERE: Around the school
WHEN: Various times after the 9th and/or the Valentines dance
WHAT: Various opens in the late evening
WARNINGS: Standard spoilers

You can't turn around a bad day, week, month, year, decade... you can't turn any of that without trying first. And so, once the monster's beaten back, his lost arm is returned, and the dance wraps up, so begins his annual rejuvenation. It's his return to the grind, starting every January (late this year but, well, he's doing his best), when he goes back to the drawing board and renews his plans-- only this time, not just for his return home. He's got a few things in mind this year, and isn't that exciting in and of itself?

A - OTA

With his arm back in place and whole again (gone for that week of the 2nd to the 9th and leaving him looking more like a zombie to people than he'd ever let himself before), he can actually get back to repairing the other one who took some hits this past while.

Rather than steal from the shop class, this time Héctor has decided to break in. Which, considering how much they let him use this place for doing repairs around the school, it isn't really breaking in is it? He doesn't think so. And so, upon a work table, in the dead of night, he's lain out a broken guitar. He's got nails and tools, bits of wood and scrap metal, anything he thought he could need for trying to repair the old thing. The guitar's not going to sound good when he's done, but it'll be something.

Despite everything, he's not quite ready to give up on music yet. In fact, he takes to humming a little as he works, breaking into soft song only to quiet again into humming as he hammers and cuts and sands away at the guitar. Until he hears footsteps and abruptly stops, that is.

B - Aube

Not every night can be spent on fixing the guitar. He's still got occasional evening classes to TA for, things to mark, essays to read. On those nights, he settles in the Aube common room, quietly working this time.

Being nocturnal as he is means bad news for any kids sneaking out of the dorm late in the night. "Ah, ah!" He says to any looking a little too ready to go, eyes lifting from his work to them and brows lifting higher. "Did you text Bee for this little excursion?"

C - Aube

Of course, not every child getting up in the night is looking for rowdy adventure. He knows all too well by now that some of these kids have had more adventure than they ever asked or bargained for. Those quiet wanderers, or ones who settle in corners, they're no less apt to get his attention.

He gives them their moment of space and quiet. Just a moment. Then, trying not to scare or disturb them, he walks over, placing a hand to the back of any given chair and tilting his head down at them.

"Hey," He says, soft as he can. "You okay? Can't sleep?"

D - OTA

In the early mornings, for any early risers who seek him (and not one of the smarter or more experienced of adults in this place) he's of course there to tutor those who need it. He may not always know what he's doing with magic but he can work out a lesson and, more than that, he can work with kids.

He draws another example upon paper when he can't simply show it, and he presents it, explaining each piece and part. "Do you understand?" He asks.

Perhaps you're the one he's tutoring. Or, perhaps, you're catching him just as the last kid wanders off and he's gathering up the books and papers, time soon running out with the coming dawn. But he might have time for one more.

E - OTA

He doesn't know the first thing about this, any of this. He keeps telling himself he's not a fighter, but more and more he's coming to realize he might need to be. It's not just about him anymore.

That evening he finds himself in one of the training areas. The bow he takes up is tall and heavy, heavier than a guitar. He's got the dexterity for that and the experiencing of firing... his arm. But it's not the same and he hasn't entirely got the strength built in him for using this thing. He's not sure if he can build the strength or if what he's got is as good as it's going to get. But he can't see himself yet using anything else.

So, there he is in the range, practicing. His shots mostly miss but every now and again he gets somewhere and he's encouraged to go farther. He gives a little laugh of victory and surprise in these moments. Hopefully he's not interrupting anything.

Of course in all his focus, anyone interrupting him is almost certain to make him jump and yelp and send and arrow flying far off target.

F - OTA

At some point before the library's closing for the night, he's managed to surround himself so thoroughly in books that he's built something of a wall around himself. His hand is half tangled in his hair and his brow is knit with concentration, pencil tapping absentmindedly in his other hand as he reads. The books seem to be all about defensive and offensive runes and spells.

"Wait, what?" He straightens up, flipping pages back, and then to his current page, comparing them. "That doesn't make sense, how can you-- what?"

G -[Closed to Orihime]

"Orihime?"

The call comes with a knock. Finally, at long last, he can repay this girl. He's ready at her door, smiling in his newly repaired clothing and holding a bag of tools and materials (nabbed from the shop class as usual).

As the door opens he laughs and say, "Repair service! Is now a good time?"

H - St. Valentine's eve - [Closed to close CR and/or those who ask first]

He's only been here so long, only saved up so much and a lot of it goes towards his hopeful plans. But for this, he can spare a small expense.

The shopkeeper had eyed him curiously, as exhausted and nervous as he'd appeared to be that morning of the thirteenth, pushing the limits of his magic into the day. He knows, in some sense, that he shouldn't. He really, really shouldn't.

But it's the first time in ten years he could do anything and... well, she deserves something. After ten years she deserves so much and a simple carnation or rose just isn't cutting it. Even this doesn't quite but... he can't push more, because even with this, the best gift he could give is his distance.

The note simply reads "for Imelda Rivera" in fancy calligraphic script. He presses the tiny card to his lips then places it back into the bouquet. It's a bright one, colorful, with full, giant blooms. There's soft pinks and bright ones, oranges and reds and blues, greenery, and vivid purples-- her favorite. It'll remind her of home, he's sure.

Off he goes into the night, bringing his delivery to the Lumiere dorms. He just needs to leave it at her door and go. So far so good. He won't get to see her reaction like this, but that's fine. She doesn't need to be happy with him, he just needs her to be happy. That's what he tells himself as he slowly and quietly works his way back, turns the corner-- and freezes, a deer in headlights as the second worst thing that could happen here, does.

I - Other, Make your own

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Toki's here very last minute, as Héctor is gathering his things and getting ready to leave. He's likely beyond help before the midterms and may not even show up for them, but he's trying to make more of an effort. Which, for him, is any effort at all. He makes the assumption, as always, that everyone uses the translation software; so he has an excuse not to learn English at all, and makes minimal attempts with French. Toki doesn't give Héctor any warning he's there before he starts firing off questions in Japanese.

"Hello~! Are you Héctor?"

He completely butchers that into something like heiik'toru with more syllables than needed.

"If you are, can you help me with midterm stuff? Apparently, nothing's going to be multiple choice in any class and that's complete bullshit. What do you have experience in? How long have you been here? You know how these tests go, right; like what will be on them in general? What specific teachers tend to stick with year after year or whatever. I don't need a lot of help, really, just enough to get like a passing grade; and I mean just scraping by is fine! No extra work for you~!"

He looks up and he manages to recognize a greeting and that, in there, is something that vaguely resembles his name. Everything else though is a sudden bulldozing. He straightens up and puts his hands out in alarm.

"Whoa, whoa, kid, slow down! I- I don't know the language you're speaking! Is that Japanese? Uh, ni-on des?" That's not quite it but he's trying. "I speak english. Y yo hablo español. Do you know these? Tú hablas español o inglés?" He speaks slow, hoping his own accent doesn't make it harder.

Edited 2019-02-14 05:03 (UTC)

Ehh. Toki doesn't know Spanish either, but he uses the phone app constantly, so at least he understands what Héctor's saying. He knows only a few words in English. Google translate is time consuming, but it's a start. His pronunciation is still terrible; though fortunately, he speaks much slower attempting any foreign languages.

"Yes. Japanese. I do not speak very English. Also Spanish. You are help to study?"

Might as well try French too.

"Parlez français?"

Also not good.

Oh boy.

He lifts a hand, wincing as he does a wobbly gesture in the air. Not the greatest on the french.

"I do help to study, Yes. Hai? Uh..." Think Héctor. "We can draw?" He points between them and mimes scribbling on a page. He then waves the boy over to the table and pulls out a paper to start drawing tiny pictures on for each subject, tiny hieroglyphs for the classes here. He then draws a question mark and offers his pencil out.

Toki just stares at him for a second. Then he joins Héctor at the table and looks at his weird hieroglyphs that could mean anything; as Toki doesn't know the names of some of the classes he's taking anyway. He takes the offered pencil and circles one that looks kinda of like a daemon. He's looking for 'Daemon Contracting', but it could be 'Defense Against Vampires and Daemons' or any other number of things.

He also needs to point out that Héctor doesn't have to try too hard with the language barrier. After typing something else into his phone to translate into English, he takes the earbud out of his left ear and holds it up for emphasis.

"I understand what you say. Program to translation."

It's just going to take longer for conversations with the typing.

"Contract?"

Toki's in luck. He's kindly drawn el vampiro getting a punch for the defense class. The cackling demon is indeed for contracts.

He's about to ask and confirm as much when Toki speaks. He blinks at the removed ear bud . "Oh! Oh, wow, that's... when did this get invented?" Stupid question. Obviously some time while he was lost in the outlands.

He immediately looks embarrassed. "Sorry. I feel a little bad, making you be the one who has to use that. But, ah, you need help in your contracts class? Is that what you need?"

Toki shrugs. It was pointed out to him early on. It might be a new thing for the academy, he's not sure.

"There is no problem." In using the software. He picks up on some common words from it.

"Yes. Contracts. I am not very much attending."

He's gone to that class a total of three times. He had been ready for it the first day, but then things happened, as they do. Now he hasn't learned anything, and after his last lecture with Professor Atchison, he's certainly not going to go directly to him for help.

He's pretty new to the Academy himself, having only begun TA-ing about a semester ago. It could just as easily be that.

"Alright," He says. If the kid says it's fine, that's fine. Though he has to lift a brow a little when Toki says he's not showing up.

"So... skipping class huh?" Quickly he starts to unpile his papers, looking for that little printed calendar they gave him, flipping through the pages. "Okay, okay, if we're doing a full course catch up I'm going to need you to meet me here a lot more than just a few times a week if you want to be ready for mid-terms. And I'll have to ask the Señor Atchison to print out some sheets for full course review. Can you, ah, tell me why you haven't been showing up? I know Señor Atchison can be a little intimidating..."

Is it really that much work just for midterms? Ugh. Too much commitment, but he will try to keep up with that daunting schedule.

"Yes. I have time," he has time solely because he skips other classes too. As for why he hasn't been showing up for Daemon Contracting, which is his favorite class, it's not at all because Professor Atchison is intimidating; he's the opposite, a sad little man with dismal prospects. It's because Toki said very inappropriate things to him, which at the time he was unaware of how inappropriate, and then also skipped the subsequent detention. He'd normally have told Héctor all the details in half a minute, but with the language barrier he's boiling it down to the simplest form.

"It is the best to not going. Bad experience."

Héctor, mistakenly thinking he understands how the kid must be feeling, gives a solemn nod. That Avery... just one of too many teachers who thinks the best path to teaching is fear. At least he's not totally helpless in this scenario.

"Alright, no problem. I'll put you in for an hour five days a week for the next few weeks and that, hopefully, should catch you up. You and I will work this out together." He offer the kid a warm and reassuring smile.

He goes back a minute to jotting more things down. Then asks, "I'm sorry niño, I'm not sure I've got your name? And your dorm too would be good, just so I know where to leave any notes if necessary."

Toki nearly chokes at 'an hour five days a week... for the next few weeks'. That's far too much studying. His brain will explode. He smiles back at Héctor anyway, and will probably quit half-way through or even before they get past the 1st week. He might still get a technically passing grade by guessing.

"My name is Toki. Lumière 203," he offers his hand to shake, in official greeting, but also in preemptive apology. He knows any tutoring will be disastrous and he'll stand Héctor up more than once, whether on purpose or not.

If Héctor notices any reaction to the time he's suggest, he doesn't say anything. It is a fair bit, but if Toki's not going to class at all, he's essentially going to have to teach it over himself, plus catch up. He hopes that, with time, the boy will come around to it.

"Nice to meet you, Toki," He says, gripping the Toki's hand in turn and shaking it. "And of course, you can keep calling me Héctor. No fancy title for this TA." He's not entirely under illusion here. If Toki's skipped so much that this should happen, then obviously there's some greater issues besides Avery. Nevertheless, they say you can only help those who ask for it and Toki has.

With their handshake dropped, he jots those remaining details down, then asks, "Any particular time? Morning? Evening? Little later at night?"

There are definitely many greater issues than Avery, and schoolwork is the least of his problems. But an effort is being made on all fronts, for as long as Toki can keep it up.

"Evening or late."

He has other things to attend to in the mornings, and doesn't sleep much. Evenings are free.

His "life"-state wasn't very conducive to helping kids maintain proper sleep schedules, and to be honest, he does worry about that a little. But on the other hand, he hasn't got a choice and teenagers are going to be teens with or without his help. It's kind of a relief to at least not worry about collapsing on them.

"Perfect," He says. "I will meet you in here later tonight. Bring whatever work you have and something to write with. And if you have any smaller questions about anything else while I'm around, don't be afraid to ask."

As agreed upon, Toki returns later in the evening. He has no textbooks with him; only a mostly unused notebook, a pen, and two previous assignments. One is graded - a 7% - and one is a current project. They're both scrawled in a messy mix of kanji, hiragana, and French for things that have no equivalent he knew previously - mostly supernatural references.

"Good evening, Héctor~!"

He gives a little wave as he sets his notebook on the table. The front cover has an imitation of Héctor's cackling daemon drawing.

He'd been prepared with textbooks. He'd even managed to snag a few papers of Avery, though maybe not all he'd need in the future-- the man was a tricky one requiring long term effort. Then, of course, extra paper and pencils.

He hadn't been quite prepared for something as dire as a 7%, a half-done project, and two languages and two alphabets he couldn't read. Oh... boy... No, this was fine. He knew what he was going to be working with when the kid said he'd skipped his classes. He totally knew. Somewhat. He can just teach a student completely from scratch a subject he had no experience in. Totally.

On the other hand the little recreation of his daemon doodle is rather charming.

"Evening, Toki," He greets in turn. "I thought tonight I'd let you show what you do know already and maybe after that we could work on a couple of contract wording exercises together. I'd like to get a better idea of where you're at, what you're struggling with, things like that. Sound good?"

Edited 2019-02-17 16:16 (UTC)

Oh, good. Héctor has the text book. Toki had misplaced his somewhere, or had never obtained one to begin with. At least somebody is prepared here.

"Yes."

Where to start? Contract wording is what he'd like to know, and loopholes. Which he's sure Héctor will get to eventually. It's hard to explain anything, though, when Toki has to be so slow and methodical about it. He wants to learn enough to find a way out of the contract, and to stop seeing weird shit, and to basically go back to a semi-normal life somewhere so far removed from the supernatural that daemons are considered fantasy. He's too indolent and scatterbrained to figure this out on his own and he wants the answers too quickly. It doesn't matter how terrible his grades are when his ultimate goal is to escape this.

"I know contracts are bad. Wrong decision. Wording important. Not meaning what is there. How to fix?"

"That's the basic idea, yes," He says with a nod and a smile. He invites Toki to sit by him if he hasn't already done so-- if already seat far, he moves to be closer. He's always found it better to talk beside children than to them from across a table.

Whether Toki intended it to or not, it doesn't click that the boy's looking for his own escape route. He pulls over the textbook, opens up a few pages in, then speaks to Toki.

"For the most part, we can assume contracts are indeed a bad thing. Sometimes a bad situation can force a hand and those situations may not always make it clear that a contract is the wrong choice. If it's life or death, for example, it's hardly fair to expect a person to choose death. Every contract is designed in a way for the daemon to win, but it's also good to remember that the daemon may not necessarily design it for the person to lose." His brows lift and he gives a pointed look, just to be sure Toki is listening and understanding. If he's got the boy's attention (at least enough), he'll keep moving along.

"Sometimes, like as often happens in fae pacts, the daemon believes themselves to be bestowing a genuinely good deal. There tends to be a lack of understanding in what's proportionate in scale for price and reward beyond their own perceptions. It's important to know this because it's important to know the daemon as much as contract. To say a contract is bad is easy. To have already been caught in one and needing a loophole or a means to break it means you have to know the daemon. The key is figuring what, exactly, their true purpose is in making the contract. Can you give me a few examples of the kind of things a daemon might want out of a human? What are some key motivators?"

Toki would prefer Héctor sit across from him, as he's now moved to the left side for apparently a more relaxing atmosphere or something, but Toki can't see him unless he turns directly to look. He can see Héctor's hands on occasion and part of the textbook. But he's just going to listen and the language barrier is awkward, so he doesn't bother mentioning he's blind in one eye. Héctor can have his illusion of intimacy.

Yes, that made sense. No one would pick death, or most people wouldn't. It definitely wasn't a life or death situation for him, though. He hadn't considered fae pacts, which honestly sound more like what happened with him. Maybe it wasn't even a daemon. As for knowing the daemon, he doesn't. At all. He'd basically made a deal with a guy going by the obviously fake placeholder name of Taro Yamada and at the time, Toki was totally fine with that. He was such an idiot. He didn't know anything about daemons at all, but it was still a stupid decision. Ugh, okay, examples...

"Soul. Amusement? Pawn?"

How should he know things daemons want? They were individuals as much as humans, weren't they? It depends on the daemon. The next question, however, he doesn't understand.

"Motivators of what?"

"¡Epa! You got it. Or in broader strokes; power, entertainment, nourishment of perceived needs. Intel might be considered separate but usually falls under one of the other categories depending on the type of information being collected. That," He says, "Is what the key motivators are."

He beams. So far, he's not seeing anything glaring about Toki's ability to learn. But on the other hand, he's also perfectly unaware of the boy's blindness or anything else here.

"In different degrees," He continues, "That applies to people as well, only humans typically have greater social needs and rely on each other in ways daemons do not. This same thing tends to mean there is usually less care or desire for moral fulfillment in daemons than in humans." Usually. But that was a whole other bag of worms.

"As for how this goes into contracts, that's all a part of looking at what was offered, what was given in exchange, working out what the daemon gets from it and what, therefore, it wants."

The broader strokes are a lot more complicated. He has to think about the 'intel' sentence for a while before it kicks in that 'one of the other categories' refers to power/entertainment/needs instead of there being additional categories of something. And apparently motivators are the same thing as categories and that's just additional reiteration for no reason, so it's unimportant and he's taken to sketching angry eyebrows on the notebook daemon and gives him Avery's hairstyle. Héctor pauses, which is a cue to stay something.

"Yes."

And now he's not on daemons at all somehow. What is this? Why is he talking about humans and social things and this moral fulfillment? Did they skip a chapter? But then it's back to contracts.

"Daemons want power and entertainment."

That's his summary. Daemons want things and you shouldn't give anything to them. He thought they'd already established this.

Ah, there it is. The hitch. That didn't take long to find after all. In a way, despite being ignored, he's pleased. If only because now he's got a better idea where to go here.

There's a flicker of a smile before he goes ahead and closes the textbook. He pushes it away.

"Alright, Toki. We're good there for now. Tell me about you, now. Got any hobbies, things you like to do?"

"Science? Make explosions for play!"

Not so much explosions as fireworks for theatre special effects, but that counts as a hobby right? He hasn't done much science-related lately though. He's had too many another things to deal with. Otherwise, he just likes to talk and that's not happening with Héctor.

"Science!" He repeats, intrigued. But if the addition were any indication, it was less theory and more application. Very big and dramatic application.

Now how to connect it to contracts? He hums and strokes his chin. Explosions, explosions...

It seems Toki is in luck because as it would just so happen-- "I'm not the most science inclined I'll admit so I can't do a lot there, or with most kinds of explosions but... I did pull off a pretty big fireworks stunt once." He grins wide. "You wouldn't happen to know how fireworks function do you? Both individually and in general?"

Somehow, without Toki saying it, they're both coming to fireworks.

"I made fireworks!"

Yes, he knows. He doesn't understand how it fits into daemon contracting unless it's some visualization Héctor likes to use for his tutoring. He's now imagining someone playing a flaming daemon and fireworks go off when the human signs his soul over. That would be much more entertaining than The Bee Movie. Somehow, he's learned nothing and found a new avenue for more delinquency.

Here in the dark, in these final hours, I will lay down my heart and I'll feel the power

D

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