daybreakacademy | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Who: Allura + Anyone!
What: Allura gets acclimated to school and also probably punches Keith
When: Late July
Where: Various
Warnings: n/a

I. School's out for summer
[She's never had a traditional schooling before. Just tutors and governesses. And while she's never felt like she was missing out, and there's a dozen other things to worry about, there's something exciting about starting something new. Desks and classmates and teachers!

Except for the fact that it's summer. And there are no classes right now.

Somehow Allura missed that memo.

She doesn't think twice when the classroom she enters is empty – she'd been early on purpose, but when she checks the one next door to the same result, and the next, she starts to get nervous. Eventually she ventures out, seeks out the first student or faculty she can find,]

Ah, excuse me. Can you tell me where all of the other students have gone? All of the classrooms appear to be empty.

II. Getting settled
[It's. Cozy.

It makes sense, she supposes. Anything is going to be a step down from a giant castle in the outlands, but she's not fully prepared for how small the dorm is. On the floor near her feet, four mice skitter into the room, sniffing around, mostly interested in the stuff on her roommate's side of the room, until Allura beckons for them, and bends to scoop the four up in her hands.]

It looks like this is home sweet home for now. [She leans in close, whispering to the mice,] Don't worry, we will return to the castle from time to time.

[((ooc: Allura is in Lumière Dormitory 105 but anyone is welcome to be passing by for any reason!))]

III. A rude awakening (Closed to Keith)
[A few days have passed since she woke up, and while she's not sure what exactly broke through the magic spell that's been keeping her asleep for so long, she's willing to guess that it has something to do with why the lions have been so restless.

Her trips outside of the castle have been short- and every time she does, she's struck by how different everything is. Where the kingdom used to stand there was nothing. Not even broken buildings or ruins to mark where it had once been, and the landscape itself was different. Like the castle had been picked up and left in a new location. The lions, then, were a comfort. Their massive forms lined the courtyard, standing stoic and at attention, their energy thrumming even if their pilots were nowhere to be found. Blue, Yellow, and Green were still napping, it seems, and as for Red and Blue-

She almost missed him, at first. In fact, the first thing she sees is the shadow of a man. Sitting in front of the Red Lion and at first glance her heart leaps in her chest. Father-! She opens her mouth to say the same, but her optimism dies when she actually catches sight of him. She's still too far to make out much detail but he has black hair. Definitely not her father.

Disappointment shifts into suspicion and her fingers curl at her side,]

Hey! [So much for the element of surprise. She's marching straight for him, her long gown swishing around her ankles.] What are you doing here? Who allowed you into our kingdom?

IV. Wildcard! [ooc: hit me up with anything! Or throw me a note and we can plan something!]

~~(Also OOC note: I'm out of town for the rest of the week so tags will be sparse! I will 100% pick them back up when I get home!)~~

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[ Keith has brought an Outlands princess to the school. Keith has brought a literal princess back like some kind of cat leaving various animals at their owners doorstep. James is still not over it. Technically he understands that waking up this princess wasn't a bad thing, but yet... it's too confusing to be true.

He's glad when he finds her and the fact that she looks utterly confused certainly tracks. Daybreak is a lot to get used to even when you're not waking from a coma. ]

Princess! It's summer break currently, classes won't continue until fall. Though... one professor is still teaching runes even against the regulation against summer class.

[He certainly did. Though in Keith's defense, she most likely insisted on following him back once she learned that it was her best bet for figuring out what happened to her people.]

James. [She smiles upon seeing James. It was only a brief, hurried meeting that they had earlier, but his is probably the only thing approaching a friendly face she knows here. The jury's still out on Keith.

He's helpful, and his explanation lines up with this Summer Vacation that the administration had mentioned when she went through the rigamarole of becoming a student. She just hadn't fully realized what that meant, academically.] I see. [Hm.] And how long do your summers typically last on Earth?

Edited 2019-07-22 22:43 (UTC)

The academic summer vacation is from July to September. A little less than three months. We're still in July, so it will be a while until formal class resumes.

[ Which is kind of a pity of a time to come to a school at. Self-study is easily said and done for established students, but from what James understands, the princess has never even set foot into a modern school before. Awkward.... ]

What kind of classes were you hoping to take?

[That answer brings a lot more questions. What is a July and a September. What marks the difference between them? If they are months and there are three of them before school resumes, what is the mysterious non-July-or-September month? And how long is a month? But that can wait for now. Unfortunately for him (?), James is quickly placing himself in the "Reliable to ask about Human Things" category.]

Oh, [Hm.] I think some classes about your world would be prudent, so History and Geography.

[She has the magic thing pretty figured out by comparison. Same goes for math and science. The good thing about those is that formulas don't care what world you're in. (Excluding magical formulas, of course.]

It's a shame that it will take so long, though. [Her posture deflates a little, shoulders sagging.] There is so much for me to catch up on. The last I visited Earth, humans had yet to discover pants.

.... oh.

[ Land Before Pants.... To a modern guy like James that sounds like a hellish place to be in. This also means the culture of Altea had pants first, which means pants might have been brought over from the Outlands...? History is so much more fascinating than the human world knows. ]

Well, until September is still a while, so we should probably work on getting you caught up before then. It's... a little hard, when everything is self-explanatory to me, but any questions you have, I'll be more than glad to answer.

[The Alteans had a lot of things before humans. If were Coran here he might go on about how the first human got the idea for a pair of trousers by a very fashionable young Altean with a mustache and the rest is history.

She smiles,] Thank you James. I promise that I am a fast learner, so it should not be too much trouble for you.

[Whats a few thousand years and an entire planet's worth of information?]

And in return, if you'd like, I can answer questions about the Outlands that you might have. Though I'm afraid my knowledge there is a bit outdated.

[ Outlands information sounds amazing and James' eyes light up a little at it. His nerdery about the Outlands has started as a serious quest to gather information that is relevant to them in the here and now, but there's only so many books you can read before becoming sincerely engrossed in a topic... ]

Outdated just means it's historically interesting. Especially when it comes to the relations between the Outlands and our world, which is a topic more pertinent now than ever.

Why did you visit Earth last time you came, if I may ask?

[She nods enthusiastically as he speaks, and her posture relaxes by several degrees, her shoulders lowering and her arms hanging more comfortably at her side. Memories were bittersweet, but familiar and comforting in a way,]

I was accompanying my father on a trip. I was still very young, but he enjoyed visiting the humans.

[She lifts a hand, pointing at the points of her ears,] Even though we had to pretend to be human. I could never get used to your rounded ears!

... huh.

[ Why are the ears a problem... the ears are fine.... ]

Though that makes me wonder... There's a lot of stories among humans who don't know magic is real, about magical humanoid creatures with pointed ears. They're very popular. Could they be based on past sightings of your people, when the disguise was dropped?

[The ears are not fine! Have you looked at them?

She hums thoughtfully, dropping her hands back down to her sides,] It’s entirely possible.

Our people were known for our wanderlust, although it was encouraged to blend in, I cannot doubt that there are those who were more careless than my father and I.

[A thought strikes her, and her pulse picks up and she thinks out loud:] Perhaps some of them came to live among the humans. They can’t all have disappeared.

[ This isn't where James was going with this, but he supposes that encouraging someone to think they're maybe not the last of their species is probably a good thing. ]

There are a surprising number of Outlanders living among human society one way or another. It's definitely a possibility.

[ That'd also be interesting to find out even if not immediately relevant to anything James is currently working on. ]

You should ask around the Outlander faculty, I assume they know more about people who integrated with mankind.

I will. Thank you James.

[Said with heartfelt sincerity. It may have not been his intention, but it's some much-needed hope, even if the realistic side of her knows that it can't be so easy. Still, it's a direction when she'd previously had none.]

What kind of stories are there, about these pointed-ear humans?

[If they are influenced by the Alteans, it would be interesting to know what sort of mythology they might have inspired.]

Mostly they all get generalized as elf stories, but they can be rather varied. The popular narrative is that they're beautiful people with a deep connection to magic who live in forests and are very in tune with nature. A lot of their culture is expressed through music in the stories.

[ There's probably real elfs in this universe too and they're probably not all like this by any means. ]

It's always interesting getting to contrast the stories humans have against those who might have inspired them.

[A smile pulls on the edge of her lips as she listens to the explanation, and she even laughs at part of it.]

Well, I think a few of those things are true. [She’s not going to call herself beautiful outright but! Alteans tend to be a little ethereal to humans so she can understand the generalization. And the magic is right on.] I do enjoy flowers, but I’m not sure if that counts as being in tune with nature.

[Another laugh. Alteans are a lot more on the science side than this tree hugging sort of picture that’s being painted, but it’s not a bad one, and it’s likely that the stories don’t only come from Alteans. There are plenty of respectable races with pointed ears.]

It's a step in the direction at least. I'd let it count.

[ Not that there is anything specifically important about whether or not it does. It's just a bit of intellectual curiosity that doubles as pleasant small-talk to get to know the royalty from another world... that Keith dragged here... like a cat bringing home a mouse.... ]

Have you been settling in alright? is there anything you need help with at the moment?

[ Some people bring home stray wolves or frogs. Some people bring home princesses. Some people do all of those things.]

Everything is going fine. Ana has helped me a lot with settling in. I appreciate your kindness, James. There is one thing I would like help with.

[She hums thoughtfully, then her voice takes a more serious tone, a slight shift from the small talk from earlier.] I would like to get to know Keith more. I... [hm] I'm not sure that he thinks very highly of me.

[Keith is hard for her to read, and they have yet to really have a breakthrough with their friendship. Which is a Problem for multiple reasons.] I don't mean to drag you into anything, I just know that you are close.

[ ....... oh.

Oh no.

The answer 'just because I'm dating Keith doesn't mean I know how I did it' comes to mind, but that doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of the complications in making friends with Keith. James isn't sure he's equipped to answer the question in the first place since his and Keith's backstory is... certainly unique.

So he just stands there for a moment, stunned into a short silence. ]

Keith, right... He's.... a bit rough around the edges, socially. A really good person, but it takes him a bit to warm up to people. Don't take it personally.

[ And yes, he's stalling here, as his brain works in overdrive. It shouldn't be this hard to give advice on how to befriend his own boyfriend, it really should not. ]

[Somehow James' response answers so much all at once yet not at all. It is a relief to hear that it's not personal, although that doesn't exactly fix her problem either.]

I understand. It just seems like we argue more than we communicate otherwise.

[Which is honestly 50% her fault. She and Keith have a lot more in common in the knee-jerk argument department than she'd be willing to admit.]

To reframe my question: What do you think would make a good gift for Keith. I want to thank him for bringing me here. I think that would be a good place to start.

Uh.

[ James wishes he could be smoother about this. Really, really he does. But his first thought is "a knife" and that is HORRIBLE advice to give. He does not want to encourage this knife habit. It's a bad habit. Also there are probably a million ways this could be taken wrongly on an intercultural level. ]

He's very passionate about taking care of his wolf, so gifts for wolf-care will probably please him. He's generally a very practical guy, he likes items he can use in daily life.

[On the contrary, Allura would give him the best, coolest knife in the world. But knife-related gifts would have to wait. She nods, listening carefully, pursing her lips at the "wolf-care" because she doesn't know the first thing about wolf-care. But the sentiment is clear enough,]

I see. [Hmm. She needs to think very carefully about what is useful for a human. Or a wolf.] I think I have an idea. Thank you again, James.

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