James Griffin (
onebetter) wrote in
daybreakacademy2019-08-14 12:11 am
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A Birthday Boy
Who: James, Keith and the people invited to James' birthday party (Toki, Ana, Adelaide, Nana, Ruby, Nadia, Allura & Yuya!)
When: August 13th (Keith part), August 18th (Party)
What: James' birthday (spent at home in Arizona) & James' Soleil birthday party, spent at a Café de la Lune in Soleil.
Warnings: None for party, mentions of NSFW in Keith & James', though anything explicit will be moved off-comm.
[ All people listed above will have received a text message on August 15th. ]
Hey there!
I'm currently out of the country, but my birthday passed recently and I'd like to celebrate with my friends a little once I return home. Are you free on August 18th? I'd love to get a group together and go down to Café de la Lune for the afternoon. It'll be my treat.
No worries if you're not free that day, but I'd love to see you there!
[ On the actual day of, everyone will find that James has reserved the biggest table in the café so everyone can fit comfortably. He's already ordered a few pastries for everyone and is more than willing to order more. James is pretty much beaming. Also his toad is here. Just sitting on his shoulder. Occasionally being fed bits of cake from a special toad-reserved spoon. ]
Thank you all for coming! If I'm honest, I actually had a bit of trouble making friends when I came here. That was new to me. I'm all the more happy to have met all of you. You made me look forward to coming back to France after vacation.
((Feel free to post open top levels and just chit-chat with one another / interrupt conversations, as it tends to happen at group tables. Also no pressure to tag in, anyone who doesn't will just be seen as having been busy that day and not as having skipped his party, haha.))
When: August 13th (Keith part), August 18th (Party)
What: James' birthday (spent at home in Arizona) & James' Soleil birthday party, spent at a Café de la Lune in Soleil.
Warnings: None for party, mentions of NSFW in Keith & James', though anything explicit will be moved off-comm.
[ All people listed above will have received a text message on August 15th. ]
Hey there!
I'm currently out of the country, but my birthday passed recently and I'd like to celebrate with my friends a little once I return home. Are you free on August 18th? I'd love to get a group together and go down to Café de la Lune for the afternoon. It'll be my treat.
No worries if you're not free that day, but I'd love to see you there!
[ On the actual day of, everyone will find that James has reserved the biggest table in the café so everyone can fit comfortably. He's already ordered a few pastries for everyone and is more than willing to order more. James is pretty much beaming. Also his toad is here. Just sitting on his shoulder. Occasionally being fed bits of cake from a special toad-reserved spoon. ]
Thank you all for coming! If I'm honest, I actually had a bit of trouble making friends when I came here. That was new to me. I'm all the more happy to have met all of you. You made me look forward to coming back to France after vacation.
((Feel free to post open top levels and just chit-chat with one another / interrupt conversations, as it tends to happen at group tables. Also no pressure to tag in, anyone who doesn't will just be seen as having been busy that day and not as having skipped his party, haha.))
no subject
James takes the phone and signs the form. ]
"Incidents".
[ Just repeating that, sounding pensive. ]
I'll take all responsibility, if that's really necessary, but is this really a way to treat any student?
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[It's business-like and perfunctory. Marcel takes the phone back.]
It's necessary.
[Whether he means signing the form or the use of the leash, or both, James may never know.]
Do you have any other questions, Mr. Griffin?
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None. We have this under control.
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Man, this surveillance business is a hassle and a half. Glad you could come anyway, Toki.
[ It's really creepy to know one of his friends is on a human leash 24/7 and they've fought the Herald. ]
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[He doesn't sound convinced, but he shouldn't speak out against the guard when someone may be listening in somehow. They always know what's going on.]
Anyway! I'm sorry you had to sign that, but I will pay for like any damages or whatever if something happens! Not that it will! I'm not going to have any visions anyway, so that has to help!
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It's okay, I don't mind signing for you to get some freedom at all. Just call me if you want some afternoons away from Marcel.
No visions though? How come?
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[James is a good friend, which he's a bit surprised by since their initial first encounter was so awkward.]
I'm using orichalcum.
[He points to his right ear. There's a cat earring.]
The post is orichalcum, because I didn't want to use too much of it, but like- it blocks visions from reaching me somehow- magic~! But I have them later, after I take it off. So like, if I was supposed to have like three visions at this party, tonight they'll all come at once. I did it before; I had an orichalcum bracelet that... didn't work out, and it took me a while to try it again.
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[ Not that he necessarily means to imply his own birthday party is an important event. He's more nerding out about the orichalcum itself here. When the magic world hasn't conspired to be the loudest and most inconvenient place in the world, it contains some pretty cool stuff. ]
Looks good, too.
[ Better than the rest of the outfit at least. ]
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[The party is certainly more important than classes, though.]
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[ And James means this fully genuinely. No traces of irony detected. Trying hard in school is good, even if the school is Daybreak and your teachers are monsters and criminals. ]
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[Unless he forgets which classes he has, or just never attends. Those things happen.]
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[ The cancellation announcement was the worst day ever, don't ask. ]
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I've been studying in the library on my own instead, since I'm like way behind anyway.
[He quickly scans the room for any obvious signs of being watched, then lowers his voice.]
I've also been looking into... certain things.
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Did you find out anything interesting?
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[He absolutely stole them, because he couldn't be gone long enough to check them out. It had to be seconds to escape Marcel and run all the way there and back.]
Anyway, there are human... factions, if you will, that support Nightfall. Mentions of cults talking about the sun being stolen, all written up as hoaxes of course... and other seers, or like people labelled insane with no mention of magic stuff, that have very specific and almost identical descriptions of these other worlds where daemons are gathering to destroy the earth. And they want to help. Mostly in exchange for things they think they can get through magic if the join the daemons... Some who just want to take the world down in flames. It's not just the Outlands. It's made me rethink things...
no subject
... enemies on both ends, then. Allies, too, but no clear-cut way to tell which side is which...
[ Us vs Them would have been so much easier. James almost longs for the war he'd imagined as a kid where everything was set up like teams in a soccer game. ]
What conclusions did you draw this time?
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[Toki considers how to word this for a minute. None of it's good, really.]
I think that Nightfall, or not Nightfall itself, but I mean the conflict? It's inevitable. We can't get anyone to discuss it or solve anything diplomatically, because there's too many sides and too many opinions, and like you said before, it's... a resource conflict, but it's also life or death for some. You can't reason with those people, and is it even reasoning? Because... everyone; humans, daemons, lycanthropes, all the Outland kingdoms and realms and everyone- I mean, I used to think that we're essentially the same, right? So things could be talked about and maybe resolved. But it's because we're the same that it's not going to work.
[There's a sad realization here.]
Anyone would kill to survive when it comes down to it, and kill for their families, and their way of life. I'd do it myself, if I had to. This war... is going to happen. That's why the Seers never have any other potential futures. Because it's happening no matter what. In every possible future. There's no escape. I understand that now.
[The dawn of Nightfall can't be prevented.]
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... that may be right. There's definitely groups that will want to start Nightfall no matter what we say. There's things we can't resolve by diplomacy. But... looking into Outland factions I found a lot that sound like they might be amenable to discussion. Before all of this, before you got me to think... I used to think the whole Outlands were evil and every teacher we have here was one of very few exceptions. Exceptions of such small numbers that it's not even worthwhile considering them.
I don't think that way anymore. I don't think that authority is always right anymore. What I do think is that... you have a point that it's strange that the Seers have simply accepted these outcomes. Even if the conflict is inevitable, we should still seek to find new ways to shape it, minimize it, make our odds better. We shouldn't sit here and accept casualties as a sad given. I saw the bodies... in the Herald battle. All those men and women from the UN, normal people, who just.... who were just tossed away.
[ He shudders at the memory. So many of them, alive one day, undead and pulverized the very next. ]
That can't have been inevitable. I refuse to think so.
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Those from the Outlands, and even some humans, told me something like that. When I had the website up. They feel the same about humans as you did about the Outlands. Rare exceptions and as a whole, evil. Nightfall may come too soon to do anything to prevent it when there's so many people on both sides who think that way, but it can't hurt to try. To maybe lessen the fallout. I agree.
[He closes his eyes at the mention of the Herald.]
It didn't have to happen like that. There was no point to it, just to keep the veil up, essentially. I'm sure that's why they did it, and not because of the Outlands encroaching. I'm still very against that, but I can't... I can't talk to a lot of people about it.
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[ And those are the people controlling everything. ]
Talking among ourselves and doing independent research still seem worth it in light of that. Even if we can't prevent Nightfall by seeking other ways... I think we learned a great many valuable things in the last months.
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Yeah. I maybe started with like accusations based on fear and assumptions, and even now, I don't think we should be completely complacent with anything said and still be... considering other options if something changes in what the Seers prophecize as we get closer. Whatever we do learn might be important later.
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You've grown up a lot this summer.
[ And yet, James can't say he feels like Toki's immature panic has been a negative force in his life either. Maybe it needed something this forceful to open his eyes. ]
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[It's sincere, and he's tried very hard to get to this point. It's nice to have acknowledgement that he's succeeded in his efforts somewhat. They've come a long way since their initial meeting, and one day, he'll be happy to work alongside James again.]