WINTER TERM OPENING CEREMONY AND CLASS START

[thewatchers]

WINTER TERM OPENING CEREMONY AND CLASS START
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The snowfall has only intensified as Daybreak moves into the first day of Winter Term classes. A school-wide orientation will be held in the auditorium, followed by an open period where tours will be given to new students by student volunteers. After a noon lunch in the main hall, short introduction classes will be held where the syllabi will be distributed and professors can give a brief overview of what they’ll be covering over the term.

A. ORIENTATION ASSEMBLY

With a new school year comes a fresh address. The orientation assembly is one of the few times that the Headmistress and High Seer, Mila Duchene, speaks to the gathered faculty and students about their purpose and why they’ve been found and gathered here. About how Nightfall looms ever closer, and how together they will be the flames who light the coming darkness.

It is, in the manner of many orientation speeches, fairly long-winded. Those who have been here for more than a year have likely heard this speech before, though it’s slightly more urgent this time. Maybe it’s a good time to get to know the people on either side of you a little better while the Headmistress talks, because you’ll be here for a while. Or maybe you’ve planned ahead, and you have something to entertain you at orientation - much to the shared entertainment or dismay of others in your vicinity, perhaps.

Or you could actually be listening to the speech. It’s up to you.


B. SCHOOL TOUR

For students fresh to the academy, the sprawling nature and architecture of Daybeak Academy can be quite intimidating. Fortunately, helpful student volunteers have been tapped to help escort the new students around and give them a feel for campus. Student volunteers are typically chosen for both their experience on campus and helpful nature. While some scripts are provided, students are encouraged to ad-lib and put their own spin on campus and what they like about it. New students are, of course, encouraged to ask as many questions as they can to make sure they fully understand and familiarize themselves with the campus as quickly as possible.

C. SNACK STATION

During the first three days after the Holiday break, throughout the campus grounds are small stations manned by the kitchen staff and volunteers, the smell of hot chocolate, cider, and frying bread fills the air, stirring the appetite and promising warmth on this cold winter’s day.

Every booth has hot chocolate, some spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg, others rich and creamy, but always with an option for marshmallows, peppermint bark or caramel drizzles - with non-alcoholic hot cider for those with an allergy to chocolate. For food options, naturally being France there are crepes of all types and beignets on offer, with jam- or custard-filled berliners, while those looking for a more savory fare will be treated to rissoles - a fried bread stuffed with minced meat or bechamel sauce and cod.

While the drinks are on tap and readily available, it may take a few moments to get the treats out, so might as well make conversation while a fresh batch is made.

code bases by tricklet

Comments

[yokeye]

They're usually very vivid with lots of bright colors, I guess. In the library it was like a maze corridor with bright lights and then it cut off on all sides and one panel on a wall had a painting of a preying mantis with a crown and some ants fighting in the background bleeding yellow. The mantis started like singing or chanting in some weird language and there was a clicking noise and the lights were flickering and the walls and the ceiling just closed in until they were crushing me and bones broke.

I don't know how long it was, I didn't look at the time or have any warning before it happens and I didn't ask anyone who's been there. I don't know if it's technically side effects, but I still feel things from whatever I saw for a minute, and there's like a stabbing migraine thing but it doesn't last long either.

[leekspins]

A mantis...?

[She doesn't know what that would symbolize. She's also not sure why ants would bleed yellow. Maybe it's a sign of fear...? The crown seems to indicate that the mantis might be some sort of boss or leader, but she has no idea.]

[Her brow furrows as she perches her chin on her fist, thinking. Tatsumaki might know better than she does. Secretly, she hates that his visions seem so brutal and painful. That's so scary...! And yet he's able to smile and laugh so easily.]

[Is he...faking it...?]

[tsunderetornado]

[She listens, but her visions aren't symbolic. They're almost cinematic in quality, very vivid and clear imagery of events to come, frequently accompanied with sound, and sometimes even her other senses get a faint preview.]

The first thing I'm going to suggest is writing down any associations the things you're seeing might have for you. Even if it's a weird childhood memory that you don't think has any significance.

[She crosses her arms in front of her, eyes shut as she thinks.]

Get out books on dream interpretation, too, but don't take them as absolute truth. They're what people most commonly associate with symbols, like when people have a dream about their teeth falling out, they're worried about how people see them.

[yokeye]

[He has never written down anything, just dismissed them all as completely nonsensical without meaning. Can a chanting preying mantis, or bees with eyes on their bodies, actually stand for something? Toki has serious doubts, and he's really never in the right frame of mind afterwards to make notes. That, and he doesn't want to remember the weirdness to begin with.]

Ha, that should have been an obvious thing to do~!

[They were pretty dream-like, so her suggestion of researching interpretations is logical, though he hadn't thought to look up dreams at all when in the library earlier. Both of Tatsumaki's recommendations were common sense really, and he should have been writing things down from the start.]

Dream interpretation is definitely a good idea~! Why don't I just start there, and not waste any more of your time with this~?

[He's an idiot who brought this on himself, and he should be at least putting more effort into figuring this out on his own.]

[tsunderetornado]

[She shakes her head.]

If I thought it was a waste of time, I would have told you that.

[That's about as nice as she's going to be about this. She's silent for a moment, thinking. While she's no psychiatrist, her telepathy gives her a lot of insight into the way people's minds work, and she's actively researched psychology. She likes to be good at what she does. She takes pride in it.]

It almost seems like a mental defense. By making you see everything symbolically instead of directly, it's easier to emotionally distance yourself from it. Then you have to take some time to think and analyze it.

[yokeye]

[He hasn't been at all emotionally involved with anything he's seen after the fact. Which is good really, and he'd like to keep it that way.]

So... I should like find something in symbolic meanings that connects emotionally?

[He doesn't completely understand what she's getting at.]

[tsunderetornado]

[Well, it's not a bad idea...]

That could help with interpretation, but that's not what I was talking about.

[She's not sure how much she wants to get into her visions and the things she's seen in them. It's probably best to not be specific.]

I've seen some violent and bloody things in my visions. Impalement. People being crushed. Burned alive.

[Highly unpleasant things, in other words. It's part of the reason she's so intensely focused on being strong, and why she's able to be so businesslike about the topic.]

You seem like someone with a kind nature. So your mind might be protecting itself from seeing these kinds of things happening to people. Especially considering how often it happens. If it doesn't seem real, then it's like watching someone's disturbing animated short rather than it being something horrible you know is going to happen to someone.

[yokeye]

I've seen all those things too, only the... settings?... aren't clear and there's so many other weird things happening at the same time and it's never happening to someone else, it's always me. I guess with that protection idea, maybe that's why I don't see who's actually involved with whatever's supposed to happen...

[Disturbing animated short was a very accurate description.]

[tsunderetornado]

More than likely. My visions are very clear and there's never any question of who's getting hurt.

[Which can be alarming, but it's kind of desensitized her. She doesn't balk when she sees something scary. She heads right for it and goes ham on the threat.]

It gives you some separation from what you've seen. Dream symbolism plus analyzing your own associations should help you get a clearer idea of what's going to happen without necessarily knowing who it's going to happen to.

[yokeye]

[This was making sense now.]

Your advice is very helpful, Tatsumaki-chan~!

[He might actually try to follow it.]

[tsunderetornado]

[At that, she just nods. She's done what she came here to do and given Tokidoki some direction.]

Then I'm going to leave now. Orihime, I'll see you back in our dorm. Tokidoki, if you're still having trouble after you start working on this, there are people in the Watchers I can talk to. Try everything I've told you first, and work at it.

[She doesn't want to bother the Watchers until he's explored all reasonable avenues on his own, but it's an option. Credit where credit is due, the faculty do try to take care of the students here and accommodate them where reasonably possible.]

[leekspins]

[Orihime's been listening quietly, keenly interested in the specific details of how to interpret visions. She knows how Tatsumaki's generally work, but to hear the sharp contrast between her divinations and Tokidoki's...she didn't know they could be so dissimilar.]

[He said the painful things always happened to him. Maybe he was the type of person who wished to suffer in someone else's place. Or perhaps he suffered as a side effect of seeing someone he cared about get hurt. No one wanted to see bad things happen to their friends or family. And the abstract qualities meant he was emotionally distancing himself...?]

[Her head snaps up at the sound of her name, and she blinks once before shaking off her pensive expression.]

Okay! Thank you for coming on such short notice!

[She turned toward Tokidoki and beamed proudly. Wasn't Tatsumaki the coolest?]