Open ♔ You there, with your weak heart all a-waver

[priforprince]

Who: Hibiki Shikyoin & Daybreak at large
What: A Celebrity arrives to make a Tremendous Announcement.
When: December 4
Where: Quad & courtyard, in front of the Main Hall
Warnings: Pomp. Circumstance. Flying pirate ships. Hibiki.

[ What had been a quiet day in the Daybreak Academy quad is interrupted by the sound, faint at first and then growing louder, of a trumpet fanfare. And then, possibly, some violins.

Anyone who heads outside to see exactly why the air itself is seeing fit to reverberate with a classical march will discover a rather striking aeronautical vehicle turning a slow but steady circle above campus. From over the sides of the ship, purple roses and lilies fall like shoujo rain. They are accompanied by golden calling cards.

Anyone who tries to pick up one of the flowers will discover their hand whiffing right through them - someone is seeing fit to scatter the area with illusions. The cards, however, are real. One side is emblazoned with a crown emblem. The other side reads: ]

You are cordially invited to the dawn of revolution. Gather near the Main Hall.

[ Those who ignore the cards may go about their days unimpeded. Those who heed them, however, will find the airborne ship paused over a newly-erected stage in front of the Main Hall, next to which a rosebush larger than the average human sits in an opulent pot. A man in a goat suit stands next to the bush, as unobtrusively as someone who's decided to go out in public dressed like that can stand.

The ship hovers above everyone. Nothing happens for a good minute or so. And then, just as the sense of dramatic anticipation reaches its peak -

A figure in a blue velour prince costume vaults over the side of the ship, trailing purple sparkles in her wake. She lands in the direct center of the stage, having turned a somersault on her way down. And when she straightens up, she accepts the microphone the goat person offers her on a small velvet cushion, turns to the audience, and addresses them thusly: ]

Everyone, I've kept you waiting. This is Hibiki Shikyoin.

[ "Hibiki Shikyoin?" someone asks. "The mage who's also a movie star?"

"The one whose eyelashes are insured for five solid gold bars - each???"

Hibiki lets the murmurs ripple, then continues. ]

I've arrived today to reveal my noble mission. As things stand, Daybreak Academy is like a pile of muddy rocks being passed off as diamonds. Even if a true ore were buried within it, no brilliance could ever hope to shine through.

But all is not lost. [ She lifts her chin in a handsome, purposeful pose. ] Casting aside the dredge-sipping drudgery of "missions" and such, I hereby create the position of Daybreak Academy Principal and appoint myself. Unlike your facile faculty, I'll grant students of true potential the polish of refinement!

[ She snaps her fingers. Gardening tools fly upwards, set upon the rosebush. In a matter of moments, they've completed their task - and what had been an unpruned plant has become a topiary statue of Hibiki herself.

Hibiki, standing in front of "Hibiki", raises her arms above her head. ] Elation is best. Together with me - the ultimate Radiance!

[ The pirate ship's cannons "fire" illusory confetti over the crowd. It spirals down around Hibiki, her smile itself alight.

With self-satisfaction, and the secure knowledge no one could ever take umbrage with this. ]

Comments

[silksoul]

All you do is keep using metaphors. You haven't explained anything about how you're going to teach.

[ Hornet has no patience for this elaborate hard-working performance stuff and is as to the point as her needle is.

This makes her an incredibly difficult person to deal with. Sorry, Hibiki. ]

[priforprince]

Shall we arrange a demonstration, then?

[ Is Hibiki raring for a challenge or does she not know how to explain herself in words without using metaphors? The prince is mysterious. ]

I'll grant you the honor of my first private lesson.

[ Behind her, Ando stands at attention. He doesn't know where this is going yet, but he's pretty sure that if Hornet accepts, he's going to be called upon to do something. ]

[silksoul]

If you want to waste your time. I'm no Candle, and no untrained novice either.

[ She crosses her arms and doesn't just immediately leave, so she's at least mildly invested even if it's just to see where this goes. ]

[priforprince]

[ This snort encompasses Hibiki's opinion of everybody who isn't a Candle quite nicely. ] What's a non-Candle's business at a school for Radiance?

[ Is it possible that she....hadn't snooped as thoroughly as she'd thought she had....? How could her surveillance have a gap in it?!

it certainly isn't because learning things during the thread is more interesting than handwaving

or because it's funny ]

[silksoul]

There's many things for someone without Radiance to learn.

[ What she intends to learn them for, why she's here to learn them, that sort of thing? Nah, she's not gonna say that. ]

You assumed this was a school just for Candles?

[priforprince]

Increasing Radiance is my ideal project.

[ Hibiki is refusing to back down, here. ]

Still, I'm willing to witness your abilities. Other types of magic may serve as suitable whetstones.

[ And/or be the source of her ETERNAL ADORATION AND LONGING but we only talk about that when we feel like it. ]

[silksoul]

[ She eyes Hibiki silently. After a moment of consideration, she decides to go along with it. There's probably no harm in demonstrating her abilities. ]

...Choose a target. Not yourself, nor anything living.

[ Explain herself? Perish the thought. ]

[priforprince]

[ Oho. Hibiki lifts her chin. ] Ando.

[ The butler snaps to attention. At first, he looks startled - has Maa-ster Hibiki forgotten he’s a living thing?! - but then he realizes he is being called upon to prepare the maa-rea, instead. ”Yes, Maa-ster Hibiki!”

And he pulls a long chain of folding screens out of seemingly nowhere, erecting them around Hibiki and Hornet to signal to the audience that their chance to witness Shikyoin Hibiki in the flesh has just concluded. When this is finished, he sets up a marble pillar and places an elaborate flower arrangement atop it, bows, and glides backwards.

Very. Far baa-ckwards. Just in case.

Hibiki, too, steps aside a pace - for a better view. ] Go ahead.

[ She will watch carefully. ]

[silksoul]

[ Hornet eyes the flower arrangement for a moment, then snaps her hands apart, bright, magical thread shimmering between her fingers like the start of a cat's cradle.

She might be able to make it look effortless if she tried hard enough, but that's not what she's proving here. It's a demonstration of her simplest skills. So she proceeds at her own pace, spinning out threads and connecting them to the folding screens and the pillar. She leaves the flower arrangement alone and untouched for now.

Without the slightest hint of warning, Hornet yanks her arm back, and the folding screens converge rapidly on the pillar, the whole contraption tied together by her magic. She makes slight adjustments as they fly through the air, eyes fixed on her new creation, ensuring that they begin to collapse together as they converge.

The blast of displaced air the screens create sends the lightweight flower arrangement soaring upwards. Hornet is there beside Hibiki one second and gone the next, propelling herself upward and through the air in an arc on a single thread connected to the pillar.

She plucks the falling flowers from the air as she goes past, without any midair adjustments, and lands on the top of the marble pillar.

(If it was something more disposable, she might have chosen to destroy it with her needle instead, but it seems wasteful to do that with an arrangement.)

She brandishes the flowers like a weapon. They're completely intact. ]

Are you satisfied?

[priforprince]

[ Hibiki has a surprised look on her face for about half a second when Hornet shows her the flowers. That was.....What kind of magic was that—Threads? Threads and speed and fine motor control....

But then, as if by habit, her face remembers she’s spent ten years squinting arrogantly and the smarm pops back into place. ] Well, your staging isn’t unacceptable.

[ Ando has a little notebook out and is writing in it. He knows who’s going to have to search for references to such maa-gic later. ]

[silksoul]

Its looks are of no concern to me. All I desire is that it works. [ She lowers the screens to the ground before retracting the thread, leaving the flowers on the pillar as she nimbly leaps down.

She just kind of walks past Hibiki, clearly feeling that she's demonstrated what she wanted to and therefore this conversation, to her, is now at an end. ]

[priforprince]

[ Hibiki's pretty much done, too. Almost. One thing remains: ]

I'll look forward to seeing whether your web can expand upon my stage.

[ Getting the last word! ]