Viridian Dreams Forum

Max grins. "That's how these things usually go right? Everyone gets on the same team, roming around doing heroic stuff, and then they get a little too caught up in it and someone sacrifices themselves for everyone else? Sorry, just not my cup of tea." Making his way to the door, he walks out after Clara and Shannon, before calling back into the room. "Good luck guys." He shuts the door behind him.

Kirana has been watching the entire proceedings with a half-smile, expression unchanging even as the discussion grew more heated.
Now she says, "It is an honour to have met you at last, scion of Stephanos."
With a bright smile to all three of those leaving, she adds cheerfully, "I hope we can be friends."

Benny's jaw is agape. "How the hell did "band together for mutual protection" turn into "going around doing heroics and someone throwing themselves on a grenade"?" he wonders aloud, sounding a bit dazed.

At Kirana's Scion of Stephanos comment Max rolled his eyes with a smile. "Perhaps."

"Assumptions and Murphy's dark hand Ben. Besides you do come off as sort of white knight. That stupid stuff is what white knights do."

"Funny thing is, I'm better at playing Rogues than Paladins." He looks somewhat dejected. "If any of you want to leave as well, I'm not stopping you."

He murmurs quietly, nearly inaudibly; "I really did want to be their friend though..."

"To be honest Ben I have no idea what either of those things are."

Benny's reply is almost mechanical "Rogues are sneaky types; the trap-finders and sneak-attackers, the thieves and assassins. Paladins are essentially the epitome of White Knights, holy warriors infused with the power of their god so long as their faith remains unbroken."

"But in place where's there no gods a Paladin becomes kind of useless."

"Rogue, noun; scoundrel, dishonest person," Kirana murmurs. "Rogue, adjective; disobedient, traitorous. Paladin, noun; a knight who fights in the name of their god."
At Shawn's comment about no gods, she adds, "God is everywhere, Shawn, in the brightest of days and the darkest of nights."

"They're character classes in a game, the only real god there is the Game Master." Benny looks over the handful of people that are left. Ancell, Shawn, Nikola, Greg, and Kirana. Still a fairly diverse group, but nowhere near the potential overlap they'd had not even a few minutes ago.

"I'm not going to argue about the existence of God. But the point is that this isn't a game. Thinking about it in those terms is just asking for blood and tears."

"Seriously behaving as if this is a game is foolish," Kirana says, "but games can be effectively used as analogies. Chess is popular for such comparisons."

Benny slumps against the wall, head against his knees. "The only way I've managed to cope so far is by telling myself that I've been dropped into a hellish combination of Shadowrun and D&D. Otherwise, I think I'd simply run out the front doors screaming. I mean, magic? A school that forces attendance, to the point of giving you the choice of attending or death? A place where I've see two people get struck down right in front of me within hours of arriving? It's just too much!"

Shawn gets that far away look again.
"Yeah this entire system is #@!$^* up. But the only way to get out is to survive. Focus on that. Everything else flows from there."

Kirana gets up, walks over to Benjamin, and lightly touches one hand to his shoulder.
"Even to one who expected it, this place can be overwhelming at times," she says softly. "But it is possible to graduate. You have a chance. We all do."

Nikola has remained quiet through this whole scene, though he seems disturbed by the thought of someone being an infiltrator. He puts the discarded magazine back into his bag, and stands adjusting his glasses nervously.

"Um, I'll try and help as much as I can. I...I know better than most that being a loner is painting a target on your back."

He drops his head.

"Though I don't know how much help I'll be."

Benny lifts his head, and a small wan smile is directed at Kirana, before looking in Nokola's direction. "Like I said before, even a different point of view can help us out here."

Shawn seems to think for a minute.

"Every little bit helps. I can't say I'll join up fully. Just too far apart for that to work. But I'll do what I can and I won't be an enemy."

Benny's voice is tired as he replies "at this point I think that's the best I can hope for from anyone is just a loose promise of non-enmity." He seems to be thinking aloud now "maybe I should have waited a few weeks, let everyone get to know each other before I pitched this?"

Shawn shrugs

"Maybe maybe not. I don't know."

*I cannae cut loose. I refuse to be like him. I have to keep it together. I willnae lose control*
Ancell repeats these words to himself in his head, even as his fists grip tighter and tighter. By the time Clara, Shannon, and Max leave the room, his fingernails had drawn blood. A few seconds after they left, he couldn't hold it in anymore. He turns around and punches the wall with all his strength. However, all that happened was a hollow 'thunk' and a small spattering of his own blood. Ancell seemed even more irritated. Things hadn't been the same since...what happened. His strength was cut in half, and he never seemed to have enough energy.

Taking a few deep breaths to try and calm himself, Ancell turns to Benny. "The b#?!* pisses me off. We're better off without her." As he truly begins to calm down, he registers what some of the others said.

*...that kid.*

Ancell walks over to Nikola, and puts a bloody hand on his shoulder. Not even noticing the stain his hand is putting on the boys shirt, he looks seriously into the kid's face.

"Hey."

edit: hmm, I wasn't informed by the site about bookworm's post before I posted.

ig:

Greg is rather concerned about Ancell's behavior, but looks to the others and tries to change the subject.

"There definitely have to be gangs and groups already established around here." Greg speaks up.

"And you know it goes beyond students. You can bet groups outside the school have their own little branches in here looking to recruit or rub out future competition. We can either stay real low and hope we don't get noticed or caught up in anything, or we make friends with one of those groups or someone with a lot of pull. Either way, we need at least need to be aware of the people around this place and outside it. Max seems like he was born into this sort of thing, he probably has some idea."

"You think their's groups outside this place with magic? That just makes things more screwed up."

"Maybe there's secret society $*&^ like the Skulls going on. I don't know, but it wouldn't surprise me. But not just that. Corporations and organized crime too. But you can't discount small gangs either. They can last and gain a lot of power in any kind of community. You all saw people gathering around before, right? Usually by race or class."