Kingdom Academy

[phoenixianCrystallist]

Kingdom Academy: Act 1
Setting: Academy Grounds; Land of Departure
Late Fall | Mid-morning, around 10 A.M.

It's the morning before classes start, and students are milling about as they try to get themselves settled in. Class schedules have been announced, as well as teachers assigned. Some teachers are wandering about campus to help keep mayhem to a reasonable amount, however most are finishing up preparations for their classes. The only teachers who are not yet in residence are Master Eraqus, who will be arriving later tonight, and Terra, Ven, and Aqua, who will be arriving at the end of the week. Dorm rooms have been assigned and aired out in preparations for the students moving in. Some had already gotten settled into their rooms, and are merely prowling the grounds and halls to find the quickest routes to their classrooms. Others are just arriving.

The season is late fall. The sky is clear with a few fat clouds coming in from the west. The sun provides warmth, and there is a cool breeze. The temperature is mild enough that the windows and doors to the outside stand open.

The dorm rooms are relatively large; they hold two beds, two small dressers, two desks, two small bookcases built into the headboards of the beds, and still have enough room for movement without one running the risk of colliding with his or her roommate. There is no assignment based on year, and students of different years may share the same room. Baths are located at the end of each hall, and include three large tubs that can hold up to three students comfortably (six if they're really good friends) each, toilet stalls, and a row of sinks.

Teacher's rooms include a bedroom with bed and wardrobe, a sitting room with a desk, bookshelf, and private weapon and armor racks, and a private bathroom with tub, shower, toilet, and sink. Teachers may share a suite of rooms, though most do not. Those who do share will have a suite with two bedrooms, unless they are married or otherwise sharing a bed.

 

[phoenixianCrystallist]

{Mizu .:. Land of Departure .:. Dorm Room 118}

Chip and Dale chattered rapidly at the tops of their little lungs, quite happy to be re-arranging their Keeper's possessions in anticipation of a new room mate. Since she had no home of her own to go to during the summer, Mizu simply stayed in her dorm and spent her time exploring the Academy and Traverse Town, which was only a short train ride away.

"Who do you think they'll assign to us, Mizu?" Chip asked as he and Dale wrestled one of Mizu's knives into place on her weapon's rack.

"Who knows?" Mizu responded as she folded a pair of socks. "Whoever she is, she can't be as bad as the last one."

"I didn't like her, she was mean. And had that snaky thing," Dale put in, making a face as he tried to imitate the serpent-like Galiant their last roommate had. Chip rolled his eyes.

"Well, Master Eraqus promised to make sure he didn't assign another Galiant that would be only too happy to eat you guys," Mizu pointed out. She'd moved on to another pair of socks by now.  

[Je suis a toi]

[Zikomo ~ Land of Departure ~ Dorm Room 118]

There. She made it. Her dorm room was just in front of her, but she couldn't see inside it yet. Zikomo took a moment to compose herself, hanging from her ledge with both hands. Hanging. She wasn't exactly inside the building. It was a part of her mission for this school year--enter and exit every room in the most creative way possible. It was her way of testing herself and her problem solving skills. If it was possible to never enter a room in the same way twice then she would do so. If not, she would practice the most difficult ones until perfect. The current one was going to be one of the easiest and least creative--window entry. She had gone to the highest classroom tower and scaled down to her assigned dorm room. She only hoped her spatial reasoning and counting lead her to the correct one. Too late to recalculate now, she was already ready for entry.

The room already had an occupant, making this even more of a challenge, and even more fun. The girl was sitting on her bed, seemingly chatting with her Galiants, facing away from the window. Perfect. Her own Galiant, Morph, was floating beside her, playfully taking on the form of some glass cutters. She shook her head at him to decline the offer. It wouldn't be too polite to be cutting holes in people's windows, even if it was her own. Waiting until the girl's Galiants were also distracted, Zikomo slipped the window open and padded into the room from her ledge like a cat. Just as soundlessly she sat on the second bed and looked at her new roommate.

"'Allo!" She greeted the girl with a smile, finally revealing her presence.  

[phoenixianCrystallist]

{Mizu .:. Land of Departure .:. Dorm Room 118}

Mizu nearly jumped a foot at the sound of a strange voice coming from the second bed. She hadn't heard the door open, hadn't heard anything indicating someone had entered the room, and suddenly there was someone else with a pink amorphous blob sharing space with her! Instead of jumping like a normal person would have, however, Mizu immediately snatched up the dagger laying on top of her headboard and brandished the naked blade at the newcomer.

"Oh!" Mizu exclaimed on seeing that the girl was smiling, and merely sitting. There was nothing threatening in the girl's pose, which put Mizu a bit at ease, and sent a faint blush across her cheeks. "Don't sneak up on me like that!"

"Yeah, what's the big idea?" Dale seconded, perching on Mizu's shoulder and frowning at the newcomer.  

[Je suis a toi]

[Zikomo ~ Land of Departure ~ Dorm Room 118]

Zikomo's eyes flashed to the weapon in the girl's hand but she reacted little more. The distance between them gave her ample time to move should her roommate decide to lunge, so she wasn't concerned. Morph, however, would never be accustomed to sudden movements by others and gave a pitiful cry, expanding to look like a splat on a wall before hiding behind his Keeper. The sleuth put her hands up apologetically and waved them to get the poor startled girl to calm down.

"Sorry-sorry-sorry!" Ziko exclaimed, still smiling. "My intention wasn't to scare you! . . . Well . . . okay, yeah it was, but only a little. I was really just trying to get in unnoticed. Uhh, point for me? I'm not one for good first impressions it seems, mah bad. My name is Zikomo, you can call me Ziko, Zee, Mo, whatever the hell you please so long as it is not b***h . . . this is room 118, riiiiight?"  

[phoenixianCrystallist]

{Mizu .:. Land of Departure .:. Dorm Room 118}

"It's fine," Mizu said, placing the dagger back on the headboard. "It's just... I grew up on the streets, and usually people sneaking into bedrooms meant someone was gonna get shanked."

"Just knock next time, please?" Chip asked. He seemed a little less phased than Mizu and Dale did. Mizu reached out to pat Chip on the head.

"I'm Mizu," the blonde said, as if Chip hadn't spoken. "These are Chip and Dale. This was dorm 118 last I checked. I don't think anyone's up to pranking by switching out the room numbers just yet."  

[LevDa]

[Rebecca~ Land of Departure ~ Dorm Room 116]

"Iago we are here." Rebecca said to the small red bird sitting on her shoulder. She quietly put her hand onto the door. She opened it and strolled in with her stuff.

"This is a lot better than the last place we got right Rebecca?" Iago squawked as he flew around the room having nowhere to land.

Rebecca quickly set up the stand she had gotten for Iago and wiped her forehead. "I would rather not talk about that Iago." Rebecca whispered before opening up some of her bags. "Alright Iago get to it!"

"Oh come on Rebecca!" Iago groaned before landing on the ground and tried to pick up a book with his talons. "You do it you lazy bum! I can't even lift the stuff that you packed."

Rebecca quickly turned to the bird and pushed her glasses up smirking. "Fine then Iago, I will help you." Rebecca giggled and using her strength along with Iagos lifted the book. Little did Iago know of Rebecca's plan.

Rebecca with her fast reflexes grabbed the book from Iago and tried to throw the book at him. Iago flew up in order to dodge the book but the book made a very loud slam on the left wall in Rebecca's room.

"Rebecca what was that?" Iago shouted at his keeper and looked at the wall. "That was really loud!"
"Whoops." Rebecca said before going back to setting her side of the room up. "Next time try to help without a fuss okay?" Iago sighed before resuming what he was doing before and hoped that they had not caused too much of a ruckus.  

[Gentleman Knives]

[ Garret : Land of Departure : Dorm Room 123]

"Hey, Aren't you the least bit curious?"

Garret sighed. He'd finally finished unpacking his things and was about ready to take a nice restful nap. Of course his Galiant, unstable ball of energy that he was, was having none of it.

"Curious about what, Peter? I know my schedule, I'm fairly sure most of my friends haven't gotten here yet, and I'm not quite in the mood to bug the staff."

Peter Pan huffed, as he floated above his partner, who was lying on the bed with one eye open and a sour expression on his face.

"Curious about your new roommate, of course. Maybe, he'll have some kind of super cool partner like a Dragon, or a pirate or-"

"As long as the guy gives me my space, I don't care what my roommate has as a Galiant."

"Oh, your no fun, you know that?"

"I'm plenty of fun Pete, you just can't appreciate the subtle nuances of joy I experience when I give my eyes a short rest."


"Yeah, I'm sure I can't gramps." Peter retorted mockingly

With that Garret shut his other eye, but kept his ears open for when the door opened. He was, admittedly a slight bit curious as to the identity of his knew roommate, but not as much as Peter.

Then again, Peter was a person became filled with rapturous joy when sea salt ice cream was served in the dining hall, so that was just a divergence of personality.  

[Je suis a toi]

[Zikomo ~ Land of Departure ~ Dorm Room 118]

Zikomo did a fist pump with a degree of elation, "Yes! I can count! Nice ta meetcha Mizu, Cale, Dip . . . waaaait. Where's Morph?"

The teen stood, unaware of her unintentional and benign name flub, and spun about to see if she could find where Morph had hidden himself. As her back was turned to her new roommate she would see a curious little tarsier clinging to the back of her vest. Ziko turned back to face them with a look of confusion on her face

"Where'd that little sucker go? Morph, come out and introduce yourse--there you are!" The fifth-year discovered the tarsier climbing up onto her shoulder and grabbed it. Holding it in one hand she tickled it with the finger of her other. The little creature squealed and wiggled until it returned to its original appearance--an amorphous, pink blob.

She held him out and smiled as he puttered around the room and squeaked 'wheeeeeeeeeeee!' "That's Morph. He's playful, but can be a pain. He shouldn't bother you too much, he gets too much joy out of tormenting just me."

Just as Zikomo was about to make a grab for Morph a loud slam sounded from the wall connecting their dorm room with another. Morph returned to his keeper and sank into her vest pocket. Making a slight face the pale girl walked up to the wall and knocked on it.

"Halooooooooooooooo?"  

[LevDa]

[Rebecca || Land of Departure || Dorm Room 116]

"Now you did it!" Iago said, landing on his perch listening to the wall where the book had been thrown.

Rebecca sighed at the bird before walking over to the wall in question and knocked on it lightly. "S-sorry!" Rebecca squeaked at the wall in question or to the person behind the wall. Her demeanor completely changed from her interaction between her and Iago. "I kind of tried to throw a book at my galiant and it missed! He is always getting me into trouble."

Iago flew over to the wall and tried to hit the girl on the head. "I am not the one always getting you into trouble!" Iago said loud enough that the person on the other side of the wall could hear. "You are the one who was lazy!" Iago then preceded to chase his keeper around the room.

"Eeep!" Rebecca squeaked loudly as she tried to avoid her crazy companion and ran around the room, hoping she didn't leave a bad impression on her neighbors.  

[ArcanaFate]

[Artemis :: Land of Departure :: Dorm Room 123]

"Well, are you excited? You get a new roommate this year!" The large skeleton exclaimed, his thin frame dwarfing his partner. The young man looked up, raising a brow at Jack from underneith his fedora. "Well, you ask this every year, and every year, I've told you the same thing. No matter who I have as a roommate, all I care about is being top of the class. If they're annoying," he paused, narrowing his eyes, "I will destroy them. Destroy them with FIRE." He declared, his Galiant frowning in response.

"But what about making friends?" The Galiant inquired, patting the short man on the head. "Friends? I haven't needed friends for the five years I've been here. And before you say 'What about Zero', I'll tell you right now, she is my rival." He snapped, sticking his key into his door, turning the doorknob enough to open it slightly before giving it a large kick, slamming the door open full force. Artemis liked to make an entrance, if nothing else. His gaze focused on his roommate, who was apparently asleep. Jack leaned over, appearing almost upside down.

"Greetings and salutations! My name is Jack!" The skeleton exclaimed, extending a large bony hand towards the two.  

[phoenixianCrystallist]

{Mizu .:. Land of Departure .:. Dorm Room 118}

"Hey! That's Chip--"

"And Dale!" the chipmunks protested. Mizu just laughed at her new roommate's mix-up of her Galiant's names, and managed to get herself under control as Ziko tried to find her Galiant. She almost said something when she saw something clinging to the other's back, but Ziko beat her to it.

"Nice to meet you, too," she said. "Don't worry about Morph bothering us. Already you two are much better than our last roommate and her Galiant!"

"Yeah, Morph hasn't tried to eat us!" Dale put in. He seemed to have relaxed a bit thanks to Ziko's playful attitude, and Morph's apparent shyness. That was about when something slammed into the wall shared with room 116. Chip and Dale jumped, but Mizu just rolled her eyes.

"Maybe you should get Terra to give you extra lessons in how to aim!" the ex-thief shouted at the girl next door after hearing the explanation behind the bang. It probably wasn't heard, as whoever was in there shrieked. Mizu guessed her Galiant was retaliating for having the blame placed on it.  

[Gentleman Knives]

[ Garret : Land of Departure : Room 123]

'Why me?' Garret thought, his ears ringing from the door slamming against the wall.

Opening his eyes, Garret found himself staring directly into the face of some sort of skeleton creature with empty eye sockets and a stitched up mouth. Admittedly, not what he expected, but after that weird tiger that his last roommate had it was an improvement.

"Hello Jack, I'm Garret. The boy in green hovering over there is my Galiant, Peter." he said in as deadpan a tone as he could muster, slowly reaching out to shake one of the being's hands.

Peter, for his part, grabbed the other one with both hands and started shaking it furiously.

"Wow! So what are you exactly? Some kind of skeleton or scarecrow? Do you need to eat? Can you do anything cool with that body of your's or are you just really tall?"

 

[ArcanaFate]

[Artemis :: Land of Departure :: Room 123]

Artemis made a beeline for a bed, quickly lying down and adjusting the headphones around his neck. He gazed at Jack, who was trying answer all of Peter's rapid questions. "Well, I'm a skeleton. No, I don't need to eat....Uh, well, I can set myself on fire and I'm very flexible!" The skeleton said smiling, attempting to lower his tall frame underneath the doorway. He grinned reaching the other side, but was switched to a frown when his head bumped the ceiling.

Artemis chuckled, turning onto his side and eyeing his roommate up and down. "...What year are you in, Garret?" Jack looked towards his partner, asking with a cheerful tone, "Did you introduce yourself yet, Artemis? You need to be polite to your roommate."  

[Je suis a toi]

[Zikomo ~ Land of Departure ~ Dorm Room 118]

"Oh! My bad little gents." Ziko chuckled, "You sure you wouldn't mind a nickname, Dale? Chip and Dip is rather cute. But considering you had issues with getting eaten before I suppose it wouldn't be wise."

She pulled Morph out of her vest pocket and encouraged him to go get to know Mizu's Galiants. He zipped over and around them before settling between the two chipmunks. Zikomo heard voices in the hallway that were familiar so she went and stuck her head out the door. Her eyes caught Artemis and Jack as they went into their dorm room. A smile pulled at her lips as she thought about the year-long battle they were going to have. She would have to pester him later. Looking back at her side of the room she realized how empty it was. Her belongings still sat in the tower she'd climbed down from and she would have to retrieve them before a teacher stumbled upon them.

"Oh poo, I've left my stuff. Be right back!" Ziko told her roommate before promptly disappearing. She used Teleportation to bring herself to her trunk and shoulder bag, grabbed them, and teleported back to the same exact spot she'd been standing in previously. "Well that was an adventure."