• Solo • We are all etherists! (Part 1)

[Devin]

Cylus 5, Arc 721

On the 5th of Cylus, Devin Thorn, thief, conman extraordinaire and priest of Delroth was standing in front of the full-length mirror in his luxurious bedroom and trying to decide what he should wear. The new season at university had just started, and that was a very important occasion – and an opportunity to stand out and send his classmates a message – that he was here and that they should please look at him and admire him!

Eventually, he decided on a waistcoat, because waistcoats were in fashion that season. He didn’t put on just any waistcoat though. His waistcoat was of very high quality and obviously expensive. It was a bright shade of purple that matched the color of his eyes perfectly and complemented his pale skin quite nicely on top of it which was something that was important.

The color of your clothes should complement your skin tone!

Under the waistcoat was a black shirt, because black and purple were such a nice combination, and over the waistcoat was … not another article of clothing, but a silver chain. His rings were made of adamantite though. Everybody on Scalvoris mixed different metals these trials, but he had started doing it first!

He had just brushed his hair and taken care of his nails (The greatest outfit in the world wasn’t really worth anything if you neglected your nails!) when he realized something very important. He was wearing socks, but he had been so busy with his waistcoat and his jewelry and everything else that he had forgotten to put pants on for some reason – which was something that he quickly took care of. He was not easily embarrassed but walking through Scalvoris Town without pants was something that was just not done!

Approximately half a break later, he finally ventured into the kitchen, his outfit for that very important trial that included purple pants to match his waistcoat and his eyes now complete, in order to eat breakfast, smiling at his roommate Aidan who was already sitting there, enjoying a cup of coffee with lots of cream and a piece of bread with butter and jam.

When he saw Devin, the slightly older man raised an eyebrow as if he were wondering about the Mortalborn’s very purple outfit, before he asked, “So, which classes do you have to-trial? And are you excited? Myself, I’m really looking forward to the new season. We will finally discuss diachronic linguistics more extensively!” he added in an obviously excited tone of voice (he was a linguist, and very passionate about that subject).

Devin filled a cup with coffee (Aidan had fortunately left some for him!), grabbed a bit of bread and slid onto the chair opposite of his roommate, briefly furrowing his brow as he struggled to remember what his timetable said before he exclaimed triumphantly, “Transmutation! I have a class on Transmutation to-trial! By the way, what are diachronic linguistics?” he wanted to know because he wasn’t really familiar with that term. He knew what a chronic condition was – he was an extremely skilled doctor, after all – but he didn’t think that languages could be chronic. That wouldn’t make any sense at all!

“Diachronic linguistics is the study of a language through different periods in history. It’s essentially about how languages develop. So, we’ll hopefully be learning about how the ancestors of our ancestors used to speak”, Aidan explained enthusiastically. Devin didn’t share his enthusiasm, although he smiled at him regardless because he was interested in the subject. He couldn’t help but wonder what use learning about the development of languages was though. People didn’t speak like that anymore, right?

[Devin]

The two young men walked through the streets of Scalvoris Town and to the university, together, their arms linked, wearing warm coats and carrying little lanterns because it was quite dark, and all of Devin’s strange abilities did unfortunately not include the ability to see in the dark (which was a problem now, since it was always dark in Cylus, barring a bit of starlight and such). As they did so, they chatted about a wide variety of things, from their studies over Devin’s love of cooking to how they could possibly teach Devin’s pet goat Heidi some manners, only to part ways shortly after they had finally entered the university.

They studied at different institutes and had to walk down different hallways as a consequence.

When Devin walked into the classroom, everything was as he had hoped that it would be. Quite a few seats were already occupied, and a fair number of his classmates actually looked at him as he walked past them, to an empty seat that he had spotted in the second row near the door. Of course, a not inconsiderable number of them likely only looked at him because they looked every time someone new walked into the classroom, but he decided to pretend that they were all admiring him, nevertheless.

He smiled at them, and for a moment, he actually had to resist the urge to bow to them, like some sort of actor!

The new season had brought a lot of new classmates, but he could also see a few familiar faces here and there. There was Lucia, for example, a red-haired human girl that he remembered from his Hone class the cycle before and that was a bit of a know-it-all. And there was Lysander, the blonde harp player who he had had a bit of a crush on until he had found out that he unfortunately had a girlfriend, sitting right in front of him. Maybe he didn’t have a girlfriend anymore?

He was just wondering about his classmates and what his next step should be - he planned on making good use of the time that he had until the professor arrived - when he suddenly noticed that nobody was paying attention to him and his wonderfully purple outfit anymore. And what more, his classmates were suddenly talking quite excitedly, looking towards the door and pointing. Furrowing his brow in slight irritation, the Mortalborn turned his head as well in order to find out what exactly was going on. A moment later, his eyes widened, and he grinned.

In the hallway, right outside the classroom, a trio of what looked like bipedal raccoons that were dressed quite nicely were standing, holding books in their hands and talking to each other quite animatedly. They seemed to be having a lof of fun, from what he could tell.

They were Cadouri!

[Devin]

For a moment, Devin wondered if he should continue to be irritated because the Cadouri students were obviously more interesting than he was, but then he decided against it. Those Cadouri were simply too adorable, and they were so fluffy! And they seemed so happy and cheerful. And they … he blinked a couple of times when one of the raccoons – he wasn’t entirely sure which gender they were; Cadouri were still a big mystery to him –turned away from their companions, walked over to the classroom door and took a look inside. A few moments later, they raised a hand and waved excitedly!

And then, the Cadouri suddenly marched right into the classroom, their companions in tow, as if they belonged there – which they probably didn’t, since this was a class of Charter students and Cadouri hadn’t really been a thing the cycle before – and stared at the students and the furniture (and the various posters on the walls) with wide-eyed fascination before their gaze suddenly homed in on Devin. Before the Mortalborn had time to think about what was happening, the Cadouri that had entered the classroom first, walked over to him, positioned themselves right in front of him and stated excitedly,

“You are very purple!”

The Mortalborn looked at the raccoon who was probably male, judging by his voice, absolutely flabbergasted before he opened his mouth in order to tell him that yes, he was indeed very purple (with a bit of black on top of it!), but before he even had the opportunity to get a single word out, the raccoon continued in quite an excited tone of voice,

“And you have purple eyes, too! And feathers! Why do you have purple eyes, and can I touch your feathers?” he wanted to know, his brown eyes shimmering with delight. When Devin who was still a bit flabbergasted to be honest, but also enjoyed the sudden attention, nodded, the raccoon reached out with a furry hand and patted the Mortalborn’s head that sported a trio of very beautiful, shimmering feathers that looked like some sort of hair accessory at first, but were really much, much more – and better!

“I met a magical tree”, Devin replied and grinned all over his face while the Cadouri examined him.

This prompted another series of questions from the Cadouri.

In the meantime, the other two Cadouri who seemed to be very curious about the world, but kind of oblivious when it came to its rules, such as entering a random classroom (Which was something that Devin didn’t mind; rules sucked a lot of the time, anyway!) had stopped in front of one of the posters on the wall that had been created by a previous group of students and stared at it. It was a mind map of sorts. Judging by the frequent mention of water and fire, it had something to do with Defiance. Someone had even written the word “fire” in bright orange letters and decorated it with little flames!

Devin’s classmates on the other hand just stared at the Cadouri (and at Devin, who was being stared at by a Cadouri; there was a lot of staring all-around). Cadouri students were still a novelty. Some of Devin’s classmates even remarked how cute and fluffy the Cadouri were, and Lucia, the know-it-all who didn’t seem to possess a lot of sense of humor otherwise, suddenly removed her lunchbox from her backpack on the floor, opened it and offered what looked like a couple of chocolate chip cookies to the Cadouri.

It was just then that Professor Migh Gir who would be teaching that trial’s class entered the room though. The professor who Devin had suspected of being some sort of undead once upon a time, until he had discovered that the drink that he was so fond of was not blood, but actually tomato juice, stopped dead in his tracks – and then he stared as well.

[Devin]

Migh Gir was a very serious (and at least slightly frightening professor) that rarely socialized with anybody, rarely smiled and was quite fond of the color black which made his reaction to the group of Cadouri "invaders" all the more unusual. His reaction was in fact so unusual that Devin who still served as the subject of the raccoon boy's fascination had to resist the urge to pinch himself in order to make sure that he wasn’t just dreaming.

Migh Gir smiled. He smiled at the trio of Cadouri students and then he asked in his deep voice, "Can I help you? You do not belong among my Charter students, do you? If you have gotten lost, I can point you in the correct direction", he offered, the corners of his mouth twitching slightly.

The raccoon who had been examining Devin's feathers (and his black nails that were the result of an encounter with a Grafter, and his outfit - and his eyes which was something that had weirded him out slightly, to be honest) turned around and replied in a very polite (and cheerful!) tone of voice,

"We are getting our Letter in Immortal History, sir".

"Up the staircase at the end of the hallway. The classroom that you are looking for is behind the third door on the left", Migh Gir replied which caused the raccoon to bow. A few moments later, all three Cadouri left the classroom, chatting to each other and looking quite happy.

Migh Gir looked at them and grinned before he abruptly cleared his throat and reverted to his usual behaviour that ensured that most of his students were a bit afraid of him.

"Now then, the purpose of to-trial’s class will be to give you an overview of the domain of Transmutation”, he began in an extremely dry tone of voice only to break off abruptly when Lucia raised her hand quite excitedly and waved it. For a moment, he just furrowed his brow and then he pointed out, much to the young woman’s disappointment,

“I will not start to-trial’s lesson by asking you what you already know, Lucia. To-trial, we will do things a little differently, I'm afraid. You will gather in groups of three and work on a little research project together. I will write a couple of questions on the blackboard that you will try to find the answers to.”

“By doing so, you will hopefully end up familiarizing yourselves with the domain of Transmutation sufficiently”, he finished, and then he waited for the students to partner up. As he did so, he opened the large black bag that neither Devin nor his classmates had really paid any attention to so far because they had been busy admiring the Cadouri (or had been busy being admired by them, in Devin’s case) and removed a number of books from it.

Apparently, Devin realized, the class would involve a whole lot of reading.

He didn’t mind though. Once upon a time, he had hated books, but nowadays, he was actually kind of fond of them because they were a great way to learn more about mutants and magic.

He loved mutants and magic!



Part 2: The actual class.

[Jackalope]

Experience: +10 xp

Knowledge:

Cosmetology: The color of your clothes should complement your skin tone
Linguistics: Diachronic linguistics: the study of a language through different periods in history
Cosmetology x1
Detection x1

Skillplay: Appropriate to level.

Renown: None. I’d have given you some if Devin had actually walked out without pants.

Comments: Oh yeah?! *You’re* purple!

I enjoyed this thread, and I especially enjoyed Devin’s experience with the Cadouri (and they are an experience, aren’t they?) Their torrent of childlike enthusiasm coursing through such a staid classroom environment will be fun to watch unfold. I haven’t read the second part yet, but I’m looking forward to it! I wonder if Migh can convince the cadouri that it isn’t tomato juice?

Lucia seems like such an eager beaver; I’m almost disappointed she turned out to be a human and not a literal beaver.

I could comment more on how I especially liked this and that and blah blah blah but I’m going to keep things short this time.

Enjoy your rewards. Let me know if you have any questions.