One Man's Trash

[Tormaigh MacRagallach]

(OOC: YAY FOR BEING THE FIRST POSTER IN THE 'LOWER ACADEMY' BOARD EVER!!!)

Torm chuckles and rubs his hands together with glee as he surveys the scene before him. Here was the junk room of the academy! The maintenence staff had showed him down here and told him to help himself, and Torm is as happy as a child at Christmas. Every which way he looked, mounds and stacks of components, big and small, magical and mechanical, lay unused and his for the taking.

The place was a veritable maze. There were some shelving units and many stacks and piles of stuff, and it made for an interesting terrain of twisting passages and rises and dips. It looked like a good place to train as well as to scavenge for parts.

Who knew what sort of amazing 'junk' he would find amidst the chaotic scene of trinkets and ingots and stuff or all varieties imaginable. Perhaps something would inspire him to build a new sort of creation. The one logistical problem Torm now faced was moving everything useful to his workshop in the city's warehouse district, where he could make the best use of it. One problem at a time, though; there is so much to look through!

And so he begins rummaging around, tucking one thing in a pocket, blowing dust off another and generally having a hell of a time scavenging and salveaging. In the racket of his rifling through the flotsam, it would be difficult for him to hear approaching footsteps immediately.

[Roy Atenwood]

"This can't be good." Roy said to himself as he walked thnrough the halls. He had his staff extended, held behind him in a "Ready" stance. He was freaking out slightly, because he HATED being lost.


Then he heard somebody riffling through the old junk that had been put here. "Is somebody there? Hello?" He looked at the man doing the rumaging, and realized what was happening. The man was rather large, but he couldn't carry everything he wanted to take on his own. He retracted his staff, and hung it back on his belt, and decided to try and help. All this stuff was interesting, and he loved to learn new things.

"Ummm...hey, if you'll help me find my way out of here, I'll help you carry some of that."

[Tormaigh MacRagallach]

Torm's head perks up at the sound of the voice. "Hey there, comparde. What brings you to these dark depths of the academy anyway?" The man was clearly quite lost to have come all the way down here. A new student, perhaps?

"Sure,I'd appreciate the help. Lemme sort through a little more stuff here first...wow, check this thing out!" He examines the unidentifiabkle trinket, then tosses it to the man and continues digging around. "What's your name, by the way?" he says over his shoulder. "Are you new here?"

[Roy Atenwood]

"Name's Roy Atenwood. Yeah, it's my first day. I kinda got lost, and ended up here." Roy slipped the Backpack off of his shoulders, and studied the trinket. "Amazing...the craftsmanship on this thing is....wow." Roy slipped it into his bag, so he could keep his hands free.

"I'm in no hurry, I was just looking aruond, trying to get a feel for the area. None of my classes start til tomorrow." He said with a grin. He knelt down, and started to study the junk that was strewn throughout the room. If this was junk, he would have his mind completely blown by the end of the week.

He picked up a small device, and took the dagger frm his boot. He tightened three screws on the back, and it activated. He had no idea what it was, but it looked like some kind of broken projector. He said out loud "Damn...this thing is amazing. It's a lot different from any type of projector I've seen, if that's what it is." He slipped it into his bag, and would use it to fix his phone.

"So, is everything here so...advanced? This place is amazing." He said as he stood up straight. He had been amazed at his surroundings all day, and wondered if everything was as amazing.

[Vrac Dudall]

On the other side of a pile of scrap metal and similar there lies a coffin with the words 'Memento mori' written on the top.
Inside Vrac was sleeping at the moment. There were still some time left until night and even though he could get up down here he didn't wish to until his powers were as strongest.
That was something he'd learned during the last hundred years, humans has gotten harder to deal with and it's not worth taking any chances. Especially not here on the academy since everyone here has the capability to bring him down if they get to know his weaknesses.

He could hear the voices of the two men outside of his coffin but he decided not to care about them unless they found his coffin. Even after that he got exiled from the community he didn't like humans very much and looked down on most of them.
And these two seemed to be something extraordinary since they got so exited over a pile of junk and scrap metal. It's as if he would get exited over a one week old dead fish.

[Roy Atenwood]

Roy's ears twitched. He had "Heard" something. Surface thoughts, of somebody who wasn't out in the open. "What the hell.....dead fish?" Roy tried to pinpoint the source of the thoughts, and started looking behind junk piles.


"Umm....hey! How common are vampires here? There's a coffin back here, and I'm hearing thoughts coming from it." Roy moved toward it, and looked at the lid. He hoped nothing would jump out and attack him.

[Tormaigh MacRagallach]

Torm says extremely quietly, "Shh, don't mess with it, man. I've known it was there for a few minutes. Best not to bother it, whatever it is..."

Now, Torm returns to his happy treasure hunt, tossing this and that into a large satchel and some things to Roy. "Well, that should do it for now! Shall we head up top? I'll help you find your way around, if you like." Torm straightens up and stretches. "By the way, what sort of stuff can you do, magic-wise? You can really read thoughts? That's quite cool."

[Brandon (Tech)]

Tech had been rummaging around in the basement for a while now, with very little luck. With him was his trusted flying skull, Mech, the mobile flashlight imbedded in it's left eye lighting up the area around them. "Come on, there's gotta be something" Tech said to nobody in particular. He gave up and began walking further down into the basement, the flying skull following him like a dog.

A few minutes later He came upon two other guys, who seemd also to be scavenging. Preparing his weapon circuits in chance of hostility, he stepped closer to them, hoping they wouldn't base their actions on his rather scary looks. " 'Sup guys. There enough for three?"

[Vrac Dudall]

This seemed to take forever. Those scrap hunters seemed to be able to find an infinite amount of "treasures" around here. What good could it possibly be to collect junk like this?
They kept walking around and he heard that they talked but it was still a little to early for his senses to be sharp enough to hear what they said.
And finally, they seemed to be done. He heard them say that it should be enough and the sun was setting so he could soon leave.
Then he heard another voice and smelt the blood of yet another human.

Just great! How many of these litter pickers are there here? I thought this place was for magic, not scrap. And this seemed like such a quiet place at first. I may have to rent a room after all.

Then the sun set and he changed into mist which let him leave the coffin.
He stood up by the side of it and looked at the others.

"Good evening, do you find anything usefull down here?"

[Ethan Yukimaru]

"Hmm....I've never been here" Ethan said to himself. "Perhaps I could spend my time checking this place out.."

With that, Ethan decided to check out the Lower Academy. For ages he found the place interesting and intriguing, but for some reason he never really had the time to go down there. If it was meetings with his family, or dealings with the Academy, he found no respite. However, in this rare moment of peace... Ethan decided to go visit the darkness that seemingly linger beneath the Academy. As he moved down the stars that lead to the darkness, he found Tracer after Tracer and Security members everywhere...

"Perhaps this is their base of operations"

Regardless, Yukimaru pressed forward, his curiosity driving him deep into the darkness. For what appeared to be hours Ethan moved through the Lower Academy, light barely revealing the path before him. He traveled through to the Deepest level of the Academy, where he suddenly met an Army of Mages and a huge walled off section. He had no clue as to why these things were here...or how these Mages can navigate this suffocating Darkness, but The Nobleman decided to not ask and instead get away as far as he could... It seemed the Mages were a bit on edge when Ethan first came within their sights...

As the Nobleman continued through the shifting shadows, he realizing he came upon scraps of metal...Just lying around everywhere. As he continued to move through the shadows a figure came to his sight... A familiar one at that...

"Hello Torm" Ethan said politely "What brings you to this dark underworld?"

As he looked around, Ethan also realized others were here as well, hidden behind the Darkness.... From Ethan's Point of View anyway. Subconsciously, he soon pulled out his strings, letting them dangle in his hands...

[Tormaigh MacRagallach]

(OOC: Oh..well... goodness! What's the federal maximum occupancy limit for this room of the academy? So many peoples all of a sudden ;D)

Torm is taken aback momentarily by the appearance of the cyborg, but people came in all sorts here, and it's not the metal but the mettle that makes a man. "Sure thing, man. You'd never believe what people upstairs have thrown away over the years."

Whoa, whoa! A dude came out of that box? Torm immediately thinks 'vampire.' He had never encountered one himself, but he has read some material on them. Still, no reason not to be civil; hadn't he just thought about the fact that people come in all sorts here? Torm responds to that guy's question, saying "Well sometimes, good sir. When you need a part, sometimes scavenging for it is a lit faster and more economical than ordering it or buying it."

Then another voice speaks out of the gloom, greeting Torm by name. He looks over to see... "Ethan, good evening to you, sir!" Torm remembers Ethan from the Dark Arts class and from seeing him around the place; the fact that he fights using strings had reached him, and that truly interests Torm. He wonders how Ethan's style relates to his own magical style. "This is definitely the junk room of the academy, and there's definitely useful stuff in here for an Artificer like myself, so I figured I'd look it over." he snatches an intricate piece with many exposed gears and cogs, and shoves it in his bag, as if to accentuate his point.

Torm looks around for a second, and realizes something; there is truly a crowd developing, and down here of all places! "Before we continue this, introductions all around! Ethan, this is Roy, a new student and general nice-guy. Roy, meet Ethan, a superb mage of honor and strings. As for you guys..." he says, pointing to Vrac and Tech, "I don't have the pleasure of your acquaintences yet. New here?"

[Vrac Dudall]

Vrac looked at the others for a moment and bowed slightly. These may just be humans but he should still be sure to keep his manners.

"My name is Vrac Dudall, I'm pleased to meet you."

Then he looked at the others. One seemed to be partially made out of metal and one other guy held strings in his hands for unknown reason, but probably for strangling someone since Vrac could smell blood from them.
The others weren't very special as far as Vrac could see. He couldn't see any weaknesses and none of them gave him any hints of their style even if technollogy was possibly involved in it.
He wondered where this would end up.

[Roy Atenwood]

((OOC: So, 5-inch pointed ears aren't odd here, Vrac?))

"Well....this place always fill up so fast? By the way, nice to meet you Ethan." Roy said with a smile on his face. Nobody was making fun of his ears! This was a nice day, indeed!

Then he heard the vampire's surface thoughts again. He tried to send some of his own, and succeded. What the vampire would hear was, *Don't call me human. I'm a half-elf, if the ears don't give it away.*

'Well, to answer your previous question, I can control fire and wind, although not very well, and I'm a moderately powerfull telepath." He said to the large man, who was apparently named Torm. "I'm pretty useless, but I'm alright with my staff." He said, and pointed to a small steel rod hung on his belt. He demonstrated how it extended by taking it off his belt, and pressing the button, then he retracted it and put it away.

"Well...ummm....yeah, I'm pretty useless." Roy said with a laugh. It was true, and he diddn't hide it.

[Brandon (Tech)]

Tech had loosened up a bit, the enviorment didn't seem immediatly hostile. "I'm Tech" He introduced him self, saluting the four other people within the range of his vision. "And this is Mech" He continued, indicating the hovering, cybernetically improved skull next to him. The skull tilted forwards and back again, nodding. "My pleasure to meet you gentlemen" It greeted them in a hollow, obviously artifical voice.

"I'm a technomancer, and I just heard rumours of people throwing away bundles of perfectly good stuff down here, and it seems true." His gaze shifted to the pile. He seemed to forget those around him. "Is that....?" The sentence went unfinished as he went closer to the pile and picked up the object of his attention. "Mech, bag" He said in a somewhat commanding voice. He had been looking for one of these for days, and he found one in a pile of junk? Fate seemed to have a taste for irony.

"I do apologize on his behalf, gentlemen" The flying skull began. "He sometimes gets so caught up with his experiments. He means no insult" Mech then hovered back around the corner where they had appeared, and soon after came back, a metallic claw clutching a bag of brown cloth. As it neared the young cyborg apprentice another hand shot out, holding the bag open as Tech droped the object into it. Then he continued his search...

[Vrac Dudall]

((OOC: Everything is relative, Roy.))

Vrac got shocked when he heard the voice in his head. Apparently someone was reading his mind and it didn't make him happy. He had no real defenses against mental intrusions and he was really protective about his mind. So he decided to give the intruder a piece of his mind.

Very well then, half human it is then. For just as you may be elf elf you still carry a part that is human. I do not enjoy having you in my mind but since I've been raised as a good host feel free to have a look.

Once he had finished the thought he released his vampiric thoughts and lusts and only kept a bodily facade of calmness on the outside. Within him humans faced the worst deaths imaginable. They were cut up and eaten alive. They faced grim torture that was never going to end. His mind became the most disgusting and bloody place a person would ever find in the entire academy and most everywhere else.
This was his only defense against intruders but it usually worked well. Or at least until he slit their throats while they were still in shock.

He barely noticed the others but he heard the man with the strange skull flying beside him mention that his name was "tech".
But he only stored that information for later and kept giving his guest the most enjoyable thoughts a vampires mind can create.