Run By: Dokuganryu (4 xp)

Players: Elora Danan

Synopsis: Elora Danan's continued flirting with young Waldon, and her test of entrance for the Society.

 

 

 

 

The University Island is a massive place indeed, but Elora has no trouble swimming her way to the docks, where the airship has parked; Waldon wrings his hands together nervously, waiting for her on the wooden extension. "M...Miss Elora, are you alright?" he calls towards the sea.

 

Elora Danan grins broadly as she surfaces, shaking water from her hair. "Never better! I love a good swim. Especially on a hot day. Help me up there, would you?" She stretches out a hand for him to grab as she starts clambering up the side of the dock.

 

Elora Danan doesn't release his hand, almost landing on top of him when he falls. Instead, she lands next to him, eyes sparkling. "Indeed. Here we are."

 

Waldon goes a bright, bright red at that. "W...welcome to the Island. What do you think? It's pretty interesting, right?"

 

Elora Danan nods seriously, still looking at him, still holding his hand. "Yeah, it is. Think you could...show me around?"

 

"You...you want...me to?" The young man sits up, the same red blush across his face. "Are you sure you don't want someone more...um...experienced at this place? I'm...I'm not a very good guide..." Waldon brushes some of his hair out of his face. "Uh...b-but if you're sure, I'll do my best."

 

Elora Danan clasps his hands between hers, looking at him wide-eyed. "Oh, yes, quite sure. Would you?" Then she winks at him, sultrily. "I trust you."

 

Waldon swallows and nods, standing once she allows him to do so. "O-okay! W-well, first, you'll need to-"

"Ahhh, so here you are!" Markus says cheerily, clasping Waldon on the back. "I've put in the word for your entrance exam - it's scheduled tentatively for later this afternoon. How's that sound to you, Miss Elora?"

 

Elora Danan smiles politely at Markus. "That sounds good, Markus. Thank you very much. Waldon here offered to show me around the island. Will that be alright?"

 

"There are a couple off-limits sections to visitors, but Waldon knows where to take you and where not to. I suggest the Tower of Turning - it's got a lovely spot to look out at the view," Markus teases. Waldon's face goes bright red. "Very romantic," Markus continues, turning away and laughing as he heads off to yell at his shipmates.

"He...he's just joking around," Waldon swallows, "It's...it's a nice view though. Do you...you know, want to...?"

 

Elora Danan quirks an eye at Waldon, slowly. "Do I want to....what?" She says breathily.

 

"Do you...want to go...with me...to the Tower?" Waldon finally manages, working up all his nerve (and likely burning a bit of willpower) to look her in the eye. "I'llunderstandifyoudon'twanttothough!" He adds hurriedly.

 

Elora Danan smiles easily, hooking her arm through his. "I'd love to. Lead the way."

 

Waldon leads her through the University Island's many pathways, past various buildings of odd architecture shoved up against each other in remarkable and altogether absurd ways. Here a mud hut, there a Dynast-style building, next to that a Shogunate castle leaning on a First Age tower. Most of them appear to be reconstructions and NOT originals, which is perhaps a saving grace.

He stops in front of a tall tower, slowly rotating in the sky like a massive drill. Platforms shift and shuffle in the air, moving from place to place and changing from view to view all along the massive height of the machine.

 

Elora Danan blinks, wowed at what she is seeing. She hangs on Waldon's arm. "It's so big! Wowie, that's amazing!"

 

Waldon nods. "It's...very big," Waldon says, "The pride of University Island, besides our actual museum..." He pushes open the door and leads her up the stairs, onto one of the slowly rotating platforms. The view is really magnificent - one can see the entire island and then some from the platform, and it's not even the topmost one. As they enter, it's already starting its rotation, giving them a nice place to sit as it pans across the view of the island. "The museum is down there," he says after a moment, already becoming more comfortable with her presence and pointing over the side. "There are all sorts of artifacts in it...some of them are nonfunctional, but a lot of them work just fine. I, uh...got in trouble because of it..." He looks away guiltily, "I touched a cannon and it exploded in my hand and nearly collapsed part of the roof on me.

 

Elora Danan gets a look of concern. "I'm glad you're alright." Then she giggles a little. "That doesn't sound like you. Why'd you touch it in the first place?"

 

"I uh," The young man looks flustered, "...was going to examine it. I love examining interesting things, and...it was really interesting."

 

Elora Danan clucks her tongue. "That's no good. Like I said before, you've gotta think. The curiosity is great. Just, be more careful?" Her lip trembles. "For me?"

 

Waldon shuffles a bit in his chair at her look. "O...okay. You...you don't want me to get hurt, huh?"

 

Elora Danan shakes her head. "Uh-uh. Why would I want you do get hurt?"

 

"You're...very nice..." Waldon murmurs, still watching her carefully as the platform swings around over the sea. The smell of sea air brushes across them briefly as Waldon settles his hand on hers. "Thank you for, um, for helping me. Back at the dig. You were amazing. Where did you learn to do stuff like that?"

 

Elora Danan smiles at him. "Practice. I studied and studied, then went out and /used/ my knowledge. You can get to the same point, you know. It's not a hard process. Just lengthy. Plenty of scrapes, and, sometimes, it doesn't go as well as it went in there. That's what happens. But, you just take the setback as another lesson, and aproach the problem another way. You'll get it eventually." She smiles. "I promise."

 

Waldon sighs and rests his chin on his hands, looking out over the island. "I guess you're right," he admits as the tower starts turning towards the sea. "Maybe one day I'll be competent at something beyond books. Thanks, Miss Elora." Waldon offers her a smile, tilting his head at her. "I hope your test goes well. I bet you'll be great at this stuff. Maybe...we can work together on a dig sometime," he adds nervously, looking back out over the sea. "I think that'd be fun."

 

Elora Danan smiles warmly. "I'd like that. I can teach you the tricks of the trade, make you into a practical adventurer, as well as a bookworm. Would you be willing to learn from me?" She lays a hand on his shoulder, and her smile picks up a hint of naughtiness. Softly, she says, "I can teach you many things about the world, if you'll let me."

 

Waldon goes a bright red color, hurriedly looking back out over the sea. "I'd...like that...?" He offers. The tower continues to rotate. "...all kinds of things, h-h...oh! Look at the time!" He tilts his head up to point at the clock. "You have your test really soon, don't you? An...an hour...do you want me to come watch...?"

 

Elora Danan smiles, and nods slowly. "Yes, I would like you to watch. Now, if I'm going to be your teacher, you need to be able to trust me. Do you trust me?"

 

Waldon nods. "I...yes. I don't have any reason not to, do I?"

 

Elora Danan grins. "No, you don't. So, since you trust me, take my hand, and we'll go down to the ground."

 

Waldon slides his hand into hers, squeezing it tight. "We're going to jump off, aren't we."

 

Elora Danan grins wider. "You got it. Ready?" With this, she steps up onto the railing, still holding Waldon's hand. She balances there, as easy as if she is on flat ground.

 

Waldon swallows and nods, climbing onto the rail.

 

Elora Danan nods at his courage. "Don't close your eyes. Just jump, alright? On the count of three!" She swings her arms back and forth as she counts. "1, 2!" On two, she jumps forward, pulling him with her so that he doesn't have a chance to psych himself out of it.

They plummet towards the ground like a rock, and it looks like they're just going to hit when Elora concentrates for a second, and a sudden gust of wind comes out of nowhere, blasting straight up, slowing their fall a mere ten feet from the ground, and they drift to the ground, cushioned by the swirling winds.

 

Waldon seems too terrified to scream as they fall like a rock, eyes wide open with his jaw distended in a silent scream. As they drift to the ground, he seems to relax - just a tiny bit - and touch down, falling to his knees the instant they hit the ground. "Tha...that...that was the most frightening thing I've ever done in my life!" He gasps.

Several people also on the Tower peer over the sides of their turning platforms to look at the odd couple.

 

Elora Danan grins broadly. "Then you're well on your way to becoming a Scavenger Lord, aren't you?" She slaps him on the back, jovially. "You liked it, didn't you?"

 

"Uh," Waldon admits, "Maybe? I...I'll answer you when my heart stops pounding into my throat..." He stands, unsteadily, and points into the Island. "This way is the test center...it's the...the big domed building. I won't be allowed in with you, but I'll be watching and cheering for you, o-okay?"

 

Elora Danan grins. "Sure thing. Here, have some of this. It'll help." She pulls a leather flask out of a pouch, handing it to him. "Don't drink too much. You'll make yourself sick."

 

Waldon takes a big pull of the drink and hands it back to her as he leads her towards the huge domed Test Center. Archaeologists are streaming in and out of it, male and female with artifacts or books held to their chest or under their arm or in packs slung over their back. The University Island Test Center is written above the door in several common languages.

"The test is really simple," Waldon says, "First off, they'll test how much you know about the First Age and practical applications. Then they put you in a practical skills exam that's always pretty similar - you have to retrieve an artifact and use it to get out of a dangerous situation, usually an unfamiliar one so you have to figure out what it does without hurting yourself. Then they do a short interview...um, if you didn't score well on the first two, anyway. I hear people get in pretty often without number three. I'm sure you'll do great..."

 

Elora Danan smiles at him. "With you cheering for me, I'm positive I'll do awesomely. You're the best."

 

"Tha..nks." Waldon blushes again. "Good luck, okay?" He pushes open the door for her and heads into a room marked SPECTATORS, leaving Elora with a man in a completely detailless mask. The man looks her over once, then scribbles something on his paper before handing her a heavy pack of papers. "You will have one hour," the man says, ushering her into a testing room with desks set up for writing and pens placed nearby. "Good luck."

 

(Judge) Elora Danan rolls Intelligence + Lore: [ 3 3 4 6 6 9 <10> <10> ]

Resulting in 5 successes.

 

(Judge) Elora Danan rolls Intelligence + Lore: [ -1- 3 3 4 8 8 9 9 ]

Resulting in 4 successes.

 

(Judge) Elora Danan rolls Intelligence + Lore + Lore + 3 + 3: [ -1- -1- -1- 2 2 2 3 4 4 4 4 5 5 7 8 8 8 9 <10> ]

Resulting in 7 successes.

 

(Judge) Elora Danan rolls Intelligence + Lore + Lore + 3 + 3: [ -1- -1- 2 4 4 5 5 5 5 5 6 6 7 8 9 9 9 9 <10> ]

Resulting in 8 successes.

 

Elora Danan sits at a desk and picks up her pen, and, for the next hour, it almost doesn't stop once. She only pauses to read the questions, and, even then, she reads quite fast, so she goes through the packet like it isn't even there, finishing in just over half an hour, answering every question, some with quite a bit of detail, even up to whole paragraphs. Then, she spends five minutes checking her work, and 23 minutes sleeping. Just to make them underestimate her if they weren't watching carefully.

 

Once her hour is up, the man in the mask takes her paper, reading over it and stamping it fairly efficiently. He sets it down by the door and gestures for her to follow him into the next room - a mock-up of a temple. A fairly complicated one, too - judging by the tripwires, it even includes (likely nonlethal) traps. "Please retrieve the artifact and return to this room within ten minutes," the proctor states, lifting some sort of ticking device. "When I say go, begin."

There's a pause.

"Go."

 

Elora Danan heads into the temple, cautious as if it were a real expedition, on the lookout for whatever might be there. And determined not to cheat. Unless she has to.

 

(Judge) Elora Danan rolls Perception + Awareness + Awareness/Deathtraps: [ 2 2 3 6 6 9 <10> ]

Resulting in 3 successes.

 

-= OOC =- Elora Danan says, "WP for an auto success."

(Judge) Elora Danan rolls Perception + Awareness + Awareness/Deathtraps: [ 3 4 4 5 7 8 8 ]

Resulting in 3 successes.

 

 

-= OOC =- Elora Danan says, "Another WP for an autosuxx."

(Judge) Elora Danan rolls Perception + Awareness + Awareness/Deathtraps: [ 2 3 4 5 5 5 6 6 7 <10> ]

Resulting in 4 successes.

 

Elora Danan runs into the temple, ducking and dodging, easilly avoiding the traps as they spring. Standard fare, mostly. Swinging axes, collapsing floors, arrows from the walls. Nothing challenging. Well, not overly, at least. One last hurdle, some kind of fiendishly clever trap, no doubt, then the treasure is hers. Man, I make this look easy.

 

-= OOC =- Elora Danan says, "Wp, of course."

(Judge) Elora Danan rolls Perception + Awareness + 3 + 2: [ -1- 2 2 2 3 4 4 6 6 7 7 ]

Resulting in 2 successes.

 

The final trap - a couple wires a bit too high to jump over - catch Elora, resulting in some paint splattering on her chest. Still, she's able to make it into the room, where the artifact - an odd spherical thing - rests on a central podium. As she enters, the door slams shut behind her, and the room gives a lurch as it...starts rotating?

 

 

Elora Danan runs up and grabs the item, concentrating.

 

(Judge) Elora Danan rolls Perception + Occult: [ 2 3 5 6 6 9 <10> ]

Resulting in 3 successes.

 

As Elora turns the artifact's minor hidden plates, the room slowly seems to stop rotating, allowing her to walk...forward. But the door is still closed, and now she can clearly see that the ceiling is starting to close in as well.

 

Elora Danan clambers up on top of the platform, waits a few seconds for the ceiling to drop further, then leaps upwards, grabbing the top lip of the opening in the ceiling and hauling herself out to stand on top of it.

 

It seems to be a straightforward run back to the exam room...or at least, a door that looks like the exam room. The rumbling sound of a...a rock...echoes through the chamber in mere moments from behind her, prompting great haste. A rolling rock.

Well, you can't beat the classics.

 

Elora Danan doesn't make the mistake of looking back, instead sprinting forward, diving forward off the edge of the roof, hitting the ground in a roll and springing back to her feet in a cloud of dust, then taking off towards the door. She dodges over, under, around, and through the traps that she sprung on her way in, as well as some that she missed, all while that ominous rumbling gets closer. Focused, determined, she heads for the doorway, exhilirated and determined to beat this course. Hopefully in record time.

 

The door opens, allowing her through, and the proctor scratches down another note. "Congratulations, Miss Elora," he states in his odd monotone, tearing off a piece of paper, "You have been approved pro temporum for use of the facilities uninhibited as a Student of the Third Circle. A guide will be assigned to you briefly, and though a personality test is still required, it will, I assure you, be a formality." He hands the paper over to her. "Congratulations."

Her score is listed down as:

WRITTEN: 100%

PRACTICAL: 90%

"You did an excellent job. The young man waiting for you will doubtlessly be pleased."

 

Elora Danan smiles at the proctor, bowing to him. "Thank you very much, Sir. I'll try to honor my new position. Have a good day, sir." And she heads to go find Waldon.

 

Waldon is waiting outside the room. "You were amazing!" He cheers, "I...I've never seen anyone get through the course so fast! How did you know where all the traps were, and the rock - I looked back at the rock and got rolled over." He groans and scratches the back of his head. "And I saw you sleep through half the test...what was your score? It must've been huge...what circle are you? Did they tell you? Do you need to do the personality part?"

 

Elora Danan grins at him. "Hey, hey, one at a time. The traps are a standard layout, used in most tombs because it works. Well, they mix them up a bit, but, for the most part, it's easy to tell what's coming. The rock is a scare test. It can't actually catch you if you concentrate. Yes, I have to do the personality part."

 

"And your score?" Waldon asks, wide-eyed and enthusiastic.

 

Elora Danan shrugs. "I missed a trap on the practical, so I only got a 90."

 

"I...got a ten," Waldon mumbles, hanging his head. "But...still! You did amazing...you'll be a great member."

 

Elora Danan grins and hugs Waldon, quickly so he doesn't see it coming. "Cheer up! I've got a little more experience than you do. I'm sure you'll get it. You just haven't had the chance yet. I know I wouldn't have done even as well as you did if I went in there before doing the stuff I've done, that's for sure!"

 

Waldon's blush sinks into a crimson state as he's hugged. "...ah," he murmurs, "...oh. Um, s-so, has your first dig...no, I guess not yet..." A bell sounds somewhere, and Waldon grimaces. "I...I have to go to class. Will you be okay wandering around on your own?"

 

Elora Danan pulls away reluctantly, then nods slowly. "I think so. If I need help, I'll come find you. They said they'd asign a guide, to, so it shouldn't be a problem. Go, don't be late to class!" She makes a shooing motion, hurrying him in the direction of the bell.