Samayouru
Rabid Dusclops Fan
Maddison Pellerzi
Aquinas Dormitory, 3rd Floor
Maddie put on her best smile. “It’s no problem at all,” she said and came down a couple of steps to grab the other end of the girl’s suitcase. “Ready? Heave!”
It wasn’t long before Maddie’s forehead began to moisten with sweat. The suitcase itself wasn’t all that heavy with the two of them working together but going up the stairs was still a challenge. She glanced up when they got close to the end to find another kid – a pale boy with messy black hair – looking down at them. “You ladies look like you could use some help down there~” he said.
Maddie grunted. “Yeah, if you wouldn’t mind,” she replied. “J-Just help us get this thing up this last step and I think we’ll be good.”
By the time they’d finished Maddie’s face was a sharp tint of red. “Whew,” she said under her breath, panting. God, she must’ve looked so stupid waddling up the stairs like that, her lungs burning and drenched in sweat. The very least she could do was tell a joke to take away the awkwardness of it all. “Well that’s my work out for the day finished.” She dusted her hands and gave the boy and girl a thumbs up. “I’m Maddison Pellerzi,” she said. “Just call me Maddie – it’s easier to remember.”
All of a sudden there was a loud clanging sound – to Maddie it felt like the bell of a clock tower. A voice followed this clanging on the speakers in the corner of the corridors. “Attention, students,” it said in a droning, posh, womanly voice. It reminded Maddie of GlaDOS from the Portal games, only nowhere near as memorable. “Dinner is now being served in the Dining Hall. Please make your way downstairs where a member of staff will be waiting to escort you. Thank you.”
Ah, food. Maddie bit down on her tongue to stop herself from licking her lips and approached the girl with the suitcase. “Let me know if you need any more help,” she said, and stood by the stairs, waiting for the others to come out. “I could use a drink.”
And so everybody heads downstairs, ready to get some much-needed food, and after that some rest. It’s been a busy day for everyone, after all, and there’s no doubt that things will get busier once everybody settles in and get used to life at Patriot Academy…
A white KnightChessmon stood high up on one of the many peaks of the Digital World. He waited with baited breath for any sound of disruption in the distance before looking down, surveying the land below him with unblinking eyes, and snorted. Dull, greying valleys spread out for miles around, standing as a grim reminder of what the Digital World was slowly becoming. He then cast his gaze out across the equally dismal sky and pawed the ground with his hooves – there wasn’t an Archangel in sight. He chuckled. It looked like the distraction the other Horsemen had created had done its job quite well.
Satisfied with his search, the KnightChessmon cantered down from his peak and across a ledge pointing out over a particularly wide trough in the land to talk to his troops.
They were quite a fearsome bunch in his eyes – all of them having digivolved to the champion stage quite some time ago. A couple of them shared similarities with each other, like the Birdramon preening its feathers and the Kokatorimon scratching at the earth to sharpen its large talons – or the two insects among the group, a Kabuterimon and a Snimon, both of whom were sniffing the air. The only thing all of them had in common was quite simple – all of them had the ability to fly.
And that was why he’d chosen them all for this mission.
The KnightChessmon cleared his throat and stomped one of his front hooves to get their attention. “The plan worked,” he told them. “The Archangels have fallen for our trap.” He cast a hand out towards the invisible barrier to their world behind the group. “Now is your chance to sneak by unseen,” He told them. “Once there, you’ll have twenty-four hours to explore the landscape – once that time is up, you are to return through the rift and report back to base with your findings.” Then he reared up onto his hind legs. “Now go!”
The assembled digimon didn’t have to be told twice. They rose up on their wings and soared towards the barrier just as a large rift opened up large enough to take them in two by two, while KnightChessmon watched confidently with his arms folded.
But unbeknownst to the centaur digimon several smaller shapes were also starting to move below, making their way to a much smaller rift hidden underneath the ledge he’s standing on…
Satisfied with his search, the KnightChessmon cantered down from his peak and across a ledge pointing out over a particularly wide trough in the land to talk to his troops.
They were quite a fearsome bunch in his eyes – all of them having digivolved to the champion stage quite some time ago. A couple of them shared similarities with each other, like the Birdramon preening its feathers and the Kokatorimon scratching at the earth to sharpen its large talons – or the two insects among the group, a Kabuterimon and a Snimon, both of whom were sniffing the air. The only thing all of them had in common was quite simple – all of them had the ability to fly.
And that was why he’d chosen them all for this mission.
The KnightChessmon cleared his throat and stomped one of his front hooves to get their attention. “The plan worked,” he told them. “The Archangels have fallen for our trap.” He cast a hand out towards the invisible barrier to their world behind the group. “Now is your chance to sneak by unseen,” He told them. “Once there, you’ll have twenty-four hours to explore the landscape – once that time is up, you are to return through the rift and report back to base with your findings.” Then he reared up onto his hind legs. “Now go!”
The assembled digimon didn’t have to be told twice. They rose up on their wings and soared towards the barrier just as a large rift opened up large enough to take them in two by two, while KnightChessmon watched confidently with his arms folded.
But unbeknownst to the centaur digimon several smaller shapes were also starting to move below, making their way to a much smaller rift hidden underneath the ledge he’s standing on…
ONE WEEK LATER…
The days that followed after meeting your fellow roommates almost feel like a blur. You meet your new teachers, other students and slowly get accustomed to your new routines. It isn’t long after this that the school trips start. Being a high-class school, Patriot Academy is more than capable of providing a school trip of some kind every week, and now it is your turn to go on one of these trips.
The trip in question is an Arts Festival – located just beyond the city of London. The trip there isn’t all that eventful and you aren’t given free reign until you get off the coach and are sorted into groups. After that, you go off and enjoy yourself (or not, as the case may be). You have been sorted into two groups consisting of five people:
Group 1: Maddie, Tim, Mackenzie, Amélie, Hitomi.
Group 2: Alex, Tobias, Eric, Chelsea, Conrad*.
Group 1 is currently on the left side of the festival grounds. Group 2 is on the right side.
CONRAD: While you have not chosen to do any of the arts, you have come along thanks to being offered the opportunity to gain some extra credit by volunteering to be a helper at this particular event. You have been designated a group of kids to take care of, including the four others in Group 2.
The Arts Festival is divided up into three different sections: Art, Drama and Music and the festival grounds themselves are fairly large. Because this area is used a lot for similar events a fair bit of the ground itself has become quite patchy with the odd clump of grass here and there. It’s quite crowded too, so remember to stick together with your groups!
Overall the mood is quite relaxed and easy-going right now, but that’s going to change quite soon. Enjoy yourself while you can…
The Arts Festival Map
A – Entrance
B – Drama Stage
C – Music Stage
D – Artist’s/Writer’s Alley
E – Medical Attention
F – Catering + Seating
G – Restrooms
Maddison Pellerzi
Arts Festival, the Artists/Writers Alley (Group 1)
Arts Festival, the Artists/Writers Alley (Group 1)
Damn it, Maddie thought as she finally set the pencil down on the desk she was working at. She frowned as she cast her gaze across the picture she’d been working on, depicting what looked like a really muscular guy with a rocket launcher in his arms aiming at another muscular guy wearing a pyramid-shaped helmet on his head. He was also holding an extremely long knife in his hands, pointing it at the guy with the rocket launcher. Maddie’s shoulders hunched. Hands – why were they so hard to draw? No matter how hard she tried she could never get Nemesis’s grip on the rocket launcher’s trigger right – meanwhile Pyramid Head’s robes looked more like curtains, making him look more silly than threatening.
She paused at last to look at her smartphone, tapping on the icon for her inbox. There wasn’t a peep from her mom or dad, which made Maddie huff. She could use a bit of company out here, even if it was packed with people…
She decided to look up and see if she could spot anybody from her dorm room, taking in the distant melody of orchestral music coming from the other side of the festival. Maybe they’d make for some interesting conversation.
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INFORMATION ADDED: The Arts Festival