Archive World of Darkness: The Academy - Pulling It Together

[Dawn OOC]

"I'm fine... are you alright?" she asked, her tone doubtful.

"Yeah," Sean said, trying to get his thoughts out of the triple-x rating and into the R. "Fine. Here, I'm going to give you my number, call me if you have a problem." He scrawled the number on a piece of paper. Without looking, he handed it back into the room.

There was a pause and then the paper was taken from him. "Alright," she told him. "I'll call, I guess." Her tone became more strident as she added, "But you have to go, now! Get out of the girl's section before someone thinks the wrong thing and you get me in trouble!"

[Rorx]

When Jason got his chance to read the Treaty he was not impressed with the brevity of it. Not a lot there to understand, they lay off us for thirty years and that jerk Dalton gives them half the Key to either great Power, or Heaven depending on who you talk to.

"Not a lot here is there?" Comments Jason as he passes it on to the next person to read.

"Certainly nothing complicated to understand."

[Sylvia Dorn]

"Chamberlain."

Sylvia's single-word musing wasn't directed toward anyone in particular; for all anyone knew, she could have been talking to herself. But the word rolled out of her mouth with a certain disgust, and that attracted a few eyes, she realized as she looked up from the document.

"Wilber Dalton acted out of appeasement," she explained. "From what we've heard from those present at the time, and from what First Wing Relana implied between the words herself, it was appeasement. We had something that was able to give the Caramine enough pause to accept a truce that was on ultimately bad terms for us."

She paused for a bare moment before continuing. "Chamberlain gave Germany a piece of Czechoslovakia. Wilber Dalton gave the Caramine half of the Key to the Kingdom of Hope. Both were hoping for 'peace for our time'. And there's every reason to believe that the Caramine are coming back now with intent to get getting the other half, Harvest or no Harvest. They've every reason to expect it; as Kipling put it: 'Once you have paid him the Dane-geld, you never get rid of the Dane.'

"So I suppose the question now is, how do we get rid of the Dane?"

[SalmonMax]

"Easy," Renata says. "Blow up the door."

[Logic1]

"Blow up the door?" Everett couldn't beleive his ears, "I'm sure it's not that simple and an attempt would probably do more harm than good" he answered.

There had to be something they could do to appease the Caramine permanently, "Ms. Dorn I'm not sure how to 'get rid of the Dane' we clearly aren't going to give them people or the other half of the key, the two things they want."

[Rorx]

Jason nods at Dorn's reference, he had heard something about that Chamberlain guy, and smiles at Renata's responce although he shakes his head at it. "From what I heard last night, although I can't remember from whom, probably Brahn, there is more than one Door to this world. This is just the one we know about. If we blow this one up, we don't know that it will stop them coming through, although until they built a replacement on this side it might stop them going back, they might just appear somewhere else. After all I can't imagine anyone from here just suddenly deciding to build the Door frame etc that is in Lancaster now. It's more likely that, like this time, someone from another world came through to here first, then built that Doorframe etc in order to go home."

He sighs and stretches, "It's probably my training talking and perhaps not a good idea, but we could just aim too make taking the Harvest more expensive to them than they are willing to endure. At the moment that would mean fortifying the room/area around the Door and posting a guard to kill anyone/thing coming through that we don't want coming through."

[Tatiana di Jadzian]

"I'm going, I'm going, jeez. Just remember, anything odd, give me a call... seriously." Sean closed the door softly, still managing to keep his eyes averted, then headed for the stairs. He walked like he had every right to be there, giving any girls he passed a nod and a grin.

Once outside Lancaster, he retraced his steps at a jog, not wanting to miss more of what was said at the meeting. He made it back to the General Learning Building quickly and, as unobtrusively as he could, entered the room. He quietly made his way over to Deacon, looking over his shoulder to read the treaty on the table. Sean kept an ear open to try to catch up with what he had missed.

Sean waited for Jason to finish, then raised his hand to ask a question. "Don't know if you guys went over this already, but the Treaty says that Dalton gave away half the key to Kingdom of Hope." Sean looked around the room, seeing most people looking back blankly - what he said was obvious. "Well, did Dalton have the other half? And regardless of whether he did or not, where is the other half now?"

"Oh, and by the way, Blaize is... fine." He couldn't quite keep the glassiness from his eyes.

[Micah]

Micah looked up after the comment about the guard, "I agree. Let us make it cost them too much." He smiles, and the smile casts the haunted look in his eyes close to the edge of madness. "I bet that if we kidnap some of their shovats, we could probably make a deal. Or we could just kill them."

[Frida Ricci]

Frida glanced at the treaty long enough to read it once in it's completion. That was enough for her, unlike the others here she would never need to look at it again to remember exactly what it said. It was a gift, one she made use of most commonly for her subject matter for paintings, but it served her just as well now. She stepped back, listening quietly to other suggestions and ideas for what their next course of action should be, looking deep in thought.

[Sylvia Dorn]

"Everyone, hold up." The words were spoken with a particular inflection and tone that put them squarely in a sub-dialect of the English language known as 'House Mother'. It was a rather close cousin of 'Drill Sergeant', and the effect showed.

"First things first. We are an academy, not a military, not a police force. We are also Americans. So this idea of killing anyone unexpected who comes through the Door can end right now. It's one thing to defend ourselves; it's very much another to engage in murder."

She looked around the room, her eyes seeming to pierce to each student's heart. "Every student here is here because you were intelligent enough to meet the standards of Dalton. That puts you in the top five percent of high school students in Colorado. Every one of you has a sharp mind - yes, even Mr. Knight here, who for all his antics excels in his exams." She shot a quick look at Deacon before continuing.

"So we're going to use those minds to find a solution that doesn't involve turning this Academy into some kind of military Stargate team."

Sylvia reached into her portfolio bag, and pulled out a small sheaf of papers. One by one, she handed them out. "One of the advantages of the Dalton Academy is that we have a flexible curriculum. One of the other advantages is that our Headmaster has a spine comprised largely of tofu. Congratulations; I'm the new advisor for the lot of you. You now have a compressed standard curriculum in the afternoons; your mornings from eight to noon are a new, invitation-only class under my instruction, entitled 'The Big Picture.' We'll be meeting here in this room, though we are likely to engage in field trips. I don't think I need to tell you that the details of the coursework really shouldn't be leaving the class."

[Zack]

Zack smiled, Ms. Dorn had taken charge of things and it was likely for the best.

He nodded. "Sounds fine, I wasn't really looking forward to another boring semester of classes anyway."

[Rorx]

Jason sits quietly through Dorn's speech before asking his questions, "Very well Ms Dorn, what do you intend doing when the Shovat turns up with another bunch of his hounds that injured myslef and Sean last night? And if you manage to repell them, the inevitably larger group that will follow them? Oh, for the record I don't condone killing anyone if they are willing to turn straight around and leave if they have hostile intentions. If they are here to trade or talk I'd be happy to welcome them. I just feel that we need something in place so that we get to choose who stays here, rather than being at the whim of anyone who can find or figure out our Key."

[Sylvia Dorn]

"That's a good question, Jason. I think the first step is to see if we can find a way to 'lock' the door from this side, so that it can't be opened unless we unlock it first. That might be as simple as rigging up a good crossbar lock: sturdy beam of wood and a couple heavy-duty brackets. It might require us to build a second, heavier-duty door just on this side. But we do need to do this. I know that some of you have taken shop classes, and at least one has engineering aspirations."

Sylvia looked to the gathered students. "What do you think? Start with a bar lock and test it ourselves, or go straight to building an inner door? Also, some kind of alarm seems practical for when the door opens, regardless what else we do."

[Logic1]

Now they were getting somewhere. Although he did agree with Micah's idea, which he acknowledged with a visible nod to his peer, Ms. Dorn was right about preliminary defenses.

"I agree with locking the door. Again, I'm sure it's more complicated than all that. We may want to consult with Brahn and Brihn as far as methods and procedure are concerned. Alarming the door also makes loads of sense for the people guarding the door" he threw Micah a glance out of the corner of his eye.

[Tatiana di Jadzian]

I'm Canadian, but I get the idea. Hmm, compressed curriculum, sounds like same amount of work, but less time, yay me.

Sean listened to the others make their points and suggestions before adding his own. He was also thinking about his sister - sisters - too. "Erm, there might be one problem with locking the door, or at least something to take into account. If we lock it, what about the people already on the other side, assuming of course our 'field trips' are rather more international than most? Is there someway we can send messages without opening the door, or are we gonna have to set up a standard time that the door will be 'unlocked'?"

He saw a few surprised glances his way, feeling a brief stab of annoyance. "Hey! Don't look so surprised, football takes better timing than you think."

[Sylvia Dorn]

"You know," Sylvia said in slightly different tone of voice, "this might actually be something we don't particularly want to involve Brahn and Brihn with. Just a thought. No reason in particular.

"And Sean is right: we'll need to have a system of some sort for when we're the ones going through. Maybe a set time to return. Or , if we go with the inner door, a simple code or even a peephole. The inner door is starting to sound better and better."

[SalmonMax]

"You guys could run some experiments," Renata said. "Like, send someone somewhere with a walkie talkie and see if it'll send through. Or...we could send a paper cup with a string tied to it with everyone..."

She looked around then said, "Also, as long as we're on the subject, sort of, of people going through the door? Lucia went to the Caramine world last night. So...she's probably needing a rescue right about now. Any heroes in the room?"

[Rorx]

Jason shakes his head, "Just decide what you want and let the professional do it."

[Deacon Knight]

"Well," Deacon didn't look up from a piece of paper he was looking at. "Barring a door is easy. Making the bar strong enough to keep out a species that has been waging war on other worlds through other doors for longer than any of us are aware of is a different matter entirely."

"Do you think we're the only ones to have thought of this? Do you think the Caramines haven't faced every possible lock out there by now, developed by species far more advanced than our own? Do you think they don't have wizards or sorcerers or whatever they call them to bypass things like conventional locks, nails and boards, or whatever? Only these Keeper guys can travel without a door, simply put we find a way to destroy the doors and the Caramines aren't going to be able to come through then."

He looked up from his paper finally. "And don't anyone tell me that destroying them isn't an option. Frankly I could give a damn about everyone's desire to 'explore other worlds'. None of us knew anything about them until a day or so ago and our lives were good, wiping the door from the map certainly shouldn't hurt anyone's feelings. Except..."

Deek looked to Renata, his head swiveling slowly until it stopped and looked at her with a WTF expression. "...I'm sorry, what was that? Who did what and needs a what why for?"

[SalmonMax]

"Lucia," Renata repeated with exaggerated calm, "decided to go through the door to the Caramine world. She wanted to negotiate with them. She wouldn't stop when I tried to talk her out of it...but she didn't want to go alone either."

She had the grace to look a bit uncomfortable. "I figured I'd try to get some help before going in though. Didn't want to be the next Horror Movie Chick."

"And for what it's worth, I said 'blow up the door' because I meant it. There's other doors, sure, but not HERE, so they're not our problem. Once we get Lucia back I think we should blow that thing back where it came from. Wherever that is."

[Micah]

Micah sighed and shook his head. "I'll give her credit for balls, but none for common sense. They will kill her, or use her as a bargaining chip. I'm going after her." He turned to look everyone in the eye in turn, and stands, "I'm going to the sports equipment store room. Aluminum baseball bats, and football pads are as good as we can get for weapons and armor respectively. Unless someone's got a stash of chain-mail."

[Deacon Knight]

"Good thing he said 'respectively'." Deek chewed his Twizler. "For a second there I thought he was going to wear the bat and flail the pads around."

[Rorx]

Jason looks over at Micah, "Then you are a fool then. You have no idea what you will face the other side of that Door. You could arrive in a heavily fortifed area, you could arrive in wilderness. In either case what good would you be to her? A bat and some pads are not going to stand up to sword very well, let alone the firearms we are told they now have. And if it's a wilderness, are you going to be able to track her down if she has left the immediate area of the Door?"

He then looks to Deek and Renata, "Destroying the Door is one way to go I guess, but I'd be happier if you found some way of detecting if there are any more about and where before you go trying to blow up the one example we know of."

[SalmonMax]

"I'd be happy if I won a million dollars and could make things fly around with my mind," Renata retorts. "But it's not going to happen. We've gotta deal with what we have, when we have it. There's a difference between planning ahead, and just delaying because we're scared to act."

"Whatever's through that door, Lucia walked into it without any weapons or protection. We can bring whatever we can bring, but we can't save her unless we go through it too, and there's nothing we can do to make all the risks go away."

[Deacon Knight]

"Why?" Deek asked Jason. "What do you need it for? Until yesterday you had no idea it existed and you hardly seem the type to specialize spacial distortions, so research is out of the question."

He spoke to Micah and sighed, regretting what he was about to say. "She's an idiot, one second she's Class President, the next she thinks she's an American Gladiator, and now she thinks she's Earth Ambassador. She's got issues..."

He sighed again and rolled his eyes.

"...but we can't leave her there. I might be able to whip up a lil sumpin' sumpin' to make tracking her easier, but I'll need to be through the door way to calibrate the signal to her. C'mon."

He stood up and walked with Micah, patting Jason on the shoulder as he passed him. "Hold down the fort Courage. You plan and think, and wonder, and guess, and do all that talking you're good at. We'll be doing something in the meantime."

He winked at Renata, "You got your help, you comin' hotstuff?"

[Tatiana di Jadzian]

"I'm not sure blowing up the door will even work, not as a final solution anyway." Sean looked around the room, his eyes resting on Micah and Jason. "Didn't Brahn mention something about if the Door was destroyed, it's just the physical part that's toast? The Door will reform or attach to another doorway in time, I think that's what he said, or implied."

Sean turned to Deacon and Renata. "If destroying the door is such a great idea, or that easy, why didn't Dalton and company do it then?"

Sean moved over to Micah and Deacon, actually surprised that the Brain was offering to go through the Door. "I'll go too. I got my own pads and I'll get my hiking and climbing gear too, just in case."

Besides, I got picked first in the Harvest Lottery, I at least want to know where the Caramines come from.

[SalmonMax]

Renata got to her feet, flashing a smile that was part 'hah hah, very funny' and part shy.

"Yeah. I want to get some stuff from my room first though. Lets meet at the 'doorway' in...ten minutes?"

She looked at everyone else in the room.

"Anyone else coming?"

[Rorx]

Jason stands, "Oh, if you guys are stupid enough to go through after her, then I'll go with you. Just give me about half an hour to get some stuff from the house."

[Logic1]

It seemed the call to arms was going to cut their meeting short, "Jason if you need help arming people I'll go to your place to but I'll sit this one out. Someone should stay behind."

[Rorx]

Jason shook his head at Everrett's offer, "No point trying to arm anyone. None of them know which end to point where, and they are more likely to surrender than use anything. All I'd end up doing is giving more modern weapons to the Carmine than they have at the moment. I'd rather they not have modern designs to copy when the fight might just be starting."

[Sylvia Dorn]

"Just a moment, please. There are some things we need to do before rushing off to a world that is bent on war with us.

"First - and I mean first - we need the key to come home. White feathers, thoughts written on a piece of paper. For all we know, these could be incredibly rare where we're going. We need to take them with us.

"Second, and despite Jason's concern, we have to have at least some means of defending ourselves if we're really going into the lion's den. We have seen what the Caramine can do, what they use. Some here do know how to use a weapon, and those that do need to have them ready.

"Third, supplies. We don't know how long we'll be there. We could get separated from the door. And for all we know, we might not be able to eat what we find there. So preserved, lightweight food, like trail bars. Most of you have backpacks of some sort, you'll want to bring those.

"Fourth, something to trade. We don't know that this world is unified behind the ones who have attacked us. If we find some that might be more friendly, we should have something to offer in trade for things we might need. I'd imagine that just about any sort of manufactured, non-electric and relatively harmless goods would work."

Sylvia paused from the litany and looked the gathered group in the eyes. "I want you to consider carefully that we might not be coming home. If you cannot accept that, then stay here... and for the love of Pete, find a way to build an inner door."

[Rorx]

Jason accepts Dorn's correction with good grace and turns to the others, "Ok, so who among you can use a weapon of some kind, and I'll see what we can do about arming you."

Well, Ms Dorn, with the exception of the trade stuff, that's what I wanted the 30mins to collect.

[Deacon Knight]

"Thanks, Mom." Deek waved a hand over his head as he left the room and headed to his own. The lectures from his intellectual inferiors always made him chuckle inwardly. Since the discovery of the door just yesterday Deek already had set aside a travel pack, a weapon -despite no knowing how to sue very well, it was better than nothing- and schematics on three possible ways to exploit the cross space travel phenomena, but he needed to more tests and data.

While blowing the door to smithereens certainly wouldn't cause him to shed any tears, especially if the students were kept safe, the scientist within him did want to study and understand it and find a way to make a practical use of the theories involved with C.S.T.. He was rather excited, but wasn't about to show it, thankfully though there were lower minds ready to step up to the plate and die first, giving him ample time to run away should things go south.

"Meet you there in ten people," He looked to Jason. "Or thirty, whatevs, it'll give me time to calibrate my new toy to the door's frequency."

[Tatiana di Jadzian]

Damn it! I forgot about food. At least I still have half a case of power bars and a few Mars Bars left, that should do.

"I'm good, Jason, I don't need a weapon. Don't know how to use one other than my fists anyway. See you guys at the Door in a few."

Sean was about to leave the room when something else occurred to him. "Where, exactly is the door, other than in Lancaster? And what are we supposed to say to anyone who sees us carrying hiking and camping gear?"

[Rorx]

Jason looks around the room, "Well that's two down. What about the rest of you? Are you coming as well, and can any of you use a weapon of any kind? Ms Dorn? Frida? Micah? How about you Zack?"

He leaves Sean's questions to Ms Dorn to deal with.

[Logic1]

Deacon was nearly out the door when Everett caught up to him, "Is there any way I can keep track of you all from the outside since I'll be guarding the door?" he crossed his arms as he spoke, "if you have a device for that, and I'm sure you do, I can operate it, trust me".

He figured Deacon would have designed something of the sort. He would have. If he'd made a device to track people on the other side of the doors, why wouldn't he have one to create a trail of breadcrumbs if you will?

He looked to Jason, "you ready?"

[Frida Ricci]

Frida gazed at Jason thoughtfully, and as usual the stare lasted a little longer than was entirely comfortable. Finally she came to a decision, and inclined her head towards Jason in a slight nod.

"Unfortunately, I am not familiar with the use of any sort of weapon. But I do have a very good memory, and I can be quite subtle if I need to be. So I should probably come along, just in case. If you'll pardon me, I'll gather my things."

With that, the creepy young half-Brit picked up her artist's tube and made her way out of the room, leaving the large oil pastel drawings hanging on the wall to gaze at the Daltonites eerily in her place.

[Zack]

Zack nodded. "I take fencing lessons, both epee and saber rules here."

He finally had a chance to look at the actual treaty and he smiled as he held it in his hands.

He called upon the ability he'd only recently learned was truly real and called to the Spirt within the treaty.

Click to reveal..

Pres+Soc+ apoth 7d10

(22:59:43) ChatBot: (Zack) rolls 7d10 and gets 1,5,10,10,4,7,3.

(23:05:20) ChatBot: (Zack) rolls 2d10 and gets 10,9.

3 successes

[Deacon Knight]

"Well," Deek grinned to Everett. "Hate to burst your bubble but I did just get done saying that we just found the doors last night, so no. No I don't really have anything on hand that will work between dimensions, because, as you may remember us pointing out a second ago, we don't know anything about this stuff and really haven't had much time for research. I'm not sure what I've in store will work because I'm not positive these doors even work on a principal of science I'm familiar with."

Deek smiled big and slapped Everett on the bicep. "Therein lies the fun, eh?" His expression became rather serious again suddenly. "Look, Eves, I know you want to help, I do. I appreciate it, really, but you just walked into a room last night and asked 'hey what's up' and have seemed to embed yourself into this whole mess with a fervor that's truly astonishing, but do us a favor: try and stay out of the way. Okay?"

He knew this wasn't what Everett wanted to hear, but it needed to be said. "Our lives are riding this, so please, pretty please with sugar on top, don't get in the way. This isn't a game, and so far you're the only one around here who doesn't have anything to lose." His big smile returned and he patted Everett a few more times on his arm. "Thanks, appreciate it. Knew I could count on you."

Deacon turned and left the room for a second time, wondering how or why he never made it out the door the first time.

[SalmonMax]

Renata watched the fun, or chaos, or whatever, for a few minutes, then slipped out the door past Deacon as he was waylaid.

Well, Lucia...got a cavalry at least. Not sure what good it'll do, but at least you won't be alone.

She was torn between heroic fantasies and glum realities as she headed back to her dorm room to pack a few things for a quick trip to another world.