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[Dustan Hache]

"letter here says "sec-1023". Guess that's what I was supposed to put on those rollers. Not used to teleportin' at all..."
show my copy of the letter to them if they don't believe me.

[BlitzDungeoneer]

"Well, if he's done, might as well get it over with myself."

Sully marches over to the teleportation dais - 1993, she was dead on about him being dumb muscle - and turns the last four rollers to 1023, putting everything else at zero.

[Hibou]

Jun promptly takes a step back, watching the actions of those around her and doing her best to avoid eye contact with the school staff.

[Egan_BW]

Corvo stares at the letter for a few long moments, trying to decode the fancy monkey runes.

[Sir Elventide]

"letter here says "sec-1023". Guess that's what I was supposed to put on those rollers. Not used to teleportin' at all..."
show my copy of the letter to them if they don't believe me.

Taking the letter, the man gave it a quick read before handing it back to you. "It seems that you were mistaken about the code to your destination," he remarked as he motioned to the dais behind you. "Please go back and input the correct code."

The strange man continued to watch as you returned to the dais and inputted the correct code. There is no way you're doing any reckless exploring for the time being. The man continued to watch you as you disappeared into the tunnel again.

"Well, if he's done, might as well get it over with myself."

Sully marches over to the teleportation dais - 1993, she was dead on about him being dumb muscle - and turns the last four rollers to 1023, putting everything else at zero.

Unlike a certain idiotic marksman, you are actually capable of using your gray matter correctly and thus entered the correct code. As the cocoon of light enveloped you, you glanced at the rest of the students. Because they were on the dais as well, they were enveloped. Soon, everyone were hurtling through a tunnel of multicolored lights, some of you screaming at the top of your lungs. After what felt like an eternity, you and the other students exited the tunnel and landed in a tangled heap in front of the dais. After untangling yourself, you stood up and found yourself taking in quite a sight.

The entire auditorium was a massive, inverted cone shaped hollow 60 stories deep with seats numbering in the hundreds of thousands arranged in concentric circles around the stage at the base of the structure. Most of them were already filled with students of all ages, ranging from teenagers to senior citizens. They were chattering among themselves though some cast disinterested glances in your direction, no doubt seeing your group as yet more new students enter the auditorium. Television screens measuring 200 meters diagonally floated in the air on platforms that emitted strange humming as cyan light shone from the engines within. Following the signs, you and the others used the teleporters to get to the eighteenth row. To your surprise, you found none other than the dumb muscle who'd teleported to Room 1993 earlier. How is he even still alive is beyond you.


Suddenly the other new students begin to quiet down as they looked toward the stage. The television screens showed two swirls of golden dust dance around each other before exploding into a shower of spark. In their place stood a beautiful woman who were flanked by two people, a man and a woman. Both of them have silvery hair, silver eyes, and a strange sheen on their skin. Their faces were masks with not expressions, yet were remarkably human. Both were dressed in the same colors as the students, though they looked more like the faculty of this academy.

The woman's face; however, was lit up with a big, warm smile, almost as if she is a motherly woman welcoming stray children into her home. Her golden hair was styled into thick ringlets at the ends and fell to the back of her neck. Her frilly, white blouse and black pencil skirt with gold trimmings seemed to accent her curves as her black stockings and heels added the finishing touches. As her earrings, which resembled winged swords with halos much like this academy's coat of arms, danced as she turned her head toward the students' faces, her golden eyes seemed to glow ever so slightly as she took in the sights of the students who she will soon be throwing into the meatgrinder.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Altera Vita Academy!" she spoke as she raised her arms in a theatrical fashion. Despite her distance to your row and those above you, you can still hear her voice as if you were sitting on the first row. This is strange though, considering that you can neither see any speakers nor do you believe that her voice came from the televisions. "No doubt you'd read and followed the directions on the letter to make it here in at least one piece though there are some who may have taken a wrong turn beforehand." The strange woman seemed to wink playfully in Metz' direction.

Clearing her throat, she continued, "It was I who'd left the letters and weapon assembling gems on your desks and it was I who'd summoned you all here. I am Headmistress Madeline T. Goldenchilde and I have much to show you. At my side are just two of my wonderful custodians and guards. Known as Seraphim, they will attend to your needs and will help keep order within Altera Vita Academy. I will show you all not just about this wondrous academy that will be your new home but how to function, even thrive, here and out there. Despite the fact that all of you are going to die horribly, no doubt more than once, you will eventually learn new tricks and skills so that you might die less than usual. A little progress is still progress, no?"

At this, the students begin to murmur restlessly, even fearfully, at what they'd just opened their eyes to. Some of them were even shouting at her about how unfair all of this are to them. Her warm smile not even wavering a bit, Madeline motioned for silence with a raised hand. Eventually, everyone quieted down.

"However, I'm not going to force you to accept this second life, this second chance, at doing what you failed to do during your time among the living: have  some sort of fulfillment and a purpose. Just say the word and I'll transmigrate you to the next cycle of existence, to whatever fate you'd earned in life. However, if you choose to stay, I'd feel much appreciated and the best part is you won't cheat yourself out of this do-over. Not many people get this chance after all!"


Taking a deep breath, Madeline continued, "Before I start the tour of your resident sector, I am more than happy to answer any questions you have. Don't worry about waiting your turn to speak; I will hear every question you ask and will answer each of you directly. You all may experience a state of...*ahem* isolation as everything around each of you are grayed out and muted so that we can have our one-on-one Q & A section. To viewers outside this auditorium; however, I would be moving as a blur, sputtering out rapid gibberish. Consider it one of my abilities. Now, ask away!"

[Egan_BW]

Corvo stares at the annoying human lady, making sure to remember her face.

[Dustan Hache]

"Jus how big is this place anyway? I heard that there are five thousand audi-toriums alone. I might not be the brightest of the bunch, but if you're running something that size, why don' ya just take all the staffers out to fight the contorted too?"

[AbstractTraitorHero]

A woman had been in the auditorium since nearly the beginning. A tightness to their throat staring at their hands. Flesh red and pulsing contrasted by almost ghost white skin. A bone white and red looking gem looking fused like part of her body.

A wobbling of the lips. Memory's replaying over and over and over. Right hand closing and closing. Remembering a slight feel of fingers. The dread the terror how it all felt so fast when she fell.

How it took so long once she hit the ground. Once she had been entombed. Their body diden't hurt right now...but their leg was limping the one that was broken the right one it seems.

A pickaxe in her right hand. Stoney flesh blotching parts of her face. Eyes staring their body younger than they remembered it a helplessness reigning over her form.

Managing to look up at the woman. To speak their voice having an almost echoey quality. Causing no doubt the panic the alarm the shaking that grew in her hands and arm's.

The wobble of shock and panic clear enough to hear. Of distress and slight anger. Of revulsion and disgust and confusion.

"W-Why do...I look like this?"

((Any suggestions for representing echo in text?))

[Radio Controlled]

The look on the old man's face was stern and not exactly positive as the strange woman in the front rattled of her whole spiel, her voice and face extended through strange and potentially heretical magics. This was a lot of new information to take in at once, something Roland wasn't used to at all.

"I don't think I like this one bit." he whispers to his animal companion.
"What do you think of that woman, Corvo?"

Corvo stares at the annoying human lady, making sure to remember her face.

"I see. You're right, best keep on our guard for now."

One thing that caught Roland's attention though was her referring to her lackeys as 'Seraphim'. Did that mean they were messengers from the Lord after all?

"What are you, exactly?"

Stay on my guard.

[Hibou]

Jun checks her left and right, taking in the bizarre nature of the entire situation she's found herself in. The auditorium lacked any speakers or cords, the people on stage looked like they were fresh out of the uncanny valley, and while she was pretty sure she was dead, it was hard to deny the dreamlike quality of it all. After a pause she raises her hand and asks, "Can we see what our next incarnation is gonna be?"

[Empiricist]

Whatever Clint was expecting, it wasn't this. He'd expected, well, he wasn't too sure what he was expecting, but it wasn't this. Appearances were kept for appearances' sake but honestly? He was expecting them to just drop it here and have devil, or maybe a laughing skeleton do this. Not, whatever those were taking the form of people. Someone from a previously batch maybe. Unable to make head or tails of the situation, unable to even find the goddamn coin really, he just stands there, shuts his trap and observes. Looks at all the other weirdos in the crowd, and resists the urge to scream.

[Sir Elventide]

"Jus how big is this place anyway? I heard that there are five thousand audi-toriums alone. I might not be the brightest of the bunch, but if you're running something that size, why don' ya just take all the staffers out to fight the contorted too?"

Despite her actual distance from your seat, Madeline looked as if she was simply standing a few meters in front of you. Her smile morphed into a smirk as you asked your question.

"This place is quite large, my dear student," Madeline replied as she clasped her hands together and pulled them apart, materializing a scroll made up of shards of golden light. a pair of small circular spectacles materialized on the bridge of her nose as her eyes scanned the contents. "You can say that the three spatial dimensions you humans are so used to have no meaning here. That's the side effect of having a pocket dimension, don't you agree Metz or, should I say, John Mackerfield?"

Chuckling lightly, the headmistress continued, "About your second question, yes you are indeed correct: if we have enough people to oversee five thousand auditoriums then we should logically have enough to spare for our fight against the Contorted."

Madeline closed the scroll and willed it out of existence. "However, you must understand that such pockets dimensions such as Altera Vita are... somewhat unstable to say the least. Sure we're doing better than most but sometimes we do have mishaps. A tear in reality here, a displaced chunk of it there. Someone's got to fix those problems and that's where the Seraphim come in. No matter how many of them are here, they are drastically outnumbered by your students yet have to do the maintenance all by themselves. However, they don't need sleep or food and they're immune to the mind-numbing aspect of it all. As a result, they must stay here unless they're really needed out there."

Madeline shrugged nonchalantly. "Besides, I have the notion that an existence in a school-like setting intermingled with the occasional battle can instill some sort of purpose and satisfaction in humans. Or maybe I'm wrong. Either way, I'd been doing this since your species and their multiversal variants started crawling out of the mud and it seemed to work so there."

The headmistress looked on eagerly, "So, any more questions?"

"What are you, exactly?"

Stay on my guard.

Opening up a scroll of golden shards, Madeline gave it a quick read before turning to face you. "'What am I?' That, warrior of God, is the ultimate question. You humans seek not only to pair names with strange faces but to peek at what's underneath. Despite the fact that your beliefs, theories, and mythologies have more or less colored your preconceptions of the great unknown, you are forever curious about that you do not understand. I have no doubt that what you're seeing with your own spiritual eyes have caused you to doubt, even question, the teachings of your elders. I shall put you at ease, militant servant of the Most High. The closest thing I am to according to the teachings from your youth is an archangel."

Her smile deepening, Madeline continued, "Regardless of who I really am, I am not your enemy. Now, any other questions you would like to ask?"

"W-Why do...I look like this?"

((Any suggestions for representing echo in text?))

((I don't know. Maybe typing the same thing a few more times but with a smaller font size each time?))

Madeline smile wavered a bit as she used a projection of herself to give you a thorough look over. "Oh dear," she finally muttered softly as she dispelled the projection. If you'd ever had any questions about whether this strange being is capable of sympathy, then they just been answered. Her hands shook slightly as she summoned a golden scroll and read your dossier.

After what seemed like an eternity, the headmistress looked back at you. Though she is still smiling, there seemed to be a hint of sadness in her eyes. "Alicia, you poor, poor soul," she finally breathed. "What you're suffering from is known in layman's terms as Postmortem Spiritual Trauma. Though rare, it's a result of a particularly harrowing death. The released soul then carries elements of the death in question on their very being like a very bad stain along with any resulting debilitation. Best case scenario: it goes away on its own as you begin to move on. Worst case scenario; however, it is permanent and thus requires a major reset from the Most High Himself. In the meantime, please do you best to move on. It helps."

Remaining silent for a few minutes, Madeline continued, "Any more questions, my dear?"

Jun checks her left and right, taking in the bizarre nature of the entire situation she's found herself in. The auditorium lacked any speakers or cords, the people on stage looked like they were fresh out of the uncanny valley, and while she was pretty sure she was dead, it was hard to deny the dreamlike quality of it all. After a pause she raises her hand and asks, "Can we see what our next incarnation is gonna be?"

"It's too early to worry about such things, my dear student," Madeline said as she summoned and peered through it. "Perhaps when you move on to the next cycle, you can start pondering incarnation. However, even then will you not be able to tell what you will reincarnate as. Mostly, it depends on your actions when alive and in the here and now."

Madeline cleared her throat. "Any more questions?"

[Dustan Hache]

"Either way is fine. Metz is jus' a nickname some of my friends called me. dunno if it's cos of the Canadian rock band or the french town, but apparently they saw a relation between one of 'em and me, and the name stuck.
He shrugs off the name drop as if it didn't really matter to him.

"now, I won't mind cleaning up my messes. Hell, I wouldnt mind fixin holes in reality if I knew how to. But you'd have to teach me how to do that first, now wouldnt ya?"

"from what I'm getting, you know a bit more than yer lettin on bout them contorted folk. Is this some sorta test, an we're supposed to be fightin them to improve our grade with the big guy upstairs or somethin?"

[Egan_BW]

Don't trust this one.

[Hibou]

Jun listens, furrowing her brow as she thinks about what she's learned. "So, like, is this place just the afterlife equivalent of a Chuck-E-Cheese?" She makes a broad sweeping motion to the whole auditorium. "If we win enough tickets by doing... Whatever, we get to go back as the reincarnation equivalent of the giant teddy bear?" She draws a vague outline of a stuffed bear in the air with her hand for emphasis. "Cause it looks like you guys have enough resources here to take out a small country. Dealing with a bunch of freaky cronenbergs should be a walk in the park." There's a pause, and she takes a breath before adding, "I guess what I'm trying to say is I don't really get why we need to be here."