Lofty Heights Open Log

[codicies]

Who: Everyone school-aged or school-adjacent (so basically everyone??)
What: SCHOOL HAS BEGUN
When: All through September
Where: School bus stops, School bus, and Lofty Heights
Content Warnings: n/a

Some Top-Level Ideas:

• Faculty Preparations & Mingle (Before September 8th)
  The faculty of Lofty Heights has a lot to do before the school year actually starts — prepping their classrooms, working out a curriculum, getting to know each other, getting the office to order the right supplies.



• The Wormhole Projectors on the Bus Go Pew Pew Pew
  The bus stops for Lofty Heights students are peppered throughout each of the cities. Parents and students alike are waiting there to be picked up.
  
  Once you're on the road, things seem normal... until a womrhole opens up. The bus goes right through it, and suddenly all you can see out the window is clouds below... and the massive floating school complex on the horizon.



• In-School Interaction
  Are you lost on your way to your next class? Having trouble getting your locker open? See a friend and want to chat? Or maybe there's a pack of Seniors on the pros wl for new students, looking to do a little bullying hazing.
  
  Or maybe you're already in the classroom, trying to wrangle your rowdy students — or, perhaps, you're a student trying to make sense of the current lesson.
  
  When lunch time rolls around, do you sit alone? Or do you spot a friend or acquaintance and sit with them?
  
  Anything that would make sense in the context of the school :D

Comments

[anewtruth]

My mother's here. [She says, still in that bordering-defiant tone.] And my... [Oh. How to describe Yennefer and Jaskier? Hmm...]

...step-mother...? and uncle...? [She shakes her head.] It's complicated- but they're family. And they're here. All three of them. And they think it's best that I go, so... [shrug. What else was she going to do with her days, anyway?]

[demigoth]

Not everyone’s that lucky. Nobody I know is here.

[ Okay, he shouldn’t have assumed that everyone was here alone, but this girl’s acting like her family’s decision should mean something to him. ]

But that’s okay, I’m used to taking care of myself. I just want to have a say in this.

[ Well, he wants full veto power but Nico will settle for being able to influence what happens. Maybe a normal school with no ability training. ]

[anewtruth]

[It stings. The comment about luck. Because it hits a chord he isn't even aware exists in her. It snaps her mouth shut for a moment, that's for sure. Her voice is a little softer when she speaks next.]

I'm sorry.

[Mostly, it was a kneejerk reaction to the assumption she had no family here. And the whole thing is really rather deeply complicated, considering her mother has been dead since she was a baby, but... she's not going to get into all that with a stranger.]

I'm Ciri. [She offers a little abruptly.] And I get that...more than you could possibly know. Wanting a say in what's happening to you. I don't know school works in this Sphere, this is my first day, but...could you work instead of going to school? Plenty of people do that where I'm from.

[demigoth]

Ciri.

[ He twists further in his seat, until he’s able to offer his hand for an actual handshake out of some semblance of old-fashioned manners that don’t entirely fit with the dark, rumpled clothes and poor attitude. Nico can hear the change in her tone, though, and reacts to it. He’s not looking to antagonize the other students. ]

Pleased to meet you. I’m Nico di Angelo.

[ Whether she shakes it or not, he won’t be bothered. His head shakes at her apology and suggestion. ]

I’m not old enough to leave school legally, and I tried ignoring that. You saw what happened - the officer didn’t agree. Besides, I don’t think I’m old enough to work legally. I think you have to be 16 nowadays.

[ As for his family, she doesn’t have to be sorry that they aren’t there, but Nico doesn’t want to talk about them in any detail. It always gets uncomfortable quickly. ]

[anewtruth]

[She hesitates for a fraction of a second, a little thrown off by the little switch in him, before she smiles and shakes his hand.

And it doesn’t sound sarcastic when she says— ]

Charmed.

[She frowns deeply at that explanation.]

Well, that’s a stupid rule.

[demigoth]

[ He gives her a - well, not a smile, because his smiles are reserved for teasing, black humor, maybe a little malice and definitely not those moments where Nico can't help himself but to be giddy nope those don't happen. But it's certainly smile-adjacent.

It's kinda nice to have someone answer 'pleased to meet you' with 'charmed' instead of immediately shouting the details of whatever chaos has happened recently and throwing you a cuirass. Really nice actually. Maybe this whole 'talking to people' concept isn't so bad if it stays like this. ]

Of course, it's a stupid rule. They're stupid. Everyone in the same school until you're 18 is a waste of time. If they're not teaching the things you need later in life and you're not going to university, you might as well get a job or learn to be a plumber.

[anewtruth]

[Once she gets beyond the general culture shock, of which there has been a lot, Ciri doesn’t mind people as a general rule. Some of them are much more interesting or far more irritating than others, but she has all the right makings of one of those girls who’s popular because she’s genuinely pleasing to be around and not any other reason. Not that popularity is at all on her mind— she just wants to make a few friends.

She nods along her agreement with him right up until that last bit. Her face scrunches up a bit in confusion.]

What is that?

[demigoth]

[ Too bad she’s talking to the kid who will quickly be on the trajectory of fifth year senior who plays with knives in shop class. Not intentionally though.

Nico gets squirrelly and defensive at the question. He plays back what he said, but can’t spot what might read as “weird.” ]

What’s what?

[anewtruth]

[She blinks at the question of her own question, bewildered by the boy, but also suddenly very acutely aware how very out of place she is in this world.]

A… plumber?

[demigoth]

[ His English is really good, and he knows it. No one catches him with a strong accent, and he only uses Italian when he's upset. Plumber is the right word, but maybe it's the wrong universe's right word? Nico hasn't needed to call a plumber, ever. ]

Do they call them something else here? The people that fix the pipes and the toilets?

[anewtruth]

I’m… not sure. This sphere is much different from the one I come from. More advanced…?

[Shes feeling more awkward in this conversation by the second.]

I suppose we just didn’t have them. But I think I understand now.

[Sort of. ]

[demigoth]

My world’s different from here, too.

[ He doesn’t feel comfortable explaining how, because he’s not really sure how different. In his world, magic and demigods can make technology malfunction, and he spent half his life pre-Internet, pre-television, and pre-modern appliances in the home. No one’s even explained to him why he shouldn’t stick a fork in the toaster.

So he’s glossing over the part about whose world is more advanced. There are reasons for today to suck for both teens, but feeling stupid isn’t one of them. ]

You’re new, too. Don’t worry. Your world - Sphere - probably calls them something else. Just change the subject if someone says something that you aren’t sure about.