diatu | [Closed] What if I'm far from home? Oh brother, I will hear you call

[Closed] What if I'm far from home? Oh brother, I will hear you call

Who: Huey and Louie, then Webby and Lena
Where: The Academy
When: New arrival(s)
What: Huey finds some familiar faces in a sea of strangeness

This was... completely new and strange for the duckling. One minute he'd been minding his business around McDuck Manor, and the next he was here. True, there had been something of a "warning"- a strange swirling feeling around him, lighting up every nerve and then yanking him through time and space -but that did absolutely nothing for the absolute shock of it. What's worse, that feeling didn't subside even after landing; it buzzed pleasantly under his skin, and seemed to get stronger the more he faced a certain direction. So, afraid but curious all the same, he followed the strange "compass."

What he thought wandering through the Tenscore Kingdoms was too long to put here, but suffice to say there was quite an information overload. What are those? Who is that? What kind of creatures are these (both two-legged and some other many-legged varieties he saw around, pets or otherwise). Does he hear conversation about magic-? Continuing to follow the feeling, he traced a path to Diatu Magicademy, and once he passed through its gates did the sensation finally subside. Someone was by soon after his arrival to tend to him, muttering something about "new Sundered" and giving him a crash course on where he was: a school of magic and mystery, summoned here through spells hitherto unknown (or outlawed) to learn to use the power now residing within him. Supplies, House, everything was summarized, and then he was turned loose. The school day was currently in progress but, as a new arrival he would be more expected to explore. Besides, he still had to find his bonded Familiar- one was normally given to a student, but seemed there was something strange about Huey's, so off he went.

And, that's about it. Head still reeling from everything that'd happened in the last twenty minutes- twenty minutes?? it felt like twenty years!! -he walked through the halls of the school, clutching books to his chest. This was all so strange and new... And he was feeling more lost than ever.

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One of the many strange things about the Magicademy was that, the more Louie got used to the other strange things? It was actually a lot more normal than his life back home. Or, if nothing else, more routine. Sure, there were plenty of strange things that had happened here and there - not to mention social drama; he still wasn't totally sure where he stood with Lena - but there were not sudden trips to who-could-say-where to find treasure at four in the morning.

No, things were more or less the same every day, looking at the big picture. He went through his morning classes, got lunch, then afternoon classes happened, he got dinner and he spent the evenings relaxing with Cash or some friends. That day, he'd finished up morning classes and was heading for lunch when he walked by Huey, who looked completely wrapped up in checking out the room across the hall. Louie gave his brother a quick nod...

...Wait.

"Huey?!" He didn't even have to think through if he was willing to drop his cool and detached attitude - he didn't think at all between running over to his brother and hugging him. "Huey! You're here!"

He hadn't been so happy to see anyone since he'd been stuck at Doofus' mansion. Come to think of it, that had been Huey, too.

Huey had been so involved in peeking into the room in question that he didn't even notice who was nearby until they said his name. The jolt of surprise went up his spine and he turned quickly, seeing Louie just in time to drop the books in his arms and receive the hug. The force of it knocked him back half a step, but he didn't care. He hadn't even realized how alone he'd been feeling, until the sheer flood of relief at Louie being HERE took a noticeable chunk of tension out of his body.

"Louie!!" Leaning back from the hug but keeping his hands on his brother's shoulders, several emotions warred for prominence on his face. Wonder, concern, worry, shock- Shock is a good one, let's go with that one.

"What is this place? When did you get here? How long have you been here? Is anyone else here?"

Louie explaining to Huey what was going on? This was a twist on the norm.

"Okay, so, there's a lot to explain. Did any of the locals help you yet? A teacher or something?" Then again, the amount of help he'd have received varied depending on which of the local staff it had been, Louie figured.

"We're at Diatu Magicademy, in the Tenscore Kingdoms. And I got here just after we had Christmas, but that was three months ago by now! Huey, you have no idea how much-" Blushing a bit under his feathers, he cut himself off with a very fake cough. The hug had been one (impulsive) thing, but he didn't need to start gushing about how much he'd missed Huey.

"Y-yeah, Webby and Lena are both here!"

"Yeah, someone's explained a little..." But Huey still listened to Louie's own explanation. Somehow it coming from his brother just made it a little more real. The note about Christmas- Christmas?? -had his brow furrowing as he tried to figure it out, though that cleared almost immediately.

"Webby and Lena?" But wasn't-? Didn't-? How was-?

...Wait.

"But not...?"

Huey and Louie were here. But there was a conspicuous absence now, a great big blank spot between both their names.

Edited 2019-05-01 00:34 (UTC)

Louie flinched. He may have ragged on Dewey even more than he ragged on Huey, but... All the same, he missed Dewey. And it was strange to have one-third of the brotherhood still absent. Perhaps stranger than it had been before, now that Huey was here.

"No, he's not here."

"He's not." Parroting his brother just to solidify that note to himself. He sighed, glanced down- and in doing so looked at the things he'd dropped in the sudden hug. A piece of paper was with it, and that reminded him of something.

"Oh!" he started, bending down to pick it up and hold it for Louie to inspect, "have you seen an owl around anywhere? They said he was my familiar, but was busy- and they wouldn't tell me why -and I had to find him myself."

The paper had a drawing of what seemed to be a Great Horned Owl, and whoever drew it had posed him with a book under one wing. There was also a name, "Ptolemy," and then "Wizard: Huey Duck" underneath it.

Louie squinted at the paper, then looked back to his brother. "I've seen a lot of owls. They're one of the familiars people can have, but... I haven't seen one with a book, if he has it on him right now."

Honestly, though, that seemed like quite the assumption, just because the bird held one in the illustration. Louie looked back to the paper with a quiet hum. "Potelmy? No, wait... How do you even pronounce that?"

"'Tolemy', the P is silent." He looked back at the paper himself, studying it as if he expected the owl to materialize out of nothingness in front of them.

...Honestly, given everything else would that really be so unexpected?

"Unless they're going for the pharoah Ptolemy I Soter who ruled in 323 BCE, I'm going to guess this is referring to Claudius Ptolemy, the Greco-Roman astronomer, astrologer, mathematician, and geographer, who lived in Alexandria around 100 CE to 170. He's considered one of the greatest scientific minds of the ancient era."

Wow, didn't even have to pull out the Guidebook for that. With one last look at the picture, he slipped it inside one of his books and picked everything else up.

"And apparently I have an owl named as such here... somewhere. They said our bond may pull us together, but I haven't felt anything so far."

Louie was sure he could feel his eyes glazing over as Huey went on... And on. Okay, so maybe it wasn't the long of an explanation, but it did lead Louie to realize that between the notes he was taking for Webby to avoid having to verbally pass along everything in his classes, and Huey just - being there, he was going to have to learn a lot more here at Diatu Magicademy than he'd ever planned on learning.

After a while, he did realize that Huey had stopped talking, and he blinked back into focus. "I have a rat. I named him Cash."

Huey paused when Louie spoke again, and he snorted softly before he could stop himself.

"And what, no second rat named Carry?"

"Well, they only gave me one rat," Louie replied with a smirk. "Now besides his weird name, what's the story with this owl? Where do we need to look for him?"

"Let's see... They said he could be in the Great Hall or in the common room of Eiather."

He paused, drumming his fingers around the edges of the book he held.

"I don't know where either of those things are."

Right. He'd figured that would be the case - why would he and Huey be in the same house? They were so different, after all. And yet, having it confirmed was still kind of a downer.

...Hold on.

"Wait, wait, Eiather?"

He wasn't too fussed over House rivalries, but it was hard not to be aware of them. He heard other students in Valhudor, especially those who came from the Tenscore Kingdoms in the first place, complain about how boring and uptight Eiather students were.

Then again, Huey was pretty- Well. Not the point.

"...Yeah?" Huey, who was not privvy to Louie's inner thoughts, just gave him an odd look. "What about it?"

"I'm in Valhudor, and they - we - have this whole thing with Eaither. I mean, there's Color March, which includes all the Houses, but this is definitely beyond that."

He frowned a little as he shrugged. "I mean, it's probably not really a big deal? Just a lot of talk, probably."

"House rivalry?" He considered that, wondering if it was similar to what he'd heard from books, or the whole 'sports team rivalry' culture.

"That doesn't mean that... we...?"

He didn't finish his sentence, but triplets are often in sync so it was likely Louie would get the rest of it anyway.

Louie shook his head. "No way, we can still hang out." It would seem he had, indeed, picked up on Huey's meaning.

"Like I said, it's probably just all talk. Now let's go find an owl, come on. We can ask a professor for directions."

Huey breathed out a sigh of relief, that was a bit deeper than he thought it might be. He'd just gotten his brother, he didn't need divisions of Houses keeping them apart. (He'd already dealt with a divided house anyway and that was more than enough for him, thankyouverymuch.)

"Right! We need to find the owl before he gets himself into trouble. Which is closer?"

"Well, the Great Hall is nearby, but it's lunchtime - that's going to be packed right now," Louie explained. "We'll have a better chance if we start in your Common Room."

"In the Common Room, got it." If nothing else, he can drop off the supplies he was still carrying, that he hadn't time to deal with yet. "Lead away, mon frère."

Louie gave a nod, before he he lead the way... Into a classroom. Fortunately, he didn't have to interrupt a class to ask a teacher for direction, not with lunch going on, so the information was quickly obtained. It wasn't too long before the brothers were at the Eaither Common Room, and along the way, Louie filled Huey in on a few of the people he'd gotten to know there.

But when they were actually inside the Common Room, Louie's demeanor changed from relaxed to a bit nervous, even tense. His red and orange robes were definitely drawing some dirty looks.

A foot slid across the floor just as Louie walked by its owner, sending him tumbling to the ground.

Huey had listened intently as they went, though his eyes strayed every now and then when something interesting passed by- was that a ghost?? No, focus. As they approached the Eiather area, Huey's demeanor changed to wonder. There were so many BOOKS! Books upon books upon scrolls upon-

He was turning a little on the spot, looking at all the learning around him, and wasn't aware anyone had griefed Louie until he heard him hit the floor. INSTANTLY his demeanor changed and he whirled on the spot, looking liable to hit the other student in the head with a book, Housemate or no.

"Hey!! That's my brother, you leave him alone!"

Even threatening the other person- who decided the "better part of valor" was to shrug and go down to lunch -Huey didn't forget Louie either, bending down to pick him up off the floor.

Louie could feel the heat of an embarrassed blush creeping up his neck. This really was becoming a trend, wasn't it? Still, he managed a small but undeniably grateful smile as Huey helped him up.

"Looks like you scared him off," he said, only half-joking. "...Thanks."

"Yeah, of course." He held onto Louie until he was steady, even helped him brush off a little, but still the temper didn't yet leave his face. "If they think they can mess with you with me around, they've got another thing coming!"

Then, a horrible thought, one that wouldn't really ease the angry glare in his face either.

"Has anyone else been doing that?"

Louie shook his head. "This house rivalry stuff? No, I really thought it was just all talk," he said, choosing his words carefully.

Huey didn't need to know that Louie'd been bullied fairly often for a month, after all. It was embarrassing, and Webby had already nearly gotten herself into serious trouble because of it.

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[Closed] What if I'm far from home? Oh brother, I will hear you call

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