diatu | Day 1

Day 1

Who: Lea and you. Yes, YOU!
When: The day all the new people arrive, prior to him meeting Xion
Where: Around the Academy
What: Lea is stuck in a new world and generally not a happy camper. Pick your scenario or make one up.
Warnings: Shouldn't be any?
Notes: Lea won't succeed in getting rid of his familiar, here or elsewhere, but have fun watching him try for a bit. X3

Un-familiar

Lea had accepted the box full of stuff that the academy staff had given him reasonably politely; he might not be happy about it, but for the moment at least, he wasn't in a position to refuse their hospitality. They'd given him his dorm assignment and some basic directions on how to get there, as well as a weird magical glass eye that Lea quickly stuck in his pocket after a moment of using it to look at himself; he'd probably find a use for it later, but right now it was super creepy. Not to mention disorienting.

When he picked up his box of stuff and turned to go, though, one of the staff members called out to him. "Wait a moment, Lea," he said. "You're forgetting your familiar."

"My what?", Lea said.

"Your familiar," the man repeated, indicating a rat in a cage that had been sitting on the table. "Your animal companion."

Lea looked at the rat for a moment, then turned his gaze back to the man. "I don't want a pet rat," he said.

"I'm afraid you don't get your choice of familiar," the man said, apparently preparing to launch into an explanation. "Familiars are matched to to their respective wizards through a secret and long standing magical-"

"No, you don't get it," Lea said, interrupting. "It's not that I want a different pet. Or familiar, or whatever you call them. It's that I don't want any pets. You can keep them."

The man looked slightly taken aback. "But it's already been bonded to you, and-"

"Well unbond it and give it to someone else," Lea said, interrupting again. "Maybe someone who actually wants to be here."

By now the small argument may be drawing a bit of attention from those passing by, but Lea didn't much care at the moment. First he gets kidnapped and told he's not only trapped, but will die horribly if he doesn't learn to use their world's magic, then they try to stick him wit a pet he didn't want on top of all the other crap that was going on? No thanks.

Dis-orientation

Lea wandered through the halls of the academy, looking for the Ka dormitory, where he'd apparently been assigned. Despite the basic directions he'd been given, he'd apparently gotten a bit lost, because so far as he knew, he definitely should have been there by now. Maybe he'd made a wrong turn at that last gargoyle or something? "Great," he said sarcastically to no one in particular, readjusting his grip on the box of stuff he'd been given as much as he could; he'd been walking around for awhile now, and it was starting to get heavy, especially with the addition of the rat in a cage on top of everything else. "Just great. Kidnapped, stuck, and now lost; exactly how I felt like spending my day..."

Wild card!

Choose your own scenario!

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Lea glanced at the school staffer, who looked similarly uncertain, as if this was a point they hadn't considered before. "I'm... certain we'll have a plan in place, if an when the time comes," the staff member said rather awkwardly.

"See? Even he doesn't know," Lea said. "Frankly, I'm not sure why everybody seems to be so accepting of them to begin with. I mean yeah, none of this is the animals' fault, but the humans don't have any excuse for not just, you know, taking the time to ask people whether they wanted a pet or not. It'd probably save a lot of time and effort in the long run."

"But handing out familiars to new arrivals is a proud Diatu tradition, dating back to-", the staffer protested.

"Just because it's traditional doesn't mean it's good for everyone," Lea said, interrupting him once again. "Especially when you're talking about people not even from your world."

"Heh, not likely," Lea said. "I had to have help to even find the place."

"Anyway, nice to meet you, Kamala," he said. "My name's Lea."

"They do seem to be," Lea agreed. "Though that might be one advantage of having a rat if I can't manage to give it back; namely, it has a cage. Besides, if it did decide to follow me, it'd probably just end up getting stepped on or something, what with there being so many people around. And I don't think anybody wants that." As much as he didn't want the rat as a pet, he didn't want to see it get hurt unnecessarily either.

Heh, yeah! I thought I was the only one. It's weird that they'd only grab us and not everybody else, though...

[He doesn't dwell on it for very long, in any case, instead grimacing at the very mention of the magic in this place.]

Don't even remind me! I have to relearn all my magic. I can't even cast Fire anymore and I learned that, like, years ago.

Everything about this place is weird. Already got into an argument over this rat they gave me, ran into some nut who said he's the art teacher... And that's on top of getting dragged here by the seat of my metaphorical pants.

And hey, how do you think I feel. Fire magic was my thing, and I can even make a spark anymore. Can't summon my Keyblade or chakrams either. Don't suppose you've had any better luck with yours?

[Sora would laugh if he weren't in the same exact boat, but...] I got a bird that keeps shattering windows and the P.E. teacher tried to fight me over not running fast enough or something. Honestly, I... couldn't really keep track of what he was saying. He kept talking about math.

[Either way, he shakes his head in response, slumping a bit.]

Well, not yet... and I've been trying, like, every day! I guess something about this place is stopping us, but I don't know why they'd do that. Wouldn't it be safer if we did have them?

"That's...kind of all the more reason they're important," she replied. "Since we're not from this world, it helps having our familiars to help guide us and get us used to being here. They help build a connect to this world."

Kamala offered her hand to Lea. "So, what do you think of all this? I mean, I know we haven't been here long or anything... But it's pretty wild, isn't it?"

"I don't want to be connected to this world," Lea said, aware even as he spoke that it came out sounding somewhat childish. But it was true nonetheless. "I want to go home. I have actual important stuff to do there and friends who are counting on me to be there to help them; I don't have time to be worrying about classes or a pet."

"I just...", he started, then trailed off with a sigh. "Look, I get what you're saying, and I understand that normal students coming in probably know all about familiars and that they're going to get one. But I'm not one of those normal students; I wasn't asked about this, I wasn't even told ahead of time that taking care of an animal was part of this deal, and frankly I'm getting tired of the whole 'not being consulted about my own life' bit seeming to be the theme of this place."

"Besides, the staff here knows basically nothing about us," he said. "What if somebody is one of those people who can't even keep a houseplant alive? What if they have allergies and can't be around animals? What if they're just a total evil jerk who should never be put in charge of the care of anything alive? There's basically no way for them to know."

"That's one way of putting it," Lea said with a sigh, but accepted the handshake. "My way would probably be a good bit less polite than that, but I'll spare you that potential rant."

"So far today I've been magically kidnapped, told that if I don't learn to use this world's magic I'd eventually die in a likely very icky way, gotten into an argument about this rat they wanted to give me, run into some nut who said he's the art teacher, and gotten lost looking for the dorm," he said. "So yeah, I don't think my stay here is exactly off to a stellar start."

Yeeeah, I'm pretty sure that was the same guy who said he was the art teacher. They really need to change their hiring policies around here.

[Among other things.]

I don't honestly think that part was deliberate; more of a side effect. Not that that really helps us much, of course.

She really couldn't argue that last point. While her own familiar had found her, she had wondered how the school staff matched students with their familiars. She could only think that the did have a way of knowing, and could give students familiars that matched up with their personality accordingly. But even she knew that that was stretching it a bit.

Instead, she gave a sigh herself. "I can understand what you mean. Like I said, a lot of us were taken from our own worlds. We have friends and people that we're worried about, and we weren't asked about learning magic here either. But the people here don't really know how we got here, or how to send us back. So maybe connecting with this place, learning how to use this world's magic, can help us get home."

Kamala smiled sympathetically, running her hand through her hair once the handshake was complete.

"It sounds like a lot of that happened for all of us. Being forced to use magic does suck. I mean, I know I wouldn't have to be forced anyway! But... Tell me about this art teacher?"

Wait, seriously? Are teachers even allowed to try and fight students? That sounds like it should be a rule. I mean, I can totally take him, but... I also want to pass P.E.

[Which is hard to achieve when you're brawling with the professor.]

If it's a side effect, can't they fix it? I mean, they got us here, they should be able to at least get our stuff back even if they can't get us back yet.

"Well that makes one of us," Lea sighed. "I was never good at this sort of magic. The only reason I was as good as I was with my fire magic back home was that it wasn't something had to learn. I mean yeah, I had to practice with it obviously if I didn't want to keep setting stuff on fire by accident, but I didn't have to sit around memorizing spells and things."

"As for the so called 'art teacher', aside from just being a jerk, he was smashing up the classroom furniture and- from what I could tell- piling it all up in a corner, and kept using random math terms when he talked. He had a black tattoo or something covering most of his one arm, and given what he said he may also have something to do with math class and gym class, though I've only seen him in the art room so far."

Probably not. Though I don't have a ton of faith in the administration around here enforcing those rules if they actually hired him in the first place. I'd still hold off til you had your Keyblade again though, or at least a similar weapon to use; fighting barehanded or with magic is a lot different than fighting with a weapon, and that guy looks like he could pack a punch hand-to-hand.

[This is true. Though if Sora does decide to go through with it, hopefully he'll let Lea know.]

Given that they don't even seem to be sure exactly how we were brought here, aside from 'a bunch of idiots messing around with illegal magic', I doubt it. It may just be that our world's magic is incompatible with this world's.

Lea wanted to fire back, but aside from being technically right- really anything, including the familiars might be helpful in getting them home; there was no way to know- she just seemed so quiet and generally nice that he didn't quite have it in him at the moment to keep arguing with her.

"You're... really not gonna let me leave here without this rat, are you?", he said with a bit of a sigh.

Glancing down at the rat in her hands again, she then held it up so Lea could see it better.

"Even if you don't plan on keeping him...he still needs to be taken care of in the meantime."

"Okay, that teacher sounds like a big problem... But hopefully the Headmaster gets rid of him soon. But we can come back to that, because wow."

She leaned against the wall, getting as comfortable as she could - clearly Kamala was ready to make this a long conversation, because Lea had all of her interest now. "Natural fire magic? Were you born with it, or did something happen where you got it? Is that common where you're from, for people to have those abilities?"

"That's kinda why I wanted to give it back to them," Lea said, indicating the school staff members. "Since presumably they had somebody taking care of it up til now, they could probly just as easily keep doing it."

"But OK," he said. "Put it back in its cage, and I'll take it with me for now, and make sure its taken care of, at least until I can find someone else to take it permanently."

With a nod, she lifted the rat up to put it back in his cage. Though not before another little scratch behind the ear.

"It'll be okay," she said reassuringly. Then she held him up to the opening, and once he was settled back inside she closed the door and latched it up.

Lea wasn't sure if she was talking to him or the rat with that last comment but chose to take it encouragingly anyway. Once the rat was safely back in its cage, he added the cage on top of the stuff that was in the box before picking the whole thing back up again.

"Alright, that should do it," he said, turning back to the colorful girl. "Anyway, see you around. Hopefully under better circumstances next time."

"Something happened," Lea said. "The whole story is really long and complicated, but the short version is that my friend and I were in the wrong place at the wrong time and wound up running afoul of of a creep with a giant magical key. This resulted in our hearts- as in 'the ability to feel and connect with others', not the literal kind that pumps blood- being ripped out and certain powers being pretty much shocked out of us. I've gotten mine back since, but the powers stuck."

"And no, it's not very common," he said. "Magic itself is fairly common, but most people who want to work with it have to do something like what they do here, learning spells and things. It's a lot of hassle, so most people don't bother beyond learning a few basic things, if they bother to learn any at all, or else they learn really specialized magic that has to do with a particular job or trade, like my dad did."

With a slight smile, she nodded. "Right. Take care."

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