Once an isolated and dying township, an influx of academics, adventurers and thrill seekers have made Scalvoris Town their home. From scholars' tea shops to a new satellite campus for Viden Academy, this is an exciting place to visit or make your home!
On the 6th of Cylus, Devin Thorn, thief, conman extraordinaire and recently appointed Academic (and magical mutant!), sat behind the desk in the living room, a quill in his hand, a stack of papers and an inkwell in front of him and a murderous look on his face.
“This is bullshit!” he muttered and abruptly stabbed the stack of papers with his quill as if it were an enemy that he was trying to kill. “Tell me”, he asked his roommate Aidan who sat on the sofa, drinking coffee and looking very content and relaxed. “Why did I apply to join the council?”
“And where do I get someone that I can beat up without the guards immediately arresting me now that slavery’s illegal?” he continued because he felt as if he were going to explode, and punching someone might be the only thing that would keep him from it.
“Because your rival Kalortah is on the council and you want to prove that you can be just as good as he is?” Aidan asked as he looked up and smirked slightly at the Mortalborn.
“As for taking your anger out on someone – may I suggest a punching bag instead?” he said before he set his cup of coffee down on the table in front of him and walked over to Devin, looking over his shoulder.
“What are you so angry about anyway?” he wanted to know and looked at the papers that Devin had tried to murder.
“The education system on this feking island!” Devin explained, eyes ablaze. “It sucks! Take a look at this! This is pretty much child slavery! The entire purpose of school seems to be to turn children into mindless, braindead zombies that can’t think – no offense, Bitey”, he added, thinking of his pet undead that lived in his basement.
“Are you saying that you care about the children on the island?” Aidan asked in a half-amused and half-surprised tone of voice. “I thought that you didn’t care about anybody but yourself!”
word count: 346
Appearance
Due to an encounter with a magical tree Devin has bright violet eyes.
Devin has fancy black claw-like nails. The Grafter Rakvald made them from the spines that grow on the dubaebo's back and attached them to Devin's hands.
Items
Devin owns a Ring of Reversal. He's always wearing it, unless stated otherwise.
“I don’t. I’m the most selfish person in all of Idalos”, Devin retorted. “I’m just against child slavery!”
“That’s kind of caring”, Aidan pointed out, and the Mortalborn glared at him as if he’d just said something incredibly insulting.
“I need to get high, otherwise I’ll lose my mind”, Devin said abruptly, changing the topic as he didn’t want to talk or think about the fact that he might be slightly empathetic after all.
Having said that, he stood, walked over to a cupboard and started to root through it, growing more and more frantic with every passing trill. Finally, he turned to Aidan again and wanted to know, “Where are the Bug Berries? I was sure I still had some!”
“Bug what?” Aidan asked, looking at Devin in confusion.
“Bug berries”, Devin repeated somewhat impatiently. "They are small, bright green and smell kind of earthy. I got some the other trial. The woman that sold them to me said that they make you kind of euphoric if you eat them or dry them and smoke them - but that you are of course not allowed to do that because it's a little illegal."
“Have you seen them?” he wanted to know.
“Or did you smoke them?” he asked and narrowed his eyes in suspicion.
“Oh those”, Aidan said. “I think I saw Talieson throw a bag full of green berries in the fireplace and burn them. He said that they stank”, he explained. Talieson, the bard, was Devin’s other roommate who was fortunately not at home at the moment, otherwise Devin might have strangled him.
“So …” the student continued in order to distract Devin and make him think about something other than how mad he was at Talieson or his desire to get high (which he didn't approve of at all).
“What will you do about the so-called child slavery? You have thought about it, haven’t you?”
word count: 329
Appearance
Due to an encounter with a magical tree Devin has bright violet eyes.
Devin has fancy black claw-like nails. The Grafter Rakvald made them from the spines that grow on the dubaebo's back and attached them to Devin's hands.
Items
Devin owns a Ring of Reversal. He's always wearing it, unless stated otherwise.
“Well, first of all I’ll put an end to all that nonsense about sitting in rows and being quiet”, he informed Aidan. “This paper here”, he said and pointed at the paper that he had just tried to murder. “Says that, starting from age five, children learn the value of sitting in rows and being quiet. There is no value in sitting in rows and being quiet though! It’s just frustrating, and it’s one of the reasons why I hated school so much. Sitting still sucks!”
Of course, there had also been other reasons for his hating school so much, such as his classmates bullying him because his parents had been poor, and he’d always worn second-hand clothes, among other things. He would never tell anybody how much his childhood had sucked though. He was deeply ashamed of it, and he just wanted to forget that he had ever been forced to live like that!
Being rich was so much better!
“So, from now on”, he continued. “There’ll be sports lessons - and music lessons as well, of course, for those that want them because art isn’t only about drawing such. And what more, there will be games, the children will occasionally be allowed to leave the classroom, and classes will be interactive instead of the teacher holding a monologue that nobody is interested in, anyway. I want the children to actually enjoy school and learning.”
“No matter what people say, the purpose of school isn’t to prepare you for the workforce and turn you into a productive member of society – at least it shouldn’t be. The purpose of school should be to open your mind and make you curious about life!” he told Aidan who listened to him with rapt attention, his eyes wide.
“Are you really sure that you don’t …?” the student dared to ask him again.
“No”, Devin informed him in no uncertain terms. He didn’t care about those children at all. In fact, he was being absolutely selfish. He wanted to build the school that he wished he could have attended as a child. Unless he should just abolish school altogether? He considered that option for a few moments, but then he realized what would happen if the next generation didn’t learn to read and write and do basic maths and such anymore and became a bunch of illiterates.
The economy would collapse!
There might even be a civil war!
There would be a lot of poverty!
Being poor sucked though!
word count: 426
Appearance
Due to an encounter with a magical tree Devin has bright violet eyes.
Devin has fancy black claw-like nails. The Grafter Rakvald made them from the spines that grow on the dubaebo's back and attached them to Devin's hands.
Items
Devin owns a Ring of Reversal. He's always wearing it, unless stated otherwise.
“Fek! I feel like I’m losing my mind!” Devin complained a few bits later, after he had reluctantly gone back to reading the documents that were lying on his desk because he needed to know what exactly what was going on and how the people of Scalvoris thought if he wanted to reform the education system. Doing such had only increased his murderous urges though.
“Okay”, Aidan who had sat down on the sofa again remarked, let out a loud sigh and stood. “I can’t stand watching you anymore. Unfortunately, I can’t provide you with a slave to beat up or a punching bag right now – and drugs aren’t really a solution either, no matter what you think – but there is another way for you to deal with your anger and frustration.”
“Come with me”, he told him curtly.
Devin looked at him in confusion for a moment before he shrugged his shoulders and abruptly rose from his chair because anything was better than dealing with that pile of crap on his desk and followed his roommate.
On the way to the front door, Aidan grabbed their swords from the stand in the hallway and announced, “We are going to spar!” Having said that, he opened the door and walked outside, into the garden, Devin right behind him.
Once they stood in front of the large apple tree that was in the center of the garden, he turned to face Devin again, handed him his sword (a very nice shortsword of masterwork quality) and told him, “I’ll let you make the first move. Come on – attack me, and don’t hold back!”
Devin looked at him for a moment, considering him, before he abruptly moved towards him, as quickly as he could. He raised his sword high above his head and brought it down in a wide arc, from Aidan’s left shoulder to his right hip – only for the other man to parry his attack immediately and follow up with a quick slash - that he managed to avoid just in time.
Devin narrowed his eyes and glowered at his friend because he wasn’t happy about that before he tried a different move that would hopefully be a little more effective. This time, he executed a thrust towards the other man’s midsection, with all the strength that he could muster up – and immediately jumped back in order to avoid Aidan’s next counterattack.
Cuts followed slashes, and slashes followed thrusts as the fight continued. Sometimes, Aidan had the upper hand, and sometimes Devin had the upper hand (which was something that he really liked, of course). As the bits went on, sweat started to bead on the Mortalborn’s forehead - and he started to forget all the frustrating paperwork that he had had to deal with and began to enjoy himself and laugh with delight because this was fun (even though he wished he’d finally win)!
word count: 494
Appearance
Due to an encounter with a magical tree Devin has bright violet eyes.
Devin has fancy black claw-like nails. The Grafter Rakvald made them from the spines that grow on the dubaebo's back and attached them to Devin's hands.
Items
Devin owns a Ring of Reversal. He's always wearing it, unless stated otherwise.
I had no idea that Devin had been bullied in school for being poor and wearing second hand clothes and is ashamed of it. This adds an interesting dimension to his obsession with begin rich and wearing fashionable clothes.
And now he wants to create the FUN school of his dreams. A school where they don't prepared people for sitting at desks and doin frustrating paperwork so the become just like ... Devin.
A very well written and entertaining thread!
Devin
Rewards and consequences
Points: 10
Knowledge:
Blades x3
Teaching x3
Skill Review: Appropriate. As he explained his ideas about pedagogics in detail and they matched his novice level you get the teaching knowledge.
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