I Want to be Where the People Are

[Kalortah]

2nd of Ashan 720

Kalortah was treading the path from his tower to the halls of the University, the Scalvoris campus when he noticed something different about the other students. They were all full-blooded avriel. Their brilliant white manes and colorful plumage sent his soul soaring, as he walked amongst them. His face lit up as he moved through the crowd gathered outside the Campus.

Someone was giving an impassioned speech, "Humans and half-breeds need not be educated." Kal listened raptly, and nodded his head in agreement. "Slave races need only know how to use their hands. Their bodies need training, while their minds need dulling to make them more pliant and docile. Too long have we dealt with the uppity nature of these lessers!"

Kalortah was about to voice his agreement, when one of the avriel rudely pushed past him, and cheered for the speaker ahead of him. It was then that he noticed the rest of the avriel giving him strange looks, like he was some kind of pariah, or didn't belong. Then, the wind blew through his hair, showing black. He was in his human guise! Larza Impre, the black-haired human stood in his place. He shook his head desperately, "No wait, I'm not human! I'm an avriel, like you!"

Larza struggled as he was seized by a couple of strong avriel, who held him down as the speaker came forward. "So you agree, human, avriel are superior!?" His face twisted in a cruel smile as his fists curled. Then he began pummelling the avriel in human form.

Try as Larza might, he could not reverse the transformation gem's change to his appearance. He was stuck in that human form, with all the frailty of his avriel nature with none of the strengths. He shouted out, "Someone help!"

"Silence, worm!" The blue-feathered speaker snarled, and sent another few punches into his solar plexus.

Larza coughed and sputtered as the fists landed with precise impact on that bundle of nerves, stunning him in place.

[Rei'sari]

2nd Ashan, 720

Location: ---


Ari'sora needed to hurry. Rin'saia had been sick the night before, and that had caused her to be up for most of the night. And that meant that she, Mi'zuri, and Ryl'ryn had been up with her. They had just managed to get her to fall asleep a few breaks before the sun started to rise. It probably would have been better if she had just stayed up, but she had been so tired that she had decided to get what little sleep she could before class. Unfortunately, that had caused her to oversleep...causing her current predicament.

As she raced towards the University, she was forced to stop when faced with a good sized crowd just outside the Campus grounds. She could fly over them, of course, but the words of someone giving a speech caught her attention, making her forget all about the class she had been trying to get to.

"Humans and half breeds need not be educated?" she muttered to herself, echoing the Avriel speaker's words.

"And just who gets to decide that?!"

"Anyone who wants to learn should be able to do so if they are willing to put in the work it takes to do so."

Her words caused the Avriel around her to frown, and it was only then that she realized that everyone in the crowd except for herself was a full blooded Avriel. Well...almost everyone. Not far from where she was standing, a bunch of people started attacking what looked like a black haired human male. The man who was being attacked called out for help, and Ari'sora backed away from the crowd to give herself the space she needed to get into the air. Once she was flying, she flew over to where the one sided fight was taking place.

Someone her size wasn't going to be much of an opponent for the attackers, so she did the one thing that might help. Ari'sora dropped from the sky quickly, and landed on top of the man who was punching the human man. The man collapsed, too startled by her actions to throw her off. Unfortunately, getting up was easier said than done.

"Leave him alone!" she shouted as she struggled to regain her feet.

[Kalortah]

Larza’s beating was interspersed by people milling about ignoring his plight, too occupied with the business of their school day. He lost heart that anyone would interfere on his behalf, much less give him room to breathe in order to reveal his true nature. While the transformation from avriel to human was long and exhausting, the switch back could be done almost immediately with enough concentration. Concentration that the surrounding avriel were depriving him of at the moment.

Until one of the voices in the crowd seemed to speak to what the original pundit had said, "Anyone who wants to learn should be able to do so if they are willing to put in the work it takes to do so."

Larza’s mouth twisted bitterly at the sentiment that was meant to give him aid and comfort. However, the words did give pause to his attacker, who lifted himself up momentarily to stop the beating he was giving. There, Larza was given an opportunity to look at the one who’d spoken on a human’s behalf. Unusually, in this crowd, it was a… a halfriel. A half-breed abomination!

The indignity, of having his honor defended by such a creature! He would have none of it! ”No he’s right, human beings are worthless, they cannot hold the same thought that isn’t violent revolt against their betters for more than a few moments! So easily distracted and small of brain too! Humans cannot learn as we avriel!”

Larza bleated as the avriel resumed his beating, ”Shut up, human!” He landed a few punches into Larza’s belly before Ari’sora lifted herself into the air, and swooped with some force toward the man that was attacking Larza.

The other avriel, perhaps cowed by her boldness, took a few steps backward. Some of them even left, not wanting to be the next to be on the receiving end of a successful attack by a lesser abomination! Larza’s eyes went wide as he watched Ari’sora knock his assailant over. Instead of relief, however, he felt horror. Surely the Avriel authority would hear of this, and visit punishment on both of them! Halfriels were killed unceremoniously, without much consideration, but rebellious humans were given even less mercy. Often tortured for breaks on end until they were too insensate to appreciate the severity of their impending doom.

”No! Get off of him!” He attempted to push Ari’sora off of the avriel. ”Get off of Arizeem!”

[Rei'sari]

2nd Ashan, 720

Location: ---


”No he’s right, human beings are worthless, they cannot hold the same thought that isn’t violent revolt against their betters for more than a few moments! So easily distracted and small of brain too! Humans cannot learn as we avriel!”

Ari'sora blinked in complete and utter confusion. Wasn't the man who had just spoken a human? Ari'sora supposed that he could belong to a race that looked mostly human like the Sev'ryn, or the Biqaj, but Ari'sora didn't think that that would matter all that much to this crowd. "Lesser races" indeed. And then there was the simple fact that what both speakers had said was completely and utterly wrong.

There were too many oddities for Ari'sora to handle. When had the majority of students at the university turned into Avriel? Ari'sora had only started attending the university last Cylus, but she hadn't once seen this many Avriel here. And perhaps more importantly...the human man who thought he was an Avirel. Rather than being grateful for her help, he seemed to get even more upset. Then he began trying to defend his attacker, who was apparently named Arizeem. She was so startled that when the man tried to push her off of his attacker, she offered little resistance.

I must be dreaming. she muttered to herself.

Otherwise this is just too strange...even for Scalvoris.

"You do know that you're one of the humans that you're so ready to insult, don't you?!" she demanded as annoyance filled her.

"And that this man was probably going to beat you to death if I hadn't stopped him? Maybe I should have just let him keep attacking you?" she asked sarcastically as she gestured at Arizeem.

One of the Avriel in the crowd approached her menacingly. His intent was plain...but that didn't mean that Ari'sora had to just let him attack her without any resistance whatsoever. She flailed her wings at him in an attempt to pummel him with them. He seemed to expect this, so he didn't take any damage from her attack. But he did step back cursing, and rubbing his eyes furiously. The wind caused by her flailing wings had stirred up some dirt and debris, and blown it into her would be attacker's eyes, blinding him temporarily. Ari'sora know that it wouldn't last for long, so she pressed her advantage while she could. She kicked him between the legs as hard as she could. The man went down with an agonized shout, curling in on himself as he moaned.

Ari'sora used the opportunity it gave her to put some distance between her and the angry crowd. Then she watched them warily, along with the human man, wondering what was going to happen next. Her first instinct was to simply fly away and leave the man to his fate, but gratetful or not, she couldn't quite bring herself to do so.

[Kalortah]

Larza blinked as the half-breed chastised him. He was human? Looking down at his hands, he saw the skin, much more peach in hue than it normally was. Then he reached over his shoulders to see that his wings were not there. So it was! He was back in his human form, for whatever reason. Talk about a nightmare!

Yet, for all the strangeness and surreality of the dream, he could not tell that it was a dream. Far from lucid, he cleared his throat as he backed away from the half-breed as she unleashed another round of pummelling of her wings against another avriel that was trying to defend or else avenge Arizeem's beating at her hands.

Before he could intervene, a group of several avriel accosted him, cordoned off and separating the human from Ari'sora. He spoke a string of Lorien curses as they cut him off at every attempt to run past them.

The avriel cutting him off had very colorful wings, ranging from sky blue to jungle green. He was almost distracted by their peculiar beauty before one of them sent their foot shooting for his chin. Larza grunted as he hit the ground and kicked about by the others as he squirmed.

The stress of the attack seemed to have an effect on his transformation, as it began to come undone. Yet, instead of making the full return to his true identity of Kalortah, Larza himself sprouted a pair of red wings. He shouted in pain as they tore out of his back, ripping through his shirt and fluttering to scatter the avriel surrounding him.

He caught his reflection in the puddle on the ground. For a moment, he was treated to a vision of Larza Impre, as a halfriel. It was a jarring moment, yet he didn't have long to ponder it before the avriel surrounding him were on him again.

Yet, with his wings, a sudden rush of strength filled Kalortah. Unknown to him in the waking world, he was far stronger in non-lucid form, capable of great feats of prowess.

He twisted in the air as he shot up, and spun around with a kick against several of the avriel attacking him. Once they'd been driven off, he took off higher into the air, before coming down to dive at the avriel that was currently approaching the strange half-breed from behind. He collided with them in a bundle of disordered feathers, smacking bones, and bruised muscle. Once he had the dominion over the avriel, he began frantically attacking him, slapping him across the face.

[Rei'sari]

2nd Ashan, 720

Location: ---


The human began cursing. She could tell by the tone that that was what he was doing, but she couldn't understand much more than a word or two. She did recognize the words as being Lorien, however, and that confused her. The man was a human. How would he know Lorien, the language of the Avriel? She only knew what little that she did because she had heard Vyndar speaking it many times while he had help her captive, and she had managed to pick up a few words from that time. If anything, the man should know Dehasin, the language of the slaves in Athart...right?

Ari'sora was startled out of her thoughts when the human man sprouted a pair of wings. If she hadn't known that she was dreaming already, that one thing would have convinced her that she was. Humans...at least in her experience simply did not grow wings like that. Not that that meant that it was impossible, of course. Hadn't a man taken her wings somehow when she was in the maze in the world of dreams? She had gotten them back, thankfully, but if it were possible for someone to take her wings, then maybe it was possible for someone else to grow their own. Either way, it was still a jarring, unexpected thing to see.

The crowd converged on the man once more. But the man seemed to be more ready to defend himself this time. He took to the air using his new wings, and spun around kicking several of his opponents before flying even higher. Ari'sora quickly lost sight of him as several Avirel began to converge on her from several directions at once. She was outnumbered, and the only thing that had gotten her this far in the fight was sheer luck. The urge to flee struck her again, but her opponents didn't seem to be willing to just let her leave.

That didn't mean she was going to give up, though. In a desperate move, she took to the air and tried to do the spin kick thing that she had seen the man do before he had left. Her efforts met with some success simply because she had managed to surprise her attackers once again. The ones that she had managed to strike fell back warily while the ones she missed froze in their tracks, hesitant to engage with her for the trill.

She started to relax, but she felt more than saw a rush of movement coming from behind her. There was no time to react...but she didn't have to. The man who she had thought had fled returned, and made himself known by diving at her attacker and colliding with him. Then he began frantically slapping him in the face. Ari'sora made a mental note of that as a possible fighting technique as well.

Ari'sora saw someone approaching the man who had saved her from the side. He was intent on what he was doing, and Ari'sora decided to take advantage of that. She took to the air, and circled around behind the would be attacker. He was so intent on coming to the rescue of the man that the winged human had saved her from that he didn't seem to notice. Like the winged human had before her, Ari'sora dived towards the would be attacker. But rather than colliding with him, she tried something different. At the last trill, she grabbed the man's wings and swerved back up into the sky. He was far too heavy for her to lift, but her efforts managed to wrench the man's wings and pull out several feathers before she was forced to let go. The man dropped to his knees and howled in pain.

The winged man had come to her defense when he didn't have to, so Ari'sora would do the same. From her vantage point in the sky, she looked around to see if anyone else was going to try and attack the winged human.

[Kalortah]

Fortunately for the two, the crowd of winged creatures began to disperse the moment that Larza showed the slightest sign of aggression toward them. Avriel were often savage, but notoriously averse to getting involved in ground combat, or fighting within range where they might get hurt. So as he attacked a few of them, fending them off from Ari'sora and himself, they slipped away, but not before leaving a few ruffled feathers behind.

Larza hiccuped, as he stood from the avriel he'd been slapping. He hiccuped again. And again. Soon enough, he began coughing up white feathers, and his form shifted once more. His wings snapped back into his shoulderblades, and his skin began sprouting all manner of bird-ruff and feathers. Before long, he was sinking into the ground.

He shrunk all the way to the ground, down to the size of a chicken. However, unlike most chickens (depending on who you'd ask), where chickens normally had beaks and waddles, this particular chicken had the face of the Foreign Relations Councilor, Kalortah Satravial.

He strutted around the University grounds, hopping and flapping his wings at the various avriel that were also walking the grounds, before turning to Ari'sora. "How dare you?!" He garbled in his chicken voice. "I'll have you know, I run this hen house!"

Thus said, the chicken began to twirl around on the ground, dancing like a dervish until all that was left was a cloud of feathers. Kalortah, Larza, the chicken... Whatever it was, was gone from the dream. All that remained were some red and white feathers left on the ground.

[Rei'sari]

2nd Ashan, 720

Location: ---


The crowd began to disperse when the winged human began to fight back, and that was a good thing. A very good thing, in fact. Ari'sora was very unused to any kind of fighting, and the few tricks she knew...or could think up on the spot were rapidly running out. They were just lucky that no one in the crowd had pulled a weapon on them, or possibly worse, had been a skilled fighter. Ari'sora wouldn't have stood a chance against a skilled fighter whether they had a weapon or not, and she was painfully aware of that fact.

Ari'sora took a few trills to catch her breath, but she kept a wary eye on the crowd in case anyone else took it into their minds to attack either of them. The winged human seemed to be holding his own. In fact, it looked to Ari'sora as if he was intimidating some of the Avriel in the crowd. So much so that she had a feeling that it was his attempts to fight back that had caused the crowd to begin dispersing.

As she watched, the winged human stood, and began hiccuping. Then he turned into a chicken. Ari'sora stared at him in wide eyed shock. Even for a dream, that was weird. Even more so because the chicken had the face of a member of the Scalvoris Council. Ari'sora stood frozen, unable to even begin to figure out how to react to that. When he told her that he ran this "hen house"...by which Ari'sora could only guess he meant the University...that really wasn't any stranger than the whole turning into a chicken thing. After he finished speaking, he disappeared in a cloud of feathers.

When he left, the rest of the crowd dispersed, returning to whatever they had been doing before they had attacked the winged human...chicken. Not sure what else to do, Ari'sora decided to enter the University. As she passed through the entrance, the world faded away.

[Doran]

Ari'sora:

Knowledge:
[*]Detection: looking for advantages in a fight
[*]Flying: can be used as a weapon as well as a means of getting places
[*]Unarmed Combat (Brawling): landing on someone from above is an effective technique
[*]Unarmed Combat (Brawling): using one's wings as a weapon will stir up any dirt and debris the wind made by the effort reaches
[*]Unarmed Combat (Brawling): blinding an opponent temporarily by getting dirt in their eyes
[*]Unarmed Combat (Brawling): being caught off guard is a bad thing
[*]Unarmed Combat (Brawling): always press your advantage when the opportunity arises
[*]Unarmed Combat (Brawling): a solid blow to the crotch is very effective against a man
[*]Unarmed Combat (Brawling): a flying spin kick can be an effective technique

Loot: -
Wealth: -
Injuries: -
Renown: -
Magic XP: -
Skill Review: Appropriate to level.
Points: 15

Kalortah:

Knowledge: -
Loot: -
Wealth: -
Injuries: -
Renown: -
Magic XP: -
Skill Review: Non-lucid. Your skills don't matter.
Points: 15

- - -

Comments: Oh … this was a fun dream thread. I was amused by the fact that Kalortah agreed with all those Avriel students that humans and half-breeds don’t need to be educated and only realized that he was in his human guise belatedly.

I couldn’t help but pity him a little when the blue-feathered Avriel punched him, and I found it interesting that he continued to insist that human beings are worthless even though he looked like one and proceeded to defend his attacker. That was a bit of good roleplaying though!

I liked how Ari defended Larza/Kalortah and tried to intervene. She seems like a very brave young woman. I also enjoyed reading her confusion about the situation at hand. The ending of the thread where Kalortah turned into a chicken was … unexpected. I wonder what Ari will think about that and what kind of conclusions she will come to when she wakes up!

Enjoy your rewards!