“……so what is going to happen, and more importantly, why should I case?” Annie asked, still unsure of why she’d been dragged to the Training Rooms by Echo and the rest of her friends.
They were still only new to the 13th Academy, the facility being used to train the ‘Eyes of Earth 13’, the various groups of people who had been dragged, either forcibly or eagerly, into the Constant Realm.
Unlike her Teammates, she still had a lot to catch up on, given that she had said, rather foolishly, “I want to learn about it all.”
Which had her settled into every class that she could conceivably manage, much to her distress. She’d been told, after making her blunder, of two very important facts: that Words had power here, and that most people were asked to explain their interests first, to help narrow down the large Realm into more digestible chunks.
She wasn’t sure of the extent of the first fact, since nothing she had seen so far proved it, beyond her original blunder, and the only answer she had gotten from Tantalon, her learning and soon to be permanent assistant, was that ‘The Æther has decreed your words important enough to grant.’ And left it at that.
She hadn’t yet found mention of who or what ‘The Æether’ was yet, but she was sure Tantalon was specifically hiding the material from her, yet all she got from her strange orb assistant was ‘Arcus has not decreed you ready of such knowledge yet’, which just made her rage internally.
How the hell could the Sun of Constant ‘know if she was ready’, when the stupid thing was just a solar object?
“Remember Dweller, and his little cadre of identities?” Echo asked, barely able to keep her excitement in check.
The Identities were a strange bunch, since they literally were split Personalities of the strange musical being called ‘Dweller’ being physically projected by his own mind. When Annie had pressed one of the Identities, the one known as Siren, all she had gotten was ‘Once we were Shattered, and this was the closest we could get to becoming One again’.
“He is hosting a battle of the bands-esque event, and he got two very interesting groups. They represent teachings we won’t see outside of the 13th Academy for a long time, due to how powerful their Ideas can be. Plus, until we learn about them, we literally wouldn’t be able to perceive them existing!” She finished, as they entered the Training Rooms.
Huh, that probably explains why I can’t find a mention of the Æther…. Annie mused. That would actually explain a lot, given
To use the word ‘rooms’ to describe the large, if partially walled off areas, was generous. They were like empty spaces that could be adjusted at will be the various teachers, to help either get their points across, or to contain Students who were either doing particularly destructive training or unable to currently control their ability.
Annie felt sorry for those with active abilities, like Davina and her shapeshifting. There were a lot more inherent dangers than most movies and books would have had people believe, especially with how quickly the active powers corrupted the morals of those against those without power. Davina had two very dangerous risks of her own; the loss of identity, and the loss of mind.
Annie hadn’t pressed for answers when she had spoken to Davina later, but she could tell that, whatever Davina had learnt about these two risks, was that it made both her power very alluring to use, and also insanely scary to contemplate. She knew Davina had craved something like this, to be able to properly express who she was as a person, and this ability was the ultimate expression of that core aspect of herself.
Annie had it easier, with Omnilingualism, the ability to instantly speak and understand any language, which suited her fine.
-SNAP-
A Pause.
-SNAP SNAP-
“Earth to Annie….well, Reality to Annie, please respond.” Echo stated, fingers having been snapped in front of her eyes.
Dammit, I was lost in thought again.
“Sorry Echo.” Annie said sheepishly, seeing the annoyed look on Echo’s face.
“What were you saying?”
“I said, one of the bands is formed purely of Liminal women. How awesome is that?” She repeated, eyes shining furiously at what he divulged.
“Liminal?” Davina asked, unsure of what to say. Davina wasn’t in her usual get up, focusing more on just blending in as her ‘male’ self. Her Teacher had restricted her from using her shapeshifting from ‘being truly female’, as a way of helping Davina learn self control over the ability. As was obvious by the frustrated look on her face, Davina was only barely willing to do as told.
Unlike back home, where the command would’ve been seen as a horrible insult, the Teacher had explained why she was making it a rule.
“When you have the power to be whoever you want, why settle on only one form, when you can just change it at will?” Ms Ashnah had explained.
This sort of thing easily corrupts the mind, and makes it insanely hard for you to keep your Self in control. So all I ask, is that you keep your current form, and only shift under supervision.”
Seeing her pupil about to figuratively explode, she had quickly added, “If you do this, I’ll help you change your ‘Self’ form into a form you desire. Deal?”
To which Davina had agreed, barely. Annie had done her research, and the sort of prejudice that Davina had thought would happen actually didn’t seem to happen that often, and was quickly dealt with if it did.
“Well, luminal in our world meant something along the lines of ‘occupying a position on the boundary or threshold’, and from what I could gather, ‘Liminals’ are the human word for anything that obviously isn’t Human, but is humanoid in some form.”
“English please?” Davina asked, still not getting it.
“Do you remember the stereotypical monsters from mythology, like the Harpy or Gorgon? I believe thats what Echo means, a creature that isn’t technically Human, but has either human level intelligence, or has a humanoid appearance.” While Annie explained what she thought Echo was getting at, she’d seen her flinch at the word monster. Unsurprisingly, Annie had yet again made a faux pas in this new world.
“It’s a term for anything that seems to, at some point, either be of human descent, or humanoid in nature. While ‘monster’,” Echo made a quoting effect with her hands, “Is considered an accurate term back in our world, its effectively a racial slur here, or atleast in areas where Liminals are common.”
Annie sighed. Yup, nailed that flinched right on the head.
Since both Davina and Annie weren’t objecting, Echo continued her explanation excitedly.
“There are 3 main classifications: Humanoid, those who appear human except for a few small details; Demihuman, those who can only appear half human at most; and Pseudohuman, those who can be barely considered humanoid.”
“I think I get what you mean.” Davina finally added.
“A Drid—“
“Arachne.” Echo interrupted, again having flinched at a term that obviously would have negative reactions if heard by others.
“Excuse me?”
“You know how you find certain terms like ‘tranny’ or ‘shemale’ offensive? Drider would probably have the same affect on an Arachne as those disgusting terms have on you.”
Davina blushed, and looked ashamed at herself. “Oh. Thank you for correcting me.”
Echo smiled. “We’re only learning, so its understandable. And considering how we aren’t even supposed to know of their existence yet, it makes sense we won’t know these sort of things.”
“Echo, how do you know of these things? You specifically said we weren’t capable of perceiving them earlier, yet how can you talk about them so easily?” Annie asked, curious.
“According to my teachers, my training seems to be pushing me towards Court Training, whatever that means. One of the first things I learnt in that class was the fact that what we consider ‘Human’ is actually incredibly small and narrow minded.”
Before Annie could respond, Davina went back to her original line of questioning.
“So, a humanoid would be something like a Zombie?”
“Yup.”
“So A Demihuman would be something like a dri—Arachne, or a Centaur?”
“Right again.”
“So what would be considered a Psuedohuman?”
“Any of the Mirefolk, or anything that is trying to present itself as Human.”
“Mirefolk?”
“For lack of a better word, beings made up of slime, much, etc. They aren’t common, but they do happen.”