Character Creation Contest #64 - Academy Of Adventure student

I won contest 63, so I get to chose the theme of this month's CCC.

I've decided to base the contest on the theme of some of my favorite mangas as well as the theme of the first big book I read without help from a parent: Academy Of Adventure.

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Create a person who attends a school where adventure abounds, weirdness is everywhere, and anything that could happen will probably happen. Teachers turning out to be villains, strange beings stalking the school grounds, students getting kidnapped and so on. Never a dull day, no matter how boring the classes are.

You can't use an school that exist in another media. So no Hogwarts, no Duel Academy and no Seinagi Private High School (I'm the only one who knows the last one, aren't I?).

Beside that, you can do whatever you like. It can be about how a normal day is for you OC or how the OC got to attend their school or about their graduation day. It can be any sort of school, like a high-school for super-villains, a private school for dead children who are taught how to become demons in hell, or a pre-school for aliens who are stuck on planet Earth. Heck, it could just be a university for people who has floating balloon-heads. Anything goes.

What is important is how your character feels about attending said Academy Of Adventure, what they do there and so on. Are they amazed, bored, scared? Do they feel like a fish out of water or do they fit in? Do they attend any extra curricular activities?

You have to September the eighth, 11:59pm Denmark time (Google search "Copenhagen time" if you're not sure). GO GO GO!

@blueecho: @ms-lola: @thenemianlion: @cbishop: @wildvine: @batkevin74: @dngn4774: @stumpy49er: @time_phantom: @captainmarvel4ever:

Here is contest 64.

@waezi2: You'd think that having read New Mutants from beginning to end as it came out in the Eighties, I'd have an idea at the ready <sigh>. I'll think of something though. :)

@waezi2: Excellent

Think I've got an idea.

@cbishop: @blueecho: @sharktoasty: If you need inspiration then I can provide a short list of comics/movies/books/tv-shows with the "Academy Of Adventure" trope.

@waezi2: Nah, I'm good. :)

Attn: Mr Semler

Re: Leaving

Cc/bcc: sadie@domesticworkersunion.org, royalacademy@awesome.net

As I said Monday last week, I'm leaving!!!!

You people are worse than pigs on meth! Now I know you've said the school was built on an ancient nexus point above a hell-portal near a rip in the dimensional fabric but that's no excuse for what YOU DO TO THE BATHROOMS!

I can handle that a horde of intergalactic monkey men raid the school, that a dragon works in the basement to heat the furnace and you send your kids on excursions to alternate dimensions to see living un-history happen.

WHAT I CANT TAKE IS CENTAUR $#!+ IN THE HAND BASIN! WTF!!?!?

There was radioactive urine IN THE FLURO OF THE GIRLS BATHROOM!

I know it was stated there'd be some weird stuff at this place but the basic hygiene of your school is...you don't even HAVE A LEVEL! It's a sub-sub basement.

I know I'm just paid to clean but there's a limit okay! Do you know how hard it is to plunge a claymore out of a toilet? And THEN to have my petty cash request denied for a new plunger, annoying isn't the word!

So I'm leaving! Find some other sucker who'll clean up your mess. ANNND you own me a new vacuum cleaner since mine got sucked through the mirror and into another world!!!

Adios!

Juan Ortizzo

@batkevin74: Contest over. You win! XD

@waezi2: If only it were that easy

He could go... all... the... way!

Aw, I couldn't just let Bats have it. :)

*************

Note of trivia: I started to call this Olympus High, then changed it to Pantheon High, but something kept bugging me. So I looked it up and found out that Pantheon High is an American manga. So I went back to Olympus High, but then decided to look that up just to be safe. Turns out that Olympus High is an actual high school in Holladay, Utah, and their teams are in fact called the Titans. So I kept the team name, and changed the school name to Tartarus High. Looked it up- I'm the first to use it apparently. Whew. -cb :}

@cbishop: Phew, now I can post mine tonight without feeling guilty. Now CBISHOP can feel guilty:P

@blueecho: @ms-lola: @thenemianlion: @cbishop: @wildvine: @batkevin74: @dngn4774: @stumpy49er: @time_phantom: @captainmarvel4ever:

Five hours left.

@waezi2: Let me see if I can put something together in that amount of time. Editing be damned.

Wasteland High

Jimmy Rottentooth stood in the line of kids in rags and chains. He was a sandy haired, tanned skin boy who was hitting puberty and despite his last name, had a full set of teeth, which were in no worse repair than any of the other wanderers of the Wasteland.

Apocalypse Raiders had kidnapped Jimmy and many of the other children from his small village after they raided the village and massacred all the adults.

They stood atop a hill overlooking Jimmy's burning village. The raiders walked around the kids, holding dusty rifles and timeworn machine guns. Many of the raiders wore makeshift armor and warpaint on their faces.

A large raider with a mohawk beamed a creepy smile down at Jimmy before walking on and surveying the rest of his groups capture. A female raider with blazing red hair and a lean, muscular frame walked up to the mohawk'd raider.

"The Profound Overlord will be pleased with this capture. Three villages in one week. I'm impressed, Stalker Prikkus." the red haired woman said. "You've got a good haul of brats for his school."

"You know most of these slaves won't cut it, Bitchess Flame." Prikkus replied. "There's maybe half a dozen of these whelps that'll make it past the first trial. The rest are dog meat."

"Well, that's alright," Flame said as she looked into Jimmy's eyes, who had listened to them talk, "our war dogs have to eat too."

**

That night Jimmy sat near a fire barrel trying to warm his hands. The chains on his wrist felt heavy. He could hear the war dogs barking in the distance, causing an involuntary shudder to run through his body.

A girl with raven hair, light freckles and green eyes walked over and sat next to him. She smiled. He felt a pang in his heart.

"Are you scared?" she asked.

Jimmy looked dumbfounded at the question. "Of course. We're all scared."

A tear formed under her eye.

"Sorry," Jimmy said, quickly trying to comfort her. "Where are you from?"

"A village east of here. Tin Can Valley." she replied. "They captured us three days ago. Killed my family."

"I'm sorry," Jimmy replied, then thought about his own circumstances. "My parents died when I was a baby. I was raised by my uncle.. he was shot in the head this morning. The one with the mohawk, Prikkus. He killed the last of my family."

A red and short haired, stout, muscular boy walked over to the two of them. "All our family's are dead, kid. Get over it."

"Go away, Andy." the girl said. "He needs a friend."

Andy sat down across from them, looking at them through the fire.

"We're all friends here, Cassidy." he said to the raven haired girl, then looked into Jimmy's eyes, the fire reflecting out of his own. "At least, until the trials begin. Then it's every man for himself."

"What are the trials?" Jimmy asked, looking at Cassidy.

"Andy knows more than me," she said. "His village was captured a week ago."

Jimmy looked back at Andy, who smiled. "The first trial is combat. They said there'll be others but I don't know. All I know for sure is I'll get past the first trial." He flexed his muscular arm. "Better hope you don't have to fight me in the first round, pretty boy."

"Go away." Cassidy said again.

Andy got up and walked away to the bigger group of kids sitting in a circle.

"Don't worry about him. He has a thing for me."

"What is the school?" Jimmy asked her.

"I'm not sure. I guess it's where they take us after the trials."

They lay down together next to the dimming fire barrel and fell into an uneasy sleep.

**

The next day they continued their trek through the wasteland. The raiders herded the children along.

Within a few days they came upon a fortress. A large, makeshift wall surrounding several buildings in a town square. There was a rundown grocery store, a dentists office, an ice cream parlor and a barber shop, with a still spinning red, white and blue pole on the outside. All these buildings were fortified with boarded up windows, dead bodies and patrolling raiders.

As the group approached the fortress, Bitchess Flame called out. "Hail to the Profound Overlord."

"Hail to the Profound Overlord." the guard at the gate called back. "What have you brought for us today, Bitchess Flame?"

Stalker Prikkus walked toward the gate. "I've destroyed three infidel villages, enemies of our Profound Overlord," Prikkus yelled for all to hear. "and I've captured their spawn. Slaves for our Master. They will learn at his mighty school or they will die as did their fore bearers."

"He will be pleased!" the guard said as he opened the gate.

They children were all herded into a large pen. The raiders all sneered at them as they all came out of their holes to check out the latest capture.

In front of the pen was a podium underneath a balcony of the main building, which was once a nice townhouse. Now it was painted blood red, had spikes randomly sticking out of it along with many bodies impaled upon these spikes.

A lean, silver haired man wearing a timeworn suit walked up to the podium. He was flanked by two other important looking raiders. To his left was a curly and black haired woman with a tattooed face, orange eyes and silver, sharpened teeth. To his right was a very large, muscular, dark skinned man with a mullet haircut, an eyepatch and burn scars on the left side of his face and a large mechanical pincer in place of his left arm.

Bitchess Flame addressed them, speaking to the well dressed man. "Silver Speaker Devilus. Here is today's capture." She said as she gestured to the pens. "Plenty of potential students for your classes."

"You will address me as Professor Silver Speaker Devilus or you will be fed to the war dogs." Devilus replied. "Is that clear, Bitchess?"

Fear fell over Bitchess Flame's face. "I'm sorry, Professor Silver Speaker Devilus. Please, forgive me. It was a long journey.."

"Excuses are merely a display of failure, Miss Bitchess." Professor Devilus explained. "I thought I taught you better than that. Bite your tongue."

Bitchess Flame bit down on her tongue and bowed before Professor Devilus. She then turned to the curly haired woman next to him and bowed again. "Professor Painted Lady Ravagus, it is my honor to tell you there are many beautiful, young naivete's for your Painted Women House."

Professor Ravagus caressed a hand over Bitchess' face. "You were once a beautiful youth yourself. So much potential. Wasted in combat classes." She looked at her large, dark skinned comrade.

Bitchess bowed before him. "Professor Battle Master Deadus taught me well."

Professor Deadus ignored Bitchess, asking his fellow professors. "Is Professor Head Stalker Rottus joining us for the Initiation Ceremony?"

"He is out in the wastes teaching his last class." Professor Devilus said. "That man has never been good at punctuality."

"It doesn't matter." Professor Ravagus said. "It's time to announce him."

"Very well." Professor Devilus said as he approached the podim's microphone. "Apocalypse Raiders. Children of Capture. Students. Slaves. Lend me your ears."

The audience all gathered around. Looking in anticipation, not at Professor Devilus but above him at the balcony.

"Hail to our Profound Overlord."

"Hail to the Profound Overlord!" they all said in unison.

"Hail to the Profound Overlord, Rage von Murderus, Ravager of the skies, Stalker of the lands, God of Battle, the Man who made a Painted Woman out of humanity, the Dean of torture,"

"Hail!" they repeated in unison.

"Hail to the Principle of Wasteland High!"

A large, muscular man wearing a red armored mask over his face walked onto the balcony and raised his arms to the air.

The crowd erupted in cheers. "Hail to the Profound Overlord" was chanted over and over.

Jimmy, Cassidy and Andy stood next to each other as they watched the raiders chant upward. The Principle of Wasteland High raised his hands again, open handed, then he closed them into fists. The crowd became silent.

The Principle addressed the children in the pen.

"Welcome, my students. Welcome to Wasteland High. Today is your first day of school. A day you were remember for the rest of your lives, some of which will be much shorter than others. We will begin the day with the Four Trials.

These trials will test your resolve as future Apocalypse Raiders. They will also help me and my Professor's determine which classes you are best suited for. These will be your Houses.

The first trial will be the Battle Trial. Professor Battle Master Deadus will oversee this trial. If you merely survive this trial you will move on to the next. If you show excellence in this trial you will be selected for Battle House.

The second trial will be the Silver Tongued Trial, overseen by Professor Silver Speaker Devilus. This trial will determine if you have the powers of persuasion and of barter. This is not a trial many succeed at. If you are successful, you will be put into Silver Tongue House. If you fail, you will merely move on to the next trial.

The third trial will be the Stalker Trial. Overseen by Professor Head Stalker Rottus. This trial will determine if you can stalk your prey, capture wasteland wanderers and raid villages. Our Stalkers are very important to this school. If you succeed you will be put into Stalker House. If you fail, you will move on to our last trial.

The fourth trial is the Painted Woman Trial, overseen by Professor Painted Lady Ravagus. This trial is only mandatory for those who have not passed the other trials. If you fail this trial, you will be fed to the war dogs. However, the good news is that many who take this trial will pass and will be put into the Painted Woman House.

Pass one of these Four Trials or be fed to the War Dogs!

That is all. Learn my students.

Docendo discimus!"

He walked away.

Jimmy looked at Cassidy and Andy. "Let's stick together. We need each others help to get through this."

Andy balked at this. "Not helping you, pretty boy."

"Do it for Cassidy. You and me both don't want to see her go to Painted Woman House. You can help us with the Battle Trial. I can help with the Silver Tongue Trial. I've always been good at bartering. My uncle was a Junk Merchant." Jimmy explained.

"I'm good at hunting," Cassidy said. "Me and my brother used to hunt the Giant Rats of Tin Can Valley."

Jimmy put his hand out. "We're stronger together.'

Cassidy put her hand on top of his. "Together."

Andy shrugged and put his hand on theirs. "Alright. We'll stick together."

The three wasteland survivors huddled up and made their plans.

**

In time they would rule this school together.

Wasteland High would never be the same.

**

to be continued..

I do them in the last 20-60 minutes all the time. You can too! lol ;)

@cbishop: Yeah, I'm a slow writer. Took me about 4 hours to write that.

Anyway, I'm done.

@stumpy49er: Oh, I write them at the last minute quite often, but I rarely think those entries are good. I definitely need more time to write one that I like. I started on mine at 9:30 or 10:00 last night, and finished at 1:00 this morning. I was happy with it, but I wound up editing it throughout the day; pulling over on my route and adding/changing stuff. Then I was pushing it to get home a little after 5:00 so I could do the final editing. My phone editing today had killed all of the formatting, so I had to put it back in when I got home. Finished like ten minutes ago. Pretty happy with this entry, which honestly surprised me. I struggled to get the idea out of my head.

Here's mine. FAR from my best, as I had to re-write the plot four times.

Alice Moore and the Elixir of Life(chapter 1)

Bored.

Alice Moore had been bored since she was a eight year old child. That meant that she had been bored for five years.

She had learned how to read as a six year old, and had read every single book in her local library in less than a month. She was a brilliant mathematician at the age of eight and help her dad make a small fortune by placing bets on soccer games. At the age of ten, her mother scolded her for building functioning miniature planes out of broken toasters and parts from old cars she had found at the local junkyard. And at the age of twelve, she was a self-taught Olympic-level athlete.

Not that her parents allowed her to show of her talents. What would the neighbors think?! Don't make a fuss! So she had to keep a low profile during the classes at school as she pretended to pay attention as Mr. Braddock taught the class history(and usually with several mistakes that made her roll her eyes) and make mistakes during gym classes and pretend to be exhausted like the other kids.

So it was as if some sort of deity she didn't believe in had decided to save her from boredom the day Doctor Prometheus arrived at her doorstep.

Doctor Prometheus, one of Great Britain's greatest superheroes. The man who outsmarted Laitnesse the Planet Conqueror, the hero who took down the Elephant Man from the underground city of Soahc, the Champion of Intelligence and one of the founding members of the Cavalry, Great Britain's greatest superhero team.

And he had come for Alice.

"You may already have noticed, Mr. and Mrs. Moore, but your daughter is... talented is putting it mildly. Her unique memory and ability to instantly master any action by looking at it once is supernatural. A group of superheroes, that includes myself, has decided to search for and recruit young men and women like your daughter and train them to become heroes. If you will allow it, then it would be my pleasure an honor to educate your daughter at Cavalry Academy."

Alice sat on the sofa next to her parents and was awestruck for the first time in her life. On the armchair at the other side of the coffee table sat possibly the smartest man alive and told her parents that he wanted to train her.

And despite it being amazing, her father was, as usual, not impressed.

"See, Mary? THIS is why Alice had to be stopped from being a showoff." Onslow Moore groaned. "So that blokes like Mr. Smartypants here wouldn't show up and tell us that we should send her to some school we can't afford. Now Alice can cry about it for years and-"

"Actually, you have it the other way around, sir." Prometheus interrupted him. "You won't be paying us. We will pay YOU. For your discretion, since the academy is a government secret."

Now it was Alice's parents' turn to be awestruck.

One week later...

Wearing a domino mask and a red school uniform, Alice stood in front of what looked like a 19th-century Scottish baronial house. The bus she had just gotten out of disappeared in thin air and Prometheus was now behind her.

"Welcome to our new school, Ms Moore." Prometheus smiled. "What do you think?"

"Is that... Mossbogle House?" Alice knew it was, but she thought it was polite to ask. "I read about it. It used to belong to the Kilwillie Clan until it burned down in 1999."

"Or that is what Dragon Man wanted the public to believe. In his secret identity, he is the laird of Mossbogle, but had to stage the fire to protect his identity from being exposed. But he has allowed me to use it as school. Now come, I let me show you around."

They entered the building... And Alice had a shock as the inside of the huge house was on fire. She looked at Prometheus who seemed calm about this.

"Mr. Firth!" Prometheus said with a clear, high voice. "Not only is that rude and against the rules, but it also lacks imagination!"

The flames disappeared, and a boy at Alice's age, wearing the same attire as her, could be seen.

"Sorry, sir." The boy snickered. "I couldn't help myself. The face on on new students are priceless!"

"Ms. Moore, this is Ronald Firth." Prometheus sighed. "He is one of your classmates. You will have the chance to make acquaintance with him AFTER he has served detention. Young man, go to my office, and god help you if you aren't there when I come for you."

Ronald Firth snickered as he ran up some stairs. Prometheus shook his head.

"He is an excellent illusion caster, but also... Well, never mind. Let me show you your classroom."

Alice followed Prometheus through the hall. They passed a open door where Alice took a quick glance at what happened in the room, which was apparently nothing. All the students in there had their heads lying on their desks, seemingly sleeping.

"They are doing mental exercises." Prometheus answered Alice question before she asked. "Mrs. Saturn is invading their minds, and they must try to block her out."

"Saturn?" Alice eyes grew wide. "As in SARAH Saturn?! She's teaching here as well?"

Prometheus nodded. "We understand the importance of the future here on Cavalry Academy. We have gathered the best instructors we could find to shape the heroes of tomorrow. Now..." They stopped in front of a door that Prometheus opened for Alice. "This is the school workshop. I would like you to meet someone."

The room were filled with metal pieces lying on the floor as well as several power lines. At the left corner at the other end of the room was an Asian-looking girl with school uniform and domino mask. She had her black hair gathered up in a hair-knot and her sleeves rolled up as she was about to use a blowtorch on some sort of machine.

"Ms. Narusegawa." Prometheus coughed.

The girl turned off the blowtorch and looked up. "Oh, hello sir. If this is about the small fire the other day, then I would like to apologize again, but it wasn't-"

"No, no, it's not that. I just came to show you that I have found you a lab partner."

Narusegawa looked confused for a second, but then made a wide smile. "FINALLY! Another genius at school!"

"Yes, Ms Moore is familiar with machines as well, isn't that correct?"

Alice shrugged. "Oh, I do baffle with tech now and then-"

"No need to be modest here! Just happy to have someone to talk tech with for once." The Asian girl's left arm stretched to the door. Alice looked at the girl's apparently mechanical arm for a second before grabbing it in order to shake hands. "I'm Hina Narusegawa, nice to meet you."

"Alice Moore, likewise."

"So, how smart are you? You know about the teleforce?"

"Of course. I LOVE Nikola Tesla." Alice couldn't stop smiling. From this moment on, she was absolutely sure that she would be anything but bored.

Prometheus left Alice and Hina to talk. As he made sure that no one were watching, he entered a broom-closet. As he closed the door the the closet, the floor under his feet disappeared, and he now found himself in a room with several computer screens, all of them showing what the student were doing around the building. He took off the blue uniform he loathed as much as the man it had once belonged to, and found his preferred uniform nicely folded together on the desk where the keybord to the screens could be found. Now in his checkered costume with letters in each square, he pressed a red button on the keyboard. All the screens now featured the screen image of his great leader.

"Hello, Crosswords." The black-haired woman said with a soft, yet chilling voice. "You recruited another one?"

"I did, Mistress." The self-proclaimed King of Puzzles bowed to the screens. "Another solider in the making added to your future army."

"And the parents?"

Crosswords made a grin. "Bribed, like the other idiots. They believe that Cavalry Academy is a government institution."

"Oh, but it will be, once we have conquered England." The woman laughed. "Those brats will one day become a force so great that none of the so-called heroes will be able to stop me. Not even my dimwitted brother Arthur. Wouldn't you agree, dear friend?"

Crosswords made a coy smile. "Only a fool would dare to disagree with you, Lady Le Fay."

I missed this one, will try for the next