Popinjay

[Maia]

((Somewhat Short Solo in Istien, I'm fairly certain that this is allowed within the parameters of the forum, and if not then I think I'm screwed.))

“But I'm nervous!”

“Come on, it's the only way you're going to be able to actually get an education at Istien,” a soft, elven voice explained. Uruviel. The elf was shorter then Maia was, but her hand was firm as it pushed Maia's body towards the steps on the university. Maia's steps were half hearted protest, but that was also partially due to her knowledge of Uruviel's skills. A single note and Maia could have her pants on fire. It didn't exactly sit well in her mind. “I'm going to be a Dean soon and I won't be able to teach you unless you actually decide to go enroll.”

“But why do I need to enroll? It's not like I'm that good at singing,” Maia whimpered. Uruviel didn't bother to reply, but Maia's ankle experienced a sharp kick to the shin as they began to climb the steps of the University.

“Because I like you and I get a bonus for bringing in good students,” Uruviel replied quickly. She flashed a toothy grin behind Maia. She was a pretty and element elf, like most of her race. However, she also seemed to live up the the merry part as well. The door to the administration part of Istien University was opened and the almost-dean and soon-to-be student left the bright morning sunshine to enter. The room was still brightly lit through smaller glowing orbs. As Maia's eyes adjusted, she realized that they were merely glass with a spell cast upon them. She made a mental note to remember it.

Uruviel seemed to glide from behind Maia, going to the desk and talking with the man who was there. Maia was dressed far more modestly then she normally was. A longer dress made in the elven fashion and her shirt was primp and proper. Even her long, golden hair was tamed and pulled into an elegant braid. The last time she dressed as neatly as this was when she went to a wedding. Even her white, immaculate wings, normally out and stretching, were folded and contorted within her body, causing some slight discomfort on her part.

[Maia]

Uncomfortable thoughts came into Maia's head as she heard the two talking. They mostly dealt with how this could have been one gigantic practical joke of the poor girl and she wouldn't be accepted into the Istien University after all. Anxiety would be the more obvious term for the feelings Maia felt. She grinned, rocking back and forth from the heel to the balls of her feet. She felt an itch on her back in the middle of her shoulders blades and she spent all of her willpower to not reach to scratch it. The minute she waited seemed to stretch on forever before Uruviel looked back at her and beckoned her forward.

“Come one Maia, you need to take the interview,” Uruviel explained, grabbing the girl's hand and pulling her along a little quickly. Maia nearly stumbled in front of her, and the elf pushed her forward gently. “The process is a little simplified here since I recommended you, but you still need to go through this. Just answer the questions as best you can and you'll be beautiful.”

The nervous girl was pushed through the doorway which closed behind her ominously. Uruviel smiled, even though th only one who could see her was the receptionist that was helping her in this little prank. Uruviel sat down in the free chair beside her friend, grinning from ear to ear. More then ever the mischievous reputation of elves made itself plainly obvious on the soon to be dean's features.

“You know, Uru, you really are a mean little kid sometimes.”

“Think she'll realize she just needs to sign up and not go through this?”

“Of course not.”

[Maia]

The room was not dark and scary like how Maia thought it was at first. If anything, the lighting of the room had a bright, almost cheery glow to it. If that same light didn't seem to resonate with several of the manuscripts which covered the large table in the middle of the room, Maia would have liked it. Instead of delight, the girl was filled with anticipation, rather then comfort or even awe. She was still a foreigner to Raiaera, and didn't know how the Istien University worked at all. The strange furniture in the room consisted of two beautiful wooden chairs. One was far more elegant then the other one, and was occupied by a fairly large elf with a smile on his face.

He didn't truly fit the picture of the typical elf whenever Maia thought of one. He was muscular, and could have only been called slender by a very loose definition of the term. His hair was still worn long, pulled into an intricate ponytail that the girl suspected might even be magic. He was dressed finely, very much in line with the scholar that he was. The small placard that faced Maia read his name as “Angrod Anwamanë Dean of the Istien University.” The girl blushed for a moment, then sat down a bit too hastily when he gestured for her to take a seat.

“Maia correct?” he began with a light voice. The girl, smoothing out the skirt covering her long legs, noticed the somewhat higher pitch then she would have expected from someone like him. She nodded, afraid that no sound would come from embarrassment in her own voice. He smiled at her, sweet in someways, but she remembered it from her earlier schooling days. The look of the school teacher who finds the whole situation silly, but still more serious then it might appear.

“Maia Kristel, born in Scara Brae and raised in Gisela, Corone,” He paused for a moment, and Maia nodded. She opened her mouth, answering with a barely audible 'Yes sir' before closing it again quickly. He continued, reading off the piece of paper most likely given to him earlier by Uruviel. “You have been alive for Twenty-one years, with your latest birthday not much longer then two months ago. You are...” Angrod paused, looking her up and down with an amused grin on his face. “Female and human. Now then, I'm fairly certain you are not hiding anything I need to know.”

[Maia]

“You fought in the Lornius Corporate challenge with a one 'Zigurate Bandit' four years ago, which would have put you at sixteen. We have some records of you joining up with the Bandit Brotherhood a short while after that, as well as becoming one of the most influential people in the Gray Braves after the Bandit Brotherhood dissolved. The Black Sails Armada is also mentioned, but I won't inquire further. After the Gray Braves war, you seemed to disappear for a while, until you managed to catch Uruviel's eye.”

“Very interesting,” the elf continued. He licked a pristine finger, turning the page as if uncovering the golden coins of a dragon's hoard. Maia found her voice again, speaking up a little more clearly this time. “I wasn't really in the Gray Braves for long though, sir.” He chuckled, raising a hand. “Matters aside, that is only what is one the report so far. Now then, to another interesting part of this little file. It was made by Uruviel, if you haven't already guessed.”

“I thought so, but,” Maia trailed off into a slight mumbling. Angrod listened for a moment, but decided not to press on instead. He continued his small speech. “According to Uruviel, you have some magical skill. One of them being a sort of regeneration which she was unclear on the source, as well as...Wings?” He paused again, the grin gone but a curious look on his face. He had several creased lines in his forehead above raised eyebrows. Maia nodded again at it, feeling sheepish. She heard him mutter something like “Curious” under his breath as he turned the page, despite several more lines of text on it.

“They're kind of a funny story,” Maia mumbled, speaking more to the wooden desk then to her interviewer's face. Angrod piqued up for a moment, twirling his hand in a small circle to get the girl to continue. She stood up, a little shyly. “It's a little easier if I show them too. But I first received them when I experimented with magic, kind of a long time ago.” She blushed, turning away from the elf as she fumbled for her top. She made it a point that none of her clothing would ever be hard to remove, simply because of the wings. She concentrated for a moment, having once described it as unclenching a fist. The wings seemed to split out from her back, elegant and pristine. Maia had often been called to an angel with them. Maia had been around long enough to feel Angrod's wide grin and eyes on the wings, as well as her him mutter 'stunning' under his breath. A moment or two to fold the wings back into her body, and the girl sat back down, feeling almost exposed under his eye. She was not in her comfortable social setting now, but as alien to Istien as a fish to land. She hoped she was faring a bit better then a fish would though.

[Maia]

“Now, onto matters that would apply a little more directly to this school,” Angrod said aloud, the look of amazement only now beginning to fad. He covered up what he thought about Maia's wings very well. He grinned at her as he put the paper down again. “Uruviel says that she has taught you a little bit of Aglarlin magic before you decided to apply. Although, she also did not give any specifics also. So rather then try to wring the info out of her, I would like to ask you a couple questions instead. That okay?” He barely waited for Maia's nervous head to bend down before continuing, leaning forward and looking into Maia's sapphire eyes. She saw how they were a dull green, but still sharp with intelligence.

“Now, I ended up teaching Uruviel for quite sometime,” Angrod continued. He continued to lean forward, his chin resting on one of his hands. “She has a preference for teaching, as well as learning, Song magic in specific steps. Rather then build up an understanding of a school, she preferred to take the immediate trip to learn how to sing specific spells. Effective, but ultimately futile. There will always be a time when you must adapt your magic to the situation, and without a proper foundation, a song mage might find herself in a very tight spot.” His eyebrows arched quickly as he caught himself, and the elf sat up straighter in his ornate chair. “Sorry, but I'm going off on a tangent now, forgive me. The question still remains, has she taught you any song magic that you could use now.

“A, a little,” Maia replied almost instantly and more then a little nervously. She paused, realizing from his stare that he wanted her to perform the only song that she knew. The girl swallowed, sitting up straight in her chair before smoothing out her long skirt again. She became aware of the itching in her back, where two wings normally would have been. It was a clever trick of hers to hide them, but she was now all too aware that they were supposed to be there. It was amazing what happened to the most outgoing and unbashful of people when they were put out of their element. Angrod held up a hand, twirling it around as he smiled warmly.

[Maia]

Maia opened her mouth, blushed and closed it again. She shook her head, a couple golden hairs spilling from where it was held. She raised her head again, one hand pushing the hair back so they were controlled by her ear. She opened her mouth again, somewhat more confident after focusing her mind onto the task at hand. Her voice took several notes before it found the correct pitch, but a beautiful harmony soon made itself known. Maia giggled as the last note left, a little giddy at performing the song correctly. The spell was comparatively simple to what Maia had seen already, but she had mastered that one at the very least. She felt a little bit lighter, and knew that the spell was taking its effect on the girl now.

“I believe that common tongue for that spell is Featherlight, correct?" Angrod mentioned after the final note was left hanging in the air. He was smiling widely, showing perfect elven teeth. The smile seemed to stretch from pointy ear to pointy ear. For the life of the girl, Maia couldn't really fathom why, but she felt good to have pleased the man. “I'm not sure on the spell's exact level of difficulty, but I congratulate on learning it so well. You have the notes down fairly well.” He paused, rifling through a book that was on his desk. Maia saw his lips form a silent note of magic, and the pages flipped quickly to the page that he seemed to be looking for. “As well, you had the pitch and length down as well. You seem to have a talent for Aglarlin music, and that Uruviel's glowing comments about you were correct.”

“However,” Angrod continued as Maia's initial inner cheer suddenly died. “You do need to learn quite a bit more before you could be considered a song mage. More so if you want to go beyond that here at Istien.” Angrod's face smiled as he let a note fall out of his mouth like liquid gold. A pen seemed to come out of the music and appear in his hand, and he began to scratch on a piece of paper before him. “You have a good voice, though I can tell it is also very untrained. Tuition you will not need to worry about either, that'll be fine for a bit.”

“Here,” Angrod stated simply, pushing the piece of paper over to Maia's side of his large desk. His scratchings produced symbols beautiful and surprisingly easy to understand. They were flowery elven characters, but Maia's mind was able to decipher them easily. It was hard for the girl to believe though that the elf sitting across from her could have written such a document so quickly. She held her breath, reading over the elven script, mouthing some of the words that she didn't know. The message of Angrod's parchment, however, was clear.

[Maia]

“I'm admitted?” Maia said aloud. She felt her face flush, berating herself inwardly for saying such a stupid remark. Angrod nodded again, holding up a finger to silence Maia before she could ask any questions.

“You still need to do a couple things though,” he explained. He began to sort through his books as he spoke. “I am going to ask that you continue your study of Aglarlin. I am sure that Uruviel will be able to teach you a few more tricks of hers. You will need to do quite a bit more work before you'll be able to do that much, here we go.” Angrod pushed a somewhat large book across the table, smiling as he did so. “It's a course list. Some of my favorites I've underlined. I suggest reading through it before deciding how you life at Istien is going to be.”

The elf grinned as Maia stammered a 'thank you,' leaving the room with a small bounce in her step that didn't just come from the featherlight enchantment. The girl was beaming as she left the room, shedding the anxiety and doubt with each step like an old coat on a warm spring day. The other elfin girl was gone by the time Maia's little test interview was done, but Uruviel remained. She was sitting down, but looked up at Maia's beaming face.

“Something tells me you need some help figuring out where to go now, don't you?” Uruviel explained simply. She motioned for Maia to follow, smiling as well. “We might as well grab a bit to eat and pick out what courses you want first. The rest is easy to change stuff. After all, where you sleep is gonna become moot after I give you homework.”

((Nice little Quicky Thing, but for mine own benifet and for Spoils

Class List Book - A List of the many courses offered at Istien, as well as a MacGuffin for anything needed in terms of what Maia is doing at Istien.

Featherlight - An Aglarlin spell, this spell is simply in nature. It may only be applied to Maia, as well as her clothing and items, at her current level mastery. Reduces her weight to only 80% of what it normally is, though it does not affect her physically attributes beyond that. She remains just as strong and fast, if not a little more so in speed. It effects last for about a day, but takes several minutes to renew the magic.

[Sighter Tnailog]

As with all threads under 10 posts, it is the mod's discretion whether or not to use a full rubric. I have decided not to do so. However, since you did request some comments on your dialogue, I will gladly give some.

In a full thread, I would have scored your dialogue a 6. It was fairly well done, and it served to effectively convey the action. One thing that might have made it better was had it more effectively conveyed the precise character of each person involved in the thread. As it was, each character seemed to be saying the same sorts of things, the same sentence structure, the same basic "color," if you will, and the result was a rather flavorless thread. Work on varying the dialogue to be consistent with a variety of characters and motifs, and you should be good.

Spoils awarded as requested.

Maia earns 600 EXP!