Dreadlords Big Brothers

[Cassi Azura]

"Yeah, I swear this place is even weirder than it was before the Revolution," Cassi quipped. She had forgotten how properly and strangely Caeso spoke.

"I will try my best but I am not promising that your hair will look great," Cassi laughed again and just shook her head.

Maybe this would be good. Maybe she could make a friend.

---

Caeso Diemut

 

[Caeso Diemut]

"We'll have disastrous hair and higher average marks together then," Caeso said.

And it was then that Captain Odal poked his head back inside the office.

"Right. Looks like we're all set. Cassi, Caeso, this way to the Meeting Room and we'll get everyone situated."

"Good," Caeso said in a low voice as he stood. He was ready to get on with it and see his earlier marks be amended. And admittedly, he was in some small way curious as to just what exactly Odal and Melina had in store for everyone involved.

As he stepped out of the office, he saw Mieri and Soleil leaving Melina's. The chipper one and the odd one. Aside from minor quibbles he didn't particularly mind Mieri, but Soleil he found to be grating with her whimsical antics and flights of fancy. Thank Kress he got assigned with Cassi.

The Meeting Room was just across the hall. A sparse room, as was typical for many in the buildings of the Academy. The table and the chairs were nicer than usual, though, the former of polished oak and the latter with comfortable padded seats.

Caeso sat down.

Soleil sat next to him.

"No, go sit with her," he said. Sternly.

Cassi Azura Mieri

 

[Soleil Verdane]

"Excited!" Soleil said, clapping her hands together and smiling with shining, eager eyes.

And it was then Proctor Melina poked her head back inside her office.

"Everything alright?" she asked pleasantly, and, seeing the looks on their faces and content with them as an answer, she said, "Let's go across the hall to the Meeting Room. We're going to meet with the others and then we'll let you know what we have planned!"

Soleil hummed on the way out of Proctor Melina's office. Caeso and Cassi went ahead of them into the Meeting Room.

Once inside, Soleil simply chose a chair and plopped herself down into it. On her right was Caeso, who didn't look pleased.

"No, go sit with her," he said.

"My chair," Soleil said, her bright expression seemingly invigorated by Caeso's sternness. Like she wanted to goad him.

Cassi Azura Mieri

 

[Mieri]

Mieri stepped into the room right as Caseso made his seating preferences known. The briefest flicker of a frown touching her lips before it turned back into a smile and she proceeded to waltz towards their side of the table.

She had always known how to read a room.

That was part of how she'd survived before the Republic. Knowing the situation, and that it could always use a little more levity. So she moved quickly, snatching up a chair and half dragging it around the heavy oak table until she found herself between the two other Initiates.

Then she put one hand on the bottom of Soleil's chair and the other atop the head rest. With minimal effort she gently pushed the girl, her chair letting out a long and rather obnoxious creeeeeeeek as it scraped over the floor.

Not a second later Mieri placed her own chair between the other two Initiates, seating herself with a self satisfied smile.

Looking up only to see that both Proctors were staring at her.

"What?" She asked. "I wanted to sit next to my little sister."

 

[Cassi Azura]

Cassi walked into the room with Caeso and took the seat to his right. It was the last seat on their side of table so she knew she would be safe from having to sit by anyone else. One new person was enough.

When Caeso sternly told Soleil to sit elsewhere, Cassi looked around him with a raised brow. Apparently he didn’t like the girl very much. Cassi didn’t really know her so she was indifferent. She was going to offer to switch seats with him but the loud screeching cause a grimace to cross her face.

Mieri had moved Soleil so she was further down before sitting herself between Caeso and Soleil. Cassi couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped her though.

 

[Soleil Verdane]

Soleil giggled as her chair was scooted slowly and loudly over. Her skin fissured in perfect harmony with the dischordant creeeeeeeek of the chair, waves and waves and split open flesh matching the vibrations gliding gracefully up her neck and across her face. When it was done, her skin settled back into normalcy.

She saw Proctor Melina and Captain Odal staring at Mieri.

Soleil just touched Mieri's shoulder—

(her hand the temperature of the room, and the odd, subtle sensation that her flesh was not cohesive, but was instead a multitude on the march, moving, ever so slowly)

—and leaned heavily over and said cheerfully, "Bonding!"

Mieri

 

[Caeso Diemut]

Caeso was satisfied with Mieri's solution, and he found the looks from Melina and Odal to be amusing.

He leaned over toward Cassi and whispered to her, "If Soleil pesters you, all you need to do is throw water at her. It works."

After Soleil spoke her one-word in response to Melina and Odal's attention, it was Captain Odal who started things off succinctly, "Right. Bonding. Cuts straight to the heart of it. Aside from the old, ah...practice of mentorship," Odal looked to Melina for confirmation of this and she nodded, "there wasn't much, if any, emphasis placed on teamwork here in the Academy. The Guard is interested in changing that, and this 'Big Brother' program is in that spirit."

Melina picked up there. "Absolutely! Missions are one thing, buuuut~! A good balance, we feel, is nice. Something different! Fun! So! Without any further ado, here is what you all will be doing for the next few days."

Proctor Melina smiled grandly. With all that energy brimming from that single gesture alone, Caeso could tell she'd been waiting to say whatever she was about to say for a long time. There was probably an accompanying fantasy in her head that the four of them would without exception be thrilled by it.

"You're going to prepare for, practice, and perform a scene from a famous play of your choice! How does that sound?"

Cassi Azura Mieri

 

[Mieri]

A wide grin spread over Mieri's face as Soleil leaned into her, not seeming the least bit bothered by the odd shift of the girls palm on her shoulder.

She felt like she really was nailing this whole thing.

Mieri had always enjoyed the missions handed down to her by the Proctor's, except for one or two...rather unsavory ones. But by and large this was already turning out to be her absolutely favorite assignment. She was doing way better than grump face mcgee to her left, and as Melina explained their task Mieri practically exploded with joy.

"ANIRIUS AND THE BLACK TYRANT KARTHIX!" The Pugilist shouted, jumping up from her seat and pointing almost accusatorily at the two Proctor's

Her hands settling on the table between them. "That's ours."

She said, quickly glancing back at Caseo.

"I called it." Mieri insisted. Entirely intent on getting to perform her favorite scene.

 

[Cassi Azura]

Cassi had no issues with Soleil so she just nodded hesitantly at Caeso's suggestion. It could come in handy someday, of course.

Mieri's little outburst about the play that they wanted a scene from caused Cassi to raise a brow. She was entirely too excited about this. Cassi, on the other hand, had zero ideas about what play she and Caeso should do. Plays weren't really a thing that Dreadlord Initiates got a lot of exposure to...at least before last year.

The silence between them must have been too much for Proctor Melina who was practically bouncing on the balls of her feet. "I think you two should do The Dreadlord and the Elf!" The chipper Proctor exclaimed and Cassi looked horrified.

"Isn't...that...a...romance?" Every word was slow and deliberate. She didn't know many plays but she knew there was kissing in that one. Corvus would murder someone if she had to kiss Caeso.

There had to be a ton of other fun scenes though...right?

 

[Soleil Verdane]

Soleil cocked her head when Proctor Melina said what they would be doing. Like she didn't quite believe her lying ears.

Then Mieri shouted out a title while jumping up from her seat and with wide open wonder did Soleil regard her "Big Sister."

"Good play!" Soleil said, the enthusiasm crashing into her expression like a strong tide breaking against a cliff. "Favorite! One of favorites! Many favorites! Good part Anirius! Good part Black Tyrant Karthix! Climax! Very thrilling!"

Her huge eyes looked ready to recite the entire play, or perhaps to simply gush over it more.

Mieri Cassi Azura

 

[Caeso Diemut]

"Such is fair enough," Caeso said in response to Mieri. He did his best to ignore Soleil's blabbering.

He shared a little glance with Cassi, finding himself much in the same problem as her. He knew of some plays, yes, and his father Sabian was a regular patron of the arts and on occasion would share his thoughts via correspondence, but there was nothing which came to mind. Nothing suitable, at any rate. Maybe he ought not to have been so quick to cede Anirius and the Black Tyrant Karthix to Mieri and Soleil—

Melina interjected...with the most horrible suggestion possible.

The Dreadlord and the Elf!? Caeso had not witnessed it himself (thank Kress) but his father had, and he had written a deservedly excoriating review of it in a letter to Caeso. That play was abhorrent! Pure shlock for the groundlings at best. The playwright who penned it supposedly had his career ruined, and rightly so. There were two camps, apparently, when it came to that play: those moronic slack-jaws who thought it to be every bit the "comedy" about the folly of elves it purported to be (fortunately, the smaller of the two camps); and those who righteously saw through the veneer of mirth and knew it for what it truly was—the subversive piece of a knife-ear sympathizer.

"We are finished here," Caeso said, curtly standing up not with vigor for the idea like Mieri but with full intent to leave right then and there.

"Caeso," said Captain Odal with that condemnable eternal patience of his, "no need to be so hasty."

"It's a challenging role, yes," Proctor Melina chirped in. A challenging role. Caeso wanted to give himself a pass on dignity and wring her scrawny neck. "But it's precisely that challenge which will make this rewarding for you and Cassi."

"Rewarding," Caeso spat back harshly.

"You didn't pick anything yourselves," Captain Odal noted.

And now, Caeso's mind was in such a spiral of ire that he couldn't recall any of the plays his father had mentioned or any from his own readings. His face pinched as he tried to think but all that came to mind were shades of red. That and, of course, the small echoes of his own voice admitting that his History marks could use some repair.

He opened his eyes. Looked down to Cassi in her seat. "Only," he said, "if we perform the scene where the elf dies."

That scene, of course, entailed the very thing Cassi had been concerned about.

Cassi Azura Mieri

 

[Mieri]

"ROMANCE?!" Mieri balked, apparently temporarily forgetting about her own excitement as she broke out into a chortle. A hand clutching at her stomach as she began to laugh uproariously.

"What the hell do you know about Romance?" She giggled, head shaking as he made his demand to acquiesce to the whole scheme. "Looking forward to watching that bit, bud."

Mieri said, her lips pursing as she made a smoochie face at him.

Laughter still rang from her throat as she clapped Caeso on the shoulder and gently motioned to Soleil.

"Come on, Little 'Sis." Mieri said with a wave. "I have a copy of the play back in my Barracks."

"We can pick what scene we do together." She added, still chuckling.

 

[Cassi Azura]

Cassi shared Caeso’s outrage completely as she glared at the two proctors.

“Of course we didn’t pick a play ourselves! I’ve never been to a play because until last year you were too busy torturing us!” Cassi’s voice had risen a few octaves and a breeze ruffled the hair of everyone in the room.

Cassi realized that she had called her power as well as stood up in her rush of anger. She didn’t stop glaring but she did slowly sit back down.

“I’m not doing it,” she crossed her arms over her chest. “Fuck you and your better marks shit!”

There were a few moments of quiet before she looked down at her hands and murmured that she was sorry. This was why she needed Corvus. He anchored her and she anchored him.

 

[Soleil Verdane]

"Bud," Soleil said to Caeso right after Mieri said it, putting some venom into the word as if it were the most scathing insult known on Arethil.

Caeso seemingly ignored them both, caught up in the dispute about his and Cassi's scene.

While Captain Odal addressed Cassi and Caeso, Proctor Melina (willing enough to let Odal handle those two) stepped around the table with a renewed glee and said to Mieri. "One moment, Mieri, before you go. I'm glad that the two of you are so very excited, buuuut~...you'll be needing this."

Proctor Melina reached into her robes and produced a pouch of coins. "An allotment! To go towards the purchasing of your costumes at whatever tailor in Vel Anir you'd like. Well...so long as it's not too expensive, there's only so many coins in there, after all."

But, Melina's enthusiastic face seemed to say, that's a teachable moment for your Little Sister! Responsibility! Isn't this program great?

She handed to pouch to Mieri. "Alright! Pick a good scene, and enjoy shopping for costumes!"

A moment after Melina was done, Soleil looked to Mieri and said, "Many good scenes. Tough choice!"

Mieri

 

[Caeso Diemut]

"There you have it," Caeso said, backing Cassi on the matter. He had been extremely tepid on the idea of The Dreadlord and the Elf, only willing if Cassi was willing and if they had no other choice. He wasn't prepared to go so far as to cast off the idea of improving his History marks, but he was certainly ready to batter through Captain Odal's arguments to get a better solution.

Mieri's jibe, though, did rattle around in Caeso's mind. How dare she presume to mock him like that, as if he were not equipped to rise to the particular challenge presented. There was a little competitive demon within him that, were he not engaged currently with Captain Odal and this fiasco of a suggestion, would have in the spirit of a duel demanded Mieri take a romantic role (even better that it would be with Soleil of all damaged people), and thus let skill and the audience decide just who knew what about theatre.

But that little demon had to wait his turn in the order of things.

Captain Odal could've been a saint after death if he'd been born into one of a few religions elsewhere in Arethil, such was his unflappable and consistently levelheaded temperament even in the face of all their spirited resistance.

"Now," he said, "we're not here to force you. It was only a suggestion by Proctor Melina." He spread his hands in supplication. "We could go to a library and pick out a different play. Does that sound good?"

Cassi Azura

 

[Mieri]

"You got it, Proc." Mieri said, offering Melina a prolonged wink, as if to say 'I get your meaning exactly, we should steal whatever we can't afford'.

She really was nailing this whole thing.

Strapping the little coin purse onto the inside of her belt Mieri swept around and slid an arm around Soleil. A gentle nudge urging her forward and out the door away from complaining Cassi and Caeso. No need to listen to the griping grapes.

"It is!" Mieri said lamented with her little sister. "We could do Anirius' Triumph over Karthix in the Fields of Gold."

That was the climax of the whole play, the bit everyone wanted to see. "Or maybe when Karthix summons his Black Dragon Terrymyr."

Mieri mused, walking down the halls of Academy and guiding Soleil to her room.

"Or or or." She said, gently nudging her little sister. "We act out the twelve trials!"

Which, of course, was really more than just one scene but rather the first whole act of the play itself. The rise of Anirius, where he claimed his glory and the power which saw him to godhood.

 

[Cassi Azura]

"Now, we're not here to force you. It was only a suggestion by Proctor Melina. We could go to a library and pick out a different play. Does that sound good?"

Cassi looked from the Captain to Caeso then back to the Captain. She was very happy to hear that they weren't going to force a romance or a terrible elf-loving play on them.

"Yes...we can do that," Cassi murmured.

She was still pissed off but at least he was willing to let them do some research. They needed to find a good one so they could outdo Soleil and Mieri.

Cassi looked back to Caeso with a small smile. "We will crush them!" She promised.

 

[Soleil Verdane]

Down the hall of the Proctors' Building. Across the Academy grounds. Toward the Dormitories.

Soleil listened to the possibilities. It seemed the sunbathed hue of her eyes shone anew with each one. Soleil's interests seemed, in a word, ephemeral, floating about from thing to thing like dust blown by a gentle wind, but there was one thing she was absolutely consistent on and that was theatre. Plays. Soleil would often be distracted while on missions, be delayed in returning from said missions, sneak into the Library during unauthorized hours, all manner of sly tactics to get her hands on a new tome featuring collections of plays. It had gotten to the point where Proctors had to put her in the Box (with additional buckets of water dumped inside just for her to stew in) to get her to comply.

Soleil hopped in excitement, her return to the ground strangely delayed. "Anirius triumph!" Second thoughts. "But twelve trials. Love entire act. Anirius gains power! All fear!" More second thoughts. "How play dragon? Mystery! Fun mystery!"

She seemed delightfully tormented by the plethora of good choices, those that had been mentioned and all those that hadn't yet been.

"Copy of play? Your room!"

She beamed. Even though she had it memorized...

"Read together?"

...the act of reading itself still had a quality all its own.

Mieri

 

[Caeso Diemut]

"All is well, then. Let's take a quick trip to the Library."

"And there will be no doubt of our supremacy," Caeso said in reply to Cassi as Captain Odal was coming around.

Captain Odal opened the Meeting Room door for them and let them go first. On the way, Caeso had a moment to consider how ludicrous this all was. Not just the Big Brother program specifically, but it was a part of it. The greater picture. This incredible departure from the old way, all because some upstart Dreadlords spilled honeyed words of temptation into the gullible ears of high-ranking Guardsmen, coaxing them with the promise of power following their pusillanimous Revolution (oh how they had waited until just the right time, like a swarm of rats nipping away at a wounded lion). Seemed the Guard needed to touch up their marks in History too, for they seemed to have forgotten how it was that Vel Anir became the most formidable military nation Arethil had ever known and will ever know.

Now here was Caeso. Here was Cassi. Two mighty warriors, reduced to being actors on a stage. But it would simply have to be tolerated. Graduation would fix everything.

Into the Academy's Library. While Captain Odal spoke with the librarian on duty, Caeso leaned over to Cassi and said, "How risible will it be if little Mieri plays Anirius?"

Cassi Azura

 

[Mieri]

For a brief second Mieri wondered a bit more about Soleil's background.

It was rare that any of them shared what little memory they had of their life before the Academy. Most of them felt some sort of shame, others clutched at beloved memories like they would be stolen away. Mieri always liked hearing, but never asked unless she felt she made a friend.

Even then though, some would never say. Mieri never blamed them, but she always wondered.

Perhaps because her own past was such a vast blank.

"Sure!"The readhead answered finally, the chirp in her voice almost making the single syllable sound like a song.

Quickly the two of them wandered to Mieri's room, climbing three flights of stairs and walking until they were at the very end of the hall. The door, with several noticeable dents, fell open. With a flourishing wave Mieri urged Soleil inside.

The inside was markedly different than most would expect of a Dreadlord Initiate's, and less than two years ago it would have seen the girl thrown into the box.

Upon a two different shelves were scattered dozens of knick-knacks, books, and what appeared to be hand wraps bound around an bronze amulet. Her bed was little more than a pile clothes and blankets, the nightstand besides it holding yet another stack of books. "Now where did I leave that book..."

Mieri said, stepping into the room and beginning to look over her shelf.

"Anirian War Tactics...How to Make Friends and Win Allies...Yasal Monks and Their Techniques..." Quietly the Initiate read out loud the titles. "The Perks of Loving a Pi-"

She cut herself off. "Ah! Here it is."

A hand shoved aside another stack of books as she plucked Anirius and the Black Tyrant from her shelf.

 

[Cassi Azura]

Cassi was quiet as they walked. She had nothing to say about any of this bullshit. She just wanted to find a stupid play that didn't involve her kissing Caeso and get this thing done and over with.

"Very," Cassi answered Caeso's question. "But we can laugh at that later. We need to find a play that doesn't involve me kissing you," she felt heat rise in her cheeks before she turned and walked off in the direction of dramas.

Her fingers ran over some of the book edges as she read the titles. Nothing particular stuck out to her until she hit one called The Mighty Revolutionist: A Story of Hope.

"Hey, do you wanna do one on the revolution?"

 

[Soleil Verdane]

Soleil stopped briefly at Mieri's door. She held out her hand, tracing her fingers along the dents.

"Damaged," she said. Then she cocked her head. "Strong door. Still on hinges."

Mieri mused about where she might have left the book, and Soleil refocused her attention. She drifted into Mieri's room, gawking about as she did. A novelty. Another Initiate's room might as well be another dimension, for how accessible they once were in the old way. Soleil wore it plainly on her expression that this was the first time she'd even seen the inside of another Initiate's room.

She did, however, simply invite herself to sit on Mieri's bed. Soleil's attention was briefly piqued by one of the titles mentioned, eyes wide and receptive and intent, and then she settled back into a more passive and smiling expression when Mieri turned around.

"You read? I read?"

Mieri

 

[Caeso Diemut]

Caeso wasn't too far off from Cassi. How could he be? The section in the Library with plays was tiny. Only were they used for the initial stages of an Initiate's tenure at the Academy, to build the foundation of basic learning and education before their real training began. In contrast to his poor score in History, he had excelled tremendously in Literature and Common Composition.

But many years removed were Caeso and Cassi both from those days.

He rolled his gaze over toward her, toward the book her fingers touched. "Those select few vultures who like to think of themselves as playwrights wasted not a moment's time, did they?"

He leaned over some and saw the title on the spine and scoffed. "'A Story of Hope.' What unbridled nerve! Easily does it grace the mind's eye of this 'playwright' cowering away in some misbegotten hovel in Vel Anir, soaked in his own urine, awaiting as he clutches his effeminately styled hair the end of the struggle such that he might ingratiate himself shamelessly with the victors."

Caeso let out a small sigh. "Open it up. See if it at least includes a scene of Archon Isbrand slaying rebel Dreadlords."

Cassi Azura

 

[Cassi Azura]

Cassi just raised an eyebrow at Caeso as he went off on his tirade. He was really strange but Cassi liked him. She was from a minor house but she didn't act like she was better than everyone else. At least he was cute. Oh gods...no no no no, she chastised herself. She could not go thinking Caeso Diemut was cute.

"Huh? Oh yeah..." The Initiate pulled the script from the shelf and started to flip through it. The scene with Archon Isbrand was one hundred percent in the play but she didn't want to do this one anymore all of a sudden.

She closed the book and shrugged. "Nope, they left that part out it seems," she lied with a small smile on her face.

---

Caeso Diemut

 

[Mieri]

"Sometimes I have to practice at not punching my hardest." Mieri explained idly as she replaced some of the books in their proper place, smiling as she turned back around to face Soleil.

A few times she had asked the Proctors for a punching bag or something similar, but even with the Republic in charge they apparently thought such things were a bit too extravagant. Books and knick-knacks were one thing, but Punching bags?!

Next the students would be asking for their own en suite bathrooms.

Or so Mieri suspected was the Proctors thinking. "We'll trade off."

She told her little sister as she jumped onto the bed herself. Quickly turning around and scooting up against the far wall before she offered the beaten up book to Soleil.

"You start." Mieri said with a smile.