Athalia Academy: Season One

Athalia Academy: Season One is the first "season" in the Athalia Academy roleplaying game, and the first main story arc in the Athalia universe canon. It occurs at the Academy and serves as both an introduction to the characters and a set up for the rest of the seasons. The season, which was written entirely on its Roleplayer Guild thread, took approximately one month to complete.

Player/Character Appearances

• HylianRose: Criston Cross, Lily Brightendale, Lilith, Eric Penwright, Maria Cross, Brako Rackshaw
• Theobromine: Katherine Argall, Leroy Yew, Ara Glaisyer
• NarayanK: Ryuu Yamauchi, Nikola Lovelock, Margaret, Jeanne Cortez, Nathaniel Terotrax, the Phantom Rider
• FaithsRose: Caleb Waterfront, Little Feather, Mercedes Clueman, Serena Yamamoto
• Legion020: David Archers, Aya van Hassel
• Nero (now Aeris): Bael, Tori, Zaelyn, Logan, Christopher
• Ebil Bunny: Dani Hart, Matthew Terrison
• Destinyfailhorror17: Zonon Borshenk, Seven Minoette, Garden
• DaDrummer676: Cyrus Bane
• Animelover_princess: Andromeda Barker, Oona Fredrick
• Animal: Allan Lynch, Kiwi
• Driving Park: Carmen Calandra
• liferusher: Drow Winterfield, Liam Ross, Ene, Tyler Green
• Sukui: Issender Archus-Essev, Anedine Anceril, Dendus
• 0AngeldeviL0: Keath Ross
• Asuras: the Ciercelt Trio (Avelynn, Mary, Valentine)
• Kenshi Brett: Kenshi Brett
• Scallop: Darwin Indigo, Vanessa Dile, Goo
• Aori Sora: Luna Laciel, Ezra, Illyen
• McFazzer: Harrison
• Shadowfall:
• The15thSpycrab: Puck

Timeline

• Criston Cross gives an introductory speech in the auditorium, with all characters in attendance.
• After the speech, the characters fan out of the auditorium and attempt to get used to their new surroundings and meet new people, to varying degrees of success.
• An evening party is hosted in the Student Center, and most of the main characters quickly show up. After Allan Lynch smashes Dani Hart through a table, all Hell breaks loose. Literally.
• Amidst the ensuing chaos, Lilith (a demon) uses a seal to revert Lily Brightendale (an angel) back to an earlier age, losing all of her memories after that age in the process.
• Allan and another demon (Bael) get into a massive fight, massive destruction ensues, and it is put to an end by an insufferably loud trumpet blast by Carmen Calandra.
• The Student Center is miraculously repaired overnight, and all is peaceful again the following morning.
• The peace is shattered when Apophis, Thane, and three demon footsoldiers attack. The Academy is completely decimated, but all students survive and the Hellspawn retreat back from whence they came.
• The principal decides to send the students on a vacation as the Academy is repaired, setting the stage for Season Two.

Detailed Summary of Events

The season began on August 2, 2018 - opening day for another school year at Athalia Academy. The vice principal, Brako Rackshaw, gave a welcoming speech to the student body in the main auditorium. After Brako was finished, Criston Cross said a few words as the student body president, including announcing a party for all students that night. The player character students left the assembly with varying degrees of success. Some students ran into each other and met for the first time, including Crash and Kathy (initiating what would later flourish into one of the primary exports of the Athalia Shipping Company), and found their way to the school's cafeteria. Ryuu had an extremely awkward conversation with Serena and David, while Allan and Dani did not have such a cordial first meeting; Allan was very hostile towards Dani from the second they met after Dani tripped into him, and Carmen briefly interrupting did not deter him. Meanwhile, Bael laid his eyes on Lily for the first time and then introduced himself, setting the stage for another OTP ship to come.

Back at the cafeteria, Matt slipped and dropped his food all over Oona's head, which caused a brief confrontation. After being entirely too forward for a first meeting, Lily somehow eventually decided to go to the party with Bael. Some students began making their way to their dorm rooms to get settled, but Cyrus had already made his way to the Student Center for the party. He had brought his guitar and started playing it, amplifying it so it could be heard all across the campus. This got the attention of Cortez and Carmen, who arrived at the Student Center in that order to find the source of the music (in Carmen's case, she had begun harmonizing with it from across the campus as soon as she heard it).

Eventually the party began, with Carmen providing background music as the Student Center filled up. Many students who had met earlier went to the party together and mingled there. Meanwhile, the demon Lilith arrived from Hell and met with Bael in the garden. Their mission, as dictated by their boss Lucifer, was to take out Lily, an angel who had troubled the forces of Hell in the past. However, while Lilith was focused on that goal, Bael was internally conflicted because of his attraction to her.

Back in the Student Center, as Nathaniel Terotrax joined the other musicians on stage and the party's energy increased, more students filed in and mingled - including Allan, who was focused on finding Dani and getting revenge for their confrontation earlier in the day. Once he found the ghost, Allan grabbed him by the back of the head and slammed his face through a table, breaking it half and spilling all the food and drink over Dani. This got the attention of everyone in the Student Center, providing the distraction Lilith and Bael were waiting for. In the midst of the chaos, Bael transformed into his true demon form as he challenged Allan, in an effort to provide Lilith with a big enough distraction to complete her task. The distraction succeeded, and Lilith cast a seal on Lily which reverse-aged her to a child and erased much of her memory. The act was seen by nobody except Bael, and Lilith slipped away back to Hell with the help of the Phantom Rider.

The chaos at the party continued, and as Lily was tended to Allan burned a hole in the ground and jumped down to the floor below, hoping Bael would follow and that he could get outside. He did so, and as Lily sprouted wings and exited the area, Carmen decided to end things before they got worse and directed all her energy into an extremely loud blast from her trumpet that incapacitated both Allan and Bael and ended the pandemonium. In the aftermath, Bael cared for an exhausted Lily, Oona helped Zivon to the infirmary with Crash and Kathy's help (and Crash's mysterious counter reached 96%), and Ryuu had a mental crisis upon the continuing recollection that Anedine had given him mouth-to-mouth CPR.

Brako was not surprised in the slightest when Criston told him about what had just occurred (after having been thrown off a balcony by Carmen's trumpet blast and singed by Allan's fire), and headed to the infirmary to get answers. Kathy and Crash explained the events to Brako as best they could, and Crash stitched up Kathy's wound while Oona tended to Zivon. Meanwhile, Ryuu, Anedine, Cortez, David, and Isse were having the disjunct conversations they had grown accustomed to, while Little Feather, Lion, Seven, and eventually Carmen (once she came to) conversed in the destroyed Student Center. Eventually everyone that needed treatment wound up in the infirmary, while those who didn't want to experience the wrath of Kiwi, the crazy nurse, elected to head to their dorm rooms and turned in for the night.

The next morning, the Student Center had been completely repaired and the students' minds were elsewhere. Bael resumed flirting with young Lily from the moment she woke up in the infirmary, Crash played basketball, David had a nightmare, Zivon cooked, Anedine had a dream about marrying Ryuu (and then cooked), and Ryuu had a thoroughly ridiculous dream vaguely resembling a Noxonshaw Off-The-Stage episode. Eventually Crash stopped playing basketball and began talking to Kathy once more, and it was unbearably adorable as always. (That's a fact, not an opinion.) Eric and Zivon joined them, while Leroy painted a portrait of Carmen in the Student Center, a few roommate pairs finally met, the Anedine/Ryuu/David/Isse group quickly reunited over Anedine's cooking, and Drow made the mistake of entering the infirmary.

Lily began experiencing sharp pains when she tried to remember things, as Matt and Bael conversed over Lily for the first time. Eventually Bael's conversation/argument with Matt ended with Matt turning away in sad defeat. Matt knew Bael was a problem with bad intentions but was not able to get through to Lily, who he had known since the Kamasyia Academy days. However, Lily could tell she had upset Matt and convinced Bael to let her go apologize to him. She did so before meeting back up with Bael, and Matt began his quest to find out more about what happened to Lily.

Comedic Summary of Events

The following was posted as a comedic synopsis of the Season One events in the Out-of-Character portion of the Season Two thread. Written by Theobromine, the summary was as follows:

"A welcoming party was hosted in the student center for the students at Athalia Academy on the first day of the year. Both returning and new students attended, expecting to have a fun night to help ease the transition into the academy. The troubles began when a dragon (Allan) knocked a ghost (Dani) down into a table for an earlier grudge during the opening ceremony. At the same time, 2 demons (Lilith and Bael) had much bigger plans. Taking advantage of the started chaos, Bael challenged the dragon to a fight in order to distract everyone from the real goal at hand. Hiding in the shadows, Lilith used a demonic seal to regress Lily's (an angel) body and memories back to an earlier state in time. Forgetting about her friends and more recent past, an ultimate showdown between the demon (Bael) and a pheonix (Matt) began as the entire student body began to fight over the right to wear Baelily and Mattlily shirts. The winning team was to earn a golden throne provided by the Midnight Snacking Club with the right to claim themselves as the ultimate Dorito Lords. (Your Lord, GM, approves of this message.)

Showdown between dragon and demon, a naked cat floating in the middle of the air indifferent to all, the loss of lip virginity of the twice-knocked-onto-a-wall (Ryuu), the tease of a shapeshifter (Crash) that never finished the % count-up, and the loudest trumpet in the world that ended it all... The students had quite the 'welcome' into the academy.
Also, fear the Kiwi. Kiwi is the last boss.

As Matt struggled to figure out what had happened to his friend Lily, Bael began to make moves behind everyone's back and cruelly began to monopolize Lily from any other interaction by other students. Well, until a unicorn came into the scene, but that's a minor tale. Expecting a new beginning after a hectic day, various students began to meet and greet as late-comers (e.g. Eric and Leroy) came into the scene. Lesson here: Art students are never punctual.

Bael's new name from then on became "Kitty". He didn't deserve it after being so selfish, but we'll let him have it because Lily gave him that name. -Favouritism-

Of course, things were never to stay peaceful for very long. In punishment for making the wonderful doodle-girl known as Lucy cry and suffer alone, the world devised a way to throw the students into even more chaos than before. About the time when the good students should have been enjoying their meal, a sore-loser who was failed to be invited to a dinner party hosted by Zivon took his frustration out by leading an amazingly tiny 'army' of demons into the school grounds. Seriously, an 'army' of demons consisted of 3 stooges, Thane (scary dude right here), and a creepy guy that wore skin as clothing. One of them (Cain) was even beaten to near death by a bunch of chairs and an eraser under the command of Dani. Hell seems to be a little short of hands. They are currently accepting applicants. Resumes and cover letters are required, references are optional.

Against this 'threatening' invasion, various students took on individual roles in the all-important battle to determine the fate of one angel: Lily. A dark angel (Tori) decided to march head-on into battle, but in the end wasn't able to pwn the demons like the ghost (Dani) did. That tease of a shapeshifter (Crash) failed to finish his count-up again. Seriously, this guy stopped at 95%. That's a !@#$in A+ already, why didn't that do something awesome?!! A poor girl (Kathy) was treated left and right like an ambulance as people (Drow, Zivon, Zivon again) kept fainting in front of her like no tomorrow, expecting her to carry them to safety. Unknown to most people, she was about ready to just knock EVERYONE out to just get it over with. The art students (Eric and Leroy) did nothing. This is why art majors rarely get jobs at the end of the degree. A lot of students did stuff, but their actions are hard to integrate into the story without having this narrator fall asleep in front of the computer so their great contributions have been regretfully omitted. And... There was something about a unicorn (Darwin) carrying a guy (Ryuu) into the sunset, but this narrator has forgotten what happened with that. At the very end of these very important and dramatic struggles, the principal of the academy was told that the peace treaty was no longer in effect. Hell had declared war on the academy.

...A sneak attack would've been a lot more effective. But you all know how villains are. They love taking their sweet time explaining their entire plot to the hero and claim they will never be foiled, RIGHT before the hero escapes and saves the day.

Unable to handle the guilt from monopolizing Lily all to himself, Bael went back with the demons as Matt finally decided to catch up and take this chance to increase the ranks of team Mattlily. The only parting gift the angel got was knowledge that her loli form was brought forth by a seal, and that the principal should be able to release her. Cheap guy.

With the academy destroyed within a record of just TWO DAYS, the principal decided to provide a new ground for the students to destroy and invited them all to a nice, pre-paid vacation with NO STRINGS ATTACHED! (Batteries not included.) Now begins a new adventure on: DESTINY ISLAND."

Trivia

• The "Season One" was added retroactively. The original thread was just called "Athalia Academy", and the idea to split the story into "seasons", each with their own thread, came later.
• The original thread was begun on April 22, 2014, and concluded on May 24 of the same year after 869 in-character posts.