BranchWood Academy - Canceled

Jeanne looked at the school exterior rather disapprovingly. it appeared to be in disrepair, at least, by the condition of the one tower that appeared to have been blown away from the inside. She could see students milling about the area where one or two adults were repairing the damage via magic. Inefficiently. She shook her head. "No understanding of basic architecture at all." Of course, she had a bit of an unfair advantage, having actually studied architecture. But then again, that came with the territory of what she did with her time. Jeanne walked past the construction and headed for the dormitory assignment hall where she would be able to choose two roommates for the duration of her stay here, or as the headmaster had referred to it "Squad mates" she told him what she thought of that immediately. "A squad consists of at least four people Sir." at least, in her head she did. out loud she had simply smiled and moved on. She did not need any sort of tension between her and the head of this place. Unless he was running a school to train an army of darkness, in which case she intended to remove his head. but that was an unlikely scenario at this juncture. so she waited in the assignment chamber. quietly. "Booooorreed!"

Nelìs was occupied scanning through his many books, sitting across the chamber as he wrote down whatever he needed to remember in his study. He ran his fingers through his hair heedlessly that caught onto the ring on his finger, but he snagged it off. Studying was becoming exceedingly boring after many years of it, and gathering so much in the time he had. The wizard had to be somewhat thankful for the voice that ripped him from his thoughts, making him jolt as well. With a brow raised he peered over at the source who happened to be a woman who was evidently, I quote, bored.

Closing his books and gathering his papers back into his small folder, he chuckled loud enough for it to resound around the chamber and he peered over at her. Of course she happened to be a new member at the Academy and should've been in search for a squad, yet she was just sitting there. It could've been possibly hard to find one since recently there had been more and more squads.

"I heard you were bored," he said with a light laugh as he strode over. "Do you need help with anything, lass?"

Jeanne raised an eyebrow. "Lass? Really? What are you five years older than me? I'm not a child. And no. Not help anyway. More like I need a... distraction. Something to stimulate the senses. Broaden the mind. Dont suppose you know where I could find any ancient ruins filled with deadly traps that no one has deciphered might be?"

"Lass is another way of saying 'young woman'. If I am wrong saying that you are, let me know," he readjusted the books under his arms, the grin on his face ceasing to disappear. It didn't take long at all for him to think of places with artifacts that held secrets that would probably change most beliefs and some subject around magic that he had seen over his years. "Yes," he began thoughtfully, "but that mission was taken. One squad went down to the Scorched Ruins where there were a few artifacts, but it has been already taken care of. Most likely if you and your-" his eyes scanned over the room, knowing well that she had no squad, but insisted on adding the last of his sentence, "squad go on a mission, you'll find a few."

Jeanne rubbed her eyes and sighed. "I'm Scottish, numb-nuts, I know what it means. I also know that unless you're my granddad, you've got no reason to call me lass. No offense, but its a thing with me."
She crossed her arms and leaned against a bookshelf, "Scorched ruins huh? Sounds promising. Where?" inwardly ignoring the mention that it had been cleaned of artifacts. The fact was, nearly every place she had ever investigated had been reportedly emptied of evil machinations. But then again, most people didn't have her resources and skill.

"You have a strange sort of thing then," he took the pocket watch from his the small pocket of his vest, in touch with the current time before checking the other in the pocket of his pants that read different. "I'm not sure of its whereabouts," his voice trailed on as he pondered a moment, "maybe you can take it up with the headmaster to find out." Nelìs, having visited many places, had many artifacts including the pocket watch he held that was manufactured in 1647; when pocket watches first progressed around Europe. There was only an hour hand on the watch, but he didn't quite need to know the minutes for what he was keeping up with.

Not that he was greedy, but the wizard wasn't fond of sharing his things, especially the ones that had a line of history. Tucking the watch away, he looked back to her again, "What do you do with them once you get them?" He had his reasons of having what he had. Everyday use obviously, but in modern day they were not needed and he was curious as to why or what she needed them for.

Jeanne spotted the watch and looked back at Nelis. "I destroy them. usually by chopping them into tiny pieces. and then melting them down and throwing whats left into the ocean. Any I find that aren't black magic, I either deactivate and sell as museum pieces, or , if they're in good hands, I leave them." she pointed at the pocket, Nelis had dropped the watch in. "Your Timepiece is safe." she said, meaningfully.

"Destroy them??" he asked bewildered, taken aback by the thought. Destroy them? Absurd! "Why? Wouldn't you think black magic is also essential?" Nelís wasn't a complete user of black magic, nor did he fully support it, but it made its major marks in history. It can't simply be deleted.

Jeanne raised an eyebrow. "Last I heard, devices that were created through blood rituals that required the death of children and small animals in order to create chaos were pretty low on the list of things to preserve for posterity's sake."

Even so, the wizard could only agree that good things came out of chaos and disorder. He didn't support it, but it had its part, its dangers and its benefits. The thought of disposing them still unnerved him, and he kept a frown from appearing on his features. "Why not just hide them away where no one can reach them?" the question was rather rhetorical and he knew well that it was. Someone was bound to find it and use it for their selfish needs, maybe bringing turmoil along with it, but the outcome... the outcome would be golden. Again, these were only Nelìs's thoughts on the matter. If she thought differently, he would not oppose. Not to an extreme extent.

Jeanne sized up Nelis more closely now. "Look Nelis. There's a difference between chaos and evil. A big one. And chaos. Isn't even really chaos. Its just what people call whatever doesn't go as they planned. If anything humanity is the true source of chaos by messing with that order. But keep defending psychopaths and demon worshippers and... I have no use for people who have nothing better to do than defend evil because it had a bad childhood."

He momentarily paused at her tone, however, he kept composure. If anything, Nelís could've been evil. He had every right to be but he had chosen different despite his unfortune. "I'm not defending them, but it's inevitable," he sighed, feeling that maybe he'd pushed a little too far in his reasoning. "another name for psychopaths and demon worshippers.. are humans, yes? You have more than seven billion of them populating the earth, including myself, and the ones who are psychopaths are like volcanoes. It'll be horrible, but years later, soon you'll notice that the people turned it into a Galapagos." His eyes flicked over to her a moment, "I'm not telling you to stop trying to defeat them, but the artifacts, I would say, are very important."

"People are important Nelis. Artifacts are rocks as far as I'm concerned. The moment we start valuing them over people we have already lost." She replied tersely. Then. Feeling that she was finished here. She left.