The Setting

[Shini]

Quick start guide.

If you just want to start playing as quick as possible, this first post is the simple facts you need to know in order to understand the world we live in here at SH. If you want to know a little more about the world, however, you can read on in the posts below.

Seacombe Halpworth Academy - known colloquially amongst its students as Second Helpings - is a premier learning institute designed to give its students the very best care and education required to find their own happily ever afters.

The academy is trans-dimensional, with doorways in a number of worlds and occupying its own personal pocket dimension in order to allow access to a wide variety of students. Travel through the doorways is strictly monitored and students are brought through and given an orientation to help them deal with the differences between SH and their own world.
Established by Ambrose, son of Merlin, the academy aims to provide the children of fairytale characters a full education to help them follow in their parents' footsteps. Unfortunately, Ambrose travels as much as his father does, and his presence has been waning over the past years. He hasn't been seen at all for five years, leaving the running of the school entirely in the hands of the council - a council who are more concerned with ensuring that children do follow in their family's footsteps rather than preparing them for it. The council think nothing is wrong with the stories as they are, and they see nothing wrong with simply repeating what went before - after all, good always won, evil was defeated and everybody lived the all important Happily Ever After.

The problem is, the students don't always think that way. Sometimes the daughters of princesses fall for the sons of kitchen boys, sometimes so do the sons of princes. Villain's children don't like the idea that they're pre-destined for evil, and those relegated to sidekick status want a chance to be the hero too. The school does its best to enforce the roles assigned, and they have only become more and more strict in their desperation to stamp out anything they deem unacceptable.

The school is open to ages 12-21, dealing with senior education and continuing on to university. Students can begin at any age, and higher education is optional, though the school encourages a full education wherever possible. Contact with home is limited, and the school and nearby village are designed to provide everything a young adult might need for their proper development.

The School

Students are assigned dormitories that are roughly divided by age and gender, and this is one of the few places where they are not strictly segregated by role, princes can be rooming with sidekicks, but only with the aim of encouraging cooperation when it is time to fulfill their stories.

Lessons are conducted in a variety of topics, and there is a certain amount of freedom in choosing the subjects you wish to study beyond the basics - however, each student is given an approved list of subjects they are allowed to study for their destined role, and their personal selection must be from the list they are assigned.

Social clubs are encouraged, however they are strictly monitored, and any clubs that contravene the school's policy of sticking to the status quo are quickly shut down.

The school also has rec rooms provided for socialising and entertainment, and at the weekend students are permitted to visit the nearby village.

The Village

Though the nearby village of Seacombe seems ordinary, it's really only there for the school. The only people who live there are those who work either there or at the school, and while it has a few small amenities for the residents, its main focus is to provide weekend entertainment for the students. On the outskirts of the village it's rumoured that there's a small community of SH Academy dropouts, but the school discourages this notion. Vehemently.

The village contains several businesses for leisure and socialising, and despite the constant music and cheery atmosphere, is the only place for miles around that there's anything interesting to do, so students have to put up with the forced joviality.

[Shini]

The Finer Details - The School

Arrival

When a student first arrives at the school, they will go through an induction and orientation. During this time, they will have the differences between their world and this world explained, an overview and lessons in using any technology they are not used to, and support for those people who are not human in their own world.
They will also be processed, filed and assigned a dormitory and approved lesson list.
If students arrive at the same time, they may go through certain parts of orientation together, but most of the time students are processed individually.

Living Arrangements

Students are assigned a dorm when they arrive and this will very rarely change for their whole school career. Sometimes they may get a change of room-mate when people leave, but most of the time their room itself does not change.
The rooms are designed for two people, fairly spacious with sturdy and well-made furniture, decorated in neutral colours. Students are not allowed to paint or permanently decorate their rooms, but posters and other transitory personalisation is allowed.
Each room contains a bed, dressing table, bedside table, bookcase, wardrobe and chest of drawers for each student, as well as a couch and coffee table to share. The two halls have four bedrooms and two bathrooms per floor - bathrooms contain showers, baths, sinks and toilets, except for the ground floor which has two bedrooms and one bathroom.

The rooms are assigned according to a rough age bracket, and the majority of the time a student's room-mate will be within one or two years of them. There doesn't seem to be any other organisation that goes into assigning the rooms, and students may find that they are roomed with anyone from a hero to a villain and everybody in between, regardless of what role they themselves have. Students are separated by gender, and fraternisation is strictly discouraged. Each dorm has a security guard who patrols the halls at night, and stays in an office on the ground floor during the day. Any student found in the wrong dorm will be forcibly removed and occasionally subject to detention or other disciplinary proceedings.

Curfew is 10pm Sunday-Thursday and 11pm Friday-Saturday for all students below 18, at which point the hall lights are dimmed and all students are supposed to be in their rooms and not making any undue noise, though official 'lights out' is not until 12am during the week at 1am at weekends, and even then, as long as you are quiet enough and stay in your room you're unlikely to get caught. Students age 18-21 are allowed to stay out until 11pm during the week and 12am at weekends - or later, if they've got the skills to sneak past security.

Access to the lounge is available between 7am and curfew, and is the only place in the dormitories that boys and girls are allowed to mix. The lounge is open to everybody, and is equipped with a large variety of entertainment such as games consoles, tvs, pool tables, air hockey tables, arcade machines, board games and books, as well as all manner of comfortable seating. Students are not officially monitored while in the lounge, however the security guards will keep an eye while on their rounds, and students are reminded that any improper behaviour, vandalism, or abuse of the lounge will result in lounge privileges being revoked.

Lessons

Despite what students might think, this is the reason they're here after all! Lessons are designed to give a thorough education in all the basics, as well as specialising in anything that the student might need. Lesson lists are constructed for a student specifically to help them with the challenges they are likely to face.

Lessons are split by knowledge level rather than age due to the small student base and varied experience level and school starting age, and each subject is split roughly into beginner, intermediate and advanced, so students will be a mix of ages. Lessons are also split between roles as much as possible, so sidekicks and support will mostly have both specialised and general lessons together, as will princes/princesses, villains, etc.
General lessons include Maths, Science, English and Physical Education, as well as general etiquette lessons and lessons on storylines, traditional roles and the importance of following the story - the latter being a much larger feature in recent years.
More specific lessons teach skills including, but not limited to;

Princes - dragon slaying, horse riding, navigation, etiquette and charm, ballroom dancing, ethics, recognising and breaking curses, romantic duets, public speaking, and leadership.
Princesses - etiquette and charm, animal handling, ethics, ballroom dancing, public speaking, romantic duets, combat with everyday items, fashion in dire circumstances, and how to properly succumb to an evil curse.
Hero sidekicks - helpful sarcasm, appropriate times for one-liners, letting a prince think your idea is his idea, etiquette, running for help, encouraging romantic atmospheres, ethics, and recognising villains.
Villain sidekicks - helpful sarcasm, appropriate times for one-liners, letting a villain think your idea is their idea, betraying your master at the opportune moment, leaving a dangerous situation, and humorous hobbies.
Mentors - magic, cryptic speaking, turning up in the nick of time, motivational speaking, recognising when a hero needs to help themselves, tricking heroes into learning things, and living alone.
Villains - maniacal laughter, potions and curses, proper lair selection, monologuing, dangerous beasts and making them your pets, different morals and counter-ethics, leadership, and public speaking.

Lessons are an hour each and students have 6 lessons each day, plus an hour for lunch, the school day runs 8am-3pm.

Hobbies and Social Clubs

According to the academy's official documentation, "Social clubs encourage friendships and camaraderie that will extend well beyond school years, as well as providing invaluable skills to help a child's story progress"
As such, any student is able to start a social club for any activity or cause, as long as it conforms to the academy's rules.

Rules for establishing a club

1. There must not be an existing club for the same or overly similar activity or idea.
2. In order to establish a new club, or continue an existing club, you need a president and secretary, and at least one other member.
3. Clubs must not contravene the ideals of the school.
4. Any clubs seen to be participating in or encourage negative behaviour may be subject to disciplinary proceedings and disbanded.

Role of the president - The president is responsible for making decisions on club activities, captaining (or assigning a captain for) any sports teams created as part of the club activities, being responsible for the members of the club, arranging with the school for club space and deciding on days, times and locations for club meetings.
Role of the secretary - The secretary is in charge of keeping track of all club members, collecting any club fees, filling in risk assessments and other required paperwork and communicating with club members to let them know when meetings are or any other pertinent news.

Clubs may also have other committee members at their own discretion. The president is in charge of selecting committee members.

Clubs that contravene the ideals of the school include anything that encourages understanding or friendship between heroes and villains, or anything that tacitly or explicitly encourages rebellion against your story. Any attempt to start such a club will result in disciplinary procedures - if they catch you.

The best way for students to practice any of their hobbies is to start or join a club for them, however certain things are available for students should they need them - the sports equipment, fields and pool are all available at certain times after school for students who wish to train outside of lessons, and students who own their own horses are also allowed to ride them at any time they're free. The academy also has several of its own horses that can be borrowed for riding practice after school.

[Shini]

The Finer Details - The Village

Seacombe is a village designed specifically for the students, so it seems to be missing a lot of things normal villages contain. It's kept almost unnaturally clean and there is pleasant music played throughout, as well as staff who patrol the streets both to help students in need, to ensure students are conforming to academy standards, and to make sure no students are around during school hours (or after curfew) - it makes playing hooky or sneaking out after dark a lot more perilous than usual.

The main street of the village contains everything the students need, to discourage wandering about, and there's no direct path for students to the walled and gated residential area for school and village staff. The main street runs right up to the woods on the edge of the village, however there is a fence and a gate encouraging students to stay back (it's not the most secure or high gate, but there's almost always a staff member lingering about to watch it).

The village is also separated from the school by a smaller woodland area, with a pleasant path between the two - again, this path is often patrolled by staff, so mischievous students need to navigate the woodland itself to get around them.

Shopping

On the right side of main street, a small side street leads into the shopping precinct, a paved courtyard with shops around the edges and a fountain in the centre. The shops are designed to provide anything a student might want for their studies as well as general everyday life, hobbies, and just for shopping in general, for those that like that sort of thing.

Shops include;

- Pascal's Stationary and Art Supplies
- Rajah's Formal Fashions
- Pegasus Sports
- Bruno's Books
- Phillipe's Everyday Fashion
- Abu's Hats and other accessories
- Cleo's Toys and Games
- Maximus Gifts
- Flit's Couture Designs
- Meeko's Sweets and Snacks

Students have a weekly allowance to spend in the shops, this is provided by the school and usually allows them to buy whatever they might want or need (well, within reason) - those students with royal or particularly rich parents may also get a second allowance on top of that, distributed by the school but provided by their parents.
The allowance does not take the form of physical money, but a card that students are provided with that can be used a credit card in all the businesses in the village.

Food and Drink

There are several options for students to eat or drink while they're out in the village at the weekend, to avoid having to go all the way back up to the school, they're all reasonably affordable within a student's allowance, although Gusteau's for example certainly takes a chunk out of it, and older students can find that a few drinks at either of the bars can drain cash pretty quickly.

Minnie's Homemade Treats is the first eatery that you see when you enter the village, it's right at the beginning of main street so that the pretty garden outside can spread right up to the edge of the woodland. It offers indoor and outdoor seating in a old fashioned, homey atmosphere. Expect gingham and polka dots, and you're probably on to a winner.
Minnie's serves sandwiches and soups, as well as smaller cooked items like baked potatoes and toasted sandwiches as well. They serve several types of tea and coffee, soft drinks and more cakes than anybody really knows what to do with. Their cakes are always home made, always delicious and always changing. They're most well known for their excellent afternoon teas.

Gusteau's Restaurant aims to provide a fine dining experience to those who are used to it. Though it doesn't actively discourage sidekicks or other commoners from eating there, they do demand a certain level of class and sophistication. They have a dress code which is strictly enforced, and students being rowdy or uncouth are quickly ejected. They offer a large variety of evening meals in a romantic setting, making it excellent for dates, and specialise in catering to all kinds of dietary requirements - whatever your favourite dish was back home, they've probably got it here.
Gusteau's offers low lighting, plenty of private corner booths and calming music, most weekends played live by a string quartet.

Pride Rock is most assuredly the domain of the popular kids - or at least some of them. Though they act like their doors are open to anybody, there's a certain level of discrimination present. Villains and their sidekicks are banned explicitly, despite the apparent welcoming atmosphere, and though anybody else is welcomed by the bar, the upstairs area is definitely VIP only.
It's your typical trendy student bar, all bare brick walls and candelabras, plenty of tables with a variety of chairs, stools or comfortable sofas scattered around them. It does its best to be a cool place to hang out on an evening after a hard day at school, a place to grab a quick snack and socialise with your friends before curfew hits, without feeling like you're stuck in school all the time.
Younger students are only allowed in the bar in the early evening, for soft drinks and bar snacks (chicken wings, garlic bread, fries and burgers, quick and easy meals that are not good for your waistline but excellent for your taste buds) but after 8pm it's over-18s only.
That's also when the good stuff really kicks off, alcohol served ranges from beers to trendy cocktails, and most weekends they also have live bands playing, they also do a range of other bar entertainments including quizzes and theme nights.

The Black Dragon started out as a very similar building to Pride Rock, a large spacious bar area with plenty of tables, a small stage for acts and an upstairs mezzanine overlooking the rest of the bar. The decor was just that little bit darker, rather than looking hip and trendy the bare walls and candelabras gave off a much more medieval feel, but it was still nice enough... at first. Whether through the acts of its clientele or a lack of funds from those in power, the dragon is... well, it's a dive. The mezzanine layer is cordoned off by 'condemned' tape and looks in such a state of disrepair that most people hesitate to even sit under it. The walls are covered in graffiti, ranging from beautiful (but sinister) artwork to messy scrawls and crude drawings. It used to serve food, and there's still a barely intelligible menu chalked on a board behind the bar, but order food at your own risk, because it is not designed for the squeamish or for those with anything but the most esoteric tastes. The best thing about the place is the beer - the beer is pretty good, and they're not all that fussy about whether or not you're legally allowed to drink it. They'll even let anybody in, despite it technically being a villains-only bar, but be warned, the clientele might not want you there.

Entertainment

If you're not the type to answer the call of shopping, and the assorted entertainments offered by the bars aren't for you, your choice of evening diversion is... limited at best.
The village is relatively pleasant to take a stroll round (albeit somewhat small), and you're also welcome to walk in the woodland between the village and the school, but beyond that the only entertainment available outside of the school and the bars is the cinema.
It's a pretty small building with only two screens, and the decor is very old fashioned - it's reminiscent of a theatre more than a cinema. The movies are an eclectic bunch, ranging from classics to new releases - if by 'new releases' you mean 'movies out three years ago'.
Given the nature of the school, the choice of movies in the cinema is made very carefully, they're usually taken from some of the worlds that the students come from, but they're vetted for suitability. The cinema will never show a student their own story, for example, so only movies that do not represent any world a student might be from are shown. There doesn't seem to be any method to their selection other than that, and they're not even particularly conistent in how often they change what movies are showing. All in the all, the cinema is incredibly pot luck, but if you want to sit in a darkened room with someone for an hour or two, eaten the best popcorn you've ever tasted, well, have I got a place for you.

The Outskirts

Around the village it's mostly fields separated by neat fences, the fields are clearly farmland, where most of the food for the village and school is grown - though once a week, very early in the morning, large trucks come through the forest to make deliveries. Security is particularly prevalent on these days, and the likelihood of a student being present to witness these deliveries is incredibly slim.

Beyond the farmland there are walls, keeping the students tucked away from the outside world. No student has ever found out what's beyond the walls, the closest anybody's come is getting a glimpse of what appeared to be yet more woodland, like the forest near the village spreads out and around the whole area.

The forest is a dark and ominous looking mass of trees. The road out of the village cuts through it but the trees lean in and over, so even that disappears into darkness. Students are almost universally encouraged to stay away from the forest and the gates - if questioned, staff will explain that the forest is dangerous, it's easy to get lost and there are dangerous animals inside. They won't come so close to the village, but a lone student lost inside the woods is likely to get in trouble.
If you can get close enough to watch the forest for a while, it looks like there might be people in there, there's shadows moving about in the depths of the wood, and the occasional figure seems to move between the trees. The rumour amongst students is that people live out there, students who got expelled or who ran away from the school, and since the only way to get home is through the school-controlled portals to other worlds, they're stuck out in the woods until they can sneak in to use a portal. Nobody's ever managed to get into the woods to confirm whether or not this is true, but yet the rumour refuses to go away - if any staff or teachers overhear you spreading it, however, you'll be in trouble. Staff categorically deny that there are people at all in the woods, let alone any from the school. But if it's so clearly not true... where did the rumour come from?
A group of students recently discovered the settlement belonging to a group of ex-students who were expelled in mysterious circumstances a few years ago, there are currently very few details known about why these students were expelled, and though the village settlement where they live is accessible (though with great difficulty), the school is still adamantly denying the settlement's existence and any student caught speaking of it will be in significant trouble.

[Shini]

The Finer Details - Miscellaneous

This section is for all the other little details of the world that I want to go more in depth on, if you have any questions about the nature of the world it's worth having a look here to see if it answers any of them. It's likely to be constantly under construction as I think of more things I'd like to expand, so don't think that something isn't going to end up here eventually - and if you want me to go into more detail about something, let me know!

Powers

The worlds of myth and fairytale and magic often go hand in hand, and many characters have wonderful powers that they will likely have passed on to their children - not to mention, if a school offers lessons in magic and curses, it's bound to be expecting students with the skills to back it up.
There is a magical dampener over the whole school - some students, after all, are too powerful to be allowed to go unchecked - and this dulls a student's power to a more manageable level. This means students will be less powerful at school than they are at home.
It also can be controlled, and teachers have ways of locking away a student's power entirely if they feel the student is misusing their powers or endangering other students with them.

Generally, the way it works is this; if a parent can do magic, the child has the option of being able to do it. If the parent cannot do magic, but magic exists in the world, the child may be able to do it subject to logical reasoning and staff approval - this does not apply to innate powers in most instances (see below).
All powers, whether developed or yet to come up, have to be approved at character creation as of 22/10/14, any characters who applied before this may message staff to discuss if they wish a character to have powers.

There are two types of magic, and the guidelines for usage are below;

Learned magic is the type generally done with spells and curses - potions, chants, anything that involves preparation or channelling through a ritual or object. Students who have access to this magic have to have been taught it by their parent, or choose to learn it at school (if this is the case, it still needs to be specified at character creation), this kind of magic can be learnt by children of non-magical characters if it exists in the world they come from.
In order to perform learned magic, students must have something to channel it through that matches the canon of the world they are from. Whether this is by performing a spell or ritual, or by having a magical artefact (i.e. a wand or staff), if the student does not have access to this option they are unable to perform magic.

Innate magic is something that is inside the character and that they have access to naturally. This is often more specific and takes the form of one particularly skill, though it can be more general as well. This also sometimes needs to be channelled through a magical artefact, and if this is the case the student must have access to this in order to perform magic.
This type of magic is often used by fairies, gods and other magical creatures whose power comes from who and what they are.
Students who have this type of magic do need to learn to control it, and may not be able to do everything until they are grown up and have complete mastery over their abilities. These powers are inherited, so students can only have this type of power if their parent has it - the only exception to this is if a grandparent has this kind of power, and an appropriate argument can be made for it to have been passed down to the student.

What can be done with both types of magic has to match the canon of the home world, and has to make reasonable sense. Some examples;
- A child of the fairy godmother from Cinderella is unlikely to be able to use their magic for every day things, and most likely their wand only allows them to grant wishes or perform transformations - their spells would also most likely have a time limit.
- A child of Pain or Panic from Hercules probably would have the ability to shapeshift as they do, but as this seems to be their main ability would be unlikely to be able to do anything else.
- A child of the Evil Queen from Snow White wouldn't be able to do small or trivial things with their magic, as the kind of magic in this world seems to need ritual and preparation in order for a spell to work.