Title: Illusion
Description: [-]
Description: [-]
Essa - September 26, 2007 01:37 PM (GMT)
Illusion
Ah, college. It’s that final road to the real world, the final bridge to cross from a sheltered life to one of your very own. Of course, for most students, they’ve already constructed lives of their own. But what none of them is willing to admit is that they’re scared. Yes, that’s right. Scared. Because after college they’re on their own; no professors to annoy and blame for their failures, no classes to goof off in … Detention and suspension are no longer the punishments for their unruly actions. Expulsion isn’t the worst to expect. They’re teetering between their (more or less) carefree lives and one of sobering responsibility. It’s no wonder those Seniors are as rebellious as they are; they’re making the most of what little time they’ve got left - and maybe even sealing their return for another year. But that’s only a select few. They may be scared of moving on, but they know it’s inevitable. And so they cling on to the few remaining tendrils of their previous teenage times while tiptoeing slowly into adulthood.
It’s not as marvelous as I make it, though. College isn’t only about going to frat parties, getting wasted and sleeping with the largest number of people possible- if that was so then no one would have ever graduated! No, it’s very much like high school, with all its pros and cons, except on a larger scale. The Cliques, popularity struggle, discrimination, rumors, lies … Those Freshmen always need a day or two to recover from the initial shock of that discovery. Just when they thought were free of high school’s troubles, were stepping into a more mature world, they’re proven wrong and bombarded with even more.
Indeed, college can be quite fearsome. And things aren’t much different at Avalon Academy of the Arts. They’re just at a higher level, due to the Academy’s nature. You see, this is where the supposed ‘elite’ go. Whether their parents are famous enough to pull a few strings and get them in, they’re rich enough to buy themselves spots, talented enough to wow the heads of the school or smart enough to earn their own spot via scholarship, be guaranteed that the students of Avalon will never cease to amaze.
And, to top it all off, they’re at constant war with Magnolia, their scruffy, poorer competition. Competition over what, you ask? Well … everything and anything, really: who has the better parties, does the most outrageous things without getting caught, pulls the best pranks, you name it. Magnolia’s just another college, except in this one the kids aren’t superb, they aren’t celebrities, their faces aren’t plastered on the magazine covers, nor do they have paparazzi trailing behind them. It’s for those exact reasons that the students of both places clash so much. Avalon students think that those of Magnolia aren’t worth their time or effort (most of them, anyway) and the latter thinks that the former is just full of arrogant pricks whose heads are so inflated they marvel at how they even manage to cross the doorways, stuck-up bastards, no more- which most of them actually are, by the way, but don’t tell anyone I said that.
There’s another reason behind their disputes, though, one that has nothing whatsoever to do with the differing social status or how much money they’ve got in the bank.
But before I tell you that reason I need to ask you something: do you believe in angels? If not, you should, because they’ve had a great influence on this not-so friendly college rivalry.
You see, there’s a much bigger rivalry in play. Invidia, the sin of Envy, and Humanitas, the virtue of contentment, had a little deal. They were growing tired, as were their so-called ‘siblings’ (meaning the rest of the Deadly and Holy Seven), of these worldly conflicts: setting wars, political strives, the steadily decreasing morale ... It was too big of a battleground for them to work in and, after eons of influencing humans all over the place, it was time to take things to the next level. To them, it wasn’t about the fate of human beings anymore, because the scales would always be balanced no matter what. No, it was much bigger, It was the battle between good and evil. Both sides had begun to lose hope and this was their way of knowing for sure.
Invidia, confident as ever in her and the rest of the Sins’ abilities, proposed a quick solution to the everlasting debate, one that was much easier and a lot less time consuming, one that had much more gratifying results: instead of battling on the world, why not try a smaller scale? It would allow them to use their full potential and give the humans their immediate attention, making a larger impact on them rather than the fleeting hours they normally spent with their choice of charges. The town of Elerns was her choice, and the Virtues couldn’t decline.
A lot of the other angels and demons scoffed at what they were doing, saying that the centuries had finally gotten to them, but they paid no heed to any of that, too engrossed in their work and their futile attempts to blend in with the mortals- they just didn’t understand them, having never actually been alive before. The Virtues didn’t understand what temptation meant, and the Sins hadn’t the faintest idea of that thing called a ‘conscience’, save that it was as much of a pain in the arse as their saintly nemesis.
And so it came that the seven deadly sins and the seven holy virtues went to college, no less. And that’s when it all started. Ira riled up the rich kids, good old Invidia did her job on the Magnolia students and bam!
Don’t worry about the rest of the world, though. They haven’t abandoned it, not entirely. In their stead are most of the angels and demons that occupied Elerns, only a handful of them staying behind, all of which had taken on human form and befriended their charges rather than simply watching over from afar.
That’s my story, mates. You don’t believe it, then fine. I’m not going to tell you what to believe. But that doesn’t stop the fact that it’s happening, and all those students are none the wiser, unaware of who, or even what, their best-friends, boyfriends and enemies are. They’re all living in an illusion