Spoiler: DeTess
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1) Mother attacking her
2) Father being taken as a sacrifice
3) The school incident where she was kicked out.
But I think Whitecliff's condescending little remarks on homework would make #3 more likely to be detected. Think of it like one of those nasty shows where people are confronted with ridiculous challenges and end up dying. Squid Game or Hunger Games might be similar, but I think the situation might not come up all the time, and it was more like "think your way out of this situation" rather than make everyone fight each other to survive.
Homework. Homework...
Shandara remembered actually doing 'homework' at home: studying borrowed volumes which her family was too poor and not prestigious enough to own.. memorizing many facts, some trivial and forgotten, others the foundation from which her magic knowledge was built upon. She remembered many grueling hours spent sitting at their table, often times alone. Sometimes with the wafting smell of cooking she was doing in the mean time, or interrupted by several other ... 'chores' she needed to take care of. Sometimes her mother hovering over her, offering her 'encouragements'. Sometimes her brother returning from a shift, wearily looking her way and avoiding interacting with her.
All this, of course, not only to learn but to prove herself at the Lhalabar Academy, to one day become a prominent mage herself and perhaps take on a similar role passing her knowledge on to others (for exorbitant fees) or in the service of a House. Shandara's work was not only diligent, but more than satisfactory. It was a great example of what a star student could achieve. Except, Shandara herself was not a star in any drow sense of the word. She was small, and frail, and weak, and quiet, quieter than she is now. Because her work was good, other jealous students began to notice. Her belongings went missing several times. She was bullied, and tripped, threatened, ganged up on. She didn't offer any resistance or malice back. They laughed at her and threatened to come to her home and slit her throat in the night.
Shandara was often met by these bullies, extorting answers from her, essentially getting her to do the work for them. She tried to hide this from her mother and brother, simply as.. acquaintances, peers to help each other study. But her professors and the headmaster wouldn't be fooled forever. One day Vierna Lhalabar, the headmistress of the academy herself, burst into their class for an important announcement. This cheating had been going on long enough, with almost everyone in the class having practically identical answers. She was immediately thrown under the bus, and then having come forward, tried to explain how she was threatened and coerced into providing others with information. The headmistress was enraged at this, but most of the ire was directed at Shandara.
Slapped around and beaten again, Shandara was rebuked as too weak, a disgrace, unfit to serve any house. Vierna Lhalabar would not have the reputation of her academy tarnished, and so expelled Shandara then and there. For all the bullies, they merely got a slap on the wrist, and business and learning (and brutal deaths) would continue as usual. For Shandara, however, she was humiliated, laughed at as one of the few who actually got expelled, and the headmistress, who also happened to belong to the clergy of Lloth, threatened to sacrifice the young drow should she ever see her again. So Shandara ran. She bolted out the door, leaving all her things behind. Her feet echoed through the silent academy halls, as she was overcome with panic. Bursting out onto the streets, she began to realize the implications of everything that happened: how everything her parents and family had worked so hard for, the planning so that she might one day achieve something came apart. She had utterly failed. Tears began to stream down her eyes as she hurried back home...
At least for now... no telling when his subtle needling about homework will get to her, or what else he might pull later though.
Re: The Royal Artificery Society - OOC II: electric boogaloo
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