There is a flash of light, somehow equal parts white and black.

In the middle of her room now stand two young women, one dressed all in white and one dressed all in black, holding hands.

She sits bolt upright. This is interesting. Kind of fucking terrifying too, but interesting.

She tries a small wave. "Heya."

"Greetings to you, young one," says the woman in white.

     "Well met on this dark night," says the woman in black.

"Uh. Well met."

Ariel is struck by realization. "Oh holy shit, you're the Imperatrix. And- the other one. I am super sorry I forgot your title I am awful at history. Uh, how can I help your majesties?"

"My title is Polemarch," with a hint of a laugh. "And it may be better said that it is we who will be helping you."

     "We have come to offer you a portion of our power. The chance to become a magical girl."

Ariel blinks.

"Yes? Where the hell do I sign?"

"With one of us. But only one. This choice is the chance we offer, for the magic must resonate with you."

     "We came because we saw in you a piece of ourselves. Now you must find in us a piece of yourself."

"Oh. Hm. So... Domain or Compact, is that the choice?"

"It is not so abstract as that."

     "The choice is personal, of your own desires."

"If this is a come-on..."

"Hardly."

     "You are far too young to consider in such regard."

"I should hope so. What do you actually mean?"

"Come with me," says the girl in white, "and I will give you the power to save anyone you wish to."

     "Come with me," says the girl in black, "and I will give you the power to attain anything you care to."

Oh.

That's a hard one.

But... ultimately... Ariel doesn't know a lot about what's right and what's wrong, but she knows she wants to be good. And being good starts with other people.

So she makes a choice.

The girl in white reaches out to take her hand, and everything dissolves in a brilliant shine.

It's the first day at the Academy, and her first day meeting her new peers. The Assembly Hall is hosting perhaps a hundred girls like herself within its soft cream walls. Soon the Headmistress will arrive for the welcome speech, but for now they have to opportunity to socialize.

Ariel is excited! Socializing is cool in and of itself, but socializing with other future magical girls? Even cooler.

She takes a look around to see if anyone stands out particularly as both not talking to anybody and potentially open to friendship.

Here's someone! Coming to talk to her, even.

"Hi, my name's Nira! What's yours?"

Ooh, Ariel loves when that happens!

"I'm Ariel! This is such a nice place, isn't it?"

"It really is. But then, it'd be surprising if it wasn't, don't you think?"

"Yeah, I guess they wouldn't just throw us into a hole for however long. We're an investment! In the future!"

(Her tone is light, but not mocking. Ariel's no cynic.)

Nira laughs softly and strikes a pose.

"And the future is looking bright!"

Ariel grins. "I like you. Let's be friends."

"Yes, let's!"

There's a soft chime, and benches begin rising from the floor, startling the girls who happened to be standing on top of them.

Ariel is among the girls so lifted. She revels for a moment in her tallness, then hops down to take a seat.

Nira takes a seat next to her.

Sitting down seems the obvious thing to do, and soon enough everyone is.

The wall in front fades into a screen, and a woman dressed all in white appears upon it.

"Greetings, my young devotees. To begin with, let me say what an honor it is that you all have chosen to follow my path. I truly believe that together, we can forge this galaxy into what it was meant to be. You each have your own reasons for being here. In time, you will fulfill them. But first, you must learn to harness the power with which you have been gifted. That is why you have come to this Academy. Through many trials, persevere. Your goal is in front of you, and you have the strength to reach it. Now, I believe your Headmistress would like to say a few words."

The screen fades out, and a woman walks out in front.

"The Polemarch is as inspiring as always. After that, I suppose there's really only one thing you want to see right now." She takes a deep breath and rises into the air. A profusion of sparkles dazzle the air as she twirls. When she settles back down, she is wearing a much fancier dress and holding a gleaming saber.

eeeee so cool

"So! Welcome, young sprouts, to the Academy. My name is Myra and I will be in charge of you until you graduate. During your time here, you can expect to learn everything a well-educated young lady should know, as well as how to do this." She flourishes the sword. "By the end, you will be ready to be the next generation of saviors for the galaxy." She then launches into a speech about code of conduct, day-to-day life, and class scheduling. The girls are expected to be respectful of the staff, grounds, and each other, and fighting is not permitted. Meals are provided at the cafeteria four times throughout the day: morning, midday, evening, and late night. They are encouraged to show up to at least three of these. Curfew is midnight. Initial dormitory assignments will be passed out at the end of today, if they've already made friends they would like to room with, they can submit a request at the main office before then. There will be general opportunities to change room assignment twice per year. Classes are scheduled in three blocks and the girls will be grouped according to ability. Later on, they will have the chance to sign up for electives, but the first run of classes are fixed.

And with that, they're dismissed. They have the run of the place until tonight.

"Do you want to go exploring?" she asks Nira immediately.

"Yes!"

The campus is a sprawling affair, with immaculately trimmed lawns and shrubbery and wide, shaded cobbled paths. The buildings nestle into the landscape as though grown there.

"What a pretty place," Ariel sighs. "I know I said it already, but really. I guess this is why the no-fighting rule, magical girl battles don't do the scenery any favors."

"Or maybe the place is this pretty to add an extra layer of discouragement."

"I could see that. I wouldn't want to bust up the landscape, I know that much. Even if I really wanted to fight somebody. Maybe there's dueling arenas or something for that. Or maybe not!"

Ariel twirls around 360 degrees for no particular reason.

"Practicing your transformation?"

"Just spinning!"

Nira essays a spin of her own, and nearly trips over her own feet. "Whoops."

Ariel moves to steady her. "Hey, careful there! If anybody's gonna break her ankles on our first day it should be me."

"I suppose I'll leave it to the professionals, then."

"No, no, I'm strictly amateur," Ariel assures her. "Professional anklebreaking's impossible to break into. Ironically enough."

"It's something one trips into accidentally?"

Ariel giggles.

"Oh, we should probably go request to be assigned together before I forget. Where were we supposed to go for that again?"

"The... main office. Which I think is, uh, back there." Point.

"It's still adventure even if we've been there before," Ariel declares. "Onward and backward!"

"An adventure of prophecy. The outcome has been foretold."

"Spooky."

The trip back to the main office doesn't take long. Ariel looks around for someone suitably official-looking.

There's a lady behind a desk, near the door.

"Hello," says Nira. "We'd like to register to share a room?"

      "All right," says the woman, and passes over a holopad. "Thumbprints, please." Nira applies hers.

As does Ariel.

The secretary takes the pad back and waves some data to the desk display.

     "You're all set," she says.

"Thank you!"

"Thanks!"

Ariel claps her hands together as they walk away from the desk. "What to do now, what to do now... Do you have any ideas? We've kind of been following me, sorry about that."

"That's okay. I think I want to look inside some of the buildings? The outsides are pretty but I wanna know what they're for."

"Sure! Let's see... How about that one!"

They merrily explore some buildings.

The first four buildings prove to be: a dormitory, a class hall, a library, and a natatorium.

"I can't even pronounce that. What'd you say?"

"It's kind of an old word. Means 'building with a pool inside'."

"Ah. So... it's a pool."

She gestures to the pool.

"And here's me without my swimsuit."

Ariel... says nothing for a minute! Because the only things she can think of are kind of inappropriate and that'd make things awkward.

"I don't know if I have a swimsuit," she says once she thinks of it. "Maybe they'll be issued."

"I think they said something about our things being in our rooms?" she says vaguely. "We could come back later."

"Yeah, sure! ...I wonder if the dining hall is open. Kinda hungry."

"It's worth a look."

They haven't found the dining hall yet. It proves to be on the other side of the assembly hall.

And is it in fact open?

It is! There are Lots Of Choices, representing a wide range of galactic cuisine. Nira gravitates toward the salad bar.

Ariel gets a pile of meat, an inordinate amount of dessert, and some of whatever looks most weird and galactic on offer. The winner of the final category appears to be a semisolid multicolored gel containing some form of edible glitter.

She eats unselfconsciously, to say the least. It looks like the gel is actually pretty good, judging by how quickly she devours it.

Seems in-character. Nira eats more sedately, though she will try some of the gel when she sees Ariel with it.

"Remind me to never let you get very hungry."

"I am a terror to behold. Raar."

"I wonder if it will be like this every day or if they're just being exuberant to welcome us."

"Man, I hope it's like this every day. This is good food. You're right, though, they might just be showing off. Who knows. I guess some of the older magical girls would, but I dunno if I want to bug them, being as I am but a pathetic froshling."

"Pathetic is as pathetic does."

There's a group of older girls a few tables away. Nira stands to go talk to them.

Such bravery! Ariel will stand by her.

"Hi, my name's Nira and this is Ariel, we wondering if the food is always like this."

     "Aww, look at the little cuties!"

   "Stoppit Ash. Yes, it's always like this."

"Cool! And we're totally cute, it's fine."

"Thanks."

     "See, Terr'? They accept it, it's fine."

   "Would you stop."

...Nira is just going to leave them to it and head back to her plate.

Ariel will return with her!

"Informative and reassuring! A good combination of qualities."

"Indeed. Though it probably helps that we're small and lovable."

"Yeah, probably. I'm fine with leveraging that."

"We should plan for any dastardly schemes to happen soon then, to take maximal advantage."

"Ooh, yeah."

Ariel thinks for a bit. "The only scheme that I can think of right now is 'become a magical girl'. Which seems to already be pretty well on track."

"That's more like a thing to be than a thing to do."

"Yeah, but like... we're in this new place, so surrounded by new stuff that we didn't even know if the food was for real, right? I don't know what I'd be scheming for yet. There's nothing to covet."

"No schemes just for their own sake? Unpointed schemes, soft and squishable?"

She shakes her head. "What about you?"

"One or two, perhaps." She puts a finger to her lips. "But I fear that to divulge too much, too soon would squish them beyond recognition. It is a very nice data system they have over at the office."

"...I should've thought about that, damn."

She looks solemnly at a table. "We are innocent schoolgirls," she instructs a counterfactual hidden camera. "You heard nothing."

Nira giggles. A red herring well dangled, it seems.

"The most innocent. Soft. Paragons of the Compact."

Ariel peers at Nira.

"You were fucking with me," she diagnoses eventually.

"Just a bit."

"Fair enough."

She drums on the table. "Uh... we explored most of the campus, we ate food, we secured a room... ooh! Let's go to the library!"

"Yeah! I was gonna suggest that if you didn't."

Ariel taps her left temple. "In sync."

Then she hops to her feet and sets off librarywards. Libraries are good places. They contain knowledge.

This one more than most. It's only two stories tall from the outside, but on the inside the true depth is revealed. The ground floor is a ring of desks and chairs and sofas surrounding a plunging hole. There are floors upon floors below the surface, all looking positively full of bookshelves. The domed glass roof provides plenty of illumination all the way to the bottom.

"Wow."

"Holy shit."

Ariel cannot fly yet and should not jump down the hole. Ariel cannot fly yet, and thus, should not jump down the hole. Ariel should not jump down the hole, because she cannot fly yet.

Ariel wrenches her eyes away from the hole and turns to the books. Books books books.

Also there's a railing. You would have to be a special kind of stupid to not put in a railing around such an obvious safety hazard.

There are relatively fewer books on this level. A stair carves down around the outside perimeter, guarded by elevator shafts. Nira heads over to check out the catalog display.

If the architects of this place think a railing is going to stop Ariel from - bad train of thought, books books books.

Ariel will take a look at the catalog as well. See if there's any good fiction. Or, ideally, entertainingly bad fiction.

There is so much of both. At times like this, one is reminded just how long galactic civilization has been around.

If she wants to browse the shelves, she can start with floors four through eight, or she can download a particular title here or request a hardcopy to be picked up at Circulation.

Ooh, there's one that looks promising on level 5.

"I'm heading down to check out this really silly-looking romance," she informs Nira.

Nira seems to be paging through the entirety of the catalog. "-huh? Oh, okay. Have fun."

"You... too?" Ariel says dubiously.

Then she shrugs and hops down the stairs two at a time to find her indescribably stupid romance novel.

It is, in fact, indescribably stupid. She is enthralled.

Knowledge is power, and Nira intends to acquire knowledge of how exactly this library works. Not that she'll be able to remember where everything is, but when's she's looking for something later, she'll have an idea of where to start.

When she finishes, she checks the time. It's been- whoops, two hours. Longer than she was expecting. She goes to find Ariel.

Ariel is: on the fifth floor, engrossed in her terrible book.

She looks up at Nira's approach. "Hey! This book is so bad. I love it."

"...for reasons relating to its badness?"

"Yeah, of course! It's like brain candy."

She checks the time. "...whoa, time kinda got away from me, huh."

"Aheh. Me too."