She gives Adam a kind smile. "I'm sure you'll have plenty of opportunity to do so..." Haruka folds her arms in front of her. "...but I should tell you before you get too many ideas. I'm already taken."
As she runs through the dispersing crowd of students, more than a few of them get eyefulls of Felicia's round rear. She hears murmuring about her attractiveness and seeming obliviousness. ----- Felicia reaches a large, auditorium-style lecture hall. Prof. Yumi Itou stands at the lectern, giving the girl a slight smile in greeting as she enters. Scanning the gathered students, the scarred redhead easily recognizes Michio, the distinctive girl reclining in the back row of the coliseum seating.
What are they on abou-! Felicia was wondering why she's been hearing murmurs about her, until she recalled what she was doing. C-craap! I forgot how short this skirt is! She blushes a bit, Crap, I think my panties are kind of visible too... aaaaah! She screams in her head, but tries to ignore what she's just done. Wearing her usual expression, despite her slightly pink cheeks, Felicia stops running, and instead walks at a brisk pace, which did avoid causing her skirt to flutter. Though her large breasts were still a spectacle with how they jiggles underneath her uniform's sleeveless top. Reaching her classroom, Felicia gives Yumi a smile, and a nod, before going up to set next to Michio. "Good afternoon, how'd your night with Dinah go?" She asked in a curious tone.
"Yes, he is..." She looks off into space dreamily. "...and I'm just as lucky to have him too." Haruka returns her attention to Adam. "How has your day been so far? Hopelessly and needlessly tedious?"
"Fine." Michio grumbles. "She was too tired to do much, so I just let her sleep." She clears her throat. "You know how Julia took that ghost spirit outta Angelica?" The one-eyed girl pauses to make sure Felicia is following. "I talked with Julia earlier, and she said that the cow--Angelica-" She corrects herself. "-has a new one already. So I tracked down the girl and talked with her, and she really does seem different now. All polite and kind and shit. Genuine about it too. It's fucking weird."
Julia kept lessons rather simple. She went through the typical introductory outlines before managing to get into covering some proper material, though she wasn't as focused as she was this morning in covering it. "Now as we're well aware, whether we believe in it or not, religion plays an active role in having shaped the world and into politics today. Analyzing the ways of the oldest of these brings us to Persia, and with it, Zoroastrianism. While other religions existed, this is generally seen as the first to follow a one god principle with Ahura Madza as the great creator. Now, I'm sure those of you who heard the name associate it with the religion that actively promoted incest. This is true. The practice was called Xwedodah. It was believed to offer a sort of spiritual infusion of sorts through marriage....Catholicism would later adopt some of the same notions in the sense of "holy matrimony." However, it is actually generally agreed that the practice of incest wasn't actually widely accepted even during it's time in the Sasanian Empire, and had fallen out of favor with the major sects entirely by the 11th Century. " Julia had to stop to yawn, almost coming off like she was bored of her own lecture. "However, the Greeks considered it a common practice by the Magi preisthood. Aremnian Christian writer Enzik, perhaps, accurately, accused the magi of issuing a false mandate to satisfy their own desires. Yet, this didn't change the fact that many groups still venerated the magi and even remain disputed in mainstream religions to this day. Of course, we know of many religious ordered decrees, this one is actually light, all things considered. But, this wouldn't be the last and even without much recording of the age, certainly wasn't the first case of religion being used as someone's justification no matter how incoherent- Julia spoke a bit more. She was exhausted, but she still knew lot's of stuff that she could make a good enough coverage. "-that being said, despite whatever the origins may be, the concept of spiritual union does remain strong in some form of virtually all major religions even today."
"She did use her magic to repeatedly teleport us around." Felicia recalls Dinah's impressive abilities. But as the subject shifts to Angelica, "Really? Then maybe she's compatible with her new spirit?" She raised an eyebrow, recalling how she too had managed to form a bond with Uru not even a day after Tyrant was taken from her. "That's good, right? I mean, maybe that's what she's really like, when she isn't being controlled by Carley." Felicia adds, reminding Michio that shadow duels were a thing. And the fact that Dinah didn't mention Angelica as a die hard cultist. "Speaking of Carley..." The red-head lowers her voice, "We won't have to worry about her anymore, she's gone." Felicia whispered, "Uru... my spirit, took her."
"Hopefully some of your luck rubs off on me."Adam smiles, Haruka's romantic state not impeding his desires. "Pretty exciting, actually. Not as exciting as yesterday - but that was probably too exciting." He chuckles to himself. "Sounds like you need some spice in your life." Adam stops talking as Julia begins her lecture. He finds himself actually paying attention - ancient religions weren't something that would normally interest him, but with his dreams, he can't help but find them relevant. He listens in, wondering if there's anything that would mesh with his own 'memories' of being a priest of Horus.
"Hmm, I think I actually prefer my life to be rather boring, aside from the bedroom, of course." Haruka concludes before the lecture begins in earnest. "Don't take that as an invitation." ----- Spoiler: Perception Roll Julia 16+10(Cold Reading)-10(Exhaustion)=16 fail Adam 46=46 weak fail Adam notices that Haruka is paying especially close attention to the lecture as well. Most of the students listen attentively, despite Julia's seeming disinterest. Samir raises his hand, asking a question. "Do we know why the Zoroastrians phased out the incest? I don't know any other major religions which openly encouraged it, so was it because of the obvious problems or something else like exposure to other cultures?"
"I'm surprised you so willing to forgive her. I sure as hell wouldn't if I was you." Michio gives Felicia a concerned look. "What do you mean 'your spirit took her?' What the fuck happened?"
"I'm not forgiving her. I just... came to realize how dangerous shadow games are. I mean, loom at Dinah. When we first met, she was trying to capture us. And now, she's obediently doing as we ask." Felicia replied, pointing out how Dinah's attitude had also undergone a complete turn. But as Michio asks about Carley, "I don't exactly know what happened. But you know, when we finished... doing it. She disappeared, and I could feel our bond get cut. As if she's no longer in this world... or at least her soul isn't."
"I'll do my best." Adam smirks, not pressing the subject. His enthusiasm dims as he observes Julia, however, concern clouding his face as he sees how haggardly she seems to be, as she fights exhaustion. For now, he simply pays attention to class, making a mental note to check up on her later and make sure she's alright.
"I am more than aware of how dangerous they are, Felicia. I lost one, remember?" Michio stares daggers at the other girl. "I can't tell if Angel's genuine or not. I'll reserve judgment." "Hold on, you actually fucked her?" The eyepatched student leans forward, surprised. "And then she just vanished? You sure you didn't get drugged or some shit? I need details."
"That's... true, but that should also show just how much a person's true self can change. I'm not saying to trust Angelica, just that maybe... she's just also a victim in all this?" Felicia replied, not cowering one bit against Michio's glare. But as the topic switched back to Carley. "U-ugh... n-not here. We still have class." She whispered, her cheeks turning red as she looks toward Yumi, wondering what the professor was doing to prepare for her lessons.
"The most likely situation is if it wasn't a common practice it likely struggled more as a tradition in the face of the rise of newer more popular religions for the time. The other major religion of the Sasanian Empire was Manichaeism which considered it more of a core practice. Manichaesim we'll cover later, but despite not many people even knowing it ever existed now, used to be the chief rival to Christianity's spread to the East. The rise popularity of with Islam eventually faded the faith out, but it was more popular in the east while Zoroastrianism was more accepted in the west, but both were far more popular than you would think. The Manichest's influence from the third and seventh century, dragged all the way from Rome and deep into China. While it was claimed to have died out in the fourteenth century, it's been observed that in some provinces of China, it's traditions haven't entirely left. Today, it's counterpart in Zorastrinaism while not by any means the height it was once was, hasn't entirely left, with somewhere in the range of two to three million believers, worldwide. In terms of total population, it's very low. But it does show that that ideas are a very difficult thing to fully extinguish. To your question, it's unlikely even if they believed they really could have forcefully purged the practice out entirely," Julia did at least enjoy having some people invested enough to ask questions despite her weariness. "If you go by the surviving texts of the era, Xwedodah was encouraged by the priestdom that supported as the most pious possible action, more than feeding the poor or giving to the church.....it's only my own view, but if you read between the lines, it's easy to see where the line was drawn in letting them have their fantasy. It ultimately did little but to satisfy the urges of the magi and it's supporters without either helping it's citizens enough to keep their popularity or...at least, giving enough to the higher ranking priesthood to allow it. Support was strongest at it's introduction and remained relatively high into the sixth century, but spent more time as something to be condemned or debated than dominating the doctrine. For the most part, Zorastrinaism's sexual beliefs aren't actually anything you wouldn't expect from a religion at it's time. No premartial sex, the goal is to get women pregnant so no other positions.....boring stuff. But for the most part, it was a fairly contested practice even among it's faithful and new religions trying to create hooks into the Middle East, didn't want to associate any practices that were viewed from the product of pagan religions. " Julia took a breath. She felt a migraine, but did her best to carry on with the lecture well enough.
"Sure." Michio accedes regarding Angelica, but she doesn't drop the other subject. "Please," she scoffs. "It'll just be a syllabus like all the others today. Out with it. This is fucking important." The brash girl demands. Spoiler: Perception Roll 74+20(Perceptive)=94 strong success Glancing at the professor, Felicia notices that Yumi's arm is moving sort of oddly behind the lectern. The white-haired woman is looking down at the surface of the podium. More accurately, her phone resting there. She seems to having a little difficulty keeping her expression straight too. Taken all together, the student gets the impression that Yumi is touching herself, but Felicia can't be sure from her distant viewpoint at the back of the room.
@Tjf Adam's phone buzzes in his pocket. "Yet the Abrahamic religions kept the idea of 'holy matrimony,' as you put it. Odd." Samir notes thoughtfully. "Especially when considering the prevalence and importance of incest in the Torah." "Do you mean that Xwedodah was essentially a privilege afforded to the magi and other leaders in order to reinforce social classes? To make the magi feel more empowered?" Haruka asks, trying to clarify her understanding. Glancing at the clock, Julia sees that the class will soon draw to an end.
Julia was a little surprised to hear Samir's comments. From seeing him duel, she hadn't really expected it, but he was surprisingly knowledgeable about cultures. Julia felt a little more focused with Haruka asking questions. She still wasn't sure how to feel about her yet or really fallen off the radar yet, but as a student, she was pretty good. "It wasn't restricted exclusively to them, but this does seem to be suggested as how it was viewed by critics of the faith in the empire and outside influences. There's obviously no shortage of examples of people using religion as a shield for their own actions, even today. But even with it's origins, the concept of spiritual unity, has been absorbed by almost all major religions in some shape or form. They didn't all absorb it from Persian practices, but obviously many cultures have views for something similar in uniting spirits of people. The Egyptians for instance, had a concept of spiritual entities residing in the souls of people. Basically a part of person's self that existed and through extensive ritual rites, to ensure it would remain united with oneself, even after they were gone. Gnosticism would refer to it as the divine spark inside of every human being. All of them had their own stand points of how to bring this sense of being into harmony. Divine marriage....in a certain light, is essentially a joining of two souls. There's many, many, ways the concept existed in some form or another, but the general idea behind most religions is obviously spiritual unity." Julia could see the class was ready to let out and slumped a slight bit after talking. "But we'll cover more into the concepts of the soul in religions another time. Luckily for all of you, no coursework for the first day. But I will tell you all now. You do have a entire semester to prepare for your mid-term, and I will suspect a full semester's worth of studying done when it comes."
"Well, it was lovely to meet you, Haruka." Adam gives the girl a smile, before waiting for other students to filter out of the room. Once the class is empty, Adam opens his phone and checks the message he received, before moving to talk to Julia. @Arachna "Hey, you okay?" He asks, concerned. "You look like you're about to fall over."
