Shards: Intro- Part 1 (old)

Chapter One: Disembark

The whole audience, including me, immediately turned that down with a tsunami of Nays.

"Yeah me neither," said Lance as he smirked and threw a 12-page long manuscript behind him. "There, now we're a few minutes ahead of schedule!" The all-teen crowd whooped and laughed in approval. Soon, we were all chanting, "SPEECH, SPEECH, SPEECH!"

"Ok, ok, if you say so," Lance began with an enhanced tone in his voice.
"However, I won't make this too long. I know there are many of you graduates who want to embrace your families, your friends, or get your first job survey done. But I also can't dismiss you without saying a few words."

The man looked around the room and sighed. "This ship is my whole life. I know it isn't exactly The Sapphire of Alyria, but it's definitely something. I was a street-rat before I was assigned to this very vessel for my Endeavor 34 years ago. Just about 10 years later, who would have though I would be flying it? The decade leading up to that required countless working hours and patience; something I would never have achieved without completing what every single one of you just did." He pointed randomly throughout the crowd.

"I want your complete honesty. Raise your hand if you feel like this Endeavor didn't prepare you for your future."
I raised my hand right away, along with a few others. Some slowly followed, and when it seemed like nobody else would raise their hand, Lance began to look a little unimpressed. Over three quarters of the room didn't have raised hands.

"Ok, hands down. I won't get specific, but about 55,000 of you are lying, to me, and yourself."
Some in the audience seemed offended, and began audibly shrugging.
"Now, raise your hands if you believe you're ready to immediately commit to a backbreaking career, or perhaps a family the minute you disembark this vessel."
Nobody raised their hand, well, nobody who Lance took seriously.

The Captain leaned over the podium and spoke softly. "You aren't ready. My words aren't as they seem. 'Tis not meant as an insult, but a warning. Many of you who did raise your hand experienced hardship before coming here, hardship that has perhaps made you feel as if you have nothing to go back to. Well maybe some of you don't, but everyone in this room definitely have something to look forward to."

"In the Outside World, nothing is fair. The people living there have to make the best of the life they are born into. And like here, nobody is born into the same life. That's why here: you all get an equal second chance. A new start. A rite of passage. Whatever you want to call it, it may not the end of your troubles, but it's the beginning of your future. Be prepared to struggle in order to pursue a self-sustained life, because it's out of our hands now. Billions of people before you have walked through the same threshold you're about to walk through. Whether you're Human, Magus, from the North, South, East or West, you have all successfully completed the beginning of the of your second life."

"Cherish the moment you're about to experience. Oh, and be sure to file for a kickstarter at the nearest survey office, and they'll ensure you are given sufficient recommendations for a career based on your performance at Hyperborea. It's very important that you do this before the next expedition ends, or you won't get one."

Lance wiped a little sweat off his brow. "Now, that sounded a little out-of-place, but it's important that you know that this whole Endeavor will have been for nothing if you don't file for a kickstarter. That's a leading cause of failure at the Academies. Understand?"
The audience answered in confirmation.

Kickstarters are emphasized to be important for every newly graduated student. They seriously increase your chances of finding a good career. Not getting one not only signifies negligence, but also makes it harder for you to even find a decent job. That's one of the worst things you could do according to the headmasters.