Kah’lad reached the scene. The crate was on the ground and had spilled some of it’s contents. Everyone was standing except for one girl who was sitting slightly dazed on the ground. She looked as though she had tripped on something. “Are you alright?” asked Kah’lad, extending a hand to help her up. He was somewhat confused as the crate had no obvious lifting equipment on it. Nonetheless, he continued to ask, “Do you need any help with your…err…crate?”
“Surely she couldn’t have lifted that on her own!” thought Kah’lad, still extending an arm while staring at the crate.
Leg subsystem damaged. Repair suggested at feeding time. No critical damages. Rebooting Hive connections…
Noi opened her eyes and looked up.
“Oww… What the Fark…”
She stood up and swore at the repacking shed have to do with the crate. slightly audible noises could be heard as she moved her body parts. The sun gleamed off her metalic legs. Her right arm was a stange mesh of carbon fibers and something not quite identifiable. Her head… She had most of it intace, with the exception of her pupils. Wheras most Neko/Nekomimis have the natural slit, her’s were rounded…
Noi blinked. “Nei? Jill? HEY! Never thought I’d see you again after the hell that happened last year. That and the war…”
She noticed the Krech military student standing off to one side.
“Well kitten, what do you think of the new design? The seige of Roi was enough to take out a few body parts.”
She stuck here tounge out at Jill.
“We gonna be bunking again this year? Cause SOMONE is gonna be suprised when they see the crate… Which is now dispesed on the ground somewhat.”
Noi bent over and lifted what remained of the crate off the ground, and set it upright.
Karen reached the crate just after the young man who had been calling out earlier did. As she reached his side, she stopped dead. " Neko, but highly modified. It must have been the war. "she murmered to herself. Seeing as the Neko was ignoring the young man’s proffered hand, she offered her own saying, “Hi, Karen Alexander. I think the Packilvanian on the ground is OK, and she seems to know Jill and Nei, the two others over there. Did you find what you were looking for?”
Feeling slightly annoyed at being ignored, Kah’lad looked on in surprise at the Pax girl’s modifications, especially her arm.
“Umm…excuse me…your arm…it…”
Kah’lad seemed slightly perturbed. There was something about cybernetic parts that scared him…not because of what they were…it was something deeper than simple fear…
“…Is it…err…supposed to be like tha…?”
Kah’lad cut himself short. He was worried about causing offence…his friends told him horror stories about the Pax and he didn’t want to upset one of them.
“Urrm…I’m sorry…I didn’t mean any offence…”
He turned to the girl who appeared beside him.
“Umm…yes I did…”
He realised his ignorance and shook Karen’s hand vigorously.
“Oh, forgive me for my rudiness. Kah’lad. Yes, I did find the administration building…oh crap…I better head back there! I left my papers!”
Kah’lad turned around and ran off back towards the admin building.
Nei frowns, “well, unless you are waterproofed we cannot have group baths anymore, , , speaking of which, I probably stink right now as I have not had access to facilities and am feeling less than dainty, Im gonna go commondeere the hot springs,”, she turns to the others and motions to Anna, “come on guys, the spring here is natural hotspring too, and should feel lovely today”
A natural hotspring sounded good. Everything felt just that little bit too cold, really. Anna was still staring, for what was probably a bit too long, at the part-machine girl who had dropped the crate. She broke off and turned to Nei. “That sounds wonderful. You can always wrap her” -gesturing to Noi- “in a big plastic bag.”
Aleksandr grabbed his bags and walked to the administrative building, where he acquired the proper information regarding his room and schedule. He passed a dark-skinned student from Dannistaan, who seemed to be muttering to himself in a native tongue.
He proceeded to his room on the fourth floor. The building seemed more plush than most apartments and dormitories in Krechzianko - housing there was meant to be functional, not attractive. He entered his room, and began to add a few decorations: a bust of Lenin on the bedstand, and his officer’s commission on the wall (it was signed by Comrade Kastrinovich himself). Aleksandr laid his uniforms and suits on the bed while his Navy porters hung the final touch - the famed Alberto Korda photograph of Ernesto Guevara, emblazoned with the phrase ‘Hasta la Victoria Siempre’.
ooc: if anything I say doesn’t fit in with the Academy, please inform me.
“Yea, I think we’re bunking again.” Jill said, happy to see Noi. “As for the war…well, FPS got its rioting, and I got this during that.” Pulling up her sleeve, Jill exposed an inch long, couple centimeter wide scar just below her shoulder. “But besides that, my life wasn’t changed much.”
As the two military men ran off, Jill smiled. “Cute, aren’t they…and I’d love to tag along with ya, Nei.” She took a breath. “And I think wrapping Noi in a plastic bag would kill her…”
Nei kinda frowns, “I didnt get any cool scars, I just spent the summer out roaming around the country, considered going home and all but perhaps we can do that for winter break”
she looks at her hands, “lets all go get tucked in and visit the baths, Im ready as ever”.
Jarod: “Huh. Looks like we missed a lot Oswald. Guess that out break on the Ganymede colony took up more of our Galilean vaction than we thought.” Adjusts his barrett. “Anyway, we’ll join you girls later. I have to meet up with a few Guardians. Apparently the PAGANs have a foothold here. :pff: Over my dead body!”
Having been assigned a room, Kah’lad headed to it. For some reason, the sight of cybernetically enhanced people seemed to unsettle him. Is it just that the neko was Packilvanian? “No…it’s something else…something more than that…” he said to himself. He was so engrossed in his own thoughts that he failed to notice the Krech officer going past him. He stood for a few moments muttering an old Dannistrian incantation. Still murmuring the verses, he entered the main building and called the lift to the fourth floor.
OOC: Being British, I (And by extension Kah’lad) refer to the elevator as a lift. Apologies if anyone gets confused by any British terms I use. Also, italics mark OOC text, Dannistrian thoughts and speech. Plain text is English unless stated otherwise.
He exited the lift and made his way to his room. It was fairly large compared to the Dannistrian dormitories we was used to in the military bases. Because of his, so-called special circumstances i.e. his religion and his culture, he had to be assigned to a seperate room on his own.
OOC: Apologies to Loop if this isn’t normal. I read the last Shiro Academy post and noticed some sharing of rooms. I’ll change things here if it causes too many problems.
He sighed and started taking clothes out from his holdall and backpack. He also took out a small ornate shrine to Hal’voh, Dannistaan’s main deity. Sitting down on the floor, he started praying and meditating to it, chanting out another old Dannistrian incantation…
OOC Note: Nekomimi are small and from the Loop territories. Neko are larger, more agressive cousins of them. Neko went extinct long ago <current theory> and Pax genetice engineering brought what might be a resembling species out of the Nekomimi. And mimi is a derogatory statement about Nekomimi in all cultures except the Pax.
Nei and the girls had all walked toward the building as the old Imatronian Jeep pulled up to the parking lot, and the young man got out, he was wearing a standard school style uniform for a IL highschool, and towing a footlocker, he approached Jarrod and Owsald and said, “Greetings comrades, My name is Hikaru, Hikaru Motenai”
[ooc] Danni, sure it s is ok, also Imatron, I went ahead with the cloning project idea you started, and this is the result, a 14 year old Hikaru,
Karen walked back towards the field where she had left her stuff. Time to hit the Administration Building, find a room, and pick up a schedule if they were handing them out this early.
OOC: Any particular floor I should be heading for in terms of room assignments, or does it matter?
“446, 447, 448. Got it.” Anna pocketed the directions, opened the door and peeked inside. The room was obviously designed for three, but was empty for now. This isn’t that bad of a sign, it is a bit early after all, most of the students aren’t here. I must be one of the first people up here. She cracked open her pack, and neatly hung up the sets of clothes on some particularly low-lying hooks in the tiny closet, then tossed the pack into the closet and shut the door on it and all but one of its contents, the only ornament in the room.
Kandarin had grown from a warrior culture, and with it had evolved some pretty strange traditions. In particular, when cadets left for school, their families always sent with them a glass statue of some particularly fearsome animal, as a sort of talisman and a reminder of home. Breaking one was supposed to bring bad luck. The little figurine Anna unwrapped and placed on top of the room’s small desk was a green glass jewel spider, the aboveground’s top predator, with beady little red eyes. I hope whoever comes in here is a bit more creative. I suspect even the NSU guys have better decorated rooms!
“OK…OK…OK…what else do I have to do?” Kah’lad thought to himself as he finished his prayers. He looked around his room. Switching on the lights made it seem more spacious. “Rather unfortunate that I’ll have to spend my whole time here alone in this room. I thought that my people might’ve progressed far enough to accept that room sharing is a part of modern day life…ah well, such is life as a Dannistrian…” Kah’lad muttered as he removed more belongings from his bag. The little shrine/trinket box was placed aside on the bedside table. The backpack remained beside his bed and the holdall ended up in the closet. “Now then. What do I do with the second bed?” Kah’lad thought. Maybe alternate between the two? Hmmm…man, why couldn’t they just provide a partitioning screen? Kah’lad sat down on the bed and looked at his handiwork. The room now had a small Dannistrian rug in the middle of the floor. The wall now had two anime themed wallscrolls on it, and the table had the small Hal’voh shrine on it. Pretty much like at home… thought Kah’lad, “Ah! Home…”
He reached into his left pocket and brought out the silver pocketwatch. It ticked away while he read the inscription once again.
“To my dearest little brother…”
He put it away again. He received it on his 14th birthday. He was now approaching 18. It will be the first time he is away at the time of his birthday. He wondered if his sister was still OK. Kah’lad took out the wallet from his right pocket. In it was money in various different East Pacific currencies, a few credit and debit cards, his passcard/ID badge for the Royal Dannistrian Army (Security level 10) and several laminated photographs. The one he first pulled out was of him at 14 and a white woman with brownish hair in her early twenties. He smiled at the sight of it. Kah’lad’s “sister” wasn’t really a family sibling. She was his legal guardian who was given responsibility of him after…that event. Kah’lad didn’t want to think about it and put the photo gingerly back into the wallet. She didn’t want to be called or even thought of as an adoptive mother. She prefered to be thought of as an older sister, for some reason. She seemed to have problems of her own but always found time for him. The next few photos were scenes from home. He was starting to feel a little homesick.
His thoughts were interrupted by a loud growling. He looked down on himself. “Oops…haven’t eaten since I left…better find some food…” He reached into his backpack and pulled out an MRE (Meal Ready to Eat, a form of military ration). “Ugh…MRE veggie stew…they could’ve at least given me the tomato flavour…” Kah’lad put the packet back into the bag. “Might as well go outside and ask if I can get some grub,” Kah’lad thought as he took everything of value out of his backpack and secured it. Then he walked out the room. The door number read “440”. Underneath was a handwritten piece of paper saying “Single Occupancy Only, by order of the Dean.” Standing in the corridor, he searched around for other students or staff in the hope of asking them for help…
Karen carted her stuff over to the Admin Buildings, picked up her room number and her schedule, and then, panting with her load, headed to the dorms. Building 3, room 446 she murmered to herself. Taking the elevator up, she found the room without any problem. Floor seems deserted. She quickly unpacked, threw her comforter on the bed, and put up a couple of posters of the Kangarawan mountains ranges close to Tasman. The requisite family photos were next, until finally, the only thing left was her zephyr pipes. After putting her cases on the top shelf of the closet, she closed her door, sat down on the bed, and quietly began to play the pipes - haunting melodies reminiscent of forests and fairies.
Nei growled as she drug the case down the hall, it was rather heavy, the rest of her stuff would be delivered later today, but the important stuff was stored in the dorm storage room and unfortunantly no one had been there to assist in teh carrying,
she scanned the doors, “447, there it is, same ol room”, she put her key in and opened the door and drug her case in, her bed still as she left it, even had the small square catnip pillow on the corner, “so that is where I left that thing”
she drags the case to the foot of the bed, and opens it up, she takes out her lappy and other trinkets, and begins arraging them on her desk, throws a few of the clothign items in the closet, and takes out her bath kit, quickly changing into her robe she grabs the bowl and assorted other items and walks to the inter room door, "light under the door, Taiya? "
she pounds on the door of room 448 and shouts “Hey Taiya, open up”