Realistic or Modern Mission: Operation Snowglobe!

[Gus]

Operation: Snowglobe


It is a cold winter morning. Cold for Baltimore anyway. Sparrow's point is especially cold for being right on the water. A damp cold that settles into the bones. Perhaps the students are too young to notice, but many on the faculty definitely do. Joints aching with the approaching storm, the aging heroes, their glory days long past, have dragged themselves into work for Saturday lessons.


Some of them anyway.


Given the weather forecast, and the rhinovirus making the rounds, along with the fact that three days ago a staff member attempted to murder three students in a fit of pique, a fair number of staff may have opted to stay in bed today. Students as well. But a few brave souls have arrived to grapple with what it means to be a super. In case they needed any reminder of the consequences of laxity, they have to come in the side entrance on the north side of the building; the front entrance is closed for “Renovations” The political powers classroom is closed off until further notice from Director Swan, and just as well: Denzil DeKlerk is still out of the country with a family emergency.


You ask for a bright side?


...well... at least the weather is keeping the press away?


@Teh Frixz @KingHink @ViAdvena @Bag o Fruit @Lioness075 @Necessity4Fun [SIZE= 14px] [/SIZE]@Manic Muse 


 



@That Guy Leopold

 

[Gus]

Aaron and Penny


9:32 AM


[SIZE= 14.666666666666666px]Aaron didn’t really feel the cold, but it was pleasant to relax a bit as he entered the clinic. It was still about half an hour until Saturday classes were starting; he had come in early expressly to visit his new favorite student. Well. Favorite is maybe the wrong word. Not supposed to choose favorites. But he felt bad that he had been here two weeks and hadn’t known she was even here. She didn’t have a publicly accessible file. Once she’d sent out the viral video that saved Danny though, he’d started digging. Metaphorically. She wasn’t too hard to find, once he knew what to look for. He tracked the entrance to her chamber in the sub basement with a geiger counter. It wasn’t listed in the school blueprints, but a power like Penny’s was nearly as hard to hide as his own.  He double checked the filters and film badge, and put on the rebreather mask, then cycled the outer door. He tapped on the inner window and waved hello, squinting against the glare from the airlock lighting. [/SIZE]


[SIZE= 14.666666666666666px]“Morning Penny!” [/SIZE][SIZE= 14.666666666666666px]he chirped into the intercom. [/SIZE][SIZE= 14.666666666666666px]“Mind if I come in?”[/SIZE]


[SIZE= 14.666666666666666px]There was no response, aside from the soft incessant chiming of the security systems warning him not to proceed further unless properly protected. The exterior window of the airlock itself was rather dusty but it seemed that there had been some recent modifications made. A large yellow button without the usual warning labels stood out. [/SIZE]


[SIZE= 14.666666666666666px]Inside, Penelope slept without a care in the world. Having grown up without any threat or motivation to wake up on a particular schedule had caused her to ‘evolve’ to sleep basically wherever she fell. Be it at her desk, couch, the rare time she actually was in her bed, the floor on a pile of soiled laundry, anywhere. On this particular day, Penny was currently sleeping half on her couch, half on her floor. Legs hooked onto the couch cushions, back solidly on the floor and her phone glued to her face by a combination of cheese dust and drool. Didn’t help she was half dressed either, legs conspicuously bare except for mismatched socks, some black booty shorts she ordered like five years ago, and a highlighter orange shirt. [/SIZE]


[SIZE= 14.666666666666666px]Not the kind of attire one wore when regularly anticipating visitors. After a few moments, Aaron got his response, a loud rattling snore. [/SIZE]


[SIZE= 14.666666666666666px] [/SIZE]


[SIZE= 14.666666666666666px]Aaron chuckled quietly and thumbed the door chime, then keyed the intercom again. [/SIZE]


[SIZE= 14.666666666666666px]“Up and at ‘em tiger! It’s already 20 to ten! You don’t want to miss the antics of your fellow students on the security cams do you? Trolling needs context, and context requires attention to detail… C’mon, get up!”[/SIZE]


[SIZE= 14.666666666666666px]The door chime, installed by the stupid robot, was not just a simple chime. It was a god damn awooga horn. Installed under the guise of ‘We need a way to alert Penny in case of an emergency’, the chime had been her bane at 108 since moving here. With Aaron’s pressing of the button, Penny flings her head up. Launching her phone into her couch to be lost in the crack, she lurches up. Stumbling forward and covering her ears, she flicks off the general direction of the airlock. The only thing on her mind is killing that robot forever. She coughs and grumbles before reaching the door. [/SIZE]


[SIZE= 14.666666666666666px]Her fingers hit her end of the intercom. [/SIZE][SIZE= 14.666666666666666px]“Don’t touch that button again…..”[/SIZE][SIZE= 14.666666666666666px] Rubbing her eyes and doing her best to focus, she peers out the window. Wasn’t Larry. Which meant a visitor that could probably die. Her attitude changes slightly as she voices her concerns. [/SIZE][SIZE= 14.666666666666666px]“What do you want? Fuck you for waking me up like that” [/SIZE]


[SIZE= 14.666666666666666px]“Good morning to you too, sunshine. It’s me, Mr. Mallory. Just stopping by on my way to Saturday class, see how you’re doing and if you need anything. Thought you might like to know I visited Danny yesterday, and while he may not be back to 108 anytime soon, he is well on the way to a full recovery. Thanks to you, tiger.”[/SIZE]


[SIZE= 14.666666666666666px]Penny rolls her eyes, pushing her hair out of her face to make the gesture visible. [/SIZE][SIZE= 14.666666666666666px]“Yeah well, if anyone should be killing the annoying I'm uncultured it’ll be me. Not some nazi fart doctor.”[/SIZE][SIZE= 14.666666666666666px] She pushes a few piles of laundry out of the way and unlocks the door on her side. The locking system for her ‘chamber’ was heavily secured and had locks going both in and out. She didn’t keep her doors locked often but after talking with Aaron a few times it became obvious that some people could waltz right on in here. An exciting idea for her but it worried her that someone could just come in and take her out from behind the shielding. [/SIZE][SIZE= 14.666666666666666px]“Come on in if you want, I’m going to eat something.” [/SIZE][SIZE= 14.666666666666666px]She picks at her teeth, flicking the scudge off her finger and into the room before wandering off into her kitchen. [/SIZE]


[SIZE= 14.666666666666666px]Aaron waited for the airlock to finish its cycle and then popped the door seal. [/SIZE]


[SIZE= 14.666666666666666px]“I brought a calzone from that place down the street if you like, still warm.  But you can put it in the fridge for later. Kind of an odd thing for breakfast, I hear, but to each his or her own. I don’t actually eat. Used to drink coffee, but I recently gave it up.” [/SIZE]


[SIZE= 14.666666666666666px]He set the bag on the side table, and sat down in the sturdy visitor’s chair he had brought down with him for his second visit on Thursday. He reset the pegs in the cribbage board and started to shuffle the deck of cards. [/SIZE]


[SIZE= 14.666666666666666px]“Care for a quick game? I expect there will be a late start for classes today, given the incoming weather.”[/SIZE]


[SIZE= 14.666666666666666px]Wandering back out, Penny eyes the treat. Even with the proliferation of food delivery, most of her messages out to Jimmy Johns and pizza places had been a bit vague. AEGIS 108, basement. Not the best directions. [/SIZE][SIZE= 14.666666666666666px]“You know you ruin everything you bring me down here right?” [/SIZE][SIZE= 14.666666666666666px]Penny tosses aside the bag of chips she was going to have in favor of the pizza taco. Hit the needle on the head, her stomach rumbled appreciatively about the meal to come. She scoops up the container, going in on the calzone without fork. It was still hot on the inside, burning her a bit but that was something you got used to on a diet of microwaved food. Speaking with food in her mouth, she sits down opposite Aaron, balancing her food on her knee. [/SIZE]


[SIZE= 14.666666666666666px]“How quick? I know you cheat at this stupid game. Something to with black holes sucking the life out of everything. Or is it you suck black holes? I forget sometimes”[/SIZE][SIZE= 14.666666666666666px] So far everything she’d done with Aaron was still so innocent. Games, light chatting, gossip. It was particularly wholesome and for some reason he wasn’t responding back to her verbal barbs. After the third visit down, she had to admit there was a little suspicion growing.[/SIZE]


[SIZE= 14.666666666666666px]“How would I cheat? It’s just mathematics, tiger. Even black holes have to obey [/SIZE][SIZE= 14.666666666666666px]those[/SIZE][SIZE= 14.666666666666666px] rules. You get to cut the deck, and it isn’t like I have the manual dexterity to do any hinky shuffling. We could play something else if you’d rather though. I used to be pretty good at ‘Quake’ back in the day. And having thumbs that don’t weigh millions of tons gives you a [/SIZE][SIZE= 14.666666666666666px]distinct[/SIZE][SIZE= 14.666666666666666px] advantage on consoles.”[/SIZE]


[SIZE= 14.666666666666666px]Aaron smiles inwardly at her attempts to get his goat. Little does she know he doesn’t have a goat. He chuckles aloud at his own stupid mental joke. If he is honest, he is glad of her company. Other than staff poker night, he doesn’t socialize much. And as a fellow recluse, even if his own is self imposed while hers is enforced, he feels a kinship with this kid. She’s all right, deep down. Probably. Sure does have a [/SIZE][SIZE= 14.666666666666666px]lot[/SIZE][SIZE= 14.666666666666666px] of surface layers of angry teen though![/SIZE]


[SIZE= 14.666666666666666px]“Quake. Fuck, how old are you?”[/SIZE][SIZE= 14.666666666666666px] She couldn’t have even got a game that old to run on anything, let alone claim to be good at it. [/SIZE][SIZE= 14.666666666666666px]“Let’s stay with your cards and pegs. I hear talk that the power is going to go out in Baltimore, don’t want to draw attention down here do we? You gonna cut classes?”[/SIZE][SIZE= 14.666666666666666px] Sauce from the calzone goes onto some of the cribbage pieces as she sets up, napkins were an oddity to her. The funniest thing was, despite her poor hygiene, she couldn’t stink. Most of the external bacteria unable to grow in her high radiation environment. She continue on after wiping her hands off on her shirt. [/SIZE][SIZE= 14.666666666666666px]“If you cut the freaks up there loose, I’ll probably be down here chilling. I hate these fake ‘outages’ they run. It gets kinda quiet down here...Did you bring any new movies?”[/SIZE][SIZE= 14.666666666666666px] She looks over at some of the bags he brought in excitedly. While it was easy to get new movies and unreleased cuts from her pirating sources, older more ‘pop’ culture friendly films and shows were hard to find online in digital formats. Aaron had been bringing some down from time to time, something that Penelope loved. [/SIZE]


[SIZE= 14.666666666666666px]“A few old movies actually. Older even than me, if you can believe it! Pulp Fiction, Schindler’s List, and Forest Gump. Be curious to see which one you like best. I’d peg you as a QT fan, to be honest, but you never really know people.”[/SIZE]


[SIZE= 14.666666666666666px]He offers the deck for a cut, and then deals them out six cards each, sets the deck down, peeks at his cards and pitches two. [/SIZE]


[SIZE= 14.666666666666666px]“Pick your cards, tiger! You might stand a better chance if you focus. But I’m betting this’ll be a good crib for me, whatever you pitch. C’mon, c’mon!  I’ve got 20 minutes, you can sort through the movies after I go teach. I’ll be back if nobody shows, but I doubt that to be honest… Everybody loves CD & Y, especially on a snow day!”[/SIZE]

 
​

 

[Necessity4Fun]

Kendrick Haywood
​

Location: Haywood's Household >> Somewhere in Baltimore
People Around: His parents, the household servants >> Ivor Bletcher >> Lady Fate (?)
Today's Toys: Ted (It was everything he had time to pack while on his parents watch...)

Fantastic Saturday, if I say so myself! Just, great!


"Very logical. A teacher just tried to kill a student 3 days ago and now, it's snowing more than ever...And it's SATURDAY. WHAT A WONDERFUL day to send your kid, that you LOVE, Oh so much, to a school that's basically in shambles, is it not?!"


That's what Kendrick wanted to say multiple times through the entire morning, but there was no way he could muster the courage to say an 'ah' against his parents orders. Yes, parents. Both of them to speak the truth...


Due to the already mentioned terrible weather, Rupert and Evengeline's 'compromises' had all been cancelled. 'Compromises', in quotation marks, because it was Saturday and it was very unlikely to be something work related. Nah, they were probably going to a dinner somewhere by themselves again, who needs their super kid to ruin their fun, am I right?
Needless to say, since they were staying against their will, the next item of the list for an 'enjoyable time home' could only be one. Send their son somewhere else, oh why not? Thus, alongside the servant who would usually wake up Kendrick at 7 AM, his mom also decided to show up, with the usual 'look at me, I'm such a good mother' tone of her voice:

"Good morning, Kendy~ You have AEGIS classes today, do you not? A Haywood wouldn't be late for such an important task now, would he?"


The boy was still a bit drowsy and failed to realize whose voice exactly was coming for beyond the door. He lazily glanced over the covers, the clock beside the bed not only displayed 7:05 AM, but also the lovely, lovely overall temperature of January 28th...Ugh, the bed was so warm...Maybe they wouldn't mind if he stayed just a bit more...

"Kendy! At least reply when I talk to you.", the voice seemed to grow impatient, "Don't you make me send someone inside you room, mister."

Alarmed by the sudden change in tone, Kendrick jumped out of the bed, "S-sorry Miss! I'm up now."


Wait, what? She was home, in a Saturday morning?? Wow, something was definitely strange in here...


The woman simply replied with a 'good' and moving away, let a maid take over the usual message of his breakfast time.


With a deep sigh, the teenager changed clothing, setting up for a shirt and tie, wool jacket and overcoat layer at the top, and two pants layer on the bottom, just to guarantee he wouldn't freeze to death outside. While opening up the gloves drawer, the boy glanced back to the bed and sighed again, if that woman was home, he couldn't even take Ted downstairs with him... Upon promising his teddy he would be back before he left for good, Kendrick left the bedroom, allowing the maid, who had been standing close by all this time, to enter and tidy his bed.


Stepping carefully, the boy headed downstairs. By the foot of the staircase, Petra had been waiting for him. At first, seeing her was extremely relieving, but recalling how they had agreed in not displaying their friendship when his parents were around, he quickly contained himself, barely sparing her another look. At his side of the table was a cup filled with English Breakfast Tea, and at the other side of the table was a man entertaining himself with the holographic newspaper that could be none other than his dad:

"I see you left that ludicrous hat upstairs.", he pointed up, not once closing the articles to make actual eye contact.

"Yes, sir. I was ordered to not use it in the house, or in public."

"Huh, So you do remember my orders, then?", the black haired man let out with sarcasm, stopping to take a sip of his own tea, "That's new."

Kendrick's gaze fell from his father, to the long dinner table in a desperate search for solace. He knew where this conversation was going, and he didn't want it to reach it's inevitable destination... Catching sight of the still unopened AEGIS envelope, lying right in the middle of the table, the teenager attempted to switch subjects:

"If I may ask... Are you not going to-"

"No. I don't need to.", Mr. Haywood interrupted his son, "I have already been updated by my multiple employees. There will be nothing in there I don't already know of."


Then the room fell into complete silence. That deep, unpleasant silence that always anticipated some type of rant, 80% of the times directed at him, or supers in general. Taking in consideration the events of the past weeks, it was very easy to stretch that probability to 100% in the current moment... Some of the servants took the sudden silence as a cue to serve the other plates, a hash brown, something with fruits and cheese and a bread cut up into roses that could be put up as decoration and it would fool everybody. Not chocolate in sight however, as expected.
As the boy ate, the tension in the room seemed to deepen itself, becoming more and more suffocating... Kendrick raised his head and looked at his dad again. He knew the answer, but still, he felt like neither of them would progress unless this question was made. And his father was certainly more comfortable with glancing through the hologram pages angrily, instead of saying anything:

"Is this about Wednesday? Are you still mad?"

With a thump on the table, the newspaper flicked out of existence, and for a short while the man's brown eyes stared straight at the teenager's, "Mad? Oh no Kendrick. No, I just have to deal with the fact my co-workers definitely know my son is a super now, of all times. No, definitely not mad.", Rupert Haywood took another sip of his tea before continuing, "With the mall attack and now the destruction of a bridge, people have grown concerned about...your kind. See, I may be persuasive enough to keep things a bay, but even the mightiest lion can get itself killed if the entire savannah decide to go against it, you know?", He leaned over the table, with a piercing, contemptuous look towards the boy, "What were you even thinking, revealing yourself like that? Showing off? Do you think the world is a joke for you to dwell in? I can guarantee you, it is not. It is a vicious creature ready to leap into it's unsuspecting prey's jugular. The Haywood's name mustn't become a prey for the dirty media to play with, do you understand me?"


"Y-yes, sir.", his son replied, at a loss at what to say. IF he even HAD the courage to dare say anything...

"Excellent.", the man got up from his chair indicating that this conversation was done, he no longer had any reason to stay at the table, "I'll tell Ivor to take you to Facility 108. Be ready and by the door at 8:50...", he turned away and took a step, but soon turned back, "And Kendrick? Try not to destroy anything outside of class this time, okay? Otherwise we'll be forced to put you someplace else where they'll actually teach..."



After this highlight of his morning, Kendrick, with whatever Saturday spirit he could have had utterly crushed, simply followed the instructions he had been given. Getting out of the house while those two were around was most certainly the better option to take anyway...


It didn't take long for anyone to realize why the Haywoods were strangely at home today. Just look at this weather!


First, it's so cold the boy was mourning the fact he had forgotten a scarf. Having yanked the collar and lapel of his overcoat up the most he could, Kendrick had managed to protect some of his neck, thought it looked absolutely awful. It was like he was some ominous and mysterious character from a movie, or perhaps some stupid kid trying to look cool... To endure this weather however, he would stand it, at least until they reached the AEGIS building.
Now, the second aspect of the weather was the snow lumps. Some places here and there had been snowed at overnight and since it was 9 AM on a Saturday, obviously no one had taken care of them. Actually, at some point, the car would simply not pass through the pile of white anymore...

"I can walk from here.", the boy announced, both sparing the driver's effort and anticipating some alone time.

The man gave Kendrick a nod and turned the car around. The teenager watched it distance itself for a bit and then pulled out his cellphone to check at the time, 9:20. Seeing as he still had half of the way to go, this time walking through snow, it was correct to say that he wouldn't arrive until at least, after 9:50. The boy sighed, his breath making clouds in the cold air before dissipating. Oh yeah, so much fun, walking through the snow. GPS doesn't seem like it's going to work as well, he'll have to follow the street signs...Oh look, there's already no phone signal! Ho, boy. It was everything he had wished for on this Saturday morning...


"Lady Fate, why do you seem to despise me so?", Kendrick asked the cold wintry air before setting motion to facility 108. Saturday classes, here I come.



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[The Oldest Blueberry]

"Larry" the Groundskeeper


Location: Facility 108 Courtyard -> Main office.


Mood: Frustrated.


With: No one.


The past few days had been so much more disastrous than any predictability program could've accounted for. Larry had only been on Facility 108's grounds for a mere six days, and there were already no less than $53,000 in damages to the facility alone. This is not including damage done to other locations, or any lawsuits that might come about, of which there would likely be many. If the damage alone wasn't bad enough, the $5,871.89 in supplies that Larry had to order, so that he could fix the damage done to the facility, were drastically behind schedule, and were more than likely not going to show up any time soon, due to the inclement weather. 


Then, there was Larry's "interview" with Avecca, which was about as successful as a lobotomy using an ice pick. Larry obtained next to no information about the Knights of Raguel, nor did he learn anything important about Avecca or her origins. It was noteworthy that her body appeared to start becoming unstable during the robot's visit, as the short little gremlin started to actually melt. The best course of action, Larry decided on his own, was to wait for her to melt entirely and scoop her contents into a bucket, save them, and have them analyzed by someone with the proper equipment. Larry was very tempted to speed up the process by just beating her to death, seeing how useless she was and in fact kept him occupied during the incident with Klaus, but Larry was told by Gergo himself that there were "bigger fish to catch." 


On the bright side, the Saturday classes would HOPEFULLY be far less destructive. Larry highly doubted many actually arriving. Of course Penny would be there, seeing as she couldn't really leave. Quickly checking the security feed, Larry noted that Aaron Mallory was, interestingly, way down in the depths there, talking to her. So there's one teacher, likely the only one that would bother to show up. Frankly, any teacher besides Red could show up, and things would be fine. Students, he had no idea. So many of them were capable of bringing destruction. Far too many. They needed better limiters.


Larry wished he could sigh. He could artificially replicate the noise all he wanted, but it would never have the same stress-removing effects. Running so many stress-relief programs did help, but even then, there was just too much to be stressed about. He decided to change his focus onto the courtyard, place his stress into something useful. So he took a heat shovel and got to work. Heat shovels were great, so much more effective than the primitive snow shovel. Took the same shape, and essentially was just a heated piece of plastic. Either way, it prevented the actual need to fling snow about. Just scoop and it melts away.


Completely ignoring all the ice he had just created as a byproduct, and further ignoring the fact that snow was still coming down, Larry decided that was as much was going to be done of that fruitless task, and returned inside.

 

[Lioness075]

Sam Casan
​

Location: Clinic --> Facility 108 Classrooms
​

Tagged: @Necessity4Fun (Kendrick)
​

Mood: C-Cold
​

 
​

After her painfully eventful first day at school with Hunter as her teacher, Sam had spent most of her recent time recovering. On the bright side, Urial was a brilliant doctor and had certainly does his job of fixing up her broken knuckles and getting the metal off the end of her tail without damaging it. While her hand was having some troubles with numbing here and there, it seemed to be healing remarkably fast. She had been warned before that the numbing would go away in time, as would the injury once it healed fully. She just couldn't be running around on all fours anytime soon, nor getting into any other fights. 


While finding it annoying, her dark blue cast covering her hand certainly helped prevent her hand from throbbing too much on a daily basis. The color choice also helped keep it from being too obvious unless seen up close. Sam wasn't overly fond of being viewed as weak in general, having a cast on her hand didn't help much.


As it were, she was content to simply attend her classes today and then get back to her warm room, where she could read a book in peace and much warmth. Attending classes was a nice break from doing the same thing everyday, though. As much as she loved reading, being cooped up inside all day would drive her stir crazy. Right now, she was halfway done with the latest Harry Potter book, which was more of a play than a book, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Now if only she could attend the movie in a theater without people being freaked out by her the entire time...and whispering...while giving her weird, disgusted, or even mortified expressions. 


Ten minutes or so into her normally short walk to the facility, Sam realized the snow was not relenting anytime soon and that her walk was going to take a bit longer than usual. Pulling up her fluffy North Face jacket closer to shield her neck from the wind, Sam hunched slightly and kept her gaze on the sidewalk before her. Only problem was, she couldn't see anyone in her path and she soon lightly bumped into someone. Stumbling backwards, and flailing a bit when one of her bipedal feet landed on black ice, Sam soon regained her balance before she fell.


"Sorry! I didn't s-see you. It's so cold out..."

 

[Gus]

Manami Hamasaki


Across the street from 108's main building a middle aged Japanese couple stood waiting in the winter twilight. Their breath steamed in the cold air, but if the chill of the day bothered them, they gave no outward sign. They had been watching the commotion outside the facility gates for some time now, but nobody had taken any notice of them. They stood apart, observing. Emergency service people bustled to and fro, setting up caution tape and ushering students from the building. Of the staff there was no sign. The couple did not appear to be tourists or reporters; they carried no cameras, and they were dressed in nondescript utilitarian clothing, undyed natural tone fabrics. Between them, and slightly behind, a third person sat on the ground in seiza, hidden in voluminous clothing, still as a statue.


One might receive the impression that the couple was shielding the smaller figure, but it would be difficult to say precisely what details indicated this. Something in their stance and posture perhaps? They seemed alert and watchful, like security personnel around a client: flanking rather than merely standing close. And yet, they lacked the cool professional demeanor of security, as if their protection was of a more personal nature. The three made a curious sight, or would have, if anyone had glanced their way, but nobody did. Facility 108 looked like a bomb had gone off. There was a huge hole in the main building, twisted mangled shipping containers across the street, and rubble strewn everywhere in between. The street was a swirling vortex of chaotic activity, and the tiny knot of humanity at the periphery of it might as well have been observing from behind one way glass for all the attention they had drawn from anyone. The couple took it all in with a faint expression of dismay. Whether the seated figure had been watching or not was hard to say; not enough of him (or her) could be seen to even indicate gender.


At last, as the light of the day faded to dark, and the boil of activity began to settle down, the woman spoke in a hushed voice, tinged with fear.


“Taihen daro ne, anata? Sochira wa gakko jya nai! Seishin-teki higo desu!”


The man was silent for a moment. His jaw clenched slightly and unclenched. He swallowed hard, and spoke equally softly, his voice almost breaking.


“Sho-ga nai, Makoto. Watashitachi wa, hitori-de, nani-o-shimasho ka?”


He turned slightly, glancing down at the third member of their little group. In a slightly louder voice, he said, “Manami. Dou?”


The seated figure shifted to standing in one fluid athletic motion, graceful, poised, and faintly martial in character. The hood of the “BALTIMORE” sweatshirt still obscured her face from view, but there were telltale signs of femininity in her figure and a youthful energy in her stance. She is as stock still on her feet as she was while seated, as if waiting for further instruction. The couple regarded her for a long moment, their eyes shiny with suppressed tears. At last, she spoke.


“Yatte mitai deshou ne, otoochan! Nakanaide, okaachan! Onegai. Hontou ni yatte mitai. Ano hito wa... watashi wa... onaji deshou ne? ”


●●●


Manami's eyes popped open, dark pools, like ink pots. The dream was already fading, but she has not forgotten the agreement she forged with her parents. Today will be her first day at “AEGIS.” They met with Sensei Swan on Thursday. He arranged for her to be tested yesterday. They told her she is a D3. She did not know what that meant, but it did not occur to her to ask. Surely, if it were important, somebody would have told her.


Today, she will go to building 108. She will meet other students. She will learn “Emotional Composure” from Sensei McNabb. Manami blinked twice, and sat up. She wondered if Sensei will be patient with her. She knows she is not a quick student, and of all the things she doesn't yet know, she is most unsure of how she should feel about things. It is especially hard to think without water passing through her gills. She stumbled out of bed and opened her cabin door. Stepped out on deck. It was still dark. Perhaps it was cold. Mother and Father were still in bed. Feeling the need to clear her head, she called out.


“Ite kimasu!”


She leapt from the bow of the boat, cutting into an oncoming wave with barely a splash, and dove deeply. Slowly, the ocean unraveled the tangles her mind had knotted itself into overnight. As thoughts became easier to make, she turned them over, examining them in detail. Manami needed more guidance than mother and father can give. The teachers at building 108 could help her in ways that they can't. They must be very good teachers. The students blew up the school! And yet none were hurt. Amazing. Such discipline. Such care.


She dove deeper.


108 is an auspicious number, Papa said. 108 beads in a prayer necklace. 108 steps at a temple. 108 questions for the buddha. 108 chimes of the bell to welcome the new year. This school will be her lucky place. She will make a friend. She will learn to fight the oni, and be good all the time. She will find balance in her heart, between the sea and the land. She will find, and fight, for peace.


Manami closed her eyes, comforted by the water on her skin, and sleeps a bit longer, untroubled by dreams or doubts.


As the first faint rays of the dawn crept over the ocean, she awoke. At this depth, even the full light of day is muted, but Manami saw the distant glimmer, heard the motor of home on the move, and rose to meet both.


Dialog Translation:


Isn't it terrible, dear? That is not a school! It's a madhouse!


What else can we do Makoto? What shall we do, all on our own? What about it Manami?


Shouldn't we try it and see daddy? Mommy, don't cry! Please. Honestly, I want to try it. Those people... they're just like me, aren't they?


When leaving boat: Be back in a bit!

 

[ManicMuse]

Page Morgan
​

View attachment 223700​

@: @That Guy Leopold
​

Location: Ground zero in 108 > Front door of main building
​

 
​

Three days ago chaos had, once again, erupted in Facility 108. The concept of having a normal day of work was starting to fade. Today was no exception for Page. Despite Saturday being a scheduled day off for the Facility's newest secretary, she had been called in. Due to the ongoing investigation and repairs for the outdated shipyard, someone had to be on-site to assist the various parties that were coming and going. Apparently, the stupid new A.I. they had brought on as a grounds keeper did not qualify for the Commonwealth's legal team. Page had never been a real fan of robots. That left the lowest human staff member on the chain with the responsibility.


Considering this task had been dumped upon her, Page decided to rebel by not dressing up for work today. Instead, she changed into a pale cream zip up hoodie, white yoga pants and a sporty pair of bright red running shoes. Her hair was tossed into a half hazard pony-bun, as she disappeared out the door, at almost seven in the morning. While most people in the city were avoiding the outdoors, Page looked like she was ready for a leisurely walk.


Stepping out onto the street corner, just a half block from Brahn's Bakery, the fiery red hair placed a pair of wireless buds into her ears and taped on her watch to start up a play list labeled, "Be A Bad Ass." A jam of very outdated oldies started up. A song called, 'Lose Yourself', by a long since passed artist, Eminem started up. Page had recently stumbled upon his work. Sadly, the rapper had died in 2028 and never was able to complete his last album. 


Once the beat 'dropped' as it were, Page paused. Working to focus on her breathing, and the words of the song, as the snowflakes fluttered down from the gray skies. It started, a flicker at first, then full flames began to emerge from the red sneakers and dance in random faint tracing patterns around her form. Deep orange flames seemed to keep time with the beat, wrapping around her in warping patterns, like sounds waves. The heat of the flames at her feet melted away any trace of snow and ice. Now in the zone, Page took off at jog, toward facility 108, with little footprint puddles in her wake.






By nine in the morning, Page was ready for a coffee break. Some agent in a monkey suit, had Page sign off on some witness report before she was able to sneak away from the insurance team brought in to photograph and record the structural damage.


The gaping hole in the building had been sealed with thick sheets of plastic for the time being. Given the arctic temperatures, it had been the best solution to ensure that the heaters could be used to warm the rest of the school. Page had collected a cup of coffee from the teacher's lounge and was returning to the second floor when an audible ripping sound echoed from the hallway just ahead of her. A chilled gust of wind blast quickly followed.


Doubling her pace, Page returned to the disaster site, to find several men attempting to tame the whipping wall of plastic that had given into the gusting winds. The approaching storm had caused the protective casing to rip like wrapping paper on Christmas day. At this point Page started to panic, as icy gusts of wind began to mercilessly rush into the gaping hole. Watching one of the men knocked flat on his ass by the thrashing sheet of plastic, Page finally spoke up.


 "Look, I am not getting paid enough to fill out even more injury reports or witness statements. You all are just going to have to come back once we get this area sealed off again. For now, I have an active campus to think of and the students cannot be in a sub-zero school."


Everyone stopped their tasks and looked at her for moment, quite shocked by the normally passive woman's words.


Page could feel her cheeks turning as red as her hair. Getting flustered, she stomped her foot and barked, "I said, EVERYONE OUT AND SEAL UP THE DAMN DOORWAY! YOU'RE NOT FINISHING THIS TODAY!"


The team and their equipment filtered out of the room. Using the skeleton, of what once was a doorway for the room, they used duct tape and a fresh sheet of plastic to seal off the classroom. The agent grumbled to Page as they both stood off to the side watching the work, "You do realize that snow and wind is going to contaminate the scene. I will have to notify the Commonwealth that this happened because of you. It's your ass here."


Page was already in a sour mood and the fact that she was being threatened did not do much to improve anything. If she had had her way, she would have still been in bed. Flames licked at the edges of her eyelashes as she looked up to the man, who stood only a inch or two above her.

​

"With all due respect to you, sir. I do not care who you report it to. A man attempted to murder a child here three days ago. A few weeks ago, there were mass murders done in the name of destroying my kind to please some false god. I think enough nastiness has gone down over the last few weeks. I am currently in charge of this situation. And while I am sure your company would not mind getting a fat pay out on their secret life insurance policy that they have no doubt taken out on you, I for one, would like to avoid any injuries here today. Having you all standing on a slick floor next to a high ledge with whipping winds does not sound like a good idea to me. So unless any of you all have super regen powers, you will come back when the area is safe and secure."


Page had used that calm cold customer service voice, that she had gotten so good at over the years of working from home. After a forced smile, Page motioned toward the stairs for them all to go back downstairs. The dark haired man looked like he had just sucked on a lemon. Then surprisingly, he turned and nodded before heading off down the stairs with his crew following. Once they were all just out of sight, Page took a deep breath and wiped the pool of sweat that had collected on the back of her neck.


"Jesus, those self help books might be working," muttering under her breath, she sipped at her awful coffee before following them to ensure they made it off campus before classes started. While the crew began to file out the door, Page waved them a goodbye just as she saw Larry, the grounds keeper. Part of her wanted to just disappear into the office without a word but that would have been rude. She had already been a bad ass once today. Then again, it felt weird talking to the robot. 


After another sip of her coffee, Page offered a flat awkward greeting to the robot, "Hello....Larry." 


Yep, it felt weird.

 

[Necessity4Fun]

Kendrick Haywood
​

Location: Somewhere in Baltimore >> Facility 108
People Around: No one >> Blue furry girl
Interactions: @Lioness075
Today's Toys: Ted

Honestly, I should just start expecting the unexpected.


Though with some difficulty, the boy had been running/jumping through some piles of snow, forcing a bit to see if he would get at AEGIS in time. Seeing as his progress was really slow and nearly non-existent at parts however, all the estimates appointed towards being late, at least 10 minutes... Recapitulating, not only had him been pulled out of the house and 'thrown' into the cold and snowy weather, Kendrick wouldn't even be able to get there at 10 o'clock! Bloody hell, this better be worth it!


He could see the shipyard already... At least this meant he was getting close. The teenager stopped for a bit and surveyed his surroundings. No one in sight, good. Taking his backpack out, Kendrick opened it up briefly to get his conductor hat. He's not in public if there is no one, right? All the reasonable individuals certainly had preferred to stay home, with a warm cup of tea. With a sigh and a shrug, the boy shook the snow out of his hair and rested the black hat on top of his head. Now the snow couldn't bother him as much, brilliant!


Satisfied, the teenager put his backpack on again, and with a confident flick of his head-wear, got himself back into the task of walking. It didn't last long though, since soon someone bumped into him:

"Hey, careful back there!", the boy let out surprised and a bit annoyed, "You could have seriously hurt us bo-"


Kendrick had turned around to see the girl that had crashed into him, only to be taken aback and rendered mute, as he tried to figure out WHAT EXACTLY it was he was seeing... It was some kind of blue...uhhh thing? It had fur, the hind legs reminded him of a feline, and by tilting his head a bit, he was sure he could see a tail behind this individual. Now now, his mind wanted to scream 'demon', but even Kendrick was aware of how that could end up terribly. And it wasn't as he hadn't freaked people out too, a couple of his servants wouldn't dare enter his bedroom, afraid that the toys in the shelves were alive or something, he hadn't really bothered to ask the actual reason. The fact that some horror movies seemed to toggle at that possibility didn't help his case as well.


Anyway, after the hassle of Wednesday and his morning, Kendrick lacked any strength to be absolutely blunt about the subject. Instead, he burst out laughing. Not really at the person in front of him, but rather at this seemingly never-ending chain of weirdness that continued following his path. We all know Lady Fate is a trickster, but come on!


"Obviously, you're a lot more adjusted to this weather than I am...!", he commented still laughing, holding his stomach with one arm and blocking his mouth with the other hand closed.


Oh Lord, this was becoming quite the Saturday...



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[Gus]

@Necessity4Fun @Lioness075


Manami Hamasaki


Manami was conflicted. Usually, when she wasn't sure what to do, a swim would clear her head, and make the proper thing to do perfectly clear. She had been swimming more than an hour though, and was no closer to resolution. It seemed impossible. She wanted to attend school. Mother and father wanted that too. They were agreed. But Mother was sad when she said good-bye this morning. She had


cried and turned away. Father was sad too, but he didn't cry. He told her to do her best, and she said she would, and dove into the sea. She felt sad as she did. She still felt sad, and didn't know what to do about it.


Unlike mother and father, Manami couldn't cry; she lacked the necessary physiological features, but she wished very much that she could. But how could there be sadness when there was no conflict? Everyone wanted the same thing! This was outside of her experience, and even in the comforting embrace of the ocean, it was a riddle she could not solve.


She swam on.


After a while, she sensed the salinity of the water changing and she turned into the current, increasing her speed to compensate for the lazy push of the river. Yesterday night, before bed, she pored over the map of Baltimore with her parents. Today would be her first day traveling to the city alone; the incoming storm was forcing the boat to go further out to sea to avoid it. So she studied every bit of the map, even the streets of the city itself. Right now she was just entering the outflow of the river west of the school. The river name made her giggle: Pa! Ta! Pu! Su! Ko! Patapsco River. It sounded to her like a nonsense word. Reminiscent of 'Sudden Postbox' but not quite. It was hard to giggle under water, but she smiled a toothy smile.


She drew closer to the shore now, gliding along the silty bottom of the river, greatly magnifying the sense of her already exhilarating speed. She rocketed past the dry-docks, eight short piers and then three long ones. Next was the great lump of earth named the unpronounceably strange 'Lloyd point' which also made her bare her teeth in amusement. She rounded the point, passed one more pier, and erupted from the water onto the shore. Still amused, she tried rolling the foreign sounds around in her mouth.


“Ru ro yoi do poi n TO! Ruroyd pointu? Ryo- ru?”


She gave up the game and laughed, perhaps a bit giddy from the shift to breathing air. As she walked across to the street that would take her to school 'Railroad Avenue' she felt like skipping for joy. Her worries forgotten, she did, and sang a little song about the street she was skipping down.


“Re Yu Ro Do, A Be Nu! Re Yu Rooooo Do! A Be Nuuuu! RerodoAbenu! YaTA!”


She stopped. There was a boy on Railroad Avenue! And he was wearing a conductor hat, like a real railroad conductor from one of her story books! And he was laughing with a girl! A furry girl! With a tail! Manami shivered with excitement. Could they be students too? Please let them be students! New friends! So exciting!


But maybe they were just ordinary Americans, passing by? How could she know? She could ask...


Suddenly she felt shy. What if they were not students? What if they didn't understand her english? She wasn't sure of a lot besides 'Hello, My name is Manami, and Nice to meet you.' She was afraid they might not understand. But then she remembered her promise to her father, to do her best, and she felt brave again. She walked over to the pair and said in her very best english:


“Haro, mai nay-mu izu Manami. Naisu to meechu! Do yu go to-- anno... Hyaku-hachi?”


Translations:


Lloyd point. Lloyd point? Lllllyyo-?


Railroad avenue Railrooooad Avenuuuuue RailroadAvenue! Nailed it!


Hello, my name is Manami. Nice to meet you! Do you go to-- ummmmm… 108?

 

[Lioness075]

Samantha 'Sam' Casan
​

Location: Facility 108
​

Tagged: @Necessity4Fun (Kendrick), @Gus (Manami)
​

Mood: Annoyed, now amused
​

 
​

While Sam had gotten used to the usually disgusted or appalled reactions to her appearance, being blatantly made fun of was definitely the worst reaction she could get.


Growling at the irritating kid with his stupid hat, Sam took a step towards him, more than ready to shove him to the ground. If her appearance was such a big deal to him, maybe she could even trip him with her tail for emphasis. While his laughter may or may not have been directed at her, Sam definitely took it that way. 


Given she probably had all the time in the world to do so, Sam smirked and crossed her arms over her chest. Then while the boy continued laughing, she calmly took one more step towards him, getting her just close enough to weave her tail behind him and quickly pull it back towards herself. The result should be that her tail would slap the back of his knees and throw him off-balance...then likely end with him landing in the snow surrounding them.


Before she could really see the end result, though, someone seemingly appeared near the two and spoke in a manner that left Sam incredibly confused.


Looking away from the boy and staring at the new girl, who was covered in scales and notably some kind of amphibious being...or a fish-like being? Either way, Sam was already furrowing her brows and giving the girl a bit of a wide-eyed expression, but the garbled speech didn't help any.


"Uh, what?"

 

[Gus]

Aaron Mallory


Location: Clinic → main building


Nearby: Page Morgan, LARRY, a few students.


Mood: Lighthearted, but worried about that sky...


@s @Mini T-Rex Syndrome @Bag o Fruit @That Guy Leopold @Lioness075 @Necessity4Fun


Aaron shook his head, chuckling ruefully as he closed the outer airlock to Penny's quarters. She'd skunked him at cribbage! Luck, study, or had she just been toying with him the last two days? In any case, an unexpectedly entertaining game. He checked his phone. Two minutes before ten. Time to start thinking about the lesson plan for the day. Swan had not been sanguine about the idea of building demolition, though he had not forbidden it. Not exactly. It seemed less than appropriate in the immediate wake of nearly having destroyed the main building though. At this point there was no time for that anyway; Eve had the day off, and without her help he'd never get one built in time.


Maybe he could arrange a team up class with Allen. If he was here yet. Probably going to be shy of students today, what with the storm and the fallout from Wednesday. Danny was probably never coming back, and he probably wasn't the only one who'd stay away. He opened his texts and fired off a quick one to McNabb as he climbed the stairs.


Hey old timer! You here yet? Thinking we could merge classes today.


Maybe they could take advantage of the storm? Go outside and have a snowball fight or something? Mmm. No. Somebody could get hurt. Plus his weather app said the temperature was already below 10 degrees Fahrenheit and dropping. Oddly cold for Baltimore, even in January. He and Allen would be fine, but some of the kids might get frostbite. Hmm. Maybe Page would have some good ideas. Certainly might help to build some bridges to ask, at least.


He stepped outside, his breath steaming in the frigid air, and started toward the side entrance to the main building. Glancing to his right, he spotted a small knot of students up on Railroad Avenue, fooling around in the snow. He paused long enough to shout to them: “Hey you guys! Class time! Bring it in!”


He turned and headed into the building, passing several construction workers on their way out. Nodding hello, he held the door for them, and then entered the building when they had exited. Noting the faint odor of freshly singed carpet, he confirmed his suspicions that 108's fiery secretary was, indeed, in the house. Aaron smiled to imagine what sort of conversation had led to the abrupt departure of the construction crew. As he approached Page's office, he called out: “Ms. Morgan, you came in today?! Looks like weather is going to be wicked. Probably not too many students coming in. Any thoughts on good lessons for a skeleton crew on a wintry day?”

 

[Necessity4Fun]

Kendrick Haywood
​

Location: AEGIS Facility 108
People Around: Blue Furry girl and Manami.
Interactions: @Lioness075, @Gus
Today's Toys: Ted

Things seem to have gotten even weirder, but this time, also strangely enjoyable.


The blue furred girl growled at him, but Kendrick had been too busy laughing to pay it any kind of attention. That is, until she seemed to get closer, not only once, twice. An alarm went out on his head, this was making him extremely uncomfortable:


"Wow, wow, wow there! You're trespassing the private space here, we've barely met.", he complained, taking a couple steps and getting back out of the range of Sam's tail, thought he wasn't even aware of it, "I would certainly remember if we had ever crossed paths..."


He had been about to go on further about boundaries, but a newcomer had made their way to the pair. The boy had just opened his mouth when some kind of fish-person (?) decided to join them. In the spot Kendrick snorted, it was a remainder from the laughter from before, though missing the initial shock. Mentally thanking Lady Fate with a load of sarcasm, he stood quiet when it, that turned out to be a she spoke. Was that...Japanese? Yeah, it's lacking the weird intonations from Chinese and the phonemes sound a lot clearer. Definitely Japanese. Too bad he was absolutely inept when it came to language learning, knowing something could have been very helpful in this situation...
Despite the broken English, the girl's sentence had been polite, proper. It didn't matter whether her appearance made him recall old sci-fi movies, with alien races that 85 percent of the time planned to conquer planet Earth or not, it was against his principles to fail to respond equally:

"Nice too meet you too, Manami. I'm Kendrick Haywood.", he replied cordially, though still a bit disturbed by the whole...concept in front of him, "By the way, I have no idea what that end was... Couldn't decipher it. The closest I could think of is 'Hungry Haiti'. Sounds similar, but that would not match this conversation's context at all..."


Not long after he was done speaking to this new individual, Mr. Mallory called over to them to get inside the facility for class, before he went indoors. Kendrick had given the teacher a nod acknowledging his orders and soon reinforced the command to everyone else:

"Well, we all heard Mr. Mallory. In we go!", he had started setting motion for the building, but then he turned around back at Manami, "Do you... Do you even know where to go from here?", the boy asked. It was a very uncommon thing for him to do but, she just seemed...so confused... Leaving a person in the cold and snowy weather without any guidance, seemed way too cruel.



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[Bag o Fruit]

Allen McNabb//Lazarus


Mood: Hello!


Location: Railroad Avenue


@Gus@Necessity4Fun@Lioness075


A pristine, light blue tesla staggered down the road and screeched to a stop near Sam, Manami and Kendrick. All the windows rolled down at once. There was a borderline-audible "Drat...". A click. All the windows except one, opposite the students, rolled halfway up. A brief moment. All the windows rolled down. Allen's head poked out of the window closest the group. "Hello students! Would any of you like a ride? Err, can any of you drive?" He grinned, emotionlessly.

 

[Gus]

Manami Hamasaki


Manami was transported, beyond rapture. She was HAVING a CONVERSATION with AMERICANS! Admittedly she didn't understand much, if any, of what they were saying, but that detail bothered her not at all. The hard part was over. And the boy definitely said 'Nicetomeechu TOO!' which meant agreement. She resisted the urge to jump for joy, but only just barely. A call from the direction of the Hyaku-hachi building drew everyone's attention. Oh! A teacher!


Manami was just gathering herself for a full on sprint to the school when ANOTHER teacher stopped in his car nearby. She was not sure how she knew he was a teacher exactly. She just felt he had to be one. He had a kindly old face, and he smelled pleasantly of dead fish and sea birds. She bowed deeply to him and said


“Naisu to meechu, Sensei, ah--teecha. Mai nay-mu izu Manami. How do yu do? Anno... Whato izu teecha nay-mu?”


Translation note:


Nice to meet you sensei, I mean teacher. My name is Manami. How do you do. Ummmm... What is teacher's name?


@s: @Bag o Fruit @Necessity4Fun @Lioness075

 

[Teh Frixz]

Penelope


Watching the densest man alive, and also a living black hole, decontaminate himself and cycle out of the airlock, Penny doesn't bother waving goodbye. Impishly she does her best long hair impression and mimes flipping it over her shoulder as she waltzes away from the viewing port. Like she was too good for a peasant like him or something. Which was half true... 


Mulling over the concept of not wanting something until you couldn't have it, her sashay away from the airlock leads her over to her 'dining' table. Which for all intent and purpose had simply become a low, convienient shelf to throw her crap on. The Plastic bags full of movies Aaron had brought over all found themselves scattered around this table, with Penny now going through them. 


Settling on a movie about orange juice and fiction, Penny plops down on her couch, pulling up her phone and opening up some of the classroom cameras to see what Aaron had planned and how best she could interrupt it. 

 

[simj26]

Jamie Bishop


She flickered across the rooftops, claiming warmth from the vents that breathed out white vapour into the cold winter air. She tried, mostly, to keep herself out of sight from prying eyes. A figure that flitted across rooftops in the midst of a snowstorm was bound to attract some unwanted attention. Why did she care, though? She could do whatever she wanted. She didn’t hurt anyone. She just wanted to head on over to the facility as quickly as she could. That man’s voice, however, kept ringing in her head. Three days now, she had stayed away from the damned place, and yet, she just couldn’t get rid of his words. Maybe, it was just time for her to take some more extra steps to be more than what she was. She scowled, drawing her jacket closer around her, and vanished from the spot, reappearing at the junction that led into Facility 108, then vanished once more, only to rematerialise within the gates of 108.


Jamie Bishop dusted and shrugged the snow off her coat, looking about. The compound was devoid of people, besides a bunch of construction workers milling about. Odd. What happened here? Even if the weather was this bad, it surely wouldn’t lead to the whole place being this empty. Did something happen after she left the facility that day? What’s with the construction workers? 108 didn’t look like it needed renovations any time soon. Something whirred and click inside her head, and she brought a fist to her palm, grinded her teeth. She missed another goddamn adventure and a half.


But maybe it was for the best. What could she have done anyway? Jamie gave a sigh, her breath turning to condensed vapour in the cold. She watched it spiral away in the wind, wondering what she would do next. She was broken out of her reverie when she heard a familiar voice call out from near the main building. Mallory. She turned, and snapped into existence near the side entrance of the main building where she heard the voice, and only just managed to get a glimpse of, as far as she was concerned, the only teacher in this damn place, before he shut the door. Just a glimpse was enough. She took a step forwards and


fell in step with Aaron Mallory. She looked up at the man, and then found herself trailing off. What should she say? What could she say? ‘Thank you’ sounded weird. Why would she thank him? ‘Hello’ was far too informal. He wasn’t a friend. She searched her entire being for something, until at last, she finally blurted out four words.


“Good morning, Mr. Mallory.” was all she managed.


@Gus

 

[Gus]

Aaron Mallory


Location: 108 main building


Nearby: Page Morgan, LARRY, and would you look? Jamie Bishop!


Mood: Pleased as a plum in pudding. ...that's an expression, isn't it?


@s @Mini T-Rex Syndrome @simj22 @That Guy Leopold


OOC: See what I did there? Page is making up for missed time. And Jamie has been busy. Lars would be proud of the subtle 'verse crossing goodness...


The secretary did not immediately answer. She's probably crazy busy catching up on missed time, he supposed. Perhaps he'd leave her a note... As he turned to walk back to his classroom to find some paper and a pen, who should he almost collide with, but Jamie Bishop?! She looked a bit tongue tied, a state he was all too familiar with, never having quite felt at home in his own skin; even among other supers, he stood out. And not in a good way. The awkward way. He was finally, nearing his 44th birthday starting to own it, but he well remembered his teenage years. He shuddered to think of them. She essayed a hesitant, “Good Morning Mr. Mallory,” and he smiled broadly to hear her say it. She was way ahead of where he'd been at her age.


“Well hello there! Ms. Jamie Bishop, it is good to see you back again! I expect you've been busy, one thing and another... We had a spot of trouble after you left on Wednesday, though I expect you've seen the news... I was just going to find a pen, will you walk with me?”


He started down the hall for the stairs without looking back. In an effort to make her more comfortable, he forced himself to keep talking. “So between the reconstruction and the weather, I don't expect we'll have many students here today. Or staff for that matter. When I was little and it was too cold for outdoor recess, like today, teachers usually had us do boardgames or some such. Everybody went a little stir crazy. I was just considering what sort of games we could play that could plausibly teach useful lessons. Nothing so exciting as a deathtrap today, I'm afraid. Maybe Mr. McNabb will have some ideas about how to maintain emotional composure under stress. Perhaps Ms. Page could throw fireballs at us in the kitchen or something?” He chuckled at the thought as he began to climb the stairs. No doubt Page Morgan would happily toss a few at him merely for suggesting such a thing. “Anything spring to your mind, Jamie? Youth sometimes affords a creativity we old geezers lack...”

 

[Lioness075]

Samantha 'Sam' Casan
​

Location: Outside of Facility 108 --> Inside of Facility 108
​

Tagged: @Necessity4Fun (Kendrick), @Bag o Fruit (Allen), @Gus (Manami)
​

Mood: Irritated and now amused
​

Huffing at the boy, Sam replied, "Maybe you shouldn't make fun of someone next time you want your private space respected." She still assumed his laughter had been his way of mocking her.


Before the boy responded to her, Sam heard a car pull up to them and turned to face the car while it seemed to be malfunctioning. The windows rolled up and down before finally settling and a creepy man leaned out slightly before asking the 'kids' if they needed a ride.


With her fur standing up on end, Sam subconsciously took a few steps away from the car before muttering to anyone near her, "Who the hell is this creep?" After all, she was still relatively new here and she definitely hadn't met this man before. Was he commonly seen around here or maybe even a pedophile?


When someone joined the ever-growing little group, Sam turned away from the pedophile to reply, only to be absolutely baffled by the girl's broken English. And by broken, Sam meant she couldn't understand the girl at all.


Hearing the boy respond, Sam took note of the name that he seemed to be able to pluck out of her confusing language. She was definitely an Asian based on her appearance, if one ignored the gills and fish-like appearance, but Sam didn't know any Asian languages to understand which one specifically. Nor had she ever really hung out with any Asians while growing up in seclusion.


Now knowing the girl's name and realizing she should probably say something after the boy, Sam opened her mouth to do so, only to clam it shut when the girl excitedly shouted 'nice to meet you' in her ever-so-confusing mix of English and whatever else she was speaking. At least, Sam could understand that much.


While the girl ran off, ever so excited, Sam merely shrugged at the boy before following after him. A teacher did call out to them, identified as Mr. Mallory by the boy, and so Sam figured she could move along without having to interact too much more with these two and the pedo creeping on all of them.


Sighing once she was inside Facility 108, Sam moved away from the others gathered before dropping to all threes (she wasn't about to try standing on her injured hand just yet). Hoping she didn't weird anyone out too much, Sam then proceeded to shake herself dry like a dog, getting rid of the annoying snow clinging to her fur everywhere (though, some remained regardless).

 

[Necessity4Fun]

Kendrick Haywood
​

Location: AEGIS Facility 108
People Around: Blue Furry girl, Manami and Allen McNabb >> Just the last two.
Interactions: @Lioness075, @Bag o Fruit, @Gus
Today's Toys: Ted

I won't insist if you decide to not come but, I'm certain that Mr. McNabb is not a good influence for you...


"WHAT?! Making fun of you?!", Kendrick brought his right hand to the chest, clearly offended, "Oh no, miss. I can assure you mocking is NOT my style. It and all of it's synonyms are not even deemed worthy of being part of my vocabulary.", he concluded with a note of annoyance , "Ugh, I cannot believe you thought I was capable of stooping that low!"


He crossed his arms at that last sentence. The boy felt absolutely outraged! That was like putting him and hooligans like, Danny Travis on the same level! That thing with Isabella Chase was NOT ridiculing! It was...far worse than that to speak the truth... But he WOULD fix it...Somehow! When the time came...Right?


While caught up on recalling his awful behaviour from Wednesday, and several unsuitable options of redemption, the teenager almost missed a new voice in the background. Jerking his head towards the sound, he saw a beautiful and rather classy car standing near them. Too bad he couldn't say the same thing about the lovely colour the owner had picked... Moving his gaze from the vehicle to the man driving it, Kendrick saw Mr. McNabb poking his head from the window with that never ending grin of his. All that passed through the boy's head was 'Ah, that explains so much.', before the girl that had accused him earlier mumbled, asking who the man was in a rude manner:

"That 'creep' is the Emotional Composure teacher, Mr. Allen McNabb.", the young Haywood whispered back, not very happy about her choice of words, "And though he is indeed a strange individual, he certainly doesn't like profanity such as these you just spoke. And neither do I.", he mercilessly shared his thoughts. It was clear Kendrick was still bitter about her erroneous assumption.


Returning to his normal stance, the boy took his attention out of the furry girl and focused on Manami. The fish-girl hadn't responded to his offer, which to be honest, he should have expected. It was apparent her English was extremely limited, and with his ever-occurring use of unique wording, he hadn't made her experience any easier. Even some native English speakers had a hard time understanding him at occasions! Kendrick could only imagine how weird she might have felt, when he started throwing all of those 'alien' words at her. At least she didn't seem to mind it so much...
Following the cheerful girl's cue, the boy lowered his hat with a nod in respect to Mr. McNabb and proceed to greet him as well:


"Good Morning, sir. I think I'll pass the car ride this time. By a prank of Fate I had to walk quite the length to get here. Now that I'm nearly standing beside the facility, I might as well finish what I started", he shrugged, "If we ever meet in a similar situation however, I'd appreciate the gesture... Now, as for your second inquiry. No, I can't drive. Neither I need to. That's what we pay the drivers for, after all.", the teenager gave a sincere, harmless chuckle.


That's when he noticed the blue furred girl wasn't with them anymore, probably had followed Mr. Mallory's instructions and gone inside. He should do the same, BUT first, the Japanese student. It would be better for her, if he accompanied her inside:

"Well, this has been a pleasant conversation, but Mr.Mallory ordered us to go inside. So I must comply. If you'll excuse me...", he bowed to the EC teacher, before turning to the remaining girl, shifting his tone and eloquence to a more, soft and paused speech, "Hey, I'm going to 108 right now.", he pointed towards the building behind them, "Would you like to come with me, Manami?"



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[Gus]

Manami Hamasaki
​

Manami struggled to follow all the English words being thrown around. It was SO impressive, how skillful they all were in such a difficult language. She would have to study and study and study to match her new friends' fluency. It made her feel a little embarrassed.


The old man didn't say much more, perhaps out of kindness, not wanting to deepen her feelings of failure. It was amazing to think how adroit he must be at reading emotions, to tell all about her just from the way she looked at the ground. The furry girl didn't say much either. She seemed a little grumpy at the boy, but at least she spoke plainly. Manami managed to make out 'Who' and 'this' from her words, and from the nod toward the teacher, she guessed that kitty girl was reiterating her request for the teacher's name. She squinched her eyes shut, reviewing in her mind the idiom kitty girl had employed for future use. She whispered the words under her breath to herself. “Who izu this creepu?” Not, 'what is your name, please?' but instead: 'Who is this creep?' She would try SO hard to remember! Kitty girl must also be new, if she didn't know the teacher's name.


Luckily for Manami and kitty-girl, the boy introduced everyone! How polite! At least, she thinks he did. The boy in the fancy clothes used so many fancy words that Manami couldn't be sure. But she definitely heard him address kitty girl as 'Mr. Allen McNabb' He sounded pretty grouchy about it, so maybe he was not friends with kitty girl. That made Manami a little sad, but at least she knew her name now. After that, the boy—he'd said his own name hadn't he? The boy, (Kendroriku?) said so very many words that Manami was completely lost. Zoning out, she almost didn't notice Allen disappear into 108. Boy, was that Mr. Allen McNabb fast! Manami would have to ask her to race later, for fun. First running, then swimming. And then they would be sure friends.


Eventually, Kendi-kun seemed to be winding down. He must have tremendous lung capacity to say so many words like that! Manami heard him say 'Mr. Mallory' So the kind old man must be Mr. Mallory! Manami smiled a toothy smile. She was learning so much! And then it happened! Kendi-kun invited her, Manami, to accompany him to 108! For once, Manami was glad that she could not cry. She felt quite overcome by emotion and barely managed to reply.


“Oh! Kendi-kun! Yu Manami FIRSTO FRIENDO! I wanto go to 108 wiz yu! So MUTCHI! SeeyulaytaMeestaMarori!”


Manami thrust out her hand to Kendi, her first friend, so that he could take it. School was going to be so much fun!


OOC: Translation Note: 


Kun is like 'mr. or ms.' but diminutive, for close friends or kids.


The rest of that is ALL english, believe it or not. Read it phonetically. You'll get it...


@Lioness075 @Necessity4Fun @Bag o Fruit

 

[Bag o Fruit]

Allen McNabb


“Naisu to meechu, Sensei, ah--teecha. Mai nay-mu izu Manami. How do yu do? Anno... Whato izu teecha nay-mu?”


Oh golly. What... What just happened? Is she having a stroke? We could fix that... Wait, no. Bad plan. Okay, new plan... We have to try and figure out what it was she said. First word... 'Naisu.' Na-ee-soo. Naisu. Nissua? Bread?? What? Naisu... Nigh. Nigh-sue. An impending Susan. Is she warning of the return of that woman who makes people stand in lines? No, no, ridiculous. Erm...


As Lazarus assessed this input with their entire processing strength, Allen McNabb's face went slack. Although none of the students had sufficiently acute hearing to realize, a very low groan emanated from his dry, slightly parted lips. "uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-"


The tesla idled in the middle of the road as the rest of the gathering made their own way to the facility.

 

[Gus]

[SIZE= 12px]Aaron Mallory[/SIZE]


[SIZE= 12px]Location: Classroom → Stairwell.[/SIZE]


[SIZE= 12px]Nearby: Nobody[/SIZE]


[SIZE= 12px]Mood: Amused[/SIZE]


[SIZE= 12px]@s @Bag o Fruit[/SIZE]


Aaron finally looked back as he opened the door to his classroom to find he was alone again. Well, that's teleporters for you, he mused. OH! Brain blast! We could play hide and seek! That's a fun snow day plan! I can sell that as a EC/CD&Y crossover too! He chuckled to himself, as he grabbed a pad of paper and pen from his desk. He mumbled to himself rehearsing the outline of the spiel. "You know kids, sometimes the best way to avoid collateral damage is just not to be found out. And keeping hidden under pressure takes… …that's right, emotional composure!" Grinning like a bandit, he sashayed down the hallway, immensely pleased with himself. The students would see through such a transparent line of hooey, naturally, but for a snow day lesson plan, it would fly. Snow days always had an atmosphere of freaky holiday about them. 


As he came to the top of the stairs, he spotted McNabb's car through the stairwell window. Idling in the middle of the street. Naturally. He could hear the faint sounds of students starting to arrive. Aaron chuckled again, though more ruefully. Time to reboot the old guy's mind and get him moving toward class again. He got out his phone and thumbed in:


[COLOR= rgb(39, 42, 52)]Hey, tern-burglar! You forget how to drive again? Tall pedal on the right makes it go, so they tell me. Classes started five minutes ago[SIZE= 12px]![/COLOR][/SIZE]

 

[Necessity4Fun]

Kendrick Haywood
​

Location: AEGIS Facility 108 >> En route for building
People Around: Allen McNabb and Manami.
Interactions: @Gus
Today's Toys: Ted

*internal screaming*


“Oh! Kendi-kun! Yu Manami FIRSTO FRIENDO!"


The rest of the phrase was gone, unheard, as Kendrick widened his eyes and nearly jumped in surprise. He doesn't even notices Mr. McNabb's lack of response, or Mr. Mallory's teasing.


The teenager was lost, suddenly thinking back on all of the happenings of this morning so far...That, couldn't be right. He hadn't done anything to deserve that title, neither he had intended to. Yet, the cheerful fish-girl had called him a 'friend'... He wasn't exactly sure of how he felt about that, he only thought that had been extremely fast...Maybe way too fast.


Currently, he could pinpoint a few things about Manami. First, something about her reminded him of Kennith, the same bubbly, cheerful and happy-go-lucky attitude, though, Kennith had really surprised him when he was able to fill a leader role nearly perfectly, in a situation of high risk. Comparing him and Manami, the boy couldn't really see her being able to accomplish such a feat. Second, as if that last statement wasn't a huge giveaway, she seemed to be rather naive. Curious like a child, unknowing of risks, she apparently trusted people very easily too. Though an admirable thing to have, the ability to trust easily without needing further information, it was also a huge issue.


Similar to how it had been when he met Kennith, Kendrick felt an urge to protect Manami from ever having that pitfall of hers, used maliciously. 108 is a fairly safe place, but outside, in the world beyond Sparrow Point...Oh, that was a very different story. Sometimes, he would prefer to be oblivious to such things. Perhaps then, he would be able to truly enjoy when outcomes where good, instead of eyeing it with distrust and bracing for the next heavy blow to come. Well, he couldn't do that for himself anymore, but he surely could do so for the girl in front of him.


After this reflection of a couple seconds, the boy's attention returned to her. She looked excited and was holding out her hand to him. Uhhh, was she really expecting him to hold hands with a girl he had JUST met minutes ago? Kendrick stared at the hand, then at the girl, then at the hand again. He was pretty sure he had started sweating cold. The dilemma this situation was presenting at him was painfully tightening his chest. How would he respond? How COULD him respond? HOW SHOULD HE RESPOND??


There was a sigh. Time to think about this logically:


"Option A, politely push her hand aside, stating how intimate that was, and why I can't accept it. Sounds easy enough...BUT, then she might think I don't like her... Uhhh, Next option! B, pretending I'm not seeing it and walking in front...No, that's too rude, and I'm CLEARLY staring at her hand right now.... Oh God, stop staring at it.", he looked elsewhere and sighed again, "Option C? Bluntly stating I dislike displays of affection like that? NONONONO! WORST OPTION EVER!! Why did I even think that, that's ridiculous!...... That only leaves me Option D.... I need to accept that. It's going to be awkward as Hell, but it seems like the best option.................... Why did this had to happen, though?", he glimpsed at the sky with suspicion, "Yes, I'm staring at you Lady Fate. Not liking this game you're playing here. Not liking it at all..."


With a sigh, that he hopped was the last one on this subject, Kendrick's gaze travelled back to Manami's hand. He extended his own towards it, very slowly, unable to meet her face while doing so. When the hands touched each other, he looked extremely uncomfortable for a split-second, before finally holding her hand properly. Awkward was just nickname, he needed a stronger word....later, couldn't really concentrate like this. It's possible he was also blushing. The boy doesn't know and doesn't care. He is just wishing this stroll until the building doesn't take too long...

"L-let's head...inside.", Kendrick barely manages to say, before pulling Manami along with him.



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[The J]

Hadrian Alburn


Outside Facility 108


The time since the dark man's arrival had done little to settle Hadrian's mind. His thoughts still boiled as he tried to think clearly, to decide what he would do. The offer was tempting, and it could help him a lot... but it felt wrong. He'd been alone for so long without his brother, he'd depended on Felix as much as Felix had depended on him. Now he was gone, but he'd throw himself so fast into something else, without doing what he'd promised first - to never give up again, to stop anything like what had happened to him happening to anyone anymore.


He looked up, after having trudged throw the snow for what may have been hours, head down as he shuffled onwards. He'd wound up outside Facility 108 itself. Had that been subconscious, his mind telling him where to go when he hadn't even decided for himself? It could be a coincidence.


Peering at what looked like a warm interior, teachers calling kids just like him inside, students chatting and messing around, he wondered what it was like inside. For what may have been several minutes, he stared from a distance, a figure in the snow.

 

[ManicMuse]

​

Page Morgan
​

Location: Hall > Her office > Stairway/Second floor
​

@: @Gus
​

 
​

The last of the crews were filing out of the front door. Page had at least acknowledged the robot, even if it creeped her out. Disappearing into her office, the young administrator took pause, noticing a new stack of papers that had been left for her to deal with. Picking up the top sheet of paper, Page was reviewing the work at hand, while taking a large sip of coffee. The dark liquid sloshed about in her mouth as she heard Mr. Mallory from the doorway.


As if on cue, her tongue felt the bitter sandy speckles of coffee grounds, that had tainted the already questionable coffee. Struggling with the decision to swallow or spit, Page was unable to reply to the man. Instead, she retreated deeper into the office to the corner, where a potted plant had managed to survive. Letting the tainted bitter fluid dribble into the plant, she used her sleeve as a napkin. Moving to set down the, now useless, cup of coffee, she placed it precariously on the edge of the desk.


 The cup stood for only a moment, as if mocking gravity, before it flopped head first to the ground. To Page, it felt as if the whole thing had happened in slow motion, she could just tell that the cup was going to shatter. Sure enough, breaking up upon impact, shards of ceramic went everywhere. Looking sheepishly to the doorway, Page was pleasantly surprised to find that Mr. Mallory was no longer standing there, to witness it. Grabbing a pile of paper towels. Dabbing at the mess, she was managing. It was collecting the broken shards of mug that became tricky. After collecting the major pieces, she considered the it, 'good enough.'


Now to track down that troublesome teacher. It was best to see what he had wanted. Last thing Page needed was another instructor going postal. Heading up toward the second floor, she quickly found whom she was in search of. On his phone, no less, texting. Clearing her throat, she attempted to pretend that she was giving him the benefit of the doubt. Though really, she was judging. Based off her impression of most the staff she had dealt with so far, many of them left much to be desired. It was hard to believe that this new instructor was any different.


"Did you need something, Mr. Mallory? Earlier, I mean."


She pointed back over her shoulder in an awkward fashion.


"I saw you in my room."


That sounded wrong?


"Err office. Uh."


Stammering Page bit her inner cheek, hoping she could make herself just shut up before she made it awkward. With an attempt to not look at the man directly, she noticed a car in the middle of the street, out front of the Facility.


"What in the... What are they doing? Please tell me that is not one of our people."