Welcome to Gaia! ::

Snap hadn't realized that he was tense but the internal feeling of releif he felt on being dismissed brought back to him what his tutors kept telling him before he left. "You lack both discipline and confidence when dealing with outsiders" and "This is the best thing for you, deal with it." Snap sighed inwardly as the memories echoed in his thoughts.

Level 19 was their destination. If he recalled correctly from the computer database they were allowed access to, it would be interesting to see exactly what was available given that the database was rather sketchy on details. Snap felt confident that given the resources available here, a mixture of both practical and the latest tech, that a proper weight room would be available. ((note: singular -> Grav tech = DBZ/GT weight room)) It would be a releif to shuck those mass bands, even it was just for a little while.

Thinking of the lift his gaze trailed to the centaur. If what was said about the lower levels was accurate then Tomias would be having problems moving around down there. Working lifts were not a certainty but broken terain was. Snap wondered if they had adapted a grav system to compensate for the centaurs mobility issues.

But first to their dorm so that everyone could re-equip themselves and regain some of their confidence. The stripping of personal protections and items had a tendancy to make most creatures feel vulnerable. Not that that was an issue for himself, well except for the being cornered or boxed in. That litttle buggaboo called claustrophobia still lurked somewhere in the back of his psyche even if he thought he had quashed it long ago.

{Lol. I've just decided that the centaur's talent lies in building electronics and stuff. XD He's more of a technician now. Teehee. Although he can still hack pretty well. He's multitalented. >_> <_< And I'm jus' gunna skip the whole returning to his room. 'Cuz I'm special like that.}

Tomias, having retrieved all of his personal equipment, clopped almost happily along the bland hallway. He was humming quietly to himself, his ears bobbing up and down as he had a slight bounce to his step, his tail gently flicking side to side behind him. In truth he was humming to stop himself from getting freaked out by everything. He found it very calming, humming.

Nevertheless, his horse body moved with grace, gliding along the hallway at a trot. His hooves made a delightfull sound on the flooring, although Tomias pondered on whether to put rubber shoes on them to dampen the sound. If he didn't he was sure he would be a dead giveaway in stealth mission environments. That is, if he was forced to go on missions like that. He would rather be involved in the missions over radiowaves, but then again he was more specialised in hands on technical difficulties and building equipment.

It only took moments for Snap to retrieve his coat and holsters. Two more moments to verify his inventory and turn off the little blinking lights on the holsters.

On arriving to level 19 Snap did a survey of the facilities as they came into view. The small arms range was of mild interest only in that it demostrated the range of small arms in active use. The room around the curve of the open space, next to it was more intiguing since it seeemed to offer some kind of active target / terrain simulation capability.

As to seeng the use of swords, it brought a note of disaproval to his demeanor. There was not an easy way to subdue or just capture a being while you were hacking chunks off their anatomy. Snap much prefered the use of either his own limbs or the $#^%$, the pocket staff as some called it. An ingenious yet simple device that fit in the hand easilly but with the correct command sequence could lengthen to a full size staff or a rod of any length between, yet retain its diameter, light weight and supple strength.

Snap did a few more circuits and levels down before he came to what he was looking for. The room didnt seem to be used all that much at the moment. Most likely the local power houses were elsewhere, much to his relief. Checking to make sure the safteys wer all in place Snap disabled the external settings display by the door before entering the room proper and closing the door behind him. The room looked no different than any wieght and trainging room, though of smallish size and very robust construction of the equipment. Snap went to the central control console and set up the environmental cycle for his regimen with enough slow ramp up to allow him to remove the limiter masses he wore. after a few minutes the place felt like home at a normal 50 gravities.
Snaps regimen started with his normal streaching and loosening before going into a more active set that stressed speed, precision and accuracy of movement. The regimen was refeshing but Snap still yearned to grab a gravboard and rip some sky. Maybe he will get his chance but it didnt look to promissing for the near future.

((I know, I know, I'm sorry, I'm ridiculously slack. I'm not calling it off entirely, though. I'll be able to do stuff again in a few days. Sorry, shock of first semester of uni was... somewhat more severe than anticipated. I think I know what I can do to fix that next semester, so this should all start running smoothly again once my exams are over.))

"I-I won't." Tomias stammered, taken aback by the man's ability to talk so fast. It was as if his lips were a blur. "The boards were designed by bipeds for bipeds. I-I know how they work anyway. Vaguely." He briefly wondered what had possessed him to voice his mind, but it was a feeling he guessed he would have to get used to. If he didn't say anything then he'd be considered the loner. Which he wouldn't have minded, but he could be sociable when he wanted. He just didn't want to much.

"A-and besides, I don't really like flying anyway." the skittish centaur continued, as if he was being pushed into giving more and more excuses, "All four hooves should remain on the ground, thankyou-very-much. Yes sir. Won't catch me flying on those wha-do-ya-call-it board things. Noooo way."

It was then Tomias decided to shut up, disappearing off into the nearest corner to look busy. Perhaps he shouldn't have said anything at all.

Damn, Y'karrhr thought to himself as Tomias skittered off around a corner. That'll mean Andre has him first. But just you wait -- he'll come over to the Dark Side soon enough! The corner of his mouth twitched upward -- then he was snapped back to reality ((haha, snapped! Geddit?)) by a soft voice pitched perfectly to slice through the background hubbub.

"Explain."

Y'karrhr blinked. "Explain? Explain precisely what? i can think of a great many things you might want me to explain right now... like who I am -- the answer to which would be Y'karrhr, head of Tech: Mechanics, born on the Secondary world of Lisst and drawn to Evine in search of some way to make money -- what the hell the Tower is really all about -- a possible answer there would be either causing a general nuisance to the government, or maintaining balance in a capital-driven universe -- are you going to die -- I'd say eventually, but later than if you were down in the lower levels, certainly -- a-a-a-and what the hell are these boards and srars I'm talking about. That last question... it would be easier to show you than to explain it." He gave them an unnaturally wide grin.

"So! Any more questions?"

---

Tomias's choice of corner had led him into the entrance to one of the light arms shooting ranges. In the range itself, six people were present. Here, in thr entranceway, a fairly tall --and quite stunning -- blonde woman was jostling with a serious-looking dark-haired young man. She was laughing loudly, he tolerated her harrassment with a resigned expression, like he had been through all this many times before.

The blonde stopped in her harrassment of the young man when she caugth sight of Tomias. Her jaw dropped and her green eyes grew wide -- as if in shock or fear. The young man wheeled around, half-moving to a fighter's stance. In the same instant, the blonde let out a squeal of glee, hopping from one foot to the other.

"Isn't he just delicious?" she beamed at the man. "Isn't he the most adorable thing you've ever seen, Deim?"

The man's hands dropped to his side, and he gave an apologetic shrug to Tomias, his face the image of bewilderment. He sighed and shook his head, then approached the centaur.

"Hi, I'm Deimos Arillion, and this is Gwyn White. I take it you're new to the Tower?"

Gwyn was almost skipping around Tomias at this point, ogling him from almost all possible angles.