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 Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2006 8:50 pm
Rosewood News 13 January - [...] In part to celebrate the new year, and in part to increase a spirit of openess with the community, the Jianfeng Institute is opening its doors for the duration of January 13th and 14th, and cordially invites the residents of Rosewood to visit and see how the Institute has improved in the years since the quake. The Institute's Director, Dr. Jaidev Bhatia, will be on-hand to meet with visitors, as will Dr. Vrais and her "daughter", Snowline. The Rosewood PD will be providing security for the event. Guests are asked not to bring alcohol, weapons, or firearms in the interest of a safe and enjoyable reception. [...] The denizens of the Institute, resident scientists and regular staff, along with visitors and interns, have gone all-out in preparation for this event. The marble floors of the main lobby are freshly waxed, gleaming under subdued tracklights installed especially for the event. Two-tiered in its construction, the lobby is shown off to best effect, with the upper tier reserved for a dias from which speakers can address the crowd, and the lower partitioned into an area for mingling, sitting, and eating. The lobby itself is a beautifully spacious room to begin with. With walls made of glass upon which hidden projectors can place images of the deep ocean or exotic rainforests, inviting guests into places they've never been, it looks much larger than it actually is. Though its actual size is nothing to sneeze at--with the temporary partitions removed and the furniture rearranged, the soaring room can hold two to three hundred people quite comfortably. In one corner, a tumble of rocks draped with creeping orchids supports a decorative waterfall, providing a murmur of pleasant background noise for those guests who might be a little phobic of crowds. Elsewhere, artistically placed plasma screens provide examples of the Institute's research and community activity in Rosewood; the presence of the Cambrian children is delicately understated, though they have their own display. Naturally, the event is catered; the Institute had funds sufficient to contract with the best and brightest of Rosewood's culinary offerings, and so the tables are spread with all manner of elegant foods for snacking. Among them are stuffed squash flowers, a delightful arrangment of shellfish--and the tried-and-true standards of spinach dip, fresh mixed vegetables, and tiny chocolate petit fours. Come in. Enjoy the scenery. Mingle a bit if it pleases you; there's room enough for everyone, and the conspicuously placed officers of the Rosewood PD are here to ensure the event is safe for all.
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Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2006 9:49 am
"Haast snel, broer!"
"I'm coming, little sister, I'm coming." Micah Deusi, amateur journalist and current fish out of water, had to laugh at his young charge's enthusiasm. Ever since coming to the Institute, the two hadn't had much of a chance to socialize with any of the other people, or Cambrians, that lived there. They were still getting used to living there, themselves.
But, this was an open house, and though Micah, true to form, would have preferred staying in his room and working ona new article.. Nadir was a very persuasive girl. She'd been feeling the beginnings of cabin fever for a while, and had practically dragged the human with her. Not necessarily a difficult feat, considering his skinniness versus her own compact form.
"What do you think this partij will be like, broer?" She spoke the word slowly, 'party.' There were no such concepts that she could remember..
"I think it will be fine."
"Do you think I will meet any interessante mensen?"
"That goes without saying here, Nadir." A small smile.
"Oh."
~~~
"Look at all the beeld, broer! And the room is so groot.. so large! And there is a waterval, and .."
"It is pretty impressive, isn't it? The institute really went all out on this.."
Nadir nodded, horns bobbing, and little eyes darting everywhere. "Het verbazen!"
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Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2006 10:20 am
The small, dated red car pulled through the gates to the institute among the other cars moving in from the surrounding community, all seeming to be here for some reason or another. Rich had no idea if it was normal for the place to be this busy or what. Since he didn't live in the area, he had no idea there was an open house going on. He had simply come because of Lunation, who was still swimming around in her tank in the back seat.
It had been very hard to keep the tank circulation with fresh oxygen and the like and he had to spend a few days figuring out how to plug some of the tank appliances into the car. So now that he was here, he wanted to find someone to talk to about her as soon as he could.
He parked the car and left it running. He only hoped no one would come in and steal it while he was gone. It was either that or leave Lunation in still water for a while, and he really didn't know how long that would be. So, he took his keypad from the keyring so he could lock the car. He locked it and headed into the reception hall carefully, feeling a little awkward in being here.
Who should he go talk to? He wasn't sure of that either. He sighed, rubbing the back of his head with his hand. As he looked around, he noticed the place was pretty decked out. It was rather pretty. He began to examine the large room and all its decorations, almost completely forgetting he was here to do something.
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Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 9:04 pm
"Kijk, broer!"
"Nadir, please-"
Before the thin journalist in training could stop her, the short child had scurried over to Rich, her natural curiosity pulling her like a rope.
"Wie u zijn, interessante persoon?" She virtually appeared right next to the man, not thinking at all that her presence might surprise him.
"Nadir.."
"..Who are you?" She tried again, reminded that not everyone spoke like her, though she didn't know why they'd not understand. Multiple languages were so hard when not everyone knew them...
"I'm sorry sir..." Micah, upon finally reaching the two, apologized with a slight nervous laugh. He hadn't seen many people outside of the institute since coming here, and was a little on edge because of it.
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Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2006 5:50 pm
Rich blinked as there was suddenly a voice right beside him. He jumped back, the surprise on his face lasting a few seconds before shifting to amusement and a wide grin. He laughed, putting one hand behind his head, "Ah! I didn't see you there!"
He rubbed the bad of his head, looking rather sheepish due to his lack of the ability to pay attention to what was going on. He had admit...part of the shock had been the girl's-he thought it was a girl-appearance. She wasn't normal, that was for sure! It was a little odd talking to her, but that wouldn't stop him from doing so, "Ah...I'm Richard! And who might you be?"
When Micah came over Rich smiled and waved it off, "Nah, no problem, it's fine. I suppose...you're her friend then?"
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Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2006 1:41 pm
"He is my oudere broer." Nadir confirmed with a firm nod, the smile on her face wide in response to Rich's. She had her head turned a little to the side to see him properly- she could see straight on just fine, but it was easier to see around her rounded and reinforced skull like this, so it had become a habit. The child's twin feathery tails waved slightly behind her.
"I am Nadir, and I live in this place!" There had been no schools, or in fact buildings in her other life that she could remember, so the girl found it a little difficult to assimilate 'institute'. Instead, she simply called it a place, which is definitely what it was anyway. Her armored cheeks moved a little as she spoke, but it was her eyes that moved the most, like green marbles rolling around in their sockets, trying to see all of Rich. She hadn't met many people, so she was understandably eager to learn about them.
Once again, Micah smiled a little abashedly. "Yes. You don't happen to speak any Dutch, do you..?" It'd make his life easier, but he didn't expect it. He relaxed a little at Richard's genial nature, but remained close to his charge.
"Do you live in this place, too?" Nadir cocked her head a little more, ignoring Micah for the moment.
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Posted: Sun Feb 12, 2006 10:40 am
Rich was unable to keep the smile off his face, even when the girl looked at him with her rather peculiar eyes. It wasn't every day you met someone like this. It was odd, but Rich was far to energic and friendly to mind too much. "Well, it's very nice to meet you Nadir!"
He glanced at Micah curiously, "Dutch...well...not really...I took a few lanuages in college, but not Dutch I'm afraid." He asumed that Micah wanted to know if he knew of it because of Nadir...it appeared as if she spoke Dutch, not that he could really tell since he didn't know it.
He switched gears quickly back to Nadir, since she began to ask him questions again, "Live here? Ah...no...I just got here, actually."
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Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2006 10:48 am
"Ah.. well, no matter. Nadir's pretty decent at translating herself if you remind her to." It had been a blessing that he'd known any of it at all when the child had first hatched. He'd thanked his lucky stars for strange relatives those days.
"It is nice to meet you too, interessante persoon! Do you come here for een lange tijd, or just plotseling?" She cocked her head up at Rich, which she would have had to do even if she were not so short.
Micah quieted himself to allow Rich to concentrate on talking to Nadir (since it was a full time job), though he couldn't help but be curious as to whether the man had a strange child of his own or not.
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Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2006 7:44 am
"Well, I'm very flattered you think I'm interesting," Rich told Nadir with a lopsided smile. However, he couldn't help but feel a little sheepish, for he had no idea what she had asked him after that. So, he decided to improvise, "Well...I'm here because I kinda have a friend that doesn't fit in in my appartment...or well...very many places for that matter. Annd because my appartment was trashed, I guess." Boy, his roommate was still going to kill him when he found out. Well, if he could find Rich, that is.
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Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2006 9:30 am
"Trashed?" Nadir echoed Rich curiously. What a strange word. But it sounded nice! The female cast a glance back at Micah, repeating the word once more.
"Destroyed."
"Ah. Ik ben droevig your place was destroyed, Richard." But she didn't sound too bothered by it- before being 'born' in this world, her people had been nomadic, and had simply moved on if a place was unfortunately made unfit to live in.
"Nadir.." Micah reminded her, smiling a little crookedly, making her furrow her brows a little in concentration.
"I am.. sad.. you have to move on. How groot is your vriend?" She cocked her head to the side again.
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Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2006 8:29 am
Rich shrugged, "Ah...it's alright I guess. Nothing I can do about it now, anyway. No use worrying about it..." After all, it was pointless to cry over spilled milk, right? And this mess was a big old puddle that they didn't really have a cloth for.
"As for my friend...she's ok...she's in the tank in my car," He laughed a little at the last bit, knowing it must sound extremely weird to have a fish tank in one's car. But then, what else was he supposed to have done about it?
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Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2006 11:44 am
"Tank?" Ah! That thing that broer had had her in before she had made it to a form where she could speak with him! It was still in their old place as far as she knew, but she remembered that it had been very big.
However, she expressed no concern or amazement that the tank would be in Rich's car. After all, if it was there, then it should be there, yes? There was nothing strange in that. Micah, on the other hand, was as surprised as Nadir wasn't.
"You drove it all the way here? Is she going to overheat if you leave her out there?"
Nadir, for once, held her silence for a little bit, looking between the humans. She, for one, wanted to see this friend of Rich's, but if she was still in her tank, she wouldn't be able to speak with her, and that was too bad. Idly, the girl wondered if Rich's friend was pretty.
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Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 1:58 am
[ Message temporarily off-line ]
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Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 12:58 pm
It was frighteningly easy to distract Nadir at the best of times, and just as easy for the Cambiran to distract herself. A trait that, while useful to her, drove Micah to dispair many times while trying to teach her something. More specifically, to get her to stop climbing his desk thank you, that computer is fragile!
So, it was not hard at all for Nadir to hear Snowline's greeting, or to turn and see the older female jogging towards her. Immediately, her face lit up in a wide grin. "Zuster! Snow!" Two arms raised to wave energetically back, while two more fidgeted happily. Might it be mentioned that her tails, which were waving lazily before, after her burst of curiosity towards Rich, were now fluffed out and mostly still.
"Why are you wearing that het beperken dress? It's too donker." Dark things, invariably, were unable to please Nadir at all, partial to bright colors like Snowline's mooi skin as she was.
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Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2006 9:07 pm
"Well...I do have most of the equipment plugged into a batery so they can run...have to make sure the oxygen circulates and the temperature is manageable, after all," Rich said with a small, sheepish laugh. Yeah, traveling with a tank in the care was not an easy job. Eh, but he wasn't going to complain about it. At least it was possible.
He blinked in slight surprise as he shifted his gaze to see another strange being bounding toward them-and in a dress none the less. It looked comical, like she was trying to be a clown. Somehow it just didn't suit her-or he asumed it was a her-for she would probably look better just being herself, as Nadir did. But of course he wouldn't mention it right now. x3
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