|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 8:55 am
The gates are the main entrance to the academy. No student gets in nor out without passing through them, the black metal that keeps them in as the unwanted out...
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Apr 09, 2006 9:24 pm
She'd been outside the gates for a good ten minutes already- and there was no one there to greet her yet.
Clerise was not a happy kitty.
She eyed her luggage bag disdainfully, and crossed her arms to guard herself against the cold, biting wind.
She looked up at the Academy's main building, all gray and dismal. Clerise's left eye twitched. Fifteen minutes.
She calmly stomped forward, as all good eight year olds do, and poked the Keypad viciously. She fumbled in her dress for a pocket that held a single sheet of paper, which had her ID code on it.
Simple enough. She was zero-zero-one.
With feline precision, she tapped in the numbers, and felt a jolt crawl down her spine, causing her to yelp.
"Your feed identification number has been verified. Please enter the Anteroom by following the path before you,"chimed a voice apathetic and cold.
Clerise wondered if that was the RA she had been told about, before yanking viciously on her handle to her luggage, and stomping on the obsidian path before her.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Apr 09, 2006 10:39 pm
[ Lineslieth pov ]
Lineslieth wandered down from his office at the top floor of the dorms to the elevator. He luxuriously spread his wings on the large circular platform, and yawned.
He watched the numbers gently fade from five to one, and upon hearing the small ding, he stepped off the platform, clawed toes against the floor echoing loudly.
Lineslieth turned the corner to the main hallway, and ran into a bundle of red and orange and gray. he fell backwards, letting his tail catch his fall and push him gently upwards again. He eyed the bundle on the floor, which was not quite so lucky.
"You okay, little demon?" he mumbled in his own tongue, before remembering. New student.
In his accented English, he repeated the question again.
" 'M not a demon, big ugly," she said (for the girl had looked up, and her fire branded eyes seared into him violently), and pulled herself up, showing the scuff marks her tiny boots had left on the floor.
"And I'm not ugly, child," he said, tone cold but with a feral grin on his face. A Newblooded- first of many to come, hopefully.
"Come, child. I believe I am your escort," he says thoughtfully, though his eyes are closed. He reaches out a hand, clawed and gray and scarred, and does not expect her to take it.
She does. He cracks open a fire eye, and grins at her. "I am your homeroom teacher, as well as your history professor," he continues, and tugs the small child forward towards the elevator.
They step in, and he looks down at her, full blown.
She has eyes like him: orange and yellow and red, full of fire and hate and instability.
"Normally, I'd be taking you to your dorm room, which you will be sharing with an Aanida your age." she pouts, though her tail flicks in excitement, and her left ear flicks up at 'sharing.' "But for now, you will eat with me," he ends, amused.
The elevator dings softly, and he pulls her off the platform, waiting for her to be typical and jump the whole one foot.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Apr 09, 2006 11:00 pm
Clerise looked up at the tall, strange man. Mr. Lines didn't tell her there was a Darikieln here. She docilely followed the draconic figure into the mess hall, marveling at his tail and his horns and his teeth...and his...eyes?
They were like hers. Mr. Lines had called them "kissed by flames." Or maybe that had been her hair. She allowed the dragon to tug her along to a plush red seat, and told her vaguely to overlook the menu with her feed.
She blinked at him.
He didn't turn at look, just closed his eyes, and after only a brief moment, leaned back into his chair and relaxed, tail swishing lazily.
She closed her eyes, and searched in her mind, asking for a menu. One popped up in her mind's eye, listing various treats and menus.
She ordered white tea with ramen noodles, served in the ancient korean style. She hoped it would be enough, and she needed not to worry: moments later a swarm of electronic bees it seemed had come out of the walls precariously balancing a large glass of blood and a platter of half raw meat for Lineslieth, and her own just-right sized bowl of noodles flavoured with kimchii and onions and another just-right sized cup of tea.
She could get used to this.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 12:54 am
The two, eerily similar and decidedly fond of each other (well, Lineslieth liked the fire child. She was alive, seemed to christen the building with spitfire heat with every breath) ate in a companionable silence.
Lineslieth leaned back, and eyed Clerise.
"Who put your feed in, child?"
She looked up at him, eyes narrowed. "Mr. Lines. He's my new da." she mumbled, enough that Lineslieth had to listen closely.
"Ah," was all he said before he reached over and ruffled her hair. "Then I suppose that makes me your Uncle, little cat."
She looked at him funny.
"But YOU'RE Lineslieth Astrath, and HE'S Astra Lines..."
she paused.
"...oh. Are you him?" She leaned over her chair, a lightly clawed hand tugging at the leather as she poked him in the forehead.
He shied away from her. "He is one, and I am another. I don't always remember what he does, he hardly remembers I exist." he looked outside, fire eyes dimming. He hauled the now yawning girl up.
"To your dorm with you, demon."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 1:08 am
[ rest to journal. End RP. ]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 10:17 am
RA tapped its foot impatiently. Its silver hologram flickered, and moved a foot to the left. It was waiting for the third student; it was to insert her feed after taking her to her dorms.
She wasn't here yet.
Its hologram, shorter than Avenine (who was only half a metre in height) walked on the sharp edges of the fence, its gray green toes gracefully bouncing between then edges.
So it waited.
She would be here soon, it knew. Cerceris, the striped Aanida who had no congregation to return to. She would be here soon. It sensed a small life flickering in the distance.
It stood on one foot, balanced precariously, and sipped at holographic tea.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 10:44 am
Cerceris approaches the school with caution in her mind but not in her steps. Her four arachnid legs move across the ground in a blur, carrying her much faster than her two human legs could. Blue eyes regard the nearing school with apprehension. It's awfully big... but it seems to be in good condition. I guess I should go over by that huge gate. Her chitinous limbs stray from the path to crunch across half-dead grass, taking the straightest line possible. I hope I'm not late. Such an awful sense of time...
In the messenger-style bag she carries in her arms, a stuffed rabbit clutches its pocket watch. It would never be late. It just wasn't that sort.
Cerceris slows at the imposing black gate, folding her spider legs behind her as she stands back on her human feet. She catches sight of RA, balanced so precariously on the fence. She blinks her six eyes in turn - something about this little creature looks wrong, somehow. Different from the fence it is standing on. Cerceris can't put words to the visual effect, so she moves it to the back of her mind. Instead, she shifts her grip on the bag she's carrying to free one hand, and waves it uncertainly at RA.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 2:50 pm
[ RA pov ]
The tiny hologram looks over at the small child, waving so shy and smally. it grinned, and waved an almost-webbed hand back.
The figure jumped down from the fence, swooped into a backflip and landed on its feet, its single black wing fluttering awkwardly.
"You must be Cerceris," a resonating voice sounded, and though the hologram's mouth moved with every syllable, the sound was projected from speakers in the fence bars.
The tiny RA marched up to the child, and peered into her eyes, the silver sheen flickering as it sent a beam into her many eyes.
"Verified. Please follow me to Aerin's Office!" it said, stitched eye and black eye closing in delight, as it stomped over to the gate and bypassed it easily by simply phasing through it. It called back, "Type in your ID, no-tribe aanida!"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 3:04 pm
The Aanida girl smiles back at RA as it waves to her, and takes a few more steps forward. She jumps slightly as RA's voice booms at her from the fence, clutching her bag with both hands. It must be a hologram or something, she realizes, the revelation distracting her from the fact that RA has come forward to stare directly into her eyes. She waits obediently until the scan is complete, then blinks a few times with all of her eyes.
Type in my ID... Cerceris furrows her brow in an attempt to recall her identification number. Oh yes. Half my eyes. She reaches forward with one of her spider legs and types the numbers 0 0 3 into the console provided.
No-tribe? she wonders belatedly. News travels fast, I guess.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 5:25 pm
The little dragon-visage smiles. "No. I just know everything." It turned around to watch the gates hiss slightly as pneumatic air locks pulled apart from each other. "My name is RA." it shifted from foot to foot, and twitched one of its three tails. "Stands for Residential Assistance, but it's really a fancy name for a housekeeping AI, yes?" it grins snarkily, and skips ahead, leaving silven footprints that fade in seconds.
"First order of business is," it yells over its shoulder, horn half exposed by hair, and points to the main door, "is getting your Feed in. I can't do it out here. Pathogens, and..." the little creature continued on, knowing it was filling airspace, and not helping at all.
Silence was too quiet sometimes.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 5:42 pm
Cerceris digests RA's words as she follows it through the gates. A housekeeping hologram that might as well be telepathic. This place is going to keep me on my toes. She is momentarily distracted by the glimmering trail of footprints, but soon catches up and begins walking a short distance behind RA. It is moving at a surprisingly quick pace for something so small, and Cerceris finds herself skipping every few steps to keep up.
"RA," she says quietly, "could you please explain the Feed to me in words I can understand? I don't know what a pathogen is..." She trails off, acutely aware of her lack of knowledge and experience. RA was talking about this Feed thing like it was something completely ordinary, but Cerceris hadn't the slightest idea what it was talking about. She figured after the first few unfamiliar words that it had not, in fact, been talking about lunch. But the purpose of a school is to learn new things... it seems I'm starting early.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 6:34 pm
RA laughed, hoarse and booming and very amused. He hed her through the doors, and tugged her directly to the right.
He points to the numerous chairs in sizes and shapes and colours placed around the room, and stands on a table with magazines and remote antennas for Feed TV.
"Feed. Noun. Microchip placed directly below your cerebral cortex, laying over your spinal column." It hops to a silver chair, and pretends to bounce on it. "It moniters both brain activity as well as chemical and hormonal interactions." RA tumbles to the floor, and rolls similar to a hedgehog to another chair.
"It's basically what allows Zaucken and Boulregard to keep tabs on you. The Feed provides you with all things, it can lead you to a dictionary, to a tv station, to games and the local menus, to your class schedule, and if you were smart enough, you could find your own levels of Insanity and Genius!" it turns to face her, and leaps up and starts crawling on a wall, before sitting there and stares at her, from upside down.
"It can tell you everything about you, before you even have the sense to look. It can knock you out, it can receive calls and messages. RA grinned again, looking a little nicer. "It's not so bad. All the students have one, either that or they will soon. You can't enroll here till you do."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 7:24 pm
Cerceris ducks her head as RA laughs at her, almost regretting the question. As the hologram speaks, though, she quietly absorbs the information. Taking a seat in a large yellow armchair, she ponders briefly. She isn't certain why RA mentions only insanity and genius, but she assumes it is a shortened list. She is less than thrilled by the idea of having something attached to her spine that could render her unconscious, but the benefits seem to outweigh that small detail. The final reassurance from RA is all she needs. (The fact that she can't enrol without it also helps. There aren't many places for a tribeless Aanida.)
"Well, let's get it done with."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 7:34 pm
RA smiles, a little gentler this time. "Sounds like a plan." From the walls, emerge two large hands, that break down into very small and delicate looking instruments. It looks apologetic, almost. "Going to knock you out for this, okay? You'll wake up in your dorm, if your lively roommate doesn't wake you up beforehand." The small RA flickers out of view, and the hands take on its personality. They move animatedly, and gently insert a hypodermic needle into one of her arms.
"The anethesiac takes a while to set in, it's a gentler acting one. Makes it feel more like sleep, for your sake." the voice is the same, and the hands retreat and move animatedly with its voice.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
