The Therianthropy Project

[mew77]

Alessa looked up from her pet project. The miniature crossbow on the desk was made of chopsticks, rubber bands, tape, and some construction paper. She test fired it one last time before leaving her room. She loved medival and archaic tools and weapons and building these simple functioning models.

She was intrigued by Geis Pharmaceutical's new expirimental drug so she signed up as a guinea pig. She lived in a small cramped one room apartment before she finally got the message that she was accepted. Didn't say what factors they were selecting from.

She saw two people in the hall, a boy and a girl...looks like a few of the others were arriving today. "Hello, good to see more patients in the big house, you may call me Alessa, and your names."

[Yellow 13]

Shelly nodded. "Oh you did? Sorry, just so excited to finally meet you in person!" She smiled and hugged him. "Oh! and did you hear? Me and you are gonna be roomies!" She smiled. "This is gonna be an awesome year! Hell, if this goes well, we might even be roomies for the other years! How long's your program? Mine is gonna be pretty long, sorry to say. And on the hectic side." She said. "But oh well. Let's get our stuffed pcked and then we can go to meet the others." She said and hauled in her cases inside. "Phew... all this stuff... being prepaired? Leads to wayyyy to much to carry. Nearly missed my plane when I was getting all this stuff loaded. Carry-ons. I wasn't gonna let the airport risk losing my stuff." She went to start packing her stuff.

She perked up when she heard someone else. "Oh! Hey! didn't see ya there. My name's Shelly. Shelly Mauroy." She held out a hand for the new housemate. "When did you get here?"

[mew77]

"I got here yesterday, they gave me my notice earlier.", Alessa said, "Good to meet you, I'm actually rather excited about this pharmaceutical experiment. But funnily they never told me what criteria they selected for. I see you're busy unpacking, care to meet up later to chat?"

[DrNightKOT]

Vasily replied "No idea. I believe the side effects of this drug would be so terrible, that this would make sense right now." Then another guy that introduced himself as Shaen got there, told something about another "Kit" guy and immediatelly disappeared in another room. Vasily made a short mental note "Unsocial." for the future consideration - he was curious to know if this Shaen person was interesting from the Psychological point of view. Too much curiosity, actually, but he loved every moment of getting knowledge. Meanwhile, the news about "Kit" made Shelly very happy and she immediatelly moved towards the stairs to get to the second floor.

After having a better look around Vasily decided to go up as well. The first floor was nice, but he was curious to find out about other people and his own room, and so, he ascended to the second floor. However, having a good weight on his back and hands didn't do well for him and he got up slower than he would wish to. The halls were empty - probably because everyone have already got into their rooms. Vasily decided not to hesitate with unpacking his stuff and after he entered his room (that he apparently had to share with Nathan, someone Vasily is yet to see and talk with) he immediatelly got to work.

[Yellow 13]

"Sure thing," Shelly replied as she continued unpacking. "Yeah, they didn't tell me Either. I just asumed it was an open letter." She shrugged. "Anyways, I doubt it's gonna interfear to much with everything. I mean they wouldn't want to interfear with our school work." She thought for a moment. "I just hope we don't get sick during the school year. I know I always do at the start of the year..."

[mew77]

And with that response Alessa left for the first floor, they had some comfy couches she wanted to lounge in, then getting to talk with people would be rather fun before she went for a swim. "I'll wait for you guys dowstairs by the couches.", she said turning to the stairs.

Once downstairs she sat down and waited. College had been relatively simple up ot this point then again msot of her professors were just coming out of the introductory material. She was given a ton of paperwork to sign up or this program then they took a blood sample. She assumed it was for the control as she expected blood samples to be taken periodically from here on out.

[Zombehs]

“Interesting…” Shaen muttered to himself as he closed the book. Carefully he slid it back into its original position on the book shelf and stepped backwards. It was a chemistry textbook for McMaster University, similar to the one he carried around with him in his bag at the moment. Now who would own all these books? he wondered and reached for another book that caught his attention. The sound of feet on the staircases coming down made him pause though, and shifting his bags Shaen stepped towards the door.

Catching a glimpse of black hair, Shaen peeked outwards just to catch another girl as she went towards the common room. Between the books on the shelves and introducing himself to his new acquaintances, the former could wait for later. Back on the cool hardwood flooring Shaen closed the study’s door behind him gentle and walked down the hallway. A faint thump echoed throughout the relatively quiet first floor with each of his steps and looking around, he made eye contact with the girl. With a small smile and wave, Shaen took a seat across from her before raising an arm. “Name’s Shaen, nice to meet you.”

[Greycat]

Kit grinned through the hug. And he thought that this thing would be awkward. Well, it would just be a different kind of awkward. His mind obligingly provided all sorts of thoughts and scenarios of what could result out of the roomies conundrum, and his efforts to get chase and herd those trains back into their stations occupied his time throughout the introduction. It was a very good thing that black people don't blush. That done, he recapped the potition of the conversation he missed.

"I don't think that this is the get sick sort of treatment," he grinned, tossing his bags on one of the beds. The under the widow actually. He considered unpacking, but there really wasn't much to unpack, so he left them sitting there and headed down.

[Greycat]

“Name’s Shaen, nice to meet you.”, Alessa heard.

"Alessa, likewise.", she said looking up to see an asian guy sitting across from her. At least she wasn't the only one now.

When Shelly was finally done unpacking for the most part, she headed downstairs to socialize with the others. "Hey everyone!" She said. "Sorry i wasn't chatting with you earlier. Just had to get meet a friend for the first time." She looked back behind her to see if Kit was coming down as well. "Hey Kitler! need help?" she asked.

"Understandable, my roommate hasn't arrived yet, so I took the liberty of decorating my half already.", Alessa replied to Shelly.

"Who's your roomate?" Shelly asked. "I know mine's Kit. That othey guy i went to see." She looked back again and shrugged. "Guess he's still unpacking."

"Kit can't be his actual name, my room mate is Esmeralda, I don't know much about her.", Alessa said.

"Nah. Just a screenname I know him by online." Shelly replied.

"Of course, I know everyone in orientation asked you this but what's your major?", Alessa said. That was always the staple question.

"Engineering for me." Shelly said. "Structural to be exact." She said. "You?"

"Mechanical Engineering and I'm considering a minor in history.", Alessa said.

"Nice! Maybe we'll be classmates." Shelly said. "And help eachother with the projects we get."

"Yeah, that would be wonderful.", Alessa said sitting up on the couch stretching, when leaning back she slipped and fell out of her seat. Returning to her seat she muttered,"Not again."

Sitting across from Alessa, Shaen simply listened to the girls talk amonst themselves. Leaning backwards into the couch, he let the bags drop to his side and the floor. The talk wasn't too serious just light hearted discussions about school and what may be. While he wasn't participating it was still nice to get some information from the others. He had intended to start some small talk with Alessa, but the discussion between the two girls seemed to be lively and he was content to listen.

"Hello", Alessa said to the new getting back on the couch, "What about you Shaen, what are you studying?"

Hm? he wondered as Alessa asked him a question. Turning his attention to the girl, Shaen coughed lightly before speaking. "Oh, currently enrolled in Chemical Engineering. Minoring in Philosophy."

"We have a lot of engineers, here," Kit said as he ran into the room. "You think that was a criteria?"

"Personally I doubt it, but I wouldn't put it past them." Alessa said to the newcomer.

"Hey Kit," Shaen gave the boy a small wave as he walked into the common room. Seemed he had dropped his bags off somewhere upstairs. Turning his attention to the rest of the students, Shaen asked, "So are you all first years at McMaster or?"

"Well, I'm a first year yeah.", Alessa said.

"Same," Kit volunteered with a grin. He glanced around the room, then perched on the arm of the couch.

"Firstyear too. First time in Canada too." Shelly mentioned. "And i don't think so. For engineers being a criteria. I thought it was just random. Maybe there's something we all have in common?"

"There's obviously something, but I can't figure out what is it just yet.", Alessa said.'

"Aw, you're no fun," Kit said, sticking his tongue out at her. "Okay, I missed the introduction rounds, can you recap for me? I know She-Sells is doing engineering, and Shaen said he's doing chemistry, but the rest of you? Help?"

"Mechinical Engineering and History" Alessa said "By the way my name is Alessa."

"You and She-Sells," Shelly chuckled. "Where'd that even come from anyways, Kitler?" Shelly asked.

"She Sells Seashells by the Seashore. Now say it ten times fast.", Alessa joked. Not the most conventional of nicknames but it was certainly creative. Wonder if everyone here would end up with a nickname.

"She shoots, she scores!" Kit grinned, pantomiming shooting a basket ball. "Three points to the allstar. So, All-star, were are you from?"

"Taiwan, good lucking trying to find it on a map. Allstar huh, I don't even play basketball."

"Thats... south-east of china?" Kit ventured. "And since when as that been a criteria?"

"Never, and yes, south east of China.", Alessa said. No way that nickname was sticking.

"Challenge accepted then," Kit beamed, drawing his legs up under him.

"Well Kit knows where I'm from, but to the rest, I'm an Aussie."

"And she pro'bly doesn't remember where I'm from," Kit teased.

"Of course I do," Shelly said. "You're from Canada."

"Half right," he smiled. "Kingston to Kingston."

"Kingston, Jamacia." Shelly added.

"Huh, looks like I'm the senior here then..." Shaen muttered to himself."Well I've been in Hamilton for the last year, so if you wanna know where things are in the city, feel free to ask." he contributed.


"What do you plan to do with a degree in Chem. En. anyway?"

"Dunno really. Just something I got my way into I suppose. The co-op's been good money so far though, so I don't have any debt on my ass so far at the least."

Kit winced at the word debt. "Monetary Problems," he gasped dramatically, clutching at his chest. "My only weakness!" He gasped some more, as if choking, then toppled off into the couch, his head falling into Alessa's lap. He lay there, seemingly not breathing and unconscious.

"Speaking of," Shelly said. "If anyone needs any money, I can give you a loan. I would like to get paid back sometime though. When ya can."

Wearing a breezy skirt did not help the awkwardness of the situation for Alessa one bit. Alessa gingerly moved his head so he rested on the couch. "Dude, I'm not a pillow." she said. Although she wasn't as upset as she thought she'd be.

Shaen only shook his head at the melodramatic actions of Kit, though he smirked a bit as the other boy fell onto Alessa's lap. A bit too convenient or had it actually been an accident. Who knew, but it certainly seemed that his next few weeks would be entertaining at the least. "Apparently Kit doesn't think so." he muttered with a shrug. Turning his attention to Shelly as she spoke yet another dreaded word, Shaen faked a shiver. "Loans. Almost as bad as debt."

"In time perhaps, but can that wait a bit.", Alessa said to Kit.

Kit moved with Alessa's motion and rolling off the couch and unto the floor, somehow rolling into a cross legged position Tumble check: 19. "Okay, that might have been bit much," Kit said sheepishly. "Didn't realize where I would land. And I didn't want to break character..."

Alessa wasn't entirely sure it was accidental, but this wasn't the time to consider that. "Break character?", Alessa wondered.

Kit looked up at her with his smile. "The little skit I did. The gasping and toppling over and all."

"Then you toppled surprisingly accurately.", Alessa said. If Kit was a kitten things would have been different, she thought. Well that was random.

"My toppling skills have been honed at the subconscious level through years of pratfalls and tripping. Scouts honor," Kit said, holding his hand up solemnly. Fast talking

Shelly laughed. "I can tell that it's gonna be just like our chats, Kit." The only thing predictable about them was that they were unpredictable and anything could happen.

Alessa clapped slowly and sarcastically. "Still, warn me next time would ya, kitten.", Alessa said.

"That's another nickname for him." Shelly said. "Not one I like to use all that much though. Though usually his charactors are cats anyways. Or some anthro form of 'em."

"I see, cats do like resting in people's laps...but what does that make me?", Alessa joked.

"No clue." Shelly admitted. "Typically when me and him do some RPs, I'm... never the same thing twice in a row..." she admitted. "I like being unpredictable."

"RP's you say...what sort of RP's are we talking about here", Alessa asked.

"Forum based. We each do up a section of a scene. What our charactor is thinking, saying or doing. Lately, Kitler's taken the roll of GM for Dungeons and Dragons."

"So he's a cat and you're his pillow?", Alessa asked, "At least until I showed up heh", she finished.

"Nah. Usually Kitler finds other people to lie on."

"Which makes me his new pillow of the week, well you're living with him so I guess you're on pillow duty from now on." Alessa smirked.

"Okay! Moving on, now," Kit interjected. This was getting into awkward territories, though She-Sells response did cause a very faint twinge of something. Meh. He probably imagined it. "So, you were talking about majors."

"Yes, silly kitty.", Alessa said in a fake fawning tone.

"So let's keep talking about that," he smiled. Thank the heavens black men don't blush.

"Alright then, what is yours?", Alessa asked. That little aside was too fun to just drop like that but she could tell the poor man was uncomfortable, embarrassed or aroused she could not say.

"A major in psychology, with a focus in child, and a minor in anthropology and Mythology. I plan to engineer young minds in my image, and let them loose on the world, were they will enter society and corporations, and when my minions have taking roles of sufficient power, I will awaken my little sleeper agents, and change the nature of the world using the fear and desires of the masses, shaping it into me empire! Mwuhahahaahahaha!" Kit broke off into an evil laugh that was far more natural than most people could manage.

"All hail the mighty Kitthulu!", Alessa said pretending to be shocked, "Your explanation could make folks go insane."

"I scare my mom a lot," Kit grinned.

"So you've claimed your first victim?", Alessa said lying down on the couch now that she controlled all of it.

"Minion," Kit corrected. "She's an accountant. I will need a financial minister."

"Minion my bad. So where do the rest of us fit into your fantasy?", Alessa asked.

"By the way," Kit said, keeping his head looking very straight ahead, "If I turn, there is a chance I might see up your skirt."

//whichever way the wind blows

"And you mention this why?", Alessa said nudging his head with her foot.

"Because I am a virile young man who also has a strong streak of chivalry." Kit stated.

"I don't deny that but that doesn't answer my question." Alessa said leaning her legs off the armrest so as to prevent such an eventuality.

Shelly chuckled. "So if any of us girls catch a glimpse of you while we're in the shower, we're free to slap you any time? Good to know."

"Don't give him any idea...dang it", Alessa said to Shelly in shock, at which point she fell off the couch again, landin on her stomach. She rolled so she was on her back and then sat up on the floor clutching her legs.

Kit didn't say anything at first, but he did give narrow his lips to a line and gave her a thumbs up. "Nice."

"Aw shit, you didn't...", Alessa said.

"... possibly," Kit ventured.

With that Alessa kicked him lightly in the chest, and then pulled her legs up closer to her chest until she was curled up in a semi-sitting position. "Nevermind, I'd be happier not knowing," she said. It was better that way.

"Oof!" Kit gasped as the air rushed out of his lungs. He doubled over, coughing and gasping as he clutched at the impact sight. acting: 27

"Dude are you okay?", Alessa asked.

"You all right?" Shelly asked. "Guys, don't start fighting already."

"Do I look okay?" he managed to gasp out.

"I didn't think I kicked him that hard,"Alessa said.

Shelly glanced at Alessa. "Don't hurt my friend..."

"I think everybody needs to chill a bit," Shaen remarked off handedly as if he wasn't involved in the situation before him. Which he technically wasn't."And come on Kit, she didn't kick you that hard."

"True," Kit grinned, perking up instantly. "But she did kick me. That has to count for something."

"I supose so," Shaen replied, though he shrugged to show his indifference to the situation. "Play nice Alessa," he chided, smiling slightly to show it was all good.

Alessa made her way back onto the couch, "Of course", she said innocently.

"If you're done beating each other up?" Shelly offered. "What's everyone's schedules like?"

"Decent looking. No early classes, no late classes either," Kit said as he tugged his shirt to get rid of the creases. "Monday to thursday."

"4 classes Tuesday/Thursday, and only one Monday/Wednesday/Friday, never thought it would end up this crazy."

"Pretty cool. Have to wake up early, but only have four days of classes. All one after another though."

"I think I'll have to be a workaholic, sad to say. Lots of stuff to do. If I don't stay up late doing projects, then i'll be late getting home. Still, that's good I suppose, Alessa. If I need help, could i come to you?"

"I suppose that will be fine", Alessa said.

A strange person climbed up the stairs from the basement, a shirtless man with a towel draped over his shoulder. "Oh, hey, new folk."
[Alessa would have met Nathan already]

Alessa facepalmed when Nathan came upstairs.

"Hello!" Shelly said cheerfully.

"Well, hello. We haven't had the pleasure," Nathan said with a winning smile. "Nathan Figgs at your service. And you are?"

"Shelly," She replied. "Shelly Mauroy." She didn't know about his womanizing habits. She was just happy to be here right now. "Nice to meet you." She said, extending her hand for him to shake.

"A lovely name for a lovely lady," he said. "And good morning Alessa. Radiant as ever."

Shelly blushed. "Thank you." Shelly said. "That's very sweet of you to say." She didn't have very many male friends back home and it was good that she was already making friends here.

"Hello Nathan", Alessa said.

"You don't seem happy to see me, are you still upset about that kiss yesterday?" he asked, seemingly hurt.

"No it's not that, it's just you and how much I want to hurt you.", Alessa said innocently.

"Oh?" Shelly asked. "You're already spoken for?" She asked. "Better not flirt with me to much. Else the misses might get jelous... or something."

Shaen sighed softly. Cheerful and hyperactive or even moody and grumpy he could handle. Attention "whores" and womanizers were another story though, one that he personally did not care for. As his eyes clouded, Shaen began to let his mind wander, tuning out the world around him.

"Hello, other people here," Kit spoke up, waving his hand to get attention. He did not really appreciate this Nathan character ignoring the guys to focus only on the girls. "Hi, nice to meet you. I'm Kit and this is Shaen."

"I was getting to you," Nathan said smoothly.

The videogames are addicting, and Vasily knew it well. Because of this he just put all links to them in big folder called "Games", sorted them by genre and how he likes them and put them into the far corner of his Desktop so he would rarely notice. And because of this, they weren't the first things he decided to do after finishing packing. While he surely enjoyed them, he now had to meet the new people.

And thus, Vasily headed downstairs and got to the most loud room he could hear. "Time to make entry" Vasily thought.

"Hello there, people." Vasily said strolling casually into the room and leaning to the nearest wall "I see the discussion goes on, right? Won't you mind if I'll cut in?"

"No worries we're all friends here...mostly.", Alessa said to the newcomer.

"You break my heart," Nathan smirked.

"Do you mean break you or just break your heart?", Alessa asked.

"Hello!" Shelly said, eager to meet new people as ever. "No, by all means." She offered, extending her hand for the new guy to sit down. "What's your name?"

"Nice." Vasily stated, and went to the place that was offered to him. "Name's Vasily, and before you ask, I study Computers and Psychology, but the latter is by books without teachers. So," Vasily looked at Alessa at this point "I might try to make you all friends there, instead of "mostly". But don't expect professional healthcare" Vasily chuckled and finished his speech, waiting for the other people to react. This is going to be interesting.

"As long as you ain't loverboy over here, I think we'll get along.", Alessa said

"Again with the heart breaking," Nathan sighed.

"I could break more of you if you like Nathan", Alessa said sarcastically. She was bluffing, she had taken some martial arts, but not enough to be considered a master in any way.

"Hey! Brothers in Psychology!" Kit said, doing a fist pump."Even if you are just doing it casually."

"Play nice...." Shaen muttered half-assed as if dazed from his trancelike state. He seemed to take a look around and noticing Vasily, gave a small nod before staring into the void once more.

"You can try and break me any day," Nathan smiled at her.

"I'm trying..." Alessa said.

Vasily did an aeral high-five towards the other Psychology studying person and asked "What's your name, my professional colleague?" and then, he noted the conflict between two and found out that at one of them was his future roommate. He'll mention this some time later, but not now...

"The ever helpful, Kit James," Kit said with a small bow. "Pleased to make your acquittance."

"Alessa Chen, I'm in Engineering and History, From Taiwan. And you?", Alessa asked.

"Shelly Mauroy," she said. "I'm in Engineering. From Australia." She heard the accent. a trace of one. Not like hers, but it was still there. Then again, everyone had an accent according to her. "Where are you from?"

"In Soviet Russia, computers study you!" Vasily said with a terrible accent and rose his hand to the air "Well," he then continued without the accent "I come from Russia. And no, the computers don't study you there yet."

Shelly laughed with the bad Russian accent. "Nice! Well with the way computers are developing, I'm sure that they'll be able to do that eventually. Would put me out of a job though, but oh well. Hopefully when the machine uprising comes, they'll need us fleshies to do basic stuff."

"Why do you two sound so hopeful when you say that," Kit said carefully.

"Generally an optimist I suppose." Shelly admitted, shrugging.

"I hope I'll be responsible for this" Vasily said with an evil grin.

"Hey! My uprising takes presidence!" Kit protested.

"Heil Kitler?" Shelly asked.

"Kitler or Kitthulu we're talking about here?", Alessa asked.

"Bah, taken. More like... Wu'tan overlord. Has a nicer ring to it," Kit grinned. "Need to be original and all."

"Everyone wants to claim the world, few know how to actually do this." Vasily stated

"Personally I feel the rush is from the conquering, actually trying to rule the world would get boring fast.", Alessa chimed in.

"Which is why I will have my network of carefully engineered minions in places of power," Kit explained, grinning widely. "I explained that."

"I bet those minions would rebel and try to take your place. If they are engineered from humans, of course. Robots would be more reliable" Vasily said.

"Social engineering. Psychological groomed to be dependent and obedient. And more versatile and spontaneous than simple machines."

"See," Vasily changed his pose to more relaxed "Spontaneous. Unreliable. Humans would always try to rebel, and you would be lucky if your engineered persons wouldn't try to take the power from you, but from the next generation of rulers." Vasily said and then continued "Robots can't control people, however. That's why in the world full of robots I will kill all humans and make robots autonomous and powerful. Side effect of it is lack of science strength, however..."

"Well... there might be nanomachines." Shelly added. "Those might be able to control humans."

Vasily rose his eyebrow and responded "Too high science. As high as some were-wolves and stuff like that. We won't see them in our life."

"I'm thinking more training my minions from the developmental age, and, get this; Magic," Kit said dramatically.

"In other words, you plan to be a teacher?" Shelly said, confirming it to everyone. She knew herself that he wanted to be one, but the others didn't.

"Teacher or counselor."

"World conquest is still pointless, what do you plan to do once you get all your power", Alessa asked.

"No bursting our bubble!" Kit protested. "And what do presidents do power?"

"Yeah it is pointless. But when you control the entire world, with robots or not, you have such industrial power that no one possesses! You can ask for ANYTHING. But hey, it's impossible and that's why we are discussing it here." Vasily said

Deal with bureaucracy because people don't always let you have your way. Say it's a dictatorship, no one gets to do anything but you. That makes sense, you have your right to dream of course.", Alessa said.

Kit pressed two fingers of each hand to his temples and focused on Alessa, eyes half squeezed shut with effort.

Alessa returned the gesture, if he wanted a psychic battle he'd get it.

"Psi powers? I've thought it was some kind of filthy pseudo science." Vasily said

"Waaaait a second there Kitler." Shelly put in. "Weren't YOU the one that banned psychic powers from being used in the forum?"

Kit moved one hand from his right temple and wagged a finger at Shelly, one eye still twitching with focus. "I banned the WOTCs Psionics, mostly cause they were abused. And I didn't get them. This is less psionics and more Will. Force of personality." He quickly put his pressed his hand to his temple again before lost ground.

"Salvage the pride, Kitler. Salvage the pride." Shelly said.

"You know I will," Kit said, still focusing on Alessa.

"Yeah, I didn't get them either. Didn't even have the basic things like telepathy... mind reading... stuff like that. But oh well." Shelly relaxed. "By the way, Kit. this isn't as cold as it's gonna get is it?" She asked. "Cause already this is on the chilly side for me."

"Chilly? It's a lovely twenty degrees," Kit, letting his focus slip. "Varth!" he quickly refocused on the battle of Wills.

Alessa lost interest in the psychic joke battle.

*Mikey Walks up to the front door and knocks, yelling out Cowabunga dudes! Pizza!*

Shelly looked up and saw someone at the door. "I think there's another person at the door. maybe. Can't tell from here." Seeing that no one was getting up, she did so and opened the door. "Hello! You here for the Geis Pharmaceuticals program thingy?"

I was about to open the door before someone else opened it for me. This person was tanned and had a bit of an accent to her voice, “Yup. I’m Michael, how are you miss…?”

"Shelly Mauroy," she replied. "Come in, come in! We're just talking about things right now. What courses we're taking, what programs we're in, schedules, mind control and world domination plans, come on!" She grabbed Michael's hand and pulled him inside.

The introduction was normal enough until we hit mind control, “...Wait, wha-ack!”
I was suddenly pulled into the room and noticed a bunch of other people, “Uhh, hello everyone… what’s this talk about world domination?”
Needless to say, I was giving a nervous smile as I was pretty sure the last two things Shelly said wasn’t part of the fine print.

"What else do people talk about when they are the select few who will survive the apocalypse?" Kit asked, baffled. He had rolled to his feet and headed out after Shelly. "We are dividing up the world and countries. I claimed North America, Shelly's getting the Pacific Islands, Alessa Asia... Ooo, alliteration."

"Happy to help in your plans for world domination", Alessa smiled.

"Good enough for me. So long as I get Australia too." Shelly said. "So, what program you in? and how come you decided to sign up for this? Also, what do ya think they'll be doing?"

Kit put a hand on the Shelly's head as he came up behind her. She had very soft hair. "Don't overwhelm the guy. Let him breath. But I do have one question; do you want India or Greenland?"

Unless they’re playing around, Micheal wasn’t amused by this, “You know December 21, 2012 is a load of bull right?” Really now, he had a long day (it's early morning...) and he really didn’t feel like spending the rest of it with people who believed in that crap. He’d be better off finding his room and drowning it in music or improving his aim with hitting a baseball or something... Or playing the Cello for that matter!

Thankfully, Shelly changed the subject, “Well, I’m working on getting a job in Aerospace Engineering and/or Manufacturing. Signed up for this because the free stuff is great and the fine print only said we’ll be injected with who knows what for awhile.”

"Who ever mentioned 2012?" Shelly asked confused.

"uhh, Apocalyspe?" Micheal said with an unamused tone of voice.

"there are more apocalypse predictions then just 2012." She countered.

"All of which are a load of bull. People thought the end of the world will happen in the year 2000. Something about computer code being a bunch of zeros or something." Micheal groaned

"Who ever said anything about 2012? And the Y2K scare was based on electronics crashing when the systems tried to roll over to the new millennium." Kit helpfully supplies. "But we are taking about creating an apocalypse."

"And then we'll pick up the pieces and take over... THE UNIVERSE!!!" Shelly laughed diabolically as loud as she could, complete with over-the-top hand motions.

"..." Micheal proceeded to check his map again to make sure he was in the right place and not a mental ward...

"No, no, She-sells, that is not how your do an evil laugh." Kit sighed. He cleared his throat, then let lose one that started with a diabolical chuckle, then intensified into a deep menacing and maniacal laugh that seemed to linger in the rafters, fingers bent into claws; one hand arching near his chest, the other held crooked behind him, a mad twisted look in his eyes as his perfectly white teeth glistened in the light. He paused for effect. "That was an evil laugh."

Alessa listened, this was important if she ever had to turn evil one day. She attempted her version of an evil laugh.

Micheal idly wondered if it was not too late to be a loner... "WHELP, nice to know I'm in a room of insane people! Nice to meet you all!" He Sat down in slight annoyance...

"Mad you say? Why, we're all mad here." Shelly said, grinning.

"Noticed..." Micheal said flatly.

"Is that a bad thing?" Shelly asked, tilting her head.

"maybe yes, maybe no, heard something about opposites attract; I'm sane, you're all mad." Micheal said.

"We're really just messing with you," Kit said, having the decency to look slightly ashamed. "Me and She-sells seem to be the only Lewis Carrol worthy ones here. Vasily," he pointed the Russian out, "is more the calculating type, the rest seem normal." He went around the little group. "Alessa, Nathan and Shaen."

"Really?", Alessa said.

"Normal enough," Kit grinned.

"I just haven't considered world domination, doesn't exactly make me the most normal one..after all Shelley did say that we're all mad, you and me.", Alessa said.

"That only because we signed up for this. "`You must be,' said the Cat, `or you wouldn't have come here.'" " Kit finishing the quote with the flair of a professional orator. "The Cheshire Cat, Alice in wonderland."

"Well true, I signed up for this, which would make me certifiably insane.", Alessa said, "Yes yes, I've read it."

"By the way, what do you guys think they're gonna do, anyways?" Shelly asked.

"That's not in our hands anymore, shouldn't be anything crazy though", Alessa said.

"Oh, say that gain," Kit insisted with a wide smile. He had his fist over his mouth with excitement, then pointed at Alessa. "But this time, sound even more foreshadowing when you do!"

"That's not in our hands anymore, Shouldn't be anything too crazy though.", Alessa said in a much more commanding tone as if to foreshadow something special about to happen. "That seems excessive, we might as well just wait and see."

The madness around Vasily was rather calming. He was used to it, and the familar things always make one calm. However, Vasily was careful guy. He knew that discussion could head the wrong way if he would have said anything - he really looked forward to some productive talk. And well, the luck was on his side, and while people weren't much interested in finding out what may happen to them, Vasily was fairly concerned about this. That was actually one of the reasons he was silent when people were speaking about appocalypse and insanity - he was thinking and planning his monologue.

"Well, I actually hope for best, but, honsetly, I think there is something else in there." Vasily said, putting up a mildly concerned look on his face "I mean, it's way to suspicious. I would be honest - if not my lack of money, I wouldn't have joined this. First of all - they provide us with great accomodation." Vasily started a monologue, and now he could barely be stopped "No scientists do that. The company is either too progressive, or they really want that other people would see us less. Then - the money. Just helluva ton, especially for a company that has just started rising among the other competitors." Vasily spread his hands wide to show his impression on the amount of payment he can recieve "I am not saying they are not legit, however, I am just afraid of possible side effects."

Vasily stopped. He had more to say - but he knew that attention span of random people wouldn't last longer than the amount of time he spent on his short monologue. Now Vasily waited for the opinions, and expected anything - serious debate and argument or simple childish "ah, screw that, let's talk about something useless again!" attitude.

Diplomacy check: 23

The sound of someone ranting or perhaps discussing the possibilities of these experiments was enough to drag Shaen out of his self-induced trance. Listening to Vasily talk and contemplate about the nature of the experiment was a breath of fresh air for him. He had tried to dig up some information about the experiment, but anything detailed was hidden behind security he did not want to deal with. And what he could find told him nothing more than what he already knew.

"I have to agree with Vasily here," he said, nodding his agreement. "It's a bit strange, the whole situation really. An experimental drug that improves health? Very vague. They provide us with food and lodging for the entire experiment, in a house that looks more like a mansion than a facility they would use for tests." Shrugging, Shaen had always been a bit paranoid, especially with what he did in his free time, but this situation just felt suspicious.

"This place was actually a dormitory," a new voice spoke up. Why the rest were talking, two new faces had come in; the other two girls. Their bags were set against the wall, and one of them was decorated with flowers and pink thinks. "It got sold several years ago, but before that, it served as a dorm for one of the local colleges. I'm Stacy, by the way. Sorry if I butted in."

Vasily just did a friendly waving gesture towards the new girls that have started coming in. The room is getting a bit too crowded, at least for him.

"The way I see it not knowing is part of the fun, a safe amount of paranoia is healthy. We can deal with side effects as they come up. You're not about to leave without finding out more are you?", Alessa replied. She saw the newcomers. "Hello, care to join us?"

"Too good to be true, huh?" Shelly asked. "I admit, I had some feelings like that, but then again, the pay is good. I just hope it won't interfere to much with our schoolwork." When She heard the others, she smiled. "Hello! No, no, it's all right. How are you? My name's Shelly Mauroy."

"So you must be Esmeralda...I'm Alessa your rommate nice to meet you.", Alessa said to the other girl that walked in. Alessa noted she was likely the quiet type.

"Yes, Esmeralda Folk," she said. Her voice was soft, but it was one of those movie star voices that could get the attention of males without much effort. Nathan, predictably, smoothly moved to introduce himself. He was interrupted by heavy pounding on the stairs.

The last two members of the group descended form the second level. One was a slight figured young man who looked like an errant gust would blow him away, yet had the look of cool intelligence and a level thinker. The other, the source of the pounding, was his polar opposite. He could be the poster boy for a barbarian horde, or the football team. Though the two might not be mutually exclusive. He was rubbing the sleep from his face. "What's with all the racket?"

"Nice to meet you!" Shelly said. When she heard the two coming down the stairs, she wasn't sure where they had come from. She was upstairs earlier and hadn't seen these two...then again, they could have just been hiding. and she was more excited in meeting Kit. "Hello!" She said to the new people.S


"Good to meet you Esmeralda.", Alessa began. They were certainly in for an exciting year together. She saw Ragnarr Beartorr the barbarian and the science guy come down the stairs. "Hello there.", she said. It was good to meet new people and there was certainly a good variety of people who passed the clinical trials to get into this house.

Vasily grinned as he saw the womaniser getting interrupted by the newcomers. The room was now finally full of every kind of person, and this would surely cause some interesting interactions. Vasily now had a theory - everyone could pass the test, but the scientists wanted to test the psychological stability of every person coming under the effects of drug. hence the variety. However, the idea was too weird to be voiced, so instead Vasily decided to simply participate in the conversation.

"Greetings! You guys were kinda late to the introductions, so we might have to reintroduce everyone in there yet again," Vasily glanced over the people that came to the room earlier "If you won't mind?"

"Not at all.", Alessa said. "You wanna start us off?" Alessa sat on the couch with her legs crossed, she was trying to avoid another upskirt moment, especially with Nathan around. Hopefully

"Indeed. I'm Vasily, studying the Advanced System Administration and C++ programming as the major (sort of)." Vasily turned to the person to the side of him "Your turn, komrade."

"Shelly Mauroy," She said. "In the Structural Engineering program."

"I'll go next, I'm Alessa Chen, studying Mechanical Engineering and History.", Alessa continued.

"Emperor Kittan Jameson the fourth. Learning Psychology and Anthropology among the commoners as I prepare to take the throne," Kit said grandly.

"Just call him Kitler," Shelly added.

"I think I prefer Kitthulu.", Alessa said.

"But Springtime for Kitthulu doesn't have the same ring to it as Springtime for Kitler."

Vasily chuckled and said "Dream on, like the toothbrush moustache guy did, like the short Frechie did."

"Stacy Wendel, I'm be doing business administration." She glanced at Kit and the others with a slight trace of confusion in her faintly furrowed brow.

"Esmeralda," miss Folk said lazily, "Dance and theater."

"Ah that sounds exciting.", Alessa commented.

"Oh yeah." Shelly said. "Good luck with everything." She smiled.

"My name's Darren Andrews. I'm in Exercise Sciences," the big guy said.

"Nathan Figgs, ladies," he smiled. "Also business administration."

"Good Morning," the slight one said, the first to actually greet anyone. "My name is Len Norman. I am in Nursing."

"Michael" He said with a more normal tone compared to his annoyed one some time ago, "Aerospace mechanical stuff with some music on the side... nice to meet you." [I guess]

"Sup," he muttered before giving the two new comers a small wave. "Shaen Wou, Chemical Engineering." Pausing as he let his thoughts run for a moment, Shaen felt a light bulb flick on at a moment of recognition. "Hey Len, guess we're roomates."

"I suppose so," Len said lightly. "I have already unpacked my items and placed them way. The remaining closet and draws will be yours."

"Cool, cool," Shaen said while shifting around on the couch slightly. Picking up his bags with little effort, he gave the others a small wave and nod. "Well be right back I guess, might as well set my stuff down."

"I could ask nothing more of you," Len said.

"I already moved all my stuff in, I made sure to leave half of the room for all your stuff," Alessa said to Esmeralda.

"Considerate of you," Esmeralda said in the same soft tone. "I might need a hand getting these up the stairs though."

Both Kit and Nathan moved to volunteer, then stopped to shoot looks at each other. Kit was going to do it because it was one of the things his father taught him a man did; opened doors, carried bags, etc. Nathan... he was probably hoping to get a glimpse up her skirt. And brownie points.

"Huh, I can help you with those," Shaen muttered with a shrug. "Both going up anyways."

Alessa offered to help, as a roomate and also as a precaution. "I can help you with that but looks like the boys already wish to assist you, lucky you.", she said. Alessa was of the mindset that chivalry was outdated, but free help was free help even if it came from perverts. No fault of Shaen, he was the only one who didn't actively try to get up-skirt glimpse, which made him alright. Kit was at least nice about it as opposed to Nathan who always seemed to think with his pants rather than his head.

"So much help," Esmeralda said in her dreamy tone. She turned in a somewhat unnecessary motion, her long dark hair fanning out around her, her short shirt flaring in the slightest, her long legs taking her back to the doorway. She took the smallest bag and moved to the stairs, assuming the others would follow.

"Not going to help?" Kit said, arching an eyebrow at Nathan.

"Why not. No need for your to exert yourself, your majesty," Nathan sneered, sinking a good deal of sarcasm into those last two words.

"Even an emperor treats women with respect, Mr Figgs," Kit countered, directing a good dose of arrogant contempt at the other man.

"Let me guess; Opening doors?" Nathan responded.

"And carry loads," Kit finished for him.

"How quaint," Nathan said with a smile. "Your father must be proud."

"Why thank you, he is. Can you say the same?" Kit said, his contempt flowing into a smile.

"Was that supposed to be an insult?" Nathan scowled at Kit.

"You got that? I'm so proud!" Kit grinned, applauding mockingly.

"You're a lip, aren't you?" Nathan snarled, stepping closer to Kit. "Is spewing hot air all you do?"

"Is spewing bad breath all you do?" Kit countered, making a show of waving a hand in front of his nose.

"You're on thin ice, man! I've got half a mind to deck you right now!" Nathan raised a hand threateningly.

"And here I thought you didn't even have that much," Kit smirked.

"I am going to whip the floor with you!" Nathan said, reaching for Kit's collar. Kit slapped the hand away.

"Ah, ah, aah!" Kit smiled, wagging a finger.

"To chicken to let me get a hold?" Nathan taunted. "You afraid of the champ?"

"The word you are looking for is chivalrous, not chicken, and not champ either, chauvinistic."

"You're asking for it!" Nathan's hands clenched into fists, since Kit wouldn't hold still.

"Sorry, but daddy always said; never hit women..." Kit shrugged. Throughout this back and forth, Darren had an appreciative grin on his face. He wasn't egging them on, but it was clear he wouldn't stop them if the fight started. Len, however, all but rolled his eyes at them.

"Oi! No fighting you two! Come on, we're all friends, right?" Shelly said, standing up and getting between Kitler and Nathan.

Nathan was about to launch his strike when Shelly moved between them. He snarled at Kit over Shelly's shoulder. Kit, for his part, smirked. He was something of the aggressor in this argument.

"Come on, we're friends, right? Just calm down. We jsut met and we're going to have to live together for a year at least. Do you want to make enemies of two people already?" She asked Nathan.
Diplomacy: http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3815229/ 15

After some time spent trying to do some stuff on PDA, Vasily already thought that the most interesting conversations are just had. But nope, and as he saw, the two people have somehow managed to get themselves into a fight.

"Woah, guys, calm down there!" Vasily said, rising up and starting to move "You know that you are about to fight over something so pointless?"

"Chivalry is never frivolous," Kit said grandly. Then he grinned. "But I suppose so. Truce Nathan?"

The man in question scowled. Then he looked at Shelly and swallowed it. "Fine. Truce."

Kit grinned even wider. "See? All's well that ends well."

Shelly smiled. "See? isn't that better?" She was happy that she got them to stop fighting. with help from Vaisly yes, but she still helped. "So, is anyone hungry?" she asked.

"Yeah, let's do something." Vasily said, keeping his eyes fixed on Nathan and Kit. At least they could stop them verbally. If they would have started fighting, Vasily had no chances.

"Food wouldn't go unappreciated," Kit admitted. It had been a while since the snack he had on the train.

Shelly meanwhile, confident that the two had calmed down, went into the kitchen. Opening up the fridge, she looked inside it to see what was available.

It was a massive industrial sized fridge. Understandable considering that there were roughly two dozen young people moving in. And the amount of food was just the start. There was also the variety. Fruit, eggs, bacon, sausage and more. Food both health and junk packed the shelves.

"Wow. Lot of stuff here." Shelly thought for a moment as she closed the fridge. She'd have to learn where everything was. It was part of her upbringing. Much like in Europe, it was expected that you would learn where everything was in the fridge so you could only have it open for a short a time as possible, so as not to waste energy. For now though, she thought of what she could make for lunch.

[We can now skip Lunch making to down below]

================================================== ================
[To the Upstairs, after: "You're a lip, aren't you?" Nathan snarled, stepping closer to Kit. "Is spewing hot air all you do?"]

Watching the two males bicker between themselves, Shaen just sighed and slung his own bags securely around his neck before picking up Esmeralda's bags. With a small heft he lifted her bags, which weren't exactly heavy, but he didn't bother mentioning that. Giving the others a small nod Shaen followed after Esmeralda.

Alessa gave a quick goodbye to her new friends. "Can you handle all of those Shaen?", Alessa asked following behind Esmeralda and Shaen.

"Hmm?"he murmered as he glanced backwards,slightly surprised that Alessa had followed after them. "Oh it's no problem," lifting one of the bags and giving a slight wave to prove it. Pausing, Shaen let Alessa go ahead of him smiling as he said, "Lead the way."

"Such a strong man," Esmeralda's voice drifted back.

Alessa nodded and the three made their way back to Alessa and Esmeralda's dorm room.

Shuffling up the stairs was slightly more of a pain with his own three bags constantly bumping against his legs and what not, but he managed. Following behind the two, Shaen set Esmeralda's bags down against the wall and rolled his shoulders. "Well, I'll be dropping off my own stuff now, call if ya need help." With a small wave he set to wandering the halls in an attempt to figure out which one out of the other five rooms could possibly be his.

Alessa ascended the stairs slowly, supporting herself with the railing, she had bad experiences with stairs. She often tripped on the most random things. It was a wonder she continued to wear skirts given how often accidents could occur. Alessa held the door open while Esmeralda and Shaen shuffled in. After Shaen left Alessa sat on her bed. "So Esmeralda looks like you have the gift. From what I can tell Kit and Nathan are probably still fighting over who gets to have you.", Alessa said jokingly.

"You think so?" she said as she moved her bags unto the bed, unzipping them to speed the process of unpacking along.

"Yeah, and I don't think they will stop any time soon.", Alessa said, "I have got to learn how to do that maybe you could teach me."

Esmeralda smile as she drew a few slinky dresses out of her bag. "Most men are easy to play, once you learn how they think," she said.

Alessa figured that was the answer, "Well Nathan thinks with his pants and Kit thinks with his mouth, by the way those dresses look really nice, must be your secret weapon."

"These are only the first volley," she smiled suggestively. From another bag, she started pulling out lacy and racy underwear, carefully folding them and set them in a drawer in her dresser. "These are my secret weapons."

"Very nice, but that's only half of it, I doubt all men will fall for that.", Alessa said, "There has to be more to charming men than simply lingerie."

"The hair and eyes help too. As does the attitude," Esmeralda said in her slow dreamy tone. "You just have to find what works for you."

Alessa remembered when guys fawned over her legs by the poolside, beauty came naturally. She wasn't sure she really wanted to stoop to that level, but it was good to have options. "So what are you interested in?", Alessa asked. If she needed tips on charming, she'd ask Esmeralda, but for now it was better to make small talk.

"Dancing is a passion of mine. Ever since I was little," Esmeralda said, her voice some how getting even dreamier as she talked about her love. "Dance, theater and song. I lack the power to be an great singer, but I am not bad either."

"Wonderful, I prefer swimming myself, though not competitively, along with crafts.", Alessa said. That voice was sweet as honey, she could see why Esmeralda had such hold over men. Alessa wondered if any women fell for her allure, but quickly pushed those thoughts aside.

Esmeralda had a small knowing smile on her face, as if she had an idea of what Alessa was thinking. "Swimming is one way to play with a mans mind. Suggest it to them, and I bet both of them will jump at the chance."

Alessa had a knowing smile on her face, as if she already knew, "I was thinking of going for a swim later, the public pool is only about a ten minute walk, care to join...maybe we can get a few others to come along."

"Like I said, I know at least two who will pant at the chance to see us in swim suits," Esmeralda cast a glance at Alessa. "You did bring something suitable, didn't you?"

"Of course.", Alessa said fetching her swimming bag which contained a frilly black one-piece and a towel. "Maybe Shelly would want to come along, I'm going back downstairs now, care to come along?", Alessa said.

"I need a bit of time to finish unpacking" Esmeralda said.

================================================== ================
[To the Upstairs, after Shaen separates from the girls]

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3815241/ (Apparently Shaen fails at finding his own room.) The sound of four doors being kicked open and then immediately closed would echo throughout the house. With a sigh, Shaen staggered over to the final door, which had to be his own. Opening it more gingerly, Shaen peeked inside and seeing male stuff that wasn't Kit's, Vasily's or Micheal's, assumed it was Lin's. "Well finally," sighing as he dropped his range pack to the floor and kicked it over to the bed. Setting his other packs down more carefully, Shaen left the room quickly, closing the door behind him.

Voices came from both the girl's room and downstairs. Leaving the girls to their small talk, Shaen hopped down the stairs. Last thing he needed was to be grouped with Nathan due to trying to give a little notice and catching glimpses of their underwear instead.

Stacy had also gotten frustrated with the bickering duo, and decided that she too would leave to give them time to work it out. She had less load to her name than Esmeralda, but it was still a challenge to try and haul them up the stairs. She had just cleared the first landing when Shaen came up on her.

"Hey.... Stacy right?" Shaen gave the girl coming up the stairs a small wave and smile. "Need any help with those?" he asked as he took a glance at the luggage the girl was lugging up the stairs all by herself.

"I would appreciate it," she said gratefully. "I would have asked one of the others, but I didn't want to add more fuel to that bonfire." She gave Shaen an exasperated look. "Do you know what their problem is?"

Chuckling to himself as Stacy mentioned Kit and Nathan, Shaen shrugged. "Boys gotta bump heads with other boys I guess," he said indifferently. He stepped down to Stacy's level and took a glance at the luggage reached for the heaviest piece. "Just let me take that."

"Thank you," she said with relief as Shaen took her burden. "So, does that apply to you as well?"

With a nod he grabbed the bag from Stacy and began up the stairs. Pausing at her question, Shaen shrugged with a small smile, before he said "I suppose it does. Just takes a bit more for me to bump heads I guess."

"So those two are just a pair of hot heads, I take it?" Stacy said as she followed Shaen up the stairs with her thankfully lighter load. "I suppose that makes you the level-headed one. Shaen, was it?"

"Can't really say, after all it's only been a while. Maybe they both have hidden depths beyond my imagination," he spoke of the two with a small laugh. Letting Stacy take the lead once they reached the second floor, Shaen shrugged at her remark. "Maybe, but I'm probably the more apathetic," a sheepish smile as he commented on himself. "Len or Vasily seem to fill that spot."

"To be honest, I didn't get much of a impression of them," Stacy said as she opened the door to her room. Like the others, it had duplicates of furniture; from the bed to the dresser. "Of course, when compared to that testosterone fit, most common activities are rather lack luster."

Shuffling in after Stacy he dropped her case by the bed. To be honest it didn't really look all that different from his own, though he had expected there might have been an extra dresser or cabinet for the females. "True I suppose," he replied before yawning and then glancing at his watch. "Already 10 and I haven't had any coffee..." he muttered disappointingly. "I suppose you don't need any help?" he asked after reaching the doorway.

"I should be fine from here. Thank you for the help," Stacy said gratefully.

"No problem, see ya later," he said with a small wave before he turned the corner and vanished.

=============================|TIME: 9:49|============================
[The SANE One]

Michael sighs the moment Kit and Nathan even hinted at fighting and he stands up as Nathan pressed the insult Kit gave him, "Yeah, I'm going to look for my room now; I better not come back down to a dead body or two."
With that, he walks up the stairs giving the argument a little wave, but nothing else.

(Room 205)
Michael soon finds the room he was assigned to and begins to unpack, "That 'Kit' is completely insane... I hope they're all not like those two."
He looks around the room and maps out one half of it since he was certain he has a roommate. Once that was done he begins to place his clothes in his own closet and the laptop along with the router went on his desk. He also put the Toiletries there in a cup since the rooms didn't come with bathrooms. Needless to say, he felt much lighter once he was done sorting though stuff. He ensures everything was plugged in and that the router looked happy, things looked decent enough, "...Looks fine to me. Now then..."
He places his backpack somewhere out of the way and lays on the bed as he grabs his smart phone along with his earphones. He puts them in and turns on some Trance & Progressive, "Ahh, there we go...... now what? I don't want to go back downstairs. sleep is a dumb idea, I have no reason to hop onto the internet today..."
As if to stop his idle thought process, his stomach lets out a small growl, "...Lunch it is."
He stands back top and digs into his backpack for a small bag that would contain a sandwich. He grabs the water bottle from where it was being held and sits back down as he takes a bite out of the sandwich, "...This may be a long year. Thankfully the free stuff at the cost of potentially life threatening shots should be worth it."
He allows that thought to process for a few seconds before letting out a long sigh.

================================================== ================

[Luncheon]

Alessa took her swimming bag and entered the bathroom to change. When she came out she had her black frilly swimsuit on under her everyday clothes. "I'll wait for you downstairs in the lobby later then.", she said to Esmeralda.

Alessa descened the stair to make her way to the kitchen.

Balance DC 10:
1d20-2=15

Alessa stumbled a bit on the stairs but was able to not fall down like she used to. She entered the kitchen. Upon entering she noticed Shelly. "Oh hello there.", Alessa said.

Shelly meanwhile was looking through the pantry, still trying to think of something she could make. "Hey there." She said and looked at Alessa. "Going somewhere?" She asked.

"Not particularly.", Alessa said.

"Ah well. I was just looking for something to eat." Shelly replied.

"I was thinking of going for a swim, Esmeralda already expressed interest, wanna come along?", Alessa asked.

"Ohhh, sure!" She said. "Good thing I even brought my swimsuit." She said. "Didn't think I'd need it though. I'll be right back!" She rushed up the stairs as fast as she could to get into her and Kit's room. "Swimsuit... wherewherewhere?" She asked, rushed. "AHHA!" She said taking hold of it. nothing to fancy. a black and blue one piece.

"Did someone say swimming?" Kit asked. He had come into the kitchen to find out what was going on with the food she said she was looking for, which then turned into a question of what had led to She-sells running out, after he ended up over hearing something fun.

Alessa was stunned by Shelly's sudden response. "I'll wait for you in the great room then.", Alessa was able to say before Shelly ran off. "Yeah, I planned to go swimming for a bit before lunch, I think Shelly and Esmeralda wanted to join up." With that Alessa walked out to the couches and sat down to wait for her new friend to finish.

"Cool," Kit grinned, making a beeline for the fridge.

Heading into the bathroom, she grabbed a towel as well and rushed back down. "Just need one last thing..." she rummaged through the kitchen and found a reusable cloth grocery bag. "All right! ready!" she said.

Alessa saw Shelly enter the lounge with her swimming gear. "Good, now we wait for Esmeralda, anyone else want to come along, we'd be going before lunch." Alessa called.

"We're going swimming!" Shelly added.

"I am a rather good swimmer," Nathan said, his swagger back as if it had never left. Len made no comment, but Darren did nod in agreement.

Esmeralda breezed into the room, her long legs and stride immediate drawing eyes, and not just Nathan's half hidden gaze and the glance from the corner of Kit's eye (he glanced out of the kitchen to see who was coming down the stairs), but Darren for one also looked.

"Esmeralda good to see you, do you have your swimsuit?", Alessa said. Esmeralda seemed to have a hypnotic effect on all the men. Must be nice to be able to do that.

Esmeralda only nodded as she took a seat on one of the single cushioned chairs.

"I'd like to leave before lunch anyone coming please be ready by then.", Alessa said to the girls.

Len made a non-committal sigh, but didn't say anything close to a definitive yes or no.

The great room was really just a fancy den. Large cushy chairs, paintings on the wall, a center table, a few side tables as well, even a flat screen television on a table stand with a man wearing a suit smiling back at them from it. Funny... the television wasn't on when they came in. "Good morning, campers," the man on the screen said.

"Hello," Shelly said. "Were you here the whole time?" She never seemed to have noticed him before. "Are you gonna be one of the people from the company?" she asked. "And why are ya in the TV and not here?"

Alessa noted a voice coming from the TV, as if they were being watched. The surprise made her jump a tad. "Was wondering when someone from the company would show up...", Alessa said. She figured her hastily planned excursion would have to wait a while. At least her swimsuit was comfortable so she didn't mind.

"Dr Raine was held up, so I decided to make a phone call instead," he said with a slightly dismissive smile. "The orientation session still needs to be held, as there are things you need to know, so I will be subsituting for for her. I am Doctor Gerald Grant, the supervisor for this project."

"Nice to meet you." Shelly said. "I suppose this is just wishful thinking, but are you gonna let us know what it is you're gonna be doing?"

Alessa sat in a relaxed pose, she figured orientation couldn't begin until everyone was crowded around in the great room. As long as it didn't take two hours for Dr. Grant to explain everything. "Good to meet you, if not in person.", Alessa said, seconding Shelly's greeting.

================================================== ===============
[To the kitchen...]
People were discussing swimming. Vasily wasn't really into it. He found water relaxing - but only in small amounts, contained in the water pipes, or when it's pouring into sink. And now he had more important business - the fridge was glorious. Ignoring all this filthy vegetarian stuff, Vasily instantly spotted a giant piece of meat steak. "Now this is a nice piece of food" he muttered before taking out the chilly piece of glorious taste. After looking around, Vasily proceed to quickly hide the steak on the plate and in the microwave oven in order to make it a bit hotter.

Kit had his mouth filled with food when Vasily came in, mostly from the pocketful of grapes he snatched. The rest of the food he was acquiring was the trio of hot dogs and the croissant he had thrown into the toaster oven, waiting for them... well, toast. He held up a finger as he hastily chewed and swallowed. "Hey Vasily."

Coming down the stairs, Shaen was greeted with sound of conversation echoing from both the kitchen and common room. He decided he could spare the time to poke his head into the common room before grabbing his coffee. He wanted to see if someone had actually been floored or if it'd just been settled diplomatically.

Peering around the corner, Shaen caught glimpses of the guys and girls, Vasily and Kit missing. The chatter seemed lively enough, so he assumed that no one had gotten socked in the face. A shame, perhaps. Quite sure that the others hadn't seen him, he slipped away unnoticed towards the kitchen. (Move Silently: 6 http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3815996/ )

Entering the kitchen Shaen saw Vasily attempting to microwave steak. Microwave a nice piece of steak.... is that what this world had come to? Simply sighing, Shaen gave the two of them a small wave before shuffling around, looking through the covers. The coffee grind was his own, a special blend, though he lacked a proper brewing kit. Still, after collecting pieces from all over the kitchen Shaen seemed to at last, finally assembled a proper coffee brewer. Now just for the hot water. Filling a pot with a bit of water from the sink, Shaen set it on the stove and turned on the heat. "Want any?" he asked the other two.

"Coffe? Yeah... no," Kit grinned, holding his hands up wardingly between himself and the guy making the offer. Caffeine in large quantities was something he had never really tried, and didn't have intentions of trying either. "I'm bad enough as it is. And don't go offering any to She-sells either."

"Nope, I am more of a tea person" Vasily said, staring at the microwave oven. Perfect timing. Few moments later Vasily opened the door and took out his precious piece of meat. And after that Vasily put the meat on the nearest table and grabbed the nearest clean fork. Time to eat.

"Tea I can work with," Kit said, puttering about his own meal. Microwaves were faster than Toaster ovens, true, but they didn't provide that nice crisping effect toasters, ovens, and their love child toaster ovens provided. Carefully, he pulled the hot dogs and the croissant out, and poked it open as if it were a bun, and stuffed his hot dogs inside.

"Hot, hot, hot," he murmured as he delicately managed the food. He stuffed in some shredded cheese, also liberated from the fridge, and smeared on some honey mustard. "In fact, do you have enough water for me to make some tea?"

Glancing at the water that had already begun to boil, thank the miracle that was an induction stove, Shaen nodded. "Should be enough. You'll have to find your own tea though," he replied before lifting the pot gently. Having already portioned out a nice helping of his mixture into the filter, he carefully poured the simmering water through. A dark and rich brown coffee quickly began to seep through the filter and satisfied, Shaen set the pot and water back onto the stove.

"Onward to teadom!" Kit smiled, plucking a spoon from the rack. It was a large cooking spoon, so he soon switched it for a normal one. Cupboard doors were little defense against his curiously, and in short notice he assembled some a travel mug, some sugar, Earl Grey and mint tea, and even the box of milk from the fridge. He took a bite of his croissant dog as he set his tea a-brewing.

Shaking his head with a small smile at Kit's reactions, Shaen decided to go check out the common room for now. His coffee would need time and standing around in a kitchen with two other guys wasn't exactly his idea of time well spent. Giving the others a small nod, Shaen headed across the hall for the main room.

================================================== ================

[Returning to the Great Room]

"What's goi-" Shaen was asking as he stepped into the common room, but at the sight of a man in the television the question caught in his throat. "Okay then..." he muttered awkwardly as he looked around at the others sitting in the room. "Anyone wanna fill me in here?"

"We're just as confused as you are.", Alessa said in response to Shaen's question, her eyes still on the good doctor.

Stacy wandered in about the same time as Shaen did, but didn't really see the need to repeat the question that was just asked twice. Instead, she found standing space towards the back of the room.

"And I was just about to ask if you weren't missing a few people," Dr. Grant smiled. His eyes scanned the room, a bit odd considering that he was apparently just an image on the screen. "I don't see Christian, Vasily or Micheal. They were supposed to make it here this morning. Are they running late?"

"Oh they're all here, yeah." Shelly said, then looked for Kit. "Somewhere. OI! Kitler!" She yelled. "Man on the telly wants you!"

"You should probably take the other one, Vasily, with you," Len added.

Alessa waited along with the others, at least now she knew Kitthulu's real name. Last she figured he was in the kitchen. As for Vasily and Michael, she had no idea. "We don't know where they went.", she added.

Kit, in the kitchen stuffing his face (he had found brownies, and added a couple of those to a paper towel and a tray he found along with his croissant dog and a his travel mug of tea), turn curiously when She-sells yelled his name. He carefully balanced it all (Balancing Trick=22) on the crock of his left arm and grabbed, well; firmly tugged, Vasily's shirt collar. "Kum hun," he mumbled through his mouthful. "Dey nweed wus for sumthin."

"What man on the TV?" he said as soon as he swallowed. Crossing over from the kitchen to the great room took a bit of skill with the tray, but he made it in one piece. He stopped when he caught sight of the man smiling at him. It was either one of the strangest coincidences in timing, or that guy could see him. "Ah. That man on the Telly." He set his tray on a side table and perched on another couch handle, this time the one beside She-sells. "Vas! The Man on the telly wants you! It seems to have been made in Russia!"

"Care to share any of that with the rest of us?", Alessa said referring to the tray of assorted baked goods.

"Oh? Where'd these come from?" Shelly asked and took one in her hands.

"Hey!" Kit protested as She-sell stretched over him to take his food. "My breakfast! Mine!" But since he did have a couple, about eight pieces, he handed two over to Alessa. "Aren't you lactose intolerant?" he asked She-sells as he did.

"When did I ever say that, Kitler?" Shelly asked, confused.

"Never, but it got you to stop stealing my food, didn't it?" He grinned, moving the tray so she couldn't reach it so easily.

"Thanks.", Alessa said retrieving the baked goods leaning over Shelly to reach them.

"So it did. For now." shelly said, grinning evilly. "You win this round, Kitler."

"I think Micheal is upstairs," Darren said. "In the room. I'll go drag him down."

Balance Check DC 10:=5
Alessa ended up slipping on the couch again, this time falling on Shelly's lap. She quickly righted herself, and collected the pastries. "Sorry I'm such a klutz.", Alessa said sheepishly.

"Ack!" Shelly yelled. "You did that on purpose!"

"That was an accident' I'm serious.", Alessa said to Shelly.

Shelly gave Alessa a look, trying to see if something was up. Then she was never that good at reading people. "Ah well. I suppose ya could be a comedian." Shelly said. "Slapstick humour never changes."
Sense motive: http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3816314/

"You topple pretty accurately yourself, miss Alessa," Kit teased.

"I suppose you could say that...I'm used to pratfalls.", Alessa said trying to play everything off as natural.

The grin on Nathan's face was more than teasing, though Alessa would not have been in the position to see it. Stacy has a slight smile on her face, and Len chuckled as he shifted his seat slightly.

With a quick glance around she could see the others found her little dive rather amusing...Some more so than others. Sometimes she wondered if she was this accident prone, why did she wear skirts? Alessa still had no answer, although she figured she stopped caring about pervs long ago. She glared at Nathan, who she assumed got to enjoy the view.

Shaen had moved over to the lean against one of the room's walls while he waited for the situation to sort itself out and hopefully provide some answers. At Kit's entrance he raised an eye at the stack of food carried, but paid it little more attention than a few glances. He did smile when Alessa blundered over Shelly, but quickly moved his hand to cover the expression. He was facing the girl so he didn't get the full view, but judging by Nathan and Len's expressions it had indeed been nice.

"Well, it's good to see that at least some of you are getting along," Dr Grant smiled. "I see you have found the kitchen, Christian. How are the brownies?"

"Good," Kit said, hiding his dismay with a smile. "Can you actually see us through the TV?"

"Only when the video call is turned on," Dr Grant said honestly. "Otherwise, it's just a regular flatscreen."

"That's good to know, Doc I was wondering what criteria your company based the selection process on?" Alessa said.

"That would be better to hold on to until Darren returns with Micheal," Dr. Grant said easily. Kit sipped his tea and took another bite of his dog.

"I await your explanation then sir.", Alessa replied.

"And I still would like to know what's gonna happen with us. What these tests are gonna be and whatnot. If you can tell us that.", Shelly said.

================================================== ============
[To fetch an Emo/Goth Kid]
Darren seemed to have never met a staircase he didn't want to hammer to pieces. At least, that was how it seemed as his footsteps pounded up the stairs and slowly faded as he neared the top and the better supported and insulated floor of the second level. He head straight for the room, and swung the door open. "Micheal," he gruffed. Everything about the guy was strong. "You need to be downstairs."
++Fen
Sometime after Michael finished his sandwich, he was debating about whether to go back downstairs before he hears the sound of something stomping up the stairs. Under the impression that Kit simply pissed someone off (wouldn’t surprise him none), he ignored it until the door flung open and a rather big guy appeared behind it. Considering how he came in, Michael was already gauging him up and figured he could weave around him and bum rush the stairs if this guy attacked, but apparently he’s the big security guard, grreeeaaaat. “And why do I need to be downstairs?”

"Orientation," Darren gruffed. Actually, once you got used to it, Darren's voice was somewhat musical. He had the potential to be a decent singer if he ever tried. "A guy name Grant is explaining things."

Interesting voice… Orientation, name I never heard… Might be one of the people who’s running this show, “Okay then…”
He stands up and once again noticed how big this guy is, “…After you.”
Once the big guy starts moving out from the door, Michael will follow and close the door behind him.

Darren nodded once Micheal started moving, and headed back down, clumping down the stairs even though he was expending no energy to the sorts.

Needless to say, Michael is kinda worried that this guy will break the stairs and is carefully following behind him to make sure he doesn't step in any holes he might make.

================================================== ===============

Darren in the lead, the roommates head back, in Micheal's case, the great room. Darren dropped himself into the chair he vacated, the furniture making a light creak of protest as his heavy frame landing into it.

Michael proceeds to sit down somewhere where everyone else is, but otherwise stays quiet less one of the crazies say something, namely Kit.

"Hey, Mikey," Kit waved as Micheal came in. Len has gone and convinced Vasily to take his meat into the great room with the others, and he was

"Finally got out of the batcave eh dude?", Alessa asked Michael.

"You make it sound like I was up there for hours..." Michael replied with a neutral voice.

"Just didn't want you to become a recluse is all. Now hold on I think the show's about to start.", Alessa replied.

"Now that everyone is here," Dr Grant said after making a quick head count, "We can begin. Is is safe to assume you have all introduced yourself?"

"…I may have retreated to the sanity of my room at some point, so no; I don’t know everyone.” Michael admitted with no apologetic tone to be found.

"Okay, I will just make a quick round and have you raise you hands when you are mentioned. Alessa, Christian, Darren, Esmeralda, Len, Nathan, Shelly, Shaen, Stacy and Vasily." Kit somewhat reluctantly raised his own hand when his name was called.

Alessa raised her hand when her name was mentioned. "Here.", she said quickly. Years of doing this had drilled that rote into her.

"Good. Remember everyone is your own duty, though," Grant added with a slight laugh.

"What?", Alessa asked, somehow his words made no sense.

"There are eleven people in the group. That is a lot of names to remember in one go," Grant explained. "But, to matters. I am the Regional Manager of Geis Pharmaceuticals Ontario operations. This trial, as was explained, is to test the effectiveness of our Arcadian Serum. It is expected to improve the general effectiveness of the body to heal and care for itself, which in turn would improve health and wellness."


"My question still stands sir, what were the criteria for selecting subjects, a lot more than this lot applied for this program.", Alessa asked.

"The same as any program of this nature," Grant explained. "While the hope is for a universal aid all treatment, the current iteration of our treatment is still lacking in that regard. At the same time, we need baseline comparisons, so the subjects have to be within a similar range of constraints. Everything from ethnicity, medical history and familial trends to leokucyte count, blood type, and other blood factors such as antigen saturation that are meaningless to those without medical degrees, and even some with, had to be taken into account. These tests need as many controlled conditions as possible with as much viability as possible.."

"Uh-huh," Kit blinked. He got the gist of it, but some of it was a bit over his head.

"Ethnicity? Then why'd you let us international students sign up for it? Shouldn't the control group be... white people or something? a mono-ethnicity?", Shelly asked.

Alessa didn't fully understand his explanation but it seemed acceptable. From what she could tell the gang differed mostly in psychological aspects. While she wasn't a doctor so she really didn't know exactly what criteria were absolutely needed. Alessa nodded in satisfaction.

"Note that I said high viability," Grant said with a smile, as if he appreciate the questions. He leaned back in his chair a bit. "We are still working on fixing the problem that prevents it from working on roughly 60% of recipients, but we are proving that it will work on a wide range of ethnic groups. The Africanics, Asianics, Eurasianic all the rest have very minor signatures in their genetic build up, but minor points can often prove to be major obstacles when dealing in medicine. This group has people from several different ethnic groups. We are proving that there is no ethnic barrier."

"40% success rate, that seems rather unfortunate, I hope there aren't any side effects to these trials. Have you identified this genetic signature?", Alessa asked.

"The signature is not our discovery, but rather a quirk well known in certain circles. Some of our critics try to make a boulder out of pebble with it, so it is just another constraint we have to consider. As for side effects, it either works or it doesn't. Sometimes it causes a single transcription error that terminates the entire process." Grant said.

"Isn't 40% a bit low?" Len asked.

"It varies. A roughly 50% success rate from laboratory trials with an error margin of roughly 15 percent. I prefer to err on the side of caution," Grant explained.

"What sort of side effects are we talking about, anyways? Just so we know what to look out for." Shelly asked, happy to know that Grant was so forthcoming.

"Like I said, it either works, or not." Grant responded. "As for the degree of effectiveness, animal and laboratory trials don't fully reveal that point."

"So... what you're saying is nothing will happen at all if it doesn't work?" Michael asks in hopes of clarification.

"If it doesn't take, nothing happens, that is the nature of the Arcadian Serum." Grant sighed. "And also the main issue. It's effectiveness depends on the interactions of several factors. If one fails, they all do. That is the reason screening for these trials are intense. We ensure the participants are viable." He considered for a moment. "If it does take, the changes in the bodies metabolism and hormonal response could be considered a side effect, though they are the intent. Previous tests show that there is a transition period, some agitation and heightened emotions. They joking call it a second puberty."

Alessa managed a grudging laugh at that last point. "Sounds intense, so the most I can expect are some mood alteration.", she said.

"Second puberty? Sounds horrible." Michael is clearly holding back a laugh at that part.

"And perhaps some exaggerated hair development. Maybe muscle development as well. It is a result of the hormonal shifts and is more often incidental." Grant went on. "It goes along with the improvement to physical strength and capabilities."

"And you're sure this is safe, changes in physical strenght, this sounds suspiciously like steroids sir.", Alessa said.

"The side effects are less concerning that some asthma medications, which include heart disease as a side effect," Grant's expression clearly said what he thought of those. "The physical improvements Arcadian causes are from the more efficient cellular recovery it promotes, and the reduction of muscle fatigue. Often, it is not a marked increase. People can experience the same, if not more, from alcohol or an adrenaline rush. Speaking of which, the former is only allowed in very limited amounts. "

Shelly nodded, understanding. She had asthma when she was a kid. It affected her walkabout when she had come of age, but for the most part, she was fit. If she got really excited or overworked, it would flair up. "Well that's good. So we've got nothing to lose in other words." She said for clarification. "Either nothing happens or we get lite superpowers. Awesome!"

"When you put it that way I'm all for it.", Alessa said to Shelly with a mischievous grin. "Could you describe what the routine will be for us while we're a part of this?"

"Yes, I would like to know if this will interfere with class," Stacy added.

"And football," Darren interjected.

"Not very challenging, actually. You will receive a dose of the Serum twice daily, and a small vial of blood collected in the evening to track the cellular response." Grant did something and a simple table appeared on the screen, replacing his image. "We will ask for half and hour to and hour of your time three times a week to do physical tests. Simple things that you would generally do for an evaluation at a gym, and a twice weekly examination by our doctors.

"Some tests, mostly done on the weekend, will require you to go to specific facilities or to the park and such, but transport to and from and will be arranged, and, if needed, arrangements made with teachers."

"Not during the winter I hope?" Shelly asked, not looking forward to the Canadian winter that Kitler spoke about. Temperatures where she was never got below ten, and he was talking about -20?

"It's not that bad," Kit grinned at her.

"But no," Grant assured her, the table vanishing and his image returning.

"Mate, winters in my neck of the woods never got below freezing. Unless you go to the desert. Even then, it gets warmer in the day. Unless it gets warmer in a hurry, I'm not gonna like it. Especially during summer." Shelly complained.

"Don't worry, I'll keep you warm," Nathan offered.

"I'll appricieate it." Shelly replied. She tilted her head a little, sensing that he might not have been letting on everything... that or he just wanted to get in her pants, but he seemed nice so far. Well, if he wanted to chase her tail, he was welcome to.

"I'm sure you would Shelly", Alessa said, "Doesn't sound too demanding, what sort of special testing are we talking about?", Alessa asked.

Michael kept quiet for a bit in order to listen to the explanation, but soon he had to ask something, "If I may ask, what do you mean by 'specific facilities'?"

"Mostly to the local YMC to make use of their climbing wall and pool," Grant said.

"I can swim well, but not necessarily climb rockwalls, should be interesting enough.", Alessa commented.

Michael nods with a deadpan styled face; goody, all the stuff I somewhat suck at, yay...there better be track.

"I've got my share of endurence. Went on a Walkabout too." shelly said. "Mostly it's for the boys, but my parents let me expirence it."

"I mostly just see how long I can hold my breath underwater for endurance, wonder if that will ever come up during testing...I doubt it.", Alessa said.

"It might." Shelly said. "I mean if that's what you're good at, it's a possibility. Maybe you can hold your breath for a minute." She shrugged.

"MInute and a half the last time I recall.", Alessa said to Shelly.

"Oh. Well... maybe three minutes then. I dunno." Shelly replied.

"We'll see once we're at the pool.", Alessa said quickly to Shelly before returning her attention to Dr. Grant.

Silently standing in the corner, Vasily listened to everything that happened in the room. He decided not to interrupt the scientist as he answered the questions asked to him. Finally, when everyone finished their "simple" questions, Vasily decided to mov on to the harder ones. Moreover, he had to think about them more than about the simple questions.

"Doctor Grant, it's more of a question out of curiosity than question of any practical use: why have your company decided to provide additional (somewhat good) accomodation, food, money and transportation, along with expiremental high-tech drug? Isn't this a risky economical step? The company is just starting it's career as far as I know, and you don't know if this Serum would actually work reliably, nor no one can predict if it would be any demand for it in future."

"Geis is an older company that you realize, and we do have considerable funding for this projects, from several investors. And this is a long term project that has a wide range of application, and even simple study of it's effects provides much insight and revelation of the human body. Because of it's duration and the need to maintain a complete as possible record throughout the expermental period, this setting was prepared."

"What else did Geis produce then?" Vasily questioned, keeping a polite and curious tone, instead of pesky-spikey-tricky tone of journalists that made people angry and/or nervous sometimes, "And if the housing was prepared some time before, it means that this building has cameras all over the place?"

A few of the others looked up when Vasily mentioned cameras.

Michael blinks before looking at the ceiling. He didn't see any cameras up there, but he gave a wave anyways while wearing an unamused face, "'ello spies." [someone had to break the 4th wall here ^^]

"As long as they aren't in the showers' I think everything should be okay.", Alessa piped up. It was stupid to mention it but before she could stop the words were out of her mouth.

"Not that kind of prepared," Grant smiled. It amused him to no end that it was often the people that had the most suspicions that decided to sign up for tests such as these. "It was a dorm for a local college. We refurbished it and traded out some of the appliances for modern equipment. This isn't a reality show we are hosting."

Vasily looked around, without spotting anything suspicious. He would hope it would be true, especially considering that placing hidden cameras all over the place would be an expensive procedure. "Right. Don't mind me - I am just used to the fact that there is no good yet free stuff in this world." Vasily slightly calmed down. Yet the feeling was there. "But you haven't provided an answer on my previous question, Doctor Grant."

"We produce chemicals. Not a great many complete drug formulas of our own, but we supply other producers with the chemicals they need to complete their drugs," Grant explained.

"Well, that destroys the "top-sercet military research team theory" if it's true," Vasily thought as he heared Grant answering his question "So, you've decided to enter the new market? I mean, your company, of course."

"While I am not going in company policy and projects in this setting, do note I said 'not a great many complete formulas.' Arcadian Serum is one of several long term research projects Geis has ongoing." Grant said lightly.

"Right. My last question: Is there any free Wi-Fi in this place or anywhere around?" Vasily said, turning the paranoid theme in some sort of joke for him.

"Ah, finally a question pertaining to the house setup?" Grant smiled a bit mysteriously. "There is wifi in the building. There is a sheet in the room dressers that have the access code, as well as keys and general information."

"Cool. I don't suppose there's anything else you need to tell us?" Shaen spoke at last, breaking his silence.

"I mentioned the no smoking and limited alcohol..." Grant aid thoughtfully, "There isn't a curfew or anything like that, though you are expected to turn up for the treatments, oh, the third floor. The third-floor is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a most painful death. That was a joke by the way. But in all seriousness, the third floor is restricted to the researchers."

"You didn't turn the 3rd floor into the lab purely for that Harry Potter reference, did you?"
Michael shakes his head, but soon shrugs with a light smile, "Well, at it isn't the stereotypical underground lab."

"LIMITED ALCHOGOL?" Vasily said, immitating pure surprise with a terrible Russian accent. Not that if he was actually sad because of it, he didn't drink at all anyway.
Performance (Acting): 22

Kit grinned at Vasily as he ate the last piece of his brownie.

"Ah, yes," Grant said with a raised eyebrow.

"The sad drunk is sad, we're doomed!" Michael said with a terrified face, that was complete with his hands on the side of his head. Preformance (Acting): 15
Soon enough, he puts his hands down and returned to his 'neutral' (poker?) face as he quickly dropped the act. He had to admit that Vasily did a pretty good job at acting like a drunk Russian who was horrified at the thought of limited alcohol. But he said limited? ...Would that mean he'd be allowed to drink wine during dinner? The legal drinking age in Canada is 18...

"Is there more to this orientation?", Alessa asked, "Seems like we covered most of it."

"Hmmm.... well, here is a picture of your Supervisor," he did something else and a picture of Dr. Raine came up. "Catherine Raine. She will be staying in the room on the first floor."

"I don't suppose you have any limitations on caffeine?" Shaen asked after Grant had mentioned smoking and alcohol. Sure coffee was hardly at the same level as booze and cigarettes, but it might be prudent just to make sure.

"Coffee is fine," Grant responded. "It's never wise to get between a coffee lover and his cup."

"Great." he said with a smile, glad that his coffee routine would be left untouched. Seeing as the orientation seemed to be coming to an end he decided it'd be a good time to go check on the coffee. 10 minutes he thought to himself with a glance to his watch, More than enough time. Standing up Shaen left the common room behind, coffee in his mind.

Alessa noted the orientation coming to an end. She got up grabbed her bag and signalled to the others that the swimming group should probably get going. "Anyone need to collect anything?", she asked the others.

"Hm? What's happening?" Shaen asked, coming back from the kitchen with a warm mug in hand. He took a sip of coffee before leaning against the doorway, glancing at the bags Alessa, Esmeralda and Shelly carried.

"Swimming," Kit announced. "Don't leave without me." Now he needed to see if he had anything swim-in-able in his bag. He took his tray back to the kitchen and and dumped the paper towels (the up side of not using plates) and took his travel mug upstairs with him headed to his room. He dug through his bag. Lets see... a towel would be need. So he stuffed on into his back pack. As well as a plastic bag. He found a pair of shorts that would do and added them to his spoils before heading back down.

"We'll wait, who else is coming along?", Alessa asked.

Shane raised a hand at the question and shrugged. "Don't have anything better to do, so might as well," he said before taking another small sip from the travel mug.

"Say we meet out front in about 5 minutes." Alessa said. Her bag contained her clothes and a towel as she was already in her swimsuit. She would have left earlier but orientation took some time.

"Not me right now. I have wi-fi, hate swimming... Do the math." Vasily said, before leaving to the kitchen to lay down the empty plate that used to have the steak. Then he proceed to find the wi-fi codes...

"I'm not much of a swimmer..." Michael meekly replied. He had to admit he was tempted to follow Vasily's lead provided no one played the guilt trip on him or something for staying in his room for about 30 minutes.

[Greycat]

=============================All Posted==============================

Alessa waited for about five minutes at the house entrace for everyone to get ready.

Shelly was the next one out, having been ready for quite a while. The air was pretty warm. Not as warm as Shelly would have liked it though. It was part of the reverse seasons in Australia. This was going to be winter when it was her summer. Still, it couldn't be helped it seemed. Taking winter... SUMMER classes wouldn't be very fun at all for everyone involved. Housemates or worried parents back at home.

Shaen had nothing to grab from upstairs and so had followed Alessa and Shelly outside. On the trees the leaves had started to change color and a gentle breeze blew past occasionally. Fall was indeed coming. With not much to say to the two he simply sipped at his coffee, waiting for the others to join them.

It didn't take Esmeralda long to slip into her swim suit and slip a Tee and a pair of jeans shorts, reaching her mid-thigh, over that. When she headed back down, he had her towel and other things in a bag slung over her shoulder. "So Alessa, were is this pool of yours?"

"Very nice.", Alessa said, "Here...", Alessa pointed at the public pool 10 minutes away on the small map.

Kit and Nathan came down roughly together. Due to his head start, kit actually looked ready, he had a loosely buttoned, and only somewhat crushed blue shirt one, and a pair of cargo pants and sandals. His bag was loosing hanging from his shoulder by a strap, and he was laughing at Nathan, who was still stuffing his own towel into a string bag, scowling at his newly branded rival.

Kit bounded down the last few steps and stuck his head into the great room. "Okay land lubbers and loner ninja turtles! The rest of us are heading out swimming! This is your last call, I think, for you to come and mingle and associate and all those fun stuff. Unless you are the ninja turtle and want to go brood in your room again."

[Here they be ninja Turtles]

"Or just emo!" Shelly added from out on the porch. "No? All right then!" She shrugged. "Guess we're all there is. Shall we?"

Alessa lead the group down towards the public pool, "Follow me gang."

"Oh? Are you Daphne now?" Kit joked and he jogged out of the house. "Does that make me Shaggy?"

"No it makes you Scooby.", Alessa said without missing a beat.

"Rookay!" Kit grinned in parody.

Shelly followed close by, enjoying the warm weather while it lasted. "What's that make me then?" Shelly asked. Well... the cooler weather at any rate. When they arrived, Shelly rooted through her pocket to get the change that she needed. "What's the entry fee? five dollars or something?"

Shaen followed along, sipping away at his mug of coffee as he walked.

Nathan shrugged. "I think think it is more like three," he said.

"That's good. cause... That's all i brought." Shelly siad and paid her entry fee. "See you in the pool." She said and went off to the changeroom.

After the group arrived, Alessa entered the changing room picked out a locker and dropped her clothes. Since she already had her swimsuit under her clothes she was in and out in a flash. "Shelly, I'll wait for you by the pool.", Alessa said.

Shelly was the next to enter. after picking out a locker and making sure no one was looking, she shed her clothes then donned the swimsuit. "you don't have to," she called from over a locker. Once she had put it on, she headed to the showers to get herself a little wet before leaving and jumping into the water, diving into the deep end gracefully.
Swim check: http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3817559/ 4...
However, because Shelly wasn't that good a swimmer, she sank to the bottom rather quickly.
Swim check 2: http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3817563/ 18
She was able to recover soon after though and quickly swam to the top, taking in a breath. "Whoo!"

Alessa ran to the pool thinking to jump in.
Balance:
1d20-2=8

She jumps clearly not gracefully and trips over the side of the pool, slamming into the water but Alessa is able to recover easily.

Swim:
1d20+6=25

"Ahhh.", Alessa sighed as she swam over to Shelly. Alessa loved the water. "Hey there", she said.

"Hey!" Shelly replied, having a little trouble swimming, but she was able to keep her head above water.

"I try to get about an hour of swimming each day.", Alessa said while wading.

"You getto do it a lot where you're from?" She said, twirling in the water a little. "I try going as often as I can. Think you'll be a scuba diver or something?"

"Probably not, I enjoy swimming, but it's not going to be a career or anything.", Alessa said. She splashed around, and then floated on her back simply feeling the water on her back.

"Ah well." She said and began to swim a few laps. Swimming in the ocean had given her some decent strength to swim along in the water. That, and she was decent enough so that she could swim out when there was a call for it. Sharks or jellyfish. usually sharks though since they were more visible.
swim: http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3817569/ 18

Esmaralda didn't quite get into the swimming at the moment. Instead, she found a nce sunny spot by the pool, claimed a chair and sprawled on it in a manner that attracted many eyes. Her two piece was quite the item; a string bikini in pure black.

Alessa followed along with backstroke, swimming alongside Shelly. Alessa was by no means a competition swimmer but she was still more than competent. "What do you think of the pharmaceutical testing we're about to get into?", she asked.

Swim:
1d20+6=23

"Not really sure. I mean, I think it might as well be superpowers or nothing." Shelly replied, grabbing hold of a ledge. "Might not be some good superpowers, but at least we don't be some mutant freaks or something. and it's less then the asthma meds."

Kit contented himself with watching the girls swim for the moment. Rather than heading to a locker, he simply stripped off his shirt and dropped his pants by the poolside, revealing his swim trunks underneath. He stretched, and padded over to the deep end. 18 feet. He changed his mind and settled for the ten foot deep section. The customary no diving sign wasn't around, so he tried for a , simple dive, arching up as he neared the bottom, letting his chest brush the pool's base. [Swimming=14]

Kicking strongly, he propelled himself towards the shallows, trying to see through the water as best as he can. [Swim =11]

"I feel this will be a rewarding experience. I suppose we won't know until testing starts. Still light superpowers would be great.", Alessa said to Shelly, still floating on her back, then twirling to emphasize her point.

Shelly kicked off the ledge and began swimming to the shallow end, feeling a little tired with the swimming. swim: http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3817604/ 8
On second thought, make that very tired as she began sinking. She tried treading water for a moment and almost succeeded but soon went under. She took a deep breath before she did though. swim: http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3817608/ ffffff...2
This was starting to be a problem. She needed air soon. Shelly began thrashing to try and get attention.

Alessa could see Shelly thrasing around. "You okay there girl?"

Spot Check:
1d20+3=17

Shelly was starting to get worried. thrashing madly, she tried to get attention, nearly breaking the surface, but she wasn't able to get to the surface.

Swim: invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3817617/ 9
con check: http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3817625/ oh shit

Shaen had been simply lounging by the poolside, on one of the spare chairs, sipping away at his coffee. The others seemed to be having fun in the pool, but Shelly seemed to have disappeared for the moment. (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3817750/ Spot Check: 4, Apparently Shaen is blinder than a bat)

Shelly's lungs were burning. She knew she had to hold her mouth shut, but it was no good. she needed air! Reflexively, she did the worst thing she could do and inhaled. Instantly, her lungs were burning as she tried to force the water out by coughing... only to let more water in. Bubbles rapidly escaped from her mouth and she soon fell unconscious.

Esmeralda removed her shades and sat up as Alessa dove in, she was too far to actually be of help, but she added her voice to the murmur of concerned onlookers.

Alessa dived down and got her arms around Shelly's stomach. She slipped and tried again and again to save her. Swim DC 18: 1d20+6=13

Nathan was somewhat oblivious as he showed off his abs on a pool chair, but he looked up as the lifeguard dove (Baywatch!=17) into the pool to do his job, cutting sharply through the water as he dove in as he training taught.

Finally noticing that something was obviously wrong when the lifeguard made a splash with his dive, Shaen hauled his ass out of the chair and scanned the pool. Noticing Shelly under the surface and struggling intensely, he would have face palmed if it wasn't for the fact that there was someone in danger of dying. Thankfully, it seemed that the lifeguard had the situation under control, at least as much as you could say with someone drowning.

1d20+6=24, 1d20+6=14, 1d20+6=19
//Finally some success

Alessa tried again, but the lifeguard already saved her. Alessa crawled out of the pool.

When he reached them, he helped Alessa pull and push the limp Shelly out of the water. (Baywatch Rescue!=22) Together, he and Alessa pulled Shelly unto the pool's deckside. A small circle of people started to gather around the,

Kit, who came close enough to notice what was going on, rapidly surfaced nearby them. (Swim=13). He pulled himself up after them. "Alessa, what happened? Alessa!"

Shelly meanwhile lay there, not breathing.

"I don't know, she was fine for a moment, then all this.", Alessa said with sorrow. She looked like she was about to cry.

The lifeguard quickly arranged her body and started performing CPR, alternately pumping her chest and breathing into her mouth. (CPR=11 Fail)

"She's gonna be alright, right?" Kit asked. He didn't crowd the man; though he didn't really know CPR, he didn't think being in his face would help. Nathan and Esmeralda expressed similar concerns.

As he watched the lifeguard work over Shelly, the mood was somber. The others gathered around the unconscious girl, worry clear on their expressions. There wasn't anything he could do but pull out his cell and dial for EMS. As the operator picked up, Shaen found himself reciting the information with strange clarity; their location, what had happened, etc. Yet before he could finish, he found out that one of the other active lifeguards had already made the call.

The man didn't say anything, he just worked harder. (CPR=11 Fail) One of his coworkers hurried over with a med kit.

On the third time through the motions, water finally poured out of Shelly's mouth. (CPR =17) He kept working over her until she started breathing.
CPR (1d20+6=8) Fail
CPR (1d20+6=7) Fail, loosing hp again... -1

The murmurs gained in intensity as they struggled to resuscitate the girl. Kit was panicky. "Is she okay?" he asked over and over again.

"An ambulance is on the way," the second lifeguard responded curtly.
CPR (1d20+6=20) stabilized
CPR (1d20+6=9)
CPR (1d20+6=13)
CPR (1d20+6=23) Finally!

Shelly gasped and inhaled deeply, bolting awake after the water finally left her lungs. She curled up in pain and looked like she was crying, but really was just struggling to breath.

"Shelly!" Kit cried out, grasping her hand. He looked somewhere between heavy relief and confusion as he wasn't sure what the correct procedure would be. "You're okay! I thought you were... you now...You're okay..."

"Shelly!, You alright....When I heard I feared the worst."

"Don't crowd her! Give her air!" the lifeguard snapped. He turned Shelly on her side and arranged her in the recovery position.

Shelly couldn't respond even if she wanted to. every breath was setting fire to her lungs but she couldn't stop. She started crying from the pain of just breathing, tears streaming down her face. or it might have been water beading off her waterlogged hair and down her face.

Alessa had just met this girl, but seeing her suffer in this way was hard. "Oh Shelly, I hope you recover.", Alessa said taking her hand.

Shaen had joined the crowd after the call, worried about Shelly. Thankfully it seemed that the lifeguard had managed to resuscitate her and it wouldn't end in a tragedy.

Shelly was rolling on the ground in pain. This was almost as bad as when she was stung by a platypus. Almost. She tried to stand up, but just settled for curling into a ball, finally starting to sob.

Alessa patted her on the back while trying to comfort her. She looked so helpless curled up like that. "It will be alright, Shelly, help is on their way.", Alessa said.

"Stray straight!" the life guard instructed. "You will fell better that way!" He set Shelly in to the recovery position again. "The ambulance will be here shortly."

Kit was pacing somewhat, but he stopped suddenly. He headed over to were he left his bag and rummaged for his phone. "Alessa, do you have the number for the house?"

Shelly tried reflexivly to keep hersef curled up, but she was forced to stay stright, yelping in pain.

Alessa rushed into the changing room to retrieve her cell phone from her bag a and then back out to meet Kit. "What do we need to call the house for?"

Kit took the phone from her before answering. It was more complicated than his cheap, and somewhat old, model, but he was a young person. Young people had an intuitive understanding of toys. He found he phone book, and picked the most recently saved number. "This the house?" he asked, showing the number to her.

"Yeah.", Alessa said, too scared for Shelly to concern herself over who used her phone.

"Good. We should have gotten numbers before we left," he said as he texted the number to his own phone.

"I never expected this would happen though.", Alessa said with apprehension.

"True, true," he murmured. As soon as it was sent, he saved his own number on her phone (as Emperor Kit) before using it to call the house as he saved the two new numbers, Alessa's and the house's, to his own phone.

================================================== ==============
Meanwhile, at the house, Vasily had reached the wi-fi codes long ago and already put them at the good use. He had no idea of the drama that could happen at the pool and simply sat in front of his computer, browsing the web and drawing stuff with his digitiser...

...He wasn't in mood for something grand. He simply wanted to draw some lineart of his characters in some industrial environment, with evil factory behind them. And yes, they were all felines. And yes, the factories were Soviet. Or some sort of evilish Soviet factories.

Craft (Visual): 8

The first time Vasily did the basic scetch, it was so terrible he instantly removed it from his compute, cursing himself for incompetence.

Craft (Visual): 19

This time, the scetch seemed better. However, Vasily's perfectionism prevented him from accepting this piece of art. He knew he could do better and started over.

Craft (Visual): 25

Finally, a worthy scetch! Vasily was fairly impressed and was even glad that he had to retry this thing only three times before getting a normal start. After some time Vasily improved the lines and made them look better, less messy than the original scetch. He enjoyed doing the art - it was the way for him to escape the boring reality, to play god and create worlds, to create stories with minimum writing skills. And it was a handy skill for an indie game maker - someone he wanted eventually to become.

He didn't expect that his wish to become one that he was obsessed with would be at this cost. However, he would bring his surprising reaction later... A weirdo after all.

Finally, the lineart was ready. But Vasily knew that it wasn't enough. Every picture gets a lot of impression on the viewer if it got proper shading. Using the magic of photoshop and digital art he expiremented with different lights and finally found his way through this important part of making images.

The image was done, saved under the name "Industrial_party.png" and "indguysandfactoryonbckground.psd". And then...
==========================THE TIMELINES UNITE!======================

The phones were portables, one at each end of the second floor, though none in the rooms, one in the study. On the first floor, there were sets in the great room, common, study and in the residents room. They all started ringing.

"I'll take it!" Vasily yelled to indicate the second antisocial person there that he was going to talk with the caller first. After getting up from his cosy place he felt uneasy a bit, but discarded the feeling, being afraid that he was paranoid.

"Hallo, Vasily's on the phone" he said. after picking up the call on the nearest phone.

"It's Kit. Long story short; Shelly almost drowned at the pool. They are taking her to the hospital." Kit explained quickly. "I'm going to see if I can go with her."

"Hah, nice try, I am not falling for that." Vasily said, obviously not believing that someone could ACTUALLY get nearly drown in the safe enviroment, shallow water and damn load of people maintaining the security there. You need a damn load of unluck and unskill to actually do so.

"Scout's honor," Kit said sharply. "I'm not sure if the others will hang around or head back to the house..." He turned to the life guard. "Where is the hospital from here?"

"About five minutes. Barton and Wellington."

He had looked over a map, yes, but he wasn't certian where that was, only that grove street was off Wellington. To Vasily, though he hadn't moved the phone from his mouth, he continued. "The hospital is somewhere down Wellington from the house, there's bound to be a list of emergency services somewhere..."

"I'll try to get there as fast as I could." Vasily said becoming nervous. This is getting awkwardly terrible.

"Not yet. ID. I don't think she brought any with her. Um, Shels, where did you put you IDs? Purse? Dresser?" he said, crouching beside her.

Shelly was still in quite a lot of pain and mental trauma. she pointed to the changeroom but still didn't say anything. her breathing was becoming steadier, but she still wasn't up for talking. and she was getting quite cold. she was shivering.

Alessa went to fetch her swimming bag, she had a towel for Shelly to cover herself to keep her warm. She handed Shelly the towel.

Shelly took the towel, pulling it around herself as tightly as she could. She was shaking like a leaf from the fear.

"Keep still," the female lifeguard urged. "Try not to move around too much."

Alessa was still sopping wet from the water, but it was evaporating off her skin as she kneeled there in the sun.

"Okay, scratch that. She has it with her. Well, it's in the changing room. Alessa will grab it." The wailing sirens of an ambulance slowly made itself heard. "We are going to..." He glanced at the life guard.

Alessa ran recklessly back into the changing room to collect Shelly's bags.
Balance DC 17 (Coming and Going):
1d20-2=11, 1d20-2=18

Alessa slipped and slid straight into a wall as she was leaving. Picking herself up as if nothing had happened. She returned with Shelly's and her own bag slung over one shoulder.
"I'm alright, I'm alright.", she said returning to Kit and Shelly's side.

Shelly went through her wallet as soon as she found it, still shivering, but upon checking everything was in there, still clenched the towel tighter. "S-s-sauna...?" She asked, her throat in pain from talking. in there, she could warm up.

"Sorry, no sauna here, try not to speak, you're still weak.", Alessa said, her ears still ringing from slipping earlier. Alessa had no outstanding injuries from slipping. This happened all the time for her, she was used to it.

"HGH."

"Hamilton General Hospital," Kit said, expanding the acronym from common knowledge. He winced as Alessa took a fall. Every decent sized city seemed to have a X-General Hospital. He stuck his phone out in Shaen's general direction and pantomimed punching in a number. "There is a city bus system map on my bed, I picked it up at the train station this morning," he added the last part as a somewhat unnecessary justification to Alessa. "You should be able to find a route to get there. If you go that is."

"Going, see ya." Vasily said in the phone before it going silent. Unexpected events are unexpected...

Grabbing the phone off Kit, Shaen punched in his own number and glanced at Kit's. Handing the phone back, he pulled out his own and saved Kit's into his own. He then turned to the other bystanders to this whole situation, Nathan and Esmeralda. "So...... are you two going to be heading back to the dorm or?" he asked, trying to read their expressions on the whole fiasco.

"If the others are heading too, it would make more sense for use to leave from here. It's faster. If you know where we are going, that it," Nathan finished.

"I'll accompany you," Esmeralda said breezily, her towel trickily wrapped into a skirt and her tee-shirt back in place.

==========================Ambulance Ville===========================
Shelly was soon taken into the care of the paramedics, carried off on a stretcher. While she was still in quite a lot of pain, she laid out straight in the recovery position.

Alessa followed her into the back of the ambulance. Alessa in particular had no time to get her everyday clothes back on before getting into the ambulance.

Kit simply stuffed the cargo pants into his bag and shrugged his shirt on quickly before retrieving his phone and arguing with the paramedics about his and Alessa's right to accompany them. The selling point seemed to be the fact that she was a foreigner.. The paramedics worked busily to secure Shelly to the gurney. One set her up with a small pillow and strapped and oxygen mask to her face while the other readied the blood pressure cuff and monitors, vitals showing up on the small machine they were attached to. Inside, the sound of the siren was muffled.

Shelly was wide awake, not even considering sleeping as she was safely inside the ambulance. Oxygen... precious oxygen. She'd have to talk to Alessa sometime. she was a good swimmer and she didn't want to drown when she went into the ocean again. She was still wide awake. She wouldn't be sleeping for a while.

"Does she have an health care card or any sort of ID?" one of the paramedics asked.

Alessa clasped Shelly's hand, and then handed Kit Shelly's bag. "You'll be alright now.", Alessa said retrieving her towel.

Kit took it and fumbled around before he found her international health care card. The paramedic took it and started recording information on a printed form, referencing his machines as he did. His partner pressed a button and announced their projected arrived to the dispatch so it could be forwarded to the hospital.

Shelly took Alessa's hand, mouthing out "Thank you" to her and Kitler for being with her.

Kit carefully brushed his hand over Shelly's hair and, after a moment, started sopping up the water with his towel.

================================================== ================

Giving the trio a small wave as they left with the paramedics, he shrugged at Nathan. "I'll head over to the hospital for now," he said before strolling over to his seat and picking up the unfinished mug of coffee. A sip revealed it to be still warm and full of flavour, a miracle one could say. "Should I wait or?" he asked Nathan who was still in his swim wear. Esmeralda on the other hand seemed ready to go.

"I suppose we should go. They will be reaching quickly thanks to the ambulance. Do you know were we are going?" Nathan asked as he toweled off and pulled his shirt on.

"Yeah, been there a few times. Bout a 15 minute walk away from here." he answered Nathan before taking yet another sip from his mug. Seeing that Nathan was basically ready, Shaen began to walk ahead. Stepping out of the building Shaen caught the sounds of the ambulance fading in the distance. At the very least he wouldn't have to sit around waiting for answers when they got to the hospital. Maybe...

Esmeralda was silent as she followed Shaen, and Nathan was watching the sway of her hips and bottom. "A good walk doesn't sound so bad. The time will work for us." he said. And he wasn't just talking about the processing time for Shelly.

And they walked... and walked... and walked... and presumably talked. And talked. And talked. And Nathan stared.
================================================== ================

Alessa dryed out her hair while sitting in the back. "She should be fine now", Alessa said to Kit but she sounded like she was trying to convince herself.

Shelly was still waiting, hoping her hospital stay wouldn't be to long. What would it say if she missed her first classes or treatments because she nearly drowned? she was starting to redden in the cheeks, embarrassed.

"I guess so... I mean I hope so... I mean.. urg." Kit did know what he was supposed to be feeling. He felt useless just drying the pooling water from around Shelly's head and shoulders. In fact, he was beginning to feel unsure as to while he was even came. He should have walked. He had no reason to think that Shelly wasn't a big girl able to take care of herself....

The paramedic noticed Shelly's increased pressure and heat beat, but when she glanced at her and noticed the blush, she didn't comment.

Shelly looked away from the nurse, taking slow, steady breaths to calm herself down. She glanced around, wondering where they were and how far away they were to the hospital.

The ambulance slowed and rocked as it pulled into the hospital's back entrance. A short while later, the medics opened the doors and handed off Shelly to the nurses of HGH who quickly wheeled her inside to to the trauma center. Kit and Alessa were allowed to follow for a while, but were eventually detoured to the general administration area.

Shelly watched and waited, hoping that she wouldn't be here long. She was sad that her friends couldn't come in with her, but there wasn't anything she could do. All she could do now was to keep taking in breaths.

Alessa found herself a seat in the general administration area. She was still in her swimsuit, having been too flustered to change into her everyday clothes. At least she was dry now. "Kit, how are you doing, I hope Shelly will be alright.", Alessa said.

"Hey, there." Vasily said, walking into administation area of the hospital. "So I see... She actually drowned?" he asked, not believing in such a trivial way of getting endangered.

"She's alive, but in pain, honestly I was just as surprised as you probably were and I was in the pool when it happened.", Alessa said.

"What has exactly happened?" Vasily questioned "I just really want to believe that it was nothing more than bad luck."

"I believe it really was just bad luck, she was swimming along and suddenly she just went under.", Alessa said standing up.

"That's weird" Vasily said, scratching his head "I am not going to think about this event for long, because if I would, I'll end up with entire conspiracy theory."

"Have you just considered that she's bad at swimming?", Alessa replied, "Although I still find it odd she managed to drown in a public pool,It's just so unexpected."

"You know, I thought I would be to one making fun or her about that," Kit sighed with a slight smile as he slumped into one of the chairs.

"You can't be that bad at swimming to get drown in a pool." Vasily said. "Give me a chance, though, and I'll get drown in a puddle."

"I only mention that because I feel it's beneficial for her to learn how to float, I'd teach her myself if need be.", Alessa said.

"If she goes into a pool again, I'm making sure she wears those arm floaties," Kit muttered.

"Get her one of those float rings too, we can't be too sure with Shelly.", Alessa said.

"And some of the lifesaving machines." Vasily said "There totally should be ones that help people to breathe after getting drowned."

"I.... don't think they have those," Kit said uncertainly. "Maybe you should get the patent on it."

"Sure you don't mean the candy...honestly the important thing is that she floats in the future, a couple inflatable flotation devices should help..", Alessa said

"I am going to make one for sure." Vasily said without being unserious. He can make one, actually, and he was fairly confident in it.

Alessa felt it was important to either teach Shelly how to swim, if that couldn't be done they had to use floaties to prevent this from happening again.

"How do you know that she plans to swim again?" Kit smirked. "People suffer trauma for less."

"Every psychology is Freudian, huh, Kit?" Vasily remarked "The people don't get traumas for such things. Sure, maybe a slight fear, but nothing a semi-competent psychologist couldn't handle."

"Never doubt the overcompensating power of the human mind," Kit declared grandly, though not so grandly to disturb the other people in the area.

"That's why I am studying psychology out of pure curiosity." Vasily said, finally deciding to sit down.

"We'll deal with that when it comes up, what she needs is confidence.", Alessa said.Sandwiched between two boys, Alessa began to get nervous.

Kit chuckled a bit, cheering up some. He chewed on his lip, then leaned forward a bit and started taking off his shirt.

Deciding to participate in the upcoming hilarity, Vasily wanted to take it the wrong way. However, knowing that he would be misunderstood, he decided not to do whatever his mind has came up with and instead he replied to the actions with an enigmatic chuckle.

Kit was getting rather odd looks from those around him, but he ignored them, mostly from past experience of getting odd looks, and managed to get the shirt of easily enough. He handed it to Alessa. "Here, sitting in your swimsuit alone isn't all that comfy, is it?"

"Really...you shouldn't have...", Alessa said handing his shirt off to Vasily. Her black one-piece was now bone dry. The frills formed a sort of miniskirt around her waist. She was too preoccupied to care how cold she was sitting in only her swimsuit. "I'm fine, really."

"AWW YEAH, A SHIRT." Vasily said louder than he should and managed to draw the attention from Kit to himself. And he wasn't that happy to get it. "Not that if I need it though, Kit." Vasily said, being slightly nervous about the amount of people staring at him.

"Fine," Kit sighed, snatching his shirt from Vasily. "Once again you've stomped chivalry into the ground."

"Don't think of it like that, think of it as I don't want to wear your shirt.", Alessa jabbed.

"You have a cruel sadistic streak in you, you know that?" Kit smiled as he put his shirt back on. Probably a good thing, considering the glare the nurse at the station was giving him.

"You haven't seen a real sadist, Kit." Vasily said calmly and a bit enigmaticaly.

"Let's not get into that Vasily...there are children here.", Alessa said poking Kit in the arm.

"Eh, why do you think I've meant myself?" Vasily said, throwing his hands into air as if he was surrendering. He always did that for inappropriate reasons, and no one could really figure out what could it mean each time. "Let's change the theme of discussion, it heads the wrong way."

"Hmm... what about ice cream?" Kit suggested.

"Mayhaps, wonder how Shelly's doing, although there might be an ice cream place around I dunno.", Alessa asked seemingly distracted.

"What's about Shelly, then what's about ice cream." Vasily said, looking around "I still don't know the most of the story."

"There really isn't much to tell that we haven't already. Dang, it's cold in here...", Alessa said starting to shiver, she wrapped her arms around her body.

"You didn't want the shirt," Kit pointed out.

"Correction I didn't want your shirt", Alessa said bringing her tower out of her bag. She wrapped up her upper body in the towel.

"Wouldn't a damp towel only make it worse?" Kit asked innocently.

"It's better than nothing.", Alessa said, .

"And a shirt?" Kit smiled.

"I don't think you understand, it's your shirt.", Alessa said, "Why did they turn the AC on so high".Alessa hugged herself across her stomach to keep herself warm.

"Alternating circuit?" Vasily questioned

"Closed system wiring," Kit countered. "And I am getting the impression that you don't like me Alessa..."

"Nah you're alright...it'll take a lot for you to become Nathan...", Alessa said while still shivering slightly. "I just really dont....like borrowing people's clothing...."

"It's people like you that keep kicking chivalry while it's down," Kit sighed theatrically.

"Do you wish for me to tie myself up so you can come rescue me, there's a reason chivalry is down." Alessa rolled her eyes.

"Yes, I can even lend you a hand at tying..." Vasily silently said, already regretting mentioning this.

Alessa didn't expect such an enthusiastic response. "We'll see about that Vasily, I'm not sure how the damsel in distress look would work for me.", she said sarcastically, giving a cautious smile.

"You know... chivalry is more than that..." Kit said, deadpan. "And why don't you smile at me?"

"Because Evil Is Sexy." Vasily said, hoping for Kit to know this damn trope instead of misunderstanding him.

//TROPE PAGE: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EvilIsSexy"

"And I'd appreciate that, but I'm just not comfortable borrowing clothes.", Alessa said to Kit with a smile, "Are you concerned I don't appreciate you??".

"If I ever catch you in someone else's pants, I'm calling you out on it," Kit warned. Then he paused. "Clothes. Someone else's clothes."

"In the short time you've known me, have you known me to wear pants? I suppose you're hoping I get in your pants, nice try, but no.", Alessa said to Kit with a mischevious smile, "Don't worry about it Vasily."

"Oh well, I've suddenly realised that we got there yet again!" Vasily said, suddenly realising that the discussion train LOVES to crash into "those" places. "Maybe we'll try to see Shelly now?"

"Before this train flies off the rails, why don't we.", Alessa said standing up still wrapped up in her towel to try and keep warm.

"Is everyone in Canada thinking that walking around in public places wrapped in towels is totally fine?" Vasily said, finally realising the abnormality of Alessa's state.

"Only those that refuse chivalry," Kit explained.

"And I explained it, I'm not refusing chivalry just your shirt.", Alessa said giving Kit a friendly look. "Suppose I can trust you two to wait while I change."

"What woe, to be scorned," Kit said, swooning into the seat with the air of a Shakespearean actor. He glanced over at Vasily. "Ever wonder why no one says 'hell hath no fury like a man scorned'?"

"I have no idea what does this "Ye olde English" sentence mean." Vasily honestly replied.

"So I can trust you two to wait then", Alessa said walking over to the lady's room with her swimming bag. She walked out a short while later wearing a navy blue tank top and pleated skirt, she was still shivering from the cold."Shall..we...be...going...then?", she said through chattering teeth.

"Sure, Allstar," Kit said, shifting to a more upright position. To Vasily, he explained. "It's from a play. Some lady named Zara or something like that said it. 'Heaven hath no rage like love to hatred turn, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.'"

"That...nickname...is...not..catching...on", Alessa said walking over.

"Riiiight..." Vasily said, rising up from chair "Move up, komrades."

"Whatever you say Allstar," Kit beamed at her. He got up too. "Sure thing Big Brother. Where do you plan to go?"

"Big Brother?" Vasily replied, quite surprised with the nickname. He knew the literature, but the irony behind word "big" was giant... "Anyway, we were planning to go and visit Shelly. We can do it, right?"

"Lead...the...way...comrade...", Alessa said still shivering.

===For when Yellow comes on===
The doctors did a some what routine check up on Shelly, concerned about the prolonged period of unconsciousness that the life guards reported. They couldn't really find much for a cause or reason, and prescribed resting and avoiding strenuous activities for a day or so.

Shelly meanwhile perked up a little and waved hi to the doctors as they came in. There wasn't much else she could do aside from getting healthy again. With the prescriptions, she nodded. "Works for me." She said, slowly.

She was ushered out in the Administrative area and abandoned to find her own way home.

"Hey Shelly, how are you feeling?", Alessa asked hugging her friend.

Vasily silently stood nearby, making a waving gesture to Shelly so she would know he is here as well.

"The correct term is how are we feeling, Damsel," Kit said, coming up behind Alessa. "So, how are we feeling, She-sells?"

"I've been better." Shelly said, still slowly. "I don't know what happened... I just got really tired all of a sudden."

"I give up Kit, have whatever nickname you want.", Alessa said still hugging her.

"Did I miss something?" Shelly asked, confused.

"She has this martyred look she puts on whenever I call her Allstar," He glanced at her to see if she was making it. "So I decided to go with Damsel. Since she has such a fine appreciation for chivalry in a gentleman."

"By the way, Shelly, you are free to go home?" Vasily said, becoming quite concerned about "got really tired out of sudden" part. This rarely happens without help... Or is he just paranoid?

"Sounds more like a nickname for me since I needed saving." Shelly said.

"True, but She-sells fits you better. Hmm... not sure how a glomp translates to the real world so..." Kit stepped forward and gave Shelly a big hug. Then grinned at her. "Glad your okay, and never do that to me, ah, us again."

"Awww thanks, Kitler. Don't worry, I won't go swimming again. Least not without water wings or something." She said, returning the hug to both of them. She smiled, holding the two. She was grateful to be alive right now. When she heard Vasily, she shook her heads. "Yeah. I'll be leaving in a bit." She said. "Just gimmie a little time." she said.

"One big dysfunctional family...", Alessa said noting as Kit joined in the hug. Alessa didn't object, at least she wasn't as cold now. They really should be heading back soon. Alessa's stomach started growling. She still wasn't willing to break the hug. The moment was warming her.

"Обнимашки, ё!" Vasily said in pure Russian (that literally meant "Hugs, oh my!", but with more "cute" meaning added to it). However, he didn't join the action, but instead took himself under control (he was really sure that he could have joined them, but realised that it would be weird) and said "Nice. I feel safer when there are more people covering me from possible conspiracies."
//Yellow altered Seashell's response ^^

"You know Vas, not everything is a conspiracy theory," Kit sighed.

//this isn't done yet..grey yellow we should grab vasily and all head back to the house