“Not quite the farm,” Grit replied. He stopped to chuckle. “But awful close to it. I’m from Northeastern Oklahoma. Grew up in a small town there. Being in this big-ass spaceship is rather, uh, out of my element, you could reckon.” He looked up once more at the high walls and arcing glass ceiling and shivered. Everything around him, even the trees, struck him as distinctly unnatural. Even the night sky looked different from space. It was darker, farther spread apart, and foreboding. A bluish glow off to one side told him where the Earth was relative to the ship. And it was black, black as tar or strong coffee. All of it was so...eerie.
Grit overheard a man from the crowd nearby that orientation was going to start soon. He looked ahead towards the center of the room, where people were beginning to congregate in front of a large wood-and-metal stage. He wondered what the people who ran the school looked like, what their powers were. They had to be incredibly strong to hold authority on a space station filled with supernaturally-powerful people, he thought. He turned to Procella.
“We should probably head towards the stage,” Grit said. “Seems like the orientation is starting soon. I’d really love to see what kind of people run a crazy place like this.”
Wednesday’s doey eyed stupor was broken by a higher and slightly higher pitched polish accent. She was tall and thin like the woman who had greeted her, matching up evenly with Wednesday’s own stature, but neither of them had the appeared to have the same mass she did.
The two greeted with a hug, and Wednesday briefly wondered if they were sisters. Wednesday’s ponderings were cut short by Arianna introducing this newcomer as Andrea- the polish beauty queen. Now, where she raised, there wasn’t such a thing- but she could use context clues to get some meaning from the words ‘beauty’ and ‘queen’. Wednesday wasn’t quite sure what to do with this information, and was thankful that she held back her scoff when Andrea played it off as Arianna just being cheeky.
Andrea was slightly odd. Every now and again her eyes would advert quickly and in odd directions, as if she was seeing something. Wednesday quickly turned around when it appeared as if Andrea had seen something behind her. Old habits would die hard- and this girl was making her… uneasy. She commented something about weary shoulders to as if speaking to someone. Wednesday opened her mouth to speak, but Arianna had a look in her eyes that made her set her jaw instead.
“What are you worried about, miss?” Andrea questioned innocently. Arianna quickly stepped in, knowing full well that Wednesday was a problem student and wasn’t here for normal reasons.
“Lets just say I’m watching her, love.” Arianna stated, and it dawned upon Wednesday that Arianna hadn’t come to her because she wanted to- but because she was assigned to. Arianna’s eyes met Wednesday’s and she came to the sudden realization that whatever this woman could do, it was powerful enough to combat her own abilities and win. She was one of the deadliest around where she came from, and being presented with such a person was both foreign and a challenge. Wednesday furrowed her brow and opened her mouth to send some biting remark Arianna’s way, when a giant reptilian man garnered her attention.
“Alright, get to your seats, the speech is starting!” Arianna said, ushering them towards the chairs that were recently set up.
Wednesday grabbed Andrea’s shoulder before splitting off.
“I’ve assigned you these kids. You know the general deal - let ‘em know that you’re their teacher for the most part and that it’s my job to fuck them over and all that. Would have you get Kenna in on this but she’s pretty new. Where is she, by the way?”
Henry and Elias, as is they were both thinking the same thing, began surveying the area- as if trying to find their recent addition that had turned their duo into a trio. Much like Henry, the poor girl stuck out like a sore thumb compared to most people- so her lack of presence was both interesting and alarming at the same time.
“So, she was going to do the introduction speech but I think we’ll save that for later since your dumb ass didn’t give her much time to prepare.”
“Hey, fuck you Eli. I’m responsible.”
“And I’m a hippo.”
“AND I’M JAVERT!”
Right on cue, Kenna Sterling flounced onto the scene like she sprung up from the ground, munching on half of a chocolate bar like she wasn’t running fashionably late.
“Oh Jesus Christ- that is a dated reference.” Henry said, covering his surprise upon Kenna’s sudden arrival. Eli, stepping back a bit with his hands in his coat pockets, added with, “Yeah, it’s an older meme, but it checks out.” Smirking.
“Oh my reference is too old but THAT gets a pass?” Kenna sarcastically complained before shoving the entire chocolate bar into her mouth “Ahm abfolutely affunted!”
“Remind me why I picked you again? There was a brilliant woman with telepathy I could’ve gone with. I bet she would’ve been super helpful.” Henry said, feeling like the only serious one being ganged up on by two shitposters on /b/.
“Because I’m adorable?” Kenna suggested sweetly, giving a big grin as she wrapped today’s scarf (purple with yellow stripes) around her shoulders with a flourish. “Or maybe because she doesn’t know what a Gorn is. Either way I’m two points up on her, bub.”
“Okay, just… I’m giving the speech this time, Ken- you’re going to be giving the students these as I’m speaking.”
With one of his meteor hands, Henry deposited an entire stack of papers with various names- all organized in alphabetical order, into Kenna’s comparatively much smaller and leafier arms. They were actually packets, stating where the student’s would be residing, class time information, a map of the school, basic Promise rules... All the information they should require.
“Alright, Terabyte. Que the speech now.”
”Right away, Mister Doctor Professor Olin.”
The lights flickered some, and the older students among the group began ushering the new arrivals to their seats. Each seat had a small card with the student’s name on it, signifying where they should be sitting. Henry and Kenna made their way onto the platform, and waited for a moment as the crowd sorted itself and became seated. The crowd quieted, and the attention fell upon him. Henry was no stranger to speeches, in fact, public speaking was kinda within his job description as a teacher. He looked around the crowd, his reptilian eyes falling onto some of these new students and he couldn’t help himself from grinning. He took the microphone from the (comparatively small) podium and began speaking.
“Good afternoon everyone!”
In the background, a low, ambient, and utterly ridiculous tune began playing. Henry’s eyes shot to the side at Eli, who was off to the side, trying to hold in a laugh. Kenna herself looked like she was about to start crying. Be it from laughter or embarrassment, Henry couldn’t tell.
“My name is Professor Henry Olin, and it’s a pleasure to meet all of you.”
As Henry spoke, the music got louder and louder. Elias was losing his shit off stage. Kenna was shaking with the effort of trying not to burst out laughing.
“Today you all took your first steps toward a bigger and brighter future, and today-”
The music continued to get louder, to the point where Henry was now yelling. The plant girl had doubled over so low from trying not to laugh that only the rose on her hair was visible from the crowd.
“Today I’m going to wring Doctor Winzer’s neck if he doesn’t turn the music down!”
The music was promptly lowered, and Henry waited for Elias to calm down before continuing. When the troll finally calmed down, Henry returned his attention to his class address.
“How’s it going, Class of 2081!”
The older students roared in a cheer, which caused many of the new students to contagiously join in.
“I have been assigned to your group, and will be teaching you your power instruction for the next year or so. Today I’m going to be giving you a basic rundown of the rules of The Promise. Basically, don't be a jerk, keep the power usage low outside of class or without officials present, and don't break anything.” Henry said, knowing full well that such a simple explanation likely wouldn’t suffice in covering all the rules.
“If you need to know more, I’d suggest looking at your packet that my assistant here-” Henry said, prompting Kenna to exit the stage and begin passing out the packets. “- Kenna Sterling, president of our student orientation program, will be passing out to all of you. It should include essential locations, rules, a map, and other goodies. Those of you with phones should be receiving a text right about…”
”Now.” Terabyte’s voice chimed in, followed by a cacophony of phone alerts chiming in.
“This, class, is Terabyte, also known as Zoey. She handles many features, and if you have any questions about anything, just ask her via text our out loud if you want. She should be able to answer with no issues.”
“Just remember that the questions you ask her get logged...learned that the hard way,” Kenna said with a wink to the Taiwanese girl with the dark brown bob cut @Loki Odinson she handed her last packet to. Getting a sudden thought, she sprinted to Henry’s side and stepped up to the podium, comically leaning over his muscled arm to tug the microphone from in front of her mentor.
“Ooh, don’t forget, tomorrow at eight the SOA is hosting the annual Promissory Informal Social Samba for new and returning students! Come as you are, we have lots of food, games, and music of varying quality, it’s a wild time!”
Eli could be heard laughing once again. Henry took the microphone back from Kenna, and began to talk again.
“I’ll be about, so if any of you have any questions or just want to talk before tomorrow, I’ll be around socializing!”
“Me too, any questions or concerns for you new guys, just give me a yell!” Kenna shouted without the use of a microphone. Music began to play again in the background and Henry and Kenna stepped down from the stage to join the crowd. Eli was still calming himself down in the corner of the room.
@Mega Birb A tingling feeling crawled up and down Abe's spine upon her touch. Even through his jacket and his clothes beneath, the static made his hair stand on end. Abe closed his eyes and he smiled a little and sucked in his upper lip - not quite out of amusement, but rather forcing himself to not act out of irritation. The girl? The girl was threatening him? She had the nerve? Abe found during his travels that there were the assholes, the do-gooders, the scoundrels, and people who weren't told to shut up often enough in their lives. He had a sinking feeling that she fell in that category, after all, she was still a kid. Being impetuous was a trademark. He toyed with the idea of trading blows, perhaps threatening back, but the fact remained: she was a kid. No one that could truly harm him. 'Let her have her fun for now.' He thought. 'She'll learn eventually.'
But there was one piece of advice he had to give her, just for future reference, before she gets any thoughts in her head.
"Just a tip or two, Bones..." Abe said quietly into her ear as he left. "Hands stay off the merchandise. And try not to get too chummy with strangers."
He walked away while pointing a finger gun at her. A typical casual greeting or goodbye, but just as likely had a hidden second meaning to it given the cryptic note he left on. He dug his hands into his pockets and rolled his eyes around. Weird ass girl. He wondered how many more of her were on this station thinking that they were God's gift just because they had a superpower. There was more to it than that.
There was also style.
Not really. In all seriousness though, Abe did have his own theory on it. Superpowers, shall we say, compounds an individuals value. Measure their qualities and what they can provide, the sort of power they might yield, and that's their true worth. One of those versus the same person with powers can only be better! Take Hulk Hogan over there - Abe was looking at the line-backer looking man by the shuttle entrance, talking to a brunette - if he had no skills, no charisma or character, no money, and nothing to offer - what's his value? Zero multiplied by a thousand is still zero. If he can lift heavy objects, then congratulations! You've met one of the minimum requirements of being someone's minion. At least those were his thoughts on the whole superpowers thing. Others may see things differently. They'd be wrong, of course, but they'd still disagree. Nature will take its course and Abe will be standing victorious in the end. There's no other way it should be.
The appearance of a hulking lizard man on a podium caught his confused gaze - the people here just keep getting stranger - and he noticed the crowd starting to gravitate towards the front of the stage and began seating themselves. He buried his hands in his pockets and made his way toward one of the seats in the back. The chair had someone's name on it, someone who wasn't him. He sat there anyway. They were out of luck if they expected him to push his way through so many people to find "his" seat. Besides, whoever was supposed to sit here had way of knowing this was theirs. He held the back of his head with his hands and leaned back in his chair to get comfortable as he patiently awaited whatever bullshit they had in store for them.
Something caught his eye again, but this time, it was a girl who must've been half plant.
They just keep getting weirder.
Andrea Pasternack
@JunkMail Let's just say I'm watching her love? Andrea shook her head. She could glean why Arianna was there with Wednesday, that was one of her responsibilities. It came with burden of having strong powers. But that wasn't the answer that Andrea wanted to hear. It didn't answer what she wanted to know. She wanted to know what troubled her, not if she was actually trouble in the first place.
"I understand, Ari, but that doesn't answer my question..." Andrea insisted - but her soft voice must've gotten lost in the crowd, for Arianna was immediately alerted by Henry's presence and ushered them and others towards the seating area where they were to find their appointed chairs. Wednesday's meaty hands rested on Andrea's much smaller shoulders and said to meet with her after the speech. She felt her heart flutter a tad, glad that she managed to reach somebody enough that they would open up to her. She could tell by her surface thoughts at this moment - she wanted to tell her something, she wanted to unload. To take off that heavy backpack of burdens. Whether she chooses to do it later remained to be seen. She isn't ruling out last-second reluctance out just yet, but this was a good sign. She looked up at the stage where Henry stood, glad to see his old mug out in the open again. Usually, Dr. Winzer ended up playing one prank or another on Henry during orientation, where Henry would get publicly annoyed; Andrea didn't have a problem with it. Intentional or not, it performed a function. Anything that would break the ice with the new students and ease any tension couldn't do anything but help. After all, they'll be spending a long time with each other in space. The sooner this place feels like home, the better.
The lights started flickering, and Andrea had just found her seat as the crowd began quieting down. She looked to her side and found a red-headed friend of hers from last year, and whispered to her a quick greeting and a hug. When the side of her face touched the skin of her red-headed friend, it tingled a bit from the heat she was putting off, prompting a smile from Andrea. This girl was just a year older than her, and she didn't need telepathy to read her. The temperature of her skin went up the more adrenaline she had. She felt like the heat of a sun-baked sidewalk, but that was nothing compared to the six hundred degrees she could reach.
"A little excited, aren't you Reyna?" Andrea whispered.
"Ahaha, yeah, a little. Sorry!" She replied.
Andrea rested a comforting hand on her shoulder to tell her she's alright as the music started booming. Music? Terrible music at that. There was nothing like this last year. This must've been another Dr. Winzer thing.
-
In short, it was a simple meeting, very brief - not much speaking in the speech, the orientation left most of the work to Zoey... so it wasn't that different from last year. The running joke around here was Henry's speeches, in that they weren't really speeches. Or if a class requires to give a speech, someone would say, "wow, an easy A," despite the actual stress that hearing that news would put them under. Andrea felt like she could get away with it. She had to give speeches in school. Had to give a speech at graduation as valedictorian. Had to give speeches in law school. Her discipline might have been torn down a little since those days, but it's something that sticks with you.
Speaking of speeches and talking, the new girl that Arianna was assigned wanted her to come find her so that they could speak after this event. Wednesday. Fortunately, finding people was something Andrea could do very easily if she set her mind to it. She looked around, finding corporeal figments, assigning them the task of finding a person, using her memory of Wednesday as a metaphorical scent - they scattered and searched the crowd until one of them found the person she was looking for. These apparitions suddenly fell into place and formed a line, almost like a chain, leading Andrea directly to her through a path that would leave her uninhibited. Most people might not be able to find a specific person in a crowd of people, so perhaps Wednesday had not seen her coming. But Andrea cut her way through the crowd without having to squeeze by a single person, almost as though the crowd moved around her. It was one of the subtle advantages of such multifaceted telepathy, knowing almost intuitively where multiple people end up going and through where. She found herself next to Wednesday, feeling the familiar sense of stress radiating off of her, in mere moments after the speech and looked to her with a friendly expression.
"Would you like to walk?" Andrea offered. She didn't think that Wednesday would prefer just sitting in one spot talking about whatever it was that she had on her mind. Walking at least gave them a bit of privacy. The invitation was short-lived, as she already started a slow pace through the room like she was leading the way.
"Anyways..." She began thoughtfully, as though looking for the right words to begin. "Forgive Arianna. She's energetic and lovely, if a bit... hasty in presuming what I wanted to know. It's not a fault either, though. Her initiative is one reason why she has the job she's burdened with."
She soon found herself clicking the fingernails of her left index and thumb together behind her back. It was better than picking at them.
"You don't have to tell me anything you don't want to tell me." Andrea continued, trying to reassure Wednesday. "I just wanted to know what was bothering you."
Written with @JunkMail Eli was still laughing out the last bit of the speech stuck in his head, seated somewhere else in the hub. He’d seen a good few freshmen laugh at it as well, and that was pretty much a mission success to him. Alleviate some of the tension. No one would believe him when he’d tell them it was a spur-of-the-moment decision. As he was seated there, he looked up to his left, seeing Henry approaching, no doubt to thrash him into the artificial dirt. But Eli didn’t wipe that smile off his face for even a second.
“Enjoy that?” Eli asked aloud.
“I hate you.” Henry stated firmly. He huffed. “Yes.”
Eli straightened his back, pointed at Henry, and chuckled. “Ahhh, I couldn’t help myself. Came to me while you were walking up there. I have that kind of music saved for occasions like this.”
“You have a playlist for these situations?” Henry said incredulously, half confused and half impressed. “So you DO think about me!”
“Yeah, yeah. I played Rasputin once when Orlov was walking through the concourse. Remember that? His skeleboys started dancing and then he joined in. Perfectly synchronized too, like they rehearsed.” Eli sighed, again lightly chuckling. “Ah, sometimes, the moment is just too golden to pass up. But… ah, honestly, I really just felt like giving the freshmen something to laugh at, make the transition from ground to space a little more lighthearted. You get that, right?”
“Of course…” Henry said, a small smile gracing his features. He clapped Elias on the back as gently as he could and continued. “Y’know- for a guy who considers himself such a hard ass, you sure care a lot about these kids.”
“I’m a hard ass by ear. They get the impression that I’m just an irate code monkey when they first hear about me, then I either slowly fade into the recesses of their thoughts, or they approach me and then, well…” He motioned his hand back and forth between himself and Henry. “This happens.” He reclined a bit, taking a look around the room. “Or maybe I’m just mellowing out the longer I stay up here. I dunno.”
Eli’s PDA began buzzing as he sat there. He took it out of his coat pocket and, looking at the screen, said, “Huh. It’s Trevor.” A moment later, reading through a message, he muttered, “Fuck…”
“What is it?” Henry said, watching as Eli stood up, still reading the message. Eli paused for a moment more before replying, “Sunflower Group’s hitting an Academy planetside. Like, right now.”
“Well shit, where on Earth?” Henry pressed, leaning towards his friend trying to read the message.
“Greece.” Eli replied, “Trevor said the attack started about twelve minutes before I got the message. Didn’t even know he was keeping track of that part of Europe…”
“How many are injured?” Henry questioned, grabbing a seat and sitting down. He leaned forward and rested his chin in the palm of his hand. “And how many are…” He trailed off, prompting Eli to fill in the blank.
“Hold on, he’s updating.”
A moment passed, and a new message popped up. Eli sighed. Henry just shook his head in disbelief. “Sixty-seven dead, hundred and two injured.” Eli read it aloud, “High grade explosives detonated all over the grounds.” Another pause before he continued, “Trevor says reports came in of UAVs with null tech. Major strike first, sweep up the survivors second, that’s what they’re doing. And this Academy’s out in the countryside, they’re gonna be on their way out before anyone else gets there.”
Henry leaned back into his chair.
“Fuck.”
Henry rubbed his snout and averted his eyes.
“Makes me glad we’re safe up here, y’know?”
“Yeah, but for how long?” Eli replied, “Null tech is a major step up. Trevor’s been keeping track of recruiting hearsay and they’re all over the eastern hemisphere, so that means they’re upgrading their transportation too. They’re starting to get… I dunno, ambitious.” They both paused for a moment more, before Eli brought up something else. “There’s gonna be news about it, that’s for sure.” He said, “Do we… let it up here? I mean, right at the start of the new year?”
Henry hesitated for a moment. He seemed to contemplate whether it should be shared, and then decided against whatever he initially thought. “Yeah, it should be shared. Not our right to hide things. Will let the students know in a few days. After the dance for sure.” Henry mused, the gears in his head already turning, trying to spin the situation in such a way that he could use it as a learning device.
“Yeah. Alright. Sounds good to me.” Eli replied, “Zoey already knows, I’m betting.”
“Can confirm, Doctor Winzer.”
“Yep, there she is.” Henry commented offhandedly. His body seemed to have slunk down, as if some invisible puppeteer had released his strings and reduced him to this over his normally very animated demeanor. “Damn… Can you call Orlov? I’m feeling cards tonight, just to get my mind off of it, y’know?”
“Oh, yeah.” Eli replied, “Poker with a guy spouting angry Russian about the SG. That’s just what we need.” He sighed, stood up, and nodded to Henry. “I’ll go see him about it, shoot you a message when and where. You just… take care, for now. Yeah?”
Henry waved Eli off. “You know me, will be back to normal in no time. You two schmucks have a way of cheering me up.”
“It’s those skeletons.” Eli replied as he walked away, “They’re a riot.”
As Elias left, Henry took a deep sigh and fixed his shirt, put on a happy face, and stood up again, walking towards the crowd to meet and greet his new class.
The rest of the scene went unnoticed by the two sisters. Phoebe because she was having a chat with these wonderful staffers, and Jasmine because... well, she was still getting over the sickness (and the humiliation that her first impression was vomitting).
"... And that's why we're hidin' up here in space! There's like a few hundred people wantin' to kill us after what we did!" Sonya finished her story.
"Ah, yeah... right..." Phoebe was disturbed, and chose to expunge that horrible story out of her mind through any means necessary. However, it wasn't long before everyone was called for the entrance speech. It was about time! Phoebe had so many questions to ask! Like how the Promise functioned up here in space, and how their little classes were going to go.
Right when they called, Phoebe grabbed the much stronger Jasmine by the collar of her shirt and pulled her off. But, there was one last thing Sonya had to say to her.
"Hey, don't tell Henry I told ya' about the Christmas party!" Sonya shouted.
Phoebe didn't intend on sharing nothing that Sonya told her (In fact, she was just going to pretend she never met Sonya in the first place), and instead merely looked over her shoulder and smiled. Before picking up the pace, and getting into that room with the rest of them. Jasmine had zero Goddamn idea of what Sonya was talking about... and honestly, if it involved Phoebe, it was probably going to be lame.
They made it to the auditorium, and Jasmine was getting over her sickness quite well. But that didn't last long when she immediately raised her eyebrow when the giant lizard showed up. They got Godzilla running the place, with frog girl? She sweared to all that is holy, if the Promise is just a front to where they sent the ugly ones, then she'd ride on a damn meteor to get back to Earth. Whatever it took to get away from Freaks R' Us.
Then it got weirder when the girls phones buzzed with a robotic voice of sorts... They were about to throw their phones away when Henry explained it was Zoey... they basically had their own AI assistant. Well, Zoey was not going to have this robot thing peeking around her phone, and personal information, so a part of her wondered if she should ask to have "Zoey" removed from her phone. Knowing this school, it'd probably get swatted down with some "It's for your safety," bullshit. Unbelievable.
"Well, I already want to go back," Jasmine said in a thick German accent.
"This place is great," Phoebe answered. "You just need to get used to things."
"That's because-" Jasmine then cut herself off, when she realized that Phoebe probably wasn't going to get it. "I'm going to go get some water, talk to someone, something." She hopped to her feet as she walked off.
She just needed a moment to stop, and absorb all of this. Get used to it. As all of it was hitting her like a bag of bricks, and she hated it. Perhaps... it'd be best if she established herself here on the Promise. It was a new frontier up here, and Jasmine sure as hell wasn't going to fade into the background while other losers hold the spot. She just needed the right chance... and it'd be just like highschool. Everyone would be vying for her soon enough.
In the back of the crowds, not too far away from where she and Phoebe were sitting, was a particular sight. An African-American male (at least that's what Jasmine inferred, given her time in America). He was... quite attractive. Of course, he was as much of an outsider here was Jasmine was, so she could probably take advantage of that.
"Hello there," Jasmine said, her accent on full display because it'd sound even more awkward if she tried to hide it. She slid in on the seat next to him... he'd be a fool (or gay) if he passes this opportunity up. "You look as amused by this freakshow as I am." She smiled at him.
@Mr Allen J Abe's interest was shaky throughout the speech. On one hand, it was slightly amusing. In the other, somewhat childish. Abe, as proud as he was, was hoping for a professional composure reminiscent of his education and the education that was lying in wait for him. What the Promise presented instead was like a public high school freshman orientation, where they used a bit of stupidity and cool, new science innovations to keep the anxious students' attention. The only thing that made it clear they were talking to older teenagers and young adults was the tongue in cheek death threat Henry sent flying to an unseen man's way.
As the crowd cleared and Abe was once more given an opportunity to get himself lost on board a space station without a guide, Abe found himself wondering if he should hunt down that Slavic girl that helped him off of the shuttle. That was, of course, until he seemed to have caught someone else's attention. A dark skinned woman found herself beside Abe - hello there - not at all to his chagrin, and introduced herself... huh, with a German accent. His father dealt with some of their businessmen before. Cute.
"Abraham!" He replied, sounding pleasantly surprised. "You can call me Abe, though."
He took a deep breath as he took another look at his surroundings and continued.
"It depends on which freak show you're talking about. The whole shabang, Rex, or--"
Around this time, the half plant, half girl creature made her rounds towards the two where Abe awkwardly took the paper from her stack and quietly waited for her to leave.
"--or her? It? Whatever. I haven't come up with a name for them yet. But so far it looks like we've been placed in a space zoo."
Blair looked up at the lights as they flickered, wondering for a moment if she had been unconsciously sapping power from the station. Her worries were assuaged, however, when groups of students started moving to an audience of currently empty folding chairs and milling about, trying to find one with their name on it. The girl shrugged and went to stand in the back, too lazy to go look for the one with her name pasted onto it. How long could an orientation take anyway? The one for her freshman year in high school was somewhat lengthy, but that was because it included a tour of the building, which was pretty awesome. She ended up by a pair of individuals she assumed to be like-minded, one with hands fit for a bear and the other a small girl, clad in a windbreaker. She gave both of them a friendly nod, hoping they were more reasonable than the self-righteous prick she had been talking with earlier...
When the speech started a few moments later, she could swear the music was slowly getting louder as it went on, and she was right. About thirty seconds in, it was probably loud enough to penetrate the vacuum of space before the lizard on stage, Dr. Henry Olin, yelled about wringing the neck of his colleague. The noise died down quickly, Blair suppressing a laugh while a walking plant, Dr. Sterling, started passing around papers... and her phone vibrated in her pocket at the mention of the station AI, Terabyte, better known as Zoey. "Wait, I'm getting service in space? Huh." She dug the device out of her pocket in a quick moment, opening it up with her right thumbprint and checking the received message. Everything that was promised was there in full, prompting her to drop it back into her pocket.
A short moment later the lights came up and the background music was raised again, causing the technophile to look up at the two beside her. "Gotta say, this feels like a dream, almost. Y'know what I mean?" She took a closer look at the pair, examining their notable features more. She stopped shortly after and shook her head, chuckling slightly. "Sorry, I'm Blair. Who are you two?"
The Apothic, out of all of Archie’s sculpted microcosms, was by far his best work so far - to him, at least. As a nightclub, the intent behind it was to create a place that brought a greater sense of ‘openness’ than other establishments. For someone like him, the boundaries of standard architecture and reasonable geometry meant nothing when it came to his work. To be fair, some have stated that the Apothic is simply ‘too showy’, but leagues of other students have come to consider it one of the best spots aboard the Promise.
The layout was such - in one of the central rungs of the Promise, not terribly far from the hub, was a designated area Archie had ‘claimed’ as the entrance. Standing by a decorated wall with a glowing sign denoting the establishment up above, sits a large, door-shaped, collapsible metal frame that holds open a very large bag made of reinforced synthetic fabric. Archie has guards posted there, usually a duo, to keep out unwanted individuals.
Right past the doorway was when the laws of physics began to get unreliable. Entering into a dark hallway with white streamlights up above, you’d walk out into what was, structurally, a half-circle. The Apothic’s primary structure was a three-layered platform raised above a vast, unlit ocean. Archie used a synthetic, glowing white material custom-made for his use to simulate a moon hanging over the far edge of the water, bringing some ambient illumination to the structure. As well, within the water surrounding the central building, were a group of obsidian leviathans Archie constructed for ‘decoration’. Long, segmented creatures, with angled fins and white lights running along the lengths of their bodies.
The first floor was divided into two sections - to the left, from the perspective of someone who just walked in, would be a dining area. A long bar, a whole kitchen behind it, and plenty of tables strewn about, everything offering a perfect view of the surrounding waters. The opposite end of the floor was an ascending segmented platform, otherwise put as the designated dancing area. Sometimes Archie thought it was taking too much space for how much real use it got, but he wasn’t keen on changing it currently. And some people made it known to him that they preferred having plenty of room to ‘get freakish’. Hell, Archie did so himself from time to time.
Staircases on either side lead up to the second floor, which was primarily a seating and viewing area. Away from the music, where people would go to watch the Promise’s cleared channels on the wall-mounted televisions - several of which Archie nearly had to beg for. Everything was connected via extensive wiring to the outside for connection, including the multiple wifi routers offering the Promise’s free connection. Once again, a view of the waters was available from the open space beyond the railing.
Two more sets of staircases worked their way up to the roof. Definitely the quietest area available, with obsidian structures replicated after various forms of vegetation dotted about. The white lights only partly illuminated the area, as it was really only used for people looking to rest up, or chat somewhere private. Of course, the addition of such a room in a nightclub seemed odd, but Archie preferred to cover all avenues of patronage, from the loud and bombastic to the quiet and peaceful.
And all of it was made from a piece of obsidian, a drop of water, and a bit of artificial light.
During the day, the place was never too terribly active. Some groups of students came in for a bite, or just to relax, or even to chat with the proprietor. Come nighttime, plenty more about, enjoying themselves, gazing into the abyssal horizon.
Archie was sat on the first floor, by the railing, looking at his phone. He was checking a few sites for news and whatnot, but it didn’t seem like anything major was happening planetside. As he was browsing, he was approached by a taller gent, with horribly burnt skin, goggles with orange lenses, and a black hoodie with azure and magenta decals painted all over it.
“Yeh gah-in’ teh that dance?” He asked, his lack of lips acting as a bit of a hindrance.
“Mhmm.” Archie replied, giving the gentleman a look. “Gonna see who else might be interested in Combatica. You’re still up for it, right?”
“Ah, yeah.”
“Good, good. You going to the samba?”
“The ‘at?”
“The- the dance.”
“Ah… nah, nah, ‘e an Thera are just gonna relax ‘ere.”
“Alright. Tell Vero I said hi.”
“Yeah.”
As the young man left, Archie returned to looking at his phone. Speaking with contacts about Combatica, and a variety of other topics. Sparingly checking if anything newsworthy was popping up. But it seemed like the first day of the school year would end up being just that.
Sometimes, life took weird turns. Take today, for example. One minute Gavin was standing on nice, solid ground, looking up at the vast blue sky in awe. Just how much sky was there? How many others were looking up at the same sky and thinking the same thing? And just a short while later, he was looking down at the big blue ball, realizing just how insignificant it really was. How, in the vastness of space, Earth and all the billions of lives upon her were little more than grains of sand. No, less than that. And then a dinosaur gave a speech.
A. DINOSAUR. GAVE. A. SPEECH.
Well, more of a pep rally. Whatever it was, it was awesome and it had worked. It had gotten Gavin’s mind off of being blasted through the atmosphere. The boy fell into mob mentality pretty quickly. Laughing when the crowd laughed. Cheering when it cheered. Hell, his stomach had even started to settle, which was surprising. After they had docked, Gavin had seriously thought that he was going to launch a vomrocket at whatever sorry soul happened to be near him. He didn’t. Everybody won.
Speaking of everybody… wow. He really didn’t know what he was expecting, but this place had already blown that out of the water. Maybe he had just been swept up by the moment, but Gavin really felt a good vibe. And the energy…wow. Gavin was grinning that goofy grin of his and just looking around. Did he look stupid? Probably. Didn’t matter. He felt like a kid in a candy store. Every time somebody bumped into him to pass by, he could feel them. Their energy. Some warm. Some soft. Some rigid. Some sharp. They were more than just their energy though. Gavin took some time to just people watch and, perhaps unfairly, his eyes were drawn to the less passable metas. He hadn’t seen many before and now he had found a dinosaur and a flowergirl. A tinge of guilt stung at Gavin. That wasn’t cool of him. He’d have to nix that before it became habit and he said something rude. Staring was also pretty rude. And weird. And…
Wow. He must look like a bit of a creep, all by his lonesome and glaring at people. Well, if he didn’t have anything else to do, he might as well go say hello to Professor...uh...uhm...nope. Didn’t catch the name. Great. Oh well. Maybe someone else then?
Gavin spied a little trio. Well...little probably wasn’t the best word for them. One looked like a bear. Not literally, mind you, but he was built like it. He couldn’t help gawking. See, one of the girls had a badass robot arm. And a badass looking gas mask. And she was pretty cute in like, a badass kind of way. And now Gavin was being creepy. Again. Not cool.
Right then, maybe stick with Plan A. Find Dr. Dinosaur. Okay, easy enough…
…
Somehow, whilst creeping on robogirl, Gavin had lost sight of the giant lizardman. How does one lose sight of a giant lizard? No clue, but by some sort of idiot magic, he did it. Great. And being just short enough to not easily see over the giant meatwalls at the rear of the crowd, he couldn’t even tell if the mob was heading in the right way. Wasn’t that swell.
Rather than try to push through, Gavin decided to reach out for help. He had spied a rather tall girl who was conveniently sitting all by her lonesome. Excellent! He could exploit her height.
“Excuse me,” he began, approaching her. “Did you happen to see where the big scaly guy went? Kiiinda lost 'im. Oops.” he finished with an exaggerated grimace before chuckling and flashing the pearly whites.
Phoebe was content in sitting where she was, and reading through all the provided information. What she wanted to know was some more detailed information on the classes, and the living quarters of course. Was everyone going to be staying in their own rooms, or grouping with other people?
Her line of thought was brought to an end when a boy walked up to her. Probably around the same age as her, but had these youthful features, and this shaggy hair. He asked her where "The Big Scaly Guy" (Henry) went. She felt as if this was her time to shine! This was the start of cementing herself as team leader!
"Oh, Henry?" Phoebe started as she stood up. "He went in the back when he stepped off-stage."
She pointed in his direction.
"I can help you find him, I have a few questions to ask myself," Phoebe offered with a smile. "Name's Phoebe, by the way."
Jasmine made sure to mentally store "Abe" in her head to ensure that she would never forget it.
After she realized that Abe was receptive to her presence, Jasmine eased up a bit. She almost sighed- before she caught herself. She couldn't have herself showing doubt like that. She was much, much, better than that, of course - but more importantly she couldn't show such weakness. But, it seems the man has good taste in women, since he wasn't driving her off... most Americans would say that her facial features are "weird," and push her away. Jasmine herself knew that she was the most beautiful woman here on this damn spaceship.
"Abraham... that is a nice name." Jasmine convincingly said... convincingly because she was impartial to it. She knew it was better to tell Abe her "American" name rather than her (admittedly complex) real name that would have left him scratching.
When Abe mentioned that girl, Jasmine's head whipped around towards "her." She was a tall girl with black hair... Oh, who am I kidding? Jasmine tried to focus on anything but the elephant in the room, but truly, this freakazoid's only remarkable trait is the fact that she's missing an arm, and the gas mask. She probably has some sob story attached to it that nobody quite frankly cares about...
"Oh, I was talking about the Dinosaur, and the potted-plant that achieved locomotion," Jasmine said, turning her head back towards. "But, she looks like she lost her arm when tried fucking a bear."
She wasn't that attractive anyway.
"I wonder if there was a mistake somewhere... did we get put on the wrong ship?" Jasmine asked in jest, she had a playful smile on her face the whole time. "God, I hope so, I don't think I can take a few years of this. It'll make the airlock look enticing!"
The speech itself hadn't been much that Wednesday could do about for now. While Zoey's audible function would prove useful later, she had no phone, and lacked the ability to communicate with the AI discretely- at least for the time being. Almost as soon as the speech ended, Andrea had appeared beside her. Wednesday didn't jump, but was surprised by the girl's stealth and agility. She clenched her hands into fists out of habit, squeezing hard for a moment, and then relaxing when she recognized that it was friendly face. Andrea invited Wednesday to walk with her, and then began meandering off. Wednesday remained rooted to her seat for a moment- and looked around briefly. She had no where better to be, so she sighed and slowly stood to catch up with Andrea.
"Anyways..." Andrea began slowly. As if trying to correctly conjugate the words.
"Forgive Arianna. She's energetic and lovely, if a bit... hasty in presuming what I wanted to know. It's not a fault either, though. Her initiative is one reason why she has the job she's burdened with."
Wednesday shrugged wordlessly. She was used to that. Where she was from, people came to her if they needed something or were being put down for one reason or another. Get the job done. That's how it works when you're on the clock. Wednesday caught the girl in the middle of her nervous habit, fidgeting. Wednesday understood that, but made no comment. She did that too.
"You don't have to tell me anything you don't want to tell me." Andrea said, moving on much to Wednesday's appreciation.. "I just wanted to know what was bothering you."
It was Wednesday's turn to be at a relative loss for words. She opened her mouth to speak, and then shut it again. She could feel herself trying to form the words that would properly explain herself to this... stranger, but she was so verbally and emotionally constipated that it wasn't going to happen. At least not now. Wednesday sighed and massaged the bridge of her nose.
"I, uh..." Wednesday finally began. "I've had to hurt a lot of people. I'm not here for the same reason the rest of you are, if that makes sense." she said, trying to put it in layman's terms. She glanced behind her, and swore she saw a few copies of Arianna following them several paces back- but said nothing of it. It had to be her mind playing tricks on her. People couldn't copy themselves. Then again, she mused, this isn't a ship of regular people.
"Uh, how... how long have you been here?" Wednesday said, trying to curve the conversation away from her past. If this weird, probably somewhat crazy girl was going to end up her friend, she had to appear at least somewhat friendly and open. Having a friend would be nice change of pace.
@Mr Allen J “Yeah, my father was very religious.” Abe said in response to Jasmine's comment on his name. Eh, sort of. His father liked to say he was. He must have been at one point, with the crosses he had around his house, but Abe was certain he hadn't touched a Bible in years. Jasmine continued talking, and Abe laughed at her comments regarding Henry, Blair, and Kenna, having taken them right from his mouth.
"I wonder if there was a mistake somewhere... did we get put on the wrong ship?" Jasmine asked in jest, she had a playful smile on her face the whole time. "God, I hope so, I don't think I can take a few years of this. It'll make the airlock look enticing!"
“Well, I don't know about you,” Abe began, “but my lot in life is to win. God help me if seeing a few monsters is enough to throw myself into space. No reason to end my biography so soon, eh?”
His eyes ended up falling back on the orange, glowing poster on the wall nearby. The Combatica Challenge. He looked back at Jasmine with a smile.
“You an athlete? You seem kind of sporty.” He asked.
Andrea Pasternack
@JunkMail "I, uh..." Wednesday finally began. "I've had to hurt a lot of people. I'm not here for the same reason the rest of you are, if that makes sense." She said, trying to put it in layman's terms.
Andrea looked down, closed her eyes and huffed a sharp breath through her nose. Not that she was frustrated, no, she actually looked amused if the slight smile on her face indicated anything. She wasn't oblivious with Wednesday's nervousness. She picked up out of the corner of her eye the girl looking behind her periodically. Had she not felt safe? She could Arianna was trailing them, perhaps that was putting her off? Anyways, Andrea found her words amusing for the simple fact that it was just a repeat of what Arianna had told her, and even that was something Andrea could pick up on her own. Indeed, not for the same reason as the rest of them – one didn't even have to be psychic. An innocent child wouldn't need to be escorted everywhere she went, but what interested Andrea was the stress Wednesday was feeling underneath the surface.
However, it was becoming clearer that she was burying those feelings deeper and deeper the more Andrea pressed. If Wednesday didn't want to share, she wasn't going to. They'd have to build up trust first. To a degree, Andrea already did, but only to the degree that she didn't expect judgment from Wednesday. They both suffered through harsh walks of life; Andrea just didn't know what could set her off, or if violence was her go-to problem-solving tool. She let her ask her question, and Andrea appeared thoughtful in her answer.
“This will be my second year.” Andrea said. “I didn't come here like the others, too. I was a rescue.”
Her nervous tick went from clicking her pretty red fingernails together to picking at them. The thought of her past put some amount of stress on her, but she figured it was necessary to share if they were supposed to start building trust with one another.
“The Promise program saved me after... well...”
Andrea hesitated.
“It was a long four months of drug addiction and street living... I don't take any pride in it.”
There was a brief moment of silence as she let the words sink in. It felt like she was doing that more for herself than she was for Wednesday. Her eyes shot downward as she crinkled her brows, a look of disdain, but it wasn't aimed toward anyone. She still has a hard time accepting that time of her life, as well as herself.
Andrea finally sighed to lift some of the weight off her chest. “I went to study law at Cambridge, you know. I guess it goes to show that it can happen to anyone.”
TREVOR - Attack’s over ELI - Casualties? TREVOR - 145 dead total, rest got away TREVOR - SG pulled out before the authorities got too close ELI - Fuck. ELI - You still have reads on their activity down there? TREVOR - Yeah but I don’t know for how long TREVOR - They’ve been getting a LOT of new techs on board lately TREVOR - Starting to pick up on the piggybacking ELI - Think they’re preparing for something? TREVOR - Think they’re just gradually upping their game TREVOR - Not gonna be able to get you info for much longer TREVOR - Gotta keep my ass out of the firing line ELI - I get you. Just stay safe. TREVOR - Gotcha man TREVOR - Tell godzilla I said hey ELI - Sure.
Eli put his phone away after speaking with his contact Trevor Norton. One of his oldest confidants, since his time with Somniatis. Eli once expressed the possibility of getting him a job aboard the Promise, but Trevor turned it down on account of his belief that ‘they’re just gonna outmode all the humans eventually’. A thought that, for a while, Eli shrugged off as nonsense.
But here’s the thing.
The majority of human workers aboard the Promise were techs, tram workers, storage lifters, PR guys, etc. The menial stuff, out of sight from all the big shot power instructors and pioneers in medical, technological, whatever fields. Collectively, they were a perfectly capable workforce, filling in all the roles that metahumans weren’t interested in or meant for.
Then Zoey happened.
Over the last four years since she came online, there had been a very steady increase in employee cutbacks, reorganizing of section managerial operations, those sorts of things. And the majority of those cutbacks were on regular humans. The Board was slowly, slowly filtering out those positions and combining them into Zoey’s programming - as an experimental AI, she needed to take things gradually. But a point was steadily being reached where, in theory, she could run the whole damn station on her own.
And Eli was concerned that his position as student profile and power development manager was in line with the same fate.
But as always, he did his best to push the thought out of his head.
They tried some of the drink Uril had bought for them with a tiny amount of his station credits. “If you rack up enough credits, you can buy a sofa to sit on. The kicker is, the sofas are great as a reminder of what home is like. At least for me, I had some of my best experiences on a sofa. It’s really second only to a bed.” Uril was having another fairly one sided conversation with one of the fresh-off-the-boat meta humans from Earth.
“Yeah.” They said. It was a man who looked like the most dirt-covered thing the whole station had to offer. Uril wondered if it was some drawback of his meta human ability. He was glad that the bee was very cleanly. It didn’t even require any upkeeping. This man looked like he had washed himself a hundred times in vain. His eyes were weary, hands covered with calluses, and even now his space flight standard issue clothing was looking more soiled by the minute. It could just be a trick of the light though… Uril thought. Though he wasn’t much for sitting in speculation on the issue. This guy would probably forget who had bought him the apple cider on his first day, he was just that type of man. One entrenched in… His own thoughts, and also, dirtiness.
Uril stood and walked away from the table, with a slight motion of his hand in farewell. He heard thin wings rustling in his right ear, as the bee decided to take flight as well. ”Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!” Uril called after it. He would go on with his routine: it was time to have a seat somewhere he wouldn’t feel so examined. Somewhere like his couch. He had been to two of the arrivals of newbies thus far, and both times it had felt like the examiners were simply letting their dogs sniff new ones. Uril wasn’t a conventional dog, or a conventional meta human, so he would be going his own way for the rest of the day. Judge away, poindexters… Uril thought to himself. It’s never to late to seize the day, even after watching dozens of space-sickened zombies mill their way aboard.
“Gavin. Pleasure t’ meetcha. And thanks, dude. That’d be awesome.” the shaggy dog replied earnestly. He hadn’t expected so much as an answer, let alone a guide. People could be surprising sometimes. He had shot a glance over in the direction that she had pointed, but didn’t immediately spot tall, green, and scaly. He did see butts and backs, though. Butts and backs as far as the eye could see. It was beautiful in a ‘not-at-all-even-remotely-beautiful-but-still-trying’ kind of way.
Looking back at Phoebe, Gavin relaxed a bit. She seemed nice. The first person he had actually spoken to aboard the Promise was cool...a good sign, perhaps? Yeah, definitely. It was going to be a good...err, year? Two?...however long he would be staying in space.
He made as if he were going to go on ahead, but stopped and waited for her to join him. She was the one that knew where they were going, so it's not like he had a choice. But that was okay. As long as she would lead, he would follow.
Gavin shifted from one hand to the other the stack of valuable information that would likely be tossed away at the soonest convenience with little-to-no reading having actually been done. He could feel something rumbling, a sixth sense of sorts kicking in… it was time.
Time for small talk.
“So, where ya from? And uh...” he began before trailing off. He was going to ask what her power was but...was that frowned upon? Rude? He wasn’t sure. It really wasn’t back home, but he wasn’t in Ohio anymore. He was in space. He’d have to follow space rules. But screw it, they were all metas here and, well, he was curious. So…
Gavin... Phoebe could tell the boy had quite a bit of energy in him. He was definitely youthful! Though, Phoebe wondered if that was a good trait when she was practically the same age as him, and far more mature. Maybe she was jumping to conclusions (or, more accurately, getting arrogant).
She lead Gavin over to Henry... whom she had many questions for herself. She could see the big, scaly, white behemoth of a Metahuman. She wondered if Henry was ever human - but, that raises the question of whether or not Phoebe was human. She... feels human, she thinks like a human. Maybe that was all she needed to affirm herself. Besiiiiiides, there was more important things to do than worry about pointless philosophical discussions.
Gavin kind of caught her off guard when he asked about where she came from. Huh, was he interested in Phoebe? Or was he just making small talk? Either way, Phoebe wasn't going to give him the cold shoulder over that.
"Where I'm from? Seattle." Phoebe smiled. "It rains a lot there."
Then he asked about her "gimmick." She could only chuckle a little bit.
"Sorry Gavin, when it comes to me," Phoebe smiled slyly. "There are no tricks, no gimmicks."
Then she laughed a little bit... what Gavin asked was not lost on her, but she felt the need to be a little sly. Instead of trying to explain it to him, she decided to show him.
In an instant, Phoebe seemingly disappeared one layer at a time. Starting with her clothes, and before anyone could get titillated, her skin disappeared and raw red flesh could be seen. Then, Phoebe completely disappeared - not completely, if Gavin were to look closely, they could see the shimmer, though she was much harder to see while holding still.
A moment later, she reappeared - one layer at a time - smiling, and a fingertip resting on her jaw. "Well, that speaks for itself," Phoebe said, "But, what you couldn't tell is that objects pass through me... well, sometimes I pass through other objects, but I don't quite get this power." She shrugged.
"Just another reason why I'm here." She said, before turning to Henry. Oh. Oh yeah, he was getting away. They had to catch up with Henry. "C'mon, before we lose him."
Jasmine could only help but laugh at Abe's comments. It was the same with Jasmine, she had a life of fame and fortune ahead of her (she didn't know about anyone else here). They had a similar line of thought at the very least... Jasmine knew that the two of them were going to be friends. But, maybe she shouldn't get ahead of herself.
“You an athlete? You seem kind of sporty.” He asked.
Oh! The question Jasmine was waiting for. Normally, she wouldn't brag because she likes her actions to speak for her... but, up here, she really doubted if she was ever going to get the opportunity.
"Oh, yes, I play Basketball," Jasmine said. "Also played soccer ages ago, but I dropped it for track."
Again, she made the choice not to brag about how good she was at it in favor of letting her actions speak for her. She didn't want to sound like she was going out of her way to impress him (when the only thing that would have happened was she would look desperate). Just seem cool and collected.
"How about yourself?" Jasmine asked. "You could not have gotten a body like that from lazing around."
Good lord in heaven, Abe might've struck a good one here. Sporty, flirty, and good looking, eh? Didn't even complain when he was throwing dirt on the animal and plant metas. He had a strong feeling that they wold get along swimmingly. At Jasmine's question, Abraham just shrugged.
“I used to. Haven't got much time for it nowadays, you know?” Abe admitted. Though he did put in some work on the streets, that isn't necessarily something he should share with other people. That's a more personal matter; a little bit of taboo business. He continued,“Though I do occasionally dip in some... MMA.”
'Slick, Abraham, slick.'
Eh, that was something of a lie. The sort of fighting he did was nothing short of improvisational and against people who deserved it, but he let stick the image he wanted to stick. The point was sent though: not the type of guy most people would want to tussle with. Ladies like that, right? A tall strong man to keep them safe and protected. At least according to Abe's delusions, they do. Anyways, flirting was fun – chit-chat, that got bored after a little while. He preferred a good talkin' while he was doing someone- I mean, something, and Abe figured that they had somewhere to be. Abe craned his head around the crowd trying to get a feel for where they were supposed to be. Whether it be looking for a flow of traffic toward a certain area, or any official looking person(s) directing others. The weird plant girl had passed them a packet earlier, which probably had a map on it. He raised and looked at Jasmine coyly.
“Let's see if we can't figure ourselves out to where we ought to be. Ladies first?”
"Right-o!" Kenna Sterling said after descending from the podium, clapped her hands twice. "Student Orientation Association, ASSEMBLE!"
From amidst the mob of freshman came the other SOA members, most of whom were giving the bare minimum to count as "assembling" as they shuffled into view. While some of them were eager and willing, many of them were waiting to get this over with. For a long time the SOA was run as a very low-key organization, and many of its members were seniors and holdouts from that slow period who just wanted the extra credit for their records. Needless to say, after the old president graduated and left the Promise, they weren't expecting someone like Kenna to sweep in and revitalize the group like a fistful of adrenaline shots. Luckily for them, Kenna was either too nice or too trusting to kick any of the lazier team members out of the SOA, so many of them just chose to grin and bear it until they could graduate and get as far away as possible from the demented plant girl's club as possible.
"Okay, this is the big day people!" Kenna announced, bouncing on her toes excitedly. "This is our chance to really make the new students feel welcome, so get out there and do your stuff. We're a bit short on time so I'll spare most of the re-review of the game plan..."
A couple of the older SOA's cried tears of joy at this news.
"...long story short, consult the rules list, answer any questions, and don't forget to sell the dance as much as possible, gonna be a BIG event this year!" Kenna concluded, clapping her hands together. "Now make sure you all get your handout satchel and guide books so you're double prepared."
"Sure thing, Leslie Knope," one of the SOA members grumbled.
"'Scuse me?" Kenna asked.
"...nothin'."
Grinning widely, she watched with pride as her committee members dispersed, then picked up her own satchel and forced her way back into the crowd. Pacing around and making conversation with freshman, it was surreal to think that only a few years ago she was on the other side, a new arrival trying to fit in. It was before she met any of her other friends, back when the only living person she knew was her Uncle. It was hard for her, especially considering the fact that she was a Bio. The Bios, or the Biological powers, often had it worse then other Metas given the often uncontrollable nature of their powers. The ones that survived or weren't "removed for public safety" often had a lot of emotional baggage on top of that, with the end result being that Bios had a reputation for being rather unstable. Needless to say, after her own experiences trying to make friends when everyone thought you were the mental equivalent of a ticking time bomb, Kenna kept a close eye out for any other Bios she could befriend, just to show them that the world wasn't a dark place for people like them. Just like Henry showed her.
