Vox Angelis

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

Guess you'll have to write down a will for that, hahaha!

But really, I wonder what could Angel bedoing with all these video-games though?

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

You don't know how relatively true it is, man.

Anyways, sad to see one member of my former team leaves. Good god Las didn't leave for real. I'll miss messing Aaron around for the shipping hahaha.

I hope the pupetting powers your gave me wasn't the nail in the coffin. I don't particularly like playing other people's characters, but I had to oblige with the plans you laid out to me and having to move things forward.

See you around, mate. May our paths cross over again.

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

I have edited my character's impressions as well.

Oh, and since a lot of people told me Angel's picture was cringe-worthy, and was dissatisfied with it as well, I've changed it.Mind that she still gets to wear shades al day long, and still had a killer body hahaha

For reference, just google images X-23.

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

PEW PEW Time!

A show hosted by Lawrence B. Ellison
With guest star Angélique Lachance

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𝕊𝕖𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕞𝕓𝕖𝕣 𝟞𝕥𝕙, 𝟚𝟘𝟚𝟘 / / 𝕌𝕊𝔸ℝ𝕀𝕃ℕ 𝔼𝕒𝕤𝕥 ℂ𝕒𝕞𝕡𝕦𝕤 / / 𝟘𝟡𝟛𝟘

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_{Collab made by @Riffus Maximus @Snagglepuss89}

After waking up and ensuring she was ready for the day, Angélique left her room, her stomach loudly rumbling. Like every morning, her system needed to get some fuel to energize her body. It was already the third day since she had arrived at USARILN, and Angel was already on the move to better plan her stay here. Today, she figured she'd need training with modern weaponry. While she had quite the potent ability, she knew not every creature she would encounter would be so susceptible to sonic attacks. Additionally, there was a limit to her powers, and when that limit was reached, it was a safer bet to rely on something else than be a sitting duck.

With this in mind, she first needed to grab breakfast to start the day on the right track. The raven-haired Canadian singer quickly made her way to the establishment's cafeteria with a half-jogging pace. Clearing all formalities aside, she went to the morning pastries part of the dining room and grabbed her usual morning meal: a few croissants and pancakes. She had seen the chocolate filled pastries, tempting her, but in the end, she decided against grabbing them, still reminding herself about her past healthier habits.

Looking over the hall for empty seats, she spotted a familiar figure. A lucky sight, considering her plans for the day, she thought. Making her way throughout the less-than crowded tables, Angélique reached the blond-haired young man who exuded an aura of calm and maturity. He seemed to be finishing up a simple meal of toast and coffee. A typical, if somewhat lacking, breakfast.

"Hey there, Laurence, was it? Mind if I sit here?" Angel asked, incorrectly using the young man's French pronunciation, eying the empty chair in front of Lawrence's spot.

"Hmm?"

Came the reply from a mouth full of toast as Lawrence looked up from his table- it clearly having more of his attention than the surrounding room. It was one of the women from the other day- that much he could remember. However, not much else was coming to mind about her. The only time they had really been face to face was during her unpleasant arrival. Still, he responded by motioning the seat in front of him before washing down his mouthful of toast with the coffee in front of him.

"Sure, I don't own it or anything. It's all yours...?"

He trailed off, clearly asking for a name to match with her face.

"Angélique, or Angelic if it's too inconvenient to say. Well, Angel is more than enough to me." The black-haired Aberration responded, switching from the natural French to an English pronunciation of her name, chuckling lightly by the end as she realized she was making her introduction longer than necessary. It was a natural reflex of her to introduce herself as such, mostly because of the various people she had met throughout her career. Working in a more English-dominated business with a French name would often do that.

He nodded in response.

"Angélique then."

He replied, deciding that if she was going to pronounce his name in the French manner, he may as well respond in kind. Afterwards, he motioned the seat in front of him with his hand once more as he bit into breakfast.

Nodding courteously as thanks, Angélique sat in front of the blond-haired young man and started digging into her plate. It never ceased to amaze the woman of French-Canadian origins how good the food from this place was. For a prison, it sure tasted as if the pastries were made on place, fresh from the oven. And the diversity of the food too. She knew well American food, but this place went beyond what this country usually provided.

Halfway through her meal, Angel looked upwards, gazing at Lawrence from behind her shades. Before he'd finish his food, she figured that she would at least ask him something that she had in mind from the beginning of the day.

"Say, Laurence. I know this may be too straightforward, coming from someone you barely know, but do you think that you could lend me a hand with firearms in general? I saw you fighting with a shotgun on that night, so I figured you might know more about them than the others." she finally asked to the white-marked man in front of her.

"To be completely honest with you, I'd rather ask you than one of those guards watching us." She added, not even bothering to lower her voice despite the same guards she just mentioned being present all around them.

"Afraid of running into a repeat of your first day here?"

Angel simply nodded to the assumption. She could still remember how ineffective her shots had been against the meatball she tried to shoot at.

He bit into his toast then to buy some time to think. The question had surprised him, and it wasn't often Lawrence B. Ellison was taken by surprise these days. When he saw she was an Abe, it was a natural assumption that she had come to ask for a quick hit of his powers- not to teach her about firearms. In fact, that had never been the reason anybody had come to talk to him. The guards were of course a better option for that, being actual trained soldiers, but Lawrence had a good teacher as well.

As he finished chewing, he looked to an invisible watch on his wrist, before replying:

"You free after we eat? I've got a few hours right now."

"Of course! I have plans for today, trying to arrange the dinner I promised to my old team, but I can squeeze some time to learn about shooting straight with guns right away." Angélique answered, apparently satisfied from the grin drawn on her face.

"Good, finish up and we'll get going then."

----------------------------------------------------------------

The two walked to the training grounds in relative silence, the weather so far deciding to cooperate with their plan for the day. It looked as if the two were marching off to war, or were action heroes in a bad 90's movie. Lawrence with his thick jacket, and Angélique with her shades. Both were armed with a primary and secondary weapon: Angel a .338 rifle and 9mm handgun. Lawrence with his trusty shotgun and a .38 revolver. They might not get to all of them that day- and truthfully shouldn't- but it was best to be prepared.

On the far side of the training grounds, well away from any buildings, a simple shooting range was set up. Clearly not one meant for the guards, but operated by the students. There was nobody there yet today- and compared to the other training facilities at the school was one of the less frequently used ones due to the nature of their abilities- and only the sound of their own footsteps welcomed them to the spot. Lined up at the front were a series of desks to act as shooting benches, and their drawers contained a variety of materials to set up targets with. Underneath each desk was a generous stack of waterproof white boards to set up at the range- with a variety of florescent orange and green targets of various sizes contained in the drawers to serve as points to aim at.

Orange stones were layed out at varying intervals in front of the desks- first at ten yards until they reached fifty, then at twenty-five yards until they reached all the way to three hundred out in the distance. Finally, behind each desk was a small pile of what looked like sandbags- about half a dozen of various sizes. Lawrence set his firearms on the table- along with the boxes of ammunition he had shoved in his pocket- and got to work pulling out the various supplies from the desk. Finally, handing a roll of orange dots and a stapler to Angel he asked:

"Could you set these up at the 5th and 7th markers? Two each should do for now."

For his part, Lawrence gathered his own set of supplies- green dots instead of orange- and began setting up his own set of targets. Both closer to the desks and more numerous than what he had asked Angel to do.

"Will do." Angélique nodded, taking the equipment Lawrence handed to her before jogging her way to the indicated markers.

Like Lawrence, Angel had set up her weaponry onto the desks before running off to the 5th and 7th markers. Reaching each mark, Angel swiftly aligned the red dot and punched the stapler thrice into each target before returning to the row of desks. Upon returning, she noticed her partner's targets were closer but considerably greater in number than what she had set up. Perhaps those were meant for the shotgun and the revolver? Judging from the weapons they had been carrying, it was a safe bet to think that the rifle and the handgun were more meant to be used at long range, while the revolver and shotgun were to be used at close range. Not that she was an expert though, she simply assumed by popular knowledge.

"All done. Anything else?"

"Nope, just give me a bit. There's a reason I asked if you had a few hours."

With that, he moved everything except the rifle and a box of .338 ammo to a different desk, and retrieved three of the sand bags from behind his makeshift shooting bench. He set two of them up close to the stock, and one further out supporting the barrel. After that, he pulled up a chair and took a seat, looking into the scope of the rifle and twisting it occasionally, before standing up once more and adjusting the sandbags. Eventually satisfied, he walked over to Angel once more and handed her the rifle.

"All right, we're going to cover all the boring stuff first, so try not to fall asleep. I'm going to go over all the basics so if you feel like I'm treating you like a child- I am."

Wish a sigh, remembering his own lessons, he continued:

"This specifically is a Winchester Model 70- that's not very important to know, but in case you wanted it for yourself. You can find what you like as you experiment on your own. What is important is it's been rechambered to shoot .338 caliber magnum rounds. There's dozens of dozens of different kinds and I'm not going to try to teach you all of them, and I'm not expert myself, but essentially the higher the first two numbers go- the more punch is in the bullet."

Only stopping for a moment to let it sink in, he continued, laying his hand on the open bolt.

"It is a bolt-action rifle. The bolt opens and closes the action. It will not fire while the bolt is open, and you should only ever close it when you're going to be firing it soon. Having primed bullets all the time is asking for an accident to happen. This model can hold three .338 rounds in it, you slide them in through the open action there. It takes a bit of practice to be able to do it smoothly, so don't worry if you fumble around with it the first few times you're here on the range."

Taking his hand off the bolt, he finally added:

"Go ahead and operate it a few times, get the feel for it. You won't be able to set up a bench or stand on the field too often, so getting used to doing it in your hands will help. Any questions yet?"

Angelique listened with intent as she watched Lawrence motioning how to operate the rifle she had been holding. There was a lot of information to take in all at once, but some of it seemed like simple stuff to remember. The higher the size of the caliber, the higher punch she'd get from them. So, did that meant that when she ordered the Desert Eagle from her acquisition request form, would the .4 magnum bullets be more potent that the .338 this rifle had in?

It was however more tedious about learning the safety protocols of the rifle. Opening the bolt to disengage its firing mechanism, close it to engage fire mode, was it? So, this weapon seemed to use individual bullets instead of ammunition cartridges? She eyed the rifle, inspected its parts and tried to figure out where and how the bullets went in and where they went out after being shot.

The way she was holding the gun, it was apparent that she feared touching the trigger accidentally, and so her hands were holding the Winchester far from its trigger as she operated awkwardly the bolt action on the gun.

"Hmm... so let me summarize what you just told me, just to be sure I understood. This Winchester hold .335 caliber bullets. Higher the caliber, higher impact it does. By the way, can you put all sort of bullets in a gun, or is it designed to shoot a single type of bullet?"

"So if I open the bolt, the gun can't fire, but when it's closed, it can shoot, right? Say, is that one of those weapons you have to crank up the bolt each time you fire to be able to shoot the next round?"

".338, if you were trying to find .335 you'd have a hell of a goose chase. Anyway, that's more or less the gist of it. Guns are designed to fire one caliber of bullet. can it fire others? I'm sure there are instances where that might be able to work, but generally no and you should never try, that's asking for an accident to happen. However, there are ways around it. This for instance originally fired .308 caliber rounds, but has been modified for more power."

Turning the gun around slightly, in her hands, he pointed to a switch on the back of the bolt. Currently it was pulled back, away from the barrel of the gun. Lawrence pushed it forward, until it was next to a small word etched on the top of the bolt Fire. He pulled it back once more before speaking:

"That's the safety on this rifle. When it's pulled back, the safety is on, and the gun will not fire when you pull the trigger. Doesn't matter if you've loaded ammunition into it and have the action closed. Just like you never close the action until you're ready to fire, never turn the safety off-"

He flipped the switched forward once more.

"- Until you're sure you're ready to start using this weapon. Doesn't matter if the gun's empty or not, if you don't use good habits all the time you might send a bullet into somebody when we have no healer around, including yourself. You saw when you got here just how deadly they still are to people like us."

Finally, he took his hand off the gun once more.

"Go ahead and cycle through action closed, safety on, action closed safety off, ready to fire, etc. Until you're comfortable doing it with your eyes closed."

"Alright then."

Angel nodded, understanding the whole safety concept. Bolt open, can't fire. Bolt closed, can fire unless safety switch if set to safe mode. Fire switch pulled forward, can shoot now. Bolt open, can't fire nonetheless. Bolt closed, now the rifle is primed to fire.

The raven-haired amateur practiced a few more times repeating this process, sometimes fumbling during her mumblings about how it worked, but the more times she practiced, the more assurance she would get, and the faster she would get with switching the trigger and the bolt action. She was not perfectly comfortable doing it with her eyes-closed like Lawrence suggested, but she could feel the gig of things coming more naturally into her hands.

Practicing was one thing. Hopefully, she wouldn't forget about that on the actual battlefield.

"I think I'm getting the hang of it."

She affirmed as she closed her eyes and comfortably switched the Winchester from fully closed mode to fire-ready mode back and forth until the gun was completely safe to handle once more.

"Well, I guess that covers that part. What would be next?"

"Next..."

He began, taking the rifle from her once more and bringing it to his shoulder, aiming at one of the targets down field. He did not bother to close the bolt or turn off the safety, but everything else in his posture suggest that if the gun was cocked he would be ready to fire.

"Look at my right hand."

It was, as one with even a limited knowledge of firearms might expect, not wrapped around the trigger. Instead it extended in a straight line outside of the trigger guard, parallel to the barrel.

"I'm sure you've at least heard of trigger discipline before. Never wrap your finger around that trigger until you're absolutely sure you're ready to fire. It should always be the last safety measure that you disengage before shooting, and the first one that you remember to follow. What you do with your finger in the meantime is irrelevant, you don't have to hold it like mine, but-"

He relaxed, handing the rifle back to her once more.

"- if you keep all that in mind I think we're ready to finally start. You can go ahead and set up the rifle on those sandbags I laid out and adjust the scope until you can clearly see the right-most target I set up at the third marking. Take your time at it, and don't put a round into the chamber yet."

"No trigger finger, got it."

Angélique nodded once more. Sounded simple alright, but she could imagine how easy it would be to accidentally pull the trigger unconsciously. If Lawrence took time to give this as a final safety measure, then that meant that a fair share of accidents happened because of this. Perhaps was that the cause of the shoot-out that had happened in the containment cell when they had arrived here in the first place?

Okay then, so how did the scope adjust itself on the rifle? Inspecting it as she reached the sandbag, she found the mechanism that was magnifying the lenses inside the apparel. Knowing where the roulette was, she set up the rifle on the sandbag and knelt behind the bag, closing one eye and keeping the other open through the scope. She slowly adjusted the lenses until the assigned target at the right-most of the third marking became crystal clear to her eye. It took her some time to adjust to this contraption, but part of her found it fascinating just how complex this whole thing was. Actually, she was so focused on Lawrence's instructions and what to do, the whispers at the back of her mind seemed to have vanished into sub consciousness.

"Ooooookay, looks pretty clear to me."

"Okay."

He began, digging into his pocket once more and pulling out a disposable packet of ear plugs, and putting them in. Adjusting them until he was confident they were blocking as much noise as they were going to.

"During that battle I did not grab these, and even though I only fired a few shots, I bet my hearing would be damaged for good if Benediction hadn't shown up at the hospital. Never fire a weapon without ear protection if you can avoid it. Put yours in, and then ago ahead and load a round from that box next to you into the rifle. Take a shot at the target I told you to focus on- don't worry about hitting it dead on. We don't care about your accuracy right now."

"Okay..."

Angélique squeezed the ear plugs Lawrence had given her prior to going at the training grounds. Ensuring she could feel sound dampening around her, she then proceeded to take a single round from the box by her side and load it inside the Winchester’s chamber, the pointy end going towards the rifle's barrel.

When it was done, Angel set sight onto her target, remembering to switch the trigger into fire position and ensure the bolt action was closed. Then she took a while to adjust her sight towards the target. She gripped the gun hard, her heartbeat going faster by the second, but she recalled Lawrence's words about not touching the trigger until she was sure when she was shooting. Imitating the way he showed her earlier, Angel's index was aligned in parallel to the gun's barrel, until she would set upon the decision to fire.

When she pulled the trigger, however, she did not expect the kickback from the gun to be so intense. Sure, she'd seen a few fail videos online of people being caught off-guard by the weapon's recoil, but she didn't expect it to be that bad. After the shot fired, her shoulder jerked back, throwing the raven-haired young woman off-balance on her knees while the rifle fell from the sandbag, by Angel's side,

Rubbing her shoulder from the sudden shock, Angel got on to her feet and grabbed the rifle lying down on the ground, disengaging the fire-mode before looking back at Lawrence.

"Holy fuck. This thing sure packs a kick back at you when you don't expect it."

He chuckled in response to the scene, there had been a reason he only wanted her to load one round into the chamber. Not that he fully expected that to happen, but it seemed like he was at least going to get some entertainment from this outing. Anyway, some lessons were best learned by experience.

"Yeah, that's the .338 for you, has a nasty kick until you're used to it. Just wait until you're practicing with the shotgun."

He briefly nodded towards it on the other bench.

"Anyway, I don't think I need to tell you that dropping the weapon while it's ready to fire is another safety 'no-no' do I?"

With a sigh of faux-exasperation, he took a step forward and pointed at the bolt once again.

"Work the action back again to eject the spent casing. You need to do this every time you fire even if you have multiple rounds loaded. Then you can set the rifle on the bench and go out to check how you did."

Feeeling slightly embarrassed from this outcome, Angélique shyly nodded at Lawrence's instruction. She couldn't imagine how much kick a shotgun would provide. Safety switch on, Angel pulled the bolt-action inwards, the barrel opened to eject the spent round out of the gun, flying to the ground with a small clink.

Seetting the rifle onto the sandbag, Angel walked towards the target she shot at. There wasn't a single bullet hole present on it, meaning she completely missed her mark. That was a big disappointment, but she blamed her inexperience for that, and was sure she could do better next time.

Angel returned to Lawrence, a slight frown of disappointement etched on her face.

"Well, looks like I completely missed. Bullet must've gone off completely off-target."

By the time she got back the casing was standing upright in the box, replacing the bullet that had been fired. Other than that, it didn't appear as if Lawrence had done much.

"Yeah, knocked on your ass and missed, sounds about right. Now that you're going to be anticipating the recoil, you have to make sure it doesn't make your trigger finger stiff, or you're going to be even further off your mark."

Turning towards the rifle he added:

"As for the safety, good job turning it off before leaving the rifle, but you don't need to operate it every time you stop firing. If you have it on you and you're at a break in the shooting, leaving the action open and trigger discipline should be fine, you don't want to have it on and forget it in the middle of a fight."

Stepping over to the other table for a moment, he added:

"I was going to mention this when we got to the other guns, since it's not as easy to do with a rifle, but there is one more measure above trigger discipline- never point the barrel of your gun at someone you're not trying to kill. Empty, loaded, safety on or off, never. Always keep it pointing at the ground if you can, and not at your own feet. Try to avoid pointing up if it's loaded, since bullets have to come down somewhere. Anyway, go ahead and keep practicing, one bullet at a time, until you can at least hit the post. The target doesn't matter as much."

"Sir yes sir!"

Angel joked, bringing herself back into the same position she had been before. Acknowledging the earlier advices, she set up the rifle into firing position once more on the sand bag. Switching the trigger back into its firing position, she swiftly pushed the bolt back to its closing position. Now that she had a good idea about the rifle's kick, she braced herself for one more shot, gripping the gun tightly as she aimed towards the target, trigger finger inside the triggering circle, put at ease away from the trigger.

Then came the shot. This time, her shoulder jerked away, but she kept good balance on her dominant knee. From the scope, she didn't feel like the bullet hit its mark, again. But she was slowly getting accustomed to the gun's recoil.

Angel unloaded the empty shell from the Winchester. keeping in mind what Lawrence said about not necessarily pulling the trigger back to its safety position, as long as the bolt was kept open. She went towards the target to inspect it. Nope, nothing on there again.

This cycle continued on and forth until the 5th shot came in. Bracing herself for her shot, Angel sighed softly, trying to relax a bit more. While she was aiming, she kept focus on her mark, but at the same time wanted to say something.

"By the way, thank you for helping me. You're a good teacher."

Bang, there came the shot. And this time, the sound of a fast-paced object striking a wooden frame could be heard.

Ejecting the spent bullet from its chamber, Angel set the rifle onto the sandbag, investigating if she had hit her target. Indeed, she had. While it was not a dead-center shot, she managed to hit a spot on the outer rims of the target.

From afar, she turned to Lawrence, raising her arm with a thumb raised before walking back to him.

"Finally did it!"

Lawrence nodded in satisfaction as she threw him the thumbs up. He hadn't commented earlier when she remarked on his teaching- there was nothing to say. He was merely copying his own teacher, who was the one she should be giving thanks to. Still, there was no point in telling her that. The man was dead, with no grave to pay any respects to.

C'est la vie.

Still, he did feel a sense of unwarranted pride at the sight of that thumbs up. Six shots to get on target wasn't bad for a first attempt, and it gave them quite a bit of ammo left to practice with. He would need to requisition more, but that was on USARILN East to supply. He'd be damned if he was to cough up money to buy .338 every time he needed it to fight their battles, shit was expensive. As it was, they had about fifteen more shots to work with if he didn't break into his spare box- and he would prefer to do that than move on to a different gun. May as well practice with the same one as much as possible.

When she got back, he finally returned her thumbs up.

"Good job, now for the reason I was saying the target didn't matter: I want you to keep aiming for exactly where you were when that shot landed. The goal is to be consistent with your shooting, accuracy will come as you learn how to adjust you sights and your aim. I want you to shoot another five rounds at that target, and we'll see how close together they all land."

Seeing Lawrence returning her thumbs up, Angel felt some pride creeping up inside her. It sort of felt like when her parents congratulated her on her first successful riff on a guitar, or the very first verse of a rock song she covered perfectly. There was still some kind of guilt to actually learn something as taboo to her as handling firearms, but given the current situation, she figured she might start with it sooner than too late.

Again, she nodded comprehensively at the Arbiter's instructions. So, the goal right now was to try getting her shots steadier, more accurate by aiming for the exact same spot. It wasn't too hard, aiming for the same spot, as she always tried to aim at the dead center of the target.

Once more, she repositioned herself, round prepared beforehand by her instructor and fellow sub natural. However, while she maintained the same position, she shifted the Winchester closer to her elbow, trying to find a better grip, adjusting her face to the scope in a more relaxed way. Perhaps she was too stiff?

The first shot completely missed its mark, mostly due to Angélique worrying more about her posture than actual than actually improving her aim.

Second shot hit the post, still lengths away from the actual target, not so much improving since her first successful shot.

Third shot was more of a success however, inching closer to the center of the target. It was more due to dumb rookie luck than anything else.

Fourth shot was somewhat similar, only that now it was more because she adapted from her previous attempts. Learning from her previous shots, she eased up on her shoulder area, all the while maintaining a firm grip on the gun.

Fifth shot was definitively an improvement. Still a few inches off-mark, but it was the closest shot she got out of all she had fired so far. By now, she had learned that it was not about pushing her shoulder forward to counter the rifle's kick back, but more about using her shoulder as a stabilizing pad, and her hands were just there to aim the firearm and keep it steady, not hold it stiffly into place.

After returning to inspect her latest shot, Angel walked back to Lawrence with a slight grin of satisfaction. Sure, there were some more progress to be made still, but she was improving bit by bit. It had been time consuming, walking back and forth to inspect her shots, taking her time to find an appropriate way to aim, hold the gun steady, but there was a genuine interest into doing this, and it actually kept her focused on something else than the inside of her mind.

"Fifth shot down. Are we doing more?"

Lawrence held up his hand for her to hold on while he went out himself to inspect her shooting. However, when he came back he was frowning.

"Yeah. I think quite a bit more... give me a second."

He walked down the line of desks then, looking under each one with increasingly dissatisfaction, before he finally reached the one at the furthest end of the range. Reaching under it, he pulled out what looked to be a sheet of cardboard that was painted white, cut out in a 3'x3' square. Then, digging around the drawers once more, he pulled out a set of hammer and nails, along with a new green dot. Finally, he made his way out to the 3rd marker once more and went to the second post he had set up there. In another minute, the board was nailed to the post, with the new dot resting in the middle of it.

Finally, he returned. to Angel, setting the materials on a different desk.

"I can understand adjusting how you want to shoot to find something comfortable, but this should allow us a better idea of your consistency. Shoot five more, and shoot the same way for each of them. The goal-"

He stopped for a moment to pull a pen out of his pocket and draw on the desk. He drew a rough outline of his cardboard square and the dot in the middle. Then, he placed five dots near the top right corner, all within an inch or two of each other.

"- Is to get a tight grouping. Even if your first shot misses its mark, it doesn't matter. Try to get the holes close together. Do it by aiming at the same spot the same way consistently- don't adjust to try and hit the first hole you make. Fire all five before getting up to check, and take your time at it if you need to."

Angel watched on silently as Lawrence went to set up an actual target on the shooting posts. Perhaps he wanted to give her an actual point where to shoot, make it easier for her to get a point of reference. This time around, it looked like he wanted to test her consistency. So, that meant, no matter if she missed, she must keep shooting the same way, stop with the whole adjustments.

“Alright, let’s see what I can do”

the black-haired X-mark nodded as she went back to the Winchester, looking on as the rifle was empty. This time around, she guessed she could load the chamber to its 3 rounds capacity, given she would now be doing consecutive shots.

Last time, her shot seemed to be fairly good, she figured, so she took the same stance, positioning herself behind the sandbag, rifle resting on it while she held the gun firmly in hands and positioned the rifle’s butt onto the area between her shoulder and the pectoral muscle.

Aiming for the dot in the middle of the white cardboard target, Angel took a deep breath, focusing, before letting out the first shot. Having practiced five times prior to this shot finding a better way to position and hold the Winchester steady really showed this time; the bullet embedded itself not exactly dead center on the target, but it was relatively close, a few inches away above the dot.

Keeping in mind to aim at the same dot with the same way she just shot, Angel pulled the bolt lever to eject the spent ammo casing. Again, she resumed aiming with the same way she previously did. Steady, breathing, focus, shoot.

She repeated this process 4 more times. Second shot came close to where the first landed. While the third shot was slightly sideways compared to the first two shots. Fourth shot was a few inches upwards from the first two, fifth shot, however, grouped by the other first three holes and even inched downwards towards the dot at the center of the cardboard target.

“Hmmm… it’s a bit hard to be consistent considering the kick back, and the fact you have to pull the bolt each time after shooting. Worse when reloading after the third shot.”

Angélique remarked as she pulled the bolt open, sending the empty round falling to the ground before setting the rifle back onto the desk.

"Let's go check out how I did, hm?"

Lawrence simply nodded in response to her before beginning to walk over to the targets, motioning for her to follow with him, on the way over he answered:

"Yeah, a semi-auto would be easier, but if you can get used to the mechanics of a harder rifle smoothly, the transition isn't going to hurt you any, and you have a bit more variety in your effectiveness. I tend to favor older rifles because of how they feel and their reliability if you maintain them well, but that doesn't mean they're better overall. As long as the gun fires the caliber you want it to fire and gets it to the target you want it to get to- the differences are petty."

Having arrived at the target, he took a moment to examine her groupings, and seemingly finding what he was looking for, Lawrence walked over to the previous target she was shooting at. Finally, he began walking back and motioned for her to follow once more.

"That was a pretty good grouping for a beginner, and it shows it wasn't a defect in the ammo causing the missed shots. Probably just a matter of adjusting the sights for you or learning where the gun is trying to put the bullet. I know it shoots a little high for me even if I'm aiming dead center, so I always have to account for that when I shoot. Anyway, I think we should leave the pistols for a different day- they're a whole different ball game-and finish off the other box of .338 I brought. We definitely have enough time to get to the shogun though."

Having arrived back at the original bench, he took the supplied he had set aside from earlier and added:

"I'm going to set up something similar at the five and seven marker targets that I had you set up at the beginning. We have about twenty-five shots left with the .338, I figure we'll use ten of them at fifty yards, and fifteen of them at a hundred yards. One set of five for finding the target, and then the rest to work on groupings."

Angélique mentally noted everything Lawrence said about training with the bolt-action rifle differing much from training with semi-automatic firearms. Train at the highest difficulty first, so it would seem like a piece of cake for the other guns, huh? She was kind of impressed by how complex the whole aiming thing was, by how many instances the bullet can miss its intended target. Those aren’t the stuff you’d learn from video-games or movies, that’s for sure.

The initiate was glad to hear about such details. It made her feel like her training wasn’t being taught half-assed, that by the end of it she’d properly know about gun etiquette.

She was half-disappointed when Lawrence told her handgun training would have to wait for another day. Realistically, she was looking forward to know how to properly use a handgun, since that was the type of firearm she’d imagine using most, and because that’s what she had requested to get. However, she understood his words as he wouldn’t mind spending a few hours on another day to teach her about such, which she was looking forward to.

For the next twenty-five shots, Angel pretty much repeated the exercises Lawrence had made her do from the earlier ten shots. She shot five times at the fifth marker to find the right aim to hit the target, then five other shots to test her grouping consistency. The same applied at the seventh marker, only that she instead took 6 shots to feel the cardboard target and fired nine times to test the consistency.

Shooting farther targets showed on her performance, but it was still quite respectable for a rookie. As she had taken her shots, Angel had minded Lawrence telling her to adjust to where the gun was shooting where she was aimed, especially when he told her that his shots seemed to be higher than where he was aiming, kind of like how her consistency test showed. As such, she lowered her aim to fire below the targeted dots.

On the fifty-yards target, she first managed to land four out of five shots, somewhat scattered but on point. The next five shots were surprisingly good. Adapting her aim to the Winchester’s firing, she managed to get a closer group of bullet holes to the center.

At a hundred yards, things were a tad more complicated, it took her three shots to correctly find her mark and the next three shots were to center herself on the dot. As for the nine consistency shots, there has been three different groupings with a distinct pattern between them, each from after reloading the rifle. The first grouping was at the farthest of the targets, and as the shots went on, the two other groupings inched towards the target’s center dot.

“I can’t believe snipers hit targets five times smaller than that on the first shot.”

Angel chuckled as she ejected the last round from the Winchester.

He let out a sight in response to that, running a hand through his hair.

"Yeah, with tailored equipment. And a spotter. And a lot of math. And so much wasted money in practice shooting. I think this is fine personally considering the size of the things we'll be shooting."

After that, he began collecting the remaining spent .338 casings and shoving them back onto their boxes. He knew a guy who liked to do reloading as a hobby, and while he'd order a new box of factory ammunition for actual combat, a couple boxes of reloaded rounds would be fine for a future practice session. He needed to practice himself soon to work some of the rust out of his system, but that could wait for another day.

After he finished with that, Lawrence grabbed his rifle off of the desk- stopping only to switch the safety on once more- and set it aside with his other weapons. Then, he grabbed the shotgun he had used in the previous day's battle and brought it over with the same type of ammunition he had been using that day. Showing it to her, he began:

"All right, this is a break-action shotgun. Unlike with the bolt action, you need to-"

With some force, he placed his hand a short distance down the barrel and pushed, snapping the barrel of the gun downwards and leaving the gun hinged at an acute angle.

"Break the action, and then you just prime a shell directly into the barrel before-"

Placing his hand under the barrel this time, he brought back into place with a satisfying snap, more smoothly than trying to break it open.

"Closing the action again. Once it's back in this position it's ready to fire. The safety is on the right side of the gun instead of the top for this one, same concept though. Forward is off, backward is on."

Finally, he handed it to her after the demonstration was over.

"Go ahead and get used to it like with the bolt-action. It's deadly, not complicated."

Compared to the bolt-action Winchester, the shotgun seemed more intimidating to operate than the former. Watching Lawrence “breaking” the shotgun to prime a shell inside, Angel now understood why it was called this way. She wondered if there was some kind of switch to make it open like that, but seeing the force applied behind breaking it open, it seemed more like using raw strength.

Nodding to her instructor, the rookie inspected how the shotgun was made, flipping the safety trigger on and off, making sure it was on safe mode before trying to open it.

At first, it took her a moment to pry the gun open, applying pressure on the barrel to open it without breaking it. Eventually, she realized it was no use trying to be delicate, and so applied full force down the barrel. Obviously inexperienced at this, when the shotgun’s barrel swung open, the lack of proper gripping shifted the gun downwards, the barrel nearly hitting the girl’s legs.

With a nervous sigh, she inspected the holes where the shells needed to be primed, then snapped the barrel close with accidental excessive force.

Angel repeated the same opening and closing process a few more times, trying to get used to open and close it in a smoother fashion like Lawrence did on his demonstration, without swinging it open on her leg.

““Well… this is a bitch, compared to the rifle.”

He watched her struggle, with no small amusement, for a few moments before walking over to the box of shells he laid out on the desk and pulling one out. Then, gently, he took the gun from her once more and broke the action on it before holding the shell up so she could get a good look at it.

"Shotguns mainly fire two different types of shells. Mostly what you see in movies are shot, such as buckshot. Spreads wide, loses effectiveness past a medium range. Not as wide or as ineffective as movies would have you believe, but it's not really going to do much against what we're fighting unless you happen to shoot them point blank."

For emphasis, he gave the shell in his hand a little shake.

"This however is a slug, one solid round, about three times heavier than a bullet, give or take. Once you know what you're doing, it can hit harder and more accurately from a farther distance, and from my experience this will help you a lot more against the sort of things we're up against than bullets tend to. Every weapon has its use, and this..."

He primed the shell into the barrel of the shotgun before dropping to one knee and aiming down range. There were no monsters rushing him, no outside distractions. With relative ease, he took a full breath, and gently laid his finger on the trigger a third of the way through his exhale.

He visibly jerked as the butt of the gun slammed into his shoulder, but the impact was dulled by his thick coat. With some satisfaction, he could see the hole blown through her previous target at the seventh marker- the top quarter of the green dot now replaced with the sight of grass behind it. Breaking the action, he caught the shell as it ejected and stuffed it into his pocket, letting the barrel cool for a moment before handing it back to Angel.

"... more or less does the job I need it to."

It would be a lie to say she wasn’t impressed by the firepower behind the cacophonous shot of Lawrence’s gun. Not only did he hit that target at its center a hundred yards away with a gun that wasn’t popularly known for its accuracy, but the huge hole it made showed just how much the damage this thing could pack. To think this kind of weapon was used against humans in recent years… before the monsters began showing up, before Dreamcatcher showed up.

“That’s… impressive…”

Angel trailed off, the thought about fighting monsters with something she was previously against handling bothered her as she had started thinking about the whole mess that initially pitted humanity against monsters and the existence of subnaturals, her presence on this campus.

Grabbing the shotgun Lawrence handed to her, Angel cracked the gun open – more comfortably this time around - and inserted a slug inside. Taking the same stance she previously did with the rifle, she minded resting her hand on the sandbag rather than the gun itself, figuring she’d need as much grip as possible considering just how violent the recoil seemed to be at first sight.

It was more difficult to aim than with the rifle too. The shotgun didn’t have any scope mounted, so she’d have to rely on her very own depth of view this time coupled with the iron fixated sights on the gun that provided a minimum amount of reference as to where Angel was aiming. Knowing she lacked proper training with the gun, she wouldn’t try hitting the same target Lawrence did. Instead, she opted for the safer approach and aimed towards the closest post, wanting to get a feeling from the gun before venturing onto further targets.

The black-haired Aberration braced her lightly-covered shoulder for the incoming impact and breathed, her finger reaching for the trigger as she exhaled.

As expected for a first shot, she wasn't quite as successful as how she had been with the rifle previously. Her shoulder had jerked back quite hard, catching her half off-guard, but she didn’t lose balance nor dropped the gun compared to the first time she shot with the rifle. The huge kick-back kind of surprised her, but her initial bracing and previous experience with the Winchester bore some fruits. However, the recoil very much messed her shot, the roaring slug hit the ground a bit further away from the post with a thud, sending a patch of dirt flying.

“Say, I’ve often heard about shotguns not being so precise. But for you to hit a target so far away with such precision, I guess it’s the type of bullets that matters, and not the gun itself?”

"Well, it's a lot of things."

He began, taking another slug out of the box and placing it in front of her.

"With the way that shotgun is designed, it's meant for hunting at longer distances than say... a SPAS designed for close encounters, or especially a sawed-off variant. Longer barrel, a sturdier stock, and rifled choke tube, although it's debatable if that last one helps a whole lot. I think over extreme distances, and a hundred yards is pretty extreme for a shotgun, it's worth the investment. Other than that, inaccurate shotguns are a bit of Hollywood mixed with reality. If I had some buckshot here you'd be surprised how well it was still grouped at fifty yards."

Not all of this had come from Lawrence's teacher. Much of the info that went into choosing his own weapons was hours of his own research and testing. An effort for someone that was otherwise powerless to at least be able to save their own life in a pinch.

"In any case, we have about fifteen more slugs to work with, since I used some of them up the other day. Go ahead and shoot at the second marker for a while. Then if you hit it a couple times move on to the third one. If you feel brave after that, go on and aim for the fifth one. Don't bother wasting ammo on the seventh. Remember not to stiffen up expecting the increased recoil, and if you find you aim is constantly off, try to line the front sight just slightly lower than the top of the rear sights. Iron sights take some getting used to, and again- I adjusted them for me, not you."

Satisfied with his own explanation, he finished up by putting a hand on her shoulder and adding:

"Pistols are a lot more dangerous and a lot harder to aim, so I think we'll stop after those boxes are empty. No use flooding you with more than you can process at the end of the day."

With that, he walked over to the desk beside hers and sat down, content to relax and watch for the rest of the session.

Angel affirmatively nodded in response to Lawrence’s explanations. Granted, she didn’t think she’d have to remember ALL the finer details about the different variety of shotguns, but it was a good base to know nonetheless.

She was however surprised to know that pistols were a lot harder to aim than the two type of funs she had been practicing with so far. It was almost disbelieving that a much smaller gun would be causing more issue than what those two caused so far.

Acknowledging Lawrence’s instructions, the X-marked Canadian returned to her firing position after loading the shotgun with the slug her teacher had put in front of her.

For the remainder of the training session, Angel practiced with the roughly fifteen shells remaining from the ammunition box. Her first shots, just like with the rifle, was to get accustomed to properly hold the gun, adjusting her position to counter the powerful recoil, easing her stance to prevent loss of accuracy and such.

There had been a few missed shots, naturally, usually occurring the first shots she took on newer targets. Overall, it wasn’t such a bad training session, but the results were apparently less satisfying than with the rifle. Indeed, her lithe body frame took the shotgun’s recoil far worse than the rifle’s. In the end, Angel didn’t bother trying to show off and hit the fifth marked target, content simply by trying and learning from the first targets.

By the time she ran out of assigned shells, Angélique ejected the shell from the shotgun’s chamber, her movements noticeably more fluid than before. She closed the shotgun’s barrel shut into its original position before switching the safety trigger back to its safe mode.

After putting the gun down on the desk, the apprentice sighed as she crept up her hand on her firing shoulder to massage it all the while she was rotating slightly her shoulder, trying to ease up the numb feeling that had begun to manifest up her arm.

She muttered something in her native language before turning to a sitting Lawrence, flashing up a smile in his direction.

“Well, I guess that’s it, huh? I’ll help taking down what we set up over there.”

She motioned to the fifth and seventh markers.

Lawrence watched her click the safety back on with satisfaction before giving her another thumb up as his response. Methodically he went about tearing down what he had set up- many of the targets remaining unused, and returning the supplies to their appropriate drawers. The materials that had become slightly more... used than before were put into a separate pile beside the first desk, and Lawrence hunted the grass around the benches for any spent shells he may have missed.

Finally, he double checked his guns to make sure they had no ammo in the chamber, before collecting them and the boxes of ammunition, handing the two that Angel has carried in back to her.

"Well, I'd say this was a pretty productive session. Even if you forget half of it by the time you come back, you still have a pretty strong base to work off of. I'll spare you the details about cleaning them until you have your own to worry about. Try not to come here alone though if you can help it- and it doesn't have to be me. Plenty of students have picked up shooting since coming here, you don't want to get injured with nobody around to help- you can bleed to death even from a shot to the foot by the time you crawl back to the hospital."

With that grim reminder, he let out a sigh.

"You don't want to be remembered as the woman who survived being thrown to monsters on her first day and then shot herself to death by accident, do you?"

Angel acknowledged what her instructor said, paying special attention to the part about not coming here alone. So, she guessed that she wouldn’t slip by here for a sneaky training routine once she gets her own firearms. Didn’t really matter though. She was happy with what she learned here today, and would be looking forward to train with someone next time, perhaps with Lawrence once more, if time and opportunities would allow it.

However, when the white-marked spoke about surviving the ordeal they went through a few days ago, her face turned somewhat somber. Already a few days that this happened, and she was here, as if she was okay with everything that had happened, already began making a routine, adapting to living here. Was it truly what she wanted though? Did she already submit to living for the rest of her life, imprisoned here?

“Say, Laurence. I’ve heard you’ve been here for quite a while, at least way longer than I or the others. What’s it like… living here?”

"Hard to say exactly."

What was it like to live at USARILN East? He'd become too used to it by that point, that it wasn't exactly an easy question to consider. At least, from the perspective of someone just arriving. Minus a few... particularly terrible realities, he had become content with the life he had come to live. Whether that could be said the same of everyone though...

"It can be a bit stressful, there's always going to be the chance of being thrown to the wolves in the middle of your day, getting injured, getting killed. Still though, I mean they do a decent job of letting us live a semi normal life in spite of that, or at least the life we choose to. With the money they give us every month and their hands off approach to policing what we actually do... You pretty much get to learn that as long as you bite when they say bite, your time outside of battle isn't going to be too terrible."

Except for the death.

It was a subject that was too close for home for him to bring up. He neither wanted to brush Angel off about the issue, nor wanted to talk about his own experiences. It was the type of thing that healed faster the more you were wounded, but some were still bleeding. He preferred to keep them bandaged and forgotten until they became scars like the others.

“"I... see..."

Angel trailed off. She wasn't entirely satisfied by the answer, feeling it was rather vague, but she figured that there would perhaps be a reason why he answered this way. She didn't want to pry though. She was curious, yes, but she didn't want to ruin the day they just had so far. Couldn't exactly say it was like going at the park or anything like that, far from it, but it had been rather... enjoyable, to spend some time with someone this calm and collected and focus on something else than pushing her inner demons away.

"So I guess we're calling it a day."

Angel concluded the discussion about their life at USARILN, picking up the guns she initially came here with at the beginning.

He shrugged apologetically in response, although to which statement was hard to tell. With a quick glance to double check that everything was ready for the next student that wandered over, Lawrence grabbed his firearms and began walking in the direction of the Institution once more.

"I mean, ultimately whether it's good or bad, you have to work with what you're given. It's hard to say how life will be during your stay here, but it'll be better if you make the best of it. So, make lemonade if you can is the real answer, or start looking up a recipe you can enjoy."

“"Hmmm... I suppose so. Or I could be pessimist and say to suck it up and bite into said lemons. Not that it would do me any good, just being a sour fuck. To each their own I guess, right?"

“"Anyway, thank you for today. It was fun, is what I should say if we were on a date right now, but I can hardly call firearms training a date now, would we? It's been interesting, to say the least. I really appreciate your help."

Lawrence felt a chill creep up his spine at the mention of the word 'date' and couldn't help but glance northwards towards Ground Zero. Not able to make out the Ground Zero Ghost from this distance, but still knowing exactly where she was. A date? No, he wouldn't call it that. He wasn't comfortable facing what such a label would imply.

Still, it had been a good time, so he thrust a final thumb up her way after turning his gaze back to his companion. He refused to let bad days of the past ruin the good ones of the present, at least as far as his mood was concerned. Angel, at least, didn't deserve to be brought down by them.

"Doesn't have to be a date to be fun, eh? I had a good time as well as an interesting one at least, Angélique."

Angel flashed a grin to Lawrence as he saw his thumb up.

The return to Lawrence's room was pretty much uneventful, quite silent. Pretty much everything that needed to be said had pretty much already been told back at the training grounds. After Lawrence stored his firearms back into his room, Angel leaned by the doorframe, just about as ready to leave as a girl can be.

“"Well, thanks again for the training. Really did learn a lot back there. I guess I will be leaving you to your occupations then."

Angélique slipped off nonchalantly from the door frame and gave a fidgety hand wave as departure. She suddenly brought herself to a stop half-way out of the door frame before trailing off.

“"Oh, I doubt you'd really need to this coming from a newbie, but if you need anything, my room's at door 300. "

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

Shopping Time!

Angélique Lachance | Brent Roless | Aaron Erickson
Savannah Churchill | Siena Santana | Allison Revel

---

𝕊𝕖𝕡𝕥. 𝟜𝕥𝕙, 𝟚𝟘𝟚𝟘 / / ℂ𝕣𝕚𝕞𝕖𝕟 ℂ𝕦𝕝𝕡𝕒𝕖 𝟙 / / 𝟘𝟡𝟛𝟘

---

_{Collab made by @Riffus Maximus @ERode @Holy Grail @canaryrose @PapiTan @VarionusNW}

Hopefully, the campus and the neighboring city would be quiet at this time of the day. Last thing she wanted was to forge a reputation for going out half-naked throughout school and town. She really didn't need her stay at this establishment to be as much embarrassing as it was a pain in the ass.

Shoving her half-way discharged phone and her wallet into the pockets of her jeans, Angel snatched her shades and left her room with the intention of leaving the campus for the town. Spending the night awake, however, left her quite hungry, and so she decided that first order of business was to stop by the cafeteria to grab a quick breakfast she could eat on the way.

Once more, she was greeted by the manager on the other side of his counter, requesting her ID card before letting her inside. Angel quickly cleared that out of the way by presenting her ID card that she has put on the transparent side of her wallet, for quick use. Once inside, she quickly made her way towards the breakfast section of the cafeteria. Already, there had been students sitting at a few tables and enjoying their breakfast while speaking to each other’s.

As she was grabbing a few croissants, pancakes and bagels, the black-haired Aberration could already hear a few students gossiping about 'that chick with the wings tattoo' or 'babe with a sexy body'. Adjusting the shades on her face, the young woman tried to hide her embarrassment as she stormed out of the cafeteria with a bag full of her breakfast 'on-the-go'.

Already, not even a hour passed and Angel could feel the dire need of getting new clothes as she began walking through the campus. Astonishingly, there were a lot of people waking up early in USARILN, and that really didn't help Angel in trying to slip by incognito. As expected, she could notice the stares stabbing right through her behind her shades, and whispers felt like hammering her eardrums.

Flushed and sweaty, Angélique was finally out of the campus, swearing in her native language to whatever gods of mischief and misfortune for this embarrassing morning. With the campus now behind her, it was time to actually cross town, find some clothing shops and some personal stuff for her room.

"Mommy, why does he have a white mark on his face?"

"Sweetie, don't look at him. He's one of those scary subnaturals."

"But didn't you say they all had giant teeth and were devil spawn that fell from the sky?"

"Sweetie, just keep quiet. Let's...you like to play hide and seek, right? Hide behind me!"

"Ok!"

Brent looked at the parent-child combo, then turned back to the nervous wreck of a cashier. Geez, he didn't even have an X. And he was pretty sure he maintained his smile the whole time. He wasn't even a superhuman wrecking ball that punched holes through fleshy bodies. With a sigh, he pulled out his 'student' ID and slide it over to the pimply teen. The kid almost dropped it while trying to slide it, and he let out another sigh. Man, maybe he should buy some make up. Hide the white mark or something.

Well, no, he was doing this with a USARILN Card that clearly stated he was a filthy subnatural. That wouldn't work either.

"Thanks," Brent said, taking the card back into his pocket, "You can keep the change. And I don't need the bag."

Not even a smirk from the too-nervous cashier. Geez, what a pain. At least service wasn't completely refused, unlike that gun shop. Picking up the NERF gun, he exited the toy store with a few quick strides, definitely taking notice of the fact that everyone else was giving him a wide berth. They were probably not interested in getting along with a mage like himself, but...he didn't care.

"Morning," Brent greeted each of them, a lovely smile on his face, "Nice weather today, eh?"

With that, he was on the streets once more, roaming for clothing.

Fucking great...

Wandering around town in trying to find a clothing store, Angélique happened upon a familiar face. She recalled him being that guy who came late with the guy who wiped out the battlefield yesterday night. Of course, of all the people she would happen upon, she HAD to cross path with one of her fellow teammates while she was wandering around town almost topless. She'd try to avoid him and ignore him, but she was pretty sure by now he had noticed her as well. Well, there was no escape from this, only one thing left to do.

"Hi..." She greeted Brent with an awkward smirk, offering a curtsy wave of her hand as they passed near each other.

A blood-soaked pair of tight jeans and a complete lack of actual topwear was eye-catching in a normal situation, but when it was combined with a subnatural that had a killer body and an X on their throat? Devastating. As he walked out onto the streets, it was painfully obvious that all eyes were on her, whether it be perverted or fearful. A small child's ice cream dropped onto the cement, and he didn't even notice. An elderly man working at a hot dog stand was flushed and sputtering, wondering what was wrong with kids these days. And, amidst all this, that model-esque girl waved at him, greeted him, and then proceeded to...

"Yo, name's Brent," he said, taking off his bullet-ridden jacket, "Wear this before the police arrest you for public indecency, yeah?"

He paused, recalling some knowledge he obtained from yesterday.

"The hospital has some bleach you can use, to get the blood out, by the way. For your pants and all."

"Ah! Err, thanks!?" Angel stuttered, unceremoniously accepted Brent's jacket and quickly zipped it on.

Part of her embarrassment already vanished as she felt less exposed to the stares of others. The raven-haired young woman noticed what seemed like bullet holes throughout the front of the jacket. Now that she thought about it, wasn't he one of the few faces who were victim of the shoot-out at that time when they got off the truck that brought everyone to the campus for the first time?

It looked awkward for the seconds Angel stared blankly at no one in particular, lost in thought, until she snapped back into reality, almost forgetting who she was interacting with for a minute.

"Oh right... I'm Angélique. I know the pronunciation is a bit complicated in English, so you can call me Angelic, or Angel, whatever you prefer."

"So, Brent, what brings you to town this early in the morning?".

"No problem," Brent replied, after it looked like she came back down to earth, "September's still chilly after all, Angel....ic?"

He shrugged. Close enough. And she seemed pleasant enough as well, for someone who must have died on the inside so many times while getting here. Really, why not just wear a garbage bag over it? The embarrassment's the same, but at least she wouldn't be giving kids boners. Shaking that really weird, super awkward thought out of his head, Brent motioned towards his own new purchase, before saying, "Just shopping. Was thinking of buying a gun, but it turns out the owner wasn't receptive to such an idea. Probably because I don't have a license for that. Now I'm just clothes shopping. Got no luggage with me, after all."

"Which I suppose you were planning on doing as well?"

"No shit, what gave it away?"

"Well, if you got it, you might want to flaunt it, yeah?" Brent replied with a laugh.

"Yeah sure. I somewhat enjoy dressing to appeal the masses, that WAS part of my job after all, but I prefer clothing to actually not wearing anything." Angel tried to defend herself, even though she should've realized it was just a joke.

"But yeah, I'd figure getting firearms in this shithole wouldn't be so easy. Why don't you try getting one by using that request paperwork? Perhaps you could request a pistol, light weaponry or even a license, for self-defense."

"Oh, you were a model or something?" Brent asked. Perhaps it was just because USARILN was filled with almost improbably good-looking girls, but it still came as a surprise to him that someone was actually, legitimately a model. "But yeah, I actually did put in a request as well. Just impatient, you know? Can't waste any more time faffing about than I already have if I want to survive."

"Not like I'm Superman or Wolverine."

As Brent questioned Angel about her previous line of work, her lightened mood suddenly dropped to a more somber appearance, a slight frown being drawn on her brows and her teeth squeezing her lower lip in bitterness.

"I... was actually a lead singer and guitarist for a band..."

There was no point in hiding that fact, though truthfully, she was relieved to see that Brent did not know about her. Had it been someone who knew her by reputation, worse being a fan, she wouldn't know how to handle the situation. So much regrets were plaguing her for what had happened on that day. For as far as she believed, her career was now over, and she would probably leave behind a stained taint to her name for the reminder of her life because of that.

"So anyway! Got a lead where to head? I'm kinda lost here." She changed the subject, trying to hide her feelings towards her career and instead opted to fake a cheerful smile.

For all his ability to completely misread the mood, and for all his inability to care, Brent was still perceptive enough to see the changes in Angelic's facial expression as she started talking about her past. Should he prod? No, he needed to shop. He'll do the snooping on his own time. Shaking his head, the amethyst-eyed youth said, "Dunno much either, but hey, there's adult-sized Halloween costumes in the toy store, if you want to be a princess or a nurse for the day."

"Hey now hold on a second. Is that a remark on my wardrobe?"

Ah, there it was. "I mean," he said, grinning, "I would have thought you were going for some femme fatale from a M-rated movie if you weren't so embarrassed a minute ago."

"Oh you, shut it! Just because I look like a model doesn't mean I have to dress like one! I just want something simple, something I can actually wear comfortably around this fuckhole they call a "school" bullshit." Angel retorted vividly, her depressed state of mind slowly fading away by Brent's teasing, slowly replaced with... playful animosity?

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The night had been somewhat long after he had left the hospital and returned to his room. While having finished the tests before was a relief, the brown-haired boy had decided to check out some of the other forms as well. At least, before he would return to playing a game or two before finally hitting the hay for the night. There were requisition forms, among other things, and the large amount of paperwork seemed to appear dull to him to some extent. Yet on the matter of requesting things, he had come wearing just one set of clothes, and most of what he had packed in his bag before coming here were his games and consoles and such.

As it had turned out, that first set of clothes sort of got torn, shredded, and stained beyond repair due to the intensity of the fight. He couldn't say there was blood on his clothes, but between his impacts, being reeled in by a monster, and the unmistakable smell of marinara that had been imbued into the very fabric of his attire, it was safe to say that he needed to buy a couple more sets of clothes at least. It was also safe to say he needed to get some personal defense items as well, with what had happened to him out there. So after filling out a requisition form in order to request some kind of pistol, ammunition for said pistol, and a hunting knife, he had gone off for a couple more hours of playing Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker before finally heading off to bed for the night.

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In the morning, it had been a simple matter of getting up early, turning in his requisition form, and then grabbing some quick breakfast at the cafeteria before setting out on the town. Albeit, it was also his first time in this place, and as such it left him doing a bit of searching on his own in the meantime. Of all things, it seemed that this area of the town where the stores were had a game store among other things, and it had a few older games as well. Not to mention the few releases that had seemed to come out in the years since the world had effectively "gone to hell".

But his gaming habits aside, it was the clothing store he wanted to find in the first place. Whilst wearing headphones with stylized pictures on them fit for a hardcore metal album, he walked down the street listening to various pieces of music (legally acquired or otherwise) he had downloaded prior to coming here on what was the latest Apple iPhone product that he had bought prior to becoming, well, someone with powers. It was a piece of home as well, a small but comforting thing he had wanted to keep with him among other things. Truthfully, he was never going to get to go home again while being here, if his gut feeling was correct among other things.

Eventually, however, the boy noticed a pair of familiar faces standing on the side of the street. One of them a very familiar girl whom he had fought with the day prior, and one of them being a boy whose face was at least familiar from when everyone had been pulled together at the end of the battle. Mentally shrugging to himself, Aaron decided to walk over and see what was going on for the time being.

"Hey Angel, aaaaaaaaaaaand....eh, i don't think we've officially met yet," Aaron said aloud as he approached the two, giving a smile to Angel as well as a wave to her as well before pulling his headphones down around his neck, before then giving a curious but casual look at Brent as he spoke to the boy, "Name's Aaron Erikson. Who're you?"

"Mhmm," Brent teased, "I heard that little black dresses were fairly comfortable, Angelic. Maybe that's a good pick?"

"I hate dre-..."

Before the two could enter a downward spiral of traded barbs any further though, another person popped up. A familiar face and a quiet one. If he recalled correctly, that headphones guy was one of the ones that was getting into an argument before everyone was loaded up into the trucks. Also Norwegian.

"Hello Aaron, good to see you." Angel returned the brown-haired teen's greeting a welcoming nod and a friendly handwave.

"I'm Brent," he raised up a hand to shake, "I'd ask if you were clothes shopping, but it doesn't look like you're topless."

Glancing at Angel for a moment and then looking back at Brent, Aaron gave a slight smirk for a moment and shook the other boy's hand. It seemed Angel was wearing this guy's bullet-riddled jacket, at least that was his guess according to what he could gather and guess from the situation. Still, to him it was nice to run into someone who as of the previous day had risen a bit higher in his "people i like" list. Honestly, he was interested to get to know the metal-looking girl in general.

"Good to see you to, Angel," Aaron said, giving a nod in return to the shades-wearing girl before continuing, "Out to get some clothes as well i guess? I have to get some new ones too, since i don't think that marinara smell and the tears in everything are going to come out of the old ones anytime soon. Guess you could say my look yesterday was meat-'ballin' when it comes down to it."

The boy gave a light chuckle at the attempted joke, trying to keep the mood light and test the waters of just what kind of humor Angel, and Brent since he was there, enjoyed.

"Oh, so you were the one that fought the spaghetti monsters," he remarked. "So...how did they taste?"

Angel tried to maintain a poker face while hearing Aaron out. Truth be told, that pun was so bad she would've cringed hearing this, but she didn't want to look so rude to her teammate, especially after trying to ease up the tension that may have been created yesterday.

She was however more assertive when Brent asked about how the spaghetti monsters were tasting. Considering the kind of hell they went through fighting those creatures, it was not a matter to laugh, at least not in Angélique's opinion. She made it known to him by shoving a disapproving light jab of her elbow to Brent's side. While the things did not actually injure her in any way, Aaron was badly maimed by those creatures, and one of her teammate actually died because of them. She hoped her slight poke conveyed that thought to the amethyst-eyed young man.

"Dude, you might want to seriously back off from talking about that," Aaron commented after Brent spoke and Angel jabbed him with her elbow, throwing on a serious look at the other boy, the sixteen year old's own right hand also coming unconsciously up to where he had broken three of his ribs, "To be blunt, we really don't need to bring that stuff up at all, ok?"

The phantom of his prior state of intense pain was still vivid in his memories. The struggle to merely breath without stabbing his broken ribs into his lungs, the nausea of the gas, the dead body, the carnage, Zoe jerking him up by the collar of his shirt after the fight....he was all for moving onwards and learning his mistakes, but that didn't mean the topic was not a sensitive one for him and likely the other members of the Green Team. Considering Angel had that black X on her neck, which he already had some idea was a burden for the girl from what he understood about black X's, he also did not want Brent possibly stirring up the bad memories in his teammate either.

"By the way," Aaron said to Angel, trying to move things along and away from the touchy subject Brent had brought up, "If you're headed out to buy clothes, though, i think the store's not too far away. Two place down from the music store. At least according to the guy at the counter in the game store, who was actually willing to talk to me."

"Ah," he recalled the two dead bodies that were present, "My bad about that."

Guess they weren't gonna be enthused about eating Italian for dinner either. As Aaron went into a thousand-yard stare, he scratched the back of his head. USARILN was definitely full of touchy people, wasn't it? He had personally only been shot once, and hadn't even seen a monster close up yet, but perhaps he needed to think a little more about all that shit. Or maybe he could just not. Maybe yes, maybe no.

"Which store though?" he asked as Aaron spoke up once more, "I'm personally looking for sportswear."

"The guy said it carries all kinds of clothes, so maybe they have what you're looking for," Aaron said to Brent in return, giving a light shrug after he had spoken.

Since the boy had begun speaking, though, the sound of music could be heard coming from his headphones still. From the sound of the guitar and theme of the music, it seemed to be metal, a kind of music Aaron had come to enjoy somewhat in the last several years in the form of both original songs as well as song covers done in that style. Specifically, at this point in time he was listening to this song.

Angel listened as Brent apologized for the sudden brought-up. She nodded in approval of him being understanding of the situation, although she disapproved Aaron's cutting edge words. True, none of them would want to be reminded of that night, but she felt there would be a softer way of saying it, as to not create any more unneeded tension between them.

She was glad to know Aaron seemed to have taken the initiative and get some directions beforehand. Now that they knew where they would be going, it was just a matter of getting there without too much incident on the way.

Following Aaron towards the apparent location of this clothing store, Angel heard some kind of muffled noise, coming somewhere near her. As she began focusing on this sound, she recognized the pattern of electric guitar playing. Aaron's choice of music mildly interested the ex-guitarist, and now that she was taking a good look at the source of the noise, she found herself liking the headphones Aaron was wearing, right down her alley in terms of style.

"What are you listening to?"

As they walked towards the store, Aaron looked back at Angel as the raven-haired girl asked him about his music. Blinking for a moment and then looking down at his headphones, the boy realized he hadn't shut off his music. Giving a light shrug, the boy took the headphones off of his head and offered them to Angel.

"You can take a listen if you want," the boy said, offering a small smile as well, "I like listening to some metal myself, and this song is a metal cover i downloaded a time ago, before coming here at least."

Accepting Aaron's offer with apparent glee, Angélique graciously took the brown-haired young man’s headphones and set them over her ears, listening to the beat of the music with interest. Clearly, she was enjoying herself to the rhythm of the song, her hands unconsciously motioning the same way someone would play a guitar.

As Angel listened, Brent turned towards Aaron. "Undertale? You played the console remake or the original?"

"Eh, the console remake," the brown hair boy noted in a casual manner to Brent, looking over at him for a moment while talking, "Used to have it on PC, but the computer at home broke so i decided to get the console remake to replace it."

"RIP. Is there any actual differences though? Would think that some of the maneuvers you have to do are way harder with a joystick rather than a keypad."

When the song was over, Angel handed the headphones back to its owner. "Hmm... I'm not familiar with this cover. It had however a good rhythm to it. The person who played the guitar executed it with a good flow, and the drummer in the background provided a good amount of energy to bring the whole thing to life. Overall, it's quite good, for a cover. I enjoyed it."

Taking back his stylized headphones from the raven-haired beauty, Aaron gave a light nod before putting the headphones back around his neck. He had been about to answer Brent's question when Angel had piped up upon the song finishing. At the moment, though, his mind went back to the music and what Angel had said.

"The original song is called "Asgore", and is from an older video game called Undertale that I’ve played," the sixteen year old said, attempting to explain the song to Angel as they continued to walk onwards towards the clothing store, "I usually listen to some metal myself, both your average metal songs and those that are covers of other music. Good to hear that someone else also has a good taste in music though!"

With that being said, Aaron held up his right hand towards Angel, as if offering a high-five to the jacket-wearing girl.

"What kind of music do you like as well?" the boy then asked afterwards.

Savannah had been up all night. It hadn't been a good night, either. She'd had a meltdown with her Stigma, leading to a bruised fist. As she stood against the shop, her black, fuzzy hoodie rubbing up against the building's brick wall. She was chewing some fruity gum, her mouth moving in a manner that indicated that she was, in fact, chewing something. The flavor had long been sucked out of it, but the blonde's teeth worked at it all the same, using it as a stress ball of sorts. If you looked closer at the girl, you'd notice a pair of red earbuds stuck in her ears, the wires connecting to her pocket. She was listening to classical music, which had helped her calm down some after her meltdown. It was blasting so loud that most people in her proximity could hear it well.

There were bags under her droopy eyes, and she was pretty much staring off into space. Several people had given her odd looks today, in a range from terrified to glares. But Savannah hadn't really minded. She was tired, angry, and most of all- scared. She had watched a person die in front of her, for the third time in her relatively short life. A person got eaten- only to come out of it alive and be a bitch. But the real thing that scared her was that it might be her next. She could die, and no one would care. No one would care that the blonde, Irish girl in the corner had died fighting for her life. No one would remember her, except for her mother, if she even cared enough about her only child to keep her in her memory. At this thought, a tear welled up in one of her yellow eyes. She wiped it away. She had cried enough tonight. to drown out her thoughts, she turned the music up to the max, now loud enough for anyone in her proximity to hear. She sat down on the ground, back against the wall. She blew a bubble with the gum.

Having the headphones at full blast, she didn't hear anything, though she did spot Aaron, Angel, and a boy she hadn't gotten the chance to know yet. She watched them with slight disinterest, still blowing bubbles with her gum and tapping her fingers to the beat of her music. They seemed to be having a conversation of sorts, something that Savannah had no interest in. But, just for funsies or whatever, she stood up and walked to the edge of the road, waiting for the cars to pass by. While she was waiting for a clear road, a van came rushing by. She thought nothing of it, before it rolled into a pile of mud and splashed her in the face. She dropped the headphones, and had a face on that was clearly pissed.

"Oh, COME ON!" yelled Savannah. Can I not get a break in this damn town! Blast ya to hell, truck driver, blast ya to hell!" Her headphones were drooping down, blasting classical music all around. She inspected her jacket, seething with rage. The second pair of clothes ruined in 12 hours. Great. Just great. That was her last pair of clothes, now ruined and soggy and muddy. "Fucking hell! My clothes!" she yelled yet again, clearly enraged. She kicked at a stray rock, making a noise halfway between a growl and an angry grunt.

At the angry shout of a small, blonde child, Brent's eyes flickered immediately towards the source of the noise. Drenched in mud, she looked more like a wet kitten than any sort of human being, and he almost smiled. Almost. Then, he really did smile once he realized that, of all things, her own headphones were blasting out classical music. Beethoven's 9th, eh? He wasn't someone that had any particularly keen taste in music, but even he could recognize that.

"Yo," he called out from the other side of the street, "You alright?"

Probably not, really, but he only had so many jackets to give.

Hearing a voice, Savannah turned her head to the right, to see one of the USARILN students standing there. She vaguely recognized the boy as one shot in the containment cell, but she didn't know him personally. She cocked her head as she realized that he was asking if she was alright. She was not used to people asking if she was okay, she usually had gotten indifference. It was nice to know that humanity had a few good people.

"Besides my hoodie? I'm fine, although this is my second pair of clothes ruined in 12 hours and I'm pretty sure that I'm actually going to have to go and shop." she yelled back, sighing loudly at the last part. She had never liked clothes shopping, perhaps because of the fact that so few shirts fit her. She was so short that most assumed she was a child. However, she was not a child, and actually had a chest. So she had to have chest room while still having the shirt not be too long.

Not too keen on shouting today, Angel saved herself the trouble and walked up to the other side of the road. Eyeing Savannah head to toe, she grieved at seeing the poor girl being drenched in mud like that. Indeed, to have your clothes dirtied this way this early in the morning, she could understand how pissed off she was.

Lowering herself to the small blonde girl's height, she offered a reassuring smile to the young teenager "Hey there, Savannah, early bird as well, are you? How about joining us? Aaron, Brent and I were just about to go to the clothing store ourselves. As you'd figure, we pretty much all need a change of clothes." She said, chuckling lightly at the similar situation that had brought the four of them together in this town.

As Angel lowered herself to her height, Savannah scowled. She despised when adults did this. It had always made her feel small and inferior. She looked into Angel's eyes, chewing on her lip and playing with her curly blonde hair. "One, don't get down to my height like that, it's patronizing, and only my parents and my older brother did that. When I was nine. Two, I didn't wake up early, I was up all night. And three, yes, I'd like to join you."

"Easy there, I didn't mean to offend you. Sorry if I did. I guess not everyone is made the same, huh? Very well, let's get moving. I doubt you'd want to stay like that for long."

Her head however still remained lowered, but not to aggravate the young girl. Instead, she raised her body a bit and brought a hand close to her mouth and whispered "And quite frankly, neither do I. Wandering around town half-naked, only to be offered a bullet-riddled jacket by some guy I barely isn't very pleasant to me either." She warm-heartedly chuckled, trying to lighten up the mood between the two.

Savannah snorted at this sentiment, trying to contain her childish giggles. But she could no longer contain them, so she burst out into adorable laughter. She raised her mouth to Angel's ear, still giglging. "You did? Damn, that's some daring stuff. If I walked around half-naked, my parents would've had my head!" she whispered softly, still giggling softly.

"A girl gotta get clothes when she has nothing left to wear. But hey, better go around town with a bra on than wait until my pants and my underwear get torn up as well. Now that would be embarrassing, wouldn't you say?" Angel added, now smiling warmly as she managed to ease off the tension and see the girl's smile for the first time ever since they had arrived at USARILN. There was something comforting in seeing Savannah smile, as opposed to Brent's. While the latter seemed somewhat natural, it seemed TOO natural of him to smile, getting the vibe of someone who would do so even in the face of horrors. As for the young teen, it was a nice change of expression, considering what she went through yesterday night.

"Considering my pants are shredded, I understand your sentiment quite well." Savannah said, gesturing at her bare leg. Too late, she realized that she had drawn attention to her bare leg. Deciding not to do anything about it, she basked in the carefree nature of their conversation. "I actually had to just throw my hoodie over my sweater and go out like this. It's only by pure luck that it got confiscated."

"Wish I had the same luck. All I have is my wallet and my phone. No spare clothing, nothing else. So yeah, I think it's about high time we move on and get this change of clothes, eh?" Angélique proposed, waving towards the guys waiting on the other side of the road.

"Yeah, we probably should get going." said Savannah, traipsing across the street towards Brent and Aaron.

Angélique nodded affirmatively to Savannah and followed the blonde teenager towards the mall, where everyone was heading before catching sight of the mud-sullied angsty child.

Having regrouped, the gang of shopping teens entered the mall, where they followed Aaron's directions to finally reach the store he was speaking about earlier. True to what he had been told, it seemed like a general store, selling pretty much anything from clothing to electronics. As soon as the group had entered the store, all eyes turned to the misfits that arrived. A dark-haired beauty with shades and a bullet--riddled vest, an amethyst-eyes young man, a brown-haired teen with music blasting through metal-stylized headphones and a much younger-looking and shorter blonde girl would not pass by unnoticed, especially when the two girls were sporting X marks on their necks and the two guys white smears around their eye.

The reaction to their arrival was varied. The cashiers and some customers tried their best to ignore them, avoid them even, while some more daring customers pulled out their phone and began taking pictures of the quartet of subnatural teens. Despite this more or less unwanted attention, the group nodded to each other, the group disbanded, each going to a clothing section befitting their taste, genders and sizes.

Allison wasn't sure how long she had been in the store. She was at a complete loss. She was less prepared for this than she thought. Allison stared down the racks of clothing, clearly intimidated by the endless variety of it all. Every outfit, every piece of clothing set Allison's mind ablaze, thinking of how they would look on every person who popped into Allison's head. She had even imagined the dragon in a dress.

Allison's plight was interrupted by a group of students walking into the store: Angel, Savannah, Aaron, and someone she didn't recognize. Allison haphazardly hid behind a rack of jeans, still clearly visible.

While Angel had been shopping for a decent pair of jeans that would go well with that shit she had picked up a few alleys back. She had spotted a brown-haired head poking from the racks, failing to camouflage itself inside the obviously mismatched colors of the pants hanging. With a curious eyebrow lifted, Angel walked by the racks to see what was so interesting about these jeans. No, that was a lie, she was curious as to what that person was doing with their head buried inside the racks.

Much to her surprise, she recognized the face of a very much familiar friend hiding behind the jeans.

"Allison! You're here too! Damn, I guess everyone was left with what they wore on the day they were taken away."

"Oh.. hi." Allison spoke awkwardly as she stepped out from behind the jeans, her face bright red, and her movements clearly fidgety. "H-how goes the shopping?"

"Well, there isn't as much choice as I would've liked. I mean, sure, it ain't a music store or anything, but I think I can live with it. What about you? Got what you came here for?"

"N-no. I'm not too great at the whole shopping thing."

"Oh really? Want to tag along? I might not be clothed the same way as most people do, but I think I can figure out just the ri~ght clothes for you, dear."

"Really? That would be great!" Allison immediately realized what she had just agreed to. Her mind raced, and she bit her lip.

"Awesome! C'mon, follow me! I think I spotted something that I believe would look just too great on you."

Angel trailed off, seizing Allison's hand before dragging her throughout the clothing part for women. For a while, they went literally to every part of the women's alley, often taking breaks at the changing rooms to show how what they had brought looked on each other.

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After a while, mainly because some of the girls were taking too long in deciding on what they would like to buy and wear, the group came out of the store, the number of bags in each student's hands greatly differing from one and another.

Checking up on the mall's clock, it seemed like it was nearing midday. And that time made itself known by the rumbling noises emerging from the shades-wearing young woman, who had been cringing after letting out such a loud sound.

"So, uh... where do we go next? You guys done?"

"Well," Brent replied, readjusting the grip on his own bags of clothing, "was thinking of getting something to eat. Cafeteria's nice and free and all, but, you know, sometimes actual junk food is nice."

"Tell me about it. I think I'm craving for a few hamburgers, you know? Maybe with some fries with that. Yep, totally junk food." Angélique replied with a grin, the idea of biting into juicy burgers invading her mind.

"A few? Did God bless his angel with a superior metabolism as well?"

"You.. you guys go ahead without me. I'll just follow from a short distance." Allison said, as she threw her focus into the small black notebook in her hand, writing something at a furious pace. How the girl would manage to follow the group and write, no one knows.

Savannah thought on what Angel said for a moment. Burgers? She had never had one, save for the occasional one at school. But those were undeniably gross. If fast food burgers tasted anything like school burgers, she did not want to take part in them. "I've never had a burger, unless you count school lunch burgers, which are pretty gross. What does it taste like?" she inquired.

"Hmmm... how should I explain it?"" Angel pondered for a few seconds, trying to find a good analogy. "Well, you ever had hamburger steak? With the right seasoning, and fresh vegetables and bread, it can be a delightful bliss. I mean, I don't know what burgers at school cafeterias taste like, but I recall food from school doesn't taste quite as good as the real deal. There were those burritos that I loved during high school though..."" she trailed off into her memories.

"Anyways, I guess it really depends on which fast food chain you're going. But most of the time, they taste good, addicting even at some times. But if you don't like that stuff, you don't have to order that. There's plenty of other stuff to be had, friend.""

"Well, let's see...maybe we should go to a more family restaurant sort of deal then? Haven't been to White Spot for some time, and I know they do both fancy burgers and actual entrees," Brent suggested. Angelic was quite a connoisseur, wasn't she? He barely cared about what was in his mouth after he chewed it up a bunch.

The look on Savannah's face was just one of utter confusion.

"Yeah...no need to think about it too much. Just enjoy the ride, kiddo."

"Yeah... You guys should probably pick a restaurant. I know absolutely nothing about fast food and restaurants." Savannah admitted with a chuckle.

"Oh, is that so? You're missing out on something. Well, too much fast-food ain't good, but once in a while is very acceptable."

"White Spot huh? I'm not familiar with the name. You know if there's one nearby? Let's say I don't exactly know these parts."

Brent laughed at this. "I mean, I don't know either. If you'd like, I can carry your bags and we can just wander around until we see something better than a school cafeteria?"

Savannah was quite aware on what she had missed out on. She had often heard classmates talking about going to fast food places, or restaurants. But Savannah had simply never gotten the opportunity to have such food. So she was looking forward to the experience that many people said was great.

"It's hard to get worse than my school cafeteria, unless you get food directly out of a trashcan."

"Nah, it's cool. I can carry them by myself just fine. What an unexpected gentleman you are though."

Angel chuckled as she began walking in a random direction, looking upwards to see if there weren't any signs in the mall indicating where the nearest restaurants were. An idea struck her however, as she didn't see any signs. Switching the bags from her right hand to her left hand, she dug up her phone from her jeans and opened up Google Maps. Tapping a few times on the screen with her thumb, her face lightened up.

"Well shit, I can't believe they build a McDonalds over here. It's about half a kilometer in town though."

"Well, I'd like to think that I have nothing better to do than to be helpful, so hey, that's the offer."

Tagging along behind the model/rockstar/whatever, Brent kept his eyes to the streets, looking for any sort of convenient sign that said 'high quality fast food for low prices! little blonde girls will love it!', but alas, his efforts lead to no leads. Indeed, it was only after Angelic summoned the magical forces of wi-fi that they found a direction to at least one place. McDonalds, huh?

"The corporate octopus’ got a tentacle in every place with a half-decent human population, you know? And eh, what's wrong with a half kilometer walk to whet the appetite? ...are you going to reconsider my offer?"

Now there was a restaurant that Savannah had heard of. It was hard to not know about McDonald's, but she had never eaten there before. "A half kilometer walk never hurt anyone! Who knows, we might find something even better to eat on the walk! Savannah said.

"Damn straight you two are. Let's work it up." Angel enthusiastically said as she began moving forward the direction of the infamous fast food chain restaurant. "Try to keep up." she added with a smirk towards Brent's direction.

As the group of teen subnaturals walked through town, they didn't see much appealing restaurants on their way to the original plan. Italian cuisine was a no go, not after what had happened yesterday. Angélique would be damned if she eat a plate of spaghetti so soon. Neither was Indian nor Arabic-styled cuisine. There was a short pause to consider about eating to a Chinese buffet restaurant, but in the end, the craving for junk food got the best of the gang and kept moving forward. Eventually their steps brought them to McDonald's front entrance.

After leaving Callan with Kusari for whatever talk they needed to have, Siena had hit the town. Sort of. It was closer to wandering the town feeling lost and wishing that Gerwulf and Maya were there to drive her through unfamiliar territory, but it was better than holing up in her room another day. Unfortunately, her hasty exit meant looking a little less than pristine in clothing choice (well, for Maya's standards, at least). Icy blue halter top aside--she would never have gotten away with leaving the house with it--the fact that her circle skirt didn't reach her knees would have been a no-go. The faded purple skirt had been a favorite, but rarely ever saw the light of day. The only thing that Maya might have agreed with were the simple, black leggings and fur trimmed ankle boots, really. Pulling the thin layer of her cropped jacket snug against her, Siena stared into the establishment before her. Golden arches, lots of people...nobody dressed with a strict set of rules like Siena had been raised with. The girl furrowed her brow and peered through the window, not entirely realizing that she was staring.

'Odd. Very, very odd...they make you serve your own drinks?' Curioser and curioser indeed.

"Heeey, you're the one from yesterday, no? Saw you on the battlefield near my team when the battle was over. Are you also visiting town, or shopping too maybe?"

Angel figured she was indeed one of the newest Subnaturals she had arrived at USARILN with on the lengthy truck drive. She could recall from her fancy-looking hair, and the white mark around her eye. It would seem that many of the new students were intrigued about visiting Crimen Culpae, or at least had a reason to come by the neighboring town.

A voice roused Siena from her thoughts, making the girl almost jump, but she held it down to little more than a widening of the eyes and a slightly-too-quick turn to face the source. "Oh, um..." Nervously, Siena smiled and tried to repress the urge to start fiddling with the ends of her hair. "The former, really. I've er...never really been allowed to go out on my own." Oof, had she just admitted that? Hiding the internal grimace, Siena did her best to move past the topic. "Oh, I err...I'm Siena, by the way. I didn't stay to introduce myself after the fight..." Nor had she been able to get a clear view of most of the group she had broken off from her team to help. "Err...if it's not too much trouble, w-would you mind if I joined you for lunch? I've never really enjoyed dining alone."

Angel raised an eyebrow quizzically as she heard Siena speak. She didn't seem to be the outgoing type, more like some sort of forced shut-in considering her revelation about not being allowed to get out of her own. That made Angélique curious, wondering the kind of life she had before coming to USARILN.

With his superior physical stats, both through actual training and because of good ol' testosterone, Brent was indeed faster than Angel. Didn't matter though, because she was the one who actually knew the way, and he begrudgingly kept pace with her instead, all the way until the quartet reached the Golden Arches. Surprisingly enough, yet another subnatural was already there, some weird chick that Angel apparently knew. Well, whoever she was, she at least seemed to have a wardrobe and a fun sense of style.

"More the merrier, I'd say," Brent replied cheerily, "I'm Brent. Guess we'll have to get one of those larger tables, though, eh?"

"Indeed. I'd love to have you with us. This is turning into quite the party. I like it."

"I'm Angélique, or Angel for short."

"Since everybody is introducing themselves, I might as well too. I'm Savannah. the short girl said. She had seen Siena on the battlefield, and had been impressed. "Ya fought well last night. Thanks for coming and helping us."

After a few appropriate introductions, Siena couldn't help but feel...relieved. Most of the time, introductions didn't go so well, though perhaps that was because Gerwulf peering over her shoulder with a steely glare was far from welcoming. "It's a pleasure to meet you all. And err...thanks." Giving a short nod to Savannah to acknowledge the compliment, Siena wondered what part of her combat the night before was particularly impressive. She'd done little more than pick off weakened enemies, though perhaps the flashiness of Gavin and her own magic had given the illusion of prowess. "Is...is this restaurant particularly good? It seems busy." With a one-sided shrug towards the front door, Siena hoped that it wasn't too odd a question.

Angel raised an eyebrow, an expression of disbelief drawn on her face as she heard Siena wondering about McDonald's. Just what kind of people had she gotten herself involved with? How does someone NOT know about the biggest fast-food brand around the world? Not only Siena had no clue about it, but even Savannah never went to eat there herself.

Alright then, guess it was initiation to junk food day, Angel and Brent would have to be the one leading the troops on this mission.

"Oh, it's good, hopefully if you are not vegetarian or have anything against salt and fat. I don't recommend eating here every day, but it can be a nice change of pace from the fancier food. Trust me, it's called 'fast-food' for a reason. Doesn't take long to cook or prepare, I know that much from my cooking experiences."

Stepping forward, Angel took the lead and entered the golden arches to the restaurant, motioning the others to follow her. Once inside, it was crowded with people, as expected from McDonald's during lunchtime. The waiting line was long, the cashiers as busy as ants and the students could see the cooks behind the store frantically preparing meals as if their job depended on it.

While it was a pain in the ass to wait, for today it would actually benefit the group, allowing time for the raven black-haired musician to explain the concept of ordering their food.

"See those LCD monitors above the cashiers? The menu is one those, as well as special offers and such. It's not too complicated. Once it's your turn to order, you just ask for what you want to the cashier. They'll charge you the price for the food and bring it to you on the counter. You grab your tray, take your empty soda cup to the machine over there and fill your cup." Angel motioned first to the monitors above the cashiers' counter, then to the soda machine next to them.

"Yeah, it's pretty much like ordering at a proper restaurant, except you get to make your own drink however you want it and you have to pick up your own food," Brent added, before shifting himself into first place. "I'll show you how it's done, and you can figure it out from there, yeah?"

His stomach grumbled. Turns out that a half kilometer walk really did whet the appetite.

"Really, best thing about McDonalds is being able to mix your own drinks."

The look of disbelief told Siena that she was right in assuming that her question was out of place. Crap. Thankfully, Angel had decided that an explanation was more fitting. Following the others through the entrance, the brunette was assaulted by a myriad of scents, potatoes being the most dominating of the group. With Angel's explanation, Siena followed the motions, her eyes settling on the soda fountain. Growing up, Siena hadn't had much chance for the popular carbonated beverages, only really indulging when Gerwulf snuck her a bottle after running errands. That she was given free reign over a drink was...exciting.

"I don't think I've had a soda in years. I'll take your suggestions," Siena claimed with a smile that felt oddly genuine. Odd, given that most of them didn't feel so natural. Peering at the menus, Siena was almost overwhelmed by the number of choices. Thankfully there was a decent enough wait, though the line was dwindling faster than she had expected it to. When Angel said fast food, she certainly did mean "fast".

Savannah views the restaurant with a mix of wonder and confusion. She had never been inside a fast food place in her 14 years of life, no one had bothered to build one in her hometown of just over 300 people. And for the past 5 years, this type of thing would've been a luxury. Looking at the board, she wasn't sure what to order. There were so many options, something that the young girl was not used to. She was gaping a little, at the soda machine and the LCD monitors.

"Got any recommendations? I've never had fast food or soda. What's good?" she asked the three who had actually had stuff like this before.

"Well... that really depends on what you like. If you like beef, hamburgers are the way to go. Or, if you like chicken, they do make some good chicken or fried chicken burgers. Hell, even the fried chicken nuggets are a little delicacy."

Angel sneakily assessed Siena and Savannah from behind her shades. They didn't seem to be the kind of girls who eat greasy and unhealthy stuff, so they might want to try the finest there is to offer here in terms of taste.

"Hmm... I'd recommend getting a BLT... I mean it's a Bacon Lettuce Tomato hamburger. It's quite tasty, feels also kind of fresh from the vegetables, not greasy at all if you were to compare it to their double cheeseburger or their third-pound Angus burger. Or, if chicken strikes your fancy, get a McChicken burger, or a wrap. Wraps are good if you don't eat much, plus it's stuffed with lettuce so it tastes fresher. Or, like I said, chicken nuggets are also a good choice, if you're more into junk food."

"And for soda... you could go with orange crush, if you have a tooth for sweeter carbonated drinks, or Sprite if you prefer a zesty taste of lemon for your sizzling drink. If soft drinks aren't your forte, you can get some lemonade, or iced tea, not the crap they serve in Texas, I mean sweet iced tea, like Brisk.

"If you mix ice tea and sprite, by the way, that makes for a really nice combination," Brent added, "But personally, I think milk would be best."

"Hm, some iced tea sounds good. But... why would I get milk?" Savannah asked Brent, her eyebrow raised.

"Oh, you didn't know?" Brent smiled, pushing up his non-existent glasses. "40% of total lifetime bone mass is accumulated during adolescence, and milk is the best way to get calcium! Not to mention the fact that it tastes great and works to protect that smile of yours as well!"

"A-are you saying that I'm short?" Savannah said with a look of lethal calm on her face.

"I'm saying that you definitely should take advantage of the time you have now to maximize your growth."

"So you're saying I'm short? Savannah asked, repeating the question. She felt a surge of fury at the thought- and oh no. This wasn't going to end well.

Yeah, he could see a bomb when it was right in front of him. Tilting his head to the side, Brent said, "Well, I think you're tall for your age, but you need to consider the future as well. Drink early, grow early, you know?"

"Brent, enough! Savannah, relax."

Angel snapped, watching the two having a dispute like a bunch of kids. From her earlier conversation, she felt like Savannah was the kind of child who didn't want to be treated as such, trying to make people consider her just as worthy as an adult, even if she had ways to go about being one. One the other side, she knew firsthand just how much of a teasing jackass Brent was.

"Wait in line here and decide what you want to get based from the suggestions I gave you two. I'll have a word with Brent outside."

Angel turned to the two inexperienced fast-food initiates, while she motioned Brent to go outside the restaurant with her.

Following the shades-wearing girl, Brent asked, "So what's up?"

"The hell's wrong with you? I mean, I can take your sarcasm, I've dealt with your type in more ways than I can count, but Savannah's on a whole different level. She's just a kid, one who doesn't take kindly of being reminded as such, even though she should try and be a bit more self-conscious. Don't forget you're talking to X-marked, you never know what kind of situation you can get yourself into."

"Plus, she'd been through a lot yesterday night. We all did. But a girl her age shouldn't have had to go through such things. Give her a break."

"Uh...okay?" Brent's eyebrows furrowed, perplexed. "I was serious about that suggestion, but..."

How much did he really care about whether or not Savannah grew taller? His amethyst eyes turned inwards. No, he didn't really care. Yeah, maybe he'd even prefer if she was just a bite-sized pack of angry fun. As he moved to speak up once more, though, Brent blinked.

"Wait, what exactly does X-marked have to do with it?"

"Then you're a clueless idiot..." Angel answered to Brent's defense. "Being honest is a good thing, but there's a thing as being TOO honest."

Perhaps she misjudged his character. If everything he says comes straight from his mind, then he was not the sarcastic dick she initially thought of him, but a happy honest fool. In reality, she didn't know which one was worse. Her scowl however changed to surprise when Brent asked about what X-marked had to do with the whole issue.

"Wait, you don't know? You surely must know about the two types of subnaturals, the white-marked and the X-marked, or Arbiters and Aberrations, from what I gathered around the campus. Those bearing the X mark are impulsively violent people, the cause of which is not so clear, apparently, the cause is different to each of us."

Angel hesitated for a moment, unsure if it was wise to share this information about herself.

"I may seem fine right now, and so is Savannah. But I can assure you, we have our days, and I'm not talking about periods. I'm talking about moments where instincts of destruction guide our thoughts. I've only been a subnatural for a week or two, and I never felt this impulsive feeling of screaming things apart before then."

"So yeah, that's what it has to do with it. I don't know what is Savannah's quirk, but I saw it in her eyes, the look of someone who's about to blow a fuse, the same killer eyes Zoe had when she grabbed Aaron by the collar and was about to kill him just because he pissed her off after yesterday's battle."

Interesting. That was certainly something he hadn't known or even thought about before. So, the white-marked and the x-marked were different in that regard, were they? He had thought it was a matter just of what type of power they held, but to think that it actually had an effect on their temperament, that the arguments he heard in the background that night were fueled by this destructive impulse...

"That sounds...wow," Brent laughed awkwardly, "Still a whole lot of things for me to learn, huh? Sorry about that and the spaghetti incident then. I've only really been...conscious as a subnatural for a couple of days, so yeah. Lots of things I'm still in the dark about, and my local library didn't really have any sort of books on 'us'."

Lots of things to learn, and lots of things to keep in mind, huh? He wasn't sure whether he liked or disliked that.

Hearing Brent apologizing, Angel somewhat felt bad about snapping at him like that. He seemed... sincere about not knowing about the precarious situations he created. She couldn't blame him really, she was just a regular human just two weeks ago, before she awakened as an X-marked. She basically knew next to nothing about subnaturals, if not for popular knowledge and her big fan base that included a good number subnaturals as well.

"I... I'm sorry if I seemed harsh. Can't say I totally blame you there. Being a subnatural is way more than what the media let normal people know, until you become one."

"Anyways, I think we're good with this, right? No hard feelings?" Angel raised her first for a bump to the amethyst-eyes Brent in front of her.

"Yeah, no prob. I'll keep all these things in mind," Brent replied. As Angel raised her fist, he raised an open palm. Then blinked again. Wut.

Wow... the awkward situation. Angel corrected the situation by taking Brent's hand and closing his fingers into a closed fist, then gave him a fist bump.

"When people present you their fist, you bump their fist back... genius." Angel chuckled as she turned her back to him and went inside the restaurant to join up with the two girls.

Brent died on the inside and followed, grumbling, ""Yeah, I knew that. Just instinctively went for a high five."

What started as a pleasant discussion about suggestions quickly broke down as tensions rose. Anxiety gripped Siena's heart, squeezing until it felt as if the muscle might stop entirely. No, no. No, bad, no. Memories of Gerwulf's unbridled fury came to mind. No, bad, bad, no. Instinctively, Siena began pulling at a stray lock of hair, twisting until several strands came apart with satisfying twinges even as Angel defused the potentially explosive situation. With a pause, Siena glanced at the shorter blonde beside her.

"He doesn't know what he's talking about," Siena lied through her teeth. "That aside, what're you thinking of getting? I'm awful at making decisions blind." With a laugh that came out a bit pitchier than usual, Siena glanced at the menu while running through the suggestions that Angel had made. "Maybe one of us can get chicken and one of us can get beef and we can split it if you're feeling adventurous."

Savannah took a deep breath, and then blew it out again. The logical part of her mind told her to calm the fuck down, so that's what she did. When Siena spoke, she turned her head to the side, looking up at the older, impeccably dressed girl. "I mean, we could split a burger and some chicken nuggets. I’m not really sure of what I want to get." Savannah said to Siena.

"That sounds pretty good to me." Putting the best grin that she could muster, Siena reached for the confines of her purse, her fingers groping for the familiar feel of her "on-the-go" wallet. Well, really the only wallet that she had brought with her. "I can pay for lunch. It seems like it'll be pretty cheap." A pause here as they drew closer to the front of the line. "Huh...you think we'll need to order for them?" Not exactly the best idea, leaving ordering detail to two people that had never eaten at the restaurant before.

Seeing that the line drew closer to the front, Savannah started hoping that the two would come inside soon. She honestly had no idea how to order, and suspected that Siena didn't either. "Well, I hope they do. We certainly will need their help to order, I don't know how to order, and I don't think you do either." Savannah said to Siena.

In a moment of terrifying clarity, Siena noted that they were up next in line. She tugged at the ends of her hair even as the clerk called for the next customer, a half-vacant smile on their face. Glancing towards the door, the brunette noticed that Brent and Angel were decidedly not with them and winced at the prospect of trying to order. Well, it might be...interesting.

"How can I help you?"

"Um...can we get the BLT...burger...?" The statement trailed into an uncertain question by the end. The clerk paused, as if just as uncertain as Siena before regaining himself.

"Alright, will that be just the burger or the meal?"

What?

"Is...that not...the meal?" Feeling her hopes come crashing down around her, Siena threw a helpless look towards her companion. What?!

Savannah just stared in petrified silence as Siena attempted to order. When Siena glanced at her, Savannah's look simply said I don't know.

"S-sir, can we have the BLT burger, and some chicken nuggets?" Savannah asked the clerk, clearly confused.

"Do you want the meal?" the cashier promptly replied, and Savannah just stared, dumbfounded, at him.

"W-what?" Savannah managed to stammer out.

"Kid, do you want the Happy Meal?" said the cashier, clearly getting frustrated at the two.

"W-what's a Happy Meal?" Savannah asked.

"It's for kids."

"I'm 14." Savannah replies.

"So...do you want the meal? The meal comes with fries and a drink. Regular size." The cashier's finger tapped impatiently against the counter, as he watched a line grow behind the two subnaturals.

"W-we, we want the BLT burger, and some chicken nuggets." Savannah said. She was so confused.

"...ok, just the burger then. How many nuggets? What sort of dipping sauce?"

H-how about 20?" Savannah said with a wince. W-what sauces do you have?"

Bless. Finally, a straight answer. "We have..sweetsourhoneymustardbarbequespicybuffalosweetchilihotmustardcreamyranch."

"W-what?" Savannah said, not sure about what the cashier had said. He had said it so fast, she hadn't had time to catch most of the sauces.

This was quickly turning into a snowballing disaster. The brunette blinked, aware that the debacle was not improving even as she caught...basically none of the additional sauce options. Lamentations indeed. "We'll uh...the first one." A pause. Brent and Angel weren't back yet. Her eyes drifted towards the pictures. The biggest one was...

"And a Big Mac meal and a...uh...Mc....McChicken meal...?" Hopefully tacking on the word "meal" would clear up any confusion about wanting a meal. A moment of realization dawned on her. "A-And five drinks!" After all, hadn't Brent claimed that the best part of McDonalds was mixing one's own drink?

"Alright, would you like to supersize that?"

What?

"Um...yes...?"

"So a...BLT, 20 piece nuggets with sweet and sour sauce, and a Big Mac and a McChicken meal, both supersized, as well as 5 drinks on the side. That comes up to..." A few finger taps later. "$29.88. Is this for here or to go?"

"Um...f-for here." Wait, no. What if they hadn't wanted to eat in the establishment? Well, too late then. For the amount of food that they'd ordered, the price didn't seem quite right. Rather, that couldn't be right. That was less than twenty for an entree...less than fifteen, even. Half expecting the cashier to change his mind about the number due to error, Siena paused for a moment, golden and black card hanging from her fingers. When no corrections came, she hesitantly handed the card over for payment. If anything they could fix it later.

"Debit? The machine's there."

"Oh! Um...alright." Awkwardly, Siena slid the card into the appropriate slot, confirming the price and punching in her pin with one hand halfway over the number pad to hide the sequence before the payment went through. Pocketing her card, Siena accepted the printed receipt, cramming it into a shallow pocket. Hopefully that was the end of that ordeal.

Indeed, it was. "Next," the cashier called, as another young employee began to assemble the order, starting with five regular-sized cups and two extra large ones.

It would be a lie to say that Angel wasn't amused by the scenery unfolding in front of her. Even if Brent and she were a few meters away in the waiting line, her acute hearing picked up Siena's confused voice through the growing mutterings of frustration from the crowd. It was mean of her, to watch them fumble with their order like that, but she figured that it would be best left for these two to handle it by themselves and learn from their experience. In the end, she'd pay back these two for any over expenses.

"I'll take two double cheeseburgers, both with bacon. And... give me a third-pound Angus, without cheese. Meal for the Angus, no supersize. For here."

Angel ordered matter-of-factly, speaking with fluidity that would make people around her believe this wasn't her first time. In fact, she seemed to know well the menu. After the cashier told her the total price for her order, which amounted no less than $15, she opened her wallet to pay directly with her money.
•
"Uh... lady? We don't take Canadian money here."

"... Okay then..."

Angel put back her colorful money inside her wallet and took her student ID card, shoving it to the cashier who took it and swiped it in his machine.

"Nice job," Brent thumbs upped the two girls as they waited for their own meal. He hadn't heard what exactly they ordered, but hey, it looked like everything was fine, right? Once Angel stepped off to the side, the amethyst-eyed youth was up now. He scanned the menu, nodded to himself, and said, "20 piece nuggets with barbeque and honey mustard, as well as a bacon clubhouse burger with grilled chicken. A meal as well, but switch out the fries with a side salad."

"That's all for you?"

"Yup. There a problem?"

The cashier looked at the three girls who had ordered much more. He had thought they were part of a larger group, but...damn, the USARILN girls were thirsty, huh? "No, the total will be $12.40."

"Cool."

Grouping up altogether, the gang of newly arrived students from USARILN sat down at a table, to the farthest corner of the restaurant. They may have been a bunch of teens, but they remained subnaturals nonetheless. Eyes followed them, some staring with fear - especially because of the group was half-composed of X-marked individuals - others were curious and some more daring customers were taking pictures or filming the group of students.

Trying their best to not mind the obnoxious populace reacting to their presence, the shopping group ate quietly at their table, each enjoying the not-so finest delicacies this restaurant had to offer. While it was true their group was quite sizeable, the amount of food on the table falsely indicated that it was meant for more people.

In the end, everyone was full or did not want to eat anymore, and there was quite a large quantity of leftovers. The drinks, they didn't really matter. The food, however, Angel minded and proposed to bring the leftover nuggets and burgers with them. If no one else would have them, she wouldn't say no to eating them later in the day, or probably for another day.

"Urgh, eating so much wasn't such a good idea. We still have a kilometer to walk over to the... school."

"Welp," Brent said, hoisting up his bags, "Always good to burn some calories after a fatty meal, right?"

"Ugh." Savannah groaned, her face on the table. She had eaten way too much. Actually, she couldn't remember the last time she had eaten that much. "So... full. I think I’m going into a food coma, guys. But that was soooo good. So greasy too... Savannah's voice trailed off, her fullness making her sleepy. The food had been delicious, though. It was nice to be full for once.

"Could always postpone the inevitable... with more walking..." Allison, who had silently followed the group to the establishment, and sat with them without a word aside from introducing herself, spoke while nibbling at a hamburger of questionable quality.

"I think my parents would have ended me for eating this much," Siena tried to laugh. Tried. It was more like pain as her stomach forced her to acknowledge that she'd crammed it far too full. "I think I'll have to work out for hours to burn this off..." The food had been good. A little saltier than her usual palette, but not so much so that it became unpleasant. Sipping at one of the multiple cups littered on the table, she gave a soft sigh. If she got back to the dorm, she might actually collapse into bed and refuse to move the rest of the day.

"Nothing a few hours of morning jogging can't handle."

Suddenly, Savannah let a loud fart loose. As she did, she sat up, the look on her face one of mortification. Her face turned fire-truck red as the horrible stench began to circulate. Oh my god, she was so embarrassed. Her mouth tightened into a small line, and she plugged her nose.

"Oh shit," Brent said, scratching the back of his head with an awkward laugh, "Sorry ‘bout that."

"Christ, Brent. Fucking disgusting man."

"O-Oh my." Despite herself, Siena felt her face flush a little in embarrassment for Brent's sake.

Averting his eyes to the side, he said, "So...yeah...lotsa walking then, eh? Always would have been down, but I got a solo date to the library. You're all fine with the luggage, yeah?"

"Sounds like a good time," Siena claimed with a smile. It wasn't really a joke--the library would have been the first place she wanted to go, but after the events of the night before, she had pressing issues to handle. Most notably, a few additional reading methods in case of emergency, and maybe a decent knife to replace the one that she had lost. Or maybe she should have had Gerwulf pick one--he usually knew what he was doing. Usually.

"So, Siena. You said you came to buy some stuff, right? You found what you were looking for yet?"

"Most of it. I haven't seen a place for tablets yet. The clothes I can order once I get a better idea on sizing from the stores here." After all, she'd spent most of her life having been measured for her purchases. "I um...don't really know where to pick up decent ones though. I used to buy them online, but getting one for immediate use is..important. Just in case."

"Well, I don't mind keeping you company and snoop around town, if you'd like to. Who knows, I might just find something worth buying beside clothes and personal hygiene products." Angel chuckled softly.

-----------------------------------------------------------

After an eventful day, the ever-growing group of shopping subnaturals finally managed to reach USARILN's campus. Some were tired, other exhausted, other a bit less fatigued, but none of them would deny that this day had been rather interesting. Every single one of them were carrying their shopping bags, some had more than others, but in the end, it was a fruitful shopping day for the gang.

In the end, Angélique was personally happy from this shopping trip. Not only had she gotten what she initially came for, but she also met her fellow classmates that had arrived at USARILN with her on this accursed truck. She got to know them better, have fun while shopping and eating, so that day couldn't be better, in her opinion. Shifting her bags from side to side as her arms were getting heavier from the haul she had bought today - and also because Siena so politely offered to pay for a few items she had noticed Angel was interested in - the raven-haired Aberration turned to face the others with a genuine smile, something that had seemed to become rarer these days.

"So, I guess that's it for the day huh? It was fun. I really appreciated going out on a shopping spree with you guys."

Shifting to the large black casing on her back, Angélique flashed a grin to Siena.

"Oh, by the way, my room's 300, in the B apartment complex. If you need anything, I'll probably be there. Or if you want to hear a little something from your investment."

Angélique chuckled, still delighted to have had Siena buy that guitar she had got her eyes on earlier this afternoon when they came across that music store after their lunch break at the restaurant. She was definitively going to make it worth her money, still feeling slightly embarrassed about having someone gift her such a pricy item. She had been opposed to the decision at first, but the girl's stubbordness caved in on Angel's modesty.

"Same to you guys. If you need anything, you know where to find me." Angel repeated to the others.

Holding her day's haul--one new tablet, one old phone, and one medium stuffed cat that had been conveniently located in the "other" section of a store--Siena couldn't help but feel the slightest bit of accomplishment. Honestly, despite the fiasco of ordering at McDonalds, Siena had done better than she thought, though that was thanks in no small part to the aid of her classmates. More than that, a few keen observations had left the brunette feeling like she actually might have had friends. 'Not people paid to be friends...I hope.'

"I'm glad we ran into each other. I don't think I'd have managed this on my own," Siena claimed while adjusting the strap of her own purchases. Hearing the invitation sent a flutter of warmth through the girl's chest. "'ll have to take you up on that invitation sometime. I'm in 430 in building A if you ever want to pay a visit or anything." Like the older girl, Siena turned her attention to the main group as well. "Any of you, really. It...it'll be nice to have company."

Residual loneliness that Siena could identify, without an ounce of doubt, as her own bubbled up, fainter now than it had ever been. Just like always, she bat it down with willpower, keeping it far away from the outside.

While others walked, Brent rolled. Having ultimately decided to stick around anyways (because Siena's gold debit card was a beautiful thing), he picked up roller blades out of all things, spending much of his time just skating around. His wardrobe was ultimately going to remain the same, but rollerblades. Wonderful things. He couldn't wait to try overclocking that shit.

It would mean less time in the library, but hey, social relationships were always more useful than personal training, right? Especially when said relationship meant free shenanigans. Turning around, Brent smiled back at Angelic. "Yeah, and to think this all started because you were walking through the streets alone and in your underwear! Fate's wonderful."

"Y-yeah, I guess. Don't need to point it out like that though."

Angélique turned into a flabbergasted mess at the mention of having walked around town with her bare bra exposed to the eyes of everyone. Did he really need to rub it in like that?

What?

Rational thought sputtered to a stop. Angel was what? Siena could have choked on the air she breathed on for the reaction the statement drew. Sending her gaze directly to the floor out of a mixture of respect and surprise, the brunette felt a sympathetic rush of embarrassment, the heat rising like ravenous flames trying to devour her whole.

Allison walked along with the rest of the group, happily carrying the bags of clothing that Angel had helped her pick out. If it wasn't for her, Allison would still be in that store, roaming around, clueless and flustered. Of course, Allison's mind was going any slower than usual, and brought her images of Angel in various outfits, and various states of undress. When Brent mentioned Angel walking around in her underwear, she nearly shed a tear at the beautiful mental image. She had half a mind to shout 'Okay you god damn metalhead, just fuck me already.' Only her last few shreds of human decency kept her from doing so.

"Yeah, if you ever wanna hang out, my room number is 203, in Building B. Just stop by whenever you want. But knock. Please knock. Savannah said to Siena with an exasperated tone at the end. One of her biggest pet peeves was when people didn't fucking knock, and it often turned her into a book-chucking mess. Savannah was carrying three heavy bags of stuff. A couple of the items had been paid for by Siena, like the new headphones, and the teddy bear in one of the bags that she had (admittedly) really wanted.

"Suite 225 if you want to talk some more about music, or chill out playing video-games." Aaron felt inclined to say after everyone began sharing their room's number.

And with that, everyone parted ways, each going to their own room to shuffle through today's purchases and decide what to do for the rest of their day.

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

@dragonmancer: I fucked up on my post and forgot to include you in Angel's letters.

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

Poor guy, watch as he gets rejected on account of "Sorry, I dont't date kids 3 years younger than me"

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

𝓐𝓷𝓰é𝓵𝓲𝓺𝓾𝓮 𝓛𝓪𝓬𝓱𝓪𝓷𝓬𝓮

𝓛𝓲𝓴𝓮 𝓪 𝓑𝓲𝓻𝓭 𝓡𝓮𝓽𝓾𝓻𝓷𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓽𝓸 𝓲𝓽'𝓼 𝓒𝓪𝓰𝓮

---

𝕊𝕖𝕡𝕥. 𝟛, 𝟚𝟘𝟚𝟘 / / 𝕌𝕊𝔸ℝ𝕀𝕃ℕ ℂ𝕒𝕞𝕡𝕦𝕤 / / 𝟚𝟚𝟚𝟘

---

Walking out from the hospital, Angel watched in the distance the group of people that had seemed to have gathered around and were following the walking miracle Precursor. It would be a lie to say she wasn't interested the slightest in him. She had been curious as to the reason why such an important asset to the government was deployed over here and checked in for healing a group of newly arrived misfits into this so called "school for subnaturals". But to gather around him like a bunch of groupies? That wasn't her style.

With nothing immediately coming into mind, Angélique opted to go back to her room. Much happened tonight, and while she was not tired, she felt she needed some peace and quiet, relax and re-center herself. Best place she thought of was her room, or her prison cell as she'd call it. And so, her feet brought her to the complex housing all the Aberrations of the campus, the less fancy of the two glass-like apartment complex. She recalled her room's location, third floor, number 300, easy to remember.

As strange as it would seem, when she entered her room, the raven-haired Aberration saw her room for the first time. The first time she entered this place, she was too emotionally wrecked to even notice the details of her room. Hell, she didn't even recall crawling down to her bed and sleep. But now that she had a clarity of mind, she noticed the finer details of her room. It was quite small, a bed and a desk. The walls of the room were made of that same material they keep using for trucks, cuffs and other stuff. Whatever this material was, it was prized here, and made Angélique curious about its properties.

Scanning her room thoroughly after switching on the lights, Angel noticed the pile of papers scattered all across the desk. Taking a seat over there, she began reading the content of those documents. She let out a snide scoff when she saw the various tests. What a farce. Those placement tests were just a façade to give the illusion they would be attending school, while the higher-ups would laugh behind their back and send the 'precious' students to die on the field of battle against monsters of all kinds.

Tossing the placement papers aside, now Angel got to the more interesting part. Request forms to use Ground Zero, whatever that place was, and additional supplies. filling in the request to use the violent release zone first, Angel then paused when she looked at what she would actually need. From one of the papers, it states that the ID card she had been provided with - which she still hasn't found yet underneath the pile of papers scattered on the desk - it was charged with 500$ per month. Thinking about it carefully, if they had half-a-thousand in monthly expenses, and had a acquisition request form, Angel guessed that paper was meant to request things that she couldn't usually get her hands on, or was tremendously out of reach financially wise.

Thinking about money, the ex-Rockstar thought about her wallet, thinking about how shameful it was to have lost it. In fact, she didn't lose it, it wa confiscated by the local police office at the town she was giving concert in.

In her daze, Angéiique's eyes fell upon the duffel bag lying on the ground next to her bed. Had it always been here? Raising a curious eyebrow, the young woman got up from her chair and slowly walked towards her bed, grabbing the duffel bag before emptying its small content onto the bad.

Well she'd be damned. Her wallet was in there, and so was her cellphone. Checking the content of her black leather wallet, she was delighted to see that everything was just the way she left it. Her driver's license, her hospital and Canadian healthcare cards, her debit and credit cards, and even the hundred dollars she uses in emergencies were there. Looking at her bank's cards, Angel wondered if her accounts were still functional. While 500$ was neat, she figured that if she needed something really more expensive, her bank account would provide the money she needed. Before her career went to shit because of this accident, she had managed to gather a rather large sum of money. Sure, she might not be a millionaire like some other artists from her line of works, but that didn't mean she was broke after all.

With her smartphone in hand, the most recent Samsung Galaxy model that had come out this year, she was curious about many things. First, to see if the phone was working. And indeed, it was. The raven-haired singer remembered that she had closed her phone just before heading towards the concert hall, to prevent any awkward buzzing during her performance. Throughout the week, it had remained closed, and so the battery was almost fully charged. Well, it looked like her luck still hasn't completely left her, ironically.

Having thought about money just now, Angel wanted to know what was her bank account amounting to. As soon as she turned her phone upon, she was assaulted by notifications and messages that had been left to her while she was gone. Good god, there were so many of them, it would take hours to read through all of them. But business needed to come first. Angel was surprised to see this campus actually had Wi-Fi and a functioning network.

Visiting her bank's website, she had the horror of finding out that her bank account was left completely empty. Cleared of debts, but also cleared of savings. She literally had 0$ showing up on her screen, as if her bank account was virgin new. Suffice to say, Angélique was pissed mad about it, and wanted to know the reason why it was empty, but that would mean she would have to skim throughout thousands of messages in her inbox.

She was just about to toss her phone away from frustration, but then she remembered about the acquisition request form on the desk. Alright, so buying expensive stuff was really out of reach now. It felt just like returning to her kiddo years. So, she had to consider what was worth buying, ordering, and requesting.

Taking one of the exams she previously tossed earlier, Angel listed what she needed and priorities. Priorities were clothes, seeing she was just walking around with a bra and a single pair of blood-soaked black jeans, and bathroom products - which she was really overdue to take a shower. Anything else, she could live without for the moment, but seeeing how things went today, she felt like she would need to get a firearm to protect herself and the others in case her powers were useless. She could do with snacks too, and a few decorations to spruce up her room.

Thinking about today's events, Angel stopped in her tracks. She took a moment to think about all the casualties, the comrades she had, the deaths that had occured, her new life here. What would be the future from now on? Will she stay here until she dies after her use had come to an end, or would she meet the same horrible fate that happened to Alexis.

Her fists clenched, her teeth gritted, Angel removed her shades to set the up on the desk as she went to rest her face on her closed hands. She didn't want to die. She didn't want any more friends dying. But she couldn't do much. All she could do was bring death with her voice, not help people.

Pathetic excuse of a leader...

Angel's head raised from her knuckles, trying to find the source of those whispers.

Everyone around you will die, because you are weak...

Glancing around, Angélique's eyes finally stopped on her pair of shades that were set on the desk, facing her.

"No... I..."

You are weak, unable to protect your friends.

"S-stop!"

You let one of them die, and you caused 2 other deaths.

"That’s not true!"

You are a murderer. Your selfishness will be the death of all.

"ENOUGH!"

This sudden outburst violently sent the papers flying everywhere in the room, her shades being thrown out towards the bed, and the pen she had been writing with went flying so fast it actually embedded itself in the wall. Even the desk itself loudly smashed against the wall, no too damaged, but splinters were now visible from where it had collided against the wall and even the legs seemed wobblier than before.

Looking at the room now in a mess, calm had returned to her room, although the black-haired Canadian felt in a shittier mood than before.

I... need some fresh air.

Angélique stormed out of her room and headed outside. The air outside was cold, fit for a September night. The cold breeze washing over the girl's bare back gave her goosebumps, shuddering a little. Thinking over it, maybe it was a bad idea to use her whole shirt as a bandage, not to mention medical help had arrived not even 5 minutes after she had done so. But the deed was done, there was no point in lamenting her now lightly covered torso.

Walking outside, her stomach began rumbling, reminding vividly the teen she hasn’t eaten anything for a while now, and it was just about time to eat. Was the cafeteria open at this time of the night? Time to find out, she desperately needed something to sate this ravenous hunger.

Walking through the campus, she was intercepted by a guard who walked up straight towards her, gun in hand.

"Subnatural, what are you doing outside your room at this time? Curfew is at 2300."

The guard's grip on his gun tightened as he straight up noticed the very exposed black X on Angélique's naked throat.

"What really? I wasn't aware we were still at kindergarten."

"Don't make me repeat myself, subnatural. Go back to your room, or we'll escort you over there personally, by force if needed."

Angélique's face turned into an aggravated frown towards the man's warning. There was no fucking way she was going back to her room with an empty stomach, and she'd let that guy know exactly that.

"Look here, bud. I've had a fucking day. I wake up to the sounds of alarms blasting late in the night, you guys fucking shove me into a truck to send me and my teams to die on a battlefield straight up on the first day we come here. And now you want to isolate me in my room while I didn't have fucking time to get something to eat? I'm game with your curfew, if that's a necessity, but at least let me grab a bite before I turn in for the night."

The guard remained silent in front of the angsty teen taking it out on him. After she was done speaking, the man held up his index, motioning her to wait as he got his phone out of his pocket and dialed a number.

"Night patrol here. With the curfew-breaking student signaled. She's looking for food. Yeah, apparently, she's one of the students sent this evening. Alright, will do."

"You're cleared to go to the cafeteria to get your meal. Since it's your first day, and under the circumstances, you have until midnight to get back to your room. You still got eyes on you, so I'd suggest you make it quick."

Angélique nodded apprehensively. Well, at least not everyone here was unreasonable. With the guard walking away but still keeping an eye on her, Angel resumed her walk towards the dining hall.

Reaching the cafeteria, she was greeted by a half-asleep looking guy behind a counter. He grumbled something about being disturbed from his sweet sleep and whatnot. Of course, it had to be a fucking Aberration that decided to get her late-night meal during a week day.

"ID..."

Angel raised an eyebrow quizzically, wondering what the guy wanted with his extended hand.

"Your student ID card..."

Realizing just now what he meant, the raven-haired youth provided the card from one of her pants' pockets. The guy grumpily seized the card from the girl's hands and swiftly swept it in his machine before handing it back to its owner.

"Plenty of leftovers left heating up. Don't take too long, you're being monitored."

The guy labeled Jason went to a nearby table and slouched on a chair, visibly tired.

"And I'm beat. Just want to go back to sleep."

Angélique shrugged at the sight and went towards the food counters. For a place serving leftovers this late at night, it sure was impressive the sheer amount of different food that was being served. There was so much variety, the hungry X-marked girl was at a loss of what she would be eating. While she was famished, she needed something light for the night. Maybe toasts, croissants, chocolate bread? Grabbing anything that comes into mind, by the end of her selection, she had chosen a large variety of pastries, coupled with a cup of dark and strong coffee.

Just as she was almost done with her meal, she eyed the guards that had suddenly come quickly into the cafeteria, heading in the direction.

Oh shit... took too long.

The guards stopped right in front of her, two in number.

"You've well over extended your curfew. Go back to your room immediately."

One of the gun probed the subnatural with his rifle, pressing her to get up and move.

"No need to fucking point that gun at me. Sheesh, chill out mates."

Angel sighed annoyingly and grabbed the leftovers from her plates before downing what wa left of her coffee in one gulp. She then started walking towards her room all the while feeling the occasional gun being shoved behind her back.

Entering her room, she didn't even give the guards their satisfaction of being smug pricks, she slammed her room's door behind her as she stepped inside. With a stomach full and a few leftover pastries to snack on while she pulled an all-nighter, she was good to go to fill in these papers.

Gathering back the strewn exams and request forms across her room, she placed the exams into one neat discared pile, while the more relevant papers were sorted out on a different pile. Ground Zero has already been cleared, it was time to fill in the additional miscellaneous requests. While she had been eating at the cafeteria, she had thoroughly thought about this, about what she would need that she couldn’t buy with her meager 500$ of monthly expenses. She needed to know about the others, a tool to protect herself and the others, ways to train herself.

Retrieving the pen embedded into the wall, she watched curiously the hole in the wall fixing itself over time. Now that was the reason why this material was used at USARILN. Well, now wasn't the time to contemplate a hole fixing itself. She had other things to do:

Acquisitions Request Entries

-Profiles and background information on the students who arrived on September 3rd.

-IMI Desert Eagle Mark XIX with .4 ammunition.

-Clearance to use firearms at Ground Zero and restricted areas at the training grounds.

Setting up the acquisition request document over the Ground Zero clearance paper, Angel took a bite into the chocolate croissant she brought from the cafeteria, letting a soft hum of delight. Reminding herself of the morning breakfasts she often had with her band eating those, Angel recalled having promised a dinner to Green Team just before getting out to the battlefield. With all the events unfolding tonight, nobody was in the mood to talk to each other, especially not after Zoe's outburst after the fight.

Still, she felt like she owed something to her team. She promised them a meal, and by God she will go through this idea.

She took out a few sheets of exams from the discarded pile and placed them in front of her.

@Holy Grail

Aaron

Hey there Aaron,

Remember when I promised everyone to a meal after the fight? I've decided to treat you all to some traditional cuisine from my home.

I know you might not be on best terms with Zoe, but for the sake of unity, I hope to see you at the dinner. Meet me at the cafeteria at 5 PM September 6th.

See you soon,
~Angélique

@Lasrever

Zoe

Greetings Zoe,

Back when we were just about to enter the fight, I had promised you all to a meal after we would come back from this mission. While the circumstances weren't the best afterwards, and it was already quite late, I figured I will hold true to my words and invite you all to test my hometown's cooking.

Things have been rough that night, and perhaps you might not really want to talk to the others after what happened, but I'd really like to see you with us. If you want to, I'll be waiting at the cafeteria, September 6th at 5 PM.

I hope to see you there,
~Angélique

@VarionusNW

Allison

Hello there Allison

You remember when I told everyone I'd treat them to a meal after the fight would be over? Well, I decided that on September 6th at 5 PM, I’ll treat you all to some well-deserved traditional cooking.

We haven't had much opportunity to discuss ever since the fight, so I hope to see you and the others at the cafeteria.

See you later,
~Angélique

@canaryrose

Savannah

Dear Savannah,

I don't know if you remember, but before we got thrown out into battle last night, I had cheered up on promising everyone a meal after we were done with this battle. Things did not go as expected, but we came out through that ordeal, and I intend to stay true to my words.

I will be organizing a traditional cook out for you guys to enjoy at your hearts' content. If you are interested, meet me at 5 PM, September 6th.

Hope to see you,
~Angélique

@dragonmancer

Christopher

Hi Chris,

I've been thinking of organizing a tradionnal cookout meal of my own, since I did promised to treat you guys to a meal after we come back from battle. If you'Re available, I shall be waiting for you at the cafeteria, on September 6th at 5 PM.

I haven't really properly thanked you for saving me back there, so I hope you will be coming.

Seee you soon,
~Angélique

With the letters done, now all that she had to do was wait until the curfew was lifted so she could deliver those letters to her old teammates. Truly, she wanted to see them and bring them together for a joyful dinner altogether, perhaps mend the splinters that had formed between them.

Placements tests were 'done', if one would consider writing letters on the back of those sheets as being finished. Her request forms were all completed and signed. On the back of another exam sheet, a list of groceries had been written with a budget-like table drawn further down the page. Invitations were written, now waiting to be delivered. Pretty much everything was taken care of.

It was in now the early hours of the morning. Angélique yawned, but didn't feel so tired. Serious business taken care of, she could now try to catch up with everything she missed this past week. Her Facebook, Twitter, professional and personal e-mails, they were all flooded with messages from fans, family and business partners alike.

For sure, that would take her a while to read all of them.

*A few hours later*

Before she knew it, morning already came through the windows from Angélique's room. She had spent to much of her time catching up with everything that she had missed for a whole week, she didn't notice time flying by so quickly. After a relaxing stretch of both her arms and legs, she yawned and looked outside her window, realizing the morning sun had already risen from its slumber and was illuminating the sky. For a moment, she had considered going to sleep, but she remembered the sight she had seen from the mirror in this floor's common bathroom. She was in desperate need of new clothes. Her pants were soaked in blood, and she was actually just walking around the campus with only a bra as her top wear. Thankfully it was night, but she realized that now it was day and she would attract more than a fair share of unwanted stares.

Guess the shops should be open by now...

But before going outside shopping, there was a need Angel felt from reflex after usually waking up. Taking a shower. All night long, she didn't leave her room as she worked on her various paperwork and reading/listening through all of her messages. But now, as she was about to leave, she could smell the horrible stench of sweat, dirt and blood mixed throughout her skin. Not only did she smelled bad, she looked bad. Stains of dirt and blood dirtied her skin, her hair was greasy and sullied, she really needed to wash herself off this filth.

Unfortunately, it had been said that X-marked students shared a communal bathroom. While the idea of sharing a common bathroom didn't please her, there was not much choice for right now. Swiftly going to the bathroom, Angel spotted some basic cleaning care products that have been left over in the bathroom.

Looking over her naked body through the large glass, Angel realized how this last week did her terrible. While she still had that curvy silhouette and a well-toned body of someone athletic, she lost a lot of weight, TOO much weight. Her bones weren’t showing like a girl suffering from anorexia, but she found herself lacking fat. Sure, some people like very skinny girl, but that wasn't her gig. She preferred a little more meat around the bone.

Shower time was quite lengthy. Angélique took a lot of time scrubbing off all the impurities off her body and her hair. She was so sullied, the water flowing around her feet turned brown before reaching for the drain. In the end, she was clean as a newborn babe, her skin returning to its smooth light-toned glory and her hair to its black luster.

What she wasn't very happy with though it wearing the same set of underwear and pants she had been sporting for over a weak. They caught the worse of the dirt, and didn't smell exactly as fresh as she did. But she had to wear them nonetheless, else she would parade naked around campus.

Going back into her room, Angel shoved her phone, wallet and student Id into her pockets before leaving once more with a small pile of papers in hands. A few of those papers were neatly folded, others were left like she received them. Before going shopping, she figured she'd get this business out of the way.

Leave the building complex housing the Aberrations, Angel left towards the registrar offices, which were only a small walk away from her building, basically right next to it. It didn't take her long to enter the building a face the receptionist on the other side of the counter.

"Yo. Got my request forms filled in, ready to be approved by your higher-ups. I got letters to deliver to a few students as well, don't know if you're the right person to deal with this."

"Yes, we can do that."

Angel handed the papers to the receptionist, which she took and scanned over quickly, be it request documents or letters. The office lady raised an eyebrow as she read the letters.

"Got the full name for the recipients?"

"Errr, no? Well, they're all students that had been enrolled yesterday. Surely you can find their full name going off from that."

The receptionnist scoffed at the proposal. Great, more useless searching for a clueless Aberration. Don't kids these days introduce to each other using their full names? Looking through her computer, she pinpointed the information by searching for the most recent students. So, the girls the letters were addressed to were all X-marks, while the boys were all white-marks. Strange coincidence, still a pain to send to two different buildings.

"Alright, we'll be taking care of this. You can go."

Finally, with the papers all being taken care of, she can finally go to town to shop for some new clothing.

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

Oh nice, I really appreciate the lengthy details of how you want to go with it. I'll try to keep as much in character as I can. If you can manage to hop onto the collab before I post it (surely by the last day before the deadline), you could edit parts you feel off.

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

@Holy Grail Alright. Just in case you can't make it back, do you have anything in mind about what Aaron could be doing during the collab? We might have to puppeteer him a bit with your approval to get things forward.