Ah, hello there! (Open to anyone =])

[Anonymous]

Nicolai hung upside down from a monkey bar. He was dressed in a simple khaki uniform that was obviously made for working purposes. Two small chevrons were stitched onto both shoulders, denoting his rank as an equivalent of today's petty officer/sergeant. He really didn't look like it, though, and Nicolai truly didn't know how he qualified. He wanted to be high up, but he didn't know if he had the personality needed to be one. But he was an officer and Nicolai wasn't going to question himself.

"One hundred twenty-five... one hundred twenty-six..." Nicolai gasped to himself as he did crunches. He cheeks were rosy and tiny beads of sweat dotted his face. My back's gonna break soon, if I don't stop he thought to himself. His arms were trembling from the strain. Nicolai completed his one hundred thirtieth crunch, unhooked himself from the monkey bar, and executed one neat roll before landing on his feet. He wobbled for one precarious moment as he regained his balance.

Retrieving his cap from a floating chair, he walked towards the entrance of the gymnasium and placed his right hand on a deceptively blank white panel. It was an ID scanner that would either glow green and open the door for you, or glow red and bring security guards to the area in an instant. It would seem counterproductive to put a scanning device in the inside of a room (obviously people who went inside were allowed to go in, so going out shouldn't be a problem) but Nicolai thought it was because it was supposed to be an extra security measure. He was no computer geek, be he assumed that this ID scanner scanned a different part of the microchip. If a man was able to figure out the code to entrance, he would only be able to decipher one half of the code, so he would be permanently shut in the room, unable to get out, and be detained by security.

The door slid open silently and Nicolai hurried out to breathe fresh air only to slam into a passerby. His cap fell onto the ground. For several seconds he stared at the man's face, frozen by astonishment and embarrassment, before realizing he was staring into the stoic face of a Pilot. His mouth opened into an o-shape and he stammered.

"S-Sir! My deepest apologies, sir. Permission to recover, sir?" He blurted out the first things that came into his mind. The man stared at him with narrowed, calculating eyes, before saying, "Recover," and walking along as he readjusted his uniform. Nicolai bent down to retrieve his cap, brushed dust off of it, and put it on his head, all the while looking vaguely at the Pilot. A look of confusion adorned his face as he stood outside the door, before shaking his head and slowly walking down the hallway.

[Tally]

Times like this, Col wished he could read.

And it weren't just the electronic map screen in his hand he couldn't read, either, but all those signs and monitors with like...schedules and names of things and stuff all over them.  Shit was all over the complex, givin' directions to folks who could, y'know, actually make some damn sense out of them, which he couldn't.  Some words he knew, the easy ones.  Like 'bathroom'...he could read that one.  Or 'elevator'.  A lot of the essentials, well, he got those all right, but actually findin' his way around, that was another thing altogether then wasn't it?

Weren't fair, those asshat Pilots plucking him up from the ground, from the lowest caste there was, and just droppin' him here to fend fer himself or drown.  A test of character they called it, seein' if he could manage on his own, but wandering lost through this damn rat's nest of a complex like he was now, it made him just wanna shrink right up and disappear.  They knew, they could all tell.  They all looked at him and saw he came from the gutters and fuckin' judged him for it.  That weren't just paranoia talkin' neither, no, that's what he picked up from their thoughts.  They saw him in the iron grey uniform of a Pilot candidate and got all smug like they just knew he'd never make it through the training.  It didn't help any, but he ducked his head and stared at the ground as he walked, which come to think on it probably was the reason why he was lost in the first place and not any closer to getting' where he wanted to be.

That would be the cafeteria.  Or...one of the cafeterias.  Place this size, ought to be a few.  He could read that word on his little electronic map, just couldn't seem to find a way to get to it.  His stomach was startin' to growl at him.

A very distinctive kind of mind came within his range just then and he looked up sharply.  A Pilot!  Talkin' to...someone.  Another military guy, and damned if Col could even remember all the ranks let alone tell them apart.

He ducked back around the corner and waited there.  Last thing he needed was to be runnin' into a Pilot who might try to give him something to do.  Nuh-uh.  Wasn't gonna happen. This was the one free day he got off a week, but that didn't mean nothin' to those douche Pilots.  'Course, his thoughts were probably projecting all over the damn place right now.  It'd be surprising if the Pilot didn't know he was here by now.

A few moments later, though, he felt the Pilot's mind move out of his range and finally he took a breath.  He hadn't even realized he'd been holdin' it.  But when he wheeled back around the corner to continue, he had to draw up short to keep from runnin' into someone.  Gah!  It was the dude the Pilot had been talking to!

“I...s...s...s...â€?  Agh, stupid stutter!  He clamped his mouth shut before it could embarrass him any more and tried a salute.  First he used the wrong hand but then he got it right.  Least he thought it was right.

“S...s...sorry.â€?  Col bit his lip and his eyes darted here and there.  Seemed bad to look at these military guys direct like, and they all made him so nervous anyway.  â€œUh, sir!â€? he added.  â€œW...wasn't payin' attention.  Just t...t...tryin' to avoid the P...Pilot, heh.  Sir.â€?

Stop talking now, idiot, he told himself.

His mind sifted through the man's surface thoughts on it's own.  No help for it.  It got all stupid when he was nervous, just like his stuttering.  Couldn't control it for nothin'.  Nicolai, that was the dude's name, and he'd just come from the gym, and...agh!  Enough of that!  Had to think about something else, stop reading the guy's mind.

How long was he supposed to hold a salute for this guy?  He couldn't remember how it worked.  Did you salute then stand at attention or hold the salute 'til they said otherwise?  And could he just, like, leave or did he have to wait to be dismissed now or somethin'?

O' course, his stomach chose that very moment to growl...loud.  Ugh, he could just die right there.  He must've looked real stupid, a seventeen year old, unkempt Pilot candidate holding a shoddy salute and clutching that dumb, useless map in his other hand.

[Anonymous]

Nicolai had been breathing a sigh of relief -- but he had to run into another military personnel. The man had run up to him so quickly, and they'd almost smacked into each other, he made something resembling a cross become a squeal and a scream before righting himself. His arm shot up into a salute and his feet snapped to attention, but...

"Oh. you're a boy," His body uncoiled its muscles and he visibly slouched. Nicolai returned a brief salute before rubbing his hands together; a habit that never left him when he was nervous. The man looked up and down the small teenager as if gauging him. Somewhat shabby, with a map, ruffled-looking, and definitely absolutely mortified. However as much of a wimp that Nicolai thought that he himself was, he couldn't help but feel sort of proud next to the boy, even if he was a Pilot candicate. If the boy became a Pilot, then he would show the respect, but as of now he was little more than a fresh recruit.

It was rather sad how the person was stuttering all the time, and he needed to learn to be sharper, unless he wanted to be grilled by others.

"Don't stutter, don't look into people's eyes, and say things quickly or else you aren't going to survive much longer here," Nicolai said. He paused, wondering what more to add to his somewhat countereffective assistance. "Try to relax. A bit. Don't be a bum but... Ye gads, you look like you've been chased all over the place. Just...breathe."

A long silence followed in which the boy's stomach gave a long, painful growl. Nicolai narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips, in an effort to stop from laughing the whole damned hallway down. A strangled sort of guttural noise made it through the vocal cords, and before he humiliated himself in front of everyone (or no one, actually) he grabbed the boy unceremoniously by the sleeves and dragged him to a smaller, out of the way niche in the wall. There, he laughed and laughed until his red face turned pale and tears ran down his face like he'd seen something absolutely terrifying.

Nicolai looked up at the boy.

"You have a name, yes? What's your name? Mine is Nicolai Suvan." He wiped the tears away from his eyes, and the last of the chuckles faded from his lips. "Wow. I haven't laughed like this since a long time." He beamed a friendly smile. The boy didn't seem like he would be harmful, so as long as he watched out for other people he decided he'd smile all he wanted to.

"And, er, there are bigger maps around the compound, you realize that, yes?" He said, noticing the map. It looked like it would fall apart at any moment, and he cringed. That much abuse to a piece of paper was enough to make Nicolai feel pain.

[Tally]

(OOC: Col projects his thoughts all over the place, so anytime you want to have Nicolai "overhear" something he's thinking, that's a-okay. ^^ )

Col wiped his sweaty palms against his pant legs.  Honestly with these Aedolis jerks you never knew what you were getting.  Some could be decent folk but some were just batshit crazy and mean.  Still, he wasn't getting that scary vibe from this guy.    He felt the man relax then caught the sour sensation of something close to pity.

People feeling sorry for him was the same, exactly the same, as people looking down on him.  He shuffled his feet and hoped the guy would dismiss him soon.

That comment about not stuttering very nearly made him roll his eyes.  Oh, don't stutter?  Why didn't I think of that?  It's a miracle, I'm cured!  You're a freakin' genius there, Nic.  Don't stutter.  Brilliant plan! Shit, didn't anybody understand he'd stop if he could?  He'd always stuttered, ever since he could talk.  Course it'd gotten way worse since coming here, and it gave him more anxiety attacks than anything else about this ordeal.  The Pilots...they weren't gonna put up with it for long.  It kept him up at nights worrying over what they'd do when they couldn't stand it no more.

Nicolai's other advice was all stuff he'd heard before, from various people and in various degrees of hostility.  Most of 'em weren't as civil about it as this guy, though, and that inclined Col to at least pretend to be grateful for the help—

—or it did 'til the guy hauled him aside and started laughing at him.  Col's face flushed bright red and he stared down at his boots while he waited for Suvan to get it out of his system.  Gods-fucking-damnit.


“C...C...Col  Savage. Sir.â€?  His tone of voice was sulky, annoyed.  It was then that he glanced up at last and saw the man's smile.  It was the kind that made ya want to stop being angry and told ya you could relax a little.  So he did, but only a little.  â€œPilot candidate.  Been here about a week, sir,â€? he said, and he wanted to return the smile but...ah...better not.  Nicolai might decide to take offense if he did and he really just didn't want to get penalties assigned for smiling at a superior officer.

“Yeah...I seen the maps.  Sir.â€?  He hooked a thumb in his pants pocket and shrugged his shoulders uncomfortably.  Ain't got no use for 'em if I can't read 'em, though.  Blah, he hoped he weren't projecting his thoughts, but there was just no way of knowin'.  It was like with the reading folks' minds.  No control over it.

They were teaching him to read as part of his training, but it was freakin' slow going.  Learnin' to read was about the hardest, most frustrating thing he'd ever had to do.  Three hours out of every day he had to sit at a table in some stuffy little room with a stuffy little tutor who talked to him like he was four effin' years old and had him read shit a four year old would read.  And he still wasn't gettin' it.  It was so hard.  So many letters to learn and they didn't behave the same way all the time.  They, like, changed dependin' on the word.  He'd get so angry and embarrassed, tryin' to pull the sounds out of his memory, and the tutor would sit there and sigh at him and drum his fingers on the table and make snarky comments that, occasionally, made Col snap and rip the papers up and storm right the hell out.

He had a feeling, though, that even if he could read the maps, he'd still manage to get lost.

“Uh...I don't s'pose you could, y'know, show me where the closest cafeteria is.  Sir.â€?  Made him feel stupid, askin', but his feet were starting to hurt from runnin' all around and he was still hungry.  And suddenly he just wasn't ready to see Nicolai leave.  A week since they'd pulled him off the ground, brought him up here to a place that might as well have been another planet it was so strange to him, and he was kinda desperate to talk to someone who wasn't giving him orders or yelling at him.

The training complex was always busy, always filled with people, but he'd never felt so alone in his life.

[Anonymous]

(OOC: Sures. ^0^)

Nicolai felt a pang of guilt as he saw the boy's face turn red. Oops. He wasn't supposed to laugh. He didn't mean for his sudden bout of laughter to come across as mean, but apparently it had. So much for his social abilities. But there was no going back, so he decided to remain quiet and not say a peep. In his experience, Nicolai had never liked it when someone brought up a subject of embarrassment out of good will, so he hoped it was the same with everyone else.

Nicolai's smile faded just a little at Col's sulky tone. Col seemed to fold up into himself as he replied to his questions, poor guy. Then Nicolai reeled back as if he'd been pushed. Somehow he felt violated, raw, as he sensed a... something... shoot out of... somewhere... . He mentally grabbed onto that thing that shot past him, and realized that Col was illiterate. Nicolai's eyes narrowed as he racked his brain, wondering what it had been. It took him a while to realize it was a thought gone wild.

Col wasn't able to control his thoughts, was he? Moreover, how could Nicolai sense it if he was a lowly human with no abilities whatsoever? Would that mean Col really couldn't control his thoughts at all? Nicolai decided not to ask about it, despite his burning curiosity. He'd already offended the recruit. He didn't want to get on his bad side, just in case Col managed to become a Pilot.

"Um," Nicolai paused for a moment as he got his bearings. He pointed to a spot on the map, an inconspicuous hallway he was only able to point out because the gym was right next to it,  and said, "That's where we are right now." He dragged his finger over the map to a large square. "I think that would be where the cafeteria is. I guess it's not that far away." Nicolai flashed quick, unsure grin, which faded as quickly as it came.

Nicolai didn't want to offend Col any further but he just HAD to become a mother hen.

"I could teach you how to read, sometimes, if I have the time..." Nicolai bit his tongue to refrain from saying anything else. He was rather desperate to be somewhat social. It wasn't working but Nicolai wasn't going to stop just 'cause.

Actually, Nicolai didn't know at all how to teach. He didn't have the longest patience, he was disorganized, but Nicolai wanted to be helpful. He'd walked past one of those old professors and he wanted to get the hell away from them. They reeked of dust. It must be better being stuck with a flustered officer that had no ability to socialize than an old withered geezer, surely!

So maybe that wasn't the right idea but... Oh well.

[Tally]

Col shuffled closer and rubbed the back of his neck as he read the map with Nicolai.  Or, er...pretended to read it with him.  Now how Nicolai could be tellin' where they were with all the samey lines and rectangles and arrows all over the thing Col just didn't know.  He figured he'd never get it.  Stuck with askin' people for directions the rest of his life and lookin' like a fool.  Course it'd help when he learned how to read.  If he learned how.

"Uh...right," he muttered, playin' like he followed when Nicolai pointed out the way to the cafeteria.  He sidled away again.

But what Nicolai said next made Col's eyes snap up to Nicolai's face and widen.  "How did you..."  For the second time within the last five minutes his face turned bright red and he stared down at the ground in front of his boots.  "O...oh.  Oh.  I didn't m...m...mean to...y'know.  With the projectin' or whatever."  Well that was jus' great.  Was every person in the complex going to know he couldn't read?

Well...yeah, probably.  If he couldn't get no control over his own thoughts he'd jus' go round tellin' everybody hisself wouldn't he?

Just about ready to die from embarrassment, his stutter got even worse.  His brow furrowed and his mouth contorted trying to get the consonants out.  "N...n...n...s...s.. ."  Frustration started to dominate embarrassment and he clapped him mouth shut, took a deep breath, and tried again, talking slowly.  "It's.  N...not.  Something.  I really wanna...talk about right now."  There.  He'd gotten it out.  And it was true.  He might be takin' Nicolai up on his offer sometime, but this was his day off.  All he really wanted was to get some food and pretend he was someplace else.

Col started to edge away reluctantly, worrying the map in his hands.  He'd gotten what he needed to know; didn't have no more reason to stick around.  But it was too hard, much too hard, to walk away from that ready smile, that good-natured voice.  So he paused and when he did, he caught a thought from Nicolai that told him maybe, just maybe, what he was about to say would be all right.  "Do ya wanna come?"  He scratched the back of his head.  "If you're hungry, I mean.  Or ya could just keep me from gettin' lost on the way."

He kind of laughed then, nervously, but cut it off for the same reason he'd been reluctant to smile.  He was still kinda feelin' this guy out and figurin' out just how far he could be himself.  Where was the line?  Livin' here was like walkin' on freakin' egg shells all the time.  Never knew who ya might offend or how.  Didn't help none that most everyone in the complex was in such a bad mood all the time.

[Rhi-Rhi]

As much as she hated her scrawny body, Arrow had to admit that it really came in handy sometimes.

Like right now. Seriously, how many people could fit comfortably in a broom closet? She could. Sure she had to sit all folded up with her knees squished to her chest and a damp mop falling into her face no matter how many times she brushed it away, but she at least felt safe and secure in the small, cramped space. It was familiar, and she'd hidden in smaller spaces before to escape bullies and stuff. Some things never changed. At least those bullies had been her age and when they pushed her she could push back...without even touching them. It just happened, she couldn't help it or explain it.

She probably should have done less of the pushing and more of the hiding, though, because maybe she wouldn't have wound up here. But heck, not even she'd really known she was doing all that funny stuff! Arrow had been convinced a ghost was living in their house.

Shifting a little, because her right ankle was starting to fall asleep and her bum was starting to hurt—she was sitting on something hard and kinda pokey though she couldn't see what it was in the dark—she heaved a quiet sigh and wrapped her arms around her stomach, which was starting to complain at her. She should probably get something to eat, but honestly, she didn't want to go to the cafeteria, especially not alone. There'd be...those Pilots there. And it wasn't like the other Candidates were much better. She didn't like them, and they were always digging into her head and seeing things they had no business seeing, making fun of her and all that. Even the adults! You would think they'd have better things to do than pry into her brain just so they could laugh about the time she got pantsed or how her mom had to have that abortion.

Wasn't funny, anyway.

Well. She couldn't stay here forever, though. And she seemed to have lost that other Candidate kid. Stupid fellow with too many freckles. Maybe she shouldn't have called him that name, but he'd done it first and she didn't take getting pushed around by anyone.

Except people stronger than her, which he was.

Arrow was on the verge of finally exiting the closet (it was getting so stuffy) but it was then that she heard it: people talking. Well, she heard the thoughts first before she heard the talking, random stuff about "don't stutter" and not being able to read and people being grumpy. Yeah, that sounded about right. People were grumpy as heck here.

She held her breath and pressed her ear to the door so she could hear better, trying to pick up the actual conversation through the door since the thoughts didn't make much sense at all, coming from all over the place about unrelated stuff. Of course, she also forgot that her own thoughts were easy enough to pick up by anyone with half a brain. Hmm. If they were Pilots, she wanted to steer clear, but if they—gah!

Ear to the door, she leaned a little too hard against it and the door swung open, spilling her out onto her face in front of the other Candidate and the soldier. The mop followed suit, landing right on top of her head like a strange wig, covering her short black hair completely, and a bucket clattered out after. So that's what she'd been sitting on, the handle.

Blushing vividly and feeling like she'd been caught red-handed eavesdropping, Arrow clawed the mop off of her and scrambled to her feet, mop in hand—which she quickly hid behind her back when she realized she was holding it. It was then that she actually saw the soldier whereas before she'd only noticed the other Candidate, and her face darkened that much more, blue eyes widening in mortification. "I am so sorry! I wasn't eavesdropping or anything! I just heard you were going to the cafeteria and uh...not that I was listening!" she blurted before she could help it, before she gave a little jolt, straightened, and managed an awkward salute. "Sir!" She slid her heels together as an afterthought.

Just feed me to the Dragons now and get it over with...

[Anonymous]

"Oh," Nicolai said. His face palled, then blushed with humiliation. He tried to swallow it down, for what good does a blushing officer do?

I guess my social abilities haven't exactly improved much, he thought to himself.

"I, uh, I'm sorry. Didn't mean to pry." Nicolai said, scrunching up his face as if he was in pain. He really shouldn't be talking about such a sensitive issue, but he just had to say something--! It didn't matter if you were an underdog or the most powerful man in the galaxy; if you were lonely, you were very lonely. Nicolai felt friendless.

Just before he was going to say bye to the poor guy who obviously wanted to get away from Nicolai, Col brightened up his day. Nicolai's blush faded away, then rose up again, but this time it was a blush of happiness. "You really think? You seriously think?" He tried to contain his grin, but it was proving far too hard to be unexcited.

"I'm really hungry since I didn--" And then the wall next to exploded and Nicolai started. For a brief second, a whole jumble of thoughts went through his head. His hand automatically flew to his belt.

Oh, is that war finally here? Oh gosh, gosh, I don't have my gun, where the hell is it? I have to tell the Pilots. Where's my gun? Am I going to die? I'm too young to die. What do I do? This is my chance! Wait... where's all the people?

As his eyes adjusted to everything (or rather, nothing) around him, he locked onto a small heap with a mop on top. The commotion rang painfully loud through the hallway, and he hoped people wouldn't come rushing after them. It would be embarrassing, and Nicolai would never be able to face his peers, stuck with two lil'uns.

"Oh dear," he managed to say, after an awkward period of silence.

Was it just him? Because Nicolai felt that he was attracting all sorts of people to him. Maybe it was just him. He straightened up and returned the salute.

He looked over the scrawny girl with a mixed feeling of contempt and sympathy.

"You... did sound like you were... eavesdropping, a bit," he said haltingly, wondering exactly what an officer was supposed to say in this kind of situation. Sure, his tattered guidebook he'd memorized by heart gave all kinds of directions for all kinds of things, but it didn't explain what to do when some small recruit hurtled out of a janitor's closet and claimed that she wasn't eavesdropping merely a few feet from them.

Exact punishments that the officer sees fit for minor crimes not detailed, he recalled. But he felt far too generous right now to make her do manual labor. Besides he didn't want to chase off Col, just after he'd started to get on his good side. Which reminded him--the cafeteria.

"Eh." Nicolai looked dubiously at the girl. "But I'm not going to bother with punishments. Consider it your lucky day that I--er, this Candidate and I--happened to stop by... and not some other person."

His stomach felt hollow. "Do you want to go to the cafeteria? I was going to say yes when you fell out. What's your name?" He added after a slight pause. He'd never be able to remember everyone's names, but it seemed polite, kind of, to ask.

[Tally]

Col yelped out loud and jumped back as someone came tumbling into the hall.  Damn.  Weren't no gettin' away from all the people in this place.  They just be fallin' right out of the walls.

"You all right?" he said, and he stepped forward to help the girl up but stopped short.  A grey uniform.  Another candidate.  Just his luck.  About the only thing worse would have been a Pilot.  Eyes narrowed suspiciously, he stuffed his hands in his pockets and put his shoulders back.  He had to be all...subordinate or whatever with the military tops but with other gracies he weren't about to take any shit.  Dealing with the other candidates weren't much different from puttin' off thugs on the street what tried to stake up your corners or alleys for their own.  Just had to step to 'em strong right from the start and not be afraid to throw a punch now and then.  Just yesterday he'd had to slug some gracie for for tryin' to push him around.

It helped that the Pilots didn't seem to give two rat turds how much the candidates fought.  

This candidate looked familiar, and he searched her face lookin' for why, for where he mighta seen her.  The few days he'd been here had been hectic and he felt like he were spinnin' in place with all these people's faces he was expected to know whippin' by him.  His memory weren't that great in the first place, and bein' so nervous all the time didn't help with it none.  

Ah.  'Course, the orientation class.  That's where he'd seen her.  Made sense he couldn't place her right away; he'd been more worried about avoidin' attention and getting out of there without havin' to get a share of Val's punishment.  He shuffled his feet.  It made his legs hurt just thinkin' about it.

Arrow, his mind caught.  Arrow Archer.  Names were always right up front like...easy to catch even when ya weren't tryin'.  They just hit him whether he wanted them to or not.  Anyway, she didn't look so bad, and he relaxed his aggressive stance a little.  Shit, this place had him all jumpy and ready to threaten girls just 'cause they were candidates.  He felt suddenly sheepish and gave her a quick half smile.  "Col," he offered, in case she didn't know, though she'd probably caught his just as he'd caught hers.  "I...remember ya from the class."

And thank the gods that was over and this was their free day.  He didn't have to worry about Roman or training or nothin' 'til tomorrow and he was damned determined to make the best of it.

It'd be nice if there were at least one other candidate he weren't scared of or who weren't scared of him, so he nodded when Nicolai mentioned the cafeteria.  "Yeah.  We're gonna get somethin' to eat.  You should come if yer hungry.  Better to eat in a group in that place, y'know?"

[Rhi-Rhi]

She let out a sigh of relief when told she wouldn't be penalized, but she didn't relax her stance, much as she wanted to either just wilt on the spot or hug the guy. After being around the people she'd been around all day and yesterday, it was insanely refreshing to see a friendly face. A genuinely friendly face. Not that he looked that friendly, he wasn't exactly all smiles and welcomes but he seemed a little nervous and wasn't all...rawr, I'mma break your legs! like some other people were around here. Compared to those people he might as well be speaking rainbows and breathing butterflies, if that even made any sense.

"Thank you!" she said a bit too excitedly, offerng up an uncertain smile. Then she jolted. "Sir!" She always forgot that. "Name's Arrow Archer, sir!" Ugh, she always hated giving out her full name; it was so embarrassing, and she'd been teased mercilessly enough about it throughout her life. Parents just thought they were so witty, bless them, and while she loved them to death she seriously questioned some of their choices sometimes. Like that one.

Arrow finally lowered her hand when Nicolai invited her to the cafeteria--hopefully that was okay, but he seemed to be talking all casual and stuff and her arm was getting tired, anyway--but she didn't answer right away. Now that she no longer had to fret about punishment, she looked from Nicolai to the other candidate and bit her bottom lip, a knot of tension forming between her shoulder blades. Despite herself, she ducked her head a little, averted her eyes, and shrugged her shoulders uneasily. "Um..."

It felt like he was trying to stare her down and she couldn't help but feel intimidated. She recognized him. Col Savage. He'd been in class the other day and he'd been the one to help hold Val down while Dyerlich and Roman...She swallowed hard against the sudden lump in her throat and shifted from one leg to the other. Arrow could tell when she wasn't wanted, and she could practically feel the hostility radiating off of him. And after what had happened yesterday in class...

"Uh..." Arrow was about to politely decline Nicolai's offer--she'd brave the place alone if she had to--when the candidate spoke up. She looked back up at him and caught his half smile, noticed his newly relaxed posture, and her muscles untensed a little. Couldn't really be fully relaxed here. Maybe he'd just been expecting her to pick a fight with him like ome other punks had tried picking a fight with her...which was why she had been in the closet.

She could understand that.

"Arrow," she offered back, giving a crooked, shy grin and pushing some hair back out of her eyes. "I remember you, too." She paused. That was a rather awkward way to meet someone and she really didn't want to have to think about that now. "Anyway, um, yeah, I'd like to come. I mean, if you don't mind. 'Cause I can get lost and fend for myself and stuff, but of course there's safety in numbers and I'll watch your back if you watch mine. Or something like that." She chuckled nervously and stole another glance at Nicolai. He wasn't a candidate, that was for sure; some sorta military personnel. That made her a bit wary, but if he was sane and he was nice and he was coming to the cafeteria with them that had to mean they'd have the benefit of added protection.

Either way, she was just happy to find someone who didn't scare the pants off her.

"Do you know how to get there?"

[Anonymous]

Nika was supposed to have gone to some meeting with some of the other candidates. But he hadn't felt like it. It had sounded oh so boring. And Nika hated being bored. It was so...well...boring.

But he was finding that the long corridors of the complex to be rather dull. He hadn't found anything interesting yet. And there were far to many people wondering around to try sneaking into the areas he wasn't supposed to go. And he hadn't had the change to figure out which ones would be interesting or just off limits because.

The small, slender boy shoved his hands into his pockets. He hated the stupid uniforms. He was modifying his as soon as he could get away with it. It was all baggy and ill fitting. He was used to the tight fitting layers so popular in Aedolis. And the pants always felt like they were going to slid right off his hips.

Taking a corner he noticed two other's dressed in his same uniform, talking to a third person, a low ranking officer. How interesting. The boy smiled as he sauntered over, catching the last bit of their conversation.

"Ah! Food is so good! I was just thinking about food! It is so good to see others had my wonderful idea!"

Wrapping an arm around the girl's arm, he grinned at the trio, totally ignoring the fact he should have been solution the officer, "Shall we find our way? I think I know of one cafeteria!"

Nika was mildly famous to anyone who followed popular media. He was the son of a rather famous former pop star turned actress. And as the child of a star, he tended to make a few magazines. To anyone else, he was just a short, effeminate looking pretty boy with a disturbingly wide smile and very perfect teeth.

His thoughts were locked down very tightly, making them very hard to read. He had little control over his rather pathetic telepathy. He had learned to put up shields, but they tended to work both ways. He couldn't read other people very well and they couldn't read him.