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It was nice to see Penny and Dana with such a pep in their step. It helped Nicole keep her spirits high and nerves low after a sluggish start to her own day.

Normally, she was a morning person herself - easy-going and amiable, the one to fix coffee for her parents, go out for a run in the morning and watch as the dew lifted off the streets of Hasta. But she wasn't in Hasta, and the jet lag had pummeled Nicole as hard as any of the furniture on the crashing [i]Laurus.[/i] She'd spent most of the night rolling from side to side, doing her best not to sleep on the parts of her body the shower had scalded or trying to focus on the sound of her own breathing. For a while she'd tried to keep it in unison with the breathing of Astrelle, sleeping across the room (or maybe just doing a good job of faking like Nicole had) or trying to breathe in time with some of her favorite songs. In between those, she grumbled to herself about not being able to sleep naked with a new roommate. It was a charcuterie of things of things designed to keep her off her game - new city, new time zone, new routine, and a pair of basketball shorts to cut off the sacred sheet-legs symbiosis. 

But being around the same group of girls she'd survived a freak Void attack had helped. Nicole was a bit quieter and less personable than she'd been at first, but as the day went on and the girls went through their tests, it began to dawn upon all of them the enormity of what was to come, and her mood began to stabilize as others became more excitable or pessimistic. Naturally, the girls had begun to talk among themselves about their impending surgeries - or the idea of being turned down for them, which was such a cosmically unlucky, crappy thought that Nicole giggled at it when Penny brought it up.

[color=39b54a]"Ugh, just had a horrible thought. 'Hey, we just tested you, and while you have magic, we don't think you're a suitable candidate for the procedure. Sorry to waste your time, now pack your bags because you're going home.' Wonder if they ever had a case like that. Yeah, I feel bad for thinking about it."[/color]

[color=Gold]“That’s kinda depressing. But I don’t think it’s anything to worry about. I mean, we went through a buncha prelim tests back home, and I doubt they’d go through all the hassle of bringin’ us here, if there was any chance we’d just have to be sent home again.”[/color]

[color=ec008c]"Besides, they're not really in the business of wasting time here,"[/color] Nicole pitched in, leaning forward with her elbows on her knees and head in hands. [color=ec008c]"You heard how early they blew the horn for us, and with the way things have run so far, I doubt they're going to waste time bringing a girl into where they do procedures just to bounce her out. If they were gonna go through all that trouble they'd be more likely to kill you just to shut you up."[/color]

She winked at her new friends and adjusted her newest skirt, glowering at it with an irritation she hadn't even directed at Astrelle at her worst yesterday.

[color=ec008c]"I wish they'd kill me, frickin' uniform..."[/color] she grumbled. [color=ec008c]"Hey, wait, I probably shouldn't say that, right? That's probably what they say in those shows you guys watch before things go bad. Forget I said that."[/color]

They were on the subject of their favorite shows again, discussing how they hoped their transformations would be modeled after certain girls from certain Adjective Adjective Job Title Noun anime. She thought again of their discussion on the airship yesterday, and the innocence with which they'd discussed Ars Magi propaganda. Astrelle hadn't been fooled, and she was probably smarter not to be. But why go through all the trouble of being an Ars Magi just to feel like shit about it?

[color=ec008c]"You'll have to tell me who I'd be,"[/color] Nicole said with an apologetic grin. [color=ec008c]"I really only speak the language when it comes to over-the-top macho stuff."[/color]

[color=ec008c][i]God, it would be so sick if I became Eradicator. Or Demonetta or Roboslut.[/i][/color] She pictured herself, slinging a pair of pistols in either direction. [color=ec008c][b][i]I don't kiss magical girls. I turn 'em to slag.[/i][/b][/color]

[color=ec008c]"Maybe you girls could give me, like, a list of beginner's stuff to watch for nights off? Help [i]amica tua[/i] out?"[/color]