[center][h3]Sector 5 Suoh - The Otherlobe[/h3]
Peach, Raz’s [@Truthhurts22], Sakura’s [@Zoey Boey][/center]

As much as she wanted to put all her fancy new psytech to the test, looking stuff up, editing her interface, customizing her SAS interactions, and generally seeing what it could do, Peach couldn’t stay up all that late. She was bone-tired. Even though nothing of major importance to her campaign had been achieved today, it had been a long day, and the Seekers ended up covering quite a lot of ground. They set out from home base at Alcamoth in the continent's southeastern reaches, boated across river, rapids, and sea, fought tooth and nail with pirates, and survived the mad scramble in Nyakuza Metro all the way up in the Frozen Highlands. After the teams got separated, her arrival in Gutsford led to that absurd truck battle through the scrubland and Kunad Highway. Things scarcely got less crazy after that with the heroes’ arrival in Midgar and subsequent adventures within it, including her first brush with the Others.

Lying in bed in her dorm room, silent except for the breathing and occasional snores of other female OSF personnel, Peach could scarcely believe all that had transpired. It boggled the mind and defied prediction; if nothing else, this world was never boring. Who could have guessed that today she’d officially join the ranks of a foreign city-state’s psionic military? Of course, she couldn’t help but worry about something unexpected just around the next corner taking her by surprise, but there wasn’t much she could do about it other than trust in her teammates, and in herself, too. In Midgar more than ever before, she felt caught up in a current much bigger and stronger than herself. Fighting against it in its entirety might be impossible, but she couldn’t just resign herself to the flow, either. Sooner or later, Princess Peach was going to make a difference around here. Maybe she’d even save the world.

Ultimately, it took only a few moments of reminiscing in bed before Peach fell asleep.

Next morning, she awoke suddenly with her head ringing–literally. One of the programs uploaded to Peach’s mind via her SAS connected -and enabled by default- was a morning wake-up call system, and though neither painfully obnoxious nor clamorous it proved insistent enough to rouse her from bed at the start of the standard Psych-OSF day: six o’clock. Throwing off the covers, she put her feet on the floor and rubbed her face. These people clearly weren’t night owls. After putting herself together, she found two new Brain Messages. One was a general message from command detailing instructions for that morning, which amounted to making all the necessary preparations for starting ‘Operation Scour’ at nine o’clock on the dot. That meant three hours to get herself in working order, fully cleaned, fed, and equipped for her first assignment as a member of OSF. Of course, Peach also knew to keep in mind that she wasn’t just some grunt. She was an infiltrator. She needed to get whatever useful information about OSF, its top brass, its relation to the government, and so forth that she could without blowing her cover. Learning more about the Others, and by extension the Ever Crisis, was even more important. The Seekers who didn’t accompany the three cadets should be informed about the OSF and its movements too, although for now Peach didn’t know how she’d contact the others. It might be too busy this morning to sneak out in person, and she got the impression that whatever she sent through Psynet might not necessarily be secure. [i]Oh well,[/i] she thought, heading for the door. [i]I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.[/i]

First stop after leaving the dorms was the outfitter. Rank-and-file troopers might not have a lot of say in what they could wear, but one of the benefits afforded to more powerful Scarlet Guardians -no matter their level of experience- was the freedom to customize their uniforms. Peach managed to assemble an outfit much more to her liking, something between a techwear coat and an elegant dress, complete with a tie. Even if some others might see a ‘battle skirt’ as impractical, she appreciated the chance to express herself. If only she could get it in pink, since the standard Psych-OSF colors seemed to be almost completely red, black, and gray.

She headed out from the outfitter at a brisk place, having somewhere to be. The other Brain Message she got had been from someone familiar; Luka Travers. He invited her, Sakura, and Raz to join him for another meal at the Otherlobe cafeteria, so the princess made her way there quickly. The cafeteria resembled [url=https://i.imgur.com/pHrE2Ei.png]one[/url] familiar to Raz, but much larger in scale, and like everywhere else in the Otherlobe this morning it buzzed with activity. There were soldiers everywhere, scurrying around like ants as they made preparations, everyone galvanized into a state of urgency by the imminent operation. Peach found Luka at a table by one of the great glass windows with two [url=https://i.imgur.com/wunqhtM.png]strangers[/url] beside him.They both wore somewhat similar sleek outfits in typical OSF black and red, both with scarves and matching mask accessories, worn in their hair. The young man, though, sported red eyes with black sclera, decent musculature, angular features, a slight bluish tint to his fair skin, and a thick, x-shaped, metallic mark on his face. Meanwhile, the young woman sported long hair in a purple to yellow gradient, detached sleeves, soft features, a garment even more like a dress than Peach’s, a slight purplish tint to her dark skin, and a full figure.

“Good morning,” Luka greeted Peach. “Peach, this is Dexio and Sina. Dexio and Sina, Peach.”

The princess’s new acquaintance gave a wave and a smile. “Hey there. The pleasure’s all mine. My power's Seismokinesis.”

“Hi. Nice to meetcha,” Sina added. "My power is Cryokinesis."

“Now that you’ve been assigned your platoon, you should get to know your teammates,” Luka explained.

Peach’s brows went up. “Oh! Right, yeah, nice to meet you both. My power's Materialization. Guess we’ll be working together!” She glanced at Luka. “That’s five total, right? Do you know who our platoon leader’s going to be, Luka?”

“Actually, that’d be me,” the young man told her, looking a little embarrassed. “Command’s always been pressuring me to take up leadership, especially since I used to be Septentrion 6th Class, back before our merger with the Psychonauts. Needing more platoons for Scour must’ve been as good an excuse as any, and after I vouched for you three, they must have thought you’d be a good fit on my team.”

Dexio grinned. “Oh, no need to be so bashful, Luka. Everyone knows you’re our ace in the hole. Here’s to Luka Platoon, eh?”

“Oh, I wish you wouldn’t call it that. I don’t want anything to be different between me and my peers, if I can help it.” Luka glanced at Peach again. “Oh, please, help yourself to the breakfast buffet. We’re going to need all the energy we can get for today.” The little guy had a heaping plate of high-protein pancakes and eggs to get through anyway, and he wasted no time following his own advice. Dexio and Sina, without anything to eat of their own, stood to accompany Peach to the line for food.