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The Spirits Within

I get it. That's good news, cheers!

Mind if I use this image for the deployment hangar?
@Prisk

The Spirits Within

_{O A K R I D G E : D E P L O Y M E N T G A R A G E}

In the more or less empty cabin of the APC, the still air was cool and comfortable even without the air conditioner. He had resigned to alternating between watching the racket and clank of the driver's testing the controls, and playing a digital card game online with some of the students who weren't deployed today. Though he knew very few personally in real life, he had a swarming friends list in the game. Messages bounced back and forth from device to device, issuing friendly duels to one another like a camraderie of knights on a quest of somesort. Without risk of bloodshed or death, of course. Sometimes it felt like that was enough.

But looking back at real life, he was reminded of the crisis that plagued all when Montero spied the glint of metallic fingers on the driver's left hand. Something happened to this one, so much so that he needed a prosthetic arm. Montero gave a slight nod of acknowledgement to him as the driver briefly looked his way, while he pondered if he himself as a Guardian should really be indulging in escapism?

No.

At least, not now.

He shook his head as he closed the application, flicking over to the mission details that he would re-read now for the ninth time. 'Ledale's mountainous range has geographically kept the infection's reach at bay but in recent ti-...'

"...compete with! ....Holy eyeballs .......those things shoot lasers!?"

The Researcher glanced up, it seemed that the other members of the squad had arrived outside. This one, holding twin briefcases, louder than the others. Even louder than the cringe-worthy commentary between the stretching duo. The statement placed his attention on the fellow with the seemingly glowing corneas. Montero admittedly once wondered the exact same thing ever since he saw him long ago, evident by the now raised single brow.

This isn't going to go well...

The Spirits Within

How often can/should we post?

I like the no-wait policy but I'm not sure of it's details, given that I feel like posting soon too.

The Spirits Within

Improv sounds good, feel free to throw some around. I'll try my best to respond!

Say, looks like we've covered all divisions quite nicely! 1 from Intelligence, 2 from Navigation, 2 from Research and 2 from Warfare! And every character is so distinctly unique too, that's rare for such a large cast.

The Spirits Within

Montero's pretty vocal about academic subjects, especially his research. It's not a secret. But given that Oakridge's economy is based off whale oil, not a lot of people are chill with it.

Yes, let's go for comfortable silence. ಠ_ಠ. :3. @Panko

The Spirits Within

I'll do that in the future. Cheers! Heheh the music felt very ff to me too so I picked it. I can't remember where it was from but it has been in my ipod for many years now, it's just labeled "Nakano" which is a prefecture of japan but ...I tried tracing it to several games but found nothing. Oh well, least it suits things here.
@Prisk

Your character is farmiliar with night owls, you say? Well then.
Montero's a hoot! Those dark circles ain't for show. But ...he's the sad kind of owl who eats at the empty tables by his lonesome so, givin your char's persona, they will be taking sips of foreveralone tea at far corners of the cafeteria - look up and accidently see each other every few seconds thinking "Why is this guy staring at me? >:(". Maybe.

Btw. It's a bit stressful to play a persona that is so far off from the author's actual personanility.@Panko

The Spirits Within

I didn't read the "How to mess with English majors" part and thought this was a genuine article everyone liked, damn it I spent the whole night thinking something is really wrong with the way I post. Especially since it was made immediately after my post.

| Migration

I see! Well, you might be pleasantly suprised that it (probably) is called the Japan cold or something along those lines. Many visitors who come to stay for extended periods of times get this sympthoms, it's not uncommon due to the climate change and pollen saturation.

I've joined another roleplay while waiting though.
@Genkai

The Spirits Within

Healthy you say? :3.

It was incomplete, my post, but now the content is largely complete. All that is left is a little fornatting, maybe an image or two and a clickable link for the Arboretum/Atrium theme song.

Song added.
@Prisk

Let me know if there's anything odd you all would like to change about my post, the post itself was written hastily at the second part and I think it might show. I ...was not prepared for this. @Mr Rage@EurmalEye

The Spirits Within

_{O A K R I D G E A C A D E M Y A T R I U M}

Oakridge Academy: Arboretum BGM

Day broke in a tide of amber light, washing over the horizon in a lucent flood. Even when the world is on the brink of chaos, even after the Jenova crisis - some things never change, and the day will go on like it always does.

Montero Timberson did not know how he felt about that, staring over the balcony railings, out at the sun rise. Was such continuity comforting? Or disturbing ...? Like the world itself didn't care at all. Not for humankind's fate, not for it's guardians' fates -even if they were fighting with their lives for it ...The planet wasn't the grateful sort, it seemed.

He closed his eyes and took a deep lamented breath, then unhooked a small silvered cage that hung by the rungs before shambling off to the fire escape.

A pity this tranquil night was now over.

In the center of Oakridge's residential area, bridging the four dormitories, was an Arboretum - a collection of living trees and plants of various kinds packed into a crafted landscape. As the lift doors opened into the wide open space, the sweet dew-tinged scent of perrenial flora greeted his nose, followed by a chilly breeze that made him cross his arms even tighter.

Scanning the grassy landscape, he saw very few moving figures amongst the monuments that dotted the garden. The large empty hollow logs strewn across the trush, remnants of some great trees now perfect hiding places for the weary student to find respite. Nor the shady banks of the streamlets that wove through the scene. Perhaps he was, for a change, early. Hah. The anxiety that came before Deployment day was probably to blame.

But Montero was not here to await the inevitable rush hour that would soon follow. Composedly, he started sauntering over a small bridge, diverging sharply off the beaten path once crossed and into a morsel of the woods that used to be. There in the midst of a hidden alcove was a tiny Shrine, painted red wood arched over a lit dimunitive altar, bamboo grass now blooming, jealously hiding it from prying eyes. He knew not who built it in the first place nor who still kept it as it is, but this little spot of quietude remained pristine for as long as he knew it. Montero unlatched a charming little lantern from one of his many belts under his trenchcoat, raising it before the edifice. And in that moment, the light within the shrine stirred and flickered, golden wisps bled from the wood like lambent droplets before pulling free and into the lantern.

"Morning."



_{O A K R I D G E : D E P L O Y M E N T G A R A G E}

He had thought that there was plenty of time left but after much procrastination, Montero had little choice than to purchase his first meal from the vending machine just before the Hanger. A questionable drink of hot herbal tea and two raw egg yolks swimming in the center, slowly cooking in what little heat was left. It was one of the Academy's seasonal attempts at introducing new foods to the student body, supposedly this one was a staple breakfst in Cetra. He pinched his nose and forcefully downed it after reading the ingredients label, feet shuffling past the garage door. The aftertaste was ...suprisingly pleasant.

Clearly late, as usual, but Montero kept a straight face as he approached the vicinity of the other students like he meant to be so - nothing wrong with it. Amidst them were a couple of students, of the two was a well put together silver-haired girl, from his point of view, it looked for a moment like she was engaging in some very questionable behaviour to another male student. But a quiet detour around them revealed that she was just warming up, thankfully. Still, warming up for what was essentially a car ride? Still slightly questionable. Then he recognized her partner she was leaning on, not by much, but the word 'Voyeur' came to mind as well as several flashbacks of awkward situations at the gym back when they were in the same class.

Systematically, he took a roundabout route to the side latch of the APC 94, depositing a only a standard-issue personal defence pistol and a spectrometer analysis kit within it's confines. Compared to what was already inside, his weapon was modest. There lay an elegant straight sword glimmering in the back, seamslessly put together by it's crasftman. He took a moment to run his fingers along the flat of it's cold, steel blade, mumbling something to himself as purviewed it's details. He was not expecting to take down some large monstrosity in Ledale and even if they needed to, but if the other's weaponary are any sign of their preparedness, they had it covered. ...Hopefully.

Closing the compartment door but not locking it, Montero promptly got into the cabin of the vehicle, doing nothing more as he took his seat at the furthest corner on the right, save for the two glances he took through the window at the fellow with the weird greenish eyes.