Hehe, I will continue to proclaim my suckyness even after I become a world famous author who is making millions just from merchandise alone. Some people may have missed my earlier note, but I still need character ideas, really, every time I use random student, I'd rather that student had a personality.
Crimson stood leaning against the wall next to the door of Aurora's room. His arms were folded as he looked around impatiently. Aurora had wanted him to see her room, but insisted that he had to give her some time to get everything sorted out. Crimson could understand that, except for two small details, Aurora had a smaller bag of possessions than he did, so why was it taking her so long to get everything as she wanted it? And if she was worried about him seeing her room in a mess, why? she'd never been in there before now.
He was only left waiting for another couple of minutes, bringing the total waiting time to somewhere about ten.
"Okay, you can come in now" Aurora said, swinging the door fully open "Taa-daa, what dya think?"
crimson blinked twice in rapid succession as he took in the rooms appearance. He had expected a few homey touches, pictures of family or friends, maybe a poster or two featuring a favorite band or movie. In actuality it seemed now impossible that this room was once identical to his own. A large mat covered the floor, it's woven pattern a multitude of colours arranged in concentric circles. The only thing that could qualify as furniture was the closet which was still in one corner, and a large beanbag that had been placed in another. The rest of the floorspace was taken up by tall iron braziers, which were currently unlit. On the whole the room was very dark, but in a comfortable sort of way.
"Uhh what did you do with the bed?" Crimson finally asked.
"Oh I just stored it away, I might want it later, but probably not." Aurora replied, as if the mysterious disappearance of a large piece of furniture were an everyday occurrence.
"And all this stuff?" Crimson continued his line of questioning "No way could all of this have been stashed away in that little bag of yours."
"Yeah I know, that's why I have this thing." Aurora reached into her bag and pulled out a non-descript grey cube, approximately a foot along each edge. She passed it to Crimson "Storage cube, see?"
Crimson flipped the cube over and spun it round a few times, it was pretty heavy, like it was solid all the way through, the only feature that the cube sported was a small flip down control panel, which consisted of all of 4 buttons.
"So you put the bed in this thing huh?" Crimson said, speaking in rhetorics "Would have thought that would have made it pretty heavy." Aurora reached over and pressed one of the buttons on the cubes side. Abruptly the thing seemed to weigh half a ton.
"Yup, pretty difficult to steal too, as long as it's switched off and locked." Don't break it though, they're really expensive." Aurora sat down on her bean bag with a fwoosh, and indicated that Crimson should join her there.
"How come you have one if they cost so much?" Crimson asked "Are you secretly a millionaire or something?"
"No, dummy." Aurora jokingly smacked him over the head "I only got it last week,parting gift from my parents."
"Oh I see, so you're not rich, it's just your parents are loaded." Crimson said, grinning broadly.
"Well they'd have to be, we're a big family." Aurora laughed. Then her voice took a serious tone "Actually it's a pretty expensive gift even for them. I think they only gave me it because they don't expect to see me again."
"What makes you say that?"
"Well they all work in the main lab, lots of classified stuff, civilians aren't allowed in, and hunters can only go there on business. It's not encouraged for the scientists to leave the complex either, wrong words to the wrong people could lead to really big problems."
"I see." Crimson then decided to ask the other thing that was on his mind "If you have 58 brothers and sisters, then why aren't any of them here at the academy?"
"Most of them are dead." Aurora answered, no trace of bitterness in her voice, but perhaps some regret.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked." Crimsons apology was genuine.
"No, no, it's okay, I think about 40 of them were never even alive, the whole gene splicing process doesn't always work. A few more died shortly after they were removed from the vats, their biology wasn't sound. If I remember rightly only 8 subjects survived as living babies."
"You're pretty lucky then, odds of about 1 to 6 on surviving."
"Not really, some genetic combinations have a better chance of working than others, I think mine was about ninety percent."
"Well alright then, I'm pretty lucky."
"Huh? What makes you say that?" Aurora was genuinely intrigued by the sudden change of tone.
"Well if I hadn't met you, I'd have nobody but Tatsu to hang out with."
"Crimson!" Aurora laughed, smacking him over the head again "That's mean, Tatsu is a lovely person."
"Nah." Crimson waved his hand dismissively "He's a grouchy old man most of the time, it's my mission to get him to lighten up before he dies of premature old age."
"You only say that because you're so immature." Aurora said accusingly.
Crimson held his hands up in defeat "Okay, you've got me, I admit I know how to have fun, and I apologise."
"You sure about that?" Aurora whispered in his ear "You and me could have some real fun right now."
Crimson flushed a deep red and sat in embarrassed silence. Aurora kept the pretence going for a few more moments before collapsing into helpless laughter.
"Ohmigod! haha you're soooo easy! hahaha the look on your face!" She rolled on the floor in choking sobs of laughter. Crimson watched, unimpressed, until Aurora got off of the floor and wiped the tears of laughter from her eyes.
"Are you quite done?" Crimson asked
"Yeah, I think so." Aurora stifled a small giggle.
"Who's immature now?"
"Umm." Aurora tilted her head to one side, one finger against her temple "Still you?"
"You know what Aurora? You suck."
"Suck what?" Aurora asked, putting on an air of innocence. She then doubled up laughing again as she caused Crimson to blush twice in as many minutes.
It was late at night when Tatsu finally returned to the academy grounds, so late that he was more than a little surprised to see another person crossing the grounds. They moved quietly, but not with obvious stealth. Tatsu thought he had crept up on the person, but evidently not, as they turned to face him the moment he got within touching distance, touching distance if he held a saber.
"Hi." Tatsu said, pulling up short, just incase this wasn't a student and happened to be a wandering madman. He certainly looked the part, his eyes didn't appear to be focused on Tatsu, but rather somewhere in the distance, his clothes lacked any style or make, they were about as non-descript as clothing could get. The thing that stood out the most about this person was the rounded gemstone embedded in a jagged scar on his forehead.
Noticing the lack of response Tatsu tried again "Hello?"
The person turned away from him and resumed walking. Tatsu's interest was now piqued.
"Why are you out walking at this time of night?" He asked
The person turned to face him again "Sleep is for the dead." He replied, his voice was sullen and held only a hint of an accent that Tatsu couldn't place.
"Okaaay" Tatsu backed up a step "Are you a student here?"
"Yes"
"Me too, Tatsu Littlewing" Tatsu held his hand out.
The stranger looked down at Tatsu's hand. "I am Aun'shi M'yen Mont'ka."
"Right, so what are you doing out here?"
"I tire of pointless chatter." Aun'shi turned away and walked off at a brisk pace.
"I tire of pointless chatter." Tatsu mimicked childishly "Who does he think he is?"
Tatsu resumed the trip back to his room, there were classes tomorrow and he would be needing his sleep. He reflected on his encounter with Aun'shi, anywhere else he would have been considered very very odd, but here at the academy, variety was standard. Tatsu was a people watcher and he had idly observed many strange things in his first day of lessons.
Crimson shifted uncomfortably in his bed. A tingling sensation was spreading up his left leg as a result of Aurora's decision to use his legs as a pillow for the night. Try as he might, Crimson could not get comfortable, Aurora was a woefully light sleeper and attempting to change his position in any significant way was certain to wake her up.
Crimson usually slept on his side but which side was subject to change, so he was stuck on his left when at the present moment he would much rather be on his right. He attributed his restlessness to being away from home, it wasn't something he was used to, and he knew that alot of people felt uncomfortable sleeping in new places.
But it was more than that, the days events were running through his mind, some of the things were so familiar, not directly of course, but they put him very nearly in mind of something else, something he couldn't quite place. No matter how much he wracked his brain he couldn't think of what it was that was nagging at him. It was vauge to the extent that he couldn't even place what it was that was familiar. He resigned himself to a night of restless sleep while his brain ran in pointless circles.
Aurora shifted in her sleep, which finally allowed him to move his tingling leg, he felt a flush of heat as the blood started to circulate properly again, however Aurora didn't move all that far, and Crimson was still stuck sleeping on his left.
"Glad to see you can sleep so soundly..." Crimson muttered sourly to himself and closed his eyes, waiting for either sleep or the morning, whichever came first.
Yeah, short chapter, so sue me... It was either that or continue into the next day, which would result in several thousand more words and thus take even longer to finish, and nobody likes to wait for updates.
Sorry Magus, Aun'shi speaks, just not much, and hardly ever in public, he just seemed like too serious a character, and you can't take somebody seriously if they communicate via signs (thinking of a certain panda)