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-"Dialogue"-
("Inner thinking")
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CHAPTER 4
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The entrance ceremony was changed for the next morning. The human representative sat in the front line along the guys that had decided they wanted to attend classes and had taken upon joining the student council. Aria was silently observing all, deeply unnerved by the rest of the 'students' that had appeared immediately. None of them had faces to speak of; mouth and noses were there but there weren't eyes and no real face to speak of with distinguishable features. That had freaked Aria out. Where was she really and where had all the faceless students come from in such small amount of time? She hadn't gotten time to even speak with any of them because the guys that would become the student council, Apollo, Balder and Tsukito, had found her and had asked about the entrance ceremony, which she had to ask Thoth about. The teacher tossed them a book and had closed the library's door in their faces. After that they had spent the entire day preparing the ceremony and council things, and after that, she had spent the rest of the time finding a safe and hidden spot to sleep for the night.
Thoth's voice cut into her thoughts and brought her back to the present. He was standing on the stage at a side while a table was set in the middle and Zeus, the director of this school, was presiding the ceremony behind it. Thoth dedicated a side glance towards Zeus and then to the students. He then raised a paper and read.- "I will now read the new student names."
Thoth began reading; Apollo Agana Belea, Tsukito Totsuka, Balder Hringhorni, Dionysius Thyrsos and she, who at the moment was using the code 'Aria Hadron Scherzi', were present. Hades Idoneus, Susanoo was referred as Takeru 'Takeru' Totsuka and Loki Leviathan were absent. No other name was mentioned and the faceless students, even though there were many standing in rows and filling up the space, were ignored as if they were merely part of the furniture or something. Aria didn't like that.
Thoth continued with relative solemnity- "The student representative will now state the pledge. Apollo Agana Belea .. To the front."
"Yes sir" - Apollo stood up and walked up the stairs to stand in front of principal Zeus. Both men looked each other; Zeus remained expressionless while Apollo, never taking his gaze from Zeus's eyes, began.
"I hereby swear we, the students, enter this academy today. I am shocked by how sudden this has been. Brought to an unfamiliar place, I don't know what will happen next." - He gave a small smiling look to Zeus - "However, there must be a reason for it. Over the next year, not as gods but as humans, we will study their history, culture and love." - He solemnly closed his eyes - "And with our wonderful new friends, I promise that we will all follow the academy's will and graduate" - He looked then at Zeus with radiant confidence - "I, the student representative, Apollo Agana Belea, swear it." - He turned around to look at the students and rose his first triumphantly in the air. His voice was filled with enthusiasm- "Let's do our best, everyone!"
All fake spirits applauded as Apollo came down the stage. While he was joined by Aria and the other guys, the merc saw Zeus smile erode and be substituted by dire seriousness when the man walked away to the back exist at the side of the stage. The principal stopped by Thoth's side, whom was looking directly her way with a worried expression, and said some words before leaving the premises.
Aria knew what there was a lot more she didn't know, and looking back at the other students, she wondered what her own next moves would be, but she needed to adjust to the premises.
That had been in the morning, and before she could check on anything else, she had been dragged to classroom by the student council. They were all standing and fooling around while she was trying to examine the faceless students. Some of them seemed uncomfortable and remained cautiously looking around, others chatted among themselves in murmurs and none even tried interacting with the guys. Most curiously, Aria was baffled by their blank faces, or lack of them. None seemed to possess eyes or distinguishable features. She was about to get up and asked them personally when Thoth came in, and she decided she'd research the students later and in detail.
"If you don't want to sit down for your lessons then you can kneel" - Thoth adjusted his monocle and went to the front of the room.
"And if you want someone to pay attention to you, then at least get on time to your own classes."- Aria crossed her arms. - "How can you expect commitment from your students if you don't show commitment as a teacher?" - She then looked at the rest of the class. They were seated, so she took a sit in the back of the room closest to the window that could serve as a potential escape route, and began observing the class.
Thoth decided to ignore her and began the lesson. It was a joke. Thoth was speaking about human anatomy. Apollo was looking scared and murmuring things about curses so loud that the faceless students around were getting drag in these silly fears too. Tsukito was taking notes furiously, not even looking at what he was writing. Dionysius was just sleeping over the desktop, and Balder was trying to wake up the red head. This was the least serious class she had ever seen. And it only got worse. While Balder was trying to shake Dionysius awake, he slipped and then somehow tripped back, falling over the books and papers that flew around and startled the faceless while Apollo gallantly stood up from his own seat to and run to 'Bal-Bal's ' side, increasing the ruckus and in the process finally waking up Dionysius, who started to scream about monsters attacking, comment that actually disturbed the 'spirit students' , who stood up in return and began entering in panic.
Finally, Thoth slammed his hands on the desk and brought everyone to attention. A second later he was fuming and abandoning the classroom through the door.
The mercenary got up and out of the classroom too with guises of visiting the infirmary, she was rounding a corner when Thoth stormed in her direction. Crossing her arms and leaning her back on the corridor's wall, she waited for him to approach.
"Abandoning the class? How professional." She said casually, but despite her rather neutral tone and ungendered voice she still managed to make it sound mocking.
Thoth stopped his pace in front of her.- "How dare you speak to me that way?" - Promptly he tried to slam his hands at the sides of her head to trap her against the wall, but once more, she had been ready for the attack and countered by lifting her hands and pushing them at the sides to force Thoth's forearms away. Thoth quickly grabbed one of her wrists but she twisted her limb and grabbed his other wrist instead. Both held strongly onto each other and both were decently calm despite the circumstances.
Thoth leaned forward and spoke face to mask - "All they do is nap and play around. They don't take this seriously."
"And you do?" She retorted. "Coming in late, not paying attention to students, writing stuff on the board but not teaching anything… Have you ever teach anything?"
"Furthermore, some haven't even shown up" - He was utter serious, ignoring her comments. - "Listen. Even as they do this, time still passes! If I can't get them to understand humanity and love in time, we will all be trapped in this garden forever."
"That means you still would be trapped too, right?"- She sneakily asked at his 'we' slip, and his reaction was a startled one that confirmed another hypothesis she had made. - "You have one of those jewel shackles too, don't you? That means that you don't understand those concepts either."
"I have no need for that"- He hissed. Whether he spoke about having one of those jewels or about understanding concepts, she wasn't sure.
Ringing from some bells interrupted them and immediately, the weather seemed to get hotter all around.
"It seems that Zeus changed the season" - Thoth let go of her wrist and in response she let go of him. He then stood aside to look out of the nearest window.-"Perfect. Summer vacation will start tomorrow. Gather all students before vacation ends. We'll hold the sports festival then."
"As their teacher here it should be your job to do that. But why vacations so soon? - She looked out the windows too but saw nothing strange. - "And what the heck happened with the weather? Is there a big thermostat? (They are so desperate for these guys to graduate but decided to give them vacations? And more importantly … how did the weather changed so suddenly?)" - The temperature went up various degrees instantly. Yet her sensors had not detected any machinery nearby nor had she seen any external heathers, she had also proved that they weren't inside a dome.
"I don't care. But this is a chance for them to integrate"- He crossed his arms. -"If you want to know about the weather then gather them. Then you can ask."
Below her mask Aria narrowed her eyes.
Without saying anything, she and Thoth walked in opposite directions. Aria heading outside to see the effects of this change of season. To her surprise, the temperature was various degrees hotter as she heard cicadas singing around without any speakers that could signal they weren't really there. Not only that, but the vegetation had taken into a more yellowish-green shade all around that gave a golden aura to the day that she definitely needed to research.
Crossing her arms, she thought about what would be the best course of her research. The cicadas could have been released easily, the heat and more dry air could have been manipulated with some hidden equipment. But the plants...- ("There was a greenhouse here, no?") - She had passed by the place while riding over the Pegasus and had captured it in her recordings. At least it look like it was one and it was worth investigating. She wasn't exactly surprised that there was one but she hadn't expect it either. Admittedly it sounded promising. She could map a bigger chunk of the place, see the kind of plants they have here and hopefully some insight into the region they might be or perhaps if they had changed the plants or modified them genetically to react to external impulses by activating seasonal changes.
It didn't took her long to reach the place as she had aerial mapped much of the facilities. But seeing it from land gave her a way better understanding of its enormous proportions that were more equiparable to a botanical garden than a greenhouse. She didn't waste more time, and once inside , after a floral breeze reaches her nose, she got an even bigger impression of the type of the facilities in this Elysium. The crystal structure with triangular upper domes was big, perhaps just slightly smaller than the Olympic sized gym or even a small stadium, and was full of plants. There were many types of palms, flowers and bushes, herbs and vines, yet everything was arranged without an organized distribution, not by climate regions nor by species types. At the very least this costed a fortune, and following that logic, whatever it contained inside the glassed roofs was equally as valuable.
Almost rushing to check on the plant specimens, she stopped when she smelled what she could recognize as the delicious aroma of tasty alcohol, and she of course followed her nose to its source, finding it coming from a bottle that was being held by a red headed man that was lying on a large luxurious cushion with a large tray of fruits, cheeses and crackers beside him while he sipped on the delicious smelling wine of fruit and flowers.
Recognizing him from earlier on, she approached with some caution hidden by confident steps, admittedly quite interesting in the drink as she damn needed some liquor herself due to the ludicrous situation she was in, and since he was drinking from it, it wasn't likely to be poisoned in any way. "Hey you… Dionysius, was it?"
Dionysus glanced over in her direction, smiling. "Hello there, would you like to join me?" The redhead asked with a lazy smile on his face as he popped another grape in his mouth.
"Sure" She didn't need any more invitation than that. However she approached slowly, barely activating her sensors for a moment to ensure he didn't have any hidden weapons or that there were any hidden traps, which there weren't, and after her safety assessment she sat down close enough. "What are you drinking?"
"Some wine."- He smiled, handing her the bottle he had been drinking from while he took some cheese and grapes before eating them. -"Drinking and eating with company is pleasant." -He smiled before laying down and stretching a bit.
"It is."- She said while grabbing the bottle, briefly examining it as her eyes shifted tone for a second to examine the chemical composition just to be sure, and then she lowered her respirator mask, revealing half of her face in order to gulp down a modest amount of the substance, taking a moment to savor it before immediately taking a large gulp.
"Do you like it?" -He asked with a smile before eating a strawberry.
"It's good. I haven't tasted nice wine in quite some time" -She said with that unnatural tone, taking another drink and handed him back the bottle.
"That's a real tragedy. Would you like to try some others?" -He offered with a sad face, acknowledging the horrid prospect of not being able to drink.
"You have more?" -She looked at him, more bottles that she haven't noticed before were behind him.- "What's going to cost?"
"Of course. And I would be happy to share." -He smiled before snapping his fingers. He paused, staring at his hands before lazily sighing. -"Although I have a bigger stash at the other side of the green house." -He chuckled. He was curious about the human representative and was pleased she found him. Hopefully now they could enjoy some drinks together. -"Do you want to sit down or would you prefer to walk?"
"Let's walk, I want to check the plants in here." She stood up immediately and extended her hand to help the guy get up. Help he accepted with a smile.
As they walked around, Aria turned on her detection systems and determined that there weren't any visible climate sensors or controls or even proper irrigation systems.
"This place is huge and wonderful"- Dionysius started examining some of the plants - "There are many plants that I've never seen" - Taking on one bug fennel that looked like some kind of big parsley he grinned- "At least I do know this one, he, he"
Aria leaned forward to read the label on the stick nailed in the ground around the plant and promptly received the shock of the day. -"Si-Silphium!?"
Dionysius looked at the preciously stoic person, not understanding what was the reaction about unless this person was super shy or something, which might as well be so. Why else wear such covering armor? Leaning over he invaded the person's personal space - "Why so surprised? You know what this plant is used for?"- He grinned and winked. He would be more than happy to offer a practical demonstration if the opportunity presented itself.
"It's supposed to be extinct!" - She started pressing the input screen of her forearm till images of some ancient Cyrene coins and drawing of a plant with heart shaped seed pods.
The redhead blinked. - "Extinct?"
"This can't be real Silphium. Roman's drove Silphium to extinction" - She was almost on the brink of cutting off a piece and try to examine its components. Silphium was the legendary plant that ancient cultures, mostly greeks and later romans, used as a contraceptive. It was so important that it was a major export for some regions like Cyrenaica as seen in their coins, and was so widely known that the heart shaped figure was based on the form of its seeds because sexuality was tied to love. It was so widely used yet not possible to cultivate at the time that it became extinct.
"Romans? Extinct… I don't know what you are talking about. Everyone uses it." - Dionysius patted the person's armored back. - "Want me to tell you why this plant is so interesting?" - He smiled, they could have some fun with it after all.
"My interest is in that this plant had been extinct for millennia" - Aria took a step back. She WILL investigate this, but her equipment was limited here, so she'd ask find out if there was a lab in this school she could use. But for now... - "I think I need a drink. Another one. Several ones." - She mentioned the magic words.
"Dionysius at your service" - He was already holding a bottle of wine when she turned around. He showed her the stash reaching back under a large rock. He opened a trap door, revealing a turntable of alcohol before he picked two of them up. -"This one was made from fresh apples and this, from seedless grapes and flowers. Or would you prefer one of both together?"- He asked, looking back into the trap door and turning the table around to look over the others he had there.
"Now..that's quite the rare selection."- She sighed.- "But nothing in the world is free, so I suppose you will want some payment for those. Only first one was free, right?"
"All I ask is that you drink with me. I like to drink with company." -He smiled as he pulled down a small plate and ate a strawberry and banana slice together. -"I can get more at any time so drink as much as you want." -He smiled.
After a quick thought, she took the bottle from his hands and opened. - "First drink is yours." - If he didn't die poisoned she would take the second drink.
He happily took the first drink, licking his lips before taking a few greedy more. He smiled happily after he was finished and held it out for her. -"If you aren't fast enough I may drink them all." -He laughed.
"Don't think I'll owe you a favor, although if these ones are as good as the other I might just accept that."- She grabbed the bottle and held it up. -"Well, let's drink. "
"I don't need a favor. Just someone to drink with." -He smiled as he held up one made from oranges.
"What about the other guys? Didn't they want to drink too?" -She ask, lightly clashing bottles and taking a good gulp.
"They are too dramatic for a good drink right now and you seem to be more preferable company at the moment. I'm sure you have some good stories to share with the drink." -He lightly laughed. -"But, if they happen to come by I won't mind it. The more the merrier." -He smiled as he took a gentle drink of his wine.
"Well, stories I do have, but none interesting that I can think on right now."- The merc shrugged.
"Then let's enjoy the now." - He smiled, offering her some food on the tray as he took another gulp and licked his lips. He set the finished bottle aside, reaching into his little storeroom of wine before pulling out another bottle of wine; this time, wine made from different fruits.- "Would you like some of this?" -He offered, showing his new drinking buddy the new wine he pulled out.
"Well, since you are offering lets taste it, although I'd prefer if you took a drink from it first. I can't let the one offering not enjoying the first drink." -Of course, she was just being cautious of poisoning
"So, my friend, what do you think of this place and the others here?" -He asked, wanting to make conversation.
"I'm baffled by the place, as for the others… the code names everyone else uses are quite stupid. That Zeus guy looks like a pain in the ass, Apollo looks too damn cheerful and sunny, Loki is childish, Balder … looks like he is hiding something; no one is that nice. That Susanoo guy looks unstable and his brother autistic, and you quite frankly are as suspicious as anyone. But in general, I dislike this situation, no matter how curious from a scientific point of view some things are." -She carefully took note of his reactions, but he seemed emphatic...or drunk.
"Well, it's not surprising. We don't really know what's going on either." -Dionysius heavily sighed. -"It was bothersome to be plucked up from our homes as we were. I imagine it was awful for you too."- He smiled while drinking some more.
"Awful would be putting it lightly. I'd be tempted to burn down the place but also the deal was nice enough. However I don't plan on wasting too much time here." - She growled.
"As long as you leave the wine stash I won't mind." -Dionysus laughed with a cheerful smile.- "And time is rather meaningless as a general concept here so therefore it cannot be wasted." -He sighed before drinking down his liquor with renewed vigor.
"It's not like I'm going to live forever" -She took another drink. -"In any case I have important stuff to do rather than be playing whatever here... and yes, the alcohol stash should be spared. It's too damn good."
"Everyone just needs to relax a bit and take this all in. They need some tasty drinks in them; maybe I could set up a small get together party with everyone."- Dionysus hummed, musing a big party. -"I could break out my rarer stash to celebrate. What do you think? Maybe even prepare some nicer treats too."
She nodded while trading bottles. -"They do need alcohol in their lives. Seriously, this situation is so fucked up… anyways... where are you from?"
"I am from many places really. I love to travel." - He smiled.- "I used to travel all over Greece, never staying in one place for too long."- He chuckled.- "It was so much fun wandering around from town to town and meeting many different people. I learned much about wines from all over Greece by doing so."
"Travel is always nice. Why don't you tell me about those travels?" -She asks, entering in automatic into her pry information mode and he happily complied , telling stories as they slowly eased more the more alcohol they drank.
"Hmmm … well, on my journeys I met many people. When I was young my father's wife despised me. She sought after my life and so I went into hiding, eventually finding refuge with mountainous nymphs. They were kind and fun and we shared many joys together and it was there that I found my talent for growing grapes and other delicious fruit. The woman eventually found me and I was forced to flee but fleeing was not so terrible. There were many people who helped and cared for me so I was always moving around to avoid the woman. She sent many obstacles my way but instead of fighting, I gave them drinks." -He laughed joyfully.- "After drinking they no longer desired to kill me. I made many friends out of those people." -He smiled.
The stranger laughed, this time with her real voice, deep but melodious and definitely female.- "I've been in a few running away situations too. On some occasion I was invited to an illegal party in the caves of Cappadocia and me and my new friends had to run through underground tunnels to escape the raid." -She chuckled.- "Fun times."
"Partying illegal?" -He asked, acting horrified. -"Say it isn't so! Having fun together and partying is something everyone should enjoy." -He smiled.
She took another sip and then chuckled at his horrified face, wondering if he was drunk already or if he had been so from the start. -"Well, the party was sort of held by the Calabrian mafia and it was in a protected site, also a bunch of illegal substances were being passed around and some very profitable deals were being made. It was fun and dangerous. I wasn't even a mercenary back then." -She chuckled again, enjoying the honey taste of the fruity wine going down her throat.
"A party is a party." -He laughed. -"Regardless, it sounds like you've been to some wild parties. I will have to do my best to show you even better parties." -He smiled.
"I doubt there can be that many good parties here." -She shrugged, twisting her neck to crack her bones.- "Too few people and many too stiff. In any case I don't mind or care about parties, but if I find myself in one I will enjoy it or use it as best as I can" -She granted, whatever she meant by that.
"A good party can be held anywhere under the right circumstances. I'll make sure it is an enjoyable one." -He declared. Taking the not-challenge as the god of parties.- "I simply love to party and enjoy myself. I believe everyone would be able to get along with a good drink at a party." -He optimistically smiled.- "After all, it's more fun."
"Or at least everyone gets so drunk that all inhibitions are temporarily forgotten."- She smiled. -"I lost count of how many people I've seen dancing over a table with a lamp's shade over their heads"
"That sounds like fun." -Dionysus loudly laughed in enjoyment. Dionysus stared at her and smiled, enjoying himself with this woman. Her laugh was all he needed to confirm that she was a woman and a fun one at that. Just imagining what she looked like underneath her heavy armor made him excited, sporting an accidental erection while he raised an interested eyebrow. When was the last time that he had some fun? Weirdly, he couldn't remember.
"It was fun, and more than once provided blackmail material. In a couple occasion it was quite a good show, and I won't deny that maybe at least one I was the one dancing over"- She said, her voice gaining a bit of a nostalgic tone over the digital distortion. She did noticed his little situation but promptly ignored it with no more than a raised eyebrow. Males could just get one at any moment and it wasn't her problem or of her interest.
"Drinking delicious drinks puts a man at ease." -He cheerfully smiled as he snacked on some cheese and strawberries before looking down at his rigid problem.- "I will not disappoint, I assure you."
"I agree on the wine statement. Thank you for the offer but no thank you. Not at the moment." - She merely answered without being phased in the least with the sex proposal as she took another gulp of the delicious wine. It simply wasn't as if she wasn't willing to take a chance for de-stressing with a one night stand; but it simply wasn't a propitious time as there was still no clue on where they were or what really was going on, and those where her priorities.
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Walking towards the dorms across the patios, the japanese Totsuka brothers, Tsukito and Takeru, were having an almost normal conversation between them, that is, with Takeru being loud and expressive while his brother was the complete opposite.
"There must be some way out without this stupid classes"- Takeru's growl of exasperation matched his fierce scowl.
"Attending and graduating is an easy and clear method"- Tsukito calmly stated while petting his pet bunny in his arms.
Waving his arms around Takeru looked at his brother and then around and then towards the sky.-"There must be some other way, maybe if we look from above?"
"Apollo-san and the human representative flew above and examined the place. The human representative went to investigate"- Tsukito recalled that from the conversation with Balder and Apollo in the gym.
"So maybe the human knows, huh?" - Takeru looked at his bro. - "(What could a human know anyways?) So we need him to tell us what he found out."
"Him?"- Slightly caught in surprise, Tsukito looked back at his brother - "I do not possess sure information about the human representative's gender."
"It's obviously a he."- Takeru was sure … except that now the doubt was nagging in his mind. After all, his other brother was often confused for a woman.
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A couple hours later, Aria had parted ways with Dionysius and was drunk enough for the world to spin a bit but not enough for her mind to not be lucid enough. She would have gladly kept on drinking. After all, the carbon arrays implanted in her system and liver would easily absorb most of the alcohol, leaving her with the need of bigger doses to get properly intoxicated, yet she was still cautious of this place and was in need for an innocuous place to rest and if possible to take a bath. Things considered, the safest and closest place would be where no one would suspect her presence. The guy's dorm.
(Perhaps I'm a bit drunker than I thought) -She chuckled. In any case, at least she had snaffled a couple extra bottles of liquor.
She was on her ditsy way when a loud yell caught her attention.
"Hey!"
Apparently out of nowhere Loki had appeared and was upon her jumping in front of her vision with a sleek grin. Aria was between classifying him in the 'immature teen' department or in the 'drug dealer aile', possibly the teen one.
Loki looked at the person with an eager grin as he paced around to examine the strange armor. - "You like interesting stuff?"- He wanted to see how this person looked like. He had accidentally heard the conversation between the oriental brothers and he had gotten curious too. Was this one a man or a woman? He doubted a woman, but he found entertaining the small challenge of finding out. Below the heavy looking cargo pants and best, some kind of armor covered this person completely; it looked like some kind of black material that wasn't metal, ticker on all non-joint parts and looked as heavy as her pants and vest together, probably even more, It even had some extra plaques covering many parts. He had never seen an armor like this one, not even the ones made by the dwarves., and he hadn't even look it well with all those clothes on over it
Aria crossed her arms and didn't follow his pace. -"If it's profitable"- She wasn't exactly up to antics and that way this guy was checking her out made her focus. More because he was being open about it. She crossed her arms and stared at him.
"Excellent!"- Loki's grin remained feral but he slightly narrowed his eyes in compliance. His interest had been caught by this person. Not even the voice let on the gender because it sounded distorted, cavernous and unnatural. More so, this person was ready for battle. On his or her arms he could see a bit of a blackened razor edge coming out slightly and running to the end of the handcuff where it joined her gloves, which didn't seemed to be part of the suit. And when she/he had crossed his/her arms, he had seen that of the layers that the armor seemed to be made of, the closest one to the skin moved as if it had liquid inside.
She grunted. Maybe she was really more drunk than she had previously supposed. Without wasting time, he grabbed the person's wrist and began dragging him or her away.
Curious as to where they were going, Aria let him drag her but when they were passing the courtyard, Loki stopped and looked at a tree. Below the shadow of a tree, the blue haired japanese guy with a temper was napping. Loki chuckled silently and set his finger to his lips to motion her to stay quiet. Below her mask she raised an eyebrow and saw him pull out a marker and paint in the guy's face.
She settled on her judgement for this guy.- ("Definitely the immature teen department")
Loki finished his masterpiece and took a couple steps back to admire his job, covering his mouth until he began laughing aloud while holding his ribs, which woke up Takeru. The blue haired guy looked drowsy for a second before noticing the other guy's laughter.
"Hey. What you laughing at?" - Takeru Looked first at Loki and then at the silent observer. - "Answer you, ghost in a shell!"
("Ghost in the shell, huh? If only you knew") - Aria took out her cellphone while Loki seemed to find even more funny that Takeru had no idea what was going on, then she activated the frontal camera and held her device in front of the bluenette's face.
Takeru blinked. Then he began touching his face to corroborate what this 'mirror' was indeed showing him, then he promptly raged at the funny black markings over his skin. A second later he was wielding his sword and trying to hit Loki with it but the laughing redhead was easily evading the blows. Aria's eyes changed to a white shade. Activating her secondary connection mode, she began recording their movements by transmitting the signal from her optic implants into the fast primary drives and processors of her suit. However childish this situation was, both of these guys were pretty skilled. Takeru was demonstrating quite the master in sword fighting but Loki was dodging and evading with stunning agility. She then remembered something.
"Hey! The sports festival will be after vacations" - She half shouted and then shrugged, not caring if they had listening or not. After that she turned off her optics, and while Takeru was hot on Loki's heels, she walked away from the site, taking out one swing of the wine bottle she had, and decided to finish it in a more quiet place. But first she needed to check on the infirmary. She was mildly curious about the state of the puppy, however because it wasn't her priority she considered only to pass by in her search of a quiet place to ingest the alcoholic treat.
Walking down the corridor towards the infirmary, Aria had set most of her sensors into passive mode to avoid the progressive stress they caused on her. She knew that keeping her guard up was important, but she was also distracted by trying to organize her mildly drunken thoughts as much as by the need to rest and maintaining herself capable of operating under greater stress.
(Now if I could only get this wrapped faster maybe I can catch some sleep)
For that, the mercenary needed to check on the student council status and inform the guys about the vacations; the encounter would serve her to measure their reactions and personalities better.
While planning this, for a second she stopped her steps almost ready to change direction. There was also the puppy and she wanted to see what the heck Zeus was talking about; not because of what he had said, but because she needed the puppy healthy if she wanted to research her questions about its presence here….and what had Zeus said about it? She couldn't remember at the moment; maybe when she was sober.
(I also need to research the rest of the floating island, the flora and fauna plus weather mechanics.)
Aria continued her way through the corridor outside the library, barely remembering that she also needed to eat and sleep between all this somehow, as she mused on what she already knew and what she needed to revise; she was trying to come up with an structured action plan when the side door of the library opened and Anubis came out, accidentally clashing with her and causing her to stumbled back while he dropped some of what he was holding.
"What the!?"- Aria hissed ready to fight.
Anubis turned towards her with a growl.- "Bara, ba!"
"Bara bara to you, too." - She growled back and her eyes caught on the corn in the floor. - "Maíz?"
A second later Thoth came out, and without any word, he retrieved all the corn left in Anubis's arms, then retreated into the library slamming the door shut.
Anubis kneeled to pick up the corn. To his surprise, the strange person kneeled and helped him pick up a couple cobs.
"Bara" - He muttered.
"You're welcome" - She stood up and looked at Anubis and then at the door where Thoth had disappeared. - "So you guys like corn, huh?"
"Ba, bara ba"- Anubis shrugged and with a finger pointed to the door.- "ba, ba, bara"
"Why do I even bother…"- Aria slumped her shoulders and shook her head. Any conversation with this guy was impossible. Yet, not necessarily so for communication. She crossed her arms and tilted her head. -"(He may not speak, but he understands) Hey, I was going to the infirmary to see the pup..."
"Kaa?"- Interrupting her, he perked up.
Aria caught on his interest and decided to capitalize on it to save some time. After all, she needed to give the dog time to recover before she did any research to it. - "Yes, the little dog you were going to kill the other day."
Anubis shook his head and frowned - "Bara b…"
This time she was the one who interrupted.- "He's still resting in the infirmary. I haven't got time to check on it but Zeus said he was being attended or something like that. Can you go and see if the pup is doing fine? " -If she convinced him to do this, then there was one less thing for her to do, and although Anubis had wanted to give the pup a mercy kill, she doubted he'd try to kill it again after what happened.
"Bara, kaa?"
"Someone ought to go and keep him company, but I need to go and tell everyone about the summer vacation starting." - Leaning her weight on her right leg, she set her hand over her hip and faked her 'nice & polite' persona.- "So, can you do that, please? I'm sure you want to see how the little guy is doing, right? I'll help you with maize stuff later on if you want."
"Mmhhh… ba?" -Anubis hunched a bit but very slowly nodded.
"Excellent, thanks." - Without giving him a chance to think twice, she turned around and walked away with a hidden smirk while waving off. -(One less thing to do. Now for the next … the student council.)
Around the main building on one of the top floors, a special room had been assigned to the student council activities. That was her curious destination.
(A student council, eh?)
Under the latin-american union educational system, universities very rarely had official student councils, those mostly were contact links to politics while real student's organizations were independent; and in higher education levels, like when she had been on her MBA, and there wasn't such a thing at all, much less when during her half doctorate via web. Yet, the form of student council planned here seemed like a rip-off of some european or even asian institution's ways. Which served the mercenary for pinpointing the roots of Zeus's culture and possible Elysium operations. Any and all information was important.
In any case, she knew the guys who had accepted attending classes were there at the moment, and this would serve as a good chance to observe them.
Below her face mask her expression remained professionally neutral; they were an important part of the equation of this place and her situation. In fact, the whole situation revolved around them. Zeus had said that this place had been specifically created to teach these guys about humans, feelings and the heart. They were also the only real students here. But why? And what was it that they were really supposed to learn here? Thoth was the only teacher so far.- (And his classes suck). But why was it so important that these guys learned whatever they were meant to learn?
Finally reaching her destination, she opened the door without announcing herself on purpose. The student council's room was big and oddly was of art deco style more or less; the walls were coloured green and beige but furniture was blue. The place didn't looked bad, but it seemed as if the designer had seen a couple photos but had no idea what the style was truly supposed to look like.
In the middle of the room and around a coffee table filled with pastries, everyone sat. Balder and Dionysus were seated on one of the edge couches, with Dionysius over the furniture's edge. In the middle, Tsukito sat alone in the big sofa, and in other edge, Apollo sat with a dish on his hands. As soon as they noticed her entrance, they welcomed the new arrival.
"Oh! Hi!" -Apollo, quickly waving hello, stood up from his couch to welcome the stranger and make space so Aria could sit by his side.
She sat and told them about vacations while observing them. For the most part, they looked like the average guys, clueless and a bit weird, but also apparently ignorant or willing to ignore the war going on with the world and just tagging along with whatever fantastical stuff that happened here as if it was normal, or as if they were used to things like that. -(What if that is the case?)- Under her mask, she narrowed her eyes.
"So that's like a break for the summer? - Apollo ate some cake. His eyes looking up to the ceiling and thinking about it.
Aria kept the distortion in her voice activated.- "Yes."- She was more interesting in measuring their reactions and interactions.
"Great"- Dionysius cheered, leaning back and crossing his arms behind his head.-"Even though this school thing just started, we already have a break!"
Aria shrugged-" I find it strange that they would give vacations when class had barely started. It's obvious that it was setup so It would happen. But why bother with summer weather if vacations could have been given just because? Normally it would have been months for summer to arrive."- She crossed her arms over her chest. -"I wonder how the weather was so thoroughly manipulated for that. Even with global warming and climate phenomena seasons don't change so fast."
"Really?"- Dionysius asked but he wasn't the only one that looked surprised at her words. All The guys seemed equally confused.
Among the moment's silence, Tsukito closed his eyes and then took out his notebook to bring the most important issue to the conversation. -"Anyways, we need to think a way to get the others to attend school regardless of the sports festival"
Aria agreed and appreciated that at least one of this guys could keep the focus on priorities. -"Given their personalities, attending school would have to present some advantage or entertainment for them to consider assisting without being forced to."- She really didn't care, but if the other guys came on their own free will to this classes it would make things easier for her. So maybe brainstorming some activities for this vacation could be productive, specially is said activities were productive themselves for her plans.- "Would they consider field practices entertaining? Those can even let us know more about this place."
"Field practices? What is that?" -Apollo's emerald green eyes focused on her as he took a small cake into his plate.
Under her carette and gas mask Aria stared, wanting to pinch the brick of her nose but resisted the urge to do so. -"You could say they are trips outside the school to learn stuff and have fun."-The mercenary was now weirded (How can he not know what field practices are?). -" We could go to the beach or the mountains in order to explore and research"
"Oh, I see"- Balder smiled with closed his eyes pleased. -"It sounds fun." - then did a double take to notice that the human truly had not just come to sit by his side.
"That sounds awesome!" - Apollo's face brightened with a dreamy expression at whatever scene his imagination was running wild with, while his hand waved a fork triumphantly in the air.- "I borrowed a bunch of books from the library to learn more about humans and I think I have a great idea!"
"So you studied on your own?"- Aria rejected some pastry that was being passed to her despite being actually hungry. She wondered once again what was this about 'humans'. Didn't they considered themselves as such? -(Or are there other possibilities?)- Years of consuming anime, Sci-fi and fantasy stuff from her youth began triggering other possibilities in her mind. Zeus and Thoth had also talked about 'humans' as if they were different. They spoke about humans as a different culture or even species; they didn't seem to consider themselves humans for some reason, and given their seeming lack of exposure, did that mean that they had remained outside of society? … Or in case all common explanations failed, the possibilities pointed at them being something else. -(maybe they were genetically engineered?) -. Even in that unlikely case, that didn't meant much. They were human in base; after all, she was human in basis but very often she wasn't considered so due to her level of technological integration and the bio-improvements she had. Still, the simplest explanation was normally the correct one, and until further evidence to support any of those hypotheses existed, she would keep on observing these guys and think they were normal mental, ignorant, confused or confused idiots. Perhaps all of those. -"And what did you learn, Apollo?"
"I found many interesting books…" -Apollo's hands began rummaging under the table and took out something. -" ...but the most useful book I found was this one!" - He proudly displayed the cover of a cheap erotic novel for everyone. - "It's called 'Even Cupid runs away barefoot; 100 summer flings'. It was really informative. It's great!"- The blonde dreamily hugged the magazine to his chest. -"At the beach in midsummer, the setting sun at your back, rubbing naked bodies together breeds friendship. If we go to the beach, I'm sure everyone will want to come to school."- He vigorously nodded, his mind still high in his fantasy. -"I'm sure they will!"
Hidden from view Aria's eye twitched and her mouth was half opened. Apollo, lost in some sort of probably gay mental fantasy, had an extremely perverted expression. She didn't want to know given that she couldn't care less, so she focused on the beach idea. It was a good option. If everyone went then her observations would be easier to perform. Also she had seen certain structures there while on her ride on Pegasus that she wanted to check.
Tsukito, who didn't display any reaction, was the first one to speak in favor. - "I'm sure my brother will come to the beach. As god of the sea, he loves the beach."
There was the bothersome word 'god' again and Aria still didn't' knew what that code stood for. -(Perhaps it is some acronym? Like Genetic O-something Dispositive?)
Balder crossed his legs and delicately took his cup of tea. - "I'll invite Loki."
"Good idea. Dee-Dee and I will invite Uncle Hades" - Apollo approved with the same rampant energy.
"Uncle Hades?" - Aria asked aloud and the guys turned to observe the masked person.
"Yes, didn't I tell you?" - Apollo stood up from the sofa and walked towards Dionysius .
"Hades is our uncle" - Dionysius commented as Apollo draped an arm over his shoulders.
"And we're brothers… half-brothers" - Apollo smiled and so did Dionysius, their faces side by side and cheek to cheek. The likeness was undeniable. Although Dionysius was a redheaded and Apollo a blonde, their eyes had the same emerald green shade, the same skin tone and even more or less the same face form.
"But what should we do on vacation during this field trip?" - Balder interrupted with a slightly narrowed gaze while Tsukito readied to take notes.- "Are there rituals to perform?"
"Obviously what we'd do is research this place and some more of its phenomena. It's the perfect chance for it."- Aria leaned back and was about to cross her arms behind her head when she noticed Apollo's magazine. She took it and skimmed through it while wondering if the library had porn, or rather which kind.
"...research this place and some more of its phenomena. It's the perfect chance for it."- Tsukito wrote down. -"How should that be performed?"
As Aria took a moment to revise the magazine, Apollo approached her and poked her mask over the forehead level. - "Minx, are you okay?"
"Huh?" - She found him right over her face, and despite the mask she felt as if he was looking her in the eyes. She didn't like the invasion of her personal space and pushed his chest away. - "What do you want?"
"You were brought here by yourself, weren't you?"- Apollo seemed as sad as a kicked puppy, or rather he looks as if she was one. -"We came with our friends or family, but you…"
"You mean to ask if I have backup?" -This was the first time they had asked anything about her. And she wasn't just gonna answer.- "That is classified. In any case and by whatever way Zeus used to bring us here, I am and so you are."
"Sorry."- Apollo's gaze dropped, Balder looked up between them and Tsukito set his pen down; even Dionysius looked apologetic. The mercenary didn't move, not even knowing why he was apologizing for, but a moment later, at her unspoken question he clarified- "Zeus is my father."
Aria remained silent. She wasn't really expecting that thus it was better to let him talk, spill his guts, and reveal even more potentially useful information.
"He does everything in his own way and never listens to any of us. Even this place... I understand Loki-Loki and the rest for not wanting to participate. I do understand, but..." - He looked at everyone and then focused on the merc. His expression covered with a sudden smile. -"Now we all have to try to graduate together. And I hope we can make the other understand at the beach. So let's do our best."
(Weirdo)- Aria was pretty unimpressed, but now that Apollo had mentioned Zeus was his father, things had gotten as interesting as a latinamerican soap opera and just as ridiculous. - (I guess the weirdness runs in his family.) - Under her gas mask the corner of her lip moved upwards; this little info was indeed a clue. Maybe the names of mythological characters corresponded to their relations. The japanese guys were brothers, and Apollo had disclosed his family tree regarding the people here. She was sure that wasn't all, but it was a start, and perhaps it would play for her to re-read some mythology stories.
"Excuse me, but…"- Balder raised his hand to ask. - "What about the sports festival?"
Aria remember why she was here in the first place and stood up from her seat. -"Oh yeah, about that Zeus also said that the sports festival will be after vacation ends."
"So if the field trip fails, then we at least have the sports festival left to convince them to come to class." - Balder exhaled, calm and happy that they have more options.
"Yes" - Aria monotonously said as she made her way to the door. She had gained enough info for now and had arranged a way to research this place.- "Well, I'm leaving. I have some stuff to do (Yeah, like eating or resting)."
Without waiting for them to say anything more, she left the building in search for a place to rest a bit. It had been quite the day and many more questions had been added to the list of mysteries around this place and this guys. Now at least some plan was starting to unfold for her; and for that, she needed to keep on playing along.
Aria took a deep breath and twisted her head in order to crack her neck. Then she stretched her hands up to crack her back and elbows. Despite everything that transpired, there was the need to keep at least basic maintenance on her persona and her equipment. She had been pointed where the dorms were, and she had found that all the guys stayed in the building opposite one of hers; after taking a quick peek to the living quarters assigned to her, she had seen that they consisted of a bedroom, a small kitchenette, a living room, and an individual bathroom. More like a small apartment or a hotel room; even the buildings themselves had a thermal water areas, of which the one of the guy's building was bigger and had far more possible escape routes if needed, and by the amount of vapor released, she estimated its temperature was also higher, thus she made her decision of which place to use.
Unwilling to use her microfiber travel towel here if she could get a bigger and fluffier fabric, she made a brief travel towards her room to get a couple towels. On her way out she saw a cookie jar over her table that was modeled like a small house. It was half opened but she ignored it and went out towards the guy's dorms and its big thermal waters. The student council should still be away and the other guys were probably goofing somewhere else.
Once there, she took notice of the japanese theme of the place which surprisingly didn't clash with the european theme of the building, which would perhaps have done better with some Finnish sauna. This place bothered her. It was an amazing show of wasted resources.
Water had ceased to be commonly accessible in big quantities decades ago, and sure, showers and vapor were still normal in the rich countries, but everywhere else… well, many wars had been fought over water reserves; and while in most of the world even a tub bath was an expensive and rare luxury, this place had the audacity of having a hot spring practically the size of a pool. This kind of displays however, had never stopped her for taking her chance of a tub bath whenever the opportunity presented itself; at least before the incident when she was still "alive" and an ambassador and all that she had always enjoyed such things, and after that she had enjoyed a them even more if there was a chance.
After a careful scouting of the perimeter and setting up the basic needed measures she took out one of her indicator strips from her kit and used it in the water. Different strips of color soon showed the majority of the chemicals in the water. Some Sodium chloride, a bit of Sulphur, a sprinkle of iron and hydrogen carbonate water... Normal thermal waters and nothing in dangerous concentrations.
Carefully she eyed a big rock and then put a the folded towels over a rock side by side before moving her hand to unlatch the upper part of her armored clothes, then her fingers unlatched some other layer of her suit and, with a pass of her fingers, she opened the neck part, moving her hand lower in a slow motion to open the seal of the frontal parts of her suit; that liberated the pressure over her breasts, which made the suit open up more due to their bouncy size. She then proceeded to unlock one shoulder in the same way as if she was peeling a second of skin. Then the other shoulder and progressively the suit opened to reveal her bare skin as she set the pieces of her armored suit over one of the towels as a dry cushion. The towel set with its edges accommodated so it could all be wrapped and carried away if any situation arose.
Now all she was wearing were a couple nipple pasties and a lace dental floss thong, the minimum underwear that allowed the more direct contact with her connective suit. Aria looked down at her body with analytical stoicism, her skin was pale as if she hadn't received sunlight in a long time, and all along her flesh, there were circuitry lines of thin engraved silver and golden metal that corresponded perfectly with the inner layer circuitry of her suit that was in contact with her skin. She stretched. It was time she took a look at her state, status and health.
The mercenary woman was dirty from all the day's previous actions as much as she was tired from them. Her hair now flowing, had multiple blonde shades and stripes coming from the roots, mixing tones and color; one couldn´t tell if she was blonde or light brunette but it seemed as if the color had been burned and washed away by sunlight or radiation. At some point her hair might had been spiky and short, but she had let it grow enough to be held it into a messy pony tail except for her bangs and the part of the base of her nape that extended into a long braid going to her mid back more or less like Loki's braid but thicker and longer.
After her self check-up, she inhaled the vapor of the hot spring and held it before exhaling slowly. And before even thinking about getting into the water, she made sure her armor was fine; her suit, that beautiful multi-layered piece of high tech was the reason she was still alive. Composed of various connected layers, it started with an underlayer of circuity mesh of synaptic processors in a insulation compound, then there was the life support layer and under armored core with magnetic joints and spinal interfaces for sensory impressions. Then there was the outer-armor and combat suffice support and attached enhancements and compartments. Mentally she rephrased with deep pride what the outer layer of the armor had in its composition. -(Boron carbide and tungsten nanodust arrayed in a crystal structure typical of icosahedron-based borides with incorporated carbon-heavy atoms at the end of its stoichiometric formula , over graphene)- She squalled. Just thinking about metamaterials made her scientifically excited. It was a truly stunning piece of technology. The outer layer was the combat oriented piece and possessed many compartments all over it that joined like intertwining seamless scales; and below that and the middle life support and insulation layer, the inner layer had small metal circles with needle tips in the middle that rarely graced her skin unless an stimuli was enforced, time in which they latched into her flesh just enough to drill the skin but not to draw blood, specially all over her spine, connecting directly to her nervous system.
Naked she stood, undisturbed and inhaling the vapor in the air. Moving her shoulders back she cracked her spine, and raising her hands up above she cracked her heels and arm's joints. For a second she tightly closed her eyes then opened them slowly; and with total calm she slipped into the deliciously hot water, letting out a satisfied moan as her muscles slowly relaxed, the metal circuitry lines engraved all over her flesh tingling in a nice way.
(I'm thankful that my suit allows my skin to breath, but even so I did need a bath.)
She sat on a submerged rock seat and rested her back while letting out another satisfied moan, then submerged herself until she breath out all the oxygen, and when she came out she inhaled and exhaled a long new groaning moan of pleasure. Aria stretched again in the water and began massaging her hard muscles limb by limb, thoroughly enjoying every crack she managed to extract from her tense body , moaning or groaning in accordance.
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Unknown to her, outside on the entrance of the bath areas, all the guys had randomly came after she was already in the water and were listening to the high and seemingly erotic noises that were coming from the hot spring. The greeks had merely wanted some relax time, the norse thought a hot spring was cool, and the japanese merely wanted to cleanse themselves before they had all heard the sounds behind the door.
"Who is making those noises?" - Balder questioned, puzzled.
"This bathroom is closed off to the puppet students so it has to be that Minx." - Apollo said, sounding curious.
"We don't know. The door was locked when we arrived" - Tsukito pointed to the simple door that separated the space. More than a lock it simply had a little safe bar. - "But the possibility of a new student is also open. "
A new load moan came behind the door followed by a deep groan.
"It sounds like a girl"- Dionysius grinned. - "One that is certainly enjoying herself."
"It obviously sounds like a guy." - Loki argued. - "No woman could ever make those kinds of distorted moans."
"You obviously have no idea" - Dionysius chuckled while scratching his chin all too knowingly.
"You're both wrong. No woman or man could sound like that," - Takeru argued vehemently, clearly sounding aggravated. - "Damn, if I had my powers I would be able to see it."- He said with a frown and then he did tried to use his powers. He could see some of the environment, but he could not see anyone. - "I'm sure it's some monster."
"All of us would be able to see but since we don't, we must use our own intellect with the disadvantages of a human to figure this out." - Tsukito said with a curious tilt of his head. Normally he wouldn't care much for this but this he had a duty of learning what it was like to be human.
"I don't think we should be trying to peep like this. What if it's indeed a woman?" - Balder said, sounding hesitant now.
"Who cares. It's his or hers fault for making us curious." - Loki said with a grin. - "Besides this is OUR dorm. It's the guy's dorm anyway, so it surely is a man."
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Aria was already gasping with haggard breaths, blushing due to the hot temperatures when she sensed a small lecture approaching. She turned around and saw a small yellow and white rag doll with stitches around his mouth, neck, and limbs. His right eye was pink and smaller while his left eye was green and bigger. He had three marks in the middle of his forehead. His head was also tied like a sack with a green ribbon and a pink button. It was maybe as tall as half her calve. Most curiously, it was walking towards her.
"So you are the new one here? I didn't caught up with you in the dorm. Sorry, I was taking a nap. I am Meli..."
"An automaton?" - Her voice sounded robotic even without the suit on. The doll was curious enough for her to get off the water; her naked torso emerging from the pool and her big breasts bouncing while water ran over her flesh.
Melissa, the doll, remained still upon the sight of the naked female, his voice becoming a stuttering. He body was fit but also was full of scars and sported bruises and purple hit marks in various places, but most notably were the circuit embed lines along her skin all over her flesh as if her skin had been cut open and then molten metal had been poured over to make them. However, Melissa's observations skills were quite focused on her chest. -"Uwaaaah~! Lucky!" - He happily grinned with a blush. Each ball of happiness was melon sized and almost as big as he was.- "Thank you for the service." -He thanked before looking away with a blush.
Aria got near and grabbed the doll, turning it around and examining the form. It began switching and then laughing while her hands moved over it. -"What are your core program initiatives?"
"Eh~?" - He asked, tilting his head and feeling dizzy but at the same time sensing his mind clearer. - "Programed?" - He questioned, confused as some memories were coming back to him. "Ah~ youngsters these days with all their technology. Can hardly make sense of it." - He said with a sigh, suddenly feeling very old and weary.
At the entrance of the bath Susanoo's eyes narrowed, his curiosity getting the best of him as he silently tried opening the door but found it closed, which only picked his curiosity even more. He tried looking through the thin space on the doors hinges to peek inside, but the thick white vapor from the hot bath cloaked the entire room, making it impossible to see anything inside.
"Heh, don't have the courage to open the door?" - Loki smirked as he tried to wedge himself over Susanoo to get a peek inside himself.
"Is Minx who is there?" - Apollo wondered aloud in a hushed voice. - "I think I heard two voices. So maybe there is someone else? "- His eyes went big but his voice remained relatively quiet. - "What if someone else was brought here?" - He then moved besides Susanoo and Loki to try and peek too.
"Well, let's go in and see." -Loki grinned, stepping past Susanoo and examining the door's lock. He grinned and from out of nowhere he took out a candy, which he unwrapped and pressed into the keyhole. A moment later, the candy let out some noiseless white smoke that expanded the lock and broke it. Loki smirked and opened the door, stepping aside and making a mocking half reverence - "After you… No. After me"- He took a step forward.
Balder grabbed Loki by the arm before the redhead could go in. -"W-Wait, don't you think we should ask permission?" - Balder asked, sounding rather hesitant to be entering when someone was inside. What if although it was the guy's dorms it was indeed a girl taking a bath?
Without a word, Tsukito walked past them into the bathroom. Once he was inside, the rest followed and all pairs of eyes finally peeked into the room, trying to catch a glimpse of the stranger that maybe was in the farthest part of the hot spring. The vapor in the air, however, proved to be much too dense for them to see through as they peered fruitlessly into the vast white cloud blocking their vision, and since they were already there, getting into the water was the next step.
Without the connective needles from her suit penetrating in her spine or receiving the neural signals from her systems, Aria had to resort of use her primary set synchronization by means of the implant hidden under the skin of her nape that connected to her central neural system. The implant was the size of a coin and was located just under where the wire that she normally hid inside her braid came out from her flesh.
Under total concentration she triangulated her commands to activate her optics and her eyes changed color as the visual analysis filter changed in order to examine on different spectrums the components of the doll she had in her hands. However, she could not detect any metallic materials in the doll. Its contents seemed to be silicates, more curiously, she could not detect a system installed in the doll that she could infiltrate, hack or crack. That alone made this little doll far more important than some other discoveries, and it was here right in her hands as much as the chance to research this doll.- "I guess a bit of reverse engineering will be needed."
"What are you doing exactly?" -Melissa asked, tilting his head in confusion, surprised at the glowing change in her eyes. It was scary.
"I'm gonna examine your components and then check your software and data." - She mentioned quite offhandedly to the doll as she quite casually held it in one hand and to grabbed a knife from her discarded stuff. Very carefully she began cutting the stitches on the doll' torso one by one.
"P-Please stop taking me apart. It doesn't hurt but I don't like it." - Melissa pleaded with a small cry, knowing how bad something like that could be at his state.
"Like? Don't like?"- For a brief second she stopped. - "Your programming includes reactional empathy imitation? Now I really want to see your code." - Of course she wanted to. If she did she might determine where she was by the software used or even by the notes left as comments in the code, even knowing in which language this doll was programmed would serve. The economic blocks had started to develop in different languages and support Softwares and Hardwares to assure 'uniqueness' AKA incompatibility, thus, it was pretty easy to tell where a program came from.
She set the knife over the doll again, this time over the head's ribbon; but just that moment, she heard the ruckus of various loud voices and the sound of some water splashing coming from the entrance to the hot spring.
Her hands let go of the doll but not of the knife. After an instant of deliberation, she jumped out of the water over the towel and pushed a big rock that had been too close to the water over a too small base. This created a big wave that moved high towards the group of people at the other side of the steamy pool. Not taking any chances, she dropped the knife over her stuff and grabbed her electric baton to zap the water with a high discharge that electrocuted whomever was too close and too wet.
Everyone had been in the water, about to get into the water or splashed by the sudden wave that came from the other side of the pool, and thus all of them had been electrocuted and now their bodies were thrashing about, startled and affected by the shock as they screamed.
The faint pitter patter of feet sounded as a silhouette darted through the vapors, never catching the attention of the gods who suffered from the electric discharges themselves. No one noticed the faint running step of the feminine figure hidden by the spring's cloud of vapor.
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Melissa tried to hold his cut-off stitches with his fingerless hands as he crawled through the corridors towards the principal's office. However he was sort of unwilling to do so.
For some reason, he had started to remember the truth that Zeus power had kept from him. Was it that Zeus's power was dwindling too?
When he finally approached, the doors opened automatically. Inside, Zeus was standing and waiting for him.
"Melissa?" - The blond man observed the door, his face didn't portray any emotions but something shone in his gaze.
"Hi Zeus. I meet the new human girl, she is… not that nice"- The doll tried to keep up a jovial attitude while hiding the fact that he now knew.
Zeus remained where he was but his eyes carefully examined Melissa up and down. Finally he closed his eyes and exhaled. - "That body is deteriorating. It can't be repaired."
"I know. Can you give me another one? I'm not asking for my original one, I know that was lost, but I don't think this girl will take it nice with a doll body."- Melissa scratched the back of his head with one hand but never let go of his stitches with the other. However he was faking it. Of course he couldn't get his 'original' body; he had never been human to begin with as he had been made believe.
Zeus sets his fingers on his chin. - "That is true. Yet I cannot give you a human body unless the gods graduate. You know that."
"Then how am I supposed to help the girl?"- Melissa laughed with uneasy. - "She will kill me if she sees I'm a talking doll. She wanted to know how I function, I think." - That might be true, but this was also his last chance. He had never been alive. He was not a trapped human soul. He was merely a last ditch attempt of a construct somehow created by one of the gods that didn't make it to graduation in the previous cycles for reasons Melissa himself didn't know.
"Perhaps talking is not needed. It had not helped the previous girls" - Zeus pondered, crossing his arms and tapping his fingers. However strange the human was, her mission and purpose here still stood. - "Still she will need support, even if she is not aware of such."
"A body that she will not attack would help… and I think she would attack anything she thinks it's not really alive."- Melissa noticed his stitches were loosening more, and at this point he was willing to take anything. Any change to taste real food. Any chance to be able to breath at least once. Any change to be alive. And certainly, this would be their last chance to succeed.
Zeus turned around and gave some steps while thinking about the situation. The girl had not intentionally attacked Melissa, she had merely wanted to see how it was that a doll was talking. So what could be done? She was wary of everyone. Suddenly he stopped his pacing and his eyes widened almost imperceptibly. He snapped his fingers and a screen came down to show the infirmary. That puppy was still there under a blanket. He had yet to transform it due to Anubis coming in to visit the dying animal. He had wanted to show that human female the transformation right in front of her unbelieving eyes, but perhaps this was a better opportunity for his plans, even if dealing with her skepticism would have to be put aside.
Melissa looked up at the screen and then at Zeus. -"You thought of something?"
"Your deal still stands, Melissa. if you give support and help to the human representative and the gods manage to graduate, you can receive a living body and your own life as a reward."- Zeus turned his head to look Melissa above the shoulder before turning around and face the doll. -" I think you can be granted a living body for this to happen, even if not a human one. But it would have to be a brand new life and it's already dying, so you'll have your time count. Would you take it?"
"Ehhh … what is your plan, Zeus?"- Melissa tilted his head with curiosity. Of course he'd take it, but a brand new life meant he would stop being whatever he was now.
"I offered the girl an ally. But that ally was most likely not going to live long. It was for entertainment really. However, if the body is made stronger and merged to create something new, it will survive for a bit longer and can be occupied once it's current soul departs." - Zeus looked at Melissa.- "Would you like a new life like that? It would be like been reborn. A new life. What you wanted. And if you succeed, the deal can still stand. "
"Ummhh…" - Melissa considered how tricky this could be. He would most likely lose the insight he had gained through the countless scholar years he had been helping all those unfortunate human representatives each time Zeus had to restart all over again. In essence he would cease to be and be merely used as an ingredient to make something new.
The blonde man smiled kindly, almost amused. - "Don't show such gloom. It will be a living body after all. A strong and useful one. Perhaps this time you'll achieve your objective and I won't need to restart school time." - He turned towards the screen and slammed the bottom of his scepter in the ground.-"And if you succeed, maybe I'll grant you another body after all. A human body."
Melissa sighed - "What other choice do I have..?"- He well knew that he had no choice, he was just a spirit in a doll created by the energy of a dying desperate god whose name had been forgotten long ago. But if this was what he thought it was, then he'd at least be able to breath and experience life. Which would be nice because he was sure this was everyone's last chance.- "At least make me cute. Girls can't resist cuteness… or something that can escape her."
Zeus scratched his chin and smiled. -"Cute, and useful.. I'll see what can serve."
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The plant mentioned is Silphium (also known as silphion, laserwort, or laser) . Yeah, it was supposed to be a super effective contraceptive method back in the old days, its said that the current shape associated with hearts came from it and romans were supposedly responsible for driving it to extinction. If you get the time read a bit about it, its quite interesting. It has been speculated that the plant may have functioned as a contraceptive, on the basis that it could be used "to promote the menstrual discharge". Nowadays many species in the parsley family have estrogenic properties, and some are reputed abortifacients (chemicals that terminate a pregnancy). Given this, it is quite possible that the plant was pharmacologically active in the prevention or termination of pregnancy in ancient times.
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