Character University

"Hi, Ena! Hi, Scout!" Tina said. "It's really my friend that got me into manga. I like the splice of life genre, if you're interested."

Library To Auditorium

"Hi Tina I'm Kit..." She trailed off, her ears twitching.

"Doltur, you hear that?"

"No, why?" Doltur asked, as Kit moved to the door. She walked out, and towards the music. As she entered the auditorium, Doltur came in behind her. She covered her ears, as the music was to loud for her sensitive ears.

"Hey! Turn that down!" Doltur yelled, waving at the guy on stage.

[Library]

"Personally, I'm more into Shonen, like One Piece and Death Note. Oh, and," she held up the volume of yoai, revealing the cover's glory, "this also. Too bad it doesn't seem like anyone else shares my interest in boy's love." She peeked into the middle of the volume.

[Library]

"Nice to meet you too," Peter said, smiling now that the library had finally calmed down. Maybe he could find a nice book on quantum mechanics in the non-fiction section...

Loyce shook his head- some books deserved to be destroyed, but all that didn't have real information? That was ridiculous. He, personally, enjoyed works of fiction when he relaxed after a day of research and work. However, at the moment, he decided to go into the non-fiction section, and began scanning the shelves for a book that might be useful for him.

Adel found herself standing with her arms folded, shoulder propped against the door to the dormitory building, looking out into the rain. The low crash of thunder rumbled through the ground, a sound deep enough for her to feel rolling through her bones. The group by the fountain had long since dispersed, moving off to congregate in another building- one of the larger ones by her measure- on the other side of the courtyard.

Another sound suddenly rose to be audible- if only barely- above the clap of thunder and the din of the rain. It was coming from the main building, close by to the dorms. Strange. It wasn’t where she’d seen all the others disappear off to. Curious of this new development, Adel decided to walk along the dorm building’s outer wall, protected from the rain by the lip of the roof, until she reached the corner. From there, it was a quick sprint on to the cover of an overhang, the shortest path she’d have to cut through the rain.

She pushed open the doors to the auditorium and a wall of raucous noise assaulted her ears. Wincing, she gave a wave over to the figure on the stage, hoping he’d take that as the signal to cut it out.

edited 18th Jun '12 4:48:33 PM by Gault

[Auditorium]

The musician paused mid-riff, considering the odd trio. Then he nodded, unplugged his guitar, and leaped nimbly down from the stage to greet Kit, Doltur, and Adel. He offered them a formal, flourishing bow and said, "you have this rogue's most sincere apologies, young sir and ma'ams, for my unintended offense. But it has been far too long since I have enjoyed the twin pleasures of music and conversation — pleasures few others can match, for it is they that make one truly feel one is alive, a part of the great whole of all who have thought and feeling — and I had hoped to bring forth the latter by means of the former."

He then returned to the stage with an acrobatic leap, and began to toy with the amps. "I must inquire, however, to avoid further difficulties: was it merely the volume of my musical foray that perturbed you three, or was it some fundamental aspect of its nature? I understand my preferred breed of music — a soul-enlivening form known in its native land as 'Heavy Metal' — is not universally appreciated, after all. And as much as I care for my music, I care more so for pleasant and civilized conversation and would not sacrifice my opportunity for such for the sake of a guitar solo."

edited 18th Jun '12 4:41:33 PM by KillerClowns

"The volume, quite honestly." Kit said, switching to a more formal way of speaking almost out of reflex. "My apologies, it's just my ears tend to be rather sensitive, and I heard it way out in the library. And once I got inside...well, as good as you undoubtedly are, it was very hard for me to tell, I'm sorry to say." Kit said. "And to whom do we owe this pleasure?"

edited 18th Jun '12 4:44:06 PM by Nightmare24

-Library-

After introducing themselves, Tina went back to the manga section. Eying her selections, she decided on Azumanga Daioh. "I'm gonna be reading now. If you want, feel free to ask me anything." Tina said.

Athalia motioned over to Tina. Noting her choice in literature, she asked, "So, what's that about? Is this one of those Manga things? It doesn't look very interesting."

"It's a splice of life about the adventures of a child prodigy and her friends, who attends a high school. It's a lot better than it sounds." Tina said.

A smirk came to Adel’s face. A real charmer, this one. He acted like a bard right out of the 12th Century- or a Dragonlance novel. She rolled her eyes at the thought. That had to be what came to mind, hadn’t it?

It was then that Adel glanced to the side, catching sight of the other two newcomers, most notably Kit. She blanched, which really is saying something for someone with as pasty a complexion has hers (courtesy of a Norwegian mother and American father), and the smirk fell right of her face. Anything she might have had to say to the skald died in her throat.

edited 18th Jun '12 5:05:37 PM by Gault

[Library]

"Slice of life? I don't get it," Athalia said, "And it doesn't sound that interesting... are you sure you don't just have really bad taste in literature?"

"You'll have to excuse Athalia," Peter explained, "she doesn't get out much. I'm basically the only person she actually spends any time with outside of her family."

edited 18th Jun '12 4:59:49 PM by Dvdmacyoshi

[Auditorium]

The musician finished experimenting with the amps, plugged his guitar back in, and played a the opening riff of Iron Man experimentally. It was still loud by most measures, but not nearly so much as before. "Ah," he said, half to himself, half to the others. "Tell me, young ma'am, does that suffice? Or shall I continue to adjust? That said, these are no longer strictly necessary." He unplugged the guitar and strummed the same riff as before — it was soft, but audible. He said, "while a solid-bodied guitar is far from optimal for playing acoustically, it would suffice if the muse so took me... and oh, do feel free to tell me if I should ramble too greatly upon my preferred topics. It is conversation, not excuses to lecture, I seek."

Then the musician turned to Adel. "Ah, pardon me, good ma'am. I have not greeted you yet — quite rude of me." Worry crossed his face as he studied Adel's. "Oh? Are you well? I cannot imagine I would have inadvertently done something with these amps that would have caused physical illness — it's not unimaginable, but it never hurts to be certain."

"Ridiculous." Loyce muttered, looking through the nonfiction section. "Utterly ridiculous." He took a look at a few more titles. "How is there nothing about it here?"

"No, no it’s-" she glanced back at the fox-lady standing near her, as if to check if she was still there and hadn’t, as Adel had been fervently hoping, by now disappeared in a puff of logic. "As surprised as I am to be saying this, it isn’t you. Loud noises I can handle…" She was staring now, rude as it may have been, directly at Kit.

edited 26th Jun '12 5:45:48 PM by Gault

Library Building, entering the Courtyard

As Rachel looked into the other rooms in this hall, she wondered if she should have stuck around a little longer than she did. Perhaps after all the ruckus died down, there was a more casual meet-and-greet of all the people in the library. At the moment, there was only one other person here who actually knew her name. She shrugged it off. Given the state she left it, she wouldn't be surprised if it looked like a complete mess by now. That sort of thing was something she didn't want much of a part of, if any part at all.

After a few minutes, she hadn't found anything that looked even remotely like a science lab. This building was probably meant for the library and library alone, but got extended for some reason. Before long, it was back out the door she went.

The storm was still raging outside, and it didn't show any signs of letting up soon. Rachel decided that she'd rather not get soaked to the bone again after the ordeal from earlier. So it was time to go the long way around - these buildings had lips where the rain didn't touch. If she kept underneath the lip and only ran into the rain when she had to, she would most likely get out of this high and dry.

As she navigated around the circumference of the Courtyard, she thought she heard something that sounded like music. Given how loud the rain was, though, she was perfectly willing to discount it as a fragment of her imagination. Even if the music was real, she doubted it had anything to do with the lab she sought.

[Not the Library]

Tyler had left the oddly equipped library, and decided to find somewhere slightly less...crazy. Tyler didn't mind larger than life personalities, but that had just been weird...

"Well, I didn't notice the manga section until just recently..." Tina said.

[Auditorioum]

"That is better, thank you." Kit said. "I'm Kit Remoon, this is Doltur Balthen. And to whom do I have the pleasure of an introduction?" Kit asked. She looked over at Adele, and wasn't sure what to make of the new arrival.

[Courtyard]

Tyler stood in the middle of the Courtyard, in the rain, and looked up. It was so beautiful out. This would be slightly exciting to enjoy.

[Auditorium]

"A pleasure to meet you," the musician said to both Kit and Doltur. Then the musician looked between Kit and Adel, before saying to Adel "oh! But of course! I measure by your manner of dress you are from my own world, or one closely related. As such, the fair lady here," he offered a sweeping bow to Kit, "is no doubt unfamiliar to you — and it can be quite difficult to discern how to react to the unfamiliar, no matter how good one's intentions." To Kit, he said, "do not be offended, Lady Remoon. She means you no ill will, it is simply that beings such as yourself are purely mythological upon the world myself and that fine lady there," he gave Adel a flirtatious smile and a salute, "hail from. And if I may be so daring," he gave the same smile to Kit, "I would even go so far as to say our world is the poorer for it."

edited 18th Jun '12 5:27:28 PM by KillerClowns

[Library]

"You still could have picked something more interesting," Athalia said.

"Again, you could just ignore her," Peter said, "She's not used to talking to normal people."

"Well, if you say so, Peter..." Tina said as she began to get engrossed into the manga.

Last post for tonight.

Abandoned areas seemed to have a certain charm to them, he found.

Judging from the lines on his sun-beaten face, graying jet-black hair, and crow's feet-framed eyes that were beyond almond-shaped, the aging Japanese man could've been anywhere from his mid fifties to his sixties. His clothing choice of an expensive-looking, well-tailored black suit, inoffensively patterned tie, and trenchcoat seemed mildly inappropriate for this expedition of his.

His wife's cutesy voice took on an additional mocking tone in his mind. "I would think that exploring your race's crumbling vestiges would induce that lovely 'fear of the unknown' that your thinkers seem to be so fond of. I wouldn't like to be reminded of my eventual fate... if that was to be my fate at all."

It was remarks like that that occasionally made him wonder if his youthful recklessness had forced him onto the wrong path, cliched as it was, in a marriage to a primitive beast in the body of a teenage girl. They say that you get used to it, but he wasn't. It was... troubling.

Nevertheless, he put it to the back of his mind. He had hoped to draw some of this architecture, but the rain protested his intentions. Abandoned places like this rarely achieve their intended purpose without a diligent hand at their side, making this excursion extra fun.

Was that a... guitar?

It sounded quite nice, at any rate. He had a special place in his heart for metal. And every other kind of music. It had its merits. He was reduced to merely walking towards the source of these sounds, and pried the door to the auditorium open, taking care to not make too much disruptive noise. He strode down the aisle to the stage- since when did these places have functioning electricity? -and into the soft, spilt glow of the stagelights.

A young woman, a young man, a... fox-woman, and the offender himself. He barely gave the fox-woman a second glance, but what he did notice was what they had in common.

Teenagers.

And here he was, a stereotypical-looking specimen of soulless corporate America, in a $500 suit. All he had left to do was be white and convert to Protestantism.

The young woman seemed almost... frightened by this fox. Why, in fact, she seemed to be quite a beautiful specimen, but it was safe to assume that that wasn't the source of most stares that she likely had to deal with from passerby.

"...I would even go so far as to say our world is the poorer for it."

A pity he had to deal with beings such as these on a day-to-day basis.

His relatively expression more fit to hint at than announce his intentions, he kept his hands in his pockets more for warmth than anything and stood listening, letting others go ahead before himself.