Second Drill: All Hell

[Nayt]

For most of the night, Naius and Sedit sat atop their dormitory. It seemed they'd been assigned to the same one, and neither of the two actually felt a strong enough urge to go to sleep to justify actually finding their respective rooms and getting a good night's rest.

Rather, they climbed the stairs of their dormitory, found the roof access, and spent the rest of the evening sitting atop the roof, watching the moon and the thin valley in the distance. Naius dangled his legs over the side of the dorm and felt minimal vertigo from it, regardless of how frequently he looked down. The two teenagers had a bottle of Sythinian liquor (called votka or something like that; Naius didn't actually pay attention to what the people at that bar were saying) to share between them. It tasted like utter trash, but it was severely alcoholic. That was all Naius wanted, really.

The valley had been shut down prior to the End, strictly as a means of isolating Dachinst. The valley, after all, was the only inlet into the main body of Darokin's lands. From there, Darokin's "soldiers" had continuously poured into Dachinst as reinforcements. Caving the valley in was the only way to keep Darokin from barreling down upon them at a constant rate.

Naius took a long drink from the clear bottle, nearly finishing it off. He was only half drunk by that point. Disappointingly, the sun was coming up on them and the elf still wasn't nearly as intoxicated as he sought to be. Through the clear glass bottle, lifted up and over his face as he tilted his head back, he saw something. The elf dropped his arm to his side and leaned forward to get a better look at it. He second guessed himself. He third guessed himself. He fourth guessed himself. But no many how many times he told himself he wasn't seeing someone crawl out of the valley, his eyes were regrettably not deceiving him . . .

---

Every one of the cadets would find themselves rudely awakened. The sun was still rising and it wasn't yet time for their originally planned rude awakening-- a seven in the morning role call for the entire campus. No, it was barely five-thirty in the morning right now, far too early for such a surprise, even a routine one.

But this was not a routine surprise.

Older, more experienced Reapers-- people far from "cadet" status --traversed the halls in a rushed fashion, pounding on every door they came across with enough urgency to nearly break the doors off their hinges. They had a quick message to deliver and were shouting all sorts of variations of it from down the halls. One constant remained throughout each dormitory, though:

All cadets were to gather in the middle of campus immediately.

Fully waking up was barely an option, let alone getting fully dressed. Any cadet who wore elaborate sleep-only clothes was likely to be outside in those same clothes in the very near future.




Offtopic: It is the morning immediately after orientation. Cadets will be the only ones in the middle of campus for now. I will add in another GM post when I feel enough Reapers have made it out of their dorms.

[littlebean]

Was this a regular thing? A screaming 5:30 am wake up? Could it have been a routine a drill a, an anything? He was woken up with such a start that he screamed himself out of bed and ran outside without a thought. Whatever it was, it was urgent. Without a second, or first thought at that he sprang right up and followed the crowd to the center of the campus.

But now that he was there, he had no idea what to do. Panic stricken he stood there shivering barefoot in his boxers, covering his diamond cutters with his arms while his eyes frantically darted around to see what was happening.

"The f-fuck?" He muttered to himself, wondering what was happening.

[Skylar]

She embraced the dreams that was bestowed upon her as she slept. Almost always the same in reason, but always different details. One detail that never changed was Patrick. She always felt so liberated in her dream, ferrying Patrick to his final destination. The fuel that would keep her fire burning....

The pounding on the door would wake her immediately from her slumber...

She was not so naive to think that sleeping in would be a luxury they would have here. They were here to learn, to study the life of a warrior, so that they would be able to fulfill their purposes. And thus, she had the night before organized her things for just this reason.

Within minutes she was out of bed, clothes on properly, and bed made. She ran a brush through her flawless ebon locks and ran a tooth brush quickly over her teeth as well.

Swiftly she made her way to the middle of the campus, eyes darting from to every direction. Their was urgency in the actions of the elders. Something was wrong....terribly wrong. Standing at attention she would quietly wait for others to join her so that she could learn what was going on. Her heart was racing, fear...excitement...whatever it was..she liked it.

[Syntaphar]

Damn. Aldric had been having rather pleasant dreams before the knocking and commotion started. Unfortunately for him, it didn't wake up immediately. All it did was turn his dreams to grim flashbacks of the earthquakes that had wracked his family's estate so long ago. Now THAT was what woke him up. After holding his head in his hand for a moment, scowling at people that weren't even nearby, let alone able to see him, he set about his quick grooming routine. It had of course shortened quite a bit since he lost his noble status, but he liked to think he cleaned up nice.

However, Aldric had little time left to dress for any sort of success, and was forced to remain in his bedclothes temporarily. Thankfully, it was mildly fashionable regardless, comprised of a simple white shirt and black pants. He wouldn't be horribly embarrassed out there. He dashed out to the center of campus and stood as straight and polite as he could, considering how early it was. He could only pity people who were less of a morning person than he was.

[Nayt]

Areva barely remembered how it happened. The last she knew, she was pulling off her uniform in something of a hissy fit, throwing herself into bed, clutching her pillow, and crying herself to sleep. It was not a restful sleep. She did not actually get to sleep for several hours, and only then it was a matter of fatigue rather than an austere want to get some sleep. More than sleep, she'd wanted to beat up her pillow just a little more. It still had feathers in it and she was wrought with frustration enough to consider gutting the linen to finish the job.

Then somehow she wound up in the middle of campus. It was terribly cold (for her) and the only articles of clothing she had to keep her warm was a bra, panties, and a blanket she had pulled around her shoulders and draped over her body, effectively (and accidentally) keeping herself covered and modest, but making her look like a homeless little colored girl in the process. It'd be easy for someone to discern her state of undress just by looking at where her blanket ended, though-- roughly at the middle of the thighs --and how she clearly wasn't wearing any pants, socks, or shoes. Her hair was an utter mess and hung down in her face.

Her entire body still ached from her breakdown after she got to her lonely little room, and regrettably she still didn't feel any better for it.

She was groggy and barely able to focus on the world around her, let alone the commotion of dozens of men, women, and teenagers all perturbed by their individual rude awakenings. In fact, the girl was too groggy to even feel self conscious. For now.

Urgency had dragged her out of her room in a blur. It all happened too quick for her to even apply any feelings to the situation, let alone any immediate thoughts on the matter. She needed wake up just a little bit more-- but out here in this horribly cold morning, Areva was bound to wake up much sooner than later.

Offtopic: Just posting with my main character for now. Everyone feel free to temporarily treat this as an open thread; if you want to post back and forth with someone here for a short moment, don't be afraid to.

[Lemon]

The sky exploded into total chaos. Figures moved in the haze of twilight, searching, confused, and so very, very loud. Sedit had stopped drinking quite a long time ago. The vodta they had purchased had been kicking the reaper's ass, and it reminded him far too much of ethanol. He hadn't gotten tired but he'd gotten an almost instant hangover when he stopped. Now laying next to Naius with his head dangling off of the roof, Sedit puzzled over the disruption above... or, rather below. He righted himself, much to his own misfortune. When the world stopped spinning, he spotted what Naius was peering at.

"Ah... shit. This is serious, huh?" Sedit belched, his stomach acid bubbling and burning his chest, sobriety weaseling its way through the fog of inebriation.

"Hey! Heyyy! There's like, a whole bunch. I can't count that high anymore, and they ain't waitin' around," he finished with a cough as he shouted down to the guard below. The drunken duo were assigned as scouts after throwing shingles at a passing professor when Naius spotted the first enemy combatant. The professor had roused the campus, and a guard had been posted beneath them to relay the progress of the enemy to the others. Sedit shook his head, forcing his hangover to worsen but similarly forcing the pain to push aside the fog. He examined the flow of soldiers from the rubble.

"Why... why don't they have weapons, Naius?"

[Paroxysm]

Fillip took a long, hard drag off of a cigar. The figuardo was planted firmly between the man’s lips and showed signs of having been lit since long before the urgent knocking: after all, Fillip was an early riser, years of taking care of his younger siblings at the orphanage in Sythinia practically required the habit and because of this, when the knock at the door did come, its sense of emergency--urgency--was not lost on the man, and he quickly headed out, already fully dressed in uniform. Opening the door to his dorm, he thought to check in with whoever had also been assigned to his room, if any, but thought twice about it, stubbing the cigar against the wall and exiting the shared apartment.

Fillip only gave vague acknowledgment to the other cadets rushing about; he was walking briskly, but moving at a comparatively slower pace than they were. A lot of them seemed scared and unsure, but this was almost eerily similar to exactly what he had been going on about just last night, albeit sooner than he had thought.

“Marked it nice ‘an neat, I did.”

Fillip’s voice was an uncanny combination of cheerfulness and dread, like he was making some sort of joke at the expense of others, but he wasn’t, really.

“We‘ve all got ta pay the music for this ride,” he leaned forwards, placed his hands into his pockets, and kicked at the ground, allowing the more rushed cadets behind him to pass with but a momentary grazing of shoulders.

Although Fillip would not be the last to arrive, he would be a late comer, possibly for the best, though, as he really did not want to be standing in the middle of so much concentrated anxiety; expectations; fear; hope; and rumor-fueled gossip for any length of time.

[Zach Kaiser]

She was in a bad mood when she went to bed last night; she didn't know how she expected her fellow recruits to behave, but whether they were depressed or scared or simply a freak like the one kid she'd tried to talk to, everyone she saw seemed to be resigned. No one seemed angry, or even indignant at what she considered tantamount to being kidnapped. It made her feel isolated.

Now she was in an ever worse mood. She was woken up way too early, and just as she was about to pull some real clothes on some jerk whom she supposed was a superior barged in and practically pulled her out the door, yelling that she needed to get moving, now. Now she was freezing in the courtyard, wearing only a loose t-shirt with no bra (though, admittedly, there wasn't much to see under it) and a pair of shorts that were just marginally better than being in her underwear.

While she didn't want it to be a life or death situation, part of her felt like she was going to kill someone if they were dragged out here this early for anything less.

She stood next to Areva, seeing the girl was in a similar (or even worse) state as far as clothing was concerned, and glared heavily at any male who got too close. "Any idea what this is about?" she murmured to the younger girl; while she was still plenty pissed, right now she considered her an ally by virtue of their circumstances.

[Skylar]

It would quickly become painfully obvious who understood what was going on here, and who didn’t.

Immediately she noted Aldric had arrived, and the corner of her mouth would perk slightly to him. However no words passed from betwixt her lips, as this was not social hour and she refused to be reprimanded for such trivial things.

She watched as the other cadets joined her in the middle of the campus. If this was some kind of attack, something other then a drill, most of them would be dead within minutes. Ill prepared was not even close to the things she was seeing. Cadets partially dressed if even at all?! She inhaled deeply, and remained calm.

She did however take note on the one young man that was as well if not more prepared then herself. Only knowing him from the dining hall, he looked much different not covered in food. She would simply nod to him and avert her attention elsewhere, still waiting to find out what this was all about.

[littlebean]

He slept well. The huge amount of food he ate the night before made sure of that, his eyes closed as soon as he hit the bed and fell straight asleep. Overnight his stomach would have to handle the monumental task of digesting his large meal, but now that the task was complete there wasn't a toilet in sight. There wasn't any time for any morning routines, including going to the bathroom. The situation just kept on getting more and more urgent.

Slowly his skin began to rise in little chilly bumps and his body shivered. The brisk air was nipping at his skin. All around him he could feel the gaze of hundreds of people assaulting him, or so his self consciousness made him figure. In the distance he saw the girl from the night before.

"A-!" He made a small sudden noise but stopped himself right away. The lack of clothing would just make saying hello way too akward. Still shakily hugging his torso he waded through the crowd waiting to find out what was happening nervously.

[Shin]

Talon awoke from his pleasant dreams startled there was no way it was time to get up already. Yet he could keenly hear fellow cadets scrambling in the halls and instructors, or people he assumed were instructors, yelling at everyone. A drill of some sort he wondered?

He pushed that thought from his mind almost right away though; there was something different in the air. The instructors seemed on edge, nervous about something that Talon couldn’t place his finger on. He was rushed from his room and herded like cattle to where the other cadets were.

The air was cooler then he suspected and he wore nothing more then a pair of shorts, and that was because he had managed to grab them while he was rushing out of his room. Talon had been a farmer for the majority of his relatively short life, working the fields with his father and brothers and had the tanned complexion and physical fitness one would expect of someone that spent the seventeen years of his life doing manual labor.

His physical appearance was far from his mind however as everyone around him was in the same condition or worse. Talon made sure to stand alone, his focus apparently on the ground at his feet. He wanted to know what was going on, but not enough to actually speak to someone and eavesdropping had always been a preferred tactic.

[Nayt]

Regrettably, the urgency of the matter had all but drained Naius's buzz. He was still sufficiently intoxicated, but he wasn't at all enjoying it anymore. The situation was serious. The situation was dire. Naius needed to concentrate but it was barely happening at this rate-- not that he needed to concentrate too much, at least not to understand their circumstances right now. This was an issue he was fully prepared for. Something they all should have been prepared for.

Naius narrowed his eyes upon the pass. The people pouring through the valley weren't at all armed. They weren't even armored.

Why weren't they carrying weapons?

"They don't need 'em," Naius replied frankly, "They're already dead."

---

Areva was surprised to hear someone addressing her-- only to find that it was a girl from the banquet last night. Areva was finally beginning to feel the chill of her situation, and even the blanket she'd effectively cloaked herself in wasn't doing enough to keep her warm. It was also slowly dawning on her that she was in an absolutely horrible state of undress right in the middle of all the cadets of this academy, new and old cadets alike-- and that there were probably so many of them staring at her.

She suddenly wanted to cry again, but for much different reasons than the last time.

"I-- I don't know," Areva whispered, her voice tiny, frail, and probably barely audible to the girl by her side. Areva was shivering loudly, and that was likely more audible than her words.

Though she-- and most of her fellow cadets --were initially unaware of the reasons for this mess of a situation, their collective question was soon answered . . .

---

A middle aged man stepped out from the last dormitory in a bit of a rush. He was wearing a uniform very similar to the general at orientation, but lacked the same degree of medals and acknowledgment. He wore an officer's hat that, in this low light, mostly covered his face in shadows. There were a lot of people talking at once, and though there were many eyes on him immediately, he hadn't all their attention simply by standing before them all.

"Everyone, quiet!" he called out to get the cadets' attention.

There was a small hesitation in his voice, as if he'd started to give a specific order, only to remember at the last second that these young men and women did not know the order's meaning.

"This is not a test," he began loudly, still having to speak over some, "A branch of Darokin's army is en route to Dachinst." And then, as if he needed to clarify: "We are under attack."

For a split second, the quiet on campus was so hollow that the sound a pin dropping would have filled the space like a screech.

And then there was panic.

[Skylar]

A wickedly beautiful smile crept over her features. She was excited, yet she controlled her breaths as to not share this feeling with the cadets around her. If it was indeed true that she could control the moods of those in the immediate vicinity as her, this was one feeling she would rather keep to herself. Not wanting to feel responsible for any.....accidents...

Her eyes instantly locked to those of the man who seemed to be giving them their orders. She realized he wasn’t sure how to handle the situation as none of them, including her, had ever been in this situation. She wanted to step forward, offer her services however she could, but that was not her place to do so.

And so, she stood. Still at attention, still eyeing the man before them all, wondering what their next move would be. She felt her heart race slowly begin to pick up, and calmly she took slow deep breaths, exhaling even slower...

[Syntaphar]

As panic took its hold all around him, all Aldric could do was curse at himself (in several languages in fact) for not bringing his sword with him out of his room. He would have bet anything when he was woken up that some unseen commander had ordered the cadets awake just to keep them on their toes. And Aldric would have been fine with that, it's a perfectly valid, if tough, teaching method. However, he wished that SOMEONE had told him while knocking on his door that there was going to be live combat. All he could hope for was a short preparation break to dash back to his room, or a borrowed weapon that was somewhat like a fencing saber.

All of the panicking cadets were beginning to get to him, especially in his state of self-anger. He needed to clear his head. He needed a bit of time to think to himself. With a deep breath and a slow exhale, he activated his Seele Ubertritt manifestation. The world pulled into sharp focus in his vision as his eyes glowed a faint blue, and he was no longer aware of anything at his sides or behind his back. Furthermore, he was only vaguely aware, not even consciously, of the people he wasn't looking directly at. He usually used this ability to give him an edge in fighting, but he was not above using it to gather his thoughts. His focus went to the speaker, and little else would get through to his conscious mind.

[littlebean]

He must have been one of the many intimidating generals that ran the show here. The man was severely out of place in the underwear convention, being one of the few who were actually dressed, but it was his voice that caught Loman's attention.

"We are under attack." He broke the news to the sea of half dressed people, causing a deadly uncomfortable silence before the frightened cadets filled the room with panicked murmuring. As for Loman his entire body stiffened as if he had turned to stone, for the first time ever in his life he stood perfectly still without a twitch or shuffle.

"What!?" He yelled in disbelief. The stillness was abandoned for frantic on the spot pacing. We are under attack. Tell that to a young teen in nothing but his underwear. Tell that to a room full of people vulnerable exposed and barely dressed. What could they possibly do? Was the general going to lead his underwear army into battle? Hopefully the enemy was allergic to 100% cotton boxers, because Loman had nothing else. He'd never held a weapon in his life, and wasn't holding one now. Was he expected to punch the bastards to death?

The muscles in his body began to jerk and twitch uncomfortably. His feet patted impatiently against the floor, he was ready to take off and run away. He didn't want to die.