Zeitgeist Blue

"You're kidding, right," Nicole said, looking from one sister to the other. The peppy one seemed confident of the fact and this didn't seem like one of those things younger siblings got lied about and believe. Like they were adopted or something. "You're serious." Now she was really interested and she leaned forward, hands on her knees. She'd watched the video like most everybody else and Watchdog was wearing a helmet. She'd be forgiven if she couldn't figure out secret identities. "So let me get this straight, she," and Njcole jabbed a thumb at Ashley. "Was taken into custody by Raven and what, got sent to this school instead of time in juvie? Wow, that's... hmm." She honestly didn't know what to think of that. On one hand, by all rights and purposes she was supposed to be arrested and jailed but anyone could have taken pity on her and sent her here to be reeducated instead. Guess that tough and angry vigilante in the video was still a tough and angry teen here. "Guess he must have liked you." Nicole looked back, confused. Was it something she did? It was supposed to be a compliment, because if those kinds of people were popping a vein in anger, then you know you were doing something right. Right? But instead, Monica was acting like she was dribbling drool down her chin. Jeeze. This floor was pretty weird and that was saying something. Nevertheless, Nicole accompanied them to the common room, hanging back just a little from the congregation of sophomores, a little put out. Her chin rested on the palm of her hand as she maneuvered her wheelchair around and beside Astrid.

"Nu uh," she shook her head. So perhaps she shouldn't have been surprised there but heavy metal and viking metal bands? How did they come up with these names? They sounded like someone mixed blood magic lines with a good helping of spikes, leather, and leathery spikes. Then an idea popped in her head and she gave Astrid a slowly forming smile. "I don't have to be worried here do I? Cause I need to know if I need to cook up some really good earplugs and sound proof this room." She couldn't help but snort, waving her hand in a so-so manner. "Kind of close but it's more anything and everything." As if to stress the thought, she leaned her elbows into her armrest and into Astrid's way. "Tech, science, computers, data, cosmology, magic, runes, energy. Put your finger on it and I know it." She looked at the bat blandly. Well, it looked like a bat. Yep. Pretty bat-y. But she wanted to humor Astrid and she placed a finger on the side of her glasses. Her glasses lit up with a purple glow, obscuring her eyes. Lightning flashed for Nicole and when it receeded she leaned forward, the bat's wood now containing a lightning bolt and surrounded by blue Nordic runes and cracks of electricity, enveloped by magic, as enmeshed in it as the universal condition. "Ohhh, runes." She drove herself forward to the baseball bat in a duffel bag, taking in the composition and measurements harkening back to Nordic traditions and symbols. There was power in tales and tales measured in logic and power. Then her brows furrowed, finger reaching out to touch it. Maybe it was because she was unfamiliar with traditional Nordic runes, but runes was her specialty and she couldn't parse this. Like a grade schooler presented with advanced calculus. "This is... pretty cool." She snapped her head to Astrid, eyebrows raising, hands gesturing to the bat. "Where the hell did you get your hands on this?"

Nicole could have sworn she jumped a little in her seat at Astrid's entrance. "Hey! Couldn't you take the bus?" She unruffled the blanket over her legs, trying to look like she just hadn't startled like a deer caught in the headlights. She turned to Ashley and said, "Anyway, my cat's been in fights before too. And I would have remembered you if you had appeared on TV. Guess you aren't that special, Miss Dark and Brooding." It didn't matter that she'd never had a cat. Miss Dark and Brooding was getting on her nerves. Then she crossed her arms and turned her torso as far away from the so-edgy-it-hurt-edgelord and looked the other new students in turn. Her eyebrows raising a considerable amount as she recognized who she was with. "The new Lady Liberty? Da-a-amn," She half-sang then swiped at her nose with her thumb, leaving a smirk behind. "Heh. I bet old white boys and rednecks love you, or rather, love to hate on you." She wheeled backwards as if to take the whole scene. A trigger-happy foreign royal, a conservative's Public Enemy #1, Fight Club as teenage girls, and someone who needed to get a driver's license. "Well this is just cute."

Salvo Fluff Removed the pictures. Added a new one for Nicole. Added a Physical Description. Additions Added 1PP (4R) to Skills [Bluff 1, Concentration 2, Sense Motive 1] Moved 2R from Computers into Concentration and Diplomacy Added 4PP to Bellios 29 Added Improved Initiative to Protocol Sy Changes Added Duration [Continuous] (+1) and Ablative (-1) to Force Field 5 of Wheelchair Device 1 In Weapons Suite Array's Kinetic Beam exchanged Action [Full] for Slow Fire from Gimmick's Guide to Gadgets In Fusion Autocannons changed Variable Descriptor [Any Metal] to [Any Energy] Removed Something in the Dark complication

"Right..." Nicole said through gritted teeth. A few months of summer break had dulled her sense of just how much like grinding rocks together talking to Zenith was. It was almost enough to get her to leave for another person she knew, but the sleep deprivation must have thrown her game off and she found herself watching Zenith move a hand. Bright light suddenly flashed around the hand and Nicole's head snapped away, her eyes shutting against the light. "Hey, ouch." She brought her fingers up and rubbed the white spots away, still listening to whatever dog-eat-dog, survival of the fittest view Zenith was spouting. "Why don't you poof yourself a tinfoil hat and color it rainbow?" Nicole asked, opening an eyelid to glance at Zenith playing with a coin. All that for a coin. It was enough to make her crave another shot and she popped open her thermos and did just that. She brought her thermos down and looked around the assembly before returning her attention to Zenith. "I'd rather test people in a controlled environment or have them answer a questionnaire, but that's just me." And everyone else thinking normally she didn't say but so dearly wanted to. "... And everyone who isn't you," she mumbled loud enough for Zenith to catch.

"Yeah, sounds like what to be expected. We've got loads of that here too." Nicole nodded her head along. This Astrid was making a lot of sense and Nicole's opinion of her went up. Making sense was like the first thing anyone should do. Yeah, a lot of people liked fighting. Nicole had to learn how to fight in her own way. It came with the package of their extra-curricular, volunteer work as it was politely referred to. Playing the part of the hero. "So you're a guitarist?" She asked, obviously rhetorical, glancing at electric guitar on the side. She skidded over to it and looked at Astrid for permission to touch it. "Huh. So a brawler and a guitarist. That's an image right there. You don't seem like the hard drinking, partying type of girl." She chuckled, aware how wrong her idea could have been anyway. "I don't know that much about music myself but maybe I should have," she admitted. "So you're into the Arctic Monkeys, Fallout Boy, Paramore. That sort of things?"

Nicole's back stiffened as the mini-projectile shot past her ear. Then her grin widened, plastered to her face, as she realized that someone had basically fired a warning shot from a gun at her. She wasn't any stranger with people shooting at her in her armor, as safe as she was inside it, but it was an entierly different beast wearing nothing but the shirt on her back. At Ajasoro's welcome (as if nothing happened), Nicole moved through the doorway, still smiling stiffly. So maybe Ajasaro really was the real deal. Princess of the most technological nation on Earth and all that fun Jazz. But before she could retort to Ajasoro, she noticed the tense looking girl pull out a scanner and wave it at her. Up and down, most likely sweeping for weapons. Nicole would even bet it flashed green when it invariably found nothing on her. What a waste of time when three-fourths of the people in this school didn't need a weapon to be dangerous themselves. "I like not getting shot at or scanned in the mornings. Thank you," Nicole said stiffly, eyeing both Ajasoro and Ashley in turn, daring them to dispute her. "It's like my breakfast dessert. You're going to start a fight or several if you go about like you do, you know. Lucky for you I'm the friendly sort." She scoffed. As if she'd be up to a fist fight against anyone right now.

Nicole pushed her way past the double doors and into the auditorium holding in one hand a newly filled thermos of caffeine goodness. There was sleeping at a sane hour, there was sleeping at a late hour, and there was not sleeping at all. She hadn't meant to, not a darned way, but nobody with ears could sleep to viking metal playing on the bed a few feet away. That's what she told herself anyway but her textbook was engrossing by itself and she had lost track of time. Her head throbbed as the auditorium lights flashed bright, unwelcome in its stark whiteness and conversation thrummed through the student body around her. Her fingers found her temples and slowly rubbed circles along them as she looked around her. Faces and names popped out at her and she saw a few of the new students - those on the fourth floor with her, mainly -- who she had gotten to know. Then she saw Zenith at the back and groaned. Smart move. Great place. Horribly strung up person. Corrine was fine. Zenith... would probably start coloring like abstract art was going out of style at the drop of a hat. But what the hell. She tipped her thermos straight up for liquid energy. Then she drove to Zenith's side. "Hi Zenith," she said carefully. "So, new year? Pretty exciting isn't it?" Before Zenith could (or even would) respond, Nicole brought her thermos to her lips.

When one was moving along their dormitories corridor, one wouldn't expect a virtual-infested daemon to break out of the wall and start dancing the opening sequence of High School Musical. One didn't expect to either overhear someone refer to themselves as the princess of a nation. Unironically. With reference to Disney princesses. Ordinarily Nicole would have ignored the comment and kept on rolling. There were many strange and weird students around these parts and stranger and weirder personalities to accompany them as if mixing it all in a strange and weird snowball. But she passed by the open doorway and saw a whole party happening inside. She hadn't yet broken her fast on digging through people's online footprints for fun but she knew new students when she saw them, and all these four were new. Being the responsible upperclassman, she decided to stop and knock on the opened door of the room. "Hey, excuse me, new kids? Try to keep from saying those things so loudly. You never know if someone really mistakes you for royalty and sends an assassin at you." She grinned, lightly sardonic. It wasn't meant to be serious and she'd be flabbergasted at how gullible the new batch was if they did take it seriously.

Nicole winced, though she felt like spitting in disgust, at Astrid's mention of her long lost dad showing up all of a sudden. Her own dad wasn't a paragon of fatherhood either and to be treated as just an asset, a mere avenue to achieve their own plans... it struck a chord. She would have called Astrid's dad something insulting but Astrid had mentioned where she been taken. Asgard. The "godly" realm from the Norse myths if she had her history straight. Nicole's eyes widened and she gave Astrid a once-over, as if she could find something that would give Astrid's demi-status away on the second try. In hindsight, Nicole shouldn't have been surprised. She had been to many different realms and had been slowly learning the cosmological theories. Hypothetically, the old myths were true and their realms accessible but to have a living specimen prove both to her only brought stock to the old adage. Seeing is believing. "Real flesh and blood," she muttered and shook her head. "I wonder what made the old Norse think of you and your blood as gods. There isn't anyone here to take to Valhalla, Valkyrie." She flashed Astrid a smile to take the bite off. "But if you're asking me..." she said, caught up in the flow. She lolled her head back and sighed, eyes turned to the ceiling. "A lot of things. One of which is how you could get anything worth anything here. It's a datamine and you just need to reach out and take it." She brought her gaze down to Astrid's level. "You'll see what I mean later on. But it's only here you get everything from bleeding edge tech to magic tomes centuries old and everything in between. This school has everything worth anything and you'd think I was lying until you see it for yourself." She shrugged. "Take the advanced classes, ask the professors, buddy up with the smart kids. All of the above. Do anything except learn to just punch things."

"Really, that sounds like a pain in the ass," Nicole replied, playing along with the sarcasm. "And I've only brought half of my house with me." Then she cocked her head to the side. Curious. The accent was one she had not heard before and it clearly marked Astrid as not American. "Yes. That's me." She nodded her head. "Astrid Torsten. Torsten. Torsten," she mumbled, pulling back from the handshake to look at Astrid better. "That's European? Northern or Central? Wait, no." Then she snapped her fingers in recognition. "Scandinavian! Sorry, I'm not familiar with foreign cultures." "You're pretty far from home. I mean," and she waved her hand around as if to encompass the whole of Claremont inside their room. "I can see why. There's a lot to take from here." Astrid was a new student. Nicole would have recognized her otherwise, either that or Astrid was really good at hiding. "But you're looking for what exactly?" Nicole looked at the other girl sideways, daring her to say something stupidly stereotypical. Like snow control.

Salvo Assemble! (2) Roomies! (4) The Beast of America (4)

Whoever had thought to put her on the fourth floor needed to drill screws into their frontal lobe. It was bad enough to be forced to use the elevator whenever she wanted to go up and down, but the elevator had broke down before she had arrived and she had to wait half an hour for maintenance to come in and give it a fix through some good old percussive maintenance. It wasn't all bad of course. There was a vending machine on the ground floor lobby and she spent her time sipping iced tea and chatting Eliz in the phone to tell her that she was a-okay. She had all her things and, yes, she was in school. Safe and sound as a teddy bear in a machine shop. Fun, normal things even if a small part of her thought she could have gotten the elevator running under a minute if she could have only reached the broken pieces. But now she was on the fourth floor, chatter and moving-in noise wafting through the halls and thin, plaster walls as she pushed a large and overstuffed luggage bag in front of her. She was wearing a plaid dress over dark leggings when she wheeled into Room 411. She was here, back in Claremont, and the closest thing she had to a home. Maybe it could have been a sad thought but she was comfortable here. It was the start of another year. She found her roommate already inside with a duffel bag and guitar beside her. Red-haired and tall, taller than Nicole would have been standing on her two legs, and she was built like an athlete where Nicole could be considered lanky. Pale rather than tawny. But other than appearance, Nicole knew not a thing about her roommate. Not her name, age, achievements, online history, purchases, personality, favorite streamed movies, or whatever else was out there. Odd, a little bit annoying, but mostly interesting to not know anything yet. She cleared her throat to signal her presence then moved forward, hand outstretched. "Hi, I'm Nicole Whitfield-Hall and I guess we're roommates?" She indicated with one hand Astrid's duffel bag then to her own luggage. "I see your packing light."

Name: Nicole Whitfield-Hall Codename: Salvo Year: Junior Pronouns: Feminine Roommate: Unassigned. A PC would always do better than an NPC. Goal: Learning, as nerdy as that sounds. School has all the resources someone like her would need and teachers to pick their brains apart. Favourite High School Movie: High School Musical, 'cause who doesn't love that big ball of musical fun?

Right. Sorry about the late reply. I was waiting on word whether we were continuing this or not.