fandomhighdorms | Behind the Dorms, Tuesday After Classes

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Behind the Dorms, Tuesday After Classes

"It's introductions time again," Zack said, launching right into his greeting the moment it looked like everyone who was going to show up for the Reserves meeting was there. This was in no small part due to the fact that he'd only actually met one of the new kids yet, and his wiggly puppy sense was tingling.

A lot.

"Every semester we seem to get a trickle in of new faces, so it can't hurt for all of us to stand up and share! We need names, your fighting experience and weapons proficiency, and what kind of other skills you might have that would come in handy in an invasion situation!"

A pause. A kind of squirmy sway from one foot to the other. Zack wanted to get started on that noooooow.

"You new guys have probably had the invasions mentioned to you at least once by now, I hope. If not, uh... Welcome to Fandom Island! That sort of thing is what we're here for! I'll go first! I'm Zack Fair, SOLDIER 2nd Class, so yes, I am a kid in the military, and I do have a pretty decent rank, too. My weapon of choice is a sword and materia- little round spheres that let me cast spells, like fireballs or healing. I have access to items that can heal a person in a pinch, too, which comes in really handy on the field. Okay! Somebody else's turn!"

People! Introductions! Yay!

[OCD is up, and once again, the reserves are open to anyone who feels compelled to stumble along to scope it all out. We love new faces, from fighters and those interested in becoming them!]

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Zombies. Walking corpses? Jak tilted his head in thought as she got to that part, thinking about it. Back where he was from, corpses had a habit of bursting apart into their component ecos, so he couldn't say he'd ever heard of them, exactly.

It soudned a little weird, and that might have shown on his face.

...However, then invasions came up, and that look was quickly replaced with concern.

Dinah caught the look, and sighed, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear. "Okay. So. Most of the time? The Island is perfectly safe, and the dorms always seem to be, no matter what." She bit her lip, then reluctantly admitted, "But sometimes, things either just attack, or want to take over." She hoped this didn't put Jak off wanting to be here. "It seems to happen every couple months, either some monster-types invade, and we have to fight them off until they're not a threat, and it only takes a day or so. Orrrr, something more serious wants to take over, and it can last about a week or more. The last one was only a month ago, though!" Dinah tried to look reassuring, hoping she didn't look too unhappy remembering the vampires. "So it's probably going to be a while before the next one. Really. The Island goes easy on new kids for a while." She looked worried. "Did your Big Sib not get to this part?"

Jak shrugged, and wiggled his head a little. Maybe? A little? Not explicitly. She'd mostly focused on the gremlins, which he was not allowed to go after. But, he could deal with this. You could tell by the confident line of his back.

He might have even flexed a muscle. He'd saved the world before. This was hardly something he couldn't deal with. And that's why he was here anyway, right? At the reserve, that was. To help people.

He was at Fandom itself because Samos, again, was not a fair man.

Dinah laughed in relief, and beamed at him when he did the muscle-flexing. More for the not-running-away or looking depressed than anything else. Whew.

"Awesome. I mean, I thought so, since you're here. But yeah, this is a working reserves, not just a training corps." She tilted her head, and added, "There's ones for magic, you'll hear some of the others talk about that too. And just general support. I show up at all of them off and on." She grinned. "Plus there's usually cookies!"

Always a good reason to go anywhere!

Hey, Jak was good about cookies. In fact, he was going to lean just so, and snag two. It took... okay, he wasn't going to manage that by leaning. At all.

He held up a finger. Wait a minute!

At that, he rolled down onto the floor, leapt out of his crouch towards the table - showoff - grabbed two cookies, and ran straight on back, presenting her with one. Very fast. He wasn't a show-off. Honest. At all.

No! Of course not! That's just the way they hunted cookies back in Sandover! You wouldn't want them to get away, would you?

Dinah still chortled, though. "Oh, you and Zack are going to get along just fine." She grinned, impressed, and took the cookie, nibbling around the edges. "That was pretty cooooool." Okay, turn it down a little, Dinah. Ahem. "How long have you been training?"

Cookies, stray crocadogs, same thing, right? Right? Jak had managed to wrangle yakow with that move once, even. It had been pretty impressive, if he did mime so himself.

And he liked Zack, so he could be good with that, as well as the praise (which did prompt him to rub the back of his head. It was nothing. Really). At the question, he held up four fingers. Four years? Four months? Four weeks? Who knew!

Well, okay, the basic stuff had been four years. And then Samos made him go through a crash course a few months ago, and then there had been all that stuff with Gol and Maia...

"Four years?" Dinah guessed, based on how well he did that. "Not since you were four years old, right?" Well, maybe he had been. That had been kinda cool. She ... could not quite follow the miming of whatever-it-was he was wrestling there, but got the general idea. Stuff to fight back home, too.

"You're not a cowboy, right? Wrangling cows?"

She held out her cookie, and just had to show him. "Here. Hold this." Then did three cartwheels over to the food table, grabbed another couple cookies, and cartwheeled back.

That's not showing off. That's just showing what she could do. Difference! "Want another one?"

Jak blinked. He'd only wrangled yakows once. Cows sounded a little like that, but he definitely wasn't a yakow-boy, please.

Of course, that line of thought was imminently disturbed by those cartwheels. Please excuse Jak. He'll be gaping appreciatively now.

Dinah snickered at his expression when she asked about being a cowboy, then grinned and tried not to fidget too much with self-consciousness when he gaped when she got back. Yay, cookies to hide that.

"I don't get to use that much, here. More in New Gotham. Fighting criminals." Okay, better clear that up. "Well, we don't have anything like the monsters or zombies that show up here, back there. It's all just people." She tilted her head. "You? Monster types?"

Edited 2009-09-01 21:12 (UTC)

He put his hands on his hips - well, one, as the other was busy stuffing a cookie into his mouth, until he swallowed, and then the other one went - and nodded sternly. There were always Lurkers on the edges of town, and he'd run into a lot of other types of monsters on his travels. It was dangerous! But fun!

"Cool," Dinah said in approval. "I'm glad you're ready for it." She paused. And finally: "Um. Do you want me to shut up so you can talk? 'Cause I can do that."

Yeah, little late, Lance.

Jak actually blinked.

No one had ever asked him that before. Which meant he was now stuck mouthing the air like a fish, and scrambling around his pocket looking for--

Ah, there. The sign. He held it up.

"Wha--?" Dinah stopped to read it, blinked, blushed, and said, "Ohhh." A slightly self-conscious pause there, then a smile, and a shrug of I feel dumb but now I know? Another breath, then, "Okay, so, if you ever want me to stop talking just 'cause you're sick of hearing me talk, feel free to, I don't know. Tap me or wave at me or..." Um. Dinah. Shhhh. "Or I can just do it without being asked."

No no no, she didn't have to do that.

Jak waved a hand while his eyes went big out of concern. He was used to it. People talked at him all the time, it was going to work out just fine. He stuffed the sign back into his pocket. Seriously. It was fine.

"Yeah?" Dinah gave him a relieved smile, then it widened to a grin. "Good. Because it might've killed me." Bright smile, then the qualifier of, "But not really. Which you only have to explain around here, you know?"

Jak shrugged once. He didn't know? He hadn't been here that long. But back home, nobody died of embarrassment, or anything. So.

"Unh, well. You'll find out." Dinah looked momentarily dire, then smiled again. "So, what else have you been up to?"

Partly because she wanted to see if she could figure the charades out.

Jak held up a hand. A few things. Like hanging with his roommate (he mimed the jaw covered with stuff pretty well, all things considered) and exploring the island (wide gesture, there). And then there was this place! Oh, and classes.

He paused, thinking about classes, gestured at his head, and shrugged. Eric had been... confusing.

Dinah nodded at the explore-the-island, shrugged back at the shrug, and wondered about the jaw-thing. "Hey, is that Jonothon, maybe? We're in the same Science class."

Edited 2009-09-02 07:12 (UTC)

He nodded as soon as she'd mentioned the name. Jono was his roommate, he gestured, and he was cool. Jak patted his pocket. Responsible for the note, too.

"Ohhh! Hey, that was cool of him." Dinah didn't quite get the roommate gesture, but did get the idea that they'd met up and were becoming friends. "He seemed... kinda down, I guess. But he told me a little about what's going on in his world, so I think he's got reason." Plus the whole ow factor with his face.

Jak nodded, and pulled a face that was momentarily sympathetic. Jono had shown him the chest thing, and he'd seemed to be so wary, you know? Then he shrugged again, and gestured. That kind of thing was never a problem where he was from. If you had an eco talent, that was just good.

Dinah nodded along with the face, then tilted her head, trying to follow that, and guessed again, "Haven't run into that stuff before?" Whichever stuff it was? She rolled her eyes at herself, and said, "I'll get better at this, I swear." Well, she hoped so, anyway.

Jak rubbed the back of his head. Um. It was fine, really?

Re: Arrive! Mingle!

blondecanary.livejournal.com - 2009-09-02 17:38 (UTC) - Expand

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