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glacial_queenOlder students might have been surprised when the handwavy email had gone out inviting anyone interested in joining any branch of the Reserves (Martial, Magic, or Support), should meet up Thursday afternoon in the preserve.
When they got there, they would see that not everything had changed; there were still tables set up withmoddable snacks and beverages, including a plate of (lumpy and slightly charred) cookies that Karla was standing behind, wearing a proud smile.
"Welcome to the first meeting of the combined Reserves," she said, once it seemed like everyone had arrived. "As those of you who have been here awhile already know, sometimes the island isn't always the safest place to be. There are occasional attacks and incursions--some are tiny and almost silly, some are big and dangerous and possibly even life-threatening. The Reserves were formed a few years back for to help us prepare and train for these invasions; to work together as a group. Whether your strengths lie in the area of fighting with weapons, having powers, taking care of others, or even research, there's a spot for you here. No matter what your skills are, we'll probably see something that requires them to be defeated."
Taking that as a cue, Wesley cleared his throat. "As Karla mentioned, all sorts of abilities are useful," he continued. "The Reserves were formerly broken down into separate groups -- Martial as well as Magic and Support -- but we'll now be meeting together, with Karla and Dolf and myself leading subsections."
Pause as he took a sip of water and tried to stealthily sweep a number of suspicious-looking cookies from the table into a garbage can. Sadly for the teal deer, one of them missed and landed on the ground. Those poor, poor teal deer never had a chance.
"Er. My name is Wesley Wyndam-Pryce. I'm from Southern Hampshire in England, I'm a senior, and I'll be running the, ah, martial branch. We'll go over weaponry, general strategy, and that sort of thing."
He looked to his fellow leaders to take over.
"And I'm Dolf Wega," Dolf said, giving everyone a bit of a wave. He looked somewhat more comfortable with himself now that he was leading a crowd again; his shoulders were relaxed. "I'm from Amstelveen in the Netherlands, which is across the ocean..." He'd encountered a few people who were from different universes by now, "...so sorry if I get something wrong. I'm leading the Support services and I have been for a while. We make sure that everyone communicates okay, that people get fed and taken care of and bandaged if something goes wrong, and everything else that doesn't mean beating people up."
He slanted a look at both Karla and Wesley.
"Which is important sometimes," he added. "You can't fix all problems by hitting them."
That wasn't meant as a malicious stab, though, and he was smiling through it.
"But today, we want to talk about what you can do, and not just us."
Karla grinned and nodded at Dolf's comment. "That's true, so after my introduction, we'll be turning the floor over to you. I'm Karla, a junior, and I'm from the Territory Glacia in the Realm Kaeleer--don't worry if none of you have heard of it. I'm heading up the Magic Reserves. That's a catch-all for anyone with powers of any sort--magic, mutation, spells, summons, materia--whatever. The three groups are going to be working together to form one integrated whole, so whenever something attacks, we can all work together as a unit, no matter what our personal skills are. Speaking of, please don't worry if you don't think you have any useful skills right now--we're here for learning just as much as practice and we welcome people to hang out and watch. Also, feel free to share only as much as you're comfortable with; we want you to feel welcomed and included more than anything else."
She gestured to the tables of food and smiled. "So, please feel free to help yourself to some snacks and things and let's talk about who you are and what we all would like to see from these groups, okay?"
[Co-written with the usual suspects. Please to be pretending this is in the right comm. *facepalms* OCD up!]
When they got there, they would see that not everything had changed; there were still tables set up with
"Welcome to the first meeting of the combined Reserves," she said, once it seemed like everyone had arrived. "As those of you who have been here awhile already know, sometimes the island isn't always the safest place to be. There are occasional attacks and incursions--some are tiny and almost silly, some are big and dangerous and possibly even life-threatening. The Reserves were formed a few years back for to help us prepare and train for these invasions; to work together as a group. Whether your strengths lie in the area of fighting with weapons, having powers, taking care of others, or even research, there's a spot for you here. No matter what your skills are, we'll probably see something that requires them to be defeated."
Taking that as a cue, Wesley cleared his throat. "As Karla mentioned, all sorts of abilities are useful," he continued. "The Reserves were formerly broken down into separate groups -- Martial as well as Magic and Support -- but we'll now be meeting together, with Karla and Dolf and myself leading subsections."
Pause as he took a sip of water and tried to stealthily sweep a number of suspicious-looking cookies from the table into a garbage can. Sadly for the teal deer, one of them missed and landed on the ground. Those poor, poor teal deer never had a chance.
"Er. My name is Wesley Wyndam-Pryce. I'm from Southern Hampshire in England, I'm a senior, and I'll be running the, ah, martial branch. We'll go over weaponry, general strategy, and that sort of thing."
He looked to his fellow leaders to take over.
"And I'm Dolf Wega," Dolf said, giving everyone a bit of a wave. He looked somewhat more comfortable with himself now that he was leading a crowd again; his shoulders were relaxed. "I'm from Amstelveen in the Netherlands, which is across the ocean..." He'd encountered a few people who were from different universes by now, "...so sorry if I get something wrong. I'm leading the Support services and I have been for a while. We make sure that everyone communicates okay, that people get fed and taken care of and bandaged if something goes wrong, and everything else that doesn't mean beating people up."
He slanted a look at both Karla and Wesley.
"Which is important sometimes," he added. "You can't fix all problems by hitting them."
That wasn't meant as a malicious stab, though, and he was smiling through it.
"But today, we want to talk about what you can do, and not just us."
Karla grinned and nodded at Dolf's comment. "That's true, so after my introduction, we'll be turning the floor over to you. I'm Karla, a junior, and I'm from the Territory Glacia in the Realm Kaeleer--don't worry if none of you have heard of it. I'm heading up the Magic Reserves. That's a catch-all for anyone with powers of any sort--magic, mutation, spells, summons, materia--whatever. The three groups are going to be working together to form one integrated whole, so whenever something attacks, we can all work together as a unit, no matter what our personal skills are. Speaking of, please don't worry if you don't think you have any useful skills right now--we're here for learning just as much as practice and we welcome people to hang out and watch. Also, feel free to share only as much as you're comfortable with; we want you to feel welcomed and included more than anything else."
She gestured to the tables of food and smiled. "So, please feel free to help yourself to some snacks and things and let's talk about who you are and what we all would like to see from these groups, okay?"
[Co-written with the usual suspects. Please to be pretending this is in the right comm. *facepalms* OCD up!]
Re: Arrive and Mingle
Date: 2011-09-23 12:56 am (UTC)Warren had spent the rest of that night eating nightmare cupcakes and trying not to sob.
"I think, if she thought that cod liver oil would be at all a good idea, she'd find some."
Re: Arrive and Mingle
Date: 2011-09-23 01:04 am (UTC)Maybe she'd see three squirrels she hated.
"Um, well, we always knew she was ... special."
Just, usually that was a good thing.
Re: Arrive and Mingle
Date: 2011-09-23 01:15 am (UTC)Yes. Yes, he was pouting.
"Because she's very special. And so we can kind of... forgive... this."
Oh, dear. That seemed to be another cookie, slipping between his fingers and hitting the dirt with a vengeance. Awkward claws, right? He was so still getting used to them.
"Or at least deal with it."
That slight shifting of weight wasn't Warren grinding the cookie into the ground with his foot, why would you think that?
Re: Arrive and Mingle
Date: 2011-09-23 01:23 am (UTC)"Wait. What's on your fingers?"
She hadn't really looked, before.
Re: Arrive and Mingle
Date: 2011-09-23 01:34 am (UTC)"It's... kind of a long story," he murmured. "A bunch of people on the island got sick this summer, and... stuff went kind of weird, and..."
Yeah. Yeah, words weren't quite happening, so he held out a hand for her to look at, hooked, black, almost feline claws and all.
"Not all of it went away."
Re: Arrive and Mingle
Date: 2011-09-23 01:47 am (UTC)Re: Arrive and Mingle
Date: 2011-09-23 01:54 am (UTC)And then, all at once, he was pocketing his hand and attempting another smile that fell short, again.
"Inside your head...? Summer still getting to you?"
Re: Arrive and Mingle
Date: 2011-09-23 01:58 am (UTC)Aaaaaawkward silence.
"Mostly I'm okay, just not -- one hundred percent. You know?"
Re: Arrive and Mingle
Date: 2011-09-23 02:11 am (UTC)"Yeah, I think I know what you mean. Healing doesn't really happen overnight, right?"
Which was why he hadn't slept all week. But coffee and a healing factor seemed to be keeping him from looking too dead on his feet, so at least he had that much, right?
Re: Arrive and Mingle
Date: 2011-09-23 01:12 pm (UTC)She glanced at him, recognizing the real sympathy. "Probably not for you, either."
Re: Arrive and Mingle
Date: 2011-09-23 01:32 pm (UTC)Re: Arrive and Mingle
Date: 2011-09-23 01:58 pm (UTC)Re: Arrive and Mingle
Date: 2011-09-23 05:26 pm (UTC)"There's been some stuff," he replied, "but it's nothing you really have to worry about. Just... messy things in other worlds, mostly. Nothing that I shouldn't be able to walk away from."
Re: Arrive and Mingle
Date: 2011-09-23 05:41 pm (UTC)Which might or might not have been relevant, but apparently this was share-your-issues time.
Re: Arrive and Mingle
Date: 2011-09-23 06:40 pm (UTC)Since they were sharing their issues anyhow, he figured he might as well share that much, right?
"I'm supposed to talk to people about it, apparently it helps, but I'm kind of terrible at that, too."
Re: Arrive and Mingle
Date: 2011-09-23 07:18 pm (UTC)Re: Arrive and Mingle
Date: 2011-09-23 07:28 pm (UTC)Which mostly meant that Warren had no coping skills.
Re: Arrive and Mingle
Date: 2011-09-23 08:10 pm (UTC)Re: Arrive and Mingle
Date: 2011-09-23 08:18 pm (UTC)Okay, by trying to take away his wings, sure, but Warren could see how it would seem like the less of two evils, if his father was aware of how mutants were persecuted.
"I didn't grow up fighting. That kind of puts me in a minority, around here."
Re: Arrive and Mingle
Date: 2011-09-23 08:31 pm (UTC)Re: Arrive and Mingle
Date: 2011-09-23 08:42 pm (UTC)"Are we standing here and talking about how we have no right to be upset about things?" Because that kind of seemed like what they were doing. Which was... silly. Their depression was every bit as legitimate as anyone's. Just... not if you were going around making comparisons. "I think that just means we're bottling it, doesn't it?"
Because Warren totally hadn't been bottling anything before this conversation, sure.
Re: Arrive and Mingle
Date: 2011-09-23 09:10 pm (UTC)Re: Arrive and Mingle
Date: 2011-09-23 09:19 pm (UTC)Re: Arrive and Mingle
Date: 2011-09-23 11:29 pm (UTC)Re: Arrive and Mingle
Date: 2011-09-23 11:32 pm (UTC)... Probably sometime when she seemed to be doing okay, herself. He wasn't going to dump exploded kids and attempted genocide in her lap right now.