Gilded Halls ★ IC

[Kanzler]

Evan Kyong - Dark to Dark

"Oof." Evan felt one knee, then the other, touch the ground. His arms, torso and chin quickly followed. The last thing he saw was Dom's mechanical legs propelling his lethargic body forwards with firm resolve and clockwork motion.

---

When he awoke again, the clouds were tinted pink. By the time he finished inching back to the school building, the sky had been painted red. The grounds had long been deserted, and it looked like the students had retreated for the night. His stomach gnawed at him. Evan glanced at his left wrist but just noticed that he did not have a watch. Regardless of the time of day, it was clear that Evan had missed the second period – and consequently the entire first day of class. The cheerful grapefruit glow followed him down the white stone pathway, between the trees, and through the door.

---

He was hungry, so hungry. Evan pulled open the refrigerator door. It was stocked chock full with food – food, food, but not a bite to eat! For it had just occurred to Evan that he had no cooking skills whatsoever. During his academy days, he had always been fed well by the mess hall. Even in the prison camp, his rations were served by guards. Other than roasting morsels of meat over a fire, Evan had never cooked before, especially not with this, this, "civilian" equipment such as spatulas and graters and electric mixers. In his defense, he did have some skill in operating a propane stove, and he could boil his ration bags to the required one-hundred degrees Celsius. Now that he thought about it, he was only on ration duty in the field exactly one time. Evan shook his head. Here he was, presented with a cornucopia of wholesome food, and yet with all his survival training he would still starve. (I'm so unprepared for civilian life – at least there are carrots and tomatoes, hmm…) He ended up cooking up a meal replacement shake, which would hopefully last him until breakfast next morning.

---

The steaming water purged him of the funk slathered on over the course of the day. Evan rubbed his face vigorously, feeling liquid flowing through his hair and vapour nipping at his back. He stepped out of the shower cleansed and refreshed.

---

The door to the washroom creaked open as wet slippers sloshed onto the wooden flooring. Dom was asleep, with his body turned towards the wall. He slept as heavy as he looked. Evan walked past him and stuck his head through the blinds. The moon was beautiful, its full circle bright, glowing down upon rustling leaves in the trees, sparkling upon gentle tides in the pool. The stars danced upon a black stage. There were so many of them, and they made Evan feel small.

---

The covers were warm but the room was cold as Evan settled down in bed for the night. The blinds swayed softly with the wind as he drifted out of mind once again, this time to the tune of ten million stars or moons or fireflies swinging away under a disco ball and a scarlet beauty…
​

 

[Cordelia]

Ginevra Morrigan - Room 7

The girl in the mirror stared back at her, an angry disgusted look disgraced her features and she knew that the black eye looked bad. Not just bad... awful. A sigh escaped her lips as she blow dried her hair after her shower. Ginny wasn't one to fight or anything, but he had just pushed every button she had and it had just happened. The bruise around her eye throbbed and she winced when she brought her finger to it to trace its outline.

Now that her hair was dry, she started to apply some makeup on the bruise to cover it up. Unfortunately, there was no truly hiding it and the ugly black and blue bruise seemed to push through the makeup. She sighed once again and left the bathroom to get dressed for the day.

The headmaster had mentioned switching her room, but she had yet to hear any details of it. Instead of heading out of her room for the probable lesson, she decided that packing up her belongings would be a prudent course of action. If it turned out that jackass, er, Jamie was moving, it wouldn't be too hard to unpack once again. It's not like she had had much time to settle in anyway, as she had just arrived yesterday.

Today, she had decided on a pair of denim Capri short pants with a red tee. Her hair was down to do it's best to hide the ugly bruise on her face, but unfortunately there was no way that was going to truly happen. After her belongings were all packed up, she wheeled her suitcase beside her bed and stood it up. It was time to wander around and see what kind of lesson she'd be facing this morning.

 

[Sephear]

William Coenen - Room 1: A new day, new challenges and new conundrums

​

He paddled his feet and cut through the water with ease and found that he could breathe as if he were in the freshest air surrounded by flowers. In front of him he saw various bits of subterranean land and then another sight, he saw Selena and Matthias and Ginevra...but their legs had been replaced by large tails with fins, they beckoned to him, he thought the two girls couldn't look more beautiful and Matthias had taken on a regal kingly look. He waved back as he swam skillfully up to them and they all took off, marveling at the wonderful sights, eventually the other three found an abandoned ship and waited for him to join him, but as he made his way to the hulk and peered inside all he saw was a cieling. "Guys what kind of ship is this?" But his friends were gone and he felt cloth instead of water and as confusion filled his mind his vision was also filled...with a room.

Will's eyes opened and he sat up. "Wha? Oh...right...Always wake up right when things get the most interesting..." It only took him a moment to realize Selena was already gone and it didn't worry him. "Needs lots of sunlight right?" But then a thought occured to him. I understand Matt and Selena...but why was Crimson Mane McMilesoflegs there? We barely spoke...I wouldn't even say we're friends yet...huh. The more he thought about the dream the less he understood it, before long he forgot how beautiful the girls had been in his dream and decided it was time to focus on the day ahead. Will hopped out of bed excitedly and stretched, having showered right before bed he didn't feel he needed another one just yet, but he could have sweated in his sleep so he put some deodorant on and combed his hair to tame the curls as much as possible. He wasn't very successful.

The self-enigma left Room 1 wondering what the day had in store for him but before he could make any other decisions his body made one for him. Grumble grumble rgrgrgrg Liam patted his belly. "Right...most important meal of the day and all that Jazz." It didn't take him very long to saunter over to the kitchen and he quickly noticed his first friend preparing some snackage to start the day. "Hey Mer-Bro....hmm or maybe Mermatt...Merthias? Whatever, getting some food there? Mind if I join you?" He got a plate, some bread, smeared some mustard and mayo on it, slapped some meat and cheese on top of that and dug in. Over the meager sandwich Liam described to Matthias the parts of his dream he remembered and laughed when he was finished telling it. "Man...it's always right when the best part is coming that I wake up, my mind may be masochistic, by the way you looked like a badass, I almost thought you were King Neptune...for some reason I was still a human but I could also breathe underwater."

After the bit of food was done with Will patted Matthias on the shoulder and made his way towards the man hall and the exit. "Hey I'm gonna head out for a stroll, it looks like a beautiful day." He began his trip to the wonderful sunlit world of the outside but when he passed the lift to the second 4 rooms of Valiant House he noticed someone he hadn't expected to see, yet another resident of his most recent aquatic dream sequence. He looked down and decided not to talk to Ginny, he didn't need to be a befuddled idiot again, but it just so happens powerful eyes are conducive to noticing things, and in his peripherals a splotch of purple barely there caught Will's eye. He raised his head and looked her in the eye, it was too late not to speak now, and besides he blurted out before he could think. "Whoah whoah, who hit you? Was it a guy? Because...not that I'm not sure you're tough but men hitting women still makes me sick...This may sound familiar but are you alright?" He realized this was all too similar to how their first conversation had started, probably made him seem like a wannabe knight loser but he didn't care, it was too late.

 

[Sir Bastian]

Matthias Winston – Valiant House: Lounge area

Matthias yawned again before taking another bite of his breakfast, blinking his eyes slowly more and more awake as he sat in one of the lounge chairs in the middle of the large hall-like room. He jumped a little as William patted his shoulder and sat down next to him with his own breakfast, calling him 'Merthias', which caused him to blink in confusion. Matthias gave him a smile and chatted with him about the dream, letting out a chuckle and a snicker here and there at the tale.

"Weird. I've had some pretty weird dreams myself, but I haven't been in someone else's before. Don't think I'd like living under the sea, aside from the singing crabs and whatnot, but eh." William then got up and gave his shoulder a pat, Matthias sending him a smile and raising a hand to give him a little wave. "Alright, I'll see you around. I think we've got some kind of lesson about now, so I suppose I'll see you there."

Once William had taken off and Matthias had finished eating his bread, he got up, cleaned off his plate and headed back into his room, moving out into the bathroom. He got the front tips of his dark-blue hair gelled up and pulled up into the little 'spikes' they usually were in. Once that was done, he pulled out the schedule from the little bag he'd gotten, reading it over. "… Duelling. Huh." He took note of the location, behind the main building, and tucked the schedule into his pocket after folding it up.

Yawning again, he stepped out of the room and out of Valiant House, making his way across the grassy fields around the main building while glancing about himself, looking at the bushes, trees, small pathways here and there, as well as listening to the birds flying about above, chirping away happily. He stretched out and rolled his head on his shoulders as he neared the corner of the main building. "Nrgh. Bliver underligt at vænne sig til at stå op så tidligt…" (Translation: 'It'll be weird to get used to get up so early…')

 

[Meganium]

Selena Bravo - Room 1, Outside

It was 7:30 am, Selena got a good amount of sunlight to get through the morning at least. Quietly she returned inside the building and headed straight to Room 1. Most of the students were already awake and either eating breakfast or just hanging out until the first class. Selena was becoming a little late, as she hasn't even entered the shower yet. As she entered the room, Liam had already left...but his side of the room was messier than Selena's. Selena shook her head slowly and began to take time to clean her side of the room by fixing her bed and picking up any things that were left on the floor. She wasn't as certain what time the lesson actually started, but she took her time. She never rushed.

A quick 10 minute shower cooled her off from her two hour sunbathe, and she was looking forward to go under the sun again. She left the bath room with her wet light brown hair, up in a bun, with two strands of hair hanging on the sides of her face. She didn't put on make up, because she didn't feel like it. Her natural looks were enough for her to go out in the morning. A nice green top with skinny jeans, and her famous leather boots just to finish her look. She had pink bracelets to match up the pink heart design on her green shirt.

As she finally exited the room, she went straight to the kitchen to grab a piece of fruit. It was sufficient for her to eat at least a piece of fruit, as most of her diet is water. She also found a gallon of water in the refrigerator and drank the whole thing in a snap. She had vibes of worry that she would be thirsty right after. She immediately left the gallon in the sink and left the kitchen with her fruit.

The sounds from the outside drew near as Selena headed outside to find her class. The next lesson was taking place outside, as it was a Duel class. Selena took out a piece of vine from her wrist, thinking that with her vines, she would take out her opponents. But what opponents will she face? She was hoping for dummies. If she were to face real opponents, it would be more of a life & death duel. She sighed as she continued her way to the outdoors.
​

 

[Sephear]

William Coenen and Ginevra Morrigan

​

Ginny stopped and looked over to William, and as she did more of the bruise was showing and she frowned a little and looked down, "I, uh... got into the fight... it's kind of both of our faults." Her eyes were cast downward and she admitted, "I'm okay, just a bit bruised. To be honest, I started the hitting, but he definitely deserved it." She looked towards her room and smirked, "I think the headmaster is splitting us up... since Jamie and I just can't seem to get along."

"Oh." Was all that left Will's lips for a moment, but he smiled when he realized she must not be too lonely. "That really is a shame, I'm kinda surprised since he seemed to get along with well enough with that other guy...But hey, I bet your dinner with angel went nicely right?" He smiled warmly, figuring it must have been pleasant with how kind and gentle Angel was.

"Yeah." Ginevra smiled a bit, remembering spending time with Angel, of whom she was already quite fond. "She's really awesome and interesting. I hope we get to spend some more time together." Not really liking the hair in her face, she brushed it away and for the slightest moment, the full extent of her black eye was revealed, the bruise had basically eaten through the makeup and was now extremely prominent. She winced when her fingers brushed against it, "This is so awful. This thing will be here forever, I bet! And the little bastard is probably off laughing somewhere thinking he won.

Will's smile grew stronger when she laughed, for some reason he felt a lot more comfortable this time. "That's more like it, girls are always prettier when you're smiling, besides, I like the sound of girls voices." He grew thoughtful for a moment when she mentioned the lesson. "You know that's a good question, I have no idea, I must be more of a slacker than I thought, class didn't cross my mind once this morning till you mentioned it. I was just going to go for a walk. I bet whatever it is it's interesting with just a hint of the insane."

"Most likely." Ginny looked towards the door, "I guess we should go find out. Besides, my stupid roommate might be back any time and I don't want to be anywhere near him." She growled a bit at the mere thought of him -- running into him would be nothing short of a disaster. Usually, she wasn't so aggressive towards others but he was just that damned special... and unlucky.

"I suppose so." Will shrunk back a bit at the tone of her voice but he kept his expression positive, he held the door open for her and gestured towards the sunlight. "Shall we?"

A joint post with the lovely Mac.​

 

[Kanzler]

Evan Kyong – Reveille

0700: Evan awakes.

0705: Evan is changed into exercise gear, a green all-cotton T-shirt and 7-inch athletic shorts. He pulls out his crosstrainers and a hooded pull-over for the chilly morning air.

0710: Evan begins his morning run straight out of Valiant Hall. He takes the tarmac path behind the courtyard.

0730: Four kilometres later, Evan is back at Valiant Hall. He ditches the pull-over and whips up a breakfast shake with a raw egg, milk, banana, and protein powder. He relaxes in the garden to let his meal digest for a while.

0800: Evan begins his calisthenics: pushups, crunches, pullups and leg dips.

0820: Evan is hot and sweaty and back in Room 8.

0830: Evan is no longer sweaty after a shower.

---

(We danced the night away, didn't we.)

Evan looked on at the field knowingly as he stretched in preparation for what he guessed to be a very physical lesson. He's seen them before, but he was never sure what to call them: automata, robots, mannequins, training dummies – whatever they were, they looked larger than life. The silliness of their ragdoll appearance was matched by the fluidness of their movements. Uncannily dangerous, the oddity of their presence was enough to signal a threat in Evan's subconscious. But of course, they were purposefully for training.

Evan knew this. He worked with them back at the military academy. The dummies there were boasted to be the very "state of the art", the result of decades of physiological, control engineering and artificial intelligence research. These, however, seemed more than mere imitation. Calling them humanoid would be a misrepresentation, and calling them artificial would be missing the point.

While nothing could beat the realism of a human opponent, dummies did allow students to train with full force all of the time. They could be used, or abused, on hard surfaces without fear of concussion. They could be programmed or even randomized, making every fight fresh and preventing over-training on a select group of opponents. They also allowed students to take a fight to a very real finish. Evan knew this as well.

The sharp smell of fresh-cut grass made his nostrils flare. He raised his arm to guard in anticipation. The doll mirrored his movements. He began bouncing and shifting his stance around. He threw the first jab.

As his knuckle hairs barely brushed against his opponent's chest, Evan instinctively sliced forwards, following with a straight punch, then a left hook, then a knee. The momentum knocked the doll to the ground, and Evan was quickly on top of its torso, pounding away with fist and elbow strikes. The doll stopped moving. Taking this as a sign of his victory, Evan got up, but not before giving the doll an extra elbow to the throat, just to make sure. (On to Level Two.)

The doll rebounded furiously, sending a barrage of punches towards Evan's upper body. A rush of adrenaline surged down to his toes, adding spring into every bounce. In spite of this of his muscles felt slow in responding, like a rusty anchor stubbornly resisting push and pull. He tried to deflect the strikes, but couldn't help feeling that his blocks were not up to tempo. His movements trailed the doll's blows and he took a loud thump to his right cheek, sending him sprawling into the grass.

Evan scrambled on his hands and knees, straddling the chalk boundary, desperate to gain some space from the doll and a sliver of time to think. He evaded, moving around the square, taking time to relax and limber up.

Resuming its assault, the doll fired another flurry of fists at Evan – but this time he was ready. The speed and the snaking movements of the doll reminded him of Wing Chun. Was the doll speeding up? Even though he was relaxed and ready, Evan felt like he couldn't keep up again, and the distance was closing. He felt blows on his face, neck and torso. They were light, certainly no knockout punches, but they were many, and they began to wear him down. Evan fired his knee at what should have been a person's groin and pushed the doll to the ground. Suddenly, it grabbed his shirt and brought him down with it.

Triangle choke. The doll struggled for a moment, and then it was still. Even though he was breathing heavily, Evan managed to sigh in relief. His years of hand-to-hand combat training had surely paid off. If not for that sudden submission, Evan wasn't sure if he would be able to win over his worthy opponent. The doll didn't get back up again. (I guess that means warm up's over.)

The sun was now fully in the sky as Evan stood up, looking for someone to spar with next, or at least someone to sit down beside.​

 

[Ozymandias]

Dominic "Dom" Irving - The Sleeping Giant Awakes

"No you're cuter! Come on baby you know you are!" The giant cyborg lay in his bed mumbling to himself. A piece of lint flies into his wide open mouth and results in what sounds like a lion choking up a hairball. "Ghaaa!!! What in the?!" Dom's head flew up as the sleeping giant awoke from his slumber."

The certainly groggy face turned a bright red color when he realized what he had been dreaming of. Damn... I hope that I hadn't been sleep talking again. His eyes scanned the room to look for his little asian roomate but, no such body was to be seen. Guess he went out already? Dominic stood up and stretched a bit. "Time to get to work!" He said as he let himself drop to the floor with a bang loud enouh that could've been heard back in Riverdale. The humongous boy's arms pumped himself up and down as he went through his morning exercises.

------------------------After 1,000 Push Ups and Sit Ups-------------------------​

Sweat drenched Dom's entire body, making his silver prosthetics shine in the sunlight leaking through the room. The scottish robot stripped down and walked into the empty bathroom. He turned the water to an ice cold temperature before stepping in.

Quite the interesting first day. Water splashed onto his body as he reminisced on his first day at the strange school. I should get friendly with some people though... Interactions with Grace, Ginny, and Evan weren't really that great. He gave a small sigh and let the water hit his head. "Well.. today's a new day." Dom twisted the knob of the shower until the water came to a halt. Grabbed the towel from it's rack and walked out of the bathroom.

The sun shone brightly as it relentlesly beat down on Dom with it's heat. He squinted his eyes as he looked for where the current class was being held. A metal foot stepped forward with a clank and then a shoe would step forward in silence. The pattern continued until a thought hit him. Why wasn't I using my schedule...? He shook his head while laughing at himself, and pulled out the schedule from his pocket. "Dueling at the fields, eh? Sounds like my type of class." Dominic grinned and walked towards the fields with a clang from every other step.​

 

[Nathan]

Nathan Steele and Evan Kyong

Nathan turned around on his bed. It seemed the sun rose in the sky and thus, put an end to his peaceful sleep. He didn't want to get up, the bed was so comfy. He had never slept like this in a long time but he had to wake up. He arose from his bed, he was always grumpy if he didn't have plenty of sleep. He searched for Alicea on her side but didn't find her. Was she already up? No, she would have notified him. He started to feel like a real jerk for leaving her like this, she was defenseless. He got up and cleaned himself up. He had to search for her. He put a black shirt with the "Linkin Park" logo on it and his usual black pants. He left his room, starting his search.

There didn't seem to be anyone on the field, although Evan swore he caught a glimpse of a girl in green. Perhaps it was how the doll was beating him about and how vividly the grass and trees seemed to move. Slightly disappointed at how his third class was going, Evan walked back to Valiant Hall. (This better not become a habit.) A boy stood outside of the door to Room 4. He was tall, muscular, and had brown hair. Evan called out to him. "Hey Dom!"

Nathan heard some random calling his friend loudly. Oh God, he couldn't be bothered by him right now. But then, he noticed the boy was looking at him. Did he took him for his friend? He didn't remember even meeting this Asian guy. Better be sure. "Erm, are you calling me? I don't remember having met you and my name is certainly not Dom. I'm Nathan."

(Oh that's awkward.) "Ehh, hey Nathan!" Evan's face froze. "Sorry, there just happens to be another large looking fellow around here, and he happens to be my roommate too." He found it hard to maintain eye contact. (I guess that means Dom's still asleep.) "You heading to class?"

Nathan looked at the guy, he seemed to be embarrassed. Well he would have been embarrassed too if this happened to him. "That's nothing haha. You just made an error. Hmm, I wasn't exactly going to class now. What about you?"

"I just came from class!" Evan chuckled. "I was the only one there. Maybe I'll go back when there's more of us? Speaking of which, I haven't met most of us yet." He studied Nathan's deportment carefully. "Are you looking for someone?"

So he just came back from class. He was kinda surprised that it was already over. Then he was reminded of Alicea, if only he hadn't let her alone this day."Yes, I was. What about you? Looking for a Dom?"

"Ha, I guess. Come, let's look for her together." Evan realized he wanted to look for a "her" of his own as well. But that could wait.

Nathan really appreciated the help from that guy he didn't know of. That was kinda welcomed. "Thanks a lot. I never knew of your name by the way."

"I'm Evan. Let's go."

This was better to come along with a newly-found friend. Maybe it was too early to call him a friend yet. "I left her at the pool but I guess she must have been to class without me."