Dormitory; Krikor's Room

Krikor followed Yumiya's finger to his bedroom, wondering how he didn't see it earlier. "Thanks," he said, walking into his room and looking around a bit. He opened the minor bag of holding he had at his waist and pulled some clothes out of it. He didn't have much, since all of the things he could put inside the bag had to be able to clear the mouth of the bag, and since the bag could only hold 50 pounds at most, but he pulled what clothes he had out of it.

He took out his formal suit first, black in color, and a bit wrinkled from how he'd had to put it into the bag, but he laid it out (with a formal shirt, pants, and a tie, as well as a pair of black shoes to go with it) on his bed. He looked through the closet in the room for some coat hangers, and, upon finding them, hung up the clothes he'd laid out on the bed.

Next, he reached into the bag again, this time retrieving a pair of jeans and a black turtleneck, both folded as neatly as possible with the restrictions that the bag imposed. With them was a pair of black casual shoes, which Krikor also took from the bag. He closed the door to his room and took off his armor, figuring he'd wear what he just took out. He put the turtleneck on first, then the jeans, then the shoes, deciding to put Ashcroft back on his right hand after he'd gotten the turtleneck on. "Better to have him and not need him..." he thought.

After Krikor was done dressing, his minor bag of holding next to his armor on the floor of his room (in a neat pile, of course, with his greatsword leaning against the wall next to the armor), he went back into the kitchen where Yumiya was. "Ready to go?" he asked.

"Just about," he responded, finishing up with the last bit of rinsing and drying of the dishes. Since there weren't many, it didn't take very long at all. After drying his hands and putting the wares back where they belong, Yumiya would walk to the door. "Alright, let's go to the office." He opened the door and checked to make sure he had his key card so that he could get back in. "Make sure you have your key card!" he reminded Krikor, "if you have one, that is." He wasn't sure if Tear gave him one or not, but if he didn't, certainly they could get one for him when they went to his office. Either way, he would set off downstairs, catching the elevator as not to waste anymore time.

"I wasn't given one, so I'll be sure to stick close to you," Krikor said with a laugh, following Yumiya down the hall and into the elevator. "Which floor is it on?" he asked, looking over the buttons inside the elevator.

"All the way at the bottom," he responded, "We have to get off and head to the Death Corridor; the darker side of the school. I find it a little creepy, myself." Tear's room, especially gave Yumiya the creeps, since it was the darkest room and was really, really, unnaturally quiet most of the time, save for that water. "Something about it is really unnerving, yet unusually peaceful and relaxing. It makes me not know how to feel about it." Yumiya ended up pressing the button that took them to the Lobby. "We have to first go to the Lobby, since all of the classrooms and offices are on the same floor."

--- Couple Hour Timeskip ---

After a full day of getting acquainted, familiarizing with the school, staff and students as well as with themselves and their classes, the duo would return back to their dormitory. Yumiya swiped his card key and opened the door, walking inside. "Phew! Home at last!" It was good to be back in the comfort of the dorm room, where he knew his bed was waiting for him. "I'm going to go to bed, Krikor. Feel free to help yourself to whatever's in the fridge, like I said, and to get comfortable with the space." Yumiya wanted to talk bout their progress a little bit, as well as Krikor's situation, but was just feeling really beat right now. Must have been the 'unlocking of the soul' that took most of his energy from him... It felt different, he had to admit... As did he. "Goodnight!" he said, walking into his room opposite of Krikor's, shutting the door behind him.

(At this point, you are free to post as often as you like on your own without waiting for me.)

"Goodnight, Yumiya," Krikor called after him as Yumiya headed to his room. He took a deep breath to try to clear his head and headed into his room.

Inside his bedroom, Krikor began to undress, going to his minor bag of holding again to retrieve his pajama pants. He took off the clothes he was currently wearing, folded them neatly, and put them inside the dresser in his room, with the exception of Ashcroft, who he put next to the rest of his gear.

After putting his pajama pants on, Krikor decided to unpack the rest of his things. He reached into the bag again, pulling out a few paperback books and looking over the titles. He had an anatomy book on humans and near-humans like elves and dwarves, a book of short science fiction stories by Isaac Asimov, a transcript of the Armenian Divine Liturgy, and a copy of the four Gospels, each of which he put on the bookshelf in his room in turn. "It's not much," he thought, "but it's looking homier."

Afterwards, Krikor turned off the lights in his room, turning on the lamp on the nightstand next to his bed. He pulled back the covers on his bed and got inside, pulling the covers up to his ribs. He looked down at his chest and took the locket that was dangling from around his neck, opening up the heart-shaped piece of jewelry to reveal the picture of a red-haired woman with one green eye and one blue one smiling at the viewer. "Goodnight, my angel," he whispered to the picture. "There's been a slight delay, but I promise I'm still looking for you." With that, he kissed the picture, closed the locket, turned the lamp off, and drifted off to sleep.

That night, Krikor had a very vivid dream of his past, as he often did after having a flashback like he did in the Soul Room.  In it, he was inside a suite in some sort of luxury building, a city twinkling below him outside of his window, the full moon shining high in the sky.  "This is strange," he thought, "I was sure I would have dreamed of Earth-1282 after what happened today."  He looked down at himself and saw that he was dressed in a tuxedo, as if he were ready to go to a formal event.

While Krikor was thinking, he heard a door open from behind him.  He turned around and saw the same red-haired woman from his locket, her hair done in a hime cut, wearing a firey red ballgown and gloves.  She smiled at him, her two mismatched eyes -- one green and one blue -- sparkling in the light from the room.  "How do I look?" she asked, still smiling, her lips the color of cherries.

"Beautiful, as always," Krikor replied, glad that he could see her again, even though he knew it was just a dream.  He strode over to her and took her right hand in his, kissing it as she giggled.  "The lipstick is an interesting touch, by the way -- I've never seen you wear it before," he commented.  "Is it you, or is it actual makeup?"

"Oh please," she said with a scoff, "like I'd seriously use my ability for something so petty.  It's actual makeup, so it's one less thing I have to concentrate on.  We're supposed to have fun tonight, remember?"

"I plan to, don't you worry," Krikor replied, smiling at her.  "Care for one dance before we go, just to make sure I remember what to do?"

"We'd better," she said with a laugh, walking over to a stereo in the room with an MP3 player hooked up to it, and pressing play.  A waltz tune began to play through the stereo, and Krikor put his right hand on her hip and took the other in his left hand.  She put her left hand on his shoulder and put her right hand in his left, and the two began to Viennese waltz around the suite, with Krikor being mindful of everything the woman had taught him about dancing.

The song played on, and as it finished, the two of them realized that their eyes were closed for most of the dance.  They slowly opened their eyes, looked deep into one another's, and kissed.  They only broke for a moment, whereupon the woman whispered, "I love you, Krikor."

"I love you, too, Lorelei," Krikor whispered back.

Suddenly, Krikor woke up.  He noticed some wetness on his face, and reached up to touch it.  He realized it was from a single tear rolling down from his left eye.  He sighed and rubbed his eyes, trying to remember the dream he'd had and keep it close to his heart.  "You're your own worst enemy, Hovsepian," he muttered softly to himself, "having dreams like that."  He rolled onto his side, shut his eyes, and fell asleep again.

(That was very good! I just wanted you to get the feeling of RPing as comfortably alone as you would with others, since sometimes, you'll be on your own, progressing your own story by yourself. I just wanted to make sure you got the feel of it, and knew you could break away from whatever anyone else is doing at any time in order to pursue your own story as you see fit. It was beautiful, by the way. I'm glad you're getting adjusted to it so well!)

Eventually, after what seemed to be a long night, the morning came and the sun shone through the single window that was in the living room. Fortunately, they had a dorm that had a window and wasn't located in the center of the building. Yumiya groggily came to a wake, yawning and scratching his head sleepily. "Mmm... I'm still tired..." He didn't want to get out of bed, but he kinda felt like he should. As most tired people do when they're contemplating getting out of bed, he sat there in a daze for a little while, motionless, almost like a zombie... Before falling back down and into slumber. "Mmm... Maybe... 5 more.. min...zzz..."

((Thanks! I was hoping it would be up to snuff. I figured it would give some background about Krikor, plus it might lead to some plot hooks in the future.))

For his part, Krikor had been up since the crack of dawn. He started his day with some exercise -- 100 one-handed push-ups (50 with each arm), 100 sit-ups, and 100 mountain climbers -- before leaving his bedroom to take a shower, trying to be quiet about it so he wouldn't wake Yumiya up. It didn't seem like he had, so he was thankful for that. While he waited for Yumiya to get up, he did a bit of light reading from the Gospels, then, after an hour or so, he decided to make breakfast for himself and Yumiya. He went to the kitchen and looked in the fridge, found some eggs, and decided to make scrambled eggs for the two of them. He promptly got to work, thinking that if Yumiya wasn't up by the time they were done, he'd wake him up himself.

Yumiya continued to lazily sleep his morning away, as the long day before had worn him out. He was totally pooped and ready to have a nice sleep in... That is, until he smelled some sort of food that irked his stomach.

*grrrrrrrmmm~*

The very sound of it was enough to bring his tired eyes open, before the wafting aroma of eggs got him off his ass and out of bed. "Mmmm~!!! Something smells goooood..." He rubbed his eyes and threw off the comforter, ready to go see what Krikor was cooking in the kitchen.

"Good morning, Krikor...!" he said with a tired enthusiasm, "... Early bird, I see, huh..? Hahaha..." Yumiya shuffled over to the kitchen area, curious to see what his friend was up to. "... What ya got going on over here...~?"

Krikor looked over his shoulder to see Yumiya, who looked like he'd just woken up, coming out of his bedroom. "Morning, Yumiya," he said, turning to face him. "Just making some breakfast for us. How'd you sleep?"

"Mmmm..." he muttered, still kinda groggy, "... Like a rock..." He chuckled softly, then yawned a bit, realizing he was still tired. "Everything that happened yesterday kinda took a lot out of me..." Awakening his soul and learning about how it was used, plus the whole excursion in the Soul Room was a bit much, as well. Not to mention that they'd been out practically all day until the late evening. They'd been busy, but a lot had been accomplished.

"Smells good...!" he said, stretching a bit in order to get the blood flowing and himself more awake, "... I hope it tastes as good as it smells!" he joked casually. Laughing a little bit, thinking about the events that happened yesterday, he was still a bit concerned about Krikor. He looked well, but you never know what someone could be keeping bottled up. "So..." he started, trying to figure out how to ease his way into the conversation, "... You sleep alright? How did you enjoy your first day?"

"My first day? It sure was interesting," he said, turning back to the eggs, which were just about done. "I've already seen things on this world that I couldn't imagine seeing elsewhere. That Tsubaki woman seems alright, and Tifaret seems a bit rough around the edges, but I think her heart's in the right place," Krikor continued, getting out two plates to serve the eggs on. He put some on each plate, gave one to Yumiya, and got out two forks for them to use, again giving one to Yumiya.

He took his food into the living room like they had done with dinner last night and sat down on the couch. Since he hadn't worn a shirt to bed (and was thus not wearing one now), Yumiya would be able to see his locket, as well as a tattoo of a strange four-armed four-legged man on the left side of his chest.

Yumiya took the plate and his utensil, politely saying "Thank you!" before following Krikor to the living room couch and setting his plate on the table. "Yeah, I agree," he said in regards to Tsubaki and Tifaret, "But I think that Tsubaki girl is sort of cute, even if she is a little... Um..." He couldn't think of the word off the top of his head, so he had to go with the next best thing; "Feisty?" He laughed a bit, then started on his food.

He didn't notice it at first, not really paying much mind to Krikor's shirtlessness, but eventually he came across the strange tattoo on his chest. It looked familiar, but still extremely vague to Yumiya. Probably seen it in passing. Though he was still a bit concerned about Krikor's mental condition after what happened before, he figured that if he was doing alright now, then perhaps he should let it be and not pry. Besides, that tattoo looked remarkably interesting. "Hey, Krikor," Yumiya said in between his bite, "What's that strange tattoo on your chest? It looks interesting and familiar, but... I dunno." He continued to eat, waiting for Krikor's answer.

Krikor swallowed the food in his mouth before answering Yumiya's question. "Oh, this?" he replied, looking at the tattoo himself, though admittedly not being able to see it too well because of it being on his chest and all. "Well, it's a long story, so I'll try to give you the short version."

"About 12 years ago, my homeworld was taken over by demons," he began, trying not to relive what had happened too much in his head. "Whoever wasn't killed was enslaved by them, used to work in their factories, their mines, or whatever else they needed more manpower for. Those of us fortunate enough to escape death or slavery, however, formed something of an underground resistance movement to try to reclaim our home. This," he said, motioning to the tattoo, "was a work of art from my homeworld, called the Vitruvian Man, that showed the proportions of an ideal human man. We used it as our insignia, and each of us had it tattooed over our hearts to show that we loved humanity first and foremost."

He took another bite of his food, and said, "That, and it made bodies easier to identify."

Yumiya's eyes grew wide as he was told a little more about Krikor's homeworld and their customs. It seemed a little strange to him because he didn't come from a time of warring or enslavement, but it did make for a cool story. Yumiya, in fact, felt slightly intimidated by the fact that Krikor was someone who went through such a horrible event. "Wooow," Yumiya said with awe, "It's glad you lived to tell the tale..."

He knew that he'd heard of that somewhere; Yumiya was aware of the Vitruvian man, even by name, but still only scarcely. Its symbolism was very deep and meaningful, and thus was something that he found inspiration in for himself. "That's really something..." He couldn't help but to remember Krikor telling him bits and pieces of the events before, and now he was starting to really see the effects of being battle-scarred. However, he was glad that some good came out of it and that Krikor was such a nice person, despite his terrible event. Guess it takes more than trauma to stop being a good person. "It's great that you're okay," he finally added, "I was worried about you yesterday." He finished his eggs, leaning back comfortably and contemplating whether he should take up such a role for humanity, too. If he could heal with his soul, he should probably work on doing that. Perhaps, one day, he'd be able to get rid of Krikor's trauma forever so that he could look back on his memories and not be overwhelmed anymore. A thought in passing, but motivation to keep going down the path of healing nonetheless.

Krikor was touched by what Yumiya said. A small smile played on his lips as he finished his eggs as well. "It means a lot to me that you worry about me, Yumiya," he said. "It's always comforting to know that someone else cares, you know?"

"Ahh... Hahaha...!" His face soon became flushed, eyes darting from side to side. He was a little bit embarrassed about it, it seemed, even though he shouldn't be. He was just a modest and caring person by nature, which he was actually happy someone else noticed about him, as well, in all honesty. "Well... Thanks for noticing, Krikor...!" Unbeknownst to Yumiya, his Aura was expanding over his body again, this time a little bit more than before, the pink outline just a bit thicker around his form. It shouldn't have been apparent to anyone who did not have the power to perceive it by some means, but its general radiation was enough to produce a serene and soothing atmosphere, of sorts. "And... Same to you." The sensation of his Soul expanding was a bit overwhelming, since it came as a powerful surge up and down his spine coupled with an emotion that was felt in high intensity all throughout his body, which served as a 'generator' of sorts for his Wavelength.

Once he saw that they were both done, he figured he ought to put the dishes away quickly. Best not to leave them there, especially since he now felt like getting up and doing them. "Here, let me get that for you..." Yumiya grabbed both plates, utensils atop, and walked back to the kitchen area before placing them into the sink and turning the handle. As he gathered his dish washing materials and lathered his sponge, he figured he'd continue talking. It was nice, and Yumiya felt like he needed to open up a little more. What better way than with someone who you get along with and is easy to talk to, right? "So... Until classes are called by an instructor... What are you gonna be up to?" The students basically had free range to do whatever they wanted until there was a class called by an Instructor, so it wasn't like they had to worry about any specific times, or anything. Just to come when summoned.

"I hadn't really thought about it, in all honesty," Krikor called after Yumiya.  "I might stay here and do some reading, or I might go out and look around at more of the school."  He got up and stretched, mulling over the question more. He didn't know why, but he felt more at ease all of a sudden. Perhaps it was from talking to Yumiya about his problems, he didn't know.

"How about you?  Any plans?" he asked.

"Hmmmm..." Yumiya pondered as he washed the dishes, trying to figure out something he wished to do. "I honestly didn't have any plans today, either," he said honestly. "Actually, I may need to go get some groceries from downstairs. We may be a little light on those..." That was something to do. "Really, I want to go work on my soul. I want to get better so I can eventually start using some of those cool abilities I saw other people using!" He was, admittedly, still rather excited about the awakening of it, and felt like it would be best to just continue on training with what he knew until an actual class session was held.

When he finally finished the dishes, drying them and placing them in the dish rack, he started back to the couch and asked, "Why don't you go try to unlock your soul? Or maybe meet some new friends? Maybe, that Tsubaki girl? She's new, too." He wasn't sure if she was actually a student or not, since he remembered her saying she needed to get enrolled... But hopefully, she was. He sat back down on the couch, looking up to the ceiling. "I dunno. Just throwing out suggestions."

"No, no, those are all good ideas," Krikor replied. "Maybe I will go out and try to meet new people. Who knows, maybe I'll run into Tsubaki again. Thanks for the suggestions, Yumiya," he said, starting to head back to his bedroom. "Unless," he said suddenly, "you'd rather have me go with you to help you carry groceries or something. I'll do that if you want me to."

Yumiya thought for a moment, trying to decide on how he felt about it all. "Mmm... You can if you want to, but it probably wouldn't be all that exciting, admittedly." He was just going to run downstairs and pick up a few things, then probably remain inside for a while. "Do you want to come, or want anything? I wouldn't want you to stick around and be bored not enjoying the luxuries of this school because I'm just being a recluse, today." He chuckled nervously, but happily. "It's all up to you."

"Well, if you're sure you won't need me, I think I'll get dressed and go explore a bit," Krikor said after thinking for a bit. "I guess I'll see you later, then?" he asked, heading over to his bedroom. "I don't know if we have any of the same classes together, or if we'll see each other in the Soul Room again today."

Yumiya laughed a little bit, waving his hand in the air casually, "Ah, don't worry about me, Krikor. You're the new student here! It's best for you to get adjusted and get the feel of how things work on your own without me, since we may not always be together." Somehow, Yumiya, himself felt a little more expressive about his feelings, most likely due to the awakening of his soul. "Honestly, I want to know what your soul would be like when it's unlocked, but I have yet to even be able to understand mine even a little bit..." He knew that they could learn how to see souls here, but wondered just how long that would take or what that even entailed. He seemed a little nervous about going out, though. This was only the second day of his enrollment.

"Of course you'll see me later; we're roommates!" Yumiya could definitely tell that Krikor was just a little nervous. He didn't blame him, especially since he was braver than Yumiya about going out to meet people. Even now, Yumiya barely knew anyone and hadn't made any friends besides Krikor and maybe Tsubaki. He was quite the introvert, which made it difficult for him without a companion. He wondered if Krikor was the same way. "If you want anything, let me know now so I can make sure to stop up. Wouldn't want to make multiple trips, or anything."

"No, there's nothing I can think of," Krikor replied, finally stepping into his room. "Thanks for asking, though!" he said before shutting the door.

Inside his room, Krikor took off his pajama pants and put his armor on one piece at a time, figuring that he'd need his armor for class anyway, since he was trying to regain contact with their personalities and all. He did decide, however, that he would forego his sword -- he didn't want anyone thinking he was going to attack them, after all. That, and he wasn't so sure he wanted to reconnect with it just yet.

When he was done, he left his room, said goodbye to Yumiya, and headed down to the common area of the school.

"Alright, if you say so." Yumiya looked as if he were going to just laze about for a while until he actually felt like getting up and going to actually get the groceries. He was, quite honestly, still a little tired. "Have a good day!" he shouted as Krikor departed. He hoped that his friend would be okay and without anymore traumatic experiences throwing him for a loop. That may have been Yumiya's only concern. "... He'll be fine." Maybe he'd even meet more friends. Maybe, Yumiya should do that, too.