Killing Time; Browsing the Campus

When the elevator reached the ground floor, the doors opened with a small ding! Krikor stepped out back into where he and Tear had been yesterday and looked around, seeing if anyone else was around, as well as which of the shops were open.

Sooner or later, Tsubaki, the girl from the day before, would make her way into the lobby as well, however on the side opposite Krikor. She didn't know anyone and wasn't really very outgoing naturally, so she just walked over to the lounging area and sat down in one of the comfy chairs, waiting to get called for her Placement Test.

Krikor eventually made his way to the lounging area after poking around a bit, and saw Tsubaki there. He walked over to the place where she was sitting, saying, "Hey, Tsubaki!" as he got close. She didn't seem to be doing much, not unlike himself, so he figured it would be good for both of them to have someone to talk to to kill some time.

Tsubaki turned her head once her name was called, wondering who of all these people would even know it. "Huh?" It was that guy from the Soul Room before. One of them, rather. "Hey, um... Krikor." Luckily he came along, or else she might have been bored by herself around here. "What's up?"

"Not much, just killing some time before I have to go to class," Krikor replied, taking a seat in a chair next to Tsubaki. "How about yourself?" he asked, leaning back in the rather comfortable chair. It was odd, he thought, that he was able to feel how soft it was even with his armor on, but he thought nothing more of it. If anything, he thought he'd have to come back down here again when he had some free time and do some reading in one of these, but without his armor on.

"Well, I was getting enrolled..." she started, looking kinda frumpy as she continue to talk, "... And then the guy said I needed a Placement Test or something and kinda rushed me out..." She wasn't really happy with how she was being taken every which way without knowing where she was going nor what was going on, quite honestly. "... But at least he was more nice than that Tifa." She actually thought that he was pretty cute, in her opinion, which also gave him some bonus points, of course. "So yeah, just waiting on this Placement Test... Whatever that is."

She realized then that he was a new student and that she could probably ask him more about it, since, if this 'Placement Test' happened for everyone, then he would have already done it. So she turned to him as he got rather comfortable and asked, "You took the Placement Test, right? What's it like?"

"Well, I don't know if it's different for everyone or not," Krikor replied, rubbing his chin.  "For me, at least, it was a combat test where the headmaster of the school, Tear Lacrimoso, pitted me against himself.  From what he was saying, it was mostly for him to analyze my skills so he could see where I needed improvement."

"Like I said, though, I'm not sure if it's the same for everyone," Krikor continued, "it could be completely different for you."

After listening to Krikor's explanation, she was actually a little excited about what this 'Placement Test' was all about. "A battle?" She hadn't really fought anything in a while. She was used to such things when she lived in the desert, having to hunt for food, but ever since she'd been away, things had been pretty docile. She hoped she wasn't rusty and that all her training hadn't gone to waste due to being out of practice. "... Well, I still want to be prepared for it. I wonder if it will be something similar...?" She was still a bit curious about what it was like, though, and wanted to know Krikor's personal experience. "How did you do? I mean, clearly, you did alright if you got into the school, but, I mean like... What was it like for you?" She might as well be as prepared as she could be, even if he wasn't certain if it would be the same. "Details! Details!"

"Well, I had my shoulder dislocated," Krikor said with a laugh.  "When he was fighting me, Tear used a style that consisted mostly of kicks and water magic.  I was able to hold a lot of it off since I wear metal clothes and all," he continued, rapping on his breastplate with his knuckles to illustrate his point, "but for you, it might be better to just dodge."

"And he's a fast one, too.  He's got great reflexes and can throw out kicks faster than you can imagine.  All in all, he's pretty tough," Krikor finished.  "That enough detail for you?"

"Woah..." From what he said, it sounded like he was a pretty difficult opponent. She was starting to feel a little unsure of herself, since even Krikor got injured during just the placement test alone... Tsubaki never wore any armor, but usually, she didn't wear very much, due to her living in the desert. Armor would have made her hot and slow. She was very nimble and fast, so maybe dodging would work best for her. "Water? That sounds hard. Man. I thought it was gonna be like, some sort of written thing." Then again, it could be. She didn't know what to expect fully, but at least had a bit about what might happen... and about the guy issuing it.

"Yeah, that's great, thanks," she said as if brushing him off, thinking about this a little more. "Hmmm..." she was pretty worried about how she'd do. She really wanted to get into this school because it seemed really cool, but at the same time, she wasn't feeling very sure of herself. "Maybe I should practice... Just in case... I mean, it wouldn't hurt..." She crossed her arms, puffed up a cheek and thought hard on what she should do, furrowing her brow in thought. "Man! I was hoping it was gonna be easy! Crap!"

Tsubaki seemed a bit nervous, Krikor thought. He didn't know why, she seemed more in tune with her soul than he was. Granted, that was probably because she hadn't had as much trauma in her past as he had, but still. "I'm sure you'll do fine, Tsubaki," Krikor said reassuringly. "It might not even be the same placement test I had. You might not have to do any fighting at all."

Tsubaki sighed, tired of trying to think about what it might be like, but more so ready to just get it over with, at this point. "Yeah, you're right. It might be like what we did yesterday in that room. I hope it is, I kinda liked that." There were probably a lot of things that they could have done; probably things she didn't even know about. She hoped that whatever it was, it was something that she could actually get done and not like, something that only people in this school knew how to do and that people could only get in if they already had that prior knowledge. That would be biased and unfair, and it would really piss her off.

"Uuuuugh!!! The suspense is KILLING me, Krikor!" She flailed her arms about in a cute huff, "Killing meeeeeee!!!" She just wanted the guy to come back and tell her it was gonna be something easy, like maybe baking some cookies or something. "Damn, but what if I fail?! What will I do then?! Not like I can just crash in the dorms! I'd have to..." She'd have to be a nomad again and head on back to the desert. She didn't know how far she was from her home nor what direction it was in... Some weird shit happened and she somehow ended up here, but her memory was kinda fuzzy. Maybe she was in a hallucinatory daze for a while and when she came to, she was just in this city, but she had no real idea, herself. It was pretty much a blur. "Crapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrap!!!"

"H-Hey now," Krikor began, genuinely worried about how nervous Tsubaki was getting, "It's OK, Tsubaki. If I can pass the exam after having my shoulder dislocated, then I'm sure you can pass even if you mess up a little bit." He put a reassuring hand on her shoulder and smiled at her. "Just take a few deep breaths and calm yourself down," he said, "everything's gonna be OK."

Krikor then tried to change the subject to try to calm Tsubaki down a bit. "So, Tsubaki," he said, "from the way you're dressed, I take it you like pandas a lot. Did they have them in your homeland?"

Tsubaki was only half-listening to Krikor; the other half of her attention was focused on her still thinking about what it was going to be like. "I'm trying to calm down, but I just don't know what to expect!!" The more Krikor talked to her, though, the more calm she felt, even if she was still pretty nervous. She just didn't wanna mess up and then not get accepted.

"Huh? What? My clothes?" Changing the subject seemed to help a little, since she was thinking about something other than her test, so that was good. "Oh, no, we usually don't wear things like this. I... I don't even remember where I got these from..." She was used to wearing things that were far more exotic. Maybe someone gave this too her. It was nothing more than a crop-top with a panda-themed hood and some shorts and boots that were black and white. "... This actually isn't even anything close to the style of my homeland... Not that I don't think it's cute, but..." Maybe, somewhere along the way, in the part that she couldn't remember, her clothes were altered to fit some sort of taste about being in this land? "Sorry... It's pretty much a blur."

Before too long, though, the same guy who was to issue her placement test, Tear, came back striding in all cool and stuff with something like water under his feet as he moved. Krikor was right about him... And she only wondered what he would do to her in battle. "O-oh, y-yeah! Sure! Placement test! I'm totally all for it!" She was both excited and nervous, but she was ready to get it over with. "Sooo... How's this gonna work?"

Krikor was listening intently to Tsubaki before Tear entered the area. He wondered what she had meant when she had said that it had been "pretty much a blur." What was she talking about? What had been a blur? He meant to ask her, but then Tear had come to collect her for her placement test. "Good morning, Mr. Lacrimoso," he replied when Tear greeted him, "I was just having a bit of a chat with Tsubaki here before her placement test."

Still lost in her head with her own preconceived notions about the test, Tsubaki perked up when she heard Tear suggest that she face Krikor. "I'm good with that!" she said kinda slyly in the background, feeling slightly more relieved. From what Krikor said about Tear, she might have seriously gotten her ass handed to her, and she didn't want to end up with anything dislocated or broken or any kind of injury like that. It would hurt.

"I'd be more than happy to, Mr. Lacrimoso," Krikor replied. He hoped that testing Tsubaki himself would put her more at ease, as opposed to having Tear do it. From her enthusiastic response to Tear suggesting it, he took that as confirmation that it would. "The only thing is that my sword is in my room. Would you mind if I went to go get it? I'll be back here as quickly as possible," he said. Krikor had some skill in hand-to-hand fighting, but he was much more skilled in the use of his sword than he was at hand-to-hand, and he didn't want to make this too easy on Tsubaki. After all, if he did and she won with no problem, Tear might not think that it was enough to permit her entry into the school.

Tsubaki, cheesing rather wide, would silently cheer when Krikor said that he'd be her opponent. "Yes~!" she cried, one joyous shout quietly slipping out from under her breath. "Thanks! I really appreciate it! I hope we can..." Just as she was about to finish, the teacher just started walking and talking really fast, as if expecting her to follow and keep up with him. "Oh crap!" Tsubaki popped up from her seat and waved at Krikor, not wanting to lose sight of Tear, "See you in a bit! And don't go easy on me or anything!" She waved at him and caught up to Tear, listening to whatever he had to say about their next destination. She could maybe use some of it to her advantage... She hoped.

(Pass)

A gentle, but very powerful wave of distortion spread across the entire land, causing the school of Pandemia to be hit. This caused a wave of energy to carry with it all sorts of lost time, cluttered space, unsettled feelings and clouded thoughts by brushing through the corridors of the school, itself and cleansing everyone's minds and spirits. The entire school should have suddenly come to a complete calm once the wave came and went.