Flat tail (reboot) (OPEN TOTALLY)

[Nova25]

What could seem like a simple sunny day in an ordinary big city, was in fact a special day in an unknown city, in a Nation very far from the hometown of those 2 girls.

Sarya and Lyra were very far from home, but it was perfectly normal for them to be there... As far as you could call ''normal'' the fact to be literally at the other side of the planet, in order to study in an University, on the basis of a diplomatic exchange...

Even if Sarya was tired of walking in this strange town that she didn't knew anything about, she had to... If it wasn't for the only purpose to find this damn University, she thought, she had to continue to walk, in order to follow Lyra everywhere.

Lyra was her best friend and the only other one like her, a citizen of the Hive. She was the kind of girl that had the energy of a hundred and she had to run and stop at almost every buildings and corners of this city to admire the art or the architecture, even if it was only a plain old statue.

Sarya-Mind : *Lyra... LYRA ! Could you stop for a second, my feet are burning and it's not like that statue would go anywhere by itself, anyways.*

Lyra-Mind : *Oh okay... Oh look there, a stone bench... and look at the quality of the details. It's really a fascinating city, I'm sure I will love to study here...*

Rolling her eyes, as Lyra starts talking again, that time about the quality of the stone bench, Sarya was wondering about how they would manage to find the University at this rate. For her, this town was just another big town of the main continent, full of people and criminals or even worst, men.

Sarya-Mind : *At this rate we will never find our rooms or the University itself, for what it matters... Our best chance would be to find a woman willing to indicate the direction of the University, at 2 perfect strangers, from another totally different Nation ! ...or one of its students, that would be good too, but I guess it would be too much to ask*

[The Union of Tinis]

Raypez was for a moment distracted by the display of change. But the question came back to him, "Well, first I'd ask whom ever wanted me to do such why the hell they'd want to waste my time having me do that. I might be biased here, but from a Tinisian perspective, such a reconfiguration is unnecessary until the national gateways are ready to send in IP-the-6. Their systems are already converting web traffic from those that have adopted the standard into IP 4 as is. But lets say for some reason I'm in KZ or some thing or they finally get off their asses back home and they need someone to go through and get the networks up to date…" Raypez then began on a wandering explanation on how he'd tackled the problem given the hardware he's seen. Which of course results in him not being aware of some standard procedures and also boring Ig nearly to death.

While Raypez ranted, Ig excused herself to get some fresh air. She poked her head out for a minute, not wandering far from the door of course and watched the goings on in the street.

Then she spotted a couple folks that oddly enough seemed more out of their element than poor Raypez. Ig shrugged and wandered on up.

In her slow but steady english, "Hello there. You seem to be of hedgehog folk. Not many around here like that. But there are some from back where I grew up. Are by chance you two from the north?" She asked of Sarya and Lyra.

[miokalia]

Dussel had never been on a train that went through the Bunnel*
Other trains passing in opposite directions would whoosh by silently as the Kazian-operated CAT model 5 (according to the pamphlet in the seat pocket) sped up. Dussel tried to make conversation with his seat neighbor and future roommate. He figured out her name from the ticket she was holding.
"Casial? Can I call you Cassie?", he asked.
The mechanical dinosaur looked at him, but was silent.
Dussel sat back down and looked out the window again. An orange-and-green train silently whooshed by.
Dussel started again,
"I think that's one of ours. That's an HTH, you can tell because the colors . The last one was KZ. There's so many different trains from different countries running through here, I've never seen anything like this before.
I'm sorry if I'm irritating, I've never been overseas before."
Casiale was still silent and continued to be until they came out on the Cal side of the tube.

In a totally normal-sounding, but slightly monotone voice, Casial finally said, "Good morning". It was actually the first words Dussel had heard from her since meeting at the Hokyldaryon HTH international station.
Dussel said "I'm sorry I'm so annoying, Maybe we should both just find other roommates" in english, wondering if for some reason Casial didn't actually speak Kohtohkhan as he had assumed, and that this was whole reason why she had just been staring blankly at him when he tried to make conversation before.
She finally made a nonverbal response while staring at him this time. A shutter mechanism visibly flicked back and forth over some component in her rectangular eyes.
"I don't understand what you're talking about.", she said.
Dussel then started,
"Oh. Ok. I'm sorry, I was trying to be friendly and I just assumed you spoke Kohtohkhan... because you're from where I'm from and.. you're a dromeosaurid... and usually... Oh I'm making an ass of myself again".

"I do speak it. I've been asleep since 3 minutes after we boarded the train up until now.", she said.

Dussel switched back to his native language and asked,
"What? How?
Nevermind. I'm pretty excited right now so if I say anything which is mean or off-color, let me know. I don't mean to."

The train pulled into the destination, and the two got their bags and departed the train with few words

They began walking down the street, Dussel following Cassie, who was actually fairly uncomfortable being out front.
Dussel tried to start up friendly banter again,
"This isn't all that different than I imagined. I'm just not really too sure where to go. We have 5 way intersections and the old city layouts at home. What are the streets like where you're from?"

Cassie replied,
"Nothing like this."

Dussel tried to keep it going,
"So I'm going to start with statistics to get the math requirements out of the way, but I want to go into International Critical Literary Theory. You know, applying philosophy to literary analysis.
Do you just hook yourself up to a DVD drive to study?"

Cassie said,
"No. It doesn't work that way at all. There are no shortcuts. We have to do it the same way as you and everybody else.

Where do you hear these things? What kinds of things do you guys think about us?"

"I was actually trying to be funny", said Dussel, "I have the address, and I know what it looks like on Street View.
Unfortunately I don't actually... have a phone that does it yet"

"I don't know where it is.", said Cassie, "I was kind of hoping you would have a smartphone or something."

Dussel asked,
"Well, do you?"

Cassie stopped a moment and said, "No, I don't have a smartphone. How silly would that be?"

Dussel face-palmed.

Cassie added, "Do you have a regular cell phone?"

Dussel pulled out his brick-like GSM phone. Must have been a decade old.
"It was uh.. it was free.", the raptor said, "I'm going to call the information number that the exchange people gave me and see where this place is."

Some time later, and after a long detour, the two got to the flat complex very late at night. Dussel slept on a mat on the floor with a single blanket while on the other side of the room Cassie plugged herself in with a ballast box into the wall outlet and slept on the floor as well.


*Bunnel: the Bay of Inleef train tunnel
(Cal: Shall we carry this thing over from pre-reboot?)

[Nova25]

Sarya was sitting on the bench, her face towards the sky, as she was trying not to think too much about the University, this strange town and her friend ''noisy'' thoughts, when Lyra poked her.

Lyra-Mind : *Sarya, there's someone waving at us... and I'm pretty sure we don't know her.*

As Sarya finally decided to listen to what the other strange girl was saying, she saw that the girl was from a species she never saw before, some sort of sheep, but then she caught the words : ''hedgehog folk''...

Lyra-Mind : *Stay calm Sarya, that girl is an outsider remember, she couldn't have known about... Him... So stop frowning and give her a polite answer, before she starts wondering why we are starring at her.*

Lyra was right, like it was often the case with the mood swings of Nina. Clearing her mind and her throat at the same time, she was ready to answer her.

Nina had the characteristic low-voice of her people, but her voice had a slightly more authoritarian tone. As for Lyra, her low-voice had a bit more musical tone, almost like if she was laughing softly.

Nina-voice : ''Yes, outsider, we are from the North region, far in the North... I am Nina-mind and her, she is Lyra-mind.''

Using their formal names, something that her people did with outsiders they didn't trusted yet, she wanted to let the outsider guess their origin. It was usually funny to watch them realize that they were talking to those ''spooky brain people'', something she once got called.

But before the Sheep could reply.

''...and by the way, I'm a FOXhog and she's a TIGERhog (emphasing the prefixes, as best as she could). Hybrids are quite proud to be.''

[Kingdoms of Cal]

Oi nodded as Ig wandered off she went to the bar to change her change. This time in the morning they were happy for it and it now hitting twenty past. They were willing to cook now in a city that was full of confused people people that were likely to be confused tired and hungry.

They knew the wind was onto the the old city where most of the new new students were. The smell of a cooked breakfast would cause most to forget their plan on finding there target but to find some thing to eat.

There was little that resisted the smell of food when you needed it and even less when you could smell it miles off. The canines were usually there first depending where the smell drifted.

---

Ah smiled she had given Raypez a question that was impossible switches round here didn't run at the IP level. She smilled.

"You know that is a pile of crap as switches only run at the mac level round here"

"Breakfasts" she smiled unintentionally giving him a come on. Ah didn't know how to do it but did due to her teerie heritage they tended to mate often with many. But that was only half of her. But her like Ah shared a shame they were monogs.

[miokalia]

Dussel didn't sleep very well. If it weren't the weird sounds from the other apartments, it was Cassie, whom he felt uneasy with sleeping in the same room with.
Morning arrived, the smell of a breakfast somewhere hit him, but his lack of sleep and being overwhelmed by the many new and strange smells here didn't really produce a response.
Between the two of them, they had been very quiet and it occured to Dussel that if there was anyone else here too, they probably didn't know they were here yet since they arrived so late. The room was picked at random, and he hoped it hadn't been claimed by anyone else yet. That notion disturbed him intensely. He began wondering whose upholstered chair was in the corner. In addition to what caused the mildly horrifying stain on it.
"Cassie. Cassie, I think we should get up and find the other roommates.", he said, still kind of quietly.
Cassie unplugged from the wall as Dussel ran around the flat looking for any signs of life, which he didn't seem to find yet.
He eventually got hungry and managed to convince Cassie to accompany him, primarily since she was convinced he would become incredibly lost and end up in a bad area of town if left on his own. If they both became incredibly lost and did the same, then she could at least be somewhat of deterrent against dangerous things happening to them in that bad area of town.

By sheer luck, they managed to find the Queen's Union.
And from there: started to look for a group of people who didn't match the local majority phenotype.

Dussel stumbled on what to say when he saw Raypez's green fur, but then didn't need to start, as Raypez seemed to immediately guess that Cassie and Dussel were new flatmates given that they didn't look like locals and looked fairly lost. Although it was kind of inconclusive as to what Cassie's expression was given the anatomy.

[The Union of Tinis]

"I… feel I have offended. That was not my intention. I didn't know how else to describe you beyond what I'm familiar with," said Ig bowing her head a little as a sign of humility. "I am Ig. And you seem lost. I might be new to this part of the world myself, but I'm with some people that might know there way around. Perhaps they can help you find your way?"

Judging from Ig's naive expression it began to seem quite possible that she didn't understand the formality of the names. Perhaps even thinking that 'mind' was a shared last name! There were a number of places that this would suggest she might be from… some of them less war torn than others.

---

The ferret was kind of amused by the new arrivals. "Well hello there. I'm Raypez, and these lovely ladies are Ah and Oi. And you two seem to be from out of town."

A brief exchange between all five quickly resulted in them confirming that yes they were to be roommates.

"Well I guess the place is filling up pretty well now." Raypez smirked and whispered back to the table. "Round here, yeah, forgot that you're probably not using the nut job standards most of Tinis uses. No 'Boing-o-boxes' around here."

Turning back to the new arrivals. "Somewhere around here should be Ig. Hopefully she'll be back to finish up here." The ferret shrugged.

[Nova25]

OOC : I have to say that I'm slightly confused... Who is with who and where ?

OOC : From what I can understand...
Ig --- is with Lyra and Sarya --- near the restaurant
Raypez --- is inside the restaurant WITH --- AH and OI
Dussel and Cassie --- just arrived IN the restaurant

OOC : So, with all those people packed in one place, it might become hard to follow ?

Lyra-Mind : *Poor girl... Sarya, you should be more patient with those outsiders. Even if the revelation of the existence of our people was a shock for a lot of people in the Nations, many haven't heard of us yet.*

Again, the disarming logic of Lyra was obvious for Sarya. That girl had really a gift for that or maybe it was because of her contagious semi-permanent happy mood ? It was hard to tell, even for Sarya.

Sarya-voice : ''Hun... sorry about that, I'm just tired of searching everywhere for that University. You talked about other outs.. I mean people ? The sooner we unpack in our room, the better.''

Lyra, due to her natural curious nature, jumped in the conversation, with her slight musical low-voice :

Lyra-voice : ''You are a student too ? ...and your friends ? I'm here to study the art of painting, I just LOVE to play with the colors and textures and my friend, she wants to study AI, she finds them fascinating... Our people like AI.''

[The Union of Tinis]

[OOC: You would be quite correct in where people are. Ig is with Lyra and Sarya and everyone else is inside. I'd recommend folks make sure to use plenty of 'said [person 1]. Then [person 2] said,…' to keep things straight and understandable.]

"Surprise! You are actually at the university now," said Ig. "This is the union I believe it is called yes. Those I am living with are inside yes. I am delighted to meet another artist. I am to be a student of calligraphy. It is an honored art of my home land but one for which it is good to learn the styles and techniques of outsiders. And… I think I understand what is meant by AI. If you mean thinking computers, there is not much I know about that I am afraid. Though the others might. You should come meet them. Maybe they could help you find your way home."

Ig started towards the door, motioning the two to follow along.

[[OOC: So I guess now we might have pretty much everyone inside if you're two follow.]]

[Kingdoms of Cal]

Ah smiled "Aye right." dismissively.

But she acknowledged the new arrivals.

"So guys and girls what are you guys studying?" Ah asked.

Oi Shouted "Food!"

As the fried breakfasts turned up the smell of food was very much spreading.

Ah looked out side as the first drops of a tropical rain storm started to drop.

Oi stuck her head out of the door and shouted "Get your arse in here if you don't want drenched".

The rain drops were full and heavy.

OOC: A union is just an out post of the student union. In very old universities the union is the support system for the students. A small part of tuition is paid to them in this case as tuition is free that is not an issue. But they do use there massive per-chancing power they get cheep deals on drink and food.

Well that and other things. They also represent the students and in the commonwealth there are university seats that represent it in the parliament. There is a lot more to a very old university like this than you would think.

BTW there is nothing you could call the university in the city as it is is all over the place.

[Nova25]

Walking toward the restaurant, as the distinct smell of rain was becoming obvious, Nina was thinking about their luck of the moment.

Nina-mind : *We were lucky to run straight in the middle of the University, especially with you wanting to look at every inch of this city. Anyways, I hope this restaurant will not be too crowed with outsiders, they can be so noisy sometimes.*

As Sarya and Kyra were entering, right after IG, Sarya could see that the people inside were all of different species. One of them caught her attention, as the light from outside seemed to get reflected by his ''skin''.

Lyra-Mind : *Look at them Sarya, they must be all from different nations ? I can't wait to learn about their styles, their arts and all those sorts of things.*

Nina-Mind : *Don't get too excited yet. We don't even know, if we can actually trust any of them, especially those 2 guys there.*

Lyra-Mind : *Please... Give them at least a chance ? They haven't said a single word to us yet... and don't start a fight, like you did last time. Poor guy had a broken arm remember.*

Nina-Mind : *Like you want... As long as they don't say anything stupid, they should be fine. I'm starting to get hungry with those food smells, I wonder if they have fishes here ?*

Without any of them having said a word, since they followed IG inside, Lyra poked gently IG's shoulder.

Lyra-voice : ''My friend would like to know, if they have fishes here ? Oh !... and also, who's that strange lizard with the shiny skin ?''

[Kingdoms of Cal]

Oi returned from the bar with pint in hand and over heard the last what was asked.

"Fish, not a problem!" Oi could be fairly over powering at times, she didn't mean to be but it was just her personality.

She grabbed a menu from the table and handed it to Lyra saying "Union food is simple and cheap, no fancy crap here! But there is never a lack of fish on the menu, fried, poached, roasted, smoked, rotting...I would avoid the last but lupines are weird in how they like their fish..."

She looked at another menu and heaved a sigh of relief, before saying "Thank the ancestors, they don't do lupine sea food here, that stuff stinks!"

She looked at the others an tapped her head "Wotcha guys!"

It was more than likely that none of them had ever seen a teerie before, green fur was likely to be odd, most people when first meeting one though they had dyed it. Ah shared Oi's fur pattern but had a very different body shape being a hybe.

Ah cut off her stare at the others, she thought that only the commonwealth had hybes.

"Sorry for asking, but you guys are of mixed race like me?" she asked quietly.

[Nova25]

OOC : I suppose that AH and OI are talking to Sarya and Lyra... and that ''Hybe'' stands for Hybrid (mix of 2 species) ?

Lyra-Mind : *Oh, look at her... I wouldn't have ever believed that someone would like to dye her fur more than me !*

Sarya-Mind : *I doubt that she dyed her entire body, but I have to say that I never saw someone like her ?*

Realizing that the girl was waiting for an answer, Sarya quickly cleared her throat... She rarely had to ''talk'' so much, in so little time.

Sarya-voice : ''Hum... Yes, we are. My colorful friend is part Tiger and I'm part Fox.''

She skipped the fact that they were both part Hedgehog, since it wasn't a part of her she liked to remember.

''If I can ask myself, what kind of species are you ? We never saw any outsiders like you or with a natural fur like yours.''

[Kingdoms of Cal]

Oi dived in again "I'm a teerie she's a teerie vulpine hybe" she said loudly jerking her thumb at Ah.

"Good catch on noticing this ain't a dye job my people are the oldest of the races round here, well as far as I know." Oi smiled.

Ah said queitly "I thought my kind were the only hybes. I thought you needed the teerie gene to interbreed." then she went very quiet and muttered "were they that advanced? The Miliatin...no they can't have got that far north."

Ah had looked into teerie history, legends and myths unlike Oi. The Miliatin were the original indigenous people of the commonwealth but nothing much was known of them and the only known descendents are the teerie. Ah wondered if another race might have have some how had the gene and some how have a link, hedgehogs of all things.

She wasn't sure but it would make sense and explain a few things about their new friends.

[miokalia]

Dussel caught on to what Oi was saying and added:
"I thought interbreeding was enabled by Chimerism genes, but then again, I also read somewhere that Chimerism has been traced back to Inteer. Maybe it pops up all over the place, it is a mystery indeed."

Cassie didn't say anything, only looked around nervously and stayed close to Dussel. She wasn't particularly good at striking up conversation herself, as she had actually never seen some of the species represented here before.