New Geneva...

(If no one adds a character to our dorm within the next few days, can I name the two who are in there and such?)

Ilario

About the same time that the other three in my room were waking up, I had just finished getting dressed after my morning shower. It was important to stay clean when you worked with viruses.

"One of these days, I'm going to wake up extra early, just to catch you getting dressed," the only girl in our dorm joked sleepily as she stretched and sat up. The covers dropped away from her cute, Eeyore pajamas and she winked at me coyly. I smiled vaguely and slipped my feet into a pair of soft slippers.

"In that case, maybe I'll start getting up early so you can see me getting dressed as well," Matheos said flirtatiously. The girl shrugged and smiled as she grabbed her clothes. She walked towards the door, a suggestive sway to her hips.

"Sure, why not," she threw back over her shoulder. Matheos grinned, as if he'd won some big victory. He looked a little silly to me but then, I had to remind myself he was two years younger. I forget that a lot.

"Coming?" I asked, raising a brow. He nodded and left the room with his clothes and shower stuff. While I waited for him to return, I sat down on my bed and took a look at the list I'd been crafting. This one was relatively long, corresponding to a rather tricky plague I was having some difficulty counteracting. There were pages and pages of it, all stapled together at the top. I took it out the plastic wallet so I could flick to the end.

The latest results were looking promising and I wrote my next few combinations down in the margin.

"Willow bark?" the fourth member of our dorm asked, looking over my shoulder. He must have got dressed while my back was turned and the others were out because his sleeve was brushing against the paper as he traced the words with a grubby finger. He didn't quite touch it though - he knew better than that.

"It worked quite well with one of my others," I replied, reaching into the large file for another plastic wallet. I removed it from the sleeve, flicked through to the end and showed him the successful formula I had discovered just a few days ago.

"The Jaden Plague? I didn't realise you'd solved that one," he said. "Willow bark, Agrimony, Burdock, Papaya and Feverfew, I'll remember that." I smiled and nodded. Those were just the main ingredients of course but I didn't tell him that. It would take much too long to list every single thing I tried on the testing lists. No. That only went down on the cures list, when I'd reached the stage of improving a successful recipe. Of course, that was also the stage when it had to be sent out for testing on the patients because what worked against a virus sample wasn't always strong enough to tackle the virus itself.

"You eating or not?" Matheos asked, standing in the doorway. I hadn't realised he was ready but I nodded and put everything away before following him down.

*you can name them, since I doubt we'll have any more players...*

Amelia-

Ben was the only one in the refectory, quickly stowing his laptop when she came in.

"Good morning, Ben," she said. "Early start, right?"

He nodded shyly. The two girls who he shared a dorm with nodded to him as they followed her to where they took our food.

Breakfast at half-seven was always quiet, and there was never any rush for the toasters, so Amelia slid two slices of white bread in and arranged the rest of her breakfast on her tray. There weren't apples all the year round any more, because they couldn't import them. But there was some thick yoghurt and muesli, which she took gratefully, and began to make herself a cup of tea- luckily India hadn't stopped exporting.

The toast popped and she took a pat of butter and went to sit with Ben.

"Actually I was just about to leave," he said.

"Go ahead," Amelia said with a shrug. "Though I'd appreciate some company."

He glanced over to where Mona and Seven were and looked at me questioningly. I rolled my eyes.

"Go on then. There must be important work to be done that can't wait half an hour."

He bit his lip.

Matheos-

"I don't think this homeopathic stuff works," he said. Though he spoke nothing but the universal language, he still rolled his "r"s as his people were prone to, and spoke with a thick accent.

"It does," Illario said. "Haven't you seen it work?"

Matheos shrugged. "I would prefer to use proper medicines, were I in need."

"They are proper medicines," Illario said. "Where do you think the chemicals come from?"

They reached the refectory, where Seven was still waiting by the toaster and Mona was finishing filling a mug with hot water.

"Good morning," Matheos said with a grin. "Sleep well?"

"Very well, thank you," Seven replied, the epitome of politeness. "And yourself?"

"I dreamt of a world without you in it. It was torture."

She rolled her eyes and walked off. Matheos put his own bread in the toaster.

"That was so cheesy it's unbelievable," Illario said. Matheos shrugged.

"Makes the day go a little quicker," he said.

[Seven Folestion - Botany]

The smell of toast, jam, and various teas filled the room. Seven took a bite into her piece and glanced at Matheos who dropped his plate beside hers and gave a sly smile. She turned attention back to the food with a slight smile of her own. Ben was chewing on his lip idly while Mona, digging into her food, ignored Ilarios who just found his seat opposite them.

"Good morning, Ilarios," said Seven as she sipped her tea.

"Morning,"

Pause. Silence.

"So," Mona bit off a chunk of toast and chewed it quickly, then continuing. "How'd you get that name?"

"It was the time I was born: seven AM sharp."

"That sort of figures," mumbled Matheos absently.

Seven stretched out her arms and yawned widely, ignoring him. She had been up most of the night before trying to engineer a soil fertile enough for the extra fruit seeds she had kept in a plastic bag before coming to the New Geneva. The room seemed to grow quieter by the second and Mona was becoming a little fidgety.

"So, Matheos," Seven looked his way and fought another yawn, taking a bite of toast. "Anything interesting happen in that dream?" she asked, trying to start a conversation.

Ben:

He sighed, "Well, when you put it like that, I guess half an hour's not gonna make too much difference." He flipped open the laptop again, "But I'm not promising great conversation."

He tapped out a few more words, an edge of nervousness apparent in his posture, and in the fact that he kept mistyping. Why's she want to talk to me, anyway? I woulda thought someone like her would much prefer talking to them.

His eyes flicked to the others who had sat down at one of the other tables, then back to his work. He took a bite of his toast, typing out another paragraph to calm himself down. She's probably doing this on purpose...

He looked back up at Amelia, "Your specialty's chem, right?"

She nodded, sipping at her tea a little.

"You mind giving me some help a bit later?" He seemed to misinterpret the look she gave him, and rushed on, "I mean, I'm just not sure how to make this resistance thing last longer without medicine of some kind. You're way better at chemistry than I am, though, so maybe you could work out some way of balancing things up. If you've got the time."

Part of him winced inwardly, Damnit! No one wants to talk about work at breakfast, idiot! How the hell d'you expect to have a proper conversation like that? Even in this place?

Azrael Ballow Linx - Nickname Ballow


Ballow felt himslef slowly drift awake, he moaned - it was too early to be up. He hadn't even glanced at the watch which sat on his wrist.

Sihging he sat up and realised he was the only one left in the dorm. He blinked blankly for a few seconds thinking about the reason as to why no one was there. It then hit him - they were having breakfast.

Throwing the blanket off himself, he ran out of the dorm, not even bothering to make his bed. Sprinting down the hall he got a few quizzical galnces, which he ignored.

Finally I've got to the . . . the . . he had forgotten the name of the place where he had been rushing too. He ran into the wide room, puffing and out of breath.

He looked up and was shocked to see everyone staring at him. He smiled half-heartedly. One of the girls blushed.

He frowned, Why's she blushing for?

A guy chuckled and pointed at him making a wry comment. Ballow looked down at himself and wondered what was so funny.

His eyes came upon his body and he blushed.

He was only wearing boxers.

To make matters worse as he took a step backwards to retreat from the nightmare his foot slipped and he landed with a thump on the floor.

Beet root red is the only way you would be able to describe his face. He attempted a smile and failed.



(HAHAHAH! What a tension breaker!)

"Louis?" Tobias the Gym Instructor's voice was undercut by the savage sawing sound of the rowing machine. "Jeez, how long have you been in here for?"
"Since Six, after my run." He relaxed on the machine as Tobias approached, so that they could hear each other.
"Hah, there aren't any more Olympics kid, and you'll do yourself an injury if you keep this up. Head on over for breakfast, you're late as it is."

"Soon," Louis promised blandly, he started pulling on the rowing bar again, turning his focus away from the Instructor.
Tobias strode up to the machine and pushed a few buttons on the hub, abruptly there was no tension in the line Louis was pulling on. He looked at the instructor angrily.

Tobias held up his hands to forestall him, "Your work's not going well, I get that. Just because I work at the gym doesn't mean I don't see a lot of the folks come in here to vent their frustration. But there's healthy venting and then there's this," he gestured at the machine. "The whole point of New Geneva is to get you young 'uns working together and synergising,"the word sounded foreign on his lips. "Now head on over to breakfast and make some friends. Those kids from your dorm look like a nice bunch. Don't let yourself get isolated with an impossible workload, it's a bad way."

Louis looked up at the Instructor, dumbfounded, "since when did you get so wise."

"I'm an instructor, it's my job."

Feeling chastised, Louis washed himself down before heading over to the breakfast hall.

Amelia-

She smiled, a little sadly. Ben was so awkward.

"Eurgh, work in the mornings gives me a headache," she said and he blushed even redder. "My brain doesn't kick in until at least half-eight."

"That's fine, I'm sorry for-"

"Hey," she said, holding up a hand. "I didn't say no. Of course I'll help. Just excuse yourself and come over to the chemistry labs later. I'm on Bench Six. My team's working on fertilizers at the moment and the smell is hurting my nose." She laughed and he gave a nervous smile.

Just then the swinging doors opened and a red-faced Azrael slipped on the floor.

"Ouch, talk about embarrassing," she said, turning away.

Matheos-

He shrugged. "I don't remember. I don't often remember dreams," he said with a charming smile in Seven's direction. Mornings were not his best time, and what Ilario said hurt.

"What a pity," she said dryly and turned away.

Just then, an almost-naked Azrael came in.

"At least I don't continue my nightmares in real life," Matheos said, nodding and laughing at his own joke. The poor guy slipped to the floor, then hurriedly tried to pick himself up again.

"Ouch, talk about embarrassing," said Amelia.

"Glad I'm not him," Seven agreed, as Azrael stood there, looking a bit stunned.

[Seven Folestion - Botany]

She covered her mouth with the piece of toast to hide the growing smile, but it was too late. The most she could do without bursting out in hysterical laughter was to shove more bread in.

Azrael slowly stood back up and walked out of the door--probably to get pants. Amelia was still sort of turned away, sheilding her eyes with a hand until the door closed with a sqeak.

"Well," Seven said, laughing a little. "That was, er... unexpected." she stood up and went off to wash her plate, calling back, "Hey, Amelia, did you remember to close to the screen trape on Vens before we left?"

She looked up. "On who?"

"The mutated venus fly trap I was working on last night. It seemed a little more... active, so I put a scren over it. You were looking at it in the morning. You did close it again, didn't you?"

"Uh..."

"You didn't!?" Seven practically shouted across the room, throwing the plate onto the counter behind her with a clater and then starting in a full sprint towards the door.

Azrael - prefers the name Ballow.

Ballow retreated behind the door and closed it quickly. He took a deep calming breath and closed his eyes for a second. Should he go back to the dorm and brave the stares of everyone there? Or should he just go back into the breakfast hall?

His shoulder slumped in defeat, he was an extremely lazy person. He turned around and began to open the door to the breakfast hall, when someone opened it from the other side and ran straight into him muttering somehting along the lines of, "Venus! No . . lid!"

Ballow fell to floor a second time in that hour and nearly only a couple of metres away from the previous accident.

He regained composure faster the person he had collided with and stood first, offering a hand to help the other person up.

Ballow squinted at the girl's face closely, it was almost a leer, their faces inches apart, "Have I met you before?"

His breath was warm on her cheeks and he still held her hand. The as if somehting struck her she remembered what she had been doing before hand.

Amelia-

"And I may have fed it some of our labteam's fertilizer," she said, scratching her head.

Mona pretended to bang her head off the table. "'Mellia..." she said.

Amelia bit her lip and fought a smile. Opposite her, Ben smiled as well, which made her grin.

"I should probably go and help," she said with a nod. She finished her tea gratefully. "See you later, then, Ben? Ooh, I'm rhyming!"

She got up from the table and left her tray on the side, then, as an afterthought, took Seven's over as well. Then she walked out the door...

...To where Ballow and Seven were clearly having a "moment."

Matheos-

"'See you later, Ben'?" he asked with raised eyebrows. "Something going on there?"

Ben blushed deep red. "No. It's work."

Matheos nodded and winked. Ilario hit him in the arm. "Don't tease him," he said. "Don't quite think him and ''Mellia' would make a good couple anyway."

Matheos grinned. "But what girl would choose anyone over me?"

Mona, the only girl at the table, rolled her eyes. "Anyone with half a brain, perhaps, Mat?" She was the one who came up with all the nicknames, it seemed.

"You got burned," Ilario said, thumping him on the shoulder. Matheos just grinned good-naturedly.

"I didn't mean anything by it," he said by way of an apology. Ben was still bright red.

[Seven Folestion - Botany]

"Excuse me," she said in a slight, low growl. "I have an unstable plant to stop from eating my dorm."

Seven yanked her hand away and stood hesitantly, trying to get her feet to cooperate. The boy took a step to the side and made room who, by doing that, showed Amelia standing behind him. There was a pause in everyone--an awkward silence, maybe?

"I need to go," Seven quickly started to run again, footsteps echoing behind her.

She glanced back and found out that it was Amelia. Was she following? Ballow still stood in the same spot, watching the two leave. Seven pumped her legs harder and made a sharp turn into another hallway, then another to the left, then through a doorway that was left partly open.

As she stepped in the air grew slightly heavier and the smell of grass and different perfumes filled the air. Amelia came in behind, leaning in the doorway and trying to catch her breath. "Geez..." Pause. Breath. "Thanks for waiting."

Seven looked around and tallied everything to make sure nothing was out of place. But, to her misfortune, the mutated Venus fly trap had indeed crawled out of its little tank and onto the wall. Making its way to a corner on the ceiling and spreading out to a width of about a foot and a half.

Its head turned, sensing the vibrations and its mouth opened up. Rows of pointed spikes extended, waiting for its prey. The monster plant let out a sort of hiss and opened its mouth even wider.

"This is why you keep the cage closed!" Seven glared Amelia like she was about to attack. "Now it'll be practically impossible to get down without it snapping at us and taking a hand!"

Amelia-

"Flip, sorry, I had no idea it was that mutated," I said, scratching my head.

Seven shrugged. "That's what radiation does, you know?"

"Radiation and some fast-growth potion."

She turned round and gave me a death stare.

"When I was looking at it last night I may have given it... some... fast growth fertilizer. Just to see if it worked! And... it does!"

Seven growled. "I can't believe you."

"Sorry," I said. "Look, we'll just... jump up on it. Gary says there's only usually five good bites in a flytrap anyway."

Seven relaxed slightly. "Okay... but we don't know about mutated ones."

"Very true. Do you have gloves?"

"Naturally," she said through gritted teeth. I covered my hands in a pair of gardening gloves -they looked very out of place with the rest of my ensemble.

"Let's roll," I said. Vens was swaying slightly as if in a breeze. Not only a mutated flytrap, a mad mutated one.

Azrael - Prefer's Ballow


Ballow looked at the two of them run past him, he stared at them dumbfounded.

Shrugging, unknowing what to do he walked back into the breakfast hall.

He smiled, Ballow was completely oblivious to the stares he got as he walked over to get some breakfast.

He chose some toast and lavishly spread honey, peanut butter, jam and marmalade on it. Taking a bite he sat down next to one of the people.

He smiled and all the spreadings on the toast stuck to his teeth leaving them brown and moldy looking.

He continued to eat, when he finished he turned his attention to someone with a laptop, "What's your major?"

A stupid question, but then Ballow wasn't known for his sense. Ballow threw a smile at him, but his red eyes sparkled dangerously as if warning not to answer bluntly.

Waiting for a reply his focus was drawn to a bit of peanut butter that had managed to fall onto his boxers. He lifted his knee up and licked it off. Then he looked around seeing if anyone had caught him in the act.

Which some one would have because it had been completely obvious. He put his knee down and continued to wait for the laptop person's reply.

Ben:

He tossed up following Amelia and Seven, after all, it would give him an excuse to avoid Mat. Even if the joking was just good natured, he didn't like having to put up with it.

He'd been just about to escape down to one of the labs, probably for the rest of the day, when Azrael smiled to him, "What's your major?"

Ben cursed under his breath. He hadn't spoken to the boy before, but the impression he got from him was about as good as the one he got from Mat. Caught between a rock and a hard place. Well, this is all just too fun.

He watched, with a little revulsion and more than a little surprise, as Azrael licked some peanut butter off his leg, And he's working at this place? Jeez, either he's crazy smart, or they're just letting in anyone now... He glanced back to his screen quickly, pretending not to notice. Just from the nasty smile he'd been given, Ben could tell that it wouldn't do to give this guy any reason for a confrontation of some kind.

He mulled the question over for a long moment, then just shrugged, if he wanted to talk about work, that was fine. After all, it was the only area Ben wasn't awkward in, "Biology. Genetics, to be more exact. Yours?"

Azrael - Ballow


Ballow smiled and licked his lips, a bit of jam remaining on the tip of his nose. He earnestly tried to lick it off with his tongue, but failed. He ended up wiping it off with his finger and sucking it off.

He grinned foolishly, "Physics."

His eyes glazed over looking black, and his whole demeanor changed. His slack relax posture straightened, his eyes slightly drooped and his smile faded away into a straight line.

"Physics is everything. I've actually been working on a new equation to reverse the effects of gravity. In theory it should revolutionise technology as we know it."

He smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes, the way he was acting you would've expected him to sprout wings or grow fangs. Even the way he pronounced words changed, they became more educated and less informal.

He closed his eyes for a moment and when he opened them they were back to their dangerous tinted red.

The smile reached his eyes and he laughed, "Sorry bout that! I get a little carried away sometimes. Specially when you mention . . . my major."

He scratched his head and picked a seed grain from the toast out of his teeth.

He looked back to the laptop guy, "Oh, yeah forgot to mention my name. It's Azrael Ballow Linx, but I prefer to be called Ballow. Sounds better and all. What's your name?"

The laptop guy looked at him, it was obvious he wanted to get the hell away form Ballow, but replied not wanting to risk confrontation, "Ben."

Ballow's grin got wider and he slapped Ben on the back, "What you're working on must be real important, to do it over breakfast, what is it?"

Ben looked at the laptop, then at Ballow, then at the laptop again, he tried to change the subject, he didn't want to talk about it just now, "Something important. Uhh, what have you been working on the last few weeks?"

Ballow's eyes widened as if he 'd been struck and then his bottom lip quivered. Tears began to well up in the corners of his eyes. He pouted and bit his lip, literally trying to bite back the tears.

Ben was at a loss.