Training Exercise #2

[harmonizenpc]

Who: Persona-users (optional), ensemble NPC cast
Where: The other world.
When: Thursday, April 27th, "critical thinking" class time.
What: Practice makes perfect?

There was little fanfare before this exercise. In a follow-up email, Yachiyo had instructed those who'd responded to the invitation to meet in the hall; once they'd gathered, she'd brought them to the lab.

From there, they were ushered more or less straight into the portal, after a cursory explanation for the newcomers. The landscape that greeted them was nearly unchanged -- same ominous red sky, same too-bright grass, same pile of equipment, no bizarrely-shaped targets.

Araragi, Komatani, Takaoka, and Suwa were the ones accompanying them today, and while the latter two busied themselves with the machinery, fiddling with some settings and picking up a few portable items, the former surveyed the horizon, down the somehow out-of-place path.

"Live-fire exercises today, kids," Komatani said by way of explanation, voice made oddly hollow by her suit's visor. "We set up a perimeter around this spot, but they're not far off." She paused, half-turning back to look at them. "Imaizumi-kun, you should be picking something up, off thataway." She punctuated the comment with a point down the path.

Comments

[waterholdmedown]

Shizuru was early. This in and of itself was unusual. She hadn't been in class today, nor had she been yesterday.

She swayed slightly on her spindly legs, as though in some unseen wind, as the adults did their prep. She'd already broken out the Evoker, and tossed it up and down a few times in one hand while she waited, seemingly spacing out as usual.

She was also wearing a hat today -- a floppy, well-worn cap adorned with an odd assortment of pins. It had gotten a few looks (and a glower from Yachiyo), but no one had bothered to tell her off about it yet.

Pre-main thread, for Chloe:

[harmonizenpc]

One of the emails had set an earlier time than the others.

Chloe was excused from a portion of her last class to go to the hall about half an hour before the rest were due to arrive, and it was Ishichi who was there to escort her to the lab, pale skin oddly ghostly in the blue light of the corridors. She was silent the whole way, which might have been expected with the woman's demeanor.

The others were busy with prep when she arrived, but Suwa and Ishichi were ready for her, Suwa greeting her with a slightly tentative, slightly worried smile. "Good afternoon, Miss Abendroth. Could I ask you to come over this way, please? We just want to do a basic physical exam and a few scans to make sure everything's all right."