The Yuudai Republic

[Xartarin]

"Oh dry up, Shinra," Sophie grumbled as angrily as she could, which is hard to do when you're using slang from the 1920's. "Guys, that kid just got kidnapped by that creepy teacher! Shouldn't try and look for him? And besides, Will, why do we have to stay with you? You're not exactly hard boiled." Sophie pouted, crossing her arms. What's with these blokes? Sophie thought, Actually, this whole school is topsy-turvy, but still.. we have to make sure Al isn't in any kind of trouble.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

One of the towels fell next to Lind, in the middle of the bus. Lind reached down and picked it up, and started to dry off his hair with it. He looked at Mei as the train got close to it.

"Wow, never seen a city that big," Lind said, and grabbed his typewriter after setting down the towel. Immediately he began typing, making loud KLAK KLAK sounds.

[Star Kirby]

Mia picked up the towel, putting it around her shoulders to keep her shirt from getting wetter. Then she glanced at whatever fell out of Ace's pocket for a moment, opened up her book, and started to read again. Mei was coming up in the distance, but she could probably get through about ten pages at least before they stopped.

[William]

William bit his knuckle, thinking about his options. After a few seconds, he said "No... That won't do. We gotta get out of here, if we need, we'll just call for help later..." in a very low voice. He looked at Megan and Sophie, shook his head sideways, and announced "I'm getting out of here. If you want to look for Alfred, be my guest; I'm not risking my life against a sick ninja like Johnny." Will put his hands in his pockets and marched away after Shinra.

Meg watched as the young man left without any real expression. She faced Sophie, opened her mouth as if she was going to say something, stopped, closed her mouth, looked back towards the tunnel, tapped her chin with a finger, and said "I'll get going too. I've had enough of this mess, you know? Besides, Alfred is like, Johnny's lackey or something, so he wouldn't hurt the boy. Much, that is." She shrugged and followed Will in a medium-speed sprint.

William arrived at the rock briefly after leaving the other girls, and saw Shinra there. "Hey", Will said, letting Shinra know of him being there. "Let me guess. You didn't find anything around here, right?" He didn't wait for Shinra's answer to take the small rock from his pocket. "This is supposed to work for something, but..."
"Then what?" Megan called out, a little tired from running, getting to hearing range just as Will said his last line. "If this isn't the way out, what are we going to do?"
"Well, we're pretty much fucked", Will replied, shrugging. "What about Sophie?"
"Seems like she's really going after Al." She waved her hand in a 'forget it' manner, then said "We gotta get out of here, that's what I know. She'll probably be alright."
"Maybe."



A hand touched Sophie on her shoulder. "Hi, Miss Sepia!" Said a soft, familiar voice. "You wouldn't mind if I borrowed you for a second, would you?" A low thud followed and Sophie was unconscious.



Will shook his head. "Brr! Shivers! That can't be good..." He threw the small stone up and grabbed it mid-air. "Okay, you know what? I'm tired of this." Swinging his arm all the way, he launched the rock towards the big boulder. The small rock flew through the air, producing a low hissing sound, before crashing against the much bigger one. It bounced off and fell a few feet away from Will, who then grunted. "Bah, nothing. How does this even wor--" He was interrupted by the boulder starting to shine blindingly bright, and making an almost airplane turbine-like sound; after just a couple seconds, the shining and noise stopped, leaving a tunnel in the boulder's place. "I... What? This doesn't even..." William said, confused.
"Hey, I can feel a breeze. I bet this is the way out!" Meg said, excited. "Come one, let's get outta--"






William opened his eyes slowly. What is this... He thought, feeling the cushioning under himself. It was comfortable and couch-shaped. He looked down and found out it was indeed a couch. Before him was a big, wide-screen television with a bird-like badge on the bottom. Under the TV, a fireplace. Under Will's feet, a rug. His eyes opened wide when he noticed he was back at the dorms, more precisely at the common room. He held the arms of the couch tightly, looking around. "WHAT", he shouted, "THE FUCK", he continued, "HAPPENEEEEEEEEED". That scream woke the others up.
"Geez, calm down", Alfred said, entering the room through the main corridor. He had a black eye and a few bruises on his arms, but seemed mostly alright. He was holding a plate with four steaming mugs of what looked like coffee or hot chocolate. "Everything was sorted out well enough." He handed a mug for each of them. "Johnny decided I was the one guilty for this mess, so he figured only I needed punishment." Despite his wounds, the boy was still smiling. "So he carried you all here after the exit was open."
"But... But... You were kidnapped! Johnny took you and..." Will said, confused. He closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. "Okay, forget it. Just don't... Throw us on the underground again, okay? It was weird and random and bothersome." Will sipped from his mug, and sighed deeply. "Wow. I don't even know what to say." He then sat there, in silence, drinking his coffee.

[Xartarin]

((So, basically Johnny just whisked everyone out of the cave. Cool, at least we got out.))
((Controlling Alfred just a teensy bit.))

Sophie was lying on the ground, and snorted as Will's yelling woke her up. "SHADDUP!" She yelled, grabbing a nearby pillow and throwing it in Will's general direction. Grumbling, she started to lift herself up, barely opening her eyes. She grabbed her hat and stuck it on her head. As she was trying to get to her feet, Sophie found that her neck was bruised and extremely painful.

"Ow..." She groaned, finally standing up. She caught some of what Alfred and Will said, about punishment and the underground, and saw that Alfred was pretty banged up. "Cheese and crackers, Alfred, what the heck happened to you? Man, this whole shindig is six different kinds of messed up." Sophie thought for a bit, and asked, "Say, I think I'll need some supplies to develop pictures in my room. Is there any way to get to the city from here?"

"Oh, that's easy," Alfred said, "We have a free taxi service here. Which I guess technically wouldn't make them a 'tax'-i... Hm. Anyway, number's on the phone on the fridge."

"Thanks!" Sophie said, running off with her hat in hand to go find the kitchen in the dorm rooms. Hmm, I should get some ice for my neck, I think it's bruised somewhat, Sophie thought as she got there.

[Xartarin]

Knock knock knock

A student walked into the nurse's office. A ginger kid, with large black shades and a fancy cane, and a green school uniform. Not a Yuudai High uniform, but one from another school that the child had kept. The cane and sunglasses often made people think he was blind, but he wasn't. He had shades and a cane for other reasons that would be more obvious if one knew a bit more about him.

"Why, hello Ire!" The nurse greeted. "What's wrong?"

Ire cleared his throat. "Sorry to bother you, but Akane had an accident while running," Ire explained, "She tripped while training for track, and got cut pretty badly. I got here as fast as I could."

"Oh, good job telling me," She said, grabbing a first aid kit, "You know, I thought they had these things up by the track. Oh well." The nurse ran off, locking the door to the health office behind her.

Once the nurse was out of sight, Ire grabbed a pen out of his shirt pocket and started writing "TRIP AKANE" on his hand.

Suddenly inside the health office, Ire started to rummage around. After a few minutes of searching, he found a syringe-like device and some heavy anesthesia. After filling the former with the latter, Ire was gone.

[William]

"Maaaan, I'm boooored", Will said, sinking on his couch and leaving his now-empty mug on the floor. He leaned his head against the top of the seat and looked to the ceiling.

"Yoh, Shinra", he said after a few seconds. The other boy just looked at William. "That TV sure is sweet, huh?" Shinra agreed, mentioning it would be even better with a video game plugged to it. "Well, as they say, great minds DO think alike!"

Will stood up and rushed over to his room; he came back after a few minutes and a few bags opened carrying a black case with the letters PF3 written in blue on it. He quickly opened it a revealed a black gaming console. Skillfully, he quickly hooked up the video game to the wide-screen television. Meg merely watched in silence, amazed; Shinra nodded his approval. From the same case, Will produced four controllers, and threw one over to Shinra, who grabbed it swiftly in mid-air. He then held up another one towards Meg inquisitively, but the girl just waved it away almost shyly, heading off the room, looking for Sophie. Will shrugged and sat down on the rug, putting a disc into the console; it booted the game automatically, and briefly after, both boys were off for a lot of nerding.
((wut, TWGOK reference))
((The other plot... Hrm, you guys could just assume everyone arrived in Mei, if you want, or give me a while to think of a proper post for such an important part of the RP.))

[Xartarin]

Mei was a really great city, and that was all many people had to say on the matter.

Lind had much more, though. Once the bus arrived and they embarked on their tour by foot, Lind's typing speed increase three-fold. With each paper spent he grabbed it, slipped it into his backpack, grabbed a fresh one, and inserted it in seconds flat. He had the kind of skill in typing that one spends years perfecting, if only to post videos of themselves on Youtube.

Of course, Lind himself said nothing while they toured. He preferred to divulge his thoughts in journalism-style writing. Of course, nothing he was currently writing would make it as an article, everyone knew what Mei was like. Maybe as a column.

[Star Kirby]

Mei was a pretty big city. Not too exciting though, there wasn't much that some other city in the world doesn't already have. Ah, the joys of globalization.

So Mia silently followed along on the tour. The structure of the city was impressive, but definitely nothing special.

[William]

Mei.

The blossoming city.

Just calling it a "great" or "big" city was an extreme understatement. It's like seeing a majestic waterfall surrounded by a thick forest and not being able to call it anything other than blue. Or calling a stunning, fully-blown rose-bush pretty.

No, my friends, that does not do it.

Mei is a majestic city. Not one part of it is even slightly sub-par. It is divided into three main districts, each one wrapping the next one almost as an embrace.

La Belle Vie District, most commonly known as The Beautiful Life, is the outer ring and the district where practically all of the inhabitants of Mei live at. The houses are almost all perfectly kept, with a wide range of plants in the lawns that make for a stunning variety of colors and aromas in a single street.

Tex did not stop there, though; he drove right into the next district, Les Bons Vivants, or The Good Living, the commercial and historical district, so to say. Shops of all kinds in here; there is nary a thing you can't find in Les Bons Vivants. Modern video games, old-school journalism material, museums, enormous bookstores, cafés, restaurants, international grocery stores, anything. Literally, anything, from anywhere and any time; you just have to know where to search.

Erick, Mia, Ace and Lind were dropped off at one such café, with Tex waving them off and going inside, saying he needed his "dose". He said whenever they wanted to go back to Yuudai, they just had to get back there, and in the off-chance Tex had already left, Erick had his cellphone and could just call him. He'd either go pick them up, or have someone else in the area at that moment go do it.

They waved back at Tex as he walked into the café, and Ace, patting Erick on the shoulder with a big grin, said he had some stuff to work out elsewhere in Mei and he'd meet them later. He smiled and waved at Mia and Lind before vanishing with the crowd.

Speaking of the crowd, Les Bons Vivants was pretty busy at this time. Not chock-full of people, but still crowded enough for someone to get lost if they wandered off too far away. As such, Erick advised Mia and Lind to memorize the name and location of the café, because that was probably where they'd meet in case one of them got lost. He also gave Mia his phone number, and was perplexed by Lind's lack of one such cellphone. But by now, he'd gotten around to the fact Lind was kinda weird.

They first went to the Yuudai Museum of Natural History. Free entry, and it was all mildly interesting - they had the skeleton of what seemed to be a winged serpent for show, as well as a centuries-old tome of a book called "The Godhand" (Erick mentioned he'd read a recent adaptation of the book, and it was really cool) - but it quickly grew boring. Erick stopped by the museum's restaurant and got everyone a sandwich, seen how it was about lunch-time.

The group took a quick break to eat their sandwiches, and then made their way to a library and bookstore named Bijou. And, let me tell you this, it was huge. They had every book a human could've ever dreamed of. Mia quickly wandered away from the two men the moment they set foot in there, vanishing amidst the bookshelves. Erick exchanged a glance with Lind and told him they had a section with newspapers from as far back as the early 19th century. His eyes sparkled as he quickly made his way there, typing away on his typewriter. Erick smiled and walked up the stairs to the comics section.

And before he knew it, two hours had passed. He'd read at least twenty Deceasedpond comics, and was feeling as happy as a child. He made his way back downstairs and saw both Mia and Lind standing by the cashier, the former with a towering pile of books, the later with an incredibly old tome that looked like it would poof away into dust if it caught even a glimpse of sunlight. Both were trying to talk her into letting them borrow those books, but she said nobody could borrow that many books at once, and nobody could borrow that old tome period. Erick, who already had a membership at the library, talked Mia into borrowing only one book, and got a newer version of the book Lind wanted as well.

The three of them walked out of the library, a smile in Erick's face, and he asked where the other two wanted to go next... To no avail. Lind was lost in furious typing, and Mia was doing some serious reading. With a shrug, Erick started guiding them to the third and central district of Mei.

La Vue, or The View, earned its name for a very good reason. It had the biggest buildings of all of Mei, and the Heaven Tower was visible from all of Yuudai, being as well the tallest building of the southern hemisphere. Most of the buildings were offices, and closed to the public in general; the Heaven Tower, however, was not.

And from the top of Heaven Tower, Erick, Lind and Mia had the best view of the islands. To the west was Yuudai proper, and they could just make out the school's main building far in the distance. From this high up, they could see neither of the islands were that big. The school's island itself was the smaller one, about two thirds the size of Mei's island. Observing the majesty the islands, Erick smiled fondly. Mia actually closed her book to look around, and Lind, despite seemingly shivering a little due to the freakish height, joyfully wrote about the stunning sight he had from such a vantage point.

It was starting to get late, Erick decided, as he saw the sun gently starting to set down in the horizon behind Yuudai's main building. And then, taking the elevator back down to the ground, their tour was over. Erick felt accomplished; it had been a while since he'd seen all three districts of Mei in one day, himself. He quickly took out his phone and called Tex. The bus driver said he'd already left, of course, but one of his friends, a taxi driver, would more than gladly go pick them up. Erick hung up, and about ten minutes later, a yellow taxi stopped by them, calling Erick's name. He nodded to him, opened one of the back doors for Mia and Lind to take a seat, and then rode shotgun, informing the taxi driver they were headed for the dorms of Yuudai. And with a nod from the driver, they were off, arriving a little under an hour later.

[Xartarin]

Atop the Heaven Tower, Lind continued to type about his experience in the city. However, here and at various other beautiful sites, Lind let out a sigh. "I hope Sophie's okay," He said to himself quietly, and resumed typing. He typed himself a note to show Sophie around the city later. In lieu of a photographer, Lind then proceeded to represent the view from Heaven Tower in some ASCII art.

Heading back to the dorms in the taxi, Lind mostly looked out the window as the sky darkened. It didn't take long for him to notice that an abnormally large amount of his day had been spent in public transportation.

Tired, once Lind returned to the dorms he immediately headed for his dorm room, only to be met with a sign hanging on it.

"PICTURES DEVELOPING ; DO NOT ENTER"

"Well, looks like Sophie is fine," Lind said to himself. He knocked on the door and said loudly, "It's Lind! Can I come in now?"

"Nope!" Sophie said, "Sorry, but I was in Mei a bit today, and you wouldn't believe the photos I got, they're just the cat's pajamas. I didn't know where you were, so I went and turned our room into a dark room! It's gonna be the bee's knees, just you wait. Hope you don't mind!"

Lind grumbled a bit, and walked off. After a bit of looking, he found the parlor where Will and Shinra were playing videogames, and plopped himself down on a couch. "Horsefeathers," He exclaimed, "I'm sleeping here tonight. What're you guys up to?"

[Xartarin]

And then some time passed.

It was the first day of school, a joyous time to go to all of the classes, collect syllabi, and do nothing. If there was going to be any homework, it was probably going to be about filling out contact information. From experience, the students knew and expected this, that the first day would be a useless but easy trudge.

Of course, there was excitement to be on the first day. As the kids left for school, some bothering to bring their backpacks and some not, they knew that at the very least they would get to see the campus they'd be spending the next few years studying at.

One further surprise would meet them. Per tradition, the first day of classes marked the first day of the campaign for the student council. Most regarded the positions as trivial. The whole thing was a popularity contest, meaning that the upperclassmen usually won. For some, though, it was serious business.

With a groan, Lind fell off the couch. Having been kicked out of his room by Sophie, his sleep was at the mercy of the noises around him. The noises in particular were those of students leaving, heading to school. That meant that Lind would not have much time to get ready. ".... Shit." He muttered once understanding his situation, and shot up like a bullet. He ran down the hall, dodging students, mumbling "shitshitshitshitshitshit- CRIMINY!" Just in time, Lind managed to switch curses just as he nearly knocked over Sophie, who was leaving their room.

"Oh, there you are!" Sophie said. "Sorry for kicking you out, but, you know, dark room."
"You could've at least woken me up! Now I'm late!"
"It's just the first day, relax, I didn't leave you out holding the bag."

Lind grumbled, and rushed into the room, realizing that arguing further would just make him more late. As Sophie headed to the bus, Lind quickly grabbed some shoes and headed out as fast as he could.