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Post by Anastasia Dammerung on May 4, 2022 15:01:47 GMT -5
An alarm clock on a bedside table went off. After fumbling precisely twice, Leonina di Angelo smashed it with a metallic fist, promptly got up from bed, and swept the clock's pieces into the trash. She opened a drawer filled with neatly aligned, identical alarm clocks, grabbed the next one in the row, and placed it on the exact spot its predecessor had been.
Today, Leonina was on laundry duty, which was one of her favorite tasks. After all, it was procedural, simple, and very hard to get wrong, at least for her. She even had a special maid-like uniform made for chores like these, which she was currently wearing. After having the breakfast designated on her monthly meal plan (which was but a part of a yearly meal plan), Leonina headed out her Schatten Bereich residence, taking care to lock the door and double-check the house for anything off, and walked to the laundromat, taking the most efficient route possible and accounting for traffic.
Upon reaching the laundromat, Leonina went off to pick up her division's uniforms. By now, they at least knew to fold them instead of just dropping them in a pile, so that was credit for them. The folds weren't precisely aligned, but that would have to do, besides, they'd all get stuffed in the machine anyway. Many Forschung members rarely left the workshops and factories, so there wasn't much in the way of bloodstains from actual combat. More of machine grease and oil, soot, and food stains hastily wiped on the uniforms during work. The girl grabbed a stool and her sewing kit and began to hum while inspecting the clothes.
"Hmmm, there's more combat damage than usual today, and more uniforms too," Leonina mumbled after a while of sewing and stuffing clothes in the washing machine. Finally, she picked up the final uniform and noticed that it didn't belong to her division. "Hold up, this is Vorhut property! I can't believe I didn't notice sooner..."
Her lips curved upward in a frustrated kind of smile, but at least the Vorhut would have a taste of her laundry expertise. Turning to the nearest person, which appeared to be a boy around her age with similar smiling tendencies, she would make a request.
"Hey, you. Would you mind stroking my hair?"
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Player
It ain't that hard to love a rat.
volta
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Post by volta on May 4, 2022 15:23:06 GMT -5
It seemed that someone higher up wanted to try something new. Perhaps due to their role, the Vorhut Brigade tended to stain or even destroy quite a lot of clothes, some of which had today been sent to be washed along with the Forschung laundry. And, as a younger member, Volta Valenti's team had sent him down to collect it, which mostly led to him doing what he normally did: stand unnoticed in silence.
A girl, likely Forschung, only now seemed to notice the difference in some of the uniforms. She seemed fine with it, however...until...
"Hey, you. Would you mind stroking my hair?"
Volta had already been looking up, and he was now making direct eye contact with the mysterious girl. A construct-rat skittered around their feet.
"Why would ya want that? I'm just a regular person at the moment." She may have been a fan of his from online, hence the strange request. However, Volta was in his uniform at the moment, not any sort of costume. "If it's about a static charge or somethin', that's a fun little ability to have." Another rat popped out of his sleeve. "Although I bet there's more efficient ways than that."
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Post by Anastasia Dammerung on May 5, 2022 2:00:35 GMT -5
"Why would ya want that? I'm just a regular person at the moment. If it's about a static charge or somethin', that's a fun little ability to have. Although I bet there's more efficient ways than that."
The strange boy seemed to have rat-based powers, as Reishi constructs taking said animal's shape were skittering around their feet and out of his clothes. Leonina herself didn't have anything against rats as long as they were in their proper place, eg. not in her house. While it would certainly make for an interesting ecology paper, how a population of rats had somehow managed to subsist in Schatten Bereich for 600 years... Well, the ones here were constructs belonging to a person, so they shouldn't be a problem. The boy himself looked amiable, and certainly quirky enough to pique her curiosity.
"Because you're the only other person here," the brunette managed to reply, her smile becoming more nervous by the second. "Hurry up, please, I won't be able to relax until you do it."
To hasten the process, should he agree, Leonina would reach for his arm with her left, the artificial one, placing his hand on top of her head and moving it back and forth to hopefully start on the head rubs. If he continued, she would happily continue repairing and washing clothes. Good thing she'd separated the bloodstained ones by instinct and tossed them in a separate machine. On closer inspection, the boy was wearing a Vorhut uniform, so he must have been the one sent for his division's laundry. Which was now mixed up with hers. She had to fix this at once.
"So you're Vorhut's laundry duty, right? I'm Leonina di Angelo, Forschung's laundry duty. What's your name?" she'd ask. "After this washing is done, would you join me with dropping them off?"
In reality, Leonina was rather curious as to how he was somehow not a regular person at the moment. To her knowledge, regular people were spiritually unaware humans, like those back on Earth. Did he mean it in a socio-cultural sense instead? His release did seem rather unorthodox, as not even Lennich "The Raven" Plessnal had an actual raven release. So many questions, but it was wiser to save those for a later stage in their relationship, if they'd even remain acquainted after this laundry duty.
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Player
It ain't that hard to love a rat.
volta
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Post by volta on May 5, 2022 9:24:09 GMT -5
Volta would indeed continue the head-rubs, but in a strangely robotic manner. It was strange for this girl to be so open about her quirks, unlike most of those that Volta knew. Perhaps it was due to a difference in culture between divisions.
"So you're Vorhut's laundry duty, right? I'm Leonina di Angelo, Forschung's laundry duty. What's your name?"
"Me? I'm Volta Valenti. Yeah, they sent me to do laundry." His smiling expression hadn't changed at all. "I'm guessin' you're younger, like me. Newbies always get picked on, ya know."
"After this washing is done, would you join me with dropping them off?"
"Sure, if ya wanna visit Vorhut headquarters." He tilted his head, despite her likely not being able to see him. Another rat crawled down his arm, keeping its balance until it reached his hand. It blinked a few times at Leonina, then chittered.
"You're allowed in, but I dunno if ya wanna take me wherever you're goin'. I promise I'll keep my friends in check so they won't break your machines, or whatever they have there." Based on her smile, her request seemed to have friendly intentions. However, Volta could not be sure that she was simply like him. It didn't seem important to ask about anything like that at the moment.
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Post by Anastasia Dammerung on May 6, 2022 0:50:04 GMT -5
"Volta... Valenti..." Leonina repeated. The head rubs were making her lethargic, robotic or not. She blinked a few times to return to full alertness. "Thank you, I feel much better now."
Are you another soul like me, whose smile does not always equate to happiness?
"I'm guessin' you're younger, like me. Newbies always get picked on, ya know."
"I am, in fact, only eighteen. But rest assured I volunteered for this job. It's the only way I can make sure it's done perfectly," she replied, politely but filled with determination.
Volta agreed to accompany her drop the laundry off after it was done, with another construct-rat climbing down his sleeve to blink and chitter at the girl. Leonina in turn found herself staring back and attempting to touch it with a finger.
"You're allowed in, but I dunno if ya wanna take me wherever you're goin'. I promise I'll keep my friends in check so they won't break your machines, or whatever they have there."
This made Leonina giggle a bit. "You're funny. If your friends do manage to break our machines then that means they weren't perfect in the first place. And if that's the case, then all the more they should then be rebuilt to be perfect."
"Like my arm here," she held out her prosthesis and let its intricately crafted and polished metal gleam in the room's light. The hand split off at the wrist, connected by an extending flexible metallic hose, and began pressing buttons on the washing machine to begin the next wash cycle. At this point, her smile had transformed from a nervous smile to a smug one.
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Player
It ain't that hard to love a rat.
volta
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Post by volta on May 11, 2022 10:00:08 GMT -5
"Ahaha! That's new! I see ya have plans, Miss Leonina!" Volta had closed his eyes while laughing, a rare sight. "Perfection...well, if it means us rats are okay then it's fine by me!" The sleeve-rat, at the sign of touch, stuck its nose out to reach towards Leonina's finger.
This girl was a year younger than him, and already in possession of an advanced (and apparently even perfect) prosthetic arm. She was an anomaly for sure and had no idea of her status as one, which delighted Volta, but also made him wonder if he was somehow already falling behind. But that was of no matter.
The rat that had been sitting on Volta's hand crawled back into his sleeve, eyes large and gleaming at the strange new metallic tightrope to walk. Volta gave it a reassuring pat.
"Ehehe, we both think that's amazin'! So, that's the last load that needs to be washed, right?" Volta himself had very little stakes in this: uniforms were simply that, while all of his cosplay outfits were safe in his part of quarters. However, Leonina's dedication to perfection seemed like the kind of fervor that was inadvisable to toy with, and Volta preferred to not get on the wrong side of someone as passionate as her.
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Post by Anastasia Dammerung on May 16, 2022 11:05:24 GMT -5
"You're absolutely right, Volta!" Leonina said. Her grin was reaching the limit of smugness for any one human being. "If all goes to plan, even the rats will be perfect! Anything and everything can and will be perfect in their own special way!"
At this, the sleeve-rat poked her finger, and the girl giggled in delight again. How wonderful. Normally, Quincy abilities were quite spartan, aesthetically speaking. While the standard Quincy spirit bow was more than sufficient to take down low level foes, and the rigorous military tactics employed by the Wandenreich guaranteed a rather high success rating, Leonina couldn't help wishing her race's abilities were more gorgeous, happy, and elegant. To her, perfection was a balance between beauty and functionality. Because of this, Volta's release appealed greatly to her.
"Ehehe, we both think that's amazin'! So, that's the last load that needs to be washed, right?"
Volta's praise for her arm jarred Leonina from her thoughts on Quincy releases.
"Thanks, I made it myself," she answered. And lost the original herself. "Yeah, this is the last load. I'll begin packing the others, and you're helping me sort them."
With that, Leonina began picking out her unit's uniforms, which she recognized, and folding them in neat little piles. She then pulled out several crates and one of those chariot-looking cart things that you use to load stuff into vehicles with. Unusually, she forgot what they were called, and had to ask Volta.
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Player
It ain't that hard to love a rat.
volta
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Post by volta on May 18, 2022 8:22:17 GMT -5
If the emotion expressed in Volta's wild smile had to be put to words, it would come out as something like this girl is brilliant! Different kinds of perfection...no one has ever expressed things like that as far as I know...
He said nothing, simply standing perfectly still until prompted to help sort uniforms. The Vorhut ones seemed to have been mostly cleaned of their bloodstains due to the miracle of washing machines, or perhaps the brigade had simply been less active than usual. Volta had no clue. He wasn't really even looking at what he was doing, simply watching Leonina and mimicking her with machinelike precision.
When she asked him a question, Volta turned around slightly to catch a view of what was going on. "It's a wheelbarrow, I think?" Where did she get that and the boxes? A rat hopped into the cart to check.
Despite his intrigue, Volta still wondered if Leonina wanted him to stay with her. "I can still take my crates back to headquarters, if ya want to split up." The rat crawled back up onto his shoulder and squeaked a few times, apparently attempting to communicate Volta's good intentions in its own attitude.
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Post by Anastasia Dammerung on May 18, 2022 9:06:26 GMT -5
Leonina caught Volta smiling at her in appreciation after her grand declaration of a uniquely perfect world. If the emotion in the smile she returned could be expressed in words, it would be something like: "This bleached white empire would be perfect, if everyone smiled like you."
The girl realized they had been staring at each other for too long when the timer on the washing machine went off, signaling the end of the cycle for the last load. Finding herself a bit too self-conscious for comfort, Leonina cleared her throat loudly and turned away as quick as possible to hide any potential blushing.
"It's a wheelbarrow, I think?"
Volta sounded quite confused, probably as to where she'd gotten that and the crates. Didn't his local laundromat have those in the back?
"I got those from the back, doesn't yours have some? It's more efficient to deliver them that way instead of just carrying them, you know," she replied.
"I can still take my crates back to headquarters, if ya want to split up."
Leonina wanted to spend more time with him. While her brigade definitely appreciated her work ethic, she found many of her colleagues lacking in one or more aspects, most of all in terms of how fun they were. Perfection of course required a lot of hard work and discipline, but it had to be balanced with enjoyment as well. And here was someone who had both mechanical precision and a lively personality.
"That won't be necessary, Volta. I wish to stick with you until we finish this task. A-and maybe..."
Splitting up was the more logical option in terms of efficiency. But it wasn't always just matter that mattered.
"M-maybe not even just until the end of laundry duty..."
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Player
It ain't that hard to love a rat.
volta
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Post by volta on May 28, 2022 14:21:10 GMT -5
What was going on? It was hard to tell if he had somehow offended her or if this was something like...well, that was of no matter at the moment. Volta had watched too much anime. Even still, his smile became a bit wider, this time seeming genuine.
"Well, now! I get to see your headquarters! This is quite the payoff for havin' to go get laundry!" He didn't blink, even as he remembered that Leonina had implied she wanted to stay with him. Volta couldn't verbalize the implications in the moment, even through his smile. A rat crawled into one of the wheels, running forward as if to move the wheelbarrow.
"Now, shall we go?"
Volta decided to grab the handles and push the entire cart of double-capacity laundry by himself, trusting Leonina would keep him from making any wrong turns. He didn't even look forward, locking eyes with his companion. "Well, I assume we just gotta go out the exit? I came in from the door closest to Vorhut's place." He started walking forward, head swiveling to look at Leonina even as he began to speed up. "I, well...this is the last chance to say ya don't want me to come."
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Post by Anastasia Dammerung on Jul 8, 2022 20:09:05 GMT -5
Volta's smile widened, if that was even at all possible, and he expressed his pleasure at getting to see the Forschung headquarters.
"That you do, huh Volta!" Leonina exclaimed. "While it's only Forschung 8th Squad, it's still pretty impressive!"
"Now, shall we go?"
With a construct-rat climbing into a wheel as if to turn it like a hamster toy, Volta grabbed the laundry cart and wheeled it out the door he assumed Leonina had come from. Fortunately for both of them, it was in fact the right door. The boy's instincts were quite good for someone who seemingly hadn't been in this part of the city before, though his newfound companion was a bit concerned over whether the construct-rat would be just fine inside the cart wheel.
Leonina would lead them through yet another pre-calculated route, this time one that would lead the two Quincy to Forschung 8th Squad headquarters. Upon arriving there, they would see that the place looked like a combination of a cathedral, a garage, and a factory, with a large white "8" being painted on one of the factory towers.
"Let's go in," Leonina invited, the front door readily opening in response to her Quincy Cross and allowing Volta to enter with the laundry. The place, as expected, looked like your standard Quincy cathedral, except it was lined with way more machinery than usual. Or perhaps this was the usual amount of machinery for Forschung. She would take them down a corridor similarly lined with pipes and wiring, passing several rooms including one with a muscular guy in a ram mask pounding at even more machinery ("Josef", Leonina explained, which wasn't much of an explanation) until they reached a room marked "Storage 1: Personnel Equipment". Not to be confused with "Storage 2: Food Supplies", "Storage 3: Engineering Supplies", "Storage 6, CAUTION: Prototypes", or any of the various other storage rooms.
"Come on, these go in here," Leonina said as she unlocked Storage 1. While one side of the room was lined with lockers, another side contained spare crosses and Ginto tubes, and the third side was shelves and cabinets for clothes, which the girl motioned to.
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