Post by Madaraki on Feb 26, 2015 0:18:38 GMT -6
Good Morning
There were several ways Xrea could be awakened in the morning.
There was the alarm clock - for when she had to get up early to get to work at a decent time. She held the post of Central Systems Inspector, a job which required her to check the reception dishes and monitoring arrays in Olympus’ middle districts and make sure they were operating properly. In the past few months however, things had been operating perfectly, and so her job description had been more accurately described as “explore previously unexplored parts of the city”.
There was sunlight - usually when Riel was up first and opened the curtains. This usually resulted in her slowly but surely stretching and yawning like a cat. She would then sit up and discover that her hair was in her eyes and she couldn’t see anything but a bright blue thicket until she sorted the cerulean tangles out.
There was being tickled - this tended to snap her awake the fastest and often resulted in some amount of playful grappling until Xrea could pin her girlfriend down.
This morning though, she woke up on her own, finding only one of the curtains opened with the other kept closed to keep the sun from pouring in. Every once in a while, that happened too, though usually in those instances she could hear the sounds of some sort of breakfast being prepared in the kitchen. This morning though, even the kitchen was silent.
Xrea rolled over in bed, enjoying the feel of the blankets on her skin. She didn’t feel quite ready to abandon the realm of comfort just yet. Brushing her hair out of her eyes with one hand, she saw that in fact, Riel had already awoken and apparently left. That was also when she realized she’d apparently been lying on one of her arms through the night and it was quite asleep.
There was a note resting on the other pillow -thankfully she hadn’t knocked it off the bed- that she picked up with her free arm.
Mornin’!
Out with Wat for a bit of shopping. She says she found a clothing store off in the west district that has a Wesley Crusher sweater. We’re totally going to mail it to Kraven and tell him to wear it the next time all of us meet up.
You were smiling and looked like you were having a good dream, so I didn’t wake you.
-Love, Alatariel
Xrea smiled and folded the note up, rolling over again and carefully putting it into a nightstand drawer. Stretching, she poked her tail out from under the covers at the end of the bed and flexed it before she finally sat up. Her arm was recovering some of its feeling, and she began running through just what she would spend the day doing. Riel and Wat were off in the west district, and shopping, which meant they could be gone until the evening, even with the new monorail that was being put in place.
Finally climbing out of bed, she made her way into the hall and into the bathroom. As she usually did in the mornings, she turned the water on with her tail, pulled her underwear off, and stepped into the stream of water. On the other side of the shower curtain, the mirror began to fog up.
Emerging from the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her, Xrea made her way down the hallway further to where the kitchen, living room, and dining area existed as one fairly large room. Breakfast was the first big surprise of the day. When she opened the refrigerator, she was confronted with the sight of several cooked-to-the-point-of-blackened sausages that looked ominously like the fingers and toes of some giant lizard. Thankfully they were sealed in plastic.
Apparently Wat had dropped by to pick Riel up that morning.
Carefully, Xrea reached around the...obstruction for the orange juice.
After finishing breakfast, she made her way back to the bedroom and took several minutes making the bed before she tossed the towel into the laundry and began looking through her side of the closet for something to wear.
Several minutes of indecisiveness followed, and she eventually settled on a knee-length purple dress. Grabbing several a few more things including a stack of reports about the Illesion's crash detection sensors, she shoved the last few things into a shoulder bag and headed for the door.
She left a note of her own on the table. She would probably be back first, but it couldn’t hurt.
Running a few errands in the central district. Nathan says the first monorail run into the west district’s expanse zone is going to be happening next week. I’ve already grabbed tickets!
-Love, Emily
She stepped out, and immediately leaped around the corner and began scrambling up the side of the wall; her claws digging in for purchase. Olympus was a rapidly changing city, but she would always enjoy making her way about by the rooftops.
It had only been a matter of months since the downfall of the Inheritors, but the Olympus entity’s work was very much in evidence. It had been coordinating with as many robots and machines as could be reactivated -and wisely using Jasmine as a sort of go-between to avoid worrying the rest of the city’s population about the possibility of another machine overlord.
The first order of business had been the construction of a high-speed monorail that radiated outward from a new station built near the CDITS. It had been Genesis of all people who’d pointed out that the S should really be added considering the building’s name. That brought the number of major landmark buildings in Olympus to three:
The Carolina Darkwaters Interplanetary Travel Station. There had been a brief discussion about renaming it now that she was alive again, but in the end she’d decided that she liked seeing it named after her.
The Pantheon. Gyros’ business had taken off ever since the battle, and with the Trumans’ hovercraft stolen -Nathan had a suspicion about who had taken it but when asked his only answer had been an awkward silence- they had taken up residence in the apartments below the offices.
The Illesion was the third and newest building was the inner-city transportation hub whose routes ranged beyond the city itself into the Expanse. No one was quite sure who had named it that, but it had a nice ring to it and it had stuck. There were other hubs being built in each of the outer districts in the city with their own names, but the Illesion was the central hub. Additionally, outpost stations beyond the city limits were being constructed in the Expanse and small towns were even beginning to spring up there.
By now, the main track into the eastern district had been completed with the other three still being built. The city was beginning to really come to life again. With the Olympus entity handling the inner-city affairs, the Council had begun to turn its thoughts outward at last. The Expanse could be crossed and even conquered, but such occurrences were rare.
She and Riel had talked it over the previous night, and they’d both agreed that the next time there was a Skyship expedition across the desert and into the world beyond, they would be on it. There were still many mysteries to explore within the city -Riel had come along with her on numerous treks through Olympus’ less traveled routes- but something about the phrase “beyond the Expanse” held considerably allure for both of them.
Her thoughts about the future were briefly put aside when she heard a familiar voice calling out to her from one of the rooftops. Changing her direction slightly, she leaped a twenty foot gap between two buildings, aware only mid-leap that she was probably flashing anyone who happened to be walking down below.
She landed holding her dress in place and used her tail for balance.
“Years are going to go by and people are still going to be getting around by leaping over buildings,” Edward sighed, putting down a welder’s mask and a blowtorch and standing. “I spotted Gash standing on top of the Pantheon earlier. He seems to think he’s Olympus’ personal Batman these days.”
“Well, we haven’t exactly been able to root out all of the pit fighters after the battle,” Xrea shrugged. “The Vault Brawls are still popular as an underground thing, and well,” she paused, looking at her hands. “After the battle, it’s gotten that much harder for us to infiltrate them.”
For a moment, Edward looked like he was going to say something, then his face brightened.
“Hey, hop down there,” he said, pointing to the street. “Take a look at what we’ve done.”
She leaped down, startling several workers overhead and turned around to have a look. She thought the location had been familiar even from above.
The building was an older brick and mortar establishment, having evidently been constructed to evoke some sense of nostalgia. A crew of workers was busy with mounting a new sign over the entrance. It had never been given a proper name before, often being referred to as “the bar” or “the restaurant”, but particularly after their post-victory celebration, a name had seemed necessary.
Or so Edward had stated, though at the time he’d been half-awake with a horrendous hangover. It had been another several months before someone had reminded him of his own idea. He had latched onto it with considerably speed, and after procuring the necessary materials, speaking with the establishment’s owner, and finding people to help him, he’d made the alcohol-induced notion a reality.
“Leonard’s,” Xrea said, looking up at the sign. The letters were constructed of a clear material -she couldn’t tell if it were glass or plastic- and partially filled in with an amber substance that made them look like someone had filled half the sign with beer. “And does he know about this?” She called, raising her voice.
Edward poked his head over the roof’s edge where he’d been securing several anchoring bars behind the letters and grinned.
“Nope! We’re going to show him later tonight,” he said. “Carolina knows though, and she loves it.”
“I’m sure Leonard will too,” Xrea said, smiling. “See you guys around!”
As she walked away, it struck her as ironic; naming a restaurant after someone who no longer ate or drank. She shrugged. She had heard from Kuro that Leonard had been rather irritable about not having any buildings named after him.