Fantasy Iron Clad [IC] (Closed)

[Megilagor]

Name: Terri Muirin
Rank: Recruit
Position: Drummer
Location: Ironwing Academy Pod A Living Room
Tag: GrieveWriter (Anastasia Stepfield), Uasal (Clair O' Reilly), II-CinderRadcliff-II (Evalynn), Monday (Lucy Loman)


After leaving the audition room, in a bit of a stupor Terri stood there, before slapping both sides of his face to ‘wake up’ he then reached into a pocket within his jacket, it was a small bottle with a cap. He opened it, grabbed a few red and blue things, and hid the bottle. His mouth was filled with intense heat and coldness at the same time, those pill-looking things were concentrated capsaicin and menthol which weirdly don't cancel each other out but strengthen the feeling, it was Terri's go-to way to heighten his blood pressure for some time.

Then he went toward the processing stations, and let's say it was so dull for him that he just blanked out and ‘auto-piloted’ for the entire thing, not even caring what was in that black column of a case he was pushing along with the cart. After leaving the hell of processing stations he began to wonder and ponder while walking to his living space.

Upon arriving at the entrance he opened the door and pushed his cart inside. Terri then saw three ladies in the living room and heard some music playing.
“Great I hope I'm not the only guy here or the next years will be hell incarnate once again!”
Terri said it out loud without realizing it, then moved himself and his baggage to what will be his room, but while passing the rest he said with an awkward smile.
“Terri Muirin, drummer of yours. Nice to meet yall! And sorry but I need to go put it in my room first.”
Not waiting for a reply he pushed forth and entered his room.
Then he started to unpack his stuff, first from his rucksack, then the crate and in the end the big thing. Which turned out to house his drumset, although he preferred the classical one but being unwieldy this new version using drones for most parts was way lighter and easier to set up. When he finished putting everything where it was supposed to be, it almost looked like his room back home, maybe except for the military stuff.

He then put his SAVIOR on his wrist and walked out after a while to his ‘people’, and asked them.
“Well can I get your names, if we are meant to be a team?”

 

[Uasal]

Name: Clair O'Reilly
Rank: Recruit
Position: Lead Guitar
Location: Pod A Living Room
Tag: GrieveWriter II-CinderRadcliff-II Monday Megilagor

Clair was more or less a shut-in at this point, having only ventured outside for the occasional walk and meetup, and so when Anastasia moved to inspect her face more closely, Clair froze up. It wasn't every day someone you had just met shoved their face inchs before your own, in fact, had she not known any better Clair would have assumed the woman was making a move on her. Fortunately for Clair and her rising heart rate, the woman moved back to her cart rather quickly and after a deep breath, Clair calmed herself and watched with a soft smile as two more of her teammates arrived to the dorm. They didn't stick around for long but that was fine, after all, everyone had just been through quite a lot mentally. It was completely natural to assume not everyone would be in the socializing mood right now, they'd be plenty of time to get to know everyone and to bond.

Returning her attention to Anastasia again, Clair was happy to hear the woman was understanding when it came to handling her weapon. As the conversation shifted to Price, Clair was fully entranced. To think Anastasia could not only play so many different genres but also modify her bass on the go to facilitate it was impressive, to say the least. She didn't just look the part of a badass, she played it too! Watching her adapt and move in time with the aggressive violin music coming from one of the pods sent a shiver down Clair's spine. She really made it! This was it, the chance to play with the best of the best. Beaming from ear to ear Clair watched Anastasia and her movements closely, imagining the sounds produced in her head as the woman played along in silence herself. "Amazing! Really! You're amazing!".

Turning her attention to the returning roommate and her question, Clair cut her piece short to introduce herself, moving to offer the girl her hand to shake "I'm Clair. Clair O'Reilly. I play the guitar and I suppose you could say I 'specialize' in Blues, Metal and Rock. Though I use the word specialise lightly, I really just play what I like the sound off when the urge strikes me". Shifting her attention back to Price, Clair asked a question of her own "Playing so many genres and modifying your bass so much must be quite hard on you. I'm really impressed!" Turning back to Evalynn Clair continued "and you play the accordion right Evalynn? That's really interesting. I can't say I've ever seen someone play it live before. You're like a rare breed of musician, you've got to play for me sometime, with the keys and the buttons and all that! Awesome!"

With the door opening and another member joining the roster, Clair's eyes wandered at the sound of his voice, grinding to herself when he voiced his concerns of being the only male in the group. So far that was very much true but there was still a pod empty. Nevertheless, Clair had to hold herself back from laughing. Once he had returned Clair introduced herself again "Clair O'Reilly. I play the guitar and so far... You seem to be the only guy in the group. Tsk tsk tsk, feeling outnumbered are we?" Teasing him with a subtle Grin Clair eventually let a laugh slip "Don't worry just yet though, there's still one empty pod up for grabs."​

 

[Haze-]

Name: Nathan Carpenter
Rank: Recruit
Position: Singer (Mixed)
Location: Iron Wing Academy - Pod Alpha (Living Room)
Tag: Uasal Megilagor GrieveWriter Monday II-CinderRadcliff-II

---

He was in a vacuum. In a limbo, between a row of some of the most trooper-looking hard-asses he’d ever seen to his rightmost, another row on the other end with some of the most wannabe rock-stars he’d ever seen, and in that clamor, he felt ajar— easing into his seat, struggling not to shift a notch or two away from the two silhouettes poking out the corners of his eye, brain swallowed by uneasiness. People were not looking at him, they didn’t know he was anxious from what’d just gone down back there. At least, he wanted to believe that was the case. His head swayed to a bump in the road and his body followed some, all the noise brushed down the bus to a hollow, away from him.

Cadence. Profound cadence. Made it easy to think.

Nathan held a quiet, sullen impassiveness. Arms crossed, cold and statuesque, tunnel vision through those two chimerical rows of white noise. After the moment had reached its fiery crescendo, after he’d gotten a lick of that happy high, he was stripped bare of his fire. Chest heaving and beads of sweat rolling down his face as laughter filled the room. It pinged that primitive agitation, made him recoil a bit. The adrenaline from singing after so long was overrun by something else — ‘Fight, flight or freeze.’ — the rest was more or less a distant blur in his mind. He was left with a knot at his throat, wouldn’t let go of the thought— even if the fact that he’d just scrapped by with no real practice, after years of not really using his voice, was a wonder in of itself— he was still wondering if it was confusion or that of contempt that made his eyebrows knit involuntarily.

After moments of torture, he felt as though a white bulb would’ve either flicked on above his head or burst into shards of glass by now. The restlessness turned to burnout, and he barely had any thought left in him. He side-eyed the window, eyes narrowing with slow regard to the heat seeping through tempered glass. One thing rang out, crystal clear in his mind— ‘I could do better.’ — It settled in with the scorn and grievance of a hundred lifetimes. Not as dull words of encouragement, but as a slow twist of the knife. A thorn on his side — ‘I would’ve killed it back then.’ — Hooked on the wound, driven all the way to its hilt. Cutthroat competitiveness was a poison, he knew that, maybe that’d been one of the reasons he’d dropped the singing back then.

Still, knowing that wouldn’t make his ego hurt less.

Nathan had been slacking off this whole time.

---

The line of fresh recruits moved with bustling efficiency, and as the whole processing blurred by, Nathan had never felt so alien. They were far from the epicenter of the dome, he’d never wandered off this close to the walls, and goddamn were the streets as grandiose as he thought they would be. He would normally keep his eyes set on the ground, trailing shadow and tracing cracks on the floor as not to cross a meeting of the eyes with anyone else, but as the scenery roared to life— he couldn’t keep his eyes low anymore — “Hoooley shi…” — Nate eyed up the building as he walked in, damn near crumpling the map they’d given him by accident just from the shivers running up his spine. He was already used to blocks upon blocks of dwells crisscrossed, lazily strewn about - rows, in a perfect disorder, broken foundations and debris-filled rooftops, lined on unpaved roads that sometimes led to actual civilization.

Too many cramped apartments in the same place, none of them ever reaching past third-story height, Nathan had acclimated to them, gotten into the habit of squeezing by the heat of a crowd. Melted into the vibe, the hurry. Walking fast and getting to your place before prying, wide eyes crept out the more shaded corners of the city, landed on your shoes, your purse, the glittery wristwatch you spent your six-month savings on— things went down fast and brutal where he was from.

He wasn’t used to everything being so orderly, like it was safe to stop moving with the crowd for a second, like a rogue sheep in a new pack. In the minimalistic-future everyone lived in, the one he’d been staring at from afar, this looked to be the high-class. Maybe somewhere near the middle of the pecking order. And that, for one lucky guy from the slums of the world, was overwhelming.

Taking out his phone as discretely as he could, without looking like a tourist, he snapped a couple of selfies. The majority of them with either his over-exaggeratedly wide eyes poking from a corner or with his entire face covering everything, only framing a bit of the scenery and the biggest, idiot smile he could produce. He was quick to put his phone down and send them to Lisa, one smiley face captioned on every image— She was likely at work by this time of day. He’d surely be greeted with a wave of non-stop pinging once nightfall came around, so for now, Nathan only admired his work with the same idiotic smile on his face.

It was then he remembered something he’d voided for the entirety of today. Mom — “Damn.” — As hard as multi-tasking was; Nathan held the map on his mouth— juggled with the duffel bag, slung to his middle— he marked a number on his phone as he kept walking.

He cut around a wall, swung around a corner, focusing on the map as it dialed for a while. After the fourth ring, it picked up almost immediately. No hello, no waiting on the line, nothing further than the dull thud of someone putting their phone down on the other end, the faraway clamor of people going through rounds of conversation picking up every now and then. Footsteps drew near, then they picked up — “Aye, how can I help ya?”

“Hey dickhead, you at the bar?” — Nathan asked, still struggling with his baggage, getting an audible grunt on the other end of the line. — “Annoying ass… ‘Course I’m at the bar, fuck type ‘a question is that? I’m covering you up so you can sneak out to your little talent show thing, remember? Whaddya want?” – Even as he’s had back-and-forth’s like this with his brother countless times, Nathan still had this tick every time that old-world Australian pirate accent of his came out, he would automatically roll his eyes at the sound. On cue. He never knew where it had stuck to him, or why in his right mind had he picked it up thinking he sounded cool with it, but he’d always rocked the accent ever since the both of them had memory. It was a part of the charm, he’d say. And he wasn’t entirely wrong, it was.

In the ‘family business’— that little diner-bar his mom stubbornly ran— he was the star. Even through his belligerent, loud, foul-mouthed nature, the usuals always loved that mix of blasé, devil may care attitude with the pirate persona. Made an awfully forgettable experience somewhat entertaining — “Yeah. Yeah, whatever. Can you put Ma on the phone for me real quick? I need to tell her somethi—”

Nate jumped at the sound of a heavy hand crashing against a table. A rough voice, rough accent, yelling, some old man. Something about a midget.

“Wha— One sec. HOY, TRAVIS!! THESE GENTLEMEN ARE THIRSTY OVER HERE.”— He raised his voice, then there was a loud crash that picked up blaring on the phone, made Nate flinch.

“Hey fuck you Carpenter, I’ll beat your ass!” – Another voice replied, screaming all the way from the back of the bar. Other voices hollered at the exchange, laughing their asses off.

“Bro— To- Tobi— Tobias— What the—” — He found it hard to speak over the following unintelligible screams and empty thuds roaring out the speakers, like someone were either throwing their mugs like a madman or knocking them hollowly on the bar. It kept going for a while, something about someone’s mother, something about another midget— he had no clue at this point.

“Tobias Carpenter.” — Nate’s voice fell in pitch, and as if he’d summoned straight from the hellish screams of the pandemonium, his brother replied — “Piss off, man. What’re you still on the line for? What. Do. You. Want. I’m busy.”

“Put the woman that bore you on the phone. Please.”

Still silence on the line. Nathan could hear him plant his elbows on the mahogany counter, another audible sigh. He was bad at hiding those— “She’s unavailable. Leave a message after the tone, asshat.”

Nathan stopped in his tracks. A longer silence. Apparently, he wasn’t good at hiding those either — “Alright, just… Just tell her that I got in. I’ll be staying here for a while, might swing around to grab some stuff later.”

“Y’mean you won the talent show?” – Tobias asked, the clamor dying down to some background noise as he could hear him step away from the bar.

“It wasn’t a talent show, it was recruitment—I’m being recruited by the military. Iron Wing Academy. Didn’t I show you the flyer?”

Deafening silence on the line.

“Bloody fucking hell, Nate… You’re joking aren’t you?”

He froze for a second – “What?”

“You’re gonna get yourself killed, dumbass.”— Tobias stated, another, exasperated sigh leaving his mouth — “What, y’thought that just because you could start a little fire you could stand up to them? You’re not like that, telling ya.”

Then there was the longest silence. If he would’ve stood there just hearing the static noise coming from the speaker, he might’ve just felt it lapping on the floor beneath, echoing through the halls, beating across the walls. Like the wind might whisper its name to him.

Another sigh, blowing sympathy pains— “Listen. There’s no shame in quitting. I can hook you up with some other gigs. Hell, I’ll convince mom to finally let you work here at the bar if I can. But just—Let’s find something NOT life threatening, eh?”

Tobias waited for an answer that never came. Nathan was frozen with his eyes dead-set ahead of him, mouth dry like he’d just swallowed cotton balls for breakfast — “Nate?”

“Just do what I said. See you around.”— Not waiting an answer, Nathan hung up. He balled his fist where he stood.

---

Nathan glanced at the keycard. Alpha A-1, they’d told him— something along those lines. He brought down the keycard and the fancy door clicked, swung open for him. Inside was an architect’s arrogant ego-stroke, something he would’ve stared at wide-eyed in pure wonder be it not for that gloom overtaking his eyes. He tried to force it away, but the knife kept twisting at his side. At the very least he didn’t want to show these people that weakness of his. Not today, not ever. He’d much rather skim through dull introductions right now and have them think he’s a freak. For now, that is all he had the energy for.

He rolled up into the room, lazily pushing his cart in and avoiding their gazes. He leaned into the cart as he stopped near them, held up his head to look at them — “Yo. Nate Carpenter, I’ll—eh… be the voice of this group. From the looks of it…”

“I haven’t sung in…years. Up until today at least. So, yeah… Out of practice.”— Even as he tried to force an awkward smile on his face, he still said that with a frown — “I’ll try to keep up, though.”

 

[II-CinderRadcliff-II]

Evalynn R Madore - Recruit

Evalynn grabbed Clair's hand fairly firmly when she offered a handshake, and keenly listened to what she and Ana specialized in. While she herself could have dedicated her time to any instrument and been good at it, she felt that the accordion had a lot more charm and soul to it... Plus, it was inherently more difficult. She liked challenging her limits, and that desire was one of the reasons she auditioned for the military. At Clair's remark about wanting a personal performance, she chuckled a little with a genuine smile.
"Well if you want to hear it that badly, consider it done. I don't specialize in any one genre, so feel free to request any song and I'll try my best to recreate it with... one moment." Evalynn paused as she rushed to her room, grabbing her accordion and bringing it out. "This is my accordion, Double-Tap. I've been performing with her for just under seven years now, and after all that time I've kept her in top shape. I'd have introduced you to my pet wolf Nyus, but as you can imagine..." Evalynn's smile faded back to the poker-face what was her default for unpleasant moments, her attention turning to Terri. At first she expected a simple hello or handwave, but the remark of potentially being the only guy seemed to spark an idea in her head. While she didn't have a chance to say it right then, her time would eventually arrive just as he returned from the short trip into his room. She followed up after Clair. "Evalynn Madore, Accordionist. You'd better be prepared, we may just end up forming a harem if you're not careful." She jested with a smirk as she glanced back to Ana and Clair.

Just as quickly as she made the harem joke, it fell apart as soon as Nathan walked into the living room. All good jokes were bound to fall flat at some point. Despite her humor however, she was somewhat glad herself that there was another guy in the squad, and from his brief introduction she just smiled back at him. "Nice to meet you, I'm Evalynn. I hope you don't mind the accordion too much."

Uasal GrieveWriter Megilagor Haze- Monday​