Board Thread:Role Plays/@comment-26130256-20170711055926/@comment-26130256-20171113070325

Edom whistled slowly as the sun turned the sky into a dizzying array of colors. Yeah, the cold at Flagg was downright barbaric, but the sunsets at this altitude were pretty spectacular. Now it was starting to make sense what would posess an ancient people to climb up this high to build things.

"Hey, Edom!" one of the other students called him out of his thoughts. It was the guy dressed like a bad Trigo imitation, and his "Vacuan" accent was just as terrible. Surrounding him were a few of the other CQC students. "We're going down to the city, see what kind of clubs they have in this kingdom.  You in?"

"Eh, tonight?  Nah," Edom explained with a shake of his hands. "Jet lag always rocks my world when I travel, so I wanna get a head start on it tonight.  Tomorrow, though, definitely!"

"Suit yourself, ace!" Not!Trigo waved before turning away. Edom gave another shrug of his shoulders before beginning his long, cold walk towards the dorms.

I'm going to die like this, Azulius thought as the wind gusted around him. ''I'm going to die cold, alone, and a virgin. Three for three what I hoped to avoid. I am sincerely hoping there's some kind of bus or tram system that just happened to not be running today. Otherwise, these weeks of classes are going to go by much more slowly.''

After what felt like eternity, the imposter found Room 1307, his suitcase placed gently on the bed. After a few minutes unpacking his stuff, Edom took a moment to draw the curtains and perform a quick bug sweep of the room. Once he was satisfied, he opened the back of his Scroll and flicked the switch that connected the concealed hard drive to the rest of the machine. A few seconds later, a split encrypted conversation had been established with Brine.

''BR1N3: Figured I would be hearing from you soon. How was your first day of classes?''

''ACards: About normal, but we might have some problems. Fritz and Stella are both in town. Fritz is even the TA for my class.''

''BR1N3:  You're kidding. Does he suspect anything?''

''ACards:  No, but I'm not sure how long that will last. I'm hoping my beard and clothes are enough that he won't look too closely. I know I hate contacts, but maybe I should have taken the plunge. If I start using them now, someone is bound to notice.''

''BR1N3: Then buy some of the HUD contacts from Flagg's store. Say your're testing them out, and only wear them when you need to. Just don't buy the purple ones, for my sake.''

''ACards:  I'll look into that, boss. Also, our class gets access to some AK-130s retrofitted to be combat dummies. Still have their universal ports, if you want to practice your remote access.''

''BR1N3:  Not a bad idea. I'll do some digging for combat programs. But speaking of digging, look at this picture I got from one of Flagg's less-secured cameras.''

The magician peered closely at the screen. The picture was still a little fuzzy, but there was plenty of detail to identify the woman stepping out of the taxi cab. Body like an marble statue, hair in an oddly familiar bun, dark blue color scheme, all topped off with a pair of glasses framing the prettiest eyes in the kingdom. There would be no use writing down the next five paragraphs of Azulius's response, because it would have to be censored.

''BR1N3:  You gonna kiss your girlfriend with that mouth? What's the big deal? Are you that worried about her finding you and ruining your big self-pitying training montage?''

''ACards:  Yes, as a matter of fact, I am. This whole job just got way more complicated.''

<p style="font-weight:normal;">''BR1N3:  They always do. At least this one doesn't have a random-walk laser grid or invisible Cloaker-drones.''

<p style="font-weight:normal;">''ACards:  And there go the painful flashbacks. I think I'll go get some sleep, figure out the best ways to avoid her tomorrow. Besides, I really do hate jet lag.''

<p style="font-weight:normal;">''BR1N3:  Acknowledged. Sleep well, and dream of scaly women.''

<p style="font-weight:normal;">ACards:  Up yours, Brine.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">''BR1N3:  And yours too, Nemo. *winking emoji*''