DRAGMANTICAR: A Valentine's Day Exalted Datequest

"Yes," you say. "I have come to a decision."

"....yes?" Mother Ajah raises an eyebrow. Behind her Six stares sternly at you. Her eyesbrows are twitching, so you feel like this is a good point to cut the gag short. No need to drive it into the ground, since your sister will drive you into the ground if you drive the joke into the ground.

"I have no objections to rooming with my sister," you say. "So you may mark us down as rooming together."

Six crosses her arms under her chest and smirks. "That assumes I want to room with you in the first place."

Oh? Is she trying to play the social game, then? Your knuckleheaded musclebrained sister thinks she can outdo you in social ripostes and rejoiners? A fool's gambit. You were learning the art of humiliating your foes (socially) before she ever picked up the battle sickle (but not before the spear. Or the sword. Or even the throwing knife. Though perhaps before the bow).

"You don't want to?" you call her bluff. You school your face and expression to seem like you actually mean it. "Then... I suppose I-"

"I never said that!" Six blurts out, backtracking hastily. Crumpled like a house of cards. You do a little mental fistpump. "I'm alright with it."

"Are you sure?" You reply, still coquettishly messing with her. "I wouldn't-"

Six tackles you. The two of you fall to the ground (again) with a combined oof, and Six crawls up in flash with speed you never knew she had to pin you with her weight and slap both hands on your mouth. A look from her eyes silences you and she grits through clenched teeth. "I'm. Good."

Mother Ajah smiles. "In that case, since you two are rooming together, you won't need to check out any of the other rooms, either, right? So in that case Six can handle the rest of the tour. Instructor Ritani will be along if you need him later, please remmeber to see him off at the gate if you don't require his services."

"Then, I'm off." Mother Ajah starts to leave, but turns back for a brief second, with an eerily familiar smirk on her face. "Oh, right, try not to roll about on the ground that much once class starts. You're responsible for washing your own clothing, after all."

Then, with Six flushing a deep crimson she's really off, strolling away without a care in the world. You think she's actually whistling.

"....oh my gosh," Six drops her face into her hands. "The dorm mother thinks I'm a weirdo now."

You smirk. Six notices.

"What are you smirking for? She thinks you're a weirdo, too!" She jabs an accusing pointer finger in your face, pauses, remembers who's responsible for this situation, and then turns back to her accusation with a renewed sense of fury. "In fact, you're responsible for all this!"

You keep smirking. "Mieki-san's still here."

Indeed the poor girl is. She just sort of watches your antics, with a sort of baffled expression on her face.

Six scrambles off of you like you're a pile of dirty laundry. She coughs one, and then twice, not meeting anyone's eyes, before she lends you a hand to help you up. Once you two are properly standing again like normal siblings who do not tackle each other to the ground for half thought out and stupid reasons, she resumes the accusation. "In fact, you're responsible for all of this!"

You humor her with a smile, wait a beat, and then completely ignore what she just said. "So, are you going to show me to our new room or what?"

Six shrugs. "Yeah, su- wait don't ignore what I just said!"

You give her a flat stare. "Are you or not?"

"I.... yeah, whatever," Six gives up. "Yeah, let's go. Mieki-chan are you coming?"

Mieki blinks, then nods her head. "Um, yeah, sure. Are we going back, then?"

"Yeah," Six jerks her head to motion towards you. "Unless you have anything else to do?"

Mieki pauses in place for a moment as she thinks. "No, not really."

"Alright, cool," Six grins and sets off on a jaunty pace. "Let's go then."

A question occurs to you. You jog a little to catch up to your sister, and then slow down into an easy trot to match pace. "Wait, hang on. Why is Mieki-san coming back with us?"

"Hm?"

"I mean, is she like sharing the room or something?" If there's someone else in the same room, like the whole point of staying with Six is mostly gone. Plus, for all your joking you don't especially favor having to skulk about your own room.

"Nah," Six shakes her head. "Mieki-san's our next room neighbor."

"Yes," Mieki agrees. "I'm in the room to your right, so we'll likely be seeing each other throughout most of the day."

...huh. You mean... you don't get the floor all to yourself? You look at Six with an unspoken question, and she shakes her head. How shocking! You blink several times with this surprising new revelation.

"Oh," you say in a somewhat dismayed tone. Mieki giggles softly at your expression.

"You're probably surprised to figure out that they aren't giving you the entire floor, right?" How does she....? "Your sister said the same thing when she found out."

Six flushes crimson. "Mieki-chan don't tell her that!" You smirk, and Six slaps the back of your head. "And you, don't laugh, you had the same thought!"

You keep smirking. "Yeah, but at least I didn't say it out loud."

The dorm building, despite you having to share the floor with other occupants, like some sort of plebian, isn't all that bad. When you finally arrive, it's a stolidly build edifice of stone and wood, with a sloping curved shingled roof, and a cheerful exterior, with decorations strung from windows. You spot a bunch of water tanks boiling above a blaze of essence fueled fire along with a water trough lined with spigots, so you know at least the building seems to have hot water and running water.

You dust off the back of your robes as you enter, they're covered in dust, and trade your outside shoes for a pair of fluffy winter slippers that Six throws you. Two fire aspects, one older, and one younger wave to Six as the three of you pass by and Six waves back.

"You know them?"

"Yeah," Six responds. "The older one is Cathak Kalenti, she's a third year, the general dorm manager for this building. She answers to Mother Ajah, and she basically manages the building. The younger one is Seus Marsa. She spent a lot of time in the Threshold apparently, and she's back for schooling. I've sparred with her a couple of times. She's pretty good."

You pause, and then do a doubletake to take a closer look. If Six says someone's 'pretty good' in terms of martial arts, they're pretty much a martial genius. Cathak Kalenti is everything you'd expect from from a fire aspect, tall, firey, with an easy charismatic bearing. The younger, Seus Marsa talks animatedly. She's... short. Shorter than you expected. She's wearing nothing besides sarashi and pants, and you can see the details of her extremely well cut and well defined muscles. Her skin is bronzed and sticky with sweat from-

"Hey, Five, you coming or what?"

Ah... you kind of got caught up in staring. You break off, and hastily jog to catch up to Six and Meiki, who are waiting for you at the base of the sairs. "Sorry."

Six frowns. "Any particular reason? No?"

"Just taking a closer look," you reply. Actually, those two seem sort of familiar now that you think about it. "You don't give compliments to very many people about martial arts."

"Really?" Mieki asks.

"Yeah, Six is like the best of the best. I've never seen her lose out to anyone before. She's actually awesome at martial arts," you lay on the compliments and then look over. Six is blushing again, with an expression on her face that looks very un-Six like. She looks like a timid mouse.

"...t-thanks," she stutters out, in a way that is so un-Six like it honestly kind of gives you the creeps. Well, you suppose you don't usually give Six a lot of compliments, so she's probably not used to it.

....you should probably give her some more, when you think about it. You don't normally get the chance because she usually takes them to her ego.

Meiko says a quick goodbye once you reach her room and slips away. Your new room is merely a few steps down, the door is made of wood, and there's a little sign hanging on the outside. 'Two to a Room, but not Two's room.'

Heh. Clever.

Six flings the door open with a bit of aplomb. "Dadada!"

The door slams into the back wall with a loud thud, and and the sign falls off.

"....oops."

While Six is busy make sure the door is alright, and pulling the sign off the ground, you step inside the check it out. It looks... nice. Less cramped than you thought it would be. There's a little atrium, with a sunken in closet to the side for you to put your jacket and other outer-wear.

There are two beds, fairly large, across from each in the main room, a fair distance apart, but sharing a single nightstand. In an alcove, hidden away in one corner, there a small kitchenette, topped by a little hotplate. After rummaging underneath, you find it powered by a crystal of pure fire essence, probably mined from nearby. The washroom, of course, is like all washrooms. There's sink, a spigot of water, and you even find a small shower, though it seems that the water piped to your room is not heated, and you'll have to grab it from downstairs, or heat it yourself.

Overall it's a pretty nice room. You collapse into one of the chairs, before Six chases you off it.

"No, gross! Don't sit in that!" she complains as she beats it down. "You're still covered in dust!"

"So are you."

The two of you look down. Yes, indeed, you are covered in dust, which is the expected outcome after tackling each other into the ground and rolling around in dirt. You look around the room. None of your luggage has exactly arrived yet....

"....should we go to the baths?" Six wonders. "But I just came from there.... and you have a tour still, don't you?"

"Yeah...." You do, don't you? "Ritani-laoshi should be coming back around for the rest of it...."

You kind of should go see the rest of the school, but you also kind of... don't want to? It's getting later in the day, and you're tired, and a bath sounds really nice about now.

Ugh. Responsibilities.

Be a responsible dragonblood or blow them all off and go splash about in some natural hot springs?
[ ] To the baths!
--[ ] Invite anyone? Don't be ridiculous, you are supposed be undercover.
[ ] You should probably go check out the rest of the facilities....
--[ ] Dock facilities
--[ ] Heartstone tower
--[ ] Forbidden forest
--[ ] Outdoor areas
[ ] Hm... well, nothing says the rest of the school should be the other facilities. Why not go poking around the dorm and meeting your neighbors?
[ ] Write in