originally posted in:The New Dojo
[b]Keri walks towards the Simulation Room, usual get-up. Brown duster, white shirt under it, middlemost button done. Black leggings, brown tennis shoes. Green earrings, strange, because it didn't match her outfit at all. Almost like they weren't supposed to go with the outfit, possibly a different one. She had short, black hair, right around at her ears. Besides her getup, another thing stood out. Her eyes. They were a light, milky brown. She was blind. Strangely, she could navigate perfectly fine. Right over to the room, opening the door, then programming the Sim Room to a location. Familiar to a small select few, unknown by most.
She gazed up at the simulated sky, breathing in the air. It was home. Well, the place she came from, not her actual home. Neon lights, skyscrapers, drug dealers on street corners. She smiled. Just like she'd remembered. Of course, she didn't program the whole city to be simulated, just this street and a few alleyways. She walked off the road, over to one of the alleyways, pulling a revolver from her duster, right hand reaching over to her waist. She walked into the alleyway, looking down it. There was two men. She'd loaded the program that had two thugs in this specific alleyway, so she already knew that it was merely a few street toughs, good target practice. Despite being blind, she took aim, nailing one right in the back of the neck, falling down. She knew the second only had a knife, she'd programmed this part of the sim herself, so she holsters her revolver, and pulls a sword from the other side of the duster, a rapier. Only reason she wasn't sparring with a real person was because she only trained with her wooden rapier, a luxury nobody else in the Dojo would bother with. She quickly ran up to the second man, and stabbed him in the right arm, a quick, fast strike. He took a swing. She swung upwards, knocking the knife away. The man got angry. He ran at her, and was met with a blade. Through the chest. She wiped the blood from the blade with the man's shirt, and headed back out to the exit. The one flaw was... She'd left the door open. Anyone could've seen in. She walked out, shutting the door, then looked around for anyone that had seen in, or just someone to talk to.[/b]
[spoiler]Open.[/spoiler]
English
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"Clam chowder? No idea what that is, but.." [i]His hazel brown eyes quickly started darting over the menu before him, over the soup section, to be exact. [/i] "Yeah. I'll just be taking a cappuccino and a.. hmm. I've no idea what food I want."
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"Hm... Well I don't know what they have, so I can't help you out."
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"I think I'll go with macaroni and cheese, because that's always tasty, isn't it? Very simple, but tasty. And I sorta don't know what else to pick."
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"And it's not like I can help you decide... I don't know what they have. Wait, is someone coming to take our order or do we walk up to the counter?"
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"There's a waiter coming over right now," [i]Luke responded, left hand gesturing to said waiter, who was fast approaching the their table. Once he was at the table, he first turned to Keri, and asked that one trademark question,[/i] "What will it be, Miss?"
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"Clam chowder, please."
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[i]With a nod, the waiter scribbled something down on a notepad, before he turned to Luke with nothing but an expectant look. [/i] "Going simple, macaroni and cheese, please, with a cappuccino." [i]With another nod, the waiter scribbled the order down, before asking to the both of them:[/i] "Will that be all?" "I'd think so," [i]Luke responded as he looked over at Keri. Seemed he was done, but wanted to make sure if Keri wanted anything else. [/i]
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"Yes, that will be all." [b]Keri smiled big, she was genuinely very happy.[/b]
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[i]And, with yet another nod, the waiter drew a line beneath their order, before heading off to the counter, where he handed the note to the bartender, who then disappeared off to the kitchen. Or however it works. [/i]
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"So, Lucas, what do you like to do for fun? Besides wooing women like me, that is."
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[i]The comment about wooing women made Luke just somewhat awkward, a soft chuckle leaving his lips to cover up the awkwardness, before he answered, [/i] "I like reading comics, playing games, tinkering with technology, fixing things, building things. I'm an engineer and a half." [i]He smiled as he paused for a moment, giving Keri the time to process his answer and all that before he continued, [/i] "What about you?"
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"Well... I like comics too. And shooting guns, that's pretty fun... Oh! Practicing with my rapier! And going around in the Cedyetica sim. Meeting people. That's fun."
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"What kind of comics do you like? I love the Deadpool ones." [i]Luke went silent for a few moments, before he failed trying to resist asking a million questions. He still spoke rather rapidly, though he managed to remain coherent. [/i] You have a rapier? That's pretty cool, always wanted to try sword fighting. Do the people in your sim each have their own personality? Or do you program them? Either way, that's very cool."
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"I had my AI friend sit down and program around a billion personalities in. It took him like two minutes. It's randomized who shows up. If I befriend them, they show up more often. And my favorite comics are some of the indie stuff, Tomboy's a really good one."
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"That has to be a very smart AI, correct? Was he made using an entire brain? If not, that's even more impressive. And, good comics? Cyber Commandos: Nightwings is a very good one. It's about two heroes in post-apocalyptic China that must travel the country, protecting peace and order."
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"Really? Sounds cool. I've heard of it, haven't read a lot of it. Only one or two of the like three hundred issues. I'll have to get on that. How many have you read?"
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"Call me a nerd, but I've read the entire series. Have them all at home, too - in my own room, of course. Jason would make a mess of them otherwise."
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"Who's Jason? Wait, let me guess. He's your brother or something? The way you said it kinda gave it away."
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"Ring-a-ding-ding. He's my older brother. Older by four years. He ended up with me on the Bloodwrath, reunited here after about nine years apart."
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"Really? Must be nice, having him back after nine years. Say, what's having a sibling like? I never met my brother, on account of my parents being jerks."
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"That all depends on the kind of relationship you have with your siblings. Jason and I always were pretty close, so it was like having a friend who lives in the same place as you. Or, in my case, a best friend. Siblings look out for one another, protect one another."
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"I mean... I have had a friend that felt like the brother I never had. He was one of the first people I talked to that didn't try to kill me on sight. I even joined his PMC. It's JT, as I've said before. He's a great guy."
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"Met someone like that, too. Though he was more like a second brother. Ling Defaln. Mentioned him before. Great guy, very heretical, though - even more so since he's an Inquisitor. I mean, he married an Eldar and had a few kids, last I heard. I'll have to meet JT, too, though."
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"Heh. I'll have to meet Ling sometime too, then. And Jason." [b]She goes silent for a second, tapping the table.[/b] "So... You dated anyone else before? Doesn't seem like it's your first time taking someone out on a date."
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"Ling is back with his family, wherever that is - though, that's what his sister said. And, dated anyone before? Well, if highschool 'dating' counts, then yes. Otherwise, no. The first person I officially got with disappeared after a few weeks, and since we were on the Bloodwrath, we never really went out on dates. Then I remained alone for nine years until a few months ago, when I got with my second person ever. She and I just wanted to see what it was like, really." [i]Lucas went silent as Keri had gone, his eyes quickly scanning the inn for the waiter, before looking back at Keri. [/i] "Now, this woman is Ling's sister. She and I have history back on the Bloodwrath. One event sticks out, where she offered to catch me from a twenty feet drop. We both ended in the hospital where I sorta came to be terrified of her. We both thought it would be different once we reunited. Anyway, I met this girl here, Keira, and we [i]playfully[/i] flirted. Or, well, I thought it was playful. Apparently she was serious. Anyway, Chloanne caught me red handing doing nothing bad, really, but I still panicked and ended up running away, after which I have been avoiding her. Even now."