"Hey, I'm Vanessa. How ya doin'?"
"Vanessa, what have I said about jumping on people?" Griselda's disapproving voice called out.
"Do it if it works?" The girl added hopefully.
Griselda fixed her with a flat look, "No. Now get off your new teammate, and introduce yourself."
With reluctance, Vanessa climbed off Vin's back, and walked around to his front, letting Vin see her thin, wily frame clad in a tank top and short shorts.
"Great to meet you Vin!" Vanessa smiled, her mouth full of pearly white teeth so sharp they wouldn't look out of place in the mouth of a shark.
"Hey," The shorter kid, maybe around five-foot-four stepped forward as Vanessa slicked back into the group, "Name's Ethan. You play Guilty Gear?"
Oh, Vin could tell he was going to like this kid.
"Yeah."
"Hell yeah, who do you play? I'm tired of playing against Jafar's busted ass Justice."
"You're only angry because I play a character that works better against yours," Jafar called from behind Vin.
"OH SCREW YOU! YOUR JUSTICE IS CHEAP AS HELL! SPAMMING ISN'T A VALID TACTIC!"
"Say that to my win-loss record."
"WHY YOU!"
"Hey, you wanted me to play with you," Jafar shrugged.
"Ugh… See what I gotta deal with? So, who do you main?"
"Order Sol," Vin responded.
"My man!" Ethan cried out, grabbing Vin's arm in a spartan handshake that soon became a bro hug. As they broke the hug, a sigh resonated from the back of the common room. Looking towards the source, Vin found Xenovia looking extraordinarily unamused. She quickly turned around to leave, until Griselda's voice made her freeze rigid like a statue.
"Xenovia dear, please get to know your new teammate."
"G-Griselda, my time is better spent training-"
"I'm closing the training hall tonight. You will stay in the dorms, and get to know Vin like everyone else," Griselda declared, "You'll have plenty of time to train tomorrow, understood?"
Xenovia froze, before closing her eyes and bowing her head, "...Understood."
"Good," Griselda softly smiled, "Now Vin, they've dropped off your boxes in your room, so how about you head over there and get unpacking while we begin making supper."
"That sounds good, thank you Griselda."
"You're welcome, Vin. Now go on."
Walking down a hallway connected to the common room, Vin soon found that the fourth door on the right side had a plaque with the name 'Vincenzo' on it. With a twist of the knob, the door swung open to reveal a spacious white room with dark wood flooring covered in a sea of cardboard boxes.
Looking around, what Vin could see was that a bed and wastebasket had already been prepared for him, and… was that his desk and wardrobe? Damn, that one worker that came with them didn't mess around. Vin went to go and open one of the boxes, determined to at least get his clothes put away properly before dinner was ready. Then it struck him.
"Fuck, how am I going to get these open?"
Vin looked at the tape-sealed boxes, then to the distinct lack of anything sharp in the room. He sighed, resigned to his fate of having to ruin his fingernails, before a brilliant idea struck him.
Crystals were sharp, right?
Looking down at his hands Vin came to another important realization. He had no clue how to summon his Sacred Gear. Vin tried to concentrate, closing his eyes, and clenching his body all over to try and drum up a way to summon the rings back onto his fingers.
After a minute of attempts to no avail, Vin gave up. The only thing that was going to do was make him fart. Stuffing his hands into his pockets, he made a great discovery, as his fingers brushed up against metal.
Grabbing the object from his pocket, Vin yanked out his keyring, complete with his newly gained elevator keys. But it wouldn't do to get an important key like those ones gummed up from tape, so Vin took to his other two options. One was his bike lock key, and the other was his house key.
Well, not his house anymore. Vin spent a while staring at that key, initially feeling the telltale choking feeling of sadness begin within him, before it was snuffed out, like a candle being blown out. From then on, the only emotion that the sight of the green, house-shaped key inspired in him was a pervasive emptiness. Vin snapped the key off his keyring, and hucked it into the bottom of his room's trash can.
He could afford to gum up his bike key, anyway.
Right before Vin could slice through the first of his boxes, the sound of a knock echoed through the room. Turning towards the door as it creaked open, Vin found Irina's head poking through the gap in the door. Her expression shifted from curious to bright and cheerful as she and Vin made eye contact.
"Ah, Vinny! Can we come in?"
"Uh," Vin looked around the room for a moment, "Sure."
Soon the door opened, and in walked Irina, Jafar, and right behind them, Xenovia.
"We thought we'd help you out with getting things set up," Irina cheered.
Jafar nodded, "We thought that this would be a good opportunity to get closer to you as well."
"I had nothing else to do," Xenovia admitted, "At least here, I can get a bit of exercise."
"Um, alright… Well, do you guys have any knives to open these boxes with?"
"Yep, I came prepared," Jafar reached into his pant's pocket, and pulled out a pocket knife, before setting to work on opening the tops of boxes around him.
Irina spun around the room, looking over Jafar's shoulder as he worked, while Xenovia walked over, and sat down on the edge of Vin's bed.
"Okay, so Xenovia and I'll go ahead and get started on unpacking things then. What should we start with, Vinny?"
Vin shrugged, "Anything really works, I'll tell you where things go as we unpack them. Oh, but you can leave the box of clothes to me. I'll deal with those later."