Rain smirks at Tess as he finishes making the joke, a trace of sarcasm in his voice. To his delight, he sees Nik cover his mouth to avoid laughing. Tess, however...she's staring at him wide-eyed, her expression full of shock. Rain gives her a puzzled look.
'Wait...don't tell me that she believed that? Or is she actually mad about me saying Bright is better looking?'
Suddenly, Tess leans over to lock eyes with him, her lighthearted, flirtatious demeanor evaporating in an instant, and her emerald eyes turn cold.
"Hey, Rain...why don't you go smack yourself for a few hours...for me."
Her voice washes over him, as commanding as it is seductive, and Rain feels his hair stand on end. A fork suddenly clatters by Nik's plate, and he directs a murderous gaze at Tess. His voice comes out low and dangerous, no traces of the easygoing guy from before.
"You're going too far, Tess."
Meanwhile, Rain just glances between the two of them, completely bewildered. He clears his throat awkwardly.
"Ehem...uhm...listen Tess, I feel like this level of hostility is a little much considering that I technically implied that you're the best-looking girl at the Academy. Also, I'm not sure how desperate for your approval you expected me to be, but...I'll pass on your request."
Tess, and especially Nik, turn and stare at him in open confusion, as shocked silence descends on the table. Eventually, Tess leans over to study Rain with an intense gaze, her chin resting on her clasped hands in front of her. Her prior, bubbly personality is nowhere to be found...the Tess in front of him is unashamedly cold, calculating, and...annoyed.
"Now that's...unexpected...another buzzkill with a rare Relic. So, are you a Legacy, too, Rain? I must confess, I didn't take you as the type."
Rain just stares at her, more than a little confused about the unexpected implications of rare Relics and Legacy status. As he continues to process what he's seen and heard, trying to understand what she's talking about, realization finally dawns on him. It almost makes him shiver.
'The strangely zombified hotties here, Nik's behavior throughout this mess, Tess's comments...she must have some kind of mind-control abilities.'
The more Rain considers it, the more sure he is that he's right. Feeling suddenly angry at the idea that she tried to rob him of his free will just now, he narrows his eyes at Tess, and his expression turns uncharacteristically dark.
"I think I'll pass on getting to know one another, Tess. I just realized that I don't really like you very much...shallow slavers just aren't my vibe."
Tess's entire face goes stiff with rage, but he's already turning his attention to Nik, who is still staring at him in surprise. Now that he's mouthed off to Tess, he can think a little more clearly. She obviously thinks that Rain must have some kind of rare Relic to resist her abilities, and therefore be a Legacy.
She said 'another' and 'too', though, which suggests it's happened before. Since Nik doesn't seem affected by her, and they clearly don't see eye-to-eye, that must have been in reference to him. Rain scans Nik's body, looking for signs of a Relic to confirm his suspicion, and quickly notices a strange necklace around Nik's neck...likely a charm.
'Bingo...so Nik's probably a Legacy, based on what Tess said. Plus, he doesn't seem particularly supportive of her behavior. If I can leave things on good terms with him, at least, that'd be ideal. I think Tess is a lost cause, though.'
Making up his mind, Rain tries to direct a sympathetic and polite smile to Nik.
"Nik, this doesn't seem like it went quite the way you wanted, either...you don't seem like a bad guy to me. I'm not sure why you're hanging out with her, maybe because she'd be a powerful ally in the Crucible, or for information gathering beforehand, but she strikes me as someone who's not going to treat you like an equal. If you decide that you're interested in less troublesome allies, we should talk. I'm staying in room 418."
With that, Rain rises from the table with his food tray without waiting for either of them to respond, and walks away. He's had enough of the Academy's students for the time being.
'I thought it'd take at least last an hour before I got sick of them...'
*****
Later, in his room, Rain is browsing through the class catalog in preparation for tomorrow. His mornings will be wholly occupied by survival bootcamp, but he has enough time in the afternoons to pursue a couple of other classes. He has a few candidates in mind – combat training, cooking, and Asphodel geography.
There will be very basic elements of all of those in his survival bootcamp, but that's also true for most other classes. He thinks those three offer the most additional advantage. Looking through the course description for combat training, he sees that it will cover hand-to-hand combat, and a weapon of the student's choice.
'Honestly...I don't even know what weapon I'd want...maybe a sword? Will they expect me to decide right away?'
Continuing his perusal of the class description, he sees that there's a fully equipped training room for the class, which is open 24/7 otherwise. He feels a pang of curiosity...
'It can't hurt to go check it out...I have nothing better to do tonight...'
So, Rain finds himself once again navigating the hallways of the Academy, trying to locate the described training room via the catalog's map. At this point, it's just after sunset, so the halls are mostly empty. However, he does pass the occasional student, and they exchange pleasant nods. Eventually, he finds his way to the training room he's searching for. To his surprise, it's completely empty.
Looking around, he sees a massive variety. There's a wall absolutely lined with training weapons of all types, there's what looks like a matted arena for hand-to-hand combat, an indoor archery and knife-throwing section, and a line of strange machines that seem to be for...punching? Intrigued by the latter, he walks over to see the soft glow of a monitor near the line of machines. On it, there appears to be a ranking of scores next to various usernames.
'Oh, it's like a ranking system for the punches...'
Currently, the top score is 147...whatever that represents. However, there are also statistics near the leaderboard that Rain finds interesting. Curiously, the median score is only 51, and 75% of the scores are at or below 62. Eventually, Rain thinks he understands.
'There must be a minority of people with physical enhancement Talents, and they're separated from the majority of the students. So, that lower group of scores is a good representation of baseline Champion strength...interesting.'
Feeling a touch of curiosity about how his own strength compares, Rain inspects one of the machines, trying to figure out how to work it. After some searching, he sees a small black box sticking out from each of the machines, which resembles the one on his bedroom door. Raising his eyebrows curiously, he holds his omniwatch next to the box, and the machine lights up.
There's the sound of clicks and whirs, then the extension that seems like the punching target extends outwards from the machine. Feeling a small rush of excitement, he lines up in front of the target, and slams his bare fist into it as hard as he can. He watches as the electronic display on the machine quickly climbs through the numbers and settles on...
77.
Rain inspects the number with a sense of satisfaction. Then, he notices the leaderboard screen changing out of the corner of his eye. It's scrolled to show where he ranks on the board. Below him, there's a score of 75, and above him, there's a score of 129. His expression shifts to one of surprise.
If he's interpreting that right, his baseline strength is near the top of the Champions – those above him must be the physical enhancers. He briefly wonders if it's because he earned so much Resonance in his Trial, or if it's because of his Bloodline. After a moment to reflect, he decides that it's mostly the latter – the Legacies probably had a surplus of Egos given to them by their families after finishing the Trial. It's unlikely that he has the most Resonance of anyone here.
As he's wondering what his strength would be like with maxed Resonance, a dangerous idea pops into his head.
'I wonder how much it would go up if Fickle Strength activated...'
He knows he shouldn't do it...there's no guarantee that he won't be found out, and he hasn't decided if that Talent is the one he wants to showcase when necessary yet. However, he feels Unhinged take hold of the curiosity burning in his chest, unwilling to abandon it. Resigning himself to the potential consequences, Rain activates Fickle Strength and preps the machine, soon throwing another punch. He watches as the display counts up and stops.
76.
He preps the machine again.
77. Again.
78. Again.
On the sixth try, he feels a sudden, exhilarating burst of strength flow into his body as his fist careens towards the target. It collides, shaking the machine and causing a thunderous rumble to echo in the room. The display on the machine climbs at a dizzying pace, filling Rain with nervous excitement, before slowing and finally stopping. He feels his heart sink in his chest...
812.
'Ohhh fuck...that's not subtle...'
Rain glances fearfully over at the leaderboard, and he sees it flashing dramatically, signaling that he's set a new record. He frantically scans over to look for his name, and he's shocked to see that he's simply registered as 'User514'. Confused, he looks through the other names on the leaderboard and finds that not all of them are actual, normal names. Some are obviously monikers like 'Fel Slayer', and some are just like his, 'User' followed by a number. He frantically racks his brain, trying to decide what he should do.
'Do I leave it like that, or will it just prompt the students or professors to try and track down the user from the omniwatch information the machine may have saved. This thing is tied to me after all. Goddamnit, Unhinged!'
As Rain's mind continues to race, trying to decide what the best user name to put would be, a devilish thought creeps into his head, almost against his will. After it's there, though, he can't quite shake the temptation.
'Now...that just might keep me out of the spotlight...'
A dark, mischievous smile spreads across Rain's face as he chuckles. Feeling a lot less remorseful than he should, he slowly reaches his hand to the monitor, and types a new user name for himself.
Ronin.