LCA, Chapter 0.1 [COMPLETE]

[Jessu]

The sun shone through the smoky clouds, casting a golden light on the damp streets of the LCA.

It was September, and summer's warm breath was beginning to die, autumn's flurry of rust-coloured leaves, mingled with the sharp scent of burning metal coming from the twisted pipes of a large and formidable building.

Splash, splash.

The quiet sounds of shoes against the cobblestone road broke the morning's silence.

Shall walked briskly through the alleyway, ignoring puddles and dry road alike. Droplets of stagnant rain dampened her long coat as her black shoes smacked the pavement with determined strides.

Her stroj, walked behind, not a foot away from her.

"Shaaa~all! You're moving too quickly." He whined piteously, and was greeted with a curt smack to his chestplate.

"Valeuris. We are late. We need to move quickly or I'm going to taint my status as a prefect." was the reply.

The two continued their hurried pace towards a vast building just closing in on the horizon.

[Stella]

On the other side of the city a glorious steam-powered train signalled its departure with two hoots and a shrill whistle, curling off into the distance on impossible tracks.

Plastic wheels clacked across the uneven platform hastily.

Deiniol, breathless from heaving his luggage, emerged from the roofed stairway into the waking market square. Here and there people were setting up stalls for the day.

He looked up into the distance where a stately building stood. His racing heart slowed.

A smile broke out on his face.

"I'm home, Claer."

[Jessu]

The girl and her stroj arrived at the building's open gates.

A few crows fluttered in the morning breeze as the rusty creak of large doors rebounded across the vast courtyard.

"We're here!" Shall announced to the marble floored entrance as the doors groaned shut behind her.

LCA was a giant school, dusty ornate pillars the size of ancient treetrunks decorated the entrance in a circle, like great white sentinels. Staircases and hallways stretched out of view beyond the pillars branching off in several directions.

Shall felt a cold, hard metal claw rest at her shoulder. She looked up, unsurprised as the tall, male stroj peered around the empty school, pouting slightly.

"Shall.."

"Valeuris. We're late. We're late."

"Shall, we--"

"Valeuris! I specifically told you that you didn't have to get my coat! I could've had father send it to me within the hour but no, you insi-"

Valeuris clamped his human hand across Shall's mouth, having her rant dissipate into frustrated mumbles. Without showing any strain, he lifted his master up like the way one would lift up a cat, and let her survey the domain at his vantage point.

"Master, do you see that clock?"

Shall replied with a mumble.

"Can you read what it says?"

Mumble."Five thirty one."

"Exactly. We're not late, we're early." The stroj gave out a sigh as he lowered his master to the ground."We're an hour and a half early.. to be exact. The school hasn't even -opened- yet."

Shall ignored Valeuris, her cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

"A prefect must always be early... An.. an hour and a half early, to be exact. We are one minute too late to be early." She looked up at her stroj with annoyance. Valeuris crossed his arms and looked away.

"Then.. Shall we start our orderly schedule, master?"

Shall nodded."Yes. We will set up our student checkpoint in the courtyard. I refuse to let anyone come in this year wearing mismatched shoes."

Valeuris winced at her voice. He had a feeling he knew who she was talking about.

[Stella]

"Oof!"

For the sixth time, Deiniol found himself splayed across the cobblestone road. One suitcase skidded a metre into a fence, opening with a bang.

He pushed himself up grumbling, examining his knees to find the knee of his right sock chafed off. He winced, prodding the shiny burn gingerly.

Maybe he shouldn't run.

Stuffing all the clothes and personal possessions back into his suitcase as best he could, he slammed the lid shut only to have it spring back open.

"The lock is broken, isn't it? Not my day," he muttered under his breath. A few moments later he was towing one suitcase and another ducttaped shut down the street. He slowed down to a speed walk.

As he approached the front gate, a thought dawned him. He hesitated, standing weak kneed in front of the rusty iron that slowly opened to allow him inside.

He quickened his pace once more, charging his way through the courtyard.

"Please don't be here, please don't be here, please don't-"

A curt cough froze him into place.

It was definitely not his day.

[Jessu]

It was definitely not his day.

Shall stood, towering above Deiniol, face grim. In her hand, she held a small clipboard and a pen. A battered old desk stood propped to the side, behind it Valeuris sitting awkwardly on a chair too small for him.

She sniffed, observing the stroj-less boy with a curt disdain.

"So. You're early this year, kid." she noted, mentally smacking her stroj as he echoed behind her,"an hour and a half early!"

Shall wasn't one to remember the names of the students, just the sins they committed. The stern prefect noted the unruly way the poor noob-leveled student held his duct taped suitcase--all wrong.

"Minus two points."

She scribbled down the state of his hair--always a strand sticking out funny above his head, like an antennae.

"Minus five points."

This examination was quick, but scathing. Her eyes stopped abruptly at his feet.

A boot, and a shoe.

Shall frowned severely at the hapless student.

"Minus ten points."

[Stella]

"E-excuse me?!" Deiniol choked, stunned.

He staggered backwards in surprise, knocking his suitcase over.

[Jessu]

She glared at Deiniol, hearing the suitcase smack the ground with a clatter.

....


"So, third year already, eh?" Shall replied, nonchalantly. She glanced back at Valeuris, who was doodling on the secondhand table with a spare pen."Your stroj should be mature now, yes?"

[Stella]

Deiniol glanced from side to side, searching for an escape route. He wasn't strong but he prided himself on being decently nimble. The prefect, or who he assumed to be a prefect, staring him down didn't seem too quick on her feet. One glance at the Stroj behind her showed him that it was preoccupied.

Claer...

He felt a twinge in his chest.

There were no plausible routes so he gave up dodging the question.

"Yes."

[Jessu]

A ghost of a smile flickered across Shall's face.

"That's good. I guess you are allowed one point for having that all in order." She tapped her pen against the clipboard, thinking, perhaps.

"So, is that why you arrived early?" She shot Valeuris a glance as he opened his mouth--and quickly closed it--before he could say "An hour and a half early!"

[Stella]

"Yes..." he answered."Um...if it's all right, can I...go now?"

He made a gesture in the general direction of the male dormitory wing.

[Jessu]

Shall nodded, and turned to beckon her stroj towards her. Valeuris stood up, the desk toppling over and breaking in half. She put a hand to her temple as her stroj hurriedly stacked the pieces of splintered wood on top of each other, and trotted obediently towards his master.

"Come on, let's go then." Shall said to Deiniol, her arms folded.

[Stella]

The vacant halls of LCA echoed with two sets of footsteps followed by the sound of suitcases scraping against the floor.

Feeling uneasy and extremely self-conscious, Deiniol looked over his shoulder as discretely as he could. He found the display behind him somewhat...comical.

[Jessu]

Shall sat on Valeuris' shoulders, her arms holding onto his head as he moved unevenly through the hallway. She did not notice the noob's glances back.

Her hearing caught the attention of a few echoed mutters and footsteps of other students, spilling slowly through the doors of the LCA.

She glanced at a passing grandfather clock, which creaked on, covered in years of dust. In a little over half an hour, the Headmaster was to give a school speech.

She thought from the corner of her mind if she should have reported to the Headmaster, but shuddered to think at what kind of torture he had set up in his office this year.

They reached the noob dorms, and Valeuris lowered Shall from her perch to the floor. She walked in, quite aware that her powers as a prefect allowed her to probe in such a place, and gestured towards a small door at the end of the hallway.

"Your room, as always," she ordered. Valeuris opened the door to allow the student to pass.

[Stella]

Ducking under the arm of the Stroj, Deiniol scurried in. The single bed with fresh white sheets pushed up to the corner, a side table and ornate lamp, a polished oak wardrobe, a work desk and padded chair made up the room's decor. Pushing his suitcases next to the wardrobe, he made a mental note to move the bed to accommodate his Stroj.

He couldn't help grinning as he pulled out a thick folder marked 'Project 04-Claerwen' and his Biotech textbook from a suitcase's outer pocket.

He would've skipped to the door in his moment of excitement had he not remembered how was at the door.

"Um...are you going to follo-er, accompany me to the lab?"

[Jessu]

"To pick up your stroj?" She asked, oddly thoughtful. She looked up at Valeuris, his peculiarly childish eyes seemed to glint with suppressed excitement at the concept of a new 'friend' to wake into the world of LCA.

She was reminded of her distant past, when her own stroj emerged from the creation tank. She remembered her naive thirteen year old self taking care of the biomechanical creature, dubbed "Valeuris".

She sighed quietly, wondering how on earth a being built specifically for combat could've turned into something as harmless as a puppy, even with her strict training.

She glanced at the boy--Deiniol, surveying his meek appearance and speculating at how this weakling could've dealt with the creation process--being arm deep in cadaver as the 'final test' for engineering his stroj, as well as picking out the appropriate parts to build it out of.

It was a wonder that how... children like him still existed in this world.

She spent a short moment arguing with herself, before deciding.

"Yes. I am to accompany you. It's a prefect's duty."

She didn't want another stroj to turn into a pansy, and looking at this boy, it seemed as though this was to be its destiny. Shall certainly did not want that to happen.

Valeuris picked Shall up again, and they marched downstairs, to the stroj-creation cellars.