The Synchronization Project

(After the fire ceremony, this is where you belong!)

He wasn't sure how it happened. Dmitri had just been drinking with Tycho, and the Dane just started puking. So this left Dmitri to clean up the mess. Gilbert had made some excuse of helping Kassandra and Lux with the combatants, but he had really just stayed in the bathroom while Dmitri cleaned.

Gilbert set up the food. He sensed a presence in the room that wasn't Dmitri's. He didn't have to turn around to know who it was.

"Haruki."

"Gilbert."

"Did you ditch the Scholars?"

"There were only two, twins. One of the Holy Guard and one of the Recorders."

"I see. So only Darius and Serafina had to be there?"

"Yes."

Dmitri had been listening to their conversation. "Tenebras and Ambrosia are still with the recruits?"

Gilbert looked at him. "Most of them are late, only one girl was there."

"We aren't exactly the prompt type." Dmitri huffed. He wore golds and blues, with hints of red. A large bear was on his uniform, the symbol of Russia. He was the heir to the throne, unless someone managed to murder Peter Cryroch so that they could have elections again.

"Where's the triplets?" Haruki spoke up.

"They were with my aunt, but she should be with the Scholars, too."

"Taissa wouldn't leave them for dead." Gilbert spoke.

Haruki shut her coal black eyes for a few seconds.

"They're in their rooms. With Dominique Delapierre and Daichi Ikenai."

"Mmm. All three? You sure it's not just Vlad?"

"Yes, all three."

"Fantastic, they'll be drunk off their asses by the time they get here." Dmitri groaned. His triplet brothers, Vladimir of the Arts, Mikolas of Combat, and Nikolai of Scholars, were here as students. They all looked the same, not even he could tell them apart. Only Taissa, their Nurturer, ever could.

"And what of your sister, Korone?"

"Katrina is off with Asclepius."

"You know, 'Ruki, perhaps a Korone and an Ambrosia aren't exactly a good match?"

"I don't care." Haruki's voice was cold and hard. Gilbert had unintentionally hit a nerve.

"Shut up. They're coming." Dmitri growled, not in the mood for dramatics. He never was, unless it involved him, of course.

He was wrong. As usual.

A girl appeared. She was tanned, with bright blue eyes and curly brown hair. She was tall and muscular.

"Idrico? Where's your crowd?"

The girl smiled.

"Hidalgo is back in Spain, Ibu in Indonesia... My Nurturer is around here somewhere."

Gilbert huffed. "Why aren't you back in Italy?"

"You spend a year out at sea, and tell me if you want to deal with Lovino and Lorenzo."

"Fair enough."

By then, Trey and Mirage had entered with Taissa, looking around to what was the 'After Gathering'. It seemed they were the first to arrive of the newcomers. But there seemed to be plenty of others there. Some looked rather important.

"Come ooon~" Mirage said, taking her brother by the sleeve and pulling him out of the doorway, since he didn't seem to want to take the initiative to do otherwise.

The first thing he did was slide each of the twins a bottle, causing Taissa to roll her eyes. "Dmitri..." She started.

"Auntie, it's fine. Kass and I have been drinking since we were thirteen."

Taissa didn't object any further.

"Where's everybody else?"

"John is reading, you know he never goes anywhere that involves partying. Darius and Serafina are checking on Adene. Everybody else is still at the Gathering, which is just Lux, Kassandra, and their new recruit."

"Only one?"

"You'll get transfers."

"Fine." Dmitri still looked a little pissed off.

"Magas!" He looked up and bumped fists with Aidas Magas as he set his oldest brother down at the table with Taissa.

"Did you use your Illusions?" The kind woman now had a stern expression on her face. Andrei just grinned.

"The children wanted to know of my origin, and I didn't wish to bore them with my words."

"Off to bed, Andrei." Taissa helped him up, and walked out of the room, to his quarters.

Mirage looked confused at what was slid at her, and she picked it up carefully. A moment later, Trey took it from her hands. "You don't want that," he said to her, knowing what it was.

"Ah... okay," Mirage replied, sounding a bit disappointed. She turned to the others, smiling. "Good evening. Thank you very much for having this Gathering. My brother and I are excited to start here." Her expression was naturally bright, and could warm almost any soul.

Trey, however, just rolled his eyes before he took a drink.

"So this is it, huh?" came Evelynn's voice as she entered the Gymnasium. She looked around, and gave a small shrug. "You guys sure change it up in here quickly. Didn't we just have our blood drawn here?"

She turned to look at the others, and then the twins. "Ah, you came in with the newcomers. Glad to see you are still here. What were your names again?"

Mirage immediately spoke up. "I'm Mirage, and this is Trey. I hope you are having a pleasant evening, Miss Evelynn."

Evelynn, herself, seemed surprised. "You know my name?" That probably boosted her ego a bit, but she did announce her name loudly when she joined the Arts.

Jenny looked around the Gymnasium. Her first thought was to seek out who ever might be a tamer and ask for help figuring out what she would turn into. Her second thought was to try and relax and not worry about it. And her third thought was to just go off on her own do what she would normally do on her own. "Do you have any idea who here might be one of the tamers?"Jenny asked Nelis

Gilbert was a handsome boy. He tended to get a lot of attention from the new recruits. He was also the image of what a Guardian should be: chivalrous, kind, generous. All of these things. He always ended up having a female apprentice, not that he minded. However, he still had no partnership, with all the attention he got. He sighed. The girl he loved was far off, in Finland. So far away from New York.

However, he did take this chance to mingle. "Hello, ladies." He walked right into Evelynn and Mirage's little group.

Evelynn looked to the male that had spoken to them. She smirked a bit. He wasn't bad looking at all. "And gentleman," she said with a small laugh, motioning to Trey. "He doesn't seem very effeminate to me."

Mirage couldn't help but giggle. "Stop looking so stern, Trey," she said, looking up at him. He just gave a 'hmph' sound. With that, he turned and walked away from the three, looking for a quiet corner.

"Ooooh~ Now he's upset." Mirage didn't seem too concerned though, and turned her attention back to the male that has just arrived. "Good evening. My name is Mirage."

"And I'm Evelynn." Both girls held out their hands at the same time, and Mirage looked at Evelynn's awkwardly. "Haha, sorry," she said, withdrawing her hand.

The expansive room was one Nelís recognized as the gymnasium though it didn't appear quite the same with it's new inhabitants. His eyes quickly caught a glimpse of everyone, most of which who had already found someone or a group of persons to latch onto. Mainly, he was looking for others perhaps from Scholars or Combatants. There was definitely a decent amount of instructors.

"You won't know unless you ask around I suppose," his voice drifted off and he didn't seem to be moving any farther than near the entrance. The heavy bag at his arm was set down against the wall as he leaned against it as well. "By the looks of it there are more instructors.. It could be any of them," he gestured towards the group not too far away, however he noticed his bare hand and brought it back to him. For a while he had forgotten, but now it was fresh on his mind, hindering him from trying to go out and mingle.

Her heart ached. She didn't belong here. She knew all of their faces. Her fellow combatants, they were all here. The ones she'd grown up with, in New York. But, the ones who she treasured most were off in lands of their own. It was scary, to be by yourself.

Marina Idrico was a Tamer, a creature of the water. Her entire family were creatures of the water, whether it be through the water elementalist gene or a water tamer gene. There were several Marinas in her family, actually.

But the people who she longed for were... not with her. It wasn't her family, it was her squad. Once someone was in a squad with others long enough, their sync energies would intertwine in a way. It wasn't like the ways partners did, no, but like... a brotherhood. The idea the combatants were so fond of.

Her soft blue eyes widened as her team band beeped. Her clan had been messaging each other, which was welcome. She missed them so, and was lucky to be able to communicate with them. But this was a different beeping, one of alerts.

Thump. Thump. There goes her heart. She sensed two new Tamers. One's energy was docile. It seemed they were not in a completely conscious state, but the other, the other was happy and bouncy. It glowed green in her eyes. Her energy moved out, and touched with the green, which she could see.

"You are one of mine." She said as she approached the girl. A smile graced her pretty face. She looked at Jenny, who's name she did not know at the time, and held a hand out. "A Tamer can feel another Tamer from miles away."

"Alright, well I'm gonna go see if I can find a Tamer. Talk to you later."Jenny said before Marina approached her. "That was easier than I thought it would be..." Jenny said somewhat surprised. "Uhm.. .hi, are you oen of the students or instructors?"Jenny asked.

The male bowed to the girls before shaking both of their hands at once.

"Gilbert Berlitz, Guardian of the Royal Guard." Everybody knew who he was, there was only one Royal Guard, after all. "Recruits, I presume? Let me guess your place in this world."

His grey energy reached out to the girls, gently touching a wrist on each of them.

"You are of Arts, an emotionalist, I believe." He spoke to Evelynn first before looking at Mirage. "A Scholarly Holy Guard, and I suppose your brother is off to the recorders?" He asked, looking at both. He knew he had nailed it.

"Instructor, filling in for my High Guardian." Marina spoke truthfully. She wondered were Maeko had gone off to. She would return, no doubt with a new animal she had mastered.

"Marina Idrico, Aqua Tamer. And who are you, child of feles?" She picked up the cat blood running through her veins. Her own teammate, Paprika Ibu, was a feles tamer.

Mirage spoke rather excitedly. "Oh wow! That is right! At least, for me and my brother. You can tell all that just by... erm, doing whatever you did?" She still wasn't exactly sure what it was or how to do it.

"A Guardian, hmm?" Evelynn said, sounding interested. "That seems to hold some recognition." People in power often could help people wanting to get power.

"Ah, excuse me, Mister Berlitz. Is there anywhere I could get something to drink other than alcohol?" Mirage had piped in quietly.

"uh... Feles?"Jenny asked."What's feles? Animals were my older brother's thing, not mine."Jenny said. Even though she still had the very vaguest idea of what she could turn into she was relieved to have encountered a Tamer, even better she was an instructor.

Erasai was led in with Lux and Kassandra, but both wandered off almost immediately. So she was left standing there awkwardly at the entrance. She looked around, just out of habit, not really expecting to see anyone she knew, because she didn't know anyone.

After Jenny's depart the boy had reached into his back and dug out a brown flimsy journal whose edges were ragged, clearly had been in use for a long while. With it he drove out a black fountain pen out of his many others. A quick lick to the golden tip and Nelís began writing, something he would do each day here to keep record. He was sure that he would look back on everything whether it be notes, tips, or experiences.

In the corner of his eye he witnessed three others walk in. Two who could automatically be assumed as instructors, seeing how they found their place immediately amongst their peers, but the third was a student. It would be extremely hard to not notice flamboyance of her orange hair. He was tempted to ask her of her department. Had he had to guess himself he would, with no doubt, assume she was with the Scholars.

Since she wasn't standing far and she reeked of uneasiness he decided to end her minor suffering. "Are you with the Scholars?" Nelís asked, loud enough to reach her hopefully. Between his fingers he had closed the book, slipping his pen in to save his page.

"Feles. Aqua. Canis. Draco. Aves. It's Tamer lingo. We use Latin words to describe our powers. Feles is for those who have an affinity for cats. I'm Aqua, and that boy who's on Arts with you is definitely Canis. There are others, too, of course. And from there, there are even more subgroups." Marina explained.

"The High Guardian Tamer here is Maeko Toguchi, but she's in her homeland, solving problems. She'll be back in time for the Royal Ball, no doubt. That's when good ol' King Peter comes down here and checks up on his toys." She gestured to the Royal guard, with their gold cloaks.

"Don't do this, Kassandra. You're putting yourself in a bad position." Swig, swig, swig. The Russian prince smirked at the Greek princess. The red-head was already chugging just as much as he was.

"Don't do it, Dmitri. No one will catch you if you pass out again, Tycho is already blacked out." There was a tone of sarcasm as well as confidence.

Dmitri's eyes rolled. "Oh, and who's there for you? Your shadow?" He referred to the white-haired Lux, who stood behind the red-head dutifully. Haruki wouldn't be far off, either, her high sync degree caused the two be naturally attracted to her.

"I have full faith that Lux will catch me." She was on bottle three, as was Dmitri. They would keep going, though.

"Magas will catch me!"

"If he's not too drunk to realize it."

Erasai turned when she heard someone talking, and looked to the male sitting not far away. Glancing around and behind her, she realized that he was in fact talking to her. A small smile crept onto her face and she slowly made her way over to him, so he could hear her better.

"Ah, actually I am not. I'm in the Combatants," she said, answering him. "And since you obviously aren't in the Scholars yourself, I would say you are in the Arts. I'm Erasai." She held out her hand in a form of greeting.

"You don't seem to be enjoying the festivities so much."