concoursec | week iv, CFT special class (T/TH, backdated to Tuesday)

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week iv, CFT special class (T/TH, backdated to Tuesday)

Character(s): M'gann, open to anyone in the T/TH CFT classes!
Location: Accauld Plains forest
Rating: PG for now
Open/Closed/Finished: Open
Summary: The T/Th CFT sets out on their own camping trip!

All day M'gann had been excited about the special Cadet Field Training class that would take place overnight; she had never been camping, though it had always seemed like something fun judging by the camping trips depicted on television. Not to mention the chance to meet new people from the other set of Cadet Field Training classes seemed extremely appealing as well. Never one to miss a chance to try and make friends, she had even spent the short timeframe open after her evening classes and the start of the special trip baking a large batch of cookies to bring for the trip. And of course no camping trip would be complete without s'mores-- or at least that's what it seemed like judged on all the camping trips shown on television.

With her sleeping bag and a backpack of other necessities (including her large box of cookies and all the essentials for making s'mores), M'gann eagerly followed the rest of the group herding towards the forest for where they were supposed to make camp.

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Eager didn't begin to describe the gunblade girl. Not because she was particularly fond of camping, or because this would be a great opportunity to make friends and so forth, but because it was getting out. It was Doing Something SeeDlike. Even if she wasn't beating up monsters or solving global crises, this was exciting training!

So she was visibly chomping at the bit, as it, as the group walked -- all nervous energy and enthusiasm.

She'd never really gone camping before, but she was looking forward to the trip. Serah still wasn't sure how this was going to affect her classes in the morning, but figured it was worth the experience. Of course she'd made sure to get her studies out of the way first. Her sister would never forgive her if she fell behind.

Hefting the heavy pack over her shoulder, she carefully picked her way along the path. This would be a good time to get to know some of the other cadets better and frankly she couldn't wait.

M'gann, in reality, was quite shy about the whole thing. Even though Connor was in the same class with her, eventually they would have to part into their sponsorship groups for the rest of the night. She noticed two other rather friendly looking girls not from her own class just a few paces before her and after a bout of internal debate, she quickened her own steps to walk between them.

"What are your sponsorship groups?" She asked a bit shyly, her hands tightening on the straps of her backpack.

"Opal," she said with a bright smile. And proud of the fact, not that she was trying to be superior over it at all.

The expression on Mitsuru's face matched up roughly with what one might see on a cat stuck out in the rain. Displeased, uncomfortable, but taking great pains to face it all with as much dignity as possible.

…Which was a bit negligible, considering the leaves trying to stick themselves in her hair. Mitsuru was fighting a two pronged battle, between trying to keep some semblance of control and cleanliness, and managing her pack. She really wasn't looking forward to pitching tents.

Still, she had stamina to spare, thanks to late night runs in Tartarus. It didn't take very many strides for her to catch up with the small group. She was able to pick M'gann out easily, but couldn't say much about the other two, beyond categorizing them as classmates.

She was able to catch the tail end of the question, and answered it while falling into pace with the others.

"Emerald sponsorship. And, afternoon to you, Mors."

So far it looked like Conner was going to be surrounded by a group of females all much shorter than him, or at least they were the ones actively speaking together. He stayed close to M'gann on instinct, his own backpack slung over a shoulder, a hand holding the strap. His other hand was casually dug into the pocket of his pants.

Hearing how shy his teammate and friend was, Conner glanced her way. He watched her and gave no other reaction as he listened to everyone else state their sponsorships. Promptly Conner gave his in a calm but monotone voice. "Pearl."

Although M'gann would know that the others wouldn't, until now.

Then it was back to standing there in silence off to the martian's left side, his bright ice blue eyes trailing around at their area and the other cadets with them. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, everyone was more excited for the so-called camping trip.

When she heard Mitsuru's voice from beside her, M'gann turned in surprise to see the redhead walking in step with the rest of them. Happiness filled her that her new friend was also on this trip; even though they would be divided by sponsorships eventually, that certainly didn't mean they could all bond in their free time.

"Hi, Mitsuru!" M'gann gave a friendly wave. Her eyes lifted for a moment to catch Connors gaze where she gave him a small smile, a silent sign of encouragement for him to participate more in their conversation. "I'm in Lapis Lazuli. My name is Megan, by the way," the introduction was directed to the two females she was unfamiliar with, her smile hopefully a friendly one.

"It seems we're all in different sponsorships." Serah noted, shifting her backpack slightly so that the strap wouldn't dig into her shoulder quite so much.

"I'm in Amber," She continued to explain just what she meant by this. "My name's Serah, nice to meet everyone!" Maybe some conversation was in order now that sponsorships have been announced. "So how long have you been here? I've been here for at least five months now I think?" News that surprised her honestly. Had it really been that long?

"I'm Maria. I'm kinda new," she said, a bit sheepishly, "I've only been here since the start of this quarter."

She glanced around at them. "Um, you're all offworlders, aren't you?"

Oh, a very tricky question. M'gann quickly glanced towards Mitsuru then Connor, mentally debating how to answer that. Would it be better to pretend that she was a native, to try and blend in? But then again there were plenty of off-worlders in the school-- it wouldn't be too bad to let out the partial truth, right? Not to mention both Connor and Mitsuru were in the group and they too were not of this world, and she had a feeling Connor wouldn't exactly go along with her fib if she went with that story. Back and forth she went before finally turning back to Maria, giving a small and hesitant nod.

"I'm an off-worlder. I only started this quarter, too; I actually just arrived the day before the term started. It's nice to meet you, Maria and Serah!"

Kiden walked in step with the rest, head up but eyes downcast, hands on the strap of her pack. The bag weighed about as much as she did, but she told herself that as soon as they got to the campground, the sooner they could get back to goddamn civilization.

The cigarette at her lips couldn't even begin to help her deal with the asinine conversation, though.

"Jesus fucking Christ, are we seriously doing this bonding bullshit? Give me a break--next we'll be having s'mores and singing Kumbayah."

"I'm not from this world either. Are you, Maria?" The way she'd asked the question it made her wonder. Not that it was a bad thing mind you, just something to puzzle over.

Glancing at the person who'd spoken up next, Serah took a moment to adjust her pack (Why was it so heavy?) before saying anything.

"Isn't part of this trip supposed to be about bonding and working together to make sure we've learned everything that's been covered in class?" Serah wasn't the sort of person to take a Debbie Downer to heart, so instead of grumping she just smiled.

"I've never heard Kumbayah before, but s'mores sound really good. So why not? It could be fun."

"Yes, I'm from Dollet originally," she said. She was so outnumbered here at Garden she could almost laugh. "Well, welcome to my world, I guess!"

She glanced over at Kiden, but didn't say a thing.

"Another 'off-worlder' as well, as the term goes." She gave the dark haired girl a curious look. That was interesting enough to file away, for future use and further orientation in the world.

In another situation, the blond-with-vague-Aragaki-overtones might be given more attention, and a lecture on the values of keeping ones language coached. HOWEVER, that paled compared to a familiar, frustrating, headache causing boy coming into the conversation.

Mitsuru did her best not to double-take at him. Instead, she fixed her eyes straight ahead. And kept her expression set firmly in neutral...Or at least, as neutral as possible, considering the conspiring forces of trail dust, more leaves in the hair, and very mixed company.

"...Mors, you wouldn't happen to have any of those baking projects packed up, would you?" She could have used something sweet right about then.

Edited 2011-07-02 23:38 (UTC)

The blond who had just entered the conversation had M'gann feeling a bit discouraged; she had thought this would be a nice trip with the chance to bond, but apparently she had other plans. Her shoulders drooped somewhat as her hands tightened on the straps of her backpack and her auburn eyes cast downward to watch her feet move.

M'gann remained quiet in the conversation until addressed by Mitsuru, which quickly brightened her mood. She had nearly forgot about the baked goods she had prepared and looking up to the redhead, she gave an emphatic nod.

"I did! I baked some chocolate chip cookies." Her eyes quickly darted to the blond before she added in, almost shyly, "I also brought ingredients to prepare s'mores with. I've never had them before but I heard they're a common treat to prepare during camping trips."

"Fuck, stuck with the goddamn girl scouts..."

Kiden breathed out a gust of smoke that dispersed into the cool forest air. She didn't bother glancing over at either Serah of M'gann, but privately rolled her eyes instead. She'd never held much esteem for the outdoors, or camping, but least of all, this unnecessary idea of needing to 'bond'. It brought back awkward memories of her mother's half-assed attempts at getting closer to her daughter; and besides, they all seemed to be off-worlders, besides Maria, so what was the point?

Whether Kiden liked it or not, though, it seemed like there would be s'mores and singing, courtesy of the little green miss. Wonderful.

"I hope we have time for all of that." Maria ran a thumb over the strap of her (ludicrously overladen) bag thoughtfully. "There are monsters out here. I wish they'd let us bring our weapons..."

Actually she just wanted to hit monsters with her weapons.

"You didn't bring yours?"

Not to say that she put her rapier in the pack and unintentionally flouted a ruling. Of course not.

…It's just that with the overview of ~~this being bat country~~ there being monsters in the forest, it seemed prudent to bring one.

"There was never any stipulation in my class not to do so."

Turning back to M'gann, Mitsuru let her shoulders relax ever so slightly. There was a promise of novelty 'cookies' at the end of this march, which was enough to convince her feet to keep the pace constant, and tell that growing headache to go elsewhere.

"That sounds welcome. And appetizing; thank you for doing so." And, miracle of miracles, she actually sounded quite sincere and grateful, saying so.

Naturally, that segued into another topic.

"And, Mors...These 'smores' people are talking about are edible?" She tried to drop her voice a little lower for that question, but with so many people around, the success of that seemed a bit negligible.

Edited 2011-07-03 18:39 (UTC)

Serah, like Mitsuru, took note of the fact that Maria was native to this world. Someone to ask questions about all the things! Which is a pretty valuable thing in the long run, because there was still so much she wanted to know about this world and waiting to learn it in class was frustrating. Libraries might be helpful, but sometimes it was best to learn about events from someone who was there.

"You made cookies? I wish I'd thought to make something. That was a really great idea."

Stubborn Serah might be, but she had no intention of letting Kiden ruin the camping trip for her. So there little Miss Sour.

"You don't need weapons," Conner answered Maria, looking over in her direction. None of them would need weapons, not while he was standing around in their group of girl scouts-- considering he was a walking weapon himself, yeah they were pretty safe from any monster that dared to attack them.

"I'm sure we don't need them, but I'd sure like to have them."

Was that just a little bit of bloodthirst in her voice?

"Home Ec seems to be a really popular course," she continued, as if she hadn't just been very quietly hoping for pitched battle. "What do they teach in it besides baking?"

"It is fun!" M'gann answered enthusiastically. "We learn to use all the appliances in the kitchen, and have done a bit of baking and cooking. I think we're moving on to sewing, next..."

She then turned to Mitsuru to answer her question. "Actually... I've never had s'mores before. It seems like a pretty popular thing to make during camping trips, so I thought it would be fitting to bring the ingredients. Apparently you roast a marshmallow over fire and then sandwich it with a piece of chocolate between two graham crackers...?" She looked to the other girls for confirmation. Maybe one of them would know?

"Her results with the culinary classes have been very promising." Mitsuru offered, while still wishing that she was back in one of those libraries, or at least had the option of taking a written exam instead of a field class. The cookies were a welcome reward, but she was still debating over if having those was worth marching away from the Garden and all the amenities in it.

She looked a bit lost over the explanation Mors gave, as well. Marshmallows, chocolate, and 'graham crackers' hadn't entered into any of the lessons she'd taken, yet.

"I'm...Not certain I fully follow, however. How does one even go about roasting them?" Mitsuru glanced over the gathered packs; none of them looked like they carried any oven-based equipment, like she'd seen some of the Kirijo staff use for roasted meals.

Looking between each of the girls there in the group Conner decided that he should leave them to their s'mores. Despite not knowing what it tasted or looked like, exploring the area for any sort of trouble wasn't such a bad idea; it would also keep them safe.

The single male in the group of all girls turned without a word and began to head off towards the thicker part of the forest, ignoring the other little groups around them.

Leave it to the little homemaker of the group, after all Lightning worked so someone had to take care of the course, to figure this out. Not to mention she's got the experience of beach bonfires to fall back on surely.

"We'll probably have a fire when we set up camp. Then you just have to find something to use to hold them over the fire. We had special forks for that where I'm from, but I've seen people use sticks before too." She might not be very good at fighting yet, but at least there are a few things she can do.

"Hey, where are you off to?" Maria called out after Conner. If he was off to do something cool he wasn't gonna get away alone!

"I don't think 'skewers' are in my outdoor survival bag," she said to the other girls. "Though you know, it seems like they should be?"

"Well if we can use sticks to roast them, there has to be some in the forest! And we're making camp just in the outskirts, aren't we? I'm sure we can find some for our purposes."

She watched as Connor walked off, and before thinking she opened the telepathy link between them so she could talk to him: Where are you going? You shouldn't wander off too far...

It was just like him to ignore the call of Maria's question, but he did, however, pause in mid-step at the voice that entered his head. He had tensed immediately, the sensation of having the telepathic link opened between them a familiar one but also uncomfortable to him still.

Conner shot his teammate a look over his shoulder, his jaw tightly set. To check the area for anything out of place. There was a small pause before he added, Next time warn me when you're going to do that.

Edited 2011-07-10 09:38 (UTC)

Mitsuru had gone quiet during that exchange, trying to wrap her head around the idea of modern people cooking their food on sticks, of all things. How did one even begin to go about making certain that was sanitary?

That displeased expression had been traded out for something closer to a puzzled, borderline BSOD look trained squarely on Mors; she didn't even seem to quite register that the black haired boy had decided to go wandering off.

"Well that was a bit rude," Maria muttered. Someone had just gone down a few notches in her estimation.

"Can you blame him? Probably felt fucking emasculated, being surrounded by chicks," Kiden pointed out, holding her cigarette away from her face as she spoke, expression bored. As for Connor's inexplicably pissed-off face, well, she suspected that he probably just had a massive nailbat rammed up his ass--like most of the student body.

"Connor isn't very sociable." M'gann was quick to defend from Maria and Kiden, not wanting anyone in the group to think badly of her friend. "And I think he's just checking out the area for monsters." It was more than a guess considering their telepathic link, but M'gann wasn't about to let them know about that.

'Sorry', M'gann sent to Connor. 'I can't really warn people when I open the link, but… I'll try to think of some kind of warning next time. Be careful, I'll keep the link open in case you need any help.'

"You're familiar with him?"

In hindsight, she probably should have grasped that sooner, given how close they'd been walking together. For her part Mitsuru assigned all blame to how many new things she was being bombarded with, thereby interfering with her ability to observe.

"That's...Considerate of him." She struggled to get her thoughts back in order, and put that confusion over s'mores out of her mind for the time being. Especially as she was just reminded, they were technically in a hazardous territory.

"Do you think he requires any assistance?"

"If he goes off and fights all sorts of monsters without us..." She had no idea how to finish that sentence, and frankly it didn't even make sense given that she had no weapons -- but damned if that would stop her.

"I don't think he meant to be rude." Serah chimed in, glancing around at the other people in their group. "My sister can be just like that sometimes too."

Fighting still wasn't exactly something she could do much about, so she'd chosen to keep quiet about most of what they were talking about.

"I am-- he's a friend of mine. We're from the same world." Her cheeks colored a touch as she explained to Mitsuru. "But I'm sure he'll be fine on his own. If he runs into any trouble, he'll let us know." Which… wasn't exactly true considering past experiences, but M'gann figured it was better to reassure the others.

She could see that the instructor who had lead the walk was coming to a stop just on the edge of the forest in front of them, and M'gann perked up. "Oh, I think this is where we set camp!"

"Very well."

It was efficient, that such a phrase could be used to address that Conner boy would be fine on his own, and that he and Mors were familiar with each other. That bit of blushing was a bit unexpected, though, although she didn't remark on it.

Particularly with that second observation. Mitsuru glanced over to where the class was pausing, and singled out her own group.

"I should attend to my own sponsor group, then. Perhaps I'll see you later tonight, once camp is set up."

...Ugh. Back to square one, then. She squared her shoulders, before turning to tackle the dread task of pitching tents.

"Maybe he just wanted to get out of setting up tents," she muttered as she in turn went to join her proper sponsorship group.

"I'm sure it's not that bad." Serah murmured, glancing in the direction he'd gone before turning back to the campsite.

"I guess I'll see you later." Waving, she turned and headed off towards her own group as well to see just what she could do to help.

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week iv, CFT special class (T/TH, backdated to Tuesday)

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Last edit, I promise. D:

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I FORGOT THIS EXISTED GO ME

BUT HOW COULD YOU FORGET S'MORES

THIS KID SURE HASN'T. EFFING S'MORES, HOW DO THEY WORK?

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