Equestrian Space: The Academy

by SymphonicSync

Ch 5

Gneiss flipped through the pages in front of her as she splayed her wings over the sides of the recliner. Asher sat opposite her, doing the same as he described the classes on them.

She wasn't entirely listening.

He hadn't asked where she'd been when she got back to the suite. After a glance at the clock, she'd simply stepped into her room and... Waited.

Now was the time to be asleep, but she felt restless. So she laid in bed staring at the room around her.

The walls, ceilings and floors were a deep grey as if hewn from stone but rang with a hollow sound of metal. There was a dresser, a door to the small hallway, the mirror, and what she assumed to be a closet. The bed was covered in a thick burgundy comforter, though laying on it did anything but. It had a course texture and lumpy consistency in the padding.

After looking at the wall for some time, she noticed a rectangular crack in the ceiling above the wall opposite the foot of the bed. Operating off a hunch, she raised a talon and snapped her claws.

The room was washed in a blue light as a screen was projected onto the wall.

The UI was simple. There was a static image in the background behind a display for the time and icons for a calendar, a food menu, and a scroll.

Where her talon raised in the air appeared a cursor at the end of an invisible line whatever sensor in the room could see. She hovered it over the scroll and tested a pinching motion. The icon depressed and the room faded to grey again at the screen blinked from the beach to some sort of parchment background. A notification appeared.

You have no approved contacts for after hours communication, N1C3.

She swiped her claw to the side and the screen blinked back to the beach. She stared at it for a while, imagining the waves gently rolling over themselves.

She'd tried to imagine what they'd sound like. What they'd feel like. Lulling her.

Pulling her. Pushing her down, under the surface. It would be dark, and cold, and spawn a fire in her chest. She could feel it now, the chill around her, burning within her lungs, just like before. She wouldn't be able to hear anything clearly, their voice would be garbled by the liquid.

She shook as a rasp sounded from the door. Asher's voice came from the other side the second after. "Hey, we need to go over our classes."

The air around her was still. Calm. Lukewarm. The walls were tall and gray, but distant. She let out a short breath and then took in a much deeper one.

"Gneiss, can you come out?"

"Fine."

And so she found herself here, listening to the kirin drone on about the curriculum as she skimmed his notes on the schedule. "Manipulator Operation?" She asked, seeing it on the list. It was marked for later this rotation, after a span of time left open for lunch.

Asher looked up, placing a hoof on the page to mark where he'd been reading before. "You know, the construction rigs. I thought you'd find it interesting."

"So now I have interests?" She jabbed.

He mused, "Well you've always enjoyed piloting the fighters, I thought you migh-"

She thought about being strapped in behind a cockpit's control console, the buttons and switches surrounding her. A spur of anger filled her as she reared up out of the seat, tossing the folder onto the table. "Keep your thoughts to yourself." She snapped, clinching her beak shut out of surprise at her own tone.

She couldn't tell whether he was surprised or annoyed; the static hid his face from her. He said nothing as she walked past him towards the fridge, throwing the door open to root around inside. Gneiss saw packages of sour cream, various pickling jars, and raw meat. From the slightly pastel tone and the F&F^TM logo on the label, she knew that it was only imitation and a mediocre one at best. Still, an imagined whiff of a home cooked griffin meal came to her nostrils as she scanned the ingredients on the shelves. She could also recognize some of the normal staples of a Kirin diet.

"Is there a," she paused, trying to recall a term that fit, "grocery around here?"

"I don't th-believe so, no."

"You didn't get this stuff?"

"No, I thought it was empty."

She picked up a jar of pickled apples and turned it over in her claws. The slices gently swirled within, twisting counter the motion of the glass. The green skin was too vibrant, a common substitute used in place of tradition.

It wasn't a griffin speciality, but she understood the exchange of gifts to be a rather diplomatic start. At the behest of Asher's father, she'd even presented some herself on a clawful of business deals. Her own father had merely laughed when she said it was out of line. The heft of her father's voice played in her ears, indistinct and garbled.

She ruffled her wings, setting down the jar as she closed the door of the fridge. "The academy must have stocked it," She mumbled, straightening her jacket she approached the table, "I'm not all that hungry."

From the shape of the distortion, she assumed that Asher was looking at her. "Class doesn't start for a while." There was a pause, and then he continued. "Do you, want to go see where the other rooms are?"

She grasped the folder and motioned towards the door with a wing. She followed with the command, "Lead the way."

Comments

[Ice Star]

You can't just leave it on such a clear cliffhanger like that. Now it's scream time until the next update.

[SymphonicSync]

10792330
Bold of you to assume an update.

Bold of me to say so not even remembering how I left it off.

Edit: Wow, this chapter really did not leave off the way I thought I had.