Oh no, it was him. Zanna grimaced when he said her full name and she rolled her eyes at his sly grin. Was she going to be stuck with this idiot for the rest of her life? Like an actual idiot, not an affectionate idiot. She inhaled deeply before saying in a far too calm manner, "It's Zanna, Kalen. And if you must know I was recruited to be a weapons engineer. And you're probably here simply because they needed more bodies."
Kal holds his hands up in defense, grinning. "Alright, Zanna. The name's Kal, by the way. Though I doubt you actually forgot. I tend to not be very forgetful." He spins around, walking backward while facing her. "Weapons, ey? Fancy stuff. As for me, I actually am on deck duty." He smiles, not actually knowing what deck duty is, right before running into a beefy looking cadet. "ah, watch it." He says wryly, right before he gets pushed against a wall. He hurries back over to Zanna, afraid he might lose her.
Zanna rolled her eyes at his comments and actions. He probably didn't even know what deck duty was or else he wouldn't have said it. The poor fool. She ended up snorting slightly as karma caught up to Kal when he was pushed to the wall. She didn't slow her walking and was mildly disappointed when he caught up to her again, "Have fun with the wall? Maybe you're the right man to be on janitorial duties."
Kal flinched, then covered it up with another smile. “Oh yeah. The wall’s super talkative.” Then looks slightly stunned. “Uhh… that, that can’t be what…”
“ATTENTION. We will be doing the mandatory cadet interviews. Please be attentive for your full name, then report to your respective room within three minutes, or you will be booted from the operation.” The announcer shouts. Kal only stares up at the ceiling. I can’t be on the deck. That’s not what I came here to do. He sighs, and crosses his arms. “Guess I shoulda paid more attention in biology.”
"You should've paid more attention in general," Zanna snarked as she proceeded to move ahead and away from Kal. She just wanted to get as far away from Kal and the sooner she could do that the better. Besides once she got her room she could start work on her projects in peace and quiet, "Anyways. It's been a pleasure talking to you, but I'm going to go get my interview done."
Kal watches, then huffs. "Alright then, good to see ya." He sighs leaning against the wall, staring at nothing in particular. The announcer blares again, "…SUZANNA STORM. ROOM 11B. MIKAEL JOSEF, ROOM 12B. KALEN J- JAQUI- JAQ. ROOM 13B…" Kal sighs, picking up his small bag of personal items and dragging himself to the interview room.
(Alright, now you can have an interview sesh with your character. You can literally ask anything you want btw)
(Cool. Do I need to do the responses too or nah?)
(if you want)
Zanna walked confidently into the interveiw room with her head high. She took a seat across from the interviewer as he let out a sigh, "Name?"
"Suzanna Storm," she quickly responded, "But please just call me Zanna."
"You're with the techies?"
"Yep," Zanna patted her bag next to her, "Brought some of my designs as requested to."
Kal slowly enters the room, tossing his things against a wall and slumping into the chair across from the interviewer. "hows it goin?"
The interviewer gives him a strange look, then straightens her papers. "Name?"
Kal sighs. "Kalen Za-Qui-Ros." He draws out, making sure it was understandable.
The interviewer nods. "Alright Mr Kalen. Our reports show that your evaluation for high school was well below average, as well as a barely present attendance for the last few months of school." She glares. "Care to elaborate?"
Kal pulls a hand through his hair. "You see, the teachers never took me seriously…"
"I wonder why." the interviewer says under her breath.
"…And so, I didn't really listen to them. You know? I mean, i've always been really interested in aeroscience, and wormholes, and off-world physics, but… It just didn't work out, I guess." He shrugs, giving a half smile. He quickly concocted a lie for his next answer. "And as for the attendance thing, my dad had an injury in the mines. I was busy taking care of him and holding down the fort."
The interviewer clicks her pen. "I see. What about warfare? Travel? Weaponry? Both off-world and on? Any experience in those fields?"
Kal shrugs. "I mean, I got in a lot of fights. I've gotten pretty good at winning them though." He smirks, the interviewer writes something down. "And uh, I used to do the aerospace sim at school a lot. I guess I also can operate some of the mining tools, and that's about it."
The interviewer nods. "Excellent. Anything else you would like to tell us?"
Kal huffs. "yeah. That if you really are desperate for soldiers, and you throw me in with the janitors, you're wasting a lot of potential." He says wryly, folding his arms.
"Thank you Mr Kalen." The interviewer says, standing. "Your final report will be ready for you in your dorms soon. Thank you for your time." She shows him the door, and lets him out with ease.
"Well, considering the rest of your files show you've exceeded in practically everything you've done," the interview let out a sigh and moved towards the door, "You're free to head to the dorms."
Zanna stood up and grinned at the interviewer, "Thank you!"
She walked out of the room head high and headed towards her room. She had slung her bag over her shoulder and calmly made her way through the ship towards room 11B.
Kal sighs, stomping down the hall, when he notices some familiar purple tips. He speeds up, clumsily dragging his bag of things behind him. "Hey! Suzanna!" He calls, smiling. "guess we're neighbors, huh?" He slows once he matches her pace, waiting eagerly for an answer
Zanna had been fine. She had been happy. But now, now she was upset at the reminder. She stopped in her tracks and turned to face him, "Don't call me that, Kalen. Just because we're neighbors doesn't mean I'll tolerate you."
Kal trips over his things, but manages to save himself from falling. "whoops. I forgot. sorry." He smiles wryly. "Alright, alright. But I bet by morning you'll be begging for my attention." He grins, then inserts the key to his room, trying his best not to drop his things all over the ground.
Zanna gritted her teeth at his comment. He wasn't sorry and she knew it. She stepped around his fallen things and went to open her own dormitory door, "I won't be. Even if you make it to the morning, which at this rate I highly doubt."
Kal smiles sarcastically, and sighs once he's inside the room. "what did I do to her…" he grumbles, setting his bag on his bed, and picking up things that had fallen out. He laid on his bed, contemplating deeply about what he was supposed to do here, when a knock came at his door. He opened it, tentatively. There stood one of the official guards. Not some scrawny new recruit - an actual, trained, contributing member of society. Kal stared in awe. "uhh, d-do you need anything? Sir?" The guard shoved a Holo-min into his arms. "Kalen Jaquira, you have been moved to piloting. Training starts tomorrow, 6 O'clock sharp. Bay 5." The guard stomps away as Kal stood there, frozen. "Its.. pronounced… Jaquiros." He stares at the Holo-min, switching it on and seeing a 3D version of the instructions he was so graciously just given, not knowing if he was relieved, or worried. "What the hell?"
Zanna took the time between when she was finally free from Kalen to the moment her door knocked with her assignment. It was exactly as she thought, she had been put into engineering as if that was ever a question, but 6 o'clock? Even her parents let her sleep until 7 most days. She didn't dare correct the guard when they pronounced her name wrong as she figured she would never see them again. She kept looking at the Holo pad and checking the location, Bay 5. Not exactly where she thought she would be, maybe there was a lab there.
Kal didn’t sleep, like most nights, rubbing his eyes as he rolled out of bed. Quickly, he brushed out his unruly hair, trying to make it presentable. He put on the spaceport jumpsuit assigned to him, then headed to bay 5, still absolutely confused that he was even remotely considered for piloting.
Zanna woke up about half an hour before the assigned time. She took a quick shower before putting on the outfit given to her the previous day and exited her dorm with her bag of half-finished projects. She began her journey towards where she was assigned and spotted Kalen in the hallway, going the same way she was. Oh god, damn it.
Kal groggily drags himself down the hallway. Hopefully I crash into a meteor or some space shit and… He hears a familiar stomping walk behind him, and he looks back, grinning. "I knew you couldn't stay away from me." He says jokingly, slowing his pace to walk next to her. "ooh, whats that??" He says, trying to touch her bag
Zanna pulls her bag away from him as she scowls heavily. She moved it as far away from him as physically possible while trying to speed up ever so slightly, "This wasn't my choice. And this," she gestures to her bag, "is none of you're damn business."
Kal scoffs. “Alright, alright.” He slows his pace a bit, combat boots squeaking along the steel floors. Then impulsively, he reaches for the bag, attempting to run with it
Zanna stopped him with her metallic hand holding his wrist in a death grip probably bruising his wrist in the process. She growled at him once more, "Don't. This is your one and only warning."
Kal yelps in pain, holding his wrist. “God, you’re strong!” He says, still grinning like an idiot. He steps back into place behind her, following in silence until the reach the bay doors. A scattered few other recruits stood there, some techies, some pounders, some aviators. But today, they were all testers.
"Metal arm idiot," Zanna said after his comment. It wasn't like she tried to hide her prosthetics given She leaned into the whole part metal aesthetic. She stepped through the door and made her way away from Kal and over to the Techies. She didn't really know what was going to happen, but she couldn't wait to get to work on her tech.
Kal sighs, entering the room, standing alone against a wall. At exactly 6, a burly woman saunters in, carrying a huge railgun. “Alright, cadets. Line up. Each and every one of you is here for weapons training, because each and every one of you will be shooting these damn things.” She holds up the gun, blasting a hole in the opposite wall. Kal flinches, glancing at Zanna. “All the techies and mass murderers get to teach the shits who don’t know what a Xiolt is how to shoot.” She points to Zanna. “You, badass chick. You’re teaching scruffy here.” She points to Kal. He smiles, waving.
Zanna made no movement when the gun fired having been all too accustomed to the sound, though normally she was the one firing it. What she wasn't expecting was to get paired with Kalen. At this point, she did not think this day could get any worse, and it was only 6 in the morning. She gave a nod to the commander, who had partially earned her respect after calling her a badass, and waited for the call for dismissal so she could get the damn thing over with. The entire time she was pointedly ignoring Kal knowing the pain she was about to go through in teaching him how to properly use a weapon.
Kal shrugs and grins when he sees Zanna's tortured expression. "Hey, I had no part in this! I swear.! He holds up his hands defensively, while eyeing the wall of assorted weapons for them to commit tomfoolery with. "So… what should we start with?" He asks, shoving his hands in his pockets. "You're the expert here. I have no idea what half of those are."
"I know you didn't. This just happens to be my luck today," Zanna let out a long sigh as she looked at the wall. Given his last statement, she reached out and grabbed the simplest gun, which happened to be a pistol, and held it out to Kal. She looked over the weaponry again, "Given you don't know what half of these are, we'll start with a basic pistol. If you can't figure out how to work this, then I don't think there's much hope for you."
Kal takes it, overly cavalier, and cocks it. He shoots toward a plasma field (idk XD) which I incinerates the bullet. He theatrically blows on the barrel. “Easy. What’s next?” He looks at the wall again, trying to figure out which one would be most impressive.