Soldiers Of Fortune (For Crim)

Rache shook his head, an amused look crossing his features as he placed a hand on each of Alexis' shoulders in order to stop him from bouncing around.
"There's a weeks earnings already on the card." He explained, removing his hands from the teenager's shoulders. "Everyone gets the same privilege; a week in which they don't have to pay for themselves, in order for them to get into the swing of the lifestyle here. After the first week, Recruits are usually sent out on scouting missions; easy, but enough to earn their keep." Gesturing toward the shops, he turned and started strolling toward one of the clothing outlets.
"The curfew is nine. We don't like having people up and walking around too late at night." He returned a few waves to the civilians as he passed, warm smiles all around. "The 'normal' folk are just as important as any of the Soldiers. They've lived through the same troubles everyone else has, so there's no rules stopping you from mingling with them."

"This is one of the more popular stores." He stated. There was no name on the shop front, no brand labels on the clothing. It was all just there. "You can shop here, or at any of the other stores around. There's really no limitations. We only ask you follow the rules which--" He paused, reaching back and tapping his back pocket a moment. "I don't have a copy, but Jordan should have one with her in the dorm. I was supposed to make sure it was in your pack." He gave a lopsided smile. "I've just been a little distracted lately."

A week's worth of wages which was... how much exactly? Ah, who gave a damn, certainly not Alexis at the moment, who was going to just spend his time roaming around each of the stores until he found exactly what he wanted to buy and return to each store in turn with his list, and if he couldn't get everything, then so be it. He'd just have to wait until he started earning money to buy more things. What he was going to buy, would have to entertain him until then.

The hand on the shoulders stopped him bouncing until they were removed, bouncing a little in step as he followed Rache like an excited pup, glancing over his shoulder to the stores behind him as the leader stated that the shop in front of them was one of the better ones.

"Oh, is the copy of the rules the little booklet that was inside the packs? I was going to read it, but, I never got a chance to with everything that had happened, but I will once I get back to the room, by curfew, I promise," the teen piped, tilting his head to Rache, grinning. "You better start sleeping decently, cause you won't pick up chicks looking like an old, cranky man if you don't."

"Yeah, that's the one." So he had put it in the pack..

Watching Alexis reminded him of his own childhood, before Scriosta. This kid.. He was just so amusing to watch, so full of energy. Until of course that last comment. That was just a low-blow.
"I like to consider that the people I 'pick up' like me for who I am, not what I look like." Rache stated indignantly, standing straight, as if proud.
But that didn't last long. He slumped again with a boyish smile, scratching at the back of his head. "But I suppose you're right. Sleep is generally a good thing." Jeez. Taking advice from a teenager. What was the world coming to?

Again, he pointed to the key-card.
"That has approximately five-hundred on it. It's supposed to last you your first week; clothing, entertainment. Unless you do some pretty amazing work, your general income will be around one-hundred, maybe one-fifty if you're lucky. Because you don't have to pay for your meals, we take the money straight from your account and use it, in bulk with the other wages, to pay for groceries to cook the meals." He didn't really need to explain these things, but he just found it so easy to talk to this kid.

Watching the man right himself in a prideful stance of self reassurance, Alexis nearly burst out with laughter as Rache slumped back down, biting the inside of his lip in respect for the attempt. "Yeah, like you could pick up in this place. One might want to join the nunnery right now," the teen shrugged, looking at his pocket as Rache explained the amount on it and how the food system worked.

Not as much as you could earn working for Scriosta, but then again, you never saw any of that anyway, everything was bought for you as a part of a cover while travelling. The use of equipment was all paid for by the organization.

This was purely money that he could spend on himself, and the thought was amazing. His own stuff to call his own, to get upset over if it was touched, or ruined, to never returned if borrowed.... Alexis was nearly running to the store already.

"Do... do they have cashews?"

Rache snorted, giving Alexis a bemused look. "I'm sure you can find cashews in the grocery store." He assured, gesturing to the large grocer at the opposite end of the shopping strip.
"Though if they don't have any, you can always ask nicely if the grocer can order them in."

The Aufstand had a rather extensive retrieval system for ordering in foods, in rather large bulk. They had a base on the surface that was under the guise of a good old Catholic boarding school, some of the more experienced recruits spending their days up there, the older women staging themselves as nuns; and boy did they do a good job of the cranky old nun.

It was a strange cover for a military-based organisation, but it worked. No one, not even Lynch, had picked up on it.

"Should I just leave you to your whims? Let you shop?" He asked with a warm smile. It always, always made him happy to see newly rehabilitated Soldiers rediscover their old selves.

Alexis had never beamed with delight as much as this since he had the first try of the cashews a few years ago, hands wringing with want... no, almost a desperate need to go and see what they had in the stores. Heck, he was nearly doing back flips.

But before he raced off, he wagged his finger at Rache. "You, you need to sleep. If I see you next and you haven't been sleeping properly, then you'll be in big trouble mister," He scolded, frowning a little before nodding. "I'm pretty sure that the base can run without you for a few hours while you rest, and if something major happens, I'm pretty sure you'll know about it." He assured, giving the man a quick hug before racing off for the store they had stopped in front of, heading right down the back to start what would be the next five hours shopping.

Roaming from store to store, asking copious amounts of questions about different products, what they do, how they work and how much they cost, Alexis' first buy was at a news agency and stationary store to get a small notebook and a pen, roaming back around the stores and making a huge list of all the things he wanted to buy in the near future, and some of the things that he suspected he would need right away.

He was pretty sure the store attendants would be sick of his questions by now, but he was new to this sort of thing as if Rache had to suffer his huge curiosity, then so did everyone else.

The shopkeepers were actually rather warm and friendly, used to the abundance of questions from new recruits, and greeting Alexis' queries with warm smiles.

Rache, after watching Alexis bound off like a kid in a candy store, returned to his office. He'd sleep. He would. Just not now. Not until he'd at least filed the paperwork he had.
Though that didn't last long. Within half an hour of sitting at his desk, the man crashed, falling asleep simultaneous to his head hitting the hard wood surface.

Jordan, however, had found herself down in the shopping strip, silently watching Alexis go about his shopping from the centre tables, absently slurping at a mango smoothie, her own key-card held between her fingers, tapping aimlessly against the cool metal surface. Her knuckles were bruised from the beating she'd given several of the heavy bags up in the gym, though that wasn't unusual for any of the recruits.

A small back pack purchased and now full of three sets of pants, shirts and a jumper sitting nicely on his back, a large bag in one hand full of blankets, sheets and assorted linen, a few towels also. The other hand was full of shopping from the food stores and supermarket, personal items like shampoo, body wash and then actual food items.

Shuffling along with a big assed grin on face, Alexis wanted to get these things back and pack them away, and maybe go back for more if he had time, he did realize that it was getting a bit late and he didn't know if the shops had a set time to which they closed.

He was so happy, he didn't notice anyone else around him as he walked for the door he came out of with Rache.

Jordan watched him. It was kind of stalker-like the way she just sat and stared, slurping at the smoothie absently. She wasn't sure why, but she almost felt bad for ditching him; he'd only wanted to help-- or at least that's what she assumed.

Some of the stores were already starting to close, the lights flickering off and the surroundings going dark. The place wouldn't go on lock-down until after dinner, the grocery store usually staying open late for snacks.

Sitting back in the seat, playing with the cardboard cup, the Soldier mulled over exactly how she'd go about going back to the dorm room. Maybe she'd just.. Not.
Though Rache wouldn't like that much.

Letting out an irritated sigh, she stood, the legs of the chair scraping loudly against the tiles, abandoning the empty cup on the table and making her way back toward the stairs that lead up to the main sector, a good few meters at least behind Alexis.

Moving about the halls with the bags in hand was a bit of a challenge, the grin only dropping when he got to the bar that you pressed down to open the door that directed him to the dorms, struggling a little up the stairs but making it never the less, he was enjoying himself immensely, even if he was being followed.

Stopped a few meters away from the dorm he shared, Alexis turned around, still smiling. "Can you give me a hand with the door? I'm kinda hand heavy," He asked Jordan, holding up the bags a little. "I bought some stuff, they had cola, do you want one?"

Glancing up from the ground and retrieving her hands from her pockets, Jordan side-stepped Alexis and swiped her key-card through the door, pushing it open and walking inside, initially letting the door fall closed behind her before catching it, hesitating a moment, and pulling it open, holding it for him.

She was far from used to having a room mate, let alone being polite to them.

"No." She replied to his offer; she didn't do caffeine. It disrupted her sleep rather badly, and if she was bad generally, she was worse when she was tired.
"So, you're a bundle of joy." The Soldier commented, keeping her gaze on everything but Alexis; the floor, her bed, the wall, the ceiling, and letting the door close once he was in.

Quickly bolting into the room before the door shut, Alexis dumped all the bags onto the bed, taking the pack off his back, nodding his head at the decline of his offer, starting to pack everything away in it's proper place.

"Sorry, am I too happy? I'm just really... free, I guess. I have... cashews," He explained, a little shy about his little addiction, quickly following it up with the other snacks he bought, such as snakes, jelly beans, lemonade, offering all of them to Jordan after setting them out on the bed for easy access.

"So, ah, I"m sorry about this morning, if I... screwed up somewhere. Does the 'being new' to this whole thing excuse still work?" He asked, figuring he might as well slice the tension open now and get it over and done with, just like the fight the night before.

Jordan merely sat on her bed, flinching slightly as the door clicked shut; watching Alexis was like watching a home movie of her first day here, free. She declined his offers with small shakes of her head, watching him unpack the things he'd bought, the things she could only assume he treasured, adored or had never had the pleasure of tasting.

And then he apologised. The Soldier's face hardened slightly, her eyes darting from him to the ground almost instantly and an obvious downward curve pulling at her lips.
"No." She replied flatly, though to what she couldn't quite say. Was she denying his apology, or saying that the excuse didn't work?

Exhaling a sharp, held breath, she slumped, fiddling with the material of her cargo pants.
"I mean." It was obvious that this whole 'apology be nice no violence' thing was difficult; this was likely her first attempt. "Don't apologise for things you didn't do."
Not the best approach, but she was at least trying. Chewing the inside of her lip, Jordan pushed her fringe from her face, running her hand back through the short strands of dirty blond. "The bastard deserved it, anyway.."

Alexis was half way through putting the snacks into the drawer beside his bed when Jordan said no, causing the drawer to shut a little slower as he listened, not quite turning around until he tore the sheets and blankets off the bed, intending to change the sheets to his new royal blue ones.

"Those guys, obviously should have stayed with... the way they were being jerks... they just annoyed me," The teen huffed, still smiling a little, but it was slowly dropping as the sheets were changed over and the blankets he was issued with returned to the top, laying out his new doona over the top of it for added warmth.

Maybe he should get checked out for mood swings the way his temperament dropped and rose with the slightest of things. "I told Rache about it, and he knows that I know about you being a girl. I'm glad I hit that guy with the tray, people like that..." He curled his fists around the pillow in his hand, no where near strong enough to damage it, but it showed he was angry.

Sighing, he put the pillow down and started putting away his clothes, saving the small selection of books for last.

Continuing to watch, continuing to fiddle, and hanging off of every word Alexis said, Jordan remained silent, her mind trying to accumulate some sort of decent response to his statement. He'd obviously not done what he did specifically for her, which she was okay with.

When he'd finished speaking, almost as if he had been thinking aloud, and after all that thought and speculation, all Jordan could muster in response was a small sound, similar to a soft grunt of acknowledgement, to let him know she'd been listening.

Dropping her eyes to the books, she scanned the titles as best she could from the distance, instantly recognising the majority of titles in the small selection. There weren't many books she hadn't read.

"We should go to dinner." She announced quietly, changing the subject quite directly. Even though she really didn't want to go to the cafeteria again that day, Jordan was rather hungry, the mango smoothie really not being too filling on an already empty stomach.

Food. That idea kinda was a surprise to Alexis as the mere mention of it caused a sudden hunger to spring up from the pit of his stomach. His appetite, by the sound of it, had returned with full force. Sure he had snacks neatly put away in his drawer, but he hadn't eaten since breakfast.

"Dinner. That is the best idea I have heard all day," He beamed, patting himself down for his credit card, frowning as he started looking around for it. "Do you have a suggestion?"

Jordan sat absently, watching him from her bed as he scrambled around looking for his card, playing with her own between her fingers.
"We could go to the cafeteria." She mumbled, looking down to her card, turning it over in her hands. "Or we could just go to the store and buy a few things. Cook in the kitchens."

The Aufstand catered to most preferences when it came to food; a lot of people, after returning to 'themselves', had found they had certain.. OCD tendencies, some being that they had to cook their own food. There were also the people that sometimes felt like cooking their own food, like Jordan; it just made things easier to provide facilities to do so.

Glancing up at him, the Soldier gave a shrug. "Or you could go do your own thing. I don't care."

One thing Alexis was never, ever very good at, was cooking. He'd never done it during his years with Scriosta, nor did he do it when was out and about on solo missions, eating quick meals and food prepared by certain people at restaurants. Maybe he should learn....

"Can you cook? I'm not... very good. I tend to burn toast," The brunet admitted, finding his card in the back pack top pocket, shoving it into his pants pocket. "If you want to eat alone, I'm okay with finding something myself. I know you don't like people very much."

"I can cook well enough." Jordan replied, standing from the bed. He was right; she didn't like people very much. But that was only because they didn't like her; it was a vicious cycle, really, no real start or end.

"I'm going to the store. Follow me if you want." Sliding her card into the back pocket of her cargo pants, adjusting the over-sized jacket draped over her shoulders, she opened the door and stepped out into the hall, glancing down one way before going the other, almost as if paranoid. A lot of the Soldier's here were, and for good reason.

Watching Jordan look down both ways of the hall just outside their door. Was it really that bad here? To watch your back that much as to look outside your very bedroom door? At least they had locks, but even then, locks couldn't hold out these types of skilled people. It shouldn't be like this... but then again, that was freedom for you, the choice to be kind, or to be a total douchebag.

Closing and locking the door behind them as he left the room again, he figured a small meal of fruit and bread would do him until he could get into a better eating pattern, following the gender hidden figure as they made their way back to the supermarket, looking forward to the last day tomorrow before he would be allowed to train.

"Are... you due to go on another mission soon?" Conversation topic. Not a very good one, but it was one.

Jordan knew her way around the halls much like any other Soldier that had spent near on as much time as she had here, her step quick; if Alexis dawdled, he'd surely lose her. It didn't take long for the long, descending staircase came into sight, the Soldier disappearing down the rather quickly.

"Maybe." She replied to him eventually; Jordan was one of those people that didn't discuss missions often. Those types of people were few and far between, but they existed for good reason, their rank in the system one of the more in need of protection, even from comrades.

The staircase was long, almost seeming longer than it had the first time, but that was just the mind playing tricks, the vast amount of stairs just seeming to go on and on.

"What do you eat? I assume not much at the moment." No one ever ate much when they first came here.

So Jordan was a very high ranking person, or she was just Jordan, which Alexis was happy to accept. What he kinda wanted to know was if he was going to be alone tomorrow or if he was going to have Jordan for company again. As much as she didn't talk, he liked having company around. Just talking to someone that was like a brick wall and, well, it was just talking.

"I... I was just thinking about getting some fruit. I'll have to start eating better tomorrow, but I'm tired, but I'm not sure if I'll sleep..." Alexis said, keeping up, shrugging a little. "I was just wondering if you were around tomorrow."

Alexis was so.. Chatty. Jordan was far from used to chatty people. If anything, people avoided chatting with her. Then again, they also wanted out of being roomies with her within the first 24 hours, and no one else had really managed to break anything before. But she was just off her game that night; at least that's what she told herself.

"We'll get you something to help you sleep." She stated bluntly; not sleeping was one of the worst things that a Soldier could do, even if they weren't training or due for a mission. If an invasion were to occur, they could put everyone in danger.

"I'll be around tomorrow." Short, precise answers seemed to be her forte, not really being one for long-winded explanations or responses.

Alexis hated not being able to sleep. There was a time about a year ago where he was off missions for about two weeks for a sudden bout of insomnia. He wasn't sure why it happened, but he was forced to sit around his apartment and do nothing except train in his lounge room. Worst two weeks of his life.

He wanted to be in tiptop shape, just in case Scriosta decided that they wanted him, or the transmitter back, or just to raid the place and kill everyone. Now that he thought about it, he felt like a traitor twice over... but no one needed to know about the thing that was in his arm.

"So, if you're gonna be around tomorrow, you up for round two?" He asked with a grin, hoping that it will be a test of power between the two in a friendly manner this time instead of with the intent to possibly kill.

The civilian area was more crowded than it had been earlier that day, crawling with teenagers that just seemed... Normal. They didn't look like Soldiers, they didn't look like they'd been trained to kill. They just looked happy. Jordan didn't envy them.
Diverging to the side of the vast space that was central to the shopping strip, she made a jagged beeline for the grocery store.

Glancing back at him, Jordan gave him a curious glance; something different from the usually flat, unamused, unhappy gaze she gave him.
"Round two?" She questioned, looking forward again as they entered the grocer, grabbing a basket on her way through and glancing down the various aisles.
"You're kidding right." There was almost a tone of amusement to her words. "I'll be sleeping." That was pretty much all she did when she wasn't training or out on a mission. Eat, read, sleep.

Though there were other reasons for it. She often didn't get to sleep the nights before a 'free day'.