Ties That Bind [Private, Averia Frost]

Averia pouted as she stood up and dusted herself, grimacing at the lack of handkerchief to take care of the dirt and thus resorted to using her hands. She simply wanted to give her roommate a back hug; she didn't think they'd end up crashing to the floor. Wow. I'm stronger than I thought. Either that or she's just that fragile~ Averia tilted her head as she looked at the animal that caught the girl's attention. A snake. Averia chuckled and shook her head slightly. Yes. That suited her roommate better than anything in this store. Well, maybe if the store had a piranha, that could work too.

'He's also very poisonous, so please put him back down...'

Averia blinked and immediately poked her roommate's side. "You should listen to her, roomie. It's not like I have an antidote with me right now," she said. Sure the snake was was such a cute pet but her roommate was too aggressive just grabbing it like that. Of course it would also aggravate the poor thing.

Oddly enough, although the snake constricted against her roommate's forearm, it didn't strike her. No. At the end of this staring contest, it slid up its arm and hung around her roommate's neck. Averia laughed and stepped back, whipping out her phone to take pictures of this glorious moment.

"Congrats roomie! It likes you too~" She giggled. "Are you taking it?"

"Congrats roomie! It likes you too~ Are you taking it?

She looked at her roommate, who was eagerly snapping pictures. She was half tempted to post for her, but she decided it was too much effort and that she was tired of appeasing her obnoxious rich chick. She looked at the snake and as it flicked it's tongue. She reached her hand to rub it's chin, and the snake backed away for a second, flickering it's tongue nervously.

'Hey, we cool?' Akui then held her hand out palm up as a sign of pure intent. The snake flickered it's tongue a few times before it moved closer to her hand. Akui then rubbed his chin, which she would have done longer had her stupid roommate not being taking pictures. Oddly enough, Akui didn't have anything to do with it, as she was compliant with rubbing the snakes chin...

It must have been dark in his habitat, because the small flash that came off her roommates phone really bothered him as it caught his eyes. The snake shook it's head, then hissed at the rich girl, before it proceeded to snatch her phone in it's mouth and crush it between it's fangs before swallowing half the remains, the other half falling on the floor. It then hissed at the girl again, looking like it was ready to attack her if she made any sudden moves...until Akui rubbed the top of it's head and calmed it down a bit.

'Damn, nice one. I knew I liked you for more than your looks. Looks like I'm not feeding you to an Ursa after all.' Akui rubbed the snakes head for a moment more, then patted his head, stopping to reach downward. The snake looked rather pleased with itself, so much that one could swear there was a grin on it's scaly face as it's tongue flickered in and out. Akui then picked up the remains of the phone and examined them for a moment, then stuffed them in her front jeans pocket. 'I'll be keeping this, thank you very much. That settles it, he's a keeper.' Akui gave the girl a look of personal approval as she patted the snake's head once more, then headed over to the counter.

'I would like to purchase this amazing snake, please.' Turns out she could be nice and proper when she had to.

'Alright ma'am...ummm...that will come out to 5750 Lien...'

'The f***? That's f***ing nuts. Tell me that includes a habitat and some food or some s*** like that?'

'I'm so-sorry ma'am, but that is for the snake and his medical health only: we are not currently featuring bundles...'

'That's f***ing ridiculous. I could buy all the Ever-grrr...' Akui was half tempted to shoot this woman, but just about then the snake slithered it's way atop her head hung it's head over to look at her, then flickered it's tongue.

She was sold.

'Christ, f***ing fine, whatever. Why don't you just take my whole f***ing balance while your at it.' she handed her scroll the woman and waited for her to complete the process.

Averia gave a genuine smile as she looked at the owner and pet's interaction through the screen of her phone. Click. Another picture. Averia blinked and wondered why it flashed. It was common knowledge to not use flash photography with animals so she made sure it was turned off. Meh, I'll just fix it late--

"--rraaah! What have you done?!" she exclaimed, a little over-dramatically as she watched her device crack, snap into two pieces and get devoured by this.. this.. monster! Her heart sank, watching in her version of a slow motion as the other half fell pathetically to the ground. Her phone. Gone. Just like that. "My photo collection of hot girls!!!" she screamed, but then blinked. "I-I mean.. the.. you know.. the phone.. it's expensive."

Throughout out her roommate's exchange with the saleslady, Averia was glaring daggers at the girl. She made sure the pink-haired knew what she was feeling by occasionally walking up inches to the girl's face then widening her own eyes in a childish attempt to make it obvious she was not pleased with what just happened.

While waiting for the transaction to go through, Averia rested her weight on one leg, before folding her arms beneath her chest. She then held out a hand to the girl in a motion asking for something back. "My phone please. That is my private property. We already talked about respecting each other's own things, right? I forgive your little pet for destroying my device, but I want my memory card."

Of course, all that was going through her head was to retrieve those pictures of her roommate clad in frilly dresses~

After some clickity-clacks and some beepity-boops, the lady handed Akui her scroll back. She pressed a few more keys...and then a few more keys, paused for a moment, and then put a few more keys in...paused, a few more keys...

Akui tapped her right foot impatiently as she flat out ignored the rich chick's facial variations of poking and prodding. More clicking, more beeping, more clacking, more booping...

'I'm sorry, I was having a bit of trouble accessing your informational records to make adjustments, but I finally got through. If you'd like, am I able to about your add in the information about you owning a pet. That way, people can help you find him if he goes missing and the like, but also you don't have to file the paperwork involved with the academy.'

Akui looked at the woman and nodded. The snake slithered around in a circle on her head, possibly overjoyed that he was getting a new home.

There were a few more clacks and clicks, and then one more boop before the woman moved to the right of the counter and retrieved a receipt and some sort of card, then handed both to Akui.

'Alright, I uploaded all the information to your scroll. The next time the academy accesses it, the new information will be added to their database. That is your receipt:  we take good care of our animals here, but if he does end up getting sick within the next month, bring him back here for a checkup and assistance. That card is just in case you need information on him and you don't have your scroll on you. Is there anything else I can assist you with today, ma'am?'

Akui shook her head, and then putt both the receipt and the card in her pocket.

'I'm so glad you like him...I was worried you would put him back, he's been the pet to last here the longest, save for one. I hope you both get along well and take care of one another.' the lady said with a smile on her face.

Akui did her best to return a smile, it being a slight smirk, but both the lady's smile and her own smirk were genuine. She then grabbed the snake off her head and looked at him. 'Alright, let's bail Diablo...' Akui paused for a moment, starting off into the distance, before looking back at the snake she held in her hands.

'Holy s***, that has a great ring to it. Whatcha think?' she asked the snake, who bobbed his head up and down as if to approve. 'Hell yeah, Diablo it is then.' She then tucked the snake into her hoodie so that only his head peeked out, and the snake didn't seem to mind.

She then turned to her roommate, and looked at her for a moment before she responded. 'You really are a crazy motherf***er...' she paused for a moment, then started up again. 'Oh right, weren't you wanting something? I can't remember, but if you were, I guess you'll have to come get it...' Akui then bustled out of the pet shop and made a mad dash for her hoverboard that was still floating in place outside the dress shop. It seemed that the lady who ran the store was inspecting it and preparing to take it inside.

Akui jumped and landed on the primary hoverboard, and took off towards the academy. About ten feet away from the dress shop, Akui commanded that the second board detach from Imprint mode, which left it floating by a candy shop. Akui knew the rich chick had been lying about not using a hoverboard before, but she had wanted to not only test how the much changes she made in stability would effect the speed and acceleration, but also how it would effect the maximum weight capacity, because she knew it would likely slow it down and make it able to carry less: what she didn't know was how much of either...plus, she decided to give the stupid, obnoxious, personal-space violating roommate a fair ride home...but she needed time. She leaned forward and traveled at maximum speed. The whipping of the air going by stung Diablo's eyes, so he hid his face in Akui's hoodie.

It didn't take long for her to reach the academy at this speed, maybe three-to-five minutes at most. She flew up the stairs and into the hallway before she jumped off the board and dove into the room, opening the middle drawer of her dresser. Diablo popped his head out to see what was going on, all the sudden ruckus making him think he may have picked the wrong human and that he should have waited a bit longer.

She located all the pieces she would need and had them levitate and place themselves atop her dresser, then she had the phone piece pull itself out of her pocket and lay itself down. Her toolbag had a couple tools like her customer fuser and some screws and other misc items float out of it and join the other scraps on the dresser...and Akui went to work.

"I guess you'll have to come get it..."

Her eyes widened knowing where this was heading to. "W-wait! Roomie!" Averia cursed under her breath. She sprinted after the girl as she sped out of the petshop and onto the hoverboard waiting outside. "Ahh! I wanted to ride with you!" she whined, stomping the ground childishly before dashing to the other board. She hopped on to it and pressed all weight on the front leg to chase after the girl. She was practically crouching so low to speed faster yet she wasn't getting any closer to her roommate. Averia grumbled.

"Roomie! I swear to god you're going to regret this! You know me! I payback big time! You're going to regret this so much!" She shouted while they were having the cat and mouse chase in the road. However, she was falling behind in speed and she looked down at the board in annoyance. The hell is your problem, bruh? By the time she looked up, the girl was no where in sight. She mentally facepalmed and sighed.

Averia was whining while travelling alone until she spotted something that sparked her interest. She stopped for a moment to eye the shop before breaking into a smirk. Oh hello pretty boy.

---------------

About an hour had passed before Averia returned to the dorms. Oh this would be priceless. She stopped in front of the door and opened it gently, using her hand to push it all the way. She entered the room with the hoverboard, but not riding it the usual way. Oh no. This was customised to fit her tastes.

The board floated about three feet in the air with the blonde girl sitting on top of it, her legs crossed in her typical monarch fashion. She smirked at her very own personal floating chair.

"Ohohoho~ How do you like me now, roomie? Very nice present you got me as a welcoming gift." She said casually as she patted one hand on the board while she looked at her nails on the other to further annoy the girl. She had made a few reprogramming on the board in the gear shop she saw a while ago. Of course this was all just for payback. She could easily do a system restore and place the settings back to her roommate's OS. However, she would enjoy this for now.

"Hover mode: disengage. Standby." Averia said to show that the voice command had been overridden as well. The board lowered to the ground as the girl casually stepped off. So~ Wachuu up to, roomie?" She flashed a devil smile.

Akui worked as fast as she could while still being precise, the clanging of metal and the whirring or machines, the fooshing noises of her miniature blowtorch...and the whole while Akui never spoke, hard at work without much time to spare. Diablo popped up a time or two to examine what his new person was doing, but the first time there was loud clanging and the second time the the bright blowtorch was kinda close so he decided to hang out inside his human's hoodie for a while until it sounded safe.

More fooshing, more clanging and whirring, some zaps here and there...and she had the frame complete, but now she needed to work on the guts of her project. She floated some parts that looked like random electronic parts from her closet and through the slots. More zaps could be heard, so squishy noises, some more zaps...

Now, she needed to combine the inner and outer parts. Some more fooshes from the blow torch, some scraping noises, and then it was together. Now, it needed to be polished up and to look pretty. Akui opened up the middle drawer again and took out some paints made for metallic objects. She first shaped the object in the image she desired, then cleaned it off and applied a thin layer of a chemical of her own design that not only helped the metallic paint dry faster, but also gave it a nice glossy shine...and dried quickly itself!

After a minute or so, she then applied some lighter blue and some darker blue to the item so that the majority of it was the darker hue while two of the minor rim-like portions were of the lighter hue. She then gave it a minute to dry before adding the final piece: a miniature LCD screen that she first rounded with a quick-dry metallic-safe adhesive before placing into it's correct slot, hearing it snap into place and being a perfect fit. After another minute or so, her creation only needed to be tested. She pressed and held a button down and as if perfectly on cue, the screen booted up with a white capital 'A' that flipped around with a solid pink circle, and after doing a bit of an odd dance the logo stopped with the circle being white and the 'A' being pink and atop the circle. She clicked a few buttons, noted how they functioned, and sighed in a relaxed manner at her work: it was complete success. She powered the device down and held it in her hand as she flopped on her bed. She just decided to lay there and relax, and Diablo emerged from her hoodie and slither around and lay on her chest. She stroked him from his head to his tail, and the two of them calmly relaxed to the point where they had practically fallen asleep...then the roommate finally returned.

Turns out the reason it took her so long to return was that she took the time to tinker with her secondary hoverboard and basically make it her own personal chariot. Akui, with some grease still on her face, just looked at the girl with disdain as she claimed the prototype hoverboard as her own. Fortunately, she had the more buggy and less tested version, but this chick...she refused to accept that she was doing anything wrong...sure, Akui hadn't really been all that nice, but this chick just stormed in and threw her world upside down and not only didn't care but demanded things go her way...

'Like you really f***ing care. Feel free to keep that s***, I don't want it back. Seriously though...' Akui sighed, as there was literally no point to what she was about to say, her palm to her forehead as she got up off her bed. She then whipped the item she had made at the girl. She aimed for her chest, and she figured that if she didn't catch it, with the small size of the item that the girl wouldn't be seriously injured. She then picked up Diablo and gently strung him around her neck, then went for the door. 'F***ing stupid ass rich b****...' she snarled as she walked out and shut the door behind her. She wasn't sure where she was heading, but it didn't matter as long as she wasn't near her. Akui decided to head out to the food court, as she was a tad hungry, and this would be the perfect time to get there with a bit of peace and quiet so she could spend time with Diablo.

[Exit]

Averia noticed the grease stain on her roommate's face and wondered what happened only to be hurled a small object to her chest. As a reflex, her hand snatched the said object midair and she frowned as she watched the girl leave the room. "Hey wait, aren't we gonna have some more bonding together.. you know.. now that we're alone in the room," Averia whined then simply rolled her eyes after the girl walked out and slammed the door of the room. Poor door, always abused.

She sighed and opened her hand to see what the object was. A phone. Wait. Her phone! Averia's eyes widened at the realisation that her roommate had fixed her phone for her. So the girl does have a caring side after all! Averia laughed softly and she leaned back against the wall, simply staring at the little device in her hand. A genuine smile rested on her lips as she flicked it on and ran through the features. Not bad. In fact, this was so much better than expected. The colour matched her as well and she was thankful for the thought.

After having gone through admiring its design and features, Averia let it rest on her hand, just staring at it. It was the first time someone had ever given her anything close to a handmade gift. She chuckled and slid it inside her pocket before making her way to her bed to continue unpacking.

Thanks for the gift, roomie~

[Exit]