Ride Along

10:00, the entrance ceremony and open house started at 10:00. At 13:00, they would be matched with their first partner of the semester, maybe your partner for the whole of your academy career if you were lucky. After that, they would have the rest of the day free to explore as they pleased, but none of that could happen until 10:00, and it was only 06:00.

The stars glittered over the horizon, blinking out one by one as the sun rose, shining its soft morning light into her eyes and making them burn. It was a cloudless, fogless morning, something Tip didn't see often in her hometown of Ivorbarrow, though that was less fog and more steam from the drop-offs where the ocean met the giant volcanic craters. Clouds would puff high and on a good day you could see the barest hint of the sun, but that was rare. Mama had once said that was why everyone in town, even those with darker skin than their lily of the valley type white, was so ashen and pale.

The sky here was unblemished though, not a cloud-shaped bruise in sight. She wondered if it was also like that at the academy, but she set the thought aside in favor of being early to breakfast.

Tip dropped silently from the top bunk, padding along the cold metal floor silently as she went about putting her uniform on. A sleeveless tank top under her uniform mandated coverall, which also happened to be black. She didn't bother with zipping up the top part before moving to get her socks on. She fought her way into the uniform combat boots, non-slip and durable, good for a workshop and for roaming a ship. After she braided her hair and pulled it into a bun so the long red, wavy mess wouldn't get into anything, she set off for the dining room. Breakfast started at 05:00 for the people getting off night shift, so the canteen wasn't empty, but the line was short enough that all of the good food was still there.

Tip made her plate and sat down in a corner. Her notebook made its way to the table in short order, and she opened it to her latest blueprint for her dream Lamp. It would have twice the horsepower of a normal Lamp, but a sleeker more compact design. The cannons were retractable instead of taking up the whole function of the left arm, allowing for better melee options. And while there were a few drawbacks she was still working out, Tip was proud to say that all of it worked! In theory, of course, she hadn't had the time or resources to build it, and she definitely didn't have the equipment seeing as it was illegal for non-licensed individuals to own a Luminos set.

Once she got to the academy though, she'd apply for a grant and put her theory to the test, prove her dream could be achieved, and carve her name in with the likes of the first Lamp Maker himself!

The ship's wake-up alarm went off, signaling that it was 07:00 and that the kitchen would be closing for lunch prep in two hours. Not wanting to be swept up in the crowd Tip gathered her notebook and shoved it back into her pocket before dumping her tray and making her way up to the deck.

It was loud top side, planes landing and taking off as they went to get and dropped off students who couldn't be reached by water. People yelled as orders were given and received, new kids grabbed their stuff and made their way below. The hustle and bustle was quick, almost never-ending, and it provided a good background to watch as Aisix grew ever closer.

..--- / -.. . --. .-. . . ... / .-.. . ..-. -

They made port right on time, and even as they did so, planes were still coming and going.

Tip swung her bag down from the cargo hold over her bunk and set it on the floor as she fixed her uniform, careful of her arms and elbows so she didn't her bunkmates who were doing much the same. Once she had her coveralls zipped up right, she put on the academy jacket that every uniform, no matter the department, had. It was a long coat that reached to just below her knees with the same red as phoenix feathers, the edges were lined with the same blue as the water in the Maldives, providing a nice contrast to the darker colors of the uniform. The right sleeve of the jacket sported the school's logo, the head of the first Lamp, in a cool grey color as well, finishing the uniform so that it all tied together in a very professional way. Tip felt proud when she put the jacket on, knowing she had earned her place here.

After her bag was seated on her shoulders she made her way back topside, filing in for roll call, standing at attention with ease since her middle and high schools had been military style as well. Once they were released they filed off the ship, heading into the bustling city as street vendors called out to them, children ran wild, and people went about their business, used to new students arriving by now, taking any awe they might once have given them out of their blood. Tip knows they'll probably cheer when the Lumous dock later today, but she's never been jealous of the attention they get. She was here to build, not throw a pageant show.

The academy city, a relatively new place that had popped up in the last fifty years as the population once more started to grow and workers had families and their families had families and people graduated and they had families, or simply stayed for better access to the academy. It was a sprawling reimagining of old new york, minus all the traffic since just about everything was within walking distance. The port connected to a commercial district where the streets had more people than cars, and nowhere on the continent would you find a gas station that actually sold gas, only recharge spheres with storm type essence. Color popped everywhere from the red of clothes to the hollow yellow of off street lights, the city was truly lively. And at the center of it all, Elk Grove Academy.

It was made from the husk of an old university, all red brick and white stone, but over the years it had become a behemoth of a thing with metal towers and secondary buildings. Its obsidian colored windows glittered in the sun of the late morning, beaconing all those new students towards its halls like moths to flame. The building where the test Lamps were housed was most undoubtedly the tallest building, 600 feet tall to accommodate the size of the Lamps, and then made taller to house the labs in which such beauties were built.

They took all of them towards that glorious sight on busses, crowded with as bodies as they could get in the motorized metal. Tip shoved her headphones over her head and scrolled through the music she had downloaded to her player before ultimately she hit shuffle and leaned back into the seat to resume writing in her notebook.

From the port to the academy it was about an hours drive, and she would spend that hour thinking up how to present her idea to the school board.