Vincent Brooks
Sometime, Somewhere
Phase 0 of 3


There was something different about the Earth, much as technology might try to simulate the planet, anything that wasn't a genuine part of humanity's cradle would always feel a little off to him; it might just be a bit of nostalgia from his own time as a simple person, where he walked concrete streets instead of steel halls, where life was so much simpler...

And so much more complicated, although...

"Heh..."

That's the sort of thought that can only really exist in the present; that's the pain of nostalgia, looking back on things in a way that wasn't quite accurate.... Some things are remembered too fondly, others aren't remembered fondly enough, problems of the past don't seem so bad now that they're long gone, and problems of the future seem insurmountable, after all...

They have yet to be solved, yes...

---Perhaps things were as complicated as they always were?

---Perhaps things were as simple as they always had been?

He laughs again, footsteps carrying him down the sands of a long lost beach.

Who was he kidding?

Life was always complex.

He wouldn't have it any other way.

Reaching for his cigarettes, the ever-present bartender finds himself watching the end of the night; the orange glow of the morning sun was peeking over the horizon, his customers had come and gone for the night, and while they would return just as soon as he did, this was a rare time of breaks and noncommittal tasks, where he can simply enjoy life as a single existence for awhile, rather than enjoying it in the company of others.

Don't get him wrong of course, he loves other people as much as anyone else; in a sense, he probably loved humans more than most.

He wouldn't have opened up that shop otherwise, but still..

There are times when even the bartender wants to appreciate the quiet, his own thoughts, the cold sands, the vibrant stars, and the splashing waves...

Yes.

He certainly enjoys doing so from time to time, but...

---It seems like now won't be the time for that, after all-



"Heya Vince."

-contrary to expectations, or rather contrary to beliefs, a certain customer had actually managed to follow him out of the bar.

Such things should -to be frank- impossible for the typical patron, this particular seaside is not one that many can casually walk, the strength of soul necessary to do is simply not practical to manifest, but...

"Jacquie."

...It didn't surprise him that this person could; it's in the nature of their existence to be walking miracles, hell, even more than the usual, everything about this person was a miracle, so doing impossible things was a perfectly rational outcome for her path through life.

---Well, not that he could call her existence too absurd, after all, in the end he was still alive himself too, difficult as that had been to maintain in his more reckless youth...

Or well, mid-life crisis really.



"So, what's up?"

She must want something.

That was another thing that separated her from the other members of her 'family,' this one took the art of mischief to a whole nother level under the idea of doing a "good thing," for other people; that's why the man braces himself slightly, as the words he's sure she'll speak are ones that will ultimately be insane, but also come from a good place in the heart, thus forcing him to go along with her whims, and, as expected...

"...You're joking right, I don't have the power for something like that."

...He can only respond to her whispered plan with mild complaints, unconsciously rubbing at hair that never got any longer or shorter, his most striking feature that made it impossible to hide from certain aspects of his past, and...

"No, you don't have it either, quit joking around."

...sometimes, he wonders if it's the hair that attracts troublesome women to him, indeed, it was only after he grew it out like this that these sorts of impossible to argue with types had started to zone in on his life, but thinking about it again, he was really just looking for something to blame for his inevitable weakness, the reality that he will crack without putting up too much of a fight in the face of a plan that won't harm anyone, and well...

When she gives him the "I'll freeze you solid right here if you don't agree," look at his struggling form, he...

"...Gah, fine, fine! We can give it a try, but I don't think it'll work, geez... Your normal form is way less pushy."

Breaks under the pressure.

"Is it? Is it really?"

She laughs, and he realizes she's completely right.

She's never once been a reasonable person, not a single time in her life.

Never been an unreasonable one either.

The sun continues to rise.

Golden light streaking through the brilliant blue sky, the sign of a world of darkness coming to an end, a certain bartender flicks the lit cigarette away from him, an eternity of practiced aim launching it straight into the trashcan outside of his shop, and...

"Come on then, let's get to it."

Marches back inside, a grinning Goddess at his heels.




Northern Cross Dormitory - Your Room
Christmas Eve
Phase 1 of 3

---Suddenly, you wake up.

It's always a disorienting thing, coming out of the depths of a dream; one's consciousness takes time to truly return to oneself, the flailing of a brain that desperately tries to remember exactly who they were and where they are, is a common enough feeling in the morning that it doesn't raise too much of a fuss, indeed...

---While a part of you certainly feels something akin to whiplash, having practically shot up in bed for what seems like no discernible reason at all (almost as if you had been doing something else entirely and had somehow wound up here instead) the reality of your situation becomes apparent soon enough, namely...

---This is your room, you're lying in bed, and everything is about as fine as it can possibly be.

Well, perhaps that's putting it a bit too simply? After all, while this bed is yours, and while this room is also yours, it's not like you can say they really feel like yours just yet, after all...

You'd only been here for what... Two weeks now?

Yes.

That's right, this wasn't your usual room, no...

It was your room at the Northernmost part of the planet, a mostly unconquered landscape of ice and snow greeting you from outside the windows of your assigned quarters; yes, this is the room you had been assigned after taking the assignment that had landed you in this frozen land in the first place, or at least for some of you that was the case...

Others had the assignment forced onto them by the outside, by the higher ups, a (perhaps) sad reality of life that one cannot simply disobey their commanding officers in spite of how cynical or jaded a person might be, yes...

The assignment to the North Pole.

Formation of the Tamer Team "X-Cross," a name that was still temporary of course, one that had come up in the initial meeting as a placeholder sort of thing, but that had slowly began to stick over time...

...Was it temporary?

Hard to say nowadays.

Back to the point, the X-Cross, as you had come to understand it, was the brainchild of the four Major Tamer Organizations, a place to funnel the promising youth of the current generation into a single place to study and train, fostering international cooperation and the like, of course, that also meant putting the weirdest of the weird Tamers into one place together, a smashing selection of the greatest hits from all over the World (or so they claimed, some of the people that had wound up here aren't even officially Tamers, and others had been shockingly anti-social) and to that...

Life had become somewhat chaotic...

---Like, all the time.

Pretty much constantly.

Right now for instance, six A.M, a time where sane people (or at least those that didn't get the graveyard shift) would probably still be in bed, is the time where you can hear engines come roaring to life along with the rising of the sun, and well...

---It seems people were racing out on the ice outside.

Already.

At six in the morning...

There's chatter coming from out in the halls too, and the smell of food being cooked...

Wait a second... Wasn't today...?

Ah.

That's right-!

Christmas Eve...

A holiday that had become somewhat more complex under the lens of all myths being true, but...

One that the majority of the planet celebrates anyway-!

And thus, a question appears, namely...

What to do with the day?

Sit inside your room? Go out and join the others?

Go back to bed?

Up to you.

X-Cross Base (Northern Cross Academy)


X-Cross Base (General Information)

The Headquarters of the newly founded "X-Cross" faction of Spirit Tamers, built with the support of all Four of the Major Tamer Organizations at the heart of the North Pole and doubling as a supernatural Academy, it is perhaps the most technologically advanced of all of the Tamer Bases active today, with the possible exception of the NWAB's Moon Base, and even that may not be the case...

Consisting mostly of four main buildings, the Dormitory, the Academy Building, the Library and the Communications Hub/Astral Observatory, there are nevertheless a number of smaller structures that exist outside of the heart of the base, such as a Church built by the Rose Cross, a Formula Zero track that was planted here by the manager of a certain famous racer (complete with artificial environment generators), a pool building that perhaps a bit too much money was thrown into, and a sports field, placed here in a (mostly futile) attempt to remind people that training doesn't always have to happen inside of simulators.

The base itself is equipped with three different A.I who have been regarded as "experimental," although no one is quite sure what the higher ups mean when they say the word "experimental." Going by the names of "Burroughs," "Rice," and "Dejah," (because the last of the three claimed that Edgar wasn't cute enough for her) after the favorite author of their apparent creator, the three have varying personalities, have been encouraged to interact with the people on Campus for one reason or another, are notified when they're called by name (although don't always answer), and are responsible for general maintenance and security of the facility, and are often the ones ensuring that the Tamers don't accidentally break anything...

Due to a "Hard Light," auto-skill existing on the base grounds, it is possible for A.I to directly manifest themselves in a manner similar to wraiths on the premises, although a lot of them find the experience "disconcerting," and stick to their usual virtual forms.

Northern Cross Academy Dorms

The Dorms used by members of the X-Cross, connected to four different towers (each representative of the four Tamer Organizations, and where the individual rooms of the agents are) and connected to a central common room that all four share as the base of the building in an attempt to foster international cooperation; large swaths of velvet carpet, stuffed armchairs, and countless entertainment centers in various side rooms (one of which has been packed with arcade machines from both the pre and post magic era) make the common and dorm rooms inviting place to be...

Although the fireplace is a bit retro considering the modern age...

Northern Cross Academy Cafeteria

The place where on-base personnel typically eat; because of the nature of the X-Cross as an invitation only organization, it is capable of holding every registered member of the team at once, including non-Tamer staff such as the cooks, technicians, and janitors. Spotless and pristine, with plenty of menus, numerous food lines (many of whom represent restaurants from around the world, although one kitchen is open to Tamer Use), it's own Brewed Awakening's booth (normally manned by Vincent), and numerous television sets that are always tuned to the World News, the cafeteria is open from 7AM to Midnight on most days, and gets a decent amount of traffic at all times of the day on holidays...

Northern Cross Academy - University

Modern University Building, complete with assembly hall, open-use laboratories, general classrooms, and a (locked) gate into the Demonic Server. The education of a Spirit Tamer never actually ends, considering how fast knowledge of magitech and demon culture progresses nowadays. While it doesn't see much use on base-wide holidays it remains mostly open (the A.I won't let anyone into the server room) to on site personnel, with a number of people using it as a theoretical escape from the chaos, since it's usually the quietest area during the holidays...

Usually.

The Four Faction heads arrived here last night, and three of them seem to be plotting something in the Headmaster's Office... Which is currently locked, locked and barred, really it's a hell of a magical seal...


Northern Cross Academy - Communications Hub/Astral Observatory

The most obvious military facility of the X-Cross Base, a place of computer systems and communication networks, responsible for the continued function of the RAILS network in the area, as well as the place that processes reiki spikes detected by the four Harmonizer Towers, orders from the NWAB, and communications with the other Tamer Bases, with rumors stating that this building itself may go on to become another Harmonizer Tower in the future.

Normally only utilized for serious operations in the area, there is one part of the building that is open to general use, that being the Astral Observatory near the entrance of the facility; holding a high-powered telescope that's open to on-site personnel to use for Astronomy and Divination studies, although the latter is thought to be somewhat of a joke area of study...

Northern Cross Academy - Library

A place boasting a massive collection of books donated from the Four Major Tamer Organizations (with Alexia apparently sneaking some of the NWAB books in here too. As a result, it really can't be beaten by any other library on the planet, and is about the size of the school building all by itself; much like the school building it is open to all on-site personnel to do with as they like, although it seems that a painful fate awaits those that damage the books or return them late, considering you have to sign a contract to take anything out of here...

Said painful fate is also rumored to happen if you try to steal the books...


Pool Building

Olympic Style Indoor Swimming Pool with (rather expensive) temperature control and water purification technologies; while there's something inherently worrying about seeing snow falling outside while one is completely submerged in water, those inside of this place could be forgiven for forgetting that an eternal winter is rampaging around outside...


Outdoors

The great outdoors! Embrace of Mother Nature! Although considering the X-Cross Base is where it is, smack dab in the heart of the North Pole, it's a land of obvious extreme cold, still-!

Amidst the various ice and snow hills lies a pseudo-town that connects the different areas of the base together, constructed paths that naturally repel the falling snow and keep temperatures somewhat reasonable at all times. Such artificial environment manipulation is present at the Formula Zero Course and Sports Field as well, enabling that those particular facilities can actually be feasibly utilized in this sort of location...

Far off in the distance, a barrier of sorts shields the entirety of the base... Or at least you're pretty sure that's the case, it's not really visible, but Tamer Organizations always have some sort of Bounded Field up around their areas, it's their way of claiming the land...


Events of Interest (X-Cross Base - Morning Phase!)


Northern Cross Academy Dorms

(!) Namasaki Shuichi seems to be messing around with the fireplace for some reason, hunched over it and muttering spells and incantations under his breath... Just what is that boy doing?

(!) Alexia Wright, NWAB member extraordinaire, seems to be engaged in a chess match with... Herself for some reason? It's a bit sad really, is she that lonely, or...?

(!) Rice, one of the three Academy A.I, seems to be devouring just... Impossible amounts of pudding all on her own... With the oddest look of... Irritation on her face? Something must be up...

(!) Yamuna has been in the Arcade all night. You know this because her presence hasn't faded from the dorms at all for the past twenty four hours... There's a line of people waiting to play her in Dance Dance Revolution, and as expected, she crushes them all with a sweet smile and absolutely no mercy... Well, that's humanity's Goddess for ya...

(!) Having attached herself to a Blazred Machine in the arcade, it seems that Lexie Davis has absolutely no intention of being useful to anyone for the rest of the morning...

Cafeteria

(!) A dark-haired vampire seems to have collapsed by the food lines... What was her name again...? Did she not realize the normal workers don't open shop until 7? Well, she makes noises when people come by, so she's still alive, but there's a desperate aura around her that's definitely keeping people away...

(!) Vincent vs Anna?! An early morning disagreement about who loves coffee the most seems to have ended in the only possible way... A battle... Or a sort of battle anyway... Three thermoses down and counting... Is this... Is this safe...? Hearts don't explode from caffeine overdose, right?

(!) Having been given some sort of task by Serena, who's watching over them sternly, it seems the squires are building some sort of wooden stage against one of the walls of the room? Messing with a lot of sound equipment too...

Northern Cross Academy: University Building

(!) A woman calling herself Agatha (that only Eva actually seems to recognize) has set up a tent in the hallways of the University, claiming that she is able to see the future, and offering to divine certain things for passerby like their future success in love. but... There's an ominous sort of feeling...

(!) Mochizuki Noriko seems to be having a crisis of sorts. Yes. Having more or less barricaded herself in the Assembly Hall with a massive jar of cookies (that she spent yesterday baking) the woman has seemingly decided that spending all morning watching Christmas Movies from her youth and stuffing herself full of sugar is a perfectly fine thing for an adult to do...

Northern Cross Academy: Library

(!) Alexander is being Alexander. Sitting in the library working his way through the various occult tomes brought over by the other organizations, doing his best to not get involved with any of the shenanigans (of which there are a lot) happening in the other parts of the base.

...One could always become the shenanigans, but...

(!) As one enters the library, it is possible to see Catherine Thornely being what could only be described as "boldly thrown," out of one of the aisles... For some reason... Found a book the library decided she shouldn't be touching maybe? Or...

Astral Observatory

(!) Xavier has been here all night it seems, peering through the telescope into the stars at... Something...? It's not very clear what he's doing, but-!

Northern Cross Church

(!) Mary Fairchild and Alisa Kingsleigh seem to be doing some last minute decoration of the Church building, nothing particularly strenuous or out of the ordinary as far as tasks go, but considering it's the Pope and one of her Hands being on base, well...

(!) In an act of shocking normalcy, Alyx Kingsleigh... Is making snowmen outside? Considering the existence of Jack Frosts, is that offensive? Probably not. Well, Saria Justice seems to be hiding on the roof with about two dozen pre-made snowballs and obviously 'hostile' intent, so she'll probably have something else to worry about in a bit-!

Outdoors

(!) Atop the ice-hills overlooking the city sits a woman with rose colored hair and scarf, playing at a guitar that reverberates quite nicely throughout the cold air of the North Pole... She seems familiar, although you can't quite recall her name...

Thankfully enough, she seems to have a name-tag on her scarf, "Jacquie."

(!) With Formula Zero racing prodigy Nadia Starr as a member of the X-Cross, the addition of a racetrack (made with her money seemingly) to the base was more or less inevitable... It's a bit extra considering the purpose of this facility, but all the same, no one can deny it's fun-! Seems like Nadia's at it again early this morning, looking for volunteers to fill out some more spots on the course...

Eliza Cross seems to be interested...

(!) Seemingly enthused with the races, another of the Academy's A.I, Burroughs, is cheering in the stands for basically everyone! Because of this, the poor girl seems to be tiring herself out rather quickly...

(!) Loki, in his usual guise of a well-dressed man in a suit... Is sort of... Cackling by the main entrance of the base for reasons that no one is quite sure of... As a result, almost everyone has taken to walking out of the side doors instead of dealing with his nonsense, but...

(!) A remarkable big sister energy? Astra Palesch and Ikushima Kaori seem to have independently started a game of football against each other with some of the younger kids from the side staff on their teams...

Pool Building

(!) In the absence of her squires, it seems that Knight of the Round Tsukiko has taken to training some of the SDCD Tamers in the art of marathon swimming... In a no mercy, almost Spartan-esque style...

Not even taking the holidays off huh? Tamers.