New Years 2402

What the world didn’t know was that the decline in channeler activity was due to a recall of sorts.  Unlike in Oya, all registered Terran channelers were trained to use their abilities under the same unified system, making Terran channelers uniquely uniformed in their basic abilities.  Unfortunately, the conflict in Osiire had revealed that was this truly the case, then Terran channelers were uniformly inferior to their Oyan cousins.  This caused a near instantaneous overhaul of the channeler training systems employed by militaries around the world, to improve the quality of individual channelers in an attempt to bridge the gap between Terran and Oyan channelling techniques.  This strategy, though employed initially by just a few countries, was accepted across the board and saw implementation worldwide, resulting in the retraining of even civilian channelers according to the new systems.

For those who had completed their original channeler training, the process of upgrading this build took little more than a month on average, with the faster learners completing the process in as little as two weeks, while those who found the system a bit more difficult to grasp found that their training could run for up to 8 weeks.  Luckily, by the end of the year 2401 however, the world saw 79% of its channelers having completed this upgrade and adopting the new build. 

This in itself seemed to be a reason for celebration, and proved to be the main reason behind the R.E.Load Networks New Years Eve party, which served as a cover for the graduation ceremony for the channelers.

Even Rei Selen found herself a free woman before Christmas day, no doubt the result of an act of good will, facilitated by the strong suggestions of the leaders of the world’s factions.  Seeing this, it was no surprise that she would be one of the first to arrive at the ceremony, accompanied by her wife only days after completing her training.  In fact the only ones that would arrive before her would be the trio of Brian, L’Qatu and Kikoto who had already found themselves a table, allowing Brian to become more familiar with the extensive wine list which the event provided.

Their punctuality was met only by the Knights of the Xelot council, who arrived in their ceremonial attire, sporting white hand-tailored suits, trimmed with three gold strips down the sides of their pants and blazers, which ran into thick golden bands around the cuffs and the pants bottoms.  Over their suits, they were equipped with large golden shoulder pads, which ran into low neck guards and were fixed to their suits by the chest and back.  Deacon’s suit had a long cape, denoting that he was the highest ranking member with the Xelot coat of arms on the back.  Their uniformity and elegantly designed attire were enough to catch the attention of the channelers already present, as well as the staff who were working the event, causing all eyes to be on the team as they entered.  Jinzo grinned widely as he winked a young waitress across the room, causing her to blush, while Crydus shook his head and his teammate’s antics.  Jubei, despite his female escort, and Bobby however were on the same page as Jinzo, each surveying more than just the culinary delights that the gathering had to offer while Loki and his subordinate Adema looked around to get a better look at just who would be in attendance.

By the time they were seated, Donovan and his mother had made their entrance, with young Donovan quite annoyed as usual while he glared menacingly at all of the eyes that seemed to be on his mother, and more importantly the less than modest split that set her dress apart from that of any other female that he yet arrived.  Jubei found this particularly impressive, given his date’s personal tastes in fashion, but would not have time comment on his delight before a commotion was noted at the door.  Davius and Derick, who had for once foregone his Juggerknot get-up, seemed to be at the centre of a conflict with a member of the Mercenary army.  Luckily, the situation was quickly defused by Bayman, allowing Davius and Derick to enter while the Mercenaries saluted to their Director as he made his way to the VIP entrance.  No one in the building actually recognised Derick’s face, as he usually wore a mask, leaving them to only assume his identity due to his unmistakable size and the fact that he was rolling with Davius at the time.

The Mercenaries, the second faction to arrive, sported less flashy attire.  The suits of the males were grey two-piece suits trimmed with two teal stripes around the narrow, vertical collars of the jackets and around the cuffs.  The men also wore teal ties with the mercenary insignia embroidered into them, and for the most part attempted to wear their hair as neatly as possible.  This wasn’t easily achieved for the majority of the Mercenary men, four of whom sported wild hair normally, leaving only Val and Bayman who could actually pull off the military look.  The Mercenary females, wore suits similar to their male counterparts, substituting pants for knee length skirts and sporting much shorter ties, while enjoying the luxury of having considerably more manageable hair than their military men.

As they made their way in, Yric stumbled in behind them, observing the vast dining hall of the facility as he looked around in an attempt to spot a table where he would be comfortable.  Eventually, he would settle on sitting with Brian, L’Qatu and Kikoto before he and Brian engaged, somewhat casually, in an old drinking game while they waited for things to get started.  Demetri and Rom would arrive within seconds of each other, before the Rogues and the Demai, made up for the rest of the channelers.

The Demai would easily take the cake for being the best dressed faction, as Misha Teragi herself had been the designer of their ceremonial attire.  The men wore black pants and jackets, trimmered with a single solid red metallic strip down the side of the legs and the sleeves, as well as running across the back of their jackets.  This was then trimmed with thinner reflective metallic strips running parallel to this red stripe, but uniformly broken instead of being solid.  Silver Demai cufflinks and buttons on their collars would only add to the elaborately constructed looks, while a red inside shirt, black silk ties and customised eye-wear completed their attire.  Unlike the mercenary women however, the Demai female attired didn’t resemble their male counterparts much, as they wore long black designer dresses, trimmed with a single thin red strip that traversed the V-neck cut of the dress and formed the two thin straps.  A small translucent Demai insignia glowed faintly on the upper left of the dress, beneath the left strap, leaving just a pair of heals to complete their attire.

As a result of their extremely fashionable attire, the Demai only seemed to make the simple Rogue ceremonial attire seem that much blander.  The Rogue men wore long black formal slacks, and a black turtleneck shirt on the inside.  Over this they wore black military styled jackets, on the back of which the Rogue insignia was visible.  Green epaulets, shoulder patches with the Rogue insignia, military ribbons above the pockets and four green stripes running around the cuff of their jacket would complete their unified look, though some opted for eyewear, while others didn’t bother.  The women retained a more military look than the Demai females.  Foregoing dresses and skirts for more close-fitting pants.  Their suits resembled their male counterparts somewhat; long black pants and black high heels would replace the slacks and shoes of the men, while a black and dark green bustier top replaced their turtle-neck shirt.  A half-length, black military styled jacket, identical to the males in designs would complete their look as well.

As these two factions arrived and took their seats, the barrier shutting off the VIP from the regular seating switched to its secondary mode, becoming selectively solid at some parts and permeable at others, and similarly transparent for the most part, and selectively opaque at others.  This revealed the Four Faction Leaders and their entourages as well as Shin Itami, his wife, son, Ryuu, daughter-in-law Tess and associate Cornus Malaikin, among a number of other contributors to the function. Alexander Drago and his wife, as well as a few of his personal friends would be among those others, along with the internationally acclaimed designer Misha Teragi and a woman with a more recent claim to fame, the Italian business woman Illianna Roeder.  Among them, were a number of other channelers who were lesser known by the networks, but equally famous in more social, economic and political arenas.  As the groups settled down, the actual ceremony took off. 

This proved to be quite uneventful, allowing channelers to sit and enjoy a relatively peaceful dinner, as well as some relatively exclusive entertainment, like unreleased songs from a number of popular artists as well as cultural shows from a number of countries.  But despite this, the major topic on everyone’s minds and tongues was the recent events in Greenland and Iceland.  As a result, most people were actually more excited about the end of the event than its actual content, allowing for mingling to begin as the factions separated and people went off on their own.

Channelers quickly separated into less formal groups as they began to mingle; as Paco, Yasmin, Loki, Bobby and Jinzo met back up and began to catch up.  With the VIP barrier dissolved now, Roun had a chance to say hello to Ryuu and his wife, while Rueben and Rayne made their way over as well allowing Naomi to see all of her sons in the same place for the first time in over a year.  For others, mingling wasn’t very inviting, like Cy who’s main circle of friends were already on his faction with him, making socialising pretty pointless, while others like Cloud just didn’t fancy interacting with most channelers.  In fact, had it not been for Jubei approaching him, Cloud would have avoided all conversation entirely.

In addition to the regular close-knit groups, some more obscure associations began to show, as Ryuu decided to catch up with an old friend, Xavier Stryke, introducing his wife to the Mercenary wildcard.

“What’s up X?” Ryuu inquired as he moved towards the Unique, laughing lightly at his feable attempts to pull his usually wild hair into a ponytail.  “Nice hairdo.”  Ryuu laughed.

“Heh, you’re a regular comedian aren’t ya?” Xavier turned and retorted, not very amused by Ryuu’s comment.

“I try.  How’s the military life treating you?” Ryuu inquired now.

“I’d rather slit my wrist with a spoon, but at least it pays well… still freelance?”  Xavier inquired.

“Standard… lap-dog was never my preferred occupation.”  Ryuu replied casually.

“Styke.”  A voice sounded from behind Ryuu, causing him to raise an eyebrow as he turned around to see Jayce Falco standing behind him.  More interestingly however was Jayce’s ‘date’ for the night.

“What do you want Falco, here’s hardly the place for you to be messing with me.”  Xavier replied, cracking his neck as Jayce glanced at Ryuu, noting his position before turning his attention back to his target.

“Don’t flatter yourself, I can engage you wherever I please… luckily for you however, that’s not why I’m here.”  Jayce replied as coldly as ever.

“Ch.. I thought they fixed you.”  Ryuu interjected now, referring to rumors that Demai psychics had been able to reverse the psychological damage done to Jayce by the R.E.D. Program.  Interestingly enough however, his statement just went unacknowledged by Jayce, who continued to address Xavier.

“I’m here to issue a warning… this isn’t school anymore… there are no tiers here.  We may have been considered to be equal by some… a long time ago, but this is not so.  You are one of the few out there, who I would prefer not to kill… so don’t force me to do it.”  Jayce stated, as Roun and Cloud made their way over to the group.

Unfortunately, they wouldn’t hear much before Jayce finished talking, leaving with his escort for the evening.

“Was that Kaili with the psycho?”  Roun inquired as he entered the conversation, somewhat taken back by seeing her there, causing him to take his focus off of the group just briefly.  This would cost him however as a fist connected with his face, rocking him backwards and causing him to drop the glass of wine that he was carrying.

“Now we’re even.”  Was all he’d hear as he rubbed his jaw to make sure that it wasn’t dislocated.

“Oww…”  He sounded after he realised that there was no real damage done before looking towards his attacker.  “…I see that the rumors of your discipline have been greatly exaggerated.”  Roun commented now, looking at Xavier.

“Whatever, no one punches me and gets away with it… you should be glad that I let it end here.” Xavier replied now, before slapping Ryuu on the shoulder lightly and moving off.  “I’ll catch up with you later…” he stated, before looking at Roun.  “Don’t let me catch you on the battle field.”

“I thought it ended there…” Roun just scoffed.  “Psh, whateva.” Would be the reply replied.

Over on the other side of the room, Bayman had the interesting experience of meeting Roderick, the man who many saw as the replacement for him in Tyler’s life.  Bayman did find the fact that they were almost the same height and general build quite interesting, though the fact that his apparent Rogue counterpart was German did take him back somewhat.  Luckily, their introduction would be cut exceptionally short as Bayman and Tyler were forced to migrate towards the stage as a stare down between Cy and Loki started to get particularly intense.  Tiana found this quite amusing, unlike Deacon who was somewhat displeased by his young charge’s behaviour.  Luckily however, the two would have enough discipline to let their little squabble end there, allowing the night to continue without incident.  A smug smirk as he passed Deacon would only annoy the French knight that much more as Loki commented.

“I’m not some kind of Merc you know… so relax, nothing was ever going to happen.”  Was all Loki would say as he vanished into the crowd that had gathered to look on, before they too broke up and the party went back to normal.

The moment was made far lighter as Xian exclaimed something to the effect of “The Grease!”, as his promotion of his new pet shop was cut short when Jubei began to inquire into a number of specific special orders which he would be interested in placing.  This not only cut Xian’s ad campaign short, but sparked up a very interesting conversation between a number of male channelers on the network, as they discussed their own ideal projects and exactly what it was that Xian did in his spare time, especially since this unique ability of his had come to light.

Even Gabriel was amused by this particular conversation, leaving Xian to retreat to the company of Rei Murasame, one of the few others that found the topic to be totally distasteful. 

This would only be one of many as a number of other conversations would continue well into the night before everyone would finally leave and head home, bringing an end to the evening.