Waking up was just about as confusing as going to bed, but Kiko managed to do it without making an absolute fool of herself. Though, she seemed stunned enough that the woman she had slept with led her chin on Kiko’s shoulder.

“Chichichichu?” she asked. It was just absurd enough to pull Kiko out of the worry and give her a look of abject confusion. “I like that look, it suits you~” the woman replied, chuckling and getting out of bed.

“Kizi, stop flirting with everything that has a pulse and come get breakfast!” Asha exclaimed, her stern motherly voice setting the young Kitsune scurrying for the door, and having Kiko standing and looking for breakfast as well. “Kiko, you should get dressed and head to the mess hall. We can house you here as long as you need it, but you should interact with your peers. Nothing breeds competence better than filial bonds” Asha continued, before herding the rest of the foxes into a bunch and guiding them out the door. She did it well, with a practiced grace that made Kiko somewhat in awe.

“So, did you know my father? A-and...Queenie?” Kiko asked, pulling on her uniform slowly.

“Most people knew your father, Kiko. Be prepared for that. The man was a hurricane of vibrance and activity. He seemed made of panache, skill, and dad jokes. As for Queenie, well...those two had a fun little relationship with each other” Asha had such a lovely voice, such a gentle, warm, and supporting tone. Like Kiko could go on for days about the most useless of crap, and Asha would always be there, listening to it all.

“S….so. Is there anyone that Queenie might have disliked? Someone evident enough that she didn’t need to be named for Queenie to understand who was being referenced?” Kiko asked again, not very confident, but probing all the same as she finished the uniform and stood up.

Hearing this question, Asha would step up and take Kiko’s hands, looking into her eyes. “Yes. Yes there is. But that is not my place to say, young Canid. That is for Queenie to say, and her alone”

“C..anid?” Kiko asked. “I get the whole fox thing because Kitsune but...what’s a Canid?” Kiko was never good at school, always busy with other stuff, like the people in the school. So her education was, lacking.

“It’s a term referring to all Dog-type Quasi-humans. Lupines, Inu, Kitsunes. They are all Canids. It is good to know who you are related to. It can lead to something to talk to, if nothing else” Asha was really going hard with this mother thing, being a font of useful knowledge not just generally, but life-wise as well.

“Ok” Kiko replied simply, not wanting to try her luck with anything more than that and screw up royally. Her head was already stuffed. Asha nodded gently and headed off to deal with the rest of the skulk, allowing Kiko to leave, and head to the mess hall. Getting there was easy, her uniform and wide-eyed look marked her as a new recruit, and she got an escort in short order.

Her ideal breakfast, was a mad one. Her brain cooked up a funny little thing as she headed to get the food. Sausages and beans and eggs and hashbrowns and more hashbrowns and ohh my god why do you have so many hashbrowns and please stop your plate can’t handle anymore hashbrowns and well done you have officially split the plate in half from the sheer weight of hashbrowns, you mad woman. Unfortunately, Breakfast wasn’t quite as amazing as all that, but it was still big and satisfying, and nobody called her a mad woman for the amount of hashbrowns she had. Albeit, they were a much less number than she had originally planned for.

Setting down in front of a woman with a similar uniform to Kiko’s own, she decided to start trying that socializing thing, and stabbed one of her Hashbrowns, holding it up.

“You know, Hashbrowns are pretty light. How many do you think it would take to break a plate?” Kiko asked. It was an attempt to open a conversation in a way weird enough to engage. Or put off, but that would also teach her something about the person. Still, what she wasn’t expecting, was the woman to break down the specifics of how much a hashbrown weighed over how much a standard ceramic plate could hold. After an eternity, she finished with some big formula that detailed exactly how many hash browns, would break a plate.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Well…now I know” Kiko said, before breaking into a fit of giggles.

“S….s-orry, about that. I just like, reading” she replied, burying her face in the table and nibbling on her food.

“It’s fine, dear. I liked it, it makes you look really smart. You could easily get into any of the smart places like that” Kiko would nod proudly, and then bite most of a sausage off her fork to reinforce the exclamation. Though, became the living embodiment of the phrase ‘bite off more than you can chew’ as she had to awkwardly chipmunk to get it swallowed. After that awkward moment, Kiko would storm on ahead. Confidence could sure up any misstep in the world! “So, I’m Kiko. Looking for a friend to hang around with and generally linger near so it looks like I know what I am doing. Additionally someone that I can hide behind if they start asking questions that need a smart person to answer. Do you want, to be that person?” Kiko asked. It was a humorous request, but the woman smiled in a much different way to getting the joke.

“I would like that, yes” she replied, in a more solemn manner than Kiko was expecting. Still, these people were strange people, so she would just brush it off as weird and carry on.

“Excellent! I’m Kiko” she’d stick her hand over the table and give her the biggest smile possible. Which, possibly made her seem desperate or insane, but her new friend didn’t seem to worry. Nor did the worry that Kiko had introduced herself twice...

“Melinda” her new friend replied, reaching out to shake Kiko’s hand. It was excellent, and glorious, and the first friend she had here at SIR!

Breakfast was finished uneventfully, and she took her friend by the hand to saunder off in...the wrong direction. Melinda seemed to know where she was going better, and dragged Kiko in the correction direction.

“So. M……” Kiko stalled for a moment, and cursed. She’d forgotten the woman’s name already!

‘Melinda’

“Melinda” she spoke, and then frowned for a moment. That wasn’t her voice. That was, a different voice in her head. Maybe. She could, have just heard it wrong. “Where….um, exactly are we going?” She’d ask. There was apparently a map of where she was going, and a schedule. But between the card games and the kissing games and the weird day in general, she totally forgot about it.

“You forgot your schedule, didn’t you?” Melinda asked, a soft smile on her face.

“Y...ea. This place is turning out to be more like school than I expected. It’s got me in a daze, like I am doomed to finish that last year whatever happens” she replied, scratching her head.

“It is a school. More than just a combative arm of ODD, SIR endeavours to educate you so you can take up positions as a tutor if you need to, or if this whole physical rawr thing doesn’t pan out for you” Melinda explained. It was good, short, and more than she got from Queenie.

“Whole physical rawr thing?” Kiko mimicked, snorting softly with laughter.

“Indeed. Whole, physical. Rawr thing” and with that, Melinda was silent and pushed on, eventually reaching the large ‘Room of Physical Prowess’ which was basically just a posh name for the gym. But she knew Queenie didn’t like being called the boss of the gym, so giving it a flashy name suited the woman's desire for pretentiousness. Several other people, in identical uniforms were milling about, but nothing started as she walked in, so she was clearly not the last one. A few looked in her direction, but said little.

Wanting to get involved, Kiko walked up to the nearest group and listened to them chatter about how exciting it was being here, and how they really wanted to impress the Overseer of Physical Prowess because she sounded like a very interesting woman to know. The way that was said made their intentions clear, and if Queenie heard it, well…the reaction from the Demon Woman would be rather amusing to say the least. Kiko wouldn’t put it past that woman to have them here and now if she heard that they wanted to get with her. Melinda had phased into the crowd, and Kiko couldn’t quite remember how she looked, so trying to find her was pretty useless. It was a little weird that Kiko couldn't remember how she looked. Her mind wasn't that much of a sieve, after all...

Still, complaining would do nothing. So instead, she just milled over to the changing rooms and got into her gym uniform, which passed the time well enough for Queenie to have arrived by the time she was done. Seeing that woman made her flush a deep red. They had done that. Right here. Seeing her really threw off Kiko’s head...