Categories > Games > Tales of Symphonia > Tin Soldiers
Next chapter! The theme here is 'laughter'. Prank Day is a Symphonian holiday not unlike April Fools Day. People in a military organization are likely to take themselves too seriously to remember such a childish date.
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After a year of waiting, the day had finally arrived. It was the day when Renegades who had been raised to a particular rank within the last year would be initiated into one of the finest traditions of the organization which they served.
Naturally, they were all completely unaware of the fact.
It started with the morning shift. Lyon, one of the newest squad leaders, came in looking extremely disgruntled. When a more experienced officer asked him what was wrong (carefully keeping a straight face), he explained that his alarm clock had somehow gotten set for 3 a.m. By the time he discovered the error, he had already had his coffee, and couldn't get back to sleep. The officer nodded, and told him sagely (but with a suspicious twinkle in his eye) that he should be more careful when setting his clock.
About that time, Lyon's colleague Rebecca arrived, in a very bad mood. This was probably because someone had replaced her shampoo with blue hair dye; her normally bright red hair was a splotchy purple. A few muffled giggles were heard as she entered. She was followed a moment later by a rather frantic Charles, whose uniforms had all been cut so that they had holes in rather indiscreet places. The room burst out laughing at the patch of pink underwear showing through the seat of his pants.
Complaints kept coming in all day; people found their sugar and salt switched, their beds short-sheeted, their hairbrushes glued to countertops, and a thousand other ridiculously simple pranks. Finally, all those with complaints were told, by snickering superiors, to report to the common room in full uniform for a briefing. The room quickly filled, becoming a gallery of simple but effective pranks, and even the affected Renegades began to laugh at the variety and ingenuity of some of them.
After they had all gathered, the lights in the common room were turned down, and a slideshow was put up on the projector. The room was filled almost instantaneously with laughter at the images shown; they were pictures of various Renegade officers in their younger years, all of whom had obviously been similarly pranked. The highlight of the session so far was most definitely the picture of a young Botta, looking quite disgruntled about the fact that his face had been dyed green.
"In hindsight, it's very funny," a voice murmured from a discreet viewing area, "although I certainly didn't think so at the time. You did well this year."
"So did you," replied another voice, "I would never have thought to hide fake spiders in Ronald's room, for example. How do you come up with those things?"
Botta shrugged, "I had three sisters, growing up. Pranks were a way of life among us."
Yuan smiled at him, then glanced out at the room, where the final picture was showing. It was one of himself; he was glaring violently at the camera, mostly because of the mustache and beard which had been drawn on his face in indelible black ink. The picture had been taken in the first year of the Renegades' existence; that was the prank which had begun the tradition. At the bottom of this picture was written a message, designed to enlighten those members of the crowd who were still confused:
"Happy Prank Day!" - Yuan R. Avarathanga
-------
After a year of waiting, the day had finally arrived. It was the day when Renegades who had been raised to a particular rank within the last year would be initiated into one of the finest traditions of the organization which they served.
Naturally, they were all completely unaware of the fact.
It started with the morning shift. Lyon, one of the newest squad leaders, came in looking extremely disgruntled. When a more experienced officer asked him what was wrong (carefully keeping a straight face), he explained that his alarm clock had somehow gotten set for 3 a.m. By the time he discovered the error, he had already had his coffee, and couldn't get back to sleep. The officer nodded, and told him sagely (but with a suspicious twinkle in his eye) that he should be more careful when setting his clock.
About that time, Lyon's colleague Rebecca arrived, in a very bad mood. This was probably because someone had replaced her shampoo with blue hair dye; her normally bright red hair was a splotchy purple. A few muffled giggles were heard as she entered. She was followed a moment later by a rather frantic Charles, whose uniforms had all been cut so that they had holes in rather indiscreet places. The room burst out laughing at the patch of pink underwear showing through the seat of his pants.
Complaints kept coming in all day; people found their sugar and salt switched, their beds short-sheeted, their hairbrushes glued to countertops, and a thousand other ridiculously simple pranks. Finally, all those with complaints were told, by snickering superiors, to report to the common room in full uniform for a briefing. The room quickly filled, becoming a gallery of simple but effective pranks, and even the affected Renegades began to laugh at the variety and ingenuity of some of them.
After they had all gathered, the lights in the common room were turned down, and a slideshow was put up on the projector. The room was filled almost instantaneously with laughter at the images shown; they were pictures of various Renegade officers in their younger years, all of whom had obviously been similarly pranked. The highlight of the session so far was most definitely the picture of a young Botta, looking quite disgruntled about the fact that his face had been dyed green.
"In hindsight, it's very funny," a voice murmured from a discreet viewing area, "although I certainly didn't think so at the time. You did well this year."
"So did you," replied another voice, "I would never have thought to hide fake spiders in Ronald's room, for example. How do you come up with those things?"
Botta shrugged, "I had three sisters, growing up. Pranks were a way of life among us."
Yuan smiled at him, then glanced out at the room, where the final picture was showing. It was one of himself; he was glaring violently at the camera, mostly because of the mustache and beard which had been drawn on his face in indelible black ink. The picture had been taken in the first year of the Renegades' existence; that was the prank which had begun the tradition. At the bottom of this picture was written a message, designed to enlighten those members of the crowd who were still confused:
"Happy Prank Day!" - Yuan R. Avarathanga
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