Of Lambs And Lions

[Jaydee]

By some kind of miracle, Dmitri was not busy. It was the beginning of the year and everything was running the way it was meant to; no liquified beds, no noodle incidents in the cafeteria, no problems from the problem students... speaking of which, the newest one was going to be at his door any minute now.

He sat in the rather official-looking leather chair behind his desk, absently rolling a pen back and forth across the polished oak surface. It was clean for once - that was unusual, too. The Headmaster was not known for his tidiness in any way, shape, or form, but it was important to keep up appearances, he supposed. Thank God for secretaries.

He was content to sit around and do nothing for a while, until Laelia got here.

[Ixtlilton]

It hadn't been long since Laelia had been plucked off the streets and shipped to Ansembourg. Mister Dim was the master here, which made her feel a bit better about the whole situation.

It hadn't been long after she'd eaten the evil man that the group had come up to her. Maybe they called it "rescuing her off the streets," but really, they'd just kidnapped her. She knew that "heros" were often just more villains in disguise. They thought she hadn't heard them, talking about what to do with her like she was an object. They thought she was too stupid to understand. "Just an animal," they'd said, talking about giving her to people who wanted her dead. For eating the man, that much she understood. People wanted her dead for eating the evil man, and that wasn't fair.

Dmitri had shown up, and he'd talked to her, not around her, like the others. He'd argued that giving her to the people who wanted her dead wasn't fair either, and so she'd been given to him, and he'd put her in Ansembourg. And here she was.

She had met nice people and people with eyes like hers. Lots of people with eyes like hers, because they were normal here. Everything was normal here. But Dmitri had made it clear she couldn't eat anyone, so she supposed that was the one thing that was still not normal here.

And she was learning. She was learning to read and write and do math, and other intelligent people things that people had told her she was too stupid to be capable of. She lived in the basement, and as far as she could tell it was just her and a grumpy fellow who smelled like ash. She didn't like living in the basement, but she liked other things about Ansembourg.

Mister Dim had asked her to go to his office so he could check in on her. She didn't understand what he meant by that, but she would, of course, go there anyway.

Knock, knock, knock.

People knocked on doors before opening them. It was one of the things that the teachers were assuming she didn't already know. They acted like she'd grown up in the woods because she didn't know what a library was at first. She hadn't grown up in the woods. She knew to knock.

And so she did.

And she waited for a response before entering too, because she hadn't grown up in the woods.

(I got bored so I kept typing. =D)

[Jaydee]

He let his thoughts wander as he often did, still playing with the pen on his desk. He thought about the Resistance, about Murr, who was going to pop a blood vessel someday, and it would be all Dmitri's fault when he did. And, of course, his mind went to Laelia - the commander's latest headache. Taking in this new student had certainly been one of Dmitri's more extreme decisions. There were insults flying from both sides on the issue - luckily, none of them had yet reached Ansembourg's walls. He intended to keep it that way.

Then, three knocks on his door. "Come in," he said, his tone pleasant.

((failfailfailfailfailfailfail))

[Ixtlilton]

Laelia heard a summons and entered. She was trying to look normal really hard, which probably made her look abnormal(er). She still picked nervously at her too-large sweater. Dmitri had set her up with some hand-me-downs of some sort when she'd first come to Ansembourg. What she'd been wearing barely qualified as clothing. But she was uncomfortable in them, and the outfits made her feel like an entirely different kind of hobo. But she didn't have any money to buy clothes with, and she wasn't going to get any any time soon. She couldn't exactly get a job, and "prostitution" wasn't a real job, anyway.

"Hey, Mister Dim," she said awkwardly. She still wasn't sure, after all, why she'd even been summoned in the first place.

[Jaydee]

And there she was, nervous and fidgety and awkward - understandably so. He found it rather difficult to be frightened of her here, now, stuck in an oversized sweater and a strange new place full of strange new people. They would have to buy her some normal clothing soon. It was hard enough getting used to school; she didn't need to look like a hobo while she did it.

"Hello, Laelia," he said, smiling up at her. He gestured to the chair on the other side of his desk. "Please, sit."

[Ixtlilton]

As far as Laelia knew, she had no real reason to be in trouble. She... well, she maybe had nibbled on another squirrel yesterday, but c'mon! It was just a squirrel! Still, she wasn't stupid enough to not realize that being called to the principal's office and then being asked to sit down might very well be a bad sign. She eyed him cautiously. Had he changed his mind after all?

She sat down on the chair, then pulled her legs up with her, and rested her hands between her feet. It might have looked like an awkward, frog-esque way of sitting, but it made her comfortable. It made her comfortable because she was in a great situation to launch herself and turn into a mouse or a bird and get the hell out of here if Dmitri announced that his "friends" were coming back and giving her to the evil mutants who wanted to kill her for killing.

It was kind of irrational, but then again, she would rather be a bit irrational then a bit dead.

[Jaydee]

Her discomfort was painfully obvious, and he kept smiling in an attempt to make her feel more at ease. She was supposed to feel safe here - that was the entire point, though of course one couldn't expect to see results this early on.

"I just wanted to check up on you, see if you're adjusting all right. I imagine it's quite the change." He laced his fingers together, hoping that she could relax a little now that that was out of the way. "So, how is it so far? Has Jacob been helpful? I'd like you to feel welcome here, so if there's anything more we can do..."

[Ixtlilton]

Had he called her in for a pop quiz or something. "Uh, yeah..." she replied uncertainly. If she answered his questions, could she go back to what she had been doing? Even reading that stupid story about the rabbit for the fifth time was better than this. "Yeah... I'm fine." Which wasn't entirely true, but she wasn't dead, so that was a definite plus right?

"...It's fine. Jacob's really helpful. The uh, the kitchen staff are nice," she added, hoping that would count for 'anything more.'

The truth of it, of course, was that she was hungry despite eating, for some reason, her classes were boring and humiliating, she hated learning in the kindergarten room (even the FIVE YEAR OLDS were making fun of her, damnit!), raw meat didn't actually taste that good when it was cold, and she hated living in the basement. But she still wasn't dead, and didn't want to be, so she'd keep that stuff to herself.

[Jaydee]

She wasn't going to make this easy, was she? Not that he should have expected anything more, considering her background, but one could always hope.

"That's good to hear," he said, trying to be encouraging. "And your classes, I hope they're going well..." What could he bring up that would get a teenage girl talking? That was really what this was all about, encouraging her to open up a little... maybe Jacob would have an easier time of it. He'd have to ask about that later, if the poor kid wasn't drowning in new students already. The burden of popularity.

"...Oh," he said, brightening a little, "the annual masquerade is coming up soon. Have you heard about it?" Maybe they could salvage this conversation yet...

((dlka;gh;ahakg))

[Ixtlilton]

Laelia shifted uncomfortably, not wanting to tell the Russian-mob style secret-high-school-headmaster that his classes sucked. "I'm, um........ learning?" Yes, that was it. Learning. And it wasn't even a lie, either. Technically, she was. She could, like, read and shit. She was learning long division, which was just awful.

Despite herself, she did perk up a little bit at the mention of a masquerade. Anyone with a brain knew what that was... a dance. She'd never actually been to any kind of fancy formal dance like that. She'd been a kind of, uh... low class girl. Not the kind you'd take to the sort of party where they wear dresses. "Oh, a, uh, party? I, um... Jacob might have mentioned it. I think he's trying to get his boyfriend to go...? Or something."

It wasn't like she had any real reason or ability to go. She would have liked to meet other kids closer to her own age, but Jacob would probably go with that boy he was always talking about. Or one of the girls that flocked around him like butterflies. And he was really the only one from the high school section that she knew. Except for that Mika girl, and she kind of doubted she could ask her.

Although it would have been nice.