First Step (Open)

[Alphanse von Sin II]

The One Who Got Away
Have i found her at last?

All my life, the glitters of gold and diamond disguised the truth of it. The girls at my arms, the praises from the world. Everything seemed so perfect. But as they say, it's lonely at the top...if a case study were to be made, never was a person better to be subject to that than I. My father never saw me. Even though i was everything a parent would have wished his son to be.

Later on, rummaging through his old journals, I found out that he refused to look at me, instead of being subject to distraction. He outright, refused to set his eyes upon my person because of my mother...because I reminded him too much of my mother. The deep-purple eyes...those were his words. My eyes the color of midnight rain, were not mine but hers.

There were also her words about her place of birth, about the Dream World. At first, i thought myself the son of a woman insane. But i read through my father's journals, how he quoted her directly. I knew my father loved her too much, that he would commit to his mind and heart every single word uttered by her lips. Her tone and diction was sure, the words purposeful and not groping. She was of the right mind, yet told the impossible truth...or at least she thought she was.

Then there was mention of Somnium, the School of Dreams, my how these people enjoyed their theatrics. I have been called a genius, beyond it even. Perhaps that's the reason i allowed my skepticism to fade away. I knew of science, and all that i knew pointed to the fact such a world could not exist. But i was ever so open to the prospect of magic. This school of Dreams, for whatever it stood for, was the only link i had to finding my mother. I'm looking for eyes that are like my own.

I can see the building ahead now, i feel strangely nervous...something i have not felt in years. The moment i step out of this car is the moment, I am sure my life will change forever.

---

A sleek black Rolls Royce pulled in through the gates of the academy, running at a steady pace, as it drove down the path way that lead to the main building of the school. Alphanse sat at the back seat, silent in his own thoughts, the chauffeur in front of him, nothing more than a random stranger. They hadn't spoken throughout the trip, sure enough the man had tried, but Alphanse didn't respond, not that he was a particular snob...he just had too many thoughts swimming around in his head, he would have thought he would drown in them at any second, the water-themed metaphor amused him for a moment...but quickly as it came, it was gone.

He leaned against the wall of the aristocrat's car, and looked out the window. Trees passed him by, and to the distance the other buildings. It was a descent place, of course Alphanse had seen better academies...but this one had a strange ambiance about it, a surreal magical feeling. He wasn't too sure where it came from, perhaps it was inherent with the grounds, or perhaps it was just because he knew that this place was connected to his mother, and to the Dream World, whatever that was.

The car turned, and immediately Alphanse' view was blocked of everything except the face of a rather large, building which he could only come to guess as the school's main building. The chauffeur stepped out of the car, and ran around to open Alphanse' door for him. The young man stepped out, and for the first time took a good look at his driver. The man was in his mid-thirties, his hair graying at the wings, but was otherwise still a healthy dark color. He had an open and ready smile on his face, as he wore the clothes usually associated with a chauffeur, hot suit, gloves and all. It was a sharp contrast to Alphanse himself. A young man, right smack in the middle of his teenage years, his face was a blank canvas betraying absolutely no emotion. Finally, his clothes were all sharp, expensive, sophisticated. He wore, a black pinstripe suit, tailored to hug his figure in a manner that people would have called desirable, the deep-green necktie peaked out just under the pristine white collar of his shirt. He wore a deep-gray trench, coat and a matching fedora, with a black-velvet ribbon around it...the perfect gentleman for any random passer by.

"This is it sir, will there be anything else you need?" asked the man, in a tone of complete submissive politeness. Alphanse didn't speak at first, he let his gaze measure the building from top to bottom, analyzing architecture, maintenance, dimensions and everything else possible. A lot of people still thought, that his transfer was a mis-play on his part. Prior to this, he attended one of the most prestigious boy's schools in the country. Not that, Somnium failed to meet top-quality standards but still, it was not up to par with what Alphanse was used to.

A part of Alphanse had wished, that the act in itself would have been enough to gain his father's attention. But his wishes were still all for naught, whether it was complete and utter brilliance, diamond glistening popularity, piano virtuoso, or a drastic decision on his matriculation, his father seemed to want nothing to do with him...absolutely nothing. And only this academy could attend to that.

Alphanse let his gaze fall on his driver, and for the first time since meeting the man he smiled. [purple]"I can handle myself from here, just see to it, that my belongings are brought to my room."[/purple] The man let out a breath that he seemed to be holding, before he nodded and moved around to step back into the car. In a few moments, he drove off to the direction of the dormitories.

Alphanse was left to his own devices, and a stray gust of wind cut through the fabric of his coat, making him pull it closer to himself. His lips pursed at that, he hated showing weakness...even if he was the only person there to see it. He closed his eyes, willing the chill in his bones to fade away. He straightened up, before he took off his cat and cupped it in his hands. The marble steps to the doors of the main building lay waiting for him. All he needed was to put on foot on the first one and the rest would follow, if he was lucky his mother could have been waiting at the other side of that door already.

Alphanse pondered, thought of it...let his mind recreate all the possible scenarios. In one quick moment, his feet moved, but not forward. He turned on his heels and made his way back down the path. He wasn't ready yet...

[Corentin Quimper]

“Are you ready?” Her mother prattled on about the excitement of a new school, her fears about Corentin living away from home, and the fact that her little brother would have no one to harass. The girl’s mind was elsewhere, in a state of purgatory as she answered her mom’s simple minded questions and returned conversation effortless despite being distracted. She was accustomed to this process, answer whomever is speaking to you in a polite manner, but truly live in your own thoughts. The youngster smiled slightly while looking out the window, letting her mother assume the reason why she wasn’t jabbering excitedly was simply nervousness. Looking at her own reflection in the window, she examined the planes of her face. Normal cheeks, eyes, a nose just like her father’s, all framed by hair that was chopped off in a style her mother had proclaimed was avant-garde for her age. Soon, she was staring past the physical, delving into her own mind as the SUV pulled to a stop in front of a massive building that she simply assumed was their destination.

The next moments rushed by, the sound of her mother trying to hold back sniffles as she gathered the bags she had carried with her. Even at fourteen, she reassured the emotional woman with a few smiles and promises to write, call, and come home whenever she was available. As she closed the door to her mother’s Escalade, she shook her head and knew that on the inside she was scowling. The expression of too much emotion disgusted her. It wasn’t as if she was dead or dying, and even if she had been, the human instinct was to move on and heal after the loss of a family member. Logically, biologically, a human shouldn’t dwell on the loss of kin. Taking out that time would be detracting from that person’s quality of life - shouldn’t the living focus on being alive? The girl smiled at the thought and her aspiration to wring every ounce of pleasure out of living, regardless where those feelings were derived from. Her dad had already packed everything she had come with into her dorm room and as her mother drove away, she realized that she was the only person she knew on the entire campus.

Checking the messenger bag that hung over one shoulder, she rustled around the sheaf of papers that were inside the outside pocket. One of the papers that should have been there was a school map that would have told her where the Dormitories were as well as the Assembly Hall she would have to report to for one reason or another later on that day. As she flipped the crisp papers one-by-one, she soon realized that the map was missing and in its place between two other papers were grape colored crayon marks. Her darkly colored eyes narrowed. Him. The little one. A sloppy little combination of human life who just happened to live in her house and tear up anything that could be important to her. Her map, a few registration papers, and her letter of acceptance were missing. She knew her mother would soon call her in a tornado of stress and anxiety to tell her that she had found them on the kitchen table, covered with Crayola crayons and a box of juice. Corey decided with a certain amount of venom that she would certainly blog about the uselessness of children when she set up her computer that night. For now, she needed to get a feeling for Somnium Academy.

Looking around, it seemed as if everyone she could ask for directions was engrossed in conversation with one another except for one well-dressed boy a few years older than her. The girl sighed inwardly as he walked toward her, strangely enough away from the building even though the expensive black card that had been in front of her mom’s SUV had just dropped him off. Examining him from head to toe in an instant, she felt a small scoff escape from her lips. Did he dress inside his grandfather’s closet this morning? She had a special appreciation for incorporating older fashions into her every day wardrobe, but this guy was way too much. Assuming he was possibly the headmaster’s son or some chairperson’s relative she decided upon asking him where to find the dormitories. He was older, he had to know, didn’t he?

Ugh. Corentin knew automatically that she wouldn’t like him as she approached him, he was too stuffy, too snobby, the exact type of person that she couldn’t respect. He would never know that though because the girl who approached him was superficially normal. Petite, porcelain skin, and doe-like eyes, Corey appeared to be like any other awkward teenage girl. She was built long, her father often commented that she was nothing but knees and elbows, but she had the potential to be an attractive woman when she finally matured fully. The breezy dress she wore whipped around her a little in the gentle wind as she placed herself in front of him and delivered a well practiced performance. All traces of the inner cynical voice that came out so easily in thoughts, dreams, and her writing was gone, vanished into the air itself. Corey looked down for a few moments, bit down on her lip and looked up at the older preppy boy. She had stationed herself so that he would either see her, or trip over her if he didn’t. Her voice was soft but audible as she spoke, a tone she had perfected in order to be seen but not thought of as aggressive. “E-Excuse me. Could you tell me where the Dormitories for girls are?” [/color]

[Alphanse von Sin II]

Alphanse was just walking forward, nothing accompanying him but his own thought. He did not know where he was to go, at the moment it seemed that he was heading for the gates again. He had no particular destination in mind though, he was just walking...walking and thinking. The gears of his mind worked in over-drive, even more so than his genius normally did. His was a problem, that he could only guess few other people had, the delusion of the world that money made everything well was obviously wrong...he could testify to that. In fact, he could even go so far as to say that money only made troubles greater. After all, here he was in a strange school...searching for his mother who was a what? A dream being...honestly, if Alphanse wasn't so sure, if he wasn't so desperate...he would never have even gone here.

In his own thoughts, he grew oblivious to the world around him. It was only with a ghost of a thought that his legs moved with one step after another, his eyes were distant, and in a way could not really see what was in front of him. Until he was about an inch from hitting it. “E-Excuse me. Could you tell me where the Dormitories for girls are?” came the soft, pseudo-demure voice. Alphanse was rudely pulled back into reality, to see a young girl with sun-kissed hair in front of him. He couldn't help but have an edge of irritation, show upon his mouth.

He hand suddenly lifted up, in front of her face in a gesture to halt. [purple]"Stop Talking..."[/purple] he said in a voice cold, distant and cynical. Alphanse was used to such actions, especially with people who could be considered no-names, he was something akin to teenage royalty, rich, handsome, powerful...The Works! He was in his old school, and he would be here in a matter of time for sure. He turned away, as he idly side-stepped the girl as if she were nothing more than a puddle of water.

to be perfectly honest, Alphanse wasn't usually so antagonistic...well actually he was, but he was usually more subtle about it as well. This was blatantly rude, and it even lacked the superfluous wit that Alphanse always carried himself with. This girl had just caught him at a bad time, too much things swimming around in the seemingly endless expanses of his minds...and more importantly, they were things that involved his heart, which wasn't as exercised as his brain. He would never ask forgiveness though, he had too much pride for that....at least he did for now.

[Corentin Quimper]

“Money obviously can't buy class-“

The words almost slipped out of her mouth. Had she been any other offended teenage girl, they would have flown freely from her lips. Corentin wasn’t the type to get emotional over something someone said, however, and the haughty statement evaporated as quickly as it had come. It would have been easy to not turn around and to continue on her way but something about Fancy Hat had intrigued her mildly and an experimental urge overcame her. This type of person had always amused her, the type of person who was rude just to be different from the normal, thinking that some artificial classification they had bestowed upon themselves gave them the right to lash out at other people. He and she were similar in a few ways, though Corey thought of herself as far more elegant a person and respected herself for having the ability to conceal her true thoughts. What right did other people have to know that she was irritated or angered or even indifferent? The only way other people had control over her was if she allowed them to and Corentin allowed no one to exercise power over her. In her way of thinking this foolish boy in an adult’s clothing demanded respect in return for a pissy attitude and nothing more. She didn’t respect him. In a way she envied him though for being able to speak with such freedom and that in itself intrigued her even further.

“I have Pamprin if you have a headache,” she spoke again. Her back was still turned to him when she spoke, her voice still lingering with the syrupy southern sweetness she had been raised in. Her accent wasn’t strong, in fact, she had trained herself to lose most of it to stave off the stereotype that people from the southern states were uneducated or unintelligent. Dropping her bags, she bounded up to him, following him annoyingly with a small bottle of pills that shook with every skip-like step she took. The girl would retrieve her bags later, she doubted anyone at a school this prestigious would want to steal a bag full of facial scrub and bandaids, or a few down filled pillows. Corentin smiled again as she fell into step with him, his strides were far longer than hers so she bounced to keep up. Fancy Hat would not elude her so easily. When had she started calling him Fancy Hat inside her head again? A twist of amusement played along her lips, a smile with just a hint of something devilish, as she looked up at him. She hoped he would think she was dull minded or something of the sort, it was easier when people assumed that. “I just figured that maybe you’re so grumpy because you got car sick on the way here and now you have a headache?” Her voice was questioning as she spoke and with one hand she held up the little bottle.

Trotting alongside him seemingly happily, Corentin kept up her conversation, if only to entertain herself. “I take it that the reason you’re not heading into the build is –“ the girl paused dramatically, “you’re not a student at all, Fancy Hat. You’re a groundsman! Somnium Academy must be a well-funded school to have such a nice car to drive a groundsman around in?” She would continue to make outlandish statements until he said something that allowed her to pick his brain a little more. This Fancy Hat would surely be an interesting case study.

[Alphanse von Sin II]

For moment, Alphanse thought that he had disposed of the irritating little sop finally. He really had too much to think of, he was staring down a cross road in his life...no it wasn't even a cross road, it was more like a cliff-edge which he needed to jump. There could have been something to catch him, then again there could have been not...all he had to go by was faith. All he had to go by was faith, that his mother was here, that she was really the beautiful and exquisite creature that his father had described in his journals...that she would return to them, so that finally Alphanse wouldn't be so lonely, and he need not hide behind this diamond facade of his...it was so cold, so transparent.

“I have Pamprin if you have a headache,” the edge in Alphanse' mouth returned as the girl's voice rung in the air, like a inopportune cymbals that broke the silence. In the name of all things sacred, was there no end to her being bothersome? You'd think that she'd be able to take a hint when he told her to stop speaking and shoved his hand into her face. Perhaps she'd leave him alone, if he just ignored her and walked forward. But of course, he wasn't that lucky....far from it unfortunately. He heard her bags drop to the floor, and for a split second hoped that the rest of her body had dropped right along with it. Better to keep his back to her, that way if she collapsed he would never have known, and therefore was not under any obligation to help...not that he really would have if he did see, but he'd probably find the nearest person to pass the buck too...still too much trouble in his opinion.

"I just figured that maybe you’re so grumpy because you got car sick on the way here and now you have a headache?” Seriously, did she just say that? Alphanse rolled his eyes, but said nothing still. It wasn't like he could otherwise. It wasn't exactly easy to say, I'm grumpy because i may just find my mother after 17 years of her not being in my life and 17 years of being neglected by my father....that was already putting it lightly. Alphanse still hung unto the fact that perhaps this girl would leave him be if she was ignored.

“I take it that the reason you’re not heading into the build is –you’re not a student at all, Fancy Hat. You’re a groundsman! Somnium Academy must be a well-funded school to have such a nice car to drive a groundsman around in?” the bottle came shaking at his face incessantly, and her chattering monkey voice practically boring into his ears like a drill, it was difficult to think, and it was a strange sensation for Alphanse...he was a genius, 190 IQ one of the highest in the world...thinking was one of the things he could do without hassle, but now could seemed to stand as a past pretext.

He didn't know how long he ignored her, hell he didn't even know where he was going anymore, but the time came when enough was enough, and in one swift motion he grabbed the bottle from her hand before he chucked it to the far side of the wall. His lips pursed once he realized what he had done, not because he felt guilt, but because he realized it would have been better to chuck it in her direction and hopefully knock her out unconscious. He slowly turned to her, letting those rare purple eyes of her take her in in her entirety, it was hard not to notice something annoying...like a blister at the bottom of your foot or a canker sore. [purple]"Are you hell bent on being that annoying or are you just mentally impaired?"[/purple] he said in a tone of voice like frozen acid...spiteful, yet still cold and distant. He analyzed her body structure her mannerisms and everything else psychological that he could within that span of time...only to find her out to be an enigma. Maybe he was just distracted with this entire ordeal, usually his assessments were far more detailed and accurate. He did see that she was small enough to be kicked away when he fully lost his patience though.

[Corentin Quimper]

Corentin’s eyes followed the white bottle that had somehow been snatched so easily from her hand. To think of it, her thumb hurt a little, had his big, clumsy groundskeeper hands mushed it? Inwardly she scowled, perhaps her interesting case study was simply a little boy with an anger problem and a chip on his shoulder against menstrual relief. The bottle made impact and in slow motion she examined the disaster. The little white lid popped off the bottle and a hail of tiny pink pills showed the sidewalk next to the wall. The entire bottle was wasted, the pain relieving medicine mingled with the dirt and grass and bugs that lived on the ground. For some reason, the waste angered her a little, more than it should have, and she squared her shoulders as her eyes returned to his face. He was handsome, she supposed, or at least he thought he was. Fancy Hat wasn’t her type though, she preferred Prince Charming to Ariel’s Eric, the golden god as compared to tall, dark, and handsome. His voice too was nice, composed and calm with a touch of ice as he spoke. Corentin guessed he had worked on it as long as she had worked on her own, figuring out exactly how to say things to convince people she didn’t care or cared too much. Composing her face in a small pout, she let out an exasperated sigh and held out a graceful hand, palm up.

“That will be $7.99. I’ll let you go on the tax though, I’ve never been very good at mathematics.” Corentin tilted her head slightly and wiggled her long fingers tipped with naturally sea shell pink nails. She’d never had problems with biting her nails and adored them in a strange way, keeping them perfectly and professionally manicured. It was probably the only thing that showed her inner vanity and self-absorption outwardly. “If you had spared a moment earlier, Fancy Hat, I wouldn’t be following you now. What kind of gentleman refuses to help a girl find the place she’s looking for? Aren’t men supposed to have an extra iron deposit in their nose that sends them in the right direction?” The girl shifted her weight from foot to foot as she spoke, taking a moment to look around them. “Speaking of direction, where exactly are we now?” Corentin rather liked the over exasperated manner in which he spoke to her, making it perfectly obvious he didn’t want her around. It was that tone of voice that kept her from dropping the matter entirely and finding her way back to the dormitory. Looking back toward him she got the strangest feeling for a fleeting second that he was thinking about maiming her.

“So are those contacts?” Keeping the same skipping pace, she walked in front of him backwards, just to make sure she would see it coming if he threw some other little piece of plastic again. “What would a groundsman need with violet contacts? Surely they fall out all the time while you’re working outside.” Corentin hovered around the older boy like a mosquito, buzzing annoyingly until he smacked toward her verbally, hopping out of the way mentally before her feelings were truly hurt. Of course she wasn’t mentally impaired, she truly believed that mentally impaired people were a burden to society, much like the elderly or the fact that children weren’t born able to fully take care of themselves. In species where the parents didn’t have to care for their young and left them to fend for themselves only the strongest survived, the slow or injured ones simply faded away in the food chain. Corentin appreciated the emotional simplicity of that kind of communal infrastructure over the complicated feelings humans had thrust upon them. Of course she was hell bent on being annoying, she enjoyed the fact that when people were agitated little bits by things they couldn’t put their finger on, they tended to express strange emotions. Just like when something is stuck on the end of someone’s tongue or when one misplaces something they were just holding, frustration was an interesting trigger to explore. Maybe she had followed him because she was lonely in a strange way and wanted to find someone who felt the same way she did inside, empty, as if something in her soul had simply never existed. It wasn’t that she was looking for whatever had left the gaping hole inside her, rather, she was trying to figure out why more people didn’t want to let go of all of the emotions everyone told them they were supposed to have. Wasn’t it fine just to flourish off of discontent with the world and self-satisfaction? Who needed love? Or warm fuzzies? Didn’t those things leave you more wounded in the end than when you began? She simply preferred indifference. Corentin skipped and skidded a little, a sharp rock under her shoe throwing off her balance a tad bit. After she had steadied herself she returned to walking next to him so that she could walk forward instead of backward. “I heard that you can get eye infections from wearing contacts. I wouldn’t know, my eyesight is perfect. I’ve never had to have glasses or anything of that lot.”

[Alphanse von Sin II]

She was as dreadful and incessant as the bubonic plague, who would have thought that so much annoyance could be forced into such a petite frame, a petite frame that Alphanse truly wanted to new in yew. Alphanse wasn't truly that violent of a person, he didn't go beyond thoughts...which were mostly more cynical than truly violent. In actuality he didn't like getting his hands dirty, if ever the need for physical violence was needed, he preferred to let his money and influence do it for him, ergo brutish thugs who did everything you told him too...another pity that he didn't drag a couple of those with him to this school. He could just imagine how easy it would be for them, to pick this girl up by her shoulders then carry her kicking and fighting form away from him.

She had asked him for payment for the bottle of medicine he had grown tired of, and threw away. It was almost instinctual for Alphanse to reach for his wallet, or check book or what have you, but he managed to stay his hand. He had more than enough money to spare of course, far more than most people could have in a life time. He wondered if he could just pay this girl to leave? He had a good 10k to spare in his wallet at that very moment, though she wasn't completely destitute, Alphanse wasn't oblivious to the persuasive magic of money. But he decided against it, this girl wasn't even worth a cent, and she was truly getting to him, whereas she normally would have not. Alphanse mentally made the comparison of her being some kind of parasite, feeding at his moment of vulnerability...making his already difficult situation that much more difficult.

“If you had spared a moment earlier, Fancy Hat, I wouldn’t be following you now. What kind of gentleman refuses to help a girl find the place she’s looking for? Aren’t men supposed to have an extra iron deposit in their nose that sends them in the right direction?” So it was his fault now was it? A slight edge of amusement appeared on Alphanse' face...this girl was truly suffering from delusions of her own conclusion. At this moment, she could have been face down on the ground, drowning in a pool of her own blood and Alphanse would not have spared her a second glance...she thought that she could get to him did she? Admittedly she did, but it wouldn't last. Another amusing thing was that she had spoken of him as a gentleman, and that constructed-nickname she had for him. Fancy Hat...how morose and uneducated an insult. Alphanse could have very well insulted her himself, he was quite the silver tongue...and he could insult her in half a dozen ways that would make her shed tears on spot, and the other half, to make her wonder what exactly he had called her. But once again, he decided she wasn't worth it in his opinion. She was a complete idiot, Alphanse was convinced of that already...clothes does not a gentleman make. His clothes were of commonality amongst his peers, and just because he had come to this academy, did not mean his style would change. Other than that, he was only a gentlemen to those people he deemed worthy...and this girl, for about the umpteenth time, was not worthy.

“Speaking of direction, where exactly are we now?” she was quick on her tongue as well, it may not exactly be silver...but she could talk. He rolled his eyes at her, the irritation seeping slowly away from him, being replaced by some form of pity, the way one pitied those below them. When their actions went passed annoying and became just pitiful because of it's pointlessness. He started off at a walk, leaving her behind again, but he knew all to well she would follow.

Sure enough she popped right in front of him like a zit on a teenager's face, not his face of course...as everything else that seemed about him, that was flawless. “So are those contacts? “What would a groundsman need with violet contacts? Surely they fall out all the time while you’re working outside.” now his eyes were of the issue were they? He could have explained to this girl, how purple eyes were extremely rare but still a possibility, but that would be bothersome, and maybe her meager intelligence would not even be able to comprehend it.“I heard that you can get eye infections from wearing contacts. I wouldn’t know, my eyesight is perfect. I’ve never had to have glasses or anything of that lot.” he smiled again, but not because of what she said...but at the juxtaposition of it all. Here he had a fool when he wanted to settle his mind and find his mother...Alphanse wasn't all about tarot cards, but he couldn't help but identify the three arcana in that statement. In some twisted way, it was fate dealing his cards on the table.

He stopped again, placed his hat back on his head and closed his eyes. He composed his features, taking in deep breaths like his yoga and tai chi instructors had taught him before. When he felt centered he opened them again, letting his purple gaze fall upon her in a different light. "You're wasting your breath with me...I don't plan to do the same with you. You don't even amount to the tips of my fingernails, and you never will. I won't even entertain you anymore until you amount to more. So run along now little girl, before i actually do make you cry." his voice was clam now, cooing even almost like how a horse whisperer approached a mad animal. In one smooth motion he sheathed his hands in his pockets, they almost rung like the steel of swords.

[Corentin Quimper]

If he was an animal trainer, he would have already have been bitten. Animals had a tendency to know when one was feeling emotional, when they were frightened, and when they were simply lying through their teeth. Corentin got a strange jolt of exhilaration every time he spoke to her even after claiming that he wouldn’t do it again. For a moment though, his comment caused her to be incensed, her delicate feathers ruffled oh-so-slightly. The small girl feathered a dainty hand through her hair as she turned to him, flipping a section of it backward. Something in her eyes had turned dark, like a midnight veil pulled over her irises as she spoke. Her words were emotionless, flat, and crisp as she spoke them, appearing much like a ventriloquist’s dummy for a moment.

“I never cry.”

For a split second, she was ageless and ancient in the same moment, an entity much like the mother of the Greek Pantheon, Hera. She was soulless, vapid, breathing off the energy she could sap from others, a goblin in the skin of a teenage girl. After the second had passed, though, her eyes brightened again and she smiled brightly “But I might if you don’t show me the way back to the dormitories, Sir Fancy Hat. I’m lost and you’re my life-raft. Even if you are a bit splintery…”

Corentin’s comments toward him were not intended to be insulting, but rather to rile him just a little. Had she wanted to be insulting, her cheery colored lips could drop words that could break his backbone. While she did not have the status to be considered a genius in the world, having never took the tests, she was an intelligent little girl. She preferred to be viewed as shallow, for it was much easier to be underestimated and slip through the cracks in her field than to be looked upon as a rival or a challenger to the throne. This was simply how she worked, small, meek, and quiet. Corentin did her work under the veil of night and in the daytime was simply a cute, quirky young lady. “You were breathing funnily a moment ago. Please tell me you don’t have asthma - I’ve never been good in medical emergencies.” And thus, the prattling on began again.

“How long have you been the groundsman at Somnium Academy?” Corentin’s hands fluffed out the skirt of her dress while she walked for lack of anything better to do. She wondered for a moment if others would think they were brother and sister walking out here around the grounds. Did people come to Somnium Academy in pairs sometimes, or was someone always left behind? The question seemed sad to her as her mind asked it but she felt no sadness answer it in return. “This is only my first day, I haven’t even set foot inside the building yet. I suppose you could call me a boarding school virgin!” The girl covered her mouth with her hand coquettishly, as if she had said something offensive and let out a soft giggle, deliberate of course. Wasn’t that was most fourteen year old girls did? Played coy and sweet? Everyone around her age was doing much of the same thing, after all, and what girl wouldn’t try to be cute around a handsome older student?

Corentin knew exactly how he viewed her, as a burden and an annoyance, but a probing question caused her to flit by his side. Why had he looked at the building like a scalded dog? Of course, it would be no fun to simply come out and ask him because he certainly wouldn’t answer her questions. The girl liked this sort of volley of strangeness between the two of them and dubbed him as a worth opponent, the Lady Philosophy to her Boethius. “You also have a nice voice, have you ever thought about becoming an orator? Or are you a politics man?” Corentin punched softly him on the arm all of a sudden, feigning a friendly bond between the two of them. Of course, it wouldn‘t have hurt him, because all-in-all, he was much larger than she. “Surely your father is a politician? You could follow in his footsteps!” For some reason, she moved away after the interchange, fearing a violent reaction from the quiet, pompous Fancy Hat. Corentin twirled and hopped, catching up to the space that had developed between the two of them in the last few moments.