Halcyon Halls

Who:  Serghei and Sydni
What:  Boating for a birthday, and SHARKS!
When:  Saturday afternoon
Where:  On the ocean

Sydni was glad Serghei had agreed to come out on the boat.  Even if he wasn't diving, he was there if anything bad happened.  She wasn't planning on chumming or baiting; since Starbuck felt all these creatures were just like people, she couldn't bring herself to use the typical methods of attracting sharks.  And aside from that, she'd missed Serghei's birthday and she'd already promised to take him out.  Made sense to bring him out for his birthday now.

It had been refreshing to return to work this weekend.  She'd had to skip last weekend because of her arm, but Kyle had been understanding.  And even the customers seemed had seemed fine.  Most had been more concerned about her health.  Still shy, she hadn't appreciated all the fuss, and was glad to have the class to move things along.  Of course, while she no longer had an injured arm to worry about, she did now have to cover up her new tattoo and protect it from the water and sun.  She couldn't wait until she didn't have to worry about that.  As for the actual class, she found that after the initial jitters at the beginning of each class, she settled into the routine of things and was quite comfortable.  It was no different than showing a new intern the lab equipment.

After the class, she'd gotten The Azure ready to head out to sea, and had stowed two dive suits.  She hadn't asked him if he knew how to dive; that important piece of information had slipped her mind when she'd bumped into him at the pool.  Why did her thoughts scatter around him?  It was worse than being around Charlie!  She'd also gotten an underwater clipboard and pen to write down some data, as well as a disposable underwater camera.  Not the best equipment, but this wasn't really an official expedition.  She just wanted to note down some of the species she saw.  She also had some minor testing materials - mostly to test salinity, temperature, and pH.

It was funny, if she could think about it objectively, but she had to prep herself for meeting Serghei.  She reminded herself of many things, including that he's gay, to make sure that she didn't fall down like she seemed to tend to do when he was around.  Falling down on boats or around sharks would be bad.  She was in the middle of her mental pep talk when her ears picked up the sound of footsteps.  Taking a deep breath, she turned around and smiled at the approaching figure.  "Hey," she said.

Who: Sasha and Dreizen (and any other stomach interested)
Where: Stretch of beach close to school.
When: Early morning. Very, very early.
What: Pre-pre-breakfast. Also, Sasha VS Ocean, Round I.

It said something about Sasha’s personality that she began her First Day at Halcyon searching for what she feared: water. A lot of, lot of, lot of, lot of water. A whole damn sopping ocean of it, actually.

Our sense of anxiety is an interpretation of the primal fight-or-flight survival mechanism as filtered and distorted by thousands of years of civilized living is what Dr. Quinn would say. Your phobia is an enlarged combination of that anxiety and previous distress; it is logical, but invalid.

…ri-ight. Grouchy and resigned, she looked at the great wet sweep of marine beauty: the waves, the sand, the early light sheeting across the water, more sand, Dreizen crunching on a starfi—oh, bloody hell, not again.

“Dizzy, spit that out! You don’t know what it mated with! Fuß!” Chagrined, the big Doberman loped back to his mistress. She patted his ears and then quickly wiped the damp off on her pullover. This early Sasha was still “off the clock”, dressed in an uninspired set of casuals. Without makeup or hair "maintenance" she looked about fourteen and a scruffy fourteen at that. But Dreizen didn’t care.

Later, yes, later she’d button up her vintage linen, slip on peep toe pumps, and apply the full course of makeup. She’d go to class to sit with her hands clasped and her ankles crossed and expressions respectful. She’d be alternatively sunny and shy, and generally charming. She’d be a Good Girl.

And somewhere belly deep inside the pretty package she’d keep wondering why entering school of "monsters" was a safer option than going home.

"...hell with it.” Sasha shouldered off her backpack and plopped down. Dreizen immediately lay down besides her. “Let’s eat before melodrama spoils the rest of me.”

( That’s one small slice for man, one giant wedge for schoolgirl, kind of... )

Who: Serghei and Sydni
Where: The pool!
When: 11:03AM
What: Hey, he's just rolling out of bed and going to the pool. And their tattoos almost match.

Serghei had fallen into an easy pattern at Halcyon. 10:30-11:45AM, roll out of bed. Put towel around waist. Take quick shower. Put on small box-cut bathing suit and flip flops after quick towelling off. Stroll down to pool. Sunbathe and swim for a couple of hours. Eat. Work out. Sunbathe and swim for a few hours.

He lazily strolled into the pool area and took his usual lounge chair and stretched out lazily. Stretching his forearms behind his head he slipped off his sandals, sending them clattering to the end of the lounge chair as he leaned back. Serghei was aware enough of his surroundings to know how many people were around --not many at all.

One girl he'd seen a few times, but she hadn't come by often and he was, frankly, a little bored. He'd noticed her tattoo early on, he was the type to notice those things. "Excuse me," He said, his thick accent mushing the syllables in ways unfamiliar to native speakers. Still lounging, his eyes squinting in the light towards her. Women often mistook Serghei for an asshole meathead hitting on them.

One of the cheap thrills in his life was letting them know how wrong they were. Often with the insinuation that, if they had enough cash in their purses, he could be persuaded to change his mind. He flexed his toes a little, wiggling them all independently. "What is, uh, your tattoo of?" Always that pause to correct himself when he spoke. English required possessive words or whatever they were called even if you already knew what it was you were talking about. It seemed foolish.

Who: Jesse and ANYONE!
Where: Puck's Ice Cream Paradise at the mall.
When: 6pmish, Monday
What: Jesse's first real day at work.

Jesse sometimes like to think of what hell was when he went to church for special occasions he found himself that bored. He thought of it as a machine based torture chamber where flames constantly licked your feet and cartoon devils poked at you with pitchforks. He also thought of the room of irony so to speak like if someone was greedy, they'd be in a room of food but never be able to eat any of it. Both those images caused him to get a smile to form on his face which would get him an elbow in his shoulder from his mother to get him to behave. No, Jesse began to realize what hell truly was and it involved being in a white uniform with a triangle soda jerk hat and a pink apron with pink cups and utensils and a sign with glitter on it and annoying cartoon faerie on most of the merchandise. Ice cream was a plenty with a variety of flavors including classics like chocolate and vanilla but there was also the supernatural flavors like blood-flavored and pixie dust which was just vanilla with a little bit of sparkles in it for show. Blood-flavored made not only the werewolf curious but also hungry. He noticed the intensity when he growled slightly at it which reminded him that it was the week of the full moon. D'oh!

Jesse's new boss was a constantly cheerful fey named Puck. The resemblance of Puck and the fey on the merchandise was astonishing! Jesse had to bite his lip to keep from laughing his butt off at his boss's manner. He did give Puck credit, though, training was simple. The most difficult bit of the job was operating the blender which Jesse already made a milkshake over the wall. Next time, he'd remember the cover. Within an hour, Puck left Jesse to his own devices as he went off to pick up a delivery.

Since it was a Monday night around dinner, Jesse found himself quite bored. Leaning against the wall, he stared hard at the blood-flavored ice cream. He was so curious! What did it taste like? Would eating a bit of it be stealing? Finally, he told himself that he should taste it so he could "sell" it properly then silently congratulated himself for being so into his job already. Looking for a sign of anyone around who would turn him in, he scooped a bit of the strange flavored ice cream and plopped it into a dish. Returning to his leaning spot, he attempted to look cool as he ate the half a scoop of ice cream. Oh, now he just wanted a nice rare stake. He was hungry and didn't have time to eat dinner before he came to work.

Who: Serghei and open
Where: Halcyon Main Hall
When: Late afternoon
What: Serghei say hello

Serghei wasn't much for casual dress. What he was wearing underneath his clothes was often more interesting than what went over them. Navy track pants and a loose-fitting muscle tank. His shoulders and arms bulged underneath the fabric and drew more than a few curious stares. His tattooed head and sincere expression only made him easier to identify as a new face at Halcyon.

He'd wandered out of Terrene House and was staring at a large map of the school, tracing certain landmarks with his fingers as he made out the words. Many of them were rather specific verbiage that he was unfamiliar with. Cafeteria, for example. After five minutes he had concluded it had to be like a café of sorts. A small café? English made very little sense. He knew he should have worked harder to learn how to read and write the language, but it wasn't like he could do either in arabic any better.

The people at the school weren't like the ones he knew, local boys and girls living in the same cities that their parents had been born in. He was usually the foreigner. In larger cities the strange ones were from surrounding countryside. Here, though, people were from all around. Talking about places in America and Europe he did not know of. Serghei's world had expanded dramatically upon his arrival and, for the moment, he wondered if he wasn't too behind to ever catch up.

It didn't bother him that much, not knowing hadn't bothered him in an extreme way before. Most people wished they were better educated, or so he thought. "main-ten-nancey" he murmured to himself, tracing his finger across the unfamiliar word. Part of his issues with reading came from his self-consciousness. Serghei still moved his lips and mumbled what he read or he had trouble understanding some of the more complicated words.