Thursday | April 10th 2008 Who: Belle and Kelsey Where: Belle's office When: Late afternoon What: Kelsey helps Belle organize.
Kelsey arrived a little after they had spoken, toting empty file folders, a label machine, and a corkboard she had found in the closet of the main offices. When Belle opened the door to her office Kelsey offered a free hand.
"Hi, I'm Kelsey Vederi."
Kelsey loved organizing, cleaning, and well.. being anal about just about anything. She had no friends at TJS, and was unfamiliar with the area around the school. A night of organizing seemed pretty entertaining, actually.
Belle had actually been completely distracted by her laptop as she waited. She probably should have been trying to work out what they needed to do so that she had some sort of start before Kelsey arrived but... well, that wasn't really something Belle was good at.
Opening the door she grinned to Kelsey! "Oh merlin! Thank you so much for this" She enthused, shaking the hand and then taking whatever she could take to help the other woman make it into the room.
Simply put Belle's office was a total mess. There were various students papers over the desk, piles of files on the floor instead of in the filing cabinet where they had started, post it notes were stuck on the walls and inside her laptop, opened but yet to be unpacked boxes were still there from when she started a little more than a month ago. It was a fire hazard.
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"Oh wow," Kelsey said, looking around. She turned to Belle with squared shoulders.
"Alright.. not to make your life any more difficult, but I'm hard of hearing so you either have to throw something at my head to get my attention, or be certain you're looking me in the face." She grinned, shifting her bag on her shoulders. "And what would you like me to start with?"
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Belle laughed at Kelsey's reaction to the room and then nodded at the added note on speaking. "Ok. I think I'll try something less mean than throwing things at you though." She told her with another soft laugh before looking around the room with a considering look.
Eventually she looked back to the woman and shrugged. "I.... have no idea? I'd guess if we started by filing stuff... or actually maybe by clearing my desk so we can sort the files on it before putting them away?"
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"Gotcha," Kelsey said, with a nod, before putting her things down on an available spot and heading for the desk. She spoke without looking at Belle because she could. It was a double standard, but oh well. "So what you're saying is.. most of these files here.. have to go... there?" she pointed to the cabinet, looking to the professor for clarification.
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"I think so" She agreed with a nod and a grin. "That's where they came from, but I took them all out because.... actually I can't remember why. I think I lost one and thought it was under the others or something, and I just haven't put them back because I ended up flicking through them all." Not even Belle herself understood all her reasoning on these things all the time so poor Kelsey was going to get used to these random excuses along the way probably.
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Kelsey had dealt with people like Belle before. After all, without people like Belle, she wouldn't have a job! She nodded, understanding, and got to work. It would be up to her to lead the conversation. Belle couldn't talk to her while she was working -- and looking away -- but Kelsey could talk to her and look up for a response.
After a few moments of relaxed silence along with diligent working, Kelsey moved toward the filing cabinet.
"So what do you teach here?" Kelsey asked, looking over at Belle's face to read her lips.
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This was true. Now if only Belle could find a way to convince Hope that Kelsey should be the elemental's personal assistant or secretary it would be perfect! From the looks of it already Belle's life and office would be a lot more organised if she were!
Shuffling student's papers into piles depending on whether they were marked and what classes they were for, she looked up to answer Kelsey's question. "At the moment I teach fire control and myths and legends. It would be cool to take some other classes too but I have other things to keep me occupied too." She smiled thinking of Nox. "What brought you to the school?"
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"I met a nice young man a while ago during a... pretty big life change who somehow, for reasons I still don't understand, recognized I had abilities and told me about this place." She shrugged and filed a few more things, then looked back over. "I had nothing to lose, so I came. This is sort of a fresh start. In my old life I was married and had a house...ecetera.."
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Belle's eyebrows raised as she listened but she was still smiling. "Wow, fate must have known it was time to step in. That's some change. We'll have to make sure to show you that this new life can be good. Oooh, you should come over for dinner with us, or just me, some time! It's the least I can do after helping me with this!" She laughed softly.
"So, if you don't mind me asking, what are your abilities?" Belle asked curiously before she looked down to put all the papers into little folders.
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Kelsey was overwhelmed by Belle's warm attitude. Her chest fluttered a little at the pure honesty in the other woman's face and eyes. She really did mean it. What was it about this place that caused people to reach out so readily? First Meike, now Belle. It was a little disconcerting, but perhaps for wrong reasons. Kelsey realized she was used to "normal" people. Perhaps these not-so-average folk had less reason to hide than she previously thought.
"That sounds great, thank you," she replied politely, before Belle asked her another question. Her abilities. She spoke as Belle worked. "They call it local retro-cognition. Basically I can see past events of a certain location as long as I am physically in it. I can narrow it down to the year if I can focus on enough key lifetime events that happened in that year, but narrowing it down further than that takes some effort." She scratched at her forearm. "Not so impressive, after meeting a hellhound and a technopath."
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Belle was generally an open and friendly person, but being in a complex of only supernaturals and those who knew about the supernatural made her even more open and welcoming. Besides, for people knew to this life it could be sort of overwhelming so she tended to make more of an effort. She'd love for Kelsey to feel at home at the school and surrounded by others with abilities. It was a nice way to live, no-one having to hide who they were.
"It sounds impressive to me." She assured the other woman, making sure to keep her head up as she spoke. "It sounds very useful infact. Has it grown stronger over time or is it constant?" Rarer abilities always fascinated Belle. She'd never met someone with the exact same power as Kelsey was describing, similar, ones along the same vein, but never exactly the same. "Sorry, if I ask too many questions just tell me, I get obsessed with things."
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Kelsey laughed, shaking her head. Dark hair flew in various directions. She had a very natural look to her: minimal makeup despite the laugh lines near her eyes, an easy to mimic hairstyle. "Well, I think I've gained more control over it but I'm not sure if it's gotten stronger, to be honest."
She put away the last file and returned to the desk. "Ehm, do you have an interesting history of sorts?" she glanced up, smiling.
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Shrugging Belle was still smiling. "Control over something is better than stronger and no control at all most of the time." What was the use in an ability if you didn't have enough control to use it properly after all?
She ducked her head as she laughed and then looked back to Kelsey and leant on the desk. "Ummm.... you could say that. I was created at this age in 1913 so I've seen two world wars and everything from then on. No family or husbands though. I have someone now but it's really new. I'm not the type to stick around anywhere too long normally."
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"Created?" she asked, blinking. "Like a vampire, or?" She didn't look like a vampire. "Sorry, I'm stupid about a lot of what's out here."
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Sometimes she totally forget that words like created could be confusing to people not so used to the world she lived in. Belle bit her lip guiltily, but still smiling. "No need to apologise, I forgot it might not make sense. I'm an elemental. I was created by a young alchemist as a companion." She had essentially made herself sound a little like a sex doll but didn't sound the slightest bit embarrassed or shy about it.
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"My experience with alchemists is from a bad anime my nephew likes," she said, biting her lip. "I've been researching though, since I got here. I suppose you're next on my list. So you're.. not as young as you look, then, right?" she asked, gathering information as she went along.
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Belle laughed again. "Yeah? I'll have to look for that anime. Which one is it?" Apparently being old didn't stop the elemental from becoming interested in modern culture. "Not young, no. I'm 94 and I've looked this young the entire time." She admitted easily. "I was created to look like an eighteen year old girl, although I tend to push it to say I'm a bit older nowadays over here seeing as the laws on drinking and stuff."
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"Ehm, what does one create elementals for?" Kelsey asked, wondering how stupid a question that was.
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It wasn't a stupid question at all in Belle's mind. She simply shrugged and answered. "Lot of things. Companionship, child replacement, help, servants, sex.... Anything someone might wish they could have in a person."
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Huh. People could do that? Just create others? How did one transition from being 'created' for a reason to being one's own person. It had to be incredibly difficult. That meant Belle wasn't even remotely close to human - she just looked like one.
"Oh," she said, not so eloquently, "I had no idea."
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It really was a creepy thing if you overthought it. Belle didn't even really think about how odd her creation was to others most of the time because it was completely normal to her. "A lot of people don't. A successful and well adjusted elemental should be able to come across as normal, I'm flattered that you thought I was normal." She smiled and laughed.
"I haven't creeped you out have I?"
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Kelsey laughed. "No, Malakai did you one better. You're fine."
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Belle's eyes shined with interest at that. "Oh really? Spill!" She grinned to Kelsey, wanting to know what the delicious hellhound had done.
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Kelsey chuckled again, shrugging. "We were in the copy room. He just explained that he was a bajillion years old, and not really a humanoid looking creature -- he's a hound, apparently. That's far more disturbing visually, though I'm sure if I thought more about it.." she reached up to scratch the back of her head. "It's so different, here. I lived in Arizona. My husband and my family were the only people who knew about my ability. Now everything is... open..."
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She nodded, still grinning. "Yeah I suppose that has me beat for weirdness. It's really hard to think of someone as good looking as Malakai as not being a someone at all but a something isn't it?" She laughed again and shook her head.
"It's cool that your husband was ok about you being different." Belle said softly with a smile still there. "Still I know what you mean. It must be really weird suddenly being in a confined space with people who don't even try and hide what they are. Wings, claws, strange colours, everything is just.... out there. Once you get used to it though it's nice to have a place to just be you."
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'Cool' wasn't the word for it she thought, but in response to Belle's first remark she grinned and ignored the rest. "I KNOW. EXACTLY. Too good looking."
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"Oh thank merlin for someone else who I can appreciate him with!" She giggled. "I haven't spoken to many women much outside of the classroom so I've had to contain myself. It shouldn't be fair for someone to look like that when they're not even human!"
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Kelsey laughed. "He reminds me of the dreamy vampires from the Anne Rice novels. He was really friendly. I guess you have to be if you're a couple thousand years old. It's a little ridiculous, though... I can't.. my brain just goes 'OKAY, KELSEY' and then I have to move on, otherwise I'll trip myself up and drown."
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"See, I see more stereotype hot werewolf or something. Well, actually I most often imagine him in faded jeans and not much else but that's a whole different story." She winked. "I had him speaking to my students today and it was very hard to pay attention to his words even though what he was saying was fascinating. That's probably something we shouldn't share with Nox though, just incase." She wrinkled her nose, still grinning.
"Soooo... anyone else caught your eye yet?"
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Kelsey had no idea who Nox was, but she assumed he was either a) in charge or b) her significant other. "I....no." She laughed. "I .. am a divorcee, and I wouldn't.. haven't.. in a long time. I wouldn't know how to even begin to date again," she said, with a laugh. "And here? God. I feel like fresh meat. Sometimes literally."
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"There's no harm in looking..." She shrugged, trying to keep things light. "I have to admit there are a lot of good looking men around this place." She might be happily in a relationship with Nox, but it didn't mean she didn't notice other men. She knew how to look and not touch. "No eyecandy you've got a craving for?"
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"Not yet," Kelsey replied, with a bit of a smirk. "I guess I will have to let you know."
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"Definitely!" She nodded, still grinning. "I need someone else to talk to and I like you, so you've been nominated as my new person to have to deal with the thoughts that run through my head, like whether or not each staff member is worthy of eye candy status." Just like that. Belle liked Kelsey so she was determined they should become friends.
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Kelsey wasn't quite sure how Belle had come to this conclusion, since Belle didn't really know her. Perhaps it was because she wasn't human, and therefore hadn't learned to distrust anyone for lack of having to. A romanticized notion, to be sure, but Kelsey found comfort with it. She felt a little guilty for finding it so odd for one person to declare 'I like you' to another.
"..Okay," she said, nodding.
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Yes, the elemental was a little weird. She chose to trust people and form connections fast because according to her sure, people might be able to hurt you if you let them in, but they could also make your life the better too if it all went right. Belle was just a very friendly person.
"I should probably stop distracting you shouldn't I and let you help me out of the mess?" She joked before picking up some files and putting them on the desk to check how in order they were.
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Kelsey laughed in agreement and started to work in silence. Before she realized it, almost an hour had passed in silence. "Oh God, I'm sorry, I've been so quiet" she said, after glancing at her watch. "But... your office is clean?"