Session 2: Vrey Hallinel

[Mr. Blackbird Lore]

The office Vrey Hallinel entered was impressive, by human standards. It was likely notable to her as it was utterly devoid of sentient, enchanted, or mutated objects. It was utterly mundane. It was a door she had passed frequently during her first semester at Safeholme, another featureless door that had remained anonymous- until now.

The desk that dominated the far side was heavy, dark, and ornate. Its surface was tidy: only a closed laptop, a single stack of collated papers, a lamp, and a photo frame facing away from her. The chair was likewise dark and ornate- and leatherbound. The wall beyond these things was three floor-to-ceiling shelves. The overwhelming majority were filled with thick books intellectuals used to signal one another. On the central column of shelves, on the middle shelf, were three objects: a metallic, silver globe of some kind that could fit naturally into one's palm; a silver-framed, oval mirror about the size of a person's face; and a gilded knife in a bejeweled sheath resting upon a smartly lacquered wood display piece. The music that had been playing since she entered emanated from a small speaker on the far left shelf.

Between the desk and the door were two matching couches, a coffee table between them, and a plush fabric chair, facing toward the desk. Vrey had fully processed the room's innards when the door behind her softly clicked.

"Frau Vrey Hallinel." The tone was neutrally pleasant, much like the dark-skinned face of the woman who now shared the room with her. One elegant, thin-fingered hand reached out, gesturing toward the various seats. "Please, make yourself comfortable."

The speaker on the shelf chimed softly and ceased its playing as she made her way around the desk. Despite her attunement to the raw mana of the world, there was no apparent interaction between the Dr. Lady Sumedha and the speaker. Once again, Vrey would be struck by the aura of this woman- how mundane she seemed, and yet how powerful her presence was. Her black hair was in a tight bun, bangs framing her left cheek. Bright eyes shone behind red-rimmed spectacles. Her blouse was gray, with an appropriate amount of frilling: appealing and professional. She had taken a departure from her usual skirts and wore dress pants that matched her blazer. She draped the latter blazer over the back of her chair, then looked to Vrey. "Shall we get started?"

It was Vrey's turn to find Guidance.

[Gwathdraug]

"Doktor." Vrey's monotone did the best it could to responded politely as the girl herself took her seat. The bald teen was in her normal, rumpled track suit, but had left the jacket unzipped to reveal she was wearing a freshly pressed wine coloured button-up underneath. Similarly, her ubiquitous combo of track pants with the uniform skirt had been modified to wrinkled track pants with a rather plain knee-length black skirt over top.

Clutched in the teen's gauntlet covered hands was a plastic container - no more than two quartz in size at most - filled with a pink and deep red ice-cream with scattered pockets of chopped up walnuts. Text written on the top in Vrey's own hand declared the confection was titled "Rosepetal/Walnut" alongside a date from just two days ago. A faint shimmer of magic surrounded the container - not even taking enough power to drop the girl's greys into the signature glowing green that came with her magic - keeping the temperature inside held at a stasis point.

Vrey lifted her hands slightly to draw attention to the container. "My arrival gift-" The statement cut off without a real finish as the teen kept her face forward towards Dr. Sumedha but allowed her eyes to dart about the various corners of the room.

[Mr. Blackbird Lore]

There was the minutest pause from Dr. Sumedha at Vrey's words. She came around with a smile to collect the ice cream. "Thank you," she said barely above a whisper, then retreated behind the desk to store the gift. The fwoomp of a mini-fridge opening and then closing was audible in the otherwise silent room.

"Please, sit." Lady once again gestured to the various seating options in the room. "And we will begin." For the time, Lady remained standing. "Do you know who I am and what I do here?"

[Gwathdraug]

Vrey eyed the high-backed upholstered chair and the plush cushioned couches with a wrinkle of a frown tuning her lips. The bald teen left her gaze on each for a fraction too long - the comfortable pieces of furniture each being veiled with some weightless distrust. Smoothing out her skirt beneath her finally sat but firmly in the middle of the coffee table across from the desk. Settling herself the teen straightened her back and took a few moments to simply stare at the counselor - whether from her normal awkwardness or in an expression of rebellion was made a difficult call from how utterly placid Vrey's features had become.

"You are Doktor L. Sumedha." The girl may as well have been reading off the placard in the hall with the emotion put into the statement. "You-" Vrey paused for a moment and blinked. Her eyes had shifted from grey to green when they opened again, but no veins or any other signs of magic manifested otherwise. "-take bites out from other's troubles." One of the teen's gauntleted hands snapped up from her lap as she mimicked jaws snapping closed. "Then you teach them how to chew."

Finally breaking eye contact Vrey turned her attention back to the heavy chair set closest to Lady for visitor's use. "Comfort." As she said the word the teen nodded towards the chair not in self-assurance but in a brief greeting before looking back towards the counselor. "It is one of your teeth."

[Mr. Blackbird Lore]

Lady allowed a genuine smile to show. Vrey had been a daunting prospect, but also an enticing one. Such an alien mind, such a unique perspective. "That is a precise, albeit unique, explanation of what I do." Seeing Vrey had chosen the table, Lady settled into her office chair. Prim hands folded neatly on the desk's surface while laser-focused eyes scanned the student.

"So, Vrey... what are your troubles? Let's break them down together."

[Gwathdraug]

Vrey allowed herself to blink and then dropped her gaze away from the Doktor. "I am unsure of this process. I am - no it is supposed to be I feel?-" The teen backtracked on her own words almost as if they were foreign to her or as if they had been taught without an explanation. "I feel that there is a mistake in this communication?"

The bald teen raised her eyes only as far as so she could look at the desk Lady's hands rested against. "You have no reference or list? I can not understand. If I am to take responsibility for an action why has it not been filed?" As her voice died off Vrey straightened her position back out cautiously. Her hands moved to rest against her knees and her gaze meeting the Doktor's once more.

[Mr. Blackbird Lore]

Lady's smile became reassuring. A tickle ran through Vrey's skull like the curious nibbles of harmless beings she might once have known, and in that same moment Lady was able to arm herself with the appropriate comparisons.

"Some tasks here," her fingers pressed firmly on the desktop, but it was clear she meant the school- and the physical realm. "Are more akin to your native habitat. Not everything is forms and files. Some things are passions and lightning. As a foreigner to this realm and this style of education, there must be many things gnawing at you. Are there any that make your studies hard to chew?"

[Gwathdraug]

As soon as the sensation of probing, testing, bites laid the edges of their teeth across Vrey's body the girl felt as if she lost control of herself. Her back went rigid and her arms limp and it wasn't her. The sound of the doktor continuing to talk was a mass of undifferentiated, screeching nothing - incomprehensible -the syllables all forming into an endless rush that wasn't for her. She bit the inside of her cheek and couldn't taste or feel the blood that had to be - had to be - oozing forth.

She, her the teeth turned towards these next and-

Vrey panicked. Pushing off the coffee table, the edge splintering under the heel of her hands, the teen appeared in front of Lady's desk. Her hands slammed down onto the surface and when her leather covered fingers flexed they beat furrows into the wooden surface. Vrey's eyes blazed a solid, unflickering green and the veins in her skin were raised up and burning with the same colour as her face twitched back forth between bared teeth and a blank placidness. She tried and failed and tried and failed - tried and failed- failed-

Words escaping her Vrey reached out to the core of what Doktor Lady Sumedha was and with a snap of a thought spoke to her conceptually as if she was a spirit.

I AM NOT FOOD.

[Mr. Blackbird Lore]

The only change in Lady's demeanor was a widening of her eyes, and an intense focus. If looks could kill, the counselor could have flayed and dissected Vrey's borrowed body in moments. As Vrey leaned on the desk, she would sense a faint crackle in her mind, that would fade as she eased back ever so slightly.

Despite the mild shift in her face, Lady was well aware of the drastic shift in the tone of their meeting. She had been clumsy and it had cost her dearly. Now she had to regain the student's confidence: easier said than done for a teacher, not to mention a counselor. And when you added the fact that her students was an alien being...

You are not food, Lady's calm voice agreed in Vrey's mind. Normally she would never do such a thing, but she was willing to take this gamble on something that might feel more natural to Vrey. You are safe here. I will not let anyone or anything harm you. Slowly, she pushed back from the desk and rose to her feet. Many more words came to mind, but she chose to hold her silence while Vrey regained herself.

[Gwathdraug]

"...the garden..." Vrey managed to choke out the two words as she pulled her hands up and out of the impression they had dragged through the desk. The girl stared at the fine sawdust that clung to her gauntlets before letting green sparks fall across and erase them. Folding her fingers down the teen brought her hands up to cover her still glowing eyes.

"...can we..." Vrey shuddered in place and pressed her lips down into a firm line, before dragging her fists down across her cheeks and off her face - uncovering once more grey eyes as she moved.

Looking around the room the teen's body seemed to hitch and unhitch in small, repetitive starts-and-stops and she took in her surroundings. When she caught sight of the damaged coffee table Vrey froze and then, in a single smooth motion, quickly turned her attention solely towards the Doktor. "Go?"