Dorm deck, Sunday afternoon

[unusual_sith]

Lana had settled in, gotten the lay of the land, and gone shopping for clothes. Now she was sitting on the deck attached to the dormitory and meditating, determining her first impressions of the place and people and what it all meant.

To anyone not Force-sensitive, it would probably appear she was kneeling, her head bowed. To anyone Force-sensitive, well, there was a well of feeling around her, hatred and fear strong as she worked on connecting to the local currents.

This might take some time.



[OOC: Open deck!]

Comments

[white_oleander]

Astrid felt like she was trying to wake up, which was difficult to do when you were never really sleeping. The last few weeks felt like an odd dream, a strange blur, something she couldn't possibly have experienced, and yet there was evidence all around her. Her still sore ankle, the new attempts at drawing again like a flower slowly trying to bloom. Did she even go to the welcome picnic? She hadn't talked to anyone, she barely ate, like a ghost, but there was the evidence in her sketchbook. And what about the woods? She thought about forcing herself into them again to try to conquer her newfound xylophobia, but the mere thought of it just made her sick to her stomach.

Baby steps, then. Maybe if she went out to the deck, she could sit and try to see if she could draw some trees, and that would help. It might also force her to be a little more social, which she hated to admit could be a good panacea.

In fact, she was even going to say hello to the other girl already out there when she reached the deck, but she was quick to notice she was involved in something. Yoga maybe? Meditations? Either way, it was something she probably didn't want to interrupt, so she just tried to move as quietly as she could to one of the chairs, to sit down, and cast her attention elsewhere, toward the preserve, and get to work.

Except that...she didn't really do anything, just sort of got caught staring off and getting mired in her thoughts again.

[unusual_sith]

Lana felt and heard the other girl approach, took a moment to focus and corral her feelings, then looked over.

"Hello."

[white_oleander]

Astrid glanced back over with a faint hint of a smile, tucking her hair behind her ears. "Hi," she said. "Sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt or anything."

[unusual_sith]

"Not at all," Lana said. "I can meditate whenever. Lana Beniko. You are?"

[white_oleander]

"Astrid Magnussen," she offered in return. "And you're one of the new batch, aren't you?"

[unusual_sith]

"I suppose so," Lana said. "I arrived yesterday. How long have you been here?"

[white_oleander]

"Not very long." Even if it felt like forever. "I'm part of the last new batch. It's a little weird," upsetting, "realizing I'm not the new kid anymore."

[unusual_sith]

"How many students are there here?" Lana asked.

[white_oleander]

"...not many," Astrid said after a moment to consider that she honestly had no idea. "I mean, it's not like I've ever gone and done a head count or anything, but the classes are really small and this dorm gets way too quiet for a place filled with teenagers. It's definitely smaller than any place I've ever gone to school at, but I've always gone to school in the city, I have almost no base of reference for places like this."

[unusual_sith]

"Are you local?" Lana asked. "From this world, I mean?"

[studyingfear]

Rufus was neither one for pointless niceties or mindless socializing and not being at home meant he was free to cheerfully not do either of those nearly as much as he did when he was playing daddy's good little heir.

But having a dog meant that sometimes such things were forced upon him. Dark Nation, still wound up from chasing the books in the library, spotted the blondes on the deck and, well, off her went.

"Dark Nation, no!"

Rufus hurried his stride as Dark Nation bounded up on deck to see who would be more willing to give him all the pettings. The dog was a jumble of long, skinny body, longer legs, and a tentacle that protruded from the back of his head that lashed with excitement as he clattered onto the deck, eager to have attention paid to him.

[unusual_sith]

Lana looked over and blinked at the...whatever it was. It was clearly happy and nonthreatening, though, so she held out a hand to it.

[studyingfear]

Hopefully she didn't mind getting that hand absolutely covered in doggy kisses, since that was what Dark Nation was going to do, wiggling with delight at the new person.

Hi, new person! Hi!

[unusual_sith]

"Ugh!" Lana grimaced and pulled her hand back, but patted the creature awkwardly with the other as she tried to keep it from getting her too slobbery.

"Is this yours?" she called to the boy who'd come with it. "What is it, and does it always do this?"

[studyingfear]

"It's mine," Rufus confirmed as he climbed onto the deck, eyebrows quirking as he realized that all three of them on the deck had blond hair.

It was a blond parade.

"It's a dog," with a tentacle, "and he's just trying to be friendly. Dark Nation, come here."

That last was said sternly and still wiggling with excitement, Dark Nation pranced over to Rufus. Rufus sighed.

[unusual_sith]

"Thank you." Lana wiped her hand on her pants. "That's a dog?" It didn't look much like a dog to her. "He certainly is very friendly, if a bit...sloppy."

'Dark Nation' didn't strike her as particularly odd for a pet name.

[studyingfear]

It still amused Rufus how few people wondered about his dog's name.

"He's still little more than a puppy," Rufus explained, kneeling to rub Dark Nation's head and behind his ears. Admittedly, Dark Nation was quite large for a puppy, when sitting his head reached Rufus' waist, but... details. "He'll settle more as he gets a bit older. He is a dog, though not one from this universe. I brought him with me from home."

Rufus was... actually quite happy to talk about his dog.

[unusual_sith]

Now that Dark Nation was a little more settled, Lana stood and reached out again, petting him. "That would explain why he looks nothing like the dogs I'm used to. How large will he get?"

[studyingfear]

Dark Nation's tail went wild with glee, but he stayed where he was, panting happily.

"He should gain another six inches to a foot in height," Rufus said, standing, but leaving his hand on Dark Nation's head.

He was going to be a big dog, definitely. Though always a skinny one.

[white_oleander]

Something deep inside of Astrid that she couldn't quite understand reacted strongly to the dog suddenly bounding toward the deck, and it didn't even have anything to do with the fact that, yeah, that was a tentacle coming out of its head, wasn't it?

Though that could be a convenient excuse for her reaction.

Her eyes danced up toward the guy from brooding class. "Yours?" she asked.

Yeah, she'd happily let Lana take its attention, even if it did seem friendly enough.

[studyingfear]

Dark Nation was friendly enough to nearly make up for Rufus' near complete lack of friendliness, even.

"Mine," Rufus confirmed, with a quick glance to make sure Dark Nation hadn't destroyed any of her belongings. "His name's Dark Nation. Astrid, right?"

[white_oleander]

Dark Nation? Well, that was...unique. Astrid was eyeing Dark Nation again, trying to decide if she wanted to extend a hand out or not. She was warming up to the idea, but turned her attention back toward the boy.

"Yeah, Astrid," she said. "And you're..."

Crap. She Knew she'd heard it plenty of times, but she was drawing a blank trying to part through the fog of her mind. All she really remembered with any clarity was them debating one class, but that had been way in the beginning, and most classes after that, she had mostly just slipped into the isolation of her own brooding.

"Rubeus?"

...an attempt was made.

[studyingfear]

For his part, Dark Nation was busy doing his utter best to look adorable. Adorable. Okay, he was still a large, black dog with a tentacle. But he was trying. That counted, right?

"Well," Rufus said dryly, "I've been called worse."

Much, much worse.

"It's Rufus."

[white_oleander]

Hey, that was much closer than Astrid thought it would be! She felt pretty good about that, considering she'd forgotten the name of someone she saw on a weekly basis.

And whatever Dark Nation was doing must have been working on some small level because Astrid, ever so casually, dropped her hand down to her side, over the side of the chair, with a small little wiggle of her fingers, as big of an invite as the dog (or whatever it was) was likely to receive.

"Rufus," she repeated, nodding, "right. I wasn't actually too far off."

[studyingfear]

"You weren't," Rufus allowed, though then he added, a bit wickedly, "though should I make you guess at my last name?"

So sue him, he was curious.

Dark Nation couldn't deny an invitation like Astrid's though, with a sidelong roll of his eyes up at Rufus, he slunk over to wriggle his head under Astrid's fingers, his tail tentatively beating.