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Post by Raven Moonfire on Nov 14, 2013 18:46:05 GMT -5
Some papers were tossed on the ground around some of the tables that sat inside of the professors area. In some college the professors had no office or they were required to sit inside of a small office, though here at the Domino College, there was a wide area for relaxation or eating (complete with a kitchen to cook meals) and doors that led off to each professors office where they could have privacy to get their work accomplished if they wished it. The companies building this place had spared no expense, it was beautiful and clean and quiet. Though right now there were papers on the floor around a good corner of the space and there was some music playing throughout the room. It was entirely instrumental music, but it had a hard rock sound to it.
And at the center of this mess? A woman was standing there, barely 25 and looking over some more papers that she tossed to the ground whenever they showed no interest to her. Given her age and appearance, it would seem as though she were a student standing there, breaking into the offices in order to make a mess of the place. She was chewing a piece of gum and blowing bubbles on occasion, just to pop them loudly. Her clothes definitely gave off the air of being an outsider, black jeans and black shirt with a wide neck that hung off her shoulders and had a white skull on the front of it.
There was no particular expression about her face, making it nearly impossible to tell what she was thinking... perhaps she had lost her mind, or perhaps she was simply in the wrong place. The woman tilted her head slightly, popping another bubble with her gum as she picked up a few more papers, flipping through them, her eyes scanned the pages before she placed them back onto the table and moved on to the next stack, half she left on the table and the rest ended up scattered across the floor with the rest of the mess.
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Post by Haldor Ergos on Nov 14, 2013 19:24:41 GMT -5
Haldor was lying on the floor of what qualified as ‘his’ office. He was staring at the ceiling, counting the artificial bumps in the panels, it was supposed to be soothing but all its was really doing was annoying him because he kept loosing count. Nonetheless he liked doing it because it helped him think and settle his mind, plus, five minutes peace was quite hard to come by for him usually, but the office was quiet and living on the edge of being broke half the time did provide its own entertainment to a certain extent. He had been paid a week ago, so it was actually nice to be able to afford something other than large bags of rice, of which he had enough to survive till Judgement Day on. Of course, in a perfect world, he wouldn’t have to buy food … or pay rent … or taxes … or do anything at all, but he didn’t live in a perfect world so he just had to make do.
Finishing this train of thought, he sat up slowly, suddenly feeling very tired all of a sudden, but then again that did not really surprise him all that much, he was one of those people who have the capacity for very late nights and very early mornings, and so tiredness was a continual bane on his existence, but he had gotten used to it over the years. He blinked, momentarily confused as to why the world looked out of focus, then he realised that he didn’t have his glasses on. Rectifying that circumstance, he slid the metal frames onto his face and let his eyes adjust back to seeing the World how everyone else saw it, in 20:20, tuning back into Reality.
Getting to his feet, he stretched, feeling something somewhere click comfortably back into place, and then began to remember what it was he was actually supposed to be doing. However, before he could remember, his stomach decided that it had other ideas and interjected with a noticeable rumbling noise. Deciding that it would be easier to work if his stomach was quiet, a logical conclusion, he turned and opened the door to his office. Then he paused.
There was someone standing in the Relaxation Area, someone that he did not recognise, he half opened his mouth as if to express something, but then the thought was lost as his eyes took over.
Female. Woman, Girl? Woman. Long hair. Black hair. Very black. Like coals. Black shirt. Black jeans. Black-on-Black. All in black. Interesting figure. Slim. Tall. Slender. Somewhat pale. Like fresh snow. Contrast? Shirt white too. White like skull. White with skull. Skull? Interesting? Punk? Punk Rock? Punisher? Too young for that. Too young for either. Younger than him? Most likely. Chewing gum. Chewing? Gum? Bubble-gum? … Bubble-gum? Student? Possibility? Colleague? … maybe? New person? Definitely? Suggested tactic: Retreat.
He shut the door, blinked twice, took a moment to pinch and slap himself to make sure he was not still asleep and then opened the door again as if nothing had happened.
The woman was perusing the clumps of paperwork that were scattered around the room … which presented a quandary for him since most of them were his, but then again he had a job that generated a large amount of paperwork, and even he had spent a lot of the past few weeks doing it so it was expected that, well, he would run out of room in his own office, but to call it all his mess would be unfair, but he was used to that, he would inevitably have to tidy it up at some point … or get shouted out, but he was used to that as well.
Stepping into the room, he drew attention to himself with a very soft cough.
“Can I help at all?” He asked politely.
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Post by Raven Moonfire on Nov 14, 2013 19:57:24 GMT -5
She tossed another stack of papers onto the floor, seeming to be oblivious to anything other then what she was she doing right then and there. Today her hair happened to have a bit of a curl to it and she brushed some of it back over her shoulder before standing up a little straighter with her right hand softly resting on her hip. There seemed to be zero notice at all that someone had stepped out of their office only to shut it again. No, her eyes were busy taking in the mass amount of papers that she had tossed onto the floor and rolling her eyes at it.
The gum she was chewing made another loud popping noise before she turned around at the sudden sound of a cough and then a voice that seemed to be directed her way. At first she was tempted to ignore the calling, but that would be rude and the chances were high that this was a professor whom she would have to deal with at a later date. She turned her body around, stepping on some of the papers that happened to be surrounding her feet at the time. Most probably would have taken the sunglasses off, but she kinda liked the way they clouded the world over so she didn't have to take everything in directly.
Instead of being overly rude, she tilted her head slightly, looking at the man who stood there... he would be one of the professors who was older then she was, not by a lot though, he didn't appear to be that far along aged. She stopped blowing bubbles with the gum and took a few steps closer to get herself out of the middle of all the scattered paperwork.
"Well not particularly, these papers on the floor are unnecessary, I was simply separating them from the papers that it would be alright to keep" Her voice was clear and light, probably not something you would expect from someone who looked much like herself.
Her eyes were taking him in, wondering about the type of person he was since it was probably important to learn a little something about the people she would be having to work with from now on... still, sometimes it was difficult for her be overly friendly considering that she was more used to being an observer then being someone who was part of the crowd or conversation.
Once she was satisfied that she knew his face and would be able to tell him apart from the students at the College, her eyes flickered over to yet another row of papers that were sitting on a table next to were the others had been. Most likely they had all come from the same place so she stepped softly over to the table and picked up a couple of pages, why on earth did anyone want to keep all this mess around. These papers weren't needed, and there was no reason for them to be stacked here so again, more papers began to flutter to the ground as she discarded them. Of course she wondered if this professor had an issue with her doing such. It wasn't like she had told him who she was and by looking at her, you certainly wouldn't assume that she was the new Dean of the school. No if anything, she just looked like trouble, someone who had a problem with papers from the looks of things.
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Post by Haldor Ergos on Nov 14, 2013 20:59:38 GMT -5
Haldor blinked, not sure if he was surprised, should be surprised or could be surprised at all, but it was an interesting thought nonetheless. Still, he felt the prickling sensation of eyes drifting over him, eyes hidden behind … sunglasses?
Sunglass. Inside? Interesting? Vampire? Pale skin. Black clothes. Would not be surprising. Fangs? Probably not? Did she bite? Maybe. Interesting face. More interesting voice. Brain needs to find better word than ‘interesting’. Intriguing? Better. More curious. Voice. Clear, like glass. Out of place? Possibly for her height. Tenor? Possibly? Ack!
He was not quite sure if he said that “Ack!” was in his head or not. In the brief few seconds whilst he had been caught over up in his own thoughts, she had walked over to the table and begun picking … up … papers. That … well, that was not a good thing. Whilst he was a specialist in organised chaos, it only really worked if things stayed exactly where they were. Of course, were he to be ‘neat’ and stack all his paperwork in a pile he could not tell you what was in that stack even with a list, but having it spread out in such a way meant that he could tell you the location of any single work or piece in the room in a heartbeat … and now she was screwing with the order … well, the chaos, but you get the point.
She had discarded Grey’s ‘Treatise on Shuffling’ apparently in favor of Raub’s ‘The Paradox of Dead Draws’, that still lay on the table untouched, which to be honest was in his professional opinion was something tantamount almost to heresy. There was a mild buzzing sensation at the 72nd degree angle in his brain near the front that was miffed but he ignored it. A small part of his Soul almost seemed to wither as a large amount of paperwork hit the floor, scattering like dead leaves. He blinked several times and had to resist the urge to pinch himself to make sure that he was not still dreaming. He took an anxious step forward, not quite what to say but at the same time desperate to defend the chaotic system he had implemented and that was currently being viciously torn apart.
“Errr … errr … Query: Are you a student, professor, alumni, spouse or just some force from my Id come to disrupt the carefully arranged system I have, ‘had’ in place … or have I just fallen asleep on the floor of my office again?” He spoke in the voice of somewhere deeply unsure of the Reality he was seeing before his eyes, not disbelieving, but just unsure, like the first Pigeon to discover that Cats can fly.
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Post by Raven Moonfire on Nov 14, 2013 21:27:02 GMT -5
It wasn't long before she was once again chewing her bubble gum as sh kept looking through the mess of papers. It was taking up a lot of room here, why was all of this craziness just out here like this? More importantly who would be crazy enough to sit and go through all of these papers? There were a lot of papers and she certainly wouldn't want to go through them all, that would just be boring and take up way too much time in her general opinion.
In the back of her mind she took not of the fact that the gentleman wasn't leaving, he was standing there and he was watching her... perhaps he did think that she was mad or perhaps it was that he was too surprised by her to really do anything other then to watch her make a huge mess of the room. Either way, it wasn't long before it seemed that he was finally going to confront her and say something what she was doing or who she even was, though his guesses were mostly off base. She was indeed a professor, but that wasn't all she was here to do. Finally, turning back around to the young man once again, sh stood there with her left hand on her hip, her slender frame standing straight as she looked at him yet again. Well he wasn't annoying, that was something in his favor that kept her from ignoring his words. She a careful ease, she slipped off her sunglasses and met his eyes finally,
"My name is Raven, and I am not something you are dreaming while you are asleep. Very much alive and here before you. I take it you are a professor though since you say that you have an office here."
Once again, her voice is soft, with her outwards manners and way of speaking, one would really expect her to be the type to wear dresses or bright colors... something that was just so very different from the woman who happened to be standing there. Raven smiled slightly, more likely a small twitch of the corner of her lips. Judging from the look on his face and the aura about him, she had a good feeling that perhaps he was the one who had been crazy enough to take on all of these papers. She didn't see him as the type to outwardly throw a fit about what she was doing, not whenever he wasn't already yelling at her for the mess she had created and not saying who she was before now. Perhaps he let his anger brew or perhaps... like herself.... he was completely different inside from what he showed on the surface.
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Post by Haldor Ergos on Nov 16, 2013 22:23:22 GMT -5
Haldor felt a tinge of something he could quite not remember, but then rapidly forgot about it “Nevermore” or something like that. Sanity, like any other measure, only existed in relevance to something else, and was therefore so long as you did not stand him next to anything else he was perfectly sane, not that he had ever been tested.
His mind grasped vaguely at the dissonance between his ears and his eyes. Something felt … well, off so to speak, but he could not quite put his finger on it, although that might in itself be due to his lack of close exposure to the opposite sex which to be honest was his own fault, not that he would ever admit that to himself of course. Instead, he focussed his attention on trying to formulate a response to her question rather than avoiding it.
“Yes, yes, yes?, Yes!?, Yes, Yes I am one of the Professors, well I haven’t been here as long as some of the other staff who I haven’t had the erstwhile pleasure of meeting yet, but I guess I still qualify for the title of ‘Professor’ by default since it appears to come with the job, although I confess I don’t have a Ph.D so whether or not I merit the title I suppose we’ll have to find out, although if they judge it by weight of paperwork produced I can assure you that I’m second to none but Alexandria.”
He spoke with the distinct air of awkwardness of someone slightly nervous yet reasonably sure of himself, which he was … or at least he thought that he knew that he definitely was, and so long as he believed himself and that he was telling the truth he had no reason to doubt that fact, but then again he took even his own internal commentary with a pinch of salt sometimes, even if just to make sure he was actually paying attention to the thoughts that spent half their time in his brain and the other half of the time trying to force their way out of his mouth. He rubbed the back of his neck in a somewhat apologetic nature, mostly for the verbose waffling but with a small amount reserved for anything he was going to say in future.
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Post by Raven Moonfire on Nov 16, 2013 23:19:00 GMT -5
Raven was watching him, appearing to be perfectly calm and collected on the outside. Her eyes steady on his person as she continued chewing her gum and occasionally popping bubbles. On the inside was a slightly different matter, her mind had been wandering a bit as he confirmed what she had already known about him. Well who else would be here in the professors lounge other then another professor... but then again he didn't know who she was and from her behavior she could have been anyone.
"Alexandria?" Her head tilted slightly, at least she was studying him instead of tossing more of the papers on the floor. A slight smile touched her lips as she thought about how amusing he might turn out to be.
"hmm, well I am a professor as well, though I am also the Dean apparently. It's nice to meet you"
Being polite was probably the best way to go since he seemed nervous? Unsure? Raven honestly didn't know what to make of him. The way he spoke and how he approached her, she would assume he was nervous talking to her.... but then some people were different and had their own ways of talking to people so perhaps it was something else entirely. She was twirling her sunglasses around in her hand, appearing as calm and collected as ever, though she should have been more nervous then this. Raven was used to talking with her family back in Egypt, but she didn't have too many other conversations with people. She was somewhat wondering how long she would keep herself collected here before she slipped up and showed her real self.
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Post by Haldor Ergos on Nov 17, 2013 20:27:04 GMT -5
Dean … Dean … as in ‘big important person’-type Dean? … gut gemacht du arschloch, way to make yourself sound like a nutcase, she’s standing there twirling her sunglasses like she is invincible and you’re steadily making yourself look like you deserve a padded cell than a desk.
Haldor ignored the snide commentary of his internal monologue and focussed on the more pertinent part of her statement, that is to say, that was not only the Dean, but also to be a Professor as well, this was interesting. An interesting combination that in itself raised a number of equally more interesting questions.
“It is a pleasure to meet you , Miss Raven, I’ll be in your care-” he inclined his slightly respectfully “-I look forward to working with you, beside you and against you in the eternal battle against Students, Paperwork and Budgetary Restraints, and you certainly appear to have a handle on the second one without doubt.” Was that a joke? Oh how brilliant! Would you like ice-cream with that waffle?
“If I may be so bold as to ask, on what subject will you be enlightening us and our students with?” The nerves had somewhat vanished now that he had managed to get himself into the ‘flow’ of conversation, and instead he felt the burning sensation of interest somewhere in his chest, information after all was a commodity, however learning was something else entirely different and sparked a much brighter flame. After all, where else is better to learn than surrounded by one’s peers? … relatively speaking of course.
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Post by Raven Moonfire on Nov 17, 2013 21:31:43 GMT -5
Raven continued to observe him as she stopped spinning the glasses around. She glanced back at the papers though she did nothing with them, instead she pulled out the chair from behind her and spun it around so that she could take a seat. Once she was comfortable, her eyes rose up once more to look at the young man standing there before her. He had yet to give his name, but she thought that mentioning it might get him nervous again... his speech had improved a little and she didn't want to throw that off now.
"You don't have to call me Miss, actually I insist on it. Just call me Raven, that's all." He was trying to joke was he? The corner of her lips lifted, giving him her own version of a smile. "Well I don't plan on doing much in regards to paperwork other then maybe tossing out a bunch of the stuff in the office. I don't really know what the last Dean was thinking, but there's a ton of it that isn't even needed."
As she was sitting there, Raven crossed her legs, resting her chin on the palm of her hand while looking at him with a thoughtful expression "Though I would be happy to have help with the papers, as well as the students and whatever else needs to be done around here."
Raven actually smiled, more then just a twitch like she had been doing, no this time it almost looked genuine, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. Her eyes were still very much calm and collected as she sat back a bit, thinking about how all of this was going to work out. She really didn't care for doing too much work, and she was fairly sure they wouldn't do anything to her if she slacked off at the college, not when they needed her here. Still, she couldn't entirely shove all the work onto someone else, this woman was responsible enough to know better then that. Her mind had to come back to things at hand as she realized that he had asked a question of her.
"I'm going to be teaching History, I've studied a lot of cultures so I guess that it fits me well enough. We'll see how well it goes."
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Post by Haldor Ergos on Nov 21, 2013 21:25:26 GMT -5
“Ah History, excellent. A solid, all-round subject that can get you any job in the world, although I’m sure it must be quite depressing having to teach centuries of masculine ineptitude and stupidity spiked copiously with religion and politics. I must come and watch one of your lectures sometime, History is fun, unless you are Marx, in which case History is boring and repetitive, but he has been dead a long time so I suppose he does not have any right to complain.”
Haldor liked History. Or rather, he liked to enjoy History, or rather, he liked to enjoy lots of things, by most of them inevitably lead back to History … or English. Maybe in a few years he would go back and take another Degree, it was a rough idea that was something that he had on the back burner in his mind until he had actually done something with his life first.
“I myself have been shackled with the teaching of Deck Construction. A tedious and unappreciated art that is absolutely useless in the real world, so I entertain myself by splicing it with Philosophy and therefore pretending to give some sort of meaning to my existence as a member of staff, since otherwise I would have no purpose here seeing as everyone that comes here should already know how to make a Deck, so in a sense my job is ‘refinement and criticism’ over ‘construction’, but then again ‘Deck Criticism and Refinement Professor’ is a bit of an overblown title and has far too many words to fit on my lanyard, so I suppose I must just make do for now.”
Was he serious? Technically. Well, not being serious would in turn imply that he was not being truthful, and he was, but it was a much more elegant and elaborated philosophical truth rather than an empirical one, plus he liked playing with words and once you start doing that the truth of anything becomes almost impossible to find out, thankfully. Realising he was talking perhaps a little too much, he drove the topic of conversation onto something a little more present.
“So … Raven, I suppose I’ll be the first to say welcome to the paperwork Madhouse-” It felt weird using someone’s first name … unless her surname was ‘Raven’, but it felt like a first name and he had been raised to be formal so it was not surprising it felt uncanny. He made an open-armed gesture at the room around them. “-Although I confess a significant and proportionate percentage of it is more than likely my own … paperwork has a queer habit of wandering off around here though, I wouldn’t recommend leaving anything lying around unless you can afford to lose it or have a spare copy of it somewhere, not even in your office, not unless you want to spend several hours digging through here only to find half of it and nothing else.”
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Post by Raven Moonfire on Nov 22, 2013 16:11:25 GMT -5
"I guess it can get you just about any job, after all it's part of what got me this job here at the College... It would seem that being the Dean was just an extra role that they thought might interest me along with their offer. Though I do love history, it's an interesting topic and you can learn from it if you pay enough attention."
Her smile faded slightly, history was the one thing that she did enjoy and even that wasn't enough for her because her sister seemed to know even more. Her sister always seemed to be one step ahead of her and showed her up without even trying. Raven knew it wasn't done on purpose, but that didn't stop her from being angry that she always seemed to come in second place. She smiled as normally as she could, letting her thoughts get back to the present.
"I wouldn't say that it's an unappreciated job... sure there might be some students who come in and know what they are doing, but I bet you'll be a big help to those who are coming here without any knowledge of dueling, or who are perhaps having trouble creating a deck for the first time."
Up until now, Raven had been playing it cool, which was something that she often did with strangers. The rational part of her brain though was telling her that she would have to be working with this man and the other professors for some while and perhaps she needed to work on being a bit more friendly towards them if she wanted for things to go smoothly.... at least she needed to make it appear that way, Raven didn't have to actually care at all. Not that she was a cold person normally, she just had difficulty being friends all that quickly.
"Well thank you, this is definitely a mad house from what I can see. My office had a ton of papers that I already had them clear out anything that wasn't crucial to the college... and then I came out here to find all these other stacks of papers, which seems to be your doing. I was wondering who would have all of these out here. Oh well, it's not really a bad thing, but there's no need for you to have to store all of these when most of it is completely unneeded."
She started blowing bubbles with her gum again, putting her sunglasses back on. All of the lights in here were giving her a headache so she needed to go back to shielding her eyes once again. Raven kicked at a couple of the papers that were on the floor, oh she had every intention of tossing these out, and she wondered if he would have an issue with that at all.
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