[DA] Offices

[bloodredvoodoo]

Offices
The Dark Academy

Students come from all over to study at the Dark Academy. It is here where they develop their minds, their powers and their values. Like all schools, the Academy provides a chance to meet new people and experience new things. As a boarding school it accommodates students with a dorm, meals and learning material. Geographically, the Dark Academy is found on a peninsula between the Framkta mountains and Channel. Getting here is tricky, the only ways being a dangerous voyage at sea, or the potentially risky situation that would ensue when passing by the Dark Fortress on the opposite side of the mountain.

On the first floor is the Main Office. Home to three Headmaster offices and two desks for two secretaries, this is the grouping of rooms that run the Dark Academy. It is here where unruly students are dealt with, where disciplinary actions are carried out, where private meetings are held. Behind the secretaries' desks are where the headmasters' offices reside. The one in the middle, located on a slant, is a door constructed out of solid Teak stained a dark red. A bit extravagant for the lady whose name was engraved on a silver plate hung on the door. Ms Rebakah DeLaurie. There was another identical door to the left and the right, each had their own silver plaques, reading 'Satilh Mooncaster' and 'Dorothy Higarashi' respectively.

Ms DeLaurie's Office

The room behind that middle blood colored door is exceptionally clean. Everything has it's place. Papers are stacked in straight piles, or, more likely, filed away to their appropriate places. Cabinets line the stone walls. On top of a couple are some metal bins, carrying all manner of things. No tapestries decorate the obsessively organized room, the walls are bare, excepting a wide window behind the large teak desk. This serves mainly to blind the person entering, to make the room even more imposing, to make the tall shape sitting at the large desk even more intimidating.

The floor is carpeted with a black rug. There are no holes, nor worn spots, for that would be unacceptable. All the woodwork is made from red-tinted teak, finely yet simply crafted. The whole room seemed to lean toward the sturdy desk where this Headmaster spent most of her time. In the drawer on her left were her writing materials. The lady always wrote in obsidian ink on plain paper. Her decisions were law in this place, and were written accordingly. The overall impression of this office was, in essence, so simple and unextravagant that it was intimidating.

Dorothy Higarashi's Office

The room behind the door on the right belongs to the Dark Miss Dorothy Higarashi. Everything is in an organized mess. Papers are in folders on the ground and books are backward on the bookshelf. Pens are stuck in multiple jars around the room and paperclips hang in chains from the ceiling.

On the left wall a bright picture of a rainbow has been shadowed with black and silver markers. Only a light effect of color left to show through. The deep red walls have absorbed a smell that is unknown to most. It is like that of lilies and roses. The desk is cluttered with only a small clean area for writing. Jars of multicolored dark inks surround the spot. Simply the room should be marked as a hazard.

Satilh Mooncaster's Office

To the left of Ms. DeLaurie’s neat office door sits a simple oak door; unembellished, save for the dungeon–like emotion hanging about it. Nailed to the center of the door is a dull silver plaque, reading “Satilh Mooncaster”, which is printed in equally unexciting letters. Upon reading this, one would promptly assume that Satilh must be a rather dreary person, and take their business to a different headmaster. This outcome, of course, is exactly what Satilh wants. In fact, no one, including his fellow headmasters, has ever seen the inside of his office, causing it to be a rather intriguing mystery to the students. About once a year, a particularly nosy student would try to break into his office, only to find that the door was enchanted with layers of complex locking spells. A few years back, however, an especially brilliant–minded pupil, on a bet, managed to overpower the spells and open the door. What he found was definitely not what he expected in the least. Behind the heavy oak door was a wall. A solid, stone wall. Rumors exploded through the hallways about the peculiar wall, and unfortunately for the student, Satilh easily tracked them to him. A week later, the boy left the academy, apparently finishing his schooling early.

Most of the rumors were utterly far from the truth, and ironically, it was the ones so implausible that no one believed them that were closest to reality. In fact, Satilh had never actually used the door; it was there only as a diversion. To get into his office, he teleported. As an extra precaution, Satilh made it so that to get in, one had to teleport exactly five inches in the air at a precise location, and only he knows where. Breaking into his office, therefore, was virtually impossible. But if one managed to, they would find themselves in the most stunning of places. His office is deceivingly vast, and instead of walls, there are endless plains of trees. To add to the forest atmosphere of his office, the very air smells strongly of pine, and instead of a floor, foliage and other vegetation drape the ground. One would easily mistake this place as an actual forest – if not for the fact it is completely silent. There were no birds signing to their heart’s consent, no wind whistling through the cool trees, and no gentle footsteps of animals treading to and fro. All the trees and vegetation are authentic, but not natural, for they were grown through Satilh’s earth manipulation ability. It took him years to perfect the room, to nurture each twig and each flower.

But a forest is not a forest without life, so Satilh is never quite at peace with himself. His office would remain a hauntingly true reflection of himself – seemingly endless and pitifully empty. It is a place for him to let his werewolf instincts run free, without worrying about being discovered; for behind the “stone wall” is a six inch thick layer of silver lining the perimeter of his office. One would wonder where Satilh gets all his work done in this tree filled office, as there is no visible desks or chairs. The answer is deceivingly obvious – he climbs a tree. There is nothing quite like sitting on a branch of a good-sized fir, and Satilh’s elven nature never stops it’s yearning for the forest, call him a treehugger if you wish. But, as Satilh has learned, only pain comes out of fighting your inner nature. Perhaps, one day, his forest will come alive again, and his heart will start beating once more. Perhaps, one day…

 

[Celestial Lullaby]

Ms Rebakah DeLaurie approached the office door, dread interlaced with every step she took. Another year, another bunch of troublesome idiots. And she had to greet them all. With a muffled sigh, Ms DeLaurie lifted her chin and continued to the door leading to the main office. Students would be here soon, and she, along with the two other headmasters, had to sit through every single one of them. Greetings, orientation, giving information- wasn't this what secretaries were for?

Rebakah placed her long-fingered hands on the door handle, using sheer force of will to move her wrist and twist open the door. The view of busy secretaries assaulted her vision. They were sorting through papers, stapling, signing, stamping. And a third of it was going into Ms DeLaurie's inbox. She would be very busy for the next couple weeks, and most of the stuff she was going to be doing was simple review. And signing.

Another heave of breath left the woman's chest. They needed more assistants. She passed by one of the two women manning the desks and slipped into her office. Before the rush of new students started barging through the wooden doors, she wanted to at least go over her work for the next couple days. Practically diving for the teak door in the middle, Ms Rebakah entered her own private office. She closed the door and turned her back on the busy women and entered the relative calm of her haven.

Proceeding to the large desk in front of the window, Ms DeLaurie plopped her small behind into the large elegant throne-like chair. Automatically, her routine started. First, check the papers in front of her for anything important. If not seems urgent, then review the school bulletin. Any memos are important too. Next come the letters: check for any important people. Let any others wait. Now sort through the list written while everything was checked off, a quick glance around the room for anything urgent, then begin from the beginning of the list. When the students began to file in, Rebakah would make her appearance. Now, what did her runner bring her about the war...  

[bloodredvoodoo]

Dorothy popped her head up from under a pile of papers, I know it's here somewhere. She dived back into the colorful pile and moments later came back up to the surface,"Found it!" She stood up and dusted herself off. I knew I put it in that pile, she thought as she stepped over piles of paper all over her office. She sat down at her desk and pushed bottles of ink over. She stared down at the paper, it was a simple crossword puzzle. She smiled and grabbed her ink pen and dripped it into a bottle of green ink. Roses? What kind of hint is roses? She looked up at the puzzle and counted the boxes for the letters. 7...7 letters....What can it be? The puzzle was only half complete but she had yet to figure out that single word and she worked on it everyday she could. She had about an hour before she had to start working and she wanted to use her time to her advantage.  

[false_fail]

Aeidric walked up to the school building's main entrance. It was far from grandiose, though to say it was inconspicuous would be a mistake. Aeidric felt a grin split his face; he liked it.
Pushing lightly on the door, he noticed as it swung opened silently and with ease. Fancy. he thought, then continued towards the first door he found. Best to explore every corner first...
A strong feeling of controlled chaos hit him like a rock. So hard, in fact, that he had to take a step back. There were several people behind this door, maybe six or seven, all working madly on something that needed to be done in a hurry. Aeidric placed an ear on the door and listened to the papers rustling away inside and smiled. Secretaries. Most definitely secretaries. Leaning away from the door, he lightly rested a hand on the handle and pushed, opening it slowly and quietly.
"Excuse me," he asked semi-loudly. "Could any of you tell me where the headmaster's office is?"
seven nods and glances told him all three of the doors at the back, so he stepped into a position that he was an equal distance from the outer two and slightly less from the center door.
"Eeny meeny miney mo." he joked quietly, then picked the one on his right. However, when he found a stone wall instead of an office, Aeidric could only laugh. The secretaries paid no attention to him, so he shut the door and went to the one on the far left. He peeked inside first to make sure it wasn't another wall, and knew that whoever was inside was concentrating on something. Putting his head in a little further, he observed the mess inside the room and deemed it possible that this school would be much more entertaining than he had previously hoped. He left that office, however, and stepped up to the third one. The silver plaque on the door read 'Ms. Rebakah DeLaurie'.
"Well, aside from the wall that is supposed to be Mooncaster and the mess that is Higarashi, I do hope that this office is a little more... orthodox." he said to himself. His hopes were fairly high; there was a firm feeling of mixed dread and expectation, as well as slight boredom from what must have been a usual routine. Shrugging, Aeidric knocked four times, then entered to find himself in the most imposing room he could think of.  

[Celestial Lullaby]

((Sorry it took so long, it took awhile to notice it, and then even longer to find the time to reply. And there are only two secretaries.))

Ms DeLaurie had been addressing her letter to her contact at the frontlines when four knocks shocked her from her pleasant routine. A secretary? No, the two manning their desks were working hard, shuffling paper and doing all those irking monotonous tasks that she so despised. Students then. They had come. Rebakah fixed her face into it's normal stern position and fixed her eyes on the teak door, folding her hands elegantly in her lap. Just in time for the door to open and reveal a student. Apparently, she seemed the most fitting for introductions. Damn Satilh and his wall. 'Twould be a fabulous tactic for herself, but it wasn't original, clean, or efficient. Gods knew someone had to take care of the colloquial life at this school.

Ms Rebakah's pitch eyes focused on a student, male, young, and stayed fixed. She stared for a few minutes before acknowledging him with a curt nod of her head, her dark hair making a satisfying swish sound. She thought briefly that she would have to tie it up, considering all the paper work there was to do. The headmaster was about to open her mouth and begin talking to the student, but a soft knock, followed by a mousy brown mess of hair peeking in, disturbed her. "Ma'am, there's some more applications to be reviewed." Rebakah nodded to her filing cabinet on the left side of the room, the secretary followed her direction and left the pile of papers on the surface to be reviewed by Ms DeLaurie when she had time.

After the short interruption, the door was once more firmly closed, and Rebakah finally began to talk to the student in her sharp, but curiously silky voice. "As you can see, we're quite busy. And I would appreciate," the way she said it seemed more like a demand." efficient cooperation. I need some information, try to refrain from babbling." The lady unfolded her hands and opened a drawer, drawing out a sheet of parchment. She laid it in front of her and then referred herself to a different drawer for a quill and black ink. Once she was set up, which didn't take much time at all, seeing how she was so adept at the procedure, she began to numerate the questions she needed answered. "Name, age and weapon of choice, which I will need to examine. After I have received adequate responses, I will award you with all you need for the first few days of school. Also, I will need the list of any classes you plan to participate in, so that you can be registered. You will receive your schedule sometime in the next day or two, via your dorm room. Any changes you would like made must go through one of our two secretaries first."  

[false_fail]

((*facepalm* my bad, wasn't really sure on the exact number sweatdrop ... oh, and sorry I haven't been on, I was in Italy, and they have absolute zero wifi no, but it was fun. Ima load bunches 'n' bunches of photos from that trip (I gots about 400 eek ))
Aeidric blinked, then rattled off the info somewhat automatically. He felt like he was signing up for the military. "Aeidric Streight, 19, I actually have two weapons, a broadsword and a dagger,as for classes I'd have to say Alchemy, Spells and Magick, Mathematics, and Fighting, of course." Reaching behind his head, as though to scratch his scalp, Aeidric instead gripped the bizarrely short handle of the broadsword that had remained hidden behind him from just about any forward angle, dislodging it from where his slightly extended shoulder blades, having supported wings in the past, had provided a most excellent location for the fairly massive weapon. While pulling this around carefully so as not to scratch anything, his left arm seemed to spasm, and the large silver knife shot out blade first, the guard of it catching on Aeidric's finger and spinning the blade intricately, the reflection of light on the near-mirror blade leaving a slight trail in the air. Setting the two weapons softly on the desk, so that they made absolutely zero noise, Aeidric stepped back and folded his hands behind his back. "Is there anything else?" he asked politely.  

[Celestial Lullaby]

Ms DeLaurie scribbled the answers to her questions on the form in brief, exact script. Once it was finished she placed her quill, made from a crow's feather, in it's small holder on her desk and folded her hands, interweaving her fingers together. Her long black nails were made strikingly obvious as they contrasted the pale tone of her skin. She sat quietly through Aeidric's... performance, holding her posture. As he placed them on her desk, having at least enough sense to make it quiet, Rebakah raised an arched brow and paused, letting the silence grow until it became slightly uncomfortable.

In a quietly scalding voice she pronounced her words carefully. "Showing off?" The slight question, not really a question at all, hung in the air a few moments before the woman broke it with a contained wave of her hand. "No matter." Ms Rebakah stood, unfolding her long limbs slowly, until she stood to the left of her chair displaying her full 6 feet, seven inches. Her black robes swirled around her feet as she came around her desk and picked up the broadsword, having seemingly no difficulty at handling such a large weapons.

Ms DeLaurie's fingers traced up and down the blade, examining it for faults and testing the edge with the pad of her thumb. A bead of blood pushed itself from her skin, surprisingly red. Some students still though her blood ran blue. She nodded ever so slightly and handed the sword back to the boy, hilt first, before picking up the smaller weapon. A crease of distaste fell between her brows. She had never liked suck weapons, small and concealable, much too dishonest. Still, she was supposed to be unbiased in her thoughts of students, and eventually handed the dagger to Aeidric as well.

The tall woman went to the filing cabinet on the right on the room and gathered a few sheets of papyrus from a couple different folders. She shuffled them around until they were organized before heading back to her desk, unlocking a drawer near the bottom with a twist of her wrist and a small mist of black magic, before drawing out a small pouch. Rebakah headed back over to the student and handed him the small pile, listing the contents.

"A map of the school, which some students seem to need, a basic timetable including meals and the basic schedule, your dorm slate (a chalkboard with a small piece of chalk attached) to write your name on and hang on the door, the key to dorm room 1, various papers accepting your admission to this academy and allowing your presence at certain places on campus. Hand the paper with your personalized details to one of the secretaries and they will take care of your schedule and will have it delivered to your room. Assuming the broadsword is your main combat weapon, you will be in the mid-range fighting class, with myself as your teacher. Professor Levesque will hold occasional classes with you to train you in Magic as well as Master Mooncaster for your short-range lessons. Your group is number two, if any request this. Are we well understood?"  

[false_fail]

"I wouldn't call it showing off, ma'am." Aeidric took the broadsword from Ms. DeLaurie after she examined it and clasped it between his shoulder blades again, trying to ignore the distasteful look the headmistress gave his knife. He had taken it from the very table the angels ate from, there was no reason for her to dislike it, unless it was her reflection... Aeidric banished this thought. He didn't know if the headmistress could read thoughts or not. Taking the knife from her when prompted, he pushed it blade-first into his sleeve, the the cold silver pressed against his skin, and felt the goosebumps of holding and hiding something that didn't belong to him, yet did. Taking the papers from the woman, he glanced over the map, memorizing it almost instantly, and hoped that he would have ample time to relax before his classes started. Then again, said time, if it existed, would be filled with the forms. A phrase from Ms. DeLaurie's explanation caught his attention. '... with myself as your teacher.' Aeidric tried not to stare at the woman. He knew a lot of things, but that the headmistress of a school taught a class, moreover a fighting class, surprised him somewhat. Maybe this school will be even more interesting than I previously thought... he wondered to himself, then nodded when Ms. DeLaurie stopped talking. "Name on the slate on the door to dorm room one, plus a declaration of admittance and policy/permissions acceptance form to be given to one of the two secretaries upon which time I shall receive my schedule that includes fighting class and, as your assumption is correct and my main weapon is my broadsword, Balor's Thorn, I will be taught by you in the mid-range class, group two. And Professor Levesque will hold occasional magick classes and Headmaster Mooncaster (sounds like a member of some Were clan) will be teaching short range. Right?" Aeidric took in a deep breath. That was a bad idea, the headmistress herself had told him not to babble. Idiot much?  

[Celestial Lullaby]

"I wouldn't call it showing off, ma'am." Much too lady-like to actually voice any noises of contempt, Ms DeLaurie kept her thoughts to herself, as well as her noises. She also tried to pass off his stares as just being another new student, feeling their way around her. More than once she had wished for telepathy to help her deal with this infants, and as soon as she caught herself wishing for it, found herself quickly reprimanding herself for such thoughts. Self-pity was not very high up on her to-do list.

Her first meeting with a student had been going well, smooth, efficient, bare of empty small talk...and then the boy started babbling. Not that she really minded too much, he was just summing up what she had just said, but it still added precious minutes onto their time together. She waited for him to finish, folding her arms gracefully over her chest, the sleeves of her robe falling to the crooks of her elbows, and remaining with her weight evenly distributed between her feet. As his blabbering came to a halt, she remarked darkly, "Repeating the conversation only makes it twice as long."

Ms Rebakah was about to motion for his dismissal when the door opened a crack and a head covered in black, mussy hair popped in. Soon a body followed, 6'3", lanky and slightly effeminate. Hands came up to the -probably- male figure to part the hair covering his face to reveal a childish face sporting a wide grin. His golden eyes sparkled with mischief as he sauntered in, wearing a black silk buttoned-down shirt tucked into dark jeans and serviceable black boots, and approached the headmistress.

Immediately Ms DeLaurie's face seemed to go even stonier, her pitch eyes hard as diamonds, her crossed arms became less bored and more hostile. Her voice came out tight and annoyed. "I'm with a student, Mr Levesque."

His grin only grew as he frolicked towards her. "I keep on telling you, it's Mariel." He turned on his heel and bent over slightly at the waist, leaning towards Aeidric. His fingers played with his chin as he seemed to consider the boy for a minute, before straightening up and giving him a sloppy salute. "But not to you, my boy! It'd be best you called me Professor, or else Rebakah here'd have my hide over breaching protocol and such-like.

"Ms DeLaurie." Rebakah ground out between clenched teeth. "And you don't have to introduce yourself, you've been teaching here for over five years, have your designated classroom, know your way around and I personally have your details engraved into my skull."

Mariel turned back to the woman who only slightly towered over him, pouted for a moment, and then began speaking in a childish, high pitched voice. "B-but I was just going to ask for an extension to my lab! I've been doing so many experiments lately that I've been running out of room for--"

Rebakah cut him off, him being the only person she would ever bother to interrupt. "No, I've already tolerated too many of your 'experiments'. You should be focusing on your students. Like Aeidric here. He will be in your Spells class, as well as holding a few combat classes with you." She had been hoping to change the subject, but a quick, excessively serious look passed between them, letting her know they had to talk later, apparently privately. Rebakah had a high tolerance for the gruesome and gory, but even so, sometimes Mariel could make her wince.

Mr Levesque turned once more to Aeidric. "Ah, a futur pupil, I look forward to teaching you. What exactly are you looking to learn? I have to know, you know, there isn't a set curriculum for magic, seeing how it's so diversified and suchlike." Ms DeLaurie put in her say as she deftly moved back to sit in her desk. "There is a curriculum, Mr Levesque, you just refuse to follow it. Also, your grammar is atrocious."

Mariel grinned at Aeidric. "I think we've just been dismissed." He draped an arm around the boy's shoulders and steered him from the room. As soon as the heavy door closed, his face broke out into an impossibly larger grin. "Such an amazing woman, that one, if only she'd show me the time of day. I could make it worth her while, if you know what I mean." Mariel winked at Aeidric and brushed at a stray hair that had fallen in front of his eyes during the exchange with Rebakah.  

[false_fail]

Aeidric was trying his best not to burst out laughing from the situation. Mr. Levesque sounded a little laid back, and that didn't hold well with someone who wanted to cram as much into his skull as possible. "Mr. Levesque, if you are serious about allowing the students select the areas of magic they wish to learn then I'd have to say you might just be the best teacher here if, and only if, you can keep them on that subject for a long enough period of time that they may actually learn how to control it. Although, I don't suppose you might know what someone like me would want to learn, would you?" Aeidric glanced at him sideways. This teacher was an interesting one, eccentric did the man no justice. Wonder if he's just pretending to be friendly or if he's really like this. The former would be cruel and the latter would be extremely sad. Pity not everyone is as smart as they need to be. "I don't suppose you might stop acting like you're my friend, would you? It's unnerving and uncomfortable, and that's with a normal adult." I'm going to be killed for my mouth, aren't I?  

[Celestial Lullaby]

Mariel blinked. Paused. Then burst out into a good natured chortle. "It appears I'm being criticized." Mariel straightened, removed his arm from Aeidric's shoulders and proceeded to run a hand through his already mussed hair. His posture straightened and his mouth finally fell into a good-natured line of boredom. His eyes retained their usual sparkle.

"I apologize, for what it's worth, about my attitude. I have been remarked upon my particularly twisted attitude on frequent occasions and have not yet bothered to fix it. If you would like to talk magic, and it sounds like you do, would you mind accompanying me to my classroom? It's a much better suited environment for academic purposes than this chaos." Mariel motioned loosely at the secretaries rushing about.

He pointed at the map in Aeidric's hands and a small red dot seeped into the paper. "Meet me here, I just have to go run some errands, and pick up a few books I think you may like, and at least one that is filled with possible study groups. I'll be there before you get there. It should be unlocked. And, I know it sounds terribly cliched,but," Mariel's eyes sparkled, "don't touch anything."

((If you want to head over to the [DA] Classes forum, my next post will be there, you can either respond here again or go there.. in the mean time I still gotta wright up his classroom description.))  

[false_fail]

((I figured as much. I'll be over there in a second))
Aeidric glanced up from the map to the professor. "Cliched, eh? I don't suppose that if I did something very bad could happen, would it?" The question was more of a statement. "I was hoping to drop some of my stuff in my dorm room before venturing elsewhere, so it wouldn't be surprising if you did get there before myself. However, I will see you there. Give me ten minutes." Aeidric walked to the door that he had entered not fifteen minutes before and stepped out of the secretaries' office, heading for the stairs. That guy, Levesque, has probably given the term 'eccentric' new meaning. Of course, that's not comparing him to Saint Michael, or even Gabriel, but still, he's somewhat... unstable, at first glance. I guess I should drop this paper off and then find his classroom. Should I even call it that? Chuckling lightly to himself, Aeidric started up the stairs.