398/The Raven and the Hummingbird

From United Heroes MUSH
Jump to navigation Jump to search
The Raven and the Hummingbird
Date of Scene: 13 May 2017
Location: Unknown
Synopsis: Summary needed
Cast of Characters: 285, Raven




Alexa (285) has posed:
    Alejandra is a figure who attracts notice when the students first begin to file into her new class on the morning of May the 13th, 2025. This crowd is early but they have nothing better to od apparently. First of all, on a dour day filled with clouds and spurts of rain hers is the only class in which the sun is shining through the windows. It's a noticeable change from th gloom and dull elecric lighting of the other classrooms. Her room itself is decorated in a variety of colours, fromrainbow charts to a blue wallpaper adorned with the occasional pink birds to accent and other such odds and ends. It somehow manages to go the relatively low key route of keeping the colors central to the theme withotu overpowering anything around them.

    Alejandra herself is a vision. Five foot five with the tanned, slightly dusky skin tone of a spaniard and flowing brunette lock that frame her oval face and wide green eyes. She is slender with a curvaceous figure, moving like someone who is unfamiliar with hard physical labor while still maintianing both decorum and grace as easily as she is moving. Leja wears a blowing blue dress that accents both her eyes and her hair and has the brunette tresses she wears tied away from her face with a matching deep blue ribbon. She hums as she moves about, pushing posters into place and arranging books on shelves.

    Alejandra, the Spaniard, teaches English, among other things. Because of course she does.

Raven has posed:
    Rachel is early, but not by much. She shows up a few seconds before the bell rings, walking stolidly and with purpose, her black combat boots clomping hollowly on the floor. She wears a black tee and black cargo jeans, both with long, horizontal rips in them that reveal pale skin and the black criss-cross of fishnet; her eyes are violet and her black hair is short. She wears a pyramid-cut red gem in the center of her forehead, but a woman might notice that's the only accessory she wears: no rings, no earrings, no bracelet of belt or scarf. It might make you wonder if ripped clothes are a fashion choice or if they're just all she has to work with; but then again, she does walk like a Terminator, so maybe it's by choice. Who knows. She has black lipstick, anyway.
    Rachel takes her seat, middle row, aisle nearest the door, away from the windows and any sunlight they'd threaten to let in on a normal day. She rests both hands on top of her desk, palms down, fingers together, and regards you impassively as she waits for class to begin.

Alexa (285) has posed:
    Alejandra looks up from her desk, which had flitted to as easily as dancing, her footsteps light and cheerful as she hummed away the last moments of her free time. She is bent forward over the large, wooden affair, adjusting what appears to be a photo frame. Only now those green eyes are being settled onto Raven. Alexa blinks once first and then tilts her head slightly, pursing full red lips as she considers the girl currently displayed in front of her for a long moment. Then she takes a deeep breath and nods once, tilting her head slightly as she does.
    Other than the ribbon the keen eyed would note there is a slender chain about Alejandra's neck which pesumably carries additional accoutrement. There are also a few rings, small with varying coloured stones, adorning her finger. She does not seem bothered by black lipsick in the mean time. The bell begins to ring and Leja claps her hands once, raising them in broad gestures. She lifts her left hand and presents one of the rings and a wave of brown light flows from it. It seems to fill the air for a moemnt and then begins to sweep about, moving past the shelves and desks to pass out a series of textbooks. Look. Literature.
    "My name is Alejandra Maria Navarre y Reyes." Leja does not really look up as the chalk writes out the name behind her. She takes a deep breath. Slowly. "Extra credit to whomever can remember my full name at the end of class." The name is erased, abruptly. "Alejandra Navarre. Ms. Navarre. Leja, to those of you who can pronounce spanish. Alexa to everyone else. I don't believe in requiring aforaml title. Not for osmething like Literature.
    "The lesson plan left for today suggests that we should be learning Bronte. Emily, not Charlotte. Have any of you read anything by her?" She has the rich Spanish accent, like she just arrived here. Her english, however, is utterly perfect.

Raven has posed:
    Rachel doesn't really need extra credit--she speaks a dozen languages, and English is one of them--but it never hurts to have something to show the headmistress. Her ajna turns its gaze inward and goes to her mindscape, to the void of her mind inside the howling light of her soul. She drifts down to one of the rocky paths that twist impossibly through the inner space and creates a lightpost at one of the sharper, dogleg curves; she gives it a brown light. There. That should lock the memory in place. She examines it critically to be sure, then notices the stars (or what passes for them, in this metaphorical scape), which should be fixed firmly in place by the discipline she maintains every minute of the day, have picked up a minute tremble. So, she's having a reaction to something.
    Rachel doesn't need to go looking for other mnemonic triggers to guess what. It was that deep breath Ms. Navarre took. Even in her mindscape, she can still feel the little flutter of her pulse.
    "That's enough," she informs her mind, but calmly. The tone of her voice does more to quiet the stars than the actual words do. "This can happen, but it will happen under my control."
    With that warning imparted, Rachel slips out of her own head to regard you. The amount of time that's passed is so little it doesn't look weird when she shakes her head slightly in answer to your question.

Alexa (285) has posed:
    Alejandra takes another breath, her chest swelling to fill out her dress in ways that might well attract the eye. If she notices your meditation and memorization of her name the Spaniard gives no indication for she soon returns to the lesson at hand. "I didn't really expect anyone would have," she notes briskly, speaking with her hands in tight, controlled gestures as she paces. Leja isn't Sicilian; she doesn't need an additional personal space bubble for her gestures.
    "Today's assignment is going to be from 'Wuthering Heights'. It's one of my personal favourites actually and I am curious to see what you think of it." Alexa smiled at you at that, specifically. it almost certainly isn't a figment of your imagination, green eyes studying your featrues intently for a second. Then she moves on.
    The class is more introduction and assignment thanactual work and it passes by quickly, leaving Leja to erase the chalkboard by hand while the room goes about cleaning itself up.

Raven has posed:
    Rachel's eyes stay on you throughout the class. They have a way of darting from place to place on you, rapidly and seemingly at random. If it's meant to be flirtatious, then it's a bad job, because it's more reminiscent of the way a bird cocks its head from side to side than it is of anything romantic. Still, she is paying serious attention to you, and when the class ends, she lingers behind a moment before approaching you. "Aleja," she greets in a flat tone, with a voice that creaks like a door opening in a haunted house. "What do you like about Wuthering Heights?"

Alexa (285) has posed:
    "Because it isn't a romance," Leja responds quietly, tilting her head slightly as she does. The teacher lets that thought sit for a second, her green eyes wide when they latch onto yours and moves slowly closer with long strides, laden with purpose. Her voice is soft but firm, carrying easily through the room regardless of the volume. Right now, of course, it is getting softer as others depart. "It's a book that explores a powerful, destructive codependent relationship between two people who are obsessed. It's- like a dreamscape. Confused, surreal, almost hazy in how the world is portrayed.
    For example," Alejandra pauses, lifting her left index finger. "Their names. Linton Heathcliff, Heathcliff. Catherine Linton. Catherine Earnshaw... Isabella Linton." A beat. "They all start to blend together after awhile. Which is the point. The individuals are less important than the sense that this is a neverending world, flipping on its axis, never steady. I've always found it fascinating given the stark realism of its contemporary literature." She pauses then, tilting her head, and forcing a soft laugh. "I'm sorry. That's probably far more than you ever wanted to know about it, hmm?"

Raven has posed:
    Rachel shakes her head: left, center, right, center. "No, it's good to know. I know there are rules to reading fiction, but I've never read fiction, so now I know what to look for. Thanks." Your throat does...interesting things when you laugh. Rachel watches, enjoys, then forces that feeling away. "Why do you say it's not a romance? Because people think it is?"

Alexa (285) has posed:
    "Because people think it is, and keep interpreting it that way. And because too many things are that shouldn't be," Alexa resplies softly, still watching you with the gentle attention of someone whose mind is fully in the coversation. She takes another of those slow, deep breaths. Carefully. "People think there has to be romance in everything but life- isn't romantic. Sometimes you get lucky and something happens which is but even the most romantic gestures usually have something behind them. And it's okay. The world is a huge placeand everyone has different goals and motives. Perhaps people should embrace that more, and make their true romances more meaningful."

Raven has posed:
    "Are you a mind-reader?" Rachel asks, bluntly. Her body language isn't closed off--her arms aren't folded, or anything--but the question sure is direct.

Alexa (285) has posed:
"I'm not reading yours now, if that is what you mean," Alejandra responds quietly, blinking those wide eyes of hers just once. Her own body languge is inviting, if anything. Warm. Accepting of Rachel's blunt manner. "I don't really need to."

Raven has posed:
    Well that's interesting. Curiosity isn't the hardest emotion to beat back (surprise is), but it's one of the most seductive to indulge, and hints of it show in the way her head cocks ever so slightly, revealing a little curve of her throat in a subtly, primally open piece of body language. "Yeah? Let's hear it."

Alexa (285) has posed:
    "You're attracted to me. you're trying to control it and you're succceeding, but you're not enitrely sure how well. You want to learn more." Alejandra shifts forward evr so slightly as hse speaks, her rich mezzo soprano taking on a smoky, darkly seductive quality as she does. She's speaking in a whisper now, perhaps a hair closer than is completely polite without being outright invasive. "Do your eally want me to keep going?" She asks gently, canting her head slightly as she does. "And to answer your question, if I really wanted to I probably could. ready our mind, that is. But I am not going to do so over an English class."

Raven has posed:
    You surprise Rachel, but there is a deep reserve of calm in this girl, and she recovers quickly. It shows in no more than the slight raising of her eyebrows. "No, keep going," she invites. "This is interesting."

Alexa (285) has posed:
    "You feel as though you're being manipulated. Which isn't wholly inaccurate," Leja notes, licking her lips. "The truth is, it's not quite routine but it's close." She draws herself back to her full height and shifts back slightly, offering a bright smile. "The point is to gather someone's attention so they listen to you when you speak. I'm explaining because I don't wish you to feel as though all I am doing is trying to control you." Another slow, deep breath. Leja's eyes are incredibly intense while they study your own. "And, clealy, you would like something from me. Would you be willing to share what it is?" Then she pauses and notes, I'm still practicing the mindreading without a spell aspect of things." She winks once, to at that."

Raven has posed:
    Rachel nods at your admission; 'I know that,' her body language says. She watches you draw back, and takes a deliberate step forward, matching your retreat. Sauce for the gander! "Sure, I can share," she says...then turns away. "But I have to get to my next class." She's amused by this. "So you'll have to catch up with me on campus or something. Thanks for telling me about the book."