Players:
Summary: Rashmi meets the Supernatural Studies teacher, Aethelwyne.
Date: August 30, 2010
Log Title: A World of Difference
Rating: August 30, 2010
Barnes Academy - Cafeteria
A large open space with dozens of tables is attached to a kitchen module and a few freezer bays. Trained chefs prepare nutritionally balanced meals for staff and students here that is usually actually pretty tasty and after hours, there is an a la carte fridge with glass doors open to all. The cafeteria is even equipped to handle non-traditional metabolisms and there is even a small private dining module towards the back for staff dinners, guests of the teachers or for use by students with dietary requirements that might disturb others. The entire ceiling is a dome of transparent material and full-spectrum lighting gives the whole space a pleasant, sunny atmosphere, bolstered by the video monitors on the walls showing various live land and sea scapes.
People talk and word has gotten around that there is a Supernatural teacher about and rumours have it that she's an actual fairy. So sitting down at one of the tables is said fairy, and it's obvious. Bright red hair cascades down a bit past her shoulders and she's got two large wings that sprout from her back. She's dressed and a flowing green dress and her feet are bare. She's enjoying her breakfast of bread with honey, a variety of fruits and tea that's a bit on the sweet side. She doesn't seem to notice the student walking up behind her to try to feel her wings on a dare.
"Hey," comes a sharp whipcrack of a voice behind the student in question, its owner a slightly frowning Hindi girl with long, coppery red hair, holding a tray heaped with rice and cold curry, "c'mon. How would you like it if someone just came up and grabbed your ears, huh? Besides, it's *usually* polite to say hellop first, you know?"
Turning with a slice of honeydew melon in her figers, silverware is overrated, Aethelwyne smiles. "You should have let him touch my wings dearie, it wouldn't have bothered me, besides, I think grabbing his ears in return would have been fun." She smiles at the student while taking a bite of her fruit and speechlessly he scurries off. "So you." She says to Rashmi. "Come sit, eat, be merry and let me know why you decided to stop him with such force behind your words."
Rashmi has the good grace to flush, ducking her head and slipping into a seat at the fae's table. "Um… sorry, Professor… It's just, it's not polite at *all,* you know? If he'd just asked, it would have been different, and…" She shrugs a bit, poking at her rice with a fork. "It's nothing, I guess… I'll apologize to him as soon as I can."
Aethelwyne smiles at Rashmi. "Please, don't worry so much about it dearie, and you can call me Aethelwyne. Professor just sounds oh so boring, dull and stuffy. But I don't he realized that it's a way we flirt with eachother, sneaking up and grabing eachother's wings so maybe it's a good thing you stopped him. Otherwise I would have thought the lad to be sweet on me." She then looks at what Rashmi's eating. "What is that, it seems to have such a variety of spices and flavours about it."
Rashmi chuckles a bit at the thought, imagining the student's reaction to being told this little nugget of information, and looks down at her plate. "Oh, this? Um… Lamb curry, actually. I guess there was a lot left over from yesterday, and I was out of town visiting some friends, so I was hoping he hadn't gotten rid of it. It's actually pretty good cold, but um…" She steals a glance at Aethelwyne's rather spartan breakfast, and coughs, "I don't think you'd like to try any, since it's got meat. But I can look up some vegetarian recipes, if you'd like to try sometime?"
"What ever caused you to assume I don't eat meat? Sure I prefer the sweater foods of life but just because I prefer fruits, cheeses, honeys and bread doesn't mean I don't enjoy a good pheasant once in a while." Aethelwyne will eat meat more on special occasions when there is a party or festival but everyday life she prefers sweet things. "So, I didn't get your name."
Rashmi flushes again. "Well… Probably because I don't exactly know a whole lot about, um… well, faerie things. But I guess that's just another reason to look forward to your class, right? Oh… right. Um. Rashmi Franklin, Pro—ehm. Aethelwyne. It *is* good to meet you, too, ever since I saw your class on offer I've sort of been hoping to meet you."
Aethelwyne puts out a hand and smiles. "A pleasure to meet you Rashmi Franklin. I just hope the classes aren't too boring but this is my first time teaching." But then it's mostly going to be her sharing what she knows of Otherworld and the other crazy things out there. "Not a lot of people do know about Faeries and even Avalon, they believe it all to be myths but since there seems to be extrodinary humans, like yourself, emerging I thought it would be a good idea to share what we know."
Rashmi bobs her head, reaching out to take the offered hand and squeeze lightly. "You too, very much. And I'm really glad to hear that, actually… I mean, after the whole demon thing that happened in January… and the work I'm doing with Ms. Walters, honestly… I figure it's probably a good idea to learn as much as I can about, um… your side of the world, I guess you could say?"
"Yes…with Limbo. A place I have zero desire to visit." No hell for Aethelwyne, that sounds positivly wretched. "I am not sure who this Ms. Walters is but it always a good idea to learn as much as you can. I worked with MI-13 for a short stint to assist them in the ways that I could. Have you ever heard of MI-13? I do not believe they are that well known, kind of like this S.H.I.E.L.D."
Rashmi shakes her head. "Actually no, I never even knew about S.H.I.E.L.D. until a few months ago, when people started talking about this place. I'm guessing it's British though, since it's a Ministry department?"
"It's a special department that focuses on things not of this world and stuff that is super in nature so super natural, super powered and so fourth. After a bit I choose to come here and teach you the things most do not know." After all there is a lot of weird in this world that to Aethelwyne, is normal. "And yes, it is in England where the ties to Avalon are strongest. I can't get to Avalon from the United States."
Rashmi nods quietly, picking at her food as she takes this in. "That makes sense… I mean, since England's a lot older as a country, it probably takes a relatively long time for whatever connections to settle in." Looking up, she tilts her head slightly. "Is it uncomfortable, being so far away from your home? Or is it sort of, just like you need to make another stop on the airliners?"
Aethelwyne thinks of how to describe going back home as it's not as far away as it seems. "Well…I wouldn't compare it to flying more, stepping through the correct doorway. You just have to know where the door is to go through it." Which is something she will be going over in her class, doorways and how they're not just doors to the next physical room over. "I don't find it uncomfortable, I find it exciting. I wouldn't do anything I didn't like. Discomfort is not a feeling I am very fond of. What about you, where are you from in this vast world?"
"Here in the City, actually," Rashmi replies, once done with her latest forkful of curry. "Downtown, just outside of Hell's Kitchen. Mami and Papi moved there from West Bengal, before they had me, so I'm the first born American in the family."
"I find the city here facinating though how do you live with so little plants and trees here?" That was one thing that always bothered Aethelwyne. "I hate not being surrounded by nature even being down here, under the water, was difficult but I think my room and classroom will be good by the time school starts in a week or whenever it does." She needs to be better with keeping track of dates.
"A little over a week," Rashmi supplies. "On the eighth. And we get by," she says of the earlier question, shrugging. "It's mostly just the effect of having so many people here, with so many needs. It's a lot prettier upstate, though, my last school was just off the lake, out in the country. You'd probably like it a lot better out there."
"Getting by, it sounds so horrid. Like we accept an awful situation because we have to. I woudln't be able to live without trees and plants and flowers and the music of the forest." Aethelwyne says as she loves nature but then she is a flower fairy or sorts. "But do you ever miss it? Nature?"
"Well," Rashmi says slowly, "remember, Pro—um. Aethelwyne… I was born in the City, so going out into the country's kind of a real treat for me, you know? Otherwise, I just go to Central Park or Battery Park if I want to sit under a tree and read or something… Or just enjoy being back at my high school when I go back there on weekends to help out."
Just because Rashmi states it the way she does, doesn't mean that Aethelwyne understands it but then they're from different world and they're differnt species. "So anyway, lack of nature aside, what kinds of things are you hoping to learn in my class?" This will help give her an idea of what to teach.
"Well, anything I can, really," Rashmi says, chuckling. "I mean, I don't know *anything* about the, um… Otherworld, you called it? So just how it works, and what kind of things we'd probably end up seeing here, maybe how to deal with them if they're dangerous at all? …And well *personally,* I'm majoring in Pre-Law, so I could probably really easily justify the class to myself if there was anything about the laws and rules over there, you know?"
"Laws and rules over there…" That might be a little tricky but Aethelwyne'll have to teach what she can. "Laws and rules work very differently over there than they do here. Otherworld I'll be teaching about, Limbo like you mentioned with the demons and about ghosts, banshees, ghouls and even other dimensions. There are countless dimensions out there." She says as she nibbles on a strawberry
Rashmi nods, pausing to finish off the last forkful of her rice, sitting back and sipping at her tea. "That makes sense… I mean I've seen a few already, since I work with Ms. Walters… Um. She-Hulk, is her other name, she does a lot of attorney work over at that big interdimentional law firm over at Times Square. But even just the place you come from, that'd probably be enough for anyone who's interested for now, right?"
"Ah I know of the She-Hulk. She is a big hero over here." Ms. Walters she doesn't know her as but then Aethelwyne is still getting to know the ropes here at Barnes and learn the information she needs to. "Yes but just like this dimension, Avalon is a small place in the grand scheme of things. Nothing wrong with small though, I like small. So what other dimensions have you seen and I'll see if I've heard of them.
"I, um…. Actually I really don't have any idea what they're called," Rashmi admits, ducking her head and blushing a bit. "Usually I'm too busy either being weirded out by the fact that I'm *in* another place, or that I'm in a flying car dodging floating rocks the size of houses, or getting used to the thing in my ear I get so I can take notes without my brain trying to cave in, or something."
Aethelwyne chuckles and finishes the last of her bread and honey. "Well next time you're going to another dimension, make sure you get the name. It could be a study in class one day. You're probably the only student that will be in the class that gets that oportunity." Since Aethelwyne is not going to risk taking students to another dimension for a field trip and if she was even to take them to Otherworld, Oberon might get a little pissed. "Most the focus will be on Otherworld though.
"Oh I will," Rashmi says, with the solemnity of the bookish type handed an extra credit assignment. "Definitely… And that's fine, I don't think I'm familiar at all with the Otherworld, so learning something new always works for me."
"You probably know a bit more than you realize and believe it as mythology." Aethelwyne explains a bit. "I'm sure you know of Excalibur and the Lady of the Lake. I've never met her but she resides in Avalon. Merlyn took King Arthur's body tehre and all of Camelot resides in Avalon. You're world likes to think of it as myths, legends and fantasy. For us, it's all real."
"*Seriously?*" Now Rashmi is hooked, perking up visibly in her seat. "That's *incredible!* Um… yeah okay, I'm *definitely* going to sign up now."
"Captain Brittan and his wife Meggan have great ties to Avalon as well and the reside there. It's an amazing place so different than this one but Avalon cannot exsit without this world." Aethelwyne loves it there but at the same times she loves being able to help humans. "Great, I'm glad to know I have at least one person though I'm told I should meet this Caleb fellow since his powers are all Mystic based. Something ghostly."
Rashmi's eyebrows rise. "Really? …Huh. I've met him, but I didn't know that," she muses, one shoulder lifting and falling. "…Of course, I guess I shouldn't be taking anything for granted really, since not everyone here's a mutant after all."
"I don't know much about him but I will confess I am a tinge curious, after all, he is from Ireland and there is a strong bond from Avalon there." Aethelwyne is curious to see where his powers came from. "Well I am sorry Rashmi but I must be on my way, I have to finish setting up my classroom before the school year starts. I look forward to having you in my class." She just hopes students don't mind sitting in the grass while they learn. She hates such a typical classroom environment.
Rashmi bobs her head, lifting her hand and grinning. "It's all right, it was *really* good to meet you too, and I can't wait for your class. Have a good day, all right?"
"Oh I will! You as well dear Rashmi!" Aethelwyne says as she walks out of the cafeteria with a sort of unintentional dance to her step.
