Viridian Dreams Forum

"So you might possibly be paranoid enough?" Kirana asks cheerfully. "Impressive that."

"How paranoid is paranoid enough?"

"Well, there are several schools of thought on that. One is of course that it is impossible to be sufficiently paranoid. Another is that 'paranoid enough' is the level of paranoia that gives the highest chance of survival, but that is very difficult to calculate. The school of thought which holds that paranoia is inherently bad is often called 'the ones who will die first'. Between the extremes, where precisely the line of 'sufficiently paranoid' is drawn is mostly a matter of personal opinion," Kirana answers with a pleasant smile.

An Asian kid, one wearing a ripped leather jacket bearing his well muscled arms walked up to where Shawn was sitting, grabbed the last of the bacon off of his plate and stuffed it in his mouth. He then poured orange juice in Shawn's hair and said something in Chinese.

The girl tagging along behind him, in a modest pleated skirt and matching blouse translated helpfully. "He say 'no cut in line. This warning.' "

Shawn takes a deep breath and stands up to face them head on.
"Nín shānyáng zázhǒng zhū"

Shawn quickly takes out a knife in one hand and holds it right at the muscled boy's throat
"Tell your friend. That if you do that again. I will kill him."

Kirana stands as well, smile fading quickly into that same blank expression Ancell saw earlier. Only this time, the smile does not so soon return.
"Shawn," she says, tone flat instead of cheerful, "stop this foolishness. You began this altercation through your rudeness. The reaction may or may not have been excessive, but ultimately you are at fault, and your behavior is beyond merely excessive. Apologize, Shawn. Now."

"Ah, nice to meet you Nikola." She responded, before spotting a disturbance in the cafeteria.

Elizabeth stared at the escalating hostilities going on away from the group and then shook her head. It looked like it was going to devolve into a fight, but as she had no idea how to use magic, her physical abilities were abysmal and there was no school faculty in sight, it was out of her hands even if she wanted to get involved. She wondered what had happened as she could only faintly catch the distinctiveness of the English and Chinese being used over the clamor, not the words.

Shawn glances at Kirana briefly.
"....Fine."

He puts the knife away.

"Wǒ de dàoqiàn. My apologies." Shawn says stonily.

For having a knife next to his jugulear, the new kid didn't seem nearly concerned enough. "Zhè shì nǐ de zìyóu de jiàoxun, xiǎo gǒu shǐ. Zūnzhòng nǐ de gèng jiā, fǒuzé wǒ jiāng yá xiàn yǔ nǐ de yǒngqì." He shrugs, less showing he doesn't care, more like a boxer loosening up for a brawl. "Zhè shì zhèngquè de, ràng xiǎo nǚhái gàosu nǐ zěnme zuò. Hòutuì."

The girl tagging along behind him does not seem overly concerned, translating tonelessly "'you not wish fight me, little man. Teach respect." Her gaze sharpens for a moment, glaring at the boy for a heartbeat with annoyance and irritation. "This lesson for all." Then to her companion without taking her eyes off the table "Gòu le! Wǒmen jiāng shāo hòu fāyán. Zài chángdù."

A (very) slight bow from her and a distainful sniff from him and they turned and left.

"They're on the List."
Shawn leaves back to his apartment to try and get cleaned up.

Kirana calmly reseats herself before smiling apologetically at Benjamin.
"I am terribly sorry," she says. "It seems that today is not very peaceful."

Nik tenses as the scene unfolds, his heart pounding in his chest as he watches the chinese boy shake off having a knife held at his throat like it was nothing, muttering to himself.

"Kaj Za Vraga?"

What the hell kind of school is this?

He relaxes slightly as the two separate, but his smile is gone.

Elizabeth looked at Nikola with mild interest. "What language was that?"

Shannon watches the altecation with narrowed eyes before sighing as the Chinese boy leaves, "My hero" she says deadpan, before groaning slightly, "Am I the only one who doesn't speak a second language?"

"Well if it helps, I'm terrible at Korean." Elizabeth offered. "I can barely read or write."

Nikola pushes aside what just happened and concentrates on what is going on now.

Plenty of time to freak out later.

"Slovenian. I'm from Ljubljana, the capital. My English is only so good because my dad is from the USA. Otherwise I wouldn't either, Shannon. I don't think that boy could speak anything but Chinese either, so don't worry about it."

He gives her as reassuring a smile as he can.

oog: I hate you all. Nothing happens for days and then I miss all this. *sigh*

ig:

Greg yawns loudly as he walks into the dining area. He can be a morning person if he has to, it's just that he prefers not to be.

He snags a tray and loads it up with a banana, a few pieces of sausage, a couple donuts and a cup of coffee.

"Everyone's so tense." Greg says sleepily as he sits down next to Nik, acknowledging the atmosphere but apparently not really disturbed by it. The truth is that he's already made note of the exits and who might be a threat. Everyone is a possible danger, but one must prioritize.

OOG: Sorry spudman. XD

"Interesting. It seems this school is international, which brings up the question of how they get around the language barrier for assignments." Elizabeth pondered. "Well, I'm sure they must have some sort of solution. Perhaps how the classes are split is dependent on language."

She nods at the new arrival. "I'm Elizabeth Kim. There was a near fight earlier between two boys that's why."

"Greg Fisher. Wouldn't they have some kind of spell to translate? You ask for an explanation and they say a wizard did it or something." Greg laughs a little at his bad joke.

Elizabeth sighed. "That's probably going to be the answer isn't it?"

"Banana," Shannon mutters in approval. "There probably is a spell, but if you yell at someone in Chinese and have someone translate for you you seem much more important maybe, like 'here are my translation goons! Yes, I have goons' or maybe it's something you have to do for yourself and the spell is too advanced or from the wrong branch." She tilts her head and rests her chin on her hand, "A couple of near fights actually, welcome to the friendly table Greg. I'm Shannon, you know Nikola right? And this is Clara and Othello."

Greg nods at those introduced. "Othello, kind of a downer..." he mutters. "Only near fights so far? That's a surprise."

"Everyone's still nervous and trying to get a feel for each other," Shannon said, gazing over the hall, "give them a little time to simmer."

Benny is looking after the departing Chinese teens and Shawn, and is muttering to himself "Shock frills are gonna be a must, maybe some sort of Item Familiar that self-wields..." He shakes his head and then looks over at Kirana. He attempts a smile but it looks a bit shaky. "Kind of funny though, he was on me and Ancell about not being stupid, and then he goes and pulls a knife on a guy who looks like he could have turned Shawn into a pretzel. Well, not funny "ha-ha", maybe more funny "are you demented"...." He pauses to look 'round the table, "Yeah, I'm babbling now, aren't I?"

Maximilian walked in after pretty much everyone else, taking a wide selection of scraps from the buffet tables, seemingly uncaring of where or what the food was. Sitting down near the girls he started his food quietly, seemingly caught up in thought.