in distorted scenery [open]

[ten'mi]

It's loud. No matter how rapidly she taps her desk or how hard she squints at her book or how much she tries to get into the fabled "zone" and think instead of how there's a very important test she needs to ace the next day or else she's going to ruin her straight A streak, it's still unbearably loud.


"I'm going to throw my tome at that knucklehead," Ten'mi thinks, scowling at the door of her small home in Medon. For the past hour or so, there's been some irritating noise coming from outside, occasionally scritchy, sometimes whistling, other times more akin to a stray cat yowling. Who the hell is it? Why can't they settle on a single sound to make? More importantly, don't they know it's a school night? It's almost like they're asking for some justice in the form of a good book spine to the head.


And Ten'mi's the only one ready to give it. Not that she really wants to—her test's far more important than dealing with some hooligan—but hey, someone's got to step up in this peaceful little town.

Briskly she stands, making sure to push her chair in, dust off the closed cover of her tome, and straighten her clothes before opening the door; she has to look proper to properly scold someone, after all. "Hey!" she calls, glaring at the nearest person. "Hey, you! Don't you know what time it is right now? Do you really think it's decent making so much noise this late at night?"

[ender]

Ender had been stretching his wings. He'd also been hunting--or rather he'd chased a cat around town for his own entertainment. It wasn't hunting if you weren't eating, and after a while, he left the cat to his peace, although not until he'd bullied a lifetime's worth of yowling out of it. Ender blinked at her, all emerald green and serpentine, a manakete in dragon form. He shrugged; it was a sinewy movement that had to capture all the fucks he didn't give, because he didn't speak. It didn't occur to him that he should. He spread his wings to fly, taking off a good ten feet before suddenly changing his mind. Ender drifted back down, becoming human again as he landed. "It's an hour past midnight," he answered without inflection. Ender stared at her and tilted his head; when he spoke, he sounded almost curious. "I've never heard of decency measured in lack of noise. Seems like nonsense." ten'mi

[ten'mi]

A manakete's about the last thing she expects, and it shows in her widened eyes—but only for a moment. Her expression hardens immediately afterward, tight lips, crinkled nose and all. Yeah, she's only ever read about them in books, but like hell she's going to stand down just because of that. Even if dragons turned out to be pretty cool to see in real life.

"Of course it's decent," she huffs, "and far from nonsense. An excess of noise is disruptive, especially at this late hour. People are sleeping. Alternatively, studying. I've got a test tomorrow and I'd rather not fail it." Ten'mi grabs a tome off the nearby bookcase, and waves it for emphasis. Though, do manaketes even know what tests are? It occurs to her then that she doesn't really know how to commune with a dragon. Difference in culture is one thing; difference in species is another entirely.

"The point is," she starts again, "if you have to keep yowling or whistling or whatever it was that you were doing, please do so at an acceptably low level of noise. It's indecent otherwise."

ender

[ender]

He's used to seeing those doubletakes that humans do when they see a dragon. He doesn't make much of them, although maybe he should've stuck to his human form--but Ender likes to stretch his wings. "Says who?" he asks. His voice still an even deadpan though if he weren't curious, he would've already left. Idly, to make a point, Ender looks around. There isn't anyone else out. "I don't see anyone else complaining. It's just you, and you're noisier than I am. And whinier." He knows what tests are, as a dictionary definition. From Ender's experience, tests were battlefields that pushed you to your limit. They were sink or swim moments, where everything stands on a dangerous precipice. What do tests have to do with books and papers? Ender's confused, and it shows. "Why would you volunteer for a test?" Ender asks, this question delivered more like judgment. He doesn't want to know the answer; he just thinks she's a lunatic and a masochist. Clearly, this girl is mad--completely stark, raving mad. "Do you die if you fail it?" ten'mi

[ten'mi]

Teaching proper societal rules to a manakete is the last thing she signed up for when she opened her door, but she supposes someone's got to do it. Sharing knowledge is just as important as gaining it.

"Says common manners," Ten'mi replies, in a markedly quieter tone. "Noisier" is a complaint she can take. "Whinier" is an opinion she needs to keep her head held high for. Securing an ideal study environment is not whining. "No one else is complaining because they're either asleep or content with leaving me to do it. That's my guess, anyway."

Just as she expected, he doesn't know what a test is, or at least, the kind of test she's thinking of anyway. "... No, I wouldn't die. My grades would take a hit, I suppose. And my pride." Slowly, she says, "I have to take tests to keep my grades up. They're a mark of how well I do in class. Good grades let me pass a class. If I pass my classes, I can graduate from school." But does he know what school is? If he doesn't, would he know what classes or grades are, then? Did any part of what she just said make sense to him?

"Look," Ten'mi starts again, leaning against the door frame, "I'm a student at the Mannaz School of Magical Arts. Do you know of it? It's where I'm studying, and where I'm taking that test." If she's going to teach, she may as well start from the beginning.

ender

[ender]

"If everyone else is asleep or content and it's just you complaining, that doesn't look very common to me," he says. It's an assertion but not an accusation. Ender would have to care more to make it an accusation, but instead he only shrugs. He's willing to drop the subject of she is. Some people are just strange, and clearly this girl is a particularly special snowflake. What... are grades? School isn't unfamiliar to him entirely. He isn't so old that he's older than school, but he'd never gone to one himself. School is just something soldiers talk about sometimes, when they try to connect with each other. Ender never said much on the topic. "If you don't die, why does it matter?" School of... what now? He searches his memory. Had he seen this building the last time he was here? On second thought, the last time he was in this part of Plegia, the entire town might not have even existed yet. He sighs; that'S all besides the damn point. Why is there a school for magic? Why does it exist? He'd always thought it was a self-taught thing or family tradition. "Never heard of it. Sounds like a scam." ten'mi

[ten'mi]

"It matters because if I do well on the test, it means my studies are going well, too. It's a mark of how I'm improving as a mage." Her tone's strained and slow, forced into patience, though she's not sure if it's from all the questions or the fact that she just told a complete lie. Going by her own logic, she should be a great mage given her high test grades, but that's far from the truth. She's average at best and also not improving, or so it feels anyway. Either that or she's not improving fast enough, which may as well be the same thing, in the end.

Maybe it's this realization that makes her snap when the manakete dismisses her school. "Mannaz is not a scam!" Ten'mi yells, voice suddenly raised. "It's an institution of great prestige that—"

"Shut up already! says an older voice from the neighboring house. A portly man stands before its open door, his bushy moustache not quite blocking out his deep frown. "It's the middle of the night! If you're going to teach, do it in the morning!"

ender