ArchivedLogs:Fresh Start

Fresh Start
For Finals
Dramatis Personae Dorian Siccavil, Rasa
In Absentia	2014-03-03 Getting ready for another day of finals
Location <XS> Boys' Bathroom - FL2
Bright and clean, this bathroom is designed for communal use. Toilets and sinks to one side, showers on the other. The shower stalls are wide, designed with space inside for hanging clothes and changing. The sinks have, by habit, had space claimed by them with people's own personal toiletries, a small basket of goods here, a toothbrush and toothpaste there, a large overflowing basket there, name tags appended to all of them. The biggest wars seem to be over shower space, mornings a constant battle over claiming stalls first. The dawning of day three of exams hits some with relief and others with dread as students haul themselves out of bed and toward the things that make them awake and ready to face the day. Rasa has opted for a long hot shower, standing in the stall until the steam has turned hir entire body a deep dark red. Clean, relaxed, and smelling nice, ze turns off the water and reaches out for hir towel, drying hirself before wrapping it around hir body under hir arms. Once modest, the curtains are pulled back and the young tele-metamorph steps out, grabbing a second towel to twist hir hair up into. As sandal clad feet encounter drier tile, ze draws in a deep breath and exhales, words starting to script themselves around hir feet, moving upwards, like a rising waterline. Sometimes, the sentences form little waves, animated, crashing, shifting and rising and falling as ze reviews some of the things ze studied the night before. Upon closer inspection, the words are all inCyrillic script, vocabulary and phrases mixing with practiced conversation up hir legs and under hir towel. Eventually, ze starts murmuring quietly to hirself in Russian. Yeah, that final must be today. Dorian has already been in the bathroom for some time this morning, hiding in one of the far shower stalls with the shower running continuously, though no steam rises from the large stall. Eventually, the water is turned off, and he emerges, a fluffy white towel wrapped securely around his narrow waist. Shirtless, it is possible to see the extent of his physical mutation and some of the scars that interrupt his fur - his back and shoulders are covered in a thick pelt of dark brown-black fur, which is currently glistening with beads of water still clinging to it, while his chest is coated with pale tawny-blonde fur, interrupted by a large 'X' shaped scar that extends from shoulder to hip with smooth lines. One hand carries a large basket of toiletries, soaps, brushes, and an enormous pair of bottles of shampoo and conditioner. Despite the long shower, the young man still has a somewhat earthy, damp scent about him as he shuffles towards the line of sinks. He looks curiously towards Rasa, tilting his head to the side with his ears perking up amidst the dampness of his rumpled hair, "Exam notes? Or, um, just nervous?" Dorian wiggles his bare toes, the webbing still intact between them, as he bounces and looks into the mirror in front of him, wincing slightly. "I'm nervous," her offers, even though the question wasn't asked. "Eh, somewhere between sure I've got this - and convincing myself of that fact," Rasa admits with a little shrug, pulling hir basket of toiletries out of hir stall to set them down on one of the benches. Ze starts poking through until ze finds some lotion, which ze starts rubbing against hir legs. Ze does steal a glance toward Dorian's chest scars, but has likely seen them before. "What do you have today?" Dorian rumples the fur along his arms anxiously, shrugging, "I've got math. S'posed to be testing out of math to prove I can, y'know, actually math. Or whatever. So maybe I can actually take some normal classes next semester, 'stead of remedial stuff." His voice creaks a bit at the thought of 'testing' and he shakes his head, "Don't really like tests. But these aren't the same tests, so it shouldn't be so bad, right?" The question is largely rhetorical, as Dorian takes reaches into his basket and pulls out a small stack of dry towels to begin taking some of the water out of his fur, going through several over the course of the process. "You? S'at a language you gotta take?" he says with a nod to Rasa's waves of notes. If he is aware of the look towards his scars, he seems largely unphased, moving on to towel off his hair and at least the part of his tail that droops from beneath the towl around his waist. Rasa rubs lotion over both legs, propping them up on the bench one at a time, before moving to rub at hir arms. "Of course. The only consequence of these tests is boredom. You have to repeat the remedial classes. I suppose that could be insulting to your intelligence, but if you're just having problems testing, you can get special help. It's called test anxiety and they'll let you take breaks, have snacks, or extra time if it helps you finish the assigned work. You might need to fail once before they provide that accommodation, but failing's super easy." Ze pauses and looks embarrassed, turning to glance at Dorian again. "Er, I may be chatting too much and too bluntly. You've been through some shit. They'll help you if tests are the problem." Ze rubs hir face to absorb the last of the lotion before reaching down and shaking out some feminine briefs, stepping into them and pulling them on under hir towel. Dorian snorts and tugs at his tagged ear, offering a grin and a self deprecating laugh, "Not much intelligence to insult. Hence the remedial." He offers a shrug, "I... I think I'll do okay. I'm good at tests, and knowing what I need to do and stuff, and following orders, I guess. So I shouldn't really have an issue. And then I can probably take some stuff closer to what I actually should know at my age. And... and then tomorrow I have the same thing for English. Which I'm really really not looking forward to." His voice breaks at that, and he folds up his little pile of drying towels, fishing a pair of clean boxers out, shuffling to get them on beneath his towel. "Failing's not easy, failing's scary," he admits quietly, blushing at Rasa's realization, "S'ok. I kinda tend to babble a lot, anyway. And I'm used to people talking, and everyone's been through stuff over time, so yeah. So issok. But they're letting me take the tests on a slower schedule, and take breaks and stuff. I don't like tests, but I know these are different. So it'll be ok." As he talks, he's somewhat unable to look at Rasa, concentrating on tugging his ratty jeans on, finally having to drop his towel once his pants are mostly on to struggle with getting his tail through the spot for it. "Bah. Someday, I'm going to fail something for the sake of failing it. What are they going to do? Hold me back a year? It's not like I'm anywhere near ready to leave. Where would I go anyway?" Rasa shakes hir towel clad head before sliding hir baggy jeans over hir legs and up around hir waist, still under hir towel. "I know they want to get us ready and out of here, so we are strong independent adults who don't need them anymore, but I have no idea how that's going to happen." Ze takes a deep breath and reaches up to unwind hir pseudo-turban, letting stringy red hair fall around hir shoulders. "Eh, failing isn't fun," Dorian crinkles his nose at the thought, shaking his head and sending a few tiny water droplets flying from his still damp hair. "Dunno where I'll go from here. I'll figure it out eventually, I hope," he doesn't sound exactly confident in this statement, and shrugs, moving on to brush his teeth quickly in the mirror (though likely doing a rather poor job of it). "I think they try and get us to 'passable' in some cases, not really 'strong'." Dorian admits quietly, moving through the motions of ruffling his hair to dry it into a somewhat styled mop of springy curls. "But yeah. Was sorta hoping that it would be a lot easier than this, I guess," he shrugs, finally tugging a short sleeve shirt on, hiding the scarring on his chest and back from view. "I bet you've never made a rude gesture to a jerk before either." Rasa replies, a small smile pulling at one corner of hir mouth. Ze pulls out a single strap off hir clothing pile and wraps it around hir chest, towel underneath. It almost looks like ze has breasts when ze finishes clasping it, but then ze tugs the towel down and is flat once more. Ze turns and grabs a baggy tee to pull over hir torso afterward, a large head shaped room printed on the front, with a person on a chair in front of the eye, looking outward. Rasa exhales and grabs hir brush, dabbing and squeezing at hir hair before starting to brush it. "I'm not worried about it. I'm just going to stay here until something better comes along." "Oh, um, no. Shane taught me to flip someone off," Dorian says quietly with a sheepish grin, glancing down at his scarred hands, "Which apparently you can't really do with webbing between your fingers. I never tried, actually, when I had it, so there's that." He averts his gaze as Rasa continues getting dressed, turning to run a towel along the still-damp fur of his tail. "Granted, Sebastian is nice. I don't think he's a jerk, so I don't know if that really counts," he continues, babbling slightly as he packs up his shower goods. "I'll probably stay here until they don't want me to anymore. Then, well, I guess I'll see what happens. Dunno," Dorian shrugs, not sounding too certain, "Sposed to talk to Mr. Suresh about that. Maybe I can get some work experience once summer comes, or something." "Yeah, B's not a jerk." Rasa agrees, hir hair growing longer and straighter the longer ze brushes it. It ends up nearly down to hir shoulder blades and strawberry blond when ze finishes, grabbing a hair band to rope it in at the base of hir skull. Ze slathers on a little deodorant under hir arms, up the bottom hem of hir tee shirt, then slides hir arms into a hooded sweatshirt. Ze doesn't bother zipping it closed, instead grabs hir towels and bath supplies. "Okay. I got Russian - did I say that? Um, probably not. Russian exam soon, so I need to grab some food, so I'll see you around, Dorian. Hope you get that summer work you're looking for."