Issue 1 Downtime

Nailah had been vaguely distracted during her lectures this last week and if she was honest she was glad the week was over, so she had decided not to go through her paperwork in her office and was headed home instead.

"Nervous, Professor?" asked a polite voice. Granted, she would be forgiven for not seeing Victoria there. Though the girl didn't use it much, she did have chameleon skin. Which she was currently using, as she sat in the grass, her eyes closed as she meditated.

And as usual, Nailah was surprised but it never showed.

"Good afternoon Miss Valentine. Who wouldn't be."

"Mmm... fools, narcicists- oh, that was a rhetorical question, wasn't it," Victoria said with a slight smile, her skin fading to white so she could actually be seen.

"Now that should be rather obvious." she says with a faint smirk.

Victoria smiled faintly. "I made something for you," she said, reaching into her purse, rummaging a bit. "Although I'd suggest not having it in your place until you've finished your ritual. Just setting it outside the door would be fine."

"A gift?" she asks, quirking an eyebrow.

"No, accepting it binds your soul to me," Victoria said, sounding amused. "Of course it's a gift." She pulled a quartz point out, carved to the shape of an obelisk, ornately decorated in gold wire on all but one side in neutral designs. "What you're doing could draw unwanted, although not necessarily malicious or harmful, effects. Like a magnet picking up flakes of iron. This will ground them out. Once you've finished the ritual, put a bowl of water next to the door and put this over it. It'll float on the water. If and when the water changes color, pour it on into the ground outside the building and put fresh water in it again." She regarded the blank side before offering it over. "My heiroglyphics are... well, nonexistent. So if you have any to add to it, do it there. If you don't, it will still work."

"Despite what some people might think that was not what I would have assumed, I just had not expected a gift. Thank you, Victoria."

"I know, but it's still fun seeing the surprise on people's faces. Especially when it's not Christmas," she said, smiling a bit more. "Besides... not everyone has the patience to deal with someone like me."

"I'm sure more would if they could see this side of you. But let's not start this again." she smiles. "And I do believe I played a part in what happened the other day as well. I didn't mean to upset you, but I think you already knew that."

"I've been a bit... shall we say 'sensitive' lately?" Victoria said. "At least, on certain subjects. I'm feeling... mmm, shall we say a little more human now? And when one feels a bit more human it's easier to see how wretched you might have been to some people."

"Well I appreciate it, even if the worst I had thought about you storming out was that I may have been a little blunt and presumptuous towards a pregnant woman."

"Well, I'm glad for that," Victoria admitted. "Of course," she added with a smile, "You might have known I was going to do this then, for all I know."

Nailah puts on a knowing smile, though Vickie can probably read it as 'fake'.

"That is what usually unsettles people, regardless of how much you actually know. Which is why I tend to try and stay ambiguous on the subject, especially when it comes to people's personal lives. You confirm something once and they'll always wonder what else you've seen."

"Oh, I know you haven't seen anything of my personal life. You don't look disturbed enough by far," Victoria joked. Maybe.

Nailah chuckles. "No, I haven't. I've just come to find people are more likely to convince themselves of that when you keep it up in the air. I haven't had the easiest of times in college myself and not just because of the way I look."

"I'm not sure what is worse," Victoria mused, "Those who are put off by exotic looks... or those who are the opposite."

"Oh it's the later. Trust me. Much harder to ignore."

"And I'd assume that yours have been much more disturbing than mine," Victoria said dryly.

"I wouldn't say that. But it was hard enough coming to terms with my sexuality without obsessed man-children following me around. And it's always men who are the most obnoxious about it."

"Trust me, I know. Can't live with them, can't live without them. Sadly."

"I've been doing pretty well living without them for the most part. At least in the areas where it counts." she smirks faintly.

"Mmm... same, but every so often, they seem to be what the doctor ordered. You just need to find the ones that can be properly slapped into submission when they act out too badly."

"To each their own, though I'm not certain if those should be pitied or considered lucky." she chuckles.

Victoria smiled faintly at that. "I just try not to discriminate. It isn't my fault that men tend to be overbearing and full of themselves. Thankfully I get to disabuse some of them of that notion. Their future wives should thank me."

"Improving the world one man at a time? That's one way to do the world a service, I suppose." she chuckles.

"My mother always said that one should find work that they enjoy," she joked.

"Maybe not quite the activity I would liken to work, but that's a different topic altogether."

"Anyway... I hope everything is going well with the little Miss Valentine?" she asks, skipping the obvious, assuming Victoria probably gets asked enough about the 'growth spurt' already.

"Mmmm, well enough," she said, rubbing her belly absently. "I'm wondering just when she'll end up being due. Needless to say, I'm driving the doctors into a right state with that."

"Let them focus on seeing that she's healthy. Everything else seems to be a bit outside their expertise right now."

"It's just so bloody tiring trying to explain everything to them. You'd think that working with people who can do impossible things would desensitize them, but no, they're just as aggravating about magic as ever, insisting there's got to be some other solution and that something might be wrong."

"Everyone tries to stick to what they know and it's a hard to grasp concept with a basis in seemingly nothing. Especially when in those lines of work people have trouble taking established religions seriously, much less 'hokey' ones."