Too much. || Sky.

Sitting quietly at her desk, the light sound of fabric pierced the silence of Valentina Arias's office as she leaned forward to read some papers that were laid out. It had been a long day and the Headmistress was just wrapping up the latest problem when a loud knock echoed from Valentina's door. "Come in."

Shuffling in with an air of exuberance, there was a small rattle of fine china as Maeve walked up to Valentina's desk - sliding a tray onto the fine wood with careful precision. "Here's your tea, Headmistress. I added some extra sugar cubes for Mr. Ivors." A faint shade of pink rose in Maeve's cheeks as the woman contained a small giggle that was threatening to erupt at any second. "Is there anything else you need, Headmistress?" Maeve finally asked then, seeming to gasp for air as she spoke.

Valentina considered her secretary quietly, a few seconds passing before she responded. "No, thank you Ms. Cassidy. You're welcome to leave for the day, I think everything's been taken care of."

Maeve nodded curtly, her posture rigged and uptight as she shuffled out of Valentina's office. As the door closed, the faint sound of girlish laughter fell upon Valentina's ears and the Headmistress let a small polite smile grace her lips.

Shuffling some of her papers together that were spread across her desk, Valentina straightened them up and moved them to the side - taking the small decorative looking teapot from the tray along with the two cups and setting them up in such manner that would be welcoming for the company she was waiting on to arrive.

     Mavek stepped into the offices as Maeve's laughter ended, the sound of her giggling permeating through the glass and hardwood. Ida followed a few paces behind him and, Mavek feeling her presence trailing him through the halls, signaled to her that he was perfectly capable of being alone in this instance and would not need her assistance. Nervous but defeated she retreated, heading off to go drink vodka and citrus juice in town until Mavek eventually called for her return. There had been an incident this morning- one of Mavek's strange, Quelth-made clay artefacts had exploded as he touched it, cutting a long gash in his forearm, now bandaged. Strangely enough, when his dark blue blood made contact with the fragments, by some magic they magnetically shot back together and the pottery was intact once more.

     Having only acquired the work recently, every previous interaction with it through gloved hands, Mavek speculated it may have been some ritual of ownership, although he was unsure. That seemed to be the word that most described the majority of the interactions he had with the few relics of his people that he had found- uncertainty. It grew more frustrating each day, how little Mavek actually knew about the Quelth people. Was this what it felt like to be a marine biologist searching for the first colossal squid? Finding nothing but beaks in whale stomachs, the mythos of a Kraken standing ominously behind you? He brushed away the thought as he opened the door, laughter from within halting.

     Mavek nodded at Maeve as he entered, smiling with his eyes as the rest of his face remained unmoving. Nervously, he walked by with his right arm concealed, the tight form of the bandages wrapping down his arm and to his palm visible under his long sleeves, a single wrap of the bandage between his thumb and fingers. He signed a short greeting to her one handed- he recalled trying to teach those who worked in the administrative offices a few basic signs when he had first become assistant headmaster, and though he used them on his colleagues often, it still seemed like plenty hadn't caught on. Brushing a few tentacles behind his torso, their tips reaching for nearby objects and walls, Mavek silently entered Valentina's office, knocking on the doorframe before he gently coaxed the door closed behind him.

     Unlike the way he interacted with most, Mavek immediately reached for her telepathically. 'Good day, Madame Arias,' he nodded, moving to stand behind the chair he knew was for him. 'It's lovely seeing you on this fine day. Have you fared well?' His fingernails tapped the wood of the chair as he grasped it with his left hand, his right arm tucked behind his back as he gave a half bow.

Valentina looked up slowly from the arranging of the teapot and cups on her desk as Mavek entered into her office, her face lighting up at his presence. It was a subtle sort of change in her expression, one that wouldn't be easily noticed by just anyone. "Mister Ivors*." The Headmistress addressed her co-worker in her native tongue momentarily.

The silence in the room was prominent as Valentina moved to pour tea for Mavek and herself. "Yes, it's just been a very busy day as usual." Valentina replied easily. "Sugar, Mister Ivors? Ms. Cassidy brought these special for you today." The Headmistress waved her hand toward a small plate that was holding the sugar cubes along with a small spoon.

Valentina often found it easy to enjoy Mavek's presence. She had discovered awhile back that he had a sort of easy way about him. Not to mention he worked just as hard as she did at this school which made her job a whole lot easier. Clad in casual business attire, Valentina had decided to wear her hair down today, gently bringing her fingers up to run along her right cheek as she tucked some of her free flowing hair behind her ear.

[ooc; * means she's speaking in Spanish -way too lazy to use google translate-]

     Mavek nodded courteously at the greeting, opening his eyes wider in a welcoming expression. He pulled the chair out and sat in it, his small, cartilage-filled body barely making a dent in the cushion. He sat for a moment to adjust himself, moving a number of tentacles to lay on his chest and the rest to fall behind the chair's back, before scooting forward. 

     He gave Valentina a short nod. 'One cube, please. And a dash of cream, if you have it.' His eyes scanned the table settings- careful and meticulous, as most of Valentina's belongings often were- before settling on her face, taking a moment to decode her mood based on what he saw. He often did such, if only to guage the content of their meetings, but since she looked relax today and he assumed that things would be calm. He relaxed a little, the tenseness of his straightened posture dissipating. 'I will send Miss Cassidy my warmest regards, then.' 

     He folded his arms over his lap as he watched Valentina pour the tea, fidgeting with the bandage that was stuck between his thumb and forefinger. He knew it wouldn't be long until she noticed the mark in his appearance, but for the moment he enjoyed the warmth of the steam drifting off the water as it was poured. He closed his eyes momentarily, inhaling deeply. Her office was always so warm compared to his living quarters, and it relaxed him as he felt his thin skin accepting the air. 

     'You look quite ravishing today, Miss Arias,' he complimented as he opened his eyes again, following her hair from her forehead to her collarbone. It was easy to forget how nice her hair was when it was up so often. A single tentacle reached for the desk, and he grabbed it and re-affixed it to his shirt. 'I've found myself quite busy as well. Not much school business, but I've had a rather interesting time in my own personal research,' he picked up, focusing back in on the world around him.

Valentina nodded slightly at his request, moving to pour a minute amount of cream into his tea. "I'm sure she'd enjoy that immensely." Sometimes it was difficult for Valentina to remember that Maeve had worked with the previous Headmistress, a fact that simply alluded her from the woman's naturally quirky personality. Not that it bothered her at all, mostly because Maeve was very efficient and professional - typically the older woman was caught off guard though with the occasional outburst of giggles when the mood hit Maeve.

Looking up toward her companion once she was completely finished serving the tea, Valentina's eyes carefully ran over Mavek's body - her gaze landing momentarily on Mavek's arm. Her naturally polite personality though made her hold back from immediately questioning Mavek on the slight altercation in his wardrobe, instead looking briefly surprised at her co-workers compliment. "Thank you, Mister Ivors.*" Valentina accepted the compliment gracefully her tan cheeks darkening with color for just a few seconds - a rush of awareness running down her spine.

As Mavek commented on his own day, Valentina glanced down once more toward the arm that he seemed to be trying to hide. "Really? I trust things went well? Did you find out anything interesting today?" Valentina questioned, waiting to hear about his day.

     Once his tea was prepared, he leaned forward, inhaling the smell, eyes closed. Grabbing his cup with his left hand, he took a sip, feeling the heat in the core of his cold body. He smelled the tea once more before setting the cup back down on its plate. 

     His eyes returned to Valentina, then ventured back up to the rest of the room behind her as he recalled his day. The gash in his arm was obviously the most memorable. Breakfast, attempted research, and pain, his day had yet been rather uneventful. 

     'While I don't know much of my people, the Quelths,' he began, twisting his fingers together and holding his hands on his lap, 'I do know a fair bit about science and physics. One cannot light a fire underwater, therefore my people do not cook. Since cooking necessitates utensils and cookware, one would also imagine that they do not have them since they do not need to cook. However, this is not true- there are a range of bowls, plates, vases, and other objects that we most often use to transfer food and liquid. Even more interesting, since you cannot use fire, you also cannot make pottery, so clay is entirely useless as a material.' He looked at the table, then up at Valentina. 

'Most of the pottery that I find is, in fact, carved stone. Objects that have been cut into instead of built on. Some of the more beautiful works are made of marbe inlaid with gemstones. But not all are, so why do they have tools for carrying food that are definitively made with the purpose of function?' As he spoke, he transmitted a few images of different objects he had seen telepathically, trying to convey to her the sensation of feeling the hard, smooth stone. He always found it more difficult to transmit the idea of texture, some people finding it harder than others to comprehend. 

     'And so I think that I realised today- and I wonder why I didn't think of it before, considering all the evidence points to deep-sea habitation- that cooking food doesn't always require fire. Any sort of heat source would cook any sort of food they need- although at some points I'm unsure if biologically anything needs to be cooked at all for them- and when you get deep underwater, there are actually heat vents that develop when tectonic plates collide and separate. So, I realised that they did need these plates, and although I'm sure most Quelths don't find a need to cook and use them for decoration, the creation of pottery hints at some global idea of how one should handle any sort of prepared good.' He nodded at her, his eyes conveying excitement as he straightened his back. 'I remain unsure what exactly to do with this information, but I am glad to have it nonetheless.'

Valentina listened to Mavek quietly, occasionally sipping her tea from time to time at necessary pauses as well as nodding when needed. Ever since she started working at this school, Valentina had been exposed to several different kinds of species, gifted humans and so on. There had been a few times where the whole thing had been quite staggering in truth, but the woman always reminded herself of her own power and how some people consider that odd in itself.

Sitting across from Mavek, Valentina could intuitively feel the powers that he had. It had always been a weird feeling for her and coming to work at Foresta allowed her to focus in on this passive power, recognizing the kind of information it gave her.

As Mavek sent her some pictures telepathically, the woman frowned briefly - hesitating at the sensation, but then allowed the images to flow into her mind. It was a strange sort of thing to say the least, but it allowed Valentina to understand more of what Mavek was talking about.

"This is indeed fascinating information," Valentina replied easily, still absorbing all of the information that Mavek had been talking about. She wasn't too familiar with the Quelths, in truth the only one she knew was Mavek. Any information he told her about his kind, Valentina tried her best to store and remember in her mind.

"I'm sure once you make more discoveries, you'll be able to further your research with this information." Valentina offered to her co-worker. "I'm guessing the injury on your arm is because of your research?" Any normal person was prone to a slip up from time to time, and Valentina was honestly concerned for her friend and co-worker. As she spoke her voice was soft and probing, wondering briefly if he had gone to the doctor at school or he had tried to take care of the wound himself.

     Mavek nodded rapidly with excitement as Valentina considered the information she had been given, straightening his back again before settling into his chair. The only person of his race that he had ever known was himself, and even then he was only half-Quelth. He had never and possibly would never learn about his people from an actual Quelth, and because of this he reveled in the moments when he managed to learn more about his people, even if it was predominantly from his own assumptions and deductions. He would never know the true scope of a Quelth's magical abilities, never know why they were such isolationists, never know about their culture or social structure or his mother.


     Thoughts rushing to his head, he inhaled quickly and deeply, picking up his teacup and pausing with it at his lips as Valentina pointed out his injury. He flexed the fingers on his injured arm and took another deep breath as he sipped, closing his eyes before setting the cup down. "You would be correct."

     He lifted up his sleeve, something he rarely did as he still struggled with the unnatural translucent skin covering his extremities as a century-old being. He unwrapped a small amount near the base of his wrist, lifting the navy blue gauze to reveal a deep cut that spread towards his hand like lightning. The wound still looked fresh, and his blue blood seeped up at a crawling pace before he covered it again. "Every wound I've received from a Quelth artefact has been very strange, but no more life-threatening than any other laceration," he spoke quickly, trying to brush off just how awful the long cut looked.

     He pulled his sleeve down again, pushing a tentacle behind his shoulder as it fidgeted to pull at the fabric on his chest. "To be short, I had a vase explode. When it fractured, the fragments cut into my arm. When it made contact with my blood, the vase fused together again, pulling pieces out of my skin. The strange lightning-like marks appeared afterwards." His gaze rested on his teacup. "I don't know what to do. Every day brings more questions and fewer answers."

As Valentina pointed out Mavek's injury, the woman frowned at the change in his expression. It was strange to her, seeing the difference in his skin compared to hers - but it was something that she had learned to except quite a time ago - the fact that there species other than humans out there and they had a range of hundreds to thousands of different powers.

As she observed the injury though, a hint of concern slipped into the woman's expression - an obvious worry causing her brows to draw together. "Maybe the artefacts are trying to tell you something?" The Headmistress suggested then, wishing she could help her coworker besides just offering random words of advice.

Valentina's frown of concern deepened even more as Mavek explained the event to her. "How long will it take to heal? Maybe we should get one of the senior's to come heal you, I'd be surprised if Mr. Taylor had a potion to help you heal." While there doctor was talented, he was also very young and she was unsure of how many other types of gifted beings he had interacted with besides just humans.

     Mavek shook his head, sitting up and shifting his gaze back to meet Valentina's. "I believe I should be quite alright for now, Miss Arias. I don't know the scope of the magic contained in the vase, and I don't want to risk upsetting whatever forces there may lie within." He nodded, gripping his bicep as pain shot through his lower arm. He winced, his mouth a tight line. "Besides, we shouldn't want to get any of the school's staff or student body involved in my personal matters. If there are questions I cannot answer, they should not be expected to pay for my mistakes." With a slightly shaky hand, he brought his cup of tea up for a drink again. Perhaps exposing his wound to air wasn't the best idea- the bolts that shot up and down his arm were cut just so into his nerves that it felt like an army of papercuts. 

     "I'll just soak it in salt water when I return home. I have a marginal amount of accelerated healing." He set down his cup, nearly empty. A few loose tea leaves floated slowly to the bottom. "Anyway, never mind me. What trouble have you gotten yourself into today, Valentina?" He dropped the formality of calling her by her surname, attempting to lighten the mood.

As Mavek mentioned being cautious, Valentina nodded - still with eyebrows drawn together in concern but a slow understanding in her eyes as well. "As you wish, Mister Ivors*." Valentina spoke easily in her native tongue, respecting the squid man's desire for privacy. As he picked up his cup though, the older woman watched and observed his movements - biting down lightly on her tongue as she did so. Old habits die hard.

As he mentioned his accelerated healing, Valentina nodded "Hopefully it will work for you here soon." She said to him then, briefly caught off guard by his next question as her co-worker addressed her by her first name. With her brows shooting up, Valentina took a second to recollect herself before shaking her head.

"Just business as usual, children blowing things up and not enough janitorial staff to run after them - all of our police typically busy with more important matter then vandalism." The Headmistress let out a light sigh at that then, wondering if she should start looking for even more campus police. She didn't to turn the school into some prison, but it was expensive cleaning up these damages from time to time.

     Mavek let a long stream of air escape his nostrils in a sort of sigh, nodding slightly. "I wish there were a better way to handle the numerous problems our school faces. Foresta is an educational institution that occasionally too closely resembles a prison with cracks in the walls and holes in the floorboards." He did his breathy exhale once more, turning his head to glance out of the office window. "There are so many fantastic students and faculty, but one bad apple really does seem to spoil the bunch." He took another sip of tea, then watched Valentina again.

     "If it were my choice, I would opt for a more selective institution. But then where would so many go? My morals and logic sing different tunes, I'm afraid." He lowered his head slightly in a watchful gesture. "But you are the queen who rests on the throne. If I fail in handling students, you take the blame. And I apologise for that." Mavek paused for a long moment, thinking about how far he was taking it away from the original subject. A certain nostalgia took him over, but he didn't quite understand where it came from. Straightening his back once again, he amended, "We will always inevitably fail, though won't we? Yet there is no excuse to not try." He paused again, giving her a slightly mischievous eye. "And if that means it's you and I against all powers that be, Miss Arias, I believe that we have what it takes."

     Taking the last sip of his tea, sugar crystals swirling to his tongue, he lifted his cup in Valentina's direction. "Might I have another spot of tea, please?"