Frustrated (Open)

[Lucian]

Lucian stalked through the halls with his usual prideful scowl. He had been away for some time in search of the unnamed plant who's magical properties were the cause of the runic tattoos that adorned his arms up to the shoulder. Lucian got strange looks from the students as he continued to walk, not bothering to be polite as he bumped and jostled students out of his way.

"Damnit...it was a waste," he muttered angrily, his voice thick with a Romanian accent as he continued down the hallway too absorbed in his own disappointment and failure to notice or care if anyone was in his way. Students attempted to protest with shouts or indignant huffs but noticed their protests fell on deaf ears as Lucian simply ignored him like he was known to do with common riff raff that did not deserve his attention.

One student realized that there would be a need to get physical with this guy. Who the hell did he think he was anyway?! Just wandering down the hallway, forcing people out of his way like he owned the damn place. Someone had to teach this guy a lesson in manners and it seemed like this one student, the last that Lucian had jostled out of his way, would be the one to take it on himself to do it.

"Hey dick...watch where the hell you're going," the boy said in a deep voice full of false bravado. Lucian looked up with a disinterested grin as he noticed a fist coming at his face. He simply ducked the punch, delivering three quick punches of his own to the attacker's ribs. The student yelped feebly in pain as he crumpled to his knees.

"Maybe it should be you who watches where the hell they throw their fist," Lucian said with a dark glint in his eye. The student threw another feeble punch which Lucian intercepted, holding his fist in a vice-like grip. He laughed darkly as he twisted the fist sharply, the bone snapping audibly as the student howled in pain, clutching his wrist. Lucian just watched him with a pitying grin and started to continue on his way, shaking his head.

[madelyn]

A book in her hand the smooth over used leather against her pale and delicate hands. It was a new book that she had just picked up from the library. One that was on her passion.. music. She had wanted to learn the theory and the history of it all. The thick tome was about the size of an average bible and she was already pouring through it eager to know much more about her passion.

The young blonde girl was wearing a short white tennis skirt and a purple tank top her violet/blue eyes scanning the page in front of her and her blonde hair pulled back into a pony tail. She was on her way back to her dorm lost in her book she did not even hear the commotion up ahead. She bumped into someone and she fell back on the floor of the hallway wincing with the fall as she hit her hip on the stone floor. Biting her lower lip as she knew as thin as she was a bruise would form but man..it hurt. She looked up and her eyes widened.

A man.. she had run into a man. Her book was now beside him and his arms.. tatoos!! she gulped and cringed in fear trying to make herself as small as possible putting her arms over her head to try to ward off the blows she just new were coming. Her uncle.. the tatoos.. flashback..

Her uncle towering over her ready to kick her again and again. He was drunk yet again. Tears leaked from the girls eyes that were clamped shut as she lay there already bruised and bleeding.

The small young woman on the floor of the hallway in the school trembled in fear on the floor as she waited silently for the beating to commence. How bad would it be this time. All she could do was wait.. wait.

[Lucian]

Lucian growled deeply and angrily as he felt someone run into him. He heard a soft thud, the other hitting the floor from the impact. His hand was already moving to his tatoos to activate a spell. He was in no mood to deal with this shit and was looking quite forward to trying out one of his new spells on this unfortunate bystander. However he stopped short as he whirled around and noticed a small young woman laying on the ground. Damn, a woman, his sense of pride wouldn't allow him to hurt a woman..that would just make him look like a prick.

He watched her as she curled up in a small ball on the ground, eyes clamped shut as she whimpered softly. It was as if she expected him to beat her for bumping into him. Well had it been a guy she would have been right but he just didn't feel right hurting women. Especially not one so small and frail, he cocked his head curiously as he watched her.

"What the hell are you doing? Stand up," he said in a gruff voice as he watched her oddly, "I'm not going to beat you or anything..." he explained.

[madelyn]

Words. Words.. could she trust words. No.. not really how many times had she heard.. 'oh I won't hurt you' only to be lured out and then beaten worse for her ignorance. But this was not her uncle this was a boy in the school.. he wouldn't would he? She slowly let her arms down and saw him looking down at her.

Trust was so hard to give. He had tatoos. That equated with bad. She didn't know what else to think about them. Shaking visibly she got up slowly so slowly never taking her eyes off the boy that looked like he would and could still lash out at her at any moment.

She stood just watching him. She looked down at her book but made no move to retrieve it. She was way too afraid. She didn't know what to do. She was lost. She had not yet been confronted like this at the academy and a lot of emotions were running through the girls mind as she shook visibly. She was afraid.

[Lucian]

Lucian sighed mildly annoyed as she shook visibly while she stood. There was no real reason to fear him, so why the hell was she shaking like a leaf. Lucian shook his head and as a gesture of good faith bent down and picked up her book. Had he really been that intimidating? Lucian didn't think he had been so intimidating so as to cause a random stranger to quake with fear when confronted with him. He smiled his best friendly smile, which didn't exactly look friendly but he was at least giving it a try. He handed the book back to her, hopefully this would show her he wasn't going to beat her just for running into him.

"There's your book. I'm not going to kick the shit out of you just for bumping into me, it's really okay...you can stop shaking," he said, his voice had an annoyed tone to it but it wasn't as gruff or cold. He was trying his best to be friendly and it felt like it was killing him.

[madelyn]

Her eyes widened as he moved. He looked annoyed with her but who could blame the girl. She had a bad past though he wouldn't know that. He wouldn't know that the very tatoos on his arms brought back memories she had tried to get rid of. Here at the academy her life was wonderful she had not really been reminded of her fears. But now.. this boy seemed to be him.

He picked up her book and her eyes widened more as she watched every move he made. She was afraid yes very afraid. She was now curious as to what he was going to do with her book. It wasn't even hers and she had no money to replace it with. She watched waiting. Wondering. But wait..

He wanted to give it back to her. A very false smile crossed his face as he was trying to be friendly? She swallowed hard trying to calm herself down as she stepped forward her shaking hand closed over to book as she nodded her eyes still wide with fear.

Taking her book back, she put it under an arm and pulled out her small pad and green inked pen. She looked down for a moment and in shaky writing she wrote..

-Thank you-

[Lucian]

Lucian sighed again, releasing some of his anger and annoyance. It was clear that this girl had some sort of past that made her quite scared of people, or at least imposing people. He watched curiously as she scribbled something down in a notebook, turning to show him. It read thank you, Lucian looked puzzled, apparently this girl was unable to talk and wrote down what she wished to convey.

"You're welcome," he said and extended his hand to her, "I'm Lucian Dragomir," he said, the tone of annoyance in his voice had grown fainter. He sighed softly as he noticed her eyes, still wide with fear, "I promise you I'm not going to hurt you...and I'm not the type to break my word," he explained.

[madelyn]

Could she trust him? There he was asking her to do so and so far he had made no moves to hurt her or anything. She saw and heard him sigh when he still saw that she was staying away being wary of him. She looked at him as he said .. promised he would not hurt her. She nodded.

Her face softened and she calmed herself slowly letting herself relax a little. She smiled up at him. It wasn't a bright smile no he hadn't earned one of those yet. She looked up at him as he gave her his name and she smiled again and nodded. She flipped in her notebook to the first page where an artistically drawn

Madelyn

was written. She pointed to herself and then to the paper with a smile her eyes now relaxed were a startling violet blue color that sparkled with an inner light. She flipped back to a blank page and began to write again.

-Sorry about earlier. I was reading and not looking. Forgive me.-

She held it up to him again her eyes now sparkling with emotion and light as she held it to him.

[Lucian]

He relaxed a little as he noticed she had decided to trust him. Lucian was a bit relieved, it was rather annoying to have people fear him for no reason. If he wanted them to fear him he want indeed make them fear him, but he wanted to be the one to make them do it, but not just on reputation alone. Lucian watched as she flipped back to the first page of the notebook and their in extravagant elegant manuscript was her name, Madelyn.

"It's alright, it was also partially my fault. You seem I'm a bit flustered at the moment. These tattoos on my right arm...they are the source of my magic and are made of special ink from a rare plant in my home country of Romania. I went back there to try and find the plant because the tattoos on my left arm are impure and were not inked correctly. I needed to find the plant to get the ink to complete the runes on my left arm or else spells cast with that arm will always have the chance of not functioning properly," he said with an exasperated sigh, "It really was my fault for acting so harshly...I apologize Madelyn," he said with a sort of bow.

[madelyn]

The bow made Madelyn smile and giggle a little her eyes lighting up with her small noise. She looked up at him. He was interesting. His tatoos were his source of magic. How amazing. It was almost like her flute. She looked up into his eyes again as if to ask for permission. She didn't know if the man was adept at reading emotion out of someones eyes or not but she had to.. to touch.

She stepped forward slowly and hesitantly. She looked up into his eyes once more before her hand reached out gently. Hesitantly. Slowly she reached out and her soft thin fingers touched his skin gently feeling it. Madelyn was a girl who touched a lot to communicate things and discover things so for her this was normal but most people were afraid of a lot of touch. She let her hand run up and down his arm looking at the tatoos that worked with interest. She looked up and smiled brightly before pulling back.

She uncliped a black case from her hip and opened it. Amid the blue velvet was her shining silver flute. She pointed to his tatoo and then to him. She nodded. She then pointed to her flute and then to her. She smiled and closed the case reattaching it to her hip. The necklace of a white gold music note around her neck she pointed to it touching it gently.

[Lucian]

Lucian watched her carefully as she looked up at him, her eyes seemed to be wanting to ask permission for something. He wasn't sure what she wanted permisssion for, but he nodded a little to allow her to do whatever it was she wanted to do. Lucian understood as she reached out tenatively and started to examine his tattoos with her hand. He watched her curiously as she finished examining his tattoos. Then he noticed as she unclipped a small case from her side, she opened it with a smile and revealed a small silver flute. She proceeded to point to his arm and then to him, then to her flute and to her. So the source of her magic was her flute.

"Ahh I see so you're flute is the source of your magic as my tattoos are the source of mine," he said as he watched her, a faint smile played on his lips, "So have you been studying here long Madelyn?" he asked, his eyes moving to her notebook in anticipation of a written response.

[madelyn]

She almost sighed in relief. He understood what she was trying to say. She smiled and nodded happily at him when he understood. She knew that many times people either didn't take the time to get to know her because she didn't speak or they just ran off.

He seemed that he was actually not too bad of a guy. She almost felt guilty for making him feel bad earlier. Yet she could not control when her past would come to haunt her and so she could only deal with it the best she could. She heard his question and she nodded.

Two weeks. And yourself, Lucian?

Lucian. It was a nice name she thought. Very regal in her mind. Granted she was raised in utter seclusion on a farm in Kansas so she only had books and bits and pieces of tv to tell her exactly what regal was it still fit with him. The way he carried himself as though he set himself above all the others. She wondered if you really got to know him if he would drop the act.. if it was an act or if that was just the way he really was. All Madelyn knew was that so far he was actually interested in getting to know her and that was a novel in of itself.

[Lucian]

Lucian watched as she scribbled her response in the notebook. She certainly was an odd one, she used her flute for magic, didn't speak, and wrote all her responses down in a notebook. He didn't really mind anymore, the weird didn't phase him as much as it used to. He had learned to accept everything he saw as weird or odd as simply another normal thing in the daily life of the Academy and the city of Babylos. Now it was Lucian's turn to answer, truthfully he wasn't totally sure how long he had been at the Academy. He was sure he had been there longer than Madelyn, not physically of course.

"To be honest I don't know exactly how long I've been here. Probably a few weeks, but I left not long after first getting here to try and find the plant I told you about earlier," he explained, "So you're flute is the source of your magic...I take it you're a support type mage?" he asked, as he inspected her quickly before reaching his conclusion. She certainly didn't seem the offensive type, too frail and small to be on the frontlines during a battle. No she seemed the type to stay back and buff and heal the others, like him would actually be doing the fighting.

[madelyn]

Support Mage? Yes, that was exactly what she was. She had one attack spell and it was more for her defense than anything. She was one that would boost others and heal others. Mostly heal though. As she supplied mana and health to an area within hearing range. Sound was a powerful magic to control as it could travel pretty far.

She nodded happily that he had gotten it right. She had to admit that her first impression of the man infront of her had been a bit rash. He actually didn't seem like such a bad guy and she had even gotten a few almost smiles out of the guy. She bet he would look a lot better if she could get a true smile out of him. Smiles.. true smiles were always good for the soul she thought.

-You look like a fighter mage...yes?-

She looked up at him after writing down her question/statement. It was nice to meet someone besides her love that actually didn't mind waiting for her to write down things. Though she could speak she did only speak to Jonathan and no one else. And even then she rarely spoke as they communicated well without the words. When he answered she wrote once more.

-Would you like to get some tea?-

[Lucian]

He watched as she wrote again, her handwriting was truly elegant. Lucian supposed that came with writing down responses instead of talking for your whole life. Of course he didn't actually know if she was totally unable to talk, maybe she just didn't like to. She was a good observer, he was indeed a frontline fighter type mage. In a group of mages, he would probably be the tank, taking and dealing the most damage.

"You're correct I am a fighter. I probably rely more on my fighting abilities than my magic when I fight. Most of my magic can be incorporated into my hand to hand fighting," he explained. Then she asked if he would like some tea. Tea...he hadn't had tea since he killed his family and left for the Academy. His mother had always made him a cup of tea when he returned from being out training and fighting. A soft grin crossed his features as he recalled those memories, but then he snapped back to reality. That was in his past, his parents were dead, of course they wouldn't have been if they had just given into his demands...but no they had to refuse him. He shook his head, no need to dwell on the past.

"Tea would be very nice," he said with a nod, "Lead the way," he said, motioning for her to take the lead.