Let's see what we have to work with here.
by Giselle Duell
Giselle pushed open the door to her new classroom. It creaked loudly, that was good, she would have to make sure it didn't get oiled. That noise would help her know when someone had entered her room. She cast her wand about the room, drinking in the images that showed in her mind. It was a good sized classroom, but apart from that she was a little disheartened. She wasn't surprised by the state of the room, she had known this was most likely going to be the case, especially after the conversation she had had with the professor retiring from this position.
She strolled into the room to examine things better. The room had the standard desks and chairs for the students and a teaching desk and chair at the front. There was a blackboard and shelves, and standard supplies. There were a few basic tools, and... not much else. She had been trained in a school that specialized in divination, they had everything that one could wish for in pursuit of a better understanding of the subject. Here... here it was an elective class. Students could take it if they wanted to. She knew she shouldn't have expected a Delphi level classroom, but... she cast another 'look' about the room and made up her mind. A feeling of determination grew, she would make this work, she had work to do.
She moved to the desk to find some writing equipment, the first thing to do was to make a list or a few lists. What was here, what she needed, and what would be really nice to have. There was a folder lying on the desk that caught her attention first. It was a note from the previous professor and the promised files on the students, their progress and any other notes that may have been useful to have. Flipping it open she scanned the page with her wand, 'Anastasia Delachene' as it scanned more of the contents of Anastaisa's page Giselle began to get the feeling that this may be an interesting job... and she may need to adjust some of the things on her lists.
2Giselle DuellLet's see what we have to work with here.151715
New professors were a fairly common staple of new terms. Or new staff, anyway. Last year it had been Katey, this year it was Giselle. Selina had greeted her, and shown her to her classroom, then left her to settle in for a little while, promising she would be back a while later. It was important for her to chat to Giselle, but having made sure she had no immediate needs, it seemed polite to give her some breathing room before launching into anything deeper.
Selina was intrigued by the new hire. Divination was not a subject she set a lot of store by - either you had it or you didn't, and even with it, it was a lot of guesswork and vaguery. However, it was perennially popular, and, even if the memory of being a tumultuous adolescent was far behind her personally, she got enough daily reminders of how it could feel that she could understand why looking for answers in a teacup was appealing. Therefore, even if divination itself was far from practical, having a divination professor definitely was. Judging from her resume, Giselle seemed to be the real deal too. Not that that made her skill any more teachable, but based on their interview she seemed to understand what was practical and what wasn't. Plus Valentine would get to see her aunt, and whilst Selina couldn't let that bias her, it made her happy to think she was giving someone more time to spend with their family - school took so much of that, after all.
Selina returned to Giselle's room once she had had time to settle in. She knocked, and went in.
"Hello again," she stated. She almost added 'It's Professor Skies' but assumed Giselle was fairly adept at learning people's voices. She could also do some kind of thing with her wand. It sounded interesting, and Selina was certainly keen to know more about it. They hadn't had that spell for helping Nevaeh when she had been there, but maybe that was because it wouldn't have helped. Still, she didn't want to pry, or bombard Giselle with questions about something which was, for her, every day, and which she no doubt received a large number of requests to explain. "Just thought I'd check how you're doing."
Giselle was beginning to feel at home again already. This was much closer to the setting she knew, sitting at a desk, reading through books, making plans. The time she had spent at Marissa and Andrew's house was very nice, and reminiscent of even earlier times, this though had been her life for the past seven years. Just pouring herself into her studies because there was absolutely nothing else. It was easy to fall back into old habits and routines.
When there was a knock at the door and a woman's voice that registered in her mind as belonging to the Deputy-Headmistress spoke and asked how she was doing, she stood reflexively, without even pausing to think about it. With a practiced, deferential bow to the woman, Giselle responded in Greek with a voice filled with the eagerness to please and the fear of chastisement. "Everything is going well Ma'am. The lesson plans are coming along and they should be ready for your approval soon."
She moved to come around the desk, Is there anything else you need from.. she was stopped short when she bumped into what felt like an astrolabe, and nearly tripped on a rug. What was going on? Had Lia rearranged the room again? She caught the edge of the desk to keep from falling and summoned her wand to get her bearings once again. Giselle prepared herself for Lia's quiet laughter and another lecture on the importance of 'situational awareness'.
As her wand swept the room though, a look of confusion clearly played across her face. This was not Lia's room, this wasn't Delphi. Where? The woman before her was certainly not Lia. No, Lia was locked away now. This was Deputy-Headmistress Skies, of Sonora Academy, where she was now working. Well, sort of... hopefully. Giselle's face flushed with embarrassment and remorse. "I'm sorry Professor Skies, I..." have no idea how to finish that sentence.
Instead she gave her new employer a weak smile, "Everything is going fine. The classroom is lovely. Are the living quarters far?" She had gotten so wrapped up in reading up on the notes and then had starting making plans that she hadn't gotten around to anything else since the Deputy-Headmistress had left her here.
2Giselle DuellIt's all part of the mystique1517Giselle Duell05
Selina blinked, taken aback as she was addressed in a foreign language (presumably Greek). Before she could ask much about it, Giselle had stood up and promptly bumped into the furniture, causing Selina to wince and take a step forward, unsure quite how much was the appropriate amount of help to offer. Giselle did not seem to need her help with navigation though. She recovered herself, although not without several very visible emotions playing across her face, along with starting a sentence she clearly had no idea how to finish.
Selina was not quite sure what to make of all that. On the one hand, she knew from how much time she spent with the EAL students that it could be difficult to hold back a word that wanted to come out automatically in another language. However, that had been several sentences, after being greeted in English, almost like Giselle had forgotten where she was. Selina supposed she didn't have the visual cues to remind her but she assumed Giselle would just... be adequate at remembering in order to make up for that. But, of course, it wasn't Selina's place to assume how things worked for Giselle. Or maybe it was some head-in-the-clouds seer thing. Or Giselle was just tired, or distracted. Certainly, whilst it had been an odd moment, there were enough reasons why it might happen that Selina didn't worry about it much beyond the moment it took for the confusion to pass.
"No, they and the classroom can both be accessed from your office," Selina stated, when Giselle moved them back to practical matters with her question about the living quarters. She hesitated, finding the first things that came to mind were 'Do you remember where that is?' which seemed patronising, and 'It's over there' which clearly wasn't helpful when Giselle couldn't see where she was pointing.