mind if I [steal] you away?

There was a bit of a cloud hanging over Vadim's head that morning as he started down the stairs across the hall from his dorm. While there always was a twinge of guilt and remorse in the back of the raccoon's mind nagging him for his malignant and deceitful behaviour, a few recent letters from Father Voronin seemed to bring them to the front of his conscience. The old priest's confidence in his furred ward's ability to change showed no end, it seemed; the warm words of encouragement in his most recent note to the young trickster set off an especially deep pang of scorn and regret in his heart towards his own actions of late. Cheating in his academics and his gambling ventures... picking pockets and breaking into lockers for valuables to pawn off just to afford a decent social life... his laundry list of sin and vice was several miles long and yet Voronin still showed nothing but compassion for him. The raccoon felt like a disappointment.

It was in this vichyssoise of doubt and misery that Vadim started his day, a notably dark and gloomy look across the black mask on his face in place of what most would normally describe a more bright and charming demeanor. His outfit appeared rather disheveled for someone normally so particular about his appearance; his shirt collar lay unbuttoned, his ascot was tied only in a loose knot and stuffed rather slopily into his vest, and his cap, usually kept immaculately clean and brushed, sat atop his head slightly cratered in the crown and wrinkled. A petulant gaze of apparent misery swept his path of most bystanders as he walked, soon rounding a corner as he stepped out of the stairwell; the last thing anyone wanted to do, it appeared, was stand in the path of a self-loathing miscreant.

In this state, it would have been easy for one to simply not raise any attention to an item dropped from the raccoon's person; in fact, Vadim wasn't expecting anyone to speak with him at all... which was why he was at a loss for words for a moment as he accepted the return of his ID card from the rather cheerful young lady who had stopped him.

"Oh, umm... Thank you...," he finally said, staring at the plastic badge in his hand before slowly putting it back in his pocket.

The young lady's innocent and radiant act was cute, but Vadim wasn't in the mood for cute. His dour demeanor remained steadfast, and really only seemed to grow darker as the raccoon crossed his arms. She wanted something from him; that was the only reason people approached him of their own volition these days.

"Are you trying to flirt with me? It's a cute attempt, devochka, but I'm not looking," Vadim replied, before turning around to continue on his way to his destination, "Thank you for returning my ID card, but I'm afraid this will have to be do svidaniya."

There was a bit of annoyance shooting across Vadim’s face as the girl stepped in front of him, his ears flattening and his hackles raising as he stopped in his tracks. This girl… she was persistent, that was certain.

“And why should I listen, dovochka? I don’t know you at all, and you are quite honestly getting on my nerves just standing in my way like this,” the raccoon snarled, eyes narrowing as he glared at the one who stood between him and getting on with his day.

((Short post, but it's something to get the thread moving again Xvx))

Vadim suppressed his mounting frustration almost immediately at the mention of his "sticky fingers." She clearly knew more about him than she was letting on at first, and it brought a sense of confusion and excitement to his face; he liked playing these games...

"What are you trying to get me into, pikkutyttö?" the raccoon inquired, his face contorting into a sly, toothy grin full of mischief as his mood turned right around from pits of guilt to the dark abyss of wicked intentions...