Cool Girl In Town [Open!]

''Nice to meet you then, Odd'', Samael said, chuckling warmly as the girl's herself now made one of those puns which were objectively terrible, yet still immensely funny. ''As for the name... I suppose it can't hurt'', he answered, tilting his head slightly to the left he thought about the question. ''Nobody ever felt the need to shorten it before, though.'' He was Samael to his family just as his father was always Greyam and his mother Lydia. Not even his younger brother had ever truly had a nickname, at least not one that Samael had given him. They were just not the kind of family that felt the need to call each other by anything but their names. There were other ways to show affection. As for his friends, they knew many Sams and Andrews and Johns, so they had always appreciated the strangeness of his name, since it made it made him that much harder to forget or confuse with somebody else.

If the girl-Oddleif, yet another strange name-felt the need to call him Sam though, he was not going to complain. Never having though about something before didn't automatically mean he was uncomfortable with it.

''I suppose you could'', he then continued to answer to her statements, one at a time, so he wouldn't miss anything despite there already being so many threads woven in their conversation even though it had not been happening for very long. ''I've seen stranger things here than a bit of snow and ice in the summer time.''

''You wouldn't then just chase them?'', he asked after a second of silence he spent looking at the girl again, taking in her hair and face a bit better, especially now that the hair was not tied into a bun. ''Isn't that a bit cruel as well, just scaring them like that?'' He did not comment on the cuteness of mice though, having no opinion about that, and not exactly looking to form one right now.

''It is quite nice'', he continued to speak, not really waiting for anything as Oddleif certainly didn't seem to be of the waiting kind herself. ''I cannot turn into a bird, however, though if I really wish I can become a tiger. It is quite uncomfortable for me, though, so I try to avoid it.'' Turning into a tiger always felt like breaking bones and rearranging them into a new form part by part where the change into a lynx was nothing more but a simple change of clothes, exchanging one pair of the shirt and pants for the other, sometimes easier than that, for at times, he would give anything not to have to change for work, while he was always ready to become the cat that was his other form.

''Thank you'', he said then, smiling at the compliment. ''Yours is quite nice too, though. And as I said, there are stranger things here than a few strands of a fair hare, trust me. Nobody will give you hard time for it. As for it being messy... well that is something that the two of you will have to work out on your own'', he said jokingly, giving a small laugh as he remembered the fights he had with his own hair until he found that simply tying it loosely at he nape of his neck worked the best.

''I've always had it long'', Samael answered, thinking back on his life and trying to remember a time when his hair wasn't at least reaching to his shoulders. He found a very vague memory of watching down on his brother as he lied in his crib, no more than perhaps a few months old, but nothing more. ''I think that it was my mother's idea at first'', he said, thinking about it carefully. ''She likes the colour as well, almost as much as I do. I would never try braiding it though. Wearing it any way but this turns it into something worse than a nightmare'', and he had tried, almost every stile, only to come back to the simplest of forms which he had since childhood.

''Yeah, I can'', he said, answering her question and wide open, excitement filled eyes with a warm, bright smile. It was refreshing somehow, talking to Odd, he thought, as he continued explaining his powers to her. Almost as much as feeling her use her power on his fur.

''Though as I said it is is much more uncomfortable than turning into a lynx'', he said, thinking about the best way to explain the inner workings of his power to someone who had never neither met a shifter nor felt what it was to be one. ''Both of my parents are shifters as well, so I inherited mixed blood. One bloodline had to be stronger though, so for me changing into a lynx is...like changing clothes'', he said, deciding that that metaphor really did work the best. ''Turning into a tiger however is much harder and it almost hurts, so I don't like to do it much, if at all. I don't think I have changed into a tiger for years now actually''', he added, frowning slightly as he tried to recall when was the last time he had felt himself become something larger than a lynx outside of a dream. It had truly been a few years ago, he though as he found the memory, and it was most unpleasant. As a child he was told he often tried to change into a tiger because he saw his mother do so. It was hard and painful even then though, so he had soon stopped, or rather, had been stopped.

''I haven't seen any at the school'', he said then, taking in slowly everything the girl had said about safety ropes, tigers with lice and circuses, coming slowly to a conclusion as to where she had come from. ''Though they are bound to be some in the forest or something. In the city as well, perhaps, though again, I haven't seen any.'' He only knew for certain that there were none in the bar, not since that incident with his brother and tying to eat one.

''It is all kinds of useful'', he agreed, as the snowflakes melted on his shoulder, cooling him down once again. ''Much more useful than growing additional pound in fur, any way'', he joked, thinking about how absolutely hot he had been, despite being more comfortable lying on the ground as a cat.

''Then feel free to call me Sam. I don't mind, Odd'', said, calling her by her name. ''I was wondering where you picked up a way to massage a cat though'', he added then, thinking back at the way he almost purred under Odd's hands and blushing slightly at that despite being a fully grown adult. ''Now it makes sense. Living in a circus must have been interesting'', he said, hoping he had not said anything wrong, knowing that sometimes past could be like a raw wound for those having just arrived at the Island. She sounded happy as she talked about it though, so he hoped she was one of the rare exceptions to that.

''It is a very common dream'', Samael said carefully, watching Odd's face mindfully, looking for any traces of that blank, expressionless stare he had seen just a moment ago. There were none to be found however, the girl's grin having chased them away as if they were never there. Samael still made a note of that, silently reminding himself to be careful of his words and questions.

''I think even my brother had it once, at some point'', he said, remembering suddenly, and quite vividly, Michael jumping of the bar counter and almost breaking his arm because he had failed to do whatever the trick he had been intending to show them. ''He was quite crushed when he discovered there were none on the Island'', he added, as the memories of the few-five or six, he though, maybe seven-years ago became clearer in his mind. ''Though I assume it is probably better that way. From what you say it seems circus is much less fun and much more work than anybody not living that life ever imagines.'' And Michael, for all his exuberant energy, was, and will always be somewhat of a lazy cat, Samael thought fondly, as only brothers can.

Thinking about his brother then led him to thinking about his mother, who really was a tigress, with or without fur, and was thus truly somebody one did not wish to anger, not without good cause, or if they could help it. ''No, you really do not. They are quite dangerous once they start roaring, aren't they?'', he said, laughing, wondering if perhaps he should explain. ''I should know'', he said in the end. ''My tiger's blood comes from my mother's side.''

''It can be'', he then nodded, frowning slightly as his shoulders began to complain, the position in which he laid propping against the tree becoming slowly uncomfortable for him. ''For one, things such as grass and trees are much more comfortable to nap on when one is a cat of any kind.'' Shifting, Samael found a position in which he could be comfortable again before he continued speaking.

''And I shall be very glad to have you around if these kind of days continue all through the summer'', he nodded his head again, giving Odd a small smile. ''If you need any help with getting around the Academy or the Island, please let me know. I have lived here all my life and feel I know it quite well because of it.''

''I would not call it cute'', Samael then said, frowning slightly as he had a feeling that Odd had not understood his explanation correctly. ''It is still a predator, even though it is smaller than a tiger. It is quite dangerous as well. And the pain... It is nothing to worry about. It is unpleasant, but...'' Samael frowned even deeper trying to find the words.

Turning into a tiger was unpleasant and it definitely hurt as if every bone in his body was being broken and then rearranged, but nothing actually go broken. It was simply that the tiger blood in him wasn't strong enough to make the transition from one body to another fast enough to be seamless and painless. He did not mind that. He liked his lynx body and avoided turning into a tiger in a same way people avoid running into walls or burning themselves when water was hot.

''It is just something that is'', he finished in the end, finding that it was just something that could not be explained. ''There are worse things, really'', he said, shaking his head, the hair Odd had just said she thought would look good braided flying all around his shoulders and mid back.

''I've been told that before'', he commented. ''But I would rather not have to do it again. It might look good for a few days but getting it un-braided and straight again... it is torture, plain and simple.''

''I can imagine'', Samael said, answering her comment about the fickleness of circus life, when, suddenly, he felt hands in his hair, combing through it as Odd continued to speak about braiding it.

''Well'', he said, still cringing at the thought of the last time he had done anything to his hair but just let it be. It was a mess that just wouldn't go away, carrying on for days. It had, however, looked good for those few days he managed to put up with it... ''Perhaps I'll let you do it sometime then'', he relented in the end, turning his head so he could look at the girl while he spoke.

At the loud rumbling that emerged from the girl's stomach as he did so, he gave out a light laugh before carefully prying his hair out of her nimble hands. ''Of course. There is cafeteria on the campus, which is the place where most of the students go to eat, especially during school time. We can either go there, or to a cafe or a restaurant near the bar, down in the city. Whatever interests you more'', he offered, standing up and thinking that even though his stomach wasn't about to go growling just yet, he wouldn't exactly mind something to eat himself. ''I can show you anything else you wish to see later.'' Dusting off the dirt and grass of his clothes, Samael then remembered something else important. ''Do you know where are you staying?'', he asked, assuming it would be in the dorms.

''All students can eat for free in the cafeteria'', Samael said, nodding his head carefully. 'I don't have money on me', did not necessarily mean 'or at all', but by the way the ashen haired girl had acted, blushing and spitting out her words, the young man assumed that this time it did. His first instinct was to frown in disdain that this was not uncommon on the Island, many of its students coming to school from different parts of the world with nothing but the clothes they were wearing to their name simply because their parents could not deal with the fact that their children were special. He knew people who had been kicked out of their homes to fend on their own even before they got their acceptance letters, was friends with them, and each time he learned of a new case, it made him irrationally angry at those people who refused to understand and accept anyone that was not exactly the same as them.

He was carefully not to do so, however, knowing that if he were to frown now Odd would probably think he was judging her. Instead, he kept a neutral expression, knowing that some people mistook sympathy for pity, especially in cases like these, and just kept talking the same as before.

''If you don't want to go there though, I have more than enough money on me to pay for us both'', he said, thinking how shopping for the bar could definitely wait for a few hours, and knowing that his father wouldn't mind, ''and if you wish you can pay me back once you're settled in.'' One of the greatest things about the school, he thought, apart for being a safe place for people like them, was that it took care of those of its students who were cased away.

Before he could get an answer though, Odd was suddenly a looking back towards the Admission Office, then at him with honest sincerity as she asked him if he could read. ''I, yes, of course?'', he said, frowning this time, slightly. Why was she asking him that? Could she...not? ''Is there anything you would like me to read for you?'', he asked in the end carefully, hoping that he would not end up pushing a wrong button somewhere with that.