Downward Dog

She took a deep breath to clear her mind and then twisted her body, tilting her head back and her legs up until they met. The stretch felt good, even if it hurt a little, because it reminded Veive of shifting. She uncurled from her position, exhaled, and stretched again, backing up onto her feet into the downward dog and then eventually rising.

It was a lovely day in the park, but the young teacher didn't have much time to kill today. She was supposed to head to the school to meet up with some newer students to discuss schedules or some kind of organizational thing, but Vieve wanted to clear her head first.

She knew she didn't look like the traditional teacher. For one thing, she was walking barefoot through the park, her feet bare save for a silver ring around her pinky toe. For the other, her tight, black tank-top and boot cut jeans didn't exactly look professional, and maybe her favorite black hat really did make her look like a teenager from a distance. But if anyone where to watch Veive walk, the power within her lengthy stride became evident. It wasn't power as that possessed by some students, to use magic or control the elements, but rather it was the power of self-control.

She glanced at her watch. She didn't have much longer.

Still, it was a nice day for a walk, and Vieve set off with the easy stride of someone who wasn't in a hurry. Life had a tendency of throwing things her way.

Had Vieve been wearing her other shape, her ears would have perked the moment she heard someone talking. As it was, her head had still titled a fraction, picking up the sounds and locating the direction, but it was enough to indicate that she was getting cloesr to what she assumed was something of a playful argument between two friends.

She would have passed off the boy playing with his dog if it wasn't for the slight indication that something was off. Like maybe, for example, the fact that there was a boy talking to a dog? Or the fact that it was way too big to be a dog? But no, it was just the smell, something that was just a little bit tainted with.....

Vieve didn't have a word for it. She didn't like to call it magic, because it wasn't that ozone-burning-sulfur-smell that sometimes followed elemental magic, or the copper-and-dried-flowers smell that followed necromancy. It was just something off.

She'd just about passed them when she felt a slight thump against her and her reflexes took over, putting her arm out to make sure whoever bumped into her wasn't falling, and her other arm jerked back to swing a punch incase whoever bumped into her was ready to swing back but--

Vieve took a deep breath and got a hold of herself.

It was hard to flush so many years off training to the back of her mind.

"Are you alright?" She asked, squinting at the two, and then frowning, because..."I don't recognize either of you. Are you new?"

The wolf-dog-thing was talking and the boy was silent.

It was strange, but Vieve had seem some weirder things, so she accepted the situation with ease.

'We just arrived yesterday. He's Willaim...And he calls me Spirit.',

Vieve found it interesting that he was called Spirit, not named Spirit, so she made a note not to ask for the creatures real name. Things like that tended to send off a warning single, but her posture was relaxed and showed no signs of being on edge. In fact, Vieve wasn't really worried. Spirit spoke freely, and though William was silent, it really wasn't unreasonable to be silent in the face of a complete stranger. She took his approach as a good thing, and his whispered greeting as another.

"Hello then," Vieve said. She didn't offer out her hand to shake, but she did give a slow wave in greeting. "And let me welcome you to the Manta Carlos islands."

She didn't give them the usual sphele about everything being different here. There was a talking dog. The fact that this place was different was a given. It was..normal.

"My name is Vieve Corbeau, and I'm a teacher here," she said, giving a lop-sided grin, knowing it was unlikely they'd believe her at first. Few students looked at her easy-going posture and clothing and thought she was serious.

"But please, call me Vieve, not any of that Miss Corbeau nonsense."

She gave them another once over, taking in the fact that they'd just arrived and trying to remember what her first time here was like. Truthfully, she just wished this was around when she was younger. God, thinking things like that made her feel old. She was too young to feel that old.

"Did you find your dorms okay? And how are you finding it here, for your first impressions?" She addressed both of them, half expecting Spirit to answer first, but she kept William in her peripheral vision.

'William got us lost first though.We ended up in cafeteria in the middle of the lunch, still carrying his bags and all.'

'It is not my fault the map they gave us was all wrong.'

Vieve was intrigued. They had an interesting dynamic going on, and the part of her that thought like a wolf found it interesting that, while William was the one who she expected to be in charge, Spirit was the one who did the talking. Spirit was expressive, not limited by his shape, while William seemed more like a dog expecting to be hit.

'You'll have to excuse him. 'He's not trying to be rude, he just doesn't speak much. Not for some time.'

Vieve had already relaxed her posture, her palms facing them in a show of openness and acceptance. Her feet were pointed towards them, and though her shoulders were rolled back, there was still a slight tilt to them that made her look taller. Most people missed out on things like this, the subtle body language that indicated that she was relaxed and receptive to what they were saying, calm but still in control. She had a feeling that William might pick up on it. It was clear by Spirit's wagging tail that William had some understanding of body language, so she hoped he might pick up on what she was saying.

"That's alright with me," Vieve said, "I'm used to spending a lot of time without talking."

There was always that unspoken rule, even here, that you just didn't say what you were. It reminded Vieve of what it was like to visit her friend when she was in psychiatric care. shekind of just pretended that she wasn't in a psyche ward, even if she really wanted to ask her friend's roommate what she'd done to get in there.

It was kind of the same here. Some of the students were very open about what they were, what they could do, while others might never mention it. Though Vieve could probably access the information if she really felt like doing the paperwork, she found it was better to just reveal it herself.

"I spend a lot of my time looking pretty close to yourself there," she nodded her head towards Spirit, but she was still keeping her body angled towards William, involving him in the conversation as well. "Although I don't get the benefit of forming words with my mouth. Shame, too, or I could star in a lot of taco commercials."

She grinned.

But then wondered if they were even old enough to know that a taco company used to use a talking dog to market their food. Crap. She was too young to feel this old.

"I'm assuming you're signed up for a powers-class, but worst case scenario, you can always switch to mine if you need." This time she was speaking directly towards William, and though she did her best to make eyecontact, she didn't hold it in a way that might be mistaken for a challenge. "We do a lot of breathing exercises, control work, and its good to start in silence. If you're interested."

She shifted to her other foot, throwing her hip out to the side in a decidedly un-teacher-like posture, but it cracked audibly and Vieve felt better. "Speaking of tacos..next time you bring your bags to the cafeteria, it wouldn't hurt to load them up with some snacks. I don't know about you guys, but I love midnight snacks, and the cooks here don't take too kindly if you wake them up to make you an omelet."

This was indeed interesting. Vieve was quite happy she'd run into them, and her original urgency for heading back to the school was lost.

"Yes, taco commercials," she said, giving a lop-sided grin. "The one thing this island doesn't have is good, greasy fast-food. Like artery-clogging-die-of-a-heart-attack kind of good. I mean, we have good real food, but sometimes I miss the grease."

She listened to their conversation, although most of what they were saying seemed to be unsaid. Their posture shifted, and it seemed like any of the progress William had just made backed up, but that was okay. Two steps forward, one step back, but that was okay. It was progress.

"It might be worth it to give it a shot," she said, shrugging. "We're probably one of the only schools in the world that offer them."

She gave another smile, tilting her said from side to side until her neck cracked. "It's kind of hard for a werewolf to teach a bunch of other supernaturals, so any classes on using powers I don't handle. We work on self control."

She looked from side to side, leaning forward and giving a little grin, whispering. "We go on field trips."

She was curious what his back story was, but she wasn't going to ask. He could reveal that information when he wanted. She was just happy he was talking. She liked Spirit, too, though, and entertained a brief idea about seeing if William would like to go for a run with her and Spirit. It was always a good sense of fun, and sometimes it was nice to be able to talk without using words. She hadn't been around another wolf in a long time.

She was going to say something else but a scent caught her nose and she tilted her head, but she couldn't quite place what it was. She realized she was standing gazing vacantly at the air and turned her attention back to them with an apologetic smile. She realized she was smiling a lot, but that was okay.

Something was catching her attention but she couldn't place what it was.

"Do you mind if I ask a personal question?" She started, "and you don't need to answer, mind you, but I'm just curious how long you've known each other. If you don't want to answer we can totally all look awkwardly at that butterfly sitting on the memosa."

((Ooc: Sorry for delays! Things have been kind of messed up on my end with back to school. If you'd like to hop into "The Hag" with DragonRider and I, we have an opening, too, and then you won't be waiting as long for responses.))