jaegerbombdad | Office Hours, Thursday

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office hours

Office Hours, Thursday

Herc had an office now! Of course, Herc had had an office before coming to the island, it was just...Stacker's office, and he couldn't quite shake the feeling that at any moment Stacker was going to walk in and tell him to get out of his chair. This office was blissfully free of emotional associations. So far, his main association with this office was the cake someone had left in his chair, which he'd luckily found before he sat down. It had been delicious, even if he'd let Max eat approximately half of it.

He was expecting at least one visitor today, but while he waited for her he would be trying to figure out exactly how to structure this class and write up a syllabus--on the computer, because typing one-handed was less awkward than trying to write things out with his off hand.

He'd already set up a dog bed for Max in one corner, where the bulldog could be found alternately chewing on a toy and napping.

((Open office is open!))

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"Ah, Miss Morragen," Herc said, smiling at her, "good, yes, now that you're here I'm sure we can get this straightened out."

"Uhh, sure," she said, giving him a weak grin. "That'll be great. Though..." Hello sudden inspiration! "...I'm worried the moose won't be very helpful. I don't think it likes me."

Okay, Zee had never met the moose before in her life. She wasn't even sure there WAS a moose, but people kept referencing it. But maybe that might serve as a good excuse for....anything. Who expected moose to be reasonable?

"Well, the moose can be as unhelpful as it likes, as long as we get this straightened out," Herc said. "Surely the moose isn't the only, ah, person in the office." He was a military man. He knew a thing or six about bureaucracy and passive-aggressive clerks.

"No, but..."

=Anyone? Anything?=

::You know I'm not good at lying!::

=Right. Zhahar?=

*I'm thinking!*

=Think faster!=

*Stall harder!*

"...Can I ask what happened to your arm? Did you get that fighting?"

SHE WAS TRYING HER BEST HERE!

Yeah, that was pretty obvious, Zee. "It's a bit of a long story," Herc said, "and completely irrelevant. As I'm sure you know," he added pointedly. "Do you want to tell me what's going on here? Because if you're just trying to mess with the new teacher, I meant it, I'm the wrong person to try that on with."

"Why would I be trying to mess with you?" Zeela demanded. "You're like the one teacher in this entire place that's trying to teach me something useful. I just hate the thought of being benched because my name isn't on some stupid list."

"Then help me help you get your name on the list," Herc told her, "instead of throwing up roadblocks about a moose."

Edited 2013-09-06 01:28 (UTC)

"It's not my fault there really is a moose," Zeela said, lowering her eyes again. "That's all on Fandom."

"The point is not the moose, and you know it. This is getting rather ridiculous. We'll go down there right now and get this dealt with," Herc said, rising from his chair.

Zeela didn't stand up from hers. "Wait!" she said, biting her lip. "We...can't. I don't--" She coughed nervously. "--I don't exactly go here. I use another girl's name to sign up for classes."

::What are you doing?!::

"Most teachers aren't really worried about it, so long as the number of students on the roster and the number of students in the class add up."

"Well, I am," Herc said. "You could get hurt in my class, and--why would you even do that, anyway, that's a terrible plan. You're lucky you haven't been caught before, young lady."

"Because I need to protect my sisters," Zeela said, sitting back and folding her arms. "And your class is the only way I can."

"Then why aren't you actually enrolled in the school?" If they had a moose in the office surely their standards couldn't be that strict.

"Because my sister is," Zeela mumbled, eyes downcast.

It wasn't an answer and yet it utterly was.

"Is there some sort of rule against siblings enrolling at this school?" Wait. "This is a boarding school. Where are you living?"

Edited 2013-09-06 03:36 (UTC)

Zeela slowly got to her feet. "Can you keep a secret?" she asked. "I mean, if I show you something that makes it clear why only one of us is enrolled and where I sleep, can you keep quiet about it? If you can't..." She shrugged. "...just say so and I'll leave your office and you'll never see me again. Okay?"

"That's not something I can agree to with no information," Herc told her. "I hope you understand why. I have responsibilities to this school." And the secret could always be 'I'm a crazy girl who killed her sister and hid her in the closet,' for all he knew. "If it's not harming anyone, we'll figure out how to deal with it. That's all I can tell you without knowing what in the bloody hell is going on."

Zee didn't like it, but she was pretty sure this was the best she was going to get. She heaved a sigh and explained, "You were kinda close when you linked the names, but I was telling you the truth when I said Zee is my first name. It's just short for Zeela, like you guessed."

She was rambling a little, putting the grand reveal off until she had to. Unlike her sisters, who had only told people they'd trusted, Zeela was telling the secret first and hoping the trust came later.

"Sholeh is the sister on the records," she explained, nervously playing with the hem of her shirt. Zhahar is our older sister. She's like me; going to school here without anyone realizing it officially." She should probably stop dragging this out. "I guess you'll probably want to meet Sholeh first?"

And then Hercules got to watch the delightful transformation as one sister faded and the other came into view.

"Hi, Mr. Hansen," Sholeh said, tucking her hair behind her ear. "Umm, I hope you'll keep our secret?"

"Okay, so you're a shapeshifter," Herc said, a little slowly because he was mentally adding 'shapeshifters' to his file of 'things that exist here.' "This is a big secret you had to drag me through two conversations about a moose over...why?" He would have thought it would have been perfectly normal here, with every other absurd thing.

Edited 2013-09-06 22:44 (UTC)

"Shapeshifters are one being who can take on many forms," Sholeh corrected. "We are three girls in one body. I'm Sholeh, she is Zeela, and our third sister is Zhahar."

*I'm not coming out,* Zhahar announced. *If this all turns to tears, at least we'll have one aspect he can't point out.*

"We are Tryad, the three-in-one." Sholeh looked at him, drawing up every ounce of courage she possessed in order to speak so sharply to a teacher, "And it is not your place judge us for our secrecy. Where we come from, people die when they're found out. Even here, we prefer to be careful. It's safer for us and everyone we left behind at home."

"Young lady," Herc said, because he was no longer certain how to formally refer to these people, since one of them was apparently what he'd thought was a middle name, "I don't know what to make of you. First you treat me like you assume I'm stupid or gullible, then you ask me to let you continue lying to the administration and my fellow teachers, suggesting you still think I'm stupid or gullible, to just go, 'oh sure I can see no downside in that,' and that they all are, too. I'm not 'judging your secrecy.' I am annoyed. I hope you spun a better story to everyone else than you did to me."

"No one else really cared," Sholeh said, abashed. She dropped her eyes, though, because he did have a point. At least, somewhat. "They were happy to let it go as a paperwork error."

A moment later, her featured blurred and then Zeela was in view again. If any of them were going to get yelled at, it was her.

[I am so sorry! I thought I had hit enter on this! Apparently not!]

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Office Hours, Thursday

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NFB from here, please!

Re: NFB from here, please!

Re: NFB from here, please!

Re: NFB from here, please!

Re: NFB from here, please!