Welcome

[Erika Strand]

Erika went to her dorm to shower and change into pajamas after the beach party, then flopped down on one of the couches in the common room, pulling her fingers through her drying hair and staring absently into the fireplace. All in all, it had been a good day. She had found Otto, and he had been every bit as sweet as she'd hoped he'd be. More importantly, he'd offered to help her with her English! That would go far toward helping her understand her classes and classmates, which would in turn go far toward making good grades and new friends. She smiled to herself, curling her legs up to her chest. I really am going to fit in here, she thought. For the first time I'm going to really like it somewhere.

[Gal Gimble]

After almost drowning (due in part to a teacher's negligence), Gal wasn't too sure the Institute was the place for him. He was alone for the first time in years, in a strange place, and he'd forgotten his little necklace. The one Delaney had gotten him the year before, with the little clover in it. He'd been so freaked out while trying to pack that he'd forgotten to put it on, and now he was at the Institute and a necklace he'd worn every day was back in Ireland.

He walked into the common room, sighing and running a hand through his curls. He'd seen most everyone leave already, so when he noticed Erika, he froze and smiled awkwardly.

"Um. Hello." He chuckled sheepishly and sat on a couch across the room. Should he...talk? Talking seemed polite. Unless she didn't feel like talking, then it would be rude. He pulled a small leather book from his pocket, but placed it next to him and smiled at Erika.

"You're the girl from the dining hall last week, right? Um...ah, Erika! Right?" He was pretty sure he was right. He was good at names.

[Erika Strand]

Erika had been zoning out, lost in her thoughts, when her reverie was broken by the entrance of the faun she'd met on her first day. She smiled warmly up at him.

"Hello," she replied to his greeting. He sat down, and she thought he was going to read, but instead he put his book down next to him and checked if he knew her name, which people seemed to be doing a lot here lately. She supposed a quiet girl with a thick Danish accent didn't make much of an impression, but this boy still remembered her name, which widened her smile just a little.

"Erika, right!" she answered. "And you are... You are Galahad?" she said, pronouncing his name very carefully with her very best English pronunciation. Then she remembered his nickname. "Gal! You are Gal, ja?"

[Gal Gimble]

"Yeah, I'm Gal!" He calmed immensely when Erika smiled back at him. He pulled his fuzzy legs up on the couch and tucked them beneath him, trying to get more comfortable. "This is your first year, too, right? How'd you end up here?" He was pretty sure most people had more interesting stories than 'I tagged along with my best friend'.

[Erika Strand]

Erika nodded, blushing a little because the story of how she'd come to be at this school was a lot more exciting than really any other story involving her. "I, eh, I ran away," she said self-consciously. "My mother and father... they were... confused by me. They took me to doctors and the doctors hurt me, so I ran away to live on a boat. One of the men on the boat has a son who, em... takes school here, and he knew that this is where I should go." She smiled and shrugged. "So now I am here."

She glanced at Gal to see if she had confused him with anything she'd said, but she seemed to have gotten through her little story passing well. "And what about you?" she asked.

[Gal Gimble]

Gal chuckled, running a hand through his hair. "There's not really very much to tell. I grew up with all this, knew what I was and all that, but I got along in human schools, so I stayed there. Then I met Delaney--you saw her the other day, the redhead?" He smiled fondly. "She didn't know what she was. I suspected, and my grandfather confirmed it. She was always raising hell back home, see? She doesn't have control over her abilities or anything, so we told them about this place. They were...very happy to find out. They decided almost immediately to send her, and I just kinda...came along. Neither of us is all that great at making friends, so we stick together." Not that Delaney was having much trouble. She seemed to fit in nicely here. Gal, on the other hand, was finding it significantly more difficult.

He realized his answer would likely halt the conversation. Feeling somewhat desperate to talk to someone, he rummaged through his knowledge of small talk. "So, um...where are you from?" He kind of wanted to shoot himself for that one.

[Erika Strand]

"Aw, that's sweet," Erika said once he'd finished his tale. She'd never really had any long term friends before, so the thought of two friends sticking together the way Gal and Delaney had was almost romantic to her. "At least you've got each other."

Even though he seemed cripplingly shy to her, Erika was warming up to Galahad. She figured that he still had first-week jitters just as she did, and she was beginning to see that behind the nerves and the timidity was a very kind, gentle boy.

Erika blushed a little when he asked where she was from, but she supposed that this would be a good opportunity to explain away her no doubt horrendous accent and her English's "needs improvement" status. "I am from Denmark, from a small town near Esbjerg," she said. "I studied English in school, but I am still not very good." She shrugged apologetically before turning the question back around. "And where are you from, then?"

[Gal Gimble]

"Oh no, your English is good! I haven't had any trouble understanding you, at least." He smiled to let her know he was sincere. "And Denmark is a lovely place. We lived there for a while when I was younger. My family, we're sort of a weird combination of hippies and gypsies. We used to move a lot, which, ah, kind of explains my lack of friendships. We've been in Ireland a lot longer than anywhere else, though, so I suppose that's where I'm from right now."

"So, pardon me if this is rude, but...what are you?" he asked. "I'm not used to being around anyone other than my family, really, so I'm not sure how taboo that question is."

((Ugh ugh ugh pardon the crap posts, I've been having trouble writing for Gal :C))

[Erika Strand]

Erika blushed and nodded her thanks at the assurance that her English was good, then her face lit up with delight when he said he'd lived in Denmark. "That is very, em, cool! I have always wanted to travel a lot, at least see the rest of Europe, you know? I have heard that Ireland is beautiful!"

When Gal asked what she was Erika cocked her head to one side at first, not understanding what he meant, but as he went on she got it and started laughing, shaking her head. "Oh, no, not rude! I am a nereid. Eh, ocean nymph. You can sometimes tell from the eyes," she said, pointing to her own eyes, which, if one paid attention, one could see that they shifted between oceanic shades of green and blue just as fluidly as waves themselves.