concoursec | Office Hours 2: The Officehouring

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Office Hours 2: The Officehouring

Character(s): Snow and ~~a legion of abusers~~ anyone wishing to come to his office hours.
Location: The WTR classrooms.
Rating: PG.
Open/Closed/Finished: Open.
Summary: Snow ~~doesn't learn from experience~~ is holding office hours again!

In preparation for finals coming up, Snow had once again shoved the WTR classroom into something he could call an office by virtue of some practice mats now being stacked high enough to sit on. Having done so, he settled in to a simple exercise routine. After all, even Instructors have to keep in shape.

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"Oh sure, make me the target. 'It's okay with Instructor Villiers, take it up with him!'" But Snow was laughing. He couldn't object; after all, if he heard that the group was getting in trouble for heroism and right-thing-doing even if he wasn't part of it, he'd defend them anyway. "Sign me up. Just don't brand me as part of a membership ritual. I've had enough of that already in my life!"

"From the sounds of it, you're pretty used to being the target so why not?" She laughed along with him though, clearly just joking. "Though if they have any problems with our actions they can talk to me about it. It's not like we've got anything to hide." She did, the Owls as a whole did not. "Don't worry, no more brands." Rinoa held up her hand, the silver links on her wrist glinting in the light. "Unless fashion accessories count as brands now?"

Snow reached up to touch his necklace. "Well, this one says 'Property of Serah Farron', so it's about the same, right?"

"So that's what that means. I was wondering what they were for." She does share a class with Serah after all. "I thought that's what it meant, but guess I know for sure now." She held out her arm so he could get a better look at the bracelet she was wearing.

"We tried to make it simple enough so that it wouldn't look weird on guys or girls." The design was basically that of your average id bracelet - it had her name and the head of an owl on the little plate.

"Maybe mine ought to be something I can pull up over the brand," Snow said, looking at the insignia on his forearm -- and remembering that time he, uh, hadn't. Ooops.

"Hm, do you think too many people will even notice? I know I thought it was just a really funny tattoo at first." In a world where it's totally okay to have random marks on parts of your body, is his brand really that big of a deal?

"I can talk to Bulla and Sharpay to see what we can come up with though, if you want."

"Well, it does kind of..." He shifted from Commando to Sentinel -- with no real effect, since he wasn't in the middle of a fight, save for the sudden muted glow of the brand.

As his brand glowed, she just kind of stared for a moment not really sure what that meant.

"Wow, that's kind of neat." Rinoa paused for a second, tilted her head and then asked the question that she really wanted to know. "So what does it actually do?"

"I never told you that, huh? It's kind of a story..."

He began to pace the room, arms folded behind his back. "I guess to explain it, you have to understand a little about Pulse and Cocoon. Cocoon is my home world... me, Serah, Light... and Cocoon is pretty much full of Fal'cie. They're beings... sort of like GFs, but much stronger, and every one of them has a purpose in keeping the world running. Cocoon... was a paradise. Sort of.

"Anyway, Fal'cie, if they need or want to, can brand a person. It makes them a l'cie. This..." He lifted his arm to show off the marking again. "Is a l'cie brand, but it's not a Cocoon l'cie brand. This came from a Pulse Fal'cie. And Pulse Fal'cie want to destroy Cocoon. They want to tear it from their sky and shatter it.

"So Pulse l'cie are feared. Because they could do it. They have strength, and..." He shifted to Ravager, the brand glowing softly again, then held up one hand. Blue energy shone around it before he tossed the Blizzard spell at a punching bag, freezing it. "Magic. Real magic. A Pulse l'cie on Cocoon is kinda like a Sorceress, here, the way people react to them."

She had to fill in a few of the blanks herself, since Snow wasn't exactly the best storyteller. After figuring out what Pulse was and a few other things it all started to make sense.

"So L'cie are like the sorceresses of your world? I guess that explains a lot, thanks for telling me Snow." She offered him a small smile, wishing she could tell him her secret as easily as he told her his own. Maybe she could talk to the Headmaster and Squall about telling a few members of the staff at least. At least give some of them a chance to prepare in case her secret got out somehow.

"I'll talk with the others and see if there's some way we can cover that. I'm sure we can come up with something."

It's true, he wasn't. But to be fair, it was a complicated history stretching back hundreds of years, and he was just trying to give her the condensed version.

He looked down at the brand as she spoke, grinning. "I've always said I'm not gonna hide what I am in the Garden. And if it were just me I'd be out there trying to talk to people who were after me. That's kind of how I ended up here in Balamb, actually... but it's better for the Garden and the students if I don't go advertising when I'm out and about."

Zell, for all his smarts, could be just as bad sometimes so she's kind of used to this by now.

"Garden tends to be understanding when it comes to things like that, people outside it not so much." Rinoa's smile as he talked about not hiding who he was wistful, because she really was tired of keeping this from everyone. Maybe it wasn't a lie exactly, but some days it sure felt like lying. "Though I guess after everything that's happened, it's hard to blame them for being wary."

"A lot of people from Cocoon, I wouldn't want to see set free here. I can't imagine other worlds don't have people like that too. Time compression has to be terrible for the people who just have to sit there and watch people like me show up..."

Maybe out there, some places were being terrorized or manipulated by evil. It made him feel guilty just by being here, safe, and loved.

Rinoa nodded, understanding exactly what he was saying. "The fear would still be there even if you weren't here." It was true, there was pretty much an underlying worry about sorceresses now. "For what it's worth I'm glad that you're here Snow, really."

Rinoa wasn't under the illusion that all sorceresses were good, but still she hoped that most of them were in much the same situation she was in.

"Thanks!" he said. Honestly touched. "It's nice to know that at least somewhere I'll get a hero's welcome!"

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Office Hours 2: The Officehouring

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