All the Way Up [open]

[Erzbet Bathry]

Who would've guessed the fire living beneath the quiet exterior of the long dark haired girl in the gym? It was twilight. The lights had yet to be turned on, leaving the large room dim. Erzbet had her hair pulled up into a long ponytail. She was wearing capris, the shortest bottoms she ever wore, and a tank top. She was barefoot. Her golden eyes were glowing.

There was an obstacle course set up in front of her. She took a deep breath, running her tongue over her sharper-than-normal canine teeth. Then, with a small grin, she ran. Over walls, under wire, running and fighting her way through in record time. Her eyes flashed with excitement, adrenaline coursed through her veins. She finished once and went back to the beginning to do it again. Just as she was about to go, the lights flickered on. She squinted and looked towards the door, where the perpatrator was standing.

[Jared]

"Well, either we've got a remarkably dedicated student here, or a remarkably bored one..."

The tone in the newcomer's voice was amused more than anything. Narrowed cerulean eyes scrutinised the girl running her self-made obstacle course from behind the reflective glare of a pair of rectangular glasses; a slender hand remained poised over the light switch its owner had just flipped.

The tiniest of smiles curling the corner of his mouth, Jared shrugged away from the door frame on which he had been leaning and took a few steps into the gym. Normally he was not one for conversation, much less initiating such interactions lest his companion become annoying in any way - but since the slim male was still learning his way around this vast institution, it couldn't help to at least make acquaintances.

"Which is it?" he asked of the barefoot girl.

[Erzbet Bathry]

Erzbet forced herself to remain standing upright. She had to cling on to her human skin. The adrenaline was still there, running through her veins. She took several deep breaths, trying to calm herself. The boy wasn't anything that spectacular. His slim frame didn't boast of muscle. His glasses suggested poor eyesight. Altogether not someone who should intimidate her. But she was interrupted, which made her more annoyed.

As a rule, Erzbet rarely spoke to people. Not that they scared her. She just wasn't...good at socializing. She tended to take things too literally. Someone had once tried to show her how to "flirt". The result left the teacher in fits of giggles. Erzbet didn't try again. But she was learning, slowly but surely, how to converse.

"Which would you have me be?" She replied quietly. Her voice echoed in the gym. "If I answer I'm remarkably dedicated, then I'm arrogant. If I answer that I'm bored, then that means I can't find anything else to do which makes me extremely dim witted. She was pretty sure he wasn't trying to trick her. But it was surprising how a few sentences could give so much away about your personality.