How?

Aofil clenches their fist to try and contain the warm feeling their arm is sending out. It helps a bit, but only the tiniest of bits. Their nails dig into their palm, but they don't feel their skin burst.

Not yet, anyway.

They reorient their smile and return their eyes to overseeing their class again. Two dozen heads and necks are bent down, silently scribbling away at their test. It's been like a looming cloud over their heads for a while now, but Aofil's sure they'll be fine. Aofil's done their best to prepare their class for it, shouldn't be a problem. They let a bit of pride wash over them. If anything just to try and dampen their determination building up. It seems to be working as the fur underneath their button shirt relaxes, as does Aofil's fist. They run their thumb over their palm. Yup, there's definitely some indents from their nails, but no blood.

They still take a swig of water to quell their stomach, just in case.

The government official in the back writes a couple of lines in his notebook before returning to his previous position with his arms crossed and leaning back in his chair. He's surveying the class as much as Aofil is, if not more. Aofil couldn't tell if he's surveying them as well, but apparently he is. They don't recognize him, which is a good sign. Pretty sure he doesn't recognize Aofil either. Hopefully he's only here for the test. If he's here for the monster presentation that could pose a problem.

What kind of problem? Aofil doesn't know yet, but there sure that it would be one. All their interactions with any and all government people thus far has been nothing but problems. Aofil's sure that they had their reason for what they did, and again, they know what those reasons were, but, they still remember how it felt when one woke them up at the hospital after their fight with…

Aofil sighs, another close call. Another stinging wave shoots out from their arm, and this time they barely manage to keep it quiet. Their fingernails finds their previous dents in their skin, and again it feels like it's about to burst. It takes a minute or so for it to dial itself back, and Aofil sighs with relief.

A suspicious movement catches the corner of Aofil's eye, but it was only a student readjusting themselves in their seat. Aofil hangs their look on them for a couple of seconds though, to try and spot something else she might've been doing. No cheating this time though, it seems. They meet the official's eyes, and he nods before striking a line in his notebook.

How serious is this test, really? Yes, it is a standardized one, but it appears to be the most standardized one in ages. Strange, very strange. Aofil wonders if they should confront the official about it, but their thoughts are interrupted as a small wave of sick is sent up from their stomach. They mange to contain it though, but they feel their face contort from it. A couple of students react, but Aofil motions for them to get back to their test. The official writes something down in his notebook as Aofil takes another mouthful of water.

Aofil rolls their eyes, great.

"Time's up, pen's down. Good work everyone!" Aofil congratulates, "Just hand these in and then gossip about the answers like you usually do outside."

The official makes another note, and Aofil grumbles.

The papers are handed in with various amount of trembling. For some the papers weigh like a brick, for others a feather. Standard procedure, for a standardized test.

"You got a minute?" the official asks while leaning a bit too close for Aofil's liking. His eyes dart for a second to Aofil's desk, but he quickly returns them to Aofil, "Just need you to sign here."

Aofil takes the document and reads through it.

"Just a formality."

"As they always are," Aofil adds in their head. The document just states that the signee acknowledges that the notes from the official will be used along with the test results for future revisions of said test and other school related improvements. Aofil signs their name and hands the paper back to the official who thanks Aofil and pushes together the tests. He opens his briefcase and fastens together with an unusually large paper clip along with the document Aofil just signed. He bids Aofil farewell and heads out with a couple of long steps.

Aofil takes their cup of water to refill it, but their hand hits something else.

An apple? Yeah, sure looks like it. But where did it come from?

Aofil shrugs, one of their students must've forgotten it. They leave their classroom door slightly ajar for the student to pick it up later and head down to the teacher's lounge. They sit down in their chair and flip open their folder with the presentation material. Aofil's deep down with reading it when Tylior sinks down on the opposite side of the table.

"Did you have the official at your place?" he asks with his fingers together on his stomach.

Aofil looks up from their notes about biology, "What do you mean 'the'? Didn't you have one?"

Tylior shakes his head, "Nope."

Dammit! The official did know! Was this another one of their tests before the presentation? To see how honest Aofil was? Aofil berates themselves for not confronting the official. They should've trusted their gut feeling.

"I mean, I had a suit and tie sitting at the end of the classroom, but she wasn't really that official. She even waved away one of my student's phone ringing. Yours looked quite stoic and emotionless, like a statue of someone who didn't have any sleep before modeling," Tylior explains while pouring himself some water and fetching a fruit, "You want anything?"

Gut feeling, eh? So much for that.

Aofil motions for whatever, "Doesn't matter."

A pear comes flying their way and they catch it with two hands. Tylior grabs himself a banana and peels it. Aofil furrows their brow, "I had you for a pear guy. What's with the banana?"

"Hm?" Tylior asks with his mouth full. He swallows and drinks some water before answering, "How hard do you think banana pie is to make?"

"Um," Aofil is slightly taken back by the question, "I don't know? Shouldn't be that difficult if you follow a recipe."

Tylior spins the banana in his hand before taking another bite, "I see."

Aofil bring the pear slowly to their nose. They sniff it, but it seems fine. They taste it, but it's still fine. Tylior is too busy contemplating about the banana peel hanging from his hand to notice what Aofil's doing.

"I'm off to my next class," Aofil notifies to Tylior as they spot the hour.

Tylior nods without turning his head. Aofil's pretty sure he didn't hear. Whatever, maybe he's hungry?

"Half an hour left," the principal advises to Aofil. Aofil closes the final blind to shut out the setting sun. They motion for the principal to switch on the light before finally closing ht blind completely. Outside their classroom is some soft talking with various sounding voices. The principal is visibly both excited and nervous. Their hand on the door frame shakes a bit. Aofil's is as well, but not for the same reason. The pill jar is firm within their grasp. They were just about to take it before the principal barged in, but now the principal's head is smiling and waiting eagerly for an answer. They enter with a cup that they place next to Aofil's stack of papers.

Aofil clears their throat to loosen up some determination that they then swallow. It taste very bitter, "Yeah, sure," they can hear it not sounding nearly as normal as they wanted it to be, and the principal catches the tone. They drum their fingers on the door before nodding with another smile.

"Just," they search for the right words in their head, "think of it as a carnival of sorts."

Aofil shakes their head slowly.

"Or," the principal clears their throat, "something."

"You're very excited for this."

It takes a couple of awkward seconds for the principal to realize that they're standing at Aofil's desk for no reason. With a sheepish smile and nod they close the door behind them. Aofil swallows the last pill quickly before anyone else has time to enter again. They wash it down with some water from their cup, and swirls their chair around so that they face their blackboard.

It's empty, for now. Hopefully Aofil can spend the majority of the presentation with their face against it, and not the crowd. Minimize the contact with the monsters, that's priority number one. The less magic they expose themselves to, the lesser the chance that they'll have an episode. They do have a backup plan if things go badly, but that would only seem good to them when they're already too far gone.

They glance at the clock next to the door.

Twenty minutes left. Aofil returns their nose to their folder. They tap it with their pen as they read it, but they can't shake away their throat feeling somewhat dry after only a couple of minutes of reading. Must be their medication. Aofil reaches for their cup and bring it up to their mouth. After a long sip they halt the cup on their lips as they notice the taste.

That there actually is a taste.

They remove the cup from their mouth and stare at the liquid inside horrified. No, is it really? But how didn't they smell it. They do now though. Was it the bitterness from the determination? Doesn't matter now, they've already drunk some.

Shit.

Aofil dries off the tango on their lips quickly, and bolt for the door. They throw it open a bit too quickly, and it silences the commotion outside. Their eyes ignore the various forms of monsters around them, but they can't ignore the plate in front of them.

Aofil puts up their hand to politely decline, "No, thank you," they forcibly smile. Their stomach rumbles, and the plate in front of them is offered a second time with a cheeky bounce. This time Aofil manages to ignore it. They lock eyes with the principal and beckons them back into the classroom. Harshly.

"What," Aofil quells a wave of sick, "What did you give me?"

The principal looks a bit worried over Aofil's tone of voice and heavy breathing, "Some tea the monsters offered, I thought it would calm your nerves. It did it for me."

Aofil sits down in their chair and clamps their hands together to regain focus. They lean on them to not have it look too suspicious.

"I'm gonna need another fifteen minutes to prepare," they say very carefully, "Can you stall?"

The principal approaches Aofil carefully, "Are you alright?"

Aofil stops them before they manage to put an arm around Aofil's shoulder, "Fifteen minutes, yes or no?"

The principal nods, "Yes. Don't worry. You sure you're feeling alright?"

"Magical allergy."

"Ah," the principal nods again, genuine this time, and heads out the door, "The presentation is gonna need a bit more time to prepare, so let's start with the tour now. Please, follow me," Aofil hears through the door.

Once they're sure that the others won't hear they head for the classroom sink and drink until they almost drown. Diluting the Golden Flower tea is the next best thing they can do. Getting it out of their system is the best thing, but forcibly vomiting is gonna leave them worse, and their throat burned.

The lesser of two evils, again. Aofil spits out some determination and flushes it away.

Just like always.

Aofil pokes at their cheeks, they're starting to get hotter. They sigh, and pray that the pill they took was wrongly produced with at least twice the strength.

Stupid to think that? Yes, but it's the same level of stupid that got them into this to begin with, so not all hope is lost.

Not yet.

As the door opens and a torrent of differently colored and shaped monsters enter the classroom hope seems to be fading rather quickly. Aofil recognizes a couple of them, hopefully not the other way around will happen as well.

After some time as the more oddly shaped monsters finally manage to squeeze into the chairs, Aofil takes one last moment to prepare themselves. Their cheeks are tingling with heat. As long as their eyes stay somewhat normal it won't bring up any suspicion. Right now it's only their behavior that might cause suspicion.

Only…

Aofil waits for the commotion to reach silence before they stand up slowly. They drink some water to clear their throat, and as the monsters lean in closer, Aofil opens their mouth, "Welcome," they immediately close it as they hear the snarl in their voice. They drink some more water and try again, "Welcome."

It's not much better, but it'll have to do.

"You see, us humans have a bit of a different view on the world," Aofil starts, "we didn't use magic to deduce the world around us. We didn't use our souls to interact with the forces that govern our planet, our universe, and that govern us. But, our world view is similar, despite our differences."

Aofil turns around and draws a monster and a human on the blackboard, "Whereas you are made out of magic," Aofil draws some squiggly line and sparks inside the monster, "you observe the world through magic," and does the same outside the monster, "Whereas us humans are made out of science," Aofil makes a small model of an atom inside the human, "we observe the world through science," and does the same outside the human.

Their arm halts as they feel the room fill with excitement, magical excitement. They flex their cheeks to try and contain the increasing stinging coming from them. They have to contain themselves for longer than comfortable, and they can hear some whispers before they continue.

"So," Aofil begins again still with their face towards the blackboard, "what we're gonna do this evening is to explore the world of science. From the smallest atom to the infinity of the universe. We're," Aofil takes another mouthful of water to quell the growing rumbling inside them. It lessens it, but not by much, "we're gonna start by learning about the fundamentals. The forces that act upon us, and that we can act upon."

Aofil turns around to meet the monsters, "Who can tell me the fundamental forces of the universe?"

Their smile is not perfect, they can feel it themselves. It's a bit crooked, but Aofil does their best to lean into it to make it at least somewhat natural. Their fur stained arm is pulsating slowly, sending out small waves of determination throughout Aofil.

A three fingered hand is raised, "Yes!" Aofil points, also a bit too forced.

The monster hesitates a second before answering, "Gravity?"

"Gravity is one of the forces, that is correct," Aofil nods, "Anyone else?"

Two hands are raised. Aofil points to the one that was raised first. Both hands are lowered, as they're attached to the same dark green monster, "Soul strength?"

"That would be magic, I'm afraid," Aofil searches their head for something constructive to say. It's hard to navigate through the haze that's building up, but they somehow find something, "But, there are the forces that hold together the atoms that we're all made out of. The souls of matter, if you will."

The monster nods in agreement and sits down again satisfied.

"Why does he look so smug about it though?" Aofil thinks. He was completely wrong. Not only that, but this entire lecture is about science, not magic. Didn't anyone tell the monsters beforehand? One would think so, right? That they wouldn't give magical answers to scientifical questions? Some effort would be appreciated. Aofil's standing here feeling their determination build up more and more every second, the least the monsters could do is try?

An mitten covered hand is raised. Aofil acknowledges it with a nod only.

"Is lightning a fundamental force? I remember it being a lot inside the CORE."

"No," Aofil mutters underneath their breath, "that isn't magic!"

Why can't they understand?! This isn't about them. It has nothing to do with magic. It's about how the humans see the world, and how they will in a bit. Aofil feels a smile grow on their lips.

Oh yeah, they will.

They know the answers, they're just scared to say them. They know that they can't win, yet they desperately struggle. They want to come back to the Surface? Then they'll better hurry up and accept what's around them.

No magic.

No souls.

Souls? Aofil looks at their reflection in the water inside their cup.

Red.

They look up to the monsters in front of them. They want to tell them all to go back to the Underground. It's what's screaming inside their head. Aofil looks over to the principal, who's hand is curled up on their lips, scared. Aofil can't go on much longer. The haze have already clouded their mind, it's only a matter of time before they're lost in it.

They need to pull the plug. Or to be more precise, their finger.

They position their hands next to each other, and with a twist and a jerk, they summon their illusion. They hold their pulled of thumb for all to see, and wait for the panic to ensue. Their last way out.

"I've seen that one before. It's a good one!" applauds a monster. It croaks as it applauds, "Is this a fundamental force? Human magic?"

No! Why isn't it working? It was Aofil's last resort! Didn't they believe in magic just a second ago? Was Aofil wrong?

A wave surges over them, almost drowning them and sweeping them out into the dark sea that's their curse. They have to figure out something quickly.

Aofil looks at their arm. Their pulsating arm, with the fur standing stiff against their shirt. They clam it with their other arm, but the fur fights back. It pushes against them.

Aofil raises their head. It's a moronic idea, but they have no other.

"One of most important force," they begin as they walk to the side of the blackboard. The wall next to it is pure brickwork, "is force," Aofil prepares themselves as best as they can, "One important rule to keep in mind is," they raise they arm and lean back, "when you punch something," they breath out one last time, "it punches back with equal force."

The crack of their arm echoes throughout the room. The sick inside Aofil fades as it's dragged away to their injured arm to heal. It hurts like something they've never felt before, but at least they can control it. They wipe away a pair of tears with their other hand, and then use it to suppress the shaking of their other arm.

They turn around to their crowd, "Any questions?"

The stunned silence produces only furrowed brows and faces that are both impressed and horrified at the same time. The principal's eyes scream bloody murder, but Aofil tries to calm them with a controlled nod.

"So," Aofil swallows some pain, "how about we continue to chemistry?"