Chapter 11: For funny jelly and for revenge
After gym I look for Damien in the halls, to inform him about my detention. I won't do the same mistake as the player and inform Damien about the cancellation in the last minute! "Oh, hi Elise. Were you looking for me?", Damien greets me with a smile. "Yeah, about our date, I have detention on Saturday, so…"
He looks at me in wonder. "So?" Isn't it obvious? "So I can't come unfortunately?" Damien chuckles. "Detention doesn't last for the whole day and I wanted to go with you in the afternoon anyways." I see. So this differs from the game, huh. "Oh. Awesome. Then, see you on Saturday." I head back to my dorm room in a good mood. Now I won't regret standing up for Donald.
The next day I witnessed Ellen refolding her clothes. I choose not to comment her actions; her tidiness-fetish isn't new to me after all.
The following day is my long awaited date. I sorted the mail and allowances in an unusually good mood, while humming some kpop-songs. After I come back to the dorm room, I find a note for me from Damien, which says "Don't forget". As if I would forget such an important event. I head towards detention and count the marbles with Donald. I shouldn't have underestimated, how boring this is. The fact, that this task is so meaningless, makes it so much more frustrating!
After I have finally finished counting the marbles, I head to the mall. I even still have time to take a small look around the magic shop. I consider buying a wand,
but can't decide for one. Whatever, it's time for my magical dinner, I can still buy a wand another day.
"Hello, Elise. Are you ready?", Damien greets me at the appointed meeting place. "Yes. Where are we going?", I answer him, since I haven't found out, where the Glen is yet. I fail to hide the excitement in my voice and Damien smiles at my enthusiasm. "You'll see.", he answers while giving me a seductive smile.
"It's not far, just across the parking lot." He proceeds to lead me across said parking lot and adds. "It's hidden, of course. The easiest way to find it is to go with someone, who's been before. Shall we?" He offers me his arm and I hesitatingly grab it. After reaching the restaurant, I can't help but stare at the interior.
It looks disappointingly normal, but that was how it was described as in the game anyway. At least the atmosphere is nice and comforting.
"Not quite that you were expecting?", Damien asks me teasingly. "Oh well, it looks a tad too normal.", I answer him honestly.
At least the customers look strange, I can see Jacob with his two dads at one table and some strange birdlike creature at another. There is also a woman with a few blue scales bordering her face and lizard-like violet eyes. Her hair colour fits to the colour of her scales. She is really pretty in a weird way.
"It is simpler to rely on standard suppliers and build something in keeping with the world. They save their energy for the food. In the Otherworld there are no limits. You can eat of flying platters in a crystal palace.", Damien comments my remark. "Can you tell me more about the Otherworld?", I ask him, since the game only gave bits of information about it. "No one has told you about that yet?", Damien asks me surprised. "Think of it like fairyland. It's another world next to this one, where magic runs more strongly. It is wonderful, but it has its dangers. That's where magical creatures come from. Elves, dragons- all the source of myths and legends."
I should have known better, than to expect more information. This IS a game event after all. Damien hands me the scroll-like menu and I think about what to order. "Would you like me to order for you?", Damien asks me. How considerate of him, I think sarcastically. I want to taste the magical jelly, so I nod.
Soon my magical jelly arrives, and I cautiously take a bite. Tastes like cake, yummy. I take another- sweet and sour sauce. Another bite - vinegar.
Damien explains to me the rules for eating 'amiuzon' and I slowly keep eating, carefully not trying to giggle. Magic is so much fun! While we wait for the main course, Damien suddenly looks seriously at me. "So… I suppose it's time." Ugh, not more half-truths, please! I simply give him a questioning look.
"To tell you about… where I come from. Please- promise me you won't repeat this story to anyone else." The 'you're-the-only-girl-I-trust'-scam, huh.
I'm not really interested in your story, you know? Well, ok, that's a lie, but I'm aware of the fact, that you definitely won't tell me the true story.
"I'm not a tattletale, but you really don't need to confide in me, if you don't want to, Damien.", I answer him calmly. "No… though it's not easy to talk about."
Then DON'T! "As I said, you don't have to. I won't force you. No, honestly, I don't want to pry, so please don't force yourself to tell me. I really don't need to know.", I answer him honestly. "No, I know you. Being who you are, I don't believe you'll judge me the same way. You don't have the same expectations, because you weren't born magic. Neither was I.", Damien continues in 'pouring his heart out', despite my refusal for his offer. So you know me? Really? Since when?
We only hung out for a few times. "You", I begin, wanting to ask him, whether he REALLY thinks he knows me. "Not human. But my parents are.", Damien interrupts me. I really can't win against the game, can I? So annoying. "I'm… a changeling.", Damien continues.
"Your mother cheated on your father with a demon? And he didn't notice your blue skin colour?", I ask him. I refuse to surrender! "Swapped as a baby. As far as I know. I don't exactly remember." "And they didn't care about your blue skin colour? They though you just ate too many blueberries or something?"
Even though Damien tries to seduce me, he wouldn't be able to bear with such rude remarks, right? But he just chuckles. "I didn't look like this until later. I grew up always believing there was something wrong with me, that the face I saw in the mirror wasn't right. But I didn't know why. Oh, I imagined all sorts of things. Perhaps my parents weren't my parents, perhaps I was a lost prince and someday my real family would come and take me away… And save me." Save you from what?
"I think every unhappy child imagines that." He sighs and looks away. "Do you have any clues about your true parents?", I ask him.
"No. I've never seen them." He pauses for a minute. "When I turned thirteen, I saw my true face for the first time. I was terrified. I had to learn how to hide it, and pretend to be normal even though I knew it was all a lie. It was quite a shock when I came to Iris and everyone was demanding to know my bloodline. I couldn't tell them and I didn't want to explain." Pretending to be normal can be pretty tiring, it must have been difficult. Even though he doesn't tell me the whole truth,
it was mentioned in the game, that he hid his lies in truth, therefore I believe that a lot of the things he just told me were true, though the truth differs from his story greatly. "Having the whole school annoy you about your biological parents must have been tiring.", I comment dryly.
He acted worse towards the student body, breaking hearts in the cruellest ways here and there. Suddenly Damien's expression changes back to his seductive grin. "You see. That's why I could tell you this. Because it doesn't matter to you. They want to know who I'm related to, so they know my status. There aren't many all-magical families, and they're very proud of who they are. And when I wouldn't answer their questions – because I couldn't- that made them think I had something to hide. Especially William." Damien leans back and the waiter arrives with the main dishes. Damien wishes me bon appetite and I reply appropriately, before we start eating. It's delicious. While I enjoy my food quietly, Damien looks up. "Did you know that William originally was a falcon?" I swallow my food without haste.
"He was?", I ask absent-minded. Gotta concentrate on the food. "We were hall mates at first, freshmen year." "He didn't mention.", I reply dryly.
Please let me eat in peace! "He probably didn't want to spoil his image by telling you what happened. Being kicked out of falcon hall for starting a fistfight doesn't sound very cool, does it?" Yeah, probably. Or maybe because he doesn't want everyone to know you broke his heart. Is every game character bisexual by the way? Not that I would mind that… "So what was your fight about?", I ask him with obvious disinterest.
"He kept trying to break into my room. He followed me around- but I wouldn't tell him anything… No. Let's talk about something else."
If you don't want to talk about it, why bring it up? We continue to chat for a bit while finishing the main course. Full of anticipation I wait for the dessert. I love sweets. I carefully place the 'strawberry' in my mouth and let the sugar melt and gently suck, until the liquid bursts in my mouth. Eating them is a bit… strange.
The same kind of strange like eating a banana while looking into the eyes of another person, if you know, what I mean.
Damien laughs over my conflicted expression, paired with a slight blush. "They're filled with strawberry juice. It's supposed to provide energy." After Damien paid the bill, we head back to the vans. The date was really nice, but I feel a bit bad for using Damien. Only a bit though, he is a total a**hole after all.
The Sunday I spent playing in the gym and practising drawing. It's still too cold for the park, since its November (the 17th), so I go to the library again.
Being able to do art helps in creating illusions, since you have to imagine the image you want to create, so you could say that my drawing practices also count as studying. Apart from drawing also plan to train painting, but I need utensils for that. I wrote to my parents, hinting that I wish for painting utensils for Christmas.
On Monday Ellen asked me, whether I'd like to go watch Medea and I immediately agreed. Apart from the fact, that I'm still often bored here, I really like musicals and operas. My parents used to take me to a few plays when I was a child. My favourite was König der Löwen (The lion king), but I also liked Evita and Phantom der Oper. Classics, I know. Besides, I can really afford it. For classes I focus on black and blue magic this week.
On Wednesday Donald approaches me with his friend Luke to ask me, whether I want to earn some merits making candles.
I already have 15 merits, but I agree to help them anyways. Candle-making with magic sounds interesting, also I like collecting merits. I guess I'm quite the nerd.
Well, due to my ambitious nature I like being an over-achiever. The boys lead me to a class room and we spend the rest of the afternoon melting wax and creating candles. It's fun, but tiring and I decide to spend the next day with gym and some light studying instead of classes. Even a nerd like me needs some rest sometimes. After our work is done, Potsdam rewards us each with ten merits. Now I have 25 merits. Nice.
After more or less relaxing on Thursday, I go to classes as usual on Friday and in the evening I go to the Medea-play with Ellen. I wonder, if the set decoration in the background, which displays an ancient Greek scene, was painted or created using blue magic. No matter how it was made, it definitely took a lot of artistic skill, since it is well-made. I enjoyed the play, even though I usually don't like tragedies. It was also surprisingly bloody with good special effects.
I wonder, how scary a horror play would be, since their special effects are so well-made. After the play is finished, Ellen and I walk around for a while to talk about the play. "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned…", Ellen remarks with a sad expression. Still thinking about William, Ellen? "That Shakespeare or something?"
Though I did enjoy going to the theatre, I'm not really educated, then it comes to that stuff. "No, it was someone else. Cosgrove I think. From 'The Mourning Bride'."
"Is it as bloody as Medea? I wonder how many litres of stage blood they used…It's a wonder no one fell victim to the slipping hazard created by the puddles. And the clothes! They probably need to use magic to clean them."
"Sort of. It's complicated. Let me see, if I can remember… The rebel leader kidnaps the princess, but then they fall in love and get secretly married, but then there's a ship wreck and she's washed up alone and rescued by her father the king. So the king wants to marry her off to his ally and she doesn't dare tell him, she's already married to his enemy, and she thinks the rebel fellow is dead anyway. Only he's not, because he was washed up somewhere else and rescued by a queen, who falls in love with him, and the king falls in love with the queen, but they're enemies… So everyone loves someone, who loves someone else, and they all try to murder the people that they think have betrayed them, and then they feel guilty and try to change their minds… Only it's too late because the plots are already in motion, so they all end up killed by their own assassins. So the morale is, I guess, that revenge is dangerous.", Ellen summarizes.
"Sounds like fun. Though I think that plays like Romeo & Julia, there everyone ends up dead, due to misunderstandings and stuff, leave you kind of frustrated.", I comment. "Even if a man treated me like Jason, I would never do what Medea did.", Ellen adds.
"What, you wouldn't kill your own children, just to make your unfaithful husband sad?", I tease her. "But you're right, revenge is useless. It won't undo the things done, nor will it heal your wounds. In the end, one should simply focus on one's own wellbeing, instead of obsessing over the person, who harmed you. This way you will achieve happiness again, eventually." Ellen smiles weakly. "Eventually. Anyways, thanks for coming with me."
That being said, we head back to the dorm.