Locket was taking a long sip of her grape juice carton as she peered over at a far lone corner in the dining hall where her old buddy Sebastian had parked himself at, playing his game happily and ignoring the world around him as usual. She certainly wasn't one to judge, heck if her people making skills were any less awkward than his. But he looked like he could use a laugh.
Her eyes slid over slowly to the still hopping up and down in excitement Cheyenne as she was chatting with Salem over her literal mountain of food and welcome pamphlets from the clubs that had set up around the cafeteria, still loving everything she was seeing and making Locket smile at her. Happiness was pretty infectious, wasn't it? Her new buddy would make a lovely unsuspecting baton of peace that even the socially challenged Sebassy would be intrigued enough to talk to. Since she was fairly sure Salem would scold her calling this a dual sacrificial lamb situation, she decided to wait until he got distracted by something before sending her new buddy over to meet what she was 99% sure was the witch's first dragon-hybrid, currently being a nerd in his human form.
She didn't have to wait long, never let down by the picky prince's weird sense of taste and displeasure on their fancy school's way of cooking… lamb vindaloo, one of his childhood favorites, is what he'd picked today. She watched as he slammed his hands on the table and rose himself up, confusing their new friend with the look of absolute disgust that took over his face. "You know, I was actually willing to ignore this watered down excuse of disappointment for having no spice and little flavor. I like my vindaloo so spicy it shrivels every tastebud on my tongue, and that's not everyone's thing. Fine. I almost let them get away without a tantrum."
He leveled a truly worthy death glare down to his fork he had slammed down and she followed his gaze to see what was so offensive about it. One good chunk of meat covered in reddish brown sauce stared back at her. Ok, she'd need a little more info for why this was so offensive.
"Is it's lack of debilitating spice what makes you so outraged?" She attempted.
He raised his nose up in a disgusted scoff, but shook his head. "No. I could live unhappily enough with that. They gave me pork. In my LAMB vindaloo. That I personally requested in last week's personally made schedule. Tell me, where in the world does pork suddenly mean lamb, in any dictionary??"
Ah, that was his current hill to die on. Salem and the other Goldfin princes had been spoiled as hell since they were young, both by being blessed as heirs of the richest ocean in the world, and then again by having a world class chef as a father. As anyone could imagine, the original snarky attitude went up by 100 when it came to their picky senses of taste. To the point that Salem took it upon himself to hand over a list of his expected meals he wished to eat through the week, organized by 3 meals through every day along with incredibly (obsessively) detailed instructions on how to prepare it in a docket that weighed a good 20 pages he gave to the exasperated chefs in the kitchen at the beginning of every week. Meaning this was one of the many obsolete banes of Salem's existence that will easily keep him going on an at least 20 minute petty rant directly in the face of the offender that would leave them in tears. Perfect.
"It does bring me a certain level of pleasure knowing the new chefs of the year always think they can try to ignore my incredibly clear instructions on how to prepare my food and play this little disrespectful prank on me," he sighed, rolling his neck and setting his shoulders in determination as he turned towards the kitchen. "Excuse me ladies, I have some peons to set straight-" He swiveled back on his fancy heel to point at Locket seriously, meeting her eyes with his weird gold ones. Like they were trying to tell her inner soul they wanted to eat her, but all her soul could respond with was a challenging grin wanting to bet. "No stealing new girl to a random/known dimension or random/known part of the world, no jumping from dangerously high heights and using her as a pillow or parachute, no food fights to the death, no leaving the cafeteria and no fires. Understood?"
…..She didn't hear a 'no using new friend as a potential sacrifice in an effort to play friend matchmaker between a Dragon Doorlord and a witch/probable Blackhole'. She gave a polite smile and salute to the dubious Salem, enjoying the even more confused look from Cheyenne. "Ay ay Captain. She'll be totally safe with me, promise." She kept up that polite smile as his eyes narrowed, knowing he was probably concerned about the new girl, but that said concern stood no chance against his indignant side's need to trample over those that displeased his food preferences.
She was right, of course, as he eventually blew out a long sigh and moved his gaze over to Cheyenne, her big, star filled eyes meeting his with an appropriate flinch as her body automatically responded to his soul eater gaze. "Just, text me if she suddenly acts up and puts you in danger, okay? I'll be right over."
Cheyenne, evidently now over whatever confusion was going on, shrugged and continued with her meal, taking a large piece of shrimp to dunk in some Nutella and munch on to both of their disgusted faces. "M'kay. I've been told by my cousins that I have a great damsel in distress voice when I need it. I'll let you know!"
Locket snorted out a laugh as Salem blew out another unhappy sigh, but went on his way after giving her another stern look. She waited until he parted the leftover students in line, around the polished wood column and into the kitchens to start his tantrum before she started considering what would be the best way to share her plan with her new vict- *ahem*. Buddy.
"So uh… not that I don't trust you or anything, but what did he mean by 'text' him if you were being suspicious? Is it….some kind of smoke signal non-Magicks use" Locket rose an eyebrow at Cheyenne, noting some embarrassment in her cool eyes. Was… was she serious?
"Do you not know what texting is? Don't you have a phone?"
Her soft face scrunched up before a moment of realization came through. "Oh, 'phone!' The silly bell ringing, curly wire, ear device that sends voices far away letting me talk to my family in Sweetopia!" She gave Locket a shy smile, making Locket think of an innocent bunny. "My uncle Richard let me use it for holidays to talk with my mom's family without letting her know it. We don't have non Magick technology in the Magick Kingdom, and the human side of English has barely jumped on board with all the new technology around the world I saw on commercials for on my way here. In my defense, I barely managed to escape my witch and wizard filled part of the country by remembering what 'planes' were and hopping on one to get here. Humans like planes a lot."
Locket was blown away, wow. Someone actually less in touch with current day information and technology than her country/cross hopping dimension self that had to be harshly taught from her favorite royal family to get on track? Fascinating. "I heard that the country of English has only recently gotten to get in touch with technology now that their cool Tanglewood forest of death has been handled… didn't really think it could be true. So no TV, cars, dishwashers, computers, radios?"
"T…V?-Oh radio I know! My uncle Richard got one a few Giftdays ago and it talked and sang at us! That was fun."
This was going to be funner than Locket thought: a bubbly witch that had close to no interaction with modern day technology meeting with the hella introverted, tech savvy Sebastian that couldn't survive a day without it? Her curiosity was back in full swing now. "Music at will is a lot of fun, can confirm. You want to know what else could be fun?"
She gave Locket a look of anticipation for the answer, giving Locket time to scooch both their wood chairs until they were turned enough to have a good view of Sebassy huddled in his window playing away on his mini game system. "Making friends with a socially awkward Dragon-Doorlord hybrid, that's what."
Chey whipped her head to Locket in shock and excitement with a gasp, pleasing Locket there wasn't unnecessary anxiety at her suggestion. It really slowed shit down when it was around. "You're joking! That guy's a dragon?!"
Locket nodded sagely. "Yup. He's an old buddy of mine, our moms were… friends. So they put us together a lot. I've seen him sprout into a black dragon tall as a skyscraper with wild silver eyes, shiny scaly body that stretched a football field, and seen him heal and mend things back together with just his spit alone. He's the real deal."
Chey started bouncing in excitement, delighting Locket that it wasn't in fear instead. "A SILVER dragon?!? I read they were almost extinct after the war in Germania a few hundred years ago-goodness and I can become friends with him?!"
Locket nodded again, bringing Chey close to whisper comparatively. "Definitely, IF you follow my advice. Not a lot of people know this, but dragons are very picky about their appearance and smell. So if you go up to him and compliment him on how he smells, you're guaranteed to have a bona fide Silver Dragon as your new friend." Locket smiled as the colorful stars in Chey's eyes multiplied and bubbled like carbonated bubbles in a soda, assuming that meant she was more excited. "Now how would your cousins back home think of that?"
"Really jealously, that's how! Especially Arthur!" Chey hopped up with far more determination than necessary, absolutely ready to march up and have a dragon swoon to her with the vaguest of information Locket had given her.
Locket allowed an amused grin to stretch out on her face as her new buddy immediately accepted her BS dragon manners spiel. An eyebrow rose as Chey lifted her food mountain plate with ease and literally inhaled the mountain in her wide open mouth so fast Locket thought she imagined it. Then she whirled around in an excited blur to run up to the gloomy edgelord. Definitely a Blackhole in those genes then…
Locket had exceptional hearing, so she had no issue listening in on how the gullible witch beguiled the anti-social dragon. Sebassy looked up startled from his game when the witch skidded to a stop in front of his little corner. He wasn't used to people running towards him directly, especially when he was in a corner he couldn't slink away from well before someone could trap him.
Cheyenne apparently remembered she was also not used to running up to people willy nilly, as she hesitated standing in front of him, now trying to think of how to phrase her question without seeming TOO awkward. What the little firecracker eventually came up with was getting close enough to bend over his hunched over form to give an exaggerated, deep sniff and blasting his confused face with a friendly grin.
"Hey! You smell like… um… my new friend!" Locket hadn't snorted out a guffaw this hard in a long time, it almost hurt! Cheyenne had really believed her, no questions asked and went marching up to him, zero hesitation-this girl was epic!
Now, Locket wasn't COMPLETELY sadistic. She would never literally throw her new friend to a dragon if she thought he'd be an actual threat. That was more Salem's style, when he really didn't like someone and wanted to see them die a slow death. Locket had known Sebassy for years and while he would rather literally choke on a dirty sock than have to talk to strangers (she checked), he wouldn't go ballistic. And he did pride himself on smelling nice. Her smile turned genuine when he startled back in surprise at the compliment Chey gave him instead of panic snapping at her verbally with something rude to chase her off or sneer at her for attempting. Great start.
She leaned forward in intrigue sipping on her juice, fascinated as they continued. "...Thanks. I think…?" He mumbled. "I had no idea cinnamon was a scent to attract new friends?"
Chey smiled that infectious sunny smile at him, while he was still trying to decide if he should run off or stay put out of intrigue until proven otherwise. "I don't have nearly enough friends to know if it is, but for sure it's working for me. I'm Cheyenne!"
He stared at her outstretched hand for a long 12 seconds, finally slowly placing one of his own hands in hers just as she was starting to feel awkward. "....Sebastian."
Hot dang, an actual attempt at conversation from his end?? Maybe her favorite news channel was right and the new mayor had secretly released mind altering chemicals in the water before his re-election after all… she freaking knew it-
Her eyes snapped to attention at the sudden scent of incoming danger, scanning the mass of people to her right to see where it was coming from. Ahhh of course: Her. The vampire shapeshifting chick Sebassy claimed was the most amusing bane of his existence that had been helping him be more normal. Tessa, Locket was pretty sure her name was… She looked ready to throw some fists. Locket loved a good fist throw.
Vampire chick was marching aggressively through the cafeteria crowd in her shiny devil clickers over to the excited Chey and still cautious Sebassy. Locket slurped out the rest of her juice as she heaved herself up, tossing her box carton on the table before strolling over to Chey, taking her time since she was closer. Gave her time to assess her opponent, think of the first potential seven moves she could launch into if things got hairy. Skeliobro fondly called this her "Serial Killer Stalk".
Locket had a broad history of fighting literally anything of any species. She'd had to learn right quick, having no other choice growing up on the run dimension hopping with her mother. She'd thought for years every child grew up having to kill to eat from age 6. Thinking she was special when helping take down alien dictators her mother swore were the worst monsters at 9. Liberating entire planets of species… It wasn't until Sebastian's mom had forced him to join them and he almost died several times and tried running away constantly did Locket even begin to suspect she was allowed to think that any of her "adventures" with her mother might have been a massive problem. She owed Sebassy a life debt for that.
Anywhoo, she digressed: She made it over to Chey's back, catching Sebassy's reptilian eyes as she gave him a head nod. As much as he hated being around people, he was excellent at reading them. Meaning seeing her one gesture was enough to make him realize she was ready to fight with someone and he should prepare to GTFO or get caught in the potential friendly crossfire. Fight or flight skills were pretty vital. For some sensible people.
She stopped him from getting up with a hand on his shoulder, catching Chey's attention at her presence as well. Game recognized game, and Locket knew a crazy chick when she saw one. Tessa didn't look particularly angry as she got close enough now to catch Locket's eye, per se. She had a mistrusting glint in her blue eyes that looked awfully like they were judging Locket for not being worthy… that was pretty rude.
Tessa was close enough now, looking Locket over as Locket assessed her herself. She tilted her head and narrowed her eyes when Tessa's gaze turned unimpressed as they rose back up to Locket's with a dismissive snort coming out her nose before moving that judgmental gaze to Locket's incredibly naïve new vict-friend, who was gazing up at Tessa with those big innocent eyes in intrigue. Locket's mind was already made up on what to do the second that judgy gaze had landed on her new buddy threateningly. That offensive eyebrow raise telling them just how unworthy they were in her presence just made her feel no guilt about it.
That was the exact excuse she planned to use on future Salem when he would scold her for rocket punching the judgy bampot. Straight in her pretty face.