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Practical Etiquette, Period 3, Class #7 - Thursday, June 25th

Miss Bennet was a generous, kind soul who would never place her students in any real danger. But she was going to amuse herself at their expense. Somehow, teaching etiquette did not preclude her from misbehaving.

Oh, this would be fun.

"Good morning," Miss Bennet said, clapping her hands in front of herself. "As I warned you last week, you do, in fact, have a final exam today. That is why I have asked all of you to assemble here, in the Danger Shop. Your exam will be a test of many of the principles we have learned over our short weeks together -- how to be social and civil even in circumstances which may be considered less than ideal.

"In this next room," she said, gesturing through the doorway, "is a gentleman by the name of the Reverend William Collins. He wishes to propose marriage to you, for varying reasons, which he will list for you at the slightest provocation. I assure you, you do not wish to accept his proposal. However.

"You cannot simply stride into the next room and call him rude names. The laws of inheritance state that Mr. Collins is next in line for your estate; should your father fall ill this very evening, and pass away, then by dawn, your house and all your possessions will belong to Mr. Collins. Making an enemy of him will have very real and very dire consequences.

"Walk that particular balance as best you can. Persuade him that you do not wish to marry. Spare his feelings. Dissuade him from wishing to offer for you. This is your final exam: refusing Mr. Collins's proposal while not causing him to throw your family out onto the street." Her smile was nearly evil. "Good luck. I do believe you shall need it."

(OCD COMING!)

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Triela shrugged. "Not especially."

"Protocol's pretty important in Kaeleer," Karla said, shrugging. "Which is probably why I got put in here. But it was much more fun than my old lessons, by myself, with my mother's stuffy, old Steward."

"Besides," she said, running her fingers through her hair. "The rules are more fun to break when you know what they are."

Triela grinned. And then grinned more broadly. "Well, I do have to admit that Miss Bennet is less stuffy than Hilshire. She at least seems to have a sense of humor."

"Exactly. Etiquette's okay when the instructor knows not to take it too seriously," Karla said, grinning.

Then, her smile faltered a bit. "And you never know. Following Protocol might save your life one day."

She shook herself and her smile grew brighter again. "Still, stuffiness in an instructor is never a good thing."

"Eh," Triela waved, the need to defend Hilshire at least a little bit instinctual by now, "Hilshire's not so bad." He was her handler, so she could badmouth him all she wanted, but other people could only go so far.

Karla's smile got a little bit bigger. "Well, I can't speak for your Hilshire, but believe me, my mother's Steward wrote the book on stuffiness. Hell's fire, he's probably what turned it into a genre."

"Lucky you managed to come here, then, huh?" Triela smirked.

...And there went Karla's smile again. "Yeah, lucky," she said with what she hoped wasn't obviously forced cheer.

A vain hope, apparently. Triela cocked her head slightly and lifted an eyebrow silently. "We're not that bad, are we?" she asked. Which was her way of giving Karla an out if she didn't want to talk about... whatever it was.

Which Karla leapt for with all the grace and poise (and desperation) of a drowning woman. "Well, most of you are okay," she said, working for a smirk. "I do have a couple of people on my To Hex list."

Look over there! It's a subtle topic shift! "So, do you think you'll have time to go to the range with me on Saturday? Before the dance? Are you going to the dance?"

Triela was no stranger to the subtle topic shift, so she went right along with it. Karla was welcome to whatever secrets she needed to keep.

"I don't have any other plans, so sure." Then she shrugged. "I don't know about the dance. I've never seen much point to them, really." Also, she didn't know how to dance.

Not secrets, exactly. More like super-important and or emotional information that Karla tried to keep under wraps.

Okay, yeah, secrets.

"Well, I've seen the kind of crazy gyrating that they call dancing here, so I don't think I can 'dance,' either. I just figure it's a good chance to dress up and spend time with a lot of my friends at once."

Karla'd never actually been to a dance. But her parents threw balls frequently. Surely these two things were similar.

"It's... crowded," Triela sort of explained (but not really). "I don't deal too well with crowded spaces." Because you couldn't watch every approach, couldn't ensure that no one was a threat. A small bit at the back of her brain that was always on guard tended to flip out a little at crowds.

Karla could sympathize with that. "I know what you mean. I usually don't keep my shields active, because I can generally call them up with a thought. But, in a crowd, I usually keep them up. Too close, too many people."

"And they generally don't allow weapons at school functions." Triela would be so much more comfortable if her shoulder holster weren't empty.

"Hmmm...." Karla said, narrowing her eyes. Her lips curved in a small smile. "Hmmmm...Do they have ways to sense the presence of a weapon? Besides sight, of course?"

"Not that I know of," Triela admitted. "But I have to obey school directives as long as they do not present a direct threat to me or my mission."

"I see," Karla said, smile widening a bit. "A challenge. I can work with that."

Triela lifted a half-suspicious eyebrow. "What are you thinking?"

"...Nothing," Karla said in a sing-song. "Bein' good."

It hadn't worked on her parents, either.

"Just...thinking about things," she amended. "Making some plans. Nothing you have to worry about." She gave Triela a big grin.

"You are trouble," Triela accused with a smirk.

"But I'm cute. You'd be surprised how much that let's me get away with," Karla responded, also smirking. Then she glanced back at Triela. "...No you wouldn't."

"I don't know about cute," Triela said softly. It was nearly impossible to pick a blush out of her tanned complexion, and that was useful sometimes. "But being a," she widened her eyes innocently and let her voice get a little breathy, "little girl can be useful sometimes."

"I am distrubed," Karla said calmly, "at how much better you are at the innocent-face than I am. I believe I shall sit at your feet, thus to learn from the master."

"More practice," Triela suggested. "And the Conditioning helps." It was, after all, part of what she was built to do.

Practical Etiquette, Period 3, Class #7 - Thursday, June 25th

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