* ANOTHER UNDIGNIFIED PRODUCT OF SOCIETY -- lark

Altair may have been a jackass, but she did have enough people skills to know when to try and be polite. In her own way, of course. She lifted her eyes from her laptop to see a brunette girl, one that seemed to be slightly familiar, though she couldn’t put her finger on it. Jutting her chin to the pack, she said, ”Go ahead.” She may have been a selfish bitch, but she saw no reason to withhold a new pack of cigarettes from an ally. If you gave her no reason to dislike you, Altair could be a decent enough person. Not like she’d ever smile or giggle or anything that would show she liked someone, but she tended to tolerate people easily enough. Now, that is. Things change when you realize what’s important, and her sister and life was more important than any sort of bitterness she had. Most of the time.

Her gaze flicking back over to the screen, she asked the other girl, ”You’re Lark, right? We have classes together.” Her voice was a mixture of casual and indifference, though it always had a tone of general disinterest. ”Altair Bennet,” she introduced simply, her gaze no longer on the other girl as she leaned to side to rest her head on her arm against the couch. Her shirt slid off her shoulder, and even though it didn’t really appear so, most of all her clothes were designer. From her jeans, to her heels, to the jewelry she wore. She was certainly not a disheveled mess, even when she was just sitting in her dorms. She was an ex-model with a huge ego, so it was hard to leave behind some things from that life. Even if her spending habits weren’t great with the lifestyle she led.

Remembering that Lark had mentioned having a craptastic day so Altair asked, ”What happened to you?” It wasn’t that she necessarily cared, more for casual covnersation. She was doing good with that, lately, knowing how to carry on conversations. They may have a lot of sarcasm, but they were still conversations. And it was easier to make…well, acquantances. She didn’t know if she could consider people her friends because she wasn’t friendly and she didn’t go out of her way to really make anyone’s lives better. It may have seemed sad that she didn’t know what a real friend was, but she had her sister and she had party buddies, and that was enough for her.

Altair didn’t pretend to keep interest in the girl as she took the pack. Not that she was trying to appear rude, but her attention was drawn to the computer screen and Lark wasn’t offering up conversation at that point. She had some manners, but she didn’t believe they didn’t include filling in silences with her voice. Now, if she had a point to make or a fight to be won, you’d better believe that she would make her voice heard. However, she merely skimmed the information on the website, blue eyes darting back and forth down the lines as she absorbed what she was reading.

And they were still reading as the other girl seemed confused about being in the same classes as her. Not like Altair took special interest in her or anything—it was just the fact that they were in the same element and had classes together. Usually, though, Altair was too busy painting her nails or fixing her hair or causing a disruptance to care about anything else. She didn’t make it a point to learn everyone’s name in the Academy. She just knew a few faces that she could pin names to. She snorted at the hestitation in the girl’s voice, and said, ”Just remembered your name from roll and the fact we’re in the same element.” She gave a shrug, showing that she didn’t feel the need to explain herself. Was it really odd that Altair actually had a memory that went beyond two days? Hell, it was rare that she got black-out drunk, so she could consider memory as one of her few strengths. Well, she believed she had more strengths than that, but they were mostly in her head. Altair didn’t say any other pleasantries to Lark in terms of their meeting, just tapped her manicured fingernails against the mousepad.

She managed to peel her eyes away from the screen to see Lark fumble her cigarette, and lifted her white-blond eyebrows in an incredulous expression. The fuck is with her? She didn’t know if the chick was hopped up or something, but it was simply a question. This is why I don’t talk to people, they’re just goddamn weird. ”So an exchanging of candy grams,” Altair said dryly, flicking more ash into her coffee cup as her eyes strayed back to the screen. ”Been to the medical wing a few times,” Altair said coolly through a puff of spoke. ”Fucking worth it.” She turned her eyes and gave Lark a once-over, she said, ”S’pose you didn’t get into too bad a scrape.” It was merely an observation, and she didn’t really care whether or not the girl got injuried or went to the medical wing.

Altair wasn’t a very conversational person, even though she tried. However, if she felt like the person wasn’t giving an effort, then she wasn’t going to give an effort back. She didn’t see the point in it. Of course, if she was drunk, then she’d be a little more…talkative. Whether that was good or bad depended on the situation and who she was with, really. And even if she wasn’t talking, if she was in the company of someone she didn’t mind, she wouldn’t bother filling in the silences. She didn’t think it necesarry to yammer someone’s ear off, and she was perfectly content to just sit with Lark, smoking and looking up information about this agency. Now she was capable of cooperation with someone in the same space as her. Had this been before Syria’s death, Altair might have taken to harrassing Lark for no real reason. I have bigger fish to fry, she thought dryly.

She snorted. ”Every day is the wrong day to fuck with a Fire,” she commented dryly under her breath. It was true, since they were the most easily provoke of the elements. It probably only encouraged Water students, but she wasn’t about to admit how much balls they seemed to have in their gleeful trolling of the enemy element. She hated them too much to give them any credit, and she wasn’t about to go into a ramble about her thoughts, either. Maybe someone who wanted conversation might have, but right now she was just gunning to send this e-mail and then find something to do. She didn’t like to sit on her ass all the time, which was why she liked to stroll out of class whenever she pleased—listening to the professor and painting her nails only occupied so much time.

After typing up the e-mail and a long silence between the two girls, Altair closed her laptop and locked it up in her dorm before coming out to say, ”I’m going to the mess hall, if you want to come.” It wouldn’t really make much of a difference to her, but since they were in a war and it was good to travel with at least one other person, and she didn’t mind Lark’s unobtrusive company, she figured why not.

Altair simply nodded in ascent when Lark expressed her desire to eat. ”Let’s blow this joint.” She stubbed out her cigarette on the bottom of her heel and put it back in her pack before heading out of the dorms and into the dungeons, the stomping grounds of their allies. She never liked the dark too much, but it was hot unlike most dungeons would be, and that was good enough for her.

It was like you could tell there was a war when you walked through the hallways, with peole huddling together in groups, looking cagily around. Sometmes Altair thought about how strange this new world she’d entered was. Before the Academy, she and her sisters had been models hailing from a middle-class WASP British family. Then, everything fell apart for them and they’d landed themselves here. Now there was one less triplet, and the emptiness could still be felt. The intentional bumping of shoulders with someone who must have been from another element disturbed her from her thoughts, and she quickly took out her Zippo and cast a glance around for any professors before igniting the flame and burning the guy’s arm. She snorted when he let out a cry of pain. ”Pussy bitch,” she muttered. Must have been Earth or something. Luckily, this didn’t cause as big a fight as it could have been.

The mess hall was no different, of course, with people sitting together in their groups. Altair may have watched her diet, but she wasn’t one for veggies. She’d very much like to be a carnivore, but she was also vain—of course, not to the point where she’d purge herself to stay thin like Rowena had. She got her food and asked Lark, ”Any place you usually sit?” Of course it would be with their alliance, Fires and Thunders.

The lighter safely discarded in her pocket where no one else could see, she nodded at Lark’s words. ”Fuck with them either way,” she said with a snort. Sure, she didn’t go out of her way to cause fights anymore, but that didn’t mean her temper wasn’t easily riled anymore. She was as violent as ever, and Earths were good targets for her fire. After having abandonded it—along with her sisters—for so many years, she was starting to discover that she actually liked the element. It made her feel empowered, and she enjoyed it a lot. Which meant that she wanted to get stronger. She did not appreciate being in the tenth grade when she should have been a senior, but there was nothing she could do about it. So she’d endure for the time being.

Noting the glares from the other students, Altair flipped them a bird with a smile. She’d since abandoned the British way of holding up her two fingers since she understood these Canadians wouldn’t really know about that. If the others wanted a confrontation, she wouldn’t deny them, but they seemed to be busy enough eating. ”Sounds good,” she said, rolling her eyes. Altair didn’t even care, really, but whatever. She found a seat far enough away that she wouldn’t cause any problems with aggressors from other alliances, and started in on her food. Again, she was silent, not feeling the need to fill in their comfortable silences with chatter.

When she was just about to mention the leaders in passing, she felt her phone vibrating in her pocket and pulled it out to see that it was her sister who’d skipped class. Altair smirked. ”Meal time seems to be over,” she said, putting the phone away as she made to get up. ”I’ll catch ya later then.”



[Sorry, but Altair is being a bitch to me. xD If you want a thread between them in the future, we could plot over PM since I have some ideas?]