Mort slipped into class late, hoping to be unnoticed, got a seat in the very back, and haphazardly piled books and papers in front of him, slouching low in his chair. His notes were not of his usual neatness, leaning more towards the smudgy side of things, nor were they as thorough as usual. Mort was distracted by worrying about whether Dr. Barclay was going to try to corner him today and question him about his freaky antennae, which were apparently completely natural.
Damn, damn, damn.

I didn't know that Mort cursed.

Alexander saw him, of course.

"Glad you finally decided to join us, Hernandez." The smile curving his handsome lips was not at all kind or friendly or even benign. "I trust we won't be making a habit of this."

And he went on with his lecture, but he was watching Mort for the entirety of the hour. And when he was finished...

"Hernandez. Come up here."

He does, but damn is about as far as it goes.

"I'm sorry, sir," he said politely, as if nothing out of the ordinary was going on, "but I really have to go home early today, I promised I would make dinner."
And he made for the door, trying not to show his fear by moving too quickly.

"You'll have time. Come up here." The Now that makes it an order is unspoken. He doesn't have to say that kind of thing aloud; he's very good at making people do what he wants without bothering.

Ahahaha. If it occurs to Mort to ask, or Alexander to offer, Alexander would give Mort a recipe that Mort can make very quickly.

"Well, you see, I have to go for the groceries, and..."
Almost there. He closed his eyes and reached for the door handle, hoping that Dr. Barclay wouldn't do anything horrible.

"Hernandez."

And there was another word, too, but that was murmured underneath Alexander's breath and not really audible. But Mort should find it very difficult to actually get to the door, now.

It keeps moving away.

Well, now, this is upsetting. Mort knows that Alexander is doing it, though he isn't sure how.
He turns around, an angry sneer on his face that just barely covers the fear.
"Okay. So I have feelers on my head." he wiggled his fingers mockingly. "So what? What do you want?"

"Now, now, is curiosity a crime?"

It is when you attack people and cut them up and all that... But Alexander doesn't do that. He just asks prying question after prying question, and won't. Lay. Off!

"Well I don't know anything!" He turned around and headed stubbornly for the door again, planting his feet heavily as if it would help. "So you can just--uh, please leave me alone, sir?"
Polite little boy, isn't he?

"You're fae and you know nothing?"

There's that word again... Does it mean anything more to Mort than it did when Douglas used it?

Currently it translates into freakish in a way that I don't understand.

He whirled around again, his hands clenching into fists.
"Why do people keep saying that?! I don't even know what it means!"

Alexander blinked. Now that's something he hasn't encountered before...

"Come over here, Hernandez. Perhaps I can explain it to you."

He is a teacher, after all.

Sighing, he finally did as he was told, with only the slightest show of reluctance. But he stopped about ten feet from Alexander, stared suspiciously at him, and asked his default question.
"Promise you won't sell me to a zoo or a laboratory?"

"Good heavens, why would I want to do something like that?"

He just doesn't think of that kind of thing. It's more up Douglas's alley than his, and Douglas probably would prefer to be the laboratory...

He shakes his head, almost amused.

"You're fae. That's obvious to anyone who senses magic. Do you have any idea at all what 'fae' means?"

"Because I'm a freak. Faye's a girl's name."
He's ignoring the fact that Violet said he was a faery, because faeries don't exist.

And this is the point where Alexander writes on the board. Hahaha.

"Not Faye." He writes that. "Fae. As in, faeries."

Violet was right.

"And, before you comment on that, yes, faeries do exist. Most of them are extremely irritating, and some are actually very dangerous. To humans, anyway."

"Uh huh."
He sounded skeptical.
"So why didn't any of this fae stuff show up until last week?"

Alexander shrugged.

"I don't know. I know what my senses and my experience tell me, and that is that you are fae. Some variant that I've not encountered before, but that's nothing new." Reading is no substitute for hands on experience.

"What happened last week?"

"Some crazy doctor guy took me and started cutting me open and stuff. He cut one off." he flicked an antenna. "It grew back. But I didn't even have any before he got me."

"..."

And then Alexander barked a completely unamused laugh and shook his head.

"Someone should talk to Douglas about his hobbies..."

Because what other doctor in this city makes a habit of collecting samples from any random nonhuman that comes around?

That statement wasn't meant for Mort, by the way.

"He most likely sensed the same thing about you that I do. But I don't intend to go cutting you up, or cutting things off."

"What do you intend to do?" he asked apprehensively. He was hoping that Alexander would leave him alone, since he didn't know anything.

Alexander shrugged.

"I meant to ask questions, but if you don't know anything, it's rather pointless." He's really disappointed; Alexander has an insatiable thirst for knowledge... How funny.

"I wonder if your sister knows anything, or if your heritage was kept from her, too..."

"Don't bother my sister."
Assuming that their little talk was at an end, he wandered back up to where he'd been seated and began to pack away his things.
"Decent teachers are hard to come by."

Alexander lifted an eyebrow.

"I doubt your sister would be much worse than some of the beings I've already encountered. I'm hardly helpless, Hernandez."

He murmured something and waved his hand, and the door shouldn't move anymore.

"If it comes to that, I'd prefer her undamaged, too. See you next class, Dr. Barclay."

And...scene.