Even mythical creatures have to eat.
So, odd as it seems, Matteo the faun is grocery shopping - really, just picking up a few things before he goes home for the evening. In the wire basket over his arm is an (almost) unremarkable assortment of things. A container of milk, a package of loose tea, some carrots, bread, peanut butter, peanut butter, crackers, and yet another plastic jar of peanut butter.

His floor-length coat has been cleaned recently, yet it's still a bit dirty along the hem. At least there's no blood on it anymore - those stains came out fairly easily. If it weren't for the enormous coat, Matteo would be unnoticeable... just a curly haired young man stroling slowly down the aisle towards the checkout.

Katrina really should try to look where she's going. Honestly, this girl knocks down oh...about one and a half people a day? That's on average, of course. Unless you count the people who don't fall down completely as a half. Cause then that works, too. Unfortunately, Katrina does the unthinkable and therefore puts a stop to Matteo simply stepping out of her way. She bumped into him from behind.

Oh well. She's understandably preoccupied since just the other day her professor unlocked a little bit of magic in the previously uninitiate girl and now she has to think up what to do with him. It. She meant it.

Her own basket isn't very full since she just recently began shopping. So far she's only put bananas, bread, mayonnaise and tuna in her basket.

Her appearance is a little sloppy, simply because after the run in with her professor and the whole "unlocking potential" bit, she wanted to hide. So she did so with baggy clothes and not putting up her hair. The overall effect has, well, the effect she wants.

After rebounding after the dude with the coat she is a bit dazed, so excuse her if she doesn't apologize straight away.

Matteo is very clumsy for someone who's supposed to be sprightly and agile and all that, and given five more minutes and a wet patch of floor, he'd probably fall over without Katrina's help.

As it is, he topples like a domino when she bumps into him, landing heavily on the floor and dropping the contents of his basket all over the place. Luckily, nothing breaks or spills. The faun casts a backwards glance at Katrina, then hurriedly reaches for a jar of peanut butter that's begun rolling away. In doing so, the hem of his coat slides up and reveals a pair of cloven hooves, and fur. Charcoal-brown fur, the same color as his hair.

Matteo, intent on gathering together the dropped items, doesn't even notice.

Katrina's scrambling for her stuff, too, and opens her mouth to apologize but then...

"Eep!" And of course, we know that that's only an onomatopoeia.

'Oh my God, it's real!' Surprise surprise, Katrina. After all, now that she knows about magic, that conversation she had once with Prof. Barclay about mythology took on a whole new meaning.

She only scoots away a little. No crab-walking here, thank-you. Of course, her hand landing on the bananas stops any further progress she might have made.

The faun manages to gather together his groceries and place them all carefully back into the basket. Again, he glances at Katrina - she didn't even say she was sorry. Well, he wasn't going to say anything if she wasn't...

And this is the point where he realizes she's staring at something. He follows her gaze. When he sees what she's looking at, he pales and drops his basket in his hurry to arrange his coat back over his hooves. Then he gets up and starts hurrying towards the exit, nervously looking over his shoulder at her to make sure she isn't going to follow, or start screaming or something.

What to do, what to do, what to do...

She really wishes she can just forget that this ever happened but....no

"Shit," with a clumsy yet effective speed, she put all four items back in her basket (even the slightly bruised bananas) and gave chase. More like hobble.

"Wait! I'm sorry, wait!" Please? Why didn't she say please? Sha, forgetful girl.

Matteo makes an "Eep!" sound of his own and speeds up. He's still watching Katrina over his shoulder, though, so he's not watching where he's going as much as he should be.

Smack.

He walks right into the automatic door - the one with the 'no exit' sign on it. Starting to panic, he scurries towards the other door, only to be pulled back. A store employee, assuming Katrina was calling attention to him for shoplifting, grabs him by the arm and starts in a stern tone, "Excuse me, son, why the hurry?"

Umm...she's guessing that this isn't a good thing. Oh crap, what now?

She can't believe she's going to do this, by the way.

"The lying jerk just doesn't want to admit that he was caught cheating! Don't you try and run away from me!"

Her face is flaming. Please please please let the clerk mistake it for anger. She's soo embarassed.

"Thank-you for stopping him, sir," 'Just leave him alone, please?' Yeah, that last thought won't fit in with the "angry ex" routine.

Matteo struggles a bit with the clerk. His green eyes, fixed on the girl, are wide and surprised, and the pucker between his eyebrows has deepened with the puzzled frown he has on.

"Wh- what on earth are you talking about?!"
His bewilderment is genuine - so is his indignation. Unintentionally, he's playing the part that he's just been set up for. The clerk stares, his grip on Matteo's arm going slack. He doesn't want to get in the middle of this. With a nod and a knowing look to Katrina, he goes back to the counter.

'Oh thank God!' She'd faint if she could. Or at the very least look relieved, but she still has to play the part. Ha!

So with very little apprehension, she grabs his elbow with every intention of dragging him out of the store and around the corner.

"Please play along," her whisper isn't harsh at all, kind of pleading, actually. At the same time she's praying that he won't blow the story with some weird...half animal half person...thing.

The faun doesn't reply, but he doesn't refuse, and allows himself to be led out of the store. Once the doors close behind them, he tugs his arm out of her grasp and and backs away.

"What do you want?" he asks anxiously, his voice quivering. "I'm not - I just - I didn't do anything..."

"I know, I'm sorry, I know. But that clerk guy..well you wouldn't've wanted anything to happen, would you?"

She's sorry he looks so nervous, she didn't mean to make him nervous. And now she's all 'omg, I want a nap...'

"Well,... no, but..."
But why'd you come after me in the first place?

He swallows hard, practically twitching as he teeters between flight, and staying to find out what she wants from him.

"...No," he repeats, half-turning to leave, "I - I wouldn't. Still don't."

"Umm so..what exactly are you?" Crap, that sounds mean!

"I don't mean it like that I just, umm..you know..." her voice trails off and the ground outside is very interesting.

It's a perfectly reasonable question to ask, but it's also, somehow, rude.

Matteo doesn't look offended, however. He's too busy being uneasy to be offended.
"..'m a faun," he mumbles, slowly taking another step backwards while she's looking at the ground. "Wh- why do you want to know?"

An 'Idunno' type shrug.

"I didn't know any of this sort of stuff was real before."

"...'This sort of stuff' being things like me, I guess."
He's not even being sarcastic.
He is, however, creeping slowly backwards. He's put another meter or two between them while they've been talking.

"'This sort of stuff being'...everything that the average..human," because there's no way she can say person now, "doesn't know about. I'm sorry," now she's apologizing, "I don't mean to be mean or rude or anything I just.."

Katrina spots the distancing. And now she feels bad. "I'm sorry." She sounds it, too, cause she doesn't want him to feel like he has to get away from her.

She shouldn't feel bad - he's like this with everyone.

Seeming to think think he's at a safe distance from her now, Matteo stops.
"It's alright," he says, after a pause. He folds his arms across his chest, hunching hs shoulders. "...I know it comes as a shock. N-not that - not that I've experienced it myself, obviously..."

"I don't really know what to do anymore.." Stop it, Katrina, he's a stranger.

Matteo cocks his head to the side, a good portion of his anxiety visibly evaporating.
"What do you mean?" he asks, seeming to relax - concern has distracted him, at least temporarily, from his fear. "Something the matter?"

Then again, she is a girl. She needs someone to spill to.

"I don't know what or how it happened, but I walked in to one of my professor's extra classes and it felt..sort of like being hit. He said that something he did," like she's going to admit that he said she had anything to do with it, puh-lease, "unlocked potential in me and I felt all weird and he had a ball of light in his hand and then I felt even weirder and the lights started acting funny...an' now he says I've got to make a decision of what to do. I mean, it should be an easy thing to decide, right?"

I'd be proud of Matteo if he didn't just get confused.

Matteo is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, unfortunately. Not a steak knife, or a fish knife, not even a butter knife... In fact, he's probably a spoon someone put in the knife drawer by mistake.

Blink.
"Beg pardon?... Potential what, exactly?"

"Umm.." her expression looks kind of frightened. She had hoped that she wouldn't have to say it. But she does! Ha!

"..magic.."

"Oh. Magic." He says it like it's nothing at all.
The faun has to think a moment to process her previous rambling about her professor, only this time, with magic in it.

"Ohhhh," he says finally, a look of comprehension dawning on his face. Without thinking about it, he takes a step towards her. "Well, ...if I were you, I know what I'd do. Not that my opinion'd be much help."

"No, tell me, what would you do?"

Wait for it..

"Please?"

Theeere we go.

"Make the best of it," he says simply. "If you have it, then,...well, learn about it, and, um, make use of it. I guess."

Suddenly realizing he probably sounds foolish, he blushes and turns his gaze to the ground, meanwhile retreating by one step.

That's not really the advice she's looking for. What she really wants is for someone to tell her that it's ok to be afraid of this magic stuff, even if she doesn't know it. She doesn't want to forget about it, though. In a way it's like politics. You know its there, you know its needed (sort of), you're glad that you know that someone's doing it, but at the same time, at the end of the day you're really glad it isn't you.

Well at least his answer helped her realize that she's afraid of it.

"Thanks. Umm..I still have to go shopping, so..it was nice meeting you, I guess."

She extends her hand to shake.

Matteo just looks at her hand, long enough to make it awkward. He finally decides to close the distance between them - enough to quickly seize hold of her hand and give a sincere but too-fast shake. Then he scoots back from her.

"Mmhm. Likewise," he says meekly.

He still has shopping to do, too, but he's certainly not going back into that store. Not today, anyway. He'll get his groceries elsewhere.