Could This Be Home? (Beyril and Lani; Private)

Tien Phan stepped off the escalator and looked around the airport waiting room. The English characters on the signs hanging around people's necks were still unfamiliar and she took longer than she felt comfortable with trying to find the letters that made up either of her names. Discouraged, she sighed, shoulders slumping forward and causing her small backpack with one change of clothes in it to pitch forward onto the ground. She grumbled in a mix of mandarin and thai biting on the inside of her lip while she knelt amidst the crowds and tried to picking up the small trinkets and charms from her family in Thailand supposedly garenteed to bring good luck. A small waving cat with a chip in its smile looked up at her from her hand, "Great..." She muttered, "Omens already."

At the main entrance, a young woman seemed to be skimming through information on her phone --- flight confirmations, enrollment application, etc --- and seemed only too bored at the current events. Her hair was short and choppy, her body adorned in a fitted button-up and tie and a black, pleated skirt. Little seemed to concern her or upset the rhythm set by her tapping knee-high boots, but it was apparent that she was paying to far more than just what was in front of her. Soon enough, she was looking up and walking about the airport, wondering just where she would find her new charge.

Tien tried to pick up pieces of clothing, trinkets, and baubles, but it was a slow process. People moving around her seemed to ignore her presence, kicking things out of her hand as quickly as she could gather them, and moving them further and further away from her. A small figure of an elephant, golden with rubies and brilliant enamel paints decorating it in fantastic patterns made it's way across the floor of the airport, knocking far away from her against Eve's shoe with a gentle "plink" sound. Tien could barely keep up with her things going various directions. Maybe her lucky cat was right.

Eve noticed it and had the trinket in her hand in moments, looking at it curiously before seeking out its source and owner. With a slight smile, she stepped forward, picking up belongings as she went until she made it to the quiet figure, "Tien Phan?"

Tien glanced up, quickly taking note of the woman's tidy appearance, the even pleats in her skirt and crisp lines in her white shirt and tie. She hugged her backpack close to her, forming a triangle on the ground before her with her hands, and touching her forehead to it in a full bow, "I am much sorry for my mess..." she rushed in quick broken English, her accent a blend of Thai and Chinese, "I to clumsy. I not know I meet someone so important."

Manners won out over attitude, and Evelyn found herself offering the girl a hand with which to stand. "Tien, do not worry. I am Eve. I am taking you to the city. Do you understand?" She forewent contractions, knowing that such complexities were a pain in an already distorted and overly complicated language.

Tien glanced at her hand and nodded, taking it and pulling her backpack back over her shoulder, "Yes, school is in city. Yes?" Her accent wasn't heavy, but the English was broken, taught far away from where she could have heard the language spoke. She shifted her weight uneasily on her feet, unused to standing before someone in clean clothing.

"Yes," Eve said, smiling, trying to seem friendly but being personable wasn't her strongest suit. "The Academy is in the city." She emphasized the word subtly, gently trying to get the point across that she was missing an article in her sentence. "Are you ready?" The meister held her hand out, offering back the trinkets that she had gathered, lost in the surrounding crowd.

Tien nodded, looking around at the floor, "I am missing a..." She fumbled, looking for the word, moving her hand down from her nose to sign a trunk of an elephant, "Is silly, but it was a... Gift from my mother."

Evelyn grinned, understanding the word easily. Carefully, she shifted the various items in her hand until the elephant was revealed, picking it out of her palm with the opposite hand and specifically holding it out to the foreigner. "Would this be it?"

Tien smiled, brilliant white teeth and glinting, mischievous hazel eyes turning up at the sight of the figure as she took it gently and brought it to her chest, "Thank you..."

"Don't worry about it." She said, sliding the other trinkets into her half-discarded blazer pocket, slung over her shoulder, for later, since Tien seemed more heavily focused on the single item. "Are you ready to go, then? The longer we stand here, the more likely it is that we will be shoved by passing people."

Tien nodded, fixating on the elephant, "Do we take bike..?" She asked innocently. In all truth, she had only seen cars in passing and had never ridden inside of one.

Evelyn offered her a light 'oh, hunny...' look, shaking her head and drawing her keys from another pocket. "We're going to take my car. Have you ever been in one?" She doubted it, knowing the state of Tien's homeland, her profile and application, and recognizing her economic status off of appearance alone.

Tien turned pink recognizing the disdainful look of someone who knew how underprivileged some areas could be and hesitantly shook her head no, "I have not. We ride bike around the farm. Cheaper so we can have more food."

"Well, I have a vehicle," Eve said, smiling as sweetly as she could, a gesture that still was not all that warm on the emotional stunted woman's face, "and the city will be small enough to walk around. Besides, the school can provide you with a monetary allowance and a job, should you need it."

Tien nodded, a little hesitant to talk more about the circumstances of her leaving, "The academy is good yes? I will learn to not be... Hurtful?" She questioned nervously. The small backpack was all she carried with her and it was a little concerning that she could live off of that, much less so far from home.

"It is amazing." Evelyn assured her, nodding towards the main entrance that she had come through and beginning to head in it's direction. "I promise that you will find everything that you need there. Do you have a place to stay?"

Tien nodded, "They said the rooms were almost full, but I was hoping to stay at the school... If possible. I cannot afford another home."

"Do you want a roommate or to be on your own? I can arrange for either." As she walked, her eyes followed the crowd, body running off of automatic, senses and instincts keyed well enough to eliminate any concern for safety while her mind took in the social psychology around her.

"I used to share room with my brothers. There were six of us in one space. I do not know how things work here." She admitted shyly, shoulders hunched forward, thin bones in her shoulder blades pressing her backpack out.

Eve's eyes drifted towards her at the corners, brow raising. It honestly should have come as no surprise to her, but the way that things should be and the way that they actually are rarely ever coincide. "We'll set you up in one of the more popular dorms, likely with some of the foreign exchange students. They have translators in the dorms and larger libraries, as far as language is concerned. Would three roommates suffice?"

Tien nodded, "Whatever you say, miss." Trying to bow more subtly, but failing.

Evelyn stopped, then, turning around and facing her, lowering her statue and fixating her body language to be both more inviting and more submissive, or at least less dominating. "You don't have to call me miss, Tien. Would you be comfortable with three roommates, or do you need more or less? They will all be girls."

Tien paused, unsure of how to answer, slack jawed and stammering, "Three is h-how much again?"