Mirela began to look ever more uncomfortable as he said more, it would be quite obvious now that something about him just did not seem right to the young gypsy. "A visitor? Why would a man be visiting an all-girls school?" She tried to pull away from him a little bit before she anwsered his question with "No it's not that. I like the dance I'm just not used to dancing this close to a man."

By then, the gentle pressure he was exerting on her hip was really starting to get to her. She knew the dance, and also knew that there was no reason for him to be trying to control her movements so closely. But trying what little struggling she could she could get no further away from him then his arms would allow.

"Why? To visit friends, usually..." As she pulls away, instead of him letting go, he simply leans a little with the motion. It causes him to overbalance a little, she can tell, even though he stays with her. But she can feel him adjust, controlling his balance and body, staying close and pulling her back in. It was like a strange, weird dance... him trying to keep balanced and upright, being drawn off by her movements... and her being drawn off by his.

"Oof... we don't have to dance... but this IS the way people here dance, you know..." He was holding her a little less firmly now, but still closely, keeping flexible and moving with her movements... like he was trying to keep up with her. That wasn't normal, not at all. Even if he was trying to do something to her, he wouldn't move like this... it'd be too easy for her to knock him over!

Her expression was quickly shifting from uncomfortable to skeptical as "Mark" continued to provide those quick anwsers, before she finally asked "Really? Wouldn't it be a lot of trouble to come visit a friend on an island like this?" Even though she was quickly becoming skeptical about his motives she easily managed to keep time with the dance, even feeling him overbalancing a little as he tried to draw her back in.

Neither of them were completely in control of their own movements and that was made the dance all the more strange. She was thrown off by his movements and he was obviously being thrown off by hers. But as he spoke again it seemed she was finally tired of his odd behavior and began to try and pull away from him harder while she said "I will dance how I want to dance, thank you very much! Now let me go!"

He lets her go easily, suddenly both of them falling backwards. He recovers as quickly as she, laughing a bit. "It's not that hard. Not traveling from the NICE labs..." Smiling, he straightens himself out a bit, brushing off his uniform.

"But my skills aren't really for dancing. They're for fighting..." A brow slowly arches as he smiles at her, looking rather formal... but that only makes her uneasy. "And it's not a bad idea... even on a little island like this, there are a fair share of dangers. Even myself... I'm not the safest person to be around, either..."

Reaching down, he plucked up the rapier... it was only a foil, but a sheathed sword was still a scary thing. If, rather outlandish nowadays. "That dance... it's certainly not traditional. It's very sexual... seductive... if I hadn't known better, I would have thought you wanted to sleep with me. So where did you learn it...?"

Her feet slid back in the sand a few steps after he so easily let her go before she turned to him and said "The labs? Really? Because you don't look like one of those scientist types so why would you go there?" It seemed no matter what he said to her now the damage to her first impression of him had already been done and left her wondering if anything he was saying was true or not.

As he plucked the rapier from the sand she asked him "What makes this place so dangerous huh? It seems like a peaceful place to me." She didn't pay much attention to the sword itself, more to the odd man holding it rather then anything else.

But as he questioned her further he would see her look to the side in embarassment at the mention of sleeping with him before she said "It's just a dance, if you would have somehow got that I wanted to sleep with you you are sorely overthinking things. And if you really must know I was a dancing girl for my caravan's bar back home, they just taught me the dance to bring in more customer's. That's all."

Suspicion was building. Bits and pieces coming together. He stretched it as far as he could, but now he understood her a bit better. It was those little things that were useful, especially when they were otherwise too incoherent to communicate.

"Appearances can be deceiving." He says with a half a grin. There it was... what he wanted to know. A dancing girl for a caravan. Strange... very strange. But it explained all the things that were so strange and exotic about her...

"Romani are usually dark-haired..." He taps a finger on his chin, smiling at her. "But I can see how you would be an incredible attraction there... it's a very sensual, appealing dance. It would attract costumers very well... in this place, you shouldn't lose it. As much as you may wonder later... it's an important memory of where you come from. So don't quit dancing..."

It was a surprisingly sincere statement... but things like that often are what could keep people sane in this place. That... and it would be quite the disappointment. Shrugging, smiling as he clipped the blade to his belt, his eyes began to twinkle with a sinister mischief now. "As for me. I too, have a bit of a strangeness about my own person. You have good reason to be suspicious of me..."

At the last tap... he simply reached up, and... it was like he pulled off a mask. Easily, he removed his own face, as if it was just a toy, revealing nothing but smooth features underneath...

Mirela said nothing more as "Mark" continued to speak, instead trying to figure out what about this odd man would make all the lies he had been telling her worth telling. Busy as she was thinking she offered "My father was British and a blonde himself." It was one way someone could explain her exotic features without delving too deep into her past.

But as he said "But I can see how you would be an incredible attraction there... it's a very sensual, appealing dance. It would attract costumers very well... in this place, you shouldn't lose it. As much as you may wonder later... it's an important memory of where you come from. So don't quit dancing..." He would see that he finally had regained her full attention. It was such an odd statement how could any normal person not be curious of what it meant.

And as he clipped the blade to his belt she looked straight at his face after his last, even stranger words, and with a mixture of confusion and fascination watched as he removed his own face revealing a new face of much smoother features. After the display she seemed frozen, seemingly unable to understand how he had done what he had done, and unable to fathom would he wanted to do to her now...

The 'face' was returned to his again, and split into a grin. She was frozen, shocked into silence. And with her simply stunned, his head snapped forwards and stole a quick kiss.

As quickly as it happened, he pulled back, leaning away from her and smirking. "I saw an opening, and had to take it." It was so unbelievable, juxtaposed with his earlier action, that confusion only grew.

Watching her with a devilish grin, he leans slowly to one side, drawing her eyes as he moves in that strange fashion again. "I don't know if I should be honored, it seems like you haven't met anything like an alien before..." His grin seemed mischievous and menacing at the same time... it would be almost funny, but with the shock of what happened, it likely sent a chill down her spine...

With strangeness continuing it was only as "Mark" stole a quick kiss from her that she seemed to come back to reality. Even though when he spoke again to explain himself she still seemed speechless at the absurdity of the whole situation. But finally the word alien seemed to give her the jumpstart she needed to think clearly again as she said "A-Alien?! No I can happily say that I haven't met an alien before."

Even as Mirela simply stood there he would see that she was obviously confused and had no idea whether she should stay and talk with this alien or run away as fast as she could and hope that this was all a crazy dream. But no matter what she chose either decision would have to come soon as the grin on his face was quickly starting to send chills down her spine.

"Ah, see, there you go. I knew the minute I started being serious, you'd freak out." He chuckles to himself, approaching her slowly, a hand offered almost innocently to shake. It was time to push against her fear and will, to see how she reacted.

Beyond, in the sand, ripples formed. Slowly, snakelike movements came down from the path back towards the school. His tentacles were sliding towards her, surrounding her... moving silently and swiftly in the sand. But she would be the first to react....

And how she reacted would dictate his own response.

"I'm not freaked out! Well...ok maybe I am a little but if I was really freaked out don't you think I would have run away already?" It would be easy to see that she was trying to downplay the whole situation so she wouldn't do something crazy. The main thing running through her mind at that moment was If I do something crazy I might make him mad, and if he's really an alien who knows what he'll do to me for doing something like that!

But even with that preoccupying her mind, with her bare feet in the sand she could feel the movements coming up behind her from the path to the school. Not wanting to find out what could move that much sand so fast she moved a few steps towards the somewhat nearby treeline forcing him to turn to look at her straight on.

"Oh." He says in response, chuckling at her. That's it? That's all he says? He was watching her panic with a bemused expression. She began to edge towards the treeline, and his eyebrows raised. The serpentine movement of the tentacles died down a little... but it didn't stop entirely. It was like several snakes slithering just below the sand... but she's surely not going to find a water snake on land, or a desert serpent on the beach!

"I admit, I expected you to run. I should commend you on your bravery... you are certainly more stalwart than I honestly expected..." Lightly, he began to almost... prance over the sand, walking on the balls of his feet with surprising swiftness. He wasn't hindered much, moving across the uneven, shifting surface... although he wasn't running across it either.

"But what about what you will do, then...? It's not every day someone runs across something strange... a monster, or more... do you even believe this is real?"

A paniced laugh almost escaped her at his response to her trying to convince him that he wasn't freaking her out. Almost. But as she edged toward the treeline she felt whatever was shifting the sands behind her slowed quite a bit almost as if it was judging her reaction to the whole situation.

After his comment about her bravery she said "I don't know if I should take that as a compliment or an insult. Although I could only guess that if I ran you would have chased me anyways." And as he began to quickly walk across the sand, only using the balls of his feet, she said "See! I knew you were faster then you looked, and probably even faster then me."

But as he came closer to her once again she made sure she was quite a few steps away from him, obviously not ready to let him get so close to her again after hearing what he actually was. Still, even though she didn't run she didn't let him get any closer either, and at his question she anwsered "I have absolutely no idea. But I do know that this is real...It's just too weird to be my imagination."

She was on edge... slowly, but surely, she was trying to drag herself back from tipping over. It was a valiant effort... but she was frightened, moving quickly to avoid him as much as possible. "Faster... mmm... well, in a manner of speaking. But it IS true... that if you ran, there surely must be something to chase!"

More of his whimsical, bizarre reasoning. She was keeping a safe distance between them, or what she felt was safe. As he moved forwards, she backed up. When he slowed, so did she. His approach wasn't direct, anymore... instead, he seemed to slowly circle as he walked towards her, coming around her slowly. "Real... it is. That, in itself... is quite the thing to acknowledge... what are you going to do, then? If this indeed is real..."

The... things in the sand had stopped moving... she couldn't be sure exactly where they were located, down there. Close... actually, it might be too close. She was edging for the treeline, for the grass and bushes and dirt. But doing so meant drawing closer to where she saw those ripples... passing by them entirely. And the way he walked meant she'd have to move closer to them if she was to match distance... either that, or to move extra-hurriedly towards the trees and grass.

If she did something like that, moved even quicker or faster than he, would he speed up as well? Would he begin to run after her, to chase her? Now, at least, he only was approaching slowly, casually. It was that casualness, that curiosity, that kept the situation from becoming... worse, more dangerous. That thin layer of 'protection' was waiting to be broken... but what would happen when it was?

"Why would you need to chase me if you aren't after something besides a nice chat?" She asked at his whimsical response. She was countering his bizzare reasoning with some of her own, at least it would be considered bizzare by those who knew what actually happened at this school.

Slowly "Mark" began to circle as he walked towards her, forcing her to adjust in kind to keep her away from but also bringing her closer to several odd ripples in the sand. The moving objects from before?....Perhaps. But at his next question she anwsered again "I told you before....I have no idea what I should do! I run, something bad happens. I don't run, something bad happens. I'm really in a lose-lose situation here...I just know it!"

By now "Mark" had maneuvered her into a position where it was time to make her choice. Run past the objects in the sand behind her or wait and be caught again by this "Mark", if that was even his real name. She seemed to stop now...waiting....waiting for something that would give her a clue of which choice to make.