A brief focus on Jinni culture and interacting with humans for you. In most public schools, educating humans is dominant to than jinn. Jinn had easier ways in life compared to humans in the pursuit of wisdom and composure. That isn’t to say that the jinn race did not host education system for their race, though. Some regions had prestiged jinn schools, but in entrance alone looked nearly impossible for a human considering the magic and forme prerequisites that not even every jinn had. The nasnas and shiqq, especially, were left behind due to both being weak in their monstrous existences, that which could not be helped. Most of these schools required a human shapeshifter form to attend, but not all. Some schools allowed the weaker hinn to attend, even in their sustained animal forms. These schools didn’t mean the world to all jinn, however. Specifically, this is said to jinn who attended any human school. They were powerful enough to shapeshift into human forms; it was only a matter of blending in and dumbing down their magic and intellect. To them, it moreso seemed like a game.

As for the Jinn as Julien’s, yes, there were a handful… And Vera knew each one of them. They did not make her stomach cry out to feast; and the ghul always noted that. Vera never felt pain around these classmates, and for that specific reason, she avoided them in fear of being found out. Each jinn in Julien’s came for their own reason, but most premises seemed founded on curiosity or a desire for a social life with the human race. It was all pretty innocent, really. It was likely few knew of one or the other being the same as them, unless they noticed the other’s scent. Not every jinni cared much to check; and amid the smells humans made in a school setting, it was a bit hard to notice. Unless you were Vera; then it was easy to notice a desire-free breath of air in the buffet room you could not and would not touch. Vera would deploy a pair of glasses during class, and if she felt particularly hungry or nervous she dove into a particularly nerdy book, masking her mania as a nerd’s weak gaze to avoid judgement. It wasn’t incorrect. She really didn’t want judgement for her true form and avoided any possibility of it as life or death, since it was exactly that. Especially around jinn would she dive into a book she’d borrowed from Juventas. Usually, it worked, and the jinni in question didn’t give a right shit about some nerd sweating over some light novel. Others were the flirty type, like Tabattum. But Tabattum had left, and Vera never again had to worry about him finding out what she was. Headaches were common with his attendance. It was always an upbeat, “Whatcha readin’~?” as he bent over to read her book upside down, his scent strictly of cinnamon and herbs, that of his workplace at Tamanti. Her stomach always twisted, because his scent was revolting. She’d bury herself further into the book, nearly touching the crack between the pages between her nose. He’d press on often, but usually Juventas would be able to intervene since he was an upperclassman like him.

“Tabby, knock it off! She’s super shy, can’tcha see that? Don’t bully!”

“But, she looks like she needs a light in her life -- she looks like she needs a friend!”

“Nice observing, but I’M her friend! Plus also, you get all creepy around her! She’s happy with me!”

“When’s the wedding, Archembalt?” He’d always spit at her jealously. At this point, Vera would have always nearly compacted into a cube from embarrassment and fear. He’d nearly throw a fit. “You know -- since you’re both so inseparable!”

“Know what? As if I’d invite you to my wedding anyway. Buzz off Pumpkin Boy!”

He’d always stick his tongue out and make some new face. “You’re the real bully! I’m going to go cry in the boys’ bathroom! Get away from her, cute girl!”

It was all child’s play to them, but by divinity above it made Vera tremble. Juventas would always hiss and spit with no harm meant, and most of the time Tabby seemed the same, but to any outsider it’d probably look very genuine. Either way, Juventas was always her savior in those times. Tabattum was always too curious. And odd. The day Vera heard he’d officially dropped out, her exhalation of relief nearly made her pass out. She knew he still worked at that cafe, and she avoided it unless Juventas dragged her there. Were the two friends? She wouldn’t claim them close enough. But maybe with a chance to calm themselves down and stop the jokes, they could become close. Vera didn’t really want that though.

Meredith didn’t seem to be a problem, but as Vera reflected on their likely date at Tamanti Cafe, she winced in dread at the idea of visiting on Tabby’s shift. That was why she had no plans to join, and during the day was planning the trek to whatever she was going to call home for the day. Likely near a veil, where the border between humans and fae was so thick nobody could quite believe their own eyes without a grain of salt in their mind. Such a place was typically so dense with nature and peace she could almost ignore her hunger, and she could sleep and ignore whatever else could trouble her. Including fae. Fae had come to not bother her, and to not snitch. She was but a drifter to them. Vera always planned for such peace, and if she did it with enough focus, she’d accidentally trigger fate to have Juventas conveniently smash her plans to happy little bits. The two rehearsed lines in their Theatre class, but Juventas clearly couldn’t get her brain to switch off this new Meredith girl. Every line she had to memorize would fail to come out like the script, until the group she was leading with Vera in it got so exhausted with her they called for a break. Vera was almost frustrated with her, but found blessing in the students moving further away. Her cravings itched at her less.

“Do you wanna come with me to coffee with Meredith?” She blurted out as soon as the students dissipated far enough away. Vera knew it was coming, so her answer was succinct.

“Not really, Juju…” She muttered. “Tabby might be --”

“Tabby might be a total weiner but I really want you to come!” She interrupted, clutching her uniform shirt with an odd forwardness that made Vera suddenly off-guard. Juventas was a loose cannon, but something in her voice was antsy. And that wasn’t usually the case for the free spirited kid. “I’ll uh -- wait -- I was gonna say I’d treat you but I can’t… Um!” Her ‘um’ was heavy enough to show she was still earnestly and persistently trying to come up with bait. Vera turned her head up to look at her friend’s expression. Was she actually worried?

“Are you treating this like it’s some date…?” Vera asked, only able to guess as far as that for Juventas’ worriedness. That didn’t really make much sense either, though; Juventas was as fluid as anything with dates. She didn’t really think so hard about them.

“N-no, it’s not--...” She cut her own sentence off, seeming to have a few alarms going off in her head. She looked vaguely cornered, but closed her eyes and drew in a breath. “I think I just drank too many energy drinks from the vending machine. I’m… Overthinking. Yeah!” Nothing stopped the girl from overthinking when she started. The trigger of what made it start was still vague. Whatever she had wanted to say, she had chickened out. Heavily.

“Are you okay?”

“YUP DANDY.” She went robotically rigid with a smile that was so forced Vera couldn’t bring herself to trouble the witch further. But she did have a final question.

“While class is still in, didn’t you have a boob necklace you said you’d show me? Pull the chain up so I can see it.”

She shook her head. Was she suddenly scared? Vera could kind of smell it. “The, uh, chain broke. So it’s gone.”

“Convenient…” Vera wasn’t going to dig into this. Juventas had gone to a rigid state of glass, and she had no energy to pick up the pieces.

When school had come to its daily close, Vera didn’t take the time to look for Juventas despite the girl’s apparent internal crisis. She wasn’t risking a run-in with Tabattum regardless of her friend’s state. She saw the girl as a strong one anyway -- it was hard to find a perspective of decent worry when everything up til now bounced off Juventas like she was rubber. The idea was very well alien. Still, her heart felt a bit of pain to not support her off-kilter friend right now. Not that she could do much.

The closest veil wasn’t going to cost her much energy, so Vera beelined to it above all else. She did have to pass through the track field to get to it, which was a bit of a trek in and of itself. School upkeep was aided in golf carts, and Vera wasn’t about to be too shy to ask for a ride. She came up to the kindest janitor she knew of, and tugged his shirt. He was a fair bit shorter than an average man, but still surpassed her height by nearly a foot.

“Janitor Dennis, can I ask a favor of you?”

The janitor’s gloved hands worked a fresh trashbag over the rim of a bin, and the man spun around once his job was done there to address the girl before him. He pridefully hefted the full bag over his shoulder, risking it to burst, but ignored the chances. “How may I be of service t’you, girly?” He responded. The plastic of the used bag groaned a tad, and Dennis chose to drop the idealistic semantics in favor of dropping the bag into the back of his service cart where the others rested. It reeked, but Vera had smelled worse.

“Um, I was planning to research the faerie settlement in the forest a ways behind the school? It’s a bit of a walk, though, so I was hoping that maybe...”

The man was already grinning. He loved to show off his stinky golf cart! “You’re in luck, I just finished my trash round, so you can hop on,” then his head tilted. For a middleaged man, he was quirky enough that others could doubt his humanity and call him a faerie. Though, his heart issues pledged enough to his race to settle any debates. “Gotta ask, though, are ya even prepared? D’you have any silver or wardin’ charms? I can lend you mine.” Comforting to know she still looked as though she owned nigh zilch. She gave off a smile and a shake of the head at the kindness though. She moved over to the passenger seat of the cart and flattened her skirt.

“I’m okay. I’m mostly going to study the veil, so I won’t be too far in. And I know to trust nothing, so…”

He gave an understanding nod as he hefted himself into the cart and brought the cart to a sputtering start. “You’ve gotta head on your head. Just bring ol’ Dennis a flower tomorrow if ya can, ya hear?”

She nodded. The man was a full meal, and the idea nearly made her cry. She kept her focus on what flower to bring and held on tight for the janitor’s rough cart-driving. The conflict hurt her so much.

“Right-o, kiddo, this is as far as I can go ‘fore hittin’ a tree. Be safe, okay?”

She slid out of her trance to keep her wants to herself and nodded as though she’d been a patient, quiet passenger the whole time, hopping off the seat and hefting her satchel. “You too, Mister Dennis. I hope the rest of your evening is nice.”

He sported a proud, toothy grin. “You bet!”

And he rode off.

Vera shifted her feet, looking into the wooded area that the public did not attempt to build upon. Humans and Jinn alike knew not to anger the fae; building on their land meant a damning war. But the land for Julien’s Academy had already been set before the small locale of fae had been recognized. A delicate truce, drawing a portion of their line off in forfeit to avoid any lost life by the fae, the developers called it a day. Children were advised against travelling to this area, but in the world of free-roam, they were not stopped. The fae vowed not to harm these students after a discussion, and it was made safe for all. Vera didn’t often enjoy visiting these veils, but it was enough to make others doubt her existence while she rested. Rest didn’t truly help, but it passed the time. What did help was food. But that was not an option.

Entering the veil was shown with a distinct temperature change; it was neither too hot not too cold. She ignored this, though it eased her plenty. She continued to mind her location, keeping a balance between spotting and avoiding mushroom patches and moving back along them when the temperature returned to plausible. The sun was setting when she couldn’t find anywhere further to walk and plopped her body down below a nonthreatening looking tree. She exhaled, setting her bag down to try to attempt her homework. Things went well for a moment. But Nine never intended for anything mentioned to be an easy time.

A rustling sounded above her. Vera grew wary, but lacked enough energy to be properly ready to handle any fae if it attacked her or outsmarted her. She hoped the scent she had lacked enough human to ward it off. Fae knew not to clash with Jinn. She kept her eyes on her notebook, noting the darkness beginning to cast over the land. It was starting to get late.

“You’ve got quite a bit of stress atop you, little jinni. Why are you here?” The voice murmured, with enough gristle in it to denote a possible unseelie. She let in a breath and exhaled. She wasn’t about to respond. “Jinni who wander are either looking for enlightenment or have grown tired. Which are you?” He was terribly interested, thudding his feet onto the ground from above branches. He was leaning into Vera’s personal space to show the bottom of his jaw in Vera’s vision. Dark-skinned, wrinkly, short-bodied and clothed in a singular wimpy cloth. His breath smelled of squashed thistles and his drool escaped his widely-grinning lips, parted in feral curiosity.

She determined herself to not reply.

“Are you too tired to respond, or too wise to address me?” The boggart pressed on. She thought only good fae resided here? Maybe he was simply the creepy type. “Regardless of which you are, I might have something for you. Please, look up from your mashed trees to talk to me!”

Was he charming her? Her chin was aching to lift. Her brows furrowed, and she forced herself to snap her focus away from both the wrinkly faerie and her own notes. It nearly felt like popping a joint. He was charming her. What kind of boggart was he?

“You’re certainly not wise,” he pressed on. “But enough energy to look away? What kind of jinni are you, hm? Is it truly possible for you to exist? You smell of graveyard dirt, you know! How odd, isn’t it?”

His next tactic was irritating her? She grit her teeth. Was some boggart threatening to out her?

“Ooh, you’re definitely listening now!” He cackled, his body twitching with each cluck, dropping more slobber onto her paper. Bits of it were beginning to turn brown. “But why are you here? You’re avoiding fate! I know of the white ones who want you dead!”

Her heart panged, despite knowing exactly what he was doing. “Go away,” she finally spoke.

“Go away? But you’re an absolute gem, little ghul!”

“Do not--!”

“Do not what?” He clucked to her order. “I’m not tasty to you! What could you possibly do to me? You’re meant to die, and such a little fae as I was gifted with a chance to make the world love me! See, you hate me too, don’t you?”

She shifted, lifting her leg and aligned it just right, landing a swift kick to the boggart’s face. It knocked him back a few feet, landing him on his arse, but the wrinkly fellow only laughed. “You’re going to die! You’re going to die!” He chimed, his voice gravelly with malice. He was mocking her, with no ability to kill her himself -- otherwise he would have retaliated already. “Death, death! You’re really going to eat it, ghulie!” He was overjoyed by now. Feeding off her suffering, was he? This was tough. She reached into her bag, looking for her blade. Silver along the tip, just enough to slash the pest and send him off -- but her bag was empty.

“Humans say ‘nice digs,’ right? Nice digs!”

Fucking of course. The tricksy little shit had snagged her blade somehow. His comedic rant over her being weaponless rang in her ears with dizzying volume, and she held onto her forehead as she sat through his mockery. Until it suddenly stopped. He stopped speaking mid-sentence, even the sound of his breath paused for a moment before he clucked a quick ‘a-haha!’ at his apparent new idea.

“Say, jinni, I’ve been pretty rude by a human’s standards, right?” He said, voice still a bit rough, but clearly consciously softened to his best ability to smooth things over. Vera gave a small grunt of affirmation. “... Can I give you a gift for standing my antics for so long? Nobody loves me, and I want to be loved a little. Usually I’m shooed off by now.”

A trick. This was a trick.

“... Can you smell it?”

Smell… it? She was hesitant to sniff, if the thing had opened a scent potion to kill her or something like.

“A human boy is near. He’s lost. I’ve spoken with him -- nobody knows him, and, ah, he has that dead-parents ordeal going on. He sounds foreign!”

The temptation. Her stomach nearly drug her to her feet. She dug her nails into the grass. She wasn’t going to fall for this.

“It’s the truth. I cannot lie. I wasn’t lying about how you’re fated to die -- all signs point to yes, I’m sorry to say, my friend -- and this boy is really, truly a loose end. You’ve made me happy, ghulie, by dealing with my stupid glee. Can you believe me?”

Her stomach and starvation-addled brain wanted to. Maybe he wasn’t a boggart after all. “... I can’t kill him.”

A small paff noise sounded as the odd fae dropped her silver blade back onto her notebook. “You can now, can’t you?”

She bit down on her lip. Theoretically, yes. She could. And then, she’d have an amazing feast. Her head was dizzy. She could hardly reason. But food -- her last meal was a slightly decomposed and barely of meat body in an upturned grave. Fresh food? She could hardly say no. In fact… She was standing before she knew it. Her knife was in hand already, and she was scanning the area for this mythical boy. The fae below her hopped foot-to-foot in glee.

“You believe me! You’ll hunt! I will help! You can call me a Grunt, since I’m merely helping, right?”

“Right, then, Grunt,” she replied almost soullessly, her body moving on its own. He made a cheap rhyme there, but at least he gave her a name. He probably wasn’t really a boggart like she thought… “Where… is he?”

“Follow me!” He replied, his body shifting into a near doglike form, darting off almost too much excitement for Vera to be prepared to follow him for. But, right now, she was hungry, and lost feeling in her heart. Because of that numbness, she shot off with a burst of power that spilled her bag of schoolwares from the mere shockwave.

She wanted food. She wanted food. She wanted food.