Xaviers!

Wanda's steps are light as she wanders around Maldon, window-shopping for the most part. She has a travel mug in one hand and a beat-up messenger bag slung over her shoulder. She stops to peer in the window of a bakery, contemplating the shop's contents.

((Open))

"Sweets, sweets, and more sweets, and not a witch in sight," a slightly accented woman's voice says from behind her, chuckling.

Wanda straightens up and turns around, "An interesting turn of phrase. There are certainly plenty of sweets in the shop."

The woman is quite tall, though that's probably not unusual to Wanda, and has long, unruly black hair.

"It's a story where I am from," she smiles toothily. "Gingerbread houses and fat children."

"Doesn't end well for the witch," Wanda says as she idly sips at her coffee, "But it's a decent enough cautionary tale."

"It is an interesting thing, yes? How we made children's tales of burning witches alive."

"A barbaric practice, but I have a hard time mustering any sympathy for a witch who tries to eat children."

"It always changes though, doesn't it? Maybe when the tale was first told, the witch was just someone's daughter."

"Everyone is someone's child," Wanda points out. "Unless you're implying that the person the character was based on, assuming they existed, wasn't actually going to eat the children, which is an interesting theory and not one I've heard before."

"Have you read much on witch trials? It's rarely that straightforward. No, perhaps a crop failed. Perhaps a hen stopped laying. Perhaps someone was caught kissing the burgomaster's daughter in the barn."

"But now you're changing the subject. We're not talking about fairy tales anymore. Such incidents could have a hundred causes except perhaps the whole 'kissing' incident, but there was certainly no need to blame any of them on a witch when simple 'bad fortune' would do. People like having something concrete to blame though. Personally, I'm a big proponent of "And it harm none..", though the sticking point always seems to be that definition of 'harm'."

"Oh, but we are talking about fairy tales, still. Because people want ever so much to be right."

"Nobody is a monster until they're made one."

"History has witnessed quite a few monsters and would beg to differ with you," Wanda says. "Your statement implies an external cause, but some people just insist on being monsters."

"Do you really think so? Some people are just bad?"

"I think some people continue to make, shall we say, poor choices, regardless of evidence and consequences. I'm not sure what else to call that."

"It's easy to call a choice poor when you haven't lived it."

"Well, we are speaking of witch trials which haven't occurred in some time and most certainly not within our lifetimes, so it would be rather difficult to have lived that."

"...yes, it would have." She smiles enigmatically.

"I am Isolde. You are?"

"Wanda. Have you been in Maldon long?"

"Oh, a few weeks maybe. It's a pleasant little town."

"It certainly seems that way. I can't quite place the accent. Where are you from?"

"Würzburg, but I have not been back in many years."

"Ah, Germany. Certainly an interesting place to visit. Everyone should leave home at some point though."

"Oh yes. It was definitely time to be on my own."

"So what brings you to Maldon? It's not exactly a tourist mecca."

"I've heard interesting things about a school here."

"What sort of interesting things? There are many things that could be said about the schools here."

"There is one that is not just any school, yes? A special school."

"You'd be correct. It's a special case, of course."

"It's fascinating to me, the idea of celebrating being different."

"I don't know that everyone necessarily 'celebrates' it, but it's certainly more accepted than it is in other places."

"I'm not sure what dressing up in brightly colored costumes is, if it isn't celebrating."

"I confess I don't quite understand some of the costumes myself."

"They draw attention, yes? Why else would you dress like that?"

"Who says I do?" Wanda says with an eyebrow raised.

"Ah, but you are special, aren't you?"

"That entirely depends on a person's definition of special."

"You're not from here, and you know much about the school."

"Compared to the people I have associated with for quite some time, I'm not particularly special," she hedges.

"There is no need to be modest," she smiles toothily.