Jean-Paul and Manuel

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Manuel stops in to speak to Jean-Paul. It is a short, unpleasant visit.



Manuel went in search of JP's suit, due to his quest to improve the mansion's training. While he had nothing physical to contribute, he felt he had more than enough mental to help, giving suggestions to ideas that had formulated over the course of a very stressful journal entry. His post could have been delivered much better than it had been in such a heated moment however he felt that no matter how it was put, there would always be someone to say something against him, just because it was a de la Rocha saying it.

He stopped at the suit and stared at the door, the red glow of his eyes reflecting off the wood. Whatever little shielding he was able to conjur failed today due to such exhausting practices with Morgan. He still wasn't recovered and his powers ran rampant, pressing down on him to absorb everything around him.Despite his current condition, he knocked at the door and waited with the wolf head cane staring straigth ahead.

"Come in."

A dull, mental throb of resigned antipathy was radiating from the man sitting on the couch. A stack of The Annotated Brothers Grimm sat on the corner of the coffee table and the rest of it was covered with notebooks, legal pads, or balls of wadded paper. Jean-Paul looked up, took note of who had just entered and jerked his head toward an armchair opposite himself.

"So why did you wish to see me?" He removed his reading glasses and set them on the table.

Stepping inside, he closed the door behind him and smoothed a hand over the bottom of his shirt before he took a seat. He suposed the literature that was on the end of the table was the one in the post, telling the students to pick them up.

"I understand you teach defense? Yes?" he asked, casualy taking note of the title, finding his thoughts straying to books rather than the topic at hand.

Jean-Paul raised an eyebrow at that. "You have been misinformed. I will be teaching literature. Angelo is currently on defense classes, along with a Callisto, I believe."

Confusion set in his features and he ran a hand over his mouth. Either he misheard Clarice, she had her information wrong or she was toying with him. He immediately felt embarressed and the moment was awkward before he nodded. At least there was a sense of peace being in the same room with someone less than dramatic. It allowed him to focus on his own emotions though he could have been projecting his embarressment. "I apologize. I must have heard them wrong. Excuse me for interupting." Manuel stood and gestured to the books while. "Do you have enough that I could take one and return it later?"

"You have not answered my question."

Was he so concentrated on his powers that he was missing parts of conversations lately? Running a hand over his mouth, his eyes brightened but then dulled due to the inward frustration with his own ineptness. "And what, might I ask, was your question?"

"I asked why you wanted to see me." The other man's stare was piercing and hadn't wavered, despite Manuel's obvious weariness. "You asked a question in return, which I have answered."

Manuel frowned. There was something here he was _obviously_ missing. "To ask you if you were training the students in self defense. I have suggestions however you are not the person I seek. Therefore, may I borrow a book or shall I go to the library and sign it out?" Either way, he didn't care and he fought to keep his impatience in check.

Jean-Paul rose to his feet and crossed the distance between them effortlessly. "That is not what you came here to discuss; it was a preamble." The older man had no issue with letting his annoyance show, and his disdain rasped at the edges of Manuel's mind. "Tell me, is this business of wasting people's time an established hobby of yours, or a newly discovered pleasure?"

Manuel's emotions soaked the disdain up like a sponge and looped it back effortlessly without realising. He knew this would fall on deaf ears. Apparently his deliverence was worse than he anticipated. Gripping his cane, Manuel leaned back on it, grip tightening. "If we are already at this point, Mr Beaubier is it? Then I assume that yes, I am wasting your time and _mine_."

Jean-Paul's hands tightened to fists at his side and he was only an instant away from striking the shorter man before he caught himself and forced his hackles down. "Get out of here," he said, lip curling with the words. "At least when you're trolling the journals, it doesn't take an effort to ignore you."

Manuel's anger rose and he stood there for a moment, forcing a long, slow and patient exhale. He attempted to still that anger, but it only seemed to boil over from JP to him and ignoring it was impossible. He went to the door before he said anything he would later regret, only to pause half way through it and do just that. "I do not believe change for the safety of children is a waste of time." With that, he left.