It was about a year back when you - for
totally unrelated reasons - happened upon a bunch of drawn pornography that included, for some reason, a lot of girls in 'sailor uniforms' with bits that were apparently ship guns attached. You don't know why it existed, and you really don't know why there was
so much of it, but after randomly browsing it for a bit, you decided that you probably didn't actually want to know.
You wonder if Jens would know what you're talking about if you mention it. Maybe you'll see what happens some other time.
***
You didn't start on linguistics knowing absolutely nothing about it. Your investigations revealed that it's a field with a lot of subfields, like phonetics, syntax and semantics, that these subfields somehow explain why English and Danish have the verb in the middle of the sentence and other languages have it at the end, and it's overall sort of a mathematical thing.
You also found out the Noam Chomsky sort of revolutionized the field in the 50ies, or something like that, and this guy Saussure did some really important stuff right around the turn of the 20th century. Something about the relation between content and representation being arbitrary…?
You don't really know what that means, but you're looking forward to finding out.
***
As you arrive and take in the scenery, you decide that while your new friends and fellow linguistics students are fun and cute, there are a lot of seals in the sea here, metaphorically speaking. Also casual dating is much easier to deal with if you're not going to have classes with that person for the next two to three years.
So you mention that you're going to get a beer and have a look around, give a jaunty little wave and then you're off.
You make sure to grab the beer immediately, it takes some work to get enough alcohol inside to get that buzz going - honestly you have a little bit of trouble getting
really drunk just off beer, though it isn't impossible - so starting early is always a good idea if you feel like actually having the buzz going for the majority of the party.
It also gives you a good excuse to survey the land as you stand in line for a bit.
As expected, nine out of ten people are the typical Danes that make up the majority of Denmark. Pale skin, frequently blonde, often blue-eyed. Very Nordic, you suppose. Though that said brown and black hair is also common, and there are clearly several that have made sure to get a nice tan over the summer. Still, they are, somehow, very Danish.
You do like Danish people, but when you're surveying like this, it's hard to really get grabbed by one of them, compared to the remaining ten percent. Of those, most are Middle Eastern or Asian - or depending on how you define it, at least their parents were - with perhaps a slight tendency towards Middle Eastern over Asian. Rarely, you spot someone with obviously African heritage. With more than five hundred people - you estimate - in one place, it'd be a surprise if there weren't
any, but all the same there sure aren't a lot.
And then, of course, there are those of animal descent.
There doesn't seem to be a lot of them, you spot a few bunnies you think, and a wolf, or possibly just a very wolf-ish dog, and two cats. There's probably some more you haven't spotted yet, and there are definitely going to be more among the people who didn't show up for this party, but those you've spotted so far are probably a decent fraction of the total for this year.
You down the rest of your beer and settle on someone cute standing alone, looking like they don't really know who to talk to. It's one of the rabbits, a cute short girl with a slightly twitchy look. As one might expect of a person with such long ears and a prey-animal's instincts, she spots you long before you get close, but apparently once she spots the bear ears, she calms down. You send her a cute smile as you approach and she reciprocates awkwardly..
"Hey there. Feel like chatting?" You say as you come close enough. She seems both bemused and uncertain at this turn of events, but nonetheless nods.
"Great! I'm Annelise. New student, as you might have guessed. I kind of wandered off from my group and spotted you standing by yourself here, felt like getting to know you." You forge on, paying no attention to the fact she hasn't actually said anything yet. Can't expect everyone to fall for the polar bear on the spot and all. Or at all, for that matter, but you don't think that's going to be the case here.
She's a very cute bunny, who is also like, around two heads shorter than you or something. She's got nice long chestnut-coloured hair with small streaks of white mixed in, a soft, rounded face, a pretty slight build, and she's also wearing an adorable frilly summer dress. And of course, she has cute bunny-ears with chestnut fur.
You restrain yourself from scritching her between the ears for the moment under the logic that if you do so, you may get the chance to become her friend and thereby
get to scritch her between the ears frequently!
"...Hi. I'm Maja." She says, and having worked herself up to saying one thing, she seems to sort of charge wildly into another sentence.
"I'm also a new student, I'm going to study Danish."
Despite not really moving at all, she seems to briefly vibrate with a sort of twitchy tension while the ears flick. You think it's maybe a rabbit thing.
"Oh, neat! We're going to be at the same institute then. I'm studying linguistics." You continue on, smiling happily.
You can tell from her expression that she has no idea what linguistics is. You could tell her, but… nah. Maybe later, or if she manages to ask.
"Danish is pretty big, right? Lots of new students." You ask, and she nods, waving in the direction of a couple of large groups that seem loosely clustered around each other. They seem to be drinking and laughing.
"You wanted to be a bit on your own, though?" You ask. She hesitates for a moment, then nods.
"I… didn't know anyone, and then I got embarrassed and couldn't find anyone to talk to and…" She trails off, seeming unsure of what to say. You nod. You can sort of empathize with that, you suppose. It's not something that's ever happened to you, but you can imagine it.
"Hey, mind if we sit down here? It's a bit awkward to chat while we're standing like this." You ask, briefly going on your tiptoes to accentuate your height, then crouching down so you're lower than her. It gets a giggle out of her and she sits down next to you.
"So not too good at talking to new people huh? I can't say that's every a problem I've had, but I think I like talking to people like you." You say while you settle fully into a seated position. As is your nature, you kind of end up sprawling out over the floor. If you could and it wasn't hard and uncomfortable, you'd probably roll over on your stomach or on your side and splay out like a great big furry lump. Sadly flooring isn't as nice as snow. Maja by contrast settles down with her knees to her chest, thereby looking even more rabbit-y.
There's a silence as you try to get comfortable which is at first natural, then it starts stretching awkwardly as you wait a bit to see if Maja will actually say something.
"Hey, wanna ask me a question or something?" You eventually say. The prompt seems to somewhat startle her, but she actually smiles a little and nods.
"Um, you're a bear, right?" She asks, and you nod.
"Um, polar bear?" She continues, and you nod more enthusiastically, even giving her a small grin with fangs and all. She squeaks adorably at your teeth, but curiously seems more fascinated than afraid.
"You're rather fine with bears, huh?" You ask, and Maja nods.
"Bears don't really eat rabbits as much. Not like foxes or wolves." She explains. "Especially not polar bears, I think."
Seals are more your thing, yes. Rabbits are kind of too small to bother with, especially for the effort. You'd probably spend more energy to catch one than you'd get from eating it. Probably. It's not like you've exactly gone rabbit hunting while visiting the ancestral homeland, and in Denmark hunting for meat is going to the nearby Kvickly and picking out whatever you like.
"I mean, not that I have anything against foxes or wolves…" She continues, sounding a little apologetic, but you just laugh and lazily wave it off.
"I get you, they just kind of set you on edge, right? Predators and all." You say, and Maja nods, visibly glad you understand.
"Um, so does that mean you're from Greenland?" She asks, and you wriggle your hand while smiling lightly.
"I was born there, but I've mainly lived in Copenhagen, so." You explain, and she nods.
"My family mostly lives near Roskilde." She says. "It's… rather large, so my parents got a house out there."
The housing costs in Copenhagen are kind of obscene yeah.
"Rabbit families really are large then, huh?" You say, and Maja blushes a bit while nodding.
"I mean, they don't
have to be, but it's like… it feels good? There are a lot of twins." She says. "I mean, I have a brother. That is my age. I also have other siblings though!"
You laugh a little as she gets caught up in her explanation and you enjoy watching her flush until she looks like a tomato. Just before she wilts on the spot, you give her a nice little pat on the head that gets her flushing even deeper, and you smile and ask her to tell you more about her family.
She does, gradually getting more and more into it.
Turns out she wasn't kidding about the large family. She has six siblings. Two older brothers, twins, her own twin brother, a lone younger brother, and a pair of identical twin younger sisters. Her brother is apparently also enrolled at Københavns Universitet just like the two of you, in fact he should be somewhere around the intro party. One of the older brothers is currently doing a Master's at Roskilde Universitetscenter, while the younger three sibligns are all in various stages of high school.
It doesn't take a lot of prodding before she starts on funny or cute anecdotes, and in general she is visibly enthused when talking about her family, and she listens raptly when you share a few choice stories about your siblings as well.
All in all you've got a great mood going when you finally start noticing you could really do with something for your throat after talking so much. So you ask Maja if she wants you to grab her a beer, and then jump up to get two from the bar.
When you come back, there's two bunnies!
For a brief moment you think they might be sisters, but knowing what Maja told you, and paying a bit closer attention, it's really just a very cute boy. He seems to be talking to Maja who is blushing fiercely. Their ears both twitch as you approach, and not for the first time in your life you wish you were maybe
just a little sneakier.
"Hey Maja, here you go!" You say, lifting one of the beers in greeting. Maja, for some reason, seems to blush even more at this.
"Hey. You my sister's new friend, huh?" The other bunny asks. You smile and nod as you hand over the beer and then settle down on the floor again.
"I guess I worried about you for no reason then." He says, ruffling Maja's hair. She squeaks in outrage and bats him away, something he apparently expected as he half-jumps back and laughs.
"Don't eat my sister, yeah?" He says to you, grinning, and it takes you half a second to go from preparing a fervent denial to parsing it as innuendo and giving a slightly surprised laugh. He waves goodbye and proceeds to run off to whatever group he belongs to.
You look back at Maja, about to say something witty about her brother and - wow, you didn't think people could blush that hard. You could probably kiss her now if you wanted to…
You stare at her for a bit, then you stare at your beer, and at her beer, and you decide that maybe for once you should try deciding whether or not to ask the cute girl out the day
after the party when you're not drunk. Even if you're mostly just buzzed right now.
Decision made, you sigh a little, and decide to at least scritch her between the ears. She promptly mewls and starts practically melting into your hand. Pretty soon you have a big lump of bunny that you're scritching all over, producing the most satisfying noises of contentment.
When the scritching finally stops, Maja seems to have lost most of her remaining inhibitions towards you - at least for the moment - and is happily cuddling up against you while you babble about whatever comes to mind.
When the clock strikes midnight and the main party is over, you're still sitting there. Maja however is yawning and clearly more buzzed than you are - perhaps unsurprisingly given that she's probably half your size and a fourth your weight or something like that, and you've been drinking roughly similar amounts of beer.
"Going to the afterparty?" You ask. She shakes her head, before staring blearily up at you. A bit sad, but you've got her on Facebook now, so you'll be able to get in touch again later if you like.
"Carry me." She slurs and raises her arms up towards you. You laugh and scoop her up, first in a bridal carry, then lifting her over your head and carrying her on your shoulders, She shrieks with delight as she suddenly towers over literally everyone, while you marvel at how
light she is. Your siblings probably weigh more. All in all, you're pretty good with lugging her around, except for the bits where you almost need to crawl on your knees to get out doors.
When you do get outside and get that nice cold blast of nighttime air, you feel a bit of an urge to move. So with Maja still on your shoulders, you start slowly speeding up into a run around the bike parking area right outside the building. Initially it's not the fast, but quickly you hit your full stride and thunder across the lot with Maja laughing on top of you.
You only wish it was a fair bit colder and you had some snow, or at least some grassy hills. It's a bit sad, having just come back from Greenland, to be running on gravel and pavement. But Maja is laughing and having a great time, so that's pretty much good enough for you.
You end up carrying her all the way to the metro station, where you drop her off with her brother who seems to be both inordinately pleased at the sight, and perhaps also a touch jealous. Sadly, not everyone gets to ride on the polar bear~
Realizing you've started laughing at your own innuendo, you decide that this is probably the point where you're supposed to stop buying more drinks. You're expecting to be out for two more hours though, so you'll get at least one more while you're at whatever place you'll be going to the afterparty for.
You have no idea where that is, but you spot some of the people from linguistics near the bus-stop, wander over to them and ask if they know what's up, and luckily they do. You'll be going to the city center and to visit one of the larger clubs in the area. You spend a moment considering how you'll be getting home from that one, but Nørreport station is right next to that area, which rather simplifies things.'
While in the bus, you get a text from Signe asking where you are. You text back that you're going to the afterparty and shortly afterwards she tells you that she'll be there in a bit. You're a little surprised but not
very surprised. Signe was always the one that most enjoyed a good evening out in the city of your friends - though still not quite as much as you did - but having her crash your party like this is still rare.
You bet she's wants to see who your new classmates are and pass her judgement on them. She's always been weirdly elitist and protective. She's also incredibly attached to you, Kåre and Cecile.
She's standing by the door when you arrive with her typically cold expression plastered on. She lightens up when she spots you, but you doubt if most people would notice the small tug of her lips as a smile.
Since you know she loves it even if she refuses to admit it, you pick her up in a literal bearhug.
"You big dumb lump." She sighs into your ear. She didn't demand you put her down though, so she must've been missing you.
Since you don't really mind carrying people around, you just squeeze her a bit and carry her with you inside. Being two pretty girls, you get some envious or curious looks while you go, but Signe pays pretty much no attention to those things as far as you can tell, and you enjoy them. Your fellow linguists are looking startled and amused though. You should probably say something.
"This is Signe, one of my childhood friends." You explain, and Signa lifts her head up enough to give a dignified nod - or as dignified as you can be when you're being carried around by a polar bear girl.
By the time you've gotten properly inside, Signe taps you on the shoulder and you put her down. She scrutinizes you for a moment, before nodding in satisfaction.
"It's true then, you
did somehow learn moderation over the summer. I must admit, I am impressed." She says as she takes your by the hand and brings you along up to the bar.
"I want to be indignant, but I really can't say anything to that… well, I guess by the end, it was getting a little bit samey to get completely plastered." You reply. Your eyes glance over the many bottles of alcohol up on the bar's shelves. You've never really had the money to try out many different types, so you don't really know what's good or not, but you do get kind of curious. It's probably a good time to graduate from drinking swill anyway.
Signe orders two glasses of a Port which she apparently knows the name of. It
would be like her to mostly drink expensive alcohol. Since you mostly spent your
not drunk time around your friends, you're not too sure what their drinking habits are. Aside from 'better than yours, Annelise'. Well excuse you for enjoying high school!
The Port is tasty though. Sweet yet strong, with a lot of flavour. You could get used to things like that.
"Faculty of Law holding a party too?" You ask Signe. She's taking the Bachelor's degree in Law at KU. Her and a billion other new students apparently, since it's apparently the biggest single major at the university.
"No, we start everything next week. I just wanted to see you." Signe says, and your heart flutters. That soft expression! That gentle tone! She really missed you huh.
...actually, can it really be that she just missed you? You're away for most of the summer every year. They usually cope.
"I'm really glad I got to see you too, but what's up that you came here? I was going to see all three of you sometime during the week." You ask, scooting closer.
"Well." She says, hesitating for a moment, very uncharacteristically for Signe. Your mental alarm bells are starting to ring something fierce.
"So I have a boyfriend." She says, looking unspeakably awkward.
Pick one
[ ] Polar_Bear_Girl.exe has crashed, please reboot.
[ ] "You have a boyfriend?!"
[ ] "
You have a boyfriend?! Who is this superhuman?!"
[ ] "Ohmygoshwow that sounds greeaaa--- wait, is there a problem here?"
[ ] "Ohmy--- wait, no. No. Signe, please tell me you're not asking
me for relationship advice."
[ ] Write-in reaction.
***
(Mostly) regular updates!
I picked out what the friends are doing with their lives at the moment. Kåre is starting on Anthropology, Signe as mentioned is doing Law, and Cecilie is a bit fuzzier, but I think she's doing physics. My mind might still change on that.
So yeah. Rejoice,
@Ford Prefect! I've added a character that will give you the chance to turn the tables on me, as you can have Annelise ask Signe about Danish Law, a topic I know absolutely nothing about.
I'm sure everyone can also enjoy the sneering ojou-sama lawyer-to-be.
I mean, except for the bit where really most of the graduates of the Faculty of Law don't actually become lawyers. I think the majority actually goes to the civil service and the various state organs. There's a lot of students at that faculty by the way. As I mention in the update proper, it's the biggest major, with around 7000 students over all 5 years. They apparently have 25 groups for the intro activities this year, each of which is probably around 30 people or more. I'm not entirely sure lol.
Faculty of Humanities at 11000 students is the largest, but Law really gives everyone a run for their money at KU. Granted, the other universities take up a lot of the more STEM-type degrees, so that might be why.
EDIT: Knew I'd forgotten something. I added a line about how you have Maja on Facebook, if you want to have Annelise spend time with her again.
