Professor Postucles, who sees right through her disguise!

Chances were, very few of the students entering into Merridan's college of higher learning were happy about attending orientation. Most of them had just exited a blissful post-school experience and would be left daydreaming about whether it might be better to simply be workmen around town... did they really need higher education? Couldn't they just live with their parents and smith swords!? You didn't need a college education for everything, right?!

At any rate, Doubles wasn't one of those dreading the experience. On the contrary, as Doubles made her way from the church to the college, she found the butterflies leaving her stomach and her old optimism returning. "This is gonna be fun!" She announced that out loud, as she skipped along church street with generous pep in her step. The motions caused her new, tremendous bosom to move in an X shape through the air, swiping so hard she nearly bashed those lucky enough to walk near her with them. "When those students get a load of me, they're gonna looove the church, just like I do! Right, Geod? I'm gonna make myself your favorite disciple too, he he he..."

She sort of wished Cherubin had followed her... he could just tell her what Geod thought about her chances, with those fancy eyes of his.

Unfortunately, Doubles' rediscovered lackadaisical nature was not without its costs. She'd left the church with a clear image in her head of where she was supposed to go inside the school... by the time she reached its gates, she had completely forgotten where she was supposed to be going. "Hmmmm... Well, if I wander around long enough, I'll find a nice teacher! Then, I can ask them where the classroom I need to get to is!" Resolving that this plan made sense, she continued her skipping journey through the school's gates and into its courtyard. "Wowza... This place is huuuge!" As a lonely doppelganger, she was pretty used to talking to herself, but quite a number of others found themselves staring with surprise as the high priestess of the Holy Church of Merridan spun around with stars in her eyes, conversing with herself.

For not the first time today, she found herself thinking: "this holy thing is huge, but also, kind of intimidating!" In this case, it was because she could easily imagine herself becoming completely lost here. She resolved she wouldn't stray far from the courtyard until she got her bearings...

... And thus blinked in surprise as she found herself completely lost in a hallway, deep inside the school grounds. The ditzy doppelganger looked left and right a few times, then bopped her head with one fist and stuck her tongue out. "Tee hee! I goofed!" Despite her cute dismissal, there was actually a pretty good chance she was late for her guest lecture now... She opened up the nearest door, praying for the good luck to have found her own class. "Helloooo! Is this the entry orientation for first years?"

It clearly wasn't. The only occupant of the room was a bald man with a curled brown mustache, dressed in the long, black robes of a teacher and a scholar's cap with a trailing white ribbon, identifying him as a professor of tenure. The man's teensy spectacles, balanced on the bridge of his round-tipped nose, hid his beady eyes; his barrel chest and huge hands didn't seem to match one's average image of a man of learning. The man was busily organizing his lecture notes and looked miffed at being interrupted. "Ehm... This is the teacher's lounge... ma'am."

"Nya ha!" Doubles snorted with laughter. "Ma'am! You're older than me, Professoooor...?"

"Postucles." The man pushed his glassed up on the broad bridge of his nose with one over-sized finger, then stared harder at the new entrant... Not because she was beautiful (this professor was history-sexual, it's a long story), but because she was suspicious. "What's your name?"

"Clara!"

The guy rubbed his chin thoughtfully while cocking one eyebrow. "Clara Fauxbright? Here? At the school on orientation day? In full raiment? In the teacher's lounge? With a snort in her laugh? Let me tell you what I think..." A dark shadow took the man's face as he stood to his full height and leered over the hapless doppelganger. "I think..." He leaned in closer. "You're a...."

Doubles put on an awkward smile, her lips twitching at one corner as she tried and failed to do her best approximation of the high priestess' serene expression. "N-Not a doppelganger?" she squeaked, hoping to influence the man's opinion.

"A doppelganger! What a load of hogwash! No, you're a student trying to skip out on orientation by pretending to be Clara Fauxbright! This isn't my first rodeo, Miss 'Clara!' You can't pull one over on ooool' Postucles!" The man proudly thumbed at his red, tomato-like nose, then grinned in her direction. "Truancy and shenanigans are not tolerated at this institution! What's your real name?!"

The doppelganger straightened her shoulders up and snapped a sharp salute that looked more at home on a knight than a nun. "Dooooou-"

"Dou?"

"Doooobie! My name's Doobie. You got me! I'm a new student here wearing a perfect replica of Clara Fauxbright's clothes and with her exact face and body! Aw, shucks! You're awfully smart!"

"Aren't I, though?" the man grinned from ear to ear and puffed his chest out proudly. "Now, lucky for you, we haven't handed out uniforms yet. I don't think you'll make orientation at this rate, but it's all a lot of bollocks and posturing anyway; the real learning is yet to come!" The over-eager Professor Postcules led the way, swinging his fists excitedly at either side, as he took Clara to a locker room where she could change into one of the student's uniforms waiting for her.

"... I think I may have messed up already. Geod, blink the sun once if you're real mad at me?" Doubles stuck her head out a window briefly to confirm that the sun hadn't blinked... a cloud seemed to drift in front of it ominously for just a moment. "Th-That's not a real blink! Doesn't count! Geod still loves me!"

"Miss Doobie! Double time!"

"Y-Yeeees, professor Pustule!"

"Postucles!!"