This post has the following content warnings:
Mal and Tess try to figure out a masquerade
+ Show First Post
Total: 219
Posts Per Page:
Permalink

Ava sends back an effusive and mostly-grammatical thank-you email at 7:30 the next morning, and is either BCCing everyone else or only replying to Tess. (Mal doesn't get a copy, so it's probably the latter.) Apparently her friend's hypothetical pet's problem has cleared up enough that she's going to wait until next weekend to take it to the vet.

Permalink

She sends off a quick 'you're welcome, it's good to hear hypothetical pet is doing better' and goes about her day

Permalink

The weather is pleasant, and a few trees are starting to turn colors. Classes happen, as they do.

In the late afternoon, a girl who looks about eight, wearing a purple unicorn-patterned dress and stripy tights, is sitting on the ground outside the dorm's entrance, barely not obstructing the path. She plays a game on an elderly-looking smartphone, with an opaque plastic bag in her lap.

Permalink

"Hello! Do you know where your parents are?" Tess says to the kid. She was fairly... independent... at that age, but most kids come with parents attached, so.

Permalink

She looks up. "Yeah, I'm suppose'ta be here." She points at the bag as an explanation.

Permalink

"Oh? Is the bag important?"

Permalink

"Yeah. My sister and brother and me made cookies for my sister's friend that lives here and I don't have homework but they do, so I'm the one to walk it over."

Permalink

"They're a very lucky friend, then." She has to think for a moment, but she's pretty sure that the nearest houses aren't too far for an eight year old to walk. "Do you want me to let you in and walk you to your sister's friend's dorm?"

Permalink

"Could you? Yes please! Everyone else's been too busy so far except one group I forgot to ask 'cause I was about to lose my level." She jumps to her feet, dropping the phone into her bag.

Permalink

She swipes her card and opens the door. "Which room are they in?"

Permalink

"Umm... One-two-six. Which means in the bottom floor, right?"

Permalink

"Yup! Hmm... I think 126 is the McGuffey portal. This's the Mallet portal, so we'll have to go through the tunnels, or we can walk around outside." The dorm consists of several three-story buildings in sets of three or four, grouped around three different courtyards. "The tunnels are pretty cool, though."

Permalink

"Cool! Let's do the tunnels! Secret tunnels! Isn't that a thing everyone wants but it doesn't matter what it is because it's just there to make people do things? Mallet like a hammer portal? Why're they called that?" She follows Tess.

Permalink

She leads the way, down the stairs and into the tunnel. The stairwell smells faintly like smoke and sugar, which quickly fades into a vaguely musty underground sort of smell.

"I don't think our tunnels are there to make people do things? We use them to get around the dorm when it's snowy, or if the pollen's bad, or if we just feel like it. Sometimes people play Infection in them, which is like humans versus zombies, but smaller. I think the portals are all named after people, probably people who were important to the university or donated money so the dorm could be built."

She nods to the one person they pass in the tunnels, then finds McGuffey, which is a few portals down. All of the portals have colorful murals opposite their main stairwell. 

Permalink

"Cool!" She stomps and jumps as they walk, to make echoes, and walks backwards to look at the murals a little longer, and waves to the person as they pass.

"No, like, 'Maguffy', isn't that what it means? A thing that does that? But I guess there's not a rule saying people can't also be named it, probably."

Permalink

"That's a MacGuffin, I think. It's a thing people are after in a story. McGuffey's a name."

Permalink

"Oh okay that makes sense, thanks. Is it the same thing as 'lead on, MacGuffin'?" She walks more quietly once they're in the building proper.

Permalink

"I think that quote's actually 'lead on, MacDuff'!" she hops up the stairs, then looks around for 126. "Here we are! Do you want to knock? I can if you'd rather not."

Permalink

"Yeah!" She reaches up and knocks in a vaguely tango-like pattern, then backs up from the door.

Permalink

After about half a minute, Ava answers the door. She looks kind of tired and stressed, but smiles when she sees Tess.

"Oh hey, Tess? And, uh, kid. Hi, come in?" She opens the door all the way to let them into a rather messy and tiny bedroom. A cage, containing a large, sleeping, black and white rat, and some cardboard and little toys, sits on top of a crowded bookshelf.

Permalink

"Ava? Huh, fancy seeing you here. Kid said her sister's friend lives here, they made cookies, I'm guessing your roommate?"

Permalink

"I guess so? I don't know her, or anyone who'd be sending me cookies with their sister." Ava shrugs.

The kid peers at the rat in its cage, not paying their discussion much attention.

Permalink

To the kid: "Do you remember your sister's friend's name?"

Permalink

"No? She probably told me but I wasn't listening. I'm pretty sure I got the number right though. What's your mouse named?"

Permalink

Ava smiles. "He's actually a rat, his name is Zebra. Do you want to pet him?"

She pauses to think, then says "I guess I could take the cookies and ask my roommate whenever I see her next?"

Total: 219
Posts Per Page: