tomorrow there'll be more of us | Glowfic Constellation

make-this-moment-last

If you asked Tommy Ingram, he'd tell you that his affinity is stealing. Well, not really stealing, he would qualify. He's just very persuasive. He talks to things and they just--usually happen to like him more than their previous owner. Not always. But usually. And that's not his fault, really, if they like him more. And sometimes they would have attacked their previous owner! So, really, he's doing them a favor.

(If you asked his best friend, Toby Underwood, what Tommy's affinity was, he would roll his eyes and say sarcastically, "the power of friendship," and then Tommy would object that that made him sound like he was from a bad cartoon, which he is not, he would only be from good cartoons. If you asked Wilbur Soot, he would pause to consider for a minute, and then probably say that Tommy's affinity is being likable, and then he would make a joke about how Tommy stole himself an older brother.)

He can't take all his things into the scholomance; there are too many. He packs what he can, and he apologizes at length to his lego batman figure that's missing an arm and his piece of dark green sea glass he found on the beach when he was ten and his plastic rabbit and three spray-painted pinecones and a lopsided dreamcatcher he made in primary school for leaving them all behind. He says a longer goodbye to a verifiable army of bugs and a seagull and a raccoon and and one of Phil's crows. (He actually hadn't been trying to steal it, that time. It just... Looked hungry. And he had mana. And then he had another familiar, because it just really liked him, okay, it's not his fault that his affinity is what it is.)

He'll be back, though. He'll be back and he'll tell them all about what it was like--it's probably going to suck, it might be for the best that they're staying behind--but his big brother's in there, you know, Wilbur, and he's going to change the world, so it'll be a cool story. Staying home is like the best of both worlds, because they'll get to hear all the cool stories but they won't have to be in danger. He'll miss them for four years, though, it's a long time and he might not be back. (He'll probably be back. But--you never know, right? So if he doesn't come back, they should be prepared for that, too.)

He takes with him:

- Shroud and Henry, who are the best spiders there are, because Henry was his very first familiar ever and Shroud came up to him and decided to be friends before Tommy even gave him any mana
- his baby blanket, because he can't sleep without it
- a hand-crank music box, with three different cylinders (Over the Rainbow, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and Frère Jacques)
- a screwdriver (to switch out cylinders for the music box)
- Toby's old water bottle that has sharpie drawings from Tommy and Toby and Wilbur almost entirely covering it
- his needle and thread
- an enchanted swiss army knife which used to be Terrence's before deciding it liked him better
- a bead lizard Toby made for him when they were both, like, six (since named Phukkit and declared a good luck charm)
- his notebook, with the cover removed and a promise made to repair it once he's in
- four mana crystals from Phil, with a promise to fill up two of them and give them to Wilbur once he gets in if he's still alive
- bigger clothes for Wilbur (with the promise of exchanging them for Wilbur's current clothes), also from Phil
- an enchanted letter for Wilbur from Phil and Sam and Terrence
- a lightweight backpack, to carry everything

Total: 45

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running-out-of-time

"Alex isn't technically part of the group 'cause he's not British but his boyfriend is so we let him tag along."

Alex Maldonado

gotta-rise-up

Eyeroll. "We've been over this, Wilbur, do you want an upperclassman around or not."

running-out-of-time

"Hey, it's the first day, let's not fight just yet."

Alex Maldonado

gotta-rise-up

"Whatever. Babe, you gonna introduce yourself or not?"

Jay Schlatt

in-his-taunts

"Huh? Oh, right. I'm Jay Schlatt, call me Schlatt, I'm a junior, I sell drugs, if you don't want 'em you can fuck off. That good enough?"

running-out-of-time

“Great. So, that’s everyone. Except Tampa, fuck Tampa.”

make-this-moment-last

“Why Tampa?”

running-out-of-time

“Fucking Eret. Joined our group, then took all his stuff and ran to an enclave to go— kowtow to Clay or whoever.”

make-this-moment-last

“Clay? Like, same Clay Terrence talked about? That Clay? Little annoying freshman Clay?”

running-out-of-time

“That’s the one. He’s a senior, you know, so I’m pretty sure you’re the annoying freshman.”

make-this-moment-last

“Whaaaaat?! Me? Annoying?”

Toby Underwood

knight-takes-rook

“Well. At first.”

make-this-moment-last

“Right, at first, and then they realize that it’s all part of my plan. And then they will all love me and give me things in apology for finding me annoying at first. You gotta hit ‘em with the pity trip. Like if you go oh that is an annoying sound but then it is a tiny puppy so you give it treats.”

running-out-of-time

“We meet every day—well, Niki and I meet every day, Schlatt and Alex just show up kind of whenever—in the library, I’d show you where but we’re kind of hoping to move to a better spot since we’re all a year older now.”

make-this-moment-last

"--Oh! I almost forgot!" He slings his backpack off one shoulder to unzip it. "Letter. For you. Other stuff too but I'll give you that later, the letter's the important one really." He hasn't filled the mana storage up yet. Another time. If he remembers. Which he will, because Toby will remind him. Hopefully. "And new clothes but you probably shouldn't strip in the middle of the cafeteria."

running-out-of-time

"Nah, that's more Alex's thing."

make-this-moment-last

"Huh?"

running-out-of-time

"You'll see. Yeah, sure, we can swap clothes later." Letter!!!!!!

(It's short. Pretty generic well-wishes. Signed by his mum and dad and older brother. The paper it's written on is enchanted and therefore valuable, more valuable than the letter itself, except how the letter is written by his family and therefore the most valuable thing he owns according to him and probably Tommy and nobody else.)

make-this-moment-last

Tommy doesn't, in fact, forget to work on filling up the mana storage for Wilbur. He checks all the drawers of his room (no mals) and gets halfway through unpacking his stuff when he finds the crystals and spends the next four hours sewing for mana. He has to makeshift a thimble by wrapping some fabric around his thumb, and it doesn't quite work like he's used to, but it keeps him from stabbing himself enough to draw blood, which is the important part if you don't want mals to smell you, which Tommy doesn't. He talks to his needle while he sews, complimenting it on how well it works and how pretty it is when the light hits it and how it doesn't stab him at all. He starts calling her Linda after the first half hour, because she seems like a Linda.

It'll take a solid few months of work to fill up everything, which means he probably shouldn't stay up all night working on it, even though it really feels like it'd be easier to just keep going until it's done. A few months is... probably still better than getting Wilbur to do it himself. He can get Toby to help, maybe. Make him do all the hard work. That's what Toby's supposed to be there for, right, is doing all the hard work Tommy doesn't want to do, and Tommy is so incredibly bored of doing it.

(At least the boredom is the mana-building sort of boredom. Ugh. Why couldn't mana be built by doing fun things.)

Right. Where was he. Unpacking. The rest of his things can be half-assedly unpacked (and then, more lengthily, said goodnight to) and then he is going to sleep.

Toby Underwood

knight-takes-rook