Meranda barged into the room and leaned forward to put her pointy face in his pointy face, so close that their glasses clacked together.
"Listen, Merlin, my room doesn't need any color. If ya wanna keep ya head, you keep your ahts 'n crafts in your room. If you need something to do, I'll give you something to do."
His eyes get real big behind those glasses of his, and he's secretly hoping she doesn't break them because he has no idea how he'd renew his prescription here. "K-kay. Got it. No color." He swallows.
Well. How to make your boyfriends friend hate you in a span of, well. It took kind of a while to fold all those cranes. "Does that mean you want me to take the other ones out before they kind of, pop up and surprise you?"
Meranda gave him a good shove with her forehead before straightening back up. Just in time to lose her temper again.
"The other ones?" She was a nerd, okay? She'd gone to her share of Star Trek conventions. She got that some people had no social skills but this was a whole new level of bullshit that she was not awake enough to deal with. She turned and stalked back out into the hallway before wheeling around and pointing to her door.
He stumbles a little, blinking at her before he swallows nervously again, shutting his door behind him. It's a little weird walking down the hall in just his pajamas, seeing as he wasn't used to being around girls in boxers, but...he tries not to make it weird. "Maybe they wouldn't bother you so much if you knew how to make them? I mean, they relieve a lot of stress," Which he's sure she doesn't really care, but. Man.
All of them would take a while. And he doesn't want to get murdered before Maurice comes home.
Meanwhile, Meranda had been to boot camp and just forgot people who weren't comfortable walking around in their skivvies existed. Also she sort of supposed Hanna and Maurice had some kind of secret kinky wild night life she didn't know about (and was fine not knowing about.)
Meranda's room was easily the largest in the trailer, originally the master bedroom if you could call it that. The shelves were packed with various nerdy memorabilia, things from her childhood, things in boxes she had yet to unpack after a year of living in the south. Her computer desk overflowed with energy drinks and open self-scrawled manuals and lots and lots of wires.
At his suggestion of 'knowing thy enemy' she sped up so she could cut him off at her doorway.
"I don't need stress relief, I AM A PLACID LAKE. Now get your creepy little birds outta my room."
Que nervous laughter and a nod. "Ahhhhuh...Alright. Um. Give me a minute. Or twenty." More nervous laughter. He'll just be attempting to scoot past her into the room so he can start picking up the amassed hidden army.
But then they kept coming. And coming. And coming. By the time Hanna has rounded up the flock, Meranda doesn't even look mad any more. She just looks sort of spooked.
"This isn't even invasive, this is...this is a sickness!"
"Well I stopped having places to put them!" He tries to defend his actions, but...well? There is no excuse, he knows now. He has made a grave mistake.
There are so many things he could say, but admitting some of them aloud makes him feel guilty, makes him feel more homesick, and he doesn't want Maurice to worry. He was fine. He was fine. He was fine. "It passes the time when no one else is around."
Meranda's wary face settles back down into her usual resting 'just about had it with most things' expression. That was the most bullshit excuse she'd ever heard and she worked with Maurice Hutch for months and he'd had to explain why he dressed in four layers in the middle of JULY.
Inner ear problems her ass!
She didn't say anything. She just looked at him and slowly folded her arms.
Hanna had just been about to stalk away like a guilty cat might, ears back and everything, but then that look settled on him and he chewed his cheek, unable to look directly at her.
"You wanna tell me the truth or you want me to start assuming?" She narrowed her eyes and trained them on him like a spotlight. "Because I don't tend to assume the best of people."
That gets his attention. There was something about feigning innocence that made Hanna feel guilty, but direct aversion? Don't even give him the chance. His eyes finally meet hers, looking directly back at her as he stands up a little straighter.
"People never tend to assume the best of me, it's nothing new. I think I can handle it."
"Okay," said Meranda. So she started to assume. "You're spying on me!" She reached for his cranes and snatched one up, holding it so the beak faced his nose. "You're spying on me like Yubaba's twin sister! You don't trust me! You think I'm gonna stake your marshmallow peep in the dead of night! I invite you inta my house, let you use my wifi!"
The serious look on Hanna's face kind of melts and he can't help it. He snorts.
"The hell? I'm not a witch, I'm a Runeist. Like, there is a huge difference. That is the most ridiculous shit ever." And then, after a moment, he kind of chokes out another laugh, "Wait, did you just call Maurice 'Marshmallow Peep'? Can I steal that? He'd get so fucking angry."
"YOU USE MAGIC, IT'S THE SAME FUCKIN' THING!" She threw the crane at him but it swooped upward and fluttered harmlessly to the floor. In the face of his laughter she started spluttering. "I hate birds! Why the fuck is it birds? Why are there so many? WHY?"
"Nope, totally different." He shields his face but again, a helpless giggle slips out as it flutters to the floor.
"Don't you read? Like, a thousand paper cranes. It's kind of symbolism." He runs his hand through his hair, or at least tries. He hasn't brushed it yet and his fingers get caught, he untangles it slowly. "And if you really want to know, I don't fold them for me..."
Meranda had already picked up another empty can and was posing to lob it at him when the truth came out. She relaxed her arm but didn't let go. That's right. Some weird inter-dimensional things had happened, hadn't they? How else could they have grown so close in the short time since Maurice got booted from the Nest? Her brows furrowed and she tilted her head.
He's starting to feel uncomfortable again now that he's not putting on a front, and he kind of nods. Talking about feelings with him is always like attempting to get a stubborn mule to do what you want. "Twice now. I gotta hope it still means something when you don't even know if they exist where you are."
Before in Ruby it hadn't been so frustrating. His friend could have showed up any time, but here? It would be practically impossible.
Now she sort felt like an ass. She was still clearly in the right. She told this guy to stay out of her room. But while she'd been displaced from apartment to apartment, she'd never been displaced an entire dimension before. Much less twice.
"Look, Hanna, I get that. I get that you're dealin' wit some stuff..but you can't go doin' this leavin' spooky birds in peoples closets thing, it wigs people out." She moved to give him an almost gentle shoo-ing motion to usher him out of her room and back toward the breakfast chamber. "Have you thought about putting them around town instead?"
He can't help but laugh again, nodding. As he moves, he makes a minor detour, dropping his armful of birds in his room, and pops back out, "That was a no no on my part, I know. Sorry about that..." He wants to shove his hands in his pockets, but remembers he's still wearing boxers and kind of fidgets with his hands instead. He doesn't even have a marker to play with. Makes talking weird.
He sits down though, pulling the chair out to sit and leans against the table, "I guess I could. I don't have to worry about the rain killing them anyway..."
A dark part of Meranda liked watching him squirm. It reminded her that she was still the boss in a house with two grown men. Two physically grown men anyway. She plunked herself down on the side of the table where she could still see Hanna and poured herself some cereal.
"I remember rain. I remember the first time it rained since I moved down here, I thought it was some kinda sign from the heavens." She looked thoughtfully ahead. She wondered if Maurice had been dead then too.
"I miss it. I mean, east coast living and here? It's like a whole different world. I mean, in more than one way." He misses layers, misses wearing thick socks and wearing heavy jackets. It wasn't quite the same, thin clothes, he felt like one wrong move and something was going to rip and he'd have no more layers to hide what was under his shirt.
"Anyways, if you could...don't tell Maurice I'm kinda, yanno..." He trails off, glancing away from her and leaning back in his chair, two legs on the floor, "home sick. I don't want to get him all upset."
She shoved a heaping spoonful of Whatever Flakes into her mouth and chewed thoughtfully, for the first time imagining what this strange tiny man must be feeling and missing. She'd already resigned herself to never seeing snow again. Or dirt that wasn't red.
"Chicago," she said. After another silence that didn't quite reach awkward lengths, she added, "Don't worry. I'll leave that up to you two...He really is like a peep, you know. Soft."
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wolfintheattic) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
theattic2014-11-09 07:55 pm
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"Listen, Merlin, my room doesn't need any color. If ya wanna keep ya head, you keep your ahts 'n crafts in your room. If you need something to do, I'll give you something to do."
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Well. How to make your boyfriends friend hate you in a span of, well. It took kind of a while to fold all those cranes. "Does that mean you want me to take the other ones out before they kind of, pop up and surprise you?"
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"The other ones?" She was a nerd, okay? She'd gone to her share of Star Trek conventions. She got that some people had no social skills but this was a whole new level of bullshit that she was not awake enough to deal with. She turned and stalked back out into the hallway before wheeling around and pointing to her door.
"MARCH."
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All of them would take a while. And he doesn't want to get murdered before Maurice comes home.
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Meranda's room was easily the largest in the trailer, originally the master bedroom if you could call it that. The shelves were packed with various nerdy memorabilia, things from her childhood, things in boxes she had yet to unpack after a year of living in the south. Her computer desk overflowed with energy drinks and open self-scrawled manuals and lots and lots of wires.
At his suggestion of 'knowing thy enemy' she sped up so she could cut him off at her doorway.
"I don't need stress relief, I AM A PLACID LAKE. Now get your creepy little birds outta my room."
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But then they kept coming. And coming. And coming. By the time Hanna has rounded up the flock, Meranda doesn't even look mad any more. She just looks sort of spooked.
"This isn't even invasive, this is...this is a sickness!"
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There are so many things he could say, but admitting some of them aloud makes him feel guilty, makes him feel more homesick, and he doesn't want Maurice to worry. He was fine. He was fine. He was fine. "It passes the time when no one else is around."
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Inner ear problems her ass!
She didn't say anything. She just looked at him and slowly folded her arms.
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"What?"
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"People never tend to assume the best of me, it's nothing new. I think I can handle it."
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"The hell? I'm not a witch, I'm a Runeist. Like, there is a huge difference. That is the most ridiculous shit ever." And then, after a moment, he kind of chokes out another laugh, "Wait, did you just call Maurice 'Marshmallow Peep'? Can I steal that? He'd get so fucking angry."
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"Don't you read? Like, a thousand paper cranes. It's kind of symbolism." He runs his hand through his hair, or at least tries. He hasn't brushed it yet and his fingers get caught, he untangles it slowly. "And if you really want to know, I don't fold them for me..."
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"Well you aren't folding them for Maurice because he sure as hell aint commin' in here on some Easter egg hunt because he knows better!"
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He makes a face, "And every time I shift dimensions I have to start over."
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"You have to start ova a lot, huh?"
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Before in Ruby it hadn't been so frustrating. His friend could have showed up any time, but here? It would be practically impossible.
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Now she sort felt like an ass. She was still clearly in the right. She told this guy to stay out of her room. But while she'd been displaced from apartment to apartment, she'd never been displaced an entire dimension before. Much less twice.
"Look, Hanna, I get that. I get that you're dealin' wit some stuff..but you can't go doin' this leavin' spooky birds in peoples closets thing, it wigs people out." She moved to give him an almost gentle shoo-ing motion to usher him out of her room and back toward the breakfast chamber. "Have you thought about putting them around town instead?"
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He sits down though, pulling the chair out to sit and leans against the table, "I guess I could. I don't have to worry about the rain killing them anyway..."
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"I remember rain. I remember the first time it rained since I moved down here, I thought it was some kinda sign from the heavens." She looked thoughtfully ahead. She wondered if Maurice had been dead then too.
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"Anyways, if you could...don't tell Maurice I'm kinda, yanno..." He trails off, glancing away from her and leaning back in his chair, two legs on the floor, "home sick. I don't want to get him all upset."
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"Chicago," she said. After another silence that didn't quite reach awkward lengths, she added, "Don't worry. I'll leave that up to you two...He really is like a peep, you know. Soft."
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