slow progress

[keep_busy]

Eventually Annie goes home for the day. Her mother lives a long but doable walk from campus, but Annie makes the trip by tricycle for speed and safety, or bus when the ice is too bad to allow riding. This is a trike day.

She tells her mother as straightforwardly as she can what has happened.

Her mother wants to meet the boy, but accepts that this should probably wait until the situation with Zevaia changes one way or another.

A few hours after Annie gets home, she gets a call from the Dean's office. There are results in; she can go hear them at the office. Apparently they're not supposed to release them over the phone for some obscure reason of policy.

Coat goes back on Annie, Annie goes back on trike, trike goes back on campus.

Comments

[keep_busy]

"You have nothing to be sorry for."

[touchedinthehead]

"Well, yes, but I'm sorry that there's not an - easy fix-it solution."

[keep_busy]

"Yeah, me too. 'Ring bell for customer service and/or to fix everything in the entire universe.'."

[touchedinthehead]

"That'd be great," he says wistfully. "Though honestly I might not trust customer service to do it right, I'd make them hand over mythical powers so I could do it properly."

[keep_busy]

"Any mythical power currently in circulation is not being adequately handled," agrees Annie.

[touchedinthehead]

"It really isn't! It's so frustrating, but it's really hard to get my hands on an artifact that can manage the sort of large-scale stuff I'd like to do."

[keep_busy]

"Is there one you've been tempted to sneak in to get ahold of?" she wonders.

[touchedinthehead]

"No," he sighs. "Not any of the ones at this university, anyway. I just want a - 'here have some magic that's useful for infrastructure instead of just personal gain.'"

[keep_busy]

"Controlling the weather," she suggests.

[touchedinthehead]

Aldaras smiles. "That'd be a good one. I'd probably want to sneak in and grab that, as long as the side effect wasn't terrible."

[keep_busy]

"How terrible a side effect would you put up for really good weather control?"

[touchedinthehead]

"Pretty terrible, actually. Even the teleportation side-effect. I wouldn't take it if it made me incapable of figuring out how to use it properly, though. But if it's a fear of shoelaces, I wouldn't complain."

[keep_busy]

"I'm pretty sure the teleportation side effect would make me incapable of thinking straight. I might be able to follow some plan I made ahead of time, if the power were straightforward to use."

[touchedinthehead]

Aldaras winces. "That... sentence has the interesting effect of making me want to screech, scoop you up into a protective hug, and volunteer to touch the artifact in your place so you never ever have to do that."

[keep_busy]

"Uh... sorry about that. I'm not planning to. You can hug me again if you want."

[touchedinthehead]

Well, she did just give him permission to. He scoops her up into a very - snuggly and protective hug. With gentle hair pets.

"Good," he murmurs. "It's okay, it took me by surprise, too. I just - please. Don't ever touch the teleportation artifact."

[keep_busy]

"I don't need to teleport nearly that badly." Hug.

[touchedinthehead]

Aldaras nods. "Yeah. Good, I'm - I don't ever want to see you in that kind of pain," he says fiercely. "Never."

[keep_busy]

"Believe me, it doesn't appeal on this end either."

Snuggle.

[touchedinthehead]

Protective snuggles. No horrific artifact that gives Annie a fate worse than death. Ever.

"Taking care of the knife is up to the seventies now, that's an interesting side effect."

[keep_busy]

"I'm not sure how that works."

[touchedinthehead]

"It's a little bewildering and I'm not sure how to explain it. Basically I realized abruptly that the knife is really, excessively dangerous to you and I want to make it go away more."

[keep_busy]

"I hope you can."

[touchedinthehead]

"Yeah. Me, too."

Slightly more protective snuggling.

[keep_busy]

Snuggle. This is nice, except for the panic-fueled part.