Not Finished for the Day on Labyrinth Gardens

Lena Westley

March 19, 2014 8:51 AM

Not Finished for the Day by Lena Westley

Lena left the library, not ready to yet settle in for the day. She didn't have many things and she thought it prudent to wait for the other girls to set up their things before she claimed room for herself. The common room was nice, and she thought she'd spend a lot of enjoyable time there but at the moment it was too loud. Even if the Aladren house had a reputation for being studious the common room currently seemed anything but a quiet place to study. Lena didn't plan to study. . well, maybe she did. But she wasn't going to crack open a book, no. She planned to study the leaves, the branches, the paths through the labyrinth. She wanted to explore the gardens in detail.

It took Lena just as long a time to reach the Labyrinth Gardens as if the way she took had been through the labyrinth itself. Finding her way wasn't actually a problem but she lost herself again in the architectural "genius" of Sonora. There were very few students around when she had started but when she was reaching the gardens more upperclassmen had left the hall and were starting to loiter in the hallways. She hadn't noticed the gradual shift until she did finally take one wrong turn. Not wanting to ask the people around out of concern for their time or patience she stumbled upon the entrance by pure chance.

Not worrying that losing her way while not even in the maze might have been a foreshadowing of losing herself more stupendously while in it, she started walking into the chaotic puzzle. She didn't concern herself with keeping track of where she had been, but trekked on hoping to find a climbable tree or a patch of flowers with a water feature. A lake, a fountain, a birdbath, something with water in it. She found a tree, but it was behind a bench and a bit hard to get her footing on. There were blue flowers, no bugs flitting around and . It was more than an overall pleasant spot. Lena lay down on the bench, and looked through the leaves of the tree above and thought she would definitely like to climb it tomorrow or the day after. She had thought she wouldn't be tired enough to sleep today but after thinking for three and a quarter hours, just looking up through the backlit leaves, she dozed off. She slept on when someone came through the same clearing. She would have kept sleeping if she hadn't been startled awake by the sudden. . .

OOC: Person who replies fills out the rest of the sentence.

7 Lena Westley Not Finished for the Day 279 Lena Westley 1 5

Raven Corbeau

March 19, 2014 11:59 PM

Establishing routine by Raven Corbeau

… crash of books and various writing materials to the ground. Cursing mentally, Raven bent over to collect the spilled tomes.

Raven always had stashes of odds and ends around her home. It was simply too inconvenient for her to get up from her hiding place and take a detour all the way across the manor to get another book, or collect another sheaf of parchment or spare quill. Keeping lots of lock boxes in hidey holes filled with her own things where no one could find them, but she could access them relatively easily, was her perfect solution. She liked to space the lock boxes out relatively sparsely, just so that there was less chance of someone stumbling on one of her fox holes. So far only one of hers had been found, and that was only because her brother had followed her.

Being the start of her first year at school, Raven decided that it was best to start her exploring and hiding as soon as possible. She had gotten up insanely early, went through her morning routine, and left her things to unpack later so she wouldn’t wake her roommates. She had been out memorizing the layout of the labyrinth since early morning, and had decided to set up one of her supply points near the center of the gardens, since she was likely to spend much of her time there. Raven always stored the supplies in lock boxes, to keep animals and the elements out, but she hadn’t brought any with her to school. She planned to use an impervious charm over her things until she could buy a lock box via owl order, and had been carrying all of her supplies in her arms.

Unfortunately, Raven had overladen herself and, being unable to see the ground from behind her stack of books, had tripped over a stray vine which had grown over the path. She cursed her luck as she inspected her things for damage, making sure that none of the books had torn and all the ink bottles were whole and well-sealed.

~~~
OOC: I wasn't sure what time you wanted this to take place, so I placed it about mid-morning the day after the feast. I hope that is okay... If not, just say something.

0 Raven Corbeau Establishing routine 0 Raven Corbeau 0 5

Lena Westley

March 21, 2014 9:30 AM

Re: Establishing routine by Lena Westley

Books made a very distinctive sound when falling. It was the softest loud Lena knew. Accompanying the dull thuds was the clinking of glass, and the cacophony woke Lena from her nap. Sleep arrested from her very quickly, she was disoriented and struck with pain from wrenching herself to a sitting position too quickly. Lena was prone to startling and jumped when she sat up. She looked to her left and saw a girl with black hair sheathed around her, obscuring her face. She was bent over to inspect the jars that must have made the clinking noises Lena assumed as she regained her composure.

The girl carried what seemed to Lena an excessive amount of things with her. When Lena looked further she saw that all the items scattered seemed to be for study. She had now already crouched down herself to help the girl reassemble the stack of parchment and the various quills. The raven haired girl had a magnificent array of books sprawled around her which she seemed to have already inspected as they were in haphazard piles now. Lena straightened the pile nearest her and noticed that the title didn’t seem to be for studying purposes but recreational. “Do they go in any particular order, your books?” Lena asked, looking up from her tidy pile to see the girl bore the same blue in her uniform as Lena. She didn’t remember seeing this girl in the common room, but then again, she didn’t remember anyone yet apart from the blonde boy, Clark, from the feast.

7 Lena Westley Re: Establishing routine 279 Lena Westley 0 5

Raven Corbeau

March 22, 2014 4:30 PM

You're being volunteered as pack horse. by Raven Corbeau

Raven looked up when she heard someone approaching. She had already managed to organize her books in piles by type, and had just been checking her ink bottles when she saw a girl approaching. She appeared to be wearing the uniform of Aladren house. Raven remembered her from the Sorting, she was a fellow first year. Her name was... West? Presley? Something of the kind. Ignoring her, Raven went back to her work.

“Do they go in any particular order, your books?”

Raven looked up, annoyed. She pointed at the stack closest to the other girl, the smallest. “Science fiction.” She pointed to another stack. “Miscellaneous reference books.” She pointed to the two largest stacks. “Medical and law. There is no particular order, except topic and relevance.”

Raven stood and stooped over to gather her stacks of books to herself. She walked a few steps before losing a book. Bending over to pick it up again, she lost another two tomes. At last, she growled and set her books down once again. Noticing that there was no way she would be able to carry all of her books at once, she thrust a stack in the other girl's direction.

“Here. Since you are here, you might as well make yourself useful.”

0 Raven Corbeau You're being volunteered as pack horse. 0 Raven Corbeau 0 5

Lena Westley

March 27, 2014 1:31 PM

I'm glad I'm not expected to carry too much by Lena Westley

Lena always preferred her books to be alphabetized by author but the girl had basically said it was unnecessary to organize them so. Even so Lena was bothered that the books were only sorted as far as genre and decided to restack them anyway. The last time she carried many books was as a child when she sorted her books by shape and size. Thinking they’d obviously be easier to carry if the bulkiest ones were at the bottom she reverted to that sorting method and lined up the books' spines after she had assessed the books' widths, heights and thicknesses. She finished restacking, not doing it to be helpful (although this girl did seem to need it)but because organizing was fun.

She was about to stand up and leave the girl with her newly shaped piles but the girl was already stomping off. Not very far, as it were, as three books fell one after another and the girl rounded back to Lena. “Here. Since you are here, you might as well make yourself useful.”

. . . Well. . Huh, thought Lena. She stood there a moment, eyes properly wide, but got over the initial shock of the girl's commanding attitude and followed. She didn’t mind carrying things, and because of her stacking method she wasn’t bothered with the same trouble that the girl seemed to have. She didn’t feel smug, or anything really, she wasn’t insulted as some would have been, she wasn’t intimidated, she just followed and started thinking of how glad she wasn’t carrying more than 30% her body weight as pack horses were sometimes expected to.

As Lena mused about whether hinnies were to mules as tigons were to ligers or ligers were to tigons the girl stopped and started to say something. Lena missed it because she was coming around to the conclusion that tigons were more the equivalent of mules because the fathers were usually the smaller species. Not exactly a good or easily explainable reason/excuse for ignoring someone. She hadn’t meant to but she felt guilty because she thought she probably wouldn’t have been interested in what the girl was saying more than where her mind had just wandered off to.

Lena froze at the sound of the girl’s voice and this time heard what the girl said.

7 Lena Westley I'm glad I'm not expected to carry too much 279 Lena Westley 0 5

Raven Corbeau

April 06, 2014 4:05 AM

And not for very long. by Raven Corbeau

Raven gazed at the girl following along behind her. She seemed to be thinking about something, always with her head off in the clouds. Raven didn't approve. Yes, she was constantly reading, but she liked to keep her head about her. If one did not control one's actions, they would not be able to present a solid, indestructible countenance to their potential enemies.

Not that Raven would say any of this to the other girl. She needed all the allies she could get in this new and unfamiliar setting, and it would hardly do to make enemies on the first full day.

They began to near the place where Raven had picked for the central hub. Raven didn't want to lead the girl too close, in case she remembered where Raven had led her later and found Raven's stash. Corbeau stopped and turned. Nodding at the girl, Raven called out to her.

"I can take those books from here."

The girl seemed confused, so Raven called to her again.

"You can stop here. I'll carry the books from now on since the bulk of the journey is over with. You can go back to your nap or what have you."

0 Raven Corbeau And not for very long. 0 Raven Corbeau 0 5

Lena Westley

May 01, 2014 1:35 PM

Thank Goodness, a break by Lena Westley

"I can take those books from here" the girl replied. Lena lowered her raised head to look at her, saying nothing. This girl suddenly wanted to carry the load by herself? "You can stop here. I'll carry the books from now on-" that was all Lena needed to hear. This girl was offering an out to the strenuous work, thank goodness! Lena wanted to be helpful to some extent but she hadn't considered how painful it would actually be to lug so much stuff.

"-can go back to your nap or what have you." Nap? After the exercise she couldn't possibly nap. In any case she put the things down, gingerly so as not to shift any of the straightened books.

". . Okay. I'm not against carrying it farther but I do need a little break from carrying your things." Her arms ached and they didn't feel much better when she set the things down. But a little break, no matter how long, was welcome. Lena didn't realize this girl wasn't actually looking for Lena to come any further.

OOC: I'm so terribly sorry for the super late reply, I'll try to be on more again. This post is too short to meet legitimate requirements, I know, but there isn't much Lena would have a reaction to in this. Because she's oblivious to social cues. Completely

7 Lena Westley Thank Goodness, a break 279 Lena Westley 0 5