A Shrewdness of Apes--Girls Quad Nine

[Persiflage]

It wasn't until Nennya was back in the safety of her room that she saw that her hand was bleeding, from a deep gash in her palm. And it wasn't until she saw the blood that she felt the pain of it.

She found a towel, wrapped it under her hand, and sat down at her desk. Carefully, she pulled out a piece of green sparkly plastic and a crushed piece of shiny metal. Already the wound wanted to close; had been kept open only by the foreign bodies inside. She closed her eyes and, bringing her inner telekinetic senses to bear, nudged a few cells here and there, aligned severed capillaries, rejoined a few ligaments, and allowed her immune system to begin coagulant production. And she opened her eyes.

"You've ruined my towel," noted Jane, from across the room.

Nennya looked up, surprised.

"I'm sorry. I'll buy you another, I promise."

"What is that?" asked Jane, her eyes cutting to the plastic and metal fragments lying, bloody, on the towel next to her hand.

"Pieces of a cat-toy. Someone threw one down the hall. People were making jokes. Cruel jokes. I lost my temper." Unwillingly, Nennya suddenly smiled, as the euphoric effects of her rage began to sink in. "I don't remember what I said, but it felt good to say it. Do you have a band-aid?"

Jane found her a piece of gauze in a first-aid kit, and Nennya taped it over her palm. They stood there a moment. Nennya looked up. "I want to thank you, Jane, for sending those notes to the headmaster. That was smart."

"I think I'm still mad. If they weren't picking on the students with fur, they'd be picking on the students with horns. If they weren't picking on the students with horns, they'd be picking on the ones with dark skin or different-shaped eyes. They always have to have someone to look down on, and they're always going to find it." She flexed her fingers a few times, testing her hand.

"You're very different, Jane. Please tell me, is there something I should know, some trick I can use to keep me from losing my temper?" Nennya sighed, clapped her fingers into her palm a few more times, feeling a little better.

[Renn Haven]

"I know it sounds cliché, but counting to ten has been surprisingly useful in the past to me." Renn suggested as she strolled in the door, struggling to balance a awkward looking armful of textbooks and notebooks.

She crossed the room to drop things on her bed, and sighed. "I swear, these things get heavier every day..."

She looked over at Nennya. "I heard about what happened earlier. Are you going to be okay?"

[Girlactic]

Jane flopped down onto a chair nearby like a sack of peaches, and leaned dangerously backwards, somehow maintaining a precarious blancing act that some acrobats might envy. She laced her fingers behind her head and screwed her face up, attempting to think of some pithy phrase to utter.

"Listen," Jane stated, maintaining her balance as she swiveled her legs up to rest on a desk, "a guy once said that patience taken too far is just cowardice. I get angry all the time. Super pissed. So people call me impatient. Maybe I am. But at least I've got the balls to speak up and admit how I feel, even if it's wrong."

She tried to turn to regard Nennya's reaction, and earned herself an inglorious spill on the floor for her trouble. She laughed, hauled herself up slightly and propped her head on her palm.

"That, or maybe I realized the Headmaster could shut those squawking little magpies up better than we ever could. He's human, so maybe they'll listen to him. I mean, you're all furry and I'm half-alien so they won't listen to us anyway. You know?"

[Persiflage]

Nennya stared at the gauze on her palm. She stuck out her tongue at it, and it made her feel better.

"I don't want some outside authority coming in, really, and telling people how to behave. They ought to know how to behave. And anyway... I've had problems before with people not treating me well for any idiot reason. I can handle not being treated well. What I don't like so much--being made to feel like I don't have the authority to speak for myself. Like being ..."

"Colonized?" suggested Renn, dumping a particularly heavy textbook of post-Colonialist readings on her desk.

"Yes, that's the word!" Nennya said excitedly. "I'm not the white man's burden. I don't like feeling like I need to borrow authority from some outside power to get people to listen to me. I guess that makes me an uppity woman, or darkie, or catgirl, or whatever-the-hell."

"You sound like Faster," said Jane grinning. Nennya threw her pillow at her with her good hand.

"I'd be fine with Faster if she didn't give me so much doff every time I indulge the impulse to nap in the sun or purr where people can hear me or chase a moth or even run my hand through my own hair. It's like being called a race-traitor or something."

"You can purr?" asked Renn, incredulously.

Nennya grinned a wicked grin.

"Oh, don't be so satisfied with yourself," Jane said, tossing the pillow back. "Sounds an awful lot like snoring to me."

Nennya laughed.

[Mitula The LightMother]

Caila stood at the door to Quad #9 for what seemed like hours. In her arms she carried one cardboard box, overflowing with a mishmash of materials, ranging from an alarm clock down to a picture frame of her and a rather dashing young man. Caila stared at the door, and after two quick deep breathes, quietly pushed it open and stepped inside.

"At least I know two of them."Caila thought, smiling and nodding at Renn and Nix as she clamered over to the empty bed and placed her possessions on it. "Ohhh...The Cat-girl. This should be interesting. We never got to finish our conversation about Faith..." the disembodied voice inside her head chuckled, focusing it's attention on Nennya. "Mitula, if you so much as even THINK about making this hard for me..." Caila mentally replied, still wearing her sweet smile as she glanced at Jane on the floor. "Calm down. I won't do anything unless I have to, Caila. God's honor."Mitula answered, her attention still locked on Nix.

"Hi guys! I guess I'm your new roomate." Caila said, quickly pulling some things out of her box and laying them on the bed. She quickly plugged in her alarm clock, and pulled out a series of books and journals which were unceremoniously shoved under the bed.

Looking around the room, she finally asked "Ok...where do I keep my clothes?"


OOC: I can't find a description of what one of the Quads in Saint Joes' looks like, so I'm flying by the seat of my pants here. And as soon as I figure out how to write in color, Mit's thoughts won't be bolded anymore... Sorry bout that.

[Persiflage]

((The Girls' quads have two different styles of arrangement, which you can read about here

The boys' dorm is still part of the original architecture. ...The quads are retty much large square rooms. All four boys sleep in the same room, which in my head always had two bunkbeds, though four single beds could also work. The beds are on either side of a simple open space, in which the boys might put a TV or whatever. All quads have at least a couple windows. The boys' dorm has bathrooms and showers at the end of each hall, shared by everyone who lives on that floor.

When it was rebuilt after the Rikti war, the girls sortof lucked out. Their new dorm is much nicer, and built with the sensibilities of the modern day. The girls' dorm was not entirely destroyed, however, so a small number of the rooms are still done in the "classic" style of the boys' dorm. The other modernized rooms, however, have one of two styles.

The first style is really what I would call a "joined double". Three rooms: two bedrooms, each with a pair of beds, seperated by a small common room.

The second style is similar to the "open" style of the boys' dorm, but due to more modern architecture, provides more privacy by placing the beds in recessed "nooks." This second style has a larger common area, but essentially mimics the old style.

The girls' dorm also has shared bathroom and showers on each floor.

Judging by the RP, Girls Quad Nine is probably in the 'open' style with the recessed nooks.))