Room 317, Saturday evening

[notmyownage]

Claudia had managed to lose her little stalker twice during the day -- but Stan was nothing if not persistent, and he managed to follow her all the way back to the dorms, where she proceeded to try to ignore him while he puttered about with her stuff, giving her tools a whir and basically pressing as many buttons as possible.

It was what he did.

"Geez, stop fidgeting," Claudia said finally. "Just . . . go online, or something."

It might be a long weekend.

[ooc: primarily for the kid, but the door and room are totally open.]

Comments

[nudged.livejournal.com]

Stan stuck out his hand. "I'm Stan. I'm ten. This isn't my fault."

[momhadafatday.livejournal.com]

Beth looked very confused as she took the hand. "Why would it be your fault? Do you make portals or something?"

[nudged.livejournal.com]

"Not on purpose." Stan wanted to make that bit very clear. "If they didn't want me pushing the buttons, they shouldn't make them so big and shiny."

[chief-cheerio.livejournal.com]

Quinn, going pink, gave Claudia a look over the children's heads that could be translated as I know, I'm sorry, and I owe you one.

"It's nice to meet you, Stan," she said. "I don't think there's anything in here that could make a portal turn up. Is there?"

Like she understood what Claudia was working on.

[notmyownage]

Claudia's look back said you so do, but then she shrugged, seemingly letting it pass, for now. "Shouldn't be. I haven't quite worked my way up to interdimensional time-portals."

[nudged.livejournal.com]

"I told you it wasn't my fault," Stan said. It was one of those things he frequently felt the need to make very clear.

Especially when it was his fault.

[momhadafatday.livejournal.com]

"Usually people only say that when they're lying," Beth felt the need to point out skeptically. "Like when you maybe accidentally knock over the fishtank at school and it goes sploosh everywhere and you're trying not to get in trouble."

[nudged.livejournal.com]

"I'd never do that," Stan insisted. "They might be genetically altered fish developing a taste for human flesh."

He didn't think GD had a genetically altered man-eating fish department, but, well, one could never tell.

[notmyownage]

Claudia stared. "And I thought my childhood was weird."

[chief-cheerio.livejournal.com]

"They get to add the weird of having parents who went here to normal childhood weird," Quinn said. "It's going to be a little special."

Beth was staring hard at Stan as she added, "... and they were just normal goldfish."

[nudged.livejournal.com]

"Oh." Stan shrugged. "Why would you keep normal goldfish?"

Claudia shook her head. "You really gotta tell me who your father is, kid."

[momhadafatday.livejournal.com]

"You don't know?" Beth sounded more than mildly shocked. "And the goldfish were to teach about the environment or something. They were dumb."

[notmyownage]

"Not if he doesn't tell me," Claudia crossed her arms. "What, do you think I had him when I was six?"

"Time travel," Stan said. "Messy stuff." Then, to Beth, "Is that why you knocked them over? 'Cause they were dumb?"

[momhadafatday.livejournal.com]

"I didn't knock them over," Beth claimed sullenly. She'd forgotten the time travel thing for a moment. "But if I had, it was only 'cause they were right on the edge of the counter and my backpack was big. I don't kill fish on purpose or anything."

[nudged.livejournal.com]

"Backpacks are dangerous," Stan decided. "Totally unpredictable."

[chief-cheerio.livejournal.com]

"I once saw a girl trip over one and fall down a whole flight of stairs," Quinn volunteered, on the general subject. "... it's okay, Beth. You aren't going to get in trouble about the fish here."

Largely because she thought goldfish were stupid, too.

[notmyownage]

"What would we do, give you detention?" Claudia snorted. "We're just kids, too, you know."

[momhadafatday.livejournal.com]

"You could tattle to our real moms," Beth said. "Couldn't you?"

She glanced to Quinn, who shook her head. "Nope. I guess I could write a note, but I'll only do that if you're really bad."

[notmyownage]

"There's an idea." Claudia composed a letter in the air. "'Dear other me: Please explain to Stan that you can't hint at stuff and then not explain it later."

Stan huffed. "Time travel."

"Yeah, well, how do I know you haven't already stepped on that butterfly?"

[momhadafatday.livejournal.com]

"Why would somebody want to step on a butterfly?" Beth wanted to know. "They're all pretty and stuff."

Apparently, the metaphor had not yet come up for her.

[nudged.livejournal.com]

"Maybe it's a genetically modified butterfly with a taste for human flesh," Stan said.

"The future is doomed," Claudia decided.