Hugs? (Tag Jo or Josie) on Cascade Hall

Theo Spurn

December 31, 2019 8:32 PM

Hugs? (Tag Jo or Josie) by Theo Spurn

School liked putting people into little boxes. That was Theo’s impression so far. Jo had been into the Teppenpaw box, and Josie had been put into the Aladren box. Theo had been put into the Pecari box, and then further subdivided into the Pecari first year boy box, and there wasn’t anyone else in that. It was sort of lonely. It was all well and good to talk about common areas - common rooms and dining halls and so on - but once you were up in your box, or someone else was in theirs, there was no way of getting to them. The school had made sure of that, with its passwords and secrets (which was sort of fun because it was like a game) and its stupid staircase magic (which was not fun because it was just rude and about sex).

Theo had spent last night in his own box. Alone. It wasn’t so weird to sleep alone. He did that often at home. Though almost just as often, he had a cousin over or went to sleep over with them. In his box here, he had had all his soft things, and he’d had his squeezy blanket which, on command, wrapped itself around him in a very tight cocoon. It had not been quite normal or right but it had been okay. But then he’d woken up this morning, and there were people but there was no one who was specifically happy to see him or give him a hug. He had also not received a goodnight hug, except from the blanket. And that really was the trouble with the box system, if no one was going to be put in his box with him. Days were supposed to start and end with big squeezy hugs and he’d missed one already and he was damned if he was going to miss another one because he already felt all wrong without them.

He thought the Jos were his best bet. They had understood and listened a lot about texture. Hugging was sort of a texture. It… it was related, in that everything in his body started feeling all wrong if he didn’t get hugs, like it did if his clothes had scratchy labels or bad seams. He made his way down to breakfast, hoping they had come out of their boxes. Spotting one of them, he made his way over.

“Hug please?” he asked, sounding somewhat distressed. “Do you do hugs? I need one.”

13 Theo Spurn Hugs? (Tag Jo or Josie) 1476 1 5

Josephine Clyde

January 01, 2020 9:34 AM

I like warm hugs by Josephine Clyde

Sonora was nicer than she’d expected, her roommates seemed like lovely humans and her house made her feel warm, safe and happy. She was surrounded by books and people who loved books. It was everything she could have asked for, but had never dared to. Would it be weird to skip? She felt happy enough to skip down the halls, but maybe she could save that for later when she knew the layout of the school better. Now was breakfast time and if it was anything like the food from the sorting ceremony night it would probably be delicious. Perhaps there would even be croissants! She’d only made them once with her mother, but they were, as her mother had said, a labor of love. They were also the one thing her mother used to buy from the fancy bakery because, as her mother said, it was nice to enjoy someone else’s labor too sometimes.

Josie shuffled into a seat at the Aladren table and filled her plate with fruit. Strawberries were her favorite fruit to bake with, but she loved oranges. Something about the sweet and tangy taste made her feel energetic. No croissants, but she would make do with the toast and jams they had laid out. She’d been in the middle of buttering a slice when a sad voice asked for hugs. Turning in her seat she found Theo, but he was nothing like the soft, fuzzy boy from orientation. He seemed sad. He certainly sounded sad, but she couldn’t be sure. Maybe she was being, what was the word? Judgmental. As much as she’d liked the conversation the three of them had had in the garden she felt a little wary now. Theo was in Pecari and she knew, she did, that he wasn’t anything like her father, Samuel or Daniel. But Josie saw those three as the same kind of person, they just wore different faces. Theo was nothing like them, but Pecari was them, wasn’t it? But it was definitely not right for her to be happy when one of her friends didn't seem to be. She stood up, toast still in hand and offered him a smile.

“Hi Theo.” She hesitated before wrapping him into a hug, balancing her toast behind his head, “I like hugs. Are you okay? You sound kind of….sad?”

44 Josephine Clyde I like warm hugs 1477 0 5

Theo Spurn

January 02, 2020 4:38 AM

And I cannot lie by Theo Spurn

She came at him with toast! Theo was surprised and slightly wary. But he supposed if she put the toast down, she might not take care to get all the crumbs off her fingers and then her hands would maybe touch him and at least this way, she was probably aware of where the toast was and the crumbs would stay sealed between her fingers and the toast and maybe it was when she let go and freed them that it was a real danger. Plus he very much wanted the hug.

“Don’t get toast crumbs on me,” he requested as he snuggled in, deciding it was best to make sure that was very definitely clear. Crumbs and sand were pure evil. They were sneaky roughness. They got in and got everywhere and wouldn’t go away. They snuck up and surprised you. This was therefore a hug with some mild peril attached, which was an odd combination. Still, he held onto Josie, feeling the weight of someone else’s arms on him. He liked long hugs. He wondered if that was another thing adults were going to start becoming suspicious of, with all their stupid non-touching rules. What if grown ups started saying you couldn’t give people long squeezy hugs because that could be interpreted as you wanting to have sex with them? It didn’t make sense, but grown ups kept not making sense about everything, and especially about touching. He half expected Professor Carter to come over and tell him to stop hugging so much and that there were ‘lots of perfectly good reasons’ why boys should not hug girls.

He took a deep breath and pulled back, feeling somewhat comforted.

“That was most of the problem,” he answered. “I hadn’t had a hug in… ages. Probably since yesterday morning. I don’t think I’ve ever gone so long without one.” He took a seat, drawing his own knees up and wrapping his arms around them so there was more squeeze. “I don’t have any roommates. And they put you and Jo in other houses, and just… everyone has to go to their little boxes at the end of the day, and my box only has me, and it’s kind of lonely. It might get better when I know some of the other Pecaris better. But so far I don’t, and you have to be friends before you ask people for hugs. It’s a rule,” he shrugged indifferently, to show that this was ‘wisdom’ that had been passed down rather than a concept he had come up with himself. He would have been quite happy to hug everyone, so long as they were not wearing rough clothes, and thought it would be a very good way to make friends rather than doing things the other way round, but strangers did seem upset or confused if you hugged them or asked for hugs. People were odd and there was bread! He picked up a slice, laying it on his plate.

13 Theo Spurn And I cannot lie 1476 0 5

Josephine Clyde

January 05, 2020 4:53 AM

Give me honey or give me death by Josephine Clyde

Crumbs? Josie frowned before remembering Theo’s detailed picture from orientation. The Texture Triangle! Oh no, she hoped she hadn’t made him uncomfortable. Sand had been on the bottom in the roughness category. Next time, she’d have to remember to be more careful. Placing the toast back on her plate she decided to eat her fruit and twisted the leafy wigs off of her strawberries and listened to Theo’s woes.

So, he liked hugs. She could understand that, hugs were lovely and wonderful, but she didn’t get them that often. Well, not anymore. In fact, Josie paused, when was the last time her father had hugged her? Had he hugged her when she left for Sonora? No. Thinking about her father was going to make her stop paying attention to Theo and then she would just put him in the same genre as her father.
“Is your room big, Theo? I know it’s probably lonely,” Josie nodded, it was probably definitely lonely, “But since you don’t share the room maybe you can ask your head of house if they’ll let you cover it in fuzzy things? It can be like your sleeves, but all the time. My head, Professor Grayson, is really nice, maybe yours will let you?”

She saw him pick up a slice of bread and figured it was safe to return to her slice now too. It was half-buttered and that was half of a crime! Where was the honey? She poked around the other jams for the traditional bear full of honey that she saw in every store back home and stopped cold. There was no honey bear? No honey? No, no, this was magic school, not ancient history times. They had to have honey. Theo would know, orientation had made it clear that he had more magical experience than she did.

“Theo,” Josie began, trying to keep the nervousness out of her voice, “Where’s the honey? I can’t find it.”
The magical world of Sonora had better have honey.

(OOC I just about bust a gut at the adult rules thing)

44 Josephine Clyde Give me honey or give me death 1477 0 5

Theo Spurn

January 05, 2020 6:30 AM

That's quite the high stakes move by Theo Spurn

“Oh, I already did that,” Theo assured Josie as she suggested he could cover his room in soft things. “It’s my room and she can’t tell me what to do in there,” he muttered slightly crossly. Professor Carter-Xavier could stop him bringing girl-people into his room, but beyond that she had no authority. “Well, I covered my bed anyway. I suppose I could make the walls soft and get a big fuzzy rug too…” Except that still made him daydream of a roommate. One who understood all the fluffiness and just want to lie on the rug together running their hands through it and giggling together. He knew that there were no guarantees a roommate would be so nice. His mum had charmed several of his soft things to attack if touched without permission because, as she had put it, ‘kids are jerks sometimes.’ But whenever he imagined, he always imagined it as just perfect so it was never going to stop it from being a little bit sad and lonely. “It’d still be nice to share that with other people sometimes though. She also didn’t say that I can’t build blanket forts in the common room and sleep there though, so I might try that too.”

They returned to their breakfasts and Theo quietly plotted blanket forts as he picked small chunks out of his bread and ate them, considering which bits of furniture he might be able to pull in as structure with the least difficulty… His attention was recalled to Josie as she stated that she could not find honey. He cast his eyes over the table. There were numerous little ceramic pots, all of which looked fairly non-descript, and which he suspected contained various materials for painting bread.

“Could be any of these,” he nodded seriously. He did not object to honey outright. It was quite pleasant tasting. He did not particularly enjoy it being on his fingers but it washed (or tastily licked) off easily enough. He was a little reluctant to start poking around because sometimes there were honey-y or jammy bits on the outsides of the pots and then your fingers got suddenly and surprisingly sticky and that was flinchy. He supposed he was somewhat prepared for the possibility and that made it less of a surprise and Josie had given him a hug, albeit a high risk one. He reached out and started nudging the lids off their pots with slow and cautious movements, retreating occasionally before mustering up the courage to keep pushing each lid totally out of the way. “So far, so jam,” he sighed as the first couple did not yield what they were looking for.

13 Theo Spurn That's quite the high stakes move 1476 0 5

Josephine Clyde

January 18, 2020 1:41 AM

Honey-licious by Josephine Clyde

Theo’s careful search for honey made her look at the jars more closely and she realized they weren’t entirely free from jam. It made her wonder where jams and jellies fell on the Texture Triangle. They were soft to touch, but could end up being sticky if they were held in the wrong way. At his response she continued searching for the honey on her own to save him from any potentially sticky situations.

“Don’t worry, Theo, I’ll keep looking. Tell me more about your room! It sounds very soft and fluffy. I wish I could go visit, but I don’t think that’s allowed.”

Josie kept one ear open as her hand made the journey to honey once more. Honey had been one of her favorite things to eat. It was sweet, sticky and made wonderful smelling desserts. There had been an episode on the baking show that was honey themed and she’d loved it ever since she and her mother had recreated the honey cheesecake. One of the pots even seemed to have the same wooden handle that the TV show’s honey pot had had…Maybe.

“AHA!” Josie cried out loud as she held up the honey pot in triumph.

No one had been using it so she plopped it down on the side away from Theo. Honey could be sticky too! She left it open after pouring a generous helping onto her toast. Taking her knife she sliced up some of the strawberries and placed them inside and voila! The perfect, no-bake breakfast tart. Well, as close as she could get at least.

44 Josephine Clyde Honey-licious 1477 0 5