Room-mate wanted: must like blanket forts on Pecari Commons

Theo Spurn

January 08, 2020 4:48 AM

Room-mate wanted: must like blanket forts by Theo Spurn

Theo felt somewhat less lonely after his hugs and his chat with Josie. Josie was a nice person, and he was reassured that he would have plenty of people he could get huggly with. There had also been a full day of classes, all of which were cheerful places with lots of people, and most of the time he was asked to make a new friend. He was, however, overall just a bit bummed out still by Pecari, and its lack of squish. He was sure there was squishing and adventure and frolics to be had, after all it was the house of people who liked doing stuff. He just had to find it.

Theo’s favourite soft things were all over his bed, so that he could make himself a little cocoon of delightfulness to sleep in. Theo very much nested, liking to make piles and structures and work his way right inside. Those things were staying put because he had got them all just right for sleeping and they were his favourites and taking those to the common room would not be fun because he would have to worry about what was on the floor and people’s hands and whether something ghastly was about to happen.

However, that didn’t prevent him sharing, because he had plenty of sharing soft things. They were still all excellent, but they were the ones that went places and that he accepted some degree of risk to. He pulled out his bag of fort supplies (a handsome little deep red heart-shaped velvet shoulder bag, because Theo hearted forts) and took it down to the common room. He still wanted a roommate, one who would appreciate dens and softness and hugs, and so he figured this was the best way to get one. By definition, anyone who came to play forts was someone who liked forts, and then they would clearly be off to an excellent start. He would either find a boy who could come and hang out in his room, or a girl and they could just have blanket fort sleepovers in the common room whenever they felt like having a roommate for the night because no one had said that that was against the rules. She had specifically not said that. She had said that they had to be here by 10pm. She had said they had to be asleep on time. At first, Theo had not thought about this too much because he knew when his bedtime was and it made sense to follow it. However, he had realised that she had not specified where he had to be sleeping. So.

He appraised the furniture in the room, trying to decide how best to support his fort. Sometimes at home his parents or his Sophie conjured strings and things and frames and thrames, or else they made the blankets suspend themselves. But sometimes Theo and the gang made the forts all by themselves because they were Not For Grown Ups and because fort building was an essential life skill. There weren’t grown ups if you were stranded on a desert island (but not one made of sand) so sometimes you just had to manage.

The space under the tables was fun but obvious, and most were quite low coffee tables, which would be a very tight space. It might be nice to just lie under there by yourself but it wasn’t much of a friend-having space. There was a sofa, and nearish to it an armchair. Theo pulled out a blanket that was clearly larger than the capacity of the bag, and appraised the distance but it was more than one blanket wide, once you accounted for tuck in, so he pushed the chair closer, until he could push an edge of blanket in between the cushion and the arm on each piece of furniture and have it stretch over like a roof. He placed another on the ground to make a soft floor. He was not sure the roof would support two more blankets to make sides without some charms but he had some lighter weight softs that might make some nice, if somewhat drapey sides. He would have preferred a whole four walls of fuzziness but sometimes you had to adapt. He was just considering this when (unsurprisingly, given what he was doing) someone approached.

13 Theo Spurn Room-mate wanted: must like blanket forts 1476 1 5

Anya Delachene

January 08, 2020 7:06 AM

This. Is. Awesome! by Anya Delachene

This early in the year, Anya’s room still felt barren and lonely. It had her loft, which she had convinced the elves she needed in order to sleep last year, and they kept it ready for her this year, but it lacked the clutter that naturally accumulated over time, making it just feel empty and unloved. (Jasmine would call it ‘clean’ and ‘astonishingly organized’ but Jasmine didn’t see eye to eye with Anya on a lot of things.) Anya didn’t count herself as messy or disorganized, exactly, and intentionally making a mess was just anathema; she didn’t want a mess for mess’ sake. She wanted Organized Chaos That Just Happened. Until then, though, she found too much clean was just as much of a problem for her peace of mind as too much mess.

So she got out of there and headed down to the Common Room, figuring a few trips on the Corridor Ride would help settle her back into being at Sonora. Then maybe she could entice someone into jumping on the furniture with her. However, she hadn’t even made her first run at the boys’ stairs yet when she saw another kid already had dibs on some of the furniture.

Was he making . . . blanket forts?

This. Was. Awesome!

She headed over. “Hi, I’m Anya, and you are super cool awesome. Need another hand with your fort construction? I didn’t catch your name in classes today.” She’d noticed him. He was very noticeable. Just as she probably was, as sitting on desks was still a thing she had trouble not doing, especially after a summer of forgetting that some of the teachers here inexplicably preferred sitting to be done in chairs, and otherwise objected to her being in places they for some reason didn’t think she should, be like half hanging out of windows when the classroom air got too stuffy.

But learning new names was a thing that happened like her room getting set to rights. It was a gradual process that took time and would happen almost without her noticing it, and trying to force it to happen faster just made her head hurt.

1 Anya Delachene This. Is. Awesome! 1453 0 5

Theo Spurn

January 09, 2020 4:25 AM

Thank you by Theo Spurn

Anya!! Anya was here!!

He had noticed Anya in class. Anya was noticeable because people kept correcting what she did even though it wasn't hurting them. Anya's body did not stay still and she liked sitting on tables. Theo found it strange. Not that she did that but that everyone kept saying things. He was allowed to fidget and touch his soft things and not stare rigidly at the front, and the staff had been told to just deal with it. He thought that maybe sitting was the wrong texture for her and wondered why no one had said this. Well, frankly, he wondered why it needed saying when it was quite obvious but grown ups often needed very obvious things pointing out to them.

"Thank you," Theo beamed, as she stated that he was super cool awesome. He had thought Pecaris would appreciate blanket forts and was very glad to have been proven right. He thought that to be deemed super-cool-awesome in Aladren you probably had to win a chess match, and in Teppenpaw you probably had to help an old lady across the road, and in Crotalus you maybe needed to like... waltz or... be quiet? He kept forgetting what Crotali did. Also, he obviously wasn't against helping old ladies cross the road, because who would be, but there was a shortfall of them at Sonora and so it seemed likely that he would have waited longer for people to find him awesome in Teppenpaw. So far, Leonor had said he was smarter than grown ups, and the other girl had helped with his painting (he realised he hadn't caught her name - the phrase was in his head because Anya had said it - and he made a note to look for it scampering about his ankles so that he could scoop it into his net) and now Anya wanted to help with his blanket fort. He also had two texture friends in other houses, one of whom gave hugs and liked trash books, so everything was going well.

"Did you forget your net?" he asked with a smile. "It's Theo. And I am good at blanket fort construction," he assured her, regarding whether or not he needed help because he wouldn't her to think him incapable. "However, you never know when a two person job might come up, and I definitely need someone to hang out in the fort with me. That's rather the point and I like your socks," he explained, reaching out a hand to stroke them. They were fuzzy, and he was in his element and sort of forgetting the rules about touching/they were clearly friends now.

"You can help me choose sides," he offered, holding up the bag full of soft things. "Do you have clean hands? I mean, not how grown ups mean, about problems you can't even see, but just... you aren't covered in jam or dirt or things that ruin blankets? That's hyperbole because I can see that you aren't totally covered, but like... on your hands."

13 Theo Spurn Thank you 1476 0 5

Anya Delachene

January 09, 2020 10:50 AM

You are very welcome by Anya Delachene

Anya grinned back as Theo lightly teased her for missing his name. “Nah, I had my net out, but names are tricksy things and they wiggle right through the mesh. Might need to get one with smaller holes so they don’t escape so easy.”

She nodded in approval of his blanket fort construction skills, understanding that her help was welcome but not critical for success, as was right and good. It would be a sad Pecari who could not construct their own fort. She personally preferred high altitudes, but if you had to be on the ground, you couldn’t beat being surrounded by draped blankets on all sides.

She was a little surprised when he started petting her socks, and she giggled because her feet were a little ticklish, but she managed not to kick him in self defense because she wasn’t super ticklish in the bruise-inflicting way Jasmine was. It was downright hazardous to attempt tickling her, especially with her elbows being as pointy as they were, though it was definitely the feet she could get the most power behind and you had to be super careful not to get in the way of those if they started pumping out at you.

Then he was asking about the cleanliness of her hands so she held them out for inspection, turning them back and forth so he could see both sides. She did have some dirt under her fingernails - as she almost always did even after washing her hands, at least on the ones that weren’t broken off or chewed down to the point were there wasn’t any white left, but that was only two of them - but they were otherwise mostly clean other than some smudges of purple permanent marker from when she’d been writing her name on her notebooks earlier. “Nothing that’s going to rub off,” she promised.

She knelt down next to him, interested in his bag of goodies. “What other blankets do you have in there?”

1 Anya Delachene You are very welcome 1453 0 5

Theo Spurn

January 10, 2020 6:34 PM

As are you by Theo Spurn

“They scurry tricksily,” he confirmed, regarding names. “Also, sometimes I forget about doing names because there are more interesting things like whether a person’s toes are fuzzy and that they want to build blanket forts,” he smiled up at Anya appreciatively.

“That’s pretty dirt,” he smiled, poking the little bits of purple on her hands. She seemed to understand the difference he meant between clean and dirty. It did not necessarily mean hands devoid of all character. Just, as she said, nothing that was going to rub off. “But not glitter,” he added firmly, just in case she started thinking that the prettiness of the dirt was the main factor. Glitter was pretty to look at. There was no denying that. And Theo was okay with glitter in its place, so long as that place was strictly visual and far away from him. Glitter was less bothersome than sand though, and he wasn’t sure whether that was because you forgave it for being pretty or because it was rarely present in quite the same amounts. People did not frolic in glitter pits and then tramp it everywhere with their feet. Glitter didn’t quite get textually disruptive the way sand did, unless something truly bizarre happened. Still, it was better to be safe than scratchy.

“I have more fuzzy ones like these,” he gestured to their ceiling and floor, “But I thought a lighter something might hold up better. I do have some very nice velvety scarves,” he rummaged, his arm disappearing up the the shoulder in the small bag, and pulled out an example. The velvet was applied in patterns, meaning there were small gaps where a more mesh-like fabric showed through. “If you hang them velvet side in, then you can press your face against them and it’s soft and you can also look through the non-velvet bits, but it does feel less like being in just a big safe box of snug because they are wafty. You can have a look through too, see if there’s anything you like,” he added, holding out the bag, “Do you know any fort-related spells that would help and will you definitely not set my things on fire when trying?” he asked.

13 Theo Spurn As are you 1476 0 5