Returning the Knock on Elective Hall

Lawrence Marsh

July 08, 2020 10:40 AM

Returning the Knock by Lawrence Marsh

He went over the list a few times as he walked towards the door. Lethargic, loss of appetite, getting knicks and cuts from walking into things (intentionally from the looks of it), sleeping longer than necessary, and heightened sensitivity to light or sound. Milky Way was experiencing all of these, and possibly more, though Lawrence hadn’t been able to document them. She had seemed fine around the children, but had gone back to her normal, i.e. not normal, ways once they were gone.

Lawrence had checked for so many things. He’d run tests and tried different treatments. Nothing seemed to be working. He just needed to bounce some ideas off someone. Someone who thought differently from him. Someone he could trust. He shook his head slightly on realizing that he was trusting a counselor, even if he only said it out loud in his head. If only the clinic could see him now, they might be more than surprised than Lawrence was. Added to this need for help, he had an actual gift this time for Killian. One that was not work related, though last time he did give Killian access to dragons. Kind of. He moved the small jar from his left hand to his right and brought his left hand up to knock on the door.

He paused. Was this a good idea? Maybe Tabitha would be a better person to discuss this with. His face flinched slightly. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Tabitha, he enjoyed her a lot, but she was intimidating. In a good way. It was just that he didn’t feel totally comfortable to open up about this failure with her. Something still seemed a bit closed off with her. No. He could admit failure to Killian. He knew Killian wouldn’t judge him too harshly. After all, Lawrence had let Killian in on his secret and Killian barely batted an eye.

Lawrence looked down at his gift. The feeling that it was a silly gift floated through his mind. He ripped off the piece of paper that read Baciliguy and stuffed it in his pocket. So stupid. Also Killian didn’t need this gift. He’d already made Sourdough before and thus had some sort of starter. Still, Lawrence had realized Killian had brought a gift each time he was at Lawrence's door, and Lawrence had decided he should do the same for whenever he found his way to Killian’s door. With that in mind had started growing this a month ago.

The starter was collected from the gardens and grown in Lawrence's room, so probably collected from Lawrence as well. It smelled, earthy and alive. It bubbled slightly when Lawrence fed it. The reaction to food was proof to Lawrence that it was indeed alive. A living thing. It was, the lactobacilli was bacteria and though really tiny, it was still a creature. One that deserved respect. So really Lawrence was giving Killian what. A pet he could eat?

Lawrence brought his left hand down on the door. The sound of the knock reverberated down the hall and for a moment, he felt some kind of panic rise up. He could feel the fight, freeze or flight reaction growing in his body. He took a deep breath in and waited for the door to open.

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Killian Row

July 08, 2020 11:38 AM

For me? by Killian Row

Killian was in one of those sort of funky mindsets. He got there sometimes when he worked too hard and thought too much and slept too little. He was doing alright, to be sure; on the whole, he was happy, enjoyed his job and his life, and found it easier to smile than frown most days. However, that didn't mean that he was perfect and he was as prone to overdoing it as most of his colleagues seemed to be. Most of the time, he combated it with baking, going for a walk, or just outright sleeping. He tried to be productive when he was taking care of himself, after all, and sometimes the most productive thing was to sleep. Sometimes, however, he couldn't quite get himself there.

For the last few hours, he'd been working hard on organizing papers into relevant student files for upcoming meetings, sorting and cataloging his collection of pamphlets, and starting in on the writing of some of the dozens of letters people were waiting on him for. At the same time, he'd been thinking about a new recipe he wanted to try and waiting for some dough to rise. He'd seen a recipe for sourdough noodles and he was eager to give it a shot. The squishy ball was resting in a bowl at one side of the room, as it was the best place to keep an eye on it while also doing work, since he tried not to bring work into his actual quarters. Unfortunately, that did mean that he had quite a collection of flour scattered around the room and his fingers were coated with the crusty white remains of the dough before it had begun resting. His hair featured some of the same, proof of his running his hands through it. The next time he went to touch the dough, he'd definitely need to wash his hands first.

He was sitting on the floor on his knees, looking over some of the materials he'd stuck in the files for the sixth year students (seventh year files were, thankfully, done), when a knock on his door startled him and he jumped. He wasn't expecting any students at this time, which either meant it was a social visit from someone he'd much rather see than a student at this moment, or a student had just realised their life was a big question mark and wanted to come see him for what absolutely felt like an emergency. If that was the case, he sort of hoped it was Gary Harper - Aladren, seventh year, DM, architect?, bound for MENTAL - because the lad was hilarious and made Killian feel much less like he was guessing at everything. Of course, this was an odd hour for students to be visiting, and he preferred not to have any of his students experiencing a sincere emergency, so he also very much hoped that wasn't the case.

"Just a minute," he called as he pushed himself to his feet, dusting his hands off on his jeans (which only served to get his jeans dirty, seriously, why hadn't he just washed his hands before?). To what surely would have been Tabitha's great disappointment, Killian's wand was across the room, so he couldn't do much about the mess without spending a few more moments going to get it, which seemed rude. Of course, it was also rude to leave personal information and messes just out for all to see. He popped over a stack of papers to get his wand and waved it as he put his hand on the door knob to his own office. Taking one breath, Killian opened the door, a friendly grin already plastered in place. Behind him, papers and folders were still flying about the room, although they settled as Killian spoke.

"Marsh!" he said, surprised. His smile turned into an authentic grin as he recognised the man before him, and he resisted the urge to check his hair again. Why did he have the urge to check his hair again? Probably because Marsh' hair looked perfect. "It's good to see you. Would you like to come in?"

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