open starter where: library when: tuesday oct 18 morning
he was supposed to be writing an essay. and usually leaky had no problem with his homework, ecological ethics was actually one of his favorite classes. but it was game day, and it was always harder to concentrate on game day. so there he sat, fake tapping away at his computer at the shared table of the library commons. every sound caught his attention, causing him to look around, trying to catch anyone’s eye to use as an excuse. and finally he decided to give in, leaning toward the other that sat at the table careful keep his voice low cause in all honesty he was a bit afraid of the librarians. “psst, hey, hey.” he tapped his fingers against the wood. “are you going to the game tonight?” he smiled brightly at them.
—she went to take note, recalling part of the passage from the book to her right with her pen and paper to the left, and there it was again. click clack click clack click. the nib stuttered on the page and then stopped before quinn looked up. she reminded her face not to look as exasperated as she felt, hoping the gaze alone would send the message their noise was breaking her concentration. he wasn't looking. of course. quinn put her head down and had just gone back to her work when the other whispered for her attention. she groaned.
"no but i'll cut you a deal. you stop fidgeting for longer than five minutes and i'll go to any game you want."
Catherine Chidgey, from 'Remote Sympathy'
ironlvngs·:
at her response, he holds his hand up to his heart, acting out as though he was pulling a dagger out of his chest, with a grin painted on his lips. he could tell that quinn never trusted him — she was a smart girl, and it didn’t surprise him that she chose not to trust him. but the suspicion grew when greer disappeared, and it got him beginning to wonder if she thought he had anything to do with that.
he reaches out his pack of cigarettes, gesturing for her to take one. “ be my guest. i’m curious to see what trick that is — all of mine are limited to dorm room tricks, i’m afraid. ”
"i doubt that." she added while walking over, taking a cigarette from the pack offered. quinn gestured for link to follow her and began leading them away from the main set of lockers and around the corner to a fully tiled shower area. there were some cubicles adjacent to the wall, for those who craved privacy, and for those who didn't; a typical offering of an open rectangle of densely packed riser rails. she twisted their dials one by one, being careful not to get splashed, and turned back to link with a cheeky smile before sitting in the middle of the short curb that acted as a dam for the run-off. "blow your smoke towards the running water. it dissipates it before it can reach the alarm out there and stops the smell from clinging."
——— ⁂ This year at Ogden, Quinn had bought herself a townhouse in the local area as a birthday present. Living in dorms freshman year without somewhere to escape to had driven her half mad. A librarian had given her the idea; one of the many mornings she showed up groggy and incoherent from lack of sleep. You're rich rich. Why not buy somewhere? It hit her like a train. Veering on the sensible side, she still kept paying her dorm [ Waverly #206 ] for when she needed to be on campus. Tonight was one of those nights, with a biochem midterm stupid early in the morning. She didn't know what had triggered such a petty tactic... other than the fact she merely existed. At exactly 10pm her dorm mate had decided it was the perfect time for flute practice. He just continued, getting louder and louder. Eventually, after leaving the dorm for a walk and coming back, she had enough and jumped up from her bed — grabbing the flute from his two hands and smacking it against the wall. The head joint fell to the floor with a clang. It was probably dented. He just laughed and said Bianca was right. The phrase ringing through her head carried her slippered feet all the way to Linden. Quinn was FURIOUS. The sophomore didn't know if this was a Greek rivalry thing or a Pre-Med thing but whatever it was, tonight was not the night. She wrapped her knuckles furiously against Bianca's door. After she answered, Quinn dropped the rest of the flute at her feet.
❝ I need you to stop giving your minions ideas ! ❞
open / closed starter location: late night at linden housing / bianca’s dorm
the loud knocking on her door nearly made her jump out of her skin. she scrunched her eyebrows together as she hurried to finish moisturizing her face before leaving the bathroom. bianca didn’t want whoever to get the chance to pound on her door again. besides, it was late and she wasn’t expecting anyone, or was she? if she did, she forgot about their plans. bianca opened the door and plastered a smile on her face before speaking, confusion still written on her face. ❝it’s nearly midnight and you knocking on the door like you’re the police,❞ she shook her head. the pace her heart was beating would’ve given an old man a heart attack. ❝you needed something?❞
aceofportsmouth·:
He laid his head on the pool edge, looking up at Quinn with a soft smile. “I’m a tad jealous. I don’t have any cousins.” Booker shared. “My brother and sisters are great, but it’d be nice to have some outside of my immediate family, you know?” Sharing helped with finding common ground. Booker thought of himself as an open book, if that book had sentences with whited-out sections. “Greer seemed like a party girl. Do you think she would be proud of this event? Or would you like to talk about something else?” Booker added, blinking innocently. “I think we have some classes together. If you’d like to discuss classes, who doesn’t love talking about medicine, right?”
her eyes narrowed conspicuously as he reeled off question after question. she didn't even know this guy's name and here he was, prepped for an interview. quinn didn't know if it was recent events with greer, being forced to be at this stupid party or her morrison upbringing but it put her back up. what was his deal? she tried to turn the conversation around. "do we? what's your major?"
bvwie·:
WHERE right outside of the linden dorms
“ shh, please, be quiet — ” he desperately whispers into his backpack, which was now being carried at the very front of him, with the bag facing wherever he was walking. but it was as if bowie was just talking to a helpless baby animal, the kitten hidden in his backpack only meowed louder back in response. maybe this wasn’t his brightest idea. he stops in his tracks, when he realizes that he was about to walk into someone else. “ shit, sorry — ” and just as he began to apologize, the kitten meowed from the half open bag once again. he looked straight at the person in front of him. “ — don’t mind that, that’s just… my alarm. going off. i like to wake up to meows. ” he says confidently, as though that wasn’t the stupidest strain of words to leave his lips. “ on a very separate, hypothetical note… is it a Big Ogden Crime if i try to sneak a pet into the dorms ? i’m asking for my friend. ” at this point, he’d given up, a grin already making its way onto his lips.
quinn swivelled, ready to apologise in return, when she registered that it was bowie. she was just about to ask how his day was going when a noise escaped his bag. was that... a meow? she peered at the backpack. "alarm, huh?" quinn humoured him. "totally hypothetically — kinda. definitely a health violation. possibly a suspension. that wouldn't be something you were thinking of doing, would it?"
Florence Pugh (Tiffany & Co, 2022)
ironlvngs·:
they really began to rack their mind through every trick that he learned throughout the years trying to figure out where she was going to go with this as she led them towards the showers. and then when she turned the tap on, explaining to him exactly how it would work. as she explained, he found himself grinning at her. “ and if you ever wonder why i’ve been so deeply attracted to you, morrison, do remember this moment. ” he says as he puts the cigarette up to his lips, offering to light hers first before going for his. “ so, why are you hiding in here ? ”
—she held the cigarette between her forefinger and middle and leaned forward to the flame, wrapping her lips around the filter and inhaling. the paper and tobacco crackled and the ember took. quinn's eyes flicked up to them, the green in her hazel eyes brighter in her purple ensemble. "you're attracted to anything you can't have, link..." the blonde answered after exhaling a stream of smoke. at least, that was her running theory, if it were true to begin with. "who's hiding?"