ic Fragile

[Fox]

Fang hopped up onto the bed like it was her own, settling down onto the blanket as the very picture of creature comfort. Matt frowned at her for a moment before sighing, freeing a hand from his jacket to pinch the bridge of his nose. "She's...yeah, okay. She's pretty great when she isn't being a pill. She gives pretty good advice, too, if you only listen to, like, half of what she says."

 

Fang made an amused noise but didn't refute the statement, opting instead to stretch out along the bed and roll sideways toward Fred for pets.

 

"When she says. Uh, says anything. Sounded better in my head. Speaking of which, though," he said, clumsily changing topics, "if it helps, just text me or grab a dog's ear or something next time. Sometimes we're busy with....stuff....but the rest of the time Fang or whoever oughta be pretty happy to be on hand in exchange for petting and treats. S'fine with me."

[Gizmo]

Winifred lifted her arm accommodatingly for Fang and began scratching the hound's side, trapping the pint of ice cream between her thighs to keep it from tumbling off of the bed. She didn't bother to hide her amusement at Matthew's futile struggle to maintain his aloof composure in the face of his mutinous allies. "Perhaps you ought to listen to her more often. She does seem to be doing quite well for herself," she teased, artfully raising one eyebrow.

 

She let out a long breath and allowed some of the tension to drain from her shoulders with the rhythmic petting. "I don't actually own a device for 'texting' just yet; we'll see how my little side project fares, I suppose. I'm sure I could work something out, regardless. Thank you." It was hard not to feel bolstered by the parade of people concerned for her wellbeing, offering assistance without the bitter pill of pity to accompany it. "I won't pry, of course," she added more seriously, "but one of these days I wouldn't mind hearing a more detailed account of your... 'stuff'. I understand if it's a sensitive topic but I can't imagine I'd be in a position to pass judgement."

[Fox]

Fang turned her head enough to point one eye Matt's way, and Matt spent the next few moments glancing from Fang to Fred and back again, chewing on that thought. Those thoughts. He knew better than to comment on both of them, but he could hear dogs laughing at him already. "It's...yeah, alright. It's not that big a deal, it just...people don't like it. It weirds them out, or whatever. Remind me when you're feeling better, and I'll think about it."

 

Having successfully postponed at least one problem, he turned to head out. "You've probably had enough of me and the rest of the zoo, though, so, g'night. Fang's yours for company until you sleep, at least, though she might wander back after that. Or, uh, disappear." He paused for a moment on that one, mulling over how odd it probably sounded to the unexpecting, but shrugged it off. "See you tomorrow."

[Gizmo]

"Only if she doesn't mind," Winifred insisted, although the way she had one arm practically wrapped around the dog made it clear how much the company would be appreciated. "Good night, Matthew. Thank you."

 

The silence that followed the gauntlet of visitors hung heavy after he left and Winifred chided herself wondering idly after the most notable absence, like a spoiled child wondering if there might not be one more Christmas present tucked away somewhere. She was tremendously fortunate, all things considered, to have happened upon quite possibly the only group of friends who would unblinkingly stand by her despite her condition. Once she was confident that Robin had found her own lodgings for the night - the rooftop did seem like a likely bet - she rose to change into a fresh sleep shirt, having spent the entire day in the one she was wearing. The remainder of the ice cream was sealed back in its container before being placed in a sizeable metal wastebasket she had handy by her workbench along with a pair of liquids that would result in a minor but sustained endothermic reaction. She considered the icy mist rising from the basket for a moment before putting its lid down. It would probably be fine.

 

Turning off the lights she settled back down on her bed and invited Fang to make herself comfortable. The weariness with which she'd woken hadn't ebbed much throughout the day and she quickly found herself dozing near sleep as she focused on her breathing.

[Electra]

Just as Fred was drifting to sleep, there was a quiet knock on the door. It sounded carefully modulated, loud enough to be heard by someone who was awake, ignorable by the truly sleeping. The loud whispers outside the door were not quite so carefully calibrated. "No I'm not going to pop the lock, what are you, crazy? Even if that wasn't totally rude, that's a good way to get yourself murdered in a school full of cranky people with superpowers. If she's not awake we'll just give it to her some other time.... Yes, I know th- oh my god, of course I appreciate the work you went to! You are the absolute neediest- fine then, whatever! I'll see you later, maybe!" The soft knock sounded again. 

[Gizmo]

It took Winifred a few moments to rouse herself to wakefulness, confused for a moment about whether she was in her dormitory room or still in the holding cell underground. The overheard conversation didn't leave much question as to who was at the door and despite a huff from Fang as the dog was disturbed she slipped out of bed.

 

She considered her sleep wear for a moment, pursing her lips. Her shirt was technically long enough to account for modesty and if one went about knocking on doors after hours what could they expect, she reasoned. She did make a half-hearted attempt to school her hair into order by raking her fingers through it; the shorter cut had been much less work overall but it stuck out all seemingly physics-defying angles if left to its own devices. She caught her own reflection in the dim light on the way to the door and decided that while not remotely presentable it had been a long day and she couldn't be bothered any further. She opened the door and leaned around so that most of her was still behind it. "Raina? You missed the parade."

[Electra]

Raina was dressed for bed as well, though in her case it was more likely for plausible deniability if she were caught wandering the halls at this hour. Honestly she could've been wearing anything, given her powers, but it looked like her hair was pulled back in a french braid and her blue nightgown was covered by a matching chenille bathrobe. She grinned unrepentantly at Fred's state of disarray. "Yeah, that was the point," she said as though it were obvious. "Your friends need to be taken in small doses. Can I come in?" 

[Gizmo]

Winifred felt herself flush faintly at Raina's grin - evidently she could be bothered at least a little further - and in retaliation made a small show of looking the blonde up and down as though debating her answer. At least that was what she was going for; her capacity for coy banter was running low and she suspected it came across as more of a slow nod. Giving up on anything clever she opened the door further, gesturing for Raina to enter. "Ah, so when they're erring on the side of genuine sentiment they're my friends, are they?" she noted, absently trying to get the hair on the top of her head to lie flat. "You've likely met Fang already," she added, waving in the direction of the dozing - or pretending to doze - on the foot of her bed, "though I expect you've not been properly introduced. Daughter of Slate and Ember, you know."

[Electra]

"Hey Fang," Raina told the dog with an absent wave. It wasn't totally clear what relationship Matt had with his dogs, but ignoring somebody's familiar was rude. Eschewing the chair, she leaned on Fred's desk, giving the alchemist a professional once-over. "You seem like you're doing okay now. Matt still keeping an eye on you?" She fished a phone out of the pocket of her robe and took a picture of the somnolent dog. "That's pretty cute. You know I don't do genuine sentiment, I was raised to be charming, not sincere." She looked at the phone and apparently approved of the photo, then took a selfie from an overhead angle and approved that one too. "Here, smile." She raised the phone and took a picture of Fred as well, the flash bright in the dim room. 

[Gizmo]

Fang made a sort of harrumph that suggested she was more interested in napping than conversation but she did crack one eye open enough to make sure she didn't miss any of the proceedings. "He's not-- I just wasn't entirely prepared to sleep alone," Winifred admittedly quietly, bluster cracking as she gripped one upper arm with the opposite hand and looked away. She didn't add that the hounds' resiliency made them a good choice just in case. Raina was better than most of their friends about planning for that particular worst case scenario. It was probably a little ironic then that she was probably the one in front of whom Winifred least wanted to appear weak.

 

Clearing her throat daintily she began, "When do I finally get to see 'charm--'" The question was interrupted by an indignant squawk as her photo was taken. "Raina! You can't just do that! I'm a fright!" She belatedly tugged at the bottom of her oversized shirt, flush returning in earnest.

[Electra]

"No you're not, you look adorable," Raina assured her offhandedly, most of her attention still directed towards the phone. "And it's a waist-up pic, I didn't go for the full jammies effect. Lemme just put the filter on it so it's not so dark... there we go." The witch obviously lacked her familiar's effortless skill with electronics, but she seemed to know what she was doing as she punched buttons. "Okay, there we go." She tossed Fred the phone, which was open to a phone contacts screen. Fred's bedhead picture was at the top, with Raina's selfie next to her phone number and the picture of Fang next to Matt's. The other half-dozen numbers had names but no photos attached. "You're going to have to get pictures of everybody else on your own time." 

[Gizmo]

Winifred swept 'adorable' away to the corner of her brain where she sent compliments rather than accepting them like a well adjusted person and reflexively caught the tossed phone in one hand, the benefits of practicing lobbing glass spheres full of volatile chemicals about. She looked down at the little rectangle of light and colour and blinked. She'd spent more time with the desktop computers in the Academy's lab and the tablets sometimes handed out for work during classes but she was familiar enough with the general idea of a smartphone to understand what the photos and strings of numbers meant. She was much less clear as to what Raina expected her to do with it. "I... don't understand. You want me to send the photograph to Matthew from your phone number?" she asked, nose scrunching up. That didn't strike her as a good idea, at all.

[Electra]

"You should definitely send him the picture," Raina advised, "but that's not my phone." She reached into her other bathrobe pocket and took out another phone, this one in a case covered in stylized flame decals. "This one is mine, that one's yours. 'S why your picture and phone number is at the top. If you tap the little phone picture next to my name you call me, if you tap the speech bubble you can send a text. Like..." She fiddled with her own phone a minute, then frowned. "Well apparently I'm being punished for something, so I only have one emoji right now, but like this." A moment later Fred's phone chimed and a notification appeared on the screen, informing her that Raina had sent her a message consisting of a line of cartoon monkeys. "You can look at tutorials and stuff to figure out how to use it for fancier stuff, but that's the basics. And Merlin put a ton of games on there too, for next time you feel like you have to go sit by yourself for awhile." 

[Gizmo]

Winifred looked back down at the phone, then back up to her taller friend then back to the phone. "Raina...!" she exclaimed finally, covering her mouth with her free hand. On the bed Fang stopped feigning sleep to sit up and watch with unconcealed interest. "I can't accept this! There's no way that you can afford to just give away a telephone like this!" Money or lack thereof was always a bit of a delicate subject with the witch but for once Winifred didn't dance around it. Raina might have been a little better off than she was after waking in the present day without a stitch to her name but it was hardly a secret between them that her chequebook couldn't measure up to her admittedly expensive tastes without help. She looked back down at the little photos on the screen and felt her chest get a little tight. "It's much too generous."

[Electra]

"It's not from me," Raina assured her, "at least not the paying for it part. Merlin got himself some kind of side gig that I don't ask too many questions about. It's not impossible that he may be working for the CIA at this point, but he's making pretty good money off it." She folded her legs up underneath herself, the way she did when she was feeling relaxed and didn't care that people would see her floating in the air. "Anyway, we were talking about it today and we both figured that a phone's an important thing for you to have just in general. If you start getting into trouble you can call somebody, and if I ever need somebody to call a lawyer for me, you've got a phone number I can use." She grinned.

 

"Like half the games on there are Zen puzzlers and stuff, good for making you feel calm and relaxed and stuff. I think there's some music too. You have to take it, he worked all day on it and his feelings are really sensitive." Raina rolled her eyes at that. "I don't know if it's a monkey thing or just his own personality, but he needs a lot of positive reinforcement. So just take it and say thanks next time you see him and it'll make my life way easier." 

[Gizmo]

"All day?" Winifred murmured, dropping her hand to her lay over her chest and looking a little dazed. She didn't really have the context to know what went into setting up a smartphone for someone else but if nothing else she could infer that it meant acquiring the device, negotiating the service contract and selecting the various 'programs' to place in it. Even assuming Raina had rushed over as soon as it was ready - and she'd witnessed very few things that could convince the witch to rush - she and Merlin would have had to have been discussing her absence and deciding upon a response at least by the time Robin had deemed a search party necessary, if not earlier.

 

She kept that rough arithmetic to herself; such an observation probably would have been edging to close to 'genuine sentiment' again. "Well I live quite the fairy tale existence," she mused instead with a small smile, "to have preternaturally clever beasts and a veritable round table of knights and princesses and self-professed monsters looking after my well-being."

[Electra]

"Yeah, you might want to take it easy on the whole "beasts" thing too," Raina advised with a wry grin. "He's not a huge fan of that either. But I'll take the princess bit. We've got to look after each other, right?" She shoved her phone back in her pocket and spread her hands. "Not too many other people we can trust to do it. And I know that sometimes a person just needs to get the hell away from everybody else and sort of just, you know, feel their feelings without anybody seeing." She shrugged a bit, dropping her hands back in her lap. "At least this way you don't have to be totally isolated and bored while you're doing it. That case is military-grade too, I cadged it off Ellie's nerd girlfriend. It's not gonna be like, totally everything-proof, but it's got a good chance of surviving some rough treatment." She looked rather proud of herself for her foresight. 

[Gizmo]

"Point taken. I may have spent a good piece of today listening to someone explain that humans are terrible silly creatures." That earned a doggy, tongue-lolling grin from Fang before the hound settled back down on the bed with an exaggerated yawn. Winifred held tightly onto the phone with both hands and though it was lighter than the rugged enclosure would have suggested it had a comforting physical presence. Making an extra trip to the fighting school where she practiced to ask a favour only confirmed the time and effort expended. Some of the extra colour had remained in her cheeks and her breath hitched as she inhaled. "We do indeed. I should warn you, there is a worryingly high chance that I may attempt to hug you in a moment."

[Electra]

Raina unfolded her legs and placed them back on the ground, the better to brace herself for any spontaneous hugging. "If you have to, you have to," she told Fred philosophically. "I probably shouldn't hang around too much longer, the hall monitors are patrolling tonight and I have before-school detention at six." She made a disgusted face. "Thank the gods for disguise spells that let you sleep through class with nobody noticing." She gave Fred one more intent look. "You going to be okay? Back in classes tomorrow?" 

[Gizmo]

"I don't have the urge frequently, I probably shouldn't fight it," Winifred reasoned as she stepped closer and wrapped her arms around the blonde, phone still held in one hand. It was a little stiff and carried a not of hesitation but she gave a single squeeze that attempted to convey her gratitude before she retreated back a pace. She opened her mouth to reflexively assure Raina that she was indeed fine before closing it slowly with a pensive look. "I hope so. I don't truly know," she admitted a little reluctantly "Sometimes I can feel it setting in slowly and take steps but other days it falls upon me, as an attacker might." Exhaling slowly she let a small smile set itself upon her face. "Today though all of you reminded me that I have many good and thoughtful friends, even if I'm not sure I deserve the consideration and that feeling is no small bulwark. I shall be 'okay', I think."

[Electra]

"Good," Raina replied, as though Fred hadn't equivocated at all in her answer. "Phones, friends, and an impervium-lined quiet room for those bad days, who needs anything more than that?" She smoothed down her bathrobe and snuck a glance at the time. "All right, I'm gonna blow this popsicle stand before I earn myself any more detention. See you later, okay? And be sure to ask Merlin if you have any questions about the phone, he'll probably get a kick out of teaching you how to use it." Drawing a little mirror from her pocket, Raina breathed on it to fog it over and disappeared from view. "Just remember deep down you're not really any crazier than the rest of us!" With that, the door opened seemingly of its own volition and closed again, and she was gone. 

[Gizmo]

Winifred watched the door close before looking back down to the light of the phone's display, a little harsh in the darkened room. She rested her cheek in the palm of her other hand and stayed that way for a time, not navigating through the devices menus but simply feeling the shape of its protective case in her fingers.

 

Eventually she moved back to her bed and sat down, only to be greeted by Fang's expectant expression, eyes almost as luminous as the backlit display. "I'm not sending him the photograph," the alchemist objected, swinging her legs onto the bed. Fang's grin broadened as she tilted her head to one side. "I'm not sending it to anyone. You're incorrigible. Good night, Fang." Setting the phone aside on her nightstand she pulled the sheets up to her shoulders and drifted off to mercifully dreamless sleep.