fandomhighdorms | Dorm grounds [after sunset]

Current Mood: bouncy

Entry tags:

Dorm grounds [after sunset]

Luke had a hyperactive puppy to babysit over the weekend and the both of them had been cooped up entirely too long.

Which was why they were outside. Luke was wrapped up his robe--even if wasn't cold enough for people not from a desert world to be particularly chilly--and was trying to make a pile of leaves using the Force (it was taking a while, most of the leaves on the trees by the school were still stubbornly stuck to their branches) so he could jump in them.

Vladdie was, well, not making it easy. He considered two leaves a pile and was blissfully tearing through Luke's attempts to make it any larger.

[OOC: Open like a big space outside.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It was getting cold; well, perhaps not cold for some, but cold for Adah, and she wondered if it was just that the equator had, ironically, knocked her balance for temperature out of its usual sphere. Still, that didn't stop her from limping today, into the preserve, ~~handwavey~~ like usual, trying to discover new things on an island that was only so big, especially compared to the expanse and dizzying depth of the jungle. Hands shoved into the pockets of a coat that was possibly too warm for still overly temperate autumn weather, Adah was limping back to the dorms, dorms, the to, back limping, the she noticed something moving, always catching things that could move like she never could, and the scene of the grounds slowly processed in her half-brain and she blinked, her eyes settling calmly, although confused, toward Luke, head tilted. Confused, one for the puppy, two for how in the hell he was moving leaves like that.

Luke gave her a bright smile and dropped his hand. Vladdie, disappointed that the leaves were no longer dancing in the air, ran over to New Friend, Yay? and hovered in the air.

"Adah, meet Vladdie," Luke said. "I'm babysitting for the weekend."

Babysitting barely seemed the appropriate word, another interesting habit of humans to associate pets with children. Pets; she considered what good they ever did her in her life: the bitch of her own childhood that seemed to prove to have exists in the Price household if only so Nathan could use her as an example of why females were inferior creatures, the condemning parrot of their first months in Kilanga that ended up just littering their porch with red tail features, Stuart Little the mongoose who continually ruined their flour because their mother would do anything to appease Ruth May, just as much a pet as a child as a pet as any of them. And where did she, too, end up? Her hands stayed in her pockets; her eyes went from Vladdie to Luke, her eyes a little wide as though worried that the dog would get closer, and, that if it did, the consequences might not be so good.

Luke picked up on her emotions immediately. "Vladdie, go fetch," he commanded, waving his hand out and sending a stick flying, seemingly under its own power.

Vladdie went tearing after it, yapping shrilly.

"It's hard to picture my father with a dog that could wear outfits, huh?" Luke asked with a slight eyeroll.

Adah's eyes, but not her head, followed the dog on its departure, for a moment, before they returned again to Luke, her eyebrow quirking. In all honesty, she found it a little difficult picturing anyone wanting to keep an animal like that around. What was the use of it? It moved in ways that left her confused and blinking, its barks were too shrill for her senses and...well, yes, there was the outfits part to consider and you probably couldn't even eat it if you were stranded without food. She stopped believing in pets that couldn't be eaten during times of crisis.

Then again, this was coming from a girl with a dead vole skeleton under her bed...so it was okay that Luke was just keeping an eye on the puppy, so she offered him the crooked beginnings of a smile by way of a belated greeting. Gnit eer g'deta leb.

Luke smiled back. "It's only for the weekend," he repeated. "When I was growing up, Uncle Owen didn't believe in having anything around the farm that didn't serve a purpose. I'm afraid Vladdie wouldn't have made the cut."

With a quirked eyebrow and a drop of her chin, Adah's expression peeking out from her hair told Luke that she would have had to agree with his Uncle Owen on that fact, if it weren't for the fact that she, too, would most likely have joined Vladdie in the cut if that were the case.

Her smile then turned a little apologetic as her shoulder shoulder lifted, then fell, in an expression of futility. Without her notebook and without much light anyway, she was afraid her conversational skills were even more dramatically lacking.

"You're doing fine," Luke said quietly, replying to the emotions he was picking up. He glanced at her jacket. "Finally! Someone who understands that's getting cold here!"

Not really yet, no, Luke.

Adah's left shoulder went up this time and stayed there, a pantomime against the potential, encroaching chill. Of course she knew it was going to get much colder, that this wasn't really cold at all, but she hadn't spent time in a temperate winter in far too long. She figured she'd better just prepare herself. She then glanced up to the sky, her hand snaking out of her pocket to be held out, in front of her, as if to catch something.

Still no rain.

She'd been thinking about rain a lot today.

Her hand ducked back into her pocket.

"I miss the rain, too," Luke said. "It never rained on Tatooine. That's what we were trying to do: pull water from the sky. In the desert. It seems like a waste of time, huh?"

Well.... Adah drew in a breath, exaggerating her efforts to make herself seem hesitant to admit that, yes, it did mostly seem frivolous, which created quite an interesting contradiction for his previous statement regarding his uncle's concern with usefulness.

No. She retracted that from her own brain in her pantomime of hesitation. It seemed unlikely, pointless, potentially unrealistic. But the idea behind it was still very useful. She gave Luke a small, apologetic smile as she finally gave up on the act and agreed softly with his observation.

Luke looked a little ashamed of himself for having complained about a life he was no longer living. "It was incredibly important," he said, "because there was no other way people could live on Tatooine otherwise. But it took forever, was incredibly tedious, and tending to wear people down very quickly." He shrugged. "Most would never make enough to be able to afford passage to another world anyway. I wanted out in the worst way."

Z was attempting to actually do the, you know, exercise thing, and was therefore jogging around the school when she found her roommate with a puppy. "Hey!" Z called. "When did you get a dog?"

"It's my father's," Luke said as Vladdie went tearing towards Z. "He's gone to Connecicut for the weekend, and Vladdie's a vampire puppy and shouldn't really leave Fandom. Most people wouldn't understand."

"Aw, poor little guy," Z said, reaching out a hand for Vladdie to sniff. "Hi, little guy, hi there. Um, he won't bite me, will he?"

"Oh, not at all," Luke assured her as Vladdie sniffed, then licked, Z's hand.

Then hovered in the air. //Look, look, look!// he yipped. //Look, look!//

"He's a bit of a show-off," Luke said with a grin.

"He's cute!" Z said. "For, you know, the bloodsucking undead. Vampire dog? Really?"

"Really," Luke said. "He was Rory's, but she gave him to my father to watch when she went to college."

"And he flies? Huh. I didn't know vampires flew." If Vladdie would hold still long enough, Z would skritch his wee little vampire head.

Vladdie loved head skritches, so he stayed still for a Very Long Time to get one.

You know, five seconds.

"Vladdie's form of vampire does," Luke said. "I don't really know much about them, to be honest. Feeding him baby bottles full of pig's blood is a little strange."

At the word "blood", Vladdie's tail starting wagging. "Not yet," Luke said, smiling down at him.

Z skritched his head for about as long as he would hold still. "Yeah, but it's better than the little guy going off in search of actual pigs. If he even knows blood comes from pigs, I guess."

"I think he thinks it comes from the fridge," Luke said with a chuckle.

"There you go," Z said. "Sometimes I think I'd like a pet, and then sometimes I think they're too much work. Also, there's already Artoo in our room, so, you know."

"He's been acting really strange all day, too," Luke commented. "He took a dozen screws and some wiring and left the room."

Z frowned. "Did you have Vladdie in the room? He might be jealous."

"Only for a little while," Luke said. "Vladdie spent most of the day asleep at my father's house. Artoo's weird. I'll have to listen to radio and figure out what he was up to."

Meg was a big fan of fall so it was no surprise that she was outside. This was her first one on the East Coast, after all.

"Hi, Luke!" Meg said when she spotted him. "And dog!"

Luke gave her a bright smile. "Hi! He's not my dog. But he is, you know, a dog. I'm watching him for the weekend."

Apparently only Luke's smile was bright this evening.

"He's so cute!" Meg gushed. "Can I pet him?"

At the word "pet", Vladdie went racing for her and looked as adorable as possible.

//Pet, pet, pet!// he demanded, pawing at her leg.

"Aww!" Meg leaned down to give Vladdie scritches. "So who does this cutie belong to?"

"My father," Luke said. "He's visiting his girlfriend this weekend."

"That's sweet of you to do." Meg said.

"He didn't really give me an option," Luke said with a rueful smile, "but it's not a problem. Vladdie's easy enough to take care of."

To defy Luke's statement, Vladdie took off across the grounds, yipping shrilly at something that didn't seem to exist.

Billy, as it happened, had never done the jumping in a pile of leaves thing. Heck, he hadn't even gone sledding till he came to Fandom.

"Hey Luke." he waved as he crossed the grounds. He wondered if Luke was still peeved about their disagreement about Umbrage.

"Hi," Luke said with a small smile, tossing a stick for the puppy.

~~The puppy is flying yes?~~

"What're you up to?"

"Flying a starfighter," Luke deadpanned as the puppy ran back, then hovered a foot off the ground, yapping for attention.

"Is that what that breed's called?" He looked at the cute puppy with only a bit of amazement. "Has it always been able to do that or is it recent fandom stuff?"

Luke stared at him for a long moment before deciding that no one would be stupid enough to think there could be a breed of dog called a starfighter.

"He was turned into a vampire as a birthday gift for a friend of mine," he explained, "so Vladdie'll always be six weeks old. It happened a few years ago."

Vladdie's yipping turned more insistent. //Stick, stick, stick!//

Luke tossed it again. Vladdie went racing off.

No one understood Billy's humor. "A Vampire Puppy. Huh. Does he have to stay inside during the day?" Did he have a little puppy sized coffin?

"Yup," Luke answered easily, "which is why we're playing now. He's just as hyper as any puppy, just on a reverse schedule."

Billy smirked. "That's pretty cool. One hell of a birthday gift."

Luke nodded. "He's a Fandom institution. He was Rory's before she went to college, so she gave him to my father for safe keeping. But he's away for the weekend."

"And his name's Vladdie?"

Luke nodded again. "Rory named him."

Billy had only ever spoken to Rory once. He'd gotten the impression she thought he was trying to impress her. And failing.

"I can see that. How's he adjusting to her being gone?"

"Vladdie, right?" Luke shrugged. "Fine. My father hasn't told me otherwise, anyway."

"He certainly seems cheerful." Billy watched the puppy for a moment, smiling. "The ears seem oddly appropriate."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Dorm grounds [after sunset]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject