Second Floor Common Room, Wednesday Afternoon

[puppy_fair]

Now that Zack was officially done with classes for the summer, it was time for a little getting out and about and being social. It was also, Zack decided, the perfect time to get the gerbil that Deadpool had given him out for some exercise.

And that was why, armed with a hamster ball and a bunch of notebooks, Zack was hard at work constructing the most epic gerbil floor-maze the second floor common room had ever seen!

Poor, poor Mr. Winkles.

[Open, as common rooms tend to be!]

Comments

[weefeetbigboots.livejournal.com]

When Kaylee wandered down a set of stairs to the common room on the second floor, she had to stand there and stare in wonder for a moment.

"...oooooooh! What've you made?"

[puppy_fair]

"A maze for my gerbil," Zack replied, grinning up at the girl and waving hello.

He did a lot of grinning and waving. It was a Zack thing.

"There are some parts here and there that are kinda floppy, though. Not the right kind of books for stuff like this, I guess."

[weefeetbigboots.livejournal.com]

"Y'might just need some kinda support system," Kaylee offered, crouching to look at the maze better. "Y'could use some of the silverware t'help prop it all up, y'know?"

After a pause to think, she added, "An' what's a gerbil?"

[puppy_fair]

"Oooooh." Zack glanced toward the cupboards, and then grinned up at Kaylee. "That's actually a really good idea!"

A pause.

"And a gerbil is..." He looked around for a moment, and then finally located the errant Mr. Winkles, attempting to make a break for it in his hamster ball. His plans were horribly thwarted as Zack scooped up the ball and held it toward her. "This guy!"

[weefeetbigboots.livejournal.com]

"Awwww, what a darlin'!" Kaylee cooed, beaming as she peered in the ball. "I ought t'get one of these ball things for my Popples. He's a hedgehog. I'd bring 'im down t'play, too, but he's asleep right now. He's noc -- nockle -- active durin' the nighttimes!"

[puppy_fair]

"So is Mr. Winkles," Zack replied, gravely. Or about as gravely as Zack ever got, really. It wasn't, much. "But he doesn't mind waking up for things like this so much."

Mr. Winkles minded very much, thank you.

"What's a hedgehog, anyhow?" He sincerely doubted that they were anything like the monsters, Hedgehog Pie, back home. Which was kind of a weird name for a monster, yes.

[weefeetbigboots.livejournal.com]

"Critter just a lil' bit bigger'n Mr. Winkles, here, an' with spiky things all over," Kaylee explained oh so very helpfully. "He don't usually poke people with 'em, though! They're just in case he gets scared. I'm Kaylee, by the way!"

She was good at introductions.

[puppy_fair]

She was just as good as Zack was at introductions!

"I'm Zack! Good to meet you!"

See?

"We should totally build another one of these in the evening sometime. They could race or something!"

[weefeetbigboots.livejournal.com]

"We should!" Kaylee fairly squeaked. "Popples can turn into a ball, so we can't have it on a slope or nothin' or it won't be fair."

[puppy_fair]

"I'm pretty sure Mr. Winkles could keep up anyhow. He's got spunk!"

Spunk in that 'going to destroy you all,' kind of way. He had gerbilly rage.

"But I think setting up a maze on a slope would be a bit of a challenge anyhow, unless we're planning on gluing the books to the floor or something."

[weefeetbigboots.livejournal.com]

"I bet I could do it," Kaylee decided, tilting her head. "But we'd have t'find a slope in th'first place."

[puppy_fair]

Zack thought that one over.

"How about cardboard propped up with books on one side? It's probably safer to have them running around indoors than it would be looking for a hill outside, you know? There's a smaller chance of them getting beaten up by squirrels or something, that way."

Those evil, evil squirrels.

[weefeetbigboots.livejournal.com]

"I don't want 'em to have a run-in with squirrels!" Kaylee agreed, somewhat fretfully. "Though I bet Popples an' Mr. Winkles could take a stupid bunch of squirrels."

[momslilassassin]

Ben beamed at her. "Hi, stranger who I haven't seen in far too long because I keep forgetting to leave my room!"

That was possibly the longest sentence Ben had strung together in quite a while.

[weefeetbigboots.livejournal.com]

"S'okay, I forget t'leave mine, too," she assured him, smiling at him. "Is your room real interestin'?"

[momslilassassin]

"It has a half-finished droid," he said eagerly.

[weefeetbigboots.livejournal.com]

"Ooooh! How big?" she asked, just as eagerly.

[momslilassassin]

"He'll be about waist high," Ben said. "Astromech, so it's ridiculously complicated. It's probably going to take me most of the year to finish."

[weefeetbigboots.livejournal.com]

"I wanna see 'im," Kaylee declared. "What're you gonna use him for?"

[momslilassassin]

"Flying a starship," Ben said promptly. "But I don't have one here, so there's not really a rush. How have you been?"

[weefeetbigboots.livejournal.com]

"Good!" she said cheerily. "Nothin' too interestin's been happenin' with me, though."

[momslilassassin]

"You can make something up," Ben said, squeezing onto a gerbil-maze free section of couch. "Tell me that you fought an evil cookie monster armed with nothing but a screwdriver."

[weefeetbigboots.livejournal.com]

"It was a muffin monster," she corrected sternly.

[momslilassassin]

"A blueberry muffin monster?" Ben asked. "I've heard they are the most evil."

[weefeetbigboots.livejournal.com]

"A banannanana muffin monster." Kaylee was solemn, even if the word had kind of gotten away from her.