Dorm Stairwells, Tuesday Afternoon

[onlymistaken]

[FOUND: Female Saint Bernard. Affectionate and energetic. Answers to: Tag reads: Nana. Contact Cally in Room 311 if she belongs to you.]

She could choose diplomatic adjectives, but she couldn't quite lie. The dog didn't answer to anything.

Cally hadn't been putting this off, exactly; she'd just been... researching. Yes. About what sort of creature had invaded her room and refused to leave, except for certain necessary exits. That's why it had taken almost a week.

She'd climbed up to the 6th floor to make her way down one flight at a time because it was sensible, also, not because it meant she got to start putting up posters on the floor where no one lived.

[OOC: Open for interaction on any of the floors if you'd like to catch her putting up posters!]

Comments

[swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com]

Dolf had been on his way down to the cafetaria for lunch; running into anyone on the stairwell was a complete and utter accident, much like the way he practically ran into Cally as he rounded the corner was.

He was usually a little more graceful than that.

But not today.

[onlymistaken]

"Watch out!" Standing on tiptoe to secure the top of the poster she was currently holding, Cally managed a not-all-that-graceful duck, herself. Gain: not quite getting run into. Loss: Poster falling on her head. Net worth: -0-.

[swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com]

"Whoa!" said Dolf, balancing quite precariously on the edge of a step.

He narrowly managed to lean backwards and regain his footing. "...Sorry, sorry!"

Hey, that word was the same in almost any language.

[onlymistaken]

Dignity, dignity at all costs. Cally sighed and scooped the poster back up off the floor.

"It's all right; just be careful you don't harm yourself. I have some emergency medical training, but broken skulls are slightly beyond my capacity."

[swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com]

Dolf reached out one hand to steady himself against the wall, still breathing a little oddly, and threw her a look. "I know not to get hurt," he argued, in heavily accented English that wasn't nearly as bad as it had been over a week ago. "It's not that far down."

[onlymistaken]

The accent wasn't one Cally was familiar with, but the fact that it existed at all, combined with his protest, made her turn and smile once she'd finished re-securing the top of the poster. "I was only teasing you; I'm sure you do."

[swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com]

"Well, good," Dolf said, feeling indescribably embarrassed and flushing a little red for it despite his best attempts. "Sorry, I just-- didn't see you."

[onlymistaken]

"No harm done." She hadn't seen this boy in any of her classes, or on the shuttle to the island; Cally wasn't sure if that meant he wasn't a new student, but it did mean that she didn't know his name, and presumably vice versa. "I am Cally. You wouldn't happen to have lost a dog, would you?"

[swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com]

"...A dog? No," Dolf said. If he sounded a little more nervous, well. "I'm... not a dog person. Sorry."

[onlymistaken]

"I hadn't thought of myself as one either; we don't have them on my planet." Probably not entirely true; being isolationists didn't mean no one ever imported the odd pet from outside, but Cally'd never seen one in person before she came here. "She does seem to...grow on one, though."

The proper phrase there might be pounce on one or lie on one but since Cally was almost positive the dog was getting bigger when she wasn't looking, grow worked too.

[swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com]

"Really, really not a dog person," Dolf repeated. He subconsciously reached for his back. "I have a bite," he explained. "On my back."

In the shape of the Holy Trinity, but fuck it if you thought he found it necessary to mention that.

[onlymistaken]

Forgive her for jumping to conclusions. "Did Nana do that? I'm so sorry; I hadn't though she'd got out of my room, but I don't know how she got in, so..."

[swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com]

Forgiven.

He blinked several times. "...No, not-- her," he said, pointing at the poster. "Another dog. When I was young."

[onlymistaken]

You'd think someone with a specialty in communications would be doing better at it, Cally thought. Granted her education lay more in the technical end of the spectrum, but basic conversation shouldn't be as beyond her expertise as skull fractures.

"Sorry." Again. "I can imagine that wouldn't endear you to them. This one doesn't seem the sort that would bite, for what it's worth."

[swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com]

"No, she looks like she'd sit on you!" Dolf said, staring at the poster. At least this one looked nothing like a wolf. "Where did you find her?"

[onlymistaken]

"Sitting on my bed." Cally crossed her arms, her remaining poster stuck in the crook. "...until I tried to get her to move over. Then she sat on me."

[swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com]

He smiled, carefully and a little bit hesitant. "Dogs," Dolf said, "They like to mark their territorium." Was that the right word? It didn't sound too English.

[onlymistaken]

Cally's brows knit for a moment. "Territory? I'm not her territory, and neither is my bed." The gigantic mound of fur currently ensconced on it might beg to differ. "She just showed up out of nowhere."

[swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com]

"She could think so," he argued, shooting another slightly doubtful look at the poster. She seemed very huge. "Are you going to walk her until someone finds her?"

[onlymistaken]

No. Maybe. "Yes." Cally sighed. Perhaps more theatrically than necessary. "I suppose. I certainly don't like to think of what would happen if I didn't walk her."

[swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com]

Dolf pulled a face. "Me neither," he said, and that was about as much time he wanted to spend on the subject of dogs, anyway. "How long have you been here, to have a dog?"

[onlymistaken]

"Only a week!" Only, right. There'd been nothing only about this week. "Since just before school started."

[swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com]

"Just like me," he said, with a little bit of relief and a little bit of something else. "I'm... not supposed to be here, but I'm trying to be useful?" Useful, yes. Right word. "Working for the reserves."

[onlymistaken]

"Nor am I." Cally tilted her head at him. "The military defence group, on Tuesday? I didn't see you there. Is there another meeting that I missed?"

[swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com]

"No, not military," Dolf said, throwing his hands up. "I'm not... good at military. Support. On Wednesdays. We take care of food and shelter."

Or so he'd been told, anyway.

[onlymistaken]

"I didn't know there was another group," Cally said. Because she'd been busy not going catatonic at the picnic, and had walked right past the table there.

To her thoughts, food and shelter were as much a part of a military as actual combat -- the thoughts, of course, of someone from a planet that barely had a military and had learned most of what she knew from books -- but that seemed a bit of a complex thought to express when there was already a language difference. Anyway, Cally was more interested in the practicality.

"Would that include medical assistance? I might be of some use there."

[swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com]

Dolf nodded enthusiastically - well, enthusiastic in a professional sense, in a yes-we-can-use-your-help-sense. "We do bandages and medicine too," he said, "Or at least we will. People need to pay attention."

[onlymistaken]

"I'll be there, then." Cally glanced at the poster with a compressed smile before assuring him, "Without the dog. Though apparently they're bred as rescue animals, or once were."