Second floor common room, Friday afternoon after classes

[notalender]

Arietty had spent her non-class time over the course of the week exploring between the walls of the dorms. She'd worked out the best path from her room down to the lobby (through the vent was fastest, but slipping through the hole in the back of the closet and climbing the series of loose nails down the studs avoided more of the angry green things with lots of teeth) and started working on ideas on how she could get back and forth between the school and the dorm in less than an hour (she was a teenager, after all, she wanted to get to sleep in some time). She'd completely failed to find any holes that would send her back to the Underground, though. She seemed to be stuck here for the time being, and was determined to make the most of it. Which meant it was time to start setting up her house.

And that meant it was time to go Borrowing.

The big common room at the end of the hallway seemed like a good place to start. She knew she was supposed to wait until after dark, but she was impatient, and besides, all the beans so far had been Jameses rather than Professor Mildeyes. She was sure that she'd be just fine, even if she got caught.

Which would be how she ended up climbing up the side of a cabinet in the kitchen area of the common room in the middle of the afternoon. If she could find a stick of jerky up there, she could live like a queen for the rest of the summer!

[ooc: common room is ooooooooopen.]

Comments

[abitlowkey]

Oh! Loki was in luck that the common room was empty of people to judge him for watching Adolescent Frankenstein. He had no idea why it was so appealing.

It was possibly to be blamed on Tumblr. Yes, that worked.

Ikol fluttered next to him, keen eyes on the small figure over on the side of the cabinet there. "Ahem."

"No, we will not watch Sixteen and Pregnant, Ikol," Loki replied instead of paying him any mind at all.

[notalender]

Arietty stared wide eyed back at Ikol. This was the trouble with having to climb things: it made it very hard to react quickly enough to being about to be Seen.

Ah well, all the beans had been nice so far, maybe so would the bird. She lifted a finger to her lips in a shushing gesture, and started climbing again.

[abitlowkey]

Ikol cocked his head to the side, feathers ruffling as though in frustration with the boy next to him. Then, with a flutter and a hop, made his way over to the small creature to investigate.

[notalender]

Shushing didn't mean beckoning over!

"Please don't eat me!" she whispered.

[abitlowkey]

She needed to be clearer! Or... not. Magpies did what magpies were prone to, after all.

"Why," he asked, hopping from perch to perch as he looked at her. "Would I bother to eat you?"

[notalender]

"I don't know!" Arietty hissed. "Big things eat little things!"

[abitlowkey]

"And you are very little, are you not?" Ikol asked dryly. Well, as much as a bird can manage.

[notalender]

"Yeah, well . . . at least I have fingers!" You tell that bird, Arietty.

[abitlowkey]

"I am trying to watch my show," Loki called over with a scowl. "How can I pay attention to the angst caused by being a reanimated monster while attended high school while you two prattle on?"

Ikol's response was a dismissive fluffing up of his feathers. "I can fly."

[notalender]

Arietty let out a tiny "eep!" She hadn't realized he'd noticed them.

"I can fly too," she told the bird in a much quieter voice. ". . . When James has his plane set up."

[abitlowkey]

The bird made a humming sound, hopping again to the side as Loki got off the couch to investigate the goings on there.

"You are very tiny," Loki informed Arietty. "Were you cursed?"

[notalender]

Arietty folded her arms. This was not how borrowing was meant to go.

"No. Were you cursed with your giant head?"

It was totally giant. Compared to a Borrower's head.

[abitlowkey]

Loki smiled in response. "No, but I am a giant. I can assure you of that!"

[notalender]

"I can see that! I'm not blind!" I mean, look at him. He was bloody enormous! "You and all the other beans in this school. Why couldn't I have landed in a school full of Borrowers?"

Because then they'd have nothing to borrow?

[abitlowkey]

"Because we all must make sacrifices," Loki assured her, taking a seat on the floor. "And they are not giants. They are humans."

A beat.

"Most of them, anyway."

[notalender]

"That's why they're called beans," Arietty told him. "Beans, humans, giants, it's all the same."

Well, when you were four inches tall, anyway.

[abitlowkey]

"Shouldn't you be the bean?" Loki asked. "As you are closer in size to one."

[notalender]

Arietty was clearly deeply offended by that. "I'm not a bean! I'm a Borrower!"

[abitlowkey]

"What do you borrow, then?"

[notalender]

Arietty shrugged. "Anything the beans won't miss."

[abitlowkey]

"And do you return them?" Because Loki would clearly never do that. Really. Shut up.

[notalender]

Arietty glanced away. "If they ask. . . ."

Mind you, most beans never even knew Borrowers existed. There wasn't a whole lot of asking going around.

[abitlowkey]

"Then it is not borrowing," Loki informed her seriously.

Yes. Moral lectures from the god of lies. DEAL WITH IT.

[notalender]

Arietty rolled her eyes. "Like I'm going to take lessons on borrowing from a bean."

[abitlowkey]

"I'm not a bean, I'm a god!"

[notalender]

"If you were a god, you'd be living in a church."

[abitlowkey]

Loki frowned at that, remembering the odd pastor in Broxton.

"No, not that one. I am Loki. My daughter is the Mistress of Death, not one who has returned from it."

[notalender]

"You're a low-key god? Then why are you bragging about it?"

[abitlowkey]

He was only a bit low key about it!

"No, it is my name. Loki."

[notalender]

"That's a pretty silly name," said she whose last name was the piece of furniture she grew up under.

[abitlowkey]

Loki huffed at that, ignoring Ikol's little snicker. "It is an old name. Not silly at all."

[notalender]

"So, what, are you old, too?" It was hard to tell on beans.

[abitlowkey]

"Yes and no. Loki is old, I am not."

[notalender]

"So you're not really a god, then," Arietty concluded.

[abitlowkey]

"Yes, I am. It is beyond your understanding, small girl."

[notalender]

Ohhhhhhhhhh. Arietty had heard of people like this. Spiller mentioned them. This was a Crazy Person.

"Whatever you say, Low-Key. I'm Arietty."