Third Floor Common Room, Thursday Morning

[princessarcasm]

Amy wandered into the common room pretty early on Thursday, partially to make herself a cup of coffee before work and partially so she wouldn't disturb Raven with the quick phone call she had with Karma.

While she waited for the coffee to brew, she started to realize something was up. Normally, Amy didn't freely tell Karma how much she didn't miss being in Austin because it was so stressful being around everyone when she was dealing with so much stress, and how nice it was to get some space from everyone, including Karma herself. And she definitely didn't usually end her phone calls with "Love you, unfortunately."

She hung up quickly after that and then announced very loudly, "Okay, someone needs to take my phone right now. Seriously. I'm offering fifty bucks to the first person who volunteers to babysit this iPhone today."

{likely to be slow today because CASE BRIEFS ON CASE BRIEFS ON CASE BRIEFS, but soooo open.}

Comments

[princessarcasm]

"Yeah, but I'm the only one who can be trusted to not be a jerk," Amy mumbled. "Except, surprise, I am one."

Whoops.

"Do you want me to duct-tape my mouth shut? I can probably duct-tape my mouth shut."

[not_every_mage]

"Would that work?" Anders wondered. "Or would we just start scribbling notes about all the things we want to blurt out?"

[princessarcasm]

"I'm also willing to sit on my hands," Amy said quickly. "Or tie them, if necessary."

Anything to be less embarrassing.

"Sorry, I'm being eighty kinds of rude right now. I probably should have squeezed a 'How are you?' into this conversation at some point."

[not_every_mage]

"Probably, but I liked making you talk about yourself because it meant I didn't have to talk about myself," Anders said, and winced at how that sounded. "I'm fine right now, except for how I'm still worried the new student from my world is going to find some way to open a portal and drag me back to the Circle. But she hasn't yet, and I'm going to do my best to enjoy every day until she does."

His ears were bright red by the time he was done talking. Apparently it was his turn to overshare.

[princessarcasm]

"Wait, sorry, what's the Circle? That sounds bad." On a symbolism level, anyway. No corners or changes usually didn't mean everything was really great. "Unless you don't want to tell me. You don't have to. Would saying that even work?"

[not_every_mage]

"Probably, but I like complaining about it," Anders informed her. "It's where people with magic go in my world. Sort of a cross between a school and a very nice prison. I ran away from it to come here."

[princessarcasm]

"Oh. That sounds like a good move," Amy said awkwardly. "I thought of my old school as a prison, but that doesn't sound like how you mean it."

[not_every_mage]

Anders shrugged. "Only if you were never allowed to leave," he said. "We're supposed to spend our lives there. Sorry for being such a depressing git about it."

[princessarcasm]

"No, no, you're not," Amy assured him. "On the one hand, I feel like going to this school is going to teach me to put things in perspective, which is important. But also, hearing other people's secrets makes me feel like I might have a shot at making new friends at some point in my life."

Wow, did she hate these truth-bombs.

"Which I know is so not the point," Amy added. "That sounds awful that you had to grow up like that. That's what I should have said before. There's feeling trapped and then there's being trapped, and that's the worst."