Lucia Walsh-Rhys is many things. Impetuous, stupidly heroic, generous to the point where anyone else wouldn't survive it. From New York.
Busting down El's door to get at this soul-eater.
Lucia Walsh-Rhys is many things. Impetuous, stupidly heroic, generous to the point where anyone else wouldn't survive it. From New York.
Busting down El's door to get at this soul-eater.
"Not right this minute but I will be sure to harvest some next time it comes up. --You should make me a wishlist. It wouldn't be practical to just drag every carcass I make up to your room, but, like, I wouldn't have expected the siren-spiders, if there's something in particular that'd be really useful you should let me know so I can keep an eye out."
"If I come across anything that looks interesting that you didn't think of I will definitely grab it. Oh--speaking of things people aren't expecting--" she goes to her desk, opens a drawer, and pulls out two large glass jars of healing ointment. "I don't know if either of you already have anything for injuries, but here."
Beam. "You're welcome.
There's a knock at her door.
She crosses warily over to open it.
It's someone from New York. Not Chloe or Magnus. Lucia scowls. "Are you here to tell me about a mal attack currently in progress."
"Well, no--"
"Then fuck off." She closes the door in his face abruptly.
"It... might be a good idea to have some line of communication? Maybe indirectly, if they'll talk to me or Liu once our names are on the wall."
"I did ask him if there was a mal attack first. --I guess there might be something else worth listening to them about even if I'm not, like, immediately thinking of it."
"What, like if they're very stupid and need to be told five thousand times in small words I'm not mind-controlling you lest they try murdering me again?"
"Hopefully the blackmail should be enough to deter murder attempts, I really don't want to have to explain that you're not mind-controlling me five thousand times in small words just because they're very stupid!"
"Fair."
She opens the door again. New York guy is still loitering in the vicinity.
"Aadhya is willing to talk to you. You can come in. I will be present but paying more attention to my Sanskrit than to you."
This is earlier than Aadhya was expecting, but she'll roll with it! "Evening," Aadhya tells the New Yorker.
"Uh, hi," he says, glancing briefly at Lucia where she's settling cross-legged on the bed with her Sanskrit textbook. "You're Aadhya...Iyer, right?"
"Uh, um, I just came here to remind Lucia that...we understand that what Magnus did crossed the line, and we understand that she's mad, and we all still care about her, but also that if she doesn't come back before graduation we can't carry her letter to her parents this year?"
"Gosh, okay, thanks for letting us know in time to make alternate arrangements, very decent of you!"
"You'd, uh, need to find alternate arrangements that can get to her parents, I think? Most people aren't allowed into New York."
"It's fine," Lucia says from where she's still intently reading her book, "Mom has an e-mail address, they can just transcribe it."
"...I guess that works too," Pratt says, deflating slightly.
"Um," he glances furtively at El, flinches, and says, "not right now, thanks," and flees the room.
"Tosser," Lucia says before El can.
Snort. "I haven't been to the vending machine in a while, anyone feel like making this a picnic?" she proposes.
"Oh, that sounds excellent!" Lucia says brightly. She opens a different drawer in her desk, pulls out seven vending machine tokens, and puts them in one of her various pockets.
The others go retrieve their own stashes and they can troop down to the machine together.
On the way back up Liu ducks into her room to show them her mice. She has several left, and they look surprisingly healthy.