Room 218, Almost Certainly Thursday (Right? Right.) Evening

[glacial_queen]

Oh no.

Oh no. Oh no. Oh no.

Karla was standing in the middle of her dorm room, surrounded by piles of...of...of stuff. It was probably for the best that Gabrielle was off in Greece again (though if she knew what was happening to her roommate, she'd rethink that), otherwise she might have gotten lost in the heaping jumbles of books, clothing, knick-knacks, and other assorted detritus of every day living. Mini-Morton had gotten tangled under skeins of spider silk and had taken refuge behind her frog tank on her dresser once he'd managed to free himself. It was like a miniature whirlwind had swept through their room and upended almost every belonging they had.

Almost every belonging. That was the key issue. But the one thing she couldn't find, no matter how hard she searched, was Warren's bear. His stuffed bear, Mr. Buddy, who she'd sorta...kinda...bear-napped. In a way. If one wanted to look at it in the kind of light. Which Karla generally didn't (she had liberated him, dammit), but, right now, with him gone, she could see how it was possible that someone--like Warren, say--could see it in that sorta, kinds (albeit wrong) light.

She had just put him down on her bed before leaving for class? Where the Hell could one tiny stuffed bear gotten off to?

[For one and then another, please! And because LJ is the WORST EVER, the links to the thread with Warren.]

Comments

[trigons_child]

A side effect of having her shields so tight around her was that Raven hadn't realized Karla was sick, or she would've been demanding to heal her as was her duty as her Healer. But she couldn't miss the sudden surge of panic from her friend, so she hurried down to her room.

"Karla, what is wrong?" she called, rapping on the door.

[glacial_queen]

It was a tragic face that answered the door, barely open enough for said face to poke through. That was still plenty of room for Raven to see the disaster zone that lay beyond it, though.

"I can't find him!" Karla wailed as soon as she saw who was there.

[trigons_child]

"You cannot find whom?" Raven said, immediately drawing Karla into her arms for a comforting hug. "Has something happened to Warren? Is he missing? I promise you, we will find him."

[glacial_queen]

"Not Warren," Karla gasped out, clinging to Raven anyway. "Buddy! Buddy Bear! He's just gone!"

Because that made so much sense to Raven. Good job, Karla.

[trigons_child]

"Buddy Bear?" Nope, no less confusing. "Who is that? Is that a student?"

[glacial_queen]

"Worse!" Karla hissed, suddenly glancing around the hallway as if she expected Warren to be found eavesdropping in any corner. She grabbed Raven's wrist and pulled her inside, closing the door firmly behind them.

"Buddy is Warren's stuffed bear."

You may now appreciate the magnitude of the emergency, Raven.

[trigons_child]

Ah, but Karla, you forget Raven had grown up without toys of any kind.

"He has a stuffed bear?" she said. She couldn't imagine wanting to have such a thing around, and Warren didn't strike her as the type who would. Unless it was something about the wealthy she didn't understand. "Surely such a thing would be hard to lose," she said. "Is it not large? And...mounted on something?"

[glacial_queen]

And this would be Karla, completely missing what Raven was assuming here.

"What?" she asked, distractedly poking through a pile she'd already searched four times already. "No. It's small. Maybe about a foot or so tall? Small enough to hold, you know?"

[trigons_child]

A baby bear? Raven's stomach turned.

"I will help you look," she said. "Where did you last see it?"

If she found it, she wasn't touching it, however.

[glacial_queen]

"On my bed," Karla said, pointing to where her bed...normally was, when it wasn't heaped high with belongings. "I snuggle it at night, before I go to sleep."

[trigons_child]

"...you snuggle a dead baby bear when you sleep?" Raven said, aghast. AGHAST.

Maybe it was a Glacia thing and not a rich person thing?

[glacial_queen]

Now it was Karla's turn to look shocked and appalled. "What?!" she yelped. "Ew! No! Not a real bear, Raven! A teddy bear!"

She waded through one of the mounds of clothing and fished out her tattered and worn stuffed Arcerian kitten, made from wool and cloth that had long since rubbed bare.

"A stuffed toy. For children!"

[trigons_child]

"Oh," Raven said, blushing and feeling foolish now. "I did not have such things as a child. When you said stuffed bear I thought it was a real stuffed bear, not a toy."

[wwiii]

Warren actually wasn't aware that anything was amiss. He was aware, however, that Karla had been sick yesterday, and she hadn't really been doing much in the way of taking care of herself, and so today he was paying yet another visit, with some more chicken soup and tea.

He was thoughtful that way.

"Knock knock. Dinner delivery?"

[glacial_queen]

There was a muffled curse and then a crash from inside the room as if, say, a female of his girlfriend's approximate height and weight tripped on something in her room and crashed into a pile of stuff.

And then there was silence. As if said girlfriend was hiding and hoping that Warren would think no one was home.

[wwiii]

Yeah. Warren had met Karla, and he knew what that silence meant.

"... Karla, are you alive in there?"

It was a rhetorical question. Either way, he was trying the doorknob.

[glacial_queen]

More silence from the room.

However, the door did not remain closed under Warren's hand. A few seconds and some annoyed-sounding beeps later, and the door was opening, revealing Mini-Morton in the doorway.

Could he reach the doorknob? Nope. Did that stop him? No, somehow.

Not that he paused long to acknowledge Warren's presence. He gave the distinct impression of tagging out and then churned down the hallway, where he could get some peace. Leaving Warren face to face with a disaster zone and a girlfriend unsuccessfully trying to hide under the bed.

[wwiii]

Oh, yeah. That wasn't worrisome at all.

"Uh, Karla. You know that under the bed probably isn't the best place for sick people to hang out?"

Just throwing that out there. While stepping into the Danger Zone, here.

[glacial_queen]

DAAAANGER ZONE!

Karla peeked up over the side of her bed and gave Warren her best unsure-but-game grin. "I'm, uhh, just looking for something," she said with hearty cheer. "Don't mind me! I'm sure I'll find it soon!"

[wwiii]

"Well... what is it? I can look, you know. You should be laying down."

Sicky McSickerson.

"I brought you more soup."

[glacial_queen]

"I...err...that is..."

Yeah. Karla didn't want Warren to know what she was looking for. She'd be happiest if he never knew that she couldn't find it. She was planning on telling him she had Buddy--you know, sometime; she'd just sort of planned to still have Buddy around when she did!

"I'm looking for..." Quick Karla! Search for inspiration! "This!" She snatched up whatever was close to hand.

...And that was her vibrator. AWESOME.

[wwiii]

"... Hello, Mr. Buzzy."

Somehow, that wasn't entirely what Warren had been expecting her to grab, no. Though the two of them had been well acquainted over the sex pollen week, he was a little more prone to blinking and blushing, now.

"Not the first thing I'd expect someone to panic about when they're sick, but admittedly I don't have all that much experience with that..."

[glacial_queen]

And that would be Karla, turning beet-red and dropping poor Mr. Buzzy (2.0, Warren, gawd!) with a gasp. He vanished before he hit the floor and Karla tried not to spontaneously combust on the spot.

But, you know, since it had already been offered as a possibility...

"It, uhh, increases blood flow?" she offered, trying to think of things that sounded vaguely Healery. "And, umm, stimulates endorphins. That, in turn, ups the production of white blood cells to encourage faster healing while providing a boost to the immune system."

Was he maybe buying all that?

[wwiii]

No.

"Come on," he sighed, smiling a little and setting the soup down on the nightstand. "What are you really looking for? Tell me about it over dinner? Are you feeling any better at all?"

[glacial_queen]

"Uhhhh..."

Karla wasn't entirely sure how to answer any of those questions. Dinner was going to be a little delayed, because there was no clean and open space to eat it. She was feeling a little hot and light-headed, but that could easily be a return of the fever or the side effect of panicked searching.

And as for what she was really looking for?

...Yeah, that was gonna go over well.

"I should clear a spot on the bed!"

Nice save!