re: emergency relocation (newsletter)
“Did the Headmage move us all here for free labor?” Deuce mutters under his breath, sleeves rolled up to the elbow and hands moving diligently as he wipes down the temporary room he had been assigned. He does this part alone; damp rag moving from dusty furniture to soapy water and back again until the water in the bucket turns a murky grey and Deuce has to make a trip to the washroom to change it out.
Rinse and repeat, until the last change of water runs clear.
By the time Deuce is finished cleaning, there’s a clean, citrus-y scent in the air that wasn’t there an hour ago that’s beginning to travel beyond the open door and windows left open to air out the room. The wood furniture even looks three shades brighter now that there wasn’t a heavy layer of dust and dirt to mottle the color. It’s a significant enough difference that Deuce can’t help but feel good about a job well done—his mom would be so proud of him, if she was here.
All that was left to do now, aside from finding a fresh change of linens, was actually move his things in. All of Deuce’s necessities had been left back at the Heartslabyul dorm for now, since he had managed to avoid being a part of the group in charge of covering up the roses with tarps and linens to help protect them from the sudden frost that had begun to settle over the dorm.
Deuce would have to go back soon to swap out with one of his dorm members so that they could come down to Ramshackle and do the same, of course, but it was nice to be able to get a head start on it now while most people were likely still gathering their things.
Plus, he still needed to figure out if they were supposed to bring bedding from their respective dorms or if there was some secret stash of clean bedding that they were to use. The last thing Deuce wanted to do was spend the foreseeable future lying on a bed of moth-eaten sheets. Ew.
For now though, Deuce would just have to settle for an early lunch before returning to Heartslabyul to help with the maze’s emergency preparations.
Winter had arrived early there, after all.
The candle set up by the headmage and whose stewarding had been tasked to the rest of the student body had actually been indicative of something. That had been the first surprise, though calling it such was perhaps a reach. Anyone with a shred of awareness could have known that something strange was on the horizon, and Jade had watched with interest. Then the havoc wreaked by the ghosts the candle was supposed to keep at bay forced everyone to relocate, and the abandoned (well, half-abandoned) Ramshackle dorm on the edge of campus was large enough to accommodate all of Night Raven’s refugees. That had been the second and much larger surprise.
Inconveniences aside, Jade was delighted. Glancing between cracks in half-shut doors and listening to voices that the old walls could do little to hold back from mingling together in the hallway, he bore witness to a number of frayed nerves as he traveled from one end of the dwelling to the other. Individuals whose very existences seemed to be at odds with one another had been forced into 10-by-10 feet spaces for the indeterminable future. Like aquariums, Jade found himself thinking dimly as he passed one open door. This room had three students in it, each crammed into a corner, backs to each other as they tried to ignore their circumstances. The corner of his mouth twitched with the start of a smile as he glided past with resolute, even steps.
It was in situations like these that people tended to show their true colors, and Jade, who often had to work twice as hard to force others to put their guards down around him, was looking forward to the ease of navigating this new, rare candor.
He came to a stop just outside of his own room assignment, stepping lightly so as not to alert his roommate. Deuce Spade, a freshman from the Heartslabyul house, had been hard at work tidying up their new space since before Jade himself had arrived with the same intent, so naturally the eel did what eels did best and settled in to wait and watch. When Deuce appeared to be halfway finished, Jade had left before he could be detected to check on Floyd and Azul. He returned now with clean linens in Octavinelle’s subdued colors draped over his arms.
“My, I would almost call this the work of a professional.” Jade announced his presence with an awed gasp, eyes grazing over the newly-refreshed walls and floor as he entered. “I should have arrived sooner; it appears that there’s little left for me to clean.” He smiled easily, hardly apologetic at all, and approached one of the cots to set down his stack of sheets and take stock of what he already knew he had gathered to bring.
“I have an extra set of linens that I will gladly lend you to make up for my tardiness-- ah,” he glimpsed the third cot which had been tucked out of view of the doorway, hiding behind the open door, “but it seems we have a third roommate.”
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