#ci open post

Sports and Bookworms weren’t typically two things that mesh well together. It wasn’t every day you’d see that pasty kid from the library hoofin’ it out on the football field or the teachers pet playing disc-gold. But every so often you get one that's enjoying the best of both worlds. Folks who enjoyed schooling and readying and also played sports. But, at a glance, you wouldn’t expect Calliope Lee English to be one of those kids. Look at her, she was practically a twig. But no, Calliope had a passion for one sport and one sport only. Running. She could run faster than anyone on she knew, like a damn lightning bolt. Not as fast as say, an Olympic sprinter, but fast enough to be head of a track and field team. She couldn’t explain why she enjoyed it. The adrenaline? The freedom? The literal feeling of wind through her hair? She just couldn’t figure it out. But Calliope could just run and run for hours on end.

So wjhile most people would be asleep before sunrise, Calliope was up and ready to go. She had made her way down to the track, dressed in a pair of sports-shorts and and old tank top she had laying around. It was... pretty cold, to say the least. Early mornings weren’t exactly known for being the warmest, but that didn’t seem to bother Calliope in the slightest. She still wore shorts and a tank top despite the cold weather. It wouldn’t matter once she had started her run. She set her bag down on the bleachers, and began doing her stretches. By the time she finished the sun was just starting to crack over the horizon, and Calliope was taking her place on the outer most lane.

Wow. He knew they said it was a planet, but they really meant a planet. He was expecting maybe the size of the moon, potentially smaller. This was an actual planet. He was standing on an artificial planet. The place was excessively massive. How the built it he couldn’t imagine. He doesn’t even see how someone could plan it. He makes a mental note to use that pun later, before going back to marveling at the scientific wonder of his surroundings. Look at that coffee shop. Sure it’s a pretty generic coffee shop. There’s a key detail though that makes it amazing. It’s a pretty generic coffee shop on a fucking artificial planet. The fact that it literally looks like any coffee shop on earth might is actually ridiculous.

Eventually he tires, for the moment, of marveling at the existence of generic buildings. He does what any teenager would do. He pulls out his smartphone and takes a selfie. Then he uses it to try and figure out where he’s going. Thank god bro already paid for Skaian coverage. After installing three different apps and close to an hour of wandering and some minor miracles he finds himself at his destination: Ganymede Hall.

With some help from an advisor he finds his dorm. None of his dorm mates are there so he goes ahead and claims a bed. He begins to unpack his stuff, mostly clothes and electronic equipment. He finishes, and organizes his stuff. Still, no one has joined him, so he takes his phone and his wallet, heading out into the planet.

It’s time for a new experience. It’s time to do something he’s been hoping for all his life. It’s time to go shopping for school supplies. Regardless of his lack of knowledge into what exactly that entails. He’ll start with what he does know, paper and pencils.

It wasn’t known to many, but Vriska was an avid fan of horror and the paranormal. Often times they crossed paths in stories, be it with mysterious disappearances or unexplainable scenarios. She had recently looked into joining an occult club to talk with like minded individuals, but it would be awhile before their first meet up. To tide herself over, she decided to go to her regular forums online, always having a bit of fun with the long time members and newbies that came by. Some of them had their own stories written down with claims all over that they were real occurrences; it was entertaining to read well crafted stories, although sometimes it was pretty easy to tell right off the bat that they were just that: stories. Stories made up for attention and praise. None of this was real. A reminder she sometimes had to give herself late at night when she was in the thick of it. It usually helped, but some nights she just couldn’t shake a feeling that maybe some of these weren’t fake.

Tonight was one of those nights; she had found a site that collected stories, posting them all in categories for easy searching. At first it was fascinating, the different and creative ways people came up with to spook the reader. But after a few hours into it, Vriska had let herself in. The back of her mind screamed that these were just fake, for how else could someone have gotten all of these together! Especially the ones that were listed with the same author. None of this stuff happened at all! But the side of her that ran with the crazy ideas wouldn’t listen. It was an hour past midnight when a particular story got to her, causing Vriska to slam her laptop shut. Her breathing was a little fast, hands shaky; she couldn’t shake the terrifying feeling she had. She needed to get out of here. Grabbing up her jacket and her earbuds, she set out of her apartment to go take a midnight stroll.

A crack of thunder sounded off outside, rain hammering down of the roof of the coffee house. Dull clouds had rolled in and made the roads slick with water; a stark contrast to how the day had started out. The forecast hadn’t called for rain, but Vriska figured it was just her luck on the day she didn’t prepare for the weather. However there wasn’t much time to dwell, as she still needed to take care of the customers still inside. It was close to closing time, about two hours, and she figured she’d deal with her impending doom when the time came. Briskly bringing orders out, she greeted a few more customers with a smile, telling them she’d be right over. At least the rain would be worth it she thought, since more customers came in for a hot drink to warm themselves up.

Damn. Calliope had hoped that it would have been longer before she got sick, but it was only a matter of time. With Flu season having just barely ended, Calliope thought she had made it through without any problem, un-scathed, healthy as ever. It felt nice but, in the end, it wasn’t going to last. At first she thought it was just spring allergies but when she woke up the next morning with watery eyes, a sore through, and coughing her lungs out? She knew it. Despite her best efforts, her poor immune system had won in the end and she had ended up sick. Best case scenario? The common cold. Worst case scenario? The flu.

Nightmare scenario? Bronchitis.

Only time would tell what Calliope had come down with, be it a day or a few hours before she was sure. She had just woken up but Calliope had already felt like total garbage, a record for how fast she got sick. Usually there was build up. With this one, it came out of left field. She tossed in turned, not wanting to get out bed as she felt her nose start to run, just another thing on top of the list of typical symptoms. Gross. She reached over to her nightstand and grabbed her phone, sending a message out to all her professors about the current situation, asking for her missing work, the whole shabbang. Then, she decided, it was finally time to get out of bed. She sat up and pulled herself out into her dorms living room, sitting down on the couch with a “Humph” and flicking on the TV.

When it came to sports, everyone took different paths. Some people chose football because they liked the strategy and were built for it, some people chose basketball because of how fast paced it was. Some of them enjoyed MMA because of the rush of adrenaline it gave you. Ice Skaters enjoyed ice skating because of how artistic it was, archers enjoyed archery because of the skill it took. And of course there were those that didn’t enjoy sports at all, who preferred to write, or sing, or paint, or do math. Everyone was inclined to do their own thing, play there own games. And then there was Calliope. Calliope enjoyed running, she enjoyed the feeling of wind streaming past her face as she raced down the path. She enjoyed hurdles, leaping over them with grace and ease. 

December 4th. End of the year, close to Christmas, and usually just a low point in the year. Everyone’s either still groggy from thanks giving, or just bored from having done nothing for a few months. Ah yes, December 4th. My birthday. Rose thought to herself as she laid in bed 5:00 AM. She had just woken up to light streaming through a frost covered window, snow falling just beyond the chilled glass pane that kept her room warm and comfortable. Yes, today was her birthday. Nothing special really, but for Rose it was quite uncomfortable. It was the first birthday she had spent away from family, the first birthday where she wasn’t woken up by Roxy and her mom bursting into her room with a three layered cake that they had been up all night making. The first birthday where Rose didn’t wake up in her bed at home, with the sounds of her families multitudes of cats meowing throughout the house. Not the first birthday spent without father. No Rose never really got to know her father, he had left soon after Rose was born and had never made any efforts to contact the Lalonde family afterwards. She had never told Roxy or Mother this, but Rose had sort of always blamed herself for her fathers absence. She saw how much it had effected Roxy whenever he was mentioned, and Roxy had told her how much she missed him. Rose wished she could make the same connection to her father, but sadly that would be nearly impossible with how things in her life had been going so far.

That same very guilt was eating as Rose’s soul as she remained under her thick purple sheets the morning of her twentieth birthday. I know today is a time for celebration, but its just not that same without someone here by my side. Rose thought to herself as she finally pulled herself out of bed, her silver hair tangled and messy as she yawned and stretched. Flicking on one of her bed side lamps, Rose headed straight out in the living room. She couldn’t have a bag of tea, no she still had yet to buy more packets after Cronus sullied every last one of her tea bags. She didn’t know what to do with herself this morning, but as she headed towards the bathroom to take her morning shower, she noticed a pile of brightly colored packages near the front door, each once unique in its own way. Rose decided that to pick her mood up she would investigate the pile of totally not birthday gifts before she took her shower. The first one she moved to was wrapped in a bright orange, metallic wrapping paper that was wrapped so perfectly it didn’t look that any human hands could have wrapped it. She almost felt guilty as she unwrapped it carefully. It was a first edition copy of the dungeons and dragons handbook, with a sticker on the cover. It was one of those stickers typically used on Christmas gifts that parents would write “From Santa” on to help their children with the illusion of the jolly man in the silken red suit that represented anything and everything that was Christmas. This particular tag however simply had ‘From Dirk Strider, to Rose Lalonde. Enjoy’ written on it in orange sharpie. She smiled, happy that Dirk had thought of her and guessing that he had gotten her birth date from Roxy. She opened it to look through it, wondering just why he had sent her a first edition copy. She wouldn't have been surprised if Dave had told him about the time when Rose showed up to a DnD meeting in full costume with her cat. But as she flipped through the pages further and further in the book, she discovered just what the elder of the Strider brother’s intentions were. Well played Dirk, well played. Rose through as she read through all of the additions that had been made. Next to a passage about demons and their abilities, Dirk had added “Original concept, do not steal.” The entire book was filled with comments like that, turning the entire instructional text into pure satire that Rose found absolutely hilarious. She would have to thank him for such a great gift next time she saw him. Rose moved onto the next preset, wrapped in a simple purple wrapping paper, with a white spider web design on it. Now there was no need to wonder who that was from, Roes knew that iconic pattern only belonged to one person in the whole school: Asipha Serket. It was kind of her to send Rose a gift, though Rose believed that Miss Serket really didn’t need to send her a gift. Rose still smiled warmly as she unwrapped the gift as carefully as she had unwrapped Dirks. Inside was a small card, apparently home made, with the same design on it as the paper that had previously wrapped the gift. She opened the card and read the message that Asipha had written inside, in her wonderful handwriting. “Rose: Happy Birthday! I figured I’d send you a gift for your birthday, and I had the perfect idea. I know how you love the occult, and how much you enjoy writing so I have sent you a journal to write what ever you want in. I do love your writing, and I wish you luck in your future endeavors in writing.

                                                                                      -Asipha ‘Mindfang’ Serket”

Rose smiled as she ready the short and sweet message, looking at the journal that Asipha had mentioned. It had a black leather bound cover, with a lock strap and a white tree design on the front. Rose unlocked the journal and loosened the strap, opening the journal and looking at the hundreds of blank pages. There was so much room to work, so many potential works of fantasy that could be woven on the thin white pages. This was a great gift, and Rose would be sure to return the favor somehow. Another gift lay in the pile, this was was almost flat, and could just fit in Roses hand if she grabbed it by its sides. It was wrapped in what looked like some old news paper and tapped together like it had been wrapped up last minute and just tossed in the pile. Who the hell sent he this gift? She opened it up and looked inside to find a small disk in a white plastic case with “Cronus’s Mixtape” scribbled on the front in black sharpie. Oh god, should have known this would have been his. I guess i could get some use out of it, I could anonymously send it to Dave as a prank. Rose said, setting the case down on the ground behind her.

Busy busy busy... rush rush rush... That really is all I do these days isn’t it? Rose thought to herself as she frantically searched through her closet for her work uniform. Where was it? Come on Lalonde, you put it in here yesterday it has be around. Rose tried to convince herself that she hadn’t misplaced it. She looked down at her watch. Shit it was 8:00! She was supposed to be at work right now, dammit she was going to be late again! The 19 year sword under her breath as she kept digging through her closet. She find her work skirt, the simple black cloth lined with white floral details on the bottom. Okay there was half the challenge done, but now she had to find her damned top... Rose groaned as she walked out of her room, thinking that she left it in the arm chair out in the main room. As the door swung open, down fell the white shirt that was hanging on her door knob. That was her work shirt... Rose picked it up and shook the dust off of it, the fabric wrinkled and faded. A small note was stuck to the front, and Rose quickly knew just what had happened with the shirt. Without hesitation, Rose removed the note and began to read it. Hey there Rose, ran out of clothes and I needed something to were. Love the pun, you have one hell of a clothing sense. ~Cronus Ampora Just as Rose had suspected. One of her roommates had taken her clothing again because he, aswell as Rose and Meenah, had neglected to do any laundry for a week or two. I swear Ampora, one day youll feel me vengance. Rose internally joked to herself, as she went back into her room to change. She came out a few minutes later, clad in a plain knee-length skirt and a white shirt that read “Infinitea”. She looked down at her watch once more, wincing at the time. Almost without tihnking, Rose exited the dorm then left campus to get to work.