Trooper Station; Monday [11/18].

[died8yearsago]

Apparently, Rosa had finally managed to crack the code on Arlo 2's discipline, and it had involved being an angry, spiteful seven year old, Russian ballerina spies, and changing the dog's name. When Rosa and the newly dubbed Anna Pavlova (the commands wouldn't work if Rosa called her Arlo 2; she tried) came into the station that day, the dog immediately went tearing after the station cat and Rosa immediately barked out, "Anna Pavlova, stoy!"

And the dog stopped.

"Sidet'!"

And the dog sat.

"Anna Pavlova, ataka Ralph!"

With an eager bark, Anna Pavlova scrambled up to her feet and went bounding across the station toward the trooper, where she pounced on his boots and started licking them furiously.

....close enough. It was still a work in progress, obviously, but honestly, it wasn't that bad, for the work of a very determined seven year old in just two days. Or maybe being seven had helped a little, she didn't know, she was just glad that it seemed the station cat (...what was the cat's name, even? She should probably find out, but also, who cared?) and her dog could actually get along.

"Anna," Rosa patted her thigh and started to head toward the desk, "prikhodit'."

And it was nice that this time around, her tiny stubborn self had pursued something actually helpful instead of just insisting on living in the woods like a feral, uncivilized wild child in November just to prove a point.

Plus, she had some hilarious new reading material to get her through the day, too.

[[ open station is open! ]]

Atlas Gym, Monday (11/18)

[notallbluemonks]

The little-kid thing had skipped Beau again and she wasn't sorry about that at all; there wasn't much about her childhood that she wanted to think about too much, and pretty much none of it that she wanted to revisit. Not to mention that she was still in the middle of getting the apartment reorganized, doing a thorough cleaning job for once, and a dozen other little logistical things that kept cropping up; being five or whatever again would've put a serious cramp in the process.

None of which was relevant to her workday today, except that one of the early-morning regulars kept coming over to talk her ear off about all the things he'd done over the weekend when he was a little kid, and getting way too nostalgic and sentimental about his childhood.

"Dude," she finally said, rubbing at the bridge of her nose in exasperation, "can you -- I'm not your friend, man, okay? I'm trying to work here, so go waltz down memory lane on the treadmill or whatever it is you do."

He looked kind of disappointed as he walked away but she didn't really care much; she was too busy trying to make arrangements to have someone come by the apartment to pick up the couple of pieces of surplus furniture they weren't going to need. Because that totally counted as work, right?

[OOC: Gym/post open. Pls bring me caffeine, stat.]

The Perk, Monday morning

[betterthanaplan]

Duke had woken up this morning in an abandoned warehouse. His ten year old self had apparently decided that being found this morning and made to go to castle-school was a fate to be avoided at all costs, even with assurances that it wasn't a cult, and that sleeping rough in a small closet in an old factory was a better idea than sleeping in his own goddamn bed.

It was a very stiff, sore, and more than a little mortified Duke who stopped in at the Perk this morning on the way back to his boat. Sleeping in a closet wasn't exactly restful or comfortable, especially when you suddenly doubled in size in the middle of the night, and he required a hot drink and caffeine before he could even begin to unpack having been ten again for three days.

[open!]

Community Center Class: Modern Earth Entertainment, Monday

[what_the_shock]

"Right." Miguel crossed his arms and glared at the gremlin who glared right back. "I don't know why these things are insisting I be here if they're just going to choose the movies themselves. But apparently they think this one is topical. Or maybe funny. Who knows?"

He waved at the table. "I did make empanadas today, if you'd rather those than chips or popcorn, and there's soda, beer, and tea," because he knew his audience.

"Enjoy. Or try anyway. Or you try to get rid of the gremlin so we can watch something else."

Monday: Covent Garden Flowers

[mylandmyrules]

Nell was feeling a little odd about having been a tiny version of herself over the weekend. Still, the plants helped. They really did.

In the quiet times between customers and making up arrangements, Nell put together a special packet of her own herbal teas for the shop's new owner, Seivarden. She left them wrapped up with a ribbon and a little note of congratulations.

The Preserve, Monday Afternoon

[okteiviakom]

Octavia had immediately felt better as soon as the preserve swallowed her up, nothing but trees everywhere she looked. When she came out here on her own, it always felt a little like stepping outside of Fandom, stepping right off the island into a space that made more sense to her. At least until she spotted a teal deer, or an alot ambled by in the distance. But even with freaky fauna, the preserve still felt right.

She'd clearly needed that today.

And it wasn't as if she'd just trekked all the way here just to hang out, either. She had a small target set up in one of the trees, perfect for practising throwing things with great precision. She had the throwing star Beau had given her, and she was hurling it through the air over and over, trying to get a hang of the aiming, because Beau hadn't been kidding when she'd said it was kind of a sensitive thing. Octavia kept missing, which meant she was constantly hunting for the star in the undergrowth. But she didn't mind that. It was still something to focus on.

And, sure, this kind of training would probably have been easier - or at least a little less unpleasant - if she hadn't had a still-healing tattoo making her right arm sore in a way that she could feel with every damn throw. But on the other hand, sometimes a little pain was therapeutic for grounding her back into her body.

You had your coping strategies, and she had hers.

[ooc: The preserve is an open space, and so is this post.]