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 Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2010 3:05 pm
Today, they had a mission.
"Alright, bossman isn't looking-" Twin pairs of mischievous grey-blue eyes intently watched the sturdy back of their newest employer as they backed up, sidling towards the edges of the work camp with the ease of professionals, then turning around and sauntering off casually once they'd reached the home stretch, successfully ditching out. Seamus unclipped the orange safety helmet from his head, tucking it under his arm as his other hand tried to revive his squashed and mussed hair; Murphy similarly tugging his gloves off as they ambled towards the main campus. Both knew, very well, that Valeriu would never willingly come within five hundred feet of the University on his own - and so had taken it upon themselves to gather the information he might need in case he ever felt inclined in applying and enrolling in that fancy architectural design program. And with the twins as his self-promoted older brothers, he would feel inclined by the time they were done with him.
"Okay, let's split up," Murphy suggested as they infiltrated the main doors, staring down the long and prestigious halls. "I'll handle the office here and then take west side, you grab east side and see if you can't find the professors' offices and classes."
"A'ight," Seamus agreed. "Meet back in an hour?"
"Aye. Let's do this!" Murphy held his fist up.
Seamus looked at it, then looked at him in a clearly uncooperative fashion.
"Oh, come on, bro! All the cool kids are doing it. Bump me. You know you wanna." Murphy's eyebrows waggled in a disturbing way.
"Okay, okay - just, jeezuschrist, just please stop doing that," Seamus winced, bumping fists with a triumphantly grinning Murphy.
"Later, freak."
"Later, b***h."
Game-plan set, they broke. Seamus found himself wandering through east campus, safety goggles pushed up to his brow line and looking pretty incongruous in his work clothes next to all the university students, though thankfully, with his apparent age, he could pass off as a student with a part-time job. Murphy would just be the creeper.
Ah, the joys of youth. He'd kind of hoped that the age turn-around would've undone the blaring scars ripping across his face that currently attracted half a dozen whispers and stares at any given moment, but he didn't mind.
"Architecture," he muttered under his breath, reading the plaques on each door as he passed. "Nope - Studio Art. English. English. English. And, hey, whaddya know, English. Oh, lucky, Philosophy!"
He knew which major dominated the humanities, at least. Looked like east side was the wrong side for what he was looking for - he was pretty sure that with all the math Valeriu had been muttering under his breath, Architectural Design certainly counted as a science. Civil engineering and all.
No harm in continuing the search, though. He might find a professor who did artsy-architecture, or something. Architectural history.
Now that'd be ******** boring.
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Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2010 4:46 pm
"No, no, I'll have it for you tomorrow, I'll e-mail it to you," Sally called into the classroom as she stepped backwards into the hall. She wasn't looking where she was going, clearly more intent on flipping the TA the bird as the door shut behind her, and one step more brought her right into Seamus's path.
They collided. Both went down. Books, paper, and pens flew everywhere. Sally sat up, bit her lip, and rubbed her forehead. "Owwwwww," she winced dramatically, peering at the boy she'd collided with with one eye. "God, I'm sorry."
She got to her knees and began to collect her things. "Shoulda been looking where I was going - are you okay?"
The door she had just left said Journalism.
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Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2010 5:11 pm
Oh, hey, that looks promising-
The thought was promptly knocked out of his head as he was taken down to the ground in a dizzying flurry of fluttering papers and scattering pens, an oof! wrenching out of his mouth and now well-acquainted with the tile flooring.
His eyes squinted back open to find a girl lying in the heap with him. He sat up pretty fast at that.
Congratulations, Seamus, you've perfected your technique of hitting on girls - literally, the imagined voice of his twin taunted in his mind, and he moved to help her pick up all her things, chagrined.
"No, no, totally my fault, don't worry 'bout it." He had what must have been ten pens already in one hand, and a set of books in the other. "I'm fine. You alright? No concussions?" He grinned wryly, finally getting to his feet and swapping the books to under his other arm to hold out a hand to help her up.
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Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2010 5:25 pm
Sally rapped a knuckle on her forehead and took the proffered hand. "Nope," she said after a moment, "No concussions. I'm good." She smiled at him, took the books, and tucked them back into her bag. There were still more, all over the hallway.
"Geez, look at this mess," she sighed, and crouched to retrieve a textbook (CRAFTING THE EUPHEMISM). "I'd better get this all picked up before that witch comes out here," she added, and jerked a hand towards the door. "What a psycho-b***h! The paper doesn't go to print for a week and she's been down my throat for a week about that article on the new library. What the hell. It's just a library."
Sally shoved a spiral notebook hastily into her bag, followed by a handful of brightly-colored permanent markers, and zipped it shut. She stood.
"Hey, maybe you can help me out," she said, grinning at him. "You go here, right? What do you think of the new library?"
She stuck out a hasty hand as she slung the bag onto her shoulder. "I'm Sally. Sally Chu."
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Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2010 8:52 pm
He helped her up, laughing, "Fantastic, no lawsuit for me, then."
He helped her sweep up the books and what was left of the papers, slightly amazed at exactly how many she was carrying with her. "Man, how much does that thing weigh?"
More than such a slight girl should be able to carry.
"The library? Waste of money," he answered, very seriously. "I mean, books? Who needs 'em?" He was able to keep up the charade for a minute before laughing, and returning the handshake.
"Nice to meet'cha, Sally. Name's Seamus Carnegie, an' I'm actually not a student here. Just workin' construction."
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Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2010 9:03 pm
"It's not so bad," insisted Sally, and held the bag out for him to try. All this proved was that she was some kind of freak of nature, because it easily weighed fifteen pounds.
She took the bag back. "You get used to it," she declared, and motioned for him to walk beside her. The more distance she could put between herself and the classroom door, the better.
"Really?" she asked, quirking an eyebrow at him. "Huh, could've fooled me. So what are you doing in the liberal arts building? Most of the construction's going on on the other side of campus--
She looked suddenly crafty. "You think you could give me a tour of the new library? It would help me a ton on the article."
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Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2010 9:22 pm
"Used to it," he echoed, dubiously, giving her an amused crook of the eyebrow. "Just like you get used to all the medical fees for your spine later, am I right?"
He could understand getting away from the door, walking beside her agreeably - he didn't want the dragon-lady to come out and start squalling at him, too, after all.
"I'm actually here for my little brother. He's interested in architecture, an' me and my twin're trying to get him to enroll, but he thinks he isn't good enough for University. So we figure we grab all the info we can, bring it home to him, and then nag 'im until he caves."
Just like good older brothers should. Valeriu could lament all he wanted about how inhuman he was, but they both knew the boy would love nothing more than to attend school like a regular student.
"We split up, since we don't know the school very well. I lucked out and got this building." The one with no architecture, at all, it looked like. He still had his eye out for a history teacher, though.
"Well," he drawled, just as craftily back, a coy smile turning up his lips and tugging at his scars, "I could, I suppose. Maybe, maybe if you mention in your article about what a magnificent guide you had. Handsome, too. Incredibly so. And so, so mysterious. I think that'd do it."
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Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 7:09 am
"Oh, the charming-est," agreed Sally with mock solemnity as they strode out onto the quad. Sally pointed towards a squat, neo-retro style building at the far end of the park. "That's the architecture lab," she explained. "Part of the Journalism department is in there, too. I could show you later?"
But for now, she grabbed him by the arm and steered him towards the library site in all its fenced-off glory. "Your tour first, though," she declared. "Am I going to need a hard hat?"
She dug around in her bag's myriad compartments, and produced a small camera. "No one's going to mind if I take a couple snapshots, right?"
Studying his face for a response, Sally really wanted to ask about the scars but didn't. He sort of looked like he'd been attacked by a wild animal, though.
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Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 2:16 pm
"The suavest, too." This game could go on all day. Between a Carnegie and a reporter, a thesaurus wasn't necessary. "That'd be great, though, if you could. Plus, gotta know these places if'n we ever need to drop in and surprise him."
They had to know all of his potential hiding spots.
"What, no dinner-and-a-movie first? You big city girls, so modern," he tsked. "And yes. At Carnival Carnegie, whenever riding the Seamus Coaster O' Construction Fun, you have to be at least this tall-" he gestured somewhere just below her nose, "and should always have the proper safety gear on." He unclipped the bright orange hardhat from his belt, planting it atop Sally's head (careful not to muss her girl hair, but it didn't matter, the thing was a size or three too large, anyway). "That oughtta do it. It looks very fetching on you, lass," he complimented, sincerely.
"Snapshots are alright, just make sure to have the flash turned off." Wouldn't do to startle or distract the workers. That led to messy situations.
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Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 4:00 pm
Sally smirked at him and fiddled with a switch on the camera. She gave a playful salute. "No flash, aye-aye, you're the boss," she said, and followed him under the scaffolding.
"Big city girls, huh?" she asked after they'd walked for a bit. She gave him a nudge. "As opposed to what, little farm settlement girls? I move fast," Sally said with a shrug, and gestured to the wide interior space they'd entered into.
"So what's this, the grand atrium?" she asked, adjusting the hard hat. It was slipping down over her eyes every so often in a way that wasn't annoying so much as it was just a bit of a hassle. "Give me the full tour."
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Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 4:30 pm
The structure was rough, but filled out enough to give an idea of the grandeur of the final form. Seamus stepped over a pile of bunched up tarp on the yet-to-be-hewn floor, making sure she didn't trip.
"Hyup! Welcome to your future library. Funded by Central itself, this bad boy will have five separate floors, and two main wings. We're right now laying the skeleton down." Well, not in this section. Seamus had specifically taken her to the right wing, while everyone else was working over on the left. "The inner floors will be hollow, so's you can stand right on the ground floor and look straight up to the top. They'll put rails or somethin' to make sure nobody falls off, but I imagine around finals time you'll get some suicidal kids wanderin' in here to jump from the fifth floor."
Here was as good a place as any, if they really wanted to off themselves, he supposed.
"The ceiling's supposed to be supported by a series of arches, with ornamental stained-glass skylights," he rattled off. "There'll probably be an ugly statue beneath the central one just to have an ugly statue. Might or might not be a naked guy with steroid issues."
That seemed to be a staple with grand libraries.
"I'm pretty sure they don't have near enough books to fill up this place, so they'll probably put little gift shops in, instead. Because we need another mall-type place." The amusement in his voice belied the fact that, no, Central did not need another mall-type place, especially not in what should be a library.
"Probably the most interestin' thing about the design-" Really, the only interesting thing, "-is back here." He led her to where the plywood currently playing at being a wall stood, knocking thrice on the wood out of habit. "There'll be a space behind all the walls, 'bout three feet wide. Hallways, so's the librarians can spy on you guys," he chuckled. "Or they'll sneak around to have secret librarian trysts. Either, or, really."
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Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 6:08 pm
"Those sneaky librarians," giggled Sally conspiratorially, and gave the plywood a firm shove. It gave easily, falling against the metal and cinderblock already in place on the other side, and she stepped into the hallway beyond. "What do you say?" she asked. "Want to show me around back here?"
Before he could reply, Sally gave Seamus a firm tug on the arm and pulled him into the tunnel beside her. "Has this thing got a light?" she asked, groping around the top of the hard hat. Finally her hands chanced across a switch that activated a bright LED panel.
"Awesome," she declared, and took his hand in hers. "So let's explore! Who knows when the next time either of us will get to see the inside of these tunnels is?"
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Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 6:59 pm
Seamus was mistaken to think that plywood would deter her. Eyebrows raising in surprise, he was tugged along, the first hints of dubious we-probably-really-definitely-should-not-be-doing-this settling into his face.
"This could get me fired, you know," he pointed out, eyes squinting in a combination of exasperated bemusement and the sudden light breaking through the darkness of the tunnel. "This is off the record, right?"
Seamus rather fancied his job, and enjoyed his new workplace. The last thing he needed was an article in the school newspaper about him taking an unpermitted college student back into somewhat-secret tunnels (though, really, all you had to do was dig through the bowels of City Hall's basement, where the plans were on display somewhere beneath three boxes of birth records).
But hell. Even Seamus and Murphy hadn't yet poked their noses into the tunnels.
Might as well get a head start.
"Maybe we'll find buried treasure. Or bodies. Just be careful, and let me go first, a'ight?"
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Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 7:12 pm
"Sure thing," agreed Sally, sidestepping Seamus and peering over his shoulder. "You can go first. The first-est there ever was. Let's go." She shoved him forwards with a smirk, and swept her headlight beam across the space in front of them. It seemed empty and half finished; In a few months someone might come back and put sheetrock and insulation in, finishing the walls, and maybe string some light fixtures, but beyond that this didn't seem to be more than a hallway.
What would librarians need this for?
"Hey, so have you ever been to Oldpeka?" she asked. "It's sort of like this, only better."
They walked a while longer. "If you haven't," proposed Sally, "I should take you there sometime, show you around."
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Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 8:36 pm
"Just call me Adam," he laughed, and took momentary pleasure in having an extra chuckle over the completely inappropriate joke, especially in light of knowing that there was so much more to the world beyond his old Catholic beliefs. "Just don't be tempting me with none of your lovely lady apples-oof!"
He stumbled forward at the shove, directing a wry look back at her, before straightening himself out with an unaffected air. He primly brushed invisible (and not so invisible) dust off his shoulders, before intrepidly swaggering forward.
"According to the plans that I saw, this basically follows all around the walls."
His head tilted, body shifting so that the light from her helmet could illuminate more of the darkness, plywood scuffing lightly against his shoulder.
"Been through Oldpeka once," he admitted. "Nice place. Friendly mutant-rats, almost-authentic dessicated ruins, wonderful sewer system. Cheery near-desolation. But I mean, if you know any good places - a romantic crumbling hide-away for two, a moldy and dilapidated house with great television reception..."
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