Room 508, Sunday afternoon

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo had started the day by grabbing a box of donuts right as JGOB opened and taking them out to the causeway. She'd sat there for hours, slowly eating her way through the box, some tiny part of her hoping that two particular people would come walking up and share the pastries with her. No one had, though. Besides, even if one or both of them did eventually make it back, the chances that it would happen to be today as opposed to any other day were pretty slim. An hour after she finished the last donut, Ringo admitted to herself that she was just putting off the task she'd assigned herself, so she headed back to the dorm.

After stopping by her room for a stack of unassembled boxes, a couple of rolls of packing tape, and some markers, she finally opened the door to room 508. An few hours later, Ringo was pretty sure that the two boxes on Raven's bed represented everything the girl had had in the room. Only a few clothes, and what seemed like some antique knickknacks. It wasn't much to leave behind, and somehow that seemed sad. Ringo snorted at that thought. As if Raven's lack of stuff was somehow sadder than Raven never coming back.

There were quite a few more boxes on Kathy's bed, and it had taken here even longer to pack those than it probably would have if so many of those things hadn't sucked Ringo into memories of their owner. A couple of dresses that Letty had insisted Kathy buy in Baltimore. A set of lockpicks. A well-read, but cared-for acceptance letter to Stanford. A sticker-covered iPod (which was such a Kathy thing to own because who even had iPods anymore?).

A pair of well-worn ATs, which she spent a couple of minutes examining, running her fingers lightly along the worn down spots. You could tell a lot about someone from their ATs. What their stance looked like, what kind of tricks they enjoyed the most, the kind of terrain they rode on. To Ringo's practiced eye it was like a montage of every ride Kathy had ever done. She had to swallow around a lump in her throat before she could return to her task.

Most of those things, those memories, went into boxes. After some maudlin staring at a few of them, perhaps, but into boxes. But not everything. Ringo had found a heavy envelope with "Dante" written on it in Kathy's hand, and a couple of paper-wrapped packages addressed to Anders. Once she'd found those, Ringo had looked more carefully, half-hoping that there would be something with her own name on it, but there hadn't been anything. She knew that that didn't mean anything, but somehow it still hurt. She'd taken a couple of minutes to think about that, then Ringo had set the iPod aside next to the other things that needed to be delivered. Kathy probably would have preferred to know that someone would get something out of her music collection, right?

Now Ringo was doing one last pass through the room, looking in corners of closets and under beds to make sure she hadn't missed anything important. If this was the last thing she was going to get to do for her friends, she wanted to do it right.

[ooc: Room and belongings modded with permission. Door and post open.]

Comments

[rebelseekspizza]

This was the second time in just a few days that Dante had found this door sitting open - and don't ask him why he kept wandering by here, please - though this time he had a good idea of who he'd find.

He pressed his shoulder against the doorway again, and sighed.

Loudly.

Serious to fuck, Ringo. What was your problem?

[soniaroadsqueen]

Well, Ringo knew that sigh without needing to pull her head out of the closet, but she did so anyway. "Last day in here," she told Dante without preamble, leaning back against the wall next to the closet door.

She didn't ask him if he wanted to help.

And while her eyes slid over the envelope on the bed, Ringo didn't say anything about it yet. She wasn't sure if she should. Dante just wanted this to go away, after all, and probably didn't want yet another reminder of Kathy. It made her wonder if she should just, you know, put it in the boxes with the rest of the stuff, and if Kathy ever came back, she could delivery it directly.

But Ringo also wanted to be a good kohai To finish up the things that Kathy couldn't anymore.

She didn't know what to do, so for the moment that envelope sat there, uncommented upon.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante'd been looking at her, but she was looking elsewhere. He couldn't help himself; his eyes darted that way quick, drinking in the detail like he usually did (but never admitted to).

He was pretty sure that was his name.

"Sure," he said. "Better be."

If they were lucky, the school'd move someone else in here by next week.

[soniaroadsqueen]

She eyed him thoughtfully, trying to buy time to make a decision. "You here to help?"

That comment about what would be "lucky" did not deserve a response.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Do I look like help?" Dante said flatly.

He lifted his chin at the envelope. "The fuck is that?"

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo followed his glance.

Well, that made this decision easy. She probably would have decided to give it to him in the end, anyway. For Kathy's sake, but also out of some patronizing believe that Dante needed to learn to deal with loss better and that it would be good for him.

She shrugged. "No idea. Found it in Kathy's desk."

Her eyes moved back to him, looking hard. "You want it?"

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante gave an expressive shrug. "Don't really care," he said.

That wasn't true. But the truth was all kinds of complicated.

[soniaroadsqueen]

She watched him in silence for a few seconds, then shrugged. "I can pack it away if you don't want it. You can just pretend you never saw it."

Yeah. Sure he could. That was totally what his expression said.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Where are you putting all of this shit, anyway?" Dante asked, leveling his gaze back at her.

[that_oldsaying]

Alluka had maybe been wandering by to see if Kathy was back, since she didn't really know how long Kathy was going to be sick for, so it was possible she was back and--

The door was open!

Alluka bounced over to it, clutching Mr. Bubbles, and all ready to fling herself at Kathy and--

"Ringo?" Alluka said, her smile fading and her expression going anxious as she took in what was going on. "What, what are you doing to Kathy's stuff?"

Normally, she liked seeing Ringo very much. But this was weird, wasn't it? She didn't know if she was supposed to be happy to see Ringo when she was doing this.

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo turned, a smile on her face. But not her usual smile. This one was sort of melancholy.

"Hi, Alluka." Funny, her voice was subdued, too.

"I'm packing up Kathy and Raven's stuff." Obviously. "I'd rather do it myself than let whoever the school would send just, you know, throw it away or something."

[that_oldsaying]

There was nothing obvious about it, to Alluka.

"But why?" she asked. Poor Mr. Bubbles was getting squeezed even tighter. "Kathy's coming back. And, and Raven too."

Weren't they?

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo's expression was somber. "Maybe," she allowed. Deep down she wasn't willing to let go of that possibility herself.

"But we don't know when. And if it's long enough, the school will probably need to let someone else use the room."

[that_oldsaying]

"But it's Kathy's room," Alluka said, like it was Ringo who wasn't making sense. It was also Raven's room too, Alluka supposed, but Kathy was the one that she knew, so it was mostly Kathy's. "You don't just give away someone's room when they go some place for a while. You keep it for them. It's still theirs. So, so this is still Kathy's room and it's going to be hers for when she gets back."

[soniaroadsqueen]

"This is a dorm, Alluka," Ringo said softly. "This room was someone else's before Kathy got here, and it'll be someone else's, too, if they need it. They can't give rooms to people forever, or they'd run out."

[that_oldsaying]

If she'd ever known, cared, or understood about how dorms worked, it didn't matter at all to her right now.

There was something ugly and twisty and nasty about the way that Kathy hadn't been gone long at all and was now going to lose her room.

If Alluka ever lost one of her rooms, she wouldn't know what to do. That was terrifying to her, the idea that people could lose their rooms so easily. Had she and Mabel just been lucky when they went to Toylandia and came back to find their room was still theirs? Was there always a chance that every time someone left their room that they'd come back and it wouldn't be for them any longer?

Was that it?

"You're supposed to be her friend!" Alluka stomped her foot, since it was better than throwing Mr. Bubbles at Ringo. What if she didn't give Mr. Bubbles back? "It's Kathy's room! And it should be Kathy who decides what to do with it! Not you, not the school. If, if Kathy decided to leave her room then she'd be here, packing it up. You're making things up for her, so stop it, Ringo! It's her room! And it's going to stay her room until she gets back and says otherwise! Because, because otherwise it doesn't make any sense!"

Because otherwise there were so many scary things that Alluka was going to have to think about.

[soniaroadsqueen]

Alluka's words cut deep, and Ringo's face twisted in pain. She could feel the tears behind her eyes again, but fought them down.

"I am her friend," she managed around the lump in her throat. She was, right? She knew she was really doing this for herself, to get closure, more than for the chance that Kathy really would come back and want her stuff, but that didn't mean it was wrong, did it?

"And we don't always get to decide things just because we want to. If the school doesn't hear from Kathy for too long, they're going to need to let someone else use her room. So it's best if her stuff is put away safe."

That excuse was going to sound awfully thin if the administration left Kathy's room unoccupied for a whole year or something.

[not_every_mage]

Anders wasn't sure what he was even looking for, wandering up to Kathy and Raven's room like this. Some kind of message from her, maybe, or even the comfort of smelling her clothes.

Seeing Ringo there snapped him out of that particular reverie.

"You're already clearing it out," he observed, sounding dismayed. He understood someone would have to sometime, but it had barely been a week since the last message. "What's your hurry?"

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Oh, hey." Ringo turned, half-surprised to see Anders, even though she really shouldn't have been.

"I just," she paused, looking around awkwardly. "I just didn't want the school to do it, with the new term coming up. I, um, I didn't know what they'd do with it all." And she didn't want anything getting thrown away.

[not_every_mage]

"I guess that makes sense," Anders said grudgingly. "You'd think the school has enough empty rooms without stealing this one right away, but still. It's better to be safe."

He circled closer to the pile of boxes, brushing one with his fingertips. "Where will you put it all?"

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Some of it is--" Ringo paused, glancing over at Anders and taking a deep breath. "Some of it is for people. Presents and stuff, I guess. The rest?" She looked over the boxes. "Mister Spencer said that we could put them in his attic."

So they'd be there. Ready and waiting. If anyone ever came looking for them.

[not_every_mage]

Anders let out a breath. "That's good," he said, approving. "So if she ever makes it back, or somebody from her family comes looking for her things, it'll all be safe."

Not that he was expecting that in the slightest, but he still felt better knowing Kathy's things weren't going straight into the trash.

He wasn't going to ask whether Kathy had left anything for him. It would hurt too much of the answer was no.

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Yeah." Ringo nodded. "It'll be waiting if--" Well. If.

She took another breath and blew it out. "There're, um, some things addressed to you. If you want them." If not, well, she could pack those away, too.

She didn't quite look at Anders as she told him that, though. Not sure she wanted to intrude on whatever expression he might make. She knew that if someone had told her that there was something left behind for her, she would have needed a moment or two to process that.

[not_every_mage]

"Oh, Kathy," Anders sighed, hands to his face. The idea she'd squirreled away gifts for some happy future day was almost too much to bear. "I -- yes. All right."

He couldn't imagine what it was or why, but he wasn't about to turn down a last connection.

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo walked over to the bed where she'd laid things aside. She could have just waved at them, but these were wrapped like gifts, and those should be handed over properly.

She offered Anders an expression that might charitably have been called a smile and picked the wrapped box to hand over first.

Given the matching paper, he could probably figure out the other gift was his, too, even without reading the tag.

"There's a card, too," Ringo added softly.