[Open] Some Rats Don't Go Into Mazes

[work_wife]

WHO: Robin, Open
WHERE: Warrens Common Areas
WHAT: Anxiously Waiting For Results, Learning To Own A Dog
WHEN: November
WARNINGS: None

1. Back In The Same Maze

The Warrens. The last time they had ended up here Robin had still been new on Agra-10. Now here she is in the underground, looking worn around the edges, bruises around her throat existing as the faintest ghost of a memory, and hoenstly, looking annoyed. This time she doesn't have her things. She doesn't have all of her friends because some of them went and disappeared into the depths to explore (seriously, Eddie, why?).

Still doesn't make her feel any less worried. People are scattered and separated again. There's still a threat out there. In here. With them. Probably.

To say that Robin's jumpy is a serious understatement. While she's coming out of the shower area she jumps almost half a foot when she hears someone approaching. Well, more like when she hears Little Bear's excited boof over hearing someone approaching. At least the dog serves as an early warning system.

"Who's there?"

2. Exploring The Side Passages

At least there were ways to distract herself without her friends around. Sure, going off on her own had already made trouble for her in the past. In the recent past at that. But staying still in a single place had never been her style. Sure she hadn't been popular in Hawkins, but she had been used to wandering around town and biking places she wanted to go.

Being cooped up was never her style.

Thankfully she wasn't wandering completely alone. She had Little Bear on a makeshift leash at her side, the dog's tail wagging excitedly as Robin stopped them at an intersection off of the main Warren's area. She pauses, runs her fingers over a scratched in name on the wall. Something Billy Hargrove left here last time, when he named corridors based on streets he remembered from California. It made her feel closer to her absent friend.

"So, what do you say, Little Bear, left or right? I mean, we should probably double back, but you're clearly still excited to stretch your legs."

The dog just does a tappy little dance of excitement.

"Such a conversationalist," she sighs. "If only we could teach you english."

She needed someone to talk to before she went crazy.

Comments

[crystalmaster]

Radley is amused when people do that, unless they're driving and still do it then.

"Do you like it except for the random weirdness?" He's thinking she surely does unless her parents made her take it, since he didn't think that was a required school subject.

[work_wife]

"I mean, I like making the music, but the marching part of band is pretty disappointing," she says with a sigh. "And the school helps pay for the instrument, if I'm in band."

[crystalmaster]

He thoughtfully nods. "That's pretty cool they help pay. Too bad you have to put up with the craziness, though.

"I was privately tutored, so I never took marching band."

[work_wife]

"Oh yeah, super craziness. And they expect you to be friends with people that may not always be your sort of people," she sighs.

And remembers that confusion and frustration from her sophomore year. Better to let that go though.

"Yeah, a marching band of one would be interesting."

[crystalmaster]

"That might not be so bad, unless those guys really don't wanna be friends and are hostile about it or try to use you," Radley muses. He was lonely and wanted friends, but hated when he was forced by his grandmother to make friends with those who only wanted his money.

He laughs at that. "That'd be pretty pathetic."

[work_wife]

"They can be hostile. See, different parts of the band have opinions and stereotypes about other parts of the band. Not even kidding. And come on, haven't you heard of one man bands?"

So they aren't that pathetic in her opinion.

[crystalmaster]

Radley sighs. "I guess it shouldn't be a surprise there's attitudes like that there when it's that way everywhere else."

A chuckle. "Sure, I've heard of them in theory. Never actually saw one, though. They really still exist?"

[work_wife]

"There are always attitudes everywhere," Robin sighs. Because of course there would always be something like those.

She couldn't imagine a future where that wasn't true.

"And yes, of course they exist. I've seen them at the county fair."

[crystalmaster]

Radley really can’t either.

“Yeah? Cool. I’ll have to see if the big city has a fair when I get home.” And he chuckles. “My friend Scotch would love to be a one-man band.”

[work_wife]

"Well, tell him to start with the drum. Because nothing else really works if you can't do the rhythm."

Though the accordion was going to be a bitch either way.

[crystalmaster]

"Oh yeah, the drum is the most important part," Radley says sagely. "And probably what he'd have the most fun with. And a horn."

[work_wife]

"Oh no, a horn and drum person, huh? Going to be a menace."

Says a woman that plays the french horn. But she knows she's a menace.

[crystalmaster]

"Oh, of course," Radley chuckles. "That suits Scotch just fine. Virgil often complains he's a menace."

[work_wife]

"Do you... want to tell me about them?" she asks, voice soft and nervous. Because it seems like the best plan to her.

[crystalmaster]

Radley smiles a bit. "Scotch loves animals and old music and performing. He's always coming up with some new idea to make everybody happy. Virgil is grouchy, but he loves fairytales."

[work_wife]

"Sound pretty interesting," she smiles as they turn an obligatory corner and she finally sees it. The central area again. They made it back.

[crystalmaster]

"They are," Radley smiles. "They both like old Disney movies. New ones too."

He's pleased to see the central area. He had guided them correctly.

[work_wife]

"It's not like they make that many. I think there was something recently about a mouse detective? Little kid stuff."

Really little kid stuff.

"Thanks for the help."

[crystalmaster]

Radley laughs. "In my time, it's actually pretty common for big kids to still enjoy Disney, and admit it."

A smile. "Sure."

[work_wife]

Really? Robin's eyebrows go up. People did that?

"I didn't know they made enough for people to be like that."

[crystalmaster]

"My friends like the animated movies and also all the live-action comedies Disney made in the '60s and '70s," Radley says. "They did a whole bunch of those, usually about animals."

[work_wife]

"Yeah, the old ones for kids," she agrees, nodding. Those she had seen once or twice at school.

[crystalmaster]

"Some of them are still pretty funny," Radley says. "I found a couple of them at the space station we were at."

[work_wife]

Really? Robin smiles.

"I'm glad you got to see them then. If you did. I spent so much time working."

[crystalmaster]

"Yeah, I got them at the place I was working at, along with a portable DVD player," he smiles. "Maybe I could set up a movie night sometime ... or ask Donnie if he could do it. I'm not sure how to project an itty-bitty screen onto something big." He laughs.