ArchivedLogs:Spologies

Spologies
Dramatis Personae Mallory, Aloke
In Absentia	2013-11-14 Aloke checks in with Mallory before he heads out with Jax. Scene immediately follows Off the Bench. (Part of Infected TP.)
Location <XS> Mallory's Room - FL3
The room is a little more expansive than the shared student dorms a floor below, this suite includes a small sitting room, a small bedroom, and a small private bathroom. Decorated in soft fabrics in light hues and simple furniture in dark wood, Mallory's room seems to have been purchased largely from a popular Swedish furniture store. The room looks lived in, with occasional piles of papers, half finished books, or an empty, forgotten tea cup sitting on an end table or flat surface. Under the window is a modern take on a fainting couch, dotted with pillows in soft creams and yellows. The room smells lightly of tea and citrus, although the scented candle sitting on the small round dining table indicates that it is 'London Fog' scented. One of the two chairs at the table has a cardigan sweater discarded over the back of the simple, open back chair. Almost all of the wall space has been taken up with matching dark wooden book shelves, filled with neatly organized books. Each set of shelves dedicated to a genre of books, alphabetical by author, in neat rows, some of them quite old from the looks of them. Occasionally, in the rare empty space on the shelves, there are photographs, mementos and knick knacks, but they are few and far between. A smattering of artsy photographs and sketches in simple metal frames hang in the empty wall space, though there is always room for more. Beyond the front sitting room, the bedroom door is typically pulled most of the way shut, although when open, a reasonably warm, comfortably decorated room is visible beyond. Done in various shades of blues ranging from pale sky to deep ocean green-blue. It’s eclectic, lived in, and perhaps a touch on the disheveled side, but comfortable looking. On a good day, the king size bed is made, with nice little throw pillows adding accents - normally, though, the pillows have been tossed aside in favor of comfort. Aloke slipped out of bed for a quick trip downstairs almost half an hour ago at this point. It's not /that/ early in the morning, but then, the pair could have any number of reasons for needing a little extra rest. Dressed for the trip in PJ pants, slippers, black Ramones t-shirt and fluffy white robe. Aloke reenters Mallory's dorm like a whisper, and gently nudges the door shut with his hip. In his hands are two, full glasses of water. He sets one down on the nightstand by her side of the table, and walks around to what has essentially become 'his side' of the bed. He slips his legs under the covers, and scoots next to the Mallory-furnace, but still sitting up in bed. He holds the water glass in one hand, and rubs Mallory's back with the other. "Mallo," he whispers. "You awake?" Mallory is apparently a fairly heavy sleeper, at least this morning, it would seem. In the time since Aloke had left, Mallory had apparently started a slow creep across the bed, now rather solidly sprawled in the middle, face down with her head in one of the pillows. The subtle rise and fall of her shoulders indicates that she’s at least somewhat asleep, tip of her tail twitching idly beneath the covers at the movement beside her in bed. One shoulder strap of her purple tanktop has slipped down her arm, the other side half hiked up her side from the creeping movement across the bed. Her hair, despite being back in a long braid, is half caught on the point of one of her horns, and otherwise disheveled from the night’s sleep. The touch to her back apparently wakes her, judging by the slight jump at the contact, and she blearily blinks up at Aloke in sleepy confusion. “Mmm?” she growls faintly, apparently not being quite a morning person, instead shuffling over to curl around Aloke’s now seated form, wrapping her arms around his waist and pressing her head to his side. “‘Sit morning ‘ready?” she asks quietly, stifling a yawn as she speaks, closing her eyes again against the stubborn morning sun filling the room through the crack in the curtains. "You know…" Aloke says, still whispering. He briefly stretches to set his glass down on his side table. "You have a habit of taking your 'half' out of the middle, you know that?" Aloke's smile is gently teasing, but he doesn't let up on the back-rubbing, perhaps to purchase himself some room for snark. He reaches briefly untangle her hair from her horn, and says, "I was just talking to Jax downstairs. He brought some food in for the school." The snark gets a nuzzle into Aloke’s side accompanied by a grumble, as Mallory stifles another yawn; she seems to be moving towards wakefulness, at least. She seems quite content to just relax there, head against his side, a happy sigh at the back rubs. “Not my fault,” she says, pushing up in bed to prop herself on an elbow and look at Aloke, smirking faintly at the snark, bleary sleep still in her eyes, “Not used to… sharing. S… ‘pologies. Y’didn’t seem ta mind so much while we were.” She yawns, covering her mouth with the back of her hand. Tilting her head curiously, she nods slowly at the mention of Jax, eyes starting to come into focus. “Alright? How’s he doing? Kind of him to bring food… I was starting to, well, wonder. Where it was coming from,” she stretches, straightening her legs and tail beneath the blankets before she curls back closer to him. Aloke smiles down at Mallory. "Ok, 'Spology' accepted. First I thought it was just because my bed is so small, but I can live with this. A blanket hoarder." He clears his throat, suddenly slightly pale at his own wording: 'live with'. With any luck, Mallory is too sleepy to catch it. "He's doing ok, I guess? But um, I'm gonna go into the city with them today, and help out, collecting more stuff. Just wanted you know where I am… because, I think about where you might be. What you're up to, during the day…" Aloke takes a deep breath. "Uh, kind of a lot." He moves to massaging the back of Mallory's neck with one hand, and reaches for his water again, drinking nearly half the glass in one pull. “I am /not/ a blanket hoarder, thank you very much,” Mallory says, the sleep clearing from her voice as she talks, her accent returning more to the proper sounding, non-sleep addled state it is normally in, “Mattress hoarder, yes. But you can have all the blankets. I just sprawl.” As though to demonstrate, she stretches again, tail actually lolling off the far end of the bed lazily in the movement. The humor in her voice, however, drops entirely, and she sits upright in bed, pulling her legs back under her to look Aloke square in the eyes, concern and worry on her features.. “You’re… you are going to what?” she asks, somewhat confused, “But the ci… New York is even worse than it is here. Not to mention the quarantines in place in /both/ areas.” There seems to be a bit of panic creeping into her voice, though she takes a deep breath, steadying herself, her eyes closing. “Apologies. I… please stay safe?” There’s a pleading note to the question, as she opens her eyes again, the worry rather decidedly set in her features as she looks at Aloke, chewing on her lower lip anxiously. Aloke blinks when Mallory corrects herself on saying 'city'. "Oh shit, I'm sor-" His eyes go wide and then he just closes them tight for a moment, jaw clamped tight. He takes another deep breath, and says slowly, carefully, "I 'spologize'. I can't believe I said the C-word. I could have infected you. Did um… Did I stutter or repeat myself? I never realized when I was doing that before." He shifts to fold his legs under him to be kneeling as well, and gathers Mallory into a hug. "Of course I'll stay safe. I promise." Mallory shakes her head, and raises a hand to run it through Aloke’s hair, just watching him for a moment. “It’s alright. No. No repetition or pausing. You have stopped the stuttering since you started treatments, just have to be careful with the words,” Mallory says quietly, giving in to the hug and wrapping her arms around Aloke tightly. She laughs lightly at his repeating of her sleep butchered word, “Oh, god, I’m never going to live that down. ‘Spologize. My professors back home are cringing from a distance, I’m certain of it.” The hug tightens for a moment, and Mallory buries her head in his shoulder, holding him tight, “You better. I wish I could convince you to stay here, relatively safe with me, but I know I can’t. So I won’t try. But please come back. Safe. In one piece. Please.” She is still not quite willing to let him go, just holding tight to him for as long as she can. Aloke sighs into the hug, relieved that his symptoms seem somewhat abated at least. He turns his head, brushing against the base of her neck when he murmurs, "Nope, no chance. 'Spologies' are going down in the annals of history as an attribution to the great scholar, Mallory Winthrop." As he speaks, he gradually works his way closer up to her ear, whispering as he goes. "I promise I'll come back. But on the other hand, I'm here right now, and I've got almost an hour before I have to go…" Aloke's wandering hands don't leave much to ambiguity, regarding his 'subtle' suggestion for how they might make use of that time." “‘Spologies,” Mallory snorts, shaking her head. With a groan, Mallory nips at Aloke’s neck, the groan turning into a giggle, “Oh that is not fair. Not fair at all.” She shivers at the movement along her neck, pulling him closer to her with an impish smile. “Mm hmmm,” she breaths against his neck, her own hands meandering their way in a similar manner, starting to pull him back into the bed alongside her, the smile on her lips only brightening at the suggestion.