does not anymore work

[campanas]

Here, in a place where she is quite an unexpected sight, is:

an eight year old girl with brown-flecked white wings, looking dismayed and lost.

with Prime (Aestrix)

with Edie and Emily (Maggie)

with Gloria (Maggie)

with Gren (Rockeye)

Comments

[maggie_of_the_owls]

The books are in the bag Gloria put them in as they were leaving the club, set beside the sofabed.

[campanas]

Pen reads a book. Then she looks around for other things to do.

[maggie_of_the_owls]

There are other books on various shelves, but they are not intended for eight-year-olds. There are some reasonably blank walls she can probably get away with shooting arrows at.

[campanas]

But she shot arrows last night. And was not very good at it. Hmmm. What else is there in here?

[maggie_of_the_owls]

There is packaged red liquid in the fridge that, if Pen properly understands how vampires work, she can probably identify as blood. Also some other beverages. There is a television. There is a coffee table shoved off to the side to make room for the sofabed with a half-full sketchbook on it.

[campanas]

Pen doesn't recognize the TV, but she knows what a sketchbook is. She looks at the pictures in it.

[maggie_of_the_owls]

Many of them are of a dark-haired woman. In the ones with color, it becomes apparent she has green eyes. She is consistently drawn flatteringly. There are also sketches of a handful of other people; a woman with wavy dark hair that curls over one eye, usually drawn in a suit; a stouter woman with short straight hair; a slender woman with short blonde hair, with and without a similarly blonde man a few inches taller than her, a darker skinned woman sometimes depicted in what Pen probably won't recognize as Egyptian clothing.

[campanas]

Pen looks at all of the pictures. When she gets to a blank page she hunts for a pencil.

[maggie_of_the_owls]

There is a pencil on the floor just under the coffee table.

[campanas]

Good! Pen picks it up and draws things. Stick figure angels and lopsided Janegems and the space plant.

[maggie_of_the_owls]

Klaudia will be awake at about seven o'clock, if Pen's still occupied by then.

[campanas]

Pen by that time has gone back to reading.

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Hello," she says. "You must be the child Gloria found yesterday."
This is, apparently, the green-eyed woman from the sketchbook.

[campanas]

"Mm-hm."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"How long have you been awake?"

[campanas]

"Dunno, hours probably."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Have you eaten? We don't exactly keep a lot of solid food around."

[campanas]

"Had fruit. Hungry again though."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"We've got some protein shakes for emergencies if you're hungry enough you'd rather not wait for takeout. Do they have Chinese food or pizza in your universe, because those are the only two takeout numbers I've got memorized."

[campanas]

"Dunno. Don't think having. What takeout?"

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"I call a restaurant and tell them what food you want, and they deliver it and I pay for it when it gets here. Do you have any allergies or religious dietary restrictions?"

[campanas]

"No."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Do you want a shake while we wait for the food to arrive?" she asks, picking up her cell and dialing the pizza place.

[campanas]

"What is shake?"

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"A protein shake is a beverage with a wide variety of nutrients in it for when people don't have time to properly eat something. Yes, hello," she says into the phone. "I'd like a small supreme and an order of breadsticks, please." She rattles off the address. "Alright. Thank you. You have a nice day too." She hangs up.