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SARN - GLAUSHIRE UNIVERSITY - AFTERNOON
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Louma slithers with May through the gardens lining the main road to the university, glancing around with a growing smile. She'd never be able to keep up any image of stoicism on these grounds, especially in current company. "We're just in the gardens, but it's... So exciting. I mean, nothing like I imagined it when I was young, but that imagined place isn't much more than is here." She grins at May, "Thank you for agreeing to let me drag you along, sweets~"
Maybelline hums, walking the familiar paths of the campus. She'd last been here nearly two years ago, but still knows the way around, and admittedly the joy of coming here for here is all in seeing Louma's excitement. "Of course! Though I wouldn't exactly say you're 'dragging me', scoops~. It's kinda surreal being back, not really on my 'to do list' while here. But it's still neat to see again. And I know it was a dream of yours, and that's more than enough for me."
Louma giggles, lightly bumping her tail against Maybelline's hip as they approach the steps of an entrance. "I know, a little bit early for nostalgia for you." She reaches for the doorknob, pausing with her hand on it. "I do hope it's not too early though."
Maybelline giggles, taking the hip check with an exaggerated sway. "Not too early... feels like a lifetime ago, things are so different for me from them."
Louma smiles, shrugging slightly. "It has been a very long two years, hm?" She opens the door, slithering inside with enough room for May to follow beside her, her tail propping the door open slightly. "Okay. Inside the Glaushire. university. I can say that now."
Maybelline follows inside through the opening Louma provides her, sticking close to her side. She giggles, watching her. "Inside the main hall at least. So... not many folks on campus this time of year, but you've got an experienced guide! There's the library, and the dorms, and the Sarn-famous engineering department. I might be a bit more familiar with that wing than the others."
Louma looks to May with a grin, nodding firmly. "Yep, I do hope you remember your way around, though hauling me out of here might be a bit of a chore." She turns to look at a line of headmaster's portraits as they pass, noticing the last is very new. "Was there a change in heads around your graduation?"
Maybelline glances along the portraits and nods, "Things were changing pretty quickly my last year here. I didn't pay much attention to it as a student, but I think it's because of all the change in technology happening behind the scenes... the last headmaster was one of the foremost representatives of the ICEE Generator tech, so maybe they stepped down as things started to shift in a new direction?"
Louma hums, frowning slightly. "That's a shame... To step down because of that. But I suppose if they thought staying would be a burden on continued education, it would be sensible." She chuckles after a moment, glancing at May and speaking in an exaggeratedly conspirational tone. "Or maybe they had to flee after a failed attempt to assassinate those who invented AMP tech."
Maybelline blinks, a little oblivious to that, "I don't... think so? I mean, I guess it gets a little cutthroat trying to get tenure, but uh oh that's a joke." She facepalms, chuckling. "I don't really know what the reasons they stepped down were, honestly. I was a little focused on my own studies. Probably too focused, to be honest, considering how things turned out. But... if they hadn't turned out like they did... I wouldn't be here with you!"
Louma turns her grin to a warm smile, bending and pecking May gently. "That's true. I suppose we would have heard about something so extreme, in any case. Shall we keep going? A lot to see!" She turns, ready to continue through the main hall to the engineering department, curious as ever what the learning conditions of the prestigious university were like.
Maybelline nods, pointing the way (although there's plenty of clearly marked signage that Louma has surely seen by now) as they begin to walk through the halls. "I don't think Sarn Academia is a place with all that many assassination plots... but maybe?" She starts pointing out a few things as they walk, listing off some of the university history as depicted along the walls, things that get drilled into new students pretty early on, from trophy cases to old pennants and the like, "The Engineering Wing has less of this kind of stuff since it's newer, but there's a dedication to some of the students who've gone on to make big advancements."
Louma nods as they go, slowing to read a plaque here or a nearly empty noticeboard there. Just before they leave the main hall, they come upon another wall of portraits, all much smaller than the headmasters, but much more numerous. The signage makes it obvious that it's to honor the top of each graduating year, but her eyes are immediately drawn to the familiar face near the most recent end. She grins brightly, scooping May up in her excitement as she gets close to the portrait. "Honors! Oh wow that gown is so sharp on you, love!"
Maybelline squeaks at the sudden scoop, finding herself face-to-face with... herself. She blushes, "Oh heck, I forgot that they put those up. I guess so... I mean, not to brag or anything, but I do know what I'm doing. It's... a weird feeling now, seeing that photo... you don't think the gown is too frumpy?"
Louma giggles, hugging May for a moment. "Not at all. You look rightfully proud and gorgeous~" She sighs wistfully before gently letting May down, giggling again. "Sorry, sweets, I got a little overexcited there."
Maybelline hugs back, taking a moment as Louma sets her down to squeeze Louma's hand. "Nothing to be sorry about, love. C'mon, the engineering wing is just through that door. I'll show you the Dynamo. It's a scaled down generator that the students maintain for practice. Probably not got much activity going on right now though, but it's still neat." She spares one last glance at the portrait of herself in her graduation gown, then leads Louma onwards.
Louma follows Maybelline's guidance toward the engineering department, calming herself a bit, but still looking around and smiling widely as they go. She spots the signage for the library on the way, slowly making a full mental map of the university. The dynamo rooms does seem to be fully abandoned, with nothing much in the room other than some cabinets and work tables around the walls, surrounding markings and a large unfaded shape in the middle of the floor. "Is it... Packed away in the cabinets? How small scale did you mean?"
Maybelline steps up towards the glass looking into the seemingly empty room where she did quite a lot of work as a student, peering inside with a frown. "Oh... I guess... they've dismantled it? Maybe next year's students will start to build a new one... maybe a better one, with AMP tech. That's a bit disappointing. Can't quite show you my handiwork." She sighs, a little wistfully, "That's just how things go I guess. Magitech is always changing, adapting, we're always learning new ways to harness and utilize magic. That's just the nature of the science."
Louma looks down to May, reaching for her and rubbing her back with a gentle touch. "I suppose it does line up with everything else you've told me. What about the lecture hall you sat in next?"
Maybelline steps back from the window, leaning into Louma's touch before nodding. "Oh! Oh yeah! The Devoss Hall. No way that's gone. It's just down this way."
Louma follows along with Maybelline again, asking what seem to be obvious questions to anyone that grew up even near the university, much of it confirming things she'd read about it when she was younger. They arrive at the lecture hall, finding the door closed, but unlocked. She pushes the door open, peeking inside. "Ooh, those benches look uncomfortable."
Maybelline giggles, "It's a lecture hall, love. All the seats are uncomfortable. It's like a challenge. The university has to make the seating so uncomfortable that the students won't fall asleep during lectures." She points towards the vague middle. "I'd always sit there abouts. I hated being called on, but always knew the answers. You sit in the front and you're just a brown-noser. But sit in the back and you're making yourself a target for the professors."
Louma giggles, slithering into the room to get a better look around. "You're too clever for your own good, sweets~ It doesn't seem so bad in here, but I guess surrounded by a horde of other students, this place has a different atmosphere, hmm?"
Maybelline walks with her, shrugging, "Not so bad. A little more chatty, but most folks just want to keep their head down in class and get their work done." She puts her hands on her hips glancing around, "I do kinda miss this part. The classes themselves... even if I sucked at the life part of it all."
Hadar clears his throat from behind Maybelline before speaking up. "She's right, you know. Far too clever, miss Frecklemeyer." The racoon tsks after speaking, standing a foot taller than May and dressed professor-smart in a brown vest and wool pants, with a white wool shirt. He looks over his glasses at Louma, intruding on his lecture hall, before giving May a small, slightly lopsided smile. "You're a little late, if you're just getting in for class."
Louma looks over May's shoulder as the professor approaches, a little bit of protectiveness taking the smile down a bit before she realizes it's probably just a teacher.
Maybelline eeps, turning and checking her posture, clearing her throat, "Ah, um! Professor Hadar! I didn't know you'd be in! And uh, no. No class today for me. Us. We're just having a bit of a tour. Showing her around. This is Louma. She's a girl. Friend. Mine." This is somehow flustering her more than meeting her parents somehow. She clears her throat, gathering her wits and reaching up for Louma's hand. "We're together. And she wanted a tour of the campus, so I was just showing her around. If that's alright?"
Louma tries to not giggle at Maybelline's reaction, slithering toward the door a bit and taking May's hand. She bows slightly to Hadar on being introduced. "A pleasure to meet you, Professor. May has spoken highly of your lessons."
Hadar chuckles, nodding a few times and giving the smallest wave to Louma. "And you too, miss Louma. Not often we see someone from Orela here. Less often someone feathered." He chortles a little, turning back to Maybelline. "And is that so? What a coincidence, I say. I occasionally speak highly of miss Frecklemeyer as well."
Maybelline blushes, "You do? I... I'm honored, Professor. Things didn't exactly turn out as I'd hoped as far as the career plans we'd talked about when I was a student."
Hadar sighs, nodding slowly. "That much is true, I suppose. I'm still lecturing on ICEE, but only about theory and maintenance. We've dropped most subjects that consider advancement for now, since AMP has flown forward so quickly. Of course, better magitech isn't a bad thing." He says the last part with a hint of disappointment. "Where is it you headed off to, anyhow? Francine said something about Aephix, I think, last we spoke."
Maybelline nods. "Aephix, yeah. Respite Falls, to be exact. They had a Mark IV that was in desperate need of upkeep, with the previous Engineer having disappeared years ago and the generator just running without maintenance ever since."
Hadar hums, rubbing his chin. "A Mark IV, hm? How long was it without maintenance? The cross manifolds, if it had them, get jammed up easily without regular checkups. You'd have to shut the thing down for a few days to stop a major issue."
Louma gives May a look not lacking in significance, but doesn't butt in. She does squeeze her hand in support, though.
Maybelline squeezes Louma's hand in return, "I had to replace the cross manifolds, but I kept it running outside of time needed to replace parts. But you're right... I should have shut it down completely. I got too cocky with it. Nearly paid the price too." She rubs a hand along her side, the scars beneath her clothing. "It had replacement part issues, but I didn't notice the containment was breached. If one of the locals hadn't risked her life to pull me out..." She shakes her head. "I had to rebuild from scratch."
Hadar glances at May's side, his smile falling a little before she reaches the end, nodding a bit. "Ah a kit generator, I presume? Aephix is a bit of a haul, that couldn't have been cheap, but it's not like were that many other options."
Louma settles on her tail a bit, giving May a grin as Hadar makes his assumption. "Not quite."
Maybelline shakes her head, "They needed power faster. I... built it from scratch..." She blushes again, "I had help of course, Brunilda is the one who pulled me out, and she's smarter than she thinks. Strix is a local tinkerer who is... brilliant beyond my ken. The design was mine though. I built an ambient source generator as a stopgap, then built a modified Mark 6 around it, scaled down for the town but built to account for growth. The containment uses a few AMP principles to reinforce and improve performance... overall... I did my best." She straightens as she talks, clearly proud of her efforts despite her initial attempt at humility.
Louma beams more and more as May continues, wearing her pride for the stoat gladly.
Hadar does his professorly best to hide his reaction, nodding a bit more enthusiastically than before. "Oh well good job then. Good job indeed." Something seems to click after a moment, though, the eyes behind the glasses looking a bit more excited. "You say you blended AMP and ICEE, though? Hrm hrm, we won't let anyone else know about that yet, but ah... Mail me some schematics when you're home, hmm? There's been whispers, but the AMP industry seems to be holding tight to their principles for now."
Maybelline hesitates, then nods. "I will. It's not much, I don't know enough about AMP to properly implement it. If they've started making the designs more publicly available, maybe you can send me some of the design theories in exchange? I'd love to see how a fully committed AMP generator actually functions."
Hadar chuckles, adjusting his posture a bit and nodding. "A trade then. I'm happy you found someplace that needed your brand of stubborn, miss Frecklemeyer. Quite glad. Now if you'll excuse me, I must get some paperwork in order. At least neither of you have to deal with that much!" He steps past them into the lecture hall, heading for his desk and beginning to rummage in a lower drawer.
Louma gives May another look, chuckling quietly. "Not quite, hm?"
Maybelline waves goodbye to her Professor with a chuckle, "No uh, not quite. Take care, Professor, I'll be in touch." She turns to lead Louma out of the Lecture Hall, back into the Engineering wing hallways, looking a little contemplative.
Hadar waves to the two as they leave, returning to his work
Louma slither alongside Maybelline, smiling at her. "That was an extra treat. It seems he thinks well of you, sweets... What's the matter?"
Maybelline nods, "Nothing's the matter... Professor Hadar's opinion... it always meant a lot to me. I hadn't even considered the idea of my work... I don't know. Contributing? To something. I don't know what. Just a few thoughts and feelings I'd let sorta die when I left college, all come rushing back to me."
Louma chuckles, leaning over and kissing the top of May's head. "May, you really don't give yourself enough credit. That's okay, I'll be by your side to make sure you know to be proud of yourself, though." She nods down a hallway, signed for the library and dormitories. "Shall we go look at dusty old books?"
Maybelline smiles up at Louma, "...I'm glad for that. We can go to the library if you want, but fair warning, I might spend the time looking at you instead."
Louma chuckles, blushing but giving May a look. "If I didn't think you somehow already knew most of what's in that library, I would think the competition between me and tech books would be close." They cut through one of the dormitory hallways on the way.
Maybelline giggles, "See, now you don't give yourself enough credit~. I definitely know which one I'd rather spend a long night with~." She glances through the hallways, grinning, "You know... we could do a slight detour. This is my old dorm."
Louma blinks, looking around them. "Oh? Sure, it'd be neat to see what the sleeping conditions are like after those rock-hard benches. Which room was it you had in particular?"
Maybelline counts the rooms, the current nameplates empty during the summer break. "Five... six... seven... Ah! This one!" She winks at Louma as she reaches up to see if it's unlocked. "Well, sleeping conditions are marginally better than in the lecture halls, I'll grant you that."
Louma lets the door swing open before slithering into the room, looking about. "Oh hm. I mean, this bed looks more comfortable than the one in the Engineers house, but these are some close quarters." Her tail brushes against May as she turns in the smallish room.
Maybelline lets her hand stroke along the length of Louma's tail as it brushes against her. "Just a little cramped, but we could make it work. This is definitely something I never got to do during my time here~"
Louma blinks, blushing as she feels May's hand brushing the length of her tail. She looks to the stoat, humming. "Make it work, hmm~? Have I been lured into a small trap of sorts~?" The end of her tail pushes the door shut before starting to draw up under May's touch.
Maybelline giggles, "Maybe~. You did want the university experience, and one part of it I never got to experience was bringing someone sexy back to my dorm room~"
Louma hums, blushing a bit brighter as her own movements bring May's hand close to her interlocked scales. "Well, I would be more than happy to repay the missed experience debt, sweets~" She leans forward, kissing the stoat.
Maybelline kisses back eagerly, letting her fingers knead along the edges of Louma's scales as she lets her passions take the lead.
Louma hums as the kiss breaks, blushing brightly as her heart pounds. She lets out a bit of a whimper as May's kneading provides the result she's looking for, protective scales spreading as Louma looks at her lover with a lusty gaze. "Mmh, you've got the advantage in these cramped quarters May~ Y'know, I've been watching you work on Dynamo, why don't you show me what else that delicate touch can be used for~?"
Maybelline lets her fingers work their magic, "I'm a bit of an expert~. But I'll show you a few things that aren't in any book in the campus library~."
Louma licks the side of her bill before letting out a soft moan. Her wings spread out and -HEY! They're blocking out the windows! Well I'm sure the two don't get up to anything too interesting in there...~