Dizzy Land

Of the four private rooms (http://community.livejournal.com/dizzy_backstage/63954.html#cutid1) in the First Aid station, two had neatly hand-lettered cards stuck on the doors: one said "Calvin", the second "Susan". Susan was now contemplating the third. If the new girl did indeed stay there, that left one more private room, plus the examination room, in the event that any patients showed up. Which would probably be all right for now.

She almost didn't hear the knock, but realising what it was, she hurried to the door and opened it, finding a very tired-looking Pearl.

"Come in, Pearl. Sit down. There you go. Do you need something to drink? Something to eat?"

((Is it okay if Calvin pops into this thread at some point? Because he needs to learn that he's got a new housemate. ^_^))

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Pearl clutched her new red ball tightly to her as she did what Miss Susan instructed and sat. "No, thank you." She looked down. "I don't mean to be a bother, but you said I could come see you and you'd help me find a place to stay and I was hoping that maybe I could sleep here just for now and we could find something else tomorrow only I don't know where to look and I was supposed to be in bed hours ago..."

((And that's fine with me. :D))

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"You're not a bother," Susan said. "Tell you what, if you're tired, you probably should go ahead and sleep, all right? And you're welcome to stay here as long as you like. In fact, I'd prefer it."

It wasn't that Susan didn't trust the other park residents to take care of children ... well, all right, apart from a very few exceptions, she didn't. But more than that, taking care of children was something that she did very well, and it seemed only natural to take the latest arrival under her wing.

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Looking all her gratitude, Pearl immediately curled up in the chair and let her eyes close without another word. She normally slept on the floor, so it was comfortable enough and she didn't expect anything more.

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She must have been exhausted to drop off so quickly. Carefully, Susan scooped her out of the chair and carried the sleeping girl to the third private room, where she tucked Pearl into bed and turned out the light.

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Pearl slept all afternoon and through the night, not waking until the sun came in through the window the next morning. Dazed and in unfamiliar surroundings, it took a while to remember where she was, and when she did, she didn't quite know how she'd gotten into the too soft bed that was so high off the ground. Eventually she struggled out of it and opened the door.

"Miss Susan?" she asked quietly, not wanting to wake anyone.

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Susan had already been up for some time, going through the lesson papers and trying to figure out what might be suitable for Pearl. At the soft voice, she stood and went to meet the girl. "Good morning, Pearl. Sleep well?"

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With a huge yawn, which she covered with her hand, Pearl nodded. "I don't think I was ever so tired before, but I feel much better now, thank you. I was going to put away the bed, but I didn't know how. I will if you show me, though."

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Pearl's offer to help was met with a slow, astonished blink -- Susan had by now become accustomed to Calvin's usual method of dealing with chores, which was to say, ignoring them as creatively as possible. Remembering at last that there actually were conscientous children in the world, she nodded. "Of course. You don't have beds like this where you're from, then?"

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"No. We sleep on a futon on the floor, which gets folded up and put in the closet every morning," Pearl explained. "But I guess when Mystic Maya and Mr. Nick get married, I'll have to get my own futon. Or maybe Mystic Maya will let me keep the one we share because I think Mr. Nick has a big bed like yours." It would be hard to keep his hair so spiky (http://www.rpgfan.com/pics/phoenix_wright/art-009.jpg) otherwise.

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Speaking of spiky hair...

"Susan!" called Calvin at the top of his lungs as he entered the room, hopping on one foot as he tried to fit the other into a rainboot. Over his normal outfit he'd tied a red cape, and a space gun from a Tomorrowland giftshop was strapped to his side. "Susan, where's my pirate hat? I was using it to hold a bunch of..." He came to a screeching halt, still only wearing one boot. "What's she doing here!?"

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"Hello, Calvin!" said Pearl cheerfully. "Do you stay with Miss Susan, too?"

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"What do you mean, 'too'?!" demanded Calvin, half-indignant and half-bewildered. "You don't live here. What are you doing here?!"

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Pearl looked up at Susan. "I've been invited to stay, I think..."

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"She'll be staying with us, Calvin," Susan said firmly. "She's got nowhere else to go and there's plenty of room here." She plumped up the pillow and set it down. "Of course, I could always put you both in the same room..."

((*facepalm* I am so sorry for falling off the face of the earth there, guys. AND for not thumbtacking this thread. Amended...))

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A little horrified at the thought of sharing a room with Calvin, Pearl tried to change the subject before she had to find another place to live.

"Miss Susan, where do I go to make breakfast? Mystic Maya won't let me use the stove unless she's watching, so I can't make eggs, but we could have cereal and orange juice. I never spill anymore."

((Oh, man, I'm really sorry. I thought Calvin was going to reply. XP))

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The threat was meant for Calvin's sake rather than for Pearl's; indeed, Susan had no intention of doing any such thing.

"There's the Carnation Cafe (http://www.mouseplanet.com/guide.php?pg=AAE402) ... but look, you don't need to make breakfast. I'm not too fond of letting children near the stove unless I'm watching either." No, that was not a meaningful look shot at Calvin there. "Come along, both of you, and we'll get you something to eat."

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Pearl fell immediately into step behind Susan. She was so used to following Mr. Nick around, she didn't think twice about it.

A little surprised at the fact that she wouldn't be making breakfast, Pearl wondered what her chores would consist of, but decided to ask after they ate since her stomach was grumbling a little.

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It was at this point that Calvin, whose brain had nearly shorted out with outrage, regained the power of speech.

"What?!?!?!"

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"Breakfast, Calvin. You are hungry, aren't you?"

There was, Susan knew, a lot more behind that "What?!?!?!" than merely the question of what was going on right at that moment, but it was easier to take these things one catastrophe at a time.

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"No! I'm not!"

Which was true. His stomach was suddenly twisting in knots.

"You're kidding, right? This is a joke, right?" The voice was more reasonable. The sentiment was not. "She can't live here! This is where I live!"

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"And there is room enough for both of you," Susan said firmly.

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"NO THERE ISN'T!!! She...she'll get girl cooties everywhere!! This is MY house!!!"

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Oh for the love of ... "Just a moment, Pearl," she said, and gently but firmly steered Calvin back into his room. She sat down on the edge of the bed and leaned forward.

"Calvin, look ... I am sorry, but I can't just leave her to her own devices. I've got plenty of time for both of you, and you needn't worry about that."

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"I'm not. I don't care." Calvin crossed his arms, his lower lip wobbling. "But it's not fair. Why does she have to stay with us?! There's all kinds of places she could stay! I don't want her here!"

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Something about the lip-wobble gave Susan a twinge, but she didn't dwell on it, focusing as she was on trying to get Calvin to see reason. "Looking after children is what I do, Calvin, and I can't very well look after her if she's somewhere else. And I did say it was likely that if any other children arrived here, I'd be looking after them." Which she had said, once, in passing. But it had been a brief, undwelt-upon throwaway moment, discussion of The Divine Comedy taking precendence at the time.

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"You did not!" stormed Calvin. As if he'd be paying attention to offhand remarks about theoretical future events when there were giant half-frozen three-faced heads chewing people to focus on. He clutched Hobbes, who shot Susan a worried look. It was somewhat obscured, however, by the angle and also the comic book he'd been reading when the two humans came in and was still holding in one front paw.

Calvin glared at Susan over Hobbes's shoulder. "You can't just bring in any cootie-carrying girls you meet on the street! This is tyranny! Taxation without representation! It's not fair!!!"

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"It has nothing to do with taxation, girls haven't got 'cooties', and as for tyranny --" She broke off; flaring up would not do. Sadly, she missed Hobbes's look altogether. "Calvin, please be reasonable. This will be fine."

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she wanted to wince. She never told anyone that things would be "fine". Oh, bloody, bloody damn.

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"It will, huh? Well, FINE, then!" Who needed a Susan anyway, telling you what to do all the time? Calvin yanked up the blankets on his bed and put his head under them, by way of signalling that the conversation was over. She could go and boss around her new kid all she wanted.

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"...Calvin." She reached out a hand and stopped just short of trying to pat his head through the blankets. She pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed heavily.

"We'll continue this conversation when you've calmed down," she said. "I'm going to take Pearl to get breakfast, and when you feel like talking, I'll be right here. With food, even."

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Stubborn silence.

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Right. Silent treatment. Nothing she hadn't dealt with before, countless times. "I'll be back in a moment, Calvin," she said calmly.

She opened the door. "Pearl?" Silence. "Pearl, are you there?"

She went through every room and storage closet of the First Aid Station twice, then around the building and through the childcare station next door, and there wasn't a sign of the girl.*

Oh, this was shaping up to be a superb day.

*This took rather longer than one might expect~~, providing an excellent opportunity for someone else to slip away in the meantime~~.

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Pillowcases make good stand-ins for suitcases. Well, quick stand-ins, anyway.

"So where are we going?" asked Hobbes, holding the case open as Calvin hurled in various items: his transmogrifier gun, various interesting rocks, a half-empty pack of chewing gum, a copy of the Odyssey they'd been working their way through.*

"Away."

"Okay."

"We'll go..." The full magnitude of it being impossible to go home had never really hit Calvin. Fortunately, his sense of pride was too strong for him to give in now, and admit he wanted to leave Disneyland for his boring old hometown and Mom and Dad. Reality, once again, approaches Calvin and does a hard swerve at the last minute.

"We'll go on that safari we've been talking about! Here, wear your pith helmet. We can look for other tigers, and see if they'll let us live with them."

"Tigers aren't herd animals," said Hobbes in a tone of mild offense. "We live alone and hunt alone."

"Well, then, we'll do that!" Calvin handed his backpack to Hobbes and slung the pillowcase over one shoulder, ~~Hogfather~~ Santa Claus-style. "We'll lurk in the shadows and be lone wolv...tigers together. Now shut up for a second."

Fortunately (or unfortunately) Susan was in the childcare station as they snuck away; Calvin's idea of stealth was to inch along walls while humming the tune from Mission Impossible under his breath. And then to run like heckfire. Considering he had to stop at one point to pick up a package of balloons that had fallen out of his inadequately-zipped backpack, they made good time to Adventureland.

* Monsters, giants, dead people drinking blood, people getting changed into animals: a surefire hit with Calvin. He generally skipped over the bits that looked like they might be mushy, though.

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Furious and deeply worried, Susan paused a moment to wonder why on earth Pearl would have run off. The girl seemed acutely eager to please -- could Calvin's burst of temper have -- oh damn.

She wasn't going to yell at Calvin, or even really try to guilt-trip him; she just wanted to make him aware that his actions had consequences and --

She stood at the door of his room. The silence in the First Aid station was deafening, and she noticed gloomily the absence of the transmogrifier and the book.

"Oh, sod!"

((And Susan's day will continue in a new open RP, I think.))

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