Jill Mastrano Dragomir (surpriseroyal) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-11-13 21:44:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, !partner thread, jill mastrano dragomir, presto |
WHO: Jill Mastrano Dragomir and Presto
WHERE: Starbucks on campus
WHEN: Nov 13
WHAT: A meeting
RATING: PG
STATUS: log; completed
The Starbucks at 3 pm was always super busy. People were getting off classes and labs then, and they were either meeting for study groups or grabbing some caffeine before heading back to their homes or their dorms. Jill was there to study. Sure, her suites were much bigger, much quieter and much more comfortable, but that was the thing: they were much quieter. There was no one around except the security detail assigned to make sure no one tried to kill her again. Everyone was very respectful and left her alone. Which made it kind of lonely. Jill liked the energy and bustle of being around people; it got a little lonely otherwise. Unfortunately, the busy-ness of the cafe meant that seating was at a premium. Holding her tea latte, Jill searched the room until she found an empty chair across from a young man who seemed deep in reading. “Excuse me,” she said, giving him her friendliest, most unobtrusive smile, “Is this seat taken?” *** “Not at all, please joi-- Jill?” Presto interrupted himself as he stood politely, and smiled. “Jill from the Valarnet?” His smile spread wider as he was pretty sure he recognized her. He smiled and extended his hand. “Hey! How’re you doing? Please, join me.” He waved a hand at the seat she was aty. Hey, someone he knew! That was cool. And she had seemed nice on the net. Which was also cool. It was kind of nice meeting people from the Valarnet in real life. *** For a moment Jill was worried as she tried to place him. Was he someone he knew from her past life, who might reveal who she was? But then she remembered where she'd seen him, and she relaxed visibly. “Oh! Hi! Presto, right?” She remembered his distinctive name from the net. The fact that he was cute didn't hurt. She took his hand in a dainty shake and took the seat. “I didn't know you were going to school here. What are you taking?” *** “That’s me, yeah.” he grinned and settled to a seat opposite her, nodding to her. “Computer engineering and software work, especially as they surround the fields of networking computers and providing services.” He waved a hand around them, vaguely. “LIke, right now, I work in the server farm here at the university, doing my best to make sure the servers, the wifi, and the network, all stay running just fine.” *** “Oh! That's a very important job,” Jill said. She loved the wifi at the university. It was fast and unblocked, and she could Skype with her mom almost every night. “I don't know anything about computer engineering, but I do know that I don't know what I'd do if the internet ever went down.” *** Presto blushed red, down into his shirt top. “I enjoy it, and it’s fun. I take a lot of overnight shifts and do my homework then, a lot.” Nothing like having access to the full might of the university’s computers for your homework. It helped, some. He sat back, smiling. “How’ve you been?” *** “That helps,” Jill agreed. Sometimes she had trouble finding time to do all her homework, and she didn't even have to work. She had a lot of respect for people who did. “I've been…” She thought of Rose, and everything she'd been told - about the dreams becoming reality. It was extremely unsettling, but she'd been trained to keep her emotions under wraps. Especially when it came to such impossible things. So she smiled back. “I've been good! How about you?” *** “Half good, half a little out of it. I’ve been dreaming a lot lately, and I seem to have one set of dreams that won’t leave me alone. This County, man, is just crazy.” He paused, eyes searching hers, and then spoke softer. “And things from the dreams show up, here, sometimes.” *** Jill’s smile faded into a look of worry. Was she that transparent? She’d always been a bad liar, although when coached properly - which she had been, when it came to her real identity - she could recite her lies quite well. In this case, she definitely hadn’t been coached. No one, aside from Rose, seemed to have any idea of this whole dream situation. “I’ve heard about that,” she said. And Presto himself had told her so over the network. “What kind of stuff showed up?” *** Presto was just keyed up about the dreams and dream objects, okay? “First, a small magic deck of playing cards… that was alive.” he shook his head. “That was a pain in the ass.” Which was saying… not nearly enough. If not for the help of a kind stranger, well, he had a lot to thank Wisdom for. “Now, an Amusement Park car… the one that took me to the Realm in my dreams. It showed up in the backyard of my house.” And just about gave him a heart attack. *** “Maybe someone's playing a trick on you,” Jill suggested, because that easy way easier to think about than the idea of dreams being made reality. “There are a lot of studies that say people can influence what you dream about, so if they did, and made you dream about the amusement park car, then they could just put it in your backyard?” Yes, it was far fetched, but easier to swallow than the alternative, which she was still fighting. *** Presto licked his lips and shook his head, smiling gently at her. “I won’t fight you on this, but I know what i know, Jill.” He thought about how to word things. “The Dreams have real effects on this world, and things come from them. Powers, abilities, and objects… and maybe more.” He wasn’t entirely sure he trusted the Realm to stay closed, actually. *** Jill drew back. This was exactly what a lot of people - including her own bodyguard - had told her, but she still had trouble believing it. She didn’t want to believe it. It was one thing to read Twilight and think vampires were cool. It was quite another to be one. What would boys think? “What kind of powers and abilities do you have?” Her voice was small. *** Presto watched her, and let her run the debate in herself, and sipped his drink before he nodded again. He spoke softly, gently, as he replied, eyes on her. “Magic, like spells. In my dreams I’m a wizard, and I can do a little magic now. According to what other people say, it will grow as I dream more.” He swallowed, glancing around. “Probably best not to demonstrate right here.” *** Jill’s eyes grew wide. She was about to ask if he was doing any magic on her - since his gaze was so intense - when he said it wasn’t a good idea to demonstrate it here. She glanced around and spotted one of her guards, who was keeping a discreet distance. They definitely wouldn’t want her wandering off with a guy she’d just met. “I can’t go too far,” she said regretfully. “I’m...waiting for someone.” There was a small catch in the lie. Jill was really good with lies she’d practiced, but she wasn’t so good at coming up with them on the spot. *** Hmmm. That was… ahhhh. “Then it can wait.” Presto grinned as he glanced over, then back at her. “So… why the goons?” He asked it quietly and casually, eyes flicking to hers, curious, still friendly. *** Jill blinked. Once. Twice. She smiled pleasantly. “What goons?” she asked innocently, while she panicked inwardly. How had he made them? Should she warn them? Should she run away, or brazen this out? Rose would be so angry that her guards had been spotted. She might tell the Queen. Oh dear. Vasilisa would be so terribly disappointed with her. *** Presto closed his eyes, counted to ten, then smiled and nodded as he opened his eyes. “Of course, I must be mistaken.” He arched an eyebrow and did not look around at them again. “How are your classes going?” *** Jill didn’t believe for a second that he actually believed her, but she was glad he was letting the topic go. She wondered if she would have to tell Rose later that her guards had been spotted, and that there was at least one person here who knew she had a contingent of guards. Either way, for now she had to finish the conversation and extricate herself gracefully. “Oh, they’re classes,” she said with a small nervous laugh. “I have two papers due this week, and I haven’t started one of them. What about you?” *** “About the same. I’m great in my computer classes, but the social studies, and the English? Those are kicking my ass.” He gave her a hopeful grin. “I don’t suppose you would happen to be a genius in those, eh?” He could ignore goons, at least until he could find out why and what was going on. Man, he wished he had actual magic now. *** Jill was in fact pretty good at English, but she tamped down on her instinctive offer to help him out. He’d already spotted her guards, and more time with him might lead to him figuring out more things about her. Rose was definitely not going to like that. Still, he seemed nice. Maybe he wouldn’t say anything even if he did figure out what was going on. She bit her lower lip. “I’m not bad at English,” she offered hesitantly. “What are you having trouble with?” *** Presto smiled at her, and opened his books, going into the English tome, and then showing her where he had problems. He had a few. He was not great at English. And he hoped this would make things less tense. *** It did. With something else to focus on, Jill relaxed a little and offered help where she could. At the end of it, she pulled back and smiled encouragingly at him. “See? It’s not that bad, once you get the hang of it. It’s mostly the justification they’re looking for, not exact answers. It’s not math.” *** “That makes a lot more sense. Thank you.” He launched into the next problem he was having, still curious about the guys, but finding that schoolwork, and a friend, was far more important. Huh. Definitely cool. |