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**Recovery**

//**Bingo Hall, Girls Dorms**//

calliaphone blows her nose on an unused corner of her dishcloth, and surveys herself. Sneezes: mostly abated. Aches&shivers: gone. Throat: not hurting. She is on the mend!

calliaphone bounces eagerly out of bed, ready to take on the. . .ohh. Head full of glue, legs made of jelly, and . . . croup. She plomps down onto the floor, and coughs like a broken starter-motor.

Spandex looks around for one of sink's DRINK ME signs, but finds none. Damn. But then again, they're only a couple of floors up from the GODmachine: aka. Espresso. She turns to Callia. "Drink?"

Spandex leeeeans over. "Shiiittt skooch. What meds you on? You fucked up? Can I have some?"

calliaphone takes a break from coughing. she looks up, too puffed to speak, and merely nods.

calliaphone hasn't got any meds left, she drank'em all. worst luck.

Spandex studies her duvet-puzzle and solves it. Escaped! She stands, quite naked - brrrr! - while she shakes out the duvet and re-wraps. "Okay. Get back into bed. I'll return with fluids." 

Spandex hoiks up the duvet so she doesn't trip and heads downstairs.

calliaphone struggles back into bed and sits quietly, catching her breath.

calliaphone looks around and spies her tray full of toys. //that// gets her attention. she tugs it onto her lap, and starts to investigate. hmm hmmmm.

calliaphone is intrigued by the play-doh and dinosaurs, but even more intrigued by the tinkertoys. she examines them, figuring how they fit together. hmmmmm.

calliaphone starts to tinker. building, unbuilding, rebuilding. her forehead puckers as she constantly adjusts the design in her mind's eye.

calliaphone builds a series of upright posts, with overhead rails between them, and pulleys attached to the rails. then she frowns. and reaches for the play-doh.

calliaphone starts moulding. working with each of the colours in turn, she pushes and kneads and mutters, and produces a series of . . . miniature chairs?

calliaphone can't wait for the play-doh to dry, she doesn't have that kind of patience. so the chairs deform a little as she attaches them to the pulleys. but she don't care. she sits back and surveys her work.

calliaphone pops a dinosaur into each chair, causing the seats to sag even further. then. . .

calliaphone turns a little handle. there is a faint rattling sound as the chairs start to move, swinging on their pulleys, dangling from the rails above.

calliaphone grins happily, and wonders if dinosaurs know how to ski.

calliaphone sets her dino-lift aside, and picks up a roll of stickers and a sheet of paper. she examines the stickers. they suddenly all seem to be food-themed. and, quite unexpectedly, her stomach rumbles.

calliaphone is quite fascinated by the stickers. she peels off a smiling tomato, and looks around. where to stick it?

calliaphone decides that the bedposts needs brightening up. she carefully applies the sticker to the wood, and grins. //much// better.

calliaphone is in Decorating Mode now. peel, stick, peel stick. The bedpost is a salad, Cordy is a zoo.

calliaphone finds a sticker of a little yellow guy with spiky hair and a skateboard. she sticks it to the syrup bottle.

Spandex shoulderbarges her way in. She's holding an extremely food'ndrink laden tray and she's quite naked. "Lost the damn duvet on the stairs." She explains, setting the train down on a table.

calliaphone grins. "didya give anyone an eyeful?" she enquires, but her attention's already wandering towards the tray."ooooh. //foood//?"

Spandex snatches another duvet off one of the beds and wraps. Hopping a little from foot-to-foot, BRRRR, she gets to setting everything out, and hands callia her tea after spooning out the steeped flowers.

calliaphone pokes her nose into the cup. "whattisit?" she can't smell anything, yet. "is there sugar in it?"

Spandex shakes her head "naawww. And everyone's seen me naked already tons after all my Drive. . ." She pauses. "Did run into Talon. Invited him to picnic. Hope that's okay."

Spandex holds her duvet with one hand and gulps a bit of her giant espresso with the other. "Honey. Bee sugar, like."

calliaphone nodnods. course it's okay! a picnic is a party, you gotta have //people//!

Talon limps in, crutchless, but loaded with a lot of sandwiches on a plate in one hand and a big coffee mug in the other. "Uhm. . . hello?"

calliaphone looks up and gives Talon a broad grin. "Hi Talon, how's the ankle?"

calliaphone thinks they should re-name this room the sick-bay. and get a proper trained nurse in to look after them all. it would be the busiest room in the hall.

Talon shrugs which makes the pile of sandwiches wobble dangerously. "Getting better, I think." He nods towards his legs. "Walking without crutches now."

Spandex takes another life-affirming gulp and grabs the plate of fresh scones and peanutbutter and marmalade. "Hors d'oeurves!" And places it on the end of the bed.

calliaphone says, "s'good." and takes a swig of her . . . something-tea. honey, not sugar. and lots of it. she smiles appreciatively, and snaffles a scone.

calliaphone slathers peanut butter onto the scone, and stuffs her face. oh boy, it's been ages since she last ate properly.

Talon totters closer and settles down with his own meal, a little more meaty than hors d'oeuvres. "Heard you were sick?"

Spandex moves all the foods from the table to the bedside table and bed beside, all within callia's reach. She pours three tall glasses of OJ, and POPS the champagne with a smirk. "Couldn't resist."

Spandex quickly puts her mouth over the fizzy overflow, getting champagne all over her chin. She wipes it with her duvet. "Who wants some in their OJ?"

calliaphone nods cheerfully at Talon, unable to speak for peanut-scone. she gulps, swigs, and tries again. "caught that cold, 'member? it got worser, but it's gettin' better now."

Talon shrugs. Orange juice with champaign was something he usually didn't do, but what the hell? "Sure."

calliaphone looks interestedly at the fizzy. "yusplease."

Talon nodnods remembering through a vodkahaze. He remembers something else too. "So, how did the cough syrup adventure turn out?"

calliaphone frowns. her memory is also hazy. but she //does// remember Stanlygirl. "good!" she says. "look, i got all this stuff."she waves at the toys and stickers.

Spandex grins and tops up the OJs with champagne. Not lots, just enough for a bit of fizz and yum. She sets two on the bedside table, nudging a couple of kiwis over for space.

Talon raises and eyebrow and chews down a big bite of ham sandwich. "Nice loot." he acknowledges between two bites.

calliaphone finishes her scone and pokes at the tray. she picks up a bottle of soya sauce, puts it down, eats some chorizo, and spies a tupperware box. "whassat?"

Spandex shrugs, "beats me. Just stole it outta the fridge. Leftovers mebbe? Careful it's not some of Lo's experiments."

calliaphone munches on some cheese twists, while trying to open the tupperware.

Spandex takes a couple of gulps of her OJ and re-tops it up with champagne. She sips, smiling.

calliaphone gets the lid off, peers inside, and grins. "ohboy! //macaroni cheese//!" she grabs a fork and digs in.

Talon has some hamd and some BLT sandwiches, and he'd probably be willing to share. He leans forward to grab a glass with champaign-O, but can't quite reach it. "Uh, help?"

Spandex re-tops it up //again//, smiling more. GULP. She hops from foottofoot. "scuseme' and heads towards the loos.

calliaphone looks up. "whaddyaneed Talon? oh, the glass?" she passes it over, only slopping a bit. then she swigs from her own glass, and guzzles some more macaroni cheese.

Spandex returns and flops onto one of the beds. Her eyes close. "sorry. Stats. . ." zzzzzz.

calliaphone smiles at sleepy Dex, pushes aside the empty tupperware, and eyes Talon's sandwiches hopefully.

Talon takes a few gulps from his glass than sets it down on the carpet besides him. Hmm, carpet makes for unsteady footing it seems, at least for glasses. He puts it down more firmly.

Talon frowns a little at Dex, then shrugs and focusses on his sandwiches again.

calliaphone says, "what's in your sarnies, Talon?" she's leeeaning, to see better. practically falling out of bed.

Talon grins and holds up the half sandwich he's eating. "Some are ham." He points to one of the others on the plate. "Some are BLT."

calliaphone says, "mind if i. . .?" and doesn't wait for an answer. she tucks into BLT, for once not minding the L and T. her bloodstream is filling with nutrients, it is Good.

Talon shakes his head. "Nah, dig in." he offers smilingly, seeing as she already did.

calliaphone polishes off the sandwich and the champagne-O. she turns next to the yoghurt, sprinkling it with dessicated coconut, and breaking bits of cooking chocolate into the mix. "you want?"

calliaphone dollops out some of the yoghurt mix into her teacup, and sets to with a spoon. at last, satisfied, she sits back with a sigh.

calliaphone surveys herself. wow, she's //filthy//. a lot of the dried mud has flaked off now, but her clothes are still stiff with it, and with sweat. and now she's covered in crumbs and peanut butter to boot.

Talon probably doesn't look much better. Only his clothes are so //very nondescriptive// that noone takes notice that they are sullied with dirt, sand, blood and sweat, covered with tiny cuts.

Talon munches anothers sandwiches and declines the yoghurt shaking his head. The only dairy product he really likes is milk. And cheese. //Mmmm, cheese//.

calliaphone hops out of bed. legs not so jelly now, HAH, TAKE THAT, YOU VIRUS. she trots across the room to a dressing table, pauses for a noisy coughing fit, then searches the drawers for a toothbrush.

calliaphone finds a brush, and some paste! and a bar of imperial leather soap. turning to a nearby ottoman, she opens the lid and pulls out an armful of towels.

calliaphone snaffles some more chocolate from the tray, and then waves the toothbrush at Talon. "m'gonna go clean up. thanks for the sarnie, seeyalater'n'all that."

calliaphone disappears, in search of a non-flooded bathroom.

Mountjoy comes in and cleans up. He's muttering under his breath.

calliaphone trots back into the dorm, wrapped in a giant bath-towel. the fluffy kind. she is //sparkling//. Teeth pearly, mouth minty, cheeks pink and freckled. Mud gone, sweat gone, and she smells of soap.

calliaphone looks, quite frankly, a whole lot better. Apart from the noisy cough and the dark-circles under her eyes, you'd never know she'd been sick. She sits down suddenly on the bed. Still tiring quickly.

calliaphone replaits her hair, and considers her clothes. Now she's so clean, she hesitates to put them back on. At least, till they've been laundered. Hrmm. How to launder clothes?

calliaphone glances round, and sees a basket in the corner of the dorm. Worth a try. She dumps her filthy uniform into it, and watches as the clothes fall through it and into a laundry chute. Cooool.

calliaphone looks round for other things to put down the chute. She settles for. . . a pillow, a vase, two hairbrushes and a plastic dinosaur.

calliaphone pauses, as the last items vanish from sight. Hrmm. That was fun, but now . . . what is she going to wear?

calliaphone frowns. She wishes she knew where her dungarees and bra had got to. There's always the serge suit, but it's a bit . . . formal.

calliaphone has a sudden idea. She tucks her bathtowel a little more tightly, and trottrots out, in search.

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(Forward to [[mudlarking5|Epilogue]])\\ 
(Forward to [[the_tale_of_the_accordion_and_the_badge_making_machine|Consequences]])