Room 313, Wednesday Evening

[ambassadorinara]

For lack of anything better to do, Inara had the radio going and was stretched out on her bed, reading a book.

The door was open.

Comments

[solo_sword]

Jaina was very pointedly not going up to 527. If he couldn't say goodbye, he could come to her to say hello. That's why after going for a walk, she came back to the room and asked, "Mind if I work here or should I leave?"

[ambassadorinara]

"No, of course not!" Inara rolled onto her side to watch Jaina. "What are you working on?"

[solo_sword]

"I'm breaking a toaster," she said simply, getting on her knees on the floor to pull the crates out from under the bed. "I'll fix it afterwards."

[ambassadorinara]

She wasn't sure what she'd been expecting to hear, but it wasn't that. "Why?"

[solo_sword]

She sat, shrugging as she started pulling open the crates. "Something to keep me busy. It's not like it was working to begin with, so I'm just redoing the whole thing."

[ambassadorinara]

"Oh. Alright, then." She went back to her book, trying to find the passage she'd been reading. "So you're not really breaking it?"

[solo_sword]

"Breaking it down, more like." And there would be no thoughts about how destructing things could be sort of fun, because that was one of the thoughts she wanted to get away from. "And who knows, if it works, there's something useful for... someplace."

[ambassadorinara]

"The common room could probably use another toaster," she suggested, "or someplace else, if you do something else to it so it's not quite a toaster by the common definition anymore."

[solo_sword]

Jaina eyed her warily. "I'm afraid to ask how bad you think I can mess this baby up."

[ambassadorinara]

"Oh, no, that's not what I'd meant at all! I just meant that you're technically inclined, so maybe you would have done more than just repair it," she said quickly, hoping she hadn't offended Jaina.

[solo_sword]

"Create supertoaster?" she asked, considering the half-mess in front of her. "Maybe I could get extra credit for it if I did, as long as there was no weaponry involved."

[ambassadorinara]

She blinked. "You would have considered putting weaponry on it?"

[solo_sword]

"It's one of the rules for our inventions for class. No weaponry. Which means my brain automatically considers it for stuff like that," she explained. "Yes, I know how that sounds."

[ambassadorinara]

"Like a soldier, or someone who's used to being prepared to fight," she said with a shrug, "but not in a bad way."

[solo_sword]

Jaina sort of thought it was, but it was necessary. "Want to explain that to my professor? Because I think this thing could look great with tiny lasers." She was joking. She'd save the lasers for something else.

[ambassadorinara]

"Unless the lasers are being used to melt the butter, no," she said, laughing, "and he wouldn't listen to me anyway."