Effie craned her neck to get a look back over her shoulder. Four wings, reminiscent of an insect's - long, narrow lattices of light that grew from her shoulder blades. (She wondered how they fit through her dress, but since they were probably as much a part of her code as the rest of her body, she figured it was probably accounted for.)
They felt fine; not like some exceptional power or anything, but simply like any other part of her body: in good condition and ready to serve their function. She felt an urge to take flight right then and there, but she didn't want to just fly off and leave Dennis - especially since he seemed to understand the layout of this place better than she did.
Dennis was looking on in amazement, with an expression that seemed familiar to her, but that she couldn't quite place. "You...wow," he said. "How did you do that?"
She smiled, feeling pleased with herself. "It was nothing, really," she said, with a modesty that wasn't entirely false. "I just kind of thought of travel and...I dunno, willed my transportation into appearing? Something like that. Come on, you try!"
Dennis looked down at his feet. He was kind of afraid to try...the OS he embodied was so stripped-down, what if he wound up with something embarrassing? "I, uh...maybe we can just walk..." he mumbled.
Effie laughed. "Oh, no, not in a place this size. Come on, Dennis! I want to see!"
Harry had retreated to one of the practice rooms when she cut out of lunch early, and was working on getting the hang of the flute again. She still had a ways to go, especially where sight-reading was concerned, but what playing ability she'd had was quickly returning. She didn't know whether it was because it was still in her muscle memory, or because she was just happy to be putting effort into something for once, but she was very happy about that.
There was a knock on the door, and she looked up to see Zoe peering through the window. She wasn't sure that she wanted to resume the conversation, but she got up and opened the door anyway.
The slime-girl sloshed inside and shut the door behind her. She stood there for a while, seemingly on the verge of saying something, while the silence grew increasingly awkward.
"Uh, look," she said, finally. "I, uh, I'm sorry about snapping at you for the way you were acting."
Harry frowned; that was a strange way to say something like that. Still, she could tell that Zoe was sincere, and if there was sarcasm in her tone, it was unintentional.
Zoe seemed to realize that herself; she sighed and shook her head. "Look, I stand by what I said," she said. "I know you've got some issues that you're working through, but you're really making a way bigger deal out of this than it ought to be, and that's probably unhealthy for you, as well as being kind of demeaning to the rest of us girls. But I was rude and snappish about it, and I shouldn't have been. So...sorry."
Truth be told, this didn't seem much better of a phrasing to Harry, but she knew the slime-girl was trying...it just didn't seem to come too naturally to her. She wasn't sure what she thought about "us girls," either, but...
"It's all right," she said. "I...um, I'm sorry I dumped on you like that. You're right, I've got a lot of issues I'm working through, and I just didn't have anyone to turn to...but I know I kind of overstepped."
Zoe nodded "'Salright." She turned to go, but paused at the door. "Keep it up with the flute," she said. "You could be pretty good with that."
Harry smiled. "Thanks."
