[sylvanSpider]

A Few Days Later
---ZEKE---
George lounged lazily in her handcrafted bed above Zeke's own. He was already getting his bag ready for school the next day, being the exemplary nerdy student that he was. “I can't believe I'm stuck taking this gen-ed fuckin' course on robotics. It's not like I'm ever going to need it. I mean, I don't use many robotics and those I do use can be fixed by a mechanic. Ugh. What in the way of gen--” his sentence was interrupted by an incessant beeping coming from his hip. Taking out his data slate, he was left rolling his black eyes and sighing. “It's Mum. She doesn't like the fact that I had a roommate. But, if she would have paid any attention at all to what I told her last semester, she'd know that I signed up for it, and she also would have known that I've had a roommate for a few days now.”

It wasn't that Zeke didn't like his parents. He did. They were just...insufferable at times. He clicked on the holovid, and sure enough a woman appeared on screen looking undeniably like her son. They had the same narrow features, the same black eyes. The females of his species even had the same horns he did. She was dressed in impeccable all-white clothing if only to match her all-white hair that fell in waves across her shoulders. A scowl adorned her features, the same one Zeke wore whenever he had to interact with her, and it was all too plain the two were related.

“45SQAC44, why have I not heard from you?” the woman's voice was as sharp as her appearance and she sat with her back perfectly straight.

This was in direct contrast to the recipient who sat slouched in his chair, his once prim and proper appearance seeming to have grown haggard within the course of the last couple of minutes perfectly coinciding with the indictment his mother gave him as to his aversion to holo-messages and videos. “I could ask the same to you, mother. Things have been busy. I've been getting acquainted with my new roommate and becoming familiar with my class schedule. It's been...difficult without my hoverboard.” He said, knowing full well that Neel also knew that his hoverboard was in complete working order.

“Your hoverboard? Well, what happened to it?” His mother honed in on his “needs” giving her any reason to hate on his father, “Does your father know you don't have one?”

“Actually, you're the first to message me since it happened. So, no. No he doesn't,” Zeke said, taking pleasure in her frown when she realized that she wouldn't be able to chastize him for not providing for their son. “It was stolen from my pocket and I've been traveling by shuttle since.”

“Well. We can't have that. I'll have one sent to you after we get off here. But come, tell me about your roommate,” she droned, doing her best to feign interest.

“Her name is Neel and she's a linguistics major,” he muttered, not willing to say much about her.

“A 'her'? Oh do tell me she is pretty,” his mother always had an aversion to his being gay in hopes that one day she could have grandchildren to do her more pride than her failure of a son had.

Zeke sighed, “Yes. She is very pretty. But she is still a 'she,' mother.”

His mother echoed the sigh, “Well. Whatever. I will have your hoverboard sent directly. You should be getting it in about an hour.” And then, without saying goodbye, the holovid went black and Zeke grinned at his roommate.

“What did I tell you? Told you I could get you a hoverboard without even trying.”

---MAGALI---
Magali lay on her belly on her bed, stealing glances at her colorful roommate. Her roommate's beauty still hadn't ceased to amaze her, and already she'd been able to do a sketch and a painting of her. Now, however, she had a book recently acquired in her hands, purchased the day before it was needed and quite grateful that her new employers were kind enough to give her an advance and, so long as she was on the clock, she could have anything on the menu. Working in the food industry was not something that she'd hoped to do, but she would do whatever was necessary to stay fed and in school and out of strangers' beds.

Of course, money was still tight, but the young felis woman was in high spirits, and high hopes. Her work on Meeqa turned out better than expected though Magali couldn't shake the feeling that both were missing something important that Meeqa possessed. A certain fire, maybe. Her likeness had certainly been put down well, but Magali just couldn't help but feeling that nothing she could ever make would ever compare to her. “Do you have any general classes?” Magali finally asked her, hoping that they would end up in maybe one or two classes together.