forum Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. // OxO // ClOSED

Started August 24, 2022 by @EtherealDreamer

tune

Aspen nodded. "yeah," She told Maya "I think this'll be fun."

She smiled a devilish smile at both River and Maya.
"And plus we get food too." She told them excitedly.

"Indeed we do," Maya grinned. "Good news is, I've been working more on my concealment illusions so if Finch comes after us we have a better chance of not getting caught."

Aspen smiled and laughed.
"It's so cool that you can do that!" She said excitedly. "I think it would be so cool to be able to do that."

"Yeah, but it gets exhausting sometimes," Maya sighed. "Takes a lot of energy out of me."

Aspen's smiled faded.
"Oh…" she said "is it like that for everyone, or does it just differ?"

"Nah, it's just me," Maya chuckled. "My illusions only happen when I raise my arms or legs up." She demonstrated this by lifting up her left arm, and a very realistic illusion of a golden retriever appeared, wagging its tail. "My muscles start to ache after doing this for a few hours, so it's more of a personal thing then a peculiar thing."

Aspen nodded.
"okay." She said "I hope that doesn't affect your food grabbing ability."

Maya lowered her arm and the dog immediately vanished.
"My ability to grab food is unmatched," she said proudly. "No one has been able to horde more snacks than me."

Aspen smiled.
"I don't know…" she trailed off "I think River would give you a run for your money."

"Is that so?" Maya asked with a raised eyebrow. "Challenge accepted."

River grinned nervously. He had stolen before, but it was always in small amounts and never as a fun, friendly challenge between friends. This would be interesting.

Aspen smiled at both of them.
"If anyone that isn't in on stealing food," she told them "I'll whistle like this."

she then pursed her lips and gave three high pitched whistle in a row.

"Sounds good," Maya said, giving Aspen a thumbs up. "We should probably get going now."

Aspen gave a thumbs up as well as Janix stood outside the door in the dark hallway.
Aspen stood on the other side of the door, like bodyguards guarding the throne room.
"Good luck guys." she whispered to River and Maya.

"Thanks," River said before Maya dragged him into the pantry.
River blinked in surprise at how vast the room was. It was circular, and had shelves stuffed with a large variety of snacks, more than River's ever seen in his life.
"This is just the first pantry," Maya smirked, amused by River's reaction. "There's at least six of them all around the castle, and they double as natural disasters or seige shelters, if the castle's ever invaded or if a really bad storm hits."
"Amazing," River breathed, grabbing a few snacks off of the shelves and stuffing them into his pockets.

Aspen waited patiently outside the doorway of her room, once she heard a noise, but it was just a ginger cat with blue eyes heading down the hall they were in.

"That's Mr. Ging, our cat, he belongs to everyone in the castle." Janix whispered, as she saw Aspen make a startled look and pursue her lips to try to send the signal.

Aspen calmed and nodded.

River laughed as he stuffed snacks into a large potato bag he found in the corner of the room, feeling great.
Maya was going for the top shelves first, throwing down the snacks to Darius who caught all of them with ease.
"It's taken around a century of practice for us to get good at this," he explained when he caught River staring at the two of them in surprise.

Aspen continued to watch and a few minutes later both Darius and River came out carrying bags of snacks.

"Whoa" she said, spying Maya, who had snacks in her arms. "That's a lot."

"This was just pantry number one," Maya said, grinning widely. "We still got a lot more to go."
"Yeah, but we don't want Mrs. Finch to catch us," Darius said, frowning. "The last time she got us then it took 2 and a half years to refill all of those pantries."

Aspen nodded.
"Maybe we should just stick to the pantry one for tonight." She told them and Janix nodded.
"To avoid being caught." She said in a maternal tone.

Maya gave a dramatic sigh. "Alright, fine. If you insist. Let's go back to our rooms, this bag is getting heavy."

Aspen held her hand out, as did Janix.
"Pay up, or next time, you're on your own." Aspen said, expecting food.
"Yeah, no more protection from outside threats for you." Janix said, crossing her arms.

"You heard them D, give them your food," Maya said as she turned and walked away to her dorm, ignoring her brother's protests.
River handed Janix his entire bag with a grin. "Here you go. Thanks for keeping watch for us."

Aspen smiled at River and placed a quick kiss on his cheek before the boys went off down the hall, to their own room.

Janix dragged the bag in and lit a kerosene lantern, so they could see without turning the light on.
She had her short leather gloves on and started digging through the bag.
"Potato chips, you can have those." She said, throwing the food to Aspen.

Soon, after Janix had split the stash evenly, Aspen had a bag of potato chips, a jar of pickles, doritos, an apple and one singular piece of pre-cooked steak.
"Thanks" Aspen said, storing everything but the potato chips, in the bottom drawer of the desk on her side of the room.

"No problem." Janix said, eating an apple.
aspen ate half the bag of chips before rolling the bag up, and storing it in the bottom drawer as well and laid down, burying herself under the black comforter Janix had given to her, because she thought Aspen would like it.

"Thanks," Darius said as he and River walked back to their room. "Maya never gives up her loot, so I always have to pay up."
"It's all good," River smiled. They walked together in silence for a few moments before River asked a question.
"How come there were snacks from modern times in there? Are you allowed to leave the loop whenever you want?"
"Not whenever we want," Darius replied as they stepped into their room. "Mrs. Finch is the only one who can come and go as she pleases. We can leavs for short periods of time, like a couple of hours, but if we stayed out any longer than that then time would catch up to us and we would die."
"Oh," was all River could say, seeing The Chateau a bit differently now. It seemed like a paradise, obviously, but after a few decades, or even a century, could this place be seen as a sort of prison?

(also most of the snacks had already been invented by the 80's, which is the time period the loop is in. So it'd be easy to get them.)

Aspen heard Janix get into bed and soon she was snoring with a faint whistle coming from her nostrils.

Aspen rolled over and fell asleep almost immediately.