A Stream of Words

[Gladys Madoc]

Gladys hummed cheerily to herself as she made her way down the stairs from her room and settled into a chair, throwing her head back and regarding the ceiling contemplatively for a moment or so. It was far too hot for her liking, and even clad in the minimum that was compatible with decency and appropriate dress, the brunette was beginning to feel as though she was at risk of passing out from heat exhaustion. This was nothing like summer back home, where it might hit 20C if they were lucky; no, this was a whole different ball game, and although she wasn't complaining... it would be nice if it were just a few degrees cooler.

Avery Durand

[Avery Durand]

Avery could feel the sweat building even as she passed between the barn and her dorm. A high of 33C that day was quite the adjustment, especially since it was currently raining back home. She could feel herself relaxing as she made it to the air-conditioned comfort of the Green Ribbon House. She considered her options, then decided to hang out downstairs for the time being. After a brief stop upstairs, giving Saskia a brief moment to drink while she grabbed a book, and then they headed downstairs again. As she walked into the lounge, she saw a girl already there and smiled briefly before settling into a chair across the room, Saskia settling at her legs.

[Gladys Madoc]

Gladys glanced up as someone else entered the room, and her eyes lit up. It was a new person! Someone she didn't know, and that, to the Welsh girl, meant only one thing; it meant that she had a new friend to make! "Hi!" she began- somewhat lacking in originality, perhaps, but it got the job done, and she hardly had the time to go around inventing new forms of address now. "It's great to meet you- have you been here long? I haven't- well, longer than you, but not all that long, really, and I think it's great! I love your dog, by the way- he or she? What do you have it for? Sorry, that's a really personal question, isn't it; just ignore it; I mean, you totally don't have to answer anything. Sorry."

[Avery Durand]

Avery was glad that she'd still been looking up - Her hearing aid was on, of course, but that didn't really fix everything. She tried to process what the girl had just thrown at her, but gave up halfway through - The gist seemed to be normal new person questions, so she could safely ignore most of them. She got up and brought Saskia with her, moving closer to the other girl, "I missed most of that, could you speak a bit slower, please?" Saskia's red vest had the Dog Guides logo, with "Hearing Ear Dog Guide" underneath, but it was so small that people often didn't notice, or couldn't read it even if they'd wanted to. "I'm Avery, anyway." She touched her hearing aid, "And I'm Deaf, so I'm really not trying to ignore you."

[Gladys Madoc]

Gladys' mouth formed an 'O' for a moment before she covered it with her hand, lost for a moment in the sheer mind-numbing panic generated by a state of 'Oh my God, what have I just done?'-ness. Which was what she liked to call it, although she didn't doubt that there were much cooler and probably shorter titles around. But that was mortifying! And now she felt so guilty; she'd probably completely thrown the poor girl for a loop now.

"Lord, I'm so sorry!" she summarised, once she'd finally managed to marshall her thoughts far enough to produce a coherent sentence and to be sure of doing so at a slower rate than her usual breakneck speed of conversation. "I talk too fast anyway, I know; it's a bad habit. I'm Gladys; it's really great to meet you!"

[Avery Durand]

That was quite the reaction! Avery smiled just the smallest bit, hoping to put her new housemate at ease. She'd have everyone cured of their launching straight into questions, at this rate, not that she minded. They'd figure it out eventually. Now, though, she had to keep her thoughts on what the other girl was saying, filling in the blanks that lip reading always left. "It's okay, you didn't know. It's nice to meet you - Gladys?" She repeated, just making sure she'd gotten it right. "How long have you been at the academy?"

[Gladys Madoc]

The brunette nodded rapidly. "That's it," she confirmed with a smile. "Gladys." It wasn't the easiest, and a lot of people got it wrong even when they could hear properly, so she wouldn't have been at all surprised if it had taken a while longer for Avery to get hold of it. "I've been here... Oh, I honestly can't remember. Months, maybe a year; it all kind of blurs together since I don't really go home between terms- it's a long way and really expensive. Where are you from; have you come a long way?" She paused a moment, then gave the other girl a slightly sheepish smile. "Sorry, I'm gabbling again, aren't I? Let me know if you need me to repeat anything."

[Avery Durand]

Avery wasn't exactly surprised as Gladys went back to her rapid speech - habits were hard to break on a moment's notice, and she had enough experience with people to know that it usually wasn't intentional. They just talked how they talked. She nodded at Gladys' explanation, although she got only that it had been a while. As Gladys apologized, Avery shrugged, "It's all good." It was nothing new. "So any good places I definitely need to explore sooner rather than later?"

[Gladys Madoc]

Gladys frowned for a moment, thinking through the options. "Well..." she began, making a conscious effort to keep her words steady and clear. "Let's see. You should definitely go out on the trails as soon as you get the chance; there are some really cool ones, but maybe stick to the grass to start with; the rocks can get a bit slippy if you're not careful and it's best to go with someone else. Then in the town, there's the Feed Store, which is cool, and there are a few places that do good food." Nothing like at home, of course, but you couldn't have everything.

[Avery Durand]

Avery nodded as the girl spoke of the trails, "Noted." She didn't need to tell Gladys that she wasn't supposed to head out onto the trails herself anyway, that was between her and Ms. Carr. "Dolent might be a bit too silly for a slick trail anyway." She grinned, "Off the track Thoroughbred, he has his silly moments." She nodded at the mention of the feed store, and human food places as well, "I heard the academy has a van that heads to town on the weekends?"

[Gladys Madoc]

Gladys grinned. "Well, let me know if you ever feel like going out, ok? I'm always happy to have an excuse." Not that she needed it, of course, and even if she had, she didn't doubt that suitable could be found in the very existence of a horse that needed exercise, but still... it was always more fun riding with someone else, at least in her opinion. "And yeah, that's right. Or you can ride in, I think; have to admit I haven't got around to that yet. You're really pretty, by the way."

[Avery Durand]

Avery grinned, "I'd enjoy that, thank you! Can I get your number, so we can text to coordinate?" That would probably be the way to do it here, it had worked pretty well back at home. As Gladys mentioned another way to get to town, Avery nodded - She'd seen something like that on the map too, "Interesting, I'll have to give that a go later too." She took a moment to get what Gladys added at the end - Since lip reading was a fair bit of guesswork, non-sequiturs were hard. But then she blushed, "Thank you."

[Gladys Madoc]

Nodding rapidly, the girl delved into her pocket to find her phone. "Absolutely," she confirmed brightly, flicking through to find her own number- of course she didn't know it; how often did she phone herself?! "Uh, did you want to read it?" It was a somewhat awkward question; she couldn't imagine that it would be easy for Avery to get the numbers if they were spoken, but then she felt sort of guilty asking it as well; she didn't want to be rude. "You're absolutely welcome!"

[Avery Durand]

While Gladys was pulling out her phone, Avery did the same thing, pulling up the new contact page and starting the information that she knew - Not much, just the girl's first name. After she'd done that, she returned her attention to Gladys, who seemed to find what she had been looking for too, and just passed the phone over, "It'd be easier if you just type it in, prevents misunderstandings." She grinned easily, and couldn't help adding a little joke, "And text only, please. Don't want to use up my minutes."

[Gladys Madoc]

She took the phone with a smile and a nod for its owner, flicking through to find the right section to enter her phone number, which took her a moment or two. "I'll try not to waste your very expensive time," she promised jokingly, though she suspected she might find that quite difficult; Gladys was always more inclined to phone people than to text them, mostly because she enjoyed it more and was quite frequently prone to misinterpreting text messages since it was hard to draw anything from tone of voice. "There you are." She handed it back.