Unfortunately this isn't a prompt. My laptop is not working at the moment, and I don't have an ETA for it getting fixed. While I do have the family computer to use when I can, I can't use it regularly and so I may not be able to post a prompt next Monday. If someone wants to come up with one (or two) and post it in my stead, be prepared to do so (but NOT UNTIL NEXT MONDAY), you never know, it may all be back to normal before then. I'll try and let you know over the weekend.
Novastorme
PS and for those who are reading this and are on the Discord, yes this is why I haven't been on the last few days, please could one of you apologise to everyone on my behalf, thanks.
PPS the family computer wants to auto-correct apologise to apologist, weird huh?

“Daggeeeeeeeer!”

The dragonborn looked up from his bench, adjusting his glasses as he did so. The lamplight gleamed off his bronze scales. “What is it? Can’t you see I’m working?”

Talia, for her part, had been bent over a workstation opposite her partner until moments before. Now, she was staring at him irritably. “The network’s down. Still. It’s been three days, so would you care to explain what the holdup is?”

“The holdup, my dear partner, is that I’m not a network engineer. So I had to study up on how the mess that connects us to the mass of chewed gum and duct tape that HQ jokingly calls a network. That was the first day.” Dagger’s tone was tinged with that special indignation of an engineer who had just had his competency questioned.

“Right,” said Talia. “No, I get that, but what about the other two days? Were you just sitting around doing rude things to yourself?”

If Dagger could scowl, he would have. As it stood, he just gave it his best approximation. It got the message across, at least. “Nothing of the kind. The next days were spent running new cabling through our RC, because the old wiring was put in when 115200bps was blazing fast.”

“So what’s left to do?” asked Talia. “Just flip the switch and wire us in.”

“I was getting to that. The only thing that’s left is putting the ends on the cables. And I can’t do that, so I need you to help.”

“Why me?”

Dagger held up his hands. “In case you haven’t noticed, I have claws.”

“Ooooh… Right.” Talia frowned. “So how do I help?”

“Do you like slotting small wires into tiny slots?”

“Not particularly.”

“Too bad. Get over here and I’ll show you the ropes. Just make sure you don’t miss any slots, and that you get the order right. I’ll be watching to make sure.”

Talia sighed melodramatically. “No bets on whether my hands will hurt after all this repetitive detail work, I suppose. All right. Let’s get this over with…”

--

Talia’s hands did hurt, as she had predicted. Her eyes and head hurt more, though: fine detail work could do that to you. She lay on the cot that passed for her bed in the RC, trying to relax before she got back to any sort of real work. Suddenly, she had a thought. “Hey, Dagger?”

He gave a grunt.

“How did a Dragonborn get a degree in Electrical Engineering anyways?”

Dagger let out a long, slow sigh. “I really, really, don’t want to talk about it.”

'Are we really, Bingle?'

'Oh, yes, quite certainly, Finch. In between checking this watch of mine, and checking our, frankly, unnecessarily large collection of prime condition wall clocks-'

'Your collection.'

'I can confirm with a nearly one hundred per cent accuracy that we do, in fact, seem to be late.'

Finch didn't even look up from his magic eye book, which he had scientifically determined to be (as of now) the single best way in which for any sapient, intelligent being to ignore the crawling and cold death that slowly comes for us all. 'Well, that-s a bloody shame.

'Very much, oh, absolutely.'

'Yes. That-s horrid. We can-t have that.'

'The guilt we will feel, Finch, when we come back to there, eventually!' Bingle wailed, glancing at his watch and backing into his corner of the RC and under the sheets of his bed.

'I-m burning alive with guilt, myself,' Finch agreed, optical sensor really narrowing hard at this particular page.

'Yes, yes indeed. We are late. Terribly, terribly late.'

Finch! Bingle! You, you're late!

Bingle crumpled out of his bed, spilling the sheets to the floor and smashing his face on a tile.

Ummm! What are you two doing? Ninetwo was standing in front of the swinging door like a foreign conqueror.

Finch was a trained veteran in these situations and he immediately charged on the offensive with a pointing actuator. 'What the hell are you doing in here? How did you even get in here?'

Well, I-

'Is that a bloody key?!' Finch pointed down at Ninetwo's frond, nestled in which was a key to their RC. 'Did you unlock - do you have a copy of -' He glared at Bingle. 'Did you give her a copy?!'

'I did no such thing,' Bingle argued from beneath his sheets.

The door swung open again: 'Hrmmm, yeah, guys, we need to go, we're late.' Anne swayed in, taking in the nooks and crannies of the room. She lazily swung another copy of their RC's key on her finger.

'You have one, too?!'

'Hrm? Oh, yeah, yeah. Bingle gave me a couple.' Finch gazed at her with a red melting rage and she was as solid and untouched as a cliff wall.

'Did I really do that?' Bingle exclaimed, pulling himself up and glancing at Finch. He made a face like he was being torn in half by an invisible giant. 'Oh! I did, yes. Ahah!'

'Bloody give!' Finch hissed, snatching the keys from Anne and Ninetwo.

Umm. I have a spare, too. I'll just get that out-

Finch grabbed it out of her frond before she even fished it out of her pocket.

'Shoo! Out!' and he beat Anne and Ninetwo, stumbling, out of the RC. And he pulled the door shut and hovered right back to his book.

'A damn shame, Bingle, that we-re late.'

'Very tragic, yes, Finch,' Bingle agreed, rolling into his bed and shutting his eyes. 'But there really wasn't anything we could do about it.'

There had been no new missions for an hour and a half, which was extraordinary. The only problem was that the Ironic Overpower was guaranteed to give Edward and Kat a mission within the next few minutes as soon as they started doing something.
Kat was currently singing along to “A Whole New World” and Edward had very quickly put his new earplugs in. Kat’s singing was absolutely horrendous.
Edward was half-heartedly playing Solitaire with his mind not really on the game. He’d played about five games so far and won zero. The current game was not looking promising.
Kat said something, but he couldn’t hear her through the earplugs. He took them out and said, “Sorry, what was that again?”
“We should do something.”
He nodded but asked, “What? The IO is going to give us a mission as soon as we start!”
“Whatever. I’m so bored I think I want a mission.”
Kat would probably regret that as soon as they did.
“Shall we play a card game?”
“I can’t think of any good two-player ones.”
“There’s loads of four-player games. Why don’t we play two players each?”
That seemed like a sensible suggestion. Edward agreed. He was going to say that cooperation between teams shouldn’t be allowed but decided there was no point – they’d both just cooperate anyway.
He suggested that they play Hearts and when Kat agreed gathered up the cards he had been using for Solitaire and began dealing, very quickly. He’d had a lot of practice at dealing cards. Once all fifty-two cards had been dealt he picked up one of the hands and cringed.
It was absolutely awful! Seven high clubs, a singleton Queen of Spades… He might as well try to take every card there was with this. His other hand was a lot better and he decided he would try to take all the penalty cards.
Kat’s first player played the two of clubs and her second showed off its club void with the Ace of Spades. Edward played the Ace and his second player the six. He took the trick and led his nine of clubs, which looked quite high but was actually his second-lowest club.
His other player played the three and Kat’s players played the five and the Ace of Hearts respectively. Edward kept leading clubs for the next five rounds, but by this stage Kat had figured out what he was up to and was refusing to dump any more hearts.
He so far had the seven highest hearts, three dumped by Kat’s players and the others by his own player. The King of Spades hadn’t come out yet so he couldn’t lead the Queen. What he could do, on the other hand, was lead diamonds; Kat had used up a lot of hers by dumping them on Edward’s clubs.
He led three rounds of diamonds and Kat wasn’t forced to play any more hearts or the King. However, Edward still had the highest remaining heart, which he led to take another trick and three more hearts. Now all he had was a heart and the Queen of Spades. The heart was the highest remaining, but there was no guarantee that he could force out the King.
He led the heart, fingers crossed, and his other player played a low spade. As Kat’s first player was about to put down a card…
[BEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!!]

The bell rang and the students began packing their things, chattering excitedly. She kept her head down, flinching when she felt Jessica's elbow jab her in the side as she passed. It could have been an accident, not at all intended to be malicious, but she still didn't want to risk looking up. If she met Jessica's eyes, there would be hell to pay, so she focused on packing up her cauldron and books, waiting for the class to file out before she slipped away.

The other students liked to hang out in the courtyard during their free period, which meant the library would be hers. She limped along the corridor, slowed down with the weight of all her textbooks crammed into her bag.

She could hear voices up ahead and she flattened herself against the wall, heart pounding, wondering if someone had stayed behind to jump her. Nervously, she peered around the corner, and her racing heart skipped a beat when she realized it was Teddy Lupin talking to Victoire Weasley.

"So, Hogsmeade is coming up soon," Teddy said as she began backing down the corridor the way she came. "Want to go with me? We could go to the Three Broomsticks, make a date of it..."

She didn't stick around to hear Victoire's reply. Beautiful, talented, perfect Victoire, who had the most obvious crush on Teddy that of course she would say yes. Who wouldn't? Jealousy gnawed at her stomach as she pushed aside a tapestry to reveal a hidden staircase. This route would take longer, but at least she wouldn't have to risk anyone seeing her cry.

She gave the library a pass and continued up to the seventh floor, to Gryffindor Tower, to her dormitory where she pulled her bed hangings shut and curled up on the quilt, hugging her bag to her chest. Her heart ached from the loneliness.

Laughter drifted up from the courtyard through the open window. She closed her eyes and listened, glad that for once, nobody was laughing at her.

Ce’rana of Borune forced herself to focus on the book in her hands one more time as she picked up her pace. The halls of HQ weren’t the most cooperative thing, and neither was the IO; both had tossed her obstacle after obstacle - spider mites in her flowers that she had to take care of before they spread; a chance encounter with another Agent that started with her wandering straight into him and ending with her having to go back and pick up her book again after she’d dropped it; and now, making her even more hopelessly lost every time she glanced up from her book.

All she wanted was to be able to figure out where in Nedra’s name Rudi’s had gone off to. Alex had promised to get the both of them a non-Cafeteria dinner after yet another horrible mission; all she had to do was meet him there. There was no good reason for her to be late, and she could practically feel each second ticking past.

The Dryad barely even blinked when she wandered into the wall again, instead forcing herself to look up and turn the corner like a sane individual. She would get nowhere by letting her frustration mount until she broke down crying; if she did that, she’d stop moving, and wasn’t that the key to actually getting anywhere in this cursed place? To keep going forward without paying attention until you somehow wound up where you needed to go?

Obviously not, if another wall to the face was any indication. Ce’rana allowed herself a moment of pettiness to glare at the wall and kick it before looking around to see where she was supposed to turn. And of course she wasn’t actually at a corner this time - one of the few dead ends in this place. She growled and turned around, determined to pay attention to nothing but the words of her book this time.

“Rana?” Her partner’s voice called out from behind her. She paused before slowly turning again and looking up at him. It took her a few moments to work out some possible reason for Alex to have been behind her - in a dead end, of all places. It wasn’t like he could have teleported.

“...please tell me you didn’t go looking for me,” she muttered at last. “Because I do not need finding.”

Alex crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow at her, even as he leaned to one side… on the door to Rudi’s.

The tiny agent looked up a little more to take in the sign, the door, and her partner all at once. She blinked. She took a slow, deep breath. Finally, she spoke. “That was not there ten seconds ago.”

“It’s been right here the whole time.” Alex gave her a knowing grin. “Now, come on. Your raspberry mousse cake is getting cold.” He turned around and slipped back into Rudi’s.

The Dryad glared at the door for a few moments as it swung shut behind him, mentally daring it to disappear, before opening it again and following her partner to the table in the corner. At least he’d gotten her something nice.