Malloy's Study - Biggerstaff Family

Biggerstaff Family Malloy's Study

lucius_malloy posted on May 21, 2011 at 06:39AM

Oh, great God in Heaven, you think as you come to yet another door in the seemingly never-ending hallways of the Biggerstaff Family Estate. Another one? You're well prepared to merely glance in and keep going, like you've done at the previous doors, but something about this one catches your attention. You're not quite sure what it is... It could be the huge, foreign flag tacked diagonally across the top of the door, with words in another language stuck all around it. You can't read this language, but one of the notes says Ihanaa, Leijonat, ihanaa! and another looks like a verse from a song. It starts Oi maamme Suomi, synnyinmaa! Soi sana kultainen.. Under the flag, a blue cross on a white background, is a sign that says Please, in the name of all that is magical, knock before you enter. Another sign right below it says Malloy's study -- genius at work. Someone, you have a strong suspicion who, has drawn air quotes around the word 'genius'. The few parts of the door that aren't covered in flag or signs are invisible under the movie and concert tickets, friendship bracelets, origami shuriken and other various memorabilia.
Carefully, you knock on the door, not wanting to disturb the 'genius' within. You hear a mutter that could be interpreted both ways, but you decide it's affirmative and push the door open.
The room is... chaotic. There's no other word for it. The walls are blue, and covered in Ravenclaw crests, more of the blue cross flags, posters of bands and cities and, perhaps most randomly, underwater photos. Wherever you look, there's a surprised grouper gaping at you, or an angelfish showing off it's stripes, or a clown fish trying its very best to hide in the swaying fronds of an anemone.
The floor, however, is another story. Books, papers, clothes and empty Pepsi bottles are all strewn around in no particular order. There isn't too much furniture in the room, just a desk with its very comfortable black chair, a Fatboy bean bag chair in front of a small flat screen TV and a bookshelf. The TV is sitting on a small cupboard, and if you were to open that cupboard you would find a PlayStation3 with a large collection of SingStar games, and a whole bunch of TV-series box sets, including Bones 1-5, House 1-4, most of Friends and Grey's Anatomy 1-2 with a PostIt note saying "Buy GA3!".
The desk in itself is pretty simple: dark mahogany, with drawers on one side and a cupboard on the other. In the middle is a laptop computer, open and displaying an OpenOffice document that seems to be w rewrite of Hamlet. "Hamlet Revisited: Modernised, Edited and Abridged by yours truly", drawls a voice to your side and you jump; you'd almost forgotten that the inhabitant of the room was still there. You turn to face the black chair, to see a girl of about fifteen, with brown glasses and nondescript blondish hair. She's wearing khaki trousers and a large hoodie with the sleeves pushed up. You can't quite see the logo on the hoodie, but it looks like it has the letters CISV. Her arms are covered in Sharpie, the most prominent being the huge I ♥ BIGGERSTAFFS stretching over her left forearm. She looks up at you. "Hamlet Revisited," she repeats. "My English teacher wanted me to try it." You nod uncertainly, and she turns back to the screen, fingers hammering away.
Next to the laptop on the desk is something that looks very much like a round, pink, plastic pig. You do a double-take, and realise that there's a cord coming out of the pig and ending in an iPod. That's when the music playing in the room finally registers (at this very moment, the song is one you don't recognise, but it sounds suspiciously like a heavier version of the Pirates of the Caribbean theme) and you realise that this pig must be a speaker.
Then, of course, there's the bookshelf. It's huge, reaches all the way up to the roof and covers one entire wall. It has one of those sliding ladder things you've seen in movies and large libraries but never even hoped you'd touch. Warily, you pull it to one side, climb aboard and push off. The sensation is like nothing you'd imagined -- nothing quite comes close to riding ladders.
Behind you, there's a snort. You turn to see the girl (you assume her to be Malloy) staring at you. "All right," she says. "I was going to be nice. I was going to wait for you to get bored and leave. But this is my freaking study! This is where I come to write or relax! You can't just barge in and start riding my ladder!" You stare. She shakes her head slowly. "I'm sorry. I didn't meant to yell at you... it's the stress. It's getting to me. Can we start over? Hi, I'm Malloy, but you can call me Emma or Emmy. This is my study, my den, my... kingdom."