First Floor Lobby, Sunday

[bugofjustice.livejournal.com]

The Tick's head kinda hurt. That'll happen when you get knocked in the noggin with a dense, magical block from another dimension falling from the upper atmosphere. Okay, that's not what would happen to most people. Most people would have a collapsed skull and a funeral. But, you know... nigh-invulnerable.

In any event, The Tick was taking it easy today. Just lounging around in the lobby with a good book. A good book with big words. Big words that were making his head hurt more than they normally would. So. Just lounging around in the lobby with nothing to do.

The Tick twiddled his thumbs. This turned into thumb-wrestling with himself. He just couldn't win! No matter that he tried, he just couldn't pin his other thumb! It's like he knew his every strategy! He must be psychic!

That got old after about twenty minutes without a pin. Ten minutes of boredom later, he tried the thumb wrestling again. It wasn't working out any better.

Boy, would he ever love a distraction right now...

[OOC: Tick will be in the lobby for most of the day. Feel free to stop by if you're entering or leaving the building, and/or you'd just like to talk.]

Comments

[apocalypsesoon.livejournal.com]

John came out of his dorm to work on his game, when he saw Professor The Tick.


Sitting in Hole 3 (the chair).

[bugofjustice.livejournal.com]

Tick saw the student glaring at him. "Hello, student! How are you today?"

[apocalypsesoon.livejournal.com]

"I'm fine, Prof The Tick. But... it appears that you're sitting on my golf game."

John points out the clubs lying around and the rough course setup.

He picks up a putter and starta playing.

"You game?"

(ooc: spotty Inet)

[bugofjustice.livejournal.com]

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry, student! I didn't realize you were using the lobby as a course."

Tick stood up and moved to another chair. "I'm not much of a golfer, actually. I tend to crush the clubs too much."

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

On the way back to her room after the thing (http://www.livejournal.com/users/psycho_jackass/17610.html) at Logan's house, Rory spotted Tick in the lobby.

"Hello, sir," she called. "How are you?"

[bugofjustice.livejournal.com]

Tick, who had been bored out of his mind since that student with the golf clubs left suddenly this morning, had actually been asleep. Part of Vigilance, however, was appearing to be awake when you weren't. Fortunately, he had stopped snoring a few minutes ago.

Jerking his head up at the sound of the voice, Tick saw Rory. "Ah, hello, Rory! Not bad, not bad. Head's still stinging a little, but that's it. How are you?"

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"Why does your head sting?" Rory asked, ignoring his inquiry.

[bugofjustice.livejournal.com]

"Eh, it was nothing," Tick said, shrugging. "A hard block of wood fell out of the sky and hit me in the head. I was only unconscious for a few minutes, and DEATH let me leave the clinic after a quick exam. It just smarts a bit now."

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"Wood...from the sky," Rory said slowly. "Okay. That's...strangely normal-sounding, around here."

[bugofjustice.livejournal.com]

"Yeah. It was kind of warm, too. It probably started off in the upper atmosphere. I wonder how it got up there." Tick shrugged the whole thing off.

"So what have you been doing all day?" he asked.

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"Decorating Logan's house for Christmas and disinviting vampires," Rory replied. "Nice to get away from the craziness around school for a bit."

[bugofjustice.livejournal.com]

"Disinviting vampires is getting away from the craziness?" Tick laughed a little. "Only around here, I suppose."

"By the way, I saw you were at Caritas on Friday! I didn't want to interrupt or anything at the time, but did you see Lockheed on stage? Talented little guy. I think..." Tick grinned widely at the memory of the dragon grunting along to country music.

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"It's less dramatic," Rory explained, smiling. "And yeah, Lockheed is adorable. I missed him on Friday, due to...fallout from said drama. But I've seen him onstage before. He's very good."

[bugofjustice.livejournal.com]

Tick's right antenna curled with interest. "What was the drama?" He quickly added, "If you don't mind me asking."

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"Oh, the Ethics class stuff," Rory sighed. "I'm sure you've heard."

[bugofjustice.livejournal.com]

"You'd be surprised how little I hear," Tick said. "That's Professor Maclay's class, right?"

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"Um, yes. And yesterday was a kind of...inflammatory class," Rory replied. "I actually walked out. Something I don't do very often."

[bugofjustice.livejournal.com]

"Egads! What happened?" Tick asked, sounding very concerned.

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"Um. The topic was rape, sir. And it was addressed inappropriately," Rory said quietly.

[bugofjustice.livejournal.com]

"That's... not good," Tick said, faltering severely. Noting the way Rory said that, he started to ask a really uncomfortable question. "Have you ever... err?"

He didn't finish the question, knowing the meaning was clear and because Tick can never say the word "rape" because it would be Wrong.

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"What? Oh. No! No," Rory exclaimed, her face turning scarlet. "No. But one of the topics was violation. Of the...not-tradtional-raping kind. And I..." She trailed off,ran a hand through her hair, and left it to rest on the left side of her neck.

[bugofjustice.livejournal.com]

"Oh, okay." Tick said, relieved. Then he noticed where her hand was, and added a more somber, "Oh."

In case he had doubts about it before, now he definitely wasn't going to mention to Rory that he had a conversation with Angel on Friday. "And then you walked out? I can't blame you. Are you okay, Rory?"

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

Rory nodded. "I'm fine. It was just a bad class. Mishandled, I think. Tara means well, but it was...wrong. And I know I wasn't the only one with problems."

[bugofjustice.livejournal.com]

"Well, I can see why! It is good that you're doing better with it now, though."

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"Yeah. Talking seems to've helped. A lot of people are mad at Tara. The new psych teacher thinks she's like, a bad person for it, actually," Rory frowned. "I just think she didn't think it through."

[bugofjustice.livejournal.com]

The entire conversation dropped from Tick's mind at a certain phrase. "Excuse me, did you just say 'new psych teacher?'"

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"Yeah. Her name is, um..." Rory thought for a second. "Ms. Calendar, I think. They hired her after Drusilla got fired."

[bugofjustice.livejournal.com]

"Drusilla was fired? Why? When did this happen?" Tick seemed genuinely confused.

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

Rory stared at him. "Um, because she attacked Marty?" she said incredulously.

[bugofjustice.livejournal.com]

"WHAT?" he shouted. "She did that to Marty? She attacked him and has been fired that long?"

Tick dropped his head into his hands. "I was talking to her in the park last week. I didn't even know..." Tick paused. "Rory, from now on, part of your duty as my sidekick is to make sure that I'm aware of things like this."

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"Okay, sir," Rory said, still unsure how, exactly, he missed this. "Um. But how will I know if you're unaware? There's danger of repetition."

[bugofjustice.livejournal.com]

"Rory, you have never given me news that I already knew. Actually, whenever you give me news, it's generally really terrible stuff. I apparently have a habit of missing that information. So if you know about anything this bad, just assume that I left my room before I heard all of the details on the radio or that I was out of town and out of the loop or that people around here just don't tell me things. Please."

Tick was more annoyed with Destiny right now than he had been at any point over the past several weeks. "Next thing you know, you're going to tell me that Professor Jerusalem was named... I don't know, Dean of Faculty or something while I was unconscious last night..."

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"Um. He was," Rory said quietly. "Oddly enough. And Mr. Bristow is the principal."

[bugofjustice.livejournal.com]

Tick lifted his head from his hands and stared at Rory for several seconds, trying to figure out if this was a strange joke.

He decided it wasn't. "I heard about Principal Bristow, at least." His head returned to his hands. "Destiny truly is being a harsh mistress..."

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"It's okay, sir. Lots of people are annoyed with Destiny," Rory said consolingly. "I have a good friend who doesn't like it very much. And I'll just be sure to take notes on the big stuff that happens, and let you know."

[bugofjustice.livejournal.com]

"I'm really beginning to wonder if Destiny is all I thought it was..." Tick said quietly.

His voice picked up as he lifted his head. "Thank you, Rory. I appreciate it."

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"No problem, sir. And don't think too much about what Destiny is," she advised. "It'll make your head hurt more."

[bugofjustice.livejournal.com]

"That's probably good advice. I should probably take it." He knew full well that he wouldn't, though.

Even now, he wasn't listening to the advice. "Well," Tick said, sounding very tired, "I'll let you go. Thank you for the information."

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"Sure thing, sir," Rory said obliviously. She headed for the stairs, and made her way to the second floor.