fandomhighdorms | Room 406, shortly after the new students got their room assignments

Strugging up the stairs while trying to balance a large box, a larger duffel bag, a black briefcase-like thing, and a tankful of purple frog... kind of bit the big one. It also made Xander not terribly appreciative of the bustle around him as familiar faces returned from vacation and unfamiliar faces moved through the dorms giving off confusion-vibes that he was half-sure were contagious -- he almost stepped out of the stairwell onto the third floor instead of the fourth. Though maybe that was just wishful thinking, he thought as he huffed his way up the last flight of stairs.

Jeremiah glared at him when he set the tank down in the hallway outside room 406 so he'd have a free hand to pull out his keys. "What, you get an upgrade in living arrangements and now you're too good to hang out on the floor for a few seconds? I could've told Buffy you'd get spoiled rotten." He opened the door, tossed his duffel on the bed, set the box on the floor next to his desk, then went back for his frog.

He left the door open as he carried Jeremiah back to his desk. "Actually, I did tell her, come to think of it. That'd be when she was too busy shoving yet another chocolate-covered locust down your gullet to do more than roll her eyes at me." He set the tank down and laid the briefcase-thing beside it carefully. He looked up from unzipping the black case to see the frog gazing back at him in a suspiciously familiar manner. "Yeah, like that. With the rolling. Okay fine, so I got spoiled rotten too. Pardon me while I don't refuse upgrades to my living arrangements that I wouldn't be able to afford in a gabillionty years."

Xander opened the case and slid an older-model Powerbook -- the Apple logo ~~conveniently~~ obscured by a rainbow star sticker -- from it. He stared at the laptop with an odd combination of fondness and fear. A page of printed notes tumbled out of the case after it, and he unfolded it and smoothed it out atop Jeremiah's tank, occasionally looking over to study it as he unpacked and attached the power supply. "Okay, tab A into slot B I get, but how the hell do I know if we have wireless or I need an ethernet connection, Willow? Even if I knew what an ethernet connection looked like. For all I know every computer in this place runs on coffee and gremlin spit."

"Rblert?"

"Well, okay, not every one, but I'll bet Jake Gavin's does." He plugged the computer in and booted it up.

And got at least as far as staring at the desktop screen. "Okay, now what the hell?"

Passers-by, or anyone who might stop in, might very well hear a continued though intermittent litany of phrases that might not make it past the WB standards and practices board, so it was a good thing he wasn't on the WB ~~anymore~~, including such gems as "Where the frak is the Start button?" and "Stop MOCKING me, you little piece of elec-- **ribbit** no, not you, Jeremiah, but you can feel free to stop mocking me too."

If they poked their heads in the door, they would see this and this.¹

__

¹~~because the mun is a complete wacko and had her fake-OCD set off liek whoa by Callisto's dorm diagram yesterday.~~.

{ooc - opened for ~~my new roommate that I know nothing about yet~~

izzyalienqueen, but anybody's welcome. No, Dru, that was not an invitation, if you ever manage to make it back on campus somehow. :-P}

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"It's open!" Xander called from his desk. "Which is more than I can say for my e-mail account," he added with a grumble as he stabbed at the touchpad on his laptop and sent the mouse cursor shooting off the edge of the screen.

Isabel opened the door and started to pull her stuff into the room. "Um, I think I'm your new roommate."

Xander blinked. Really really hard. Then he checked his arms for bite marks. "I didn't think I passed any gremlins on the way up the stairs..."

Isabel dropped her bags on the empty bed. "I knew the dorm was co-ed, but I had no idea they meant the rooms were as well. If I wasn't so damned tired, I'd be pissed. I thought I left my brother at home."

Sitting down on her bed, she toed off her shoes. "I'm Isabel Evans by the way."

Xander hadn't really stopped blinking. Or looking for bitemarks. If he'd had a spare braincell he'd have spent it on being impressed with his multitasking skills, that he managed to do both these things and stare at the ~~OMGWTFGIRL!~~ girl in front of him.

"Xander. Harris. Who finds it really sad that the horse climbing the stairs didn't have me checking for gremlin bites, but the girl in my room has to be a hallucination."

"There was a horse? On the stairs? Three hours ago I might have wondered about that. Now? I'm just grateful he didn't leave any presents on the stairs."

She tilted her head and studied him for a moment. It took a moment, but then she realized that he reminded her a lot of Alex. Geeky, but in a friendly sort of way. "I've heard about the gremlins. Since I'm pretty sure I'm real. I don't think you have anything to be worried about."

Her eyes traveled around the room. "Do we have an in-room bath or do I have to trek down the hall for a shower?"

"There was a horse. With a monkey on its back. And a girl. But due to her not being my roommate, she seemed less hallucinatory." Xander pointed to the door in the wall next to the desk that had been Angel's. "Also there is a bathroom, though you could be forgiven for mistaking it for a closet; the impression won't change much once you get inside."

"You're having a hard time with this aren't you? Do you want me to go back downstairs and see if I can change?" Please say no, please say no. I'm too tired to deal with that tonight.

Despite asking if he wanted her to leave, she started to dig through her bags and pull out her stuff. Opening the bathroom door, she hung a short, red, silky robe on a handy hook. "I'm willing to make the best of this if you will. I have a sixteen year old twin brother. It's not like I'm not used to living with a guy."

She looked at Xander. And suddenly saw the frog in the terrarium. The purple frog. "Is it a requirement that all the reptiles are purple around here? Although technically is a dragon a reptile?"

That finally broke Xander out of his ~~spaz-attack~~ blink-sync; his eyes widened. "No, no, you're fine. I never said this was a bad possible hallucination."

"I'm not sure about Lockheed, but Jeremiah's not a reptile; he's an amphibian," Xander added. Possibly with a proud grin, though whether that was pride in his pet or pride in the fact that he knew and could pronounce the word amphibian was anybody's guess. "He also used to be green; the purple was...well, we could say it was a fashion decision, but we would be lying."

Isabel facepalmed. "Amphibian. I knew that. Well, it's an attractive shade of purple."

Since he agreed, she started to unpack in earnest. "I'm telling you, this is not a hallucination."

[occ: I'm going to have to crash soon. I have a hellspawned two year old that doesn't sleep well at night and then is up too damn early in the morning. I'm going to have Isabel crash as well. Can you email me? I have an idea about how to make Xander's brain explode.]

"Yeah, but all my hallucinations tell me they're not hallucinations," Xander replied. With a mostly straight face, he added, "I...said that out loud, didn't I?"

[ooc - yeah, me too; I need to sneak in a non-hallucinatory shower and still try to get to bed in time to be at work at 8:30. Have e-mailed!]

Rolling her eyes, Isabel pulled a set of pajamas out of her bag and headed towards the bathroom. "You did."

She came out a few minutes later dressed for bed. "Well, if I'm a hallucination, then I'll be gone when you wake up in the morning. But since I'm not, I'll still be here." Climbing into bed, she pulled the covers up. "Look, I don't mean to be anti-social or anything but it's been a long day. I really need to get some sleep. I'm sure we can discuss your hallucinations in the morning."

"Sure, no problem - I'll turn the light off." Turning away from his finally-opened e-mail account, Xander switched off the overhead light, leaving only the mild blue glow of the computer screen, which he angled away from Ange-- er, from Isabel's bed.

Room 406, shortly after the new students got their room assignments

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