Third floor commoon room, Saturday night

[fat-halpert.livejournal.com]

Jim decided to check something out.

If he had hot chocolate ready and was blasting Journey - and not even the good Journey music, but the worst of Journey - would people be repelled by the music and stay for the hot chocolate, by drawn by the music and stay away from the hot chocolate, or completely ignore one or the other entirely?

Jim had no clue.

[OOC: Journey songs and hot chocolate fully moddable.]

Comments

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

Willow walked by and stopped when she heard the music. She came in and saw Jim and the hot chocolate. "Why must we not stop believing in hot chocolate?"

[fat-halpert.livejournal.com]

"Because there's a small town girl living in a lonely world and she loves hot chocolate," Jim said. "This is for her."

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"So it's not a matter of clapping our hands so that hot chocolate can live?" Willow asked. "Or taking our first sip and suddenly the universe as we know it blinks out of existance?"

[fat-halpert.livejournal.com]

"Nope. It's also about a city boy, born and raised in south Detroit," Jim said. "They met on the midnight train going anywhere and fell in love over hot chocolate. It's not spelled out in the song, but it's what happened."

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"Was parallel parking involved at all?" Willow asked.

[fat-halpert.livejournal.com]

"Of course not. It's hard to parallel park a train," Jim said.

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"How about onion rings?" Willow asked.

[fat-halpert.livejournal.com]

"Okay, now I'm officially not sure what you're talking about. I'm not really much of a Journey fan," Jim admitted.

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"Possibly I've got it wrong?" Willow said. "Though in fairness I'm a bit relieved if I am since I don't own a Members Only jacket and therefore couldn't put one on in order to share hot chocolate with you."

[fat-halpert.livejournal.com]

"You know, it would actually terrify me if you did have a member's only jacket," Jim said. "So that's completely unnecessary. The only thing you need to bring is the love of either bad music or warm drinks."

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"I can supply both," Willow said. She went to get some hot chocolate. "And I would never own one. I always found the name to be snooty."

[fat-halpert.livejournal.com]

"What are you supposed to be a member of, anyway?" Jim asked.

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"Exactly!" Willow said. "And what are the membership requirements? Must you be born into the jacket or is it more of a passing a test of strength kind of thing?"

[fat-halpert.livejournal.com]

"I have to admit, it would have been great to see somebody have to arm wrestle a store clerk to buy one," Jim said.

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"Or go through an obstacle course!" Willow suggested. "You start out in the Payless, work your way through the food court, leap over the Brookstone, and then end up with your jacket."

[fat-halpert.livejournal.com]

"Don't forget fighting with pugil sticks against mall security in the fountain," Jim said. "Drop in the water and you don't get the jacket."

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"Oo!" Willow bounced in her seat. "And as an added layer of difficulty? You can't splash over the sides, or overly disturb all the wishes at the bottom."

[fat-halpert.livejournal.com]

"You know, this sounds like a club I'd like to be a member of," Jim said. "I'd wear that jacket proudly."

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"I feel the jacket should have more to it," Willow said. "Like a star of some kind. Make it a jacket you'd be proud to wear."

[fat-halpert.livejournal.com]

"And a logo on the back," Jim said. "Whatever the club's logo is. I vote monkey."

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"Is it wrong that I'm thinking this should be part of flag football practice?" Willow asked.

[fat-halpert.livejournal.com]

"I'm in," Jim said. "I think it'll add... something to practice. I'm not sure what exactly, but it'll be something."

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"Well, I do lead practice from time to time," Willow said.

[fat-halpert.livejournal.com]

"I think it'll be an excellent use of practice time," Jim said. "But will we get jackets if we finish the course?"

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"Of course!" Willow said. "With stars. I feel very firm on the star issue."

[fat-halpert.livejournal.com]

"Well, personally, I can't wait," Jim said. "It'll be the best practice ever."

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"We may need to improvise on the actual obstacles," Willow said. "But I feel confident that this can happen."

[fat-halpert.livejournal.com]

"I think it's entirely doable," Jim said. "We have creative people on the team."

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"Especially our team."

[fat-halpert.livejournal.com]

"And we'll make sure to cheat so John's team doesn't get any jackets," Jim said. "And, you know, it is Member's Only, so screw them."

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"Oh totally," Willow said, nodding. She hadn't felt that was even in question.

[senor-chado.livejournal.com]

"Ha," Chad grunted triumphantly as he wandered into the common room to confirm his suspicions. "I knew I wasn't the only one around here who appreciated Journey..."

Even if it was the crappier stuff. But didn't that make it even better, really?

[fat-halpert.livejournal.com]

"It's... entertaining stuff," Jim said. He didn't have the heart to say that he thought it was really horrible. Chad was too much like a giant teddy bear who could throw him like a football if he so chose to say anything like that. "And it's even better with hot chocolate."

[senor-chado.livejournal.com]

"There's hot chocolate, too?"

The only thing that could make it one step closer to heaven would be if it was that amazing spicy hot chocolate stuff from the Aztecs and stuff. God, that was good....

[fat-halpert.livejournal.com]

"Marshmallows, too, if you're the kind of person who likes marshmallows in your chocolate," Jim said. "It just seems like a good way to start the month."

[senor-chado.livejournal.com]

Ooh, marshmallows. Chad gave Jim an approving, agreeing thumbs up before getting himself a mug.

[fat-halpert.livejournal.com]

"Thinking about it, I wonder if Journey has a Christmas album," Jim said. "That would be perfect for this."

[senor-chado.livejournal.com]

"I don't think they do," Chad admitted with a thoughtful frown, liking to think that, if they did, he would definitely know about it, "but there are a lot of Christmas albums with 'journey' in the title..."

[fat-halpert.livejournal.com]

"That'll be the music theme for another day," Jim said. "I probably should have gone for Christmas music tonight, come to think of it."

But he wouldn't have. Because that would defeat the purpose of the experiment.

[senor-chado.livejournal.com]

Chad shook his head, taking a sip of the hot chocolate. "Nah, man. You'll already get sick of that before next week. No need to make it worse."

[fat-halpert.livejournal.com]

"Unless I want to try to torture people with music," Jim said. "Which would be against the holiday spirit, but still kind of funny."

[senor-chado.livejournal.com]

"Music should only be used for good," Chad said with a prophetic tone to his rumble. "Never evil."

[fat-halpert.livejournal.com]

"It's not evil if everyone has fun with the joke," Jim said. "More marshmallows?"

[senor-chado.livejournal.com]

"Yes, please." Chad held out his mug. One could never have too many marshmallows.

"But would everyone have fun with it?"

[fat-halpert.livejournal.com]

"I would make sure of it," Jim said. "It's just like bad movies. You deal with the badness at first and then it's all fun for everyone after that."