fandomhighdorms | Fourth Floor Common Room; Saturday Afternoon.

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Fourth Floor Common Room; Saturday Afternoon.

Cal had slept in for three reasons: the first was simply that it was a Saturday, the second was because yesterday had been a very long day, and the third was because he had trouble sleeping anyway. It was being in a new place, with a lot of new people, in an entirely new situation. He was used to it, of course, so he was used to losing sleep over it at first.

Besides, it was nothing a little coffee couldn't fix. He rubbed the back of his neck as he drifted down the hall and into the room with the couches and the TV and the kitchenette and started rummaging around for what he needed.

While...trying not to step on the tortoises.

Wait...

Cal frowned at the little golden tortoises swarming at his feet right now.

Hopefully that was something a little coffee could fix, too.

[[ open common room is open ]]

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"You know," Jeff said, levelly, "I think there's something a bit odd going on." He shifted his head a little sideways so the tortoise wouldn't fall off, quietly jostled the one on his shoulder, and shot Cal a questioning look across the third one, which against all odds of probability or gravity had managed to affix itself to his shirt. "Do you think they're Greek?"

Cal quirked an eyebrow at the other guy. "What?" he asked. "The turtles?"

Which he had been hoping was just his sleepiness, but perhaps not. Or the other guy would just look at him funny, ask him what turtles? and then Cal could just go along his merry business and pretend to be crazy like Ned.

But then there was everything Ino had said about wee, tiny, and invading, so Cal just did not know. Time would tell. He was sure that once he got himself some coffee, everything would be illuminated.

In complete and utter ignorance of anything that may have been going through Cal's mind, Jeff simply peered down at the one on his shirt, and said, "I think they're more sort of..." Cocked his head, considering it for a longer moment. "...Tortoises."

It was probably better not to ask how he knew the distinction.

Woe, then, o muse, for Cal's unfortunately early morning curiosity.

"What's the difference?"

Jeff's attention went back up from the tortoise, and he supplied, helpfully, "Turtles are more moist."

Amber shuffled in after having slept in this morning. It was Saturday thus by an unwritten law, it was totally deserving. Everyone should know that.

The tortoises were a little unnerving, given that they seemed to have followed her from her room, down the hall, and... "Oh my gosh, there are more of them."

Fandom was crazy. She needed coffee. Oh, new guy. "Hey," Amber said to the apparent new person.

"Oh." Cal glanced toward his feet; he wasn't exactly sure how much stock he would put into that distinction, but they definitely didn't look that moist. "Tortoises, then."

Thank God the coffee was ready.

"Coffee?" he offered as he picked up the pot, before pouring any into a mug.

"I'm not allowed to have any," Jeff said, solemnly, a fact which wound up a little contrasted by his flopping onto the couch. "So do you think they are? Greek, I mean."

"I was kind of hoping they were all in my head," Cal admitted with another rueful look down. They were trying to climb his pantleg by now. He lifted his head again to greet the girl with a lift of his chin. "And hey. Coffee?"

He himself already had his mug, and was just leaning back against the counter, sipping and watching the little tortoises.

Fair enough. Cal shrugged, poured his mug, and set the pot back on the machine. More for him this way, he supposed.

"I couldn't tell the difference between whether they were turtles or tortoises," Cal pointed out. "How would I know if they were Greek?"

He paused. "They haven't tried to feed me yet or tell me about the Old Country yet, so I doubt it."

Yes, Cal based his entire outlook on Greek personalities on his grandmother. Desdemona kind of stuck in one's head like that, though.

"I kinda hope that about a lot of things around here," she grinned and gave a tiny shake of her head. "Welcome to Fandom. I tell myself that nearly every mornin' I wake up so I will be reminded that somethin' weird could happen today. That way? I won't be half as surprised."

Amber stepped closer and held out her hand. "Hi, I'm Amber Atkins, and coffee would be great."

"I don't know," Jeff said, with a half-shrug that jostled his shoulder-tortoise a bit more. "I'm just trying to make certain, you know? We're near Greece now, there's a very real danger of a Greek invasion."

Hoshi was still a bit unsettled by her weird dream, whatever it was, and her food replicator was only dishing up weak tea. This required a visit to the common room for something stronger.

"Oh good," she said. "Someone started brewing the coffee."

Intent on writing a very sternly worded email to one Captain Jack Harkness, Gwen made her way down to the common room with her laptop tucked under her arm.

She frowned. "Any idea who all the wee tortoises belong to?"

With a slight smirk for her strategy, Cal shifted his mug between his hands and reached out to take Amber's hand, firmly in a shake. "Cal Stephanides. Nice to meet you."

He then took the hand back and set aside his own cup to get her one. "Cream? Sugar?"

Cal's eyes shifted to the side a little.

Cal was having a potentially evil thought.

"Greek invasion, you say?" he asked, with a sip of his coffee.

"Yah, both please," Amber replied and leaned her side against the counters edge, elbow propped.

"So, Cal, you're a new kid," stated obviously, of course. "Where'd you come from, if you don't mind my askin'?"

"Greek blokes, to be exact," Jeff's response came easy, "But I wouldn't be surprised if they sent an advance guard to scout out the island."

Huh. He poked at the tortoise a little as that thought finally actually connected within his own mind. "Stealing our girlfriends."

Cal gave the girl a small smile. "Hopefully," he said, "I'll brew enough. I don't know if it's just the first day backlash, but I'm going to go through a lot of coffee," and cigarettes, "around here..."

Cal hadn't even thought that they could have actually belonged to someone, so his head tilted thoughtfully at the suggestion.

"Not a clue," he admitted. "One must also beg the question of, if they do belong to someone? What the hell does anyone need so many tortoises for?"

"Oh, it gets better," said Hoshi with a smirk. "Wait until you see what kind of classes we have here."

Gwen had mostly suggested them belonging to someone on the basis that non-human invasions equalled bad, even if they were only tiny reptiles. "Haven't the foggiest," she admitted. "You'd be surprised at the sort of things some people collect, though."

Cal, having a good amount of his grandmother somewhere inside of his mutated genes, thought absolutely nothing of preparing Amber's coffee for her before setting the handing her the mug.

"Michigan, originally," he answered. "And 1974. My big sis tells me that's important. And you. Minnesota, right?"

Of course he said it with the accent. He couldn't help it. He just hoped that it didn't turn out that, no, she just came from a different planet, where people happened to speak like they were from Minnesota.

That would be planet that Cal was thinking he'd never want to visit.

Mac had made the most of her weekend without Library duty by having a lie in too. She'd thrown on some sweatpants and a t-shirt by this point, and made her way to fill up her coffee quotient for the day.

She seemed fairly nonplussed by the tortoise presence. Cute, but she would only acknowledge that once she'd had caffeine.

"Hey," she greeted, raising a hand in greeting as she moved across the room.

The last bit almost made Cal spit out some of his coffee back into his mug, making his composition falter slightly, but he wrangled it back easily enough.

"You know," he said, shifting a little so he could walk over and offer the guy with the weird accent his hand. "I don't think we've been introduced. I'm Cal."

Dramatic, theatrical (perhaps even a very Greek tragedy type?) pause.

"Stephanides."

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Fourth Floor Common Room; Saturday Afternoon.

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