The Dorm Roof, Saturday evening

[laidanegg.livejournal.com]

Dick was fairly sure that the whole "volcano spewing ash" thing wasn't good, but, really, how often did you get to see something like this? Rarely if ever, that's how often.

That's why Dick was up on the roof, sitting on a lawnchair, under a patio umbrella (to keep him relatively rain and ash-free), taking pictures of the volcano. He figured he was mostly safe until there was lava anyway. In the meantime he'd get a good record of a potentially devastating natural phenomenon.

[OOC: Open in case there's anyone else ready to risk potential firey death or years of lung problems from inhaling ash in the name of a good view. Also, I don't know what it is with me and roofs today.

ETA: I was dragged off for a couple hours by a friend. Sorry for any slowness during that time!]

Comments

[laidanegg.livejournal.com]

"Come on. This is a once in a lifetime experience, even if we don't die in it," Dick said.

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"I suppose it is whether or not we die in it," Alice said cheerfully. "It is a rather amazing sight. I must say, I'd appreciate the sight more if it didn't smell so foul."

[laidanegg.livejournal.com]

"Do you have anything to cover your mouth and nose with?" Dick asked. "That'll help a bit."

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

Alice considered, and then removed the white apron from her dress and carefully wrapped it around the lower half of her face.

"Much nicer," she admitted, bobbing her head slightly to him. "I thank you. Though I might be less clear, when speaking. It's all right, most of what I say is nonsense anyway."

[laidanegg.livejournal.com]

"Well, that's the kind of thing that keeps conversation interesting, so it's not a problem," Dick said. "I'm Dick, by the way."

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

Alice stopped to drop him a proper -- if pinafore-less -- curtsy. "Alice Liddell, pleased to make your acquaintance," she said. "It might be a sort of game, you know. Using words that sound much like other words, so that the other person has to guess. Or being completely strange and having the other person question their hearing. One couldn't possibly have just said 'my mushroom boots are full of mustard-flavored museum wax.'"

[laidanegg.livejournal.com]

"Sure one could," Dick said. "Another one might not have any clue what the first one meant, but one could say all sorts of things. And around here, many of those things might not be called into question."

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"As a matter of fact," Alice laughed, noting his direction and going with it, "One might say that things are a certain way, and Two might disagree. Just because they stand next to one another all day doesn't mean they get along. Perhaps One loathes Two. Two does seem rather presumptuous, one finds."

Or perhaps One finds. Hard to say.

[laidanegg.livejournal.com]

"Well, in this case, I've heard that Two is very likable, so One probably won't loathe Two if One gives Two a chance," Dick said. "Three and Four can vouch for Two."

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"Are Three and Four trustworthy?" Alice mused. "Five says that Four is, but I've heard little of Three. I suppose Four vouching for Three can stand on its own."

Really, if one could trust Five, then that implied trusting Four as well, didn't it?

"Perhaps Two is shy, and unaware of how Two comes off when meeting others," she considered. "Really, One shouldn't be so harsh when meeting other numbers. One would think that One would put in a concerted effort to be amiable with those numbers One was surrounded by."

[laidanegg.livejournal.com]

"If One would think that about One, then One knows what One needs to do when meeting numbers," Dick pointed out. "It's just a matter of One making it happen."

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"Ever the practical response," she said with a nod. "But there seems to be a chasm between what one acknowledges and what one does with said knowledge."

Or One, for that matter.

[laidanegg.livejournal.com]

"That's a constant in the formula, applicable to any variable number you might give, though," Dick reasoned. "The constant is, in real terms, anything but constant, of course. It's the randomness of what One - or X, if you'll let any given number equal that - might do with the knowledge they acknowledge that makes them human."

Dick was stunned that he was still following what he was saying.

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"So it doesn't change depending on the number?" Alice asked. "Or is that part of the formula? Is One more stubborn than Four, or is Four four times as reasonable? Perhaps Four has dedicated his life to personal growth. Or hers, one shouldn't presume gender when speaking of numbers. Have numbers gender?"

Alice wasn't certain if she was following or not. That never stopped Alice from contributing.

[laidanegg.livejournal.com]

"I honestly don't know anymore," Dick said. "I'll say this for you, the conversation's interesting."

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

She flushed, dropping an abbreviated curtsy to him.

"It helps that I'm mad," she said lightly. "Or was mad, rather. I'm not, any longer."

They didn't release you if you were sane. Right?

[laidanegg.livejournal.com]

"Mad as in angry?" Dick asked. He was hoping it was angry. "Or mad as in a psychiatrist cleared you to be here?"

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"Superintendent of the asylum himself," she said cheerfully. "The doctor said I was still unstable but he was clearly outranked. I wasn't vexed at any one, just ... a bit off."

That seemed more polite than 'catatonic.'

Some day, Alice might even learn that the asylum wasn't actually polite conversation to begin with.

Some day.

[laidanegg.livejournal.com]

"As asylums go, was it at least nice?" Dick asked. He had experience with people who'd spent time in an asylum, of course, so he wasn't weirded out. But he was still making note of the fact that he was going to school with somebody who a doctor didn't want to let out of an asylum. It's the kind of thing that you needed to make note of.