Fourth Floor Common Room, Sunday Morning

[blinkandsneeze.livejournal.com]

Viki, it must be said, had woken up very glad to still be unstung by her roommate--who was very nice after all, and terribly talented as a singer--but at the same time she was mildly out-of-sorts from several conversations yesterday though her mind shied away from remembering the details.

Who needed details? There had been talk, it had been uncomfortable, and figuring out how the lights worked in the common room just down the hall was far more interesting and important.

Flick on, flick off. Viki laughed as the lights did what she told them to with just a switch of knob. Wasn’t that exciting? Wasn’t that interesting?

If she’d been the wishing sort, Viki would’ve wished memories were more like that. As it was though, she had the lights, and the room, and that was enough to amuse her for now.

Flick on, flick off. How did memories work again...?

[Totally, totally open!]

Comments

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

...And, yeah, she lost him there. Cal shook his head a little.

"I'm sorry, what? Um, I'm sure that the walls that are just walls are not...looked down at or anything, because they're...just...walls..."

He thought that was what she was trying to say, but he really wasn't sure. Maybe it was just too early. He hadn't had coffee or the adrenaline rush of a workout to wake him up yet, so maybe he was just slow and out of it.

[blinkandsneeze.livejournal.com]

And now he was confusing her.

"But you said the walls have got to be with wiring," she reminded him. "And if they've got to be anything then the walls that are without must be looked down on."

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

"They've got to be with the wiring for the lights to work," Cal clarified...hopefully. "Or, well, you can have the wiring without the walls, I guess, but it just works better this way? I mean, no one's going to hold it against a wall if it's not wired for the light, because it's still, you know...a wall. Providing shelter. I actually kind of like a wall for just being a wall, because I didn't always have walls."

This was all said with a frown creasing Cal's forehead. He was pretty sure what he said made sense, but he wasn't quite sure why he was actually saying it.

This girl probably had a bit more problems than just memory, he was thinking.

[blinkandsneeze.livejournal.com]

"Walls," she decided. "Are a good thing. They make very lovely castles you know."

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

"That is true," Cal agreed, nodding a little and trying to keep his smirk minimal. "Can't have much of a castle without them."

[blinkandsneeze.livejournal.com]

"There was a castle on a boat at one point," she explained. "And then there was one in a mountain. And neither, really, have proper walls though there are certainly excellent imposters to the name."

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

Cal took a moment to decide if asking for clarification on that would be any help at all. He was leaning towards no, but figured it couldn't hurt to try.

"And how exactly would you define a wall?"

[blinkandsneeze.livejournal.com]

"A wall is a wall is a wall," she said, still patient. "It's not supposed to be part of a mountain or a ship. Those are different. Just imposters to the name."

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

For some reason, Cal was finding himself thinking of this girl and Alice having a conversation and getting a major, major headache as a result. He shook his head slightly; it was way too early for this.

But it did remind him that he hadn't caught the girl's name yet.

"So," he said, "if a wall is a wall is a wall, then you are...?"

[blinkandsneeze.livejournal.com]

"I'm Viki," she said, with a little nod of her head. "Though not a Viki, because more than one of me would be quite distracting I'd imagine, and I'm not entirely sure anyone can be an 'a' of their name anyway."

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

"Sure you can," Cal said, shrugging a little. "Because you might be the only one of you, but you're probably not the only girl with Viki as a name. So you're a Viki amongst other girls named Viki."

There was a slight pause, and a grin.

"And I'm Cal. Hi. Nice to meet you."

Even if his heart was thinking that, while he liked Viki as a name, it would always have her stand out as Lightswitch Girl.

[blinkandsneeze.livejournal.com]

"But then they're not me, and it doesn't work like that," she said, mildly confused at how this was hard to understand. "There's only one of me, I'm Viki, and there's not more of me so I can't be a Viki. Just Viki." A tilt of her head. "And it's very nice to meet you too."

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

"But let's say," Cal said, holding out his hands as if to hold back any arguments, "that I wasn't Cal. That I was Viki. So you'd be Viki and I'd be Viki. We'd each be ourselves, but we'd also each be a Viki, together, but, separate, our each and individual Viki."

He looked at Viki carefully.

"You follow?"

[blinkandsneeze.livejournal.com]

She blinked at him.

"But you're not Viki."

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

"But I could be."

Cal watched Viki closely. Anything? Anything? Hm?

[blinkandsneeze.livejournal.com]

She tilted her head at him. Considering him.

"You're staring," she informed him.

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

"No, I'm not," Cal said, shaking his head. "Staring is rude. I was just waiting."

[blinkandsneeze.livejournal.com]

"Waiting for what?" she asked, puzzled. "For you to become a Viki? Though I don't think you can be since you're Cal and I'm Viki."

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

Cal just shook his head. "Nevermind," he decided, waving a dismissive hand. "I'll just keep being Cal, you can be Viki, and we'll all be happy. You live on this floor, Viki?"

Not that he was concerned, or anything, about this girl being left alone for too long.

[blinkandsneeze.livejournal.com]

She could be happy with that, to her it hadn't ever been an issue and she was glad he'd seen sense.

"I do," she said, fishing around in a pocket for a folded piece of paper. She checked the paper before blinking at him. "In 416. My roommate is a bee with a lovely singing voice and he's promised not to sting me which was very nice of him."

...yes.

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

Cal blinked.

"Really?"

And then he shook his head. Bee roommates aside... "I'm in 407; if you need anything, don't hesitate to ask."

[blinkandsneeze.livejournal.com]

She nodded. "I'll try to remember at least a little."

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

"You have trouble remembering things?" Cal wondered, head tilting slightly. That might explain a little bit about Viki's spaciness. A bit.

[blinkandsneeze.livejournal.com]

"I know my name," she said. Everyone harped on her for this here. "And what I look like. I can't help that everything else changes and I can't remember it all."

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

Noting a little bit of defensiveness in her voice, Cal held up his hands a moment as if to signal that he didn't mean anything by it. "Hey, you remembered your room number and that your roommate's a bee and that castles have walls. So that's something, right?"