Fourth Floor Common Room, Thursday Evening

[blinkandsneeze.livejournal.com]

One day, perhaps, Viki would discover that the common rooms were really better left alone than have them suffer through her curiosity.

Today, however, was not that day and she bumbled in, ignoring the Box of Illusions, and much more interested tonight in the kitchen bit. It was late, she was hungry, and… Viki came very quickly to the conclusion that she didn’t recognize most of the appliances beyond the simple ones like ‘stove’ and ‘fridge’.

It was the blender that caught her eye the most though. Not that she knew that it was called that, but Viki (with some fumbling) managed to plug it into the wires-that-came-from-trees, and after that it was a simple matter of pushing at buttons before it whirred to life.

Green eyes bright with excitement—what was it, what did it do, was this another Illusion Box of a different sort?—she peered in at the empty blender and began attempting to figure out the settings. How did it work? Why? What purpose did it serve other than to make rather unfortunate noises?

Eventually she might even figure out that food went in it. Eventually. Unless there was a dreadful accident first. She took the lid off the blender and peeked down at the blades whirring. How fascinating!

And the whirring continued. She'd be here a while.

[Open!]

Comments

[itsjustlanguage.livejournal.com]

A beagle ran into the common room, headed straight for the refrigerator.

Right on his heels was Hoshi. "Bad Porthos! Just because I said 'cheese' doesn't mean you get to have any!"

[blinkandsneeze.livejournal.com]

Viki blinked and glanced up from her careful scrutiny of the blender, her hair coming perilously close to winding up in the machine.

"Why shouldn't he have any?" she asked curiously.

[itsjustlanguage.livejournal.com]

Hoshi managed to scoop Porthos up as he came to a stop. "Because cheese gives him indigestion and then he fusses all night," she explained.

Noticing the blender, and how Viki's hair was almost in the blender, Hoshi said, "You should really put the cover back on the bowl first. Otherwise, everything you're blending starts flying out all over the kitchen. I've done it enough times myself. My grandmother was never happy about it," she added with a smile.

[blinkandsneeze.livejournal.com]

...

"...blending?" She did, however, sweep her hair out of the way even if she didn't understand why.

[itsjustlanguage.livejournal.com]

"Uh huh. Like if you're making a fruit smoothie or a milkshake, but blenders also come in handy for making guacamole or maybe a soup..." Hoshi stopped in mid-sentence as the thought occurred to her. "Are you a new student?"

[blinkandsneeze.livejournal.com]

That got a faintly puzzled glance. "New like the grass? Or the sun? Or perhaps, new like the Illusion Box, or even the crayons I've got, I suppose, count as new. What would you call new?"

[itsjustlanguage.livejournal.com]

It was a good thing that Hoshi was a communications expert. "My name is Hoshi, and I've been going to school here for a year," she said, tilting her head slightly. "I don't believe I've seen you here before, so I believe that you're a newly-arrived student. In that case, you're in for at treat. I've really enjoyed my time here."

[blinkandsneeze.livejournal.com]

"I've got crayons," she said brightly. "And I go to class now! It's very exciting."

[itsjustlanguage.livejournal.com]

"I understand," said Hoshi, smiling. "I didn't get to go to classes before coming here, and now I love it! I'm taking Roving the Galaxy and The Right Tools this term? How about you?"

[blinkandsneeze.livejournal.com]

"Modeling," Viki said solemnly. "We got to try on shoes this week, and then I'm in something about Games."

[itsjustlanguage.livejournal.com]

"I heard they were doing another modeling class. I took something similar last fall," said Hoshi, her nose wrinkling as she remembered that particular class. "The Games one sounds pretty cool, though... I'm sorry, I didn't get your name?"

[blinkandsneeze.livejournal.com]

"There are invisible lights," Viki told her eagerly. "I've never seen them."

Yes.

"I'm Viki!"

[itsjustlanguage.livejournal.com]

"It's nice to meet you, Viki," said Hoshi.

She blinked. "Invisible lights?"

[oncourtandstage.livejournal.com]

Troy had come back from a run through town, and without thinking come up to the fourth floor. He'd almost walked right into his old room, in fact, before remembering that, no, wait, he didn't live there any more.

As he was about to head back downstairs, he noticed the... noise... from the common room, and poked his head in, followed by the rest of him. "Hey," he said, in greeting. "How's it going?"

It seemed as safe a way as any to ask what the hell she was doing.

[blinkandsneeze.livejournal.com]

"There are invisible lights that only the person who is it can see, and the blades keep moving," came the vague, but amicable answer.

[oncourtandstage.livejournal.com]

Troy blinked. Ignoring the first part -- he didn't have any idea at all what she was talking about -- he replied, to the second, "That's 'cause you're keeping the button pressed," he said.

[blinkandsneeze.livejournal.com]

"They can change speeds!" she told him. "It's very exciting watching them whir around."

[oncourtandstage.livejournal.com]

All of a sudden, Troy really wanted a milkshake. He went to the freezer and pulled out a pint of strawberry ice cream, and then a carton of milk from the fridge. "Yeah," he said, "I suppose it would be." Silently, he added, If you've never seen it before, I guess. "Want to see what you can do with it, though?"

[blinkandsneeze.livejournal.com]

"It can do more?" Viki asked curiously. "There's already so many settings on it for the blades that it seems almost ridiculous that it can do even more. Can it fly?"

[oncourtandstage.livejournal.com]

Troy nodded. "Here," he said, reaching over to toggle off the blender. "May I?" he added, gesturing that he'd like to get in to the blender.

[blinkandsneeze.livejournal.com]

She danced out of the way, hands clasped behind her back, and beaming. "You've worked the Whirring Noise before?"

[oncourtandstage.livejournal.com]

"It's called a blender," Troy said, scooping some ice cream into the device, and then added a liberal amount of milk. He eyed it, then added another scoop of the ice cream. "You use it to... well, blend things. The blades chop stuff up and mix it together, see?" he added, putting the top on and then turning the blender back on.

[blinkandsneeze.livejournal.com]

She watched with wide-eyed fascination. "But don't the blades get lonely all covered up like that?"

Yes.

[oncourtandstage.livejournal.com]

"... Uh, no," Troy said.

If he hadn't heard weirder while he was in New York -- and that from classmates in the summer theatre program -- he'd have been backing away slowly right now. "No, they're happy to be doing their job, really."

The milkshakes finished, he grabbed two glasses and poured it out. "Here," he said, handing one to her. "Try it."

[blinkandsneeze.livejournal.com]

She considered the drink seriously. "And the blades didn't escape, right?"