fandomhighdorms | Thursday: Dorm Hallways

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Thursday: Dorm Hallways

Dor had spent the night in the garden enjoying the trees that had been sent from his friends in Xanth.

So it wasn't until this morning that he was finally able to open the second vial that had been sent along with the package.

Much to his surprise, long rolls of poster board sprung out and flew around the dorm adhering themselves to the walls at random locations.

All of which read:

VOTE FOR DOR!
Junior Class Representative

Which is why you'll see Dor frantically trying to pull the poster off to no avail.

"Why won't you come off!" Dor whined as he tugged and tugged on the poster.

"We've got a stick'em spell," the poster replied. "We're not coming off until after the election."

"Why?" Dor replied. "I haven't even signed up!"

"You have now," the poster replied. "When you opened up the vial you also released a glitch which signed you up for student council elections. The King and your parents thought it would be a good experience for you."

Dor groaned. If it was just his parents he might be able to protest but if King Trent was also behind this... he really had no choice.

He was running for student council.

[open]

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As if the slanderous radio last night and the fact that every single junior in her damn class seemed to be running weren't enough, there was then this.

"Do-or!" It was a whine somewhere delicately dancing between betrayal, incredulousness, and the edge of defeat. Especially since she had her own posters tucked under her arm that she'd been going to put up.

He winced. He should have known this was coming.

"I didn't mean to run!" Dor blurted out. "It just happened!"

"It's true!" the poster sang out. "It was a mandate of the people!"

"No it wasn't!" Dor snapped. "No one here said I should run."

"It was a mandate of the King and therefore the people of Xanth," the poster replied. "So now you must date a man. Suck it up! EVERYONE! VOTE DOOR FOR STUDENT COUNCIL!"

Dor's eyes nearly popped out of his head. "I'm not dating a man! Be quiet!"

"Date a man? What does dating a man have to do with an--"

"Oh." Turtle stopped, blinked, and then rolled her eyes with a small groan. "Man. Date. Har har, very funny, wall, but politics is serious business, okay! You can't just make someone run by putting up posters for them! Not in my class, anyway. Do that to all the freshmen and sophomores and seniors if you really want, but come on! What king supports a democracy, anyway?"

"Hey! I didn't say anything!" the wall complained. "It was this stupid piece of paper!"

"Shut up," the poster snapped back at the wall. "I'm pretty. Plus the King thinks that Dor needs more experience in government. Not all governments he's going to interact with will be kingdoms and as a future king, Dor needs experience with them."

"That's enough," Dor snapped and the poster and wall fell silent.

He turned to Turtle with an apologetic look. "Apparently my parents and King sent a glitch to Fandom that got me signed up for Student Council. Sorry. I guess I have to run."

Turtle glanced a little nervously from Dor's apologetic look to the poster on the wall, and then back again and her shoulders sagged slightly. "It's okay," she said quietly. "I mean, it isn't a true democratic race without the power to choose, right?" She gave him a faint smile, and then fished into her bag to pull out one of her "Vote Wexler: Junior Representative" buttons and one of her brochures. "Take this anyway?" she offered. "With respect to your own campaign, I wouldn't expect you to be entirely convinced, but I'll be willing to consider your platform is you consider mine..."

"Well I'm already voting for you," Dor said sticking the pin on his shirt. "I gave you my word on that. I didn't realize I had to build a structure to stand on. Does it have to be wood? Or would other materials be okay?"

A platform? Mundane politics were weird.

"Wood?" Turtle blinked a moment at Dor before she realized what he was asking, and she shook her head, a small smile developing despite herself. "No, no, not an actual, physical, literal platform. I mean, you're not an actual, physical, literal door, are you? It's metaphorical. What you stand for as opposed to what you stand on. For example, I stand for a nice, healthy roster of extra-cirricular activities and clubs, better cafeteria food, and a synthesis of connection between the student and townie population for the island. Those are the issues that make up my metaphorical campaign platform."

She brandished a proud smile at her explanation, although the knot in her stomach twisted. She liked Dor, so far as she could tell, but so help her if this dimwit who didn't even know anything about politics managed to get elected in instead of her...Maybe next year, if she took him under her wing a little...If the King of Xanth was so concerned with him getting political experience, he'd get more than enough of that under Turtle's tutelage.

Dor's mouth made a small "o" as understanding flooded his brain. "I see!" he said nodding emphatically and then sighed. "Though I think maybe building a wooden structure might be easier."

"You might just want to start out small with soapboxing," Turtle offered with a bit more of a grin. "And then work your way up."

"I have a soapstone," Dor replied looking confused. "Is that similar?"

"I don't know," Turtle admitted. "What's a soapstone?"

"Well it's a stone that you use to clean yourself," Dor replied as if this were completely obvious. "Like when you take a shower or a bath."

Sometimes having a unicorn for a roommate means that you don't pick up on the differences between mudane objects and Xanth objects right off the bat.

Turtle's head tilted slightly. "Interesting," she mused. "Does it sort of wear down in the shower from all the uses like regular soap, or does it retain its shape and cleaning power despite how many times you use it?"

"It takes a while to wear down," Dor replied. "It is a stone after all. Why? Is just plain soap different?"

Turtle nodded a little. "It wears down really quick. People have made small fortunes based on ways to just extend its longevity, soap dish holders and the like. It would be interesting to market a soapstone that didn't wear away nearly as fast, you know? It would, of course, be a great hit, but the returning revenue on it wouldn't be so hot. I really kind of like the idea, though..."

There were wheels turning in Turtle's head, which was a nice distraction from the campaign for a moment, although...

"Dor," Turtle asked, head tilting. "If I were to ask, how long do you suppose you could get me a bunch of soapstones from Xanth?"

"That would depend on the quantity you'd need," Dor said thoughtfully. "They would have to be gathered and typically the trail between here and Castle Roogna could change so it could be a matter of days or weeks. Are you intending to pursue a line of trade?"

"Not...particularly," Turtle admitted. "I was thinking more on a campaign level. Give-aways are a great way to sort of get people to notice you, and something like a soapstone that lasts a really long time...it would be a great tie-in. 'Want a candidate that won't be all washed up when you most need her? Vote T.R. Wexler, Junior Representative!'"

She broke her little slogan with a rueful smile. "I wouldn't want to put you out if you think it wouldn't be able to get here in time. It is a pretty neat idea, though, don't you think?"

"I don't think I could get word back in time for the election," Dor admitted and then looked thoughtful. "Though I like the idea and the slogan. Maybe I could always give away some t-shirts from the clothes tree that grew yesterday and put a slogan on them."

Turtle blinked. "Clothes tree? You mean, like the ones from home you were telling me about?"

"Yep!" Dor said with a doofy grin. "A friend of mine sent a bunch of plants yesterday that grew in the garden. There's a shoe tree, a pie tree, a pillow bush, a chocolate cherry tree, a flannel tree, milkweed and a cocoa-nut tree. I think I have a cocoa-nut in my room if you want to try its chocolate milk."

Turtle made a quick and analytical list in her head of those things, and, in the end, decided it wasn't so bad. Some of those things (clothes tree, pie tree, chocolate cherry tree) were already things she had to compete for with other businesses (Pixie Dust, J,GoB), and it would hurt them just as much. She nodded a little. She could deal with that. It was a small selection of things, nothing too bad.

"If you could do that," she said, with a smile, "get it to make shirts for the campaign, that'd be really great of you, Dor." And worth the missing revenue.

"I don't think the tree would be that cooperative," Dor replied. "I can talk with the inanimate. Trying to talk to a tree is a totally different set of magic."

And even then he doubted Grundy would be able to convince the tree of that. If it were alive Grundy would argue with a stump.

"Oh. But you can maybe get some slogans on the T-shirts and stuff, right? Or I could do it, too, that's not a problem. If I got a T-shirt for you, you think you'd wear it and help me out a little?"

"Sure! I bet I could do that," Dor replied. "However if you want I could probably do something a little better."

Looking at the posters she was carrying he addressed them.

"Posters? I need your help," he said with a little authority. "What I need you to do is wait until a person comes by you and when they do you have to say 'Vote for Turtle Wexler for junior class representative. Do you think you can do that?"

"Sure!" the posters replied in a chorus. "Vote for Turtle Wexler for junior class representative!"

Dor grinned at Turtle proudly. "Would that work?"

"....EEEEE!"

It wasn't exactly a 'yes,' but it was probably safe for Dor to assume that she felt that would work just fine.

Dor was quite used to that sound. Irene made it whenever she got something she wanted.

"Glad I could help!"

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Thursday: Dorm Hallways

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