Third Floor Common Room, Tuesday Afternoon

[bitchprince]

With the cold and his so-called 'class' being what they were, Arthur could no longer avoid spending at least some time within the dorms. So he took a broom into the common room, perched it somewhere against a wall nearby, and then cast a questioning eye over the room's contents.

At least a chair was a chair no matter where you went. He took a seat, a great, big, space-claiming seat, and leaned the elbow that wasn't contained by the sling on the arm of the chair. From that position, he took careful stock, including a wary one of the black box that rested in the room.

The locals seemed to have a thing about boxes.

[[ open post and open CR ]]

Comments

[stocksgrrl.livejournal.com]

One could not make herself known to the general newbie population if one kept herself confined, so Turtle diverted herself toward a common room once she got out of her Management class, which left her in a very good mood.

She snorted a bit when she saw who'd found his way there. "Compliments on your broadcast last night, your Highness," she said, flopping into a chair of her own.

[bitchprince]

Arthur's head turned to meet the voice, and the smallish girl it was attached to. Utterly failing to unravel what she was saying, Arthur took a breath, and decided to alleviate his ignorance with a respectful, "My what?"

[stocksgrrl.livejournal.com]

"Your broadcast," Turtle repeated; she thought to do it slowly, as if for the stupid, but decided that with this one she was just going to forge on ahead and make him try to keep up. "On the radio last night. That whole ordeal with the squirrels? Congratulations, you've been indoctrinated."

[withoutverona]

Romeo wasn't usually down on the third floor, but they sometimes had the good kind of microwave pizza. He nodded a half-interested greeting to the new student on his way into the kitchen, then paused as he glanced at the sling. "Hello. There's a bit of a plague of arm injuries of late, it seems."

[bitchprince]

"I don't know what you people do to cause such a rodent infestation," he griped, shooting her a look. He still wasn't fully clear on the meaning of the word broadcast, but he was going to take a wild guess that it had something to do with the previous night's ordeal.

[bitchprince]

"If there's a plague of it," Arthur spoke, his eyes gliding to identify Romeo while he remained otherwise still in his chair, "Mine has nothing to do with it." It was barely anything, really.

[stocksgrrl.livejournal.com]

"Anything?" Turtle noted, after a moment to consider it, and meeting that look with a faint smirk. "I mean, that's what they'll take notes on, just about anything, in case you didn't notice."

[bitchprince]

"Yes," Arthur said, dropping his head an inch or two to give that statement some power, "I did. I don't think there's any rhyme or reason to what they choose to write down." Literate rodents. There was something really, horribly wrong with this island.

[withoutverona]

"Perhaps a trend and not a plague, then, as it's all unrelated," Romeo said thoughtfully. "I was hurt in the fall, and Triela was over break. What did you do?"

[bitchprince]

"I fought a Questing Beast." That covered every angle of that question. "But here I am, living to tell the tale, so it's hardly important." He wondered which one of his knights had taken out the beast in the end.

[stocksgrrl.livejournal.com]

"No, not really," Turtle agreed, with a little shake of her head. "I think they just get over-excited that they can write, and just go nuts."

Yes, that was a joke. She eyed Arthur curiously to see if he'd catch it.

A person's response to an awful joke, after all, was a very strong point on judging their character.

[bitchprince]

Arthur looked back at her blankly. If there had been any joke in there, it had just gone completely over his head. "Well, they would be," he posed, dryly, "It's impressive enough that they even bothered to get literate." What with literacy already being as scarce as it was. "Let alone take the time to harass someone else with it."

[withoutverona]

Romeo had never heard of a questing beast, but the name was suggestive and after a year in Fandom, he was used to letting things like that fly over his head with a nod. If it were ever important -- say, if questing beasts attacked -- he'd ask for more information.

"Certainly much the better that you're here and almost in one piece," he agreed. "I'm Romeo, by the way. You're one of the new ones?"

[bitchprince]

"Yes, I am," he spoke, with all the edge of someone who was used to people knowing who he was, and only recently acquainted with being badgered for his identity. He looked towards the wall, then back to Romeo. "Arthur Pendragon," Arthur said, straightforwardly, "Prince of Camelot. That makes it your turn."

[withoutverona]

"My turn to be prince?" Romeo asked with a lift of his eyebrow, though he knew what was being demanded. "I'd turn that down, with no offense meant to you. My other name is Montague. I've been here a year as of yesterday."

[stocksgrrl.livejournal.com]

Aw, that was a good one, too! Still, Turtle continued on, nodding a little.

"They are very, very nosy squirrels."

[bitchprince]

"Montague," Arthur repeated, getting a feel for the name. "Right." Not nobility, then, or rather not as high in the food chain as he was. "So, Romeo, what have you done here in a year?"

[bitchprince]

"And here I thought they were very well kept to themselves," he replied, a sense of sarcastic amusement touching on his voice. Like an anvil.

[stocksgrrl.livejournal.com]

"Oh, well," Turtle reasoned, "of course you'd think that. They only really bother the interesting people."

[withoutverona]

Not nobility, but as close to it as one got in his time and place, really, and it showed a bit in the way he squared his shoulders. "Well, Arthur" -- and yes, Romeo knew he was pushing it on that one and quickly dropped his tone to one a bit humbler -- "I fell in love, was sent by stone angels to 1899 Paris, learned French and a bit of Japanese, and traveled around the world as the island did. It's not been bad at all. It's become much more home than I thought it would be."

[bitchprince]

What? He sat up. "Oh, yes," Arthur said, "I'm simply horribly uninteresting. To all, really."

[bitchprince]

The square of his shoulders and the intonation of his name was, however, enough to tell Arthur that Romeo was neither a peasant nor a servant, and he adjusted his appraisal of the man accordingly. His stories were strange, though, and reeked entirely too much of magic.

That was enough to make him wary.

"You travelled?"

[stocksgrrl.livejournal.com]

Turtle's head bobbed up and down in agreement and, to emphasize the point even more, she opened her mouth in a very big yawn, patting a hand in front of it.

[bitchprince]

"Would you mind repeating that? Just for posterity."

He really needed to watch out for how easy it was to pick fights with women around here.

[withoutverona]

"The island did. We just went with it," Romeo said. "It sounds mad, I know, but it was in many places -- France, Greece, Australia and Antarctica and I know I've forgotten half of them."

He considered leaving it there, but added, "Without the island, though, I did go to Mexico and Japan, and home to Verona."