fandomhighdorms | Behind the Dorms, Tuesday After Workshops

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Behind the Dorms, Tuesday After Workshops

Fear not, intrepid reservists, the cookies were back this week-- and a variety case or two of Vitamin Water, because dehydration was bad, mmmkay? The latter was courtesy of Kennedy, who looked like she’d put in a strenuous day already and was notably sans guinea pig, who’d been comfortably put up in the dorms since yesterday with plenty of water and food because someone’s Watcher had finally gotten the story of what’d happened in Bon Temps and ramped up the training agenda kind of brutally this week. She didn’t look tired, exactly, just... okay, a little bit tired.

“Last meeting of the term,” she noted with a creased-brow thinky-thoughts sort of expression and a touch of surprise. “Really snuck up on us, huh? We thought we’d sort of do a wrap-up thing this week, since it’s been kind of, uh... hectic lately, plus, finals. No big, just getting your thoughts on stuff you’d like to work on more for the fall semester, seeing if anyone wants to volunteer to do a show-and-tell kind of thing for everybody, stuff like that.”

“Talk about things that you were hoping to see while you were here, if there’s anything we missed out on, if there’s anything that we could have done better,” Zack twitched a wry little grin at that part. There was no way that you could possibly improve on the Katamari, okay? That had been awesome. “We’ll probably touch on things like map-making and stuff like that again next semester, because so many people have come and gone since the start of summer, it can’t hurt to get everyone better acquainted to the island again.”

Particularly in instances when large portions of the island happened to go missing, and people were stuck trying to get a positive ID on what was left.

“When you’re done talking, take it easy. Grab a partner and spar, or just run through your usual training exercises, or whatever you like. Keep an eye on one another, see if there’s anywhere that the people around you can help you along, or offer help if it looks like somebody is struggling. In the end, we’re all here to improve, right?”

“Or at least learn how not to suck,” Jak added. Look, he’d become comfortable with the fact that his role here was to point out the obvious crap Kennedy and Zack tended to forget. “If you don’t know how to shoot a gun, find someone who can shoot a gun. If you don’t know how to kick someone in the ass, find someone who does that. This isn’t difficult. You’ve all been in dangerous situations before, and I bet you’ve all sucked in them somehow. Taking care of that is what we’re supposed to do here.”

Life lessons from the mutant guy from Haven, kids. Listen good.

[OCD ~~coming~~ up, post is open!]

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Partake of the sugar and electrolytes. Yes, there’s a lot of the XXX flavor Vitamin Water. No, not because of what it sounds like. Not completely.

...vitamin water had a certain dubious quality to it, if you asked Maladicta. So she was just going to avoid that for now. Instead, she was ~~lurking~~ watching the reserve go on from the shadows.

Like a creeper, yes.

Asuna was sad to realize that this was the last meeting for the Reserves. She liked the Reserves!

Katniss steered clear of the Vitamin Water. Whatever it was, it certainly reminded her of the Capitol's enhanced foods.

A more scientific part of Alexander felt the compulsion to take some of the Vitamin Water and subject it to a various combination of spells and see how that effected the results, but, mostly, he was intrigued by their pretty colors as he contemplated such whimsy while munching on a delicious cookie.

Which is also conversation. Which also ends in -ion.

If you wish. Just be smart about it, or Kennedy might yell and Zack might end up with less than 99 potions and that second part, at least, would be sad.

Another spar for the day? Alexander would hardly say no to the chance to brush up his skills with someone better, glancing around for anyone who might be interested for what he would deem to be an easier bout.

When they do that pinging-in thing they do.

Zack was there, naturally, with his sword on his back and his arms crossed over his chest, thoughtfully eyeing the crowd.

He wasn't going to admit it to anyone, but he was kind of looking forward to a week off in order to sort out life as he knew it all over again. Stupid life, being all... complicated and stuff.

Jak was also present, lurking as he did. He seemed a little distracted, though, and kept glancing at a small metal device at his belt.

Missions.

Kennedy wasn't looking her most energetic either, no, and wouldn't mind the week off either.

She was a little wigged about how fast the summer had gone, though...

Tara had been bouncing as she got to the clearing, but she pulled it back when she saw that Kennedy looked kind of tired. She couldn't totally quell the grin, though.

"Look!" she said, twirling. "It's me! With fingers and everything."

"Oh my god!" Kennedy blurted out, laughing, and tired or not she bounded up to make a grab for Tara's hands. (Had to check the fingers thing, after all.) "You would," she added teasingly, "change back when I'm not around to appreciate it."

Kennedy. Don't say these things in public.

And maybe she'd realized it, since she quickly followed up with, "Which is okay, really, since I like you better this way even though you are way cute as a snuggly little ball of fur."

Tara only went a little pink before starting to laugh. "You'll have to check me over later," she said, with a squeeze of Kennedy's fingers. "Even if I'm, uh, a little bit less of a ball of fur. Still pretty snuggly, though."

"Way more snuggly," Kennedy agreed, laughing. "Sorry I sort of left you to your own devices for so long but I'm kinda in trouble with Constance for the whole maenad and orgy thing? She's been working me extra hard and I don't think guinea-pig you would've enjoyed getting dragged around a five mile run. I left you enough food, right? And stuff to play with?"

Leave it to her to worry about not spoiling Tara enough.

"I almost feel like we should buy a guinea pig just to use up all the stuff you bought," Tara swore. (And when had they gotten to the co-owning poets stage?) "It was perfect, silly. Y-you have to ... if you want to, I'd like to hear about eh maenad and orgy thing."

Her eyes fluttered to the rest of the meeting, weighing if anyone was listening. "Maybe not right now."

When had they gotten to that stage? This was the question clearly implied by Kennedy's sudden wide-eyed look, and the way she was blinking when she asked, "We should?" It wasn't like the whole we deal didn't make her stomach do a little of that weirdly-pleasant swoopy sort of thing, but still. Whoa.

"Maybe not right now," she agreed, maybe sputtering just a tiny bit. "Tell you about what happened, that is. I mean, I did? But you were more interested in hiding under my pillow at the time."

"Maybe?" Tara tried, backing off a bit. "I'm not sure Moxy would put up with it, so ... it'd kind of be your guinea pig and I'd have visitation rights. And yeah, I totally don't remember anything you've told me. My attention span was, like, gone."

"But you were so cute," Kennedy told her, reaching out with one finger to tap Tara's nose lightly. "And... Moxy put up with you just fine, so I don't see why not-- I mean, even though I'm so not a pet person..."

Why did Tara always manage to get her to lose her composure when so few people ever managed that?

Tara laughed and tried to kiss the fingertip. "It was just a random thought!" she assured Kennedy. "I don't think the guinea pig gymnasium's feelings will be hurt if it stays empty. Honest."

"Unless it comes to life next time the island hits us with that brand of wacky," Kennedy mused, and she was just going to let her fingertip linger against Tara's lips for a moment, thanks. (She was totally sneaky like that.)

She was... actually kind of entertaining that thought, even if she wasn't admitting it.

"You know, you being you again? Definitely cause for celebration. Like, big going-out-for-dinner type celebration that doesn't involve guinea pig chow."

Tara grinned against the pleasant pressure of the fingertip. "I could be down with that," she said. "Do you have a place and a time in mind, or just 'sometime'? We're done with classes Friday."

"If we go Friday, we can make it a double celebration," suggested the girl who didn't know how to do scaled-down anyway. "Unless you're hungry now? 'cause, guinea pig food..."

"It was gross, but I had a sandwich," Tara assured her. "Kind of first thing. Friday's better."

"So Friday then," Kennedy agreed; she would've pulled out her phone to make a point of putting it on the calendar, but she liked where her hands were now. "Consider it a date, since I have like a week's worth of interest on making it up to you for running off to break up an orgy."

She paused.

"Which was, by the way, kinda gross. Ew. No scenery worth looking at."

"I'm not surprised," Tara said, looking disgusted. "Th-the word 'orgy' just sounds gross. Was it full of skanky people trying to hit on you?"

"Ugh." Kennedy nodded vigorously, looking rather appalled. "Totally gross. I sent you a text about that, actually-- though I guess you might not have had thumbs by then?"

"Yeah, and checking my phone wasn't exactly a priority today," Tara said. "Poor baby."

"Lucky I didn't go blind," Kennedy joked, with one more shudder for emphasis. "I wasn't, like, looking or anything, you know. Even if it hadn't been a party full of kinda-naked ew."

She chewed on her lower lip. "Well. Looking, maybe a little. But doing anything was a big no either way."

"I know," Tara said, though, in truth, she had been worried about that. "I mean, if you were going to ... more-than-look, you wouldn't do it in front of half our friends, right? Not" -- she added quickly -- "that I thought you'd do anything either way. I trust you."

"I wouldn't," Kennedy insisted, emphatically enough to surprise herself, and warmed more than she could say at Tara's trust. "I think I'm getting the hang of this relationship thing by now, and I wouldn't mess around on you. Pretty much ever."

Be tempted to, yes, but she had a pretty stupidly stubborn sense of loyalty.

"Oh. Good" It was nice, but Tara was a teenage girl, and a fairly insecure one sometimes. Which meant what she heard was...

"Why only pretty much ever?"

Maybe Kennedy needed to be more careful about her figures of speech. And maybe she ought to know better by now, with Tara.

Which was why there was a contrite note in her voice to go with her mildly confused expression when she amended, "Well. I actually mean more like ever ever?" While the two of them were together, that was, but clarifying that meant acknowledging it was going to have to end at some point, and that was a point she was going to defer for as long as possible.

It mollified Tara, anyhow. She could relax now. "Ever ever is way better," she said firmly.

She kind of knew things would have to end. Someday. She was just ignoring the little clock counting it down in her head.

Shaking it off, she added, "So. The orgy sucked, but everybody got back safe? That's the important part."

Well, it didn't necessarily rule out the vague, half-formed hope Kennedy privately held out that they could run into each other in the future sometime. They were from the same world, right? (She was resolutely glossing over the possibility of alternate versions.)

"Everyone's safe," Kennedy confirmed, squeezing Tara's fingers as an extra little half-measure of reassurance. "It got messy, and seriously, thank god Raven's a healer, but yes. All safe and accounted for."

"Then that's all I can ask for," Tara said, and lifted kennedy's fingertps to her mouth to kiss them. "You can tell me the messy parts later."

There was that down-the-spine pleasant tingle again. "But not over dinner. There could be snuggle time, though." Kennedy grinned at her. "I'll fill you in. Promise."

Shanie: Dude. Thinking is really, really hard this week.

Shannon: ... What she said. I totally fobbed off all the OCDing and hard brain-work on her today.

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Behind the Dorms, Tuesday After Workshops

Arrive! Mingle!

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Discussion/Suggestions

Pair Up and Spar!

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Talk to the Leaders!

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OOC!