Third Floor Common Room, Sunday Evening

[onlymistaken]

Cally's day, once she'd determined that whoever was in charge of this place wouldn't be available until the school started up, had been spent trying the communications device in her room (it could only reach other such devices on Earth), the terminal at the desk next to her bed (with the date on the screen that made no sense to her) and what served as a computer network for the planet. (Just the planet.) Hours and hours later (...there had been a network node labeled "TV Tropes" and suddenly it was evening and she was starving) she couldn't take the isolation any longer, and headed down the corridor to the room that her 'student orientation' booklet swore would contain food, and possibly companionship.

It also contained an impressively large screen, which, when she entered, showed a man and woman systematically insulting every item of clothing their young guest owned before dumping them into a bin and in one memorably moth-eaten case, threatening to set fire to it.

It was simultaneously cringe-inducing and impossible to look away from, which might explain why Cally was now sitting on a sofa with a bowl of something called Frosted Lucky Charms in her lap, liberally doused in...Pepsi. (Or that could just be the alien thing. Like she knew what these people put on their dry food products?)

[OOC: Like a thing which is open.]

Comments

[theotherpeter.livejournal.com]

Peter was on entirely the wrong floor, but he didn't care. He did, however, care about what it seemed like the new girl was eating.

"Wow. Planning on early-onset diabetes?" he said, of course the best line to say to someone new.

[chief-cheerio.livejournal.com]

"The Emmys are on tonight," Quinn announced hopefully as she entered her common room. "I have to see who has the worst dress."

Though she wasn't going for the remote. She loved shows about bad clothes.

[onlymistaken]

Helpfully for Peter's first impression, Cally replied, after swallowing another bite of Lucky Pepsi Charms, with, "I'm sorry. I have no idea what that is."

[theotherpeter.livejournal.com]

"I'm just saying, that's a lot of sugar in that bowl," Peter said. "So either someone's bloodsugar was at near-death levels, or you have a serious sweet tooth."

[theotherpeter.livejournal.com]

"That's really just about the one thing I could watch the Emmys for," Peter admitted. "I still haven't managed to follow one of the more 'modern' shows."

He gave Quinn a smile. "Been a while. How've you been?"

[onlymistaken]

Her forays into TV Tropes (which she'd only understood a good 30% of anyway) hadn't taken Cally quite as far as the Emmy Awards, but she could follow the second part of that statement. Apparently critiquing people's clothing choices was a popular pastime here.

"By all means," she said to the other girl, indicating the screen. Not the remote; she hadn't even discovered that. "If there's another programme you'd like to watch; this was playing when I came in."

[chief-cheerio.livejournal.com]

"I watch about three things," Quinn admitted. "It's totally about dress envy. And I've been okay. The picnic yesterday was fun. How have you been?"

[onlymistaken]

Cally glanced down at her bowl. "It is rather sweet, yes. I had wondered, but I didn't think there would be anything in the stocks here that would be harmful to the students."

This may have been why, years later, someone might say to her that he imagined life-expectancy was fairly short among her people. The trusting thing, not early-onset diabetes.

[chief-cheerio.livejournal.com]

"Thank you," Quinn said, clicking over to the awards program as she evaluated the girl. "You're new. Are you English?"

[theotherpeter.livejournal.com]

"Oh, it's not harmful, not just in itself," Peter said. "But too much of anything can be bad. But, then again, if you've got the metabolism, it might not even be a blip on the radar."

Peter paused.

"I'm mixing my metaphors. I think."

[theotherpeter.livejournal.com]

"The same, really," Peter said. "Yesterday did have a tiny blow to my ego, but I think I've recovered. Meet anyone new and interesting at the picnic?"

[chief-cheerio.livejournal.com]

"I finally got to talk to the guy who isn't my roommate's boyfriend," Quinn answered. "Most of it was pretty normal."

"Who's wounding your ego, Peter?"

[theotherpeter.livejournal.com]

"Oh, it's nothing big," Peter said. "But I think Ariel is avoiding me now. For what reason, I'm not sure." He shrugged. "Plenty of other fish in the sea, I guess."

[onlymistaken]

Cally smiled. "I suspect I shall survive it; I can eat most things that humans can, as far as I know. Radar..." She paused, dredging her mind for the word, which seemed familiar. "Is an electromagnetic tracking frequency?"

In...ancient communications history, and she'd just got lucky that he'd mentioned something vaguely in her field.

[theotherpeter.livejournal.com]

"Yes, it is," Peter said, but now he was very intrigued. He went and leaned against the end of the sofa on which Cally was seated. "You know, I think you just implied you weren't human."

[onlymistaken]

"I am from Auron." Which was less than helpful, probably, given that yes, the accent was about as Received Pronunciation as you could get. "My name is Cally. I'm not sure what English might be."

It might be the language she was speaking. Just possibly. It was just that they called it Standard where she came from.

[chief-cheerio.livejournal.com]

Quinn rolled her eyes. "Ugh, she's so not worth it," she opined. "That girl practically molested me once at her job. There are about 50 hotter girls here."

This was not entirely accurate, but Quinn had a liberal relationship with the truth.

[theotherpeter.livejournal.com]

"She was already dating that Christian guy, any way," Peter said. "She almost molested you? What, did she try to feel you up while helping you try on a dress?"

He realized that Ariel had always seemed a little... excitable, so he could believe that, actually.

[onlymistaken]

"I'm not," she answered matter-of-fact-ly, pausing with the spoon halfway to her lips. "I'm from the planet Auron. We have a similar external appearance, obviously, but my people didn't come from Earth."

[chief-cheerio.livejournal.com]

"I wanted to buy something and she wouldn't let me until I kissed her," Quinn answered. "Which I didn't."

A beat. "There's a Christian guy here?" She was confusing the name and the adjective.

[theotherpeter.livejournal.com]

Peter nodded. "You're not alone," he said. "Well, I guess in the sense of Aurons, you are. But there's at least another alien at the school. Her name is Jool, you'll definitely know her when you see her."

He looked over Cally again, briefly. Nothing untoward, nothing appraising, just a quick once-over. Nice enough looking girl, really. "And how are you finding our fair planet?"

[theotherpeter.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, I met him when I first came to the school. Daddy issues, decent hair, from the past," Peter said. "And I mean really from the past, not like, how little I am from the past."

[chief-cheerio.livejournal.com]

"I don't know where Auron is." This was definitely more interesting than the idiot singing on the Emmys, so Quinn's attention stayed on Cally. "I'm Quinn. You're speaking English. Does where you're from not have an England?"

She'd been to another world herself; it didn't seem so impossible.

[onlymistaken]

"Confusing," Cally admitted. "This isn't the Earth as I know of it. You don't even seem to use the same galactic calendar we do."

If she knew her Terran history as well as she knew her history of communications, she'd have twigged to why that might be a lot faster, and not still be thinking she was 'just' in an alternate reality.

[onlymistaken]

Ah, that was a word that made more sense, when she put it in the context of where she was. "That was a nation on Earth, before there was a unified government, yes? Like the 'United States.' Auron is a planet; we speak Terran Standard, which I suppose must have once been called English."