Fourth Floor Common Room, Thursday Evening

[furnaceface]

It was Ben's fault.

That was Jonothon's story, and he was going to stick to it like glue.

He'd pulled out his guitar, and his amplifier, and he'd staked out a spot on the couch, which he'd turned just enough so that he could watch the door. The television wasn't on, but you had better believe that his amplifier was, and he had a small arsenal of songs memorized for the task at hand.

If anybody was going to try to make use of the common room on the fourth floor today, they were going to have to do it at the risk of being greeted by their very own theme music today, courtesy of Jonothon Starsmore and his electric guitar.

Totally Ben's fault.

[Open! And you better believe that there will be YouTube abuse today.]

Comments

[onlymistaken]

Cally had been heading for her own common room to seek food, but the sound of music floating down the stairwell drew her up a floor to this one. She paused in the doorway, just listening for a moment, intrigued by both the tunes and the instrument.

"I had no idea the school provided live entertainment in the dormitories as well as the vid-screens." Half joke, half not; what did she, after all, know about the local customs?

[furnaceface]

//The school didn't provide this, so much as it didn't chase me out for deciding to play it,// Jono replied, with a light shrug of his shoulders. The more casual he acted, the less absolute strangers tended to freak out when he spoke to them, was the thing.

His song of choice for this particular newcomer was going to be some Supernatural Superserious. At that moment, he was in the mood for R.E.M.

[onlymistaken]

Would the absolute stranger's face lighting up as brightly as any face that didn't have fire spouting from a missing jaw could light, count as freaking out?

//You're telepathic!// Just in case he wasn't aware.

He was also not of her species, which meant she oughtn't to have heard him, but Cally had given that concept up as a myth the moment she'd felt whatever it was that Kerrigan was poking at her head.

[furnaceface]

//...Yes?// Jono was starting to get used to hearing other telepaths about, between the small herd of them that he'd stumbled over when he was new here. Seeing another one get so excited about it was a relatively new experience for him, really. //As are you, I can't help but notice.//

Because he was observant that way. So very, very observant.

[onlymistaken]

//Almost everyone is, on my planet,// Cally explained. //I've only met one other here, and even she spoke aloud first. You're the first person I've met in weeks who hasn't.//

[furnaceface]

//Well, I really don't have many other options,// Jono admitted, with a small shrug of his shoulders as his gaze wandered down toward his guitar. Clearly, playing music took a good deal of effort and his eyes were needed in that direction.

... Yes.

//This is normal where yer from, then...?//

[onlymistaken]

//It's more than normal; it's what unites us as a people.// Cally paused to look more closely at the boy, identifying the cloth wrapped round his mouth as more than a fashion she wasn't wasn't familiar with, now. "You're unable to speak aloud?"

It was a matter-of-fact question to her, with nothing of pity in it; how could there be? That voice wasn't one that she would feel handicapped by losing. It was only after asking that she realized the lack of eye contact might not be just about watching his fingers on the strings.

[furnaceface]

Jono's fingers landed on a chord that didn't belong there at all, and he decided that right then and there was probably a good time to consider himself finished with that song.

He shrugged.

//It was a bit of a trade-off, you could say. Only, where I'm from, I tend to attract all of th'worst types of attention when I speak this way.//

[onlymistaken]

//You're human?// she guessed. Three quarters guess, perhaps, and a slice of general sensitivity to biological energies, especially when they'd touched her mind.

[furnaceface]

//... More or less,// Jono agreed. //There are humans who would disagree, I suppose, but when you boil it all down, we all came from th'same genetic soup.//

[onlymistaken]

Which made Cally smile a bit despite the implication that people thought of such powers as abnormal, instead of just rare. //It's a rather large pot; humanity covers most of the galaxy in my time.//

Any second now, she'd remember there was something called 'manners' - even if hers were based on a decidedly different sort of society. //My name is Cally; I'm from one of the few planets it doesn't cover.//

[furnaceface]

//A pleasure,// replied Jono with a small lift of his... chin, for lack of a better word. //And I'm Jonothon. A little time-tossed, perhaps, but not terribly much. Still from Earth, but likely not this one.//

The things that Fandom made him feel inclined to clarify. Someday, he'd be back home, and he'd have to bite back the urge to point out that he was from the same year that it actually was.

[onlymistaken]

"I enjoyed your music, Jonothon," Cally said aloud, because there was carrying on a conversation while other things were going on, and then there was staring at each other in complete silence for long enough that other people could tell they were being left out of something. "I've not seen an instrument quite like that before. What is it called?"

[longislandiceme]

"Too much television'll rot your brain," Bobby intoned solemnly.

[onlymistaken]

"I'm not from this planet," Cally answered, not quite alien enough to take him literally. "If you lot grew up with it, then I should have years yet before mine gets rotted."

[longislandiceme]

Bobby stared for a second as he tried to figure out that reply, and then cracked up. "Good answer," he said approvingly. "So where're you from, if not here?"

[onlymistaken]

"It's called Auron," she answered, less wistfulness in the name than there'd been in days, after talking to Jono. "In this galaxy, but... about halfway across it." Then, of course, there was the complicated part. "And almost a thousand years into the future, I think. It's hard to be sure; the calendar has changed."

[longislandiceme]

"I haven't heard of it, which isn't surprising given I'm not exactly well travelled in the intergalactic sense," Bobby replied. "They changed the calendar? Why?" Because Cally would know, obviously.

[onlymistaken]

"I believe it coincided with the unification of the Terran Federation," Cally said. Unsurprisingly, Federation political history wasn't a major field of study on a planet that had thus far refused to join it. "They control most of the galaxy; when their calendar changed, everyone's changed."

[longislandiceme]

"Terran Federation?" Bobby wrinkled his nose. "Humans can barely manage this planet, and there's a future where we," and there was only the slightest stumble over that word, really, "actually are in control of more stuff?"

[onlymistaken]

"Very much so. Though the Federation isn't all humans; most races in the galaxy have joined it." Cally's expression turned a little sour. "Willingly, so the official reports always say."

[longislandiceme]

"And unofficially?"

[onlymistaken]

"Unofficially, those who suggest otherwise seem to have a habit of disappearing." Or, very occasionally, popping up on a galaxy-wide vidcast six months later talking about how terribly mistaken they'd been. "I don't mean to disparage humanity as a race, though; most of the people treated poorly by that government are human."

[longislandiceme]

And boy could Bobby sympathize with that. "Some things are just constant, I guess," he observed, and then shook his head a little. "I'm sorry, it's a pretty serious topic for a first conversation, isn't it? Didn't mean to put you on the spot or anything."

[onlymistaken]

Cally shook her head. "No, I'm sorry; I seem to be talking galactic politics at everyone tonight. For a government that doesn't even exist yet. Here's a proper introduction, then: my name is Cally; I'm very pleased to meet you."