Fifth Floor Common Room, Wednesday Evening

[wasthecuteone]

Making campaign posters was hell on a girl's manicure, and Petra's nails had finally reached the chipped-up point of no return. It was time to redo them. She decided to relocate to the common room, both for more space for the fumes to dissipate in and so she could watch TV while she worked and waited for her nails to dry, and, since she couldn't decide which colors she wanted to use while she was in her room, she wound up carrying around a dozen with her, which she would be more than happy to share if anyone else wanted to get in on the nail-painting action.

She had a bottle with her name, which she thought was pretty cool, but the color was a little darker than she was feeling right now. Maybe for her toes. She finally decided on a blue foil, with silver glitter on her ring fingers just for fun, though she laughed for about five minutes straight when she remembered what those two were called.

She flipped through channels looking for something to watch before she got started. Most of the TV was weird and not what she was used to, but she was able to find a rerun of The Shills, The Corporation's wildly popular program about product placement and the teens who love it. It was the episode where Lorrie and Chad broke up and she tearfully gave him back the Frou Frou bag he'd given her when she agreed to fake marry him to promote his new beer line. Perfect.

((I own all three nail polishes mentioned, and am wearing Swimsuit..Nailed It! right now. I blame Beauty Queens 100%. Open common room is open!))

Comments

[wasthecuteone]

"It's just The Shills," Petra said as she scrubbed at her thumbnail with a cotton ball. "This is a pretty good episode, though." Then she turned to smile at Tara. "Hi, I'm Petra, and before you ask, yes, I'm new."

[life_inshadow]

"You do kind of have that glow," Tara said, with a hesitant smile. "I'm Tara. I've been here two years. Petra's a pretty name."

She didn't know The Shills, and she glanced to the TV to try to figure out if she'd seen it and just didn't know the title.

[wasthecuteone]

Onscreen, Lorrie was sort of cuddling the designer bag as she debated whether she should return her fake-engagement present or not.

"Wow, two years? Have you completely lost track of reality yet?" Petra asked. It was trying to be a joke, but it didn't quite make it there.

[life_inshadow]

"Well, I'm a witch, so..." It was halfway meant as a joke, even if it probably fell pretty flat. "Wait, is that girl going to make out with her purse?"

[wasthecuteone]

"What, like, seriously?" Petra asked, then glanced at the TV. "Oh, no. She just has to give it back because she's breaking up with her fake fiance, and that makes her sad because it's so the it bag of the season."

[life_inshadow]

"... I don't understand rich people," Tara decided.

Kennedy might have seemed like an exception, but no, Tara didn't really understand everything about her, either. Not that Kennedy was the bag-of-the-moment type. (Boot-of-the-moment, on the other hand...)

"And, um, yeah? I don't turn people into toads or anything, but I'm Wiccan. The spells-and-herbs type. So, uh, reality's ... a little unreal for me."

[wasthecuteone]

"Neither do I," Petra admitted, "but they're funny."

After a moment she said, "Oh, you're Wiccan. I thought you meant, like, actual magic oh my God I'm being offensive, aren't I?"

[life_inshadow]

"A little, yeah," Tara said, though she didn't sound that offended. "What I do is actual magic, but if you go online most of the people you find are just ... randoms with a spice rack. But it's a real thing, at home anyhow."

[wasthecuteone]

"I think Wicca is real most places? It is at home, anyway. Not with actual magic attached, though...I think..." Petra trailed off, looking uncertain.

[life_inshadow]

"I didn't really talk about it a lot before I came here," Tara said. "Maybe your world is full of real witches in the closet."

[wasthecuteone]

If Petra were capable of objectivism on the subject, she would probably think her world was crazy enough without magic added into the mix. But to her, her world was just normal, so she said, "Maybe. I don't know. One of my friends thought she was under a curse but I never really got if it was a real curse or a metaphorical curse..."

[life_inshadow]

"What did she think the curse did?" Tara wondered, sidestepping an opinion on real-or-metaphorical. "I mean, curse. Probably it wasn't flowers and ice cream"

[wasthecuteone]

"I didn't really get the details; she talked about it with Adina more? But something with...being a wild girl, and some boy not smelling right? I don't know." Petra shrugged expressively. "She's a pirate queen with a hot ornithologist-slash-eco-warrior boyfriend, so I'd say it turned out okay."