The Deck, Thursday Morning

[fewer_explosions]

Liara was not a terribly big fan of crowded, open spaces, but it was a lovely day out, and the dorm lawn saw a lot of traffic but not a great deal of humans hanging around for any significant amount of time.

She had finally gotten around to trading in some of her credits for local human money (though she had no idea how the bank had found any kind of exchange rate worth mentioning) which she had used to purchase some clothes - she couldn't go around wearing the same clothes all the time. It simply wasn't practical.

Not to say that human fashion seemed entirely practical, but she quite liked the dress, even if it came up far shorter than she was used to. She tugged on the skirt periodically as she sat on a chair on the deck, a book on human archaeology in her lap.

[[ open! ]]

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[ultron_junior]

It was Victor's day off and, with nothing better to do, he was going to just hang out in the sun. He walked onto the deck and -- Oh, hey, blue girl.

Victor mentally chided himself for that thought: He knew she had a name that was not 'blue girl.' It was just a little hard to come up with ... whatever it was.

He flashed her a quick smile anyhow, removing his headphones from his ears as he settled into a deck chair. "Hey," he said easily. "Nice day to be outside, huh?"

[fewer_explosions]

It was okay, Victor. Liara was only just learning to keep individual humans apart. ... Just don't call her blue girl to her face.

"It is," she agreed. "Though experience tells me it will soon become much warmer than this." She matched Victor's smile with one of her own. "But right now it's... comfortable."

[ultron_junior]

"Yeah, but we only have a couple more weeks of this to go and then it gets freezing, right?" Victor said. "I'm staying outside as much as I can until it's serious glove-and-boots weather."

He'd spent basically his entire life in L.A. He had only a theoretical understanding as to how the four seasons thing worked.

[fewer_explosions]

"It does?" Liara asked, blinking. "I didn't realize this planet's seasons were so sudden!"

Now she felt foolish for buying a dress this short.

[ultron_junior]

"Depends on where you are," Victor said, halfway apologetic. "You should probably ask somebody who's actually from this coast. But I think it gets cold here in, like, October, right? So ... two months. Maybe."

He glanced over. "Why, it's different where you're from?"

He'd never thought to ask Xavin or Karolina what weather was like back on their planets, and now he was wondering if he should have.

[fewer_explosions]

"It also depends on what part of Thessia you are on," Liara said, rubbing the back of her neck. "Though Armali was quite temperate. It never gets terribly cold."

[hasadestiny]

Lex had been headed back to his room after his class when he caught sight of Liara on the deck and changed direction instead. "Morning, Liara."

[fewer_explosions]

Liara looked up. Lex was easy to identify - the lack of fu-- hair on top of his head helped, and she flashed him a smile. "Morning, Lex," she said.

... where to go from there?

"...How are you?" she said, which sounded mostly natural.

[hasadestiny]

"I'm okay," Lex replied with a grin. He hadn't been a mind-controlled lackey for nearly two whole weeks. That counted as okay, right? "How about you? Settling in alright?"

[fewer_explosions]

Well, it was certainly a better deal than the week before that. Liara was going to take it at face value, anyway. "I think I am starting to," she said. "I'm sure there is much I don't understand yet, but I'm clothed and I know how to get to the cafetaria and the library."

For her, that was pretty good.

[hasadestiny]

"The two most important locations in any school," Lex said, finding a chair to sit in. "And I can't fault your taste in clothing."

Not that he was staring at her legs or anything, but he was a teenage guy and...okay yeah, he was maybe, totally, eyeing them off just a little. "The colour's good on you."

[nottrivial]

Alec didn't usually spend all that much time outside -- he tended to alternate between his room, the library, and the salle -- but the weather was nice and he'd already gotten in quite a bit of training this morning, so here he was.

He had completely failed to anticipate that there might be other people out there as well, though.

"Oh," he said, blinking a little at the blue girl. "Hello."

His surprise was more to do with the fact that there was anyone outside at all than the fact that she was blue. But -- a Downworlder? His Sensor hadn't even twitched...

[fewer_explosions]

Liara... matched his blinking with some blinking of her own.

"Hello?" she offered.

This was quite the conversation already.

[nottrivial]

They were both so good at making conversation! Plus they both had eyes the color of the sea ten minutes before a storm, so basically they were the same person.

"...Nice day," Alec observed after a moment.

Oh, Alec.

[fewer_explosions]

Really? Liara would have just said 'blue'.

"It is," she agreed. "Did you... come outside to enjoy the sun?"

Don't sound so questioning, Liara. Humans enjoyed the sun. You know this.

[nottrivial]

Clearly they just didn't have descriptive enough crayon boxes in Thessia. That was all that was.

"It was that or read another textbook," Alec said. Then with a glance at her book-- "Though I suppose I could've done both."

And thus would've avoided tripping all over himself in an effort to communicate like a functioning person. Maybe next time.

[solarhippie]

Sorry, Liara. The deck was apparently really popular today.

Karolina was on her way back from getting a little bit of breakfast in town, but had to make a detour, being the social creature that she was.

"Oh, hey, Liara!"

[fewer_explosions]

Liara looked up, and, after a moment or two, successfully managed to identify the other girl. "Karolina," she called, "Hello!"

That was cheerful.

... look, she was rather excited to talk to anyone she'd spoken to more than once that she didn't completely embarrass herself in front of.

[solarhippie]

Karolina grinned a little. She actually didn't need much of a reason for it.

"How are you?" she asked, as she got closer. "I like your dress."

[fewer_explosions]

"Thank you," Liara said brightly. "I bought it yesterday." She pulled on the hem again. "The length is taking some getting used to, though."

[solarhippie]

Karolina couldn't really empathize: a lot of the things she herself wore left quite a bit of leg on show, even though they tended to be shorts. But she could appreciate it.

... Although she was trying not to, because that way lay blushing and complicated feelings. "It's pretty different from what I've seen on you before," she agreed. "But it suits you."

[ultron_junior]

Now there was somebody Victor needed to stalk more hadn't seen around lately.

"Karolina," he said. "Hey. How's ... everything?"

So maybe he still had a hard time figuring out what to say to this version of her.

[solarhippie]

That was okay. Karolina still had trouble figuring out how to act around someone who knew her somewhere else. They could just both be awkward here.

But she smiled, anyway. "Fine," she said. "I was just back in LA for a week." And no sign of Victor there yet. "How are you?"

[ultron_junior]

"I was there last month." Which would have been awkward to elaborate on, given the and by the way your fiancee went back to outer space in your place, but at least no one died, so go us component, so Victor rushed to his next sentence. "Everyone was fine. Ish. You know."

That cleared things up, right?

"And I've been good. I'm still mostly happy it's a normal week."

[solarhippie]

"Yeah, I know," Karolina said. Totally refusing to acknowledge any particular awkwardness there. "Or, I mean. I kind of wasn't around for the week that I've gathered was... kind of bad."

Yes, she knew that was an understatement.

"But still."