Second Floor Common Room, Friday Afternoon

[arsenicmauls]

In the semester that she'd been here, Gert had learned that there were basically two reasons to be in a common room: to watch a bad movie or to try to pawn bagels off on people. Today, shockingly, was an example of neither.

No, today she had Chinese food to give away (seriously, what was it with the delivery guys in this town and bringing way more food than any one person needed?) and the movie she was watching, about a fish looking for his son, was actually pretty good. Imagine that.

Old Lace seemed personally moved by this movie. She was making whimpery noises at the sad parts and everything.

Comments

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie was really starting to believe Gert didn't actually exist outside the common room. She also didn't look too surprised to find her there as she came in.

"Chinese food?"

[arsenicmauls]

Hey, hey. She wasn't actually in here that much!

"Help yourself," Gert said, gesturing to the counter. "Dumplings're good."

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie nodded. That was kind of like saying 'okay' and 'thanks', right? She went to get herself some food, in any case. "Delivery guys get too eager again?"

[arsenicmauls]

"Do they ever not?"

She didn't really order food often enough to make a fair judgment there, but she was taking a wild guess.

[whenshewasnice]

"I can't say I've ordered enough times to be sure," Natalie replied, not even shrugging. Her tone was all the shrug she needed. "But it seems like a thing that happens. Guess they know there'll always be someone to eat it here."

[arsenicmauls]

"Usually," Gert corrected her. "Guess it'd suck if they accidentally delivered this monstrous amount of food on an 'almost everyone's in a dungeon' week."

[whenshewasnice]

"But at least then it would be the least of anyone's worries."

Natalie had such uplifting logic, didn't she? Whatever, her ex was going evil and/or crazy, she was allowed.

[batwaffles.livejournal.com]

Honestly, bears. Just because Stephanie wasn't surprised by class involving the big Bat-boss busting out bear battles, it didn't mean she wasn't going to shake her head a little.

Seeeeeeeeeriously, masked man, lighten up a bit, will ya?

. . . ha, like that was going to happen.

Anyway. A workout of her own after class (because hanging around the ol' Bats always made her feel like she'd better make sure she wasn't slacking off on her training) and a shower later, she ventured common-room-ward in hopes of finding food.

"And here we have the standard food source of the Fandom High student," she intoned in a bad imitation of David Attenborough, very documentary narrator-like, "the excess amounts of takeout. Scientists have yet to determine the cause behind this common phenomenon, but we do know for certain that it occurs most often in dorm common rooms."

She dropped the accent and perched on the back of a couch. "Translation: that is for sharing, I hope, right?"

Stephanie was a dork.

[arsenicmauls]

"Yeah, go nuts," Gert said. "My guess is the delivery guys in this town are so used to teenagers' preferred portion sizes that they get a little overeager from time to time. In no way is this a lunch special for one person."

[batwaffles.livejournal.com]

"See, I had a working theory that it's a preventative measure. As in, maybe they think it's a fair exchange to give us all this extra food so they don't have to deal with hordes of hungry high-schoolers actually invading their establishments," Stephanie remarked, helping herself to a plate and some chow mein, and ooo, dumplings. "I've met us. I wouldn't blame them, really."

[arsenicmauls]

"You know, that's interesting," Gert said thoughtfully. "We are kind of the worst." All teenagers were, really. "Kind of a 'no, really, order in, we'll make it worth your while' kind of thing. It's smart, 'cause everyone would rather not have to leave the dorms to get food."

[batwaffles.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Stephanie didn't have the highest opinion of her own age group. Her old high school had been much worse, though.

"And we're more likely to keep ordering food if we keep getting extra, I think?" She chewed on the end of her fork in thought. "Besides, we share, other people like it, they order from there the next time they get hungry . . . it's like some kind of diabolically clever scheme."

[arsenicmauls]

Gert sort of hated all age groups. She was well-adjusted like that. Though if she had to choose, she guessed that in general, teenagers were better than the alternatives.

"Pretty decent marketing," Gert summed up. "Enticing without being sneaky and manipulative. I guess that's how to do it."

[lil-nikita.livejournal.com]

Alex had a really weird day, more so than usual, and so she was glad to see people in the common room. That seemed normal-ish.

"Hey," she greeted her big sibling. Glancing at the Chinese food, she asked, "Is that for sharing?"

[arsenicmauls]

"Yeah, go for it," Gert granted. "Pro tip about Fandom: they always deliver an insane amount of food to the dorms here. And then charge you for, like, a sixth of it."

[lil-nikita.livejournal.com]

"Thanks," Alex said, reaching for a carton. "Yeah, I notice this place seems to be very generous with food. Maybe they want everyone to have enough energy to fight bears or something."

That would be the weird part of her day.

[arsenicmauls]

"Ugh, don't remind me," Gert said, rolling her eyes. "Dumb teacher not letting me play to my strengths in a survival class. Like I'm ever going to need to fight a bear without my sidekick?"

She nudged Old Lace with her foot.

[lil-nikita.livejournal.com]

"A dinosaur sidekick would be a good thing to have during a bear attack," Alex said, nodding. She was still getting used to saying things like this out loud. "Better than pepper spray."

[arsenicmauls]

"Right?" Thank you, Alex. "Just because not everyone else has one is no reason for me not to get to benefit from her."

Jeez, Batman.

[dressedinblood]

Anna wasn't going to be much help with the Chinese food, but she had wandered into the common room anyway. "Oh, hello," she said pleasantly to Gert. She didn't really know her, but it was hard to miss the dinosaur.

[arsenicmauls]

"Help yourself to food, yes this is a dinosaur, yadda yadda yadda," Gert greeted Anna with a wave of her hand. "I'm Gert, in case we haven't met yet."

[dressedinblood]

"Anna," Anna said with a nod. "And no, thank you." With any luck she wouldn't have to elaborate. "What are you watching?"

[arsenicmauls]

"Something with a fish looking for his kid," Gert replied. "Pretty sure it's more recent than the year in my universe, 'cause I've never heard of it. That and the animation's actually pretty good."

[dressedinblood]

"It's almost all more recent than what I've seen," Anna admitted. "That whole style is new to me."

[arsenicmauls]

"When are you from?" Gert asked, and not even being the daughter of two dead time-travelers and the owner of a dinosaur from the future could make that sentence sound normal, thanks.