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.

[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."

[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."

[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]

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."

[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."

[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.

[batwaffles.livejournal.com]

"Or," Stephanie added, holding up her fork, "it's so sneaky and manipulative we don't realize it is."

[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.

[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.

[arsenicmauls]

"Well, we kind of just nailed what they're doing," Gert pointed out. "So unless there's another layer, with, like, addictive stuff in the food or something, it seems like we're pretty aware of it."

She paused. "Not that our classmates are necessarily on the same page, I guess, if we're using a broader 'we.'"

[arsenicmauls]

Gert considered that. "I don't know, it seems like the people not stuck in the dungeon would be pretty worry-free unless they were doing daily headcounts," she mused. "With no classes and nowhere to go and all."

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie raised one eyebrow. "Only worry-free if they don't care about anyone in the dungeon."

[batwaffles.livejournal.com]

"I guess the question is, if we're aware of it, do we actually care if we're playing right into their hands?"

She didn't seem like she did.

Also, it probably said something that Stephanie finally glanced over at Old Lace and, without pausing to WTF at the presence of a dinosaur, asked, "Oh, hi there. Who are you?"

Or, you know, just that she'd been in Fandom for a while.

[arsenicmauls]

"Well, if they don't know where the dungeon people are, it might not occur to them to worry," Gert said. "Especially if they're relatively new, like I was."

[arsenicmauls]

Old Lace poked her head up and leaned over to sniff lazily at Stephanie's hand. "This would be the dinosaur who was forbidden from helping me beat up a bear today," Gert introduced. "Her name's Old Lace, she's a deinonychus, and she won't bite off your hand if you want to pet her."

[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."