fandomhighdorms | Fourth Floor Common Room, Monday Evening

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Fourth Floor Common Room, Monday Evening

Alec wasn't really a huge common room person, but... well. There was a documentary about werewolves on. And as it turned out, Alec didn't really have it in him to get up and walk away when he saw wrong information being distributed. On the contrary, he felt it was his personal duty to sit there with his sandwich lying forgotten on his plate as he stared at the TV and pronounced, "Wrong. Wrong. That's wrong."

It was, in case you did not know, wrong.

So it looked like Alec was going to be too stubborn to get off the couch tonight. Because wrong.

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There was nothing happening on his floor so Theo went up a floor to check out his neighbors of a sort. There was someone in this common room at least and Theo almost thought he was talking to the air when he realized the television was on.

"What's wrong?" he asked, making his way into the common room and glancing at the TV.

"Nothing," Alec said automatically, misunderstanding the question for a second. "Oh, you mean -- oh. It's just that this TV show is really not right about what it's talking about."

Seriously, werewolves retaining their human faces when they 'transformed'? Who had fact-checked this?

Theo paused and watched for a little while just to see what Alec was even watching. He eventually picked up that it was about werewolves and raised his eyebrows.

"Maybe this is supposed to be fiction?" His first instinct was to say that werewolves were make believe but he couldn't really say that anymore. Not with what he'd done.

"It's a documentary," Alec insisted, pointing the remote at the TV to pull up the little guide that gave a summary of what he was watching. "Which is the first thing I don't understand, because why is this a channel? Where I'm from, and I thought in most worlds, people don't even know about werewolves."

"Well..."

Yeah, Theo didn't really have an immediate answer here. He kind of agreed with Alec.

"I mean, they do documentaries on Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster and no one's sure if they're real or not. Maybe this is kind of the same thing? A ploy to make people watch?"

"Maybe," Alec granted, because that sounded like a more likely explanation than anything he could come up with. "It's just annoying that it's so wrong."

Yes, Alec, you were a stickler for the facts. We got it.

"Sorry," he added, because his vehemence was probably a little intimidating. "I've actually met werewolves and read about them in, you know, reliable sources, so this is weird to watch."

"No need to apologize," Theo said, waving a hand at that. "All I've seen are movies so I couldn't really say what's right or wrong anyway. I'd probably be in the wide eyed believer group if I didn't know any better."

He believed in werewolves now if only because he knew strange things happened and there was no reason not to believe in them.

"Well, if you're ever in a dark alley on a full moon," Alec said, in the tone of one reluctantly offering up wisdom, "someone going around growling but still wearing a human face is probably just crazy. Not a lycanthrope."

Just a pro tip for you, Theo.

"Noted."

Not that he ever thought he'd be in a dark alley on a full moon. But, if he was, he figured he at least had Dev to help if he could get himself really angry.

Which wasn't a given.

"And even if they weren't about to turn into a hairy werewolf, I'd probably still stay away from a crazy growling person. They could probably do damage too."

Alec gave that a nod of agreement. "But you'd probably be less likely to waste your time waving silver at them," he added. "Which would probably only intrigue a crazy person instead of - supposedly - warding them off."

"Crazy person would probably steal anything silver that I had," Theo said, making a face. "And I'd rather not get into a fight with a crazy person because I'd probably lose or the crazy person would throw up on me or something."

It was just his kind of luck.

"Not to mention that fighting a crazy person is just probably not a comfortable thing to do, regardless of being thrown up on," Alec added. "Fighting actual monsters is one thing, but... I don't know."

He made a face.

"I think I'd rather avoid fighting anyone if I can."

Because he wasn't good at it. In his head, Dev begged to differ but Dev also realized he helped in Theo being more intimidating than he appeared.

"My strategy would be the whole 'best offense is a good defense.' So, basically, I'd run."

Victor came in, claimed a bag of pretzels out of the cupboard, and flopped into a chair.

"Let me guess, History channel is not photo-realistic about werewolves?" he asked, after the third time Alec declared something wrong.

"You guessed it," Alec confirmed. "Is it weird that I'm finding it so annoying?"

Alec paused, considered saying that he disagreed, and ultimately decided against it. "If you can't fight, that's definitely the way to go," he said.

"Seems like werewolves deserve a better documentary than this," Theo said, shrugging a shoulder. "The footage seems more realistic than movies I've seen, at least."

"And I can't."

He was the kid who got bullied at his last school. It'd never been horrible but still. He knew his strengths.

"Track team back home," he said, pointing at himself. "Long distances too so hopefully I'd just wear whatever was chasing me out. It'll be a match of stamina."

Victor considered it. "Are you going to get offended if I say yeah, it's kind of weird?" he asked.

"Yeah, good FX," Victor agreed, stretching his legs out. "Or this is from a world where there actually are werewolves."

"No," Alec sighed, because he'd expected to have that suspicion confirmed. "I think it's weird too. I don't even know any werewolves. I mean, personally."

"There are probably fighting classes here at school, though, right?" Alec wondered. "Combat 101 or something? Given the student population?"

"Of which there are more than I first knew," Theo admitted, glancing towards the TV again. "Before, they were just a thing in movies and the occasional music video. And something I gave candy to on Halloween."

Now?

"Guess now they could be my next door neighbor or something."

"I'm already in a class where I try not to die."

And it'd been a close call a few times. The Skywalkers were kind of evil.

"That's not nice, Theo." Ange was in a scolding mood, apparently.

"Just because it isn't nice doesn't make it not true," Dev pointed out. "They are insane! And they make it impossible to cut corners."

"Which is a good thing," Ange said, scowling. "Honestly, Dev!"

"I think that's more of a class designed to make me think the Skywalkers are insane," Theo said, going with Dev's interpretation. "I know how to do laundry really well because of them."

"Have you ever, y'know ... fought any of them?" Victor asked, with a little gesture that indicated fought meant hunted. And also that he was curious, not judgmental.

... it was a complicated gesture.

Alec shook his head. "Werewolves aren't demons," he said. "Generally speaking, they stick to the Accords -- treaties between us and Downworlders where they promise not to hurt humans. They keep us from fighting."

With a little facial expression of his own that said something along the lines of 'eh, in theory, but I'm a loyal enough Shadowhunter not to question it.'

It was weird that Alec, who was part-angel, would likely be going with Dev's interpretation too if he could hear the debate. His experience with Skywalkers teaching classes had been a little rocky.

"I didn't know doing laundry was a big thing to avoid dying," Alec said slowly. "...I mean, I do laundry, but..."

"There's one Stiles knows from home who looks like me with different eyes," Victor shared. "Came to visit once and freaked me the fuck out, man. But he seemed nice. Other than the clone thing. And the fangs."

"You sign things with the bad guys, and it works?" Victor was surprised. And a little jealous. That wouldn't work with Marvel supervillains.

"Clone? So, he was an exact lookalike but not your identical twin?"

Theo was still learning things about this place. He actually wondered if it'd ever stop. Ange hoped not. Dev didn't care.

"I don't know how I'd deal with that. One of me is enough, I think. I've got a face only a...frequently absent mother could love."

"Don't worry, it made more sense in my head," Theo said, shaking his head. "Basically, most of the things they make us do means I either get muddy, wet, dyed different colors, or some weird combination of all of those. So, I do a lot of laundry."

And that in itself was tiring. "Guess it's a way to build more stamina? Or buy a lot of clothes because I grow to hate laundry."

"I mean, his eyes were brown and he was maaaaaybe half an inch taller, but other than that -- yeah," Victor said. "But you can't really do much except freak out a little about how weird it is and, like, compare family stories just in case you might be twins. Which we weren't, so...."

He shrugged. "There are a couple people who have lookalikes on the island, even. I guess there are only so many faces in the multiverse."

"Well, they're not really the bad guys," Alec explained with an awkward wave of his hand. "They're the... not-us. Demons are evil; werewolves and other Downworlders have different instincts, but they can generally behave themselves."

Was there a more condescending way to word that? PROBABLY NOT.

"Signing things with the actual bad guys definitely wouldn't work," he added. "Like I'm guessing it doesn't in your world."

Edited 2013-06-25 02:14 (UTC)

"So weird," Theo said, shaking his head. "I mean, that's just...so totally opposite of what I always heard as a kid where I'm the only one like me in the world or something."

"But, that's how it should be!" Ange crowed, scanning through several documents like that would hold the key to this new information.

"It really makes you angry when you find out you've been wrong, doesn't it?" Dev asked, laughing. "Face it, Theo's not one in a million."

"But, he should be!" Ange insisted.

"I guess if the other person isn't like exactly me, I'll be fine. Small differences are strange but doable. But strange, man."

Edited 2013-06-25 02:17 (UTC)

Victor shook his head. "But we can sign treaties with aliens," he offered. "Usually. 'Cause they aren't all bad, they just ... want different things. Like downworlders."

"Totally," Victor agreed. "And to be fair, our parents didn't know they were lying when they told us how special and different we were."

So being an android was a pretty good form of being special and different, Victor supposed, but it was irrelevant to the current conversation.

"It sounds like this class should maybe have had a different title," Alec hedged. "Less about trying not to die, more about... dodging mud and water that flies at you."

"Exactly." Alec nodded. "...Do you guys get a lot of aliens?"

Because he hadn't actually heard that one yet.

"And now you've got me wondering what kinda person my clone would be," Theo admitted thoughtfully. "Yours is a werewolf with fangs. So, maybe mine would be..."

Theo trailed off and tried to think of something outlandish for his clone. "Well, if we were going for complete opposites, he'd be some genetically gifted jock with girls falling at his feet and the ability to cook."

Not as exciting as a werewolf.

"Well. Skywalkers."

Totally insane and all.

"I think they enjoy the added mess. It's gotta be funny to see a bunch of students trudging into the finish line, looking like muddy, wet rats."

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Fourth Floor Common Room, Monday Evening

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