Third Floor Common Room, Monday Afternoon

[nottrivial]

Normally Alec stuck to his own common room, but after finding a cluster of gremlins all crowded around a pair of video game controllers on the fourth floor, he had decided he didn't dare enter. He still wasn't clear on the local climate regarding killing gremlins, and in any event he wasn't about to do it in the common room when he didn't have to.

So he'd come downstairs instead.

But this common room was even weirder, because precariously balanced on the back of the couch were six mostly full glasses of different kinds of juice(?), and Alec didn't want to sit down on the couch for fear of disrupting what looked like an experiment of some kind. He sat at the table instead, feeling bored and full of questions all at once.

[[one of those 'i'm running out of paid time so i'd better make the most of it' posts. open!]]

Comments

[not_a_moonie]

Alana wandered into the Common Room to see what was on the TV -- she'd gotten addicted to the Real Housewives series -- and side-eyed the guy sitting on the table.

"So," she said. "Do you balance juice on couches a lot?"

[nottrivial]

"It's not mine," Alec said, looking up. "I thought it might just be a feature of this common room. It's not yours, is it?"

[not_a_moonie]

"The common room is, but not the juice," Alana shrugged, and then went over to prod one of the glasses of juice with a forefinger. "Can we agree whoever left their juice on the back of the couch is seriously weird?"

[nottrivial]

"I think we can definitely agree on that," Alec said firmly. "It's probably going to spill even if no one sits there, and then it's a hassle for everyone. Besides, I don't understand why you'd put it there to begin with."

Seriously, he really, really wanted to know. It was going to drive him crazy.

[not_a_moonie]

"Maybe the couch was thirsty," Alana suggested. She was ... about 85 percent kidding.

[nottrivial]

Alec thought about it.

"It's as good a theory as anything I was thinking," he admitted. "Sentient couches that need to eat and drink. Yeah, that probably happens here."

He shook his head, thoroughly weirded out. "Here I was thinking the other common rooms would be more normal than the upstairs one."

[not_a_moonie]

"Yeah, normal's not really a thing here," Alana said, and went to pick up one of the glasses because she decided she didn't really care if a couch was thirsty. "Do I want to know how bad the ones upstairs are?"

[nottrivial]

Alec watched her take the glass in mild surprise. Drinking mystery common room juice was pretty brave, even if it belonged to the couch.

"There are those little creatures - gremlins, I think? - playing a video game," he said. "I wonder if any of the common rooms have ever once just been an ordinary communal room with couches and a TV."

[not_a_moonie]

Please, Alana wasn't insane enough to drink mysterious couch juice. She carried it over to the sink and poured it down, rising up on tiptoe slightly to watch the liquid go down the drain.

"It didn't fizz or anything," she said, sounding slightly disappointed. "And -- right. Gremlins. You know, I was starting to think those were just a myth. Guess not.:

[seveninchmotto]

"Hello, brother, wasn't expecting to see you here." Not that Isabelle seemed very fazed by this development, sauntering into the common room in question. "Fourth floor that boring?"

[nottrivial]

"There are gremlins playing a game," he summarized. "Not a lot of couch space." Pointing to the third floor's own couch, he wondered, "Is there always juice there?"

[seveninchmotto]

Isabelle raised an eyebrow as she glanced over at where he was pointing.

"Not that I can recall. That's weird."

But then, what wasn't around here?

[nottrivial]

"I thought the Christmas-themed eccentricity was over by now, but maybe not," he complained. "Presuming juice cups have anything to do with Christmas. I have no idea."

[seveninchmotto]

"I don't think they do." But she neither knew or cared. So she offered an idle shrug. "So I'm going to call it weird just in the general sense."

[nottrivial]

"I think I'm more comfortable with that," Alec decided, but he gave her a shrug right back. It wasn't that important. "How's your break week?"

[not_a_moonie]

Alana squinted at her. "Oh, hey, you're Raleigh's roommate. Hi, I'm Alana."

She was fairly curious about what Isabelle was like, beyond being prone to kicking Raleigh out of the room.

[seveninchmotto]

Hey now, there was also the rather obvious fact where that room in question was largely decorated to Isabelle's taste rather than Raleigh's. Yes, even his side.

That said a lot about her.

Her smile was wide, although the sincerity of it was anyone's guess. "Hi! I've heard a bit about you. And, it's Isabelle. 'Raleigh's roommate' is kind of an unwieldy moniker."

[not_a_moonie]

Alana noticed, but didn't pay much attention to, the dubious sincerity of the smile. It didn't seem like it really had much to do with her personally either way.

"Isabelle," she repeated. "Okay, I can manage that one. And I really like what you've done with the room."