fandomhighdorms | Second Floor Common Room, Tuesday Afternoon

#46: IF STRANGERS KNOW WHAT YOU’RE FEELING, YOU GIVE THEM THE ADVANTAGE.

One of the luxuries that Will had been allowed to keep was his 'computing device' from the Center. Ajay had managed to keep Will connected to the Center's intranet (Will didn't ask how) even while he was away. It meant he could keep himself up to date on things going on and hopefully not feel quite so far away. He didn't (and couldn't) keep himself in a constant and obvious funk.

"Power on," Will said and watched the tablet seemingly come to life. Legs unfolded in the back and raised the entire unit to a comfortable viewing angle. Then, the screen expanded in size and powered on with a musical chord. As everything powered on, Will almost smiled when he saw the visual representation of himself staring at him from the computer. The background changed and soon it was mimicking the common room he was sitting in.

Will picked up a few of the potato chips he'd picked up in town and ate a few while the tablet got itself caught up. "Open mailbox."

His mailbox opened and Will scanned through some emails from Elise and Nick. There were some announcements from the Center and one from Dr. Robbins but nothing else. Will opened the email from Nick first and started laughing at his friend's sarcastic whining tone about being bored. He'd even sent a picture of himself lying on the pod's couch, looking sad and bored.

It made Will feel a little better. He got to work composing a reply while the television droned on in the background. Every so often, Will looked up to see what was on but nothing really caught his attention.

[Open common room. Will's tablet is pretty technologically advanced. It only reacts to him and there's a very, very accurate representation of himself on the computer screen. It sounds like him, moves like him and is kinda creepy but helpful!]

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Cecil was feeling sort of sociable, so after calling ♥Carlos♥ for the evening, he strolled down to the common room, Foucault in tow.

"Hi!" he said, pleased to see someone familiar there. "You're in my self-expression class. Will, right?"

"Good memory," Will remarked, looking up from his tablet and the email from Nick. He gave Cecil a wave. "I'm in there, yeah. You're...Cecil?"

He hoped, at least. He wasn't great with faces and names.

"Yep!" Cecil answered, grinning. "And this is Foucault." He scritched the bird's head. "We're not disturbing you, are we?"

Will shook his head. "I was just reading an email from a friend. But, I can do that later."

He glanced back at the tablet and said, "Power off." The tablet powered down and the syn-app version of himself disappeared.

"Cool bird," he said once he'd shifted his tablet onto the couch beside him.

"Thanks! Nifty...gadget thing," Cecil answered. "I don't think I've seen one like that before." He headed for the cupboards. "Do you know if there's any soup?"

"Hadn't even looked," Will admitted, glancing over at the cupboards. "Actually, I didn't even realize there was like...a kitchen thing in here. This where people eat? No cafeteria or anything?"

He'd seen the shops in town and he could guess this place wasn't like the Center with it's huge, sprawling commons area but still.

"Oh, there's a cafeteria, too!" Cecil answered. "Right in the middle of the school building. Well, horizontally; it's on the first floor. But I think a lot of folks just make their own or order in." He finally found a plastic can of soup and stuck it in the microwave to heat.

"Anything here and not labeled is fair game," he announced cheerfully. "Of the food, I mean. Have you just been eating in your room?"

"Yeah." He planned on getting out and exploring the town a little more tomorrow but he wasn't really sure where anything was just yet. "I went for a run the other day, saw some of the fast food shops but other than that, I've just been living off potato chips and gummy worms."

Probably not the best diet, though.

"Real gummied worms, or the candy kind?" Cecil asked, interested. "I've been wanting to see if Foucault would like worms, but I haven't found any yet."

Not that he'd looked too hard. That would involve staying outside in this cold.

"Oh, uh candy," Will said, making a face at the thought of the other find. "I wouldn't even know how to make real worms gummy and...I definitely wouldn't want to eat them."

Ew.

"I think it's gelatin or something." Cecil shrugged. "I'm not really much of a cook."

He took the soup out of the microwave and grabbed a spoon, then plopped down on the couch. "So where are you from?"

"All over the place but I last lived in Wisconsin," he said, shrugging. "Never really lived in one place for long periods of time. Kinda transient that way. What about you?"

"Night Vale," Cecil answered. "I've never really lived anywhere but one place! Is it fun, moving?"

He probably sounded a little doubtful; he couldn't quite imagine wanting to move that much.

"Not really," Will admitted with a shake of his head. "Going from school to school gets old quick. You never get a chance to settle and make friends."

Cecil grimaced in sympathy and distaste. "I think I like being in one place better. But now you're settled here for a while, right?" He grinned. "Plenty of time to make friends!"

"I don't know how long I'll be here," he admitted, shrugging. "And I don't make friends easily anyway so we'll see. I'm trying though. I'm not hibernating in my room, at least."

Cecil wrinkled his nose. "Hibernating is boring. Even if it's pretty tempting, in this cold! But yep - you're here. And you seem pretty friendly to me!"

"Thanks," Will said, chuckling briefly. "I don't mind the cold, though. Wisconsin is a lot colder than this. This is practically summer to them."

Cecil shivered theatrically. "Night Vale's in the desert. This is way too cold! Old Woman Josie knitted Foucault leg and neck warmers and she made me a really nice sweater, but it only does so much goo."

"How long have you been here?" Will asked curiously. "Doesn't your body tend to adapt once you've been exposed to cold temperatures for long enough?"

"It wasn't this cold a few months ago," Cecil noted mournfully. "This is my second semester here. And I went home for winter break."

"Well, if memory serves me correctly, you've got about one more month of weather like this," Will said thoughtfully. "It'll start to get a little warmer in February but it'll still be cold."

"Another month?" Cecil asked, dismayed. "Maybe I can just stay inside the whole time."

"Might be hard to do if you wanna keep going to your classes," Will pointed out. "I'd say just layer up and walk really, really fast if you have to be outside. And hope that the power doesn't go out."

Cecil huddled around his soup as he ate it. "They wouldn't let that happen, would they?" Now you were just being mean, Will.

"Uh, I don't think they could stop it," he said slowly. "Sometimes, it just kinda happens."

Sorry, Cecil.

"If there's no heat here, I'll go home till it comes back on!" Cecil declared pathetically. He sighed. "Or I'll burn...something." What would he burn? He wasn't really sure. But something would certainly make flames.

Second Floor Common Room, Tuesday Afternoon

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