fandomhighdorms | Dorm Lawn, Tuesday into Wednesday Night

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Dorm Lawn, Tuesday into Wednesday Night

Okay, so the weather on Fandom was slightly less bone-tinglingly cold than the mainland, but that was really all there was to be said for it. One thing it wasn't, for instance, was ideal weather for anyone to stand around in for prolonged periods of time.

Which was why the Powers That Be had decided it was the exact ideal time to have a fire drill. Loud noise rang through the dorms at exactly 2 AM; good morning, students.

Hope you had time to snag a coat.

[[ fire drill post! go go go! ]]

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"Would you believe this doesn't happen often enough for it to be the first thing to leap to mind?"

Sparkle at least had the good sense to look sheepish about it, grabbing a blanket from the armload he'd dragged down with him and offering it to her as a peace offering.

"Know what the noise means, or should I explain that, too?"

Celia added the blanket to the one she was already wearing, because she wasn't foolish enough to turn down free blankets during a random let's-all-go-stand-outside-in-the-cold exercise.

"No one seems especially panicked, so I assume it's not an emergency," she said, frowning.

"Yeah, no. I have yet to hear the alarm go off in anything even close to an emergency," Sparkle replied with a sigh. "And, I mean, we get a shitload of emergencies. The fire drills like this are mostly just practice for standing outside in the middle of the night in the shittiest weather the island can dredge up at the time. Didn't seem so important on day one."

"No, no, I can see why not," Celia mused, covering her nose with a bit of blanket to keep it warm. "Maybe it's an exercise in fortitude and they don't anticipate we'll ever have an actual fire. They're just testing our ability to wake up, get down here quickly and then not catch colds."

"Yeah, I kinda say 'to hell with quickly,' and focus on the not catching a cold part," Sparkle sighed. "Hell, I'd just roll over and bury my head under a pillow and try to sleep through it if this island didn't give me enough reasons to be paranoid about it. The one time I ignore a drill, that'll be the one time they blow up the dorms or something."

Celia looked mildly alarmed, glancing back up towards the dorms. "Are they prone to doing that sort of thing?" she asked. "I mean, they wouldn't demolish a building without warning us, right?"

Of course, the alarm would technically count as a warning, she supposed.

Good job, Sparks. Freak out your newbie even more. Go on.

"... Wha? Oh, nah. The dorms are doing just as good as they were when I showed up. But there's no accounting for the island's fuckery, you know? Like that thing with the powers and shit being all passed around last weekend? I had to parkour up the side of the damn building to get into my room through an open window because I couldn't get my friggin' dorm key to work."

The parkour bit had been awesome, though.

...there were a lot of words that Celia generally did not use, there. But one in particular had actually caught her attention. "What's parkour? I lost my powers last weekend, but I didn't get to do anything fun as a consequence."

Just cook well, for once. Hooray.

What would Sparle say? He had a vast and colourful vocabulary and he wasn't afraid to use it.

"No? You got a shitty deal, then," he decided, smirking a little. "Parkour's like when you see people running around and jumping off rooftops and pretty much just ignoring the laws of gravity to get from one place to another by bouncing off things. I... can't normally do it, I'd freaking die."

"I'm surprised anyone can do that," Celia said, wide-eyed. "There's no magic involved? Just...leaping and balance and pure luck?"

She'd probably die, herself, if she tried. And she could levitate.

"Luck, skill, I don't care how you look at it, it's still freaking crazy. But last weekend it wasn't even that, you know? It felt like it was right, like I'd been doing it my whole life or I'd been made for it, even. Which might actually be almost as cool as that time I was fireproof for a couple of days."

Only Sparkle could actually find a use for a power like that around here over the course of two days. Honestly, now.

"How in the name of all that's holy did you figure out you were fireproof?" Celia was staring again, because really. That wasn't something that the average person would probably notice in the day-to-day.

Sparkle was a very special snowflake.

"I'm a smoker," he explained, as if, really, that did explain it all away. "And, like, you ever run your fingers really quick through a candle flame because it's a fucking cool trick and it's not like it hurts if you go fast enough anyway? I do that all the time with my lighter."

Because Sparkle enjoyed burning things.

"I have," Celia said, actually surprised that she could answer that. She'd always figured that if she burned herself she could heal it, anyway. "And you didn't burn yourself this particular time when you were suddenly fireproof?"

She made a face, shaking her head. "This...loss of powers, gain of powers thing. It happens frequently? Or was your inability to catch aflame separate from that?"

Sparkle gave his shoulders a shrug.

"I dunno. I think it was the same thing both times, but it only happens once in freaking forever. I've been here a couple of years now, and it's only been the twice, you know? Both times, I just, like, totally sucked at opening doors, but I got a kickass tradeoff for it."

Celia nodded. "Last weekend, I was pathetic," she sighed. "But I made really terrific omelet and normally I can't cook at all, so I suppose that was my tradeoff. It's not really my favorite thing I've encountered since being here...though I think I'd take being powerless for a day or two in exchange for being allowed to go back to bed right now."

"Yeah, I get to deal with the flipside," Sparkle replied with a shrug. "No powers except weird weekends, and I'm stick out here in the cold with a cat shoved down my shirt."

Velcro seemed to be pretty okay with this arrangement, mind.

"At least I dressed for it, though. Not like the people standing around out here in their underwear."

Which was affording him a nice view, at least. Thanks for that, Cade.

"You have a cat." Celia had somehow missed that -- blame the half-asleep part. She was leaning in to peer at the front of his shirt. "You brought your cat with you? That can't be comfortable."

She was ignoring the bit about people in their underwear just as steadfastly as she was ignoring the actual people in their underwear themselves. If she didn't acknowledge it, it wasn't happening, and then she didn't have to blush herself to death.

"Yeah, well, if it wasn't just a drill, I wasn't going to just leave him inside to burn," Sparkle replied, shifting his coat around a little so that she could get a better look at the small black cat that was peering out from his clothing at her. "This is Velcro. So-named because he's a clingy little jerk. And anyhow, he's soft and warm and he's not digging claws in. That's like a step up for him."

"Hello, Velcro," Celia said, reaching out to give the wee kitty some scritches. "He's probably helping, all things considered. Y'know, I didn't know we were allowed to have pets. I met a boy with a dog on the first day, but this is the first cat I've seen."

"How crazy will you think I am if I tell you he came out of a ball that fell from the sky one day?" Sparkle grinned faintly. "The weather around here, huh?"

Velcro was tiny, but he had a mighty little purr, and rumbled happily as Celia scritched him.

"But yeah, there's no reason you can't have a pet. I mean, unless your roomie's allergic or something. I've seen dogs, cats... whatever the hell Foucault is..."

He glanced towards Cecil and his freaky pink ostrich-flamingo thing.

"Pets all over the place."

"I used to keep birds," Celia said, smiling at Velcro and his purring. "...um, not like that one," she added, looking over at the...large bird thing. "Doves, mostly. Canaries. That sort of thing. I might've brought one or two if I'd known I could."

"Yeah? Miss 'em? There's a shelter in town that probably gets birds in sometimes. It's where I go to get Velcro's food," Sparkle shared. "You think your roomie would be okay with you having a pet?"

Because Sparkle would so help her pick out a bird and some bird junk if that's what she wanted. He was helpful!

"Maybe. She does have wings," Celia noted. "But they're more like...butterfly wings than bird wings, so I don't think she'd necessarily have an affinity for them because of that. I'd have to ask her. Birds aren't quite as cute as this little fellow here." She gave Velcro some scritches under his chin. "Might take some convincing."

"Well, I guess if that doesn't work, you can, like, volunteer at the shelter or feed the ducks at the pond or something," Sparkle mused. "And Velcro's always up for play-dates. Isn't that right, 'Cro?"

Velcro was so okay with that suggestion. Or with the attention he was getting. One of those things!

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