fandomhighdorms | The Roof, Thursday Evening

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The Roof, Thursday Evening

If Karina had any idea that the roof was commonly used for brooding or feeling terrible or shit like that, she probably wouldn't have gone up to it.

Okay, no, she totally would have just to prove that it didn't have to be used for that. And that she was judging everyone who felt the need to come up to deliberately suffer, especially in winter, when they were already feeling bad.

She on the other hand, had just wanted to see the view. So that was what she was doing, sitting precariously on the edge of the roof, kicking her feet idly, and thinking that the view wasn't bad at all.

And if she felt like singing while on the roof, well, people could cope with that too. So there. Singing was great.

The wind was pretty good at carrying her voice too. Karina could appreciate that.

[Open as a roof is!]

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It was a great night for that, wasn't it? For the sitting on the edge of the roof and just appreciating the view... thing. Not the singing. Evan wasn't exactly a great singer.

Still, coming up and just looking out over the island was what he'd had in mind. And he didn't normally have any trouble with sharing, either, except that there were some people that were less likely to tolerate his presence than others.

He listened awkwardly for a minute, and then made his way over to the edge of the roof anyway, waiting a few minutes for a break between songs.

"Mind if I sit?"

Oh, ew.

Karina glanced side-long at him, unashamed at having been caught singing for no good reason and vaguely gratified that he'd waited until her song had been done before asking anything.

"I guess so," she said, shrugging a bit. "It's not my roof."

"Yeah, it's kind of everyone's," Evan replied, looking uneasy for a moment before taking a seat a stone's throw away, legs dangling over the edge, and looking out over the island. "I just like to watch the way the town kind of twinkles to life in the evening. I never had a view like this where I came from, but it's nice to see. Like little bits of proof that there are people out there, going about their lives, you know?"

He swung his legs a little.

"You can keep singing, if you want. You've actually got a really good voice. I had no idea."

... was he waxing sort of poetic about the town? Karina frowned slightly and decided to go with the compliment he'd given her instead, rather than try and address that.

Because it sounded kinda creepy put that way.

Compliments were always preferable to... almost anything else.

"Thanks," she said genuinely. "I'm planning to be a singer when I graduate, so that's good to hear."

A singer, a superstar, and idol... same thing. (Same with actress, song writer, dancer, and Hero.)

Well, the last view that Evan had been given involved the scattered remains of hundreds of brutally murdered unicorns. He was going to take proof of people alive and living anywhere he could find it.

"Professionally?" The corner of his mouth twitched a little. Something approaching a smile. "You should. Follow your dreams, right? Did you write that song you were singing? Or is that one of those 'shame on you, everyone knows this song' ones?"

There were a lot of those out there. Evan still kind of failed at popular culture.

That totally didn't surprise her one bit. At all.

"I wrote it," she said, shrugging a bit and tilting her head up to look at the sky. "I write most of my stuff. It's easier to put feeling into it if I'm the one that wrote it down."

"I guess it means it's something you're pretty much guaranteed to relate to, huh?"

See, he wasn't an artist in any way, shape, or form. Not unless you counted the things he could shift his body into. But he could logic his way out of a wet paper bag if he had to.

"It sounds like something that should be playing on the radio, so that's a good sign."

"It will be," she said, with a faint smile. "One day."

In about three weeks, but he didn't need to know that. It wouldn't be on the radios here anyway.

"What are you up here for? Just the view?"

"Mostly just the view and the fresh air," Evan agreed with a little nod. "Last weekend was... not good... so I've been kind of taking it easy all week. I just sort of keep forgetting to get outside, too. So, this was supposed to be that."

Fresh air, check! View, check!

She glanced at him.

"You're not going to, like, cry or anything right? Because I don't deal with that."

He'd probably figured that out before this, but saying it flat out never hurt.

"I think a lot of people would say it's stupid to be outside when it's cold."

She wasns't one of them, but it was true.

Evan made a little scoffing noise at that, and shook his head.

"I'm not going to cry. I was just going to think, and I'm angry more than anything. And the cold doesn't bug me that much. I mean, it's not great out, but I'm dressed for it."

And 'feeling cold' was not something that Apocalypse generally tended to concern himself with. Evan wasn't him, but he came from the same genetic muck.

"I wasn't criticizing, for once," she said, since she was out here too. And, sure, she was dressed for it, though lacking a hat, but...

Well.

She needed the clothing less than he did, even.

"Are you going to be angry in my direction?" Karina wondered. "Not that I care, but I like to know. I could pencil you in."

That got a sidelong glance out of him, at least.

"Mostly I was just planning on being angry out at the view, or... yelling up at the sky if nobody was out here, or something. I was told this weekend that it's okay to be angry and I need to stop just sitting on it and letting it fester, you know? I'm bad for that."

"I never understood how people function that way," Karina said, deliberately off-hand. "Seems like a total waste of time to just brood and fret and pretend to be happy when you're not. Better to let it out, at least when it's that sort of thing."

"Depends on the sort of thing, I think," Evan replied, sounding deliberately casual, himself. "My knee-jerk reaction to some of the things I saw this weekend wasn't pretty, and there aren't enough punching bags on the island for me to work this off. I'm trying to remember what I can from Doctor Banner's classes, but there are some things that counting to ten won't cut it for."

"I don't care what horrible thing happened," she said helpfully. "Mostly because it had nothing to do with me. Besides, you probably don't want to talk to me about it anyway."

It wasn't like they were even remotely friends.

"But, you know, as long as you're not hurting anyone, just be angry however the hell you feel like it. If you want to scream, do that, though I'll go inside."

Evan gave a heavy sigh and a shake of his head.

"You probably want to hear about it about as much as I want to talk to you about it. Neither of us need that headache, I'm sure," Evan grumbled. Even now, he was kind of wishing it had been anyone but Karina out on the roof.

He'd even take Quentin.

"Maybe I'll talk to Batman about it. It seems like it's something that's more up his alley, anyway. Protecting the innocent and fighting the wicked and all of that. No screaming necessary."

Quentin? Harsh.

Besides, she'd been on the roof first. He could just suck it up and deal.

"But no guns," Karina muttered with feeling. "Because guns are bad. Sure, go do that."

Evan actually turned to give Karina a look, then, one eyebrow raised.

"The guns are a sticking point for you, are they?"

Because that seemed... kind of like a weird thing to be hung up on.

"I actually know how to use one," she said, rolling her eyes at him. "And if I'm forced to fight I sure as fuck aren't going to go close and personal with someone."

A beat.

"Besides, for all his hate on for guns, it's not like any of the other weapons don't do just as much damage, if used right. Think it's stupid. Though it's also stupid and irresponsible to be teaching high school children weapons."

Opinions! She had them!

"But not everyone in that class has a world to go home to where they're even thought of as children, any more. What's irresponsible where you're from might be the only thing that keeps some of our classmates alive."

Evan shrugged a little.

"A criminal justice class taught by a man in a cape and a mask kind of seems like a weird course for an aspiring musical superstar to take."

"Given that the Dean's reaction to an invasion is to wait for the students to take care of it because evacuation plans and giving a shit is apparently too hard, I have absolutely zero faith in anyone here."

Karina supposed that needed more explanation. Or, if it didn't, he was getting more anyway.

"Even if you're from a different world, I don't see how that entitles the adults to just sit on their asses and do nothing because the students have always found a way. That's disgusting and teaching children weapons use is just enabling more of that lazy, dangerous thinking. And who says I can't be interested in justice when I want to sing?"

"Hey... I never said it was okay that the adults leave us to deal with things that happen. But when we go home, knowing this stuff might be exactly what we need. Anyway, I have seen some teachers stand up and fight. Not many. And you can be interested in justice. I'm just saying that taking a class with a teacher who goes by Batman probably should have been an indication that we weren't going to be sitting down and reading lawbooks and learning how to recite miranda rights."

He frowned a little.

"Though it is weird that there aren't evacuation plans in place. Even my last school had those."

"See? Evacuation plans should be a thing! That happens! No matter the situation. I mean, even if some people can fight, what about those who can't? Shouldn't people like that have a way to get to safety?"

Karina was, perhaps, surprisingly passionate about people being safe.

"Batman's class last semester was pretty good," she said grudgingly. "This semester, not so much. Last semester was more hypothetical scenarios and what you'd do, this one is more learn to be something you're not so you can ignore the law and be a vigilante. Which I'm not."

"I wonder how much of Batman's class is actually a matter of ignoring the law in a lot of the different realities people are from, too? The place I was at over the weekend seems like exactly the sort of world that needs the sort of justice that Batman is teaching about. Maybe not... I don't know... Baltimore across the Causeway, so much. Places that have fallen so far into disarray already that the law isn't enough any more."

He gave his feet another little swing, looking back out over the island.

"So it would seem horrible and ridiculous and irresponsible to people from worlds like... wherever you're from. And maybe even a little bit in mine, except that's not really how I was raised either. But for people from other places, this class is giving them something to fall back on if they need it."

Another moment's pause.

"It's going to bug me now, though, about the lack of an evacuation plan. I mean, even if we can't leave the island or if there's nowhere that's perfectly safe, there should at least be some way for the faculty to keep track of who's where, who's still safe... something like that."

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