Fourth Floor Common Room, Friday afternoon

[fly-so-serious.livejournal.com]

Joker sat on the couch with his foot propped up. Stress fractures like the ones he'd given himself yesterday weren't so big of a deal -- he had pills for that -- but it still hurt, dammit.

He was playing a match 3 game -- in other words, swiping with one hand at glowing objects floating in the air above his other wrist -- and he had the TV on in the background, for company. It was tuned to The Weather Channel, and he was starting to get a little sick of the Winter Storm Orion coverage. "You know what I hate?" he remarked, to no one in particular. "Weather. We don't really get that, where I'm from."


[Open like a common room!]

Comments

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

"It's new for me, too," Eleanor said as she sauntered into the room. "Pretty, but the cold gets old a little fast."

She was in a terrible mood. Mostly because of the stupid doll. The one she was carrying by its foot.

[fly-so-serious.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, no kidding," Joker answered, still focused on his game. "My toes don't seem to ever get warm. I think maybe my braces are messing with my circulation." He wrapped up the game, frowned at the single star he'd gotten for the level, and then looked over at Eleanor. "I'll just be glad when... hey, WHOA! What the hell are you doing, there?!?!?"

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

"Thicker socks would help." Eleanor plopped down in the nearest armchair before tossing the doll lightly onto the couch. It landed on the cushion next to Joker's. Good enough.

"It's not real," she said, in case he hadn't gathered that already. "It's a ridiculous class assignment that's supposed to ... I'm not sure. Teach me responsibility, or frighten me into avoiding my sexuality, perhaps."

[fly-so-serious.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, okay, so it's a class assignment," Joker acknowledged. "If you treat it like that, you will FAIL!"

He gathered up the doll in his arms and rocked it soothingly.

"If I put on thicker socks, my feet'll sweat too much," he complained. "They'll get all gross and smelly, and you really didn't need to know that."

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

"But they won't be cold," she replied with a shrug of her shoulders. "I'm fairly certain I only fail if I abandon it or disable the recording that makes it wail like a demented banshee."

She had considered that last night, but didn't want the stupid plastic thing to win.

She frowned at him. "What are you doing?"

[fly-so-serious.livejournal.com]

"'Fail', 'don't get an A', same difference," Joker answered. No, Joker, to most people it really wasn't.

He cooed softly to the doll and shushed it lightly. "What do you mean, what am I doing? It's got sensors -- accelerometer, microphone, that sort of thing. You need to give it the same inputs you would a real baby, in order to pass the assignment."

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

Eleanor was still staring at him like he had an extra head.

"If you're so fond of it, you're free to keep it for the week," she said. "I was told that singing would make it sleep when it starts shrieking, but that failed repeatedly last night."

[fly-so-serious.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, no, if I do it for you? Also a fail. Here." He held the doll out to her. "Always support the head, because babies have weak neck muscles. Cradle, don't grab. Now, show me how you sang to it."

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

Eleanor stared at the doll for a moment, and something that had been brewing in her suddenly bubbled to the surface.

"No," she said.

And once it was out, it was out.

"I'm in no mood to coddle a piece of temperamental plastic just to bribe it into letting me sleep," she snapped. "Or just to pass an assignment for a class I never signed up for. This whole thing is ridiculous."

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"Not a fan of the cold?" Elsa was wearing a wry smile as she walked into the room, herself.

For, you know, reasons.


[OOC: Super late, but I had to! Feel free to ignore if I waited a little too long to leap in!]

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

"Not all of us are from Scandinavia," Eleanor teased lightly. "We don't get much snow under the ocean."

All right, she was still in a horrible mood, but she was going to at least try cradling her infant and treating it like it wasn't the plastic nuisance it so very was.

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"A shame," Elsa replied lightly, even while turning a curious glance toward the... baby? in Eleanor's arms. "Although I suppose you have water enough, without it being frozen, as well. Have you had your fill of it, yet?"

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

Eleanor noticed the glance and huffed. "An assignment, for class," she said. "To endorse chastity, or simply mock us. Joker convinced me to at least marginally treat it as though it were a real child."

Before, she had been carrying it around by one foot. It did seem to scream less this way.

"It's lovely, but the slush is beginning to grate on my nerves," she admitted. "I'd like snow more if it came in midsummer."

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"When it's more likely to stop by for a brief visit and then go away again?" Elsa's smile was a touch wry, but it wasn't as though people's distaste for snow was a personal affront or anything. After all, she didn't much care for ice, either.

Again, because of reasons.

"... I wouldn't know how to treat a real child, either," she added. "I'm... not exactly expecting to ever have one of my own."

That involved touching.

A lot of touching.

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

"It's lovely," Eleanor said quickly, hoping not to offend. "Just not for me. I imagine I'll tire of spring and summer just as easily."

She gave Elsa a wistful smile. "I'm ... not expecting to have one, either," she said softly. She knew why Elsa believed she wouldn't, and Elsa, presumably, could piece together why she was going to refrain.

But it wouldn't do to have that conversation in front of Joker. So instead she added, "But I've been convinced to give the assignment my full effort, regardless."

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

At least when it came to winter, Elsa wasn't exactly easily offended. Winter, growing up, had brought Anna constant encouragement to come knocking at the door with just one question in mind, over and over and over.

"I suppose, if good grades are at stake," Elsa replied, though she looked a touch dubious. "Which class is that for?"

She needed to know so that she could never take it.

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

"Sexual Health," Eleanor said, lifting a shoulder. "I thought I'd like to know about my own reproductive system, and the opposite sex. I hadn't anticipated watching over a screaming tape recorder. I didn't sleep at all last night."

Another night like that, and she might well set the child on fire.

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"I... don't think I'm ever going to take that class, then," Elsa decided, turning another, less curious, more distasteful look toward the baby... thing. "Me being kept up at night really wouldn't end well for anybody, I don't think. I need my focus."

She did. A lot.

[fly-so-serious.livejournal.com]

"I wouldn't say I'm not a fan of it," Joker countered. "Just... I've had enough. It can be done now. I got to see snow on the ground, and now I'm ready for summer."

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"If only it worked that way," Elsa replied with a smile. "It's still only early in the year, yet. I'm not quite sure how long winter lasts around here, but I'm willing to bet it's going to be a matter of months, yet."

Elsa, stop delivering disappointment that way.

[fly-so-serious.livejournal.com]

"I'm willing to bet I'll be even MORE done with it, by then,"
Joker told her. "What's wrong with having pleasant weather year round?

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"You're far too far north for year-round sandy beaches, I'm afraid." Elsa was a big fan of breaking it to them lightly. Honest. "But I suppose you could try to look at it as though it's something that serves to better make you appreciate summer while it's here?"

Well, it was worth a shot.

[fly-so-serious.livejournal.com]

"That's true, but it still sucks," Joker told her. "What we need is to build a planet that only HAS an equator, so it's nice and pleasant year-round.'

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

You were breaking her heart, here, Joker.

Which totally explained the way she was trying to keep from laughing.

"I suppose that would be one way to go about it. Though the cold doesn't bother me quite so much. I suspect I might be a little more used to it than most."

And it was far easier to hide her powers in the wintertime.

[fly-so-serious.livejournal.com]

"Well, you said you were from someplace up north, didn't you? I'm guessing it's not climate-controlled, there. You've had time to get used to it."