fandomhighdorms | Third Floor Common Room, Thursday Morning

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Third Floor Common Room, Thursday Morning

Amy wandered into the common room pretty early on Thursday, partially to make herself a cup of coffee before work and partially so she wouldn't disturb Raven with the quick phone call she had with Karma.

While she waited for the coffee to brew, she started to realize something was up. Normally, Amy didn't freely tell Karma how much she didn't miss being in Austin because it was so stressful being around everyone when she was dealing with so much stress, and how nice it was to get some space from everyone, including Karma herself. And she definitely didn't usually end her phone calls with "Love you, unfortunately."

She hung up quickly after that and then announced very loudly, "Okay, someone needs to take my phone right now. Seriously. I'm offering fifty bucks to the first person who volunteers to babysit this iPhone today."

{likely to be slow today because CASE BRIEFS ON CASE BRIEFS ON CASE BRIEFS, but soooo open.}

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"I could use fifty bucks," Anders announced from outside the common room door. He'd been idly considering stopping in for breakfast, but with money he could buy many breakfasts. "Why are you trying to get rid of your phone?"

"I'm really tired and I can't stop myself from telling the truth about things, even though I have more than ample reason to lie," Amy blurted out. "See? I'm being weirdly honest right now. And I can't afford to do that with certain people since it would ruin my life and theirs and the fallout would not be good, so here."

She thrust her phone out in his direction. "Can I pay you at the end of the day?"

She was aware that she probably seemed crazy, but it was a small price to pay.

Edited 2015-01-15 14:59 (UTC)

"You probably wouldn't actually ruin your life, but I'll take money if you're giving it up," Anders told her. "I wish I were the type of person to say I didn't need to be paid to do a favor, but the truth is not having money is awful, and you clearly have too much if you're willing to give me $50 instead of just sticking your phone on a high shelf for the day."

He sighed. "-- and apparently I'm saying everything too. Fantastic."

"I really do," Amy admitted. "And it's worth it if it means I won't be tempted to get stuff off my chest. Because telling the truth would make me feel better, but it would ruin a lot else, and if Karma and I are ever going to be together or even stay friends, she cannot find out that I slept with her boyfriend."

That was a lot of italics, Amy. Also, a lot of confessing.

"Wait, why are you being weirdly honest? Is this a schoolwide thing?"

"The island's being weird again. It gets boring after a while. But go back to the part where you want to be with a girl even though you slept with her boyfriend," Anders said, reaching for the phone. "Normally I wouldn't ask but I'm nosy about other people's love lives, even if they're almost complete strangers."

Amy couldn't argue with that flawless argument. "I know, I'm a terrible person. I got drunk, and Karma just figured out I liked her and she said she didn't like me back that way, and Liam was there and he was drunk too, and besides I thought that maybe if I could do it with him then I wouldn't really be a lesbian, which was stupid, and it was the worst thing I could ever possibly do. And you're a total stranger and now you probably think I'm the worst person ever."

Honesty day brought out her inner melodrama. Sorry, Anders.

It was a good thing Anders was fascinated with everyone's inner melodrama.

"Not really," he said. "I've heard worse. Besides, Liam slept with you too, and he was cheating and knew you had feelings for someone else. You weren't the only one fucking up there."

"Yeah, but I'm the only one who can be trusted to not be a jerk," Amy mumbled. "Except, surprise, I am one."

Whoops.

"Do you want me to duct-tape my mouth shut? I can probably duct-tape my mouth shut."

"Would that work?" Anders wondered. "Or would we just start scribbling notes about all the things we want to blurt out?"

"I'm also willing to sit on my hands," Amy said quickly. "Or tie them, if necessary."

Anything to be less embarrassing.

"Sorry, I'm being eighty kinds of rude right now. I probably should have squeezed a 'How are you?' into this conversation at some point."

"Probably, but I liked making you talk about yourself because it meant I didn't have to talk about myself," Anders said, and winced at how that sounded. "I'm fine right now, except for how I'm still worried the new student from my world is going to find some way to open a portal and drag me back to the Circle. But she hasn't yet, and I'm going to do my best to enjoy every day until she does."

His ears were bright red by the time he was done talking. Apparently it was his turn to overshare.

"Wait, sorry, what's the Circle? That sounds bad." On a symbolism level, anyway. No corners or changes usually didn't mean everything was really great. "Unless you don't want to tell me. You don't have to. Would saying that even work?"

"Probably, but I like complaining about it," Anders informed her. "It's where people with magic go in my world. Sort of a cross between a school and a very nice prison. I ran away from it to come here."

"Oh. That sounds like a good move," Amy said awkwardly. "I thought of my old school as a prison, but that doesn't sound like how you mean it."

Anders shrugged. "Only if you were never allowed to leave," he said. "We're supposed to spend our lives there. Sorry for being such a depressing git about it."

"No, no, you're not," Amy assured him. "On the one hand, I feel like going to this school is going to teach me to put things in perspective, which is important. But also, hearing other people's secrets makes me feel like I might have a shot at making new friends at some point in my life."

Wow, did she hate these truth-bombs.

"Which I know is so not the point," Amy added. "That sounds awful that you had to grow up like that. That's what I should have said before. There's feeling trapped and then there's being trapped, and that's the worst."

"Glad someone else hates phones just as much as I do," Ronan said having caught that statement and little else. He wandered into the common room, sans Chainsaw, and raised an eyebrow in Amy's direction.

Safe to say he hadn't realized something was amiss as of yet because he didn't tend to lie and he didn't talk to many people either.

"It's more that I hate myself," Amy corrected him. "The phone is just the way I'm embarrassing myself and potentially ruining my life today, because apparently I have completely lost the ability to lie convincingly. Which is kind of an important skill in my life."

She buried her face in her hands. "Why can't I stop talking."

"That was a lot of words," Ronan agreed, keeping his eyebrow raised because okay then. "Anything interesting you're trying to lie about? Just throw your phone away if you're that concerned."

He'd do it for her if she wanted.

Edited 2015-01-15 16:20 (UTC)

"I think I found a buyer, but I definitely made myself seem like a rich bitch in the process," Amy complained. "But it's worth it, since the alternative is telling my friend I got drunk and ruined her relationship when she said she didn't love me." And now she was mortified for being a terrible person on top of her general incompetence today. "Why am I telling people that? I can't fucking believe this."

"Impressive," Ronan said, nodding approvingly. "Hey, revenge is sometimes necessary. Now, it might not always be deserved but who the hell cares, people suck anyway. They'll be the first ones to turn it back on you."

Now, that was a little more wordy than he usually tended to get but still honest. He did frown slightly at the amount of words.

"No, I didn't mean to," Amy insisted. "And I can't say anything about it, because that's the part that's going to hurt her. Why would I deliberately try to get revenge on her for that?"

"Why not? People. Suck." Still honest, yes. "And she probably wouldn't hesitate to take revenge on you either if the situations were reversed. Everyone's an ass somewhere inside."

"Not Karma," Amy said ~~wildly incorrectly~~. "The worst thing she's ever done was ignore me when I told her I didn't want to pretend to date in front of the entire school. And that was more about being oblivious than mean."

Well, it was a little of each.

"What, do you do a lot of revenge?"

"Most people know better than to try anything with me," Ronan answered, shaking his head. "But if someone pisses me off or does me wrong? Yeah, I'm gonna take revenge. It's only fair. And doesn't the world just revolve around fairness and political correctness these days?"

"I guess if you believe anything can ever be fair?" Amy tried. And then absently, "I don't think I've ever tried the whole vengeance thing. It sounds fun."

Well, it depended on how harmful the retaliation was. But in principle, she wasn't opposed.

"It is," Ronan said because of course he'd think that. Of course. "You should try. If I were a nicer guy, I'd show you the ropes but I'm far too antisocial and surly for that."

Okay, he didn't usually say that much. That was enough to make him frown. Severely.

"I wasn't supposed to say that."

"It's okay, I'm antisocial and surly too," Amy said. "At least you manage to be confident about it with your bird and your attitude. I'm just awkward and unapproachable. And I did not mean to say that either."

"Chainsaw's not even real."

Goddammit. Ronan clamped his mouth shut and felt the anger slam against his chest and heart. He took a breath. Talking about dream things was off limits.

"I'm surlier." Great thing to follow up with!

"I believe it." Take it as a compliment! Amy aspired to be as surly as a blonde teenage girl from the south could possibly be. "How isn't she real? The honesty thing means I have to believe you if you say she's a stuffed animal, but I think that's seriously unlikely."

"She's a dream thing," he said and bit down on his lower lip. "Don't ask anything more about that because you're not too bad a person and I don't want to stop thinking that way."

"Yeah, sure," Amy promised. "I could leave if you want, but being around someone who's also embarrassed by this whole thing is pretty reassuring."

"And it beats telling a freaking wall or a freaking bird all your freaking secrets." That was Ronan's way of agreeing, by the way.

"A bird who isn't real," Amy added. "I'm pretty impressed that you found the loophole of being honest while being really vague, and I'm definitely going to use that later, but I'm still really curious about that. Sorry."

"It's natural to be curious. I'd be curious too if roles were reversed," Ronan agreed. "And I'm just a naturally fascinating person who deserves to have people curious about him."

"I definitely would have thought that was bravado if you said that any other time," Amy remarked. "I wish I was that confident. Does that just come naturally to you?"

"Yes," he said, shrugging. "It's easy. Make people think you're scary and everything else falls into place. It helps if you are actually scary and the attitude is true, of course. Which it is."

"I don't think I can be scary," Amy complained. "The best I can hope for is slightly off-putting. But sometimes I think everything would be a lot easier if people were too scared to talk to me."

"Do you not want friends?" he asked because he couldn't help himself. He was being so chatty today and it was making him mad. "Thought everyone wanted that popularity, that social standing."

"I'm not really good at having attention on me. Or talking to people I don't already know really well. I'm kind of a social disaster," Amy said. "You seem like the kind of guy who wouldn't be popular. Oh god, I didn't want to say that."

"It's amazing what money and being friends with the right people will do," Ronan blurted, frowning and shaking his head quickly. "Fucking -- goddammit."

"Wouldn't have worked at my old school," Amy mumbled. "You would have liked it. Karma and I got popular by accident even though I hated it, because the 'alternative' kids are cool there. You're looking at a former Homecoming Queen."

Her tone made it quite clear that she didn't think that was cool at all.

"Former Homecoming Queen?" That was something Aglionby didn't have to worry about. "Wouldn't have guessed. Have fun wearing that crown?"

"I had almost no fun," Amy admitted. "I just did it to make my friend happy and now there are all these articles about us on Buzzfeed saying how revolutionary we are. I just went with it for an excuse to kiss my friend in public."

And now she was turning really red. "Fucking fuck."

"You're blushing." Because she maybe didn't know. "Must have been a helluva kiss."

Ronan was not above concentrating on Amy's issues and getting this weird day away from his own issues.

"Yeah," Amy admitted, her voice coming out sounding dreamy enough to make her hate herself. "Life-changing, but not necessarily in the best way, which brings us to my point that popularity is overrated. You don't need to go making friends in high places just for the joy of being featured on your school's Tumblr, is all I'm saying."

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Third Floor Common Room, Thursday Morning

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