FIRE DRILL!, Outside of the Dorms, Very Late Thursday Night/Very Early Friday Morning

[suitably_heroic]

The wind roared around campus this time of night. Temperatures had dropped to close to freezing, and clouds blocked out most of the fragile light of the moon.

Perfect time to ring the fire alarm for a test, right? Right.

Somewhere deep in the middle of the night, the alarm went off. Loudly. So grab what you can and bustle on outside, students! ... and let's hope this is over quick.

[[ FIRE DRILL! have at. ]]

Comments

[smilestopscars]

Ezra had been grumbling about getting woken up at this godforsaken hour, but now that he was outside, it wasn't so bad.

Oh, the cold was annoying and being awake was dumb, but at least there were plenty of pretty, scantily-clad people around. That was a plus. And at least he'd taken to wearing pajama pants to bed now that he was sharing a room, so he wasn't as cold as he could have been.

He was still considering shifting, though.

[stacyexperiment]

Gwen had gone to bed in sleep pants and a t-shirt that was way too thin to deal with this, so now she hated everything and everyone. Also she'd left her room in bunny slippers, which she was now holding in her hand in favor of going barefoot outside because these things were great and they weren't getting dirty on the ground.

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy had gotten back in from Baltimore less than an hour ago and had just managed to fall asleep when the fire alarm went off. Grabbing a blanket and shoving her feet into her winter boots, Kathy blearily made it out of the building.

She almost wished it were on fire. Then, at least, they'd be warm.

The best thing she could say for the situation was at least her pjs weren't hugely embarrassing?

[notconflicted]

Sia was not happy at all, but she'd been through this enough to be able to deal with it, and she'd thought to bring a coat along so she wasn't too cold. She also had Vitor on his leash and was dreading how this was going to mess up his schedule.

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

Hanna had woken up and tried to hide under the bed, first.

When she heard all the feet pounding by, she'd come out, dragging her bedspread, and followed the rest, barefoot and in her Tasmanian Devil shirt and leggings. Blinking around at everyone, she asked, "Are we under attack?"

[kenselvren]

"No," Jalian answered. "It's a drill of some sort, to test our reaction time." That was what she'd gotten out of it, at least.

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

"Oh. Drill for what?" Hanna trailed after her. "Flying eels?"

[kenselvren]

"I think that one was last week," Jalian answered, grinning. "This is for fire, I think."

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

"Ohhh." Hanna felt that the alarm was much too loud and persistent for that. "... should we get water buckets ready? Or anything else?" She yawned, hair spread out like dandelion fluff.

[kenselvren]

"No, just not be inside." Jalian grinned; Hanna was adorable. "I'm not sure why; maybe they have automatic things to stop fires?"

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

"Ohhh." Now that she knew she didn't have to fight-- or think on her feet while asleep-- Hanna was already half-back to dozing again. She dragged her bedspread after her like a little kid, half-forgetting about it. "If there was a real fire, I would watch. See what they did." And in German, "//Jon suggested I be a fire fighter. I should like to learn.//"

[kenselvren]

"What language is that?" Jalian asked curiously.

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

"Was?" Hanna asked, then realized she wasn't speaking English. "German. I am sorry. It is my first language. English is a close second." She yawned and rubbed at her eyes, then blinked at the blanket in her hand.

[kenselvren]

"Mine, too," Jalian answered in silverspeech. "Mine, too." She smiled and reached for the blanket to tuck it around Hanna, if she liked.

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

Hanna smiled in thankfulness at Jalian, tugging on the other side of the blanket, a little more awake now. "What language is that? It is pretty. I like it."

[kenselvren]

"Silverspeech. Ken selvren's language." Jalian shrugged. "I think it came from a mix of things people speak now. I learned English from books. I'm still getting better. It's a very strange thing sometimes."

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

"It is useful. But it is not as-- adaptable, as German, I think," Hanna yawned again, opening her eyes wide. "You can just put all the words together to make a new word, in German. In English, people may not understand... Silverspeech," she repeated. "Where is that spoken?"

[kenselvren]

"Ken Selvren lands," Jalian answered unhelpfully, then grinned. "It's somewhere in the middle of California, but eight hundred years from now and in a different timeline."

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

"Ohhhh." Hanna blinked again, fascinated. "How do you know, it is a different timeline? This is-- this is not your past?" She was swaying a little bit, but the conversation was keeping her focused.

[kenselvren]

"No," Jalian agreed. "I was trying to get to my past, but the island did something. In my past, Armageddon happened in 2007."

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

Hanna blinked like an owl. "Why would you want to go to Armageddon?"

[kenselvren]

"Not then." Jalian shook her head. "I was trying to get before it. To stop it."

[kenselvren]

Jalian was out of bed with a knife in each hand before she consciously registered the alarm.

Then she sighed, quickly donned her boots and leather jacket over her tank and sleep pants, and headed down.

[voiceoverdue]

Cecil sighed and looked generally miserable. He was wrapped up in a coat and scarf over his pajamas, and huddled with Foucault, with one of Sparkle's blankets wrapped around both of them and a cup of tea.

When could they go back inside?

[ultimatehottie.livejournal.com]

Johnny stayed in bed for a while. If there was a fire, it wasn't going to hurt him. He'd just absorb it or whatever, no problem.

But eventually the damn noise was just too much to take, so he made his way outside, realized he wasn't going to put up with the cold, and flamed on. Congratulations on starting a (controlled, person-shaped) fire, fire drill!