fandomhighdorms | The Deck, Sunday afternoon

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The Deck, Sunday afternoon

So, it hadn't actually been a dream, after all. Margaery didn't know whether she was disappointed or not when she opened her eyes this morning and once more wasn't greeted with the vaulted ceiling of her bedroom at home. On the one hand, she had no idea how to get back, or whether she could even contact her family at all. On the other, this place already seemed much more fun than she'd thought school would be. So perhaps staying awhile wouldn't be the worst idea.

She'd lazed abed for a while, and would blame the ache of being on horseback for two days if anyone should have questioned it, before finally rising and making her way out to face the land of the living. After retrieving an apple from her common room - she was immensely grateful to see something she recognized right away - Margaery made her way down to the deck she'd noticed the day prior to work on the first of several letters. She had always worked on her correspondence in the garden at home, and it was far too beautiful a day to develop a hand cramp indoors.

By her count, she had five letters to write to start, and so she'd brought her inkpot with her, as well. But she found, once she had quill in hand, that she had no idea how to start.

"'Dearest Grandmother, did you know you were sending me to another world?'" she tried out loud. "No, that's horrible."

Five variations on that later, and Margaery had a collection of crumpled parchments at her feet and was vaguely wondering if she should just write to Loras about the shirtless boys. That seemed easier to discuss.

[open open open!]

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Baltimore was back across the causeway again, so Dante was taking his bored mood out on its clubs again. That was the plan for tonight, anyway: head to the city, grab some food, then find somewhere cool to spend the evening.

The newbie sitting by the deck made him pause on his way for a second, though, and he tilted his head at her, nodding at the parchments on the floor.

"Guess the pen's not that mighty today, huh?"

Margaery looked up from where she'd just carefully scripted a particularly ornate L to start her brother's name (which was another blatant stalling tactic), and looked puzzled for a moment before she parsed what he meant. "Have you ever tried to describe this place to someone at home?" she asked, lifting a brow. "I'm having a little trouble knowing exactly where to start."

"Nope, sorry."

Dante didn't really have anyone at home he had any desire to write to. Ever.

But he shrugged, walking a little closer. "'Hi, I'm not dead' might be a start?"

"That is a good start," Margaery agreed, pointing a finger at him. "I don't really think anyone was worried about that, but it's probably best to let them know that I made it here safely. Might put a quick halt to any lines of questioning that could prove difficult to answer, too."

She slanted a look at him, a little more critically than she first had. "You look like you're on your way somewhere." Or, at the very least, he looked differently than he had yesterday, and she was tempted to object.

Edited 2016-08-28 15:29 (UTC)

"Most people I know around here like to edge around the weird crap for at least a while," Dante said. He leaned a shoulder against the wall. "And yeah, I was planning to go out to the city. Grab some drinks. This place is way too quiet on a Sunday."

"Everyone is either recovering from yesterday or bracing themselves for tomorrow," Margaery suggested with a grin. "I find myself somewhere in between. Are you going to..." She paused, and her cheeks pinkened. "I'm sorry, I don't actually know the name of the city you can see on the mainland. That one. Are you going there?"

Tip came out with her latest weird paranormal romance novel from her mother and smiled at the new girl. "Hey. Just got in yesterday?"

"Baltimore, yeah," Dante said, nodding. "I mean, I like this place, but sometimes a guy has to go see some pretty girls he hasn't seen yet."

Which would also explain why he'd stopped for Margaery.

"But Baltimore's big, it's got a decent scene, fun people."

"Well, if you're immersed in the same scenery day-in-and-out, you tend to become immune to its beauty," Margaery noted, which was just a more poetic way of saying what he had. "Will you have to take a...bus to get there?"

Look how smart she was, using her brand new words almost correctly.

"Is it terribly obvious?" Margaery asked good-naturedly. "I'm as new as I think one can be, unless more people are due to arrive today. But if that's to be, it seems a waste to have had the feast yesterday. So...yes. Hello."

Edited 2016-08-28 15:52 (UTC)

Dante blinked, then let out a soft snicker. "Right, you're an old-timey medieval one like Anders," he said. "Nah, I don't take the bus. I have a bike. It's a lot more badass than the bus."

He was eventually going to figure out he might have to check his vocabulary for what made sense to people not from Limbo City 2016, but... later.

"Well, you know, this place is small enough that you start to be able to recognize pretty much everyone on sight." Tip shrugged and sat down. "I think most people show up in time for the welcome picnic, but I guess so long as they're here by the time classes start, they're good. I'm Gratuity, by the way. Nice to meet you."

"Just like Anders, by what he was saying, but different worlds," Margaery said, blushing. Oh, well, she was learning. "We're still on horseback at home. I hear that's considered a touch archaic in these times."

She disagreed, but she had also only been here a day.

"What makes your bike...badass?" She frowned. "It sounds like something you should get repaired."

"That's a beautiful name," Margaery said sincerely, smiling over at the other girl and setting aside her quill for the moment. "I'm Margaery. And that's a comfort, how small it is - I feel as though I've met a hundred people since yesterday, but I suppose it's probably not more than twenty. I can hope I won't be lost forever, if there aren't too many more to meet. Have you been here long, Gratuity?"

Dante blinked again. Oh, right. "No, I mean it's cool," he tried. "It's got two wheels, it can go fast as hell-- I'll get you a picture."

He slid his phone out of his pocket, flicking through photographs at high speed.

"Really?" No one had ever said that before. Maybe English wasn't this girl's first language. "Thanks. I've just been here for the summer this far. So about three months? It's pretty cool. Way different from my old school."

Margaery started to say something about how she didn't understand why it being of lower temperature would be a boon, because she was determined to act like the father in an 80's sitcom, but she was quickly distracted by his phone.

"I have got to get one of those," she sighed in awe.

"Would you believe it's my first school, entirely?" Margaery confided, looking a little sheepish. "I was educated at home until now. Do you like it so far? How is it different from the last?"

Her attention meant Dante had to swipe even faster, since there were a whole bunch of pictures and albums on there that weren't for just showing off to random people. (Unless he felt like it, which was sometimes. But not now.)

"You should," he said. "Makes everything easier-- hey, look. Here we go."

He held up the phone so she could see the picture. "That's my bike."

Liberated from a chop shop fair and square.

"Oh man. If my mom tried to homeschool me I think we'd end up murdering each other." In Tip's world, this was a joking exaggeration. "The classes are a lot more interesting, for one," she said. "Like, I took sex ed over the summer and instead of it being a month of lectures about sex being evil it was actually good information about what to do if you get into sexual situations."

Margaery's eyes grew even wider as she leaned in closer to look at the bike. "It's a beautiful color," she offered immediately - she meant it, but she was also more interested in figuring out how one rode it. "Do you ride seated upright and hold onto the - "

She gestured towards the handlebars.

"Really, now?" Oh, now you were speaking to her interests, Tip. "I'm signed up for that! I had thought it would be - oh, you know. Babies and our cycles and what to do when your husband comes to bed drunk and you're too tired to deal with him. That sort of thing."

Oh, medieval times.

"You mean to say they'll give us advice about what to do if it should happen...for fun?"

Yeah, 'if.' Sure.

"Yep," Dante said. "Lean forward a little when you're really picking up speed, but basically. And guests go on the back." Beat. "If you ever want a test drive."

"Yup." Tip grinned, glad she was too dark for her blush to be really visible. "Well, it's a different teacher this time, but it's probably the same basic idea. They had all sorts of . . . supplies available for free and on the last day of class they took us to the store in town that sells the -- uh. Toys." She tilted her head at Margarey. "You're pre-sexual revolution." It wasn't much of a guess, Margarey's world was so pre- it was bleeding out her pores. "Does your world have contraception? Things to use to have sex without making babies?"

"Like riding a galloping horse," Margaery decided, her gaze flicking back to Dante. "And it goes - fast as hell, you said?"

She clearly didn't think this was a bad thing, if her smile was anything to go by.

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The Deck, Sunday afternoon

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