fandomhighdorms | Second floor common room- Sunday morning

Astrid tended to sleep in whenever she could--it meant fewer hours to have to fill when she was awake, really--but that morning was giving her trouble, even if she did wake up well after Sabine. Still, she might as well put the time to good use, although she wasn't sure for what yet. Sketchbook tucked under her arm, she figured she'd head to the common room for breakfast and see where that lead her.

"You're building a pillow fort?" she asked, once she did come in and saw what her roommate was up to, feeling both a little surprised by it, but also...not really surprised at all.

"It was already up when I got here," Sabine said, tucking a blanket securely around the top of a cushion. "I'm making improvements."

And that sounded very much like Sabine. Astrid smiled faintly, even though now she was wondering who had put it up.

Her guess was probably Nina.

She set her sketchbook down on the arm of the sofa for the time being and moved closer.

"Did you want help?"

"Absolutely. This is way too big to be a one person job," Sabine reasoned. "Right now I'm making sure nothing will fall over once anyone gets inside but it could use some flair."

"Anything you had in mind?" Astrid asked, as she then went to scrounge up any cushions Sabine hadn't already claimed to bring them over to her. Sabine always seemed the type to have a plan with her projects, but it also seemed like she was inviting Astrid to offer her own thoughts, which was still kind of strange to her.

"Hard to think of anything much we could do with what's in here, though," she admitted, after giving it a moment's thought. "Deck it out with spoons and forks? Maybe we can make popcorn and string it together and hang as a door..."

Sabine stopped what she was doing and considered it. "Do you think popcorn can be dyed? Or spray painted?"

Had anyone ever asked that question before?

Possibly a few summer camps and arts and crafts classes? But if not, it was nice to know it was firmly in the lexicon now.

"I don't see why not," said Astrid, who felt that answer was a given.

"Because I do have my sprayer with me," Sabine said.

"Of course you do," Astrid said it with a pleasantly unsurprised laugh. "I think that's it, then. I'll go see what we actually do have by way of popcorn, and we can go from there."

"If we don't, I think we're doing dorms wrong," Sabine pointed out.

"Good point," Astrid agreed, moving over to the cupboards and immediately finding a bag, but she wasn't going to leave it at that, setting it aside and continuing to look. "What else do you think we could spraypaint? Chips? Pretzels? Especially if we have the twist ones...Easter's coming up soon, I think. Maybe we can paint some eggs, too..."

"Chips will leave grease, pretzels would be great," Sabine considered. "Do we need to use that egg dye they have? I don't know much about that."

"Me, neither," Astrid admitted, as she did find a bag of twist pretzels and set that aside, before scoping out some microwaveable popcorn to see if any were unbuttered. "My mom was a little more open about Easter, since it has pagan roots, but we were never really the egg-dying kind of family."

Or any kind of conventional family at all, really.

"We could always try and see what happens, though."

"I say yes." She was going to be very easygoing about this.

"Maybe we should do an egg dyeing thing in the dorms."

"I like that idea," Astrid decided, looking over her shoulder at Sabine with a smile. "It would be nice to see what everyone came up with for their eggs..."

And she actually liked doing group things around here, maybe because they were generally kind of chill and there wasn't any pressure and she got along with everyone fairly well.

She checked on more cabinet before deciding she'd probably found all the popcorn, and then tossed one of the bags into the microwave to pop.

"We'll work on it for... whenever that holiday is."

Why did holidays move? Very confusing for those from other planets.

"Easter," Astrid supplied again with a small, amused nod. "I'm not actually sure when it is, this year," or even in her actual home year, "but it shouldn't be too hard to figure out. We can load up on chocolate and jellybeans, too, they'll probably have a ton at Turtle & Canary."

But her head tilted thoughtfully.

"Although," she noted, "if we do it as a post-Easter thing, all that stuff would probably be discounted."

And there were, what, maybe all of half a dozen to a baker's dozen actual from-Earth humans at this school? And how many of them even celebrated Easter?

"I like that," Sabine decided. "Why pay full price for a holiday that no one knows the date of?"

Someone probably knew it. Still.

"A post-Easter Easter celebration," Astrid said, as if trying it on for size, and her smile showed her approval. "I like that. It might good, too, to help if the island decides to throw anything really weird at us for it."

"It's not allowed. We had enough holiday weird," Sabine decided. "We'd end up with killer bunnies or something."

All she knew about Easter: bunnies.

Nina was feeling a little judged and summoned by narrative blame, Astrid.

Either way, like, she was meandering in with a mug of hot chocolate and a new moogle doll.

"Why is the island giving us gifts??????????????????" she asked.

Not that she minded! But, like, she was also a bit suspicious--and if her new cake moogle turned out to be evil she was going to be upset because he was adorable.

"No idea, but it's a nice change," Sabine admitted. This place sometimes. "What've you're got there?"

"It's a moogle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she said, offering it to Sabine to inspect. Look at his cute little wings! His hat! His cake! "They're, like, from my brother's world????????????????????????? He got me one for my birthday last year and I've just been, like, slowly buying random things because they're so cute............... and then this morning, like, this one was on my bed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

A beat.

"I think he's, like, celebrating his thirtieth birthday or something????????????????"

"He looks very good for his age," Sabine said, mock-seriously.

She grinned.

"He does, doesn't he???????????????????? We should, like, all hope we look that good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Thirty, after all, was ancient.

~~*sob*~~

"Until then, do you want to help with the fort?"

"Absolutely!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

She surveyed it, bright-eyed, as she hugged her moogle.

"What's the current plan?????????????????????"

"I'm adding structure, then decorating, and we could always use things to make it more comfortable."

If Sabine was going to do this, she was going to go all in.

"Are we, like, planning to have this fort exist forever?????????????????" she wondered.

"It's Fandom, so probably not. I'd say the day, maybe the week?"

Hard to tell!

..................

"I mean, like, once we're done can we go do up the 3rd floor room too???????????????????"

It'd give Wayne something to grumble about tomorrow!

"Do you think they're in every common room?"

They better be!

"I can go check????????????????" she offered.

"If you want," Sabine said. "If there are, maybe we can have a theme to these."

So, you know. Take that into consideration.

"A theme," she said blissfully, all on board with that immediately. "I'll be right back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

And she darted out of the common room.

"That may have been the wrong wording," Sabine realized after she'd gone.

It really didn't take Nina too long to come back either, her cheeks a bit pink but otherwise not even out of breath from all those stairs as she bounced back in.

"They're everywhere!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she announced gleefully.

"Excellent," Sabine said, rubbing her hands together. "We have so much to work with."

Oh, like it was that far of a stetch?

"I didn't get any gifts," said Astrid, who just hadn't gotten them yet, but she didn't know that. She gave Nina a soft smile. "Maybe you did something good and it felt you deserved it. Karmic presents."

... Okay, fair.

Nina looked doubtfully at her doll.

"As long as it doesn't go evil later," she ventured, "I suppose that's not so bad????????????????"

"Yeah," said Astrid, whose eyes may have dropped just a bit more warily toward Nina's doll for a moment, "none of us need any of that. But, hey, if it is karma, we only have to worry about that if you haven't been good."

Why was that not very reassuring?

"What is that, anyway?" she asked, almost as if she felt maybe it wouldn't hurt to be a bit more prepared just in case.

Yeaaaah, Nina wasn't going to talk about all the ways she could possibly not be good.

But there were a lot.

"It's a moogle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she said happily. "Isn't he cute??????????????"

Helpful, Nina!

They were all doomed.

"He is, actually," Astrid admitted, losing her wary eye and replacing it with more of an artist's perspective as she gave it a closer look, head slightly tilted. "I don't think I've ever heard of a moogle before, though."

"They're, like, from my brother's world???????????????" she said, offering the moogle to Astrid, if she wanted a better look. "Like, it's really all his fault I like them???????????????????"

Astrid absolutely wanted a better look, yes, taking the moogle and instinctively giving it a squeeze for a softness test before looking at it closer and trying to memorize the details for a drawing or two later.

"I wouldn't say all his fault," she ventured. "I mean, look at this face! I think that face deserves some credit all on its own, too."

She liked the wings, too, and its little ears poking out of its hat, but, with that detail...well....

Second floor common room- Sunday morning

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