Fandom High Dormitories

By the time Troy and Astrid (~in the moooorn-ing~) made it to the common room, Troy wasn't feeling so much mad anymore and just hurt. Deeply, deeply injured, because the squirrels had turned them away (rather forcefully, too! They were just squirrels, you wouldn't think they could be that strong, but then you'd be wrong!) at the radio station, which was just...just...

They claimed they didn't need them. They claimed everything was covered! But it was Friday! It was 🎵 ~Troy and Astrid in the mooorn~ing~~ 🎵 ! This was unacceptable!

If it weren't for Astrid, Troy would have probably been in the clinic just then from all the squirrel scratches, because he was so ready to throw down and defend their rightful place behind the mic that morning, but she was able to pull him back and calm him down and distract him: first with the offer of a drink at the Perk, and then, while there, a new plan for something better than radio, or at least that will make him forget about whatever was with the squirrels that week, as long as she agreed to let him seriously do some squirrel damage if they tried to force them out of their radio day next week.

So Astrid called off from work that day, and then (pretty boldly, if you asked him), went into work to get all the Christmas decorations and snacks and whatever, and then they headed back up to the dorms and started to set up in the common room. Astrid put on some jazzy Christmas music, they had cookies and cider and candy canes. She had popcorn and string if anyone wanted to make their own popcorn garlands, too, but there were plenty of basic ready-to-go ornaments and garlands, tinsel and lights, to be use to drape over Troy, who stook there in the center of the room as still as a statue, arms lifted, as he was all decked out in festive cheer.

He was still sort of simmering about the radio thing, if he was entirely honest, but the soft sound of Astrid's singing definitely helped soothed him a little.

"O Christmas Troy, O Christmas Troy, How lovely are thy branches!"

"I swear," he said, frowning at her as she decked him out, "if all this attacks while it's on me...I guess there are far worse ways to go."

Astrid just smiled indulgantly at him and continued working and singing, fitting a glowing reindeer nose onto his face gently.

"Your boughs so green in summertime,
Stay bravely green in wintertime.
O Christmas Troy, O Christmas Troy,
How lovely are thy branches!"

And now, the tree-shaped topper for his head, and Astrid leaned back to admire her work.

"...this nose," Troy commented, "smells like special drink."

[[ every holiday season should come with at least three days in a row of Christmas Troy! open with sp likely! ]]

In light of nothing holiday related trying to kill them this year (so far), it had been decided that morning over radio that the best way to celebrate this was by decorating the Christmas Troy. And Astrid had had plenty of time at work to gether up a lot of supplies, and she'd even brought Christmas cookies and made some mulled apple cider and pepperment cocoa to really enhance the atmosphere, jazzy Chirstimas classics spilling out of her phone (and different ones, too, at that, not the same one over and over again, so that was nice!). She had popcorn and string if anyone wanted to make their own popcorn garlands, too, but there were plenty of basic ready-to-go ornaments and garlands, tinsel and lights, to be use to drape over Troy, who stook there in the center of the room as still as a statue, arms lifted, as he was all decked out in festive cheer.

"I swear," he said, "if all this attacks while it's on me...I guess there are far worse ways to go."

Astrid just smiled indulgantly at him while carefully fitting one of those glowing red noses that the gremlins had the other day into place.

"...this nose," Troy commented, "smells like special drink."


[[ am i likely to get eaten by work today? Yes. Did my kids apparently still want to be ridiculous, especially when it meant possibly being ridiculous on repeat? Also yes. Is the post definitely open for anyone who wants to come gawk at/participate in decorating the Christmas Troy? HELL YES.

For the uninitiated ]]

Exactly how all this Christmas decoration stuff showed up in the third floor common room was anyone's guess, really. Maybe somehow, all the stuff from the party on Friday magically just got dumped in the common room instead of the trash.

And exactly how Astrid wound up there explaining some of it to Troy was also sort of a mystery, but there she was, and the concept of Christmas trees and their exploration of their purpose and meaning turned into...well...

There was an small tree on Troy's head with an angel topper; his body was wrapped in garlands and lights, while his hands were held out like branches, holding clumps of sparkling tinsel with a blinking Rudolph nose over his own, while Astrid, marveling the whole time that this was apparently a thing she was doing, was singing along with the gremlin carolers in the room while carefully adding bulb ornaments to the whole ensemble.

"O Christmas Troy, O Christmas Troy," they sang, "thy candles shine so brightly. O Christmas Troy, O Christmas Troy, much pleasure though canst give me~"

It was at that moment that Wayne, looking to grab a late lunch, appeared in the doorway, squinted hard at these shenanigan tom fuckeries, and turned his head to look down the hall to consider just leaving.

"Hi, Wayne," Astrid offered. "How are ya now?"

Well, fuck. Now retreat was a little more difficult, wasn't it?

"Good," he replied cautiously, "n'you?"

"Oh," Astrid shrugged, grinning faintly as she hung another bulb on Troy's garlands, "not so bad. Want to help?"

The low grumble of a response indicated that he didn't really want to, not particularleh, but...well, when a man asks fer help...

"Why do you guys do stuff like this?" he had to ask first.

Astrid looked to Troy, since this had been mainly his idea and she just generally went along with things, and he shrugged, as best he could underneath all of his lovely Christmas trappings.

"'Cuz it's fun."

"Yeah," Astrid offered, because she really didn't have anything better herself.

And Wayne squinted a little harder.

"The sight of thee," the singing continued, now with Wayne stoicly joining in and adding more tinsel, "at Christmas time, spreads hope and gladness far and wide~

"O Christmas Troy," Troy was now joining in with his own empassioned harmony, "O Christmas Troy, thou tree most fair and lovely!"

Astrid stepped back to admire their work, with a grateful look at Wayne, who mostly just looked away as if to absolve himself from any hand in this.

"Don't move," she suggested, because some of that stuff was very precariously perched on Troy's person.

He oblidged, definitely long enough for Astrid to snap a picture, but as he held his breath to hold still, he had to point out, "This nose smells like special drink."

[[ why, yes, I did have to take this scene and revise it for Fandom, I could not live with myself if I did not. ANYWAY, it's open like a common room, come admire the Christmas Troy! ]]

Just because Troy had never actually celebrated Thanksgiving before did not mean he couldn't reap the benefit of everyone else (or at least the island on its own accord) celebrating it. Which meant going back and napping right after he'd finished up his radio broadcast since he didn't have a class to get to, spending a little bit of time adding a few more blankets to the room for effect, and then heading down to the common room to raid the fridge of the copious amount of leftovers that no one had apparently made but were there all the same.

And just because he hadn't celebrated Thanksgiving before didn't mean he couldn't still manage to make an epic leftover sandwich out of that food, either. How he managed to fit that much turkey and potatoes and stuffing and casserole in between two slices of bread was almost a little magical, though his ability to actually eat it without even making a huge mess of it as he settled on the couch to flip between channels in the hopes to find some good sports or action movies was even more impressive, really.

[[ open like a common room, yo ]]

It was late in the afternoon, and Troy had just gotten up and rolled out of bed and now he was in the common room in his pyjamas with his feet up on the coffee table, cartoons on the TV, the biggest bowl he could find filled with the most sugary cereal on the shelf, with chocolate milk poured into it and it was the most amazing thing ever and weird magical boarding school kicked ass and he was all for it.

Sure beat being stuck at Kingdom Hall all day, even if he did miss the juice and cookies. Sure, he could just go get juice and cookies, but it just wasn't the same.

[[ open! Work is dead and my coworkers are insufferable, please send help ]]