Room 229, Thursday Morning

[arsenicmauls]

Gert wasn't big on Halloween -- hadn't been, really, since she was about nine. Now that she was sixteen, she was pretty over the whole thing, and in the interim she had all but memorized an annoying spiel about how this dumb holiday was just another sign of the appropriation and Americanization of everything anyway.

So. No trick-or-treating for her tonight, obviously. Instead, she was spending her morning at her desk, going over verb conjugations for her online Italian class (what, fall break had inspired her to pick up another language), all the while fully ready to launch into that spiel of hers if anyone asked her why she wasn't in costume.

[[open door and post!]]

Comments

[ultron_junior]

Victor had two reasons for visiting Gert today. The first was that the bakery in town had miniature sugar skulls for dia de los muertos, they were really good, and he wanted to share them with somebody who'd appreciate how morbid it was to be crunching on candy shaped like a human skull.

The second motive was that he'd heard from (his) Nico that morning; Chase was finally healed enough from the car accident to be released from the hospital, but they'd had no luck finding Old Lace's corpse. The contact made him really want to see the living Old Lace he had two floors down.

So he came tapping on Gert's door frame, scanning the room for Old Lace. "Hey," he said. "Happy Halloween. I have a present for you."

[arsenicmauls]

Old Lace had been dozing between the two beds, but she stirred at the sound of Victor's voice, looking as though she might even get to her feet in a minute or two. Waking up took time.

"Ooh?" Gert said, swiveling around in her chair to face Victor. She was already in a much brighter mood with the promise of a present. "If it's a rotting pumpkin, I may have to pass," she joked.

[ultron_junior]

"Calavera de azúcar ," Victor said, stepping into the room to hand Gert a miniature sugar skull decorated with frosting. "You can eat it or decorate with it, so it's, like, a multipurpose present. Bakery had 'em."

He smiled at Old Lace, crouching to offer her a pat on the head. Aww, sleepy dino.

[arsenicmauls]

"Thanks," Gert said as she accepted the little skull and set it down on her desk, genuinely pleased that he'd thought of her. "This is cool. And now I can feel less like a crotchety old lady for not having Halloween plans."

Taking a bite of the little skull, she said, "Long time no see, by the way. How was your break?"

[ultron_junior]

"You're welcome, and if you're crotchety and old, so am I --I don't have 'em either," Victor shrugged, pleased she appreciated the token. "There's a party in town but I think it might be more a grown-up thing."

He took a moment to answer her other question. "We decided to have a fake homecoming," he finally said, eyes still on Old Lace. "And it went ... I guess it went about the way things usually do for us. But it was still good to see everybody, y'know?"

[arsenicmauls]

Old Lace got up and padded over to Victor, moving to butt her head against his hand. More petting, please.

Gert, for her part, took a moment before deciding not to press for further details. It was getting to become a habit, and anyway, if Victor was actually back at Fandom relatively unharmed and wasn't volunteering any information, she figured it couldn't be so bad. "Yeah, I know the feeling," she said instead. "Even with Kar here and Nico's visit, I still miss everyone. It'd be hard to pass up a visit home, even for something half-baked that's bound to end as badly as all our missions seem to end."

Oh, she hadn't seen anything yet.

"How is everyone?" There, that was a vague enough question.

[ultron_junior]

Victor stroked Old Lace slowly. "Good. Our place got kinda wrecked, so they're still looking for somewhere permanent to stay, but other than that everyone's doing okay." He paused, rummaging for other bits of news that were not terribly depressing. "I think Chase and Nico are hooking up."

To be fair, given Nico's history this was hardly a surprise.

[arsenicmauls]

Gert really didn't want to address the part of her that felt somewhat repulsed by that piece of news. "I guess after a point that's just statistically likely," she snarked, then glanced at Victor and added a somewhat rueful, "Sorry."

Oh, their group.

[ultron_junior]

Victor side-eyed her for a moment before talking. "Nah. Statistically likely about sums it up. Think my big qualifications were being there and not, y'know, actively evil."

[arsenicmauls]

"She macked on a vampire one time," Gert noted absently. She felt mean saying that, though, so she added, "I love her, but there's definitely a pattern. Not that there's anything wrong with that."

Except that it was Chase. Which shouldn't have meant anything special, but somehow it did. She wasn't really sure what that was about.

"Was it weird for you?" she asked, dropping into 'comforting' mode since she still felt like kind of a jerk.

[ultron_junior]

"I mean, it's not like my motives were totally pure, either," Victor said, not sounding too broken up about any of it. It had been a while ago. "And .. it's not like they did anything in front of me, right? It's more -- how she's talking about him and looking at him. All of that. But yeah, if they're holding hands next time I go home, it's gonna be weird."

Privately, he thought Nico/Chase made more sense than Gert/Chase ever had, but that wasn't the kind of information he was giving this Gert yet.

[arsenicmauls]

"I guess you could always bring a date with you next time to even it out," she suggested lightly, a grin starting to creep onto her face. "Like Jessica, for example."

Raaaadio.

[ultron_junior]

Victor rolled his eyes lightly at the teasing. "Okay, first, I brought Olive to meet them last spring," he said. "Second, Jess and I are just friends."

[arsenicmauls]

"You mean sharing the Homecoming crown doesn't automatically make love blossom?" Gert teased. "Vic, it's like you're saying movies have lied to me."

In all seriousness, she liked Victor and she liked Jess, and she could see how they might make a good couple. But she so didn't have an interest in playing matchmaker beyond some affectionate ribbing.

[ultron_junior]

Victor laughed. "So I missed my chance to have a 'you've been beautiful all along' moment?" he asked. "Damn."

He liked Jess, and could see dating her. But he was pretty sure she wasn't interested in him that way -- and anyhow, after the disasters his relationships tended to be, and given everybody was graduating in a couple months anyhow, he suspected he was better off single.

He poked at Gert's arm to change the subject. "How's your love life?"

[arsenicmauls]

"None to speak of," Gert reported, but she didn't sound too disappointed about that, really. "Unless you count my very romantic encounter with some guy in a pink Speedo at the grocery store yesterday who seemed to have gotten the date wrong."

She did not count that, no.

"And don't worry, you can still redeem yourself by singing at her window, if you're not worried about waking Atton up." Not to mention everyone else on the second through fourth floors.

[ultron_junior]

"What kind of costume involves a pink speedo?" Victor asked, a bit doubtfully. He wasn't sure he really wanted to know. "And -- yeah, I'm thinking Atton's not the type of guy you want to have pissed off at you first thing in the morning."

[arsenicmauls]

"To put it lightly," Gert agreed. "Oh well. Bummer."

Somehow she didn't think he was that broken up about it.

"When someone asked about the speedo, he said he was a sexy strawberry," she added. "'S creative, at least."

[ultron_junior]

"Definitely not one I've heard before," Victor had to agree. "Though the idea of being seduced by somebody dressed as a strawberry is sort of revolting."

[arsenicmauls]

"There are grosser skimpy costumes," Gert said, "but yeah. But I guess he does get points for picking a food that people might decide to eat in bed, at least. In movies, anyway."

[spin_kick_snap]

Here was her chance to deliver her screed to an unsuspecting trick-or-treater, even!

Because later that afternoon, a Minnie Mouse-costumed Kathy was knocking on Gert's door, pillowcase in hand, calling "Trick or treat!"

At least she wasn't dressed up as sexy...anything?

[arsenicmauls]

...Gert had not foreseen this. In fact, she didn't know that people over thirteen did trick-or-treat. Revealing costumes and loud parties, sure, but door-to-door candy demands? In a dorm building?

She swiveled around in her chair, looking a bit apologetic, but also a little judgey. "Yeah, I don't have any candy," she reported. Not now that she'd eaten most of the sugar skull Victor had given her, anyway. "Has anyone actually given you anything?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"You didn't grab any from outside?" Kathy asked. She had some in a bowl outside of her door with a sign that offered it to any trick or treaters that came 'round while she was gone. "I--oh."

She was definitely feeling the judginess and fidgeted a little. "I got some?"

[arsenicmauls]

"Not exactly." Gert didn't mean to come off as mean, which was why her tone was somewhat lighter when she asked, "Wait, couldn't you just sit outside with a bowl?"

It did make trick-or-treating kind of redundant.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Well, yeah, and I did," Kathy said. "I stuck a bowl on my window sill before I left for class today. But I'm not really trick or treating for the candy, you know? More for the fun of it?"

She just really liked Halloween!

"Plus, it gets me out of my room and talking to people. I figured that's something I should try to do more of. And it's easier if I'm not entirely me when I do it, you know?"

Maybe she didn't know.

"...That probably sounds stupid."

[arsenicmauls]

Sigh, now she definitely felt mean.

"No, it's not," Gert said, reluctantly swallowing her plans to launch into that tirade after all. "It's just taking the normal teenage impulse to put on a figurative mask in order to make friends and making it more literal. It makes sense. Putting yourself out there sucks, and you're kind of new here, too, aren't you?"

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy could have handled if Gert hadn't so explicitly laid bare what she'd meant, but at least she got it. So Kathy just nodded, a little sheepishly and offered up a small smile.

"Arrived over the summer, so not super new? But yeah, I still feel pretty new just about, oh, all the time."

That was partially due to the fact that she barely knew anyone and once again, they'd circled back around to where Kathy'd thought this was a good-if-slightly-quirky idea.

[arsenicmauls]

"In that case, want my advice?" Gert said, as Old Lace got up from between the two beds and padded over to see who this new person was. "Try trick-or-treating at the businesses. They might actually have candy set out for people, and there's enough students with part-time jobs in town that you'll still meet people."

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy nodded, still a little embarrassed. "I might do that," she said, by which she meant she might slink back into her room and try not to be seen. Both were legit options. "I--is that a deinonychus?"

Hello, Old Lace. Kathy was more than a little shocked to make your acquaintance.

[arsenicmauls]

"Yeah, she is," Gert said, sounding a little surprised that Kathy had gotten the type of dinosaur right. She sent a telepathic pulse to Old Lace to be nice and not get too close to Kathy's personal space. "She's friendly. You can pet her if you want."

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy was kind of a giant nerd that way.

"I--you have a dinosaur."

Had Gert missed the memo that they were extinct? And even if they weren't, they were carnivorous and wild and probably shouldn't be kept at pets?