mingle log | the quad and elsewhere | we were young and drinking (coffee) in the park

[lamiaceae]

Characters: Gansey and whoever shows up
What: Interpersonal interaction! Meet each other face-to-face while nothing is on fire
Where: the quad, unless elsewhere seems cool to you
When: loop 1, day 10 (6/10 irl)
Content Warnings: nothing yet. please use and check thread subjects

It's a pleasant day outside. There's a nice breeze and the sun is doing its best. At very least, it's not raining and warmer than it was yesterday. This is, statistically, likely to bring college denizens out of their dorms and offices since rain seems to often be on Newcomb's horizon. Fall in not-at-all-New England is lovely that way.

Gansey, for his part, can be found throughout the day in several places! He likes hanging out near the clocktower to study, since he's found time works best there (at least for him). It's nice to have a watch that's doing something vaguely akin to timekeeping for once.

But he's an explorer at heart, so he can probably also be found in the library, the computer lab, and wandering the grounds. Gansey isn't sure he's interacted with anyone outside a classroom or on Fermii since the train crash, so he's more likely than usual to strike up conversation instead of waiting for it to come to him.

The real question is this: where's everyone else hanging out today?

[ i'll be throwing gansey at anyone who doesn't note that their tag is closed. please mingle! ]

Comments

[dead_tongue]

"It's sorta like YouTube, yeah. But shorter. Did you have Vine? It's kinda like that, I guess. But with more music."

Iggy considers those, trying to imagine what non-humans might even look like.

"...are you human?" Asked cautiously, like maybe he's being rude.

[beingawesome]

She can't help a laugh at the way he asks that. "Last I checked, yeah, I'm human. I remember something about an android cop back home. I guess that's what I mean about passing for human, because I definitely don't remember anything like aliens or what-not."

It seems fair to say what she can be certain of. Still, she meant it when she said passing for human, because one never knew. Especially since this seemed to be a place where worlds were intersecting somehow.

[dead_tongue]

Iggy's eyes widen. Android cops do not, as far as he's aware, exist in his world outside of the movies.

"Huh," he says intelligently.

"I'm human too. At least, as far as I know. It would be pretty weird to suddenly find out I'm not."

[beingawesome]

"You never know what your parents are hiding from you. That's kind of what parents do." Okay, she's mostly joking. Not that she has any idea what her parents could have told her, since they're long dead.

[dead_tongue]

Iggy's eyes stay wide as he takes this idea far, far too seriously.

Then he relaxes. "No, no I think considering the way my parents are it would be like, against their morals. Say, how old are you? Is that rude to ask?"

[beingawesome]

"Pretty sure asking a woman her age is nearly always rude. It's just one of those things. But I'm twenty. You?"

[dead_tongue]

"Is it?" Genuinely curious.

"Oh, twenty! That's a good age. I'm twenty-four." Now he feels weirdly old.

"So like, are you in campus housing?"

[beingawesome]

"Are there that many options? There's only so much space here." Of course she's in housing, but she just doesn't really feel comfortable just flat-out saying that.

"I could be squatting in a lab or something."

[dead_tongue]

"I think there are some townhouses and stuff," Iggy says, but then he stares again.

"Are you?" he asks, far too gullible.

[beingawesome]

"Good question. What do you think?"

Sorry, Iggy, apparently she's not in the most obliging mood.

[dead_tongue]

He has to actually think about that.

"No," he says finally. "I think that you're probably just in a dorm. I'm in a dorm! It looks like shit, I hope we can find stuff to decorate with."

Clearly more important than time loops and such.

[beingawesome]

"You might want to look up the rules before you put any holes in the walls. Don't want to get charged for damages." Never mind that apparently money isn't a thing here.

[dead_tongue]

Iggy makes a face. "We're in some sort of interdimensional nexus. I'm so not going to worry about a damage deposit."

He grins.

"And I'm gonna paint the walls! Make it look really cool. I haven't decided on a colour palette yet.

"You really aren't too stoked to be here, huh?"

[beingawesome]

"I was kinda in the middle of something back home. I really want to get back there."

[dead_tongue]

"What was it?" Because he's imagining something terribly mundane. Gardening, maybe.

[beingawesome]

"See, that's the problem. I can't really remember the details. But I'm sure I will, and anyway, it's not like there's plenty to fix about this place to make it so we can burst the bubble and get out." She has priorities, all right?

[dead_tongue]

The concept of bursting the bubble and leaving has not occurred to Iggy as being an option. So he stares for a minute.

"Whoa. Hardcore."

[beingawesome]

"What, you want to stay in endless October knowing if the clock doesn't reset we all die horribly as a giant meteorite comes crashing down on our heads? Although the death part won't actually be that horrible because we'd be vaporized before we could feel it."

[dead_tongue]

Iggy absorbs this, then shrugs.

"I mean, I'm not stoked about it," he says. "But we're all gonna go someday. And being dead's not so bad!" Said with a genuine cheerfulness.

[beingawesome]

"How can you be sure? Are you dead or something?" Her own reaction is like there's this gut-punch of loss, but she can't remember who that was.

[dead_tongue]

Iggy smiles, but for the first time it rings false.

"I mean, you go on to a better place," he says. "So how can that be bad?"

Quickly, he moves on: "But I don't want to die. Obviously. I guess I'm just not really confident that we can find a way out?"

[beingawesome]

"I'm not sure I can believe that unequivocally being true. Not everyone goes on, or ghosts wouldn't be a thing, right?" She doesn't really know what she believes. That elements of personality and the like continue after death is definitely a real thing because that's how artifacts work.

"Well, I want to get out of here, so I will keep working on it. I mean, they wouldn't have created this space if there wasn't a belief in a solution to the problem at hand."

[dead_tongue]

Iggy looks at her much more carefully than he has thus far. "You know about ghosts?" he asks, trying to sound only mildly interested.

"Huh. Okay, point."

[beingawesome]

"Had to put together a soul bottle to handle a body-jumping spirit once," Claudia said, shuddering a little. "I'd almost pity Alice if she weren't a total psychopath."

She didn't like anyone who went after her people, though. And she doesn't really regret locking her away for hopefully all eternity.

"I know that the psyche can exist independently of a physical body, and under certain circumstances even after death, and interact with us on certain levels, so if that's what you mean by ghosts, I guess."

[dead_tongue]

"...what?" He's never heard of anyone doing something like that before. He's starting to realise that he might actually be the most normal person here.

He nods.

"Yeah, that's what I meant."