Poppin' Arms ~ Dorms

[Dragonfree]

"I think I'm good for now, thanks." Dave emptied the battle items out of his bag to lighten it and then put Squiggly back in it. Would've been nice to be able to just leave him in the room, but apparently not.

He hoisted the bag onto his back. "Well, I think I'm heading out to see a bit more of this place. See you tonight."

 

[Namohysip]

Owen nodded, and Shady hopped a few times in farewell. "See you soon."

Owen mentally went through what he knew of Dave from the past month or so to figure out what he might enjoy for breakfast. He didn't really know what a good roommate was like but he supposed he could start with that.

<><><>​

 

[TheGOAT]

What a day.

Step after step down the paved roads led Astrid to the guild—where she would be living. Thank goodness for that. She was tired of the dojo. There were memories there that she would cherish, but the thought of moving into a prestigious guild was too alluring. She could bunk up with a roomate or two and maybe get some privacy every once in a while.

To her befuddlement, the procedure to select roommates had taken place when she was elsewhere in the city. Or possibly when she was unconscious. How long had she been unconscious, anyway?

Anyway. After check-in, that left her with a set of keys but no clue what to expect. She tip-toed through the halls, hearing voices behind several doors, before honing in on the door that was supposed to be hers. Unlocking the door was tedious—the key didn’t seem to quite fit in right—but she’d get used to it in time.

She poked her head in nose-first, sweeping the room. Nobody. One bed had been tampered with a bit, but the other two lay unclaimed.

“Dibs on window!” Astrid announced to the empty room, bowling her item bag across the floor the rest by the bedside. She rested her front paws on the bed and stared beyond the glass panes, quickly getting lost in thought.

 

[Chibi Pika]

It'd been a hell of a long day. After several hours of exploring the city and them multiple stressful talks about shades and shadows and Team Rocket shit, Starr was ready to crash early. And this place had actual beds too, not the straw piles they'd been stuck with back in Treasure Town. She was definitely looking forward to that.

So Starr headed back toward the dorms, where she'd briefly stopped earlier to claim a room. It had two other bunks, so the odds were good that she'd be joined by someone else soon enough. Most of her friends already had roommates, which kinda sucked, but whatever. It wouldn't be the first time she hadn't gotten to choose her roommate--she'd deal with it.

As she approached the room that she'd already slotted her nametag onto, she noticed that it was slightly ajar. Someone else had arrived? They hadn't added their nametag yet, so she didn't know who it was. Starr pushed the door open and was just about to announce her presence when she saw who it was.

Astrid? What was she doing here? Why on earth would she have picked Starr to room with? Didn't she have some kind of weird problem with Starr?

Ugh, whatever. She had to say something. She'd just keep it short so the Vulpix couldn't take offense to anything.

"Hey. I'm in this room. Gonna be crashing soon, just a heads up," Starr said, walking over to the bunk she'd already claimed and setting her bag onto it.

 

[TheGOAT]

Still looking out the window, Astrid spoke. “Oh, okay. Cool.”

Then she processed. Starr was her roomate. One of her roomates. Whatever. Starr was her roomate. Alright then.

Astrid felt a primal urge to bury her face into her pillow. It took all of her discipline to remain stationary in spite of it. Hoooo-no, this is gonna be so awkward.

The subject of Brisa and Curio loomed, and an even more primal urge placed confrontational thoughts in her head. She could just go for broke and call her out. She could. That wasn’t who she was, and she didn’t have the energy to try, but it reverberated through her thoughts nonetheless.

Blinking it all away, she chirped, “Who’s our third?”

 

[Chibi Pika]

Welp. You could cut the awkwardness with a knife, but at least the response was totally neutral. That was fine. If Astrid wanted to feel awkward around Starr, that was her problem. So long as she didn't act weird about it.

Starr shrugged. "Dunno, I don't think anyone else's been in here yet. I figure we'll find out before the end of the day." Starr vaguely attempted to sort through who all she already knew for sure had roommates, but there were too many to keep track of. She went back to unloading her bag, specifically avoiding looking at the lump that was now rocking back and forth next to the rest of her possessions.

 

[TheGOAT]

Another reflexive response. “Probably so.”

Astrid had just begun to fascinate herself with the floor pattern when she spotted something. Movement adjacent to Starr that she first thought was her tail, but then realized was another entity entirely: the Useless Lump. Heavy Lump? Whichever one was able to move.

The better part of a day had been spent stuffing a shade into her own, yet that was over a week ago and hers had barely budged to this day. Meanwhile, Starr’s was rocking back and forth like it was dancing or something, and Astrid couldn’t help but acknowledge.

“…Is it, er, hungry or something?”

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr blinked at Astrid like she'd just grown a second head. "...Hungry?" Feeding the nightmare shadow creature was just about the last thing she would have ever thought to do. Then again, didn't Dave say something like you could feed these things and they'd love you? Not that she wanted it to love her, but maybe keeping the damn thing pacified would make it safe to carry around. (It was pretty much safe already, right? Based on what Dave had said. So then why--)

"Hell with it, guess I could give it a shot," Starr muttered. She fished an oran out of her bag and then, feeling like an idiot, placed it next to the lump. The lump jiggled a bit, but nothing happened.

"C'mon... Dave said you could feed these things..." She pushed the berry up against the rock--yeah, like that was gonna do anything--and then in the blink of an eye, the berry went ahead and melted into the rock, absorbing into it completely. Starr gaped at it, tapping her paw against the spot where it had vanished and feeling it as solid as it had been before.

"Happy now?" she asked the lump. (Why was she asking the lump. What was wrong with her.)

The lump continued to lump.

 

[TheGOAT]

Oh. Instantly, Astrid felt stupid for being the one to bring it up. I could’ve been feeding mine this whole time…? Why didn’t I try that? She withdrew it from her bag, which slunk to the ground upon being freed of the lump’s weight. The stockpile of orans she had were old and dry, but they would have to do. I hope this thing hasn’t been, like, starving in there…

Likewise, her own lump swallowed the oran whole—absorbed its energy, as Astrid could best attempt to describe it. It was one of the most unnatural natural things she’d ever seen. Without missing a beat, she scrutinized it from any angle she could, but no luck. Besides a slight jitter that resembled a burp, it was as motionless as death.

“…I think mine is shy,” Astrid concluded, turning towards Starr. Her eyes locked onto the excitable lump. “They’re all a little different, aren’t they? It was hard to get a glimpse of their personalities when they were violent, but now they seem so… weirdly endearing.” As weirdly endearing as one could expect to find a brain-controlling slug. It was easy to forget how goopy they were when they were hanging out inside the lump.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr tilted her head. Until today, she never would have given any thought at all to the idea of shades even having personalities. But then Dave had to go and say that they could think, and... dammit, why'd things have to be complicated.

"Yeah, uh. Guess I don't really know what mine's like," Starr said disinterestedly. For good measure, she pushed the lump a good few inches away, only for it to roll back and collide with her paw. Whatever that meant.

"You, uh... haven't named yours, have you?" Why were people naming theirs. Would she look like an ass if she didn't name hers too? Ugh.

 

[TheGOAT]

Her eyes were serious. Astrid possessed no shame.

“Stoney.”

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr stared back, deadpan. Alright, it was pretty much impossible to go any lower-effort than that. Part of her wanted to try, though.

With a sideways glance at her lump, and about half a second's worth of thought, Starr replied, "Bob."

 

[TheGOAT]

‘Bob.’ Kind of adorable. Astrid wasn’t about to say it, though.

Leaving Stoney on the bed to sit still in peace, she rifled through her bag for her badge. A few pawprints-on-a-touchscreen later, and she’d pulled up a list. She’d created it less than an hour ago; it was titled Team Bonding Ideas.

“Icetales is planning a festival soon. Should be a good way for everyone to, y’know, get together and converse. Maybe these little guys”—she gave Stoney a rub—“would even be willing to come out if enough food is around.”

Astrid wasn’t sure what prompted such a conversational tone, but yeah, she’d said it. And… she could no longer sit on this.

But how to broach it? “Sooo…” She shifted her feet under her and managed a genuinely optimistic look. “Yeah! Festival. Might be fun, good for the team and getting to know the locals and all that. What, uh, what do you think?”

 

[Chibi Pika]

“Icetales is planning a festival soon. Should be a good way for everyone to, y’know, get together and converse. Maybe these little guys”—she gave Stoney a rub—“would even be willing to come out if enough food is around.”

Starr did her best to keep the discomfort off her face. "Yeah, uh... I heard they're pretty comfortable just hanging out in there, so I'm fine with them not coming out." Being guaranteed that it wouldn't come out was like, the one thing keeping her okay with this whole arrangement.

But how to broach it? “Sooo…” She shifted her feet under her and managed a genuinely optimistic look. “Yeah! Festival. Might be fun, good for the team and getting to know the locals and all that. What, uh, what do you think?”

Starr relaxed slightly. "Yeah, I could go for a party. Those missions are hard as hell, not gonna say no to a chance to unwind, meet people, whatever. Treasure Town was too quiet anyway--thinking that this place is more my style. It's a lot closer to the way humans live."

 

[TheGOAT]

Not for the first time around Starr, Astrid felt like another creature entirely. Maybe because she was exactly that at heart—not human, unlike the Litten standing before her. Of course she couldn’t relate.

Her mind wandered briefly to the only human she (truly) knew. What would Sage have thought about all this, had it been him on this journey and not her? Maybe she’d tell him about it someday.

“Yeah. Yeah, I prefer it here too.” Astrid nodded solemnly, like she’d just now convinced herself that. “I actually just got back from the colosseum, where Brisa was fighting. The atmosphere there was awesome.”

Wouldn’t have surprised me if you’d been there too, Astrid thought. Good thing Starr couldn’t read minds.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr flicked an ear. "Haven't been to the colosseum yet, I'll probably check it out later. I'm always up for watching competitive battling."

Brisa had been there? That wasn't too surprising. And it'd probably done her some good, what with the way that people kept giving her shit for being into fighting back home. "Guessing Brisa got pretty into it. She any good?"

 

[TheGOAT]

Astrid flicked an ear right back. “You tell me. I haven’t fought her yet.”

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr paused. It had sounded casual enough, but there was definitely... something to the way Astrid had said it.

"Haven't fought her that much," Starr replied indifferently. (Just that... one time.) "I know she's strong, I just figured--first time in a tournament setting, it's pretty different." Why did she feel tense.

 

[TheGOAT]

“I’ve never fought for sport before. For fun, sure, but never in front of a crowd or, or against set opponents or anything like that,” Astrid admitted to the window. She felt Starr’s gaze digging into the back of her neck, but she’d already come this far. “I imagine it’s less personal that way.”

 

[Chibi Pika]

Still with the tense atmosphere. What was that. "I guess so? I'm not that big into competitive battling back home, but I'm good with either sport battles or sparring. I'm not too picky."