Room 206, Wednesday Evening

[dark_slippy_thing]

Valentine was quite proud that he'd managed to survive the week thus far. Granted, he had been doing so by camping out in his dorm room, bouncing one of his juggling balls up against the wall, but that was entirely beside the point. He was still breathing, and that was an accomplishment, really.
Although it really didn't do much for his mind-numbing boredom...
Sooner or later, he'd have to come out. And he would indeed.
Maybe tomorrow.

Throw the ball. Catch it. Throw it again.

It was all part of a grand plan to work up the nerve to face the school again after the insanity of the week before.
Because, as loathe as he was to admit it, Valentine was a coward.


[OOC: Door isn't open, but Valentine is free for interaction if you care to knock.]

Comments

[electric-sitar.livejournal.com]

Demyx wasn't really avoiding anyone, he was just...not overly social lately. But seeing Valentine wasn't really too social...especially considering they tended to go be alone together in places like the closet.

Demyx was totally cool with that.

He listened to the rhythmic thud made by the ball as it hit the wall, and, grinning, decided to possibly wig Valentine out by knocking the counterpoint against the door.

[dark_slippy_thing]

Valentine caught the ball again and stared at it long and hard for a moment.

That was a rather interesting effect it was having now, wasn't it? He hadn't known a bouncing ball to make a second beat on its own...

He stared at it a moment more, then threw it against the wall again to see what would happen.

[electric-sitar.livejournal.com]

And Demyx helpfully added the downbeat.

[dark_slippy_thing]

A bit of a grin spread across Valentine's lips as he pulled out a second ball and then threw two against the wall, one after the other.

Let's see how the ballthud handles that one!

[electric-sitar.livejournal.com]

This was fun! Demyx wasn't really a percussionist, but had an ear for music and rhythms. He added the third beat to Valentine's pattern, grinning broadly.

[dark_slippy_thing]

If he had eyelids, Valentine would have blinked. As it was, he simply pulled out a third ball and started juggling, using the wall as a partner. If all went as predicted, then there would be quite the fantastic combination of triple-ballthud and mysterious thunk.

[electric-sitar.livejournal.com]

It went as predicted, except that after one go-through the mysterious thunk spaced itself evenly between each ball-thud, like an echo of another person juggling.

Except Demyx wasn't juggling, he was knocking.

[dark_slippy_thing]

For as easy as it was for Valentine to become bored, he was pretty easily amused to even it all out. He continued juggling and chuckling at the wild percussion for a while before he finally decided to speak up.
"The door isn't locked, by the way."

[electric-sitar.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, but this is fun!" Demyx eased himself out of the pattern before opening the door and letting himself in, still grinning. "All alone and playing with your balls, huh?"

[dark_slippy_thing]

"What can I say?" Valentine smirked and pocketed the balls. "They're good to have around when you have nothing to occupy yourself with."

[electric-sitar.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, no kidding. They're great for entertaining yourself!" Demyx agreed, sitting down on the bed and leaning close to Valentine. "...And others."

[dark_slippy_thing]

Valentine was being leaned against. Valentine was getting the hang of how Demyx worked, and Valentine knew what was probably coming next.
Valentine placed a hand on Demyx's forehead to hold him at arm's length and smirked.
"We should go out and do something. I've been cooped up in this hole for a week now."

[electric-sitar.livejournal.com]

"We should!" Demyx agreed easily. He wasn't always about the sex. Just...most of the time! "Where should we go? Maybe go wander around the park or the beach or something?" Even though it was cold outside.

[dark_slippy_thing]

Valentine took the whole of a moment considering this before he responded. "I haven't been to the park yet," he replied. "There is that."
Because parks were excellent places for performers to set up. Not that he was going to say that. Yet.

[electric-sitar.livejournal.com]

"So c'mon! Let's go see if there's anything interesting here, and if not we'll go explore!" Demyx grabbed a handful of Valentine's shirt and pulled him closer, kissing him quickly. Jumping up, he pulled the other boy with him.

[dark_slippy_thing]

The sound that a Valentine makes when he's been hauled to his feet and dragged to the door sounds something like a "hurraaahgggck!"
This is common knowledge.
This Valentine in particular did indeed make the very same sound as he stumbled along after Demyx.

[defiantlyyours.livejournal.com]

6 stomped into the room after... well, he wasn't about to say. "Bloody hell. Why don't you go shack up with one of the hormonal tarts running about half-clothed and leave me be?"

[dark_slippy_thing]

Valentine wasn't blind. He knew full well that his roomie had probably had a bad day.
Mostly because that seemed to be the norm.
So he offered a shrug, held a ball toward 6, and grinned.
"Mostly because I happen to live here, too. But if there's a hormonal tart in particular that you'd like to point me to, I'd perhaps take exception and give you the room to yourself for a while."

[defiantlyyours.livejournal.com]

6 ignored the ball and stalked toward his bed. "I don't suppose you could happen to live somewhere else. I value my privacy. Your very presence destroys the notion."

And yes, the priv of privacy was pronounced as in the word give, not five. In case you were wondering.

[dark_slippy_thing]

Valentine made a snorting sound and proceeded to toss the ball in the air and to catch it again casually.
"I'm sure your 'priv'acy will cope," he replied, pulling out a couple more balls and starting something of an impromptu juggle. "You're a big boy, you can handle having a roomie. Besides, I don't take up too much space."

[defiantlyyours.livejournal.com]

"At least Harkness had the decency to move out," 6 said.

[dark_slippy_thing]

"I assure you, if he did it wasn't decency. You probably drove the man half mad," Valentine was actually rather enjoying this conversation. "Don't worry, I'm made of tougher stuff than that. I'll be sticking around here for a long while."

[defiantlyyours.livejournal.com]

6 pouted. "He had amnesia. Something was rather common for him, as I've come to understand it," he said.

[dark_slippy_thing]

Valentine was quite pleased indeed. It gave him a sense of satisfaction to make stuffy psychopaths pout, he decided. "Fortunately, I'm quite lucid myself. No problems with memory loss... that I can remember." He tilted his head thoughtfully, then bounced a ball across the room toward 6. "Come on, it isn't all that bad, is it?"

[defiantlyyours.livejournal.com]

"Dear sir, you may be here by choice. I am not. Were I to leave this island, I would be beset by consequences that make the word unpleasant look like a stroll in the park. The hollow of your head could not conceive of how bad this all is," 6 said.

[dark_slippy_thing]

The hollow of Valentine's head didn't much enjoy someone pointing out that it was hollow. "If leaving is so bad, why not just be satisfied that you're here in a place where unpleasant is still quite unpleasant, and strolls in the park are still rather... stroll-ish, then?" He pocketed the balls and crossed his arms. "It isn't as though I don't know more than my fair share about unpleasant surroundings, anyhow. I know a good thing when I see it."
Which didn't really explain why he had been hiding in the room to begin with, but it made perfect sense to Valentine.

[defiantlyyours.livejournal.com]

"A man should have the freedom to choose his residence, his movements, his life. When that choice is taken away, there is no life," 6 said. "Furthermore, I put it to you that to be content with being molded into a mindless automaton of homogenized 'education' makes you less than a man."

6 didn't add a bitch at the end -- he'd never stoop that low -- but it did seem implied.

[dark_slippy_thing]

"Yes, well, my alternatives didn't seem too fantastic either," Valentine replied rather curtly. "At least an automated and homogenized education keeps me off of the streets for a while, and I haven't run into any shadowy tendrils bent on killing me since I got here yet. I'll take being fed and alive any day of the week."

Valentine's own sentence might have been more adequately followed up with a jacakss of his own.

[defiantlyyours.livejournal.com]

"Yes, you'll take any tripe they shove into your mouth, won't you?" 6 asked, moving over to smug amused mode, very much like a cat who's got the goldfish cornered with a bazooka.

[dark_slippy_thing]

Where Valentine came from, goldfish could fly and were very difficult to corner, indeed.
Besides, even if Valentine could see the grin, he still wasn't so good at interpreting it, and decided that the question was best handled with a serious answer.
"I'll take tripe if it's prepared well enough," Valentine shrugged and leaned back against his respective wall. "Food is food. Try starving for a few years and you'll learn the value of a good meal."

[defiantlyyours.livejournal.com]

"I'd rather die than than consume the bile they feed the students here," 6 said.

[dark_slippy_thing]

Valentine stared at 6 good and hard.
....
"So what have you been eating for the past month?"

[defiantlyyours.livejournal.com]

"What? What are you talking about? I haven't been eating... What in the blazes are you on about?"

[dark_slippy_thing]

Valentine continued to stare. He had the crazy feeling that he was never going to understand this guy.
"We're not talking about the food at this point, I'll take it?"
It was a pity. He rather liked talking about food.

[defiantlyyours.livejournal.com]

"We were never talking about food," 6 said. "Do you even understand the meaning of the word 'metaphor'?"

[dark_slippy_thing]

And this would be about the point that the palm of Valentine's hand collided with what might pass as his forehead.
"Of course I do. One of the two of us wasn't speaking in it. You were referring to the classes, then? Not the cafeteria meals?"

[defiantlyyours.livejournal.com]

6 regarded him for a second. "You weren't exactly head boy in grammar school, were you?"

[dark_slippy_thing]

"To be brutally honest, this is some of the first schoolin' I've had." Valentine shrugged and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "It's a strange place, really. Everything they've told me so far is different than the things I've learned before."

[defiantlyyours.livejournal.com]

"Do yourself a favor and don't believe a word of it," 6 said. "You can only rely on yourself."

[dark_slippy_thing]

"Well, that wouldn't be much of a change really, would it," Valentine mused with a bit of a nod. "I attend the classes, I get the grades, I keep eating. Real food, I mean. That's how it works, I figure. Beats running for my life or starving on the street."
All things considered, Valentine's tone was rather pleasant.

[defiantlyyours.livejournal.com]

"Compromise is a fool's path," 6 said, back to the contempt again.

[dark_slippy_thing]

"Not much of a compromise, if you ask me," Valentine replied, back to being throughly baffled by the mysterious workings of the inside of his roomie's head. "It might make me an idiot, but at least I'm an alive idiot. With food. Who knows better than to believe the things I'm told in most of the classes I attend."

[defiantlyyours.livejournal.com]

"You're more than you let on, aren't you?" 6 said. That wasn't respect in his voice. Must be an illusion.

[dark_slippy_thing]

"Only if it gets me through the day in one piece," Valentine said with a smirk. "I did say I was a very important man."
He might have been oozing self confidence.
But that was nothing new.