To New Beginnings (Dorm Room) (Closed; Paige & Victoria)

Victoria hadn't been up to the room yet, and was still rolling her suitcase set with her.  Backpack on, but jacket folded neatly over the top carry-on size rolling suitcase so she didn't need to melt inside with it or carry it.  She crossed the way up to the stairs to the dorms, and stopped at the bottom looking up while she mentally calculated how to get her stuff up in one trip.  It looked doable, but she wanted to be certain before daring gravity to mess with her.

Victoria turns, not entirely sure the voice is speaking to her, but is happily surprised to see the other girl behind her belonging to the friendly voice.  She smiles, warmly and appreciative if a bit shy.  "Hi, I... yeah, apparently didn't consider stairs when packing.  And please, if you're going upstairs too, that would be great."  and she indeed does offer the small bag.

Which goes about half way between them before Paige indicates that she has Victoria's number.  She chuckles, and relents.  "Okay, but it's packed tight, don't carry it far if it'll hurt your back."  and she slips the carry-on over her shoulder by the strap before manoeuvring to unfasten the clip securing the smaller of the two standard suitcases from the larger one, so she can wheel it around for Paige.  "Thank you."  she extends, gratefully.

Victoria, once Paige is settled with the suitcase, will go about to adjust the handle on the other one so she can manoeuvring it up the stairs with less lean or reach.  "I'm Victoria Corbyn, from Canada.  Just arrived a little while ago also.  Is this your first year here, or have you been here before?"  she presumes the latter, but is still feeling a bit off from the jet lag so she doesn't want to bank on presumptions quiiiite yet.  And will carefully make her way up the stairs while letting her suitcase lean against her for additional carrying support.

"Yes, it is.  I should have known better and anticipated at least one staircase.  I'll know better for next time."  she chuckles.  "I do, but I've never lived with one.  There are a lot of students who are here with an animal of one kind or another, do you have any?"  she asks, curious and delightfully curious about people who were lucky enough to have a pet of their own let alone ~bring~ one to school with them for the year.

She wheels the suitcase around on the mid-landing level of the staircase, and over to the second half of the stairs to the dorm level.  "It would be amazing if we could.  Just leave them in a suitcase, put our names on them, and pull them out of a storage area when we come back.  It would make travelling sooo much easier."  she smiles  "Birds are adorable, I haven't seen lovebirds in person before.  I'd like to meet them, thank you.  Not sure where my room is but I'm told they have names so it shouldn't be hard to find..." 

Once they're up to the proper dorm-floor level  (I keep typing that as 'doom floor', I'm a bit scared that this is a premonition of plot lines to come >.> )

*ahem*  Once they're up to the dorm-floor level she wheels her suitcase to the side and looks back to Paige to make sure she's made it to the top alright.  "Do they wake with the sun?  Like their wild relatives?"  she asks curiously, as the question occurs to her.

Victoria follows Paige's lead, wandering down the hallway behind her while she checks out names on rooms, and steers the suitcase she's rolling out of the way of anyone coming their way to pass.  "Compassionate alarm birds."  she giggles.  Then stops short when Paige does, to avoid collision, and looks up to the door they're standing in front of.  With her own name, and Paige's.

She grins happily.  "Awesome!  We're roomies!"  and once Paige waves her arm she carefully slips inside, to soak in the new living space that would be theirs until summer holidays.  She might have been walking into a palace, for how delighted she was.

Victoria follows Paige's motion with her gaze, and looks over to the birds who may well be confused at the sudden burst-in of humans, particularly the strange one their own human brought back with her.  "Sorry to wake you...  Lovely to meet you, Gomez and Morticia."  she apologizes to them, still delighted to see them, and makes her way over to the unclaimed side of the room.  Wheeling her suitcase over to sit beside what would be her bed, and setting her carry-on down so she can finally take off her backpack. 

"It's a lot bigger than I was expecting, this is great.  And it looks like it will be nice and sunny with the windows that big."

"oooh, can we do that?  Can we make a window seat for it?  That would be a-mazing." she perks up more as the possibilities of window seat usage unfold in her mind, then she stops short and looks over to Paige.  "How are you around plants?  Are you allergic?"  suddenly a little concerned as she bites her lip, but trying to be hopeful.

She exhales a breath that she didn't realize she'd been holding, relieved.  "My foster parents offered to pay to send my plants over once settled in.  They aren't overly flowery, except the cactus when it feels like blooming but that's only been maybe a half dozen times over maybe... seven?  seven years?  There isn't much scent to them, but the buds can be trimmed if needed.  None of them have warnings as toxic to birds, but I can get you a list so you can check for yourself if it would ease any concern, I understand."  she smiles a little. 


Then gives a little wave like Paige's request is not a big deal.  "They're yours, not mine, I'd have no reason to touch them.  They'll be safe here."

"If they do, please let me know so we can do something about them.  I don't want you to feel uncomfortable in your living space."  She smiles warmly to Paige.  And then moves to accept her offered hand in formal greeting.  "I believe you're right.  Bosom buddies sounds ~delightful~."  she grins, adding that last word with a formal accent while they clasp hands on it.  Glad to have made a friend so soon into her stay in this new country.

Victoria giggles also as she beams happily.  "I packed a couple of spiral notebooks, we can take a sheet from one of those.  They're in the larger suitcase, but easy to find without pulling everything out."  and she'll move to pull the larger suitcase she has onto the bed to be unzippered.  Fishing her hand into a middle layer once it's open, and pulling out two roughly letter-sized spiral notebooks and a denim pencil case in a thick ziplock freezer bag so she can offer one of the notebooks to Paige.

---

Paige would be sitting cross legged in the middle of the floor of their new dorm room, her back to the sunlight and eyes closed. There was a steady tik-tik-tik of the metronome keeping time from where it was sitting on her dresser. It would be an annoying sound to those that weren't accustomed to it but it was helpful for Paige to start her meditation. She breathed in deeply through her nose and out through her mouth to the count of eight until she felt her heart settle into a slow beat; the sounds of the house settling became no more and the ticking of the metronome faded to almost nothing.

Settling into deep meditation almost feels like one chasing the tail of sleep; that sinking sensation of ones consciousness quieting and the body stilling before her Astral Projection (AP) senses awakened. To her it was as bright as a fire without the warmth, and she imagined it would be cold to the touch.