fandomhigh | Kappa Kappa Gremlin Meeting, After Classes

It should be known to the world at large, or, at least, to the members of the Kappa Kappa Gremlin, that Zack was trying very, very hard to not bounce too much as people filed into the classroom for their very first meeting of the semester.

But he couldn’t help it! It was all so exciting!

“Hiya, guys!” That, at least, was accompanied by a merry little wave. “Welcome to the frat! Today, we’re going to be taking it pretty easy. Getting to know one another, chugging root beer, coming up with ideas for stuff to do this semester, that sort of thing!”

And if it involved belching out the letters of the alphabet during some sort of silly root beer drinking game, then what of it?

Alexander, thankfully, was much better about controlling his bouncing, though he couldn’t help chuckling a little at Zack. Let him be hyper; it helped take his attention off of how nervous he felt. “You’ll notice,” he said, “that we’ve got plenty of mugs of root beer and a lot of pizza here. But, before you dig in, there are a few caveats. We figured it would be a good way to get comfortable with each other, as well as prove the time-honored fact that most people are motivated by their stomachs.”

“For the root beer, we’re going to do a version of that game, I Never, where you make a statement about something you’ve never done, and those that also have never done that thing, quaff a chug of root beer! As for the pizza, you’re only allowed to grab a slice if you make a suggestion of something the fraternity could do this semester to better our school and community and lives.” He grinned a little. “We figured that would be a good motivator to get a lot of ideas, even if they’re only silly and hunger-driven to begin with. And, finally, when we’re done, because of all the root beer....”

He trailed off, gaining more of a grin, and figuring Zack might like the honor of finishing up this part.

“Belching contest!!!” This exclamation, of course, was accompanied by Zack’s arms being thrown into the air, and a bit of a splash of root beer from the mug that he was holding as a result. Oops.

Welcome to the Kappa Kappa Gremlin, boys.

[~~Please wait for the OCD!~~ OCD up! Come on in, boys!]

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Dolf had a slightly pained expression on his face, but he was plowing on through, dammit. "I'm Dolf Wega," he volunteered. "I'm working on my English still."

He eyed the can in front of him dubiously.

"And I have never... had root beer until today?"

Okay, that one was kind of lame.

"Heya, Dolf," Zack said, grinning crookedly, but not taking a drink.

Root beer was life, okay. Next to Mountain Dew, at least.

"There's a first for everything, huh? And I think your English sounds pretty good."

"Yes, firsts are good," Dolf said. He might have still been looking for a quiet moment to pour his root beer somewhere that wasn't in his mouth. "This is my first time in America, too. Lots of new stuff."

Look, just don't ask him to do complex sentence constructions, and he'd be okay. Ish.

"I'd never been to America before I came to this school either," Zack offered, still smiling, though his smile had gone a little less lopsided, and a little more warm. "You get used to all of the weird little things eventually, promise."

Like horses. What was up with those?

Or like people thinking magic was more plausible than science. Time machines weren't weird. Magic was, dammit.

"Oh, I always do," Dolf said, grinning. "If I keep doing things like this, it won't be long."

Alexander didn't get a chance to chug with this one, but that's okay. He couldn't compliment Dolf with root beer in his mouth, anyway.

"You seem to be doing quite well with the English, too, Dolf," he offered with a smile. "And I never even had a chance to get you those books!"

"Books would be a good idea," Dolf said, blinking, then smiling. "My reading English is much less good. I could use it."

"I swear there's a box of them that shows up every Wednesday," said Alexander, "and their fairly easy reads, even if the content is questionable. I'll be sure to grab some for you this week. They're probably much lighter fare than what you'd find in the library."

"You know what room I live in, yes?" Dolf checked. "You could bring some."

"I do," Aelxander nodded. "And I will. I trust everything has been going just as well for you, Dolf? What brought up an interest in joining the fraternity?"

"Everything has been good," Dolf said, with a nod that was only slightly hesitant. "Uh-- I thin-- thought it would be a good place to learn, and make friends." Though that sounded a little stupid, now.

It was Alexander he was talking about; those sounded, to him, to be an excellent answer and precisely the sort of thing he had in mind for the fraternity. "Well, hopefully," he said with a pleased smile, "that will be exactly what you're able to find by participating in it! It's good to have you involved, Dolf."

"It's good to be here," he said, with a relieved smile. "People are really nice so far."

Well, they weren't starving or ruled over by anyone willing to let them starve, so Dolf's perception of 'nice' might have been fairly broad at this point.

"Hi, Dolf," Ben said with a welcoming smile. "There's all kinds of weird stuff around here I haven't tried either."

"I will have to try them all," said Dolf, with a face that didn't quite manage to obscure the fact he'd rather not be trying root beer again. "If they're any good. You're not from here?"

Ben shook his head. "I'm from really far off," he said.

Pause.

"Not England. I know the accent throws people."

"You sound like Wesley," Dolf agreed. So maybe he'd assumed... anyway. "...Another world?"

He was trying to shave off that dubious edge.

Ben nodded. "A different galaxy. My homeworld is called Coruscant. I'm Ben Skywalker."

Yes, so sue Dolf: he still had that dubious look on his face. "...Is it close?" he asked, frowning. "I mean, can we see the star?"

Ben shook his head. "It's a couple day flight if you don't use the Travelocity portals."

"...But then it can't be very far."

Dolf hadn't grown up a scientist; he was nothing like his father, in that respect. But even he knew about lightyears and star distances, and no place more than a few days away could be further than the moon, or maybe Mars.

Ben's eyebrows arched up. "You think I'm making it up?"

"It's only days," Dolf shot back, part-perturbed, part annoyed. "That's only as far as the moon."

"Maybe for your technology," Ben said, reaching into his belt pouch for his comlink and poking at it for a moment. A three dimensional projection popped holographically from it. "Does any of this look familiar?" he asked.

Dolf blinked at the map without real comprehension. "They're stars," he said, finally, because that bit he did recognise, thank you very much. "The milky way." Not quite, honey.